Northern Partitioning and Political Expediency (Part 3) – Rejoinder

It is quite mind-boggling that an article under the title “*Northern Partitioning and Political Expediency (Part 3)” *by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe,* *reduced the debate on the partitioning of the northern region to attacking my person (Monday, 16 November 2009). Ahoofe was reacting to a “humble letter” I wrote him on April 22 this year. To reiterate my original question, what does Ahoofe seek to achieve with all these crap?

I sincerely apologize to the dear reader for my tone. But that is the only language Ahoofe understands!

Ahoofe, a retarded coward, denied ever lambasting Prof. Ali A. Mazrui. He challenged me to prove that he indeed lambasted Ali Mazrui. Well, here is the link to the source of my claim ( http://i-epistemology.net/attachments/879_ajiss22-2-stripped%20-%20Adjei%20-%20Mazrui%20and%20His%20Critics.pdf). On pages 94-95 of this article by Paul Banahene Adjei entitled “Mazrui and His Critics”, which was published in *The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:2, *Ahoofe was quoted to have said:

“[When] Professor Mazrui curiously declared President Nkrumah, along with the swashbuckling and sanguinary Flt.-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, as the greatest leader Ghana had ever had, it came off as quite an amusement. Some of us even felt that Professor Mazrui was up to something hardly noble; perhaps he wanted to insult the intelligence of Ghanaians, presuming these putatively mild-mannered and affable Africans to be woefully amnesiac. Or perhaps the aging Kenyan scholar felt that it would be rather too dangerous to attempt to malign the man who had just then been fittingly and freshingly rehabilitated by his very own detractors during the course of the preceding decade. In sum, Professor Mazrui must have been trying to act politically correctly.”

Indeed, Ahoofe’s original article entitled “*The Enduring Legacy of Dr. J. B. Danquah - Part II” *appeared on ghanaweb.com on 15 March 2005. But his short-memory would not do him any good service.

There is definitely a difference between education and schooling. Indeed, Ahoofe has schooled; but he remains starkly uneducated. One can therefore describe this lunatic as a “schooled illiterate”. I say this because, Ahoofe has always sought to attack personalities as opposed to issues, in spite of his PhD. Honestly, and without mincing words, Ahoofe is a complete mockery of a PhD!

Undoubtedly, this clueless buffoon is absolutely ignorant of the role of human capital in economic growth and development. That is why he thinks that sponsoring a citizen to obtain an advanced degree (in my particular case, in Economics) is a “criminally wasteful enterprise on the part of our government”. Ahoofe wrote that I am “presumably a Ghana Government-sponsored graduate student”. He said I am a “narcissistically daft citizen”. For the records, the Government of Ghana is not responsible for my education here in the US. I am here on academic merit, having excelled at the University of Ghana, Legon (First Class Honors in Economics), and having taken the Graduate Record Examination (GRE), inter alia. I am here on account of the munificence of the Graduate School and Department of Economics of the University of Akron.

Ahoofe, an uninformed tribalist, and a muslim hater called me all sorts of names: Islamic fanatic, “Gonja Separatist”, “Salaga Separatist”. He then took a swipe at islam saying that scholastic enterprise is not “a bona fide branch of fundamentalist Islam, with an Imam dictating the rubrics and tenets while the rest of us are commanded to slavishly toe the line, as it were”. The imbecile (Ahoofe) is not wrong to think that I am a muslim, after all, I was born of muslim parents, and raised by muslim parents, even though a Catholic! But what has my tribe and religion got to do with the debate of partitioning the northern region, or the humble letter I wrote Ahoofe, asking him to eschew attempting to inject confusion and division in Ghana? Obviously, he is an unrepentant social misfit for whom good advice is tantamount to flogging a dead horse!

Reacting to my claim in the “humble letter” that he (Ahoofe) had started extending insults to H.E. Vice President John Mahama “who has no invectives in his vocabulary”, this uncircumcised bastard, in his unfettered barking, had the temerity again to call H.E. John Mahama “NDC’s SHIT-BOMBING INFORMATION MINISTER!”. I blame it on his upbringing. Charity, they say, begins at home. Perhaps, Ahoofe did not get the kind of upbringing many Ghanaians like me had. Otherwise, he would learn to respect (redoubtable) elders and leaders like John Mahama.

The truth be told, we decry or condemn violence of all forms. What happened in Buipe the weekend that H.E John Mahama was officially visiting that town is lamentable. But to Ahoofe , a disgruntled and stranded soul, as he is in the US, are gunshots news in the ghetto where you live your miserable and hollow life?

The call to partition the northern region is a legitimate one. It is not to be misconstrued as a “Gonja affair”. Recently, the Northern Region House of Chiefs presented a resolution to the government on the need to create at least one region from the Northern Region. For economy of space, I implore readers interested in some of the rationale for this to kindly visit the following links:(http://news.myjoyonline.com/features/200907/33209.asp) ( http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=159028) ( http://news.myjoyonline.com/features/200910/36020.asp)

It is a unanimous decision from the chiefs and people of all ethnic groups in the Northern Region. To single out the action or inaction of one ethnic group and use that to inform your conclusion on that debate is therefore unfortunate.

To sum up, Ahoofe needs to know that he is absolutely nothing! He agonized over a “humble letter” I wrote him for seven good months before eventually blurting gibberish. I can match him boot for boot, except in terms of his equivocally ill-constructed and tortuous grammar. I can write him another “humble letter” over which he would agonize for the rest of his hopeless life. But I have to restrain myself because they say “don’t argue with a fool because people might not notice the difference”. As mad as Ahoofe is, I do not have to chase after him because on-lookers would mistake me for a mad man, too!

*Iddisah Sulemana (**iddisah@gmail.com* *). *

*The University of Akron, Ohio, USA*