When I first read the Ms. Anita De Souza’s verbal incontinence I laughed my head off uncontrollably. My little daughter, who was also playing tantrum to seek my attention, at the time, thought I was having a field day at her expense. She fumed at me, ‘daddy! it’s not funny’, which was enough to quickly bring me back from my journey to Never Land. It was an exhilarating few seconds I promptly laid to rest. However, the following day an article entitled, ‘Oh!! Anita, Aah!! Desooso, Stealing Dwarfs?’ published by Justice Sarpong got me thinking again. Justice, a fine ghanaweb contributor, had a rather conventional take on the issue. Though, I agreed with all that he said, I also think that Anita’s trial balloon needs to be analysed from a different perspective. In his short piece, Justice argued that she is ignorant, childish, and perhaps even mad. And that a place should be reserved for her at Patang or Ankaful if he will permit me to paraphrase his comments.

What he wrote is a legitimate derision of De Souza’s childish diagnosis of the current distress of the cedi. And I must say he was very lenient and a bit magnanimous. I felt he should have treated it with all the contempt it deserves, however, we do not live in a ‘normal’ society, and it would have been an effort in futility. I am yet to hear any member of the ruling government on record admitting culpability for the shambolic performance of the cedi, with exception of Dr Tony Aidoo, who is just a loud mouth party functionary. Blaming others for their bad economic performance has been their stock in trade. The current trend is not new. The cedi experienced similar sharp depreciation when they came to power in 2009. A raft of semi-plausible reasons was advanced as an alibi, which successfully staved off charge of mismanagement. The most biting trump card was, ‘we inherited this and we inherited that. It was believable when historical trends were factored into the equation. However, come 2010 we had a new injection of revenue from oil, which none of the previous administrations had. This should have given them more latitude to manoeuvre regarding the management of the economy, and for that matter the currency. However, the cedi persistently continued to haemorrhage year in and year out like a haemophiliac.

So Anita De Souza’s perceived impropriety is only another Tomahawk missile they have released to cause maximum damage to serve as a smoke screen. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, is credited with this statement, ‘the bigger the lie the more people will believe it.’ And I will add that a lie spreads in proportion to its size. You and I know that what she said couldn’t be any more outrageous than a dog giving birth to a cat. Who will raise an eyebrow if someone says that a dog has bitten a man? But if you should have it reversed to say that man bite dog even the sceptics will sit up and philosophise. They are just misdirection; after all she is got my attention. I am supposed to be writing a piece on the cedi, yet I had to make time to lay her ghost to rest. We live in a society where superstition is our bread and butter. To think that she is not smart is to miss the point. In politics there are party hacks who will always do the dirty work. Mahama Ayariga, for example, will not say something this crass. This is the job for a foot soldier like De Souza’s who is got a thick skin impervious to criticism.

If the opponents of NDC really had the dwarfs at their disposal to cause mischief to discredit the government why didn’t they do it earlier, but now? They could have employed it long before the last election to provide adequate excuse for the electorates to see their back. The best time would have been a year to the last election. Ignorance is a disease and she is playing it like a two cedi banjo. It is a plague that attacks even the very well educated. Unlike Justice, I would say she is perfectly rational. I will argue that she knows exactly what she was doing. There is an audience for this ridiculous insult to the intelligence of every well meaning Ghanaian. Sadly, there are people who will assume that this is a last straw tactics, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. Quite a substantial number of our population are uneducated or not adequately educated and marinated in superstition. That was the audience she was catering to. And you will be surprised that they believe such nonsense. If very respectable people like Duncan Williams is advocating for prayer to salvage the cedi what makes you think that some of his congregants will not dabble in the twaddle knowledge that dwarfs can get into the vaults of banks, and cause money to vanish into thin air?

Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr London baidoo_philip@yahoo.co.uk