Feature: Jumping Over Fire With Wool In Your Orifice

As Christians, our fervent prayer per the Marian intercession was to get the literal English translation of the Twi proverb: “sɛ asaawa tua wo to a, wo nhuri gya”. The closest we got in English was: “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”

Then we remember Peter Tosh’s song: “If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones, And if you can’t take blows brother Don’t throw blows! Harm no man let no man harm you Do unto others as they would do to you.”

The NPP, the “mighty” minority youth on demonstration dubbed “Yɛgye yɛ sika” (We want our money back) Yes, there must be accountability. Okudzeto Ablakwa must resign or be sacked by the President. Why not, supervising the distribution of GH¢5,000 + GH¢500 to the evacuees from South Africa after the Afro-phobia demos by South Africans. And the stories: some people got GH¢2,000 not GH¢5,000; some people got GH¢5,000 and not the transport money of GH¢500. The placards: “Courts are for justice. Not Political Revenge”; “Hands off our Democracy”, “You can’t Arrest the Truth”, “Say No to Political Harrassment”’ and “We Want Democracy not Autocracy”.

As intellectuals we must be familiar with the legal maxim: “He who comes to equity must come with clean hands” or be Latinic: “Qui venit in aequitatem, debet esse purus in manibus”, a common maxim of equity. Note that as Common wealthians or Thirdians, of University of Ghana we do not only quote John Donne’s (1593) maxim: “Truth Stands”; In satire III “ On a huge hill, cragged and steep, truth stands and he that will reach her, about must and about must goe; We also know that Proverbs 12:19 says: “Truth stands the test of time; lies are soon exposed.” Objectivity, fairness; NOT political or institutional pressure:

Two of us were having a quaff and one passed a comment. The interlocutor charged: “You of all people saying this? So we NPP people should not tell the truth?” be squandered by propaganda. We answer: “Our first degree Sociology reading Max Weber’s theories, Public Administration Political Science, English all at master’s level …. inundated with Aristotle’s Western philosophy, logic and empirical science, being National Champion of What Do You Know, for months; security: experience Half-Assini, Elubo, Aflao, Tema revenue persons for government told not to articulate our opinions but tow party line? Get muzzled up? No… otherwise, na Boafo Arthur, Professor Aryee, Prof. Mike Oquaye: “Abrɛ agu” (they have toiled for nothing).

We fall on a past article “Weep Not, Ogboro” in August 2019 in Daily Guide, in which we buoy up Agya Kwaku… Ogboro to “Weep Not, Child” in his “Letter to Abusuapanin”, headed: “Is the Elephant Worth Dying For”.

Ogboro wrote: “…I’ve sometimes wondered why some sympathisers of the Elephant party would even contemplate questioning the need to die for the party. I used to think such persons were traitors. But now I know better…” Ogboro measured himself, thought of being “…accused for washing the party’s dirty linen in public…” We wrote: be like Martin Luther, the Monk and say, ‘I cannot recant! Here I stand…’” Martin Luther, Professor of Moral Theology at Wittenberg University had in 1517 written “The Ninety Five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” (Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum)… sent the “Theses” with a letter to Albert Brandenburg, the Archbishop of Mainz and got pasted on the door of the “All Saints Church”.

The Theses were immediately reprinted, translated and distributed all over Germany and Europe. This “pamphlet war” started the “Protestant Reformation”, because Martin Luther had insisted on the “… justification by faith alone…. “His ecclesiastical superiors tried him for heresy, and he was eventually ex-communicated from the Catholic Church because he would not recant.

He could not, like John Wycliffe before him, accept the power of the Pope to grant indulgences to people who could “pay” for it, so that: “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs!” Martin Luther… dared to ask: “Why does not the Pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the Basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”

We loved “create, loot and share” tag on NDC, we believed that NPP was going to run the country better. An example – call it a good example – had been shown by Kufuor, and we strongly believed Akufo-Addo was going to continue from where Kufuor left off, and we were told: “…I’ve never been corrupt…”

From the beginning of 2017, NPP ran the government, and being in a hurry, his government of 110 ministers (56 full ministers, 4 ministers of State, 50 Deputy Ministers) was said to be one of the largest in Ghana’s history. Ghana’s Constitution of 1992 states (Article 76): “There shall be a Cabinet which shall consist of the President, the Vice-President and not less than ten and not more than nineteen Ministers of State.” It was an “elephantine” government. The late retired diplomat K. B. Asante said in March 2017: “‘Naturally, I think it’s rather too large. The number of ministers is too big… The best Judge is the President himself.” We all thought and prayed that it was a “necessary investment”, as claimed by Akufo-Addo.

Then, National Cathedral… The Deloitte and Touche and investigations by the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) exposed violations of Ghana’s Public Procurement Act like the $4.3m to Nehemiah Group and $1.8m to Kubik Maltbie; payments to private companies linked to Board members like JNS Talent Centre tied to Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, Government and residential places (homes of High Court judges, the old Passport Office, diplomatic residences)… High profile religious leaders. Dag Heward-Mills and Mensa Otabil resigned from the Board… and a stone was carried from Israel in a container paid for from public funds. What was special about the stone from Israel? Don’t we have plenty of stones in Kwahu or Asante Mampong?

Some people would say all they can about the “Agyapadeɛ” Book; some, including great intellectuals, do not even want to look at it, let alone, read it. We read it every time – from p1 to p34. We read p3: 1.2 Phase 1 Overview: “The first phase of the Economic and Financial Sector control was to be implemented in Nana’s first term of office. As we get closer to the end of the first term, we have set the ball rolling regarding the objectives set out in our first document. There have been difficulties largely due to some pitfalls on our part. For example, the control of the electricity sector could have been handled better, had it not been for the greed of some of the non-Akyem-elite, we had included as cover.”

Some people may be counting their blessings for the non-repatriation of Ken Ofori Atta, allegations of corruption may be covered if Ofori Atta remains outside Ghana. 78 counts of corruption and corruption-related offences filed by the OSP the co-accused, former Ghana Revenue Authority officials together with Strategic Mobilisation (Ghana) Limited (SML).

Under Ofori Atta, pensioners were denied their bonds and were “forced” to exchange them for new ones under the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP). The pension bondholders picketed several times in 2023, but the Ministry of Finance would disregard them. “Haircuts” became their lot. A picketer noted: “I brought my two cousins who are both mentally challenged; they depend on our families to buy their medications. Their medications alone cost GH¢2,000… who do we go to? We want our coupons, very simple…”

And some judges and lawyers would shed a tear when Sophia Akuffo, former Chief Justice, would join the retirees and hold a placard that read: “We use our bond yields to pay our rents, medical bills, electricity bills, water bills.” And even when over 80 NPP MPs told H. E. Akufo-Addo to sack Ofori Atta, and Charles Adu Boahen on October 25, 2022, Akufo-Addo pretended he could not hear them… The same way he disregarded Professor Frimpong-Boateng’s Report on Galamsey… and dismissed charges against Antwi Boasiako (Wontumi) on Akonta Mining.

And Andy Appiah-Kubi, MP for Asante Akim North had to “sweat” for this. Nana B (NPP Second Chairman) says Muntaka must resign …. fall – out on Dunkirk cocaine seizure and Lebanon arrest… Miracles Aboagye asks: what people did we vote for to run this government … Well?

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