Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa: Whom do you work for?

For the life of me, I do not know whom Okudzeto-Ablakwa and the other Deputy Ministers in the Mills-Mahama and now the Mahama-Amissah-Arthur government work for. Many of them were appointed to these positions just because of their membership of Kwesi Pratt and Kwesi Adu’s moribund and inchoate Committee for Joint Action (CJA). Perhaps it would be noteworthy to establish if it is the same Kwesi Adu who as an AFRC operative in the Eastern Region in 1979 made market women in Koforidua to chew and swallow salt and pepper for selling above the control price. As a university educated young man he could not realize that basic economics teaches us that the price of any commodity is determined by the supply and demand for that commodity. I wonder if he would be proud today of that act.

Now back to the topic. Ablakwa, whom do you work for? For the last four years you have spent your time jumping from one radio station to the next defending and spewing out a lot of NDC propaganda. Are NDC issues that you champion part of your official duty as a Deputy Minister? Your monthly salary of about Eight thousand cedis, the Toyota Land Cruiser V8 4-wheel and other household vehicles, the five housemaid servants and the free accommodation provided you come from the consolidated account of Ghana. One would expect that you spend your days assiduously working for the country Ghana as a whole. But your energies are devoted towards NDC issues and the constant denigration of Nana Akuffo Addo, someone who is old enough to be your father. Your mouth runs foul without any sense of decency. Imagine if your own biological father Brown Okudzeto who lives in Maryland in USA is so attacked every day and night by a man of your age. What would you say to that young man? Clap for him? I am old enough to remember what Nylander; an opposition Parliamentarian in the second republic told the Progress Party members that “the table turns round”. Just do not forget that, after all if your NDC’s rigging machinery is rooted out of our electoral process your party would be relegated into a minority status.

I have heard you describe Nana Akuffo Addo and the NPP as being a violent person and party respectively. Perhaps, you are too young to realize that Nana Akuffo Addo as a person and his party had never killed anyone in Ghana for political power. It is rather Jerry John Rawlings, the founder of your party, the NDC and his coterie of advisers not limited to Tsatsu Tsikata, Kojo Tsikata, the Ahwoi brothers, P V Obeng and many other ignoble members of the NDC who violently overthrew the SMC II in 1979 and a constitutionally elected Liman government in 1981. I lived through that period as a newly minted university graduate and I did abhor all the killing of the military officers at the Teshie range. What crime did they commit? If your founder and Tsatsu Tsikata who obtained First Class from the Law faculty at UG really believed in the sanctity of their cause, how come that the proceedings of the trials of all those who were killed is nowhere for us to read to make our own judgments about the fairness or otherwise about those trials? Are we not entitled to that history as Ghanaians? What about the numerous innocent Ghanaians who had undeserved violence perpetrated on them like the public whipping of the market women and the numerous unexplained disappearance of many Ghanaians. The legend is that blocks were tired on many of them and dropped into the sea by a helicopter. And worse still, the abduction and heinous murder of the three judges and the retired army officer by Amatei Kwei, a member of the PNDC and other operatives of that despicable regime. In today’s political scene, it is the architects of the AFRC and the PNDC that have blood on their hands and all these people are in the NDC. So, how can you Ablakwa justify your infantile claim that Nana Akuffo Addo is a violent person and his party is a violent one? Perhaps the University of Ghana that you attended had not equipped you with the analytical skills that you need to make a comparative analysis of violence in the politics of Ghana. In all your vituperations, you always failed to cite specific examples to amplify your uncouth assertions. Give examples if you have them instead of the blanket statements you make. Even the first auctioned copy of your 1992 manifesto was signed by Jerry John Rawlings with his own blood. What can be more violent than that? The NDC was born through violence, a coup d’état. And to prevent Ghanaians from seeking justice and holding Jerry John Rawlings and his comrades-in crime accountable, they had to sneak a blanket indemnity clause into the 1992 Constitution. What are they afraid of?

In John Mahama’s Christmas message to Ghanaians from South Africa, he lamented the art of telling lies that had invaded our political scene. But as the proverbial saying goes: “charity begins at home”. I wish Mahama had not put blinders on his eyes for the last four years so he could not see all the lies that Ablakwa, Fifi Kwetey, Kobby Acheampong and many members of the ruling government had told about people. When it served his political interests he chose not to see. And now that his own ass is being gored he cries foul. Mahama, remove your blinders and deal fairly with this cancerous canker before it devours all of us. Deal with members of your own NDC first. If not, we would define you by your association to these uncouth members of your party.

As of Sunday, the 12/23/2012, it was reported that your driver had been arrested for stealing an amount of over 20,000 cedis that you had left in your car. If the story is true, Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa, could you honestly tell all of us the source of that money? We really want to know. As a political appointee, you were required to declare your assets. Have you done that? Just be honest for once and tell Ghanaians the source of that money. Be bold as Nana Agyemang-Rawlings used to admonish the followers of the NDC. Be bold and tell us. You had never worked in any gainful employment before you were appointed as an unmerited Deputy Minister. But within the last four years you had a lot of money to organize a lavish wedding ceremony and to execute a parliamentary election and while all other members of Parliament are crying of being broke financially you could carry over 20,000 cedis in your car. Ablakwa, we are waiting for the explanation about the source of the money. Please, no cock and bull story. You are our servant so we deserve full explanation. Nothing more and nothing less. Give us just the facts. Or is it true that, in our parts of the world, politics is the sure way to riches whatever way it comes?

But, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, it is said that every dog has its day. Remember the fact that even Napoleon Bonaparte met his match at the Battle of Waterloo. In Ghanaian parlance, it is “every day for thief man, one day for master”. Your day of ignominy would surely come.

Mawuli Yao Elinam

Aflao, VR Ghana