Rawlings, Ghana’s Greatest Misfortune?

…….. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu must be Insulting OTUMFUO!!!

It is exceptionally outrageous and unfortunate how the father of Ghana’s democracy and the founder of the “New” Ghana His Excellency Flt. Lt. (Rtd.) Dr. Nana Agyewoden Jerry John Rawlings a former President of the Republic of Ghana is handled by some section of Ghanaians especially the NPP and their media allies. Every time there are important issues of public concern which is linked to the NPP they quickly jump to the defense by attempting to divert attention.

On Thursday 16th July, 2009 a relatively unknown news leaflet ‘THE MOMENT’ displayed a headline ‘JJ RAWLINGS …Ghana’s greatest misfortune’. I read it with grief and utmost disappointment what a Member of Parliament perceived to have known better, said about the former President. It triggers an endless imagination of why a whole leader of the minority caucus in Parliament can be so irresponsible and unscrupulous in his delivery to the extent of describing the former President as a man who has lost touch with reality.

If somebody like Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu is representing a political party as corrupt as the NPP, it wouldn’t be surprising that he is corrupt in thought.

The diversionary tactics of the NPP have been exposed. When they realized that their colleague Adamu Daramani-Sakande per an Accra High Court has been exposed as a foreigner who cannot hold public office in Ghana, they have resorted to attacking H.E Rawlings. Adamu Daramani-Sakande by that ruling ceases to be a Member of Parliament and for that matter a criminal who has deceived Ghanaians into believing that he is eligible to hold public office. Indeed it is an affront to the laws of the Republic of Ghana, which triggers the need for an immediate prosecution for treason.

The good works and the democratic instincts of former President Rawlings was elaborately recognized and awarded by the Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, King of the Ashanti Kingdom under whose reign Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu serves as an MP. Such a statement from the MP goes to emphasize that the Otumfuo couldn’t discern the character of the Former President that is why he awarded him. This is an insult and a disregard of the highest degree to the Ashanti King, which is tantamount to traditional treason and an abominable disparage to the Ashanti people and its royalty.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu as a majority Chief whip in Kuffour’s administration strongly advocated for the Ghanaian Government to contract a US$5 billion loan from a hairdresser’s salon on the Hammersmith Road in London. His entrenched posture in this kind of financial quagmire clearly shows who he is. This same gentleman occupied that same office when the CNTCI loan deal was almost finalized! In his usual arrogant manner, he was defiant about what anybody said.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu has been very consistent with his mischievous machinations, even to the Parliamentary Service Board which was to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the allegations into the lootocracy of Begyina Sekyi-Hughes. In his usual characteristic manner, the report got leaked into the public domain before it was due for public discourse and information. This was not surprising since the previous instances attest to his blatant disregard for due diligence. With his usual kind of arbitrariness and arrogance, he hypocritically jumped back to the defense of the Former Speaker.

With allusion to his unflinching advocacy for Amoateng to be paid his salary even though the drug baron was still in jail, it can be essentially made emphatic that this man would always support all acts of corruption, for that matter it makes one wonder why such leaders still occupy offices of trust in our body politic. But on the contrary, I hope you are not surprised that he won his Parliamentary elections, it is one of the constituencies people voted two booklets each in their homes and transported the ballot boxes to polling stations.

To end it all, it must be stated clearly that such acts of irresponsible politics of insult and vilification is not healthy for our democracy and the earlier the opposition desist from it the better.

PETER BOAMAH OTOKUNOR peter_otokunor@yahoo.com