The Price of Conscientious Stupidity... denominated in naira and cedis

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy” – Martin Luther King Jr.

I make no apologies for going to town today. After all, I have restrained myself for so long that I had to get someone to show me the way into town as I had completely lost my way. Am I stupid? Am I dumb? Are you?

Well, I can speak for myself and my manager and the two musketeers. We are neither stupid nor dumb. I know my people are also not stupid. But increasingly, I am asking myself whether those of us left on this continent somehow sold our consciences to someone who’s bolted from the market. We may have regretted the sale but we have not been able to trace to whom we sold out. Are we dumb?

Why cant the African stand up for what he believes in? Why? Is it because unlike the white man, we cant blush? Have you calculated how much your ‘ball-lessness’ is costing your dear nation? Why is the African only strong and brave in front of his wife and his concubines? African women get battered for the most stupid of reasons just for perceptions of standing in the man’s way. Yet this same man may have just come from the office meeting where he knew that the subject of discussion was going to lead nowhere. Indeed, he was fully aware that the decisions taken could only lead to increased costs and will be ultimately unworkable. Yet, what did he say when he was asked his opinion? Yes, sir!!! This is the best idea!!! Sometimes I wonder what we will do if God did not bring you into this ministry, office, church, Castle or rock, he would add for emphasis!

Am spilling because I cannot hold it inside anymore. It was reported yesterday that the Nigerian Supreme Court had ruled that His Excellency, Atiku Abubakar, the Vice-President of Nigeria, could not be excluded from the ballot in Nigeria’s Presidential elections by the Independent? National Electoral Commission (INEC). This was after so may wasted years of battle with His Excellency, the venerable Olusegun Obasanjo (hereinafter referred to as OBJ) over his eligibility to stand in that elections. Over the past month, especially after the two Superior Courts had given contrasting rulings on the matter, I had listened to high officials from Aso Rock and the INEC defending why Atiku could not be on the ballot box. Indeed, when last Thursday and Friday were declared national holidays by H.E. Obasanjo, it was interpreted as a move to truncate the Supreme Court’s initial plan to rule on the matter during that period. So who’s laughing now?

So I asked myself, didn’t anyone in INEC have the balls to tell Mr. President that the country was not a fiefdom and that the law will prevail? Why would reasonable men, educated in high places, holding responsible positions, be so petrified by one man that they just couldn’t help but try to discern where the old man was leaning so that they could do his bidding? I am not aware whether Anago has the same law on causing financial loss like we do here. If this stupidity was denominated in cedis, there would have been howls of derision for the old man and his accomplices to be prosecuted for causing financial loss. The cost to Nigeria of printing new ballot papers to ensure compliance with the Supreme Court decision is incalculable. Incalculable because the stupidity is not only denominated in naira. Lives will be lost as a result. People will be dislocated as a result. Just because we have some spineless people in high places who have no balls between their legs and will do everything the President tells them including killing their own mamas! How many big people in Nigeria were brave enough to look OBJ in the eye and tell him that he was wrong? Am still trawling for names of Bishops, Cardinals, Sheiks, Chiefs etc who spoke out then when it wasn’t fashionable. Not at this time that the Supreme Court has exposed the stupidity of the whole exercise. One of the matters that continue to elude my grasp is how we have nations which call themselves democracies in Africa and yet we still have one man calling all the shots. A colleague explained to me that when the INEC insisted on adding the word “Independent” to their name, he knew that it was a façade. His arergument is that throughout the world, history has shown that nations and organizations would always add something to their names just to remind people that they had that tendency when the reverse, to discerning people, was the case. Witness the Democartic Republic of Korea, the Peoples Daily Graphic!!!

