By: Kwarteng, Francis

“Mugabe Maase, one of Ghana’s leading radio presenters said Nana Akufo Addo will lose his life before June the 1st that’s why he will never be President.

“Mugabe Maase made this statement during a holiday stay in the UK during which he met members of the youth wing of the National Democratic congress at a special meeting.

“He said Nana Addo is wasting his time campaigning to be President because spiritually, he will not make it because by June he will be gone .I am telling you I have him in my palm like an egg. I will squeeze it and God will do the rest for me!” (“Akufo-Addo Will Die Before June—Mugabe Maase,” Ghanaweb, February 6, 2016).

THE SCOURGE OF POLITICAL THEOLOGY AND THE CENTRAL ISSUE OF PROPHETIC CONUNDRUMS IN GHANAIAN POLITICS

In the lead-up to the 2016 general elections Rev. Owusu Bempah caused a major stir in the country, when he claimed that some members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) were plotting Akufo-Addo’s death, or wanted him dead, whichever version suits the specifics of his outrageous prophecy.

The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) invited the reverend in for interrogation at its headquarters, and in the presence of his attorney, the reverent probably told investigators what the media had already reported about his privileged knowledge of anonymous persons who wanted Akufo-Addo dead.

As far as we can tell, noting of substance came out of the interrogation.

And then quite recently, Prophet Kwabena Tawiah, founding leader of the Church of Rabbi, gave a prophetic ultimatum of six months in which for the imminent death of Akufo-Addo to transpire.

He too, like Rev. Owusu Bempah before him, is now claiming some members of both the NDC and the NPP “have visited shrines to eliminate the first gentleman of the land.”

Not to be outdone, Prophet Tawiah goes further to draw some interesting though curious parallels between the method allegedly used in killing Mills and the one to be used in Akufo-Addo’s murder. He describes this thusly:

“I warned Atta Mills about the plot to kill him, he ignored me and look at what happened. They intend to use the same method to kill Nana Addo.”

It is difficult trying to understand why these attention-seeking political theologians and doomsayers never prophesy about their own imminent deaths.

On the one hand, we do know for a fact that Rev. Owusu Bempah became an instant celebrity, an instant sensation, even, once he managed to inch closer to Akufo-Addo and his campaign machinery.

On the other hand, other political theologians like Prophet Kobi and Prophet Tawiah tried to curry favor with Akufo-Addo but may have failed in their attempts.

Prophet Kobi’s pre-election prophecy signaled electoral loss for Akufo-Addo once he, the latter, turned himself over to a Man of God for a thorough spiritual cleansing. He claimed that Akufo-Addo had been entangled in a dragnet of generational curses, and for which reason he needed a Man of God to set him free from his paternally imposed bondage of curses.

The election came to pass and Akufo-Addo won hands down. Then Prophet Kobi came up with other sophisticated escapist hypotheses to explain why his pre-election prophecy did not come to pass.

Instead, he blamed his prophetic fiasco on anonymous hackers.

The other competing hypothesis has it that Rev. Owusu Bempah acknowledged the spiritual strength, wisdom, and credibility of Prophet Kobi’s prophecy, that Akufo-Addo was in fact suffering under a Sisyphean pile of “generational curses” which potentially threatened his electoral success, following which Rev. Owusu Bempah’s submitted himself to consistent prayerful intercessions and fasting in behalf of Akufo-Addo leading to the latter’s spiritual cleansing—hence his landmark electoral victory which eventually unseated Mahama and closed the chapter on his scandalous reign, just after one term.

Kobi, salted fish. That is what he is.

Prophet Kobi quickly distanced himself from his co-religionist pal, Bishop Obinim, when a video surfaced on social media showing that he had prophesied about the latter’s meteoric ascension in the prophetic ministry.

He had paid a glowing tribute to Angel Obinim prior to his strange prophetic delivery—about the latter’s transcendental powers of therianthropy.

