Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and his Propaganda or is it misinformation?

During the Second World War, there lived a certain Paul Joseph Goebbels. Through deceit, vile and trickery, he meandered his way to the top of the Nazi Communication outfit. And once there, he became unstoppable. He dispensed with all notable ethics of communication and information and introduced into the system what came to be known in the dictionary of information dispensation as propaganda warfare. By this, when you see black you have to say it is white. That is if you want to survive in the system. Everything had to be looked at in its opposite. Nazi Germany had to win the war at all cost and any person who stood on its way had to be sacrificed or wasted. The state of affairs reached a crescendo when, even in the face of imminent defeat or collapse of the German Reich, Goebbels dished out information to the contrary that the Triple Entente (Rome - Germany – Tokyo Axis) had inflicted a devastating defeat on the Allied Forces

Modern Day Goebbels.

Once in a while, history has a way of foisting out a new Goebbels who tried in his/her own mortal ways to outdo/outshine the original Goebbels. It happened during the Gulf War, when Saddam propaganda machinery dished out strong passionate and disparaging tales about the Allied forces. Propaganda was at its best during the Nigerian Civil War, especially in the secessionist state of Biafra where all critics of the war were referred to as “sabo” and had to be eliminated. Abacha’s regime brought out Tomi Ikimi, who as Foreign Minister dished out information that was completely at variance with what was on the ground. Earlier on, Comrade Uche Chukwumerije had been brought in by his mentor to do the dirty work for him. It was just like the role played by the late Krobo Edusei, who before Dr Kwame Nkrumah spoke would be told, “Krobo, bepae ma me” . Krobo Edusei would then mount the podium and shout ‘Tshoo-oo—oo-boo’ and the audience would respond ‘Yei’. This would be repeated thrice or more after which Krobo would cast glances at the audience and then heaped a lot of insults onto himself. Look at me, Krobo Edusei, look at my mouth like that of a pig, look at my head like …. He would conclude with “ And if not Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, I am the who”. Really, anka me ne hwan. I am the who just as one member of our honourable law making chamber said,” the Cedi is appreciating the dollar”. Latter Day Apostles of NDC Campaign of Hopelessness.

Of late, one of the latter day apostles of NDC Campaign of Hopelessness is treading a similar path of self destruction. And he relishes doing his master’s bid, oblivious of the fact that truth, like a featherless cock cannot be hidden for long. He is defending all acts of the NDC including even the indefensible. He is attempting to rewrite the history of Ghana and telling those of us who lived through the period when he was not even born that certain things which never happened did infact happen. Sometimes, I wonder if such people are Christians or Muslims. But I had my greatest shock when the defender of the indefensible said it on Metro TV that his interaction with people in churches around the Spintex Road had brought him more revelations. I checked myself and heaved a sign of relief when it dawned on me that, I, an ordinary mortal am not supposed to condemn my fellow human being. I was also very happy to learn that may be, behind the seemingly arrogance face of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa could be a humble mien. My only prayer is that our Goebbels of a politician will, like Ananias, meet the Saviour on his road to Damascus.

The Mother of All Lies.

How on earth could Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa come out with such a prosterous idea? What does he take Ghanaians for? If he, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, like his masters in the NDC think we are fools, I would like to refer him to statements made by he and their agents. I believe exposure of such a presumptuous thought/idea will bring them down from the top of Mount Olympus where they think they are occupying.

In the midst of the Muntaka’s saga, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, in a bid to hood wink Ghanaians into thinking and believing he is a saint said on air that four days after his assumption of office as Deputy Minister for Information, a lady entered his office and with an envelope. On enquiry, he was told it was his allowance for two weeks. He questioned the lady why he should be given a two week allowance when he had been in office for only four days. He asked the lady to take it back, and he later informed the Chief Director about it.

I heard this myself and if anyone thinks I am lying, let Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa himself contradict me. If Government could give two weeks allowances to Minister who had been in office for less that a week, I cannot visualize why it cannot pay such Ministers and their Deputies their salaries. I can also conjecture in the mind’s eye the amount of money that could have gone down the drain through payment of two weeks allowance for a four day work. And it appears, Comrade Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is the only P.C.Appiah Ofori amongst his colleague Ministers.

And if Government could pay them their allowances, why not their salaries? Does Government want us to believe the country is so broke that it cannot afford to give its top functionaries, free fuel, free this and free that? Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is caught in his own web.

While I was just about to conclude the issue on non-payment of salaries to Ministers under Mills’ regime, I had a windfall. And guess what it was! That it was not true that substantive Ministers and their Deputies have not received their salaries for the past seven months. Just this Friday, 14th July, 2009, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa was on air during the newspaper review segment on Metro TV (with Nana Akomeah) dishing out what he knows best – propaganda. He was telling us about the World Economic Crunch which has affected all countries and made it impossible for President Mills to fulfill his campaign promises. Inadvertently, Comrade Okudzeto Ablakwa let slip in one of the closely guarded secrets of the Mills administration. – That he had taken his family on a shopping spree to the United States. He said it loud and clear that he, together with his family had gone round shops in the Manhattan area of New York only to discover that some major shops like Macy on 34th Street had folded up. Hey guys, you heard it right from the horse’s own mouth, even though our honourable Deputy Minister for Information is not a horse. But you heard it from his mouth all right. I am not imagining things, for I am reporting what he said on air.

