Opinions of Monday, 19 September 2011

Columnist: Kyei-Mensah-Osei, Kofi

Of Pathetic Liars, Shameless Gossips,

Wicked Back-stabbers and Egocentric Opportunists!



The recent “Wiki leaks” exposé has become a useful distraction from the hardships Ghanaians are grappling with. Until recently, Ghanaians were crying out for basic necessities like liquefied petroleum gas which has become a scare commodity for every one in the country. Then “Wiki leaks” came along and diverted our attention from real bread and butter issues. The NDC has found a sanctuary in the “Wiki leaks” cables but true character wants Ghanaians to disregard everything else in the cables to focus only the comments made by Kwesi ‘Double-Agent’ Pratt on Nana Akuffo Addo; the same Kwesi Pratt who has lost credibility even in the eyes of his own wife! But to me, the only credible piece information worth believing in the “Wiki leaks” report is that; many of our so-called opinion leaders, editors, politicians and social commentators are but pathetic liars, shameless gossips, wicked back-stabbers and egocentric opportunists who serve their own selfish ends and nothing else! These are the charlatans who have been exposed beyond redemption and not Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo. Thanks to “Wiki leaks”, discerning Ghanaians now know who the real patriots are; as against the nation wreckers who run to foreigner embassies to exchange toxic gossips, rumours, hear-says and toxic lies about their own compatriots just for a glass of champagne.



In official parlance, what the likes of Kwesi Double-Agent Pratt who wants everybody to know his anti-American stance and how much he loves Ghana more than anybody else and the rest of them did amounts to espionage. It is captured in “Wiki Leaks” that the NDC’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia and Alban Bagbin, the former Majority leader in Parliament and also the current Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing had both told officials of the American Embassy that President Mills “..has surrounded himself with inexperienced advisors who are providing poor counsel”. In as much as the above assertion confirms what Former President Rawlings has said repeatedly over the past 2 years; the question I would wish to ask is this: If Alban Bagbin and Johnson Asiedu Nketia are men of conscience, why would they not resign their respective positions rather than cowardly running to pass on that damning indictment on Prof Mills’ administration to foreign officials? What were they thinking? What inducements did they enjoy to open their mouths that wide to spew out such stench? Others who are still sitting pretty and enjoying the largesse of their offices after their disparaging remarks about the health of the President and or his administration are Hannah Tettey, Minister of Trade and Industry; Baba Jamal, a Deputy Minister of Information and Fifi Kwettey, a Deputy Minister of Finance. I don’t think any of these shameless gossips and opportunists were just chit-chatting and suddenly had verbal haemorrhage. None of them spoke under duress. They knew what they were doing and for me, some favours were given them in return for the information they passed on to the Americans. I believe the President has heard or personally read the comments of these assassins in the “Wiki leaks” cables about his administration but has refused to act. That is his own cup of tea!



In any case, does the President cloth himself in glory in these “Wiki leaks” cables? Certainly not!! When our President is himself captured in the cables to have expressed his fear about a certain “great Ashanti project” then one is left disappointed. It is so shocking and gut-wrenching to know that the number gentleman in the country also dabbled in this sordid and cowardly act of selling our country short to imperialist in the 21st century. What was the President thinking? What favours was he seeking by selling Ashantis short to the Americans? What is this “great Ashanti project”? Now everyone can see that his hollow “father for all” and “my brothers and sisters” signature tunes are but a mere façade. Such divisive comment needn’t have come from a presidential candidate who was then seeking our mandate to become our president. But should we be surprised when the same Prof Mills campaigned on “Adze wo fie oye” in the Central Region? It is now obvious that he was actually continuing from where he left off with the American officials. As if to say he was not going to be outdone, the flippant Fifi Kwettey is also caught in the web of gossiping to the Americans when he slugged-off Muslims in Ghana that a Muslim can “…never become a president.” An interesting observation about the “Wiki Leaks” is that, it was not the NPP or the other opposition members who were talking about the President’s physical health. It was rather the Baba Jamal’s in his administration who stabbed him in the back as was done by Herbert Mensah and Ato Ahwoi live on radio the other time.