After seeing the said video anonymously posted on social media Prophet Kobi strongly objected it, especially to one of the natural corollaries of his high-profiled prophecy, and this concerns Angel Obinim’s therianthropic powers, and how he used this power to transform himself into any animal of his choice, snakes and tigers, to harass, to intimidate, and to bite his enemies and detractors under the cover of darkness.

Angel Obinim’s alleged therianthropic powers, as well as the gathering momentum of his fluid shapeshifting charactorology, have subsequently made him a redoubtable symbol of transmogrification among his legion of ignorant followers. Obviously, one does not know what exactly to make of Angel Obinim’s shapeshifting tendencies in terms of the dimension of metempsychosis.

Notwithstanding, the media took note of this sensational grandstanding and public stunt by Bishop Obinim, his dedicated following and acolytes, thus earning him the kind of public attention Prophet Tawiah will have wished he only had. The latter, we strongly believe, is on an attention-seeking quest for public or mainstream acceptance, like his co-religionists Pastor Mensah Otabil and Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams.

Unfortunately, the intense political underpinnings of clerical rivalries are being progressively grafted onto the landscape of our secular national politics. It is not as if Ghana has institutionalized state religion, although this working hypothesis seems to be gaining some traction in the sacralization of executive politics, and yet one is at pains to acknowledge the creeping actualization of political religion into matters of policy formulation. This may not necessarily bode well for the sanctity of religious diversity in our national existence as one religion is certain to others.

Therefore, Prophet Tawiah’s merely rehashing Rev. Owusu Bempah’s passé prophetic nightmares will not earn him the kind of public attention he is so desperately seeking. Let’s also add that Prophet Tawiah may have to sell this other prophetic snake oil by Rev. Owusu Bempah to the public:

“When I was in heaven, the angel took to a location where they opened a curtain, I saw late President Mills alone in a room crying. Then the angel told me that he was not in that palace but God allowed them to bring him there at the time so he could teach me something which was that he never died a natural death…

“They have provided him with a bowl into which his tears fall anytime he cries. The reason is that they were preventing the tears from falling unto the land because that could cause chaos in Ghana. Ghana would have become a land of desolation. It’s an innocent blood which have been sacrificed because of position…

“The angel opened another curtain, there I saw President Mahama with chains around his neck, waist and legs as well. The chains have been tied to a huge stone. He was sweating and crying profusely as well with a red scarlet tied around his waist as well.”

Mahama will never become president ever again in the Republic of Ghana, says Rev. Owusu Bempah, the self-appointed spokesperson for the Electoral Commission (EC) and the people of Ghana.

The self-styled reverend now represents the popular will—popular sovereignty, namely, in matters of electoral politics.

These village prosperity theologians and political theologians have invested so much in prophetic alarmism as to make absolute nonsense of the products of rational intellection.

In their emotional economics of prosperity theology prophetic alarmism and unhindered pursuit of political mammonism dominate and displace soteriology. This makes Angel Obinim for one look more like pathetic fallacy.

But Akufo-Addo will not die.

In fact Akufo-Addo must not die. What for?

Whoever wishes him dead is wickedly unpatriotic and boundlessly evil, given that it is not our place to take up the authorship of his spiritual obituary.

Yes, we can always author his political obituary, not spiritual obituary, when he fails to prove his mettle for whatever reason(s).

Thus we all must do everything in our power to ensure he lives past the pale of longevity, to enable him fulfill his constitutional obligations to Ghanaians, including accomplishing such noble objectives as transforming Ghana industrially and bringing economic prosperity to the teeming generality of the masses. He must succeed.

We must wish him the blessing of longevity as he navigates through the emotional intricacies associated with the rough terrain of secular politics. In other words, he has to live long enough to honor all his campaign promises to shame the naysayers, his ardent critics and detractors of which this author cannot exclude himself.

Moreover, it is not as if the death wisher automatically enjoys longevity because the life of the person he or she wished dead is transferred to him or her—the death wisher. Of course, some of us may strongly disagree with him on grounds of policy strategies and tactics but that is not the same as wishing him dead.

