What Is In A Name?

Sam George

A name does not mean much. What the bearer of the name does with himself in a civilized society defines his person. In the past few days, Sam George, an Honourable Member Of Parliament (MP) was active at the Emile Short Commission showing off like an active peacock.

He sought to live up to what the National Democratic Congress (NDC) stands for as presented by former President John Mahama during one of his latest tantrums- a party pedigreed in violence. A party without the attributes of civility has no place in a democratic setting where the rule of law reigns supreme.

A pedigree of blood, death and disappearances which the former President and Sam George seek to present in various forms are not milieus they participated in. It would be interesting to know what the two persons were doing in those heady days. They certainly were not part of the killers and abductors in the name of a so-called revolution. We would not be cowed by their vague references to those days. Their references are steeped in ignorance.  They know not what they are boastfully dangling.

The surviving victims of those dark chapters in our local history, and they are many, would rather the subject is not revisited in the way it is being done by Sam George and the leader of his party.

Those who were not part of those dark days and want to flaunt the list of the missing and the dead must be sick in their heads.

Whether Azorka Boys is an NGO, a vigilante set-up or not, the important thing is what the grouping is associated with.  An organization whose name evokes pictures of broken bones, death and fear and panic has no place in a civilized society. Such names evoke memories about causing harm to innocent persons in Atiwa, Talensi, Chereponi and many others.

We have, as a civilized democracy, grown past the evil days of death and associated disappearances as authorized by a junta.

We have grown past those days when democracy disappeared into thin air. We are in a democracy underpinned by civility and rule of law. When the President set up the Commission of Enquiry into the events of the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency bye-election, his action was informed by the new dispensation we are relishing as a people.

Nobody can at this stage return us to those days through irresponsible references as did Sam George, never. Such inclination and empty bravado cannot stand the resolve of the people of this country to move on.

Bullets are not selective and those who think otherwise must rethink their positions. They would be consumed by the fire they stoke in a country which prefers development in freedom.