That brings me to Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo, the man who has been placed at centre of these cables by the NDC. Interestingly, it is Nana Addo who stands out from all those mentioned by the “Wiki Leaks” cables. Firstly, he comes out as a patriotic and an upright person as he doesn’t go begging the Americans to be allowed to reek out senseless gossips about his political opponents as done by all the aforementioned. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “A character is like a tree and a reputation is like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real think.” Though his opponents have tried to destroy his character by attributing all sorts of unproven allegations against him, yet all that his assassins could say are chit-chats and petty gossips. People’s allegations against him have not changed the man. Even Kwesi ‘Double-Agent’ Pratt, who was found to be a habitual-grass during National Reconciliation Commission sittings is now beating the retreat track and cowering under his bed that he never made such comments about Nana Addo! Kwesi ‘Double-Agent’ Pratt is so treacherous and unreliable that when he was interviewed by Kwame Sefa Kayi of “PeaceFM”, the former would neither deny nor confirm what he said to the Americans claiming that he has forgotten everything he said after 3 years. The same Kwesi Pratt who knows and remembers everything under the sun suddenly had amnesia!! Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, “A lie cannot live” and boy, wasn’t right! In fact as of Saturday, 10th September, Kwesi Pratt has referred to his own comments about Nana Addo in the “Wiki Leaks” as “stupid and total rubbish.” He could not even stand by his own lies. As Kwesi Pratt has damaged his little reputation, so have the prominent NDC personalities tripping over each other and stampeding their own wives and children to go and gossip to the Americans exposed themselves as cheap motor-mouth politicians whose loyalty to Ghana could easily be compromised with a glass of champagne and hotdogs!



If indeed the likes of Kwesi Pratt, Alban Bagbin have any conscience and believed in their own hallucinatory lies about Nana Addo, why didn’t they bring it out when the latter was an MP? What stopped Kwesi Pratt to march to Parliament when Nana Addo was being vetted for the position of Foreign Minister under Kuffour? Pratt claims to be a long time “friend” of Nana Addo and has known the latter for years but kept quiet about Nana Addo’s “wee” smoking allowing the man to hold all those sensitive positions in the country. Why didn’t Bagbin and Pratt protest when Nana Addo was the Attorney General of Ghana? These 2 gentlemen were certainly not serving the interest of Ghana but rather America. Only in Atta Mills’ Ghana could an individual(s) level an accusation against another and then challenge the accused to prove their innocence if not guilty!! No wonder they keep losing cases at the courts with such twisted logic. Now that Pratt’s cover has been blown as a double agent, I hope he ceases to lecture Ghanaians about ‘patriotism’. As it is he doesn’t even know what “patriotism” is. Pratt’s populist anti-imperialist stance is a mask. As Ralph Waldo Emerson, a 19th century American essayist, lecturer and a poet once said, great men “do not go where the path may lead…” they “…go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”. So as Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo was thinking about how to improve the lives of Ghanaians when he becomes President, lesser men were trooping to the American Embassy; perhaps grinning from ear to ear like clowns on circus with the intention of shredding the hard won reputation of prominent Ghanaians to the Americans. Shameless Nkrumahists peeing on the grave of Dr Nkrumah! As Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo was blazing an uncharted territory to better the lot of the common Ghanaian, the shameless wannabes were eating hotdogs and gulping down champagne with the Americans and burping out their intoxicated nonsense. Ghanaians now have an idea about who a real patriot is as against self-seeking nation wreckers parading the corridors of power. Election 2012 would surely have a story to tell and when it does, I expect the pathetic liars, shameless gossips, wicked back-stabbers and egocentric opportunists to troop to the American Embassy once again for more hotdogs and champagne and then fart out some more monstrous lies.



Kofi Kyei-Mensah-Osei