Ochere-Darko Must Render Proper Apologies For “Stupid” Insults! Part I

Ochere-Darko Must Render Proper Apologies For “Stupid” Insults! Part I

Feature Article,
By Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Watch Video: Gabby walks off Newsfile after 'stupid' insult Politics.flv



A point of clarification. I take Ochere-Darko's insults to be sufficiently self-serving as to be anything but stupid. I have no intention of insulting him and have refrained from that effectively. Thus “'Stupid' Insults” here do not necessarily mean the insults were stupid. That is not what I meant in the title. The “stupid” is there only as a representative of Ochere-Darko's original insult. Personally, I think that, far from being stupid, the insults helped Ochere-Darko to wriggle himself out of a difficult situation, without needing to concede to the dreadful fact that Danquah was indeed an imperialist agent. For him, it seemed important that any proper debate be sabotaged. Bothering to comport himself in a civilized manner could have been too dangerous. The truth could have come out so easily! So, for me, he is probably congratulating himself and thinks he has been clever for misbehaving in this way.

What is therefore necessary now is, for those of us who think otherwise, to make sure that he does not get away with it! Ochere-Darko cannot decide for Ghanaians which traitors we are allowed to name, expose, and shame, and which ones we may not. Human rights, rule of law or other self-righteous motivations for Democracy or for CIA stipends notwithstanding! We all have a moral responsibility to denounce the agents of imperialist domination of the people of Ghana because it has a direct impact on the quality of our very lives. And the fact that one could have a personal relationship with any traitor, does not accord anyone any right or special privilege to misbehave publicly whenever those dry bones are mentioned in a proverb. So far as there is evidence from a credible source that J. B. Danquah's wife received stipends from the CIA to which he, Danquah completely felt entitled, to the extent of going to complain about “payment arrears” to the US Ambassador, instead of saying “thank you” to the CIA, the remarks by Dr. Omane Boamah can not be considered “stupid”.

On the contrary, some of us find it to be one of the wisest statements ever uttered on radio or TV in Ghana. This is very important in the light of the increasing lies and spin by the Danquah Institute which attempt to let Danquah pass as a national hero. The Ghanaian media needs to satisfy itself independently with the facts, determine for themselves on the basis of the evidence, whether or not one can safely argue that Dr. J. B. Danquah was a CIA asset. And if this is so, they should uphold the right to say so without being insulted in this way by a fellow panellist! Having satisfied themselves, our media practitioners will have to insist that Ochere-Darko apologized or finds himself ostracised. It would be repugnant enough if, after all this, without proper apologies, Ochere-Darko is to be invited once more to portray such an uncouth and arrogant character in public again. The media must take the bull by the horns and call a spade a spade, a hero a hero, and a spy a spy! He must be made to retract his insults, most especially because Dr. Omane Boamah was not just speaking an ordinary fact but an important truth and therefore did not deserve to be insulted for that.

The insult to person of Dr. Omane Boamah over this issue, is an assault to the persons of all the good people of Ghana. It is because of “stupid” intimidations such as these that they have managed to cover their evil tracks all these years. We need to fully expose them in order to be free. We need to grab this particularly stubborn cat by the neck and dip its nose into the offending material that is more than just familiar to it, until it learns "to do it" somewhere else! It is a good sign of the re-awakening spirit of Kwame Nkrumah surrounding the third anniversary celebrations of his centenary, to see the final episodes to the ignominious end of traitors, agents, and assets of the imperialists laid to rest. This is time to turn on the heat. I invite every right thinking Ghanaian to join in this campaign in their own creative ways, to put pressure on Ochere-Darko to do the right thing. And it is important that the contentious issues that rose up be settled dispassionately by our media practitioners. It has serious implications on what the Danquah tradition actually represents. Little wonder we see Ochere-Darko, the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, at the end of his wits.

It will be an important service our media practitioners will be doing to the good people of Ghana, to help them see the light and steer themselves away from their miserable hand-to-mouth existence. For Ghana to go forward, we need to begin from the beginning and find out what went wrong. It is often not easy to draw the line where one must begin. That is why I personally find this revelation as a key to understanding the modern history of Ghana, and in particular, the kind of forces represented by the Danquah Institute and their Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo. What is going on therefore can only be seen as a part of the very rare and precious historic “moment of truth” that periodically open the eyes of the people. It heralds the beginning of a new era, and a shift of political direction for the country of Teutonic proportions, it is not just a simple shift from the politics of lies and insults, to the politics of integrity and intelligently accounting for one's position instead of escaping debates through the use of lies and insults, but an irreversible shift independent of arrogant politicians because the public insists on it. This is why the Ghanaian media needs to take on Asare Ochere-Darko.

An important fact that publicly emerged in this year's celebrations is recent publications that have thrown further light on some of the darker pages of our history. As the new light focuses on their dastardly anti-people activities against the sovereignty and independence of Ghana, we see in the line-up to the entirely orchestrated attempt to reverse all the gains of our independence and to set the clock backwards into neo-colonialism, credible stories that help to figure out the heroes and traitors of this country. On the bloc is J.B. Danquah. As it turns out, a book published by Professor Richard Mahoney, a son of former US Ambassador to Ghana Mr. William Mahoney, 1962-1965. claims that Dr. J.B. Danquah went to the US Embassy, after Nkrumah had pardoned Danquah and other detainees on June 2, 1962, to ask “why the funds his family had been receiving during his imprisonment had been cut after his release.” It is strange that Ochere-Darko claims to have read the book and yet got the nerve to deny the accusations and call it “stupid”. Whatever the motivations of J. B. Danquah must have been is one thing, his closeness to the CIA is quite another thing, and Ghanaians must be able to let Ochere-Darko know clearly that talking about that is not stupid. And that he was wrong in the way he comported himself.

The book at the centre of the controversy, which came out at the debate has the title "JFK: Ordeal in Africa". In this book, for those who care to add one to two and arrive at the sum of three, it comes out clearly that J.B. Danquah was a CIA asset. Published in 1983, the book confirms what Nkrumah must have known all along and thus explaining not only why Danquah went to prison, but also gaining a deep understanding of the political orientation and the dark possibilities behind the Danquah Institute itself. It is therefore a fitting tribute to the memory of the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, that one of his detractors gets exposed in no uncertain terms as a CIA asset. I am still waiting for a response from the Danquah Institute as regards the claims I made in a previous article: “J. B. Danquah Was A CIA Asset!” In that article, I argued that there is incontrovertible evidence to that effect that he knew and liked the stipends the CIA was paying to his wife, as to go ahead and to complain to US Ambassador William Mahoney, when Danquah was pardoned by Nkrumah on 02 June 1962, when this was cut. What was Danquah's state of mind, if he did not consider himself as an agent deserving of the stipend? You don't often see people complaining after such “generosity”, without even saying “thank you!”!

I am not going to go into all that again. So far as I am concerned, the issue has been settled that J. B. Danquah was a CIA asset. I have given myself enough room to respond to any challenges to this demand for proper apologies in the name of decency. It is not for nothing that this article is labelled “Part One”. I promise that the “temperature” in these series of articles is bound to rise with each subsequent article, until Ochere-Darko swallows his pride and apologizes for those insults. I know what this can do to the Akufo-Addo campaign, so it is fine with me if Gabby remains adamant! We are not going to succumb to insults and intimidations to keep our traitors under the carpet! If one feels very uncomfortable with the emerging facts, for any other reasons such as family ties, or personal estimation, etc., that is no reason enough to transform oneself into a maniac in a fit of temper tantrums during a live TV and Radio public debate. Mr. Ochere-Darko lost total control over his senses, including his sense of personal comportment, courtesy, Parliamentary language, public debate protocols, civil manners, and ordinary decency.

What makes this even more unacceptable is the fact that the allegations put forward have been proven to be accurate, and dead right on the mark! Why should Ochere-Darko get away with this? My focus now is on the uncivilized and extremely uncouth behaviour by Gabriel Asare Ochere-Darko, and the challenges that this represents in our public discourses, and particularly the role of the media. The fact of the Danquah family receiving stipends from the CIA is public knowledge, thanks to Richard Mahoney. Ochere-Darko should fly to the US and scream “stupid” to Richard Mahoney, and not those of us who believe he has no reason to lie. The fact that Dr. J.B. Danquah was a CIA asset comes out clearly enough in the book. That he was most probably abandoned later on by the CIA is not our business. What right has Ochere-Darko to impose limitations on free speech over issues of serious public interest? This is a matter of public interest, and you do not pursue such a national discourse with insults. Now that we know that what Dr Omane Boamah said was not that stupid, but on the contrary, a statement of fact of immense importance to the discussion on the theme of the Founder's Day. Is it not about time for Mr. Ochere-Darko be asked to render unqualified apologies for comporting himself in a manner that qualified him as a public nuisance?