At this juncture, I will doff my hat to the judiciary in Nigeria. You are men, with balls! Even if you have some women, they are also men, with balls, hidden, of course!!! I WISH, I WISH, I WISH!!! In our quest for development, one of the constants will be the law. Even that one changes but not at the same rapidity. The law is the constant; The big men will always change. If we continue to look at the big man for instructions without regard to the law, it will have to take men with balls of steel, like Atiku Abubakar and the Learned Justices of the Nigeria Supreme Court, to throw light unto maximum bunkum and declare it as such. If the President’s wish is lawful, so be it. But if it has no basis in law, why the hell are we paying people who ought to know better to just gape at the old man and tell him what he wants to hear? The Policeman arrests not because he deems a crime has been committed but some big man has made an express directive that someone ought to be picked up. That fine youngman is fired by the Human Resources Manager fully aware that the Managing Director has no legal basis to demand his removal and also fully aware that he is superb material for the benefit of the company. The Board approves of expenditure because some octogenarian Director is hanging at the second-tier of that procurement process to pick up his opipipipii. I am begging you to calculate the cost of this phenomenon which I term as “conscientious stupidity”! Denominate it in naira or cedis and make your own deductions. We are the losers, if we continue to be this docile. Let me give you an example of how docile we can get as a people. It’s only in Africa that a President can go into a factory or other business enterprise which is wholly private-owned and dismiss the owner of the business. Guess what happens next? The owner of the business is kneeling and all wails. His workers and all, wives and concubines and all, pleading for mercy from the President.

May God forbid the stupidity in Anago from engulfing us in 2008. May we as a nation realize that power rests with the people and the best service we can render to our nation is to speak conscientiously, truthfully, respectfully, our opinions on issues. May Chineke God remove all the sycophants around our President before 2008. May they never graduate to the Palace!!! Otherwise, we will be faced with the same situation in Nigeria when the old man also attempts to ordain the future. If you think that my people can contemplate a loss to Kwashivi’s people, think again. Imagine the count going on and my people losing…. Something will give because something will have to give! It’s high time we all realize that we have a duty to ourselves and to the nation to contribute our quota to the development of our dear nation. Contribution can mean that you, an osofo, who has preached ad nauseam that when one dies he will go to heaven, will have the guts to speak frankly about national issues …and go to heaven! My government is a beautiful government that has not and will not put anyone in the cooler for speaking their mind. Yet for some unspoken, dark, (historical?) reasons, everyone is petrified in speaking the truth and standing up for the truth in this land. By so doing, the people messing themselves up are the winners when that should not be so. Yet the power rests with us the people. If we do not learn to believe in our collective ability to stand up for what’s just and true, the motto on our Coat of Arms will mean nothing to us in our lifetime. Freedom and Justice. God Bless Our Home land Ghana. Yen ara ye asaase nii.

Like Kwame Sefa-Kayi says most mornings, when you say a prayer, say one for Nigeria. Then say another one for Ghana. Then say another one for Yewura Kuffuor. Then say another one for yourself. Then Chineke will put some fire in your balls, not to torment the fairer sex but to act strong, believing in the constitution which guarantees your rights, because God did not make you stupid. Your conscientious stupidity is too costly for mother Ghana. Wake Up and Live …… or forever remain stupid!!!

"Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence... Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation... It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man (or a woman) stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he (or she) sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." - Robert Francis Kennedy, speech at Day of Affirmation, University of Capetown, South Africa

Elephant Ostriches

ELEPHANT OSTRICHES

“These are the days when men of all social disciplines and
all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted;
when the man of controversy is looked upon as
a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be
a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of
the scriptural parable, the bland lead the bland.”

- John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian-born American Economist.

Have you ever seen an elephant digging a hole in order to bury its head? Guess you have not. Okay, lets try again. Can you imagine an elephant digging a hole to bury its head in? Can u imagine the size of that hole? Well, look no further. A mighty hole is being dug right close to you, right now, as you read this! My manager, being the typical Ghanaian wife that she is, has issued a fatwa that having lost my faith completely, it was enough to nurse my wounds at home and keep my thoughts to myself, especially on the state of Ogyakrom’s elephantiasis. The fatwa only allowed for public musings on her and the two musketeers. I could even define my daily struggles with old men who ought to know better but show nothing of that. But I was not to muse about the creeping pandemic. I am therefore pleading that on one tells her I have breached her fatwa. The ‘net is not her friend and she won’t know unless you become an okro-mouth!!! I am compelled to ventilate due to the impending Armageddon that’s about to engulf a certain domesticated elephant and to which none but the elephant is oblivious to. How can an elephant survive in the forest after being domesticated?

