Politicianʼs admonition revisited!

When my friend Justice found something incomprehensible, he simply said “I begin to wonder!” Justice, an ace pilot-instructor, my mate at the Command and Staff College Jaji-Kaduna, Nigeria, a quarter-of-a-century ago, was the captain of the ill-fated Nigerian Air Force C-130 air crash in 1992 in which about 200 officers studying at the elite Command and Staff College, including Ghanaians perished.

Like Justice, “I begin to wonder” how, despite the insidious devastation it is causing Ghana, “galamsey” managed to go off the radar this week as the top item for discussion, outstaged by political power wranglings and showmanship/brinkmanship!

As for the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) killing bond-holding pensioners quietly/slowly, the latest victim being Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, founder of KAMA Pharmaceutical Company who died on November 1, 2024, after bitterly lamenting the decimation of his investment in government bonds, DDEP discourse has virtually ceased.

Goings-on reminded me of my November 2000 article The Politician’s Admonition! Part read: The front page of the November 19, 2020, issue of Uganda’s leading newspaper, the Daily Monitor, had the headline, “203 killed as riots erupt across the country!” Uganda’s General Elections will be held on January 14, 2021, some five weeks after Ghana’s December 7, 2020 Elections.

As I watched the Uganda Police fire live bullets at protesters on TV in election violence, I asked myself, is this what Ghanaians want for Ghana as we go for elections in about two weeks? Certainly not, for any patriotic Ghanaian!

In recent times, a renowned radio host has started his programme with a recording of a politician admonishing Ghanaian youth to be wary of politicians.

Speaking in Twi, the elderly politician/minister starts by diagnosing the cause of violence in Ghana to poverty and politics. On politics, he said what translates into English as, “when you see and hear us politicians at each other’s throat on radio and TV, do not be deceived into thinking we are enemies. As soon as we leave you, we assemble to eat well and ‘chew meat.”

Politician families

He then catalogued about six prominent politician families with siblings on both sides of the so called political divide of the two major parties.

Using his own family as an example, he said while he is in the ruling party, his brother is in the opposition. The important fact he emphasised, however, was that they belonged to the same family.

Interestingly, he added that while his party has been in opposition before, he as an individual has never been in opposition. He explained that when his party goes into opposition, his brother takes care of him.

Similarly, when his brother’s party is in opposition, he takes care of him. For his family, politics is a “win-win” situation.

The question of how many politicians send their children/relatives to snatch ballot boxes and indulge in political thuggery and violence which could injure or kill them was addressed.

The politician/minister concluded by asking the youth to wise up to unconscionable politicians and not allow themselves to be used by them as expendable foot soldiers.

Porcupines

In my article, Tree Planting and the Police I told the story of the porcupine/ kor-tor-kor. Part read:

Thomas Yaw Kani was a prolific Twi writer whose books we read in primary school in the early 1960s. A story we read was about the porcupine, or kor-tor-kor in Twi.

Porcupines are large rodents in the same family as the popular grass-cutter whose meat akrantenam and light soup is a delicacy for some Ghanaians. The porcupines’ coats of sharp spines or quills protect them against predators.

They are of a gentle disposition and would normally not initiate an attack. However, if attacked, porcupines release their quills on the attacker in self-defence.

It is said that, long ago in winter, porcupines were forced to huddle together for warmth and survival.

However, their quills started pricking one another. Thinking this discomfort was unbearable, they started going their separate ways individually.

In no time, many of them died from the cold. The survivors quickly came together again, having realised that in unity lay strength and their survival.

Lesson

Similarly, the present adversarial stance of Ghanaians against one another in the name of politics, religion, ethnicity etc will only destroy us as a nation.

For my generation who had our primary/secondary education in the 1960s, we were taught among others to be patriotic Ghanaians first and not tribalists. Why did other African nationals overseas with us those days claim to be Ghanaians? Are we proud of ourselves as Ghanaians with the current spate of insults we hurl at one another?

Like the porcupines did initially, are we going our separate ways as individuals, until death teaches us a lesson to unite as Ghanaians?”

Conclusion

Disrespect, insults and incendiary language, and the threat of violence have assumed epidemic proportions.

In my article Racing towards self-destruction? I admonished Ghanaians not to create conditions for UN peacekeeping troops to be deployed in our dear country as Ghanaian soldiers have done in wartorn countries.

Some unpleasant experiences we soldiers have during peacekeeping scar us psychologically for life.

There is nothing good about violence!

Politicians, what is the point in achieving power through bloodshed while Ghana is thrown into anarchy? Like the porcupines, let us suffer little pricks of discomfort and disagreement, rather than go our separate ways as individuals and die.

Discussion

Discourse on galamsey must be revived immediately considering it is an existential threat to Ghana.

Did Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah not teach us to love Ghana and not be bigoted tribalists?

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How come we have shamelessly descended into party/family-and-friends/self-aggrandisement at the expense of the State of Ghana? Where is the patriotism we were taught immediately after independence?

The callous DDEP continues to bite/kill us pensioners like KAMA Pharmaceutical founder Dr Agyekum-Addo recently, in spite of the spirited support we had from the former CJ Madame Sophia Akuffo in picketing.

The fate of Oliver Cromwell in British history, and that of the murderers of the Bank Manager in Kumasi in the 1960s should teach us that evil never wins!

Simply, “I begin to wonder!”

Leadership, lead by example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

The writer is the former CEO of the African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chair Family Health University College, Accra.

E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com