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Opinions of Friday, 15 January 2021

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

When pointing one accusing finger at Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu, three point at you, Muntaka Mubarak

Member of Parliament, Muntaka Mubarak Member of Parliament, Muntaka Mubarak

How good history is in redirecting our footsteps and shaping our future. If you fail to know and understand your history, thus, your past behaviours and attitudes, you cannot adapt to the relevance of the changing world but mire in your old deplorable ways.

It has been published by the Herald newspaper and replicated on the Ghana online news portals that Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu (Hon) was once expelled from St Peter's Secondary School as a final year Sixth Form student for theft. According to the paper, he was an ardent thief, breaking into the stores of the school to help himself for probably all dubious reasons.

His past criminal activities have come to haunt him so much so that he is scared shirtless for going for ministerial appointments. This is to avoid the unsightly scene of his past being revealed to awash him in shame during the vetting process, alleges Muntaka Mubarak (Hon), MP for Asawase constituency with Asiedu Nketiah.

They allege that following the magnitude of the consequential adverse effects on his image and future prospects, he had to change his name from Lawrence Addae to Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu.

Be that as it may, then the presupposing question is, do we not have the right to change from bad to good and if we do, having served the sentence for our committed crime, should the crime hold us down for good without the chance of ever forging ahead with our aspired decent life?

He was a thief. He was sacked from school. He was able to seek readmission to sit for his Sixth Form exams, passed and gained admission to university.

Why do Muntaka and Asiedu Nketiah think his past criminal behaviours should still be used against him while their past "Muntaka hampers" and conflict of interest of sitting on the Bui Dam project as a Board Member, manufacturing blocks to sell at threefold the ongoing price to the Bui Dam project are not criminal in nature?

Apostle Paul says in the bible, " When l was a child, l thought like a child, behaved like a child, but when l grew up...." If Lawrence Addae was a thief when at the St Peter's Secondary School, he was no more when he went to university and became an MP.

Therefore, why do Asiedu Nketiah and Muntaka Mubarak think they can still dig the decades-old dirt to throw back at Osei-Kyei Mensah Bonsu, formerly Lawrence Addae?

If the crime he committed was so grievous as to ban him from ever holding any public office, then yes, it can be cited by Muntaka and Asiedu Nketiah. However, if it does not, then Muntaka and Asiedu Nketiah had better bury their propaganda hatchet to let the sleeping dogs lie.

Ghana Members of Parliament, please do behave yourselves as responsible Lawmakers but not like street yob. Politics in Ghana sucks! Why?