All along, particularly in the run-up to the 2016 general election, I tried to avoid attacking this man called Appiah Stadium, a dismissed security man at the Baba Yara Sports stadium in Kumasi. I avoided the guy because he didn’t and still doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. You, my dear and cherished reader knows very well that I don’t suffer fools so gladly. It is only the NDC that will give prominence to a buffoon like Appiah Stadium. When he turned his gun on Madam Anita De Sooso, a former Women Organizer of the NDC and former Deputy National Director of NADMO, I knew it will come to that. The NDC went into the bush and brought home a baby tiger and when the tiger grew paws it decided to pounce on its master.
I will not recount the filthy words he used on then candidate Nana Akufo Addo because I am too cultured to toe that line. During the 2016 electioneering campaign Nana Addo mustered the courage to swallow all the insults, vilification and sheer impudent snobs heaped on him by people like Appiah Stadium but now that majority of Ghanaians have voted overwhelmingly for the man to become the Executive President of Ghana, people like Appiah Stadium must be stopped in their tracks. Appiah Stadium should try and visit the private residence of Nana Addo and see the type of private security men at the place and compare them to his sorry and miserable state and he will realize that the man, President Akufo Addo is a hard nut to crack.
This moron, like his other counterparts of the Montie 3 contributed immensely to the defeat of the NDC at the polls in 2016 and yet the NDC leadership continues to entertain such buffoons. When my last son read this piece about Appiah Stadium after the draft on my computer, he flew into tantrums and asked me not to spend my pretty time writing about such half-wits. The boy is my editor in residence, you know, and he wanted his old man to use his time to write on important things and not to waste time on bootlickers like Appiah Stadium. I have to disregard the piece of advice of my boy because I cannot sit down for an upstart like Appiah Stadium to take our democratically elected president to the cleaners in the name of politics. One reason my boy objected to me writing this piece was that Appiah Stadium cannot read and understand what I write but I was able to convince him that people will read and explain the contents to him.
I cannot tell the age of Appiah Stadium but the last time I saw this beggar, I could easily see he was a kid; forty years ago. In 1975 when the then Head of State of Ghana, General Kutu Acheampong wanted to introduce the UNIGOV it was Nana Addo and the likes of General Afrifa, K.A Gbedemah and others who formed the Movement for Freedom and Justice to challenge General Acheampong and I wonder if Appiah Stadium was born then. And you know what, Nana Akufo Addo was the Secretary General of that movement. The man and his counterparts did put their noses on the grindstone for democracy to thrive in Ghana only for a person who lives from hand to mouth to throw caution to the dogs and insult him. No, we ain’t gonna allow that!
Mr. Richard Adjei Ofori Atta who is sojourned in the US and who has threatened to take Appiah Stadium to court should rest his nerves. We have given that idiot of a serial caller too long a rope and surely he is going to use the same rope to hang himself. From this day onwards, if Appiah Stadium descends into the gutter we are also going to get down into the gutter with him and teach that unintelligent beast a lesson worth learning. And after the duel in the gutter, some of the dirt will be splashed on the faces of his paymasters. I want Appiah Stadium to know that we all have red saliva in our mouths but we decide to spit only the white saliva for the sake of peace. But if insult is the language the likes of Appiah Stadium understands, we will hence forth speak that language with him.
Did I hear Appiah Stadium has rendered an unqualified apology to the President and Ghanaians for that matter? Well, the president has the right to accept the apology but not some of us. Where I come from, our elders say the man who has taken more time to destroy your image will find it difficult to go back and lick the rot that he spat out. Appiah Stadium has had his chance so he should sit back and listen to how filthy words are used on people like him. He will then realize that what he was doing to Nana Akufo Addo was not pleasant enough.