And whatever we all wish to make of it, of the prophetic controversies, Akufo-Addo is presently “the Political Father of Ghana” embodying the soul of nation, of our national aspirations. For the sake of argument therefore, if he passes today which of course is not our wish, part of the nation dies. It is our submission that this ontological conundrum may not sufficiently gibe with rational mentation.

This is the time the angels and God of Rev. Owusu Bempah must assert their protective authority in connection with the mortality of Akufo-Addo. We say this not as a mark or instance of playful frivolity per se, but rather as a re-stated contention of the reverend’s own controversial rhetoric inventory, where he categorically made transcendental or spiritual imprimatur the backbone of Akufo-Addo’s presidential aspirations and subsequent assumption of the executive office.

Let Prophet Tawiah, Rev. Owusu Bempah and Prophet Kobi therefore go to sleep, because the “gentleman of the land” will not and must not die just for them to appropriate this potential “death” to justify the statistical probability of their attention-seeking doomsaying frivolities, which may be unnecessarily interfering with the peaceful exercise of executive prerogatives and privileges in behalf of the nation.

“Is there a place for the hopeless sinner, who has hurt all mankind just to save his own beliefs?” Marley asks on “One Love.”

These “beliefs” could be ideological, political or religions, or simply a combination. Can our political theologians therefore help us answer this complicated question? This is why the first two—namely, Prophet Tawiah and Rev. Owusu Bempah—should rather think about their own pending mortality and leave Akufo-Addo alone. Other schadenfreude moirologists who wish him dead must also think twice and consider their own mortality in their scheming political calculations.

Perhaps Bishop J.Y. Adu, the man who reportedly healed hip-life star Okomfo Kwadee of his alleged “madness,” should come to the aid of his co-religionists—Prophet Tawiah and Rev. Owusu Bempah. This is long overdue, if we must add!

On the other hand there is no doubt in our minds that Akufo-Addo has aged graciously although his boring, sleep-inducing drawl and “Locally Acquired Foreign Accent” sometimes make it seem as if he is incapable of kenesiological youthfulness. But, lest we forget, this observation is merely one of the normative features of ageing and therefore we should all learn to accept it. When all is said and done, it is possible for Akufo-Addo to outlive his most ardent critics and detractors.

And, unlike Akua Donkor, we will always wish Mr. President “a happy birthday” when we have to.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: SOME CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

We can only hope that he successfully completes his term (s) on a good note for posterity to judge him right! In fact he must outlive his transient tenure of political office, long enough for him to share his post-presidential career of teachable experiences with Ghanaian citizens, as well as with his critics and detractors, if he does indeed succeed in taking the country to higher heights of sustainable industrial transformation that improves the lot of the teeming generality of Ghanaians.

Even those who die must also surely live to tell their stories. This is what the great Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, the greatest African, has done—and Akufo-Addo may want to take a page from Nkrumah’s book. For now he should wholeheartedly embrace the glamor of his security of tenure and not disappoint the millions who have put the national destiny in his hands.

Still, those of us on the sidelines who passionately love our beloved country will continue to critique his policies when they are not in keeping with the national interest. But then also we will give him his due when we absolutely have to. Both are patriotic responsibilities we cannot afford to shirk at the expense of national deterioration.

In the meantime, we will give him his head as he takes the initiative to fulfill some of his bold campaign promises. Let’s rally around his progressive cause of transforming Ghana and bringing economic prosperity to the vast majority of Ghanaians. As Bob Marley said on “So Much Things To Say”:

“Oh, when the rain fall, fall, fall now

“It don't fall on one man's housetop. Remember that:

“When the rain fall

“It don't fall on one man's housetop….

Truth, we shall add, is an absolute defense. “Truth,” we shall again, “is an offense but not a sin,” quoting the great Bob Marley (see “Jah Live”). On this beautiful track also, though, Marley equates the polemic disbeliever in the transcendental and spiritual possibilities of man with what he aptly described as “a foolish dog bark at a flying dog.”

Could Marley have been right?

