Tribute To Theophilius Dougan Brodie-Mends

By Paa Kofi Freeman Amponsa-Dadzie

The death is announced of Mr T. D. Brodie-Mends, Member of Parliament for Cape Coast and Minister of Information, and then Lands and Mineral Resources, in the Second Republic, under Prime Minister Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia’s Progress Party Government. Mr Brodie-Mends, 83, died in Accra last Saturday, January 19, after a short illness. A statement issued in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency said he was a Journalist, Lawyer and Politician. He was a Member of the 1969 Constituent Assembly and was one-time President of the Ghana Union of Great Britain and Ireland. Funeral arrangements are the following: Friday 12th to 14th April 2013 – Lying in State, Burial And Thanksgiving Service at his maternal ancestral home of Elmina. (Source: GNA)

DESCRIPTION

Mr T D Brodie-Mends was an intelligent, ebony-jet black, tall handsome gentleman of pristine qualities, who will forever be remembered fondly by his children, family, friends, party and supporters including his Maximillian Anastas Brodie-Mends (aka Papa Abew), Maame… The popular Lawyer and Politician, who lived in Cape Coast in his prime was endearing, loving and humane; dubbed ‘Oburoni Mends’ (by his detractors), he was a well-attired, posh and affable person, who appreciated living in clean, serene surroundings and expected high standards of character from those around him. Uncle Brodie, as we affectionately called him, was demure, introvert, self-reliant and hardworking man, who strived to raise the standards of living of the poor and hungry in society. He was not only uncorrupted and detested bribery, but championed the ideals of democracy, freedom and liberty Ghanaians enjoy today as Minister of Information, and kept strictly the purse strings of our natural resources as a Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources, in Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia’s Progress Party Government of the Second Republic between September 1969 and January 13, 1972.

T D Brodie Mends was a voracious reader of books and an excellent writer, highly regarded among the pantheon of great men and women in the period of Ghana Gold Standard Education! He was a serious person but also enjoyed good life…and could be hilarious and even comical at times, as he told stories to much fun and delight of his friends (especially the one titled ‘It’s downstairs…’). T D Brodie-Mends was an orator par excellence but his speeches bore sense and wit than mere demagogy. We would never forget his inspiring and invigorating 1969 political campaign to become Member of Parliament, which was summed up in a typical Cape Coast parlance:

‘Eye Pro; Eye Sure’!!

‘Isuo, Ennsuo…Lawyer aaa no ko…’

‘Se wope…O; se wonnpe...o; onoara na reko 3x…Lawyer Mends ara no ko...’)

HIS EARLY LIFE

T D Brodie-Mends hails from a high seasoned and much enlightened family in Elmina, and linked to the ancestry that first met the ‘Whiteman in Ghana’ in1482. As stated by chronicles, his Mother Madam Victoria Baafour, was the sister to “Dr R P Baafour, the first-born son of Robert Patrick Baffour Andoh and Maria Frederica Adwoa Kane (Okai). Their paternal grandfather was the illustrious Chief Kweku Andoh of Elmina who served in Sir Garnet Wolseley's military campaign against Prempeh I, Chief of the Ashanti. He was made regent of Edina State upon the expulsion of Chief Kobina Gyan by the British. Their paternal grandmother was the eldest daughter of Yaa Na Yakubu I of the Dagomba tribe named Napari. She was rescued from the Ashanti by Chief Andoh during the campaign against Prempeh and was given the name Efua Yendi. She was also known as Nana Awuyea. Their maternal grandfather was Chief Kofi Nii Okai of the Gbese quarter, Accra, who was commonly known as Joseph H. Kane. He had a career as a scholar and a merchant.”

T D Brodie Mends was a fearsome academic giant as his uncle Dr R P Baafour the father of his cousin Fritz Baafour, NDC member of Government, and the former Chancellor of UST, who inculcated in him the virtues of graft and academic discipline. His maternal family and paternal family were among the first wave of Fantes, who benefitted from education and they excelled in it. They spoke impeccable Fante and English, and led a most civilised life in those days, when high standards of living were well recognised as virtuous.

Born and bred in Cape Coast to Dr Brodie-Mends and Lady Victoria Baafour, he was educated in the famous Methodist Primary/Middle School of Cape Coast, a town renowned for its good education. He went to Mfantsipim School, where he excelled in his studies and won a scholarship to study Law in England, and was called to the Inner Temple Bar of London, England in the late 1950s.

