He has since apologized and so it is time to move on to other more pressing issues. But even more important is the fact that Nana Akomea, the Communications Director of Ghana’s main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has roundly condemned Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah’s rather shockingly intemperate use of language in the public political arena. It goes without saying that what the former NPP-Member of Parliament and former Mayor of Kumasi, Ghana’s foremost royal capital and commercial hub, said about Mr. Jon Benjamin was inexcusably scandalous (See “Jumah Apologizes for Calling British High Commissioner ‘a fool’” Peacefmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 6/1/16).

It was tantamount to gratuitous abuse even though, as it turns out, the British High Commissioner to Ghana was quite a bit inaccurate when he promptly and vehemently tweeted that there had been absolutely no incident, whatsoever, involving Mr. Allotey Jacobs, the equally temperamentally intemperate and obnoxiously loquacious Central Regional Chairman of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) at Heathrow Airport recently. There had, in fact, been a notable incident involving British security officials and the widely remarked unprepossessing Mr. Jacobs, a notorious foulmouthed NDC apparatchik incessantly on the lookout to creating problems for the key operatives of Ghana’s main opposition New Patriotic Party, at Heathrow Airport.

According to reliable sources, including one inside the National Democratic Congress, Mr. Jacobs had, indeed, been pulled off British Airways’ Flight 078 on or about May 30, before any passengers had been permitted to disembark, and been peppered with questions for an unspecified amount of time. The NDC stalwart was also reported to have flown into the ancient British capital with the intention of catching a connecting flight to the United States, which he successfully did that same day. It is quite likely that as Britain’s Chief Diplomatic Resident in Ghana, Mr. Benjamin had enquired about the widely circulating rumor regarding the alleged arrest of Mr. Jacobs on criminal charges and been promptly informed by his associates back home that nothing on the order alleged by the rumor had occurred at Heathrow.

As usual, rather than honestly open up about the matter, the Truth Economists among the vanguard ranks of the National Democratic Congress had unwisely decided to circle the proverbial wagons and play Cosa nostra with such an incident of inescapable national relevance. It was relevant because Mr. Jacobs had been widely rumored to have been nabbed and interrogated for possibly indulging in money laundering activities, a globally classified act of criminality, and especially coming on the heels of the Nayele Ametefe Heathrow heroin or cocaine bust, I forget which.

Mr. Benjamin, ever the vocal albeit healthily self-effacing gentleman, is reported to have tweeted that he bears no grudge against the man who so cavalierly and caustically impugned his professional competence and moral integrity. In his characteristically lighthearted manner, Britain’s Resident Chief Diplomat was reported to have joked that he had at least learned the Akan word for “a fool,” to wit, “kwasia.” I am not quite certain that “kwasia” is a really edifying word or vocabulary to learn from the language of a culturally refined and intellectually and morally generously endowed people like the Akan. “Meda W’ase” or “Onyame Nhyira Wo,” maybe.

Nevertheless, as a rude-awakening signal vis-à-vis how to constructively deal with a high-strung main political opposition in a watershed election year, maybe it was all well and good for Mr. Benjamin to have come into knowledge of the Akan verbal equivalent of “a bloody fool!” I personally admire the man and would like to see him continue to play his no-nonsense role of promptly and boldly speaking to morally unbecoming national issues in dire need of the sort of frontal redressing in the progressive and constructive manner in which he has endeared himself to millions of Ghanaians, both at home and abroad, including yours truly.
If Mr. Jumah really believes that “life is too short to engage in rancorous rows and disagreements,” and also that “it is better to court the friendship of Jon Benjamin, rather than win an argument at the risk of his enmity,” then, by all means, Mr. Jumah may do himself and the rest of us proudly to arrange a making-up visit over breakfast or lunch with the man one of these days. I am quite certain that Mr. Benjamin would welcome such a gentlemanly gesture. After all, hasn’t the man demonstrated ample goodwill and friendship with Ghanaians within the couple of years that he has so creditably represented Her Royal Majesty and unreservedly demonstrated himself to be, literally, one of us?

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