Hero Worship or Cultism? Confused Ghanaians Deserve to Know.

Ghanaians were warned during the electioneering campaign that a vote for Mills was tantamount to a vote for Rawlings. The slogan was “Vote for Mills and get Rawlings free”. This prophecy has been fulfilled. Yes, Rawlings has taken over the reigns of Government in Ghana and Mills, our elected President is helpless to alter the status quo.

Rawlings goes about inciting people, including state institutions and organizations, and nobody, and I mean nobody has got the guts to call him to order. He goes about making reckless statements and allegations against former President Kufuor and his ministers by calling them thieves, murderers and criminals without substantiating the allegations. He calls President Mills a weakling and insults everybody who is not in his (Rawlings) good books and gets away with it. He threatens the entire state machinery and states publicly that if things do not change immediately for the better, some of them within the party might be compelled to advise themselves. Next comes the mother of all threats. He, Rawlings would not sit unconcerned for Mills and his team to extend the rot in government to the party.

Utterances follow a particular trend: Nobody should be deceived. That was how it started in 1981. He has done it before, and giving the opportunity, he would do it again. That was how he started with Liman’s government. After his infamous pronouncement that the Liman’s government was on probation, he went to public institutions and urged workers to take their own destiny into their hands. He urged revolutionary and civil disobedience, but Liman did not act fast because he thought, ‘gyato nntumi nnye hwee” (The white man cannot cause any harm) and so when it happened, some of us were not surprised.

The fear of Rawlings within the NDC. In fact, no top official within the ruling NDC government has publicly condemned Rawlings for his unguarded and reckless utterances and tantrums. When asked why they have not done so, they all fumble with words by stating that Rawlings, as a citizen of this country has every right to voice out his opinions on matters that affect the state. But is his style the best under the circumstances? Couldn’t he have been a little more circumspect and adopted a better forum where such issues could be thrashed out? Publicly berating and scolding the elected President the way a school teacher scolds or reprimands an erring pupil is anathema to decorum and statesmanship. But NDC members, for fear of being tagged and hunted down the way dogs are used to smoke out glasscutters have all recoiled into their shells. Where are the men and women, who, when in opposition made too much noise and promised fire and brimstone? Where are they? Like eunuchs, they have chickened out as if they had nothing hanging between their legs. But I don’t envy them. They have to be cautious when they tackle their founder because the fear of the Rawlingses is the beginning of wisdom.

Yes, they want to silence all of us. On Thursday, 20th August, 2009, at exactly 3.08 pm, I got a text message on my phone. It reads: Do u also want 2 die? Am ndc

From +233244983262. 15.08. 20 –Aug -09

My initial reaction was to pray. Next, I called some friends who encouraged me not to relent in what I am doing. They advised me to remain calm. After communing with my Creator who is the giver and controller of my life I got emboldened to send a response. I remembered what a Pastor friend of mine said sometime ago. That fear is a trait of wickedness, while boldness is a mark of a righteous man. He said, “Show me a man living in fear and I will show you a wicked man. But show me a righteous man, and I will show you a bold man”. I asked the sender what wrong I had committed to deserve death and that if he/she, the faceless individual would appoint him/herself my executioner to terminate my life for speaking the truth and rejecting their lies and propaganda, I was ready to make that supreme sacrifice. My life is in the Hands of the Almighty God and unless God sanctions my elimination, no individual can kill me.

Let the assailant do his/her worst, let the assailant and his/her sponsors use all the sophisticated weapons in their attempts to eliminate me, that rascal, that imbecile, that scallywag, that criminal will surely be found out, sooner than he or she expects. David took Uriah’s wife in secret but God used the prophet Nathan to smoke him out. And if they succeed in eliminating me, there will emerge many more Danquah Damptey’s along the political landscape of the country with more deadly and trenchant pens whose writings will be much more biting than my own. Elisha who came after Elijah was given a double portion of the anointing that was upon the former.

