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Muritalla Mohammed is a danger to the peaceful co-existence

Fri, 3 Feb 2012 Source: Damptey, Daniel Danquah

of all religions in the country.

There is something about the NDC Communication Team that I find totally reprehensible. It is about their penchant to take refuge in their reverie and refers to what happened under the NPP regime as cause of their party’s inability to perform. If the NPP did not live up to the aspirations of the electorate, we may rightly conclude that, that was the reason why the party was voted out of power. And so if today, the NDC is in power, we expect their government to do better than what the previous government did. Any attempt to make reference to the inability of the previous government’s failure to fulfill its promises will be an exercise in futility. Muritalla Mohammed, Sammy Okudzeto Ablakwa, Omane Boamah, Inusa Fuseini, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, , Allotey Jacobs, Baba Jamal, Ama Benyiwa Doe are the main culprits here. I want to use this medium to tell the President and his team of dishonourable advisers that we need action, not excuses. They were voted into office and we expect nothing but good performance from them. No comparison. Just do the best and leave the rest to the electorate to act as the final arbiter.

A few days ago, I was watching the ‘Good Morning Ghana’ on Metro Television being hosted by Mr. Samuel Agyemang, who stood in for Shamina Muslim. The discussants were Mustapha Hamid of the NPP and Muritalla Mohammed of the NDC. T he discussion was on the discovery of anti retroviral drugs for Aids patients by the Noguchi Institute in Ghana.

All of a sudden, Muritalla Mohammed, who has always adopted a ‘holier than thou’ posture like President Mills and wanted to dazzle the audience that he is more knowledgeable, dropped a bombshell by making an incorrect deduction. “Nana Drobo died under mysterious circumstances, certainly not in Ghana. But in the US, I think”.

This is a blatant lie, far, far from the truth. Nana Drobo died here in Ghana. If Muritalla, who is always defending the indefensible, does not know his facts, he should not deliberately throw dust into our eyes. It is true that Nana Drobo died under mysterious circumstances, but obviously, not in the United States. I repeat, Nana Drobo died here in Ghana. The official version put up by the then NDC controlled Press had it that Nana Drobo had attempted to commit suicide, but was resisted in his attempt by his Assistant. In the melee that ensued between the famous Fetish Priest and his Assistant, the gun accidentally went off, killing Nana Drobo.

This is the truth and I challenge Muritalla and anybody with a contrary view to contradict me on this.

Today it this same Muritalla Mohammed, (who did not see anything wrong when staff of the NYEP of which is the Deputy Co-coordinator were paid their one out of their ten months salary arrears at the Residence of the Regional Minister) who made another spurious, wicked, un-Islamic and contagious allegations against the flag-bearer of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. He said and was emphatic for he repeated it many times on Metro TV that Nana had urinated on a mosque. If Muritalla Mohammed, who has no idea of how Nana Drobo died claims he is a devout Muslim, let us organize a Public forum. Let Muritalla swear by the Holy Koran that Nana urinated on a Mosque and I will also swear by the Holy Bible that Nana did no such thing. We all serve a living God and we shall know who is telling the truth and who is not. I dare Muritalla Mohammed to accept this open challenge.

You see, what Muritalla did is tantamount to causing fear and panic. Muslims all over the world revere their Mosque. So making such a spurious claim, which he Muritalla Mohammed (if he is a true Muslim) knows is a blatant lie) could have resulted in an orgy of violence by some Islamic fundamentalists. We must not forget that it was the alleged rumour that a suya seller had sold pork meat as suya instead of goat meat to some unsuspecting Muslims that resulted in a religious riot in some Northern parts of Nigeria some years ago.

What Muritalla Mohammed is doing is not helping the country. Rather, it is fanning the embers of religious intolerance and violence in the country and the Muslim Elders should ask him to provide evidence to buttress his allegations or call him to order. No true Muslim will choose such a path to perfidy, even if to malign his bitterest political opponent. Government should relieve him of his position and hand him over to the law enforcement agencies to initiate criminal prosecution against him for causing fear and panic.

I cannot describe how I felt when Muritalla made such a dangerous and unsubstantiated allegations which is capable of plunging the country into chaos against the Flag-bearer of the NPP. I never expected that I would one day wake up to hear a Government Spokes-person making such a spurious and categorical statement which he know, deep down in his heart that there is no iota of truth against the leader of the largest Opposition Party in the country. But of course, I shouldn’t have for in the NDC, anything can happen for like what happened in “Animal Farm” under Napoleon, they can even ‘change’ a goat into a cow and award a member of their party such a colossal amount of money that it will take our children, grand children and great grand-children several years to obliterate out of their memory.

Muritalla cannot tell us where when and how Nana Drobo died, yet he wants Ghanaians to remember him as someone who is the repository of knowledge and wisdom. If he has the interest of the nation at heart, such an allegation ought not to have come from him at all. Knowing very well that it is criminal and evil to make such an unsubstantiated allegation against a man of integrity, who by the Grace of God, will be given the mandate to embark on a cleansing mission of the country in January, 2013, I think. Muritalla Mohammed has cut his nose to spite his face. As a young man who is trying to ‘cut his teeth’ in politics, he should not do so at the expense of a brilliant and experienced politician of Nana Addo’s stature. Monkeys play by sizes, he should remember that.

This gargantuan allegation should not be allowed to go off just like that. It calls into being Government’s stance on religious neutrality and peaceful co-existence of all religions in the country. Thus, Government and the Religious Leaders in the country should ask Muritalla Mohammed to substantiate his allegation or withdraw it and render an apology to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Like many inexperienced and aspiring politicians in the country, the Deputy Coordinator of the NYEP is behaving like a timorous lost soul trying to find his identity and the best way he thinks he can do so is to use religion to cause mayhem in the country. But I assure him he will definitely fail in his nefarious plans. If he does not repent but continue in his chosen route to Golgotha, he will be consumed by his own mischief.

His diabolical mind and utterances have made me come to the conclusion that he is a danger to religious harmony in the country. Like Hitler, who eulogize the Aryan race and reduced all other races to a position of ‘servitude’, Muritalla Mohammed is clandestinely using religion to spur hatred against his perceived political enemies and those who do not share in his own religious persuasion with the sole aim of plunging the country into chaos and the earlier he is arrested and put in chains, the better it will be for the peaceful co-existence of all religions in the country.

And this is the Muritalla Mohammed who wants to become a Member of Parliament in the country. If we have three Muritallas with such dangerous mentality in our country’s Parliament, Ghana will be on its route to Afghanistan. He is the last thing Ghana needs in this nascent democracy, and the earlier Government removes him as Deputy Coordinator of the NYEP, the better it will be for the country. He is no inspirer to the Youth in the country.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297

Columnist: Damptey, Daniel Danquah