The media should be invited to put this rude individual's credibility to comport himself in a civilized manner on the line until he does the right thing. This must be done before they bring him again to comment on issues of national importance being debated live on radio and television. We are not asking him to be silenced. We are asking that Ochere-Darko be compelled to do what is proper. We are asking him to render unqualified apologies for his unjustifiable behaviour. Otherwise, it is the media, and not Ochere-Darko who must justify the inclusion of such a character in their programmes. It is no one's fault if someone happens to be a grandson of a CIA spy, and it should not warrant the barrage of insults in what Ochere-Darko himself called an “an intellectual programme”. It is precisely because it is an intellectual programme that Ochere-Darko needs to justify his future inclusion, in the light of such awful performance.

The main issue that is at stake is not just whether or not Ghanaians have a right to be allowed to discuss a matter as important as that without being insulted by Asare Ochere-Darko, but whether or not we need to draw the line as we enter in an electoral year, to ensure that irresponsible and uncouth individuals do not get the chance to inflame the already highly inflammable situation with unguarded statements. If he is not even sorry about this, what is the guarantee that he can not do something worse next time? Our media houses need to stand up to their responsibilities and challenge the use of intemperate language, insults, and encourage the appropriate decorum in our civil discourses particularly on live radio and TV discussions. This is fundamental to the peace and security of this country. Ochere-Darko must be made to apologize or face a media boycott. If he is unfit to meet acceptable standards and expectations of decent human behaviour, he must be barred from decent circles where decent humans congregate.

Let's see how long it takes to get the arrogant Gabby to come to his senses and apologize for his “stupid” insults! I wish to assure Gabby however, that it is in his own interest to do the right thing as quickly as possible, and as loud and as clear! We cannot afford to give up and we will not! Part II follows... And on and on it will go until we see an appropriate apology! I hope that from my own Facebook chat with Gabby in which he arrogantly asked me “Why are you so obsessed with the Danquah Institute?”, he shall not under-estimate the political energy behind such a simple request, in order to cut a long story short. The only way out I saw for Gabby in this predicament was to have honestly admitted the fact that the CIA paid stipends to J.B. Danquah's wife whilst in prison, explained why this was so, and to have left the public in peace to go and find out for themselves! He could then have added, as he seems to explain so eloquently with his “friend of America” excuses, that even if Danquah was a CIA agent, he did it for the good of the nation but not for stipends. And he could have allowed the public to judge for themselves who is really stupid!

At least, some of us could have understood where he was coming from. As matters stand, he does not only have to acknowledge the fact that there is nothing personal in raising an issue of such immense public interest and did not need to be silenced. The Human Rights that Ochere-Darko claims were championed by Danquah includes free speech. And this includes the fact that whether or not a particular spy happens to be anyone's grand-father, people must be free to talk about it in public without being insulted by the grandchildren of these spies. One can hold Danquah in high esteem and allow people to read the book and talk about it without the world coming to an end. So far as Dr. Omane Boamah did not err in calling J.B. Danquah a CIA agent, so far should Ochere-Darko retract. He owes us an apology for trying to suppress vital information by unorthodox means. He must be made to say “I am sorry” to Dr. Omane Boamah, in order to purge himself from the political pariah status he has automatically assumed with these insults!

Help move Ghana forward! Please join us in putting pressure on this stubborn individual to do the right thing!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro,
Member, Pan-Africanist International
-a grammar of Pan-Africanism and its manners of articulation!
http://www.panafricanistinternational.org

*(also known to Kwame Okoampa, the notorious assassin of character, as: "Ali Masmadi Sasabonsam Jehu Shoaboni Appiah, who now presumptuously and conveniently goes by the name of Nana Akyea-Mensah, the name of a historic man the likes of whose dignity and ineffable cynosure that SOB would never encounter among the male members of his largely pathologically skirt-chasing and pedophiliac family." See: A Typical Ghanaian Prophet, Feature Article | Thu, 21 Jul 2011, by Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.)

President Mills Puts Fear Into Akufo-Addo Camp!

Feature Article by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

The news that "President John Mills has won the NDC's National Delegates' Congress in Sunyani by a whooping 96.09% as against Nana Konadu's 3.01%", is obviously good news for some of us, but not all of us. For the Akufo-Addo camp, this was a rude shock. They were predicting 75% for Professor Mills and explaining that to mean a vote of no confidence by his own party. I can already see President Mills being sworn in for a second time. It gives the Mills campaign a boost that even the Akufo-Addo camp will find very difficult to deny.

In the days leading to the Congress, Akufo Addo's Statesman published an article in which they sought to cast doubts on the obvious:

"Surveys, interviews, analyses and information gathered by the New Statesman indicate that President John Evans Atta Mills has been gripped by serious panic following the last minute realization that tomorrow’s presidential nomination of his party may not after all result in the kind of landslide victory he had been made to believe by his GAME (Get Atta Mills Endorsed) campaign team."

We now have something concrete to chew on concerning their so-called "surveys, interviews, analyses and information gathered by the New Statesman"! They could not have been more ridiculous:

"President Mills is said to be particularly worried by the fact that the GAME plan to antagonize and isolate former President Rawlings and his wife has angered many constituency delegates." The New Statesman went on, "Even more worrying for the President is the fact that for two years now his only challenger, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, cleverly maintained a close, caring and intimate contact with a sizeable majority of the ruling party’s constituency officers, of whom 1,433 (out of 1,900 total delegates) voted for her in Tamale on 17 January 2010 as NDC Vice Chairperson, a position from which she resigned recently to contest for the flagbearership."

I repeat the results for an effective comparison:

"President Mills polled a whopping 2,771 votes against Nana Agyemang Rawling's 90 votes.
President Mills took the lead in all ten regions of the country.
President Mill's vote represents 96.7% of the total votes cast, whilst Nana Konadu's votes represents a total of 3.14%."

The New Statesman also predicted tension and violence, but the entire even passed off in a festive mood:

"There are growing concerns that the insults, intimidation, threats, harassment and violence, including the Kumasi shooting, that have blighted the short campaign, could all come to a head at the Sunyani congress.

Officially more than 1,500 police personnel have been deployed to the Brong Ahafo capital. The NDC has also made arrangements for about 2,000 security personnel for the 3-day congress, in addition to the about 1,800 “Azorka Boys” who are storming Sunyani today.

There are concerns from the Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings camp that the security personnel are all part of the GAME plan to put their fear of the ballot (if not the bullet) into FONKAR. But, that appears not to be shaking FONKAR."

It is a great shame to our detractors that this congress has come off smoothly and the NDC has reposed an overwhelming confidence in the President. We must hit the ground running for them to know what running is! The congress has reduced the Rawlingses into an insignificant political nuisance which have no impact on the party. As I wrote earlier, "NDC should go ahead and elect President Mills to continue the good work he has started. There should be no worries about an open foe. The NPP has a hidden one!"

At the end of the day the NPP has more to lose from the "Agenda 2016" menace than the NDC has to lose from the Rawlingses threat. The percentage of constituency under Alan Cash command is far greater than the percentage as demonstrated in the vote. The dynamics do not bode well for the NPP, also because there is a frontal and direct contradictions between the Alan Cash "Agenda 2016" and the Akufo-Addo  "Victory 2012".

"A wolf may eat a sheep now and then,
But thousands are killed by men,
An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse"!

The NDC now has the "open foe" under control, but can the NPP say the same thing about their "pretended friends"? Whilst the Rawlingses are already talking of forming another political party, with preferably, the NDC logo, Akufo-Addo recently included Alan Kyeremanten in his campaign team, despite the visceral hatred of the Alan Cash "Agenda 2016" underground commandos. Alan Cash believes strongly that 2016 is his time, given to him by God himself. The Akufo-Addo "Victory 2012" is a threat to this "God-given" hope of Alan Cash, as Akufo-Addo could extend his political expiring date beyond 2012 to two terms ending in 2020, and making nonsense of the "Agenda 2016"!

Attention! There is a good reason why this is not in the public domain. This shall never be an operation that will be played out in the open. Both sides have come to the selfish conclusion that they need a strong façade of unity, whether 2012 or 2016, if they are to make any impact. Thus publicly they are friends! They have agreed to disagree. They tell each other, "if you are pretending to be a friend, we shall also pretend to be friends!" This is a house irrevocably divided against each other as the Ashanti Region is the strongest base of the party, the "Agenda 2016" which needs a defeat of Akufo-Addo, to spring into action, gives the NDC a fortuitous advantage even if the Rawlingses were to break away from the NDC.

It would be worse than inordinate ambition if they did. At least, the CPP which is always first at the bottom, can have something to beat! What every decent citizen expects from the Rawlingses is a magnanimous acceptance of defeat and recoiling into their shells or crawl away and hide under their respective stones. They can now positively throw their weight behind the voices of their own people, or at least stop themselves from being on the way. The message is clear: they are going to change or they will be changed.