In his time in United Kingdom he became the President of the prestigious Ghana Union of Great Britain and Ireland in the early 1960s, with many a Ghanaian children brimming in intelligence and driven towards joining the struggle to overturn centuries of colonial rule into self-government. Uncle Brodie was a young Labour Party Activist in UK and earmarked for political office before he joined the band of patriots returning home to help their countries at Independence.

LEGAL PRACTICE

Mr T D Brodie-Mends was a very good rich lawyer in his time and rose to become the President of Central Region Bar Association, and Executive Member of the National BAR Association. Having rejected several overtures of the Judiciary to retire to the Bench, he ran a most successful legal practice in his Onitsha house at Kotokuraba, Cape Coast in Partnership with Gaisie, Zwennes & Hughes Legal Chambers. It was awesome sight to see him driving his black leathered Pontiac to High Court in his trademark crisp striped suits, winning landmark cases as recorded in Ghana Law Reports. His protégé and junior partner from 1968 was his trainee BoyeOBoye - E.M Amponsa-Dadzie in 1968, and well before Lawyers Ato Dadzie and Barton Oduro joined the legal practice. In his prime Lawyer T D Brodie-Mends shared the luminary company of eminent Peers as Messrs J B Short, Abaidoo, I.K. Abban, Sackeyfio, Forson, Sarpong, Awoonor Williams, Hayfron Benjamin, E.M. Amponsa-Dadzie, CBK Zwennes, ABK Ampiah, Sampson, B J da Rocha, James Mercer etc.

CAPE COAST

Lawyer Mends maternal background is Elmina but he grew up and lived most of his life in his beloved paternal town of Cape Coast, which he represented in Constituent Assembly and Parliament in late 1960s!!!

He served as the District Council Chairman in 1967 -68, and was credited for raising local revenues to clean and sanitise the town, expanded public toilet facilities, street lighting (which was his obsession) and helped in the relocation of fishermen from their zinc houses by the sea to their present location in Ola. He was the main sponsor of the first Cape Coast Electrification Project whose installation gave the town expanded street lights in 1967/68. (I was a witness of this benevolent scheme, with my Brother Egyakow placed in charge of the construction of cement poles). Uncle Brodie was a loyal Nationalist, who would send you with open cheque to the Cape Coast Municipal Council to pay his Poll Tax – saying in his smooth silky voice: “Look, my poll taxes have not been collected; take this crossed cheque to the Municipal Council and asked them to calculate my poll taxes for the year and pay; but remember to bring a receipt, on your way bring my newspapers and read it”).

In early 1970s he was made the Patron of Oguaa Youth Association chaired by his protégé, Lawyer E. M. Amponsa-Dadzie and was credited for their Motto “Wonsuom, Wonye Nyimpa”, with the aim to spearhead the development of the town, under the auspices of the Central Regional Administration headed by his beloved and respectable J A Annobil, Author of ‘Fie Na Skuul” and Central Regional Minister. I pause to reflect on what could have been without the coup.

For a very long time, T D Brodie-Mends was the Co-Chairman and Life Patron of Cape Coast Venomous Vipers Football Club with Mr E A Mensah, during the hey days of brilliant footballers as Madugu, Takyi, Antwi and ‘Anyway’, where the team were well known to play beautiful football but lost matches, leading him to utter the immortal words (Vipers bo ball o…nna oben den?)…

Perhaps his greatest unheralded legacy to Cape Coast was his facelift of the poor, broken and dishevelled fishermen’s village of Inkoom and Bentsir, lying between the old Post Office and Anglican Church: He engineered the destruction of the old dilapidated mud houses for the building of the present Cape Coast High Court, by arguing for its relocation from the chosen premises at Third Ridge near the present House of Chiefs. Uncle Brodie insisted that the building of the High Courts in its present building would create an opportunity to provide the fishermen with low cost houses in Ola, which had few low cost housing then, before the much expanded project that has lived to this day. The twin project was the building of the imposing MINISTRIES BUILDING in Bentsir, which occasioned the singing of the famous song by the fishermen: ‘Yere ko Ola O, keshi, keshi, ye re ko, Ola…oo keshi keshi!

He was also instrumental in the building of the new imposing Regional Office Building in Cape Coast, away from the colonial relic!

