What Goes Around Comes Around

.... Asabee should slow down -Hodari-Okae
Seven years ago, workers of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), carrying cement, sand, stone, shovels and trowels arrived in his bungalow and built concrete that would block the pipe which supplied water to his house until January 29, 2009.

Seven years ago, Mr. Kodzo Hodari-Okae, who still remains unemployed, was painfully and forcefully removed from his office as Deputy Director of Immigration, at the instigations of Stephen Asamoah Boateng, solely because he dared to insist on the laws of the land being followed.

A court order that he be re-instated and all his benefits paid to him was thrown aside by the immediate past New Patriotic Party (NPP) government led by Asamoah Boateng, who said until Hodari-Okae showed humility and bowed before him, he wasn't going to get his job back.

Today, Asamoah Boateng is threatening a court action simply because a security agency investigating certain transactions under his watch has asked him to come and answer questions. Ironically, it is this same court whose decision and orders Asamoah Boateng flouted with impunity that the ex-minister is now turning to for justice.

It was this past seven years which tested the strength of Hodari-Okae, where at one point, he had to choose between continuing to live with the embarrassment and pain he was going through in the hands of Asamoah Boateng or to take his own life, in the darkness of his uncompleted house to end his pain.

Under the circumstances, he had to send his wife, who hails from yonder shores to her kinsmen, so she did not go through the pain and deprivation of basic things like water to their house.

In spite of what he calls "Seven years of pain and torture and hunted down like a wild animal," Mr. Hodari-Okae still found space in his heart to ask for God's forgiveness and blessing for Asamoah Boateng, who now claims that his human rights have been abused because the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) prevented him from travelling.

Speaking in an interview with The Enquirer yesterday, Mr. Hodari--Okae told The Enquirer that he is "indifferent" about the brouhaha that Asamoah Boateng is going through.

"I mean I'm not happy; neither am I sad about his current situation.

"I pray to God for him to have patience; I Pray to God that Asamoah-Boateng will slow down.

“The speed is too much in all the things he does; once he decides to do something, he doesn't look around to exercise patience," he said.

Continuing, Mr. Hodari-Okae said: "As for me, it was bad to know the worst and I know it now, so I'm okay; the worst thing that can happen to me has come and gone."

According to Mr. Hodari-Okae, the first time he had a taste of the reasoning abilities of Mr. Asamoah Boateng was hearing the ex-minister attacked him on Radio Universe, adding that the way he is handling the issue with the BNI is "consistent with the way he always does his things."

Recounting his days of trouble with Mr. Asamoah Boateng, Mr. Hodari-Okae said Asamoah Boateng, who by then claimed to be working in the Office of the Chief of Staff, wrote him a query regarding a professional decision he, as a Deputy Director of Immigration, had taken in ensuring that the laws of the land was obeyed by foreigners.

"That was the first time I had reasons to question the reasoning. Even a first year student in Management and Public Administration knows that you cannot query an officer who doesn't work under you," he stressed.

On the issue of the passport, the ex-Deputy Immigration Officer pointed out that it is stated in the first page of a passport that it belongs to the state and that the state or any institution empowered by the state could seize it at anytime.

Mr. Hodari-Okae reminded Asamoah Boateng that human rights go with responsibilities and so it is not necessary to be shouting around.

Mr. Okae said it appears as if the ex-minister suffers from poor childhood up-bringing saying "Asamoah Boateng looks like nobody corrected him as a child".

Mr. Hodari-Okae's predicament started following a recommendation made by Mr. Asamoah Boateng that he had disrespected his orders to allow into the country a foreigner who had attempted to enter the country without a valid visa.

Based on Asamoah Boateng's recommendation that Mr. Hodari-Okae be removed from office, the then Acting Interior Minister, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor (former President John Kufuor's brother), wrote a letter transferring him to the Free Zones Board (FZB), where he was given a desk. That marked the unceremonious end of Mr. Hodari-Okae's almost twenty years of public service.

Mr. Hodari-Okae who is also a lawyer, went to court and in 2005 succeeded in his action seeking re-instatement for wrongful dismissal and the payment of all outstanding salaries and allowances, together with compensation.

President Kufuor's government, in spite of continuous proclamation of being the apostles of the rule of law, treated the court orders regarding Mr. Hodari-Okae's re-instatement and payment of outstanding salaries as well as compensation with contempt.

It was during this time that Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, reacting to a press conference by Mr. Hodari-Okae after a long wait, emphasized that the latter had not shown humility in pursuing his case and that if he came to him, showing humility, he might consider intervening on his behalf'.