It was a very normal day like many others in the nation’s capital. The sun was smiling beautifully in the sky and giving hope to the masses that things were going to be okay. Little did we know that Thursday, November 12, 2020 was going to go down in the country’s history as one of its saddest days.
My phone hadn’t been close to me for about four hours because I had some family exigencies to attend to that morning. When I finally went for it, the numerous missed calls and WhatsApp messages gave me the signal that something serious had happened. All the messages had the same content –Â the demise of our former President, H.E. Jerry John Rawlings, aka Dr. Boom. I made a few calls, which confirmed that indeed Dr. Jerry Boom had joined his ancestors in Samanfoland.
Dr. Boom could be described from different perspectives – a coup-maker, a charismatic leader, a populist, a fine pilot, a proud father and husband, a reluctant Democrat etc. Whichever angle one looks at him from, one cannot deny the fact that he is an enigma. Indeed, for a man who ruled the country for almost two decades, the country’s history can never be complete without such a character.
I did admire his personality, but never admired his revolutionary roots and way of doing politics. This is, however, not the time to use my microscopic lens to scrutinise the man’s revolutionary and political life.
It is an open secret that the late president, during his sojourn on the land of the living, had the rare ability to court controversies. Even in his death, he still wields that power. What an enigmatic figure!
Hours after his demise, photos of late Dr. Boom’s alleged baby mama, Nathalie Yamb, and 21-year-old son flooded the internet and people are shocked that they never heard of this woman when he was alive. The veracity of her claim is yet to be certified but we are very certain that it has generated a lot of hubbub.
Trust me, Abusuapanin; I’m more appalled at the hypocrisy on display than the controversy Nathalie has generated. It is very sickening to see people who blatantly disrespected the late president now calling him ‘hero’.
A classic example is the hypocrisy of the man who once referred to him as ‘the Barking Dog’. Yes, you are right! General Ntontom is the man I refer to. We all saw how he publicly ridiculed the late president and treated him with disdain. Is it not ironical that General Ntontom now wants him and his party folks to be given the sole right and responsibility of honouring ‘the Dead Barking Dog’?
Again, we all saw how ‘the babies with sharp teeth’ spared no effort in sinking their teeth deep into his flesh to cause him excruciating pain. For sure, tears from such a group for the late Papa J is nothing but crocodile tears. Such hypocrisy amplifies the notion that we glorify the dead more than the living.
The story is told of a man who was hospitalised for days with no member of his family willing to foot his bills. Realising how precarious his situation had become, he pleaded with the doctor to tell his folks that he had passed away and he would see how quickly they would pay the so-called mortuary fees and other expenses. The doctor declined at first for ethical reasons, but eventually gave in because of the greater good.
True to the man’s prediction, his folks began to shed crocodile tears as they doled out many cowries to cover the necessary expenditure. You can only imagine their shock when they discovered days later that their presumed dead relative was alive, and that it was only a trick to make them foot their relative’s hospital bills.
It may not be a true story, but there is something to learn from it. The moral is that we should respect the living more than the dead, and not the reverse as we commonly see in our society.
Abusuapanin, those thinking of gaining political points from the demise of the former president will laugh at the wrong side of their mouth. If General Ntontom and his ilk couldn’t make peace with the man on the land of the living, what makes them think they can make peace with his corpse?
Yes, he was their party’s founder – whom they disrespected and abandoned at the end. But he was a former president as well. He had his faults because he was human, but he did his best for his country. Let the barking stop now because the man deserves a state burial, and not a party burial from a bunch of self-serving hypocrites.
Till we meet in Samanfoland in the distant future, fare thee well, Papa J.
See you next week for another interesting konkonsa, Deo volente!