AN OPEN LETTER TO ANTHONY KARBO, THE
NATIONAL YOUTH ORGANISER OF THE NPP
Dear Mr.
Anthony Karbo,
We are
compelled to write this open letter to you due to your unguarded public
utterances since you took the mantle of the leadership of the youth wing of
your party.
When you
were elected as National Youth Organiser of the NPP, many of us thought you
will bring something new, fresh and exciting to the anachronistic politics the
NPP has been offering Ghanaians. Indeed, many hoped that as part of the new
breed of young politicians within the leadership of the NPP, you will make a
clean break from the party’s violent past of bomb throwing, intolerance,
tribalism and murder (including burying a pregnant woman alive) among other
barbaric acts to chart a new cause of tolerance, unity, true freedom and peace.
Alas, our hopes
have been dashed on the rocks of reality; your utterances since you became the National
Youth Organiser of the NPP have been pregnant with nothing but violence, especially
retribution.
So, we pause
to ask; do you want power this desperately? Do you want it so desperately that you
have
become a student of Machiavelli and thus are of the conviction that “the end
justifies the means”? So, if the means includes shedding blood, killing
innocent Ghanaians especially women and children and throwing Ghana into a
state of anarchy as happened in Rwanda, Liberia or Ivory Coast, you do not
really mind so far as it will give you political power?
We do not
believe that political power should be a matter of life and death. We do not
believe that even a drop of blood must be shed for the sake of political power.
It is for this reason that we chose to support the pacifist Atta-Mills;
remember, in 2004, rather than call Jake
Obetsebi-Lamptey’s bluff that the NPP won the elections, an action that may
lead to the lost of lives, he preferred to concede defeat. By so doing, he
saved innocent lives which will have been lost in the ensuing violence that
would have broken out.
Despite the
fact that your flag bearer is the very opposite of Atta Mills and, not
surprisingly, adopted the “ all die be
die” slogan, a sure sign that he does not mind doing to Ghana what Jonas
Savimbi did to Angola, we do not begrudge your decision to support him. After
all, the 1992 constitution which members of your party refused to help draw
guarantees us all the Freedom of Association.
However, we
believe that you are not doing yourself any good by deciding to be a chip of
the old block of NPP politicians whose stock-in-trade is to win political power
by breathing brimstone and fire down Ghanaians’ neck. This kind of sickening
but cheap politics has long been consigned to the dustbin by all decent minded
politicians.
In any case,
do you really think that any one will be frightened by your threats? In 1996,
Dr. Nyaho-Tamakloe, during an NPP rally at the Aggrey Road School Park in
Community two, Tema, breathing brimstone and fire as you are doing now, swore
that Ghana will burn if President Rawlings wins the elections that year.
Rawlings went ahead to win and nothing happened. If something had happened,
believe you me, Dr, Nyaho Tamakloe would have been the first casualty. You get
the drift?
From your
first breath in the leadership of the NPP to date, you have issued threats upon
threat against people who question the character of your flagbearer, Nana Akufo
Addo. Are you saying that though citizens of this country, we do not have the
right to question the character of he who wants to become our President? Will
you employ a man as Chief Executive of your company without doing due diligence
on his character even when his own close associates have alleged that he smokes
wee and sniffs cocaine?
Sadly, the
allure of political power has made you blind and deaf to the fact that Nana
Akufo-Addo has not got what it takes to be the President of this country nor is
he worth a kola nut do die for. Why die for a man who will sell you for a bowl
of pottage? Go ask his friends who teamed up with him to oppose the PNDC only
to find later on that he is a PNDC spy.
Alternatively,
you may ask the family of Jerry Oppey and Ahornu Hongar whose lives he sacrificed
during the Kume Preko demonstration whether he ha ever visited them to find out how
they are doing.
Not even when he occupied the powerful office of Attorney-General &
Minister of Justice did he even remember to pay them a visit. Is this the man
you want to die for? Well, safe journey to you!
