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Opinions of Monday, 19 April 2010

Columnist: Adu-Gyamfi, Kwaku

The “Foot Soldiers” Are Footing

.... Techimanhene Was Tripping, And NDC Is Droning….. (Part 1)

Politics Is An Advance Auction Of Stolen Goods.

Attention: This Is Not Rated For Politically Sensitive- Charged People…

BEWARE FOLKS, the politics-fatigued Ghanaians are not getting any break anytime soon because it’s getting very ugly out there and we seem to love it: The NPP and NDC supporters are still fighting for the remains of politics instead of policies.

It was blow by blow. The NPP and NDC Sympathizers were at it again at the Court House in Accra, while Techimanhene was busy practicing his vigilante justice—like a robust cop on the beat.

The bad blood between NDC and NPP sympathizers is nothing new .And the idiocy of allowing two enemies in proximity of the court house was a recipe for a disaster. Unfortunately, perhaps the participants of the mayhem were those who could hardly afford the rent in Nima, Maamobi ,Teshie or Old Tafo ,yet they were willing to die on the instructions of the people who can’t account for the national resources, they were given the mandate to administer.

The ongoing toll of the dirty- politics is beginning to emerge because we’re all behaving along party lines---an NPP polling chairman was shot dead at Bawku.

As tragic and shameful as the brawl in Accra was and the abuse- of -power incident at Techiman, they all had an underground source—the dirty body -politics— of which its political flood water is beginning to seep into the national conversation. Nobody should be surprised because in Ghana we eat, drink and sleep with politics. Everything we do is wrapped around politics. .

Weighing in on Techimanhene’s brouhaha:

By now it’s no longer news that Techimanhene was a “bounty-hunter” who went around kidnapping anyone who went against him. He was a self-appointed police officer, a judge, and prosecutor and probably had a party creed in his hands while performing his “civic duties”.

What kind of society do we live in? Don’t you want to know?

Is this 21st century Ghana? I’m just scratching my head as I began to search for answers!

I don’t know the degree of Tuobodomhene’s crime, which warranted his “majesty” Oseadeeyo Ameyaw Ekumfi to kidnap him. But, given what went wrong, someone’s Rights were grossly violated---not to mention how he (Techimanhene) was allegedly stripped naked his victim and disgracefully exposed his ‘libido club’, which supposedly wasn’t on steroid at that time.

Honest to God, I’m not making this up. It was rumored that the victim was ridiculed by his kidnapers for not possessing an Olympics- standard size libido club.

Come to think of it, I’m tempted to ask: Was there any audition for sexescapade in Techimanhene’s repertoire at that moment? No pun intended!

Well, doesn’t it worth pausing to dwell on what went wrong on that fateful day or night?

Now, let’s just pretend for a moment that Tuobodomhene committed a crime beyond any reasonable doubt, and supposedly went hiding --- in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan .Let’s further say the police has been looking for this dude .Does it mean that Techimanhene should be the “bounty hunter, who takes money in return for his services to bring ”fugitives’’ to justice? Wouldn’t that be a nice prospect?

Given the fact that there are so many “wanted” individual criminals, many of whom have committed insidious crimes against the state and other Ghanaians, and able to stay under the police’s radar and roam around --his service will be needed in Ghana.

Maybe, we should seek the services of Techimanhene in order to bring those people to justice. It will be cheaper and the police could surely use more hands in their crime-fighting arsenal.

In all that, it took the voice of a concerned Ghanaian---Asantehene --- (not the government) to raise the red flag to stop the insidious action of Techimanhene. It was all a matter of will --that’s a political will to call a spade a spade. We needed an immediate weight of the government to end that abusive situation. But it wasn’t forthcoming until an alarm was sounded.

As I was sitting in front of my Pc and started looking back at all the bad things that had happened over the years in Ghana--- where every political fist- fight and lawlessness (including kidnapping)---- were supposedly done by ”lone fanatics”. I began to think how would that be possible without any political make-up infusion? How could people do all that without any politics in their DNA?

Did Techimanhene acted on his own accord, without any political chromosome in his system? Don’t you want to know?

Do those party “sympathizers” or fanatics who are roughing and rocking things around the country ever tell their party officials when they are going to act or who is their next target? So they just, felt the need to take over the offices of NHIS in Zabzugu, in the North, to entertain themselves, right? What about the barbs they traded at the court house?

With every party official sleeping, they tiptoed to the court house in Accra and fought because a conspiracy theorist allegedly claimed that” Rawlings burned up his own house”. If JJ wanted to be a homeless so bad that he was willing to put his own family on the line to achieve his objective then we have a problem---I mean a megawatt problem. So was that the only reason for a group of lowlifes to constantly steer the ‘directions’ of the country with impunity? Are we serious?

The odds of negative things happening around the country without the knowledge of both parties’ honchos defied logic. But, who is going to admit that?

For one thing Ghanaians don’t know how to recycle their former leaders. And since our politicians don’t write books, the only way to tap the knowledge and wisdom of our present and former leaders is to protect and preserve their longevity. So let’s leave Kuffour and Rawalings alone in peace. We will one day need their political wisdom. Let’s allow them to live so that we can live because Ghana is more than Rawlings and Kuffour.

As to the speculation that “Rawlings burned his own house”, I’m going to hold my comments on this one, because the webmaster is definitely not going to allow me to say what is on my mind. Anyway, at some point we have to decide as a country to say enough is enough.

It’s a fact, NDC is a party NPP loves to hate and NDC also hates to love NPP. So the finger-pointing will never end. Each party has more or less given its people the broad latitude to attack and distort news to make things harder for each other to succeed in any endeavor. Because buried deep in the sympathizers’ and parties’ minds is the freedom to do what they want in the name of party politics.

It appears more glorious to take the law into one’s own hands and attack opponents with impunity when one’s party is in power.

Will the perpetuators be “found” and prosecuted? Well, the security forces should keep an eye on areas where flames have been doused because the political arm twisting has rolled over with the elections and vigilantes are on the loose.

When we merge all that into Techiman -Tuobodom’s equation things don’t look good on the surface.

Did the perpetuators of Techiman incident know that they could get away with it because our public officials were too busy thinking of what they could stash away? Or a few of them were blissfully and permanently asleep with amnesia .Thank Goodness, Ashantehene woke up in time to sound the alarm bell.

Anyway, I’m about to reveal to you the reasons behind the party ‘foot -soldiers’ huffing, puffing and straining and struggling to convey their anger. This is just to whet your reading appetite, so stay tuned!

*Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi (The Voice Of Reason) NJ, USA.

The Author is a social commentator and Founder of The Adu-Gyamfi Youths Empowerment and Educational Foundation of Asuom, Akim, E/R