Anytime you see two evils competing to destroy each other, you have to find the lesser of the two evils. They cannot be all equal. The war between some radio/TV Presenters, commentators and political thugs is similar to the war of two desert rats. The time has come for us to choose between the lesser of two evils.
The truth his that we concentrate the definition of terrorism to groups like Boko Haram, HAMAS, Al Shabbab, Hezbollah, Ansar Deen, Al Qaeda, Talibans, The Islamic Jihad of Uzbekistan, IS, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic jihad of Pakistan, Black September etc. We refuse to accept the fact that we have also media terrorists who are more vicious and dangerous than the terrorists mentioned above.
The media terrorists can easily be referred to as verbal terrorists. They don’t kill with guns and swords or dangerous implements. They kill the very soul of their fellow human beings by tarnishing their hard won reputations and destroying the images of hitherto complete ladies and gentlemen in the society. Jealousy is their guard post.
The biggest problem this government has is an impatient and callous journalists and social commentators who want problems caused long before this government came to power to be fixed by the current government overnight.
For example, we don’t have any Secretary of Roads and Highways in the US because, their roads and highways have been fixed long time ago after more than two hundred years of practicing democratic dispensation. Since independence in 1957, governments after governments have tried to fix roads but there are more roads to be fixed.
Paid verbal terrorists who call themselves journalists have simply refused to accept the fact that the Nana Addo administration came to meet many roads across the country in bad state.
The Minister of Roads and Highways, like his predecessors in the past, is trying his best to fix them. Who can tell me that for the nearly 20 years that Rawlings ruled this country all roads were fixed before they got spoiled? We all see roads being constructed across the country but some of our colleagues are wearing political wooden glasses so they don’t see.
What is most worrisome is that some of them speak as if hot water mixed with hot pepper has been poured down their throats in their attempt to draw the attention of the government to a particular bad road. They openly and verbally attack and assassinate the character of ministers as if they could do better when put in that position.
They ungentlemanly spit hellfire on the President as if it is the President who created all the problems in the country. They go on this tangent because it is a common knowledge that the opposition NDC has voted huge sums of money to buy these irresponsible character assassinators. To these hired journalists a stack of money put on their tables with a luxurious car is the universal language. Very sad!
The unacceptable and crude type of journalism practiced by these upstarts in the profession have awaken us to danger and called to defend freedom and redefine the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law by Ex-President Kufuor and his then Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Journalism is now being raped with serrated manhood by these crooks. When we were, where were they? Sometimes it makes some of us who rose up against the Criminal Libel Law which was stolen into our Constitution ashamed of ourselves.
We feel like telling Dr. Obed Asamoah, the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General who said the Criminal Libel Law will be repealed over his dead body that we are sorry for taking him to the cleaners when he made that statement. The man foresaw the risk that will follow hence, his opposition to the repeal of the law.
It took a single radio journalist to plunge Rwanda into chaos which led to the death of more than 800 Rwandans and yet we refuse to learn from that sordid past of the Rwandans. We have some criminals parading as Radio/TV Presenters who want to turn the apple cart upside down. If they think they can succeed, someone out there should tell them that they should start wearing crush helmets because they are going to find some of us a hard nut to crack.
I am not a textbook player like them because I have lived under all regimes since independence and have experienced the worst. That is why I am a gut player. For now, they can continue to mess around. Like the mighty eagle, I will descend with my claws opened and grab the snake at the time of my choosing.
The other desert rats are the political thugs. These hooligans should learn from history. Both the NDC and NPP are guilty of this political thugs madness but the NDC, the real apostles of this political ‘showdown’ (apology to Kennedy Agyapong) wants to run away from the madness. Where are the Azoka Boys?
They were misused by Alhaji Sofo Azoka who is now a Vice Chairman of the NDC and very rich. The man won several juicy contracts when the NDC was in power but the boys who were at the beck and call of Sofo Azoka are still languishing in abstract poverty. They are roaming the streets of Tamale and other communities in the North, unemployed, poor and aimless.
In the run-up to the 2020 general election when Mr. John Mahama went to the Volta Region to make that unfortunate pronouncement that the NDC has a revolutionary root and so when it comes to unleashing violence no one could beat the NDC, I felt sorry for the desperate politician.
What he said was true but where are those who unleashed the violence on Ghanaians? Some of these cadres are living in abstract poverty, living from hand to mouth and not knowing where the next meal will come the following day.
Some have gone mad, roaming the streets and yet others spent all their times following the revolution and as such they could not get time to go to school. They are now too old, unemployed and unemployable.
They have turned into laughing stock in their respective villages where they live and cannot make ends meet. The children of Rawlings, the man they served and followed like zombies are well educated and living in luxurious mansions. In case of any irruption of violence, will John Mahama send his children to join the battle?
Any politician who wants thugs to do the dirty work does not hesitate to go to poverty stricken communities to recruit the idle youth. In Accra, their first places of call are Nima, Agbogbloshi, Ashiaman and other slums. In other cities, these politicians get their recruits from the Zongos where poverty is endemic.
How long should our brothers in these areas allow themselves to be misused and later ditched by power hungry politicians? Can’t they wise up? Don’t they see the children of these politicians pursuing courses in higher institutions with others domiciled abroad and only visit Ghana for holidays? Where are the children of Asiedu Nketia who continues to call for violence? They are all domiciled in Canada where their father owes a mansion.
It is the buffalo who said it is unfortunate that he and the cow comes from the same species but the cow is so stupid that it would allow even a small boy to tie its neck with rope and draw it to the slaughter house to be killed. Can you convince my two boys who are well educated to follow hooligans to cause trouble? Say NO because you can’t, even if you swim in a pool of Dollars.
The Akans say Okotonwoanoma (The crab does not beget a bird). I leave the choosing of the lesser of these two evils for you, my dear reader. Someone should render an unqualified apology to Madam Ajoa Yeboah Afari, former Best Journalist of Ghana and my Editor in Residence for me. I will tell you the story later for you to learn a lesson from my experience.
By Eric Bawah