Kwamena Duncan Must Spare Us His Ignorance

Any opportunity to appear on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo Morning programme is one that many would cherish, perhaps an opportunity of a lifetime. A lot of the people who appear to debate and share ideas lately leave much to be desired.

The programme to the best of my knowledge is designed to educate and entertain and to engage our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, who hitherto have been left out of the national discourse because of their unfortunate circumstance of not having formal education. Note the emphasis here is formal education.

The fact that one can articulate a particular language impeccably does not mean the person makes sense and is intelligent.

What has the President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills done wrong in the matter of the judgment debt paid to businessman, Alfred Agbesi Woyome?

When the issue became public, the President in line with the principles of probity and Accountability tasked the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), a constitutionally mandated body to investigate the circumstance that led to that gargantuan payment. This is what is expected of every leader who does not take decisions on the whims and caprices of people.

After painstaking investigations by EOCO, the President even before he could peruse the report, asked that the report be made public for ordinary Ghanaians who pay taxes to also have a feel of the good governance system. This is the first time such an action has been taken by any President in this country.

Yet members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who would never see anything good in whatever the President has done, since he assumed office in 2009, they have never ceased to accuse the President of complacency, and are rehearsing another dance step.

The NPP claim it is the party that believe in the rule of law, the freedom of the individual etc, yet in the same breath they display their double standard by prescribing for someone a different tenets because the person is not one of them.

Does Kwamena Duncan believe in the rule of law, I shudder to think so. His double standard and lack of appreciation of issues of national importance baffles me. But I am not surprised as this is the stock in trade of the NPP.

Woyome has become a chewing stick that must entertain them every morning, but when it comes to one of them, the law must be allowed to work.

When the congenital lunatic Kennedy Agyepong made his hate and genocidal speech, Nana Akufo-Addo, the flagbearer of the NPP, was asked to comment on the issue, all he could say was that the matter is in court, and that it would be prejudicial to make any remark on the issue.

Between Nana Addo and Kwamena Duncan who is intelligent, my conclusion is that they are a chip of the old stock. Danquah-Busia-Dombo Tradition who think they are the only best thing to ever happened to this country.

Next is my confession to considerable shock when on Wednesday June 7, 2012, Kwamena Duncan, the Central Regional Secretary of the NPP, appeared on Kokrokoo and the issue of Woyome’s release after the state filed a nolle prosequi, and his subsequent re-arrest by the Police to apparently face new charges, was tabled for discussion.

After all the back and forth to try and throw mud at the President, and accuse him of corruption and complacency in the Woyome judgment saga had failed, Kwamena is still trying very hard to be heard.

It is sad, very sad, that after all this year’s of multi-party democracy Kwamena Duncan and his ilk, still believe in arbitrariness that was an aberration tolerated in military governance, it is totally deplorable in what is supposed to be a civilian order.

Why am saying this, the matter brought against former Minister of Information, Stephen Asamoah Boateng and his wife, have been in court for over three years now.

Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, and the issue of his bungalow, took more than four years before the issue came to a closure, when the Supreme Court ruled in his favour.

The congenital lunatic, dishonorable Kenedy Agyepong’s case is also in court, and is being handled by the Attorney General’s department. In fact so far since 2009, the government has lost not less than 13 cases brought against former functionaries of the erstwhile NPP administration led by John Agyekum Kufuor. In all of this, the NPP have touted victory for the rule of law.

None of the individuals arbitrarily tried and jailed, it went through the due process and the slow mill pace that have always accompanied how cases are adjudicated in this country. If there is any individual who was arrested in a Rambo style and sent to court with dispatch amid all the humiliations, it is Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who is said to be a financier of the NDC, the ruling government.

The question that begs asking is, are members of the NPP more Ghanaians than all of us? Why should they be treated differently from all of us?

The same judicial process that acquitted and discharged, Former Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, who was the Chairman of the National Planning Committee (NPC) of the Ghana@50 celebrations and his brother-in law, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the defunct Ghana@50 Secretariat, Osei Adjei, former Minister of Agriculture etc, is the same judiciary that is trying the case brought against Alfred Agbesi Woyome. Should the President and the security services bundle Woyome and throw him in jail, because he belongs to the NDC and not the NPP?

We are equal before the law, nobody is above the law and no single individual or group is more important than the rest of us.

Kwamena Duncan must rise above his ignorance and pettiness. The people of Ghana deserve more and let me ask him, what is the message of the NPP? Are they going into the elections with Woyome’s message? Is that what would give Ghanaians their over-exaggerated and over ambitious free Senior High secondary School (SHS)? Would the issue of Woyome put food on the table of Ghanaians? Would it deliver better living conditions to the ordinary man on the street?

Corruption was sanctioned in this country by ex-President Kufuor when he said it started from Adam. The opulence his party members displayed in office was what angered Ghanaians to vote them out. But you see as thieves, they stole more than they needed and were able to cover their tracks, so it is difficult for the government to gather enough evidence to prosecute them. So they are claiming that holier than thou attitude.

But God knows the hearts of men and knows that President Mills is the best thing to ever happened to this country. All evil machinations from persons like Kwamena Duncan and his ilk, whose sole aim is to get his party back into governance and continue looting and pillaging of our scarce state resources.

Whiles the President is busy making choices and decisions of vital importance, Kwamena Duncan is always on air making ugly noises.

By Razak Bawa: razakbawa@gmail.com