By; Issahaque A. Kanleoba
I never really thought that I would have this unpleasant and tiresome duty of having to write a rejoinder to the master-class article that has been written by Abdul-Samad Danaa. However, the misplaced and belittling rejoinder by M. Adinan and A.A. Passum needs to be critically assessed for the substantive matter to be put in the right perspective for the benefit of the good people of the Wa Central Constituency.
In as much as I respect the stature of my of two colleagues and brothers (M. Adinan and A.A. Passum) as well as their courage and confidence in attempting to contribute to this discourse, it is important to start by stating clearly and emphatically that their rejoinder woefully missed the real issues pertaining to Samad’s article. Thus, their perception of Samad as trying to propagate Bernard Mornah’s agenda by singing his praises can only stem from naivety and sheer sycophancy since the article embodies much more than the two think or understand. In the same vein, they resorted to concentrating their energy and efforts on attacking the personality of Samad by referring to his thoughts with unpalatable and unspeakable words such as rave, rant, idiotic etc. instead of stating in categorical and unambiguous terms the track record of the Hon. Rashid Pelpuo as our member of parliament for the past five and half years; the reason for which they had to put up that mockery of a rejoinder. For the sake of the larger society and the Wa Central Constituency for that matter, this must not be narrowed down to a personality clash or a misplaced NDC/NPP affair like Adinan and Passum did in their article. However, I deem this as an opportunity to state in underogatory terms why that piece of article by Samad is intellectually unbridled and needs our unreserved commendation and not myopic condemnation born out of sycophancy and bootlicking.
Yes, that the Wa Central Constituency belongs to all of us is a fact that cannot be denied by any well-intended mind worth his/her sort. Based on this analogy a constituent has the right to question, review, analyze or criticize at any point in time the credibility, capability and likely performance of the incumbent member of parliament as well as people who intend to offer themselves for possible election into the office of the member of parliament for the Wa Central Constituency just like Samad did. Was it out of place for Samad to question the ability of the current Member of Parliament to tackle head-on the developmental challenges, needs and aspirations of the constituency in a promising manner with regards to his (MP) lifestyle of opulence as well as his ineffective networking capacity? Definitely not! Did I also hear Adinan and Passum attempt to deny or rebuff the statement that “if even a goat contests for the Wa Central seat on the ticket of the NDC, the goat would win”? I stick out my neck here and now to let Adinan and Passum know that if only they are not trying to be selfish and untruthful to themselves and the constituency they by their level of understanding of Samad’s article would realize that the candidates who win the Wa Central seat do not do so on their own merit, credentials and capability. In fact, the strongest trump card of the candidates has always been the massive following and loyalty that the NDC commands in the Constituency- the reason for which no candidate from any other political party has been able to wrestle the seat from the grips of this NDC monopoly and monotony. It baffles me seriously therefore that a son of the campaign manager to the Hon. Member of parliament would exhibit such pretense or ignorance by goofing to this extent. For the records, M. Adinan has very close links with Hon. Rashid Pelpuo by virtue of the fact that his (Adinan’s) father is the anointed campaign manager of the Deputy Majority Leader and therefore Adinan’s father calls the shorts and pulls the strings in the constituency on behalf of and on the authority of the Hon. Member of Parliament.
In the rejoinder, Adinan and Passum sought to belittle Samad’s intellectual acumen by portraying him as an average unemployed Ghanaian who is desperate to be heard in order to strengthen his ties with those he perceive can bring food to his table and we can’t begrudge Adinan especially for alluding to this call. However, has Adinan forgotten that but for his relationship with Hon. Rashid Pelpuo he might have possibly been worse off than Samad in terms of employment? Fortunately or unfortunately, Samad is still trying to get noticed for food to be put on his table as an individual unlike Adinan who has waived into this discourse as a result of the widely-established fact that the entirety of the Adinan family owes its everyday existence and sustenance to one man-Hon. Rashid Pelpuo. Adinan can afford the luxury of referring to Samad as desperate and unemployed since in his own state of joblessness he has had the luxury of joining the wagon to the CAN 2010 in Angola in January/February as well as the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa in June/July this year. By enjoying these undue privileges at the expense of other constituents, which Adinan on his own cannot afford, he has turned to be blinded to the extent that he is only concerned about the desperate attempts of a colleague unemployed graduate and not by what he can also do to stand on his own and break loose from the shackles that have tied him to the Hon. Pelpuo after the member of parliament has single-handedly and unconditionally kept and sustained him (Adinan) throughout his four-year stay in Islamic University College of Ghana where Samad was the distinguished Local NUGS President.
