Open Letter to a would be tribal Warlord

Dear Sir,

I write to you to express my chagrin at the recent pronouncements you were reported to have made at the recent meeting of the Asanteman tribal council. You were reported to have made several threats and insinuations designed to whip Asantes into a frenzy, to create the impression that somehow; someone somewhere was falsely linking your name with the cocaine saga that was recently being investigated by the Georgina Woode Committee. Let us assume that you have nothing to do with the criminal activities of these gangsters even if you may know them casually.

Some of the people who have been arrested for these crimes are close confidantes of yours. At least one of them has confirmed that he has regular audience with you. It has been alleged by Kofi Boakye that you in essence interfered with his attempts to arrest one of the suspects. Your name was mentioned at least more than once by ACP Kofi Boakye whom if I may remind you is now under indictment for alleged complicity in the cocaine case.

Instead of coming out to set the minds of many worried Ghanaians at ease with a categorical denial of any involvement in these crimes, you chose to use the occasion and the opportunity availed you, to go on a shocking diatribe of vitriol and bombast that did nothing to address the issue at hand. You rather sought to create a false notion that the Asante tribe is under siege, and your references to the allusion that it had been said that an Asante will never be president of Ghana was clearly an attempt to divert attention from the real issue at hand, which borders on your involvement or otherwise in the ongoing cocaine saga.

Your attempts at creating a smokescreen to obfuscate the issues by creating an us against them scenario is just designed to whip up sentiment of ordinary Asantes unnecessarily. Trust me when I tell you that on reading your effusions, one almost forgets that your title is “Otumfuo” the adviser. You sound more like an 18th century Genghis Khan of sorts, rallying his tribe for an impending war against a neighboring tribe. This is not the first time you have done this, I would like to recall your infamous ”Don’t push us to the wall” speech in which you more or less threatened the wrath of Asanteman on other ethnicities. Do you honestly believe that you can continue occupying Manhyia if your words ignite civil strife? Or are you going to ignite the firestorm and escape to Canada?

The one thing you seem to forget is that Asantes are Ghanaian too and are subject to the laws of this country.

Nana, the good people of this country whose government guaranteed the World Bank loans that your educational trust operates are not at all ethnocentric, and that is why you are the only paramount chief who has been awarded such a privilege.

Of the scores of paramount chiefs in this country, you have been given such privileges because most people believe in your wise counsel as the title bestowed upon you on enstoolment suggests.

We as Ghanaians therefore have every responsibility to make sure that you live above reproach. Infact by dint of the fact that Ewes, Gas, Akuapems, Fantis, Dagatis, Dagombas pay taxes so that you can collect loans on their behalf, you should also understand that public scrutiny of your conduct is inevitable. Nana, I think at this juncture, it is enough to say enough. Your recent utterances should never be repeated, and if given another opportunity, you must set the records straight.

As the president rightly said, “no one is above the law” and that includes you Otumfuo, even you!

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