Re: Mahama Is Not Humble, He Is Disrespectful

“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able

to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that

there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks

humbly and deals charitably”

--- Eleanor Roosevelt

Inarguably, it is only a non-objective and bias member of the NPP, who

would describe His Excellency, President Mahama as “Not Humble…Disrespectful”

person. I believe if K. Badu had sent this article to his party gurus or

communications team in Ghana to review, before he sent to Ghanaweb, they

would have advised him to change the title of the piece, knowing well that,

President Mahama does not feet the characterization he rendered. In the

sense that, dozens of them who were in Parliament with the then Mr. Mahama,

since the inception of Ghana’s fourth republican democratic dispensation,

rather knew him to be an opposite of what myopic and narrow-minded Badu claims.

President Mahama has been humble, respectful, cool, calm and collected

gentle man since infancy, and those are the enviable traits that the NPP’s

Nana Addo is lacking that is why he continues to fumble and tumble in the

political field.

When the NPP realized that they had no pragmatic and practical message to

the electorates, coupled with the fact that, all the schemes and strategies

being adopted by their communications team, both home and abroad, to

disinform, misinform and manipulate the mentality of the discerning Ghanaian

electorate are falling apart. They realized that the center can no longer hold

firm this dwindling and declining chances for victory, one of their

laughable columnists in the UK is desperately trying to re-read ‘meaning’,

grossly exaggerate and blow out of proportion some statements purported to

have been made by His Excellency President Mahama.

This piece would render an objective analysis on his claims, to enable

readers of his article read in between the lines. He first quoted the

President saying in Parliament, when he was the Vice-President that, “People of the

Ashanti origin have problem with letters L&R.” But this was not meant to

be an insult, he quoted the President out of context. And the President was

not the first person to have said that. Even some Akans and Ashantis, who

do not have such “L/R” tongue deficiency, are always mocking and making fun

of their own kid and kith with such dialectical constrain. One of the

Ashanti music composers, wrote a rap song in the nineties, which partly reads,

“…Me “L” ne me “R” ne ye ma me ploblem”, and even many other Akan

comedians have been mimicking and mocking their own people with this problem.

And the fact that, the President said it does not mean he was following

their own crowd with the intention to make them a laughing stock, and I

believe you were only one among your cronies, who took the President out of

context-a clear cut scenario of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

On the issue of the President allegedly describing the radio phone-in

discourse by callers regarding the late President Mills’ burial place as “

USELESS”, you should have mentioned the rationale behind what the President

said. These callers (who were mostly, supporters and sympathizers of the NPP)

were using all sorts of abusive and insulting words against him, due it his

government decision to bury the late President in Accra, which was in

agreement with the deceased family members.

The “Baloney”, or Non-sense that the author claimed the President

described the NPP’s MPs is a very fair assessment and it fits perfectly their

modus oprandi in parliament, because as one time Parliamentary Correspondent of

a newspaper in Ghana, the NPP MPs, would usually oppose virtually every

government initiative placed in the house for consideration. And they would

use all kinds of abusive words against late President Mills, and

Vice-President Mahama. No wonder few days after one of those daily routine of

castigation and vilification of the man of God, upon hearing his sudden death, we

saw them shedding shameful crocodile tears, out of guilty consciousness of

the kind of stressful, hectic and nerve-wrecking situation they subjected

him into. We saw and heard them saying they did not hate him, but hate his

policies. But the NDC MPs when they were in minority never gave such hard

time to former President Kufour, as the NPP had done to the late President.

This was simply because, they would not see wisdom in the reciprocity of

respect and mutual co-corporation they had gain from the NDC MPs.

Regarding the President’s reaction to former President Kufour’s plea to

the government not to “Kill a fly with as a Sledge Hammer”, concerning the

case of the most notorious MP in Ghana, Kennedy Agyapong, who incited the

Ashantis against the Gas and Ewes, where the President replied him saying, “

We will kill a fly with a Bulldozer”. If you were an objective person, you

would expect former President Kufour, as one-time father of the nation to

condemn Kennedy Agyapong in strong terms. But he by lobbying for clemency

and compassion for him, has down-played the ultimate negative ramification of

this high inflammatory statement, which was a treasonable and treacherous

crime.

But the President’s statement if you observe, was meant to serve as a

deterrent, because for such a rowdy and rancorous statement to have come from

the mouth of a member of the house of legislature, really deserves such a

strongly worded statement from the presidency- warning him and other

antagonistic and aggressive surrogates of Nana Addo in the NPP- a party which even

won 13 out of 17 cases of using indecent language in the air waves, by

courtesy of the Media Foundation for West Africa. This authoritative manner of

His Excellency was supposed to tell them to beware of the consequences of

inciting the Akans to attack the Gas and Ewes in their regions- a situation

which would ruin the ever enviable political stability of mother Ghana,

which is sandwiched in a sub-region, always burning and bleeding. And Ken is

now out of jail, nothing happened to him. The NPP should rather be thankful

to the President for tempering justice with mercy. But just imagine K.

Badu what would have happened to Ken if he were in Nigeria or any other

African countries, you know their governments would never countenance or tolerate

such sheer act of stupidity and senselessness.