With the NPP as no-match, I think we are entering into this campaign with a strong foot forward.

Cheers to all of you!

We shall overcome!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Lack Of Leadership Materials In The NPP Is A Time Bomb! Part Two.

NPP On Cocaine: Obetsebi-Lamptey Is Pathetic!

Feature Article,
by Nana Akyea Mensah

'Ghana's election campaign could be tarnished by money from West African drug trafficking, an official has said. Kwesi Aning, head of research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, said the "very fabric" of Ghanaian society was under threat.

- BBC. 'Drug money 'tainting Ghana poll', 28 October 2008 18:46 GMT

In a news story which first appeared on Joy Online and reported in the General News of Monday, 27 June 2011, on Ghanaweb, Name and shame politicians who use narcotic money - Dr. Aning, Dr. Aning, who is the Director of Research at the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Centre says, the call by the Director of NACOB, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong, who in an interview told Joy FM’s Sammy Darko said that "if any politician dares us (NACOB) and uses narcotics money for politics, that person will be sorry. Whether you are an NDC or NPP or CPP or whatever, you will be sorry," is timely.

Dr. Aning appeared to be confirming what Mr. Akrasi Sarpong said. He was reported as saying "There is a long lasting relationship between narcotic money and the funding of political party activities in Ghana."

Dr. Aning said “Narcotics, whether it is Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin, Ephedrine, Methamphetamine or [others] is beginning to pose both a political and security threat to this country. We are now internationally known not only as a traffic country or a transit country but as a country where the impact of these narcotics are beginning to have a cumulative negative impact.”

A narco-state is a clear nightmare. Apart from the direct devastations by the drug on families, they come in with guns. Mexico is as dangerous as Afghanistan, even though the war there is different. It is a war of drug cartels. There is not a single Ghanaian who will not be negatively impacted by a full-blown narco-state. That is why this is more than enough to deny the NPP at the ballot en masse. It behoves on each responsible citizen to compel all political parties to tow the line.

First, it will drive away good business. This simply means more and more mouths to feed and less and less food to put into those mouths. As our population increases, job opportunities would be decreasing, only to be replaced by criminality. Furthermore, this would also mean that Ghanaians would no longer be able to travel freely. The few who manage to get visas shall be subjected to some of the most humiliating searches, such as peeps into the anus by Customs officials, at international airports, simply because they are carrying Ghanaian passports! This is what happens to citizens of countries which are designated as transit points for illicit drugs. Who wants this to happen to our country?

And the threat is growing. According to Dr. Aning, "the trade is growing as it has been discovered that between eight and fifteen percent of the narcotics entering main land Europe come through Ghana." Clearly, something correct needs to be done, and every peace-loving Ghanaian must support the initiatives to get on top on the fight by drug barons to steal our sovereignty and peace from us.

I was therefore extremely surprised that instead of lending the necessary moral support and the boost that is needed to make Ghana clean, the Chairman of the NPP is the only leader of a political party in Ghana not to take kindly to the words of the NACOB capo. What even makes this extremely strange and unnecessary was the fact that the NACOB boss was absolutely non-partisan in his warning: he mentioned all the political parties:

"if any politician dares us (NACOB) and uses narcotics money for politics, that person will be sorry. Whether you are an NDC or NPP or CPP or whatever, you will be sorry!" He did not mention any goat. All he said was that "his outfit has information that some politicians are heavily funded by drug barons adding that NACOB will deal with any politician caught to be using proceeds from the illicit trade notwithstanding the party that the person belongs to."

Of course, he added that "as the 2012 general elections approaches, NACOB will be very vigilant and monitor the situation carefully to bring to book any culprit found."

Why should any one who has nothing to do with drugs have an issue with this? Instead of welcoming and declaring his support, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, reacting to the comments by the NACOB Boss on the Citi Eyewitness News, on Monday June 27, ordered Mr Akrasi Sarpong to "provide evidence to his claims and avoid speaking loosely."

Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey complained:

“This is why people who are put in positions like this should not speak loosely, if things that you say, without providing any supporting evidence has the capacity to taint a person or a group of persons then you should avoid making certain comments at all."

This is in spite of the glaring fact that no goat has so far been mentioned! A fact which normally should make all goats comfortable, seems to irk some:

"If you really have any evidence that political parties are being financed by illicit drug whether from barons or not from barons then come out with evidence. But to come out to say generally that you are not going to allow political parities to be funded by drug money then straight away you are turning round to say that this is happening." Obetsebi-Lamptey is reported to have stated.

Indeed, the information concerning the names of the goats that the chairman of the NPP, Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is publicly seeking from the NACOB boss, is the kind of information that any drug-pusher would pay huge sums of money to obtain: questions like, “what kind of leads do they have on me”? I was therefore amused to read Obetsebi Lamptey asking the NACOB boss to name politicians on the NACOB's list.

I was equally satisfied with the response from the NACOB boss to the NPP Chairman's call for the name of suspected politicians to be released, see: General News of Tuesday, 28 June 2011, NACOB boss refuses to name politicians on narcotic money list:

"The Executive Secretary of the Narcotic Control Board, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong has said he cannot be forced to disclose identities of suspected drug dealers on his watch list.

Defending his reason to issue the warning, Mr Sarpong said there are various ways to fight crime and the people who are involved need to know that they are being watched so that they can stay away from it."

Which makes complete nonsense of Obetsebi-Lamptey's rantings:

“If it is happening and you are in charge to make sure that it doesn’t happen then you should make sure that it doesn’t happen and not to generally castigate people in that light”.

And more so, when cast against a background where other experts have even been more categorical in the past:

"Some of these guys were my mates in school and they were not too successful, and they've been in politics for less than 10 years," Dr. Aning told the BBC in an interview on 28 October 08, "You don't make that kind of money in 10 years."

He said he was talking about people "running for parliament, who are ministers, wanting to run for president". This was in 2008.

"It's not only about politics or politicians, it's about the police service, it's about customs, it's about immigration, it's about the judiciary, it's about our traditional institutions," he said.

"What I'm saying is that the very fabric of Ghanaian society is under threat."

"Ghana's politicians say they are determined to fight drug trafficking, but many question whether the political will exists in a society where corruption is a major problem," BBC West Africa correspondent Will Ross reported in 2008, when the NPP was in power.

What Obetsebi-Lamptey's reaction tells me is that there is no longer even such a determination in the leadership of the NPP, if any ever existed, and Obetsebi-Lamptey's reaction must be seen in terms of the level of the political will to fight the crime.

Mr Aning also said in the BBC story that "political rhetoric needed to be followed by action, suggesting there should be more sniffer dogs and better exchanges of intelligence."

From the hostile reaction of Jake to the very topic, we can not even talk about a "political rhetoric" to rid Ghana of narcotics, let alone to "follow it with action". It is simply no longer on the agenda of the NPP. What will happen now, since even at the time they were only at the level of "political rhetoric", they were actively assisting drug smugglers to evade the law? My real fear is what is going to happen should these people return to power!

We should not too soon forget the fact that Addo Kufour, the president's brother and then Minister of the Interior, run away from the then BBC's West African correspondent, Mr. Will Ross, because he was not prepared to answer questions about how he was fighting the drugs trade, after the arrest and subsequent release without charge or trial of five women of the Executive Committee of the Women's Wing of the Dzorwulu NPP were busted at the Kotoka airport whilst attempting to board an airline bound to the United States with large quantities of heroin.

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and Ghana's credibility in the fight against narco-trafficking, under the NPP Administration, came to its lowest point. It was a shame to read on BBC: "Ghana's interior ministry has so far declined to grant an interview on drug trafficking"! Indeed, if Obetsebi-Lamptey had not asked the NACOB boss to mention the goats, we would have missed the best part of the story. After declaring that he is keeping the names closely to his chest, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong further expressed disappointment in the manner in which the case involving the missing parcels of cocaine was handled in the past.

“In the past the police did a beautiful work. That work that was done by the police was not backed by the hierarchy of the police. It was done by officers who were down the line. Look we know what happened,” he said.

Security analyst, Dr. Kwesi Aning concurs:

"There is a long lasting relationship between narcotic money and the funding of political party activities in Ghana."


Our reputation as a narco-state would have been firmly established had the NPP won the 2008 Parliamentary and especially, the Presidential elections. Barely after two years of coming into power of President Mills, the tides changed. I was very relieved to read the General News of Thursday, 4 February 2010, U.S. Hails Ghana’s Track Record, The story read:

"The United States government has commented Ghana for the progress it has made in the fight against drug trafficking, saying the gains are impressive.

Johnnie Carson, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, at a meeting with President Mills at the Castle, Osu yesterday said the cooperation between Ghana and the US and other partners in the fight against drug trafficking and other cross-border crimes was yielding impressive results."
My reaction to the news on ghanaweb.com speaks for itself:


“Author: Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Date: 2010-02-04 09:43:42

Comment to: BYE-BYE TO BUSH AND HIS NARCOTIC FRIENDS

Hi NANA Ø !!.