Uncle Brodie was a quiet philanthropist, who gave to good causes to Red Cross, his Alma Mater Mfantsipim School and served as a Methodist Lay Preacher, but he was also a gregarious, generous and fun loving man, as exemplified by his legendary 31st December Annual Parties for Cape Coasters held from 1967 to 1981, which will never be forgotten, as people from all walks of life came to ‘Onitsha House’ to eat and drink on this last day of the year, until they descended from upstairs legless with fireworks displayed in the sky... those were good old days.

POLITICS

Like most young intellectuals returning from their sojourn abroad then, the young Nationalist was first co-opted into One Party State of CPP at a time his Uncle R P Baafour wielded enormous influence in the State, but as tyranny, dictatorship and corruption of Nkrumah’s government tore the country asunder, he joined other patriotic intellectuals to cross carpet to the forces of democracy. He was therefore identified among others to take over from the CPP Government after the First Coup of 1966.

He was nominated after a successful Local Council Elections to represent Cape Coast to help draw the 1968 Constitution that gave us Parliamentary Democracy of the Second Republic, where the Prime Minister, elected by his constituency participated in a weekly Prime Minister’s Question Time to deepen Democracy in Ghana. His assured contributions in the Constituent Assembly are logged in the Hansard of the times, for he was great skilful debater and progressive thinker.

He contested the 1969 Elections on the platform of Progress Party, and in a bitterly fought political contest against a famous rich building and road contractor and philanthropist, W.E.D. Acquah, TD won and became the Honourable Member of Parliament of Cape Coast, and inspired the Party to claim all the 15 Seats in Central Region.

The Progress Party won 105 Parliamentary Seats with so many old and intelligent MPs that led to the famous remark of the Prime Minister, Dr K. A. Busia at the time that ‘he needed a quiet place to consider a most progressive Cabinet to deal with the adverse socio-economic situation’. He was appointed Minister of information and empowered to strip down the façade of censorship and promote democracy – with freedom of speech as its swansong! He was a quiet efficient Minister who returned from Parliament with his car boot full of Hansard magazines for circulation.

In a major reshuffle of the Progress Party Government, Dr K A Busia considered his incorruptibility and appointed Mr T D Brodie-Mends as a Minister of Lands and Mineral Resources in 1971, to take charge of the country’s much coveted natural and mineral resources, including the newly discovered Oil. He took over the administration of Saltpond Oil Field, discovered in 1970 after the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) licensed Signal-Amoco Consortium to operate in Ghana's territorial waters. The initial appraisal of the field showed that the well would produce 3,600 barrels per day (570m3/d) of oil. He led the base for further exploitation of Oil in Ghana that was to be taken over by their forerunning NPP Government that discovered new Jubilee Oilfields of Ghana.

Lawyer Mends was in the finest government Ghana ever had and his close political associates included William Ofori Atta, Kwesi Lamptey, Nii Amaa Ollenu, Emmanuel Ackon Mensah, B J Da Rocha, Richard Ebusuayedom Quarshie, Jatoe Kaleo, J H Mensah, Saki Scheck, Bannerman Victor Owusu, Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia, Kojo Mensah, J A Annobil, Dr Safo Adu, Stephen Krakue, Appiah Menka, J A Kuffuor, Oheneba Kow Richardson, A Munufie…

His own idol was Kofi Amponsa-Dadzie, ex-Cape Coast DOMO MP!

Some of his landmark Legislative Instrument:

EXPLOSIVES (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 1971 (LI 690)

IN exercise of the powers conferred on the Minister responsible for Lands and Mineral Resources by section 5 of the Explosives Ordinance (Cap. 254), this Instrument is made this 7th day of May, 1971. The Explosives Regulations, 1970 (L.I. 666) are hereby amended as follows:— (a) in the introductory words, by the insertion of 8th September, 1970 as the date on which the Instrument was made; (b) in regulation 13 (2), by the substitution for the word "tract" appearing in the second line thereof of the word "track".

R. R. AMPONSAH - Minister Responsible for Lands and Mineral Resources

Date of Gazette Notification: 18th June, 1971.

