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Opinions of Wednesday, 8 August 2012

Columnist: Appiah, Kofi

New King, New Law, But

Once again, the author writes this piece with a very heart. Ghanaians have been caught up with grief and pain during our period of mourning because of the demise of our beloved president, H.E. J.E.A. Mills. Meanwhile, however, many people have joined the thousands of people mourning the death of the late president. But one question that could be on the lips of most persons is, “Were all those people mourning and yelling truly genuine persons who took the loss of the president seriously? Could it be that some could be shedding crocodile tears while the others could be in jubilant mood inwardly? The special unity that had been characterized by the loss clearly amplifies that truly, Ghanaians, irrespective of political linkages, were united with one purpose when it comes to death. Despite our party affiliation, we are one people, one nation, with a common destiny. But was this really the case when the ‘Old Man’, the new Omanhene stood on stage to do partisan politics only to be applauded with the hosannas and hallelujahs and other new found accolades such as “Obama”, “Obama”, “Obama” et cetera? Hmmm!
In the first place, I wish to congratulate all Ghanaians irrespective of tribe, party affiliation and/or colours, religion or creed. Special congratulations, however, also go to the other foreign nationals resident in Ghana for the maturity and manner some of them showed and comported themselves when the news was aired. It is my belief that such maturity will be exhibited during the burial and the funeral of our late president i.e. August 8 – 10, 2012. However, the total, maturity shown should be commended without mincing words.
Meanwhile, we have officially been informed that HE Mills passed on circus 1415 hours Tuesday, July 24, 2012, but one striking event or incident that needs mention without gossiping over was the very circumstance surrounding the so called “untimely” death. Even though many Ghanaians who were not medical doctors/practitioners could see that as a result of the fast deterioration of the president’s health, anything could happen so for the proponents of the government propaganda machinery spinning that the president’s death has come about as untimely must bury their heads in shame. Even the ‘day nursery’ child who watched the television could see that the man was sick but the champions die hard group would not budge. Personally, this childish description would never appeal to my conscience unless the specialists definitely insist so; then so be it because, his health matters that had been of concern to us all had been clearly detected before ushering into the new year, but the gluttonous Osu Castle ‘Ebi te yie’ elite class kept flattering the world that all was well; when in fact, many people except the blind, could forecast this inevitable death that hanging round his neck like an albatross. What kind of idiocy it was that they wouldn’t release him for some vacation but propped him on and even handed him some 50 or so page document on Ghana’s Oil and Gas to such an ailing, dying and frail person to peruse, approve and refer to the cabinet for decision for the benefit to go elsewhere? Incidentally, some insider reports allegedly confirm that his health was so bad that his mental faculty and sight could not help him decipher the good from the bad of the very vital documents sent to his desk so how come that when he needed rest most, some greedy bastards should continue to toy with his health. If at this juncture, he could not handle any state administration, how did they send him something that he could not see whether there would be profit or loss to Ghana? But wait a minute, reliable rumours doing the rounds have it that the hangers on kept flattering him on with the excuse that ‘Old Man’, we have always tried to lie and defend you with propaganda that you were well and kicking; so for you to remain indoors for our opponents to have a field day and capitalize on it, then you must never say die and keep fighting on with your life’. And for the president, who loved his country and citizens, and as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he never retreated, he marshaled and led his forces, and kept on fighting till death struck him to put the nation into week long mourning. The man is dead and gone.
