GENERAL CONCERNS
Our duopolistic schadenfreude politics has somehow resolved or descended into a politics of insults, mutual disrespect among Ghanaians, acrimony, lies and hatred. As a matter of fact, all the expectorative nonsense we are witnessing in our newfound political culture derives partly from this fundamental fact of borrowed schadenfreude politics, of the politics of self-interest that largely ignores the serious question of national interest, patriotism and creative solidarity.
The bane of our development is therefore not hard to find.
Again, this is a painful reminder of grave negative corollaries from an uncritical appropriation of ideas alien to a people’s entrenched autochthonous psycho-cultural sensibilities. Thus, a sense of dignified personality and responsibility must always accompany press freedom, and freedom of speech and of conscience and of association.
That is, the elastic texture of these freedoms implies a greater sense of rhetorical and auctorial circumspection in the matter of private and public discourse.
Therein lay embedded a topological set of redeemable qualities in the matter of personal preferences and choices, rational and otherwise.
What is more, the fact of man being a social animal also presupposes personal or individual subjugation and submission to the normative ethos of the collective enterprise in nation-building.
This personal or individual submission may take on the grudging character of self-abnegation.
This does not matter much if a given society is communitarian or individualistic, that is.
On the other hand, this does not necessarily mean a sense of individuality is totally lost in the blinding fog of social collectivism, contrary to popular perceptions of a manmade existence of a strict sociological and geopolitical dichotomy setting communitarian and individualistic societies apart. In this limited sense the line of Manichaean demarcation is therefore one of geopolitical convenience.
Then, in Ghana for instance, our libel laws notwithstanding, some persons have taken extreme liberties with the idea of maligning their opponents, enemies and detractors, political and non-political, as a conscious and sometimes inadvertent exercise as if the real intention is to test the bounds of legal and social propriety.
At least, not so in Madam Akua Donkor’s peculiar choice or decision never to extend a simple rhetorical gesture, let us say here “a happy birthday,” to her political colleague Akufo-Addo on his birthday.
Neither do we think “a happy birthday” wish necessarily translates to nor is it a natural antithesis of “a happy deathday.” Death is not an elastic phenomenon that obeys some strange idea of statistical certainty. Death is inevitably a certainty. As simple as that. It is an irreversible verdict nature has imposed on man. In fact it is only a matter of time before each one of us succumbs to this solid phenomenon of inevitable certainty.
There is therefore no point wishing death for another man. Madam Akua Donkor did not wish Akufo-Addo “a happy deathday” with her controversial remarks. To wit, her rhetorical absence of “a happy birthday” is not a substitute for a death wish. We have conceded this fact already!
AKUA DONKOR AND AKUFO-ADDO
Regardless of what anyone might thing of her and her decision, that peculiar stance she took not to extend “a happy birthday” wish to Akufo-Addo is hers and hers only.
This controversial stance must be respected in spite of its negative connotations.
Madam Akua Donkor, founding leader of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), a party which we also believe could be an appendage of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has taken this position probably because she essentially perceives Akufo-Addo as her nemesis.
But, whether this is a political or non-platonic, or romantic, decision, is not our place to conjecture.
On the other hand if we can override our conjectural reservation, then we shall say with some level of confidence and psychological comfort that she may have necessarily arrived at that controversial decisional destination based on a personal knowledge of Akufo-Addo’s involvement in the arson-related sacking of her party’s office.
This is what she alleged:
“Agyenim Boateng and the NPP used petrol to burn my office. I was in Accra when I had information that my office was in flames. When I came, there was a gallon containing petrol at the back of the office.
“They allegedly broke the rivets of the office building and poured the petrol into the room and set it on fire…
“After they stole the documents, they set an agenda to burn down my office which they have done. All my office equipment have been destroyed, including the Kente I bought from Italy and some undisclosed amount. The NPP did that because they are threatening to kill me that’s why they went ahead to set my office on fire in order to destroy my original documents.”