Compare the sizes of the heads of the ostrich and that of the Osono. The ostrich proverbially digs a hole and buries its head in times of wahala and chooses to show its bottom. Picture the elephant trying to dig a hole to bury its head in the sand. To my messed up mind, it will be near impossible. My prognosis is that the elephant by definition will have to stare issues in the face and basically face up to it. In Ogyakrom today, what’s happening?

‘Asonomma’ are so busy doing deeds that they don’t seem to know or care about the sentiments of the very same hot men who carried them on the back of ‘opipipiipi’ to the Castle. People are so busy trying to be Presidents that they don’t even see that gradually, the NPP is becoming like the NDC in its last days. Everyone, including the venerable Ben Ephson knows that the NPP won the elections because of the votes of the floaters. Foot soldiers of the Osono deferred their pay in order to bring the Osono from the bush. They worked for the NPP for the love of party and country, hooked on the intoxicating fumes of the promises of positive change, dished amidst the melodies of awurade kasa. Under the umbrella at the time, their people had also decided that “le hwua de kwasia, Ce nest pas tia so deux, cest tia so une” (forgive my French). To them, their big people had so enjoyed the booty and promptly forgotten them that they would demand all their back pay and take front pay, side pay and kickbacks. In long, their message was simple: “unless you cough up some of the money lodged in your throat, no footwork, period”! If you call them soldiers, you got to pay them! That’s what caused the umbrella the throne in 2000! The reverse is playing itself out in the NPP now now now!!!

Almighty Yeshua Amashua (respect to the Archbishop!) has a very sophisticated way of playing all of us, when we begin to think that we have arrived! “He makes all things beautiful in His Time”. Today, NPP foot soldiers are also demanding their pound of flesh. Unless you drop some dough, none is prepared to move. While you slept over the past Osono years, a quiet evolution has taken place in Ghanaian politics. The NPP has become the NDC!? And instead of that waking up the gamekeepers to the realities on the ground that people are getting increasingly disillusioned, Osono has ordered fresh excavation equipment and promptly begun digging one giant hole for the elephant to bury its head! Ebei, is this love that am feeling? And by the way, who chose the word “kukrudu” as a slogan? Do they know that it may come back to haunt them? Kukrudu means an earthquake or earth tremor. Over the past few months, with the tectonic plates sifting all over the place, we have heard and seen reports of kukrudu in disparate places such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Solomon Islands, Japan etc. We sit in an earthquake zone and the gamekeepers’ slogan is “kukrudu”. No wonder the prayer warriors of the NDC have been imploring Yeshua Amashua to send us, not an earthquake, but a small tremor bii. Just to show the commentariat and the masses that “kukrudu, enye adepa!”. Where was I?

Yes, the NPP rode on the back of perceptions to the Castle. The Osono encouraged perceptions at the time in order to score political points. Having been assured that the Ghanaian has a 24-hour memory span and generally does not recollect anything beyond the previous 24 hours, the Osono proceeded to promise paradise in Ogyakrom. I have always maintained that we have a paradox on our hands. The Osono without the promises and declarations could make a fine argument as being one of the best governments in Ogyakrom. Sadly, that’s without the promises and if the manifesto is hidden. Matched against the manifesto and the promises and the long talk, ouch, that’s where the pains of positive change are felt, Frankly, a feature of life in Ogyakrom now, and I don’t know whether you have also noticed same, is that, when you step out, you cant help but notice that apart from people who may have their fingers in the pot, its becoming very rare to find people ready, willing and able to defend the Osono and its policies. I dare say that it is only the elephant ostriches that don’t see what’s happening. Out there in the field, where elections are won, the Osono is fast losing the battle for the hearts and minds. Osono’s claim to fame was its distinction from the Umbrella in all respects. Toady, Ogyakromanians increasingly find it difficult to make that distinction. When the distinction is fudged, the NDC will be the net gainer. Positive change means that the things we used to see or hear, we’d see and hear them no more. Listen to the news. Don’t you have a sense of déjà vu? Sometimes you feel like you have heard the news before. If you have ever felt that way, you aint wrong. You may have indeed heard it before , just that where there was a papa jay, there is a K4 and where there was a Konadu, there is a Theresa. Positive change means a 180 degree turn, not a 360 degree turn.

