Whether Or Not Someone Thinks I am Not An Akan Is Not My Problem...

“These are very trying moments. That is why those who delight in using trivialities as a political weapon should think again. I am a Fanti, and proud. Whether or not someone thinks I am not an Akan is not my problem. Like many Ghanaians, what is worrying me is how I can work and relax in an atmosphere devoid of Dum-so.”

I am a proud native of Ekumfi Ekrawfo in Borbor Fantse. I do not need anybody to tell me whether or not I am an Akan.  So long as I answer to the summons of Ebusuapanyin Kofi Tawiah of the Anona Clan, and identify with ‘Ekoo Tse Brofo’, with my clan bother, Kofi Dua Adonteng, hailing from Kwabre in the forest zone of the Ashanti Region, any nonsense the ‘rented press’ choose to peddle in the name of tribal politics is their own problem.

One thing is certain. Residents at the centre of the earth are wiser. People are no more the gullible lot who were hoodwinked once upon a time, into believing that a statement or not from a leader of a political party, was the issue at stake when people go to bed on empty stomachs.

When Ghana, the nation that led Sub-Saharan Africa to throw off the colonial yoke, has its citizens now living like cavemen and women, the reference to Fantes as Akans or not is not the issue. Sometimes, I wonder what people would do in the name of dirty politics.

In a country where the government of the day has mortgaged the future resources of this nation as a result of reckless borrowing, playing the ethnic card is not going to wash.

I hope and pray that newsmen would learn from the past, and stop peddling such nonsense in the name of tribal politics. There are so many sore points in our political evolution that one would have thought that the men and women at the centre of the earth would learn from the past and stop publishing this kind of rubbish.

When three judges and an army officer were abducted during curfew hours in June 1982, evidence was adduced to the effect that all the murderers were of a particular tribe. They tried, rather unsuccessfully, to mask their tribal inclination by wearing northern smocks.

Needless to state, all the four victims were ethnic Akans.  It is official. Four of the five murderers were residing in the boy’s quarters of the residence of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, Head of State and Chairman of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council at the time.

It was further established that the key to the Fiat Campagnola Jeep used by the murderers was kept on a table in the sitting room of then First lady Mrs. Konadu Agyeman Rawlings.  Up till now, Jerry Rawlings and his wife vehemently deny their tacit or actual involvement in the murders so foul. They keep pontificating they know next to nothing about the murders. And we are getting on with our lives.

What is certain is that Jerry Rawlings is officially touted as the founder of the party that is messing up our lives in the name of constitutional government. Even though some of us are not happy with the way and manner the whole government machinery of the Provisional National Defence Council was turned into the NDC without the ‘P’ using resources of state, Ghanaians have accepted the party Jerry Rawlings founded as legitimate enough to form the government of the Republic of Ghana.  Let no one tempt fate.

Some officials of state misdirecting the fortunes of 25 million intelligent Ghanaians could be funny at times. I understand that Deputy Minister of Education Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa is fuming over the fact that some school children cheered the demonstrators on, when the New Patriotic Party drew the largest crowd unto the main streets in Accra, during its ‘Won Gbo’ demonstration on Tuesday, February 16, 2015.

According to various news reports, the Deputy Minister of Education is threatening disciplinary action against teachers who ‘allowed’ their kids to identify with the march, on the basis that the kids could have been exposed to danger. For all I know, the marchers were neither wielding AK47s nor machine guns.

If Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa cares to know, the children were expressing solidarity with the marchers, on the basis that, in their own estimation, the policies and direction of this government were mortgaging their future. I must be very blunt here. The future of this country belongs to these kids. If Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa does not understand, he can please his stars.

For me, what is important in the body politic is how this administration would take Ghanaians out of the cave of darkness the Mahama administration has plunged all of us in. That is why I am eagerly looking forward to the State of the Nation Address the Head of State is scheduled to deliver on Thursday.