(He enforced this Legislation when he took over from the great old politician)

He was also instrumental in the enactment of the following Legislation:

Ministry of Information:

In 1970, Lawyer Mends repealed Nkrumah’s infamous Newspaper Licencing and Publishing Act, where only the State owned Newspapers and Broadcasting Rights. It was the ‘Rebirth’ of Freedom of Speech in Ghana as he pushed through Parliament, Bills to outlaw Press Censorship, State Ownership and Control of the Mass Media of the last dictatorship. This led to the establishment of Private newspapers such as The Tribune, Palaver, Voice of the People and The Spokesman, ‘which was stridently critical of Busia’s Progress Party Government. (He appointed his young Lawyer EM Amponsa-Dadzie, as a Member of Board of Directors of the New Times Corporation)

In order to popularise Parliamentary proceedings and to provide greater transparency of government, he took it upon himself the Publication and Widespread Distribution of the Hansard – Parliamentary Proceedings to a much wider audience than ever known since the First Republic. The actions of Lawyer T D Brodie-Mends contributed greatly to Democracy in Ghana today! He was with Dr Busia in the University of Cape Coast when a young man rained abuse on them and was arrested by Police but they intervened to set him free, to which Dr Busia famously remarked thus: “If you want to enter Ghana politics, then you have to be ready to stomach nonsense”

At the Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources, he was credited, among others, for the following Legislative Instruments!

• MINING (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 1971 (LI 689).

IN exercise of the powers conferred on the Minister responsible for Lands and Mineral Resources by section 11 of the Mining Rights Regulation Ordinance (Cap. 153), and acting on the advice of the Lands Commission, this Instrument is made this 7th day of May, 1971. The Mining Regulations, 1970 (L.I. 665) are hereby amended as follows:— (a) in the introductory words, by the insertion of 8th September, 1970 as the date on which the Instrument was made; (b) in regulations 224 (3) and 298, by the substitution for the word "Commissioner" appearing therein of the word "Minister"; (c) in regulation 299 (1), by the substitution for the words "the Oil Mining Regulations, 1969 apply" of the words "any other law for regulating oil mining applies".

T. D. BRODIE-MENDS - Minister Responsible for Lands and Mineral Resources

Date of Gazette Notification: 18th June, 1971

• ADMINISTRATION OF LANDS (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS, 1978

IN exercise of the powers conferred on the President by section 11 of the Wild Animals Preservation Act, 1961 (Act 43), these Regulations are hereby made this 20th day of September, 1971.

Regulation 1—Establishment of Reserves

The areas of land the situations and limits of which are specified in the Schedule to these Regulations are hereby established as Reserves, and shall be designated by the following names—

(a) Mole National Park;

(b) Digya National Park;

(c) Bui National Park;

(d) Shai Hills Game Production Reserve;

(e) Kogyae Strict Nature Reserve;

(f) Owabi Wildlife Sanctuary.

By Command of the President

T. D. BRODIE-MENDS - Minister Responsible for Lands and Mineral Resources

Date of Gazette Notification: 5th November, 1971

On 13th January, 1972 the Progress Party Government of 2 years and three months was overthrown in a military coup by Col Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, whose military government arrested T D Brodie-Mends for a singular reason of buying a car with a fridge in the car boot…yes a common Toyota Saloon car with manufactured accessory for a Man, who owned his own Pontiac and Beauc before he entered the dirty business of Ghana politics. He was not implicated in any form of embezzlement, bribery, corruption, stealing or any malfeasance whatsoever, except honouring a government scheme of buying a saloon car and for that matter subjected to….

“Proceedings of the Committee appointed under the Assets Committee (Appointment) Instrument, 1972 (E.I.6) pursuant to the provisions of the investigation and forfeiture of assets decree, 1972 (N.R.C.D. 19): one hundred & fifty ninth sitting, Wednesday 21st March, 1973 : assets of Mr. William Ofori Atta and Mr. T.D. Brodie-Mends, witnesses, 1. Mr. William Ofori Atta, 2. Mrs Mary Ofori Atta, 3. Mr. T.D. Brodie-Mends

Report of the Taylor Assets Committee appointed under N.R.C. (investigation and forfeiture of assets) decree, 1972 (N.R.C.D. 19) to enquire into the assets of scheduled persons.”

He was a politician of immeasurable quality and much liked and trusted as an honest Nationalist, who never abused office and corrupted his position even at the time Ghana was producing its highest haul of Gold, Diamonds, and Bauxite etc. He was incarcerated by Kutu Acheampong for 13 good Months!

He resurfaced to become a Founding Member of ‘Movement for Freedom and Justice’ that opposed Military Rule and its UNIGOV concept, for which he suffered another incarceration by Kutu for three months. Lawyer Mends was not a stubborn and die-hard politician but thought it was an honourable duty to help his country, and therefore accepted again the Invitation to become a Founding Member of Popular Front Party and stood on its ticket in Cape Coast again in the 1979 Elections but lost to Bernasko’s Action Party.

