I am not used to defining my caption but for the sake of Hassan Ayariga, whose standard in English Language is pretty low, I will do so this time before I commence my piece. My Webster’s Dictionary of Contemporary English defines the above mentioned caption as “To have little patience with people you think are stupid.” That is why wise men don’t suffer fools so gladly.
If you have been reading this column, you will observe that I have dropped my trenchant pen and adopted a moderate approach. At first, I thought it is not worth the salt for me to spend my precious time and waste the ink in my fountain pen to write about Hassan Ayariga because I considered him to be a mere irritation or a nuisance. However, since no one provokes me and gets away with it, this time I want to go down the gutter with Ayariga and show him that we all have red saliva in our mouths but we always decide to spit out the white one for the sake of peace. That is not to say we should sit down unconcerned for someone to use our knife to skin a python.
The very day I heard this so called “Dr” Ayariga telling Ghanaians that his main aim as a politician is to attack Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, I told myself that this man has struck a rock and he will surely dislodge boulders which will crush him eventually. The time has come and Ayariga will have to go for his crush helmet because he is going to get what he is looking for. If he thinks some of us do not have teeth and therefore cannot bite he should look at our teeth. The likes of Ayariga have cheapened politics to the extent that decent people who want to join the game are shuddering to do so. Politics is not a matter of joke as Ayariga thinks. Politics is a serious business reserved for serious persons. Politics is about life but not necessarily a conduit to grab the peoples’ money without shame as we are seeing in this country under the John Mahama administration.
People are dying daily because they cannot afford to buy medicine since the NHIS has crumbled under the incompetent Mahama administration. Farmers are crying because they cannot afford to buy simple farm inputs like fertilizers, cutlasses, hoes etc. Graduates are roaming the streets without jobs and those who landed jobs are living from hand to mouth because of the harsh economic realities of our time. Teachers have to use their hard earned salaries to buy chalk and registers. Parents are literally scratching the ground to find something to pay their wards’ school fees as many JHS graduates are sitting at home because their parents cannot send them to SHS. We did not come this far to suffer. And when we are quietly suffering and awaiting the “Messiah” to come and deliver us from the jaws of a whale, Ayariga, the joker, continues to rub pepper into our wounds.
During the IEA presidential debate in the run – up to the 2012 general election, this same Ayariga embarrassed himself when he deliberately interrupted Nana Addo when the astute politician was making his presentation; deliberately coughing as if he had contracted tuberculosis. He had planned with his paymasters to do so and he did it to perfection. On that fateful, I saw him as a jester on the payroll of some politicians who are sinking, anyway. The man knows why he is in politics. When Ghanaians entertain such characters, the country will never see development. You don’t manage a country with such characters who knows absolutely nothing except to use politics as a conduit to make money.
When he saw that his empire had fallen by the grace of Charlotte Osei, he flew into tantrums and started kicking like a crazy bull. Hear the political joker: “Charlotte Osei is foolish, stupid. She is not normal.” And this is a man who is supposed to have a wife and children! Did I hear Hassan Ayaricough saying Nana Addo is not fit to be at the presidency? Dear Lord of Hosts!! At forty-four years, Ayariga was barely seven years in 1979 so he was born too late to know the real Akufo Addo that I came to know since the seventies. When the going was tough and the tough kept going where was Mr. Puffy Face? Indeed when Nana Addo was fighting dictators in Ghana at his peril, where was this half-baked politician? And come to think of this: do we need the likes of Hassan Ayariga to tell us who is fit to be at the presidency? Even he, who is green in politics thought he was fit to be at the presidency. Other than that, why did he form a political party in the first place? What Ayariga should know is that if he stands as a candidate in any District Assembly election in Bawku Central where he comes from, he will lose. Did Ayariga read what the NPP executives at Bawku Central said about him in a press conference? And why is he quiet on the issues raised about him?
This ignoramus says at seventy two years Nana Addo should retire from politics. That to me is total absurdity. Let me teach this guy some lessons about age and politics. In nearby Ivory Coast, President Allassani Ouatara is close to seventy four years and he is ruling a country which has just come out of a bloody war. Today, Ivory Coast is leading in the production of cocoa and the economy is very robust even though it is not an oil producing country. Ghana is being ruled by a so-called young man with oil economy but things have gone from bad to worse and the people are reeling under very harsh utility tariffs and people cannot make ends meet. A young man is ruling a country with cocaine trade at its highest peak while armed robbery is occurring on daily basis and unemployment has hit the roof. An old man who is a candidate seeking to rule this country continues to criss-cross the country in his car while a young man and his wife flies above in two helicopters because he knows the roads are bad and he and his wife cannot withstand the shocks.
Is Hassan Ayariga aware that Sirleaf Johnson of Liberia is seventy five years old and ruling a country which was ravaged after many years of internecine war? Today go to Liberia and see. The country has been transformed in a matter of five years. Roads, bridges and other infrastructure which were destroyed during the war, have been repaired. The economy is growing at a faster rate and the people are living in peace. The old lady has not gone for any IMF bailout and yet the economy is performing well. A young man is ruling a country burdened by huge loans and interests. The young man recently run to the IMF for a bailout with its harsh conditionality but still the situation as far as the economy is concerned has nothing good to write home about.
When Fidel Castro realized that he was sick and could not continue to rule Cuba he handed over the reins of power to his younger brother, Raul Castro to be in charge of affairs of the island country. At eighty five, Raul has become an epitome of change in Cuba. He worked tirelessly to end the respect of Uncle Sam and today all the embargoes which were slapped on Cuba for decades have been lifted and Cuba is now enjoying life more than what they had during the rule of Fidel. What is very amazing is that despite his age, he was the Armed Forces Minister of Cuba for fifty years. Raul is still in full control and Cubans love that.
The Arab Spring started in Tunisia. The revolution led to the ouster of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali who is now living in exile. During the subsequent elections, Beji Caid Essebsi was voted to power. Essebsi is eighty eight years old and managing a country which was nearly destroyed during the Arab Spring. Today, Essebsi has straightened up things and a country which was destabilized is now on the march to prosperity. But for space in this column, I can mention more than twenty Heads of State whose ages range from seventy to ninety and they are performing well. In fact, they are performing far better than this man who calls himself a young president.
You see, what people like Hassan Ayariga do not know is that age is just a number. The issue is ability to perform. If you vote for a young man who cannot perform and does things haphazardly, you have thrown your vote into the sea. For me, I will vote for a self-made old man who is faithful to his wife than a young man who has many children out of wedlock. Such a young man will be always tempted to steal our collective wealth for the welfare of his many children and concubines as we are seeing in this country. This information is not for the consumption of Hassan Ayariga alone but for all those who comment ignorantly on age as far as the presidency is concerned.
As for Nana Addo, he may decide not to reply Ayariga because when you play with a puppy, it will lick your mouth. Nana can chose to treat this buffoon with the contempt that he deserves but not yours sincerely, Earth Angel Gabriel. This is the first blow and so Ayariga should learn how to dodge the subsequent ones because they will be heftier. I will never, ever suffer a fool so gladly!!!