Rawlings unwarranted verbal abuses of ex President Kufuor: Why, Rawlings why? is he afraid of ex-President Kufuor Is ex-President the mirror in which Rawlings tries to see his own virtues and deficiencies. At every forum, whether organized or informal, Rawlings never fails to attack or criticize his successor, President Kufuor. In South Africa, Germany, Britain, United States, Nigeria and many others, the story is always the same. It is always Kufuor is a thief, Kufuor is a murderer or Kufuor is a criminal. Meanwhile not an iota of evidence has been produced to substantiate any of such serious and damning allegations. What has ex=President Kufuor done to merit such unwanted verbal attacks If ex-President Kufuor is a thief, what will you call the Rawlingses? If Kufuor is a murderer, what do you call the Rawlings¬¬¬es? Where is taxi driver Tsakitey whose only crime was he had the misfortune of mistakenly driving into ex-President Rawlings’ convoy . Can Rawlings look at the faces of at least fifty poverty-stricken Ghanaians and invoke the antoa nyamaa and other deities that he has never in his life taken monies from state coffers without authorization¬. Can he publicly tell us where he got money to put up those mansions in different parts of the country? Can he give us a break by mentioning the names of those friends who paid for the education of his children abroad?

Rawlings utterances are a threat to our collective will Democrats: Why shouldn’t I be happy when there is confusion in the out of control NDC? Naturally, as a human being and the true son of my father, I should be. But I am not, because we are not in the best of times. What is happening portends doom for this country and that is why we all must unite and speak with one voice and call off the bluff of the Rawlingses just as Boris Yeltsin spearheaded the peoples movement against attempts by undesirable elements within the Soviet Establishment to truncate the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic.

It is Cultism, not Hero Worshipping. Attempts by die hard fanatics in the NDC to elevate Rawlings to the stature of god or demi-god must be worrisome to all people of conscience. Nobody says people must not adore him, but condemning and at times threatening those who share different opinions to that of Rawlings is something that deserves serious thoughts. It has moved beyond normalcy level to that of cultism. I will attempts to show the effects such hero worship, if carried to its crescendo will spell doom for the country. Reverend Jims Jones and the People’s Temple Agricultural Project in Guyana. On November, 18, 1978, the entire world woke up to hear of the bizarre death of nearly a thousand people in a settlement known as Jonestown in Guyana. Some were shot, others were forced to drink poison, but most willingly participated in the revolutionary suicide. Jonestown is an informal name for the People’s Temple Agricultural Project formed by the People’s Temple. It was a cult from California led by Reverend Jim Jones, (J.J for short). Jones established Jonestown and brought in many Temple members. The emigration policy was very restrictive because like what operated in the Soviet Union before her disintegration, Jones did not permit the members to leave Jonestown. Members of the cult were indoctrinated into believing that Jonestown would be a paradise or utopia. The settlement was not self sufficient and large quantities of major foodstuff had to be imported to augment local production. They lived in small communal houses. In theory, there was no official imprisonment in the communes. But methods of imprisonment in a 6x4x3 foot plywood boxes and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a well, sometimes upside down existed.

Anyone caught attempting to escape was given heavy doses of any or combinations of Thorazine, Sodium Pentathol, Chloral Hydrate, Demerola and valium. Armed guards patrolled the settlement day and night to enforce Jonestown rules and regulations. Children could only see their real parents briefly at nights. Jim Jones or JJ was referred to as ‘dad’ by the children, whilst he remains “Father” or “Dad” to the adults. Jones taught his congregation that they were all homosexuals and lesbians and the sooner they recognized that the better. According to him, he alone was a true heterosexual and the only man who could satisfy a woman. He admonished his members to abstain from sexual relations with their spouses, while he freely and frequently had sexual intercourse with many different temple men and d women. In 1978, officials of the United States Embassy in Guyana, interviewed Social Security recipients on multiple occasions to make sure they were not being held against their will, for none of the Seventy Five respondents stated that he/she was being held against his/her will.

White Nights. One of the safety measures in Jonestown was to issue statements to the effects that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were c conspiring with other capitalist pigs to destroy the settlement. This was followed by what came to be known as White Nights during which members would be given a choice of four. The most potent option was Revolutionary Suicide.

Deborah Layton, a defector gave us an insight into what it was. “Everyone, including children was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of liquid to drink. We were told the liquid contained a poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.