One reason why I worked day and night to ensure the defeat of the NPP at the last polls was the danger they posed in the development of a narco state with all the attendant problems of violent crimes and the inconvenience of having our private parts including anus carefully screened at all international airports each time you travel overseas, all because of these greedy bastards! We were quite close to it! It was such a pity to see Addo Kufour, the president's brother and then Minister of the Interior, running away from the BBC's West African correspondent Mr. Will Ross because he was not prepared to answer questions about the arrest and subsequent release without charge or trial of five women of the Executive Committee of the Women's Wing of the Dzorwulu NPP were busted at the Kotoka airport whilst attempting to board an airline bound to the United States with large quantities of heroin. Rumours have it that it took the timely and personal intervention of the President's wife, Madam Theresa Kufour to get these drug barons off the hook! Oh Ghana! Even our First Lady became complicit in the narcotics business!

This reports coming from the USA makes me heave a big sigh of relief! I am happy I supported the NDC against the NPP! And it gives me so much pleasure as this piece of news encourages me to do so again come 2012!

We shall not sit down and allow the illicit business of a greedy and unconscionable few to put at risk a dignified flight through international airports without curious anti-drug enforcement officials peeping through your anus simply because you are carrying a Ghanaian passport!

Thank you very much President Mills! You are a President worthy of respect!

Have a nice day Nana O!!.”

The problem is not simply one of dry bones being mentioned in a proverb, and old people feeling unease; it is also about how this unease is expressed. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey got the most nonsensical set of words ever to be uttered by any politician in the NPP expressing such perfectly understandable unease! And this “style” of leadership looks certain to continue. A famous Roman general once said “I more fear a stupid ally than I fear a clever enemy”. How right he was! With problems of cocaine abuse of his own to deal with, and hanging like a dark cloud over the party's flag-bearer's head, Akufo-Addo must be savouring the simplicity of the truth of the Roman general's rather candid observation.



Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
--
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Blog: /nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro



There are hypertext links to some of the news stories referred to in the article, which may not appear in this publication, interested readers who want to know more are invited to come to my blog: Feature Articles: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/

Is the NPP An Integral Part Of Ghana's Drug Problems?

Feature Article, by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

I am very surprised that the NPP seems to be the only political party unilaterally feeling the heat of a declaration that was essentially meant for all the political parties in Ghana. All the other political parties have welcomed the declaration by the NACOB boss concerning the influence of drug barons on some politicians, and the threat that this represents to our body-politic. Why this is clearly amazing is the fact that the Executive Secretary of NACOB did not even single out a political party in Ghana. It was a general appeal or warning to all political parties. 

Let us have another look of what Mr. Akrasi Sarpong said:

“if any politician dares us (NACOB) and uses narcotics money for politics, that person will be sorry. Whether you are an NDC or NPP or CPP or whatever, you will be sorry!”

He did not mention any goat. All he said was that “his outfit has information that some politicians are heavily funded by drug barons adding that NACOB will deal with any politician caught to be using proceeds from the illicit trade notwithstanding the party that the person belongs to.”

Is the NPP a part of the solution or a part of the problem? That is the question!

One of the latest attempts to deal with the issue comes from Dr. Arthur Kennedy, whose complaint is that "On the face of it, there is nothing wrong with the NACOB’S boss sounding the alarm on drugs." Dr. Kennedy then postulates: "However, a careful reading of Mr. Sarpong’s comments, together with comments by other government officials show clearly that Mr. Sarpong’s comments may be part of a public relations campaign to link the NPP to drugs and thus dent its reputation and support." See: "The use of narcotic money in our politics".

What we would like Dr. Kennedy to throw more light on is a statement attributed to him during his ill-fated bid for the flag-bearership of the NPP. Some of us would like to know if he did or he did not caution “NPP delegates who would be voting to elect their presidential candidate to be mindful of some of the aspirants who have been going round splashing money on them because the source of the money could be a questionable one.”?

I read the story from the following link, never saw the original news story, that is why I am asking! I got the story from here: “Tell them that they may know”, by FOKAA (FRIENDS OF KENNETH ASAFO-ADJEI), Feature Article | Sun, 21 Dec 2008:

“If we do not take our time, one cocaine dealer would just take his money and buy this country and put our lives in danger.” – Dr. Arthur Kennedy. “Dr Kwabena Arthur Kennedy also cautioned NPP delegates who would be voting to elect their presidential candidate to be mindful of some of the aspirants who have been going round splashing money on them because the source of the money could be a questionable one.”

Also, whilst at it, is it possible for Dr. Kennedy to kindly elaborate on how he managed to examine Akufo-Addo with your bare eyes and be able to claim, as a medical officer, that "Akufo Addo does not a drop of cocaine in his blood"? I read the following on Ghanaweb General News of Sunday, 28 November 2010, "Akufo-Addo Doesn’t Have A Drop Of Blood Tainted With Cocaine - Physician"

"A certified medical practitioner" the story began, "says he can officially state that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo, flag bearer of the opposition NPP does not even have a minute drop of cocaine in his blood. He claims as a medical doctor who has handled several cases of drug abuse and addicts, he can attest to the fact that Nana Addo is not a drug addict."

Just by looking at him, "Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy says he is certain that Nana Addo has never been under the influence of drugs"!

I want Arthur Kennedy to answer the following:

"Is Arthur Kennedy telling us he has a medical laboratory attached to his eye sights?

Did he ask Mr. Akufo-Addo to even open his mouth for him to examine his teeth? You don't need to be a medical doctor to know that one of the symptoms of the premature loss of teeth is as a result of a long period of drug abuse.

Dr. Kennedy cannot tell an HIV infected blood from one filled to the brim with Plasmodium falciparum! What do we say when such a doctor wants to give a clean bill of health to a suspect with a toothless mouth and no hair on his head? We also know that in addition to the premature loss of teeth, the other visible symptom is the loss of hair?"

Kofi Wayo claims majority of the ‘cocaine politicians’ are within the NPP.

“A lot of these cocaine guys are in NPP, yes. I know the big men in NPP all knew about (jailed former NPP MP) Eric Amoateng. Now it comes out that Yaw Anfo-Kwakye, Akufo-Addo’s Chief of Staff (sic) was arrested before for drugs. So why does he still keep him? These are the questions that show we have no morals and ethics. And we suffer for it. Go to London or Paris and see how they search you because you are from Ghana."
 

The NPP has serious questions to answer Ghanaians about this, and I find the excuses they have been making extremely irresponsible!

Thank you for your attention.

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Cheers!

–

Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro

E-Mail: nanaakyeamensah@gmail.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheOdikro

Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/

NPP On Cocaine: Obetsebi-Lamptey Is Pathetic!

There is a popular Ghanaian joke that almost every Ghanaian born in Ghana and growing up in Ghana is  likely to come across before the teenage ends. It is about three people who went to steal a goat. The story goes this way: Three friends conspired to steal a goat. They were able to capture it undetected, killed it, cooked it, and ate it with fufu and light soup. This was done secretly in the bush, so by the time the cooking was over, there was hardly any water left to drink after the meal.

Thus upon arrival into the village, the first thing that they were looking for was some water to drink. They thus went straight to the first hut. It was a neighbour's home, who, in their absence, had been alerted by an alarm that a goat had gone missing. Unknown to the thieves, everyone in the village was on the alert.

"Can I please have some water to drink onto something good in my stomach?" The first thief asked politely.

"My friend! Did we not agree that we are not going to say anything about it?" The second thief asked the first thief.

"Stop that immediately! Did you hear him mention any goat?" The third thief scolded the second thief.
Thus it was, that as this neighbour enter his kitchen to fetch some water, he whispered into his wife's ears:

"Go and tell the chief that I have got some suspects in my house!"

Pretending not to have followed the conversation, he served them one after the other with water, which they thirstily drank. The second round of cups were deliberately delayed to facilitate their impending arrest. End of story, funny or not.

Indeed, Obetsebi Lamptey is not addressing his fellow NPP thieves, he is addressing the Executive Secretary of the Narcotic Control Board, Mr. Yaw Akrasi Sarpong, so instead of asking "Did you hear him mention the word 'goat'?" Here we see him asking the NACOP boss to mention the goat or goats involved in the narcotic business.

A news story which first appeared on Joy Online and reported in the General News of Monday, 27 June 2011, on Ghanaweb, Name and shame politicians who use narcotic money - Dr. Aning, Dr. Aning, who is the Director of Research at the Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Centre says, the call by the Director of NACOB, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong, who in an interview with told Joy FM’s Sammy Darko  said that "if any politician dares us (NACOB) and uses narcotics money for politics, that person will be sorry. Whether you are an NDC or NPP or CPP or whatever, you will be sorry," is timely.

