Open letter to Anthony Karbo

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