Shameless Hypocrites and political-hermaphrodites (1)

With my medical background which started in the prestigious Saint John’s School at ‘Baka Ekyir’ in Sekondi, I would like to give my cherished readers, a little lesson in human anatomy. And it is simply this; there are some people who, at birth, are endowed with both a male and a female sexual organ. This condition is what is medically known as hermaphrodite.

On our Ghanaian political scene today, there are some individuals who have become extremely notorious with their perfect art of confounding us as to where they exactly belong on the political spectrum. For, these individuals have hidden in their private parts, the flags of both CPP and NDC.These people refer to themselves as ‘senior’ journalists but I will describe them, aptly, as political-hermaphrodites.

The un-alloyed arrogation of power by some individuals to themselves has seriously got me thinking. These individuals see themselves as all-knowing and therefore expect their views on every issue to be considered as the-bottom-line. You dare challenge such people (being a host or guest) during a Radio/TV discussion and they will threaten never to step in your studios again.Infact, they would even threaten to gather all the knowledge on this planet, tied it up in a cocoa-sack and go and hide it under their ‘senior-journalistic-bed’!!

A question was posed to Kofi Adams (aide to Rawlings) by Adakabre Frimpong-Manso on 18th February, 2010 edition of the Hot-FM’s morning programme and the answer he gave was very profound.

Kofi Adams was asked why he thinks “Kwesi Pratt has been making unsavory remarks about Rawlings, each time he criticizes Atta-Mills”.

Answering the question, Kofi Adams said “Rawlings is the founder of the NDC” and that “he (Rawlings) headed one of the NDC 3-pronged campaign onslaughts that toiled for the party to regain power”. In effect, Rawlings is an integral part of the NDC party and “it is in his best interest to ensure its survival”. Hence, his occasional raising of concerns as to how the NDC government is running the affairs of the state. This is because he “sees the failure of the current administration as an indictment on him and a total waste of all that he put in during the 2008 electioneering campaign”.

Commenting on Kwesi’s insults, Kofi Adams said that he (Kwesi Pratt) is a member of CPP and that he (Kofi Adams) has always wondered “what exactly Kwesi stands to lose if the NDC fails to deliver and it is voted out of power”. In otherwords, Kofi Adams does not seem to understand why Kwesi jumps-through-the-roof each time Rawlings criticizes Atta-Mills administration.

Appetizing motivation

Thinking aloud as a passive observer, I am tempted to conclude that Kwesi is being motivated by something much more ‘appetizing’ than a mere desire to see Atta-Mills succeed. This is because Kwesi’s own CPP is currently in total shambles and needs people like him to focus attention on the party in order to breathe a new lease of life into it.

Here, my very humble question to Kwesi is this: if you continue to expend all your energies on ensuring the success of the NDC and its continuous stay in power, then how do you expect your beloved comatose CPP to ever come to power? Is this not an extremely wicked betrayal of the great Osagyefo’s legacy?

In the very first year of Mills-Mahama administration, trillions of tax payers’ money was squandered on vehicles and rental accommodations for NDC appointees who claim to be highly allergic to profligate expenditure. And rather strangely, Kwesi says he is not moved by this naked raping of the state’s coffers because worst things happened during the Kufuor administration (Hot-Fm, 3/2/10).

This kind of shameless verbal acrobatics is what used to be the pretext for military coups. Such behavior is motivated purely by insipid-selfishness and it stinks! Now, if a rabid-socialist who made the streets of Accra their second home through incessant bogus demonstrations are today saying this, then God help Ghana!!

When Rawlings narrated the Atta (the mortuary man) story, Kwesi Pratt came to explain to us, the ‘true’ import of the story as it relates to Atta-Mills and his government. It took Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings (the former 1st lady) to call into that programme on Radio Gold to debunk Kwesi’s assertions and set the record straight.

Nepotism and cronyism

Today, nepotism and cronyism are at a crescendo!!Political appointments are largely going to people from particular regions of Ghana.Currently,the nerve center of government,Tema oil refinery(TOR),volta river authority(VRA),Ghana national petroleum corporation(GNPC),national petroleum authority(NPA) and other strategic state institutions are all being controlled by members from one family. But, apostles of equity who used to compile all Akan-sounding names in Kufuor’s government and vociferously spoke against nepotism, cronyism and tribalism have decided to maintain a deafening silence!

When Kufuor dealt with the IMF, people who claim to be socialist inclined were shouting from the roof-tops that the NPP government lacked vision and because the NPP could not come up with any innovations of their own, they were quick to run to the Breton-Woods institutions for refuge.

Now, the then candidate Mills who was among these socialist-inclined ideologues campaigning against the IMF becomes president and has decided to run to this same institution, after being hit in the face with the realities of governance. Under normal circumstance, sincere group of people would have come out with an apology to the good people of this nation.

However, because these people have no shame, they are now telling us that all those conditionalities attached to their dealings with the IMF were that which had already been incorporated in their party manifesto. A die-in-the-wool ‘I care for you’ social democratic party having IMF conditionalities incorporated in its party’s manifesto?

Palmer-Buckle: once a devil but now a saint

Anytime President Kufuor mentioned the short-comings of the NDC during a speech, he was branded as exhibiting divisive attitude. Today, singing from a hymnal which contains only ‘ills’ of the Kufuor administration has become Atta-Mills’ trade-mark. Yet, these proponents of national cohesion do not see anything wrong with what the current president is doing.

Was it not this group of people who spearheaded the ‘operation criticize only the government in power because they collect your taxes’? Yet, today, they are comfortably lying on a bed of roses with the government in power. Could free access to ‘nkwan deewa’ be the cause of such a dramatic u-turn and a total abandonment of one’s avowed principle?

We were in this country when Rawlings was insulting everybody associated with the Kufuor administration. He even went ahead to refer to Kufuor as ‘Ataa Ayi.Now, when that incident happened, the Christian Council thought the insults in our politics was getting to a point where decency was fast eluding our political figures.

The council therefore issued a Pastoral statement to admonish Rawlings and other political figures to avoid such utterances. Instead of such a wise council being taken in good-faith, Kwesi Pratt, Tony Aidoo and Raymond Archer went to sit at Radio Gold and plainly insulted all those members of the clergy who were signatories to that Pastoral press release.

Rev. Fred Deegbe who refused to sign that pastoral letter was hailed to the high heavens by Kwesi Pratt, Tony Aidoo and Raymond Archer. On the other hand, The Most Rev.Father Charles Gabriel Nii Obuobisa Palmer-Buckle and Pastor Mensah-Otabil (very decent men of God), were described as devils and charlatans for being signatories to that pastoral letter.

Today, The Most Rev. Charles Gabriel Nii Obuobisa Palmer-Buckle has exhibited a divine-consistency by calling on those who are pouring plain ‘insults’ on Atta-Mills, for no apparent reason, to put a stop to it.Rev. Palmer-Buckle went ahead to praise the modest achievements of Atta-Mills, and immediately, the double-tongued Kwesi Pratt was on 24th April,2010 edition of ‘alhaji-alhaji’ programme on Ghana’s radio Rwanda(Radio Gold), describing Rev. Palmer-Buckle as one of the most prominent and highly respected men of God in our country.

Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei

E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com