Talking about the phrase the President used, “It is only those who are

blind that do not see the good work of the NDC.” I wonder what kind of

education you had or if you ever read basic literature, for you to have

misunderstood him. Even a lay man who could not write an article as you could not

associate that statement as an insult to the visually impaired. The President

used that figuratively and not literally to refer to people like you, Mr.

Badu, who always blind fold themselves, and throw dust in the eyes of the

electorate, in order to prevent themselves and the voters from seeing clearly

the indelible success made by the Mills-Mahama administration within their

first two years in office, toward the implementation of the Better Ghana

Agenda. The President is a highly religious man of God, and would not make

such a statement to insult people that he rules. Besides, he knows that, it

was God’s decision for them to be literally blind.

You also quoted His Excellency’s statement that, “God in his own wisdom

has taken the old man, Professor Mills away to pave way for the youthful

Mahama to take over the mantle.” In the first place, the President knows that,

death is a common phenomenon that would happen to every Thom, Dick and

Harry, living and breathing on this earth, and he would also go when his time

is due. And truly as he said, God has paved the way for him to be

President. He never thought of nor to have attempted in mysterious ways, as your

sympathizers are widely alleging to have caused the demise of the late

President Mills, just to take over the mantle of leadership. After all, he is

still in his youthful exuberance and has a bright future within the

all-inclusive NDC party. And if it was the NPP in power and the President dies, the

Vice-President from the north would never had the hands-down opportunity to

run for the presidency uncontested by their array of ‘Ashanti-Akyem’ mafias

and gurus on the waiting list.

Because the Al-mighty knows how President Mahama cooperated with his late

boss, who mentored him and even envisaged his chance of succeeding him, few

months before his death. So Mr. Badu there is nothing bizarre about such a

statement. Even the rank and file of our Great Akatamanso party, knows

that President Mahama is a God-sent leader who could easily win the election.

That was why our senior party executives decided unanimously to endorse him

for the presidency, without any challenger. Coupled with fact that, he

coincidentally happens to be the most marketable and charismatic

Akatamansonian guru today, who in spite of the NPP’s constant and consistent

attacks

from different angles, is still soaring and surging in popularity

exponentially.

Finally, you raised an eye brow on his phrase, “Northerners are fed up of

playing second fiddle to the presidency.” Take it or leave it, the

President, hit the nail directly on the head. Because this is a glaring fact. All

political parties know that, no party can win an election without the

support of the North, Muslims/Zongos. Your party members are clearly trying to

shift the minds of the electorate from your selfish, myopic, ethnocentric and

tribalistic attitude of always having an Ashanti or Akyem at the

forefront, while using a Northerner as Vice-President and dumping him for the

presidency.

This is undeniable, because a clear case scenario happened to the late

Vice-President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, who was rejected by your members, after

having served eight good years under the former President Kufour’s corrupt

regime. Even Kufour himself showed him his “Ashanti Confederacy”-true

colors, when he surprisingly endorsed ‘Alan Cash’, an Ashanti, at his (Aliu)

expense. And Badu, do you know that, Nana Addo and some of your cronies even

advised Kufour to reject Aliu when he was going for the second term in 2004,

and use an Akan, because they thought, Northerners would appreciate the NPP

’s ‘generosity’ for being the first party to have given their son a

second slot and vote for them even without using him for the second term. But

upon sober reflection of the fact that, many discerning Ghanaians from both

the South and the North would not renew their mandate, they rejected the

idea and thereby won the elections.

It is very clear to everyone that, Nana Addo is the only defending

champion, when it comes to making statements replete with ethnocentric undertone.

A case in point, was when he came to New York City about five months ago

and was hosted by the NPP USA NASSRA Club, at GALAGALA restaurant in the

Bronx, Nana Addo, not knowing that, the audience were predominantly NDC USA

Zongo Caucus members, he made a generic and sweeping statement to the effect

that, and I quote, “…I don’t know if it is sheer hatred that makes the

Muslim and the Zongo people vote against the NPP.” Just imagine, these

insulting words, and some of us as journalists wanted to ask him questions on this

statement, but the NPP USA Diaspora disallowed questions, knowing that Nana

Addo would be disgraced, due to his use of unguarded statement at the

event. The question is; if you imply that, the Zongos and Muslims hate NPP,

then how come President Kufour won the elections in 2008; it was simply

because many of these people voted for him.

Nana Addo’s “All die be die” and “Yen Akanfuo” trabalistic mantra would

be in the annals of history for posterity to read and write. And would ever

remain indelible in the minds of the electorate as they queue to reject

him and send back the elephant to the bush on December 7th, 2012. Mr. Badu

you mentioned at the tail end of your article that, you expect the President’

s kind responds. But His Excellency has no time for the likes of you. For

you are not and would never be on the same wave length with him-character

wise, communications wise, intellectual wise and academic wise. Hence those

of us, his progeny and communications team in the diaspora would be

replying and reacting to your usual character assassination and casting of

insinuation, which you are rather making him more popular as he is getting closer

for a landslide and an overwhelming victory next Friday.

Husseini Y. Baba AlWaiz, Press Secretary, NDC New York