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Opinions of Thursday, 19 April 2012

Columnist: Boateng, Joseph

The father who over pampers

Those who have had the chance to live with step-mothers or even aunties will attest/ bear with me how they were treated when an offence was committed or a wrong thing was done. Sometimes they were being maltreated whether they did it or not. Step-mothers and aunties who maltreated the children living with them ended up mostly ruining the future of their own children. How pathetic! A clear case is being witnessed in the current administration now; the Head of State doesn’t see anything wrong when his boys (Aides, Ministers and Party members) do something wrong but comes out and condemns when an opposition member offends or tries to retaliate. Those offences that are clear, the President would then appear in his usual saint mood preaching his sermonette about peace. I quite remember when the President was sworn in to take up the mandate of this great nation, he promised that he was going to be the father for all. Now what do we see, the opposition is being treated step- kids allowing his children to maltreat and bully them because their ‘mother’ is not there to defend them. It is an undisputed fact that children who are over pampered most often end up to become irresponsible or worse still drug addicts/ pushers and even social misfit.

Ever since this biometric registration began, there have been a series of violence- the ruling party bullying the opposition leaders like Ursula Owusu, the Parliamentary candidate for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ablekuma South Constituency; Abu Jinapor, all in the Odododiodio by one of the aides to the President in the full glare of the Police and other security agencies. Exactly a day after this incident, the President H.E John Evans Fiifi Atta-Mills, the Ghanaian Saint in his one day working visit to the Volta region preaching about peace. To hell with your peace sermonette! How can you preach morals and watch your boys unconcerned to practice vice? Let’s not forget that no condition is permanent and whatever goes up must surely come down. To the Presidential aides, never forget that the immunity clause in the constitution for the President does not cover his aides. Whatever act you do today, you will definitely account for after your term of office. It is never too late to make amends; please be respectful and nice to your fellow politician and us the ordinary people on the streets because we make and unmake you. A fly that does not listen to advise, follows the corpse to the grave.

Somewhere early last year, we witnessed the kind of wind that blew in the Arab world where we had some heads of state who had ruled for almost half a century and several decades, having their reign being brought to tragic ends. Some powerful leaders like the late Muamar Al- Gadhafi was chased like a rat from a drain/ bridge. Never think once you are in government, you suddenly become untouchable.

We are all praying to the Lord almighty God that the peace we have been enjoying all this while will be sustained, even though there seem to be a dark cloud and the signs are boldly written on the wall. All hands must be on deck to save our dear nation. God bless Ghana