Full responsibility means firing squad, Mr. Kwarteng-Arthur

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Garden City, New York

March 11, 2016

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

I have yet to take a critical look at the much-talked-about error-laden brochure put out by the Information Services Department (ISD) for the commemoration of the 59th anniversary of Ghana’s independence (See “Brochure Gaffe: I Detected Errors But Allowed It – ISD Boss” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 3/8/16). The fact of the Matter is that I really don’t see what the fuss is all about. After all, isn’t mediocrity as Ghanaian as twists or “Atwomo,” my profuse apologies to my kinsfolk and citizens of Nsawam-Adoagyiri.

To be certain, I was very disdainfully amused when I came across a media headline over the portrait of Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby (aka Dr. McNasty), claiming Ghana to have become worse than a “Banana Republic,” as if the status of our country was ever elevated above that of a veritable Banana Republic. Properly speaking, Ghana is an effete, or fast-dying, “Cocoa Republic.” In other words, Ghana stinks as fetidly as fermented cocoa beans. I know this because I partly grew up at Akyem-Asiakwa and am the bona fide great-grandson of Nana Aboagye, the Dwaben/Juaben royal prince, after whom a sizeable chunk of the farmlands immediately surrounding Asiakwa is named. Nana Aboagye is also credited with having uniquely pioneered the advent and spread of Presbyterianism in Okyeman.

Well, if Dr. McNasty were not the congenital self-righteous hypocrite that I have always known him to be, he would have first gone back and taken a good look at President John Agyekum-Kufuor’s speech marking the Golden Anniversary of Ghana’s independence in 2007. He could also try reading Mr. Ivor Agyeman-Duah’s extensively advertised biography of Mr. Kufuor, titled Between Faith And History, and report back to the rest of us how significantly different it is from the much-maligned brochure that was recently published by President John Dramani Mahama and his Flagstaff House Abongo Boys. About all that I can say right now is that the Mahama-minted independence anniversary brochure truly reflects the ramshackle state and quality of public education in our country.

After all, wasn’t it only yesterday, both figuratively and literally speaking, that the OECD, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, released a global ranking of the academic levels and educational quality of some 76 countries, of which Ghana came “butt-naked” last? And so, really, what is the justification for pretense here? I shall have more to say about the brochure that most accurately – you heard me right – listed Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta as the democratically elected President of the Republic of Ghana. I even hear the Kenyans are having a hearty kick out of this so-called misrepresentation of their leader on the streets of Nairobi. Very likely, they were greatly relieved to see their bloody butcher and unconscionable political criminal, who deftly scuttled his own indictment, trial and conviction at The Hague, depart the shores of Kenya to accept another coordinately plum job at the Flagstaff House.

It is also quite certain that President Uhuru Kenyatta went to Accra to tutor his most staunch backer on the continent in the enviable art of political criminality, especially on how to suavely scheme for victory in the upcoming November 2016 general election. This is a very funny story because it is not the very first time that the Mahama-led government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has had the opportunity and privilege to host the country’s annual independence festivities. And this year, too, by the way, an elementary schoolteacher – or was he a middle-school teacher? – from my maternal radix of Akyem-Nkronso was reported to have collapsed and died during a rehearsal for this year’s independence anniversary festivities scheduled to be held in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital.

What appears to have been remarkably exceptional about this year’s independence anniversary brochure/program was that part that truthfully and poignantly stated that “Ghana is now recognized as having attained low-income status in the world.” You see, truth-telling is perhaps the greatest enemy of the average Ghanaian citizen. And it was about time somebody with guts and balls like Mr. Abisat, the Deputy ISD Director, told it like it veritably was. As for the latter’s boss, Mr. Francis Kwarteng Arthur, the Acting Director of the Information Services Department, “taking full responsibility” for these epic gaffes simply means being lavishly honored by President Mahama, like retired EC hatchet man Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. Having the man executed by firing squad would be too cheap and unmemorable.

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