It is good the President has instructed the police that he is not interested in the case. That is the mark of a statesman of his caliber. Ex-president Kufour did a similar thing to the late Dr. Asemfoforo at Sunyani when the region took its turn in the People’s Assembly concept introduced by the Kufour administration. Dr. Asemfoforo had joined the queue to ask the president a question and when he got the opportunity he rained insults on the meek and gentle president. The visibly angry NPP youth pounced on him but President Kufour implored them to spare the guy because democracy comes along with such untoward behaviours. He instructed the security men around to make sure no one touched the guy. In fact, Dr. Asemfoforo was even driven to the residency of the Regional Minister where he was treated with a delicious meal. When the crest-fallen Asemfoforo returned to Accra he went straight to the residency of President Kufour to render an apology. That is the mark of NDC people: insult and apologize.
Similarly, in Accra when Greater Accra had its turn on the People’s Assembly, then unemployed Okudjeto Ablakwa literally thumped the nose of President Kufour when he took his turn to ask a question. When he finished with his impudent snob, the president politely called him back and told him to respect elders because one day he too will be in a responsible position and would not like people to speak to him the way he did. Okudjeto walked away with a bowed head. A few years later, Okudjeto became a Member of Parliament for the North Tongu constituency and later appointed by President Mills as a Deputy Minister of Education. You see how the world is? I know by now, Mr. Okudjeto Ablakwa has regretted the insolence he portrayed on President Kufour. Today, I do not think Okudjeto will be happy when an upstart treats him the way he treated President Kufour.
The late President Mills also did something unique like what Kufour and Akufo Addo did. A certain guy once insulted the sitting president and he was put behind bars about to be charged with insulting behavior. When Mills heard of the news he quickly ordered the police to release the guy. I really doff my hat for these three gentlemen because they knew without freedom of speech, nothing changes and surely without the freedom of expression there can be no social change and development is unthinkable. That was why the first action Nana Akufo Addo took when he was the Attorney General and Minister of Justice was to repeal the Criminal Libel law. He knew there will be people like this blockheaded guy called Appiah Stadium who will go overboard but surely not all Ghanaian will stoop so low like the way Mr. Stadium did.
I will never doff my hat for Mr. Mahama who looked the other way when Mr. Fadi Dabbousi was unjustly arrested by the BNI at the Kotoka International Airport when he arrived from Lebanon in the run-up to the 2016 general elections. Mr. Fadi was bundled into a vehicle and driven to the Headquarters of the BNI where he was put in cells for three good days. His lawyer, Mr. Hassan Tampuli was denied access to the poor guy. His offense? He had written a book titled: “59 years of Ghana to nowhere: The future is now” The book was critical of Mr. Mahama and so he did not take it lightly. The BNI ransacked his apartment and all the copies of the book were taken away. The poor guy was later released without any charge. It was a matter of “I will show you where power lies”
You see, wherever those in power feel they are gradually losing grip of the power they wield, the persecution of men and women of letters is always becomes the central component of oppression. Defeat was staring Mr. Mahama in the face so all what he could do was to use the BNI to oppress writers who are just carriers of the message and the voice of the voiceless. It did not dawn on Mr. Mahama and the BNI that writing is one of the noblest acts of liberty-and the vehicle of this liberty is the word. Throughout the eight years that the NDC ruled this nation, my dear wife used to pester me to stop writing because she knew what the NDC, an offshoot of the PNDC could do to me. She eventually became a human Thesaurus as she clandestinely edited my articles before I emailed them. She felt and still feel some of the words I use are too acidic. But who am I Angel Gabriel for? It is not for nothing that only Angel Gabriel among the thousands, if not millions of angels up there in the firmament was chosen to deliver controversial messages to mankind. And you know what? When Zachariah doubted the message delivered by Angel Gabriel, he (Zachariah) was made dumb. Wanna go dumb? Anyway, excuse me while I help my daughter pack her trunk, student mattress and ‘chop box’ to start her free SHS. Babiaa awu!!! And did I hear Peter Anarfi-Mensah, the former Ashanti Regional Minister under the John Mahama administration referring to the President as a bastard because of the arrest of Appiah Stadium? Well, his case borders on stupidity and you can’t arrest somebody who is stupid. Simplista. Let him swim in his folly for every dog has got its day. Angel Gabriel is still hovering in the firmament. Who knows, Anarfi-Mensah will have his time with Angel Gabriel as he goes about fooling and messing around.
By Eric Bawah