EVER IMAGINED how Don Diego de Azambuja and his early Portuguese explorers negotiated with Nana Kwamena Ansah and his elders when they landed at Elmina for the first time in 1471?
It could have been an intriguing encounter. With the language and cultural divide, the explorers were said to have anchored in the deep blue sea and made their way ashore by small boats.
They then engaged in silent negotiations with their hosts during which signals represented words before European goods could be brought ashore.
It tells much about national development when six centuries after the encounter with the early explorers, the state of Ghana had to revisit that era before crude oil could land for the first time in the 11 month-old administration of President John Evans Atta-Mills.
It should provide an interesting background for a course content to explore the experience of a vessel anchored deep in the ocean, as negotiators haggled over letters of credit.
These are very interesting times. We are being told that it is perfectly alright for a government to shed off 30 per cent shares in Ghana Telecom for $38m with the minority share holder grabbing four out of the seven-member Board of Directors.
To add to the comedy, all that happened on the blind side of Parliament. But when another regime offloads 70 per cent of the same company for $900 million with Parliamentary approval, the deal is considered such a sacrilege that a ministerial committee could reverse it.
A new concept of looking at national development is fast developing at the old Slave Castle. Under this concept, it does not matter if the sums do not add up.
Just before my fellow Ekumfi man took the keys to the old Slave Castle, GH�5.3 of the local currency could buy one gallon of petrol. On the international market meanwhile, crude oil was selling at $147.
Now, the same GH�5.3 is taking care of the same gallon of refined petrol even though the international market price for crude has nose-dived to around $75.
It tells much about how well we have managed the cedi that GH�5.3 @ $147 is equal to GH�5.3 @ $75 within the space of 11 months. And the former law lecturer had marked the script and pronounced an incredible 80 per cent pass rate.
Under our new dispensation, the value is the same, whether or not the international price has changed, which reminds me of an incident at the Aflao Border when Jerry John Rawlings seized power for the second time in December 1981.
A man named Kwasi Kumah, a former official of the Ghana National Trading Corporation, was on the wanted list as was the fate of many who fell foul of the draconian laws imposed by the Provisional National Defence Council with legal support from the midnight advisers.
It came to pass that another Kwasi Kumah who had no blood relations with the fugitive was arrested while trying to cross the border. When he tried to reason with the soldiers at the border, one of them simply burst out �every Kwasi Kumah be Kwasi Kumah�.
In effect, once he was known as Kwasi Kumah, he could take the place of the fugitive, which tells much about the type of justice unleashed under Jerry John Rawlings.
Like many Ghanaians, the calendar gives me hope. At the last count, we have three more years and a month to endure the strange permutations and pronouncements from what Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a leading member of the National Democratic Congress, fondly refers to as Team B.
That the average Ghanaian cannot make ends meet is no secret. It is such a hopeless situation that most of us prefer suffering in silence.
That is why we can do without provocations, especially from those who have taken advantage of the Ghanaian�s ability to suffer in silence, to move from penury existence to become the nouveau riche of society, employing the intimidating powers of the gun and playing tricks with sums.
When Jerry John Rawlings frets that those who succeeded him as leaders of this society are corrupt, it is nothing short of provocation.
I dare state that Jerry Rawlings personifies corruption in society. Here is a person who testified before the court of public opinion not too long ago and claimed that at the time he was a pilot in the Ghana Armed Forces, he was so wanting in terms of resources that he had to take away seats from a state owned helicopter (without permission of course) to decorate his sitting room.
Today, Jerry Rawlings is not only a rich man; there are many out there who worship at his very feet in exchange for crumbs.
It is to the glory of God that there are many out there who are standing up to his machinations. At the lecture organized by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his rule last April, Jerry Rawlings was hooted off of the podium when he began his usual tirade of insults against former President John Agyekum Kufuor.
Here is a person who thinks that this society owes him a living.
After seizing power with the butt of the gun and ruling this nation as if it was a conquered territory, Jerry Rawlings goes about telling naked lies to discredit those who have worked hard to reverse the negative image of this nation his administration left in the comity of nations.
It is eleven months now since Kufuor�s administration gave way to Prof. John Evans Atta-Mills� government which was propped up by Jerry Rawlings.
One would have thought that the ex-junta head would have by now provided the new administration with the list of former government officials Rawlings claimed master-minded the unfortunate murder of Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II and 40 members of his household.
Talk is cheap, and cheap men talk through their hats. Someone would have to muster courage and call Rawlings to order.
As a Ghanaian, one of my greatest regrets in life is that Jerry Rawlings was allowed, by a docile society, to metamorphose from the leader of a gun-toting self-proclaimed revolutionary into a constitutional head of state of this republic. His life-style and utterances do not match the dictates of the high office.
When Jerry Rawlings says ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor stole the 2004 Presidential election, what does he mean? From my point of view, the ex-junta head is telling the world that we all lived through a stolen verdict for four years. And nobody is calling him to order.
I expect the Electoral Commission to go to court to compel Dr Rawlings to be summoned to substantiate his allegation. Why is everybody mute? Is it because civil society organizations are scared of the coup plotter? Why are we all letting Jerry Rawlings off the hook for impugning the dignity of the Office of the President?
In all calamities, according to the wise old folks, there is a silver lining. When Jerry Rawlings used the platform offered by the chiefs and people of the Aflao Traditional Area recently to complain about electoral malpractices in the constituency executive elections of the NDC, he only succeeded in reminding some of us of the modus operandi employed by those who claim to believe in him to get Jerry Rawlings elected as constitutional head of state of this republic.
Where was the self-proclaimed apostle of probity and accountability when koobi and chamber pots together with milk, sugar, rice and consumable and non-consumable commodities allegedly changed hands for votes to get Jerry Rawlings elected as President of this Republic?
Where was the man of integrity in 1992 when a Presidential Candidate had no vote at the very polling booth where he and his family had cast their ballots?
There are many angry men and women out there who have suffered and continue to suffer the effect of Rawlings� gangster-type of rule unleashed on this nation for nearly two decades.
Jerry Rawlings certainly is not the best thing to happen to this nation. Many are those, dead and alive, who bear the scars of a so-called revolution hijacked by one man to improve the quality of his life. Flt Lt. Jerry John Rawlings could do himself a favour by letting every Ghanaian get on with his or her life.
If ever there was a stolen verdict in Ghana�s contemporary politics, Jerry Rawlings is the man to answer for that!
Daily Guide Columnist
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