These allegations are difficult to prove. Regardless, she is entitled to her decision not to accord Akufo-Addo “a happy birthday” wish just as Akufo-Addo is entitled to his minority perception that he won the 2012 general election, though a self-serving claim without hard substantiated facts based on forensic evidence, only for the Supreme Court to steal it for President Mahama.
Akufo-Addo and his canine running mate, Dr. Bawamia, may have spent a lot of quality time listening to Geto Boys’ Halloween-flavored rap track “My Mind Playing Tricks On Me.”
Perhaps, also, Akua Donkor’s decisions may have been borne out of Akufo-Addo’s “All-die-be-die” and “Yen Akanfuo” rhetorical fiasco.
Who knows—two statements Akufo-Addo has consistently refused to recant?
She could as well have operated on the maxim “the enemy of my friend is my enemy also,” a subtle allusion to her close friendship with President Mahama and to her probable understanding of the perceived political antagonism between President Mahama and Akufo-Addo.
Who knows?
And here is what she essentially said to the media:
“I won’t do anything that will make Akufo-Addo happy so I won’t wish him a happy birthday.”
This courageous woman! Who says Akufo-Addo is not happy? And who says her wishing Akufo-Addo “a happy birthday” will make him happy?
We are even certain that Akua Donkor’s singing Akufo-Addo Pharrell Williams’ international hit “Happy” will not make her man happy.
That said, if this afore-mentioned attribution were in fact true as the media reported it, then we have to applaud this woman for her unique style of personal and rhetorical courage in the sphere of public diplomacy!
Because she has loudly proven not to be the type willing to hide her contempt for Akufo-Addo in the shadows. Unlike some.
Then again, Akufo-Addo stands to benefit the most from this public rhetorical revelation. In other words he can blacklist her for now.
Regrettably, though, wishing somebody, even an enemy, “a happy birthday” should have been a simple courtesy for Madam Akua Donkor to undertake so effortlessly, and to add salt to injury, she made the following damning remarks about Akufo-Addo not too long ago:
“If Ghanaians can live in Ghana with Akufo-Addo, why can’t they live with the detainees [Gitmo 2]…is Nana Addo not more dangerous than them…? Nana is a killer. We must rather send him to Guantanamo Bay to campaign to be president there.”
More specifically, she made these remarks some two-and-a-half months ago prior to the importation of the three South African mercenaries.
What is not however clear is, having said all that, if she is in fact doing the bidding of President Mahama and the NDC!
She has this to say about President Mahama, though:
“President Mahama did the right thing to bring the 2 detainees here in Ghana. I am really proud of him.”
A BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO AKUFO-ADDO
We will implore our readers to join us to wish Akufo-Addo a belated birthday. We shall use Steve Wonder’s song “Happy Birthday,” a beautiful piece of song he wrote to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday and through which he appealed to the powers that be to set aside a day in a calendar year to celebrate King and his legacy.
That is not to say Akufo-Addo fits the shows of King. Never. King was more Nkrumah-like. Here we go:
“You know it doesn't make much sense…
“There ought to be a law against…
“Anyone who takes offense…
“At a day in your celebration…
“Cause we all know in our minds…
“That there ought to be a time…
“That we can set aside…
“To show just how much we love you…
“And I'm sure you would agree…
“It couldn't fit more perfectly…
“Than to have a world party on the day you came to be…
“Happy birthday to you…
“Happy birthday to you…
“Happy birthday…
“Happy birthday to you…
“Happy birthday to you…
“Happy birthday…
REFERENCES
Ghanaweb. “I Can’t Wish My ‘Enemy’Akufo-Addo A Happy Birthday—Akua Donkor.” March 30, 2016.
Daily Guide. “Akua Donkor Party Office Burnt.” January 23, 2016.
Ghanaweb. “Akufo-Addo More Dangerous Than Gitmo 2—Akua Donkor.” January 15, 2016.
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