E. T. Mensah dares Rawlings to quit the NDC.

When Amina came up with the Yutong Bus rape story sometime last year, she did not only give extra mileage to the obnoxious “fear and panic” law that was resurrected from the country’s statutory cemeteries by Nana Darkwa’s infamous arson allegation against Dr. J. J Rawlings, but she also brought the growing fleet of Yutong buses in the country into political prominence.

At that time, the Yutong Bus became the Ntamk?se of the NDC as their opponents dramatized the incident as a symbol of the party’s perceived failures in government. I was told some die-hard supporters of the NDC even swore never to travel on any Yutong Bus. However, in an intriguing twist of fate, the Yutong Bus emerged as the principal symbol used by the campaign teams of each of the party’s flag bearer aspirants to illustrate the comparative disadvantages of the other. Hon. Teye Nyaunu was at his poetic best in using the driver of the Yutong bus to denigrate the presidency of Atta Mills at Nana Konadu’s launch, whilst Vice Pee was at his insinuating best when he used the same analogy to illustrate how a past bad driver was supported and encouraged to glide the Yutong bus to safety. Given the way things are going, I will not be surprised if the winning candidate in the July contest amends the party’s constitution to change the party’s emblem from an umbrella into a Yutong Bus with a driver wearing a set of binoculars that will see mirages of potholes on the horizon to justify the “slow but sure” pace at which the bus will carry the “Better Ghana” passengers towards their destination.

Beyond the Yutong Bus, my attention was also caught by one of the reasons Mrs. Rawlings gave as the basis for her decision to upstage the sitting president. She said President Evans Atta Mills is VINDICTIVE. I stretched my imagination to the limits of ordinary mortals but could not reconcile this claim of vindictiveness with the other accusation that deals with the professor’s indifferent attitude towards jailing the NDC’s political opponents. I am therefore tempted to ask if Mr. & Mrs. Rawlings had done something bad against Professor Mills for which he is paying them back. This is because If there is no offence, there will be basis for vindictiveness. Being the true Catholics that they are, I humbly suggest they confess their sins against the professor, if any, and ask for forgiveness. If he fails to forgive them, then we can join hands with them to nail him for his vindictiveness. Until they do so, it will be difficult for the electorate to identify with this accusation.

But before they ask for the forgiveness, I would like to remind them of the line in “Our Lord’s Prayer” which asks God to forgive us our trespasses in much the same way as we forgive those who trespass against us. By this line, the Lord is telling us that we will only earn the privilege of being forgiven if we ourselves are forgiving. I leave what mark the Rawlingses will earn on the forgiveness score board to readers to determine for yourselves.

But here comes the real fascinating one. Did you hear about the need to take the NDC back from such latter day saints as Atta Mills and restore it to its core values? Having been around long enough and having been a keen observer of the Ghanaian political scene, I cannot help but ask “which values?” It can only be the values of probity and accountability if I did not see the “pure” NDC government of the 1990s issue a white paper to shield its appointees from prosecution after CHRAJ had investigated them and recommended their prosecution for corruption. It can only be probity and accountability if the president under the “pure” NDC did not publicly defend his party chairman as a man of integrity when Ghanaians demanded an enquiry into how hundreds of millions of cedis found their way under his bed. It will only be probity and accountability if the Nsawam Cannery were not divested to the 31st DWM owned CARIDEM in a manner that took only a presidential pardon to truncate the prosecution of Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings. It will only be probity and accountability if Senior Officials of the 31 DWM were not mentioned in the infamous GREL bribery case that occurred under the “pure” NDC. Do you want me to continue?

This leaves some of us with no option but to speculate that if it is NOT probity and accountability, then it could ONLY be the values that promoted shit bombing of perceived opponents as occurred under the “pure” NDC. It could also be the values that inspired the use of broken bottles to give identification hair cuts to young men who dared to jilt the daughters of the first family as happened in the era of the “pure” NDC. It could yet still be the values that promoted the incarceration of journalists who dared to speak in ways that did not please the first lady of the “pure” NDC.

If you have bought a new car before, you would by now have realized how natural it is for people to recognize others of their own ilk. If you are driving a Toyota car, you don’t easily see the VW Tuaregs on the road. You only see Toyotas! The very day you change over and buy a new Tuareg, you will all of a sudden see Tuaregs on the road everywhere you go. This is just an example of how the human mind is programmed to fish for things one has in common with others. It is in much the same way that expert coup makers are able to spot other coup makers from afar and deal with them before they strike. Do you now see why no coup succeeded against the longest ruling military ruler in Ghana during his eleven year rule? You can therefore understand why one greedy bastard will recognize another greedy bastard from afar without the aid of the binoculars of the “Better Ghana” Yutong driver.

But in all these melee of Yutong Bus drivers, returning NDC to its core values and greedy bastards, I can tell you that my day was made, when the Hon. E. T. Mensah in an interview on Citi FM, described the NDC as a public corporate entity with characteristics similar to those of a public company. He advised that any promoter of a public company who disagrees fundamentally with the direction that the majority of the shareholders think the company should go, is free to sell his shares and move on. A word to the wise is indeed in E. T’s head.