.... so says NPP

Saturday September 21 2013 brought the news of a terrorist attack in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya ,an East African country .69 people perished and 170 injured from diverse countries but all have not yet been identified. I had written about how Africa and its people were weaker due to the intransigence to unite and face common problems together. I had mentioned Somalia as paying a heavy price in poverty as a result of instability . The poverty I talked about was both material and intellectual. These combine to make people easy prey to all kinds of evils . Some attacked me as that was Nkrumah’s dream. To them anything Nkrumah ,is an anathema . For some of us facts and reality are what we face and talk about. The African people are linked together and inter related . Just as I have relatives In Togo and Benin , so Boakye will have relatives in Cote D”Ivoire and Bawumia may have relatives in Bukina Faso . Our borders are thus porous and as we lack national Identity cards it is difficult to monitor movement . It makes African countries therefore easy prey to terrorist attacks of the nature we experienced . So how can this be a retribution on the Late Prof Awoonor ?

Retribution is said to be punishment: something done or given to somebody as punishment or vengeance for something he or she has done. What is the crime of Prof Awoonor , who incidentally died at the age of 78 involved in the activities to propagate the African personality ?

For a long time people have said he wrote a book that was anti Akan or specifically against Asantefo. . No one has put the exact passage on line or its extract. I am known for having a “ herd mentality” , but I have not read this bookbut others . As I have said in one of them he talks about a PT master called Tamakloe . I have asked about it and I am sure other family members have done the same . I have been to his office on a number of occasions and it always had people of diverse tribes . His arrest and detention was under Gen I K Acheampong and the Prof may have been said to have aided Brig Katter to escape. . Politics is generally a game of lies and falsehoods. I can say Brig katter ,never even escaped as he was still in Accra . This was someone I met on many occasions at awudome Estates close to Rev Ankrah’s house, the father of Dodoo and Abeka Ankrah .both Ghana ex internationals

We all would want to know what this man has done against the Asantefo, that they will celebrate his transition to heaven ? Were these not the same people who swore they had “ solid and irrefutable evidence” against the president that he was a “ stealer” , only to retract it in court? In my day they told us Sekou Nkrumah was a tri headed monster that was born . I have met Sekou in person and looked hard to see where the two other heads were cut off but could not find it . He seems to have been born with one head on one neck . They told us about how Nkrumah looted Ghana and had swiss secret accounts but after nearly 50 years no account has been found . They told us about how they would turn Ghana into a paradise as they had the “ magic touch” . Alas , the last time they came to power we saw looting of both state and people’s assets just as happened under Busia. . If you speak against these, does that make you a tribalist? So when Kennedy Agyepong talks about Killing Gas and killing Ewes , was he being tribalistic? What of Nana saying Yen Akanfo” . So we expect God to exact retribution by way of death and we should rejoice? In fact is death a retribution at all?
So what is death? Death is the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. There is some truth to the old saying, “There are only two things you can count on in life: death and taxes.” Everyone experiences death. Death and dying are an inevitable part of human life. After all we are supposed to be body and soul and after death the soul departs to face judgment from God . In other words the heavenly realm is our permanent abode and not this earth. Is there something to rejoice over the death of some one? We will all follow suit and will that be retribution? After all “ all die be die”

Are terrorist attacks retribution from God and so visited on Prof Awoonor?
On Sep 16, 2013 • Monday's horrific Washington Navy Yard shooting, which killed 12, is the third attack in four years on US military installations in the USA. In addition in the last two years the USA experienced shootings at Sandy Hoek with 27 dead, Santa Monica 4 dead, Oaks University, 7 dead Clardon High school 3 dead . So are these retributions from God and what crimes where some of these children paying for? Was this the same as the school kids the NPP bombed at Kulungugu and the Sports Stadium.?So are terrorists and terrorism, acts of God or evil; by evil minded people? It is for the NPP to clarify its position.

• Terrorism is the systematic use of violence as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no legality. It is a crime , The NPP has always been contradictory as far as I am concerned. They talk about the rule of law and democracy but then do not practice it. Under Kufour there was a commission that investigated past ‘atrocities’ to ensure the people paid for their crimes. Why was the Professor not brought and evidenced adduced to find him guilty ?. They mix up events of June 4th with those of post 31st december . It is time we pin point the “ haters and envious people” , not as Voltarians but the narrow minded NPP KKK who cannot speak good about any one else. How can you write about some one using your money that he “ stole’ . This man even without Kwame Nkrumahs free and expansive education would have been in the middle class of any society in the world . His uncle was with the “ Big 6” as he was a lawyer and his father I think a business man. He was in Nairobi on an International assignment “ so they were feeding and housing him”. I know it is difficult for a lot of these ne’er do wells to really comprehend that a Black person” could be on such an assignment


Challenges to the NPP . It is important the NPP lives up to its word if it believes in the rule of law and democracy. If it does then it behooves it and its members to condemn and dissociate itself from such acts and such statements once and for all .Terrorism is terrorism and needs to be condemned in no uncertain terms. 9/11 was a terrible act and should never have happened. Apart from USA citizens innocent Ghanaians were also killed . It is the same here also It therefore makes nonsense of their stand to be religious and especially Christian . All religions talk about love and fairness . In Christianity , Christ talked about the Samaritan and the Jew as an example of loving your neighbor. This is not the first time NPP members have rejoiced over the demise of people from the Volta region . What ever misconceptions the politicians especially the NPP has created, it is for them to start re educating its membership . Our challenges are there namely poverty and lack of development , a direct result of our ignorance. I will say it again , the Voltarians are no threat to the Asantefo . We all have a common enemy in poverty, lack of education, poor health facilities, lack of homes with toilets and as seen, security . We are quick to accuse , but as we saw with the woman accused of adultery , Jesus asked, the accusers, let the one who has never sinned cast the first stone and went on writing . One by one we are told they all left . So I ask the Osei tawiahs and Mends, and all the ones shouting , are you without blemish?

So is the NPP ready to govern.? I have asked this before and I ask it again. Does it see its role as a protector of all , or just some. Can it see its relation to others and its inter dependence on others. ? They whip Togo often , so suppose terrorists decide to come through Togo and the Togolese decide, well they are antagonistic, so let us look away. Will Kumasi, Hwidiem, Nkawie, Kumawu, be safe? We have to be each others keepers, where, an injury to one is an injury to all .

Ps Ex Prez J A K Kufour served in the PNDC and a whole host of NPP stalwarts . Are they also not guilty of the crimes said to be committed ?

The writer Kojo Tamakloe is an Nkrumaist who firmly believes African unity is the solution to our under development