Elections keep coming, build your muscles, but build your brains even more [Part 2]

Good day, Agyaaku. I know you are feeling comfy in your chair, sipping your freshly brewed dudo. I miss it; the smell and the taste, oh and how invigorating it is – nothing compares.

I need to perfect my act on brewing it, Nana. I would like to stay strong and healthy in my old age, just as you have been. There is the need to nurture what you have passed on to us, genetically, including our muscles. There is no need to misuse those muscles.

That reminds me about our last discourse about elections and machoism, Nana. I do hope you remember the income disparity between bodybuilding and other professions. Oh yes, you remember. You and your elephant-like memory, how can you forget? You did laugh, I know you Agyaaku.

Nana, it is mind-boggling the extent the men of muscle power will go in risking their lives and the lives of innocent citizens just to please politicians, and in exchange: get little perks. What these macho men forget is that muscle power, just like political power, is not perpetual. They are both transients.

Nana, you do remember our current republic started in 1992. It is 28 years old now. We have had a series of elections since 1992. There has always been macho-related violence in these elections, albeit in isolated cases and at a decreasing rate. But let us look at it this way. Please read on, Nana.

Agyaaku, those macho men who took part in acts of violence in 1992 to early 2000s where are they now? Granted they were in their early 20s to mid-40s when they were a real force to reckon with, how old would they be currently? Can they presently exude and exert the same power and force they used to in the 1990s, Nana? It reminds me of the sharp contrast between the pictures of the youthful Opanin Stone and Kwaapan, and the old Kwaapan I saw. Kwaapan’s bulgy muscles and their strength had deserted him in his old age, expectedly.

Agyaaku, the 1990s machos will be in their 60s and late 40s now. Like lion kings, their reign over the pride is over. There are new lion kings roaring in the jungle, lording over the pride now. The fresh and strong macho men who are in their prime now have taken over. Oh yes, some of the babies, toddlers, and early teenagers of the innocent men and women the 1990s and 2000s machos scared, chased away, maimed, or killed back then, are the current crop of macho men. They are the new deal now.

The politicians will contract them instead of the macho men of the 1990s and early 2000s. And if these current men of muscle power do not change their ways, they will fall into the same vicious cycle of electoral machoism where at some point they will be dethroned. I pray they change, Nana.

They must change, must they not? They forget that as they are assembled and moved across communities, towns, and regions, and unleashed elsewhere, they leave family, friends, and loved ones behind. The people that these muscular fellows leave behind might not be as strong as them. Do they think for a second about them as they set off to intimidate similar weaklings elsewhere? What if the muscled men return to see frightened, traumatized, maimed, or killed loved ones? So why not stay and protect your own weakling? Will that not be better, Agyaaku?

And why not change, especially that the change can put you among high earners? Agyaaku, the change can even put the muscled men on the political high table where they can make decisions that will make the motherland a better place; a place where there will be no maiming, killing, or frightening of innocent citizens because of politics.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has done it before, Nana. Our macho men can also do it.

Thus, like Lucky Dube said in his song ‘Changing World’, Agyaaku: “The world is changing; take your time; look around; make the right decision”, Mr. Macho Man. Our macho men can pursue an academic or a professional qualification, enter into the business while they hobby on building their bodies. And if they choose to make bodybuilding their métier, they should do it in such a way that they can earn more in a better and dignified way than violence. They can legitimately offer ushering and security services at mega-churches, marriage ceremonies, funerals, political functions, or feature in product advertisements, Nana. They can then live a peaceful and dignified life now and in the future.

So yes, Mr. Macho Man you can keep training your muscles but look into ways of training your brain as well. They both pay, but the latter earns you more than the former, especially in your old age. I would love to see them relaxing and enjoying peacefully in their old age just as you are currently doing, Agyaaku. Please keep sipping your dudo, Nana.

Mesan aba biem!!!