MEDICAL EXPERT
The author however, is not a medical expert, but could conveniently predict from the gestures and overtures of the late president that he was more than gone to the underworld when I saw him on the television screen and hope most people would also agree with me when he feted the inky fraternity at the Castle Gardens on that fateful Saturday, July 21 exactly three days before he gave up the ghost. The organizers of that ‘shameful’ event must also bury their heads in shame because, on that day, the soul was willing but the flesh – perspiration and tons of profuse sweat spotted around his neck could conveniently tell anybody except the idiot that he was really weak, tired and needed sufficient rest. Also, the voice deterioration i.e. the impaired and poor nasal speech should not have been telecast to the public and the whole wide world (with the excuse that it was not readily available) but the perpetrators kept with their hidden agenda. Additional information has it that prior to that function, he had been forced under duress to undertake a trip by road to and fro Suhum via Nsawam to inspect the project commenced earlier on by ex-president Kufuor, his predecessor. Why did he not have the use of the chopper, or the Brutus, and the Mark Anthonys wanted to finish him quickly? Back to the Castle gardens; how our president was perspiring profusely while lecturing the media was an ample sign of fatigue. The man really needed rest, rest, rest and his “employers” would not give him the needed rest. One really wonders whether Koku Anyidohu would have the guts again to spill the beans on opponents thus, “Nsawkaw” dua kapre oh, mose apro oh, etc., i.e. those of you out there should look for the special Nsawkaw dua (chewing stick) to clean the teeth because, to him, all those in opposition have gotten rotten, smelling teeth that needed to be cleaned. How on earth do you castigate human beings not on your side as such? Is it because of politics? Hear him and listen to him attentively, Koku Anyidohu, the dentist, advising Ghanaians who never belonged to his NDC (that has brought him to the limelight) should go running helter-skelter and look for that tropical chewing stick. Personally, I pray that on that burial and funeral day, Koku would have sober reflection to avert the wrath of ruthless Ghanaians who could take the law into their own hands to strip him naked no matter the consequences. Koku, now that you have no master to serve at the Castle, as John Jinapor has now taken over, how do you relate with your colleagues because you grew so many wings that insiders kept saying that it would not be long when you’d burst with arrogance. Because you were so close to the president, would you like to be sacrificed and buried in the same grave like the Stone Age era? I have said this because if the world acclaimed occultist had prophesied that Koku’s boss would die on that day, surely, Koku would have been the first person to cast a stone at him and if he failed to be buried with him, then I dare him to be the humpbacked coward who very seldom terrified women back home when the able-bodied men were away on their farms – ‘se mmarima ni fie a, na akyakya tu mmrika tente mma mmaa kamfo no’.
DIVINE INTERVENTION
The author has carefully selected and chosen the above sub-section to suit the Ghanaian issue with circumspect. Please permit me to use the same as it is hopeful that there would be so much barrage of insinuations coming from left, right, centre but it must be said as it is. Koku would obviously not be far from what his Ivorian counterpart to ex president Laureant Gbagbo did when he arrogantly snatched the elections results from the Ivorian Electoral Commissioner and tore the same into pieces because his party was then in power (n’aban na na ewosoo), and knew his party was the vanquished. So, the option left to him was to show brute force. Sheer impudence indeed! Just as Koku Anyidohu became impregnated with the wicked intentions with a view to bringing it to bear on Ghanaians before, during and after the December 7 polls, he kept frightening and intimidating the opposition with firebrand statements – Akufo Addo will be the first to go to the ancestry (asamando); whoever tried to play the fool would be shown where power lies, etc. were the hate vituperations and characteristic war drums Koku was hammering but incidentally, he never was brought to book, not for once by party hierarchy, the respected clergy or his late paymaster. By now, the whole world at least knows Koku’s weight in the Ghanaian political circles so if he meant that he would change one’s sleeping place, in fact, you must trust him because, if Kobby Acheampong, a deputy minister, could roar like the Adaklu lion or have the guts to charge the IGP to cause the interdiction of poor and defenceless policemen to be on interdiction for almost a whole year, mind you, what else could ‘Almighty’ Koku Anyidohu not do to cause someone’s arrest and detention by the partisan Ghana police of today without trial and possible indefinite custody until thy kingdom come. Do Ghanaians remember the four NPP guys still languishing in Tamale police custody for close to four years now because of alleged electoral misunderstanding? And the Ghana Police probably led by their Police Queen, look on unconcerned because of sheer promise of deputy IG in the likely event the party was retained to power. The only thing that probably Koku could not do until Tuesday, July 24, was to change a man to woman otherwise, there was virtually nothing in Ghana under the sun that he could not do because of politics. And the whole world knows now how that arrogant