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Opinions of Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Columnist: Yawose, John

The two brave guys

They are venturing where other mortals failed to venture!!!

1. Dr. Tony Aidoo At the time President Mahama and his NDC top dogs and top monkees are dancing around their pledge of hollow commitment to fight corruption to bamboozle and confuse the tax payer, a member of their party has seen through the gargantuan ongoing ‘deceit of the people’- telling them straight in the face to shut up and walk the useless and deceitful talks. He is the Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the Presidency, Dr Tony Aidoo, who has bemoaned government’s delay in retrieving the judgment debt paid to Waterville Holdings BVI Limited and Isofoton SA as the Supreme Court ordered.

Dr Tony Aidoo is of the view that delay in recovering the monies may give their opponents the leeway to slam them since it will reinforce the “create, loot and share” claim underscored by the Supreme Court Judge on the case. Read more;

“…we talking about I think 25 million dollars and 25 million dollars can go very, very far in dealing with numerous social problems. District Assembly Common Fund, GETFUND etc; they are not been disbursed, some are in arrears. That sum of money can go to bridge the gap…There cannot be rational reason why that amount of money has not been retrieved…Why is the government not acting?...The impression that this creates is that perhaps there must be within the government a process or a conspiracy to create judgment debt, loot and share among themselves; because there can be no rational reason why the money has not been retrieved,” he said.

2. Asonaba Dapaah Glorious tributes are being paid by Ghana’s illustrious personalities and world leaders in memory of Prof. Kofi Awoonor who died in the Nairobi dastardly attack. The tributes raise the positive image of Awoonor all along. It is as if the man was an angel when he was alive. Out came the tribute of Asonaba Dapaa who bravely exposed the dangerous tribal jingoism in the late Awoonor. Of course he was making reference to Prof’s book which highlighted that Ashantis should be prevented from coming to Ghana’s Central power (Presidency) and high command positions in the military, police, civil and public service to reduce their perceived influence. This dirty stain of him should never be swept away in any tribute since he NEVER apologised for his dangerous ethnocentric proposition despite several appeals since the 1970’s.

I was thrilled to read the news item yesterday thus---‘’ Asonaba Dapaah a former member of the Council of State speaking on Adom 106.3 FM stated unambiguously that much as he admired the contribution of Kofi Awoonor to Ghana's development it would be hypocritical on the part of Ghanaians to ignore the fact that he was Tribalistic to the core.

He used words like .Oye nnipa mu nyi yi mu! And he stated this based on his own experience working with Kofi Awoonor. He faulted Kofi Awoonor to some extent the animosity or mistrust which continues to exist between Asantes and Ewes, and wish the man had used his intellectual prowess or acumen to unite people rather than divide them.--’’

All of a sudden Dr. Tony Aidoo and Mr. Asonaba Dapaa are in my records as brave guys and I doff my hat to them. We need such bold, plain talking and courageous men. Of course I like them because their assertions are factual.

Dr. Kumbuor’s submission the other day that--‘The government is paying people to talk rather than paying people to think’- was also classic. But will disobedient and wasteful John Mahama listen? Hei, goddam, Ghana has great contemporary people after all.