Power corrupts and absolute power, they say, corrupts absolutely.

Apart from Chinua Achebe, the Nigerian poet of ‘Things Fall Apart’ fame, and few African poets and writers who have distinguished themselves in their fields caution us all the time to be on our toes wherever we may be. Poetries from Shakespeare and his European counterparts should have served some of our African leaders lessons to read as their Bible/Quran but, on the contrary, do not give a dime about that because, to them, the very people they governed would never ever get to such positions bearing in mind the very sophisticated weaponry they wielded and rather looked upon those they governed as ‘rats and cockroaches’, just to quote al-Gadhafi. His sad and humiliating death could have been avoided but for greed and avarice, gambled with it because he had proclaimed to the world that he would fight till the last drop of his blood. He snubbed world leaders to go hang if they wished. The whole world now knows how naughty he was especially all the time he had to flee and save his life but relied on his might and eventually was mauled from the ‘rat hole’ to be killed like a ‘cockroach’.

POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE

One wonders whether Prof. John Mills was a prophet when he prophesied a year ago that the year 2011 would be a ‘Year of Action’ that never was. Whether it was by a stroke of accident or sheer coincidence, the so-called prophecy to give hope and higher heights to Ghanaians, i.e. ‘Better Ghana Agenda’ and put money in our pockets, put food on our tables (three square meals) and improve our lots and living conditions that never materialized, serve us all as living testimonies. Unfortunately, while this political platform talk backfired and level minded and discerning minds could decipher the grain from the chaff, the political terrain in the Arab world including North Africa turned into turmoil. Events from Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Libya have proven this fact – forcing some of the leaders into exile and others losing their lives. Latest events in Ghana also have suggested a diversionary tactic from the cheap and loose political talk exhibited by hypocritical Prof. John Mills when he blatantly said the year 2011 would certainly not come to pass without the Kotukoraba Market and the Robert Mensah Stadium in Cape Coast, the Universities at Ho and Sunyani being built; the killers of the Dagbon Overlord, Ya Na Abdulai Andani would be fished out, prosecuted and gaoled to appease the pro-NDC Andani supporters up north hence the massive votes to clinch victory. Additionally, the doctors strike action that took a toll of lives should have served notice and forced them out of govern -ment if Ghana were any advanced economy. The imminent work-to-rule action by the doctors in the pipeline, the ‘2012 bye bye’ or the ‘so me ha, na so me ha’ budget that need to be discussed thoroughly by parliament; the ‘one-bucket-of-paint’ per senior high school student that has become an albatross on the Mills-Mahama government but which Anyidohu has feverishly tried to brush under the carpet with diversionary tactics have been found out. Why did he hurl salvoes, cannons and innuendoes on fully baked politicians of the opposite side from far away Canada? Was it useful at all? Is arrogant radio-maniac Betty Mould-Iddrisu – the minister in charge of the Education ministry behind this new drama of the compulsory purchase of oil paint by parents/ guardians? But what do we see in this country? The likes of Koku Anyidoho and Kojo Twum Boafo of the Ghana Free Zones Board, who is an apology to our intelligence, should spare us the shit and shut up – we don’t need any turbulence. The NYEP and the National Service personnel have worked for over a year or more without pay/allowan -ces. The people’s power have survived and erupted like volcanoes worldwide and if Koku does not know, his bluff will come to naught if he persists. He will surely run away and leave his sandals behind like the Effiduase-Asokore DCE whose half pair of shoes had to be sent to him later in Kumasi when he fled from the angry mob and people’s power. Koku Anyidohu, the amorphous, should be told that his Ivorian counterpart’s bluff and arrogance led to the civil war. This was when he gleefully and openly tore the official authenticated electoral results that were about to be announced by the electoral commissioner. We know about the loss of thousands of lives and properties and the bizarre circumstances some of the people were forced to become refugees in neighbouring countries even though when he knew his boss’s party had lost the elections. Rather coincidentally, the stature of this Ivorian had the semblance of Anyidohu’s.