show of power triggered civil way in the Ivory Coast under the glaring nose of the now incarcerated but obstinate, adamant, power-drunk Laureant Gbagbo. Could it be a truism that the name ‘Laureant’ has gradually become synonymous with obstinacy because the late Laureant Kabila of DR Congo also tried to be too stiff and unyielding until he was killed to bring about some little peace and tranquility to his fatherland. What kind of political stupidity was this and still, so many intellectuals especially, the professors and technocrats, otherwise known and referred to in the Ga (Accra) language as the ‘yaka gbemos’ i.e. born to lose, never do well in life until such unexpected situation arose, kept yelling on as if power or position and/or any condition was however permanent? It is however unfortunate and tragic that the Ghanaian version of the ‘Prince of Peace’ (Asomdwoehene) in the sub-region has been pacified to save his compatriots from civil war and ruins; otherwise, Koku Anyidohu’s outbursts, arrogance and vehemence by show of power, ably supported on the flanks by the likes of the Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwas, the venomous vipers such as the Kobby Acheampongs, the intractable Asiedu Nketiahs, the foul-mouthed Tony Aidoos, the Baba Jamals, the firebrand Ofosu Kwakyes and the lies and deception expert, Fiifi Kwetey and of course, all the ball boys like the James Agyenim Boatengs, the Daniel Tei Otukonors, the Kobby Fiagbes, the Fred Agbenyos, the Stan Dogbes and the Kwesi Pratts indirectly or discreetly hiding behind the smokescreen, all waiting patiently under the canopy of the NDC bench on the field of play for the December showdown. Ghanaians should be thankful to God in a way that the late president is no more because, in the unlikely event that he lost the elections, Koku Anyidohu would have been the obvious trouble shooter to strike. Do you remember the world cup qualifier between Ghana’s Black Stars and the Lesotho XI at the Kumasi Stadium and the dismissal of the ECG capo when Koku was watching the match live with some big men and the unexpected power outage? Meanwhile, Ghanaians would forever and fondly remember the late president with his usual tantrums such as ‘my brothers and sisters’, me nuanom Afrafo’, ame dze, mepe asomdwoe, I will reduce the price of fuel drastically, I would be father for all even if you did not vote for me or belong to the other political divide etc. were kept repeated very many times in his officially prepared speeches.
SACRIFICIAL LAMB
Now that the late president has become the sacrificial lamb to appease the otherwise, unyielding persons in the impending elections, please, Mr. President John “Goodluck” Dramani Mahama, (Goodluck, because his tenure is unprecedented in our 55 year record of political history as a nation) adhere to the following precautionary measures with the eagle’s eye. If I were President John Mahama, (but I just could not be him because I cannot lace his shoes), I would swiftly relocate the seat of government to the Jubilee House from the Castle – you can still call it the Flagstaff House if you so wish with your team; ask the former ADC to the late boss return to barracks, prune or winnow the Castle Staff, obviously, leave the Castle kingpins like the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Cabinet – who, I think, has been in the Civil Service since the 70s when your poor author was a humble servant there; the vampires like Koku, the bully, whose continuous retention would make your short reign unpopular; the Tony Aidoos whose misguided evaluation and policy bla, bla, bla must have accounted for the infamy of the Atta Mills’ governance except for grabs and the last but not the least, the unsung Dr. Cadman Mills, whose biological blood relations with the late brother could continue to haunt you if you retained him in your selection or backyard. After all, Na Prof. Nabila is still around and kicking; he could be appointed either the Chief of Staff or the Presidential Advisor because it is a position he has held before during the era of the late Prez. Hilla Limann – 1979-81.
NANA AKUFO ADDO PREACHES PEACE
Fellow Ghanaians, countrymen and women, Below is some brief but very piercing press conference that I have drafted and trust it should appeal to Nana Akufo Addo to organize to prove to the whole world that he was for peace before, during and after the crucial ‘who is who’ elections in December and if I were him endeavour to sooner than later, mount the pulpit in selected churches around the country to preach peace because if there is war, peace can’t prevail. Please read on. – Fellow Ghanaians, countrymen and women, it is with mixed feelings and heavy heart that I address you at this unceremonious occasion. There shouldn’t have been a better time for this meeting when the whole wide world is mourning with us as a nation as a result of the demise of our beloved president. First, I wish to extend my profound condolences to her as the surviving spouse, the bereaved Asona family of Otuam and Cape Coast and the general citizenry. Madam Naadu Mills, may you be comforted at all times. May the Good Lord duly find him a resting place in his bosom. Now to the main theme of my message. “I, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, the flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party for the 2012 General Elections slated for Friday, December 7, wish to reiterate my earlier call to all of you as a true statesman and politician would do. First, I wish to announce to all and sundry that I need your forgiveness. Nana Addo is the only Ghanaian with roots to three of the Ghana’s Big