Mr. Karbo,
you continue to claim that some people want to destroy the image of Nana
Akufo-Addo. May we ask, what image? The image of a drug addict or a hot-headed
revengeful politician? Who would want to destroy a man who has a Bohemian
lifestyle? Who would want to destroy a man whose image was in tartars as far
back as 1967 when, while high on wee, crashed his mother’s uninsured car into
that of one Mr. Woeledzi, then a worker of P&T, destroying him completely.
Rather than compensate the man, Akufo-Addo used the judiciary, which was being
headed by his father at the time, to frustrate Woeledzi and deny him justice.
When the
case got to Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, this was how she described the
appearance of Woeledzi as Akufo-Addo left him;
“…the plaintiff is a different person
from what he was before the accident. His appearance is terrible; his mouth is
twisted to one side and it droops. This was
caused by the loss of sensitivity on the right side of the face. His eyes are
so pronounced with a squint and he walks gingerly without co-ordinating his
limbs. He moves as if he is going to trip at any moment. He still continues to
take treatment for the after effect…”
Mr. Anthony
Karbo, do you understand, from this episode, that irresponsibility and the addiction
to wee have been with Nana Akufo-Addo from the days of yore. Ghanaians “…nim no fri
ti ti” So, you see, there
is no image of your flagbearer that can be battered; it has long since been in
tartars.
If you want
to continue, like others, to pretend that Nana Akufo-Addo has some leadership
qualities in him, that is your choice. There are tens of thousands of genuine
NPP supporters who are praying fervently that your flag bearer never becomes
President of Ghana because they know him “…fri
ti ti”
Have you not heard that Nana Kofi Koomson, publisher of The Chronicle who claims he
has been a life-long friend of Nana
Akufo-Addo says he cannot sleep if he (Nana Akufo-Addo) becomes President of
Ghana? Do you think he was joking? Do you know your flag bearer better than
Kofi Koomson? How well do you know Nana Akufo Addo to the extent that you are
ready to kill or die for him? If you have a child, are you ready to trust him
or her in the care of Nana Akufo-Addo and have a good night’s sleep? You can
only do that if you do not value your child. Kola nut lasts long in the mouth of
those who value it.
But, let us
not digress: our main reason for writing to you is to appeal to you to stop
issuing threats because they do not scare even a kitten. What will you and your
ilk do if concerned Ghanaians continue to call into question Nana Akufo-Addo’s
character? Kill them or throw mud at President Atta Mills as John Kumah did
hoping it will stick? Do you seriously think that you can dent President Mills’
image with lies? Remember, if you drum
for the downfall of a good man, the drum will not sound!
Your threats
sometimes tickle us. On other occasions, it simply irritates us. Of course, it
does also incense us. The mind is a terrible thing to waste so if you cannot
allow it (your mind) to do some productive thinking, just go to bed and let it
rest.
If you
continue to issue threats and the worst happens in Ghana, we hope you will not
flee the country like other politicians do. Rather, you will walk the walk and
talk the talk by staying put to take part in the battle. Then when you see a
child of about nine years armed with a G-3 rifle firing at you, you will
understand that only mad men see war as a solution to a problem. In any case,
if you flee Ghana after calling others to arms, the duty of every Ghanaian
shall be to pursue you even to the North Pole and smoke you out like a rat to
face the same fate you have engineered for others.
I hope you
have not forgotten that the world has changed and that those who instigate wars
and engineer genocide will have to face the International Court of Justice
someday. We do not wish that for you; don’t wish it for yourself with threats.
Ghana has
always been a peaceful country. Our elections need not be a life or death
matter. So, tame your tongue and put an end to issuing threats, the only thing
you seem to be good at and Ghanaians now know you for. As a young person in
politics, you need to distance yourself from the ‘mate me hu’days’ kind
of politics that the likes of Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey continue to practice. Do
not feel proud of yourself when you come into public, issue threats and go back
to be congratulated by your colleagues. For, you only succeed in making
Ghanaians think little of you.
We hope,
sir, that you will take this sound advice in good faith. Remember, “Discretion
is the better part of valour”.
Yours
Daily PostEditors
