The problem we have in this country is that we don’t train more psychiatrists in our Medical Schools. More Gynecologists, Dentists and Opticians are trained while many of us suffer from madness without any medical care.
They wait until we strip naked and eat and drink from the gutters before they take us to Pantang, Ankafo or Asylum Down where psychiatric hospitals are located.
The unfortunate ones are taken to prayer camps where they are chained to trees and treated like slaves waiting at the Cape Coast Castle to be shipped away to the Caribbean. Very sad indeed.
Another problem we have is that when we see anyone in suit or chiefs in their traditional cloths with ‘Ahenema’ (Native sandals) to match, we see all of them as normal. Unfortunately, we see the mechanic or farmer in their working gears as mad persons. That is why we send people suffering from hallucinations and sex maniacs to ordinary hospitals instead of psychiatric hospitals to be cured.
The truth is that many of us can’t differentiate between a madman and a normal human being because of misconception. To many of us Alhajis and Pastors don’t go mad but only ‘wee’ smokers and truck pushers do.
When our ex-president, John Dramani Mahama, in his attempt as usual, tried to bastardize the free SHS to his gullible listeners that the food which is given to students to eat in our boarding schools is not fit for his dogs to eat, I quickly went for my dusty Webster’s Dictionary of Contemporary English to fine the meaning of Mad.
Listen to my lexicon: Mad: Ill, Insane, Extremely foolish or ill-advised. If indeed, it is the former president who made that unfortunate statement that I heard him loud and clear on radio, then he can easily be described as ‘MAD’ or ‘EXTREMELY FOOLISH’ if not ‘ILL-ADVISED’.
What Mr. Mahama tried to tell me in particular is that my grandson who is in great Prempeh College by the grace of free SHS eats what is not good for his dogs to eat.
In fact, he wants to tell me that I am irresponsible and do not care a hoot about the welfare of my grandson who was orphaned at an early age of five years and had to stay with me all these years.
Millions of Ghanaians and students in the SHS have been insulted by this desperate and power-drunk politician. And this is a man who wants to be given the opportunity again to rule Ghana, a country of more than thirty million souls. When he was making this idiotic statement, it did not dawn on him that he was also insulting the sensibilities of Cooks, Matrons, Headmasters, Headmistresses and Housemasters of the Senior High Schools.
He is by his statement telling these ladies and gentlemen that they are irresponsible and criminals. People can decide to stay acquiesce on this serious issue but not your irrepressible and unbreakable Earth Angel Gabriel.
After all, who am I a Zongo boy for? This man will regret for vomiting this rot. Somebody should tell this ungrateful man that if even our children will eat cow dung in order to get education to face the future with confidence, so be it.
This is a man whose father was a Cabinet Minister in Dr. Nkrumah’s regime but because Dr. Nkrumah introduced free education in the Northern and Upper Regions, he was removed from his Secondary School in Accra and sent to the Northern Region to enjoy free education. Apart from a few years that he worked at the Japan Embassy in Accra, he cannot boast of working anywhere in Ghana or abroad. He entered into politics and made a fortune so today he has the guts to tell us this balderdash.
In fact, this is a man who has collected End of Service Benefits as a Member of Parliament for 12 years, Deputy Minister for four years, Substantive Minster for 8 years, Vice President for four years, President for four years and topped all these up with his salaries and ’awoof’ stolen money only to turn around and treat the good people of Ghana with disrespect and contempt.
And we have human beings who were conceived by their mothers for nine months clapping for this man when he made these irresponsible and stupid comments!. You see, when you are an elderly person and you speak and act like a small boy, you demean your image and honour.
If you tell me that my grandson who is enjoying free SHS at Prempeh College is eating food which your dogs will not eat, then I have the right to tell you that your dogs are eating good food because unlike me, you have enough stolen booties to provide your dogs with Milo and toasted bread for their breakfast and fried rice with chicken for their lunch. Tit for tat. Butter for bread.
If Mr. Mahama thinks his continues insults are what will make him a president again, then he should rethink. They say respect is reciprocal. If you are an ex-president and you think you have the license to insult anyhow, you must remember that everybody has the right to react to your insults.
After all, Mr. Mahama is not the only person who has a tongue and blood running through his veins. Do you think the late President Mills will ever behave the way Mr. Mahama is behaving? Has Mr. Mahama ever sat down to observe how ex-President Kufuor speaks and acts? Can’t Mahama see the respect that Ghanaians give to the Gentle Giant? If Mr. Mahama wants to be treated same then he must listen to his handlers. And does he have handlers at all?
The truth is that the man has hijacked the NDC with the support of Asiedu Nketia and so he thinks he is the master. He has deliberately sidelined all those who matter in the NDC and walking tall with chest out like Colossus.
But his undeserved superiority should stay within the NDC where he reigns supreme. If he brings it to the backyard of people like me, a commoner, he will smell pepper because nobody fights me and survives.
The Akans say everybody has red saliva in his or her mouth but we always spit out the white one because we want to live in peace. For now Mr. Mahama has descended from the moral high grounds that former Heads of State stand and has entered into the gutter.
We will also go down the gutter with him and make ourselves dirty with him. After all, I have nothing to lose but my Fountain pen and hard won reputation as a versatile columnist.
Since he started his campaign for the NDC primaries, he has shifted his focus on why he should be given the chance by the delegates to lead the party one more time and has turned himself to an elected Presidential Candidate seeking for votes from Ghanaians.
Everywhere he goes, he fires unguarded missiles and throws salvos from all cylinders at the NPP and the President as if that is what will get him votes from the delegates. A man who lives in a glass house and continues to throw stones should lookout for madmen who know how to throw stones better than he does. His glasshouse could be shattered in a matter of time.
In the normal circumstances, one should not use the type of insulting words I am using against a former Head of State and a man who is supposed to be a statesman. It is Mahama who has opened his underbelly for such attacks.
Unless he stops his vitriolic invectives, some of us will continue to treat him with absolute contempt and spit fire at the time of our choosing. And he can’t do ‘foko’! After all, he is not the only one who is issued with Ghana Card and he doesn’t own any monopoly over insults. Excuse me while I refill my Fountain pen.
By Eric Bawah