Dr. Anning appeared to be confirming what Mr. Akrasi Sarpong said. He was reported as saying "There is a long lasting relationship between narcotic money and the funding of political party activities in Ghana."

Dr. Aning said “Narcotics, whether it is Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin, Ephedrine, Methamphetamine or [others] is beginning to pose both a political and security threat to this country. We are now internationally known not only as a traffic country or a transit country but as a country where the impact of these narcotics are beginning to have a cumulative negative impact.”

A narco-state is a clear nightmare. Apart from the direct devastations by the drug on families, they come in with guns. Mexico is as dangerous as Afghanistan, even though the war there is different. It is a war of drug cartels. There is not a single Ghanaian who will not be negatively impacted by a full-blown narco-state.

First, it will drive away good business. This simply means more and more mouths to feed and less and less food to put into those mouths. As our population increases, job opportunities would be decreasing. Furthermore, this would also mean that Ghanaians would no longer be able to travel freely. The few who manage to get visas shall be subjected to some of the most humiliating searches, such as peeps into the anus by Customs officials, at international airports, simply because they are carrying Ghanaian passports! This is what happens to citizens of countries which are designated as transit points for illicit drugs. Who wants this to happen to this country?

And the threat is growing. According to Dr. Aning, "the trade is growing as it has been discovered that between eight and fifteen percent of the narcotics entering main land Europe come through Ghana." Clearly, something correct needs to be done. and every peace-loving Ghanaian must support the initiatives to get on top on the fight by drug barons to steal our sovereignty and peace from us.

I was therefore extremely surprised that instead of lending the necessary moral support and the boost that is needed to make Ghana clean, the Chairman of the NPP is the only  leader of a political party in Ghana not to take kindly to the words of the NOCOB capo. What even makes this extremely strange and unnecessary was the fact that the NACOB boss was absolutely non-partisan in his warning: he mentioned all the political parties:

"if any politician dares us (NACOB) and uses narcotics money for politics, that person will be sorry. Whether you are an NDC or NPP or CPP or whatever, you will be sorry!" He did not mention any goat. All he said was that "his outfit has information that some politicians are heavily funded by drug barons adding that NACOB will deal with any politician caught to be using proceeds from the illicit trade notwithstanding the party that the person belongs to."

Of course, he added that "as the 2012 general elections approaches, NACOB will be very vigilant and monitor the situation carefully to bring to book any culprit found."

Why should any one who has nothing to do with drugs have an issue with this? Instead of welcoming and declaring his support, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, reacting to the comments by the NACOB Boss on the Citi Eyewitness News, on Monday June 27,  pleaded with Mr Akrasi Sarpong to "provide evidence to his claims and avoid speaking loosely."

Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey complained:

“This is why people who are put in positions like this should not speak loosely, if things that you say, without providing any supporting evidence has the capacity to taint a person or a group of persons then you should avoid making certain comments at all."

This is in spite of the glaring fact that no goat has so far been mentioned! A fact which normally should make all goats comfortable, seems to irk some:

"If you really have any evidence that political parties are being financed by illicit drug whether from barons or not from barons then come out with evidence. But to come out to say generally that you are not going to allow political parities to be funded by drug money then straight away you are turning round to say that this is happening." Obetsebi-Lamptey is reported to have stated.

Indeed, the information concerning the names of the goats that the chairman of the NPP, Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is publicly seeking from the NACOB boss, is the kind of information that any drug-pusher would pay huge sums of money to obtain: questions like, what kind of leads do they have on me? I was therefore amused to read Obetsebi Lamptey asking the NACOB boss to name politicians on the NACOB's list.

I was equally satisfied with the response from the NACOB boss to the NPP Chairman's call for the name of suspected politicians to be released, see: General News of Tuesday, 28 June 2011, NACOB boss refuses to name politicians on narcotic money list:

"The Executive Secretary of the Narcotic Control Board, Yaw Akrasi Sarpong has said he cannot be forced to disclose identities of suspected drug dealers on his watch list.

Defending his reason to issue the warning, Mr Sarpong said there are various ways to fight crime and the people who are involved need to know that they are being watched so that they can stay away from it."

Which makes complete nonsense of Obetsebi-Lamptey's rantings:

“If it is happening and you are in charge to make sure that it doesn’t happen then you should make sure that it doesn’t happen and not to generally castigate people in that light”.

And more so, when cast against a background where leading members of the party such as Dr. Arthur Kennedy, who is reported to have been shocked with the amount of money Nana Akufo-Addo and Alan were pumping into their primary campaign, that he said:

"If we do not take our time, one cocaine dealer would just take his money and buy this country and put our lives in danger." - Dr. Arthur Kennedy. "Dr Kwabena Arthur Kennedy also cautioned NPP delegates who would be voting to elect their presidential candidate to be mindful of some of the aspirants who have been going round splashing money on them because the source of the money could be a questionable one."

Indeed, if Obetsebi-Lamptey had not asked the NACOB boss to mention the goats, we would have missed the best part of the story. After declaring that he is keeping the names closely to his chest, Mr. Akrasi Sarpong further expressed disappointment in the manner in which the case involving the missing parcels of cocaine was handled in the past.

“In the past the police did a beautiful work. That work that was done by the police was not backed by the hierarchy of the police. It was done by officers who were down the line. Look we know what happened,” he said.

Security analyst, Dr. Kwesi Aning concurs:

"There is a long lasting relationship between narcotic money and the funding of political party activities in Ghana."

The clearest sign yet, that the NPP is connected to drug barons is coming from the NPP chairman himself.
I have never liked the NPP, even though, somehow, I thought they have had very reasonably intelligent people to lead the party, perhaps simply because I was younger and they looked wise and educated, like Kofi Busia. The late B.J. Da Rocha, with all his human frailties, was a big brain that I met a few times at the Ringway Hotel and other places during the joint struggle against the PNDC. Comparatively, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is pathetic, to say the least!

Nothing surprising at all in this, and we shall be seeing more of this. I know the man. That is why I was glad he was elected as NPP chairman. He has a reputation for causing electorally damaging blunders without even knowing what he had done, several weeks later. So far, only one political party has complained, even though Mr. Akrasi Sarpong mentioned all the political parties. Others have even praised the NACOB Executive Secretary. This is why I think Jake has used the "G-word", because the "g" is for the goats in the NPP whose names he wants to hear from the NACOB boss. Akrasi Sarpong did not mention any goat. Why should he?

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Cheers!

Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro

There are hypertext links to some of the news stories referred to in the article, which may not appear in this publication, interested readers who want to know more are invited to come to my blog:Feature Articles: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/

 

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"JJ Rawlings, We are back! You can piss for trouser!"

"JJ Rawlings, We are back! You can piss for trouser!"

Feature Article
by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

Is Rawlings now complaining Nkrumahists want to take his NDC from under his feet? Who took what from under whose feet? The struggle Ghanaians and the rest of Africa are engaged in today is not about personalities nor any body's feet for that matter! This is a struggle which involve ideas, concepts and strategies that help us to identify, defend and advance our interests as a people. Among the babel of ideas for the emancipation of Africans from the stranglehold of imperialism and their local compradore bourgeoisie, Nkrumah's about this struggle is a 'nonpariel'! Nkrumah was by quantum levels a far-sighted leader in a class of his own. And I feel angry at the insulting self-comparison Rawlings has been making with himself and Kwame Nkrumah.

An admirable thing about Nkrumah was that he was always learning. Nkrumah even learned from his own mistakes and took the trouble to write extensively in exile to pass on the lessons from the experience of struggle. It takes a buffoon of the likes of Rawlings even to think about comparing himself with Kwame Nkrumah. So, for me, it is therefore good news that Rawlings is complaining. It is about time the chickens come back home to roost. Rawlings has sponged upon Nkrumahism for far too long! It is also about time someone gave him a little talk on this subject. I immensely enjoyed reading Comrade Kwesi Adu's recent article on the same subject: "Rawlings: In Search Of Enemies And Traitors, The Roll Call"

Here is another take on that same utterly exasperating subject matter. I hope this would not be the end. And that Ghanaians would once again rise up to oppose him in even greater numbers than when they hailed him on June 4, 1979. Has this man, all of a sudden, noticed that there are Nkrumahists in the NDC? If Rawlings wants to reduce the struggle between him and his wife, against President Mills as a choice between Nkrumahists and Rawlingstas, I thank God I supported President Mills against Akufo-Addo! I thank God that those Nkrumahists that Rawlings have been fooling all along, can now say, "We are Back!"


"I am back! I am back! I am back! I am back!!!" - Rawlings, Friday, 12 December 12, 2008.