Any fair and unbiased assessment of the performance and the capacity of the incumbent Member of Parliament and the need for a re-think in 2012 for a Bernard Mornah endorsement could not have been more appropriate and opportune for the Wa Central Constituency and its inhabitants than now. In the earlier article, Samad spelt some distinguished personal achievements and credentials of Mr. Bernard Mornah and hence his ability and capacity to proactively meet and deal with the myriad of developmental challenges and concerns of the constituency. Mornah’s humility, nobility, unquestionable popularity and his exhuming charisma can never be overlooked by anyone no matter the occasion or platform. He has for the past few years blossomed into an internationally-acclaimed political and intellectual figure by merit of his personal and individual traits and not by virtue of being in parliament like Hon. Rashid Pelpuo. In the 2004 elections, Bernard Mornah contested the Wa Central seat against Hon. Rashid and some four other contestants and with all the odds that come along with contesting on the ticket of the PNC, he roped in twelve thousand and eighty (12080) votes to place next to Hon. Rashid Pelpuo- a feat that has never been achieved by any PNC parliamentary candidate in the Wa Central Constituency. It is this unblemished and merited showing in 2004 as well as some other distinguished achievements and personal traits, credentials and attributes that put Bernard Mornah in a pole position to break the jinx of the Wa Central Constituency in 2012 in order to salvage and project the constituency in an innovative, proactive and broad-based manner in terms of social, human and infrastructural development.
It is within our rights as individuals to agree or disagree with each other’s views and opinions like Adinan and Passum did. That notwithstanding, the credence and capacity which abound in Bernard Mornah within the Ghanaian political landscape which makes him a more viable option for the Wa Central seat in 2012 cannot be overemphasized. It is common knowledge that Bernard Mornah’s popularity and charisma is not confined to the PNC alone but indeed cuts across other political parties especially the CPP and the NDC as well as a cross section of the NPP. He is highly revered and seen as an epitome of hope, confidence and inspiration for the teeming youth of Ghana and Wa Central Constituency for that matter. In no uncertain terms, Bernard has demonstrated over the last couple of years that he has been in the limelight that he is committed to helping people fulfill their dreams of living worthy lives. This he does by sharing his meager personal resources(not from any fund) with the numerous people who have approached for help in paying their school fees or apprenticeship fees in the areas of dress-making, hair-dressing, shoe-making, mechanics etc.
Indeed, Hon. Rashid may be playing his part by paying fees for medical and law students as well as paying the fees of freshers who are about enrolling into various tertiary institutions, but the questions to be posed at this time are;
1. What percentage of the stipulated fees is taken care of by the MP?
2. What are the criteria adopted in selecting the beneficiaries?
3. What number of students are benefitting from the scheme?
On the subject of the regional hospital it beats my imagination that it has been attributed to the Hon. Member of parliament and I beg to differ from that assertion. In fact, it must be put on record that the plans for the establishment of a befitting regional hospital complex commenced with the acquisition of the hospital site about fifteen years ago during which time I wonder whether Hon. Rashid Pelpuo was a member of parliament. Moreover, during the reign of Hon. Ambrose Dery as Regional Minister he initiated a program which mandated all the districts in the region to contribute some stipulated sums of money into a common fund towards ensuring that the dream of a regional hospital saw the light of day. The recent commissioning and sod-cutting ceremony performed by the veep in Wa the regional capital is indeed a central government initiative which would be replicated in seven other regions. It is therefore highly erroneous and misleading for this multi-million dollar project to be credited to the Hon. Deputy Majority Leader. It is true that the so-called astuteness with which Bernard served as the deputy CEO of the LOC that successfully organized the Hockey Africa Cup for Nations 2009 was indeed under the watch of the Hon. Rashid Pelpuo as Sports Minister. However, it should be made known to all and sundry that Bernard was sworn in as the deputy CEO of the LOC before the Hon. Rashid Pelpuo assumed the substantive position of the minister for Youth and Sports implying that Bernard Mornah did not ascend to that position at the behest of Hon. Rashid Pelpuo.Moreover,who doesn’t know the circumstances under which Hon. Pelpuo served as Sports Minister? Without trying to dent the Hon. Deputy Majority Leader, I dare state that he was brought in as a stop–gap minister who was finally sacrificed for the Hon. Alban Bagbin when it mattered most. It may be true that Hon. Rashid Pelpuo is in South Africa representing Ghana at the on-going Pan-African Parliamentary Session. It is worth-noting however that any other person in the capacity of a deputy majority leader would have equally been in attendance at that session. Bernard’s membership of the seven-member committee is by virtue of his personal and individuals traits as a distinguished political genius and not by virtue of any parliamentary privilege.
The 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections may be two years away but the scramble for the claim to the Wa Central Parliamentary seat is right underway and we would not allow people like Adinan and Passum to once again deprive the constituents of Wa Central the bright and looming prospects which Bernard Mornah epitomizes. Come again in a better fashion Adinan and Passum, for we are not going to sit down and allow you propagate mischief, selfishness and sycophancy which have the tendency of misleading the public. God Bless Us All!!!!!
