“Greedy Bastards?”

Akua Bonsu

What would you say if Osama Bin Laden called someone a “terrorist”, if a prostitute called another woman a “whore”, or if Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe called another leader a “dictator?” No doubt you would probable die laughing at the irony. Yet we in Ghana have tolerated a character that epitomizes irony to the extent that his utterances have now gone beyond the pale.

It all began in the Autumn of 1946 when a young woman who “worked” some of the many foreign occupants of then City Hotel in Kumasi. She was pretty selective with the kinds of people she associated with due to her burning aspirations to travel overseas. She established close associations with a Lebanese club operator and Scottish farmer who had come to Ghana for holidays hoping to acquire land for farming just as some of his friends had successfully done in Rhodesia, known today as Zimbabwe.

When this young woman took on an unplanned pregnancy, her religious conviction nudged her towards aborting the baby, but her shrewd mind calculated that a pregnancy for either of these two gentlemen could be her ticket to oversea. She would be disappointed; the Lebanese club operator would have none of whatever she was selling so she told the Scottish farmer she was carrying his baby even though she was not sure which of the two was responsible. He initially led the young woman on as though the two of them would be eventually together, but left the country without her knowing. By that time it was too late to abort the baby.

The baby boy was born in late June of 1947. His school days would be characterized by delinquencies and disobedience. He would be directionless for much of his young adult life. He would grow up to become a prominent, though unwarranted member of the Ghanaian society. He would skirt the normal process, skirt established procedures to occupy some coveted leadership positions in the country. He would kill and then turn around and call others “murderers.” He would steal and then turn around and call others “thieves.” He would kill people for speaking their minds, and then call himself “democratic.” He would spew raw hatred at a certain group of people while selecting his life partner from amongst them. He would become the poster boy for ineptitude and crass behavior and then turn around to call others unqualified to lead.

Fellow Ghanaians, there comes a time in a nation’s journey to prosperity when distractions must not be tolerated, when destructive behavior must be abhorred, when we stand up and look the devil in the eyes and say there is no place here for you. Our penchant for ‘peace’ has tolerated a president who sees it fit to physically assault his Vice President for daring to present an opposing viewpoint.

I call on all lovers of decency in our great country regardless of party affiliations to come down very hard on the FILTH associated with one who does not know his own father, but who would grow up to publicly call others “GREEDY BASTARDS.” ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!