UNFULFILLED PROMISES AND VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE


About three years ago, Ghanaians were stunned with various promises by the NDC led by Candidate Mills all over the Central Region, his running mate then John Mahama doing the political dance in Ashanti, Eastern and Brong Ahafo regions, whilst Prez. Rawlings was way up north cajoling the supporters there with the unraveling the killers of that heinous and murderous crime of the death of the Ya Na. To refresh the memories of Ghanaians, the following are but some of the salient points why the masses of Ghanaians would definitely vote the NDC out of power come December 7, 2012 – the migration of all workers - doctors, nurses, para-medics, teachers, pharmacists, police, and what have you that has become stillborn, the reduction of fuel drastically to Gh?2.00/gallon that had been debunked by the ineffective ministers of state, the improvement of NHIS, the re-invigoration of the NYEP etc. are but a few reasons the NDC would be thrown out by the thumb. The constant thievery of the national coffers and monies that could help uplift the image and lifestyles of people by Joe Gidisu’s latest BMW 7-series flashy car; the NDC profligate and flamboyant congress in Sunyani where it was alleged some Gh?90m was spent on that event alone, the alleged Carl Wilson-Segbefia car-stealing syndicate and the empire days at the Tema port with the Castle support; the alleged re-sale of confiscated vehicle to party cronies for Gh?0.50; the daylight extravagance and opulence by the NDC apparatchiks, the alleged theft of some 4.5 million barrels of oil that works out to be a whopping $450,000, 000.00 at $100/barrel. How do you do Mr. Ato Ahwoi and are you up to your responsibility? Did I hear Larry Gbevlo Lartey lambasting the Larry King’s replica at the Castle on air recently about the ill-gotten wealth? The writer wants to know whether the vice president is also in town or not; and if he is, what did he say about the flow meter that was purported to have been damaged by pro-government element? Does he have a hand in it hence the official silence and the initial ranting and the infamous use of ‘ballooning’ on his opponents? Or could it be said that he was the one who supplied the improvised flow meter dip-stick that was used by Tullow or some two months? If it is true, then it is rubbish.
NATURAL AND HUMAN RESOURCES
The NDC government has been blessed with so much resources including oil, the black gold, but does not have the wherewithal to put to good use except the loot by some of them. In terms of human resources, only few countries in Africa could match us but the elite and the politicians have dissipated our wealth and stashed them in foreign vaults. Incidentally, they stand out to be the worst ever in the country’s political history because, in a matter of three years, it has borrowed some $11bn with its attendant collaterals, (generations yet unborn) as side attractions to further worsen the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian in the street yet, no visible or physical structures could be evidence as being the cause of the loans. Is Madam Naadu there and kicking? How did you arrive at the offering of the $25,000 gold wrist watch to Lady MichelIe Obama of the U.S.A. when she visited Ghana with the husband on Friday, July 11, 2010, only to be taken to the American museum for keeps? Did your decision have the consensus of the Council of State or through a referendum by all Ghanaians? Does Madam Naadu remember the late Col. Roger Felli’s blame for being shot by firing squad on June 26, 1979 jointly with SMC II Generals Robert Kotei, Yaw Boakye, Joy Amedume and Amankwa Afrifa with Kutu Acheampong and Utuka? Sadly enough, Generals Acheampong and Utuka had been shot earlier on Saturday, June 9, 1979 by the same disorganized and barbaric AFRC when he supposedly raised Gh?5.00 or one blue currency note (i.e. ?50,000.00) from his bankers to meet pressing demands. Later events or reports affirmed that in order to justify tribal balance, Col. Roger Felli was added to make up the list and to accuse him and be sentenced by their kangaroo court to be gruesomely shot by firing squad by the trigger-happy AFRC for using his ‘uniform’ to secure that loan. Silly indeed, how many officers did not raise loans from their bankers after these dastard killings? Hmmm. Madam, asem beba dabi o, because this is Ghana! As for Baba Jamal, may be, he does not know that the mouth that eats salt and pepper has more poison than the bullet; he and his cronies should continue till the day, when he realizes that the quotation from the book of James makes Anyidohu’s vituperations more powerful than the sword. Reading from the Good News Bible, verses 8 & 9 it says “But no one has ever been able to tame the tongue. It is evil and uncontroll -able, full of deadly poison. We use it to give thanks to our Lord and Father and also to curse our fellow-man, who is created in the likeness of God”.
THE RULE OF LAW THROWN TO THE DOGS
