Opinions of Thursday, 3 January 2013

Columnist: Tamakloe, Kojo

Professors' Children should not mix with those of Kenkey sellers

“ The Children of professors should not mix with those of Kenkey sellers”
Prof Busia Kojo Tamakloe

Nana and the NPP do not represent Ghanaians

Democracy is said to be
1
a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majority
b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

: the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges

So democratic government is a government by the people. “ The absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions”.
In 2008 Senator Mcain was asked the number of houses he had . He did not know the answer. Later some one came up to say he owned 13 houses. In 2012 we again saw candidate Romney earning $60000 per day from dividends . The average annual earnings in the USA is about $37000 . These are people who will wake up at 4.00 am so they can ride the bus by 5.30 am so they can get to work on time . Can we say these gentlemen represent the people?
In the same 2012 we have a Nana Akuffo Addo being the Presidential candidate of the NPP. In 2008 to experience how the “ people’ , feel he joined “ trotro’ . Why would he ? He led a sheltered life. He used to get to school, Kinbu Boys elementary school in his fathers car . For SHS he was sent to England, as even Achimota, Mfantsipim, Adisadel, Mawuli were not good enough for him , and then moved on to Oxford , which he sought to deny or expunged from his records . But he failed . We still do not know why he failed. Was it drugs, academic non performance, criminality, sexual offence that forced him to withdraw from such a prestigious institution ? At independence with Ghana’s population at about 6m , the “ wealthy’ were about 0.5% . That is about 30000. His father was one of them . Let us look at another person like Tsatsu Tsikata , who had to walk to school , worked hard collecting water from most likely the common well, going fishing with the common folk , eating and drinking with them , before going to Legon and coming out with a first class and then repeating this at Oxford . Which of these two more represents the people?

Nana Addo wants to be president because his father had been a president and had been part of the big six. It is an obsession. He cannot see like Mitt Romney he represent a minority . His party formed by and for hereditary rulers and the elite and tribal supremacists thus cannot speak for the people. He cannot speak for the workers. This is even seen from how his followers talk with disdain about the hard working people who they disparage ,artisans, farm laborers , painters, carpenters, fishermen. The voters have taken note and vote accordingly for the parties they believe represent their interest . First it was the CPP and now the NDC . The CPP was a workers party . The supporters were labeled “ verandah boys” . It was in this context Prof Busia made his statement . Thus we have the “ elite” disdainfully being spiteful of the will of the people. Why will they not?. Can it be forgotten how Nana Addo committed vehicular homicide but did not face the courts because of his aristocratic father? What happened to Virginia Hesse or the two children he fathered with the Nigerian lady? What happened to his daughter when she was driving under the influence of alcohol? They are above the law.

So now NPP will boycott the inauguration .Does it surprise anyone ? They have been working towards it all along . The NPP forgets the significance of Christmas. Christ was born in a manger with shepherds. The laboring class that the NPP despises. We cannot all be from the aristocracy , so let s hold our heads high and be proud of our various ancestry and professions. Together we will rebuild Ghana. Let us work with the “ man of the people”, President John Mahama
Forward ever backward never

The writer Kojo Tamakloe is an Nkrumaist who believes it is only a united Africa that will solve Africa’s under development