And surely it did not take long for that day to come. On November 18, 1978 the event actually did happen. “A lady and her child were the first to go. Reverend Jim Jones approached and encouraged members to drink the poison and when the adults saw the poison begin to take effect, they showed a reluctance to die”. With indifferent detachment, Jones was overheard shouting, “I don’t care how many screams you hear. I don’t care how many anguished cries. Death is a million times preferable to ten more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you. If you knew what was ahead of you, you’d be glad of stepping over tonight”. Very many people included a United States Congressman were brutally murdered by Jones and his men. There was no escape route for the settlers. Everybody was lined up to be partakers of Jim Jones ‘last supper’.

Circumcision story as narrated by an uncle. One of my maternal uncles told me about the ordeal they went through during their circumcision. One grew up before he was circumcised in those days. The ‘wanzam’ lined up all the boys to be circumcised in a room. He then collected his fees before carrying out the act so that anyone who ran away would lose his fees which were not refundable. Like a doctor in his consulting room, the wanzam of a pathologist would invite them one by one into the ‘operating theatre’. When this uncle of mine heard the cry of pain from the first person, his courage deserted him and he fled from the room, never to come back. He thus forfeited his ‘twetia’ fee.

Ask me whether he later summoned courage to go through such a ritual, I will not tell you because I, like the late Ken Saro Wiwa do not have my uncle’s permission to divulge intimate family secrets.

Do not trust those so called men and women of virtue. It later came out that the Reverend Jim Jones was suffering from cancer which had destroyed most of his organs and didn’t want to go down alone. Having tasted and seen how enjoyable life is, he came up with this so called revolutionary suicide idea. Any Lesson to be learnt? Yes. Never trust men and women who believe they have been ordained by their Creator to always super impose their will on others. Such people adopt a ‘holier than thou attitude’. They preach a life of virtue and discourse like angels but live like ordinary mortals.

‘A power hungry sadistic mean person who thought he was God’ was how one newspaper described Reverend Jim Jones.

Sat Guru Maharaj ji: On the Lagos /Ibadan Express way could be found the ‘Ashram’ of the so called perfect master, Sat. Guru Maharaji. Some Nigerian media trace his origin to Ghana, but the self proclaimed perfect master would have none of that. He was born on December 20, 1947 at Tutuka near Obuasi to Mallam Ibrahim and Princess Asanatu Amope. He was named Mohammed Saib Ajirobatan.His. His devotees are so infatuated and obsessed with him so much so that they could even kill in his name just to show him how much they revere and believe in his indoctrination.

Sometime in the 1990’s a Ghanaian lady found herself in Guru’s domain on her sister’s invitation. During their devotion, the lady visitor was accused of witchcraft and on the instruction of the so called perfect master, she was beaten to death. Somehow, the news filtered outside and a report was made to the police who promptly arrested Guru Maharaji.The Ghana High Commission in Lagos was an interested party in the case. The dead woman’s sister stated in her cautioned statement to the police that the sister did not stay with her and that she saw her off to the bus stop just in front of the gate. She further stated that she saw her sister board a bus at the bus stop. Her body was not found at the place where she was alleged to have been buried. Without any substantive evidence to link the disappearance of the ‘dead’ woman to the living and perfect master, Guru Maharaji was set free. You see the extent hero worship can make a person lose all human values so that he/she can deny his/her own blood sister. Jesu of Onyigbo: At Maryland in Lagos is a suburb called Onyigbo. There sprung up in the early sixties a man who styled himself “Jesus of Onyigbo” The fame of this self styled messiah spread fast like a whirlwind and within weeks his entire estate was filled with those who dotted on him. Once in his haven, one loses all sense of human values and behaves like a robot. Life in the walled haven was lived according to the dictates of the supreme master who happened to be the jesus of Onyigbo. The place was secured by tall walls and heavily guarded by gun tottering security apparatus who were aided in their jobs by ferocious barking dogs. Anyone who attempted to escape was made an example of by being physically tied to a pole and publicly flogged. As the lord and mayor of all that he surveyed, he had a field day when it came to sampling the sweet nectar that lies between the thighs of women in his haven. Once husband and wife entered the enclave, the relation ship was severed, and the man lost all conjugal rights. The women were at the call and beckon of this demented demon whose sexual desires could not be quenched by numerous wives, concubines and mistresses. A time came when both daughters and mothers competed amongst themselves to see who could sexually tame this stallion of his sexual desires.