People who do not know should revisit the Peruvian archives to learn about the time frame the rule of law took before it caught up with Gen. Pinochet after he had long forgotten the mess he had caused to humanity. The innocent lives lost under the Mills-Mahama – the Maikankans at the 37 Military area BNI, the sad end of a pregnant woman who died mysteriously in prison custody under Yaw Donkoh’s BNI, the heinous murder of three political opponents in broad daylight at Agbobloshie in Accra under the nose of DCOP Rose Atenga Bio as regional police capo; the stiff silence of government re: the deputy BA Regional Minister in whose Accra Sakumono residence a criminal who shot and killed an opponent was found under his bed still hangs in the limbo; the continued incarceration of four opponents in police prison custody in Tamale, the mad mayhem at Obuasi by the military/police to chase galamsey operators as if we were under dictatorship; the by-election for just six polling stations and the subsequent unprovoked declaration of ‘operation jihad’ by Baba Jamal at Akwatia, the Cherepone by-election that witnessed some casualties but whose lives were saved, thanks to God for sending Prof. Frimpong-Boateng there to save the situation. The other by-election at Atiwa however is no exception. Bravo, Anita de Souza, the day of reckoning is nigh. The NDC has been known to be embroiled in violence and that has been their cup of tea everyday so, if Koku Anyidohu endorses that he would definitely show some people where indeed power lies, nobody should mistaken it and treat it lightly. If Ghana under Nkrumah has come and gone, so also will Mills-Mahama Ghana come and go. In this case, I would like to counsel Koku Anyidohu and the likes of Kobby Acheampong and Baba Jamal to spare us some brief spell to think sensibly about our square meals, school fees, astronomical utility bills etc. It is only under the NDC that a pregnant woman could die under miraculous and mysterious circumstances – that is Yaw Donkoh’s BNI indeed! It is under this same government that Dr. Opuni’s FDB could have the guts to chase and push some indigenous businessmen/women like Kinapharma, Madam Semanhyia of Kasoa and others out from genuine businesses and further increase the woes of the unemployed popula –tion; rather ironically, it looks surprising that Ghana has an association of unemployed university graduates.
MISPLACED PRIORITIES
It is only in the Mills-Mahama government that huge quantities of wax prints are seized and burnt forgetting the poor persons in the north and the vulnerable at our various SOS homes that the seized wax prints could have been given to them to keep them warm. What an insensitive and I-care-for-you-government that we have. And they call themselves professors of law. It is only the NDC government with Mohammed Mumuni as Foreign Affairs Minister that the grave digging for the mass burial of innocent Ghanaians who lost their lives in The Gambia cost the bereaved families some Gh?50m or more. People don’t fear God and have looted monies belonging to the dead. If Gadhafi was able to run but could not hide, whatever wealth the NDC create and turn round to become parliamentarians overnight and indemnify them -selves from prosecution, would definitely backfire since their members would teach them sense and vote them out. The discriminate dismissals of opponents, the spate of erratic demolition of properties by power drunk and crazy metropolitan chief executives countrywide, and the Team ‘B’ players like the Fiifi Kweteys, Okudzeto Ablakwas, the Hanna Bissiws and the Kobby Acheampongs are the latest revelations to join the bandwagon to absolve themselves from blame when they win parliamentary elections to go to parliament. How on earth should the official residence of Nii Ashietey be turned to be the Bank of Ghana annex where NYEP appointees queue to receive their emoluments? Haaba! Mills-Mahama government, is this the sensible thing to do at all? Additionally, Ghanaians woke up one day to be told that the Mills-Mahama government had managed to absorb as many as 1.6 million unemployed Ghanaians into gainful jobs that wasn’t true but a fluke. This is chicanery! When the substantive minister for youth and employment was pushed to the wall, he denied this assertion. It is power that has blindly corrupted Koku Anyidohu to issue flimsy threat on political opponents. After all, Gadhafi has left his Libya behind. Nkrumah has left his Ghana behind. Patrice Lumumba, Moise Tshombe, Mobutu Sese Seko and Laureant Kabila have left their diamond and copper rich Congo Kinshasa behind. Iddi Dada Amin has left his Uganda behind and enjoying the full comfort of his luxurious flat in Saudi Arabia. All of us will leave Ghana behind including the cat killers and those who doubt whether their faces resemble cat hunters, so the loud-mouthed NDC serial callers should give us the break. Since revolutions the world over have eaten up their children, no matter what, whether democratic or dictatorial, so far as Saddam Hussein, Col. Gadhafi, Gen. Robert Guei, Mobutu Sese Seko and Laureant Kabila who took up arms have been eaten up by their respective regimes, so also would democratic regimes like NDC which have disguised them -selves to put on ‘dictatorial cloaks’ to persecute opponents fall by the push of people’s power. If this assertion is true, then, the Baba Jamals, the Okudzeto Ablakwas, the Omane Boamahs, the Kobby Acheampongs, the Twum Boafos, the Tony Aidoos and especially the Anyidohus of all people have no power on this planet earth to dare Nana Akufo Addo, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey and Mac Manu to behave and make no false move otherwise, before one could say Jack, where are you, all of them would have been annihilated and gone to their ancestry because they have many ways of killing the cat. Mr. Laureant Gbagbo should by now have heard of the political whirlwind that swept across North Africa. He should thank his stars for acquiescing to world opinion after his capture but whatever happens, he will face the international court’s music at The Hague. Koku the bull and bully, please, spare your political opponents the hollow threats, vituperations, evil mindset and try to google onto Alistair Campbell, the celebrated English spokesperson on political affairs. This maestro’s expertise helped Premier Tony Blair’s governance become a showpiece in Europe. Try to learn about his wits or emulate Andrew Awuni ‘the sensible ant’ “Prov. 6:6” back home thou sluggard and be wise if not civil in your utterances for your end is in sight. Thank you.


kofiappiahgh@hotmail.com