Stay In Your Lane, General Mosquito

By Brefo Boateng, Sunyani – Brong Ahafo

I have watched in silence for far too long the insolence and temerity with which certain individuals have sought to play politics in our beloved nation – Ghana. It has been allowed the room to fester in our politicking today and like a cancer it is spreading dangerously and leaving a legacy of which posterity would not like to remember.

The saddest part of this anomaly is that it is a rather small percentage of today’s politicians who engage in the politics of divide and rule and indulge themselves in a shameless dance of disgrace they call politicking. As an elected official of a political party, you are sworn to uphold the ideals, philosophies and idiosyncrasies of the party you serve. You have been elected to serve the interests of the party and a mandate to further the goals of the party. It is therefore a shame when I see elected party officials – who swore to protect and defend the ethos of the party; they belong to – intentionally suffer from selective amnesia. They conveniently forget the promises they made when they sought office and the machinery that won them their elections. They become mini-gods and measure themselves against the established order. It is better for such individuals to understand that you can never bite the fingers that fed you. Not because you will not have the will to bite but because when you develop the unsavoury desire to bite the fingers that fed you, you lose your teeth. You become a toothless dog whose bark is ignored by even little children.

I cast my mind back to the days when Mr. Asiedu Nketia was picked from the relative obscurity of Parliament by the visionary leadership of our great party and groomed to be able to take over the mantle of steering the affairs of our great party. But like the proverbial stubborn fly, he has now chosen to follow the corpse into the casket for one final kiss. His pronouncements at Prempeh Assembly Hall have obviously sealed his political future.

It takes a great man to identify a great destination but it takes an even greater man to remember his humble beginnings so as to remain on track to achieve his desired goals. For General Mosquito to directly cast aspersions and throw tantrums at the Founder of our party and his wife, it gives me a clearer understanding of the meaning of the name he affectionately responds to. Like the mosquito, he medulla is obviously not complex and developed enough to process the fact that you do not and cannot separate a message from its messenger. Even in the Good Book, when a soldier brought the sad news of the death of Absalom to King David, he killed him because the messenger was synonymous with his message. It is therefore elementary level reasoning to understand that when an individual conceives an idea and nurtures it and grows it into the political powerhouse it is today, it is not only myopic but also outright stupid to try to disassociate both.

One question I have for Mr Mosquito – as I find the title General a whole lot flattering for a man who has displayed this level of intellect – is why he did not remember that President Rawlings was running the party like a spiritual church when he supported him to become General Secretary? Or where did he suddenly develop this bright idea?

And I seek to educate Mr Mosquito that even the so-called one-man churches who have built a framework and structure survive and even grow well after the deaths of their founders. Examples abound and one that readily comes to mind is the late Archbishop Benson Idahosa whose church still stands and grows today more than seven years after his demise because the structures are there.

Mr Mosquito talks of political fathers who are allowed to start political parties and that the parties meet their demise immediately after the deaths of their founders. It is obvious his knowledge of the Ghanaian political terrain is shallow. Else how would he have forgotten that there have been parties in Ghana whose founders are still very alive but the parties they founded are dead? What happened to the UNC, Obed Asamoah’s DFP and others including Dr. Tarzan’s own party. It is not about the founders, it is about the structures in place in the NDC and the exemplary leadership displayed by President Rawlings to allow structures to work within the NDC.

If it took President Rawlings to remote control Asiedu Nketia as per his allusions at Prempeh Assembly Hall, then it is logical to say that President Rawlings is extremely vital to the continued success of the NDC. After all, he remotely controlled affairs and won us an election. Of what use there is Asiedu Nketia? He is as important as useless. Away with him and let the brains that worked out the strategy for our electoral victory run the party machinery. I am indeed trying my utmost not to be caustic but can someone and anyone please ask that man if his senses have taken leave of him or he has taken leave of them? How could anyone in his or her sane mind claim that President Rawlings is insignificant in the NDC? It is sheer foolishness to equate President Rawlings’ role in the NDC to that of President Kufuor in the NPP? President Rawlings founded and established the NDC. President Kufuor joined the NPP. There is no one basis for comparison and as such I shudder to think how a man whose intellect is struggling day and night to grasp this logic can successfully steer the affairs of our great party.

Did I hear Asiedu Nketia talk about posterity judging? He should remind us of any time apart from under his leadership when the constituencies themselves have financed the NDC constituency election and MPs? Posterity will indeed judge us. Did he not tell us we had no money to finance the constituency and regional elections? Where did he get the money to criss-cross the country and buy the roofing sheets and other freebies he is distributing? How I wish I were a delegate. I would take the freebies because they are from our coffers or how else did Johnson Asiedu Nketia come by the money? I challenge him to render a complete account of his campaign including expenditure and revenue to the NEC of our party. If he comes out clean, I would eat humble pie and apologise. His statement at his launch is tantamount to foolhardiness. I only wonder why Mr Mosquito cannot read the history books and see how those who threaded these paths ended up. The Bede Ziediengs and Obed Asamoahs. Where are they? Those who are hailing him and fanning his ears with these lies and fallacies about his chances of destroying over sixteen years of hard work would be the very same people to carry the political casket.

Let me break the enormity of his statement down for him, as I still want to believe the speech was written for him and he failed to go over before going public with it. Every single religion in the world today – from Christianity to Islam and Hinduism had an individual who founded and epitomised the principles of the religion. Even towns and villages in Ghana are named after the individuals who founded them. There is no way our culture would tolerate such a shameful act of ingratitude. This is downright obtuse to say the least. And did he mention December 31st Women’s Movement? Please someone remind Mr Mosquito that hell hath no fury like a woman’s wrath. He had better let sleeping dogs lie. It is clear to me that the word functional has a different meaning in the limited vocabulary of Mr Mosquito. Has he ever been at an NDC rally? How in heaven’s name can anyone say NDC women are not functional?

In fact, I am reaching the end of my patience and I do not want to belittle myself too the level of trading tirades with someone of this kind of intellect. It is obvious monkeys play by their sizes. I would only advice Mosquito and his stooge or better still tsetse fly to stay in their lane because the NDC is positioning itself as an internationally acclaimed political party and as such is ridding itself of mediocre influences in our midst.

If you honestly feel that President Rawlings and December 31st Women are an issue, like you told Spio Garbrah, the party has laid down channels of communication. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If you are campaigning, tell the delegates what new things you would do. Talk about issues and leave personalities out of your campaign message. Better still if you have no message, just shut up your mouth!