John Agyekum Kofi Diawuo Kufuor, the Oxford trained (?) lawyer (?) who as President of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, spent eight years landing a lot of shame on Ghana via his bad command of the English language, in retirement, is still in the business of bastardizing the English language.
John Agyekum Kufuor, reeling under the pressure of the plethora of solid corruption cases hanging around the neck of his tenure as President of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana, in trying to divert attention, has only succeeded in exposing his lack of grasp of basic English grammar.
John Agyekum Kofi Diawuo Kufuor, in his interview with Citi FM’s Moro Awudu on Tuesday, July 14, 2009, turned the English language upside down and made a mockery of himself.
Kufuor, in his incoherent talk, used the phrase “human individual”.
It is not known whether in the lexicon of Kufuor, there are “animal individuals”, “vehicle individuals”, “newspaper individuals” “kickback individuals” or “cocaine individuals”, such that we can have “human individual”
On the issue of the World Cup in Germany, Kufuor said the Black Stars was the “toast of the cup”.
Obviously, what Kufuor should have said is “The Black Stars was the toast of the fans”.
Also in relation to the World Cup, Kufuor said before the team “Go into the pitch …”.
The correct phrase is “go onto the pitch” and not “go into the pitch”.
On the issue of his relationship with President Rawlings, Kufuor, in speaking to the issue said, “… talked bad things about Ghana …”.
In proper English grammar, you “say bad things” and not “talk bad things”.
Also on the issue of his relationship with President Rawlings, Kufuor said … “How often have you heard me talk adversely against him?”.
You don’t talk “adversely against”; you talk “adversely about”.
It would be recalled that the selfsame Kufuor as President, when in a state of drunken stupor at a Homowo party, spoke to the issue of the East Legon/Venezuelan cocaine matter, said that the matter will be “investigated to the bottom” when the accepted phrase is “get to the bottom”.
So he should have said something like; “there will be a thorough investigation and we will get to the bottom of the matter”.
His Excellency President John Atta Mills may slip on a word or two, but he certainly does not butcher the English language the way John Agyekum Kofi Diawuo “50 Cents” Kufuor does.
Kufuor certainly tried to make himself relevant in the political equation by granting that interview but ended up making himself extremely irrelevant as far as the English grammar is concerned.
As for the subsequent interview that he granted BBC, the least said about it the better.
There is no doubt that Kufuor was very drunk on his favourite Chevas Regal whisky at the time he was granting the interview hence the incoherent things he said about the current government not treating him well.
If Kufuor wants to be treated like a king, he should go to his Nkawie hometown; he should not sit in Accra and think that anybody will waste his/her time worshiping him.
Nana Biakoye (A True Patriot)