Answering this question is beyond our scope of mortal intelligence. We do however think that only Mugabe Maase, Prophet Tawiah, the all-knowing Rev. Owusu Bempah, Prophet Kobi, and Akufo-Addo himself can sufficiently answer this question!

We shall therefore defer this particular question, and the other complex question of live and death, to them for their spiritual wisdom to adjudicate!

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, one is just not too sure or clear about whether Prophet Tawiah’s brand of prophetic hermeneutics rigidly follows a unique literalist typology where, among other things, there exists no alternative or competing situations, or claims, of prophetic interpretations beyond his.

On the surface though, there appears to exist an undercurrent of confident categorical exceptionalism in his typological literalism—if indeed he does not also subscribe to the figuratist label. And since Akufo-Addo and his government claim to represent “change” in the status quo, what if the potential “assassins” are enemies, of progress, namely, of this “change” in a figurative sense in that Akufo-Addo is not necessarily a target for physical assassination, but rather his idea of “change” which some members of his own party as well as of the opposition may be opposed to?

Or that Akufo-Addo is going to be his own internal enemy, where he and some of his political appointees undermine his efforts and determination to transform Ghana via bad policy strategies and tactics, public corruption, mediocrity, political patronage, arrogance of power, and sheer incompetence?

The ultimate concern for us at this point is that whether Prophet Tawiah is a figuratist or literalist is irrelevant. The state must provide competent security detail for the president while his political theologian friends take care of his spiritual protection. This amounts to killing two birds with two stones.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

We intend the notions of theriathropy and metempsychosis which we associate with Bishop Obinim to stand as tropes for the “change” Akufo-Addo and the NPP promised Ghanaians, although this “change” also implies policy manifestations yet to unravel under the new administration.

This “change” is, however, not borne out of the policy question of secular liberalism. The pre-election catchy sloganeering catchphrase “The Battle is the Lord’s”—which seems to have suddenly gone into convenient extinction after the general elections—captures this supposed internal “conflict” between secular liberalism and political theology. The policy implications therein are enormous.

The core issue here is that, the likes of Prophet Tawiah, for all intents and purposes, may be resuscitating this internal conflict for public consumption. But we have to tread cautiously: For want of a nail, social and political stability was lost. Still, one has every reason to always wonder why these so-called Men of God finger Akufo-Addo as a serious target of political assassination in these Obinim-esque prophetic convolutions, yet the identities of the potential assassins always remain shrouded in absolute mystery where they are either unidentified or anonymous. What is the reason for this paranormal secretion? This is not only inexplicably strange but highly problematic as well.

That is, whether the author of this weird prophetic narrative is Prophet Tawiah or Rev. Owusu Bempah, the identities of the potential assassins however fall outside the boundary of rational speculation. The sad part is that Prophet Tawiah didn’t identify the shrines those potential political assassins allegedly consulted. This is very confusing because it tends to reduce the presumed omniscience of the deities to whom these so-called Men of God appeal, to objects of ridicule and powerlessness. It even raises profound questions of credibility issues about these telluric representatives of God.

Clearly, then, we are seeing the scourge of post-truth politics, the deep state, arrogance of power, and alternative facts gradually seeping into the prophetic ministry as well, a means through which these sham political theologians, commercial dealers in spiritual snake-oil, and spiritual galamseyers crave after unwarranted public attention, relevance, and sympathy. The fact is that they don’t deserve public attention.

And yes, some of this prophetic nonsense has serious national security implications for political stability. This is why we should not encourage or entertain them. Against this background therefore, we should and must ignore them, and allow Akufo-Addo to enjoy the inner piece he requires to effectively do his job, while doing everything in our power to ensure these unnecessary prophetic encumbrances do not in any way detract him from honoring his constitutional mandates—defined by an array of executive privileges and prerogatives and national priorities.

“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.”

REFERENCES

Ghanaweb. “Akufo-Addo To Die In Six Months—Prophet Tawiah Reveals.” March 14, 2017.

Ghanaweb. “‘Innocent’ Mills' Soul Crying for Justice—Owusu Bempah.” December 1, 2016.