He was a quiet established Founding Member of NPP but then he was getting old. Nevertheless he made a huge contribution to the Party by giving up his Onitsha House as the Party’s Regional Headquarters throughout the period of return to civilian rule from to 1992 to date! For all his contribution to the politics and development of Ghana, T D Brodie-Mends faced PERSECUTION, which contributed to his painful decline in health!

SOCIAL LIFE

Uncle Brodie loved his MUSIC – and played it to the full in his dimmed-lit lounge, and in the company of his friends and pretty ladies he would play sonorous Jazz, Blues, Hi Life music that attracted the neighbourhood.

FOOTBALL – He was a close friend of Ghana’s Premium Football Star, Legendary Aggrey-Fynn, and a keen benevolent Football enthusiast who invested money in his beloved Venomous Vipers FC of Cape Coast. Even as an MP and Minister, he would find time to watch his Black and Yellow Jersey team in Cape Coast. He was an enthusiastic Lawn Tennis Player at Third Ridge, and loved playing draught among the local fishermen in Idan Guam…

Uncle Brodie’s Talk of the Town 31st December Parties he hosted every year from the 1960s up to the 31st December 1981 Revolution was a joy to behold! He was a loyal person who kept the same company of Family and Friends – benevolent Aunty Mary Mensah (Adu Boahen), Samuel Kweku Lawton Ackah-Yensu, Emmanuel Ackon-Mensah, Kojo ‘Alata’ Mensah, B J Da Rocha, Aggrey Fynn, Yooku Thompson and his beloved protégé Boye o Boye!

For his contribution to the resettlement of Bentsir Fishermen in their present location he was rewarded with his enstoolment as Safohene of Bentsir Asafo Company. His ancestral Tradition also made him a Divisional Chief in his native Elmina; but all that he wanted in life was Ghana’s progress and development. T D Brodie-Mends was indeed a most loyal and uncorrupted Nationalist imbued with the sense to help the downtrodden from the democratic liberal centre of the right-wing politics; he was a fierce advocate of Parliamentary Democracy and a Minister of State, loved and respected by his peers, especially Prime Minister Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia.

RELIGION

Methodist Lay preacher and later Church of Scientology – no medical treatment was too much for some of us as we even failed to get access to him, but for those who knew him, Uncle Brodie did not need religion because he hardly put a foot wrong: he won’t undermine anyone; never solicited for any favours; content with his lot; modest, honest and a very good man of high integrity with impeccable qualities; introvert but courageous and fearless of high handed men and women; defender of the weak and defenceless; a man of great compassion but eschewed flamboyance and arrogance…he never suffered fools gladly but then accommodated the weakling and held them up to survive the rigours of life.

For us, Amponsa-Dadzie family, we have lost a man who genuinely loved and helped us when our Father was forced into exile in 1958 and assassinated by the CPP government in 1962. Every one of my Mother’s children have had significant relationship with Uncle Brodie: He brought up our late brother as a good lawyer and gave him his resourceful Chambers to practice when he became a Minister of State; he just liked and adored my Sister, whom he would call ‘Maame Aba, Maame Aba…’; my Bro Nab was his chief propagandist during the 1979 Elections when the two alone stood up against Action; Bro Ato shared everything in common with Uncle Brodie including, Methodism; Mfantsipim; Law; Industry and Cape Coast Venomous Vipers; and for me I just held him in awe and no wonder I was always close to Papa Abew, my room-mate of 2 good years in Cape Vars!!!

Brief Testimony of Paa Kofi Amponsa-Dadzie:

