I came across this parable and realized how the two main characters share similar traits with the Ghanaian voter and the NDC cronies. Please read and enjoy yourself.

When Chief Obinwa read the note and absorbed its terse content, he nearly collapsed. For minutes, he stared at it in utter disbelief. But much as he wished otherwise, the message was clear, the robbers had indicated that they would visit him very soon and that no force in the world would stop them from carting away all he had. The note ended by warning him in his own interest not to be funny by informing the police or other law enforcement agents.

As a wealthy business man, Chief Obinwa had seen enough of life to know that the gang meant business. He could recall at least half a dozen men who had got such sinister notes in the past, and who had been robbed as planned. One of them had contacted the police which then guarded his house for weeks. But the robbers struck all the same-they attacked him in his expensive car- on his way to another town, thrashed him thoroughly, and relieved him of the car.

So contacting the police was out of it, he decided. But what could he do? He confided in his closest friend, who had been his business associate for thirty years. The latter advised him to vacate his house for as long as it was necessary and seek refuge in a hotel. After giving this much thought, Chief Obinwa checked into Exclusive Hotel. But he stayed only for a night. He reasoned that leaving hi retinue wives, children and relatives behind was not the best solution. So emptying the water in an over-head tank, Chief Obinwa turned the tank into his refuge every night. His powerful double-barreled rifle in hand he hid in the tank in the night waiting.

Then one night the robbers came in a lorry. They were about a dozen. As they were forcing their way in, Obinwa aimed at their leader and brought him down with a loud report. Another shot, and a second man fell. Surprised, the others fled, with Chief Obinwa’s shots seeing them off. By daybreak, the news spread fast, the body of Chief Obinwa’s friend and business associate was found in a poll of blood at the entrance to the Chief’s house. He was the leader of the gang.

This parable needs no further explanation. Chief Obinwa is the harassed, oppressed and hardworking Ghanaian while chief Obinwa’s friend and closest business associate comprises the greedy NDC bastards, buccaneers, bootlickers, plunderers, thieves, and murderers.

The way Chief Obinwa got rid of his greedy business associate is the exact way the nation as a whole will get rid of the NDC greedy bastards, thieves, looters and plunderers, come 2012. But it will not be killing in the real sense of the word. We are going to use the power of our thumbs to ensure that this dear nation of ours is saved from these bandits of nation wreckers. And I say, no force in the world would stop us from doing just that. Evil, Cruel and sadistic Regime. This is the worst regime that has ever held power in our political history. It is worst than what the colonial powers did when they rained bullets on Sergeant Adjetey and other unarmed ex-servicemen whose only crime was to present a petition to the colonial government. This government is having a field day romancing with the evil forces or darkness to bring the country further down to its knees. This clueless and sadistic regime is spreading the agenda of lies, deceit and falsehood. Under President Mills, this country has become sick because it is under the bondage of a cabal of charlatans, sadistic, intolerant, devilish, and clueless political buccaneers masquerading as apostles of good tidings who have greedily assaulted the coffers of the country and are daring us to challenge them if we have guts.

But I am telling them in plain language that they will fail in this arrogant and negative agenda. We no go sit down make these vampire suckers drain our blood everyday!

Bizarre, absurd, unthinkable and unacceptable increases in toll fares: This act of the Mills administration is the unkind cut of all. Toll fares have got to be increased, and the government has the legitimate right to do so. But why increase them by as much as 500% and in some cases 800%? Whoever came up with such an idea must not be given an award for common sense.

What happened to this pledge “Atta Mills shall, within the first 100 days in office send a bill to parliament to drastically reduce taxes”? Is this the, "I care" agenda Mills promised Ghanaians? As a Tax expert, is the President not aware that such astronomical increases is detrimental to the economic well-being of the citizens? In fact, this, in all ramifications is worse than the earthquake which occurred in Haiti. The Mills administration is killing us softly and they are telling us not to complain.

Can Mills beat his chest and say, “Yes, I have done it, and will do it again given another opportunity?” Is his presidency to be remembered for being insensitive to the sufferings of the people? What do they need these high taxes for? To ensure that Ministers enjoy a comfortable standard of living by sending them on shopping expeditions to places like Manhattan so that they could come on radio and television to insult our intelligence with the argument that some famous shops in the U.S have folded up and so we should bear our crosses with the stoic philosophy?