Six – son of the late Edward Akufo Addo, the ceremonial president of the 2nd Republic, nephew to Ghana’s Paa Willie, William Ofori Atta of the UNC fame and the grandson of the late J.B. Danquah, Doyen of Ghana Politics. Very soon, not far from now, I would announce to all my teeming followers of the NPP and sympathizers that the ‘proposed’ political enemy, the late Prof. Atta Mills, who was to be my hottest rival in the Political War is now no more. Very sad, isn’t it? As a result, therefore, I further charge all the NPP supporters and faithfuls to lay down your arms, no more “All die be die” and I mean it. The impending war is over. It will be senseless for me to continue to charge you with the ‘All die be die’ slogan. The Lord has won the war for us and we should see victory at the end of the tunnel. The Lord has defeated the ‘enemy’ for me just as the Lord did for the little unsung David over Goliath, the Philistine. No more War. I now wish on my honour, to sincerely pledge to announce complete ceasefire. As a result of the obstinacy of the late president and his sluggish stance to punish corruptible officials and offenders generally such as Alfred Agbesi Woyome, Murbarak Muntaka, Koku Anyidohu, Betty Mould Iddrisu, Kwabena Duffuor, Ebo Barton Odro, et cetera, et cetera, the Lord has found wisdom to fight our battle for us and called the ‘political enemy’ to glory. May his soul however rest in perfect peace and the Good Lord find a resting place in his bosom for him. By this sudden, but tragic death, the likes of Sammy Okudzeto Ablakwas, the Baba Jamals of the Holy Jihad fame, the Collins Daudas and the Nii Lante Vanderpuyes will henceforth calm down their nerves because if you are a fighter, the Lord will never fight for you. Vengeance is the Lord’s .Finally, please, accept in good faith, countrymen, that I Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo do hereby declare peace unto all Ghanaians irrespective of your party affiliations. Let peace prevail. Live and let us live. Let there be peace because if the NDC under Prof. John Evans Atta Mills was inevitably going to plunge the country into war and cause some mayhem and let some of our compatriots become refugees in other countries, then, my clarion call of “All die be die” would have been positively paramount but now, with this positive thought and hindsight, I take myself as a new-born again politician.
APOLOGY
Has Prez. Mahama apologized to Ghanaians for the barrage of insults on the opposition vis-a-vis ‘profane words of disunity like baloney; excuse me with my language, to borrow from Mr. George Bush, former US President; It will be the most foolish thing to do; when ex-President Kufuor advised that the government should not use sledge hammer to kill a fly, then you turned round to say, you would rather use a bulldozer to kill the same house-fly. Do readers remember the story of Rehoboam in the Bible when he consulted with playmates to whip the Israelites with scorpions? Such profane statements from somebody like you (useless and loose talk and exerting their time on senseless discussions on radio etc.) should not be entertained anymore and countenanced and the earlier you apologized to the nation, the better, it would enhance your reputation as the number one chief executive now. Your language must be devoid of profanity because you are matured. Finally, to bring the curtains down, Your Excellency, it would not do you well, and bring about the needed peace all of us yearn for if such intemperate and vitriolic language should come from you because you are now in power. Mind you, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Food for Thought - It may interest you to know that of late a finger of the big plantain called, apantu, sells for Gh?2.00 whilst the bunch of the smaller fingers popularly called ‘apem’ sells for Gh?200.00 and Olonka tin of garri for Gh?5.00. Would you also visit the Agbobloshie market for fact-finding, Mr. President? Whither are drifting, Mr. President? Could it be that, that was the reason why you dropped Kwesi Ahwoi’s name for the veep’s slot for non-performance as Agriculture minister and landed on Mr. Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur who could coincidentally also have been a key figure and embroiled in the Cotton Gate Saga and the Woyome Gate Scandal when he was the Deputy Finance Minister then and now the Governor of the Central Bank respectively?
MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS Some salient questions that could be still agitating the minds of most discerning people are:
a) Where was the military ADC to President Mills during the alleged comatose period?
b) Where was Koku Anyidohu (of Kumasi Stadium Dismissal fame) at the time the president was alleged to have collapsed and fallen into coma on the floor of his own office at the Osu Castle with blood oozing from both the nose and mouth?... Courtesy, Joy FM report filed by the Daily Guide’s Castle reporter?
c) Where was the indefatigable and controversial Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the Senior Aide to the late president and NDC parliamentary aspirant for the Odododioodioo Constituency in Accra, who boasts that he was someone who used his magical prowess to sit him down for close to two hours in discussions?
d) Where was/were the tea/coffee girl(s) when the unprecedented but fatal blow occurred?
e) Who released the police motorcade to escort the president’s siblings to Cape Coast to deprive the Castle of an escort knowing very well the deterioration of the president’s health?
f) Who sent the president’s small brother to go and purchase the neck brace (neck collar)?