In fact, this happened publicly in the presence of the diplomatic community. At a function organised by the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, attended by several diplomats and Ghanaian dignitaries. The NDC had not even won the elections yet. I was very surprised to read on ModernGhana: "I am back!!! Rawlings says to Diplomats, as he anticipates Mills victory", Source: The Statesman - The Statesman, Ghana Elections | Mon, 15 Dec 2008. The source is dubious, admitted with much pleasure, but the information appears verifiable and credible enough to me. This was even before the December 28 presidential run-off. The excitement of Rawlings was as palpable as it was unusual. "I am back! I am back!" he boomed into the hall upon his arrival, seeking maximum attention to himself. And he never stopped until he was gone, interrupting decent conversations with "I am back! I am back!" It always came in pairs or more. He never said it once. He had to repeat it ad nausaem. "I am back! I am back!" until he barked off.

Of course, Rawlings could be forgiven if he was drunk. Considering the mood of festivity in the air at the time, that the mere glimpse of returning to power gave, especially after eight good years on the hard "Opposition bench", it was even normal and expected that his excellency would be full of wine or something more potent. However, it looks like Rawlings was in for a very rude shock if those were his dreams. The contradiction was there right from the beginning, based upon his own personal expectations and the reasons why he was so excitedly screaming into the ears of the diplomats, "I am back! I am back! I am back!"

Rawlings said nothing intelligible or anything newsworthy, other than "I am back! I am back!" And so it was, that on the next day, quite naturally, this was his only quote in the news. To be frank, I found that odd and vicariously embarrassing not just for our democracy and its image, but at how petty this Rawlings could be! Why particularly "I am back! I am back!"? This is, without a doubt, a  pre-occupation that speaks volumes, most especially  at the time of celebrating an imminent victory of a Presidential race in which he was no longer the flag-bearer!




So, why "I am back! I am back!"?

I like this question. I think the answer to that might explain the reason why we see Rawlings besides himself with excitement and joy, and how quickly this transformed into bitterness. Apparently infallible and all-knowing Rawlings had realized a deeply grievous mistake on his part! So much for Rawlings' own sense of judgement after single-handedly "imposing" Atta-Mills as the NDC Presidential candidate! Now, we know he was fooling nobody other than himself! What does that tell us of Rawlings' own sense of judgement, if after two decades in power, he booms with such joy and relish only to scream like a baby, within a fortnight, and then turn around to come and tell us that he actually got his most important political appointment decision wrong?

The question to answer first though remains why "I am back! I am back I am back! I am back!!"? I think this is important because it is only through this approach that we could gain some insight into how and why Mr. Rawlings has become such a fierce and ferocious adversary of the President, and just how his own wife, Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings fits into what, for the want of a better word, I simply call 'the "I am back! I am back!!" syndrome.'

Let's even assume that he was very drunk when he was making those statements, or much more probably, high on marijuana. I do not believe in the rumours that he sniffs coke, so let's rule that out. This leaves us with alcohol and his favourite leaves. But even assuming that he was drunk or stone high, why "I am back! I am back!" and not "We are back" for example? After all it is his party which was winning but the President was clearly a different person!

As a party chairman, Rawlings could have done better, and it would have been more fitting and appropriate to rally the party on with a good bellow:  "We are back!' That slip of tongue, if ever it was one, irrespective of the inducing agent, was very revealing. And I think it holds the key to the psychological framework that has triggered his insane and intense hatred of President Mills. In the next part of this article, I want to explain why I think that President Mills has got nothing to do with it. Rawlings hates him simply because he is on the way to his quest for power, all he wanted was a pawn, not a President who thinks and has a conscience of his own. And that complement my answer to the question.




"Hand over to whom?"

In 1982, during the heat of the so-called 31st December Revolution, Rawlings made his first appearance at the Great Hall of the University of Science and Technology, now correctly called the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi. It was to be a memorable occasion. After rumbling and making no sense for about an hour, came question time. A good friend of mine during the students "forced task" period, and a personal hero, now Dr. Joe Atta-Mensah, then a young student in his twenties, mounted the podium to pose the famous question:

"Mr. Chairman, I want to know, and please, let me know, one, when are you going to lift the curfew? And two, when are you going to hand over?" Atta-Mensah does not even smile at his own jokes, so you could imagine his serious face as he asked his question.

All hell broke loose! The question immediately wiped off the silly grin loitering on Rawlings face, as Atta-Mensah mounted the podium to ask his question. The PDC cadres moved quickly to restrain young Atta-Mensah from asking a third one, whilst others tried to prevent Rawlings and pleaded with him not to answer the question.  But the harm had been done to what was billed to be a "conscientization" rally, for Mr Atta-Mensah got a standing ovation from the student body.

Finally, after some calm had been restored and Joe Atta-Mensah had managed to take to his heels to avoid instant lynching, by the PDC and security details, Rawlings cleared his throat to answer the question:

"Hand over to whom? That would be the return of the devil himself!"

Only the PDC cadres cheered whilst the general student body booed, and Joe Atta-Mensah became immortalised as a national hero for democracy, even though he had to flee the country immediately for his life, for just asking that question, and to complete his education in Canada. At least, it was thanks to this question that we got the early warning signals about the kind of beast we have in town.

And so it was, that throughout the rule of the PNDC, anyone who would call for the return to constitutional rule would be tagged "enemy of the revolution" with dire consequences to their persons. So, it is a little bit of an under-statement to simply state that Rawlings had no intention of handing over power and cede to a democratic form of governance. He had to be ejected from office under intense national and international pressure. Little wonder that he is scheming to come back! He is still not convinced that it is game-over.

It was not an easy struggle to get Rawlings to cede to the demands of Ghana's pro-democracy forces and to return the country to constitutional rule. It was equally not easy to get Rawlings to concede defeat to the NPP, had it not been the fact that his own flag-bearer was a gracious gentleman who would prefer to be known as "Asomdweehene". NDC Presidential candidate, Professor John Evans Atta-Mills conceded defeat to the chagrin of Mr. Jerry John Rawlings! It is thus against such a background that one should understand the basis of the "I am back! I am back!" syndrome, as nothing other than an inordinate and utterly disgusting lust for power.



"Traitor!", "Team B!", and "Go slow!"

Now, let's fast-forward to January 2011. A few weeks after the famous "I am back! I am back!" outbursts, President Atta-Mills did something that literally tingled violently in Rawlings' tympanic membranes. President Mills had wasted no time at all in making it clear to Rawlings that he was his own man, and would not be pushed around by anybody, not even Rawlings! The first issue on the table was about ministerial appointments. President Mills clearly had some ideas of his own but preferred to follow the laid down procedure. Rawlings did not only have a definitive list, but a comprehensive list of the entire cabinet to be appointed for the newly-elected Mills Administration. And contrary to his expectations, Atta-Mills, following the laid down procedure, would only pick and choose from the Rawlings list and not accept it hook, line, and sinker!

For the Rawlingses that was an unpardonable hubris. Thus an understandable reading into the "I am back! I am back" declarations of Rawlings translates into an expectation on his part to run the country by remote control. Indeed, there were rumours that he expected to literally make political appointments with simple SMS text messages to the President on his mobile phone! Thus for Rawlings, who left power reluctantly as a dictator, "I am back! I am back!" takes an ominous and familiar meaning. And the democratically elected Professor of law did very well to put this ignorant upstart who could not even pass his General Certificate of Examination, "O" Level, in his proper place!

If you want to see how an empty head that is full of himself looks like, never miss the opportunity to observe this man carefully whenever the occasion presents itself. Attention, if you are the expressive type, I recommend that you do so safely from a television screen. He can read your thoughts from the way you smile at him and react impulsively. And this could be dangerous. He once threw a heavy ashtray which narrowly missed the head of Professor Mawusi Dake, simply because he did not like the smile on his face!

So you can imagine the level of punishment Rawlings would have reserved for "the mortuary man", if he could have his way! That simply reminds me of the Ayatollah Khomeni fatwa on Salmon Rushdie: "He deserves, at the very minimum, a sentence of death"! It gives me shivers in the spine as my mind feebly wonders what the maximum sentence would look like. Rawlings, of course, did not use so many words. He used the code word: "traitor"! That was sufficient. Very few people lived to see the light of day with such a label, when Rawlings was the "monarch" of all he could survey in the heydays of the PNDC.

 As for the ministers, as soon as the official list was published, Rawlings simply cross-checked with his own list, the "Team A", so those on the official list automatically became "Team B"! It is actually amazing how the Rawlingses replaced the opposition NPP to become the principal adversaries of the President at the very beginning of the Mills Administration over the issue of appointments. Even Akufo-Addo publicly chose not to criticize the President during his first hundred days in office. This would not be the case with the Rawlingses, who wanted the immediate imprisonment of all NPP officials for corruption, never mind the evidence!

