John Kufuor
Dear Friend,
It is an undeniable fact that you are the luckiest former Head who ever ruled this land of our birth. You do not have any stains in your white shirt and neither was your government overthrown by unruly soldiers. You are a living legend.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and K.A Busia died in exile after the overthrow of their regimes by the Khaki Boys. Generals A.A Afrifa, Kutu Acheampong and F. W. K Akufo, all former Heads of State of Ghana, were tied to the stakes like common criminals and shot by Rawlings’ drugged and drunken soldiers. How sad! Dr. Hilla Limann died a pauper at his Nungua two-bedroom quarters given to him by the state because he did not build a house of his own in Accra when he was the president neither was he paid any End of Service Benefit when he was forcefully removed from office. Professor Atta Mills died mysteriously when he was still the President of Ghana and the cause of his death is still being questioned by a cross section of Ghanaians.
The rumour mills continue to grind louder and an albatross is still hanging on the neck of Opana who is suspected of engineering his untimely death at the Castle. Rawlings who judged citizens for being rich and went on to seize their properties died a fabulously rich man, building mansions and accumulating properties for his family before he died. And he died with disturbed conscience. As for Mr. Mahama, one is finding it difficult to refer to him as a former Head of State since he has immersed himself with dirty politics and has vowed to die as a Head of State as if he is destined to die as a sitting President of Ghana. To him, becoming a president one more time is a “do or die” affair. After all, is the presidential seat not synonymous to the Gonja skin lying at Bole?
Unlike our neighbor, Nigeria, we still have former Heads of State like Yacubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, Abdulsalam Abubakar, Shehu Shagari still alive and contributing their quota in the building of their nation. Ghana cannot boast of such a pool of fine brains. We have eaten all our own children. How we wish you will never die so that we will continue to gain from your rich experience and contribution to mankind. To some of us, you are a jewel who has played your part well in nation building.
Sir, the last time I wrote an open letter to you, I called upon you to write your memoir for generations yet unborn to read and use it as a guard post in whatever endeavours that they may find themselves. It has been ten years since I wrote that open letter but it seems you did not get the opportunity to read it because I can imagine your tight schedule even as a former Head of State who must be resting now.
Sir, it is noteworthy for me to draw your attention to the fact that apart from Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who came close to writing his memoir in his book titled, ‘Dark Days In Ghana’, no former Head of State in Ghana ever wrote his memoir and that is very serious. Rawlings attempted to write one but he died before the ink in his fountain pen could dry up. Professor Busia, with all the knowledge that he accumulated in his head, did not write one. You must not fail Ghanaians, particularly the youth of today, who were born too late to know your exploits in life as a politician, a lawyer, a farmer, a political prisoner, a football administrator, a former Executive President of Ghana, among others.
What has prompted me to write to you today is all about the party on whose shoulders you rode to become the President of Ghana. You are a living witness to what the opposition NDC did to your lofty legacies when they took over from you. You might be living in pain, seeing how your legacies like the School Feeding Programme, Free Maternal Care, Metro Mass Transit, National Health Insurance Scheme, Capitation Grant, Free School Furniture, among others, were bastardised by the NDC in power. As fate might have it, your party was able to wrestle power one more time from the grip of the NDC who saw nothing good in your legacies and so, used all the eight years that they had to destroy everything you left behind. In fact, but for the intervention of the Lord God of Israel, they would have wiped out all what you bequeathed Ghanaians.
Sir, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo who became the President after defeating the NDC flagbearer in the person of Mr. John Dramani Mahama did not rest on his oars as he hit the road running like a hare. In no time, he set out to remake all your lofty programmes which were destroyed by the NDC and put smiles back in the faces of Ghanaians. The good people of Ghana read between the lines and gave him another four years to run the country. Since Nana Addo started his second term, things have not been alright as far as unity of the party is concerned. Backbiting, treachery, infighting and Pull Him Down (PHD) among other vices, have taken control of the party. Instead of party supporters trumpeting the good deeds of the party in government, they are out there trying desperately to outdo each other in order to catch the attention of the President. Nana Akufo-Addo had cause to tell the party at the National Delegates Conference held at Kumasi recently that, it was for the NPP to lose the 2024 elections. He said his government has performed so well that if the party puts its house in order, winning the 2024 general election will be a done deal. In a way, he was admonishing the party not to sleep-walk its way into electoral defeat. Simplista!!
Friend, from all indications, you are the shoulder the party can cry on. You are the Abusuapanin (family head) so it is you who can call the family to order. History will not treat you kindly if you sit down unconcerned for a few hot heads to drag the name of the party in the mud, thereby, giving away victory to the NDC on a silver platter. The sages say once bitten twice shy. It happened in 2008 when seventeen (17) party stalwarts competed among themselves for the flagbearership race. At the end of the day, the party became fragmented. Alan Kyeremanten, one of the contestants resigned from the party and before matters could cool down for him to change his decision, things had gone bad. The NDC, as usual, went to town with their vile propaganda, calling the party names. They told whosoever cared to listen that a party that could not keep its house in order is not worth voting for. The presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Akufo Addo, lost to Professor Atta Mills by a very slim margin of forty eight thousand votes. Sir, don’t you think we can avoid such a calamity? Yes, we can, if you rise up like Barbarossa.
Yours Sincerely,
Today, I am going to be my rebellious self. I see no reason why I should continue to smoke Havana when Bongani cigar, made in South Africa sits in my drawer. Call it African identity if you want. I am black and proud so I am puffing Bongani, which means ‘be grateful’ in Zulu. Open your nostrils, come closer and smell the sweet aroma of made in Africa cigar.
By Eric Bawah