POINT OF ORDER
BY
KWAME GYASI
Email: makgyasi@ug.edu.gh
KWAME GYASI
“When you are given an American Ford Expedition car bribe, say it is a Japanese Toyota V8 car gift”
— Anon.
When I was growing up in my holy paternal village of Adansi Brofoyedru, there was this woman who did not suffer fools easily. She once urged her children to beat up any person who displayed idiotic behaviour towards her. The children asked their mother if they answered to her call and did her bidding and were taken to court what would happened to them. The woman responded that if they were fined, she would pay. Then the children asked their mother in case they were sentenced to a term in prison without the option of a fine would the mother agree to serve the prison term for them. Your guess to the answer is as good as mine.
Once upon a time, in the history of this country, there arose a lean hungry looking fellow with the countenance of a disenfranchised refugee who thought he had the conscience of society locked up in his brains. He viewed his own failure as that of the society that had been infested with deep seated corruption and had reached a critical mass and was at a take off point for redemption. He galvanised the disheveled mental thoughts of a population, a large majority of whom were prepared to catch any straw to avoid drowning in turbulent waters swiveling around them. He launched his own brand of revolution, support for which was not far away from the people who expected the second coming of the messiah sooner than later.
To cut a long story short, at the end of the day, he created a Frankenstein monster of an evil state resource looting economic empire clothed in the banners of a draconian political party. In his own words the characters who populated the Frankenstein monster consisted of a rainbow coalition of “greedy bastards, old evil dwarfs, babies with sharp teeth, liars, thieves, leeches, parasites”. In the words of others, the characters consisted of “a rainbow coalition of societal failures who had unprovoked axe to grind with the successful in society, a band of highly educated intellectuals who have had their education at the expense of the society but hid their failure to attain bourgeoisie capitalist lifestyle under puerile form of socialism, team B actors, arch ethnocentric tribalists who found the opportunity to turn the screws on their imaginary enemies belonging to other tribes too great to miss, blood thirsty violent seekers, looters of the national resources and bribe takers”.
Today the country is under the guidance and tutelage of a batch of the “greedy bustards, old evil dwarfs, babies with sharp teeth, liars, thieves, leeches, parasites” the Godfather created. Today, the Godfather who created these uncouth characters to make up the evil Frankenstein monster cuts a lonely worried figure in a transformed bloated body who could easily be a candidate for Olympic Games Sumo wrestling were Sumo wrestling an Olympic event. Today, he turns to express his thoughts in parables, a far cry from the booming speeches he used to be known for. Today the evil economic empire he created resembles a divided family of a man and wife with kids walking the street. Because the man and wife are at logger heads and walking metres apart, the children have to choose whether to follow the father or the mother. The formation of a political party by the wife and the divided attention of the children and the sermon at the NDC Cape Coast congress the Godfather delivered are all signs of the times which do not augur well for the country which had been blessed in the past.
Today a band of criminal outcasts the Godfather created have captured the commanding economic, political, and societal heights of the nation. There has been an almost complete state capture of the media, a total state capture of the security system, the financial sector, and the public service to the extent that public servants have been cajoled, browbeaten, battered, assaulted, threatened, mesmerised to do the evil bidding of the criminal, corrupt, evil, incompetent John Dramani Mahama NDC administration. Abuse of incumbency is practiced with massive impunity where state resources are carelessly distributed at political rallies with reckless abandon like the way toffees are shared at a children’s party, resources which should have gone into the creation of jobs and the fixing of the energy sector. Today, the Godfather has become the fiercest critic of the sons and daughters of the evil Frankenstein monster he created. Today, the Godfather walks the street all alone referred to as the old barking dog which has been caged by people he lifted from the filth and put on the pinnacle of power, wealth and influence.
Years ago a historical event which perhaps has never happened anywhere before occurred in this country. Three of the most influential worldwide religious leaders met at the same time in this country. At one time in the life of this country, Ghana hosted the head of the worldwide Catholic Church, the Pope, the head of the worldwide Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the head of the worldwide Ahmadiyya Muslim Movement in Islam, Hazrat Khalifatul Masih. Today, an evil sinister event of three characteristics stands in complete contrast to the holiness which characterised the visit of the three highly exalted holy leaders who blessed this county with their visit. Today, the occupant of the State House can brazenly accept a gift of a car of all things from a small time foreign contractor who was awarded a contract by the state for the construction of an embassy wall at US$600,000 (it might be interesting to know how much the entire American embassy building in Accra cost to build) and dare the whole nation to a duel of fist to determine that it is a bribe.. Today three plus one mischievous characters can afford to use the public media to remind the whole nation of one of the most sordid, horrible, evil, criminal act ever perpetrated by criminals in charge of national affairs while making criminal threats against persons in the service of the nation. Today a Poison Ivy is pursuing a similar path walked by the Piped Piper of Hamlyn which led to the destruction of an entire generation with crass impunity and arrogance while the whole nation looks on with divided attention.