I was 9 years old when my late Brother Lawyer, Ekow Miaful Amponsa-Dadzie of blessed memory, invited me to stay with him in the house of Mr T D Brodie-Mends. He was the Junior Lawyer of Mr Brodie-Mends and we had a swell of a time in Kotokuraba. This was the formative years of my life and will never forget the experience. We lived in the ground floor where he had his two legal chambers and two Secretary and Clerical Offices. Lawyer, as we used to call him, occupied the top floor with his son, Papa Abew, and his Cook Raphael (Arafit), ‘and you dare not the Rubicon’. In a systematically organised way, the house fluctuated between a busy hive of activities swarmed by legal clients to a quiet one of few persons all locked up in their room reading, where the sound of a dropped pin could be heard by us all including his nephew Abeeku Ammisang and Dantani, the driver. In this neat surroundings lived this quiet but affable gentleman. He commanded respect and responsibility. We all held our breath in awe as he went through life like a clock. Methodical and punctual, he came down to the office every day at the same time and would leave for Court each day @ the same point of time. He would come home to have his lunch, and returned to end proceedings in Court before he came to have a siesta, with everybody in the house following suit. Uncle Brodie was simply beautiful, and glorious to behold. He had every book for children and gave us access to Encyclopaedia knowledge. He did not need to say much but you will comport yourself in the presence of this strict disciplinarian and exhibit the high qualities of good manners. Uncle Brodie was our hero and taught us to read books– Tintin series, Aladdin series, Snow White, Dictionaries, Children’s Encyclopaedia, and Encyclopaedia Britannica all placed on top of the Book shelf, with his legal books underneath…And we read and read and smiled throughout the afternoon in the quiet surroundings of the top floor of the famous Onitsha House, whilst eating and drinking! Standards have fallen indeed”, as my friend Fiifi Simpson remarked to me, after he went to see the ailing hero of ours…for there will never be another ‘BRODIE’! My iconic image of T D Brodie-Mends was a Political Rally at Cape Coast Methodist Churchyard, where he stood among Dr K A Busia, B J Da Rocha, William Ofori Atta, Kwesi Lamptey, J H Mensah, J A Annobil, Victor Owusu, Kojo Alata, Saki Scheck, Kow Richardson and all shouted…”Eye Pro…Eye Sure…” As our elders say…’Agor Ko!’ Gone are valiant men of honour who could have turned our lives around…but now we live by straw and vanity…

The Exile of Lawyer T D Brodie-Mends:

Uncle Brodie was detained for so long a time in our wretched dirty prisons by the NRC Military Government because he has bought a Toyota Saloon Car with a Fridge in the car boot. He never liked this and found it difficult to come to terms with it. He virtually became a recluse in Aunty Mary’s House in Accra, and we all thought he won’t return to dirty Ghana Politics. Then the nebulous concept of Acheampong’s UNIGOV was introduced into Ghana’s politics: He could not bear it and became the main rallying point in Cape Coast and Central Region. In one of the meetings of People’s Movement for Freedom and Justice in his house the place was surrounded by Abongo Soldiers and Zombie Police: They trapped them inside and in a standoff, their supporters engaged the government gendarmerie in bitter exchanges, where Lawyer Nii Amarteifio was stoned by the uniformed men: The abongo boys then stormed the Onitsha House and took away our leaders in huge vehicles into the dark once again…Uncle Brodie returned three months later and went on to lead Cape Coast to a resounding victory against UNIGOV…It was momentous day, as the crowd surged to his house, hailing and shouting his appellations…Lawyer a nook, isuo, ennsuo…lawyer aa noko!

Now, during the Dr Hilla Limann governmet of Third Republic, we all heard of Flt Lt J J Rawlings’ skirmishes to unseat the elected civilian government. One Sunday at Uncle Kwamena Walker’s house my late Brother, Nab and myself met Uncle Brodie; we were all talking about these manoeuvres when he turned to Brother Egyakow and declared thus: “Boye, if there is a coup by this man J J Rawlings again, I would want you to help me to leave this country: I will never return to the dirty prisons of this country, you hear?” Then on 31st December 1981, when he was doing his Annual Party in Onitsha house it was announced that Rawlings has indeed made a coup de tat. Then my late Brother Lawyer set in motion the means to take him out of the country as promised. I knew about it, and was only last month confirmed to me by the third person who travelled with them all the way to Hohoe, and thence to Lome, where he went into exile in Nigeria – London – Nigeria before he returned to Ghana, old, physically ill and exhausted. Indeed, Ghana is the only country on earth where good and innocent People are persecuted to their destruct and death by very wicked men! Uncle Brodie did not take a penny of Ghana’s money. He only ever brought home copies of Hansard to be distributed to all; but in return he was sent down broken and dispirited!

As all virtuous men witless go, I personally bid farewell to a man of great valour, substance and finesse with John Donne’s Metaphysical Poem:

Death Be Not Proud

Death be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not sue,

For, those, whom thou think’s, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, pore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleeper, which but thy pictures bee,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee doe goes,

Rest of their bones, and souls deliveries.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, warre, and sicknesse dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,

And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die. - John Donne

Damirifa Due!!!!

Rest in Perfect Peace, Uncle Brodie!