By Razak Bawa

I do not intend to use this article to cross swords with Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute (DI), but rather to question the rationale behind what I would call his biased review of the book written by the President, John Dramani Mahama, titled “My First Coup D’état”

It is often said that if you want to hide something from a Blackman, put it in a book. The history of Africa, particularly Ghana have had to be told and retold again and again because our forefathers failed to write something down that would inform the generations after them to understand what really happened during their time.

I am not surprised by the Rasta Man Gabby’s position because the biggest beneficiaries of this unfortunate reality are the descendants of the Dankwah-Dombo-Busia tradition, who have had on countless occasions distorted the history to their advantage.

But for the fact that their forebears could not match the intellectual acumen and the steadfastness of the first President of the Republic of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who wrote many books and his autobiography that have served as reference points for most politicians and students of history, his contribution to the attainment of independence and thereafter would have been buried by these fascists.

Of course, when individuals write books, it is subjected to various reviews, but those reviews must reflect the thinking of the writer and paint the accurate picture not to distort facts and go on a wild assumptions and innuendos as did Gabby to John Mahama, simply because politically he disagrees with him.

This is typical of the NPP. Why am I saying this? When Dr. Kobena Arthur Kennedy, a member of the NPP, who was the Director of Communication for Nana Addo’s Campaign Team for the 2008 elections, wrote his famous book titled “Chasing the Elephant into the Bush, Politics of Complacency”. These leeches , attention-grabbing praise singers, the irritating, self- loathed “govtivists”, the tactless and dumb-looking, blubbering persons like Gabby and his ilk took him on and discredited everything the man wrote and attacked his personality and commitment to NPP.

I believe everything Dr Arthur Kennedy wrote in his book, because it is said that if a fish comes out of the river to tell you the crocodile is sick, you must believe it. So I believed and commended Arthur Kennedy for setting the pace for others to follow, as far as documenting what happens during elections.

History would never forgive us, if we do not write current happenings, especially political, that are supposed to guide us in the future not to repeat present mistakes under the cloak of political secrecy.

The NPP and indeed Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, have never spared or wasted a moment to drum home and propagated the achievements of Nana Akufo-Addo.

Nana Addo himself would always wants us to believe that he was a champion of human rights, a leader of demonstrations, a believer in the principles of rule of law and the advancement of free speech.

He would tell us he has trained many lawyers who today are top notch lawyers in this country, but can he sit down and put his achievements and experiences on paper, or has he ever contemplated that idea? Nana Addo and Gabby should write a book before he (Gabby) seeks to condemn what someone has written.

Talk they say is cheap. At least that is what we are good at in this country and this is the modus operandi of the NPP.

It takes extra-ordinary men, men with foresight, vision, fortitude, and the will to give back to society to write, and John Mahama certainly love his people and his country. He wants to give back to society. He wants to put Ghana on the world map and that if President Barack Obama of the United States of America (USA) can write a book, then we can and he has done just that.

In the long history of this country only two serving Presidents have had the time, energy and the vision to write a book and that is Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and the current President John Dramani Mahama.

I should think that instead of condemning the President for introducing some innovation to public servants, we should rather use this unique opportunity to encourage others to do same.

It would be helpful and insightful to read the thoughts of former President John Agyekum Kufuor and Jerry John Rawlings, both of them having being in power for eight constitutional years.

By condemining John mahama and subjecting his book to this unholy attack and ridicule, how do we expect our two former gentlemen to write?

In the run up to the 2008 elections, Gabby wrote a story in the defunct Stateman Newspaper, and referred to the late President John Evans Atta Mills as a poodle. Fortunately when he won the elections in 2008, he proved Gabby and many doubting Thomases wrong by stamping his authourity and providing the kind of leadership never seen in recent times.

Conveniently, because he passed on before the 2012 general elections, the retired Rastaman have turned his guns on President Mahama, all in an attempt to run him out of office for his cousin, Nana Addo, who is a loser ab intio.

Prof Mills also wrote a lot of books on taxation, that was his area of speciality. How about Nana Addo who has mentored a lot of lawyers. How does he wish to be remembered, because his eyes would see Kenya, but as for his legs, it would never touch it.

The closest he can get to the Presidency is to be a flagbearer of the NPP, I bet my “bottom dollar”.

No matter the amount of frivolous dirt Gabby, who in the United Kingdom (UK) sometime ago, carried the dreadlock and was disc jockeying in clubs, would throw on John Mahama, he would emerge victorius, in this election by a margin that would baffle a lot of people.

He can review and re-review the book, give it different interpretations. He can refer to the President with harsh words than an oaf. Ghanaians know what they want, God has already decided the elections, and John Dramani Mahama would be sworn into office to continue to prosecute the Better Ghana Agenda, started by the late President John Evans Atta Mills come January 7, 2013. Insha Allah.