Now, some posers.

If Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa claims he and some colleagues of his have not been paid, where did he get money to go shopping with his family in the United Sates? And if one argues that he went there to attend to government business, the next question should be, what about his family? Nobody is saying he should not travel out with his family like the NDC Administration is preventing the Osei Adjeis, the Asamoah Boatengs and many others from doing. But should it be at government expense? Who footed the bill of his family and how many people were on the trip? Is it another case of someone sponsoring his family? If it is somebody who footed the bill, the public ought to know because Okudzeto Ablakwa has become a public figure and anything that affects him affects the entire nation.

I am asking these questions because it was Okudzeto Ablakwa himself who has come to tell us that some Ministers, (he inclusive) have not been paid their salaries since they assumed office. I wouldn’t have taken him on if he had kept his silence. Does he have to tell us this? There are many discomforts and denial of other basic things that go with rendering selfless services to one’s nation. But they have sworn to the Oath of Secrecy which, in effect, binds them from making certain sensitive information public. What purpose does it serve if you, as a Minister, come to tell the public that you have not been paid for some months? Is he not denigrating the government of which he is part and parcel of? Is he a good team player? By his action, has he not rocked the boat? Is Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa trying to be more catholic than the Pope by telling us he is being patriotic for performing duties that he is not being paid? What message are we sending to the international community by such public disclosures? Can we rightly say that Ghana as a nation has not got its priorities right if it can blow such “opepepeepee” on tea and snacks for only a few privileged few and others on pampers for the children of a Minister, while it cannot afford to pay her hard working ministers their monthly emoluments? Where did Government get money to “spray” on Muntaka and his “girlfriend” during their trip to Germany if there is no money in the system? Are all these traits of a caring government? If our Ministers and their Deputies have not been paid for as long as six or seven months, how do we expect them to function effectively? It is therefore not surprising to hear that Muntaka had to pass on the bill for his children’ pampers to the Sports Ministry, simply because he had not been paid for months. A country that cannot afford to pay the salaries of its Ministers, as Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa would have us believe, is in essence, worst off than Iddi Amin’s Uganda where the currency at one time was worthless than tissue paper as captured in the film, “ Entebbe Air Raid” .

So what was the purpose of Okudzeto Ablakwa’s revelation, if ay call it so? It was just to demonize the Kufuor’s administration to the effect that the previous administration did not leave any money in the national coffers. And if there was no money in the national coffers, where did it get the “opepepeepee” it blew on tea/snacks, chinchinga, pampers, trip to Abidjan, trip to Germany and his girl friend, not to talk about Obama’s visit and many others? The true state of Affairs.

The point is that the Mills NDC administration is bereft of ideas on how to move the nation forward. But Instead of telling us the truth, it has adopted diversionary tactics aimed and hoodwinking Ghanaians into believing that what we are seeing with our ‘krokro’ eyes are nothing but the hallucination of our minds. If what we left in the coffers is many times what they left for us when they left governance in 2001 and they have ‘blown’ this huge amount through profligate spending and lack of clear sense of direction to the extent that they cannot pay the salaries of their Ministers, then, Ghanaians should consider this regime the worst government ever to be foisted on the country.

In 2008, when oil price went as high as $147.00 per barrel, and the world economic crunch was at its peak, Kufuor was able to pay workers and Ministers. But now that the price per barrel is $73.00, Mills cannot pay his Ministers because according to Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, shops in the Manhattan Area of New York have folded up when he went on a spending spree, Ghanaians should realize that this “I Care” Slogan of the Mills administration is just a political gimmick/ruse to deflate all hope of a better life for Ghanaians.

How could any caring and humane government ‘order’ his Minister to come out with such a laughable idea that Ministers had not been paid their salaries for months? Yet everyday we see such Ministers cruising around in the best of cars, enjoying the best of everything whilst others travel to various State capitals with their families on shopping sprees and collecting per diem allowances, all at state expenses. And yet Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa would have us believe that such Ministers have not been paid anything since they assumed office.

The out of control National Democratic Congress is a party where violence, harassment, intimidation, lack of respect for basic human values, corruption and propaganda are the oath of allegiance. And Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa happens to be the arrowhead of such outfit. I hope when he encounters his Saviour in the course of performance of his Ministerial duties, he would just like Paul of Tarsus did on the Road to Damascus acknowledge his frailty as a human being and ask the Lord to take charge of his entire life.

But until that time the question is, when and how long are we going to live with the antics of this Paul Joseph Goebbels of our time.

Daniel Danquah Damptey.

E-mail Address : danieldanquah_damptey@yahoo.com Tel. Number : 0243715297.