Yet, my people call this phenomenon a perception. I say they are all ELEPHANT OSTRICHES! The love of the people is fickle. Now the Osono seems to be supplying on a daily basis, ample reasons why they ought not to love you anymore. The earlier you stop digging in, the better for you. The energy crisis, the Ghana@ 50 hullaboutwho, nepotism and corruption in high places and that phrase that’s evaporated from presidential lexicons… “zero tolerance for corruption” etc are but a few of the “perceptions” that may send the Osono back to the bush. By the way, Mr. President should fire whoever put that phrase “zero tolerance for corruption” in his inaugural speech. I wonder why they keep doing that to him. Recently they slotted in the fact that the energy crisis would be tackled by defined actions within a fortnight. The damage control ops are still on-going on that score. The ugly beauty contest is another turnoff for the floaters but a cocoa season for the parasites. Why the President would allow people we have tasked with responsibilities to walk around with state assets on presidential campaigns beats my imagination. For a party that used to whine that the NDC was using state assets to campaign, what do we see today? Not a single person has lost his job as a result of the energy crisis. Out there, the “perception” is that its chop time. Have you seen that advert in the newspapers on drug trafficking? Well, still stealing our money? Good luck!

Perceptions as the Osono should know, hurt politically and the perception now is that the NPP is a promise and fail party. Every leader of a household who has fundamental financial problems in his house but goes out on a spending binge can’t say he’s an agya pa! Never forget that Uncle Fiifi is a formidable personality. The NDC also doesn’t seem to have internal problems to the degree of the NPP. To the NDC, their problem is external, that is the floating voters. If only they can get their act together and exorcise the ghosts, what a season Ogyakrom will witness. The NDC never thought losing was a possibility until it was sprung on them. The Osono is doing the self-same things. These days we hear language used by the dying NDC: “we can’t lose”. We are on the ground”. Ostrich talk, that!!! The typical Ghanaian is an “afraid man”. He will look left and right and weigh the implications of his actions before he does them. If he has to express his mind publicly and that will cost him or his family, he will smile a Pentecostal smile and tell you exactly what you want to hear. You have to create an enabling environment for the Ghanaian to really express what he feels. The ballot box creates that environment perfectly. In there, no one will destroy his business or mark him down for destruction. No one will walk to the Police and demand his arrest for daring to speak. Ghanaians have shown they aint no dumbos. They are the smartest politically minded Africans you would ever find. The NDC lived to tell the tale of the mulling they received at the hands of these seeming docile people. What about you?

The possibility that the NPP will lose the election is very real. And it grows by the day! Instead of letting that possibility focus minds, energies are rather being expended on pedicures and manicures for the beauty contest. How come the tummy always wins in Africa? The NPP has deep internal problems which will be exacerbated by the beauty contest. Then the party has to deal with the externals who are already disillusioned. Teachers… gone. Health workers… gone. The people… going? Most of even the discerning that I have come across are sending signals that they may stay at home during the 2008 elections. After, all the value is the same! I have labeled that psychological feeling that someone has shortchanged us as “positive blues”. We took a wrong junction on the road to positive change. The earlier the lost road map is found, the better. Otherwise JAK may have to see JJ for lessons in insomnia-management, ex-post Castle. If you think its impossible, think again. Uncle Fiifi may become the next President and then the pain becomes just unbearable for you because you cant sleep again. If you say am making noise, wait till you hear the latest release from A-plus. “Asem kese eba a, na franka si so!!!! But again, why do I bother myself so? People are so busy eating that they don’t hear anymore.

“Healey’s first law of politics: when you’re in a hole, stop digging”.
- Denis Healey, British Labour politician

P/S: While I am at it, I might as well say it and be free. Abedi Pele has broken my heart. If you want to know how rotten our nation has become, let your Ghana Barometer be measured by what the GFA’s ruling would be in the matter of those absurd matches. Instead of Pele hiding in Togo till the storm blows over, the man goes on radio to defend 31-0? Ghana is sick @ 50!!! If the GFA says nothing untoward happened, start packing your bags. However, if they can withstand all those people who have lost their sense of right and wrong and now only defend their tummies, and rule that an absurdity took place and that the maximum sanctions are applicable, I would begin to have faith that all may not be lost. When the old man says show me or shut up, why wouldn’t Abedi and his ilk also conjure something and dare you to bring evidence to the contrary. Innocent until proven guilty my foot!!! Sick @ 50!!!!