What is Mr. John Dramani Mahama going to tell Ghanaians? We have no room for excuses and empty promises. If the President and his advisors have no solution to the mess, the Head of State should not come to Parliament and waste our time.

When I heard what President Mahama told Ghanaians in Monrovia on social media the other day, I was embarrassed.  In the first place, it was not the best of statesmanship for the President of the Republic of Ghana to honour the ‘Butcher of Banjul’ who ordered the murder of 44 Ghanaians in 2005.

To add insult to injury, President Mahama is quoted as saying that the use of mobile phones and other gadgets by Ghanaians is one of the reasons why electricity is being rationed. Read the lips of the Head of State: “Ghana’s population is 25 million, but statistics indicate that mobile phone lines in Ghana is over 27 million, and these phones are charged every night, and that is one of the causes of the load-shedding.”

I am told a release from Jubilee House yesterday, sought to debunk that assertion as not part of the Presidential pronouncement from Monrovia. The problem with this kind of rebuttal is its credibility stance.

I do not know who advises the Head of State on these matters. My good friend, Mr. Ben Dotse Malor, could not stand the propaganda heat at the seat of government. With Sam George and other propagandists aiding Minister of Communications Dr. Omane Boamah to speak for the President, not many statements from Jubilee House carry the seal of credibility these days. It is beginning to look like official pronouncements from the highest office of the land are losing their appeal. Even then, the utterances in Monrovia failed to advertise the best in the President as a communication scholar.

I am waiting for the Presidential date with Parliament on Thursday with trepidation. Unfortunately, most Ghanaians might be in the same state. For all I know, the State of the Nation Address is an opportunity for the Head of State to review the previous year’s promises to the people, as well as making projections for the New Year.  In other words, it is a statement of the intent towards ameliorating the suffering in society in the New Year.

Unfortunately, there is no indication so far that Thursday’s encounter with the Head of State is going to soothe the pain of the average person. Instead, many are the residents at the centre of the earth who are looking forward to the President’s Parliamentary duty, without much hope.

So far, solutions to the problem of Dum-so from Presidential pronouncements have been panic-driven. First, the Managing Director of the Electricity of Ghana was re-assigned. The Ministry of Energy was split into two with the appointment of Dr. Kwabena Donkor as Minister of Power. We now have two Cabinet Ministers in charge of producing energy, forcing the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to lose its voice in Cabinet.

The most significant contribution the new Minister of Power has made towards national discourse was to label the protest march by the New Patriotic Party, which drew hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets of Accra, a ‘health walk’.

The President himself raised a number of eyebrows in this country by blaming the growing mobile phone industry in Ghana for the blackout. I am just hearing that according to an official statement from Jubilee House, President Mahama did not mention the growth of the mobile phone industry as one of the causes of Dum-so on his visit to The Gambia.

For most Ghanaians, this denial pales into insignificance against the problem at hand, which is eating at the heart of the developmental agenda in this country. At the weekend, Public Agenda splashed on its front page, the serious problem of lack of finance undermining the implementation of the much-publicised Senchi Accord.

These are very trying moments. That is why those who delight in using trivialities as a political weapon should think again. I am a Fanti, and proud. Whether or not someone thinks I am not an Akan is not my problem. Like many Ghanaians, what is worrying me is how I can work and relax in an atmosphere devoid of Dum-so.

My main headache, as a grandfather, is how my granddaughters, like other Ghanaian children, will be educated enough to take advantage of the latest technology to advance the cause of this nation. This is the time for sober reflection. It is the time those of us who call ourselves Ghanaians have to dig deep into our thinking faculties to evolve solutions to our problems.

The Government of President John Dramani Mahama has a duty to take the lead in working out solutions to our problems. If the administration would continue to goad on its ‘rented press’ to divert attention from the serious issues of state in favour of dirty tribal politics, the pay time will surely come. I am a Fanti, and a proud Akan! I shall return!

Source: Ebo Quansah/The Chronicle