Their ministers are devoid of human feelings and qualities: Are NDC ministers and appointees who are everyday defending the repressive policies of Mills administration human beings? I doubt it for if they are, they will not be defending the indefensible. Maybe they have been transmuted from other species to come to this earth. Because they don’t buy anything and don’t pay toll rates, they defend every astronomical increase with glee. Electricity and water bills have gone up, yet we don’t have constant electricity supplies and the pipes have dried up for weeks and months in some areas. We pay for street light but how many streets have this facility? And the blood sucking board members and administrators are telling us to make further sacrifices by asking us to pay more for the consumption of such utilities Mills promised ministers and appointees will be made to pay for the consumption of utilities. Let the President tell us whether he has started the deductions from the salaries of his appointees. An Open Challenge to the President and his Ministers: I am using this medium to throw an open challenge to all substantive Ministers and appointees in the Mills administration to go to their respective towns and villages to defend these absurd and unintelligible policies and see the reaction of the people. I challenge the appointees to accept this challenge and see what happens. Some of them might be chased out of their hometowns and villages if they don’t go there with their security men. Others, according to Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa's submission sometime ago, might be lynched by the people. Let them go to their communities without their security details and see the reaction of the people. After all a hungry person is an angry person.

I challenge the President to call a meeting of his family members and see if they will support him in these unnecessary and unreasonable astronomical increases in taxation. It is a lie that toll rates have not been increased since the nineties. The NPP regime increased it in 2002. Politicians of their pedigree must have their facts correct before they come to talk to the people.

Bay hounds and dogs in the NDC. Some uncivilized, and uncultured attack dogs within the ruling party are of the opinion that shouting on top of their voices and insulting people who share a different opinion from their own is what will win them the argument. I have therefore come to the opinion that if I don't encounter such people in my daily affairs, I might not have missed anything of value. Calling me imprint able names does not detract anything from the soundness of my argument or write-up. I stated in one of my write-ups that I encountered the National Chairman of the NDC, Dr Kwabena Adjei driving against the flow of traffic with the connivance of both the police and the military. What any sane person ought to do under the circumstances was to have found out whether it was really Kwabena Adjei I saw. I gave the day, time and place. But they just jumped at me and called me names like stupid idiot or goat. Now please answer this question, between those who did not understand the substance of my argument, but started hurling insults at me and my humble self, who then is the "stupid goat/idiot"?

Again I stated that credible information available to me reveals that the facility being used as a Training School by the NIB originally belonged to Mr. Ato Ahwoi, one of the power brokers in the NDC. Now this facility is one of the strategic national assets being auctioned by the Board to the "lowest bidder". I then posed this question: Is this not the surest way of giving back the facility to the original owner? What I expected any sane and reasonable member of the NDC to say is that my facts are wrong and so the conclusion is equally wrong. Let the Board or Ato Ahwoi come out to deny that those facilities do not belong to him. It is only after this has been done that people can come out to crucify me for crying wolf when there was none.

Let us look before we leap: If members of the Mills administration could go to the extent of sponsoring some serial callers to insult ex-President Rawlings, their Founder and the one who ensured that the Mills candidature became a non-negotiable issue and the one whose personal charisma won the elections for Mills, then we, the members of other political persuasions are in for a very big trouble and cannot therefore afford to sleep with even one eye closed. It shows how treacherous and dangerous they are. Is our ship of state in the hands of a capable person? This is the question that has been agitating the minds of genuine and patriotic Ghanaians. Can this person steer the ship amidst turbulent waters to its destination. How do we trust them to judiciously use the largesse that will accrue to the state through these astronomical and unrealistic increases in everything taxable? How guarantee do they give us that they will not spend the money like they did when they used the 'opepepeepee' (1.2billion cedis) to renovate one bungalow so that their appointees could live in opulence in the white sector of Johannesburg while the rest of us live in Soweto? What is the guarantee that the monies will not be dished out to party cronies like was given to Ama Benyiwa Doe, Abu Jinapor and others to put up mansions. What is the guarantee that the money would not be used to set up unnecessary witch-hunting committees like was done in the Vodafom deal which eventually turned out to be a wild goose chase?

Conclusion: If because of the so-called developments which are hardly noticeable, we have to part with almost everything we have including our dignity just to ensure that the oppressors of the masses enjoy a better and high standard of living, then we prefer to remain in our ignorance. If out of our meager resources which can hardly keep body and soul together, we are compelled to cough out more than two third to enable members of an uncaring government to travel across the length and breadth of the country to criminalize members of the previous administration, then we had better remain in our primitive state. Then, members of the ruling government will not compete with one another to see who could put up a more resplendid and magnificent structures.

Obama came and introduce measures to shore up the economy including giving out monies taking over the payment of debts to most companies so that they could remain in business. Kufuour came and travelled to many countries and through that a lot of the country’s debts were written off by the donor countries. Kufuour took is to HIPC and a lot of development came to the country. He did not impose taxes on the already overburdened Ghanaians to further impoverish us. Which of these two regimes is people-friendly? Once more, I pause for an immediate response.

Daniel Danquah Damptey

E-mail : danieldanquah_damptey@yahoo.com