g) Who authorized a vehicle with a Castle driver to drive the ailing president to the 37 Hospital?
h) Who then condoned and connived with the said driver to drive without an escort to the hospital, knowing that he was driving a ‘big man’ whose health was very suspect?
i) By the way, which driver drove the president to the hospital instead of an ambulance?
j) Is Mr. Henry Martey Newman, the Chief of Staff, now a medical doctor? If not, why not?
k) When did he notice the president was dead after which he made phone calls to both former presidents Rawlings and Kufuor, the Chief Justice, Her Ladyship, Justice Georgina Theodora Wood and the Speaker of Parliament, The Right- Hon. Joyce Bamford Addo when he was not a pathologist?
l) Was the Chief of Staff present at the private family meeting that was held by the president and his siblings from Cape Coast?
m) How about Koku the Bully? Where was he then? Was it too private that because he had not gotten himself the ‘Nsawkaw Dua’ chewing stick to clean his ‘dentures’, he could be thrown out of the meeting?
n) Where was T.B. Joshua then? Was he at the Castle or had fled the country because he acted like the pussy cat who knew his master might die and so saw no need to be around to witness such pathetic and disheartening sight?
o) Which particular official (big man) sent the Oil & Gas document to the president and insisted that he perused it, gave comments by way of approval and to sign later for his selfish interest?
p) Did the Military Aide spot any unauthorized Castle Staffer near the vicinity of his office before he was asked to dispatch that document to his boss’s secretary – Mr. J.K. Bebako Mensah?
q) Who was the first person that the Chief of Staff relayed information about the ugly sight of the president lying prostrate in coma on the floor at his office allegedly with blood oozing from the nose and mouth?
r) How long did it take the big shots at the Castle to organize a vehicle for the SOS crusade or expedition to the 37 Military Hospital?
s) Why did the dispatch team get briefing to once again, lie to the hospital authorities to send the ‘dying’ president first to the Emergency Ward, second to the Medical Ward and finally to the Maternity Ward knowing very well that our president’s life was at stake and should not have been fiddled with in that manner?
t) When did the presidential medical team realize that they could no longer continue with the ordeal and passed on the buck to the 37 Military Hospital?
u) Why did the ‘Castle Syndicate’ instruct the dispatch team to deceive that their vehicle had brought a senior government official whilst they knew it was the sick president on the vehicle to enable the medical to have worked with precision, urgency and zeal?
v) Will the 37 Military Hospital authorities keep a clean sheet about the demise of the late president, and provide genuine autopsy report/findings for public consumption or want to be haunted in perpetuity should they decide to keep things in secrecy?
w) Was the late president chauffeur driven with a police escort to the hospital to save time? If not, why not?
x) Whose heads must start rolling here now to appease to the dumbfounded and spell-bound Ghanaians?
y) By popular request, since the late president was the No. 1 Chief Executive of Ghana and a servant of the people, why not conduct the coroner’s inquest, hopefully, from international pathology experts or sources?
z) How soon would the parliament deliberate on the late president’s ESB and by the way, has Mr. Kufuor gotten his as at press time? Furthermore, how much does the imported casket for the late president cost? As a modest person while alive, it will not be proper and justifiable if the ‘funeral committee’ went in for the most expensive one that would let his corpse turn in the grave to rest for the memorable day the Good Lord appears for the second time to take the righteous ones home.
Now that you are a new king, certainly, all your actions and laws must truly be new but not concern yourself with ‘unnecessary’ profane language like – ‘what a hell’, those who have nothing doing should not engage and exert their precious time on useless and frivolous talk on radio. Meanwhile, useless talk or no useless talk on radio, baloney or no baloney, what a hell or no hell, ‘Adanko’ wants to find out about the Sovereign Guarantee that you vehemently and personally campaigned and championed for Ghana Government to pay on the STX Korea Housing Deal and for which Parliament was stretched to work overtime; we want to know the outcome of the Guarantee money and whether it has been retrieved for Ghana now or not otherwise, Mr. President, you’d see no sleep till you have provided both the Sovereign Guarantee and the Amarjaro bits and pieces. Haccept my warmest felicitations while giving you my sincerest assurances of the highest esteem. Long Live Ghana, Long Live Africa. All the same, Prof. Mills, Asomdwoehene, Dammrifa due ! Dammrifa due !! Dammrifa due, due ne Amanehunu !!! Mama Naadu, Kpoo, oo, Due ne Amanehunu, The Lord will provide.

By: kofiappiah2002@yahoo.com