…None Of Them Will Die

Nana Akuofo-Addo

All is done. Nana Akufo-Addo is the President of Ghana. All those who said he can never be president, all those who said he was a dwarf, all those who said he had cancer, all those who said he was a cocaine dealer, all those who said all of that, I am sure you now recognize that God is the giver of life.

I watched the video of Alhaji Asuma Banda proclaiming that Nana Akufo Addo can never become president. He said one must have a certain structure, and be intelligent in order to become president, and that Nana Addo does not have the required structure neither is he intelligent, therefore…

I watched Nana Akua Amoah (Mzbel) denigrating Nana Akufo-Addo in such insulting and despicable manner, as if she would have vomited him out if Nana Akufo-Addo was her father. I saw Fred Agbenyo push so many unprintable materials about Nana Akufo-Addo on social media.

I remember the gentleman who wrongly accused Nana Akufo-Addo of urinating on a Mosque. Abubakari Rufai, 32-year-old, accused Nana Akufo-Addo, of urinating on the walls of a mosque at the Yagbonwura Palace in Damango, thereby defiling the mosque. He later came out to confess that it was a fabrication, but the harm had been caused. In less than a year after the wrong accusation Abubakari unfortunately died of urine retention.

I remember Peter Boamah Otukunor, early this year, was reported to have accused Nana Akufo-Addo of killing his own pregnant wife. He is reported to have accused Nana Addo of clubbing his then wife to death in a fit of rage following a misunderstanding between the couple.

And I agree with a portion of a statement which came from Nana Addo that “it is tragic that our politics should sink to such levels that there appears to be nothing sacred, nor any respect for our cultural values in our society; and people would want to use the death of a loved one to defame a political opponent.”

Eventually, six months after this report, Peter Otukunor’s wife, at a very young age of 30, unfortunately died.

All these I saw, and each time I saw these, I pitied my own children. That in the name of politics, people who would have loved you, in the name of politics, people who would have loved to be your friend; That in the name of politics people who you could have fed, such a friend could pick a knife and run it through your soul, and kill you.

Sometimes I feel it when people who, ordinarily, but for the money they have stolen, would have no place in the pit, such people, in the name of politics, coils their teeth, and they coil their tongues, and recline their necks, straightens their back, and with guilt lost in their heads, spews curses on themselves.

It is ok to accuse someone of not being peace loving, if you think he is not. It is ok to accuse him of not demonstrating good leadership, if you think so. It is ok to accuse him of being corrupt if you think the man is corrupt, and it is ok to point out his weaknesses if you think he has weaknesses.

But it is not ok to describe him as dwarf because of his height. It is not ok to ascribe diseases to him when you don’t know that for a fact, it is not ok to mock him of being infirm, because no one knows tomorrow.

I think Mzbel in particular should come out to apologize to Nana Addo. It is not about how NPP members are handling her; and I don’t endorse any such thing. No one should be allowed to hide behind politics to hurt another.

In my opinion Mzbel should feel morally compelled to apologise to a man who is fit to be her father, she should apologise to a man she mocked, to purge herself from a lifelong plaguing guilt, inner torments and weakness. At the moment, I can predict she is physically weak, not because of what the boys are doing to her, but I could feel she has a certain realization that she went too far, she might have been carried away by her access to power and money, and she thought this day may never come, until this day came, and there is no one to protect her.

Anyway, that is all behind us now. The important thing is to govern. Make sure that you prove us all wrong. If our economy begins to thrive, if young people begin to have jobs, if you create policies that facilitate business growth and expansion, and businesses begin to create wealth, if bank borrowing interest rates comes down, and if I can easily go to the bank and borrow money, then I will know that you have lived your life.

If you begin to allow state institutions to function neutrally, if you get rid of all the current politically biased appointees of state institutions, and replace them, not with your party people, but with properly recruited neutral individuals for state institutions such as EOCO, and allow them to function not as a propaganda wing of your party, then you will be seen as a father for all, and you will be loved.

It is institutional politicization and propaganda that allows individuals such as Collins Dauda’s brother, Naaba Dauda, to still walk about as a free person. How can someone who boldly told the world that he and whoever he knows, kills human beings all the time, and that he is not afraid to kill, how can such a person sits in the comfort of his home while we jail another person, who, because of hunger, merely went to steal cassava?

Anyway, that is what happens when the institution, and in this case Ghana Police Service, which is supposed to be neutral and to protect all of us, is by itself transformed into a political stooge, the result is that the police is afraid of its own self, the Ghana Police Service then becomes a mere tool in the hands of the oppressor.

After voting I left for Europe, so I have not been privy to any of the post election celebrations. But the media has helped me see wild jubilations throughout Ghana, of NPP people celebrating their victory. I don’t know what exactly the celebration is all about. Is it about the mere fact that the NPP has won the elections, or it is about the hope that the new government will be able to transform the economy for a better Ghana? Or is it about the opportunity for a new crop of people to steal our money?

I would think that the celebration is about the new hope, of the improvement in the economy that will give individuals the opportunity for jobs and for business expansion. But if it is about the shift in the opportunity to steal our money, then forget it. I expect Nana Akufo-Addo to walk the talk, and to make corruption a very unattractive business in his government.

What we all have to remember is that, one day, very soon, God will answer all of us. One day, and that day will soon come, we will all appear before God, and we will give account, of the way we felt about ourselves when we got power. The little boys and girls, people with unknown life expectancy, children who should be humbled by the power we gave them, who, instead, used the power to spit insults while stealing our monies.

Thieves rapped in politics, one after the other, used their offices to steal big monies, and it did not matter how many children were dying out of their thievery, it did not matter to them the number of pregnant women who died due to lack of drugs. Insofar as it benefitted them, they cruised in V8 bought for them, and fuelled for them with our monies, and used these cars to insult us in the face, and raped our country. None of them will die, all of them will live, and all of them will answer.

James Kofi Annan

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