Mills only fault was that he needed the evidence to prove the case in a court of law. Sooner than later, he would be nicknamed "Go slow" for not moving fast enough to jail those "corrupt politicians" in the NPP. To my eternal shock and amazement, I saw NPP supporters applauding Rawlings for calling President Mills "Go slow" because the President was insisting on the rule of the law and would not wrongfully jail them! It was a form of suicidal stupidity that made me feel very sad indeed for the future of our democracy, and the quality of the grey matter in the heads of some of these NPP supporters!



Now, Listen, You "Greedy Bastard", "We are back"!!!

There is something about "greedy bastards" that I find very curious, especially coming from the lips Rawlings. This is because in several interviews, Rawlings himself had made it clear that he is indeed a bastard whose Scottish father, Mr. John, did not even want to see for just an instant. He did not even want telephone calls from him! He says so himself, so we all know he is a bastard in the most classical sense of the word.

As for being greedy, what do you say of a poor Flight Lieutenant, who drinks "apio" on credit, eats "yore ke gari" on credit, smokes marijuana on credit, who suddenly finds himself with a free house, free booze, free Koforidua weeds (and sometimes from Tudu), free 555 State Express cigarettes, free car, free petrol, free driver, free eggs, and free akple and free okro soup with goat or cat meat as an option? And at the end of the month, a very fat salary on top of all that? if such a person does not want to relinquish power after misruling the country for nineteen good years, who do you think is the greedy bastard here? After killing people far less corrupt than himself, for being corrupt? How would you call such a genuine bastard, if not "a minimum" appellation of  "a very greedy bastard indeed"?

The strange thing about all this insatiable desire for power is that the struggle is always about Rawlings. It is not that he has anything special to offer the nation. Rawlings is ever ready to try anything to get to power, or to stay in power, just for the sake of power. He could not even be bothered about an ideological orientation. Rawlings was ready to try everything from the most rabid of neo-liberal economic policies such as structural adjustment and deregulation to undigested revanchist revolutionary rhetoric.

Rawlings is a corrupt person who never stops complaining about corruption, a vote rigger who never stops complaining about vote rigging, a coup plotter who never stops complaining of coup plotters, a dictator who never stops complaining of dictatorship, a greedy bastard who never stops complaining of greedy bastards, and a murderer who never stops complaining of murderers! He is the only known Ghanaian with the greatest amount of Ghanaian blood on his hands than any individual in the entire history of the Ghanaian people! He has more blood of innocent Ghanaians on his hands than the average armed-robber! He surpasses the atrocities of slave traders centuries before! Yet, after a brutal misrule over this country for nineteen years, he wants his wife to be our President, and roam around again, throwing his pompous weight about, half stoned, half sane, as Ghana's First Gentleman, instead of spending time in prison for his heinous crimes!

I remember meeting one of the soldiers who took part in the operation to free Rawlings from the MI guardroom in the early hours of Monday, June 4, 1979 and transported him to the Achimota Forest where they had established a Command Post. It was at the Passport Office which had just then been moved to the Airport Residential Area, as a result of a fire outbreak in the old passport office. I met a fellow student-leader there, who was with him and he recognized me. This colleague introduced to him as a student leader fiercely opposed to the PNDC dictatorship. He gave me a hug and gave his name orally as "Bezenkyi". It was and not spelt to me, nor written down, so I wonder if I have the spelling right. He added however, that "Bezenkyi" means "black blood" in Hausa. (I wish a Hausa-speaking reader would be kind enough to correct the spelling for me!) I also learnt that he had just been released from prison where he underwent severe torture.

Bezenkyi told me he had been tortured in prison and he had his fingers and his skin to prove it. His skin was peeling off, and his fingers had been broken. He could not move them. He told me they did that to him because they wanted to make sure he could not handle a gun and shoot with it any more. But with a swing of his arm, with his broken fingers cupped together like a claw, he said to me, "I can still throw grenades!" That was the only time he smiled. One thing he told me, that made me chuckle, was that Rawlings did not know those who were sent to liberate him beforehand, they arrived unexpectedly and so it must have taken him by surprise and he mistook them for the authorities who had ordered for his execution, so early in the morning.

It should not be forgotten that Rawlings' revendez-vous with death had been poignantly brought home to him by no other person than General Ollesegun Obassanjo, who on a state visit to Ghana, had asked to see him on Friday, 1st June 1979, three days before the June 4 operation. Obassanjo had reportedly told Rawlings upon seeing him, in the pidgin English, "Ibi [Is it] you this fiangle [tiny] boy who dey cause trouble for your contrey [country]? Like you dey for my contrey, Satorday, [Saturday] Satorday self, no go reach you!"  [you would be dead before Saturday!] Thus it was that when his liberators broke into the guardroom, a surprised and scared Rawlings clutched to the bars of the guardroom and would not allow himself to be taken away!

"I want to see my mother before I die!" Rawlings screamed. "I want to see my mother before I die!" He was crying hysterically like a baby, and actually pissed in his trousers like a baby. The noise he was making could have jeopardized the entire operation and endangered the lives of his liberators, so he was given some dirty slaps to shut up, as it was calmly explained to him that they were there to liberate him. The part of the piss in the trousers and the courage in the eyes of Bezenkyi was very contrasting. He was talking freely knowing very well that he was being followed by the BNI. He said when they even went to liberate Rawlings, he had been so scared that Rawlings pissed in his trousers. In fact, I still remember the way Bezenkyi narrated this part of the story:

 "He even piss for trouser!", he said, still with an angry face.

It was just too difficult for me to keep myself from laughing as a sign of respect for his feelings, but I could not help laughing. I honestly did not want to laugh, at least, not at that time, but it was far too much more than my endurance level! I do regret that and I feel sorry about that. Please forgive my sinful sense of humour! I perfectly sympathize with Bezenkyi and the other Nkrumahists who freed Rawlings from the guardroom, most of whom were later intimidated to flee the land and go into exile, imprisoned, tortured, or simply killed.

The events that political analysts and historians refer to as the June 4 Uprising is a culmination of several historical processes which even pre-date Kwame Nkrumah and Wallace Johnson, even though these have been very instrumental in the development of working class consciousness among the mass of our population and mass agitations and popular struggle already had their symbols such as the Sekondi Railway workers' "Bottom Tree". Rawlings hi-jacked this struggle and bastardised it just for his own personal aggrandisement. This is my thesis.

This is not to say that I did not support Rawlings on June 4. I did. I would have been happy to have been a part of the team to liberate a man who is also fighting against military corruption which had become so obvious. I would not have risked my life just for Rawlings, but help to end the suffering of an overwhelming majority of Ghanaians, under an unelected, corrupt, and irresponsible military dictatorship, who cared less about the future of the country and the conditions under which people were living. I therefore salute all those who went and liberated him from prison. How could they have possibly known that they were making a mistake?

Rawlings is a political mistake that only Nkrumahists who helped him to power can correct, and I am happy that it is no person than Rawlings himself who is blaming Nkrumahists for trying to correct their own mistake! After so many years of betrayal, what does he expect? I salute all those Nkrumahists within the NDC who are keen on correcting this mistake! It makes the NDC very attractive and tempting to join; because of Rawlings, I have never found the NDC to be an option for me. He once angrily removed a badge with Nkrumah's head embossed on it, from the chest of Mr. Kojo Eshun, who used to run the Nsamankow Press, at North Kaneshi, Accra, and that was the last straw for me, even though he was no such great fan even much earlier than that for other mischiefs.

Nkrumahists in the NDC must tell the Rawlingstas that “Nkrumahists can also be Ababio! You are not the only Ababio in town. We are asking you to go and come no more!” If President Mills wins this contest, I might officially join NDC myself. And I wish someone would tell Bezenkyi to do the same if he is still alive, so that together, we can go and tell Rawlings: "JJ, We are back! You can piss for trouser"!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!
Cheers!
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro
E-Mail: nanaakyeamensah@gmail.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheOdikro
Blog: http://nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com/
 





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Akufo-Addo, Mind The Gap! It is A Trap! Part 3

Akufo-Addo, Mind The Gap! It is A Trap! Part 3 (Final) 

by Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.

I read to my very profound amusement, the news caption, "Nana Addo hugs Mills as preacher man inspires", Ghanaweb General News of Monday, 14 March 2011. The story began with, "President John Evans Atta Mills and his political rival, Nana Akufo-Addo were on Sunday March 13, moved by a preacher man’s sermon to shake hands and hug each other to end what appears to be a frosty relationship between the two in the last few months."

There is a Akan proverb, which says, "When you see a frog hoping out of its hole on a sunny afternoon, you have to know immediately he is running away from something"! I knew Akufo-Addo was going to mellow down his "All-Die-Be-Die!" nonsense because it was politically toxic and extremely suicidal to launch a campaign platform in 2011 Ghana! They have insisted he would never apologize for the inward-looking, ethnocentric, and intellectually bankrupt slogan. We have been offered suggestions that by saying "We Akans are not cowards", Mr. Akufo-Addo was referring to the NPP, which is national in character and not necessarily a tribal Akan party!