John Jerry Rawlings

The apocalyptic warning about Rawlings “akakabensem”, “atuturasem” and “patapaasem” is giving those of us who are true democrats sleepless nights. This is true because from among the ordinary ranks and file of Ghanaians has emerged this one person who has arrogated to himself the power to proclaim a fatwa on every other Ghanaian but himself. This guy, who was once a sheep, has mutated to become a raging and rabid tiger or wolf. His word is law and whoever goes against it must be prepared to face the wrath of these who have been indoctrinated into believing that this man, this self proclaimed redeemer is the answer to their problems. Members who, on their own accord walked into the contraption [referred to as the revolutionary wings of the NDC] as free men and women would eventually find out that they have lost all sense of humanity once the trap door closes on them and they will find it difficult to come out. And that is the more reason why one of them has issued a fatwa on me to either shut up or be eliminated. Oh no, Not another Jim Jones or Guru Maharaj Ji.

Do we need any of these people at this period of our political dispensation? Obviously, no! My passionate appeal to ex-President Rawlings is that he should be careful with his utterances in order not to create a hydra which will have the propensity of engulfing the entire nation in flames. The way former cadres gravitate towards him makes such thing a likely occurrence. He holds a firm swag or grip over them and a wrong word said at the wrong time and place is capable of unsettling the apple cart. It is some of such public pronouncements which were uttered at the peak of extreme passion that emboldened the cadres and fanatics of the NDC to embark on the seizure of toilets, lorry parks and other state institutions.

We should not create conditions which will make it possible for a few misguided and disgruntled elements in the society to take the laws into their hands and mete out what they perceive to be ‘justice’ to known opponents of Rawlings. Should such a thing occur, we are more likely to revert to the state of nature where life was nasty, short and brutish. The orgy of violence at Agbogbloshie, Sankore and other places and the seemingly inaction of state institutions to give protection to the oppressed and endangered political specie in the country today gives us an inkling to the fact that we shall soon reach that stage, all things being equal. Our politics today does not need men like Jim Jones, Sat Guru Maharaj ji and Jesus of Onyigbo. We must conduct our politics without rancor or bitterness. We don’t need a situation where on account of a person’s unalloyed loyalty to another mortal, will disown hi/her sister or brother. When we reach that state, then we have all lost our sense of human values and no longer qualify to be regarded as human beings. My resolve to be on board: I have made a promise to my Lord and Maker to use my god given ability to do what I know best and that is to discountenance the lies and falsehood being perpetrated by agents of destabilization on our airwaves and the print media. I often ask myself whether those who deliberately spread such vicious lies believe in the existence of a Living God. I don’t think they do otherwise they wouldn’t have undertaken such wicked and dangerous path which will plunge the entire country down the precipice. I would also like to state it here for all and sundry that I have not received a kobo or pesewa from any person or source for my writings. Nobody has paid me anything to write what I do. I write because I strongly believe that I am duty bound to do so. If I don’t, who else would? Nobody sponsors me to take a particular stance. I write to state facts and put in my feelings because I strongly and sincerely believe in what I write.

So, please stop sending nasty e mails in very vulgar and offensive language to my in box to the effect that somebody is paying me to tow a particular line in my writings. I have a mind of my own and would not sell my conscience for a pot of porridge.

Conclusion: Knowing the extend hero worship could degenerate into, this write up is a wake up call to all Ghanaians not to follow blindly the path which has plunged other nations into chaos. Let those who will kill with the mistaking belief that they are protecting the identity of their heroes take caution. Let everybody have it at the back of his/her mind that anyone who dines with the tiger will eventually end up in its stomach. That is a natural law. If you doubt the truth in the above statement, go ask Kwasi Adu, former student leader during the revolutionary days. He is a living testimony to the truth in the above proverb.

Let us not fall into temptation like what befell the devotees of Rev. Jim Jones, who, in a moment of frenzy and under the mistaken notion that they were doing the will of the Living God, ended up doing the very thing God admonishes us not to do.

Daniel Danquah Damptey

E-Mail Address: - danieldanquah_damptey@yahoo.com

Telephone number: 0243715297