President Akufo-Addo and former President John Mahama
"If a society cannot help the many who are poor it cannot save the few who are rich" - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
Early Police report on the gruesome murder of Prof. Benneh-- the learned University of Ghana law lecturer in his mansion at East legon; acknowledged largely to be a community of elites and affluents implicated his house help.
Obviously in the gated 'safe haven' of our fallen lecturer there was enough installed security banning even the slightest obscurity for a possible intrusion yet the threat came from within-- his least noticeable employee. The report asserted that the 'alleged murderer' who had access to the house ended up killing his employer when the he resisted a robbery of GH¢ 450 and some desktop monitors.
It's not known the pattern of relationship the professor had with his family to warrant him staying alone in a mansion and neither is it clear how he related to his workers too. However there can not be any justification for taking someone's life but there are such people who find the motivation to do whatever they'll do at your hindsight and so self-defense which sometimes even can be the unimaginable thing should not be ignored in any way.
Suffice it to be true as reported, sheer wickedness to do such to a man you earn your wages from leaves much to ponder upon. Playing the devil's advocacy, the deviant brood over personal interests to be well off in a house he works obviously filled with much to be coveted gave him the urge and so dammed all consequences impress upon memory by way of morality in a reasonably right thinking individual.
Besides, there are such people who have lived in economic hardships and broken homes that your least thought about them is their potential to wreck havoc; hence at once labeling them as threats to society. The arbitrary creation of casteism, outcastness, marginalized, ostracism, or misjudged based on looks and accents by the society have often led some juveniles into vices. Absolute disregard of such have often been the factors that have emboldened them to commit those awful acts we all frawn upon.
More so victims of crime and social vices who have been left without proper psychological attention and care have regularly grown to take up what they have suffered and feels satisfied when they perpetrate same.
Although they can be very manipulated and gullible to peer pressure but sometimes too the primal passion of such is a promise of hope and inspiration to win them. Those least things such as attention, care, gratitude, inclusiveness, a sense of love and belongings will inevitably help make them sober thereby shrugging off negativity.
Talk of deaths barely a month after the Law Professor's, the bizarre news of how the Mfantseman MP/ Parliamentary Candidate (PC) of the governing NPP was captured on the various news portals on Friday October 9, 2020 which incident was said to have occurred in the wee hours.
It was intriguing how an accompanying surviver; that's Dr. Nana Yaw Agyenim-Boateng (The communications director of the constituency) was interviewed on Citi 97.3 FM's Eye Witness News disclosed when the assailant inquired and identified one of their victims laid face- down as the MP said "we are suffering because of you politicians". So to these assailants they have become who they are because their expectations are unmet by politicians.
In an interview with Joy News the Member of Parliament for Nhyiaeso constituency, Kennedy Kwasi Kankam has recounted how he and his family were attacked by some armed robbers at his Kumasi residence in 2019. “The robbers told me that, ‘you are the target, but because of your children who are very young we can’t do this to you’ and they demanded something and we paid the ransom before my life was spared on that day,” he narrated.
There are several of such ordeal experiences which have either not been reported or the status of such not made known to the public. It is one thing for the sake of perhaps security implications to hold back feedbacks on high profile cases of crime but it is another to remain silent on the part of our security agencies to withhold and some crass consider them as ineptitude. In the vagueness of our security have some grown wildily audacious too.
"To whom much is given, much will be required" - Luke 12:48. If you have heard that line of wisdom from the good old book, you know it means we are held responsible for what we have. If we have been blessed with talents, wealth, knowledge, time, power and the like, it is expected that we benefit others also in what they lack but we have the means.
It's certain Ghana is making some strides, however there appears to be rising despondency and anxiety because lots of people feel we are not doing much or perhaps nothing impressing to enable a wholesome living standard especially in 'everyday people'. It's therefore important political leaders across the country live up to expectations. Of course the responsibility should not lie on the oars of only politicians but it's important chiefs, corporate organisations, individuals, etc. help raise identifiable ones struggling or need some push.
Amplifying the earliest quote above of the President of our Republic, it is evident we may not have an all utopian society but it is fulfilling how we all need to collaborate in building a dignified society that everyone will feel safe and secure. Everyone has a part to play in helping create a society that being rich isn't deemed a sin by the poor and neither is pauperdom recognised force of will.
Let's help reduce the number of people on the streets, ghettos or in our communities that the devil will conveniently find work for their idle hands. Certainly your ideologies or beliefs won't matter when life is at stake. Be your brother's keeper for good of all and remember that a hungry man is certainly an angry man.
"If a society cannot help the many who are poor it cannot save the few who are rich" - Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