In other words, the want to tell us that the "Akan" nature of the NPP is national in character! There is no way Akufo-Addo is going to get out of this hole without the ladder of "Excuse me, fellow countrymen, I was wrong to use the words "We Akans are not cowards... 2012 is going to be All die be die!"  There is no amount of hugging that can doctor the image of a tribal warlord beating war drums even before the vote! Considering the fact that Akufo-Addo's own body guards have been very notorious in violently beating up the body guards of his principal opponent at Cape Coast in the last elections, the camera man of the ex-President Rawlings in Kumasi, he sounds like a mad person complaining about himself!

I was speaking to a friend six months before the elections, and I was told that the NDC was being increasingly perceived as aggressive, violent, and too-much warlike, and so they are not liked by many people. Then six months later, the same person told me the situation had changed and that the NDC's Presidential candidate has managed to keep his title of "Asomdweehene", the "King of Peace", and the NPP was losing because they have become too aggressive and some of them are even looking for a civil war.

This was not music only to my ears, it was a confirmation of my own thoughts. I knew instinctively when I heard Akufo-Addo on the radio, not even bothering to say "We NPP" but "We Akans are not cowards... All die be die!" , that he was finished, caput! Yes the Kapwewe is caput without the saving grace of opening his toothless mouth to say "I am sorry for threatening you with a tribal war instead of a right-wing political one from the NPP. I meant to say the NPP and not Akans who are the cowards! The error is deeply regretted!" Is this too much to ask?

This is the first sign that Akufo-Addo is feeling the heat of his pugilistic, ethnocentric and extremely stupid comments. I saw it coming. He now wants to present himself as a peaceful and reconciliatory individual by pretending to hug the President. This is the nearest any one can squeeze out of an arrogant individual of that calibre. It is comforting to note that not even the arrogant aristocratic and self-appointed elites can feel the heat of public disapproval. This is good news. How can any political leader in Ghana be able identity publicly with one ethnic group and threaten death and destruction to non-Akans, and get away with it?

As usual, he has shown no intention of rendering his unqualified apologies for this unqualified nonsense! The Akan-tribalist presidential candidate of the NPP is clearly retreating from the aggressive and warmongering image he has cut for himself. Like a beast that defecates in public places, and fails even to clean its own anus, Akufo-Addo fails to render apologies and resorts to hugging!  Is this man too short to say "I am sorry"? Is it because of his arrogance that he is not able to come out to publicly say "I am sorry, what I said was a slip of the tongue, or in a bad taste!"?

Even if he had said, "We members of the NPP are not cowards", it would still have been a very low point in his political career! But coming out to say that "We Akans are not cowards" and promising hell fire and brimstones on innocent Ghanaians simply because it is his last chance at the presidential race is extremely disgusting!  He should stop the hugging and apologize for the nonsense! Hugging President Mills shall never help, even though we know he is trying to beat a retreat!


Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Sincerely,
The Odikro, Nana Akyea Mensah

Twitter: / twitter.com/TheOdikro,
Blogs: Feature Articles: nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com,
Comments: theodikro.blogspot.com) 

See also; 

Akufo-Addo, Mind The Gap! It is A Trap! Part 1

Akufo-Addo, Mind The Gap! It is A Trap! Part 2

Akufo-Addo, Mind The Gap! It is A Trap! Part 2

By Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro.


A Rejoinder to: '“All-Die-Be-Die” Clarion Bests Mills’ State-of-the-Nation Address' Part 2, by Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame.

The more Okoampa writes on this subject, the angrier I become. I already feel angrier than the reader is going to discern from this article. This is because I am deliberately controlling myself. I just want to make it clear that where there are issues that involve the life and death of innocent people, I am in no mood to play ball! I have therefore decided to issue a very stern warning that Okoampa to end immediately the serialization of the current series of nonsense emanating from him, otherwise he and Akufo-Addo shall see the temperature rise in corresponding rejoinders to each article he writes on this subject.

I don't mind if Okoampa heeds this warning or not. It would be a pleasure to deal with both Akufo-Addo and Okoampa at the same time. This is going to be like killing two birds with a stone, or killing two goats with one kick! By this, I don't mean physically. I mean it politically. Akufo-Addo is going to remain alive but politically impotent because of his own stupid utterances, silly spin-doctors like Okoampa, coupled with the arrogance of the Akyem dwarf!

Since this is the first time I am issuing such a warning, I shall control myself with grace under pressure. But I do not warn people like Okoampa twice! I shall begin hostilities in the very next article. Suffice it to state once more that yet again Okoampa has left a hiatus between his topic and the content. I wonder if he has managed even to convince himself that the "all did be die" nonsense of Akufo-Addo "Bests Mills’ State-of-the-Nation Address'"!

In his latest article under review, here is one example Okoampa gives to show that Akufo-Addo's "We Akans are not cowards, ....Ghanaians want us to be in power, so all die be die! All die be die!" Okoampa writes:

“The Ministry of Education will be working in conjunction with the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture[,] as well as the relevant State and private entities[,] to reinforce Arts and Culture Festivals in second[-]cycle institutions.” If the preceding is not an epic disappointment of apocalyptic proportions, then we don't know what else it is!

If reinforcing "Arts and Culture Festivals in second[-]cycle institutions”, is an "an epic disappointment of apocalyptic proportions", then what about the spectre of an Akyem dwarf inciting his tribesmen to wage a tribal war in modern day Ghana?

Here is another gap Akufo-Addo has to mind. Okoampa sets out to correct the English of the President, even though I am yet to see him correct "All die be die", which is certainly not in regular English usage. Here is the correction he made to the President's speech:

“Madam Speaker, we are going to make an effort to reorient the psyche [sic] of our youth[s] towards what we consider to be Ghanaian values – especially on the issue of moral consciousness.”

Funny thing is that just in the next paragraph we see Okoampa himself using the same word he has corrected! Okoampa writes:

"Needless to say, we had anticipated the President to highlight the training of more indigenous language and culture teachers, such as has been done at the Ajumako School of Ghanaian Languages, in order to enhance the inculcation of positive Ghanaian/African cultural values into our youths." Please note his use of the word "our youths" and compare this with what he he highlighted as a mistake in the President's speech: "our youth[s]". Is this an English professor or just an ordinary idiot?

In all fairness, this article is a little bit better than the part one, for the simple reason that it attempts to raise some issues of relevance to the title. Okoampa writes:

'Ultimately, what was also interesting about President Mills' third “State-of-the-Nation Address” was the shockingly, albeit predictably, infantile manner in which Ghana's Chief-of-State attempted to impugn Nana Akufo-Addo's incontrovertibly apt call for members of the main opposition New Patriotic Party to vigorously defend themselves against executive-condoned, seasonal NDC assaults on Danquah-Busia-Dombo partisans. Once again, “take a reading”.

Here Okoampa is already rewriting a history that is less than two weeks old! Had Akufo Addo said "We the members of the NPP" instead of saying "We Akans", what Okoampa is writing would have held water. I would have been worried, but not horrified and shocked in this way. Akufo-Addo said "we Akans", not "we NPP", and that is specifically the reason why he owes Ghanaians an apology.

On the contrary, the text Okoampa cites to be worse than the "all die be die" nonsense is not very much different from the kind of sense I am busy pumping into his head:

“And let no one think that inciting or priming others for violence is the way to determine the outcome of elections.” And still further: “We will not sit idly by and allow some persons to throw this country into a state of chaos just to satisfy their self-centered and inordinate political desires.”'

In what way does "We Akans are not cowards" and we are ready to fight our way to power, "all die be die" bests the State of the Nation Address delivered by the President in Parliament recently? Ha? Did you hear the President uttering anything remotely resembling this nonsense?

In the first place, who told you that all die be die? You cannot compare the death of Jesus who was an innocent person, with the death of the two other murderers who accompanied him on his left and right on the cross! You cannot say that when someone dies from malaria it is the same as the ritual murder of Nana Akyea Mensah, the Odikro of Apedwa, whom the uncle of Akufo-Addo, Dr. J.B. Danquah, and his own father, Edward Akufo-Addo were fully apprised of the details and probably involved in the conspiracy to commit such a heinous human sacrifice!

There is a proverb which says, "a snake shall always give birth to something long!" And I suppose that in the case of dwarfs, a dwarf shall always give birth to something short! Ritual murderers like that! All die no be die! Walahi!

I end here because I do not want to lose my temper yet! Let me see a part three of the same nonsense from Kwame Okoampa, and he will begin to regret the day on which he was born! Who born dwarf? Sorry, who born dog?

Over to you Kwame Okoampa!

Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Cheers!
Nana Akyea Mensah, The Odikro

Twitter: /twitter.com/TheOdikro,
Blogs: Feature Articles: nanaakyeamensah.blogspot.com,
Comments: theodikro.blogspot.com)