Opinions of Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Columnist: Dotse, Daniel
Enough, they say, is enough. It is with careful consideration that I decided to write this article on issues ordering on tribal sentiment. Let it be very clearly known to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) the offspring of the Dankwa-Busia political tradition that the good people of the Volta Region are not oblivious to the fact that we the Ewes are bitterly hated and despised by the Dankwa-Busia group, and hence the NPP. The fact that the good people of the Volta Region decided to ignore all the vitriolic attacks and provocations by these group of people (the Dankwa-Busia NPP) does not mean that we are cowards or afraid of them. We just want to remain as civilized people as we are; hence we treat these provocations and insults with the contempt they deserve. But now enough is enough!!!
The camel’s back is now broken yet by another attack on the Region by the General Secretary of the NPP, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie aka. Sir John’s acidic and fouled mouth by saying the 2010 population and housing census in the Volta Region is being manipulated by the NPP appointed Government Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako a known NPP sympathizer. What a fallacy? According to NPP it is only the figures from the Volta Region that is being massaged and also long after the close of the process, there were some registrations that were still going on in only the Volta Region. What an INSULT to the good people of the Volta Region? What a provocation?
The people of the Volta Region have not forgotten the INSULTS by their late Victor Owusu that all Ewes are INWARD-LOOKING. The constant insults and provocation of Ewes by the Dankwa-Busia political tradition, the NPP also re-emphasized and actually vindicates the view of our Beloved Agbogbomefia of Asogli state, Togbe Afede XIV who recalled at a meeting with Dr. Addo Kufuor, a younger brother of Mr. J. A. “Bokassa” Kufuor, the tribal slogans leading to formation of the NPP as a political party in the 1990’s. The King pointed out that the people of the Volta Region were put off by their “tribalistic” slogans like “Yeregye yen man” and so on. Few months ago, Togbe Afede, the King of Asogli State came under a heavy dose of insults and criticisms from leading members of the NPP for stating the bear facts at a durbar organized by the people of the Volta Region for President J. E. A. Mills in Ho. Togbe Afede stated that under the NPP Government led by “Bokassa” J.A. Kufuor, “Ewes were made to feel like outsiders.” These statements of facts by the learned King attracted vitriolic attacks and insults and insinuations from leading members of the NPP, as usual.
We cannot forget how Ewes were chased out of their workplaces; how Ewes were transferred to “Siberia”. The infamous proceed on leave mantra adopted by the NPP Government led by J.A “Bokassa” Kufuor was mainly applied only to Ewes. During the 8 year rule of the NPP led by Kufuor, Ewes in Government institutions were always sitting on thorns. We cannot forget how having Ewe name in Ghana under the NPP Government became a taboo. A lot of people with Ewe sounding names in the high echelon of the civil service and in other national institutions like the Military, the Police Service, the Prisons Service, Immigration Service, Custom and Preventive Service, the Banks etc. were marginalized and asked to proceed on leave just because God in his own wisdom decided these people, who occupied these positions on their own merits, to be Ewes. An example in point of such cases was the case of the Head of Ghana Immigration Service, Mr. Hodari Okai.
We can also not forget how NPP spin-doctors on daily bases insulted Ewes on radios and their news papers with impunity. One can also not forget how on one of the phone-in-programs on Asempa FM on the 4th of January 2009, Ken Kuranchie, the editor of the Searchlight newspaper had the guts and temerity to call the people of the Volta Region uncivilized people.
One can also recall how the NPP planned to collect dead bodies from Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Morgue in Kumasi and dump them in the Volta Region just to portray that Ewes are callous and murderers, during the run up to 2008 Parliamentary and Presidential elections. This evil agenda of the NPP was secretly recorded and played on Radio Gold Program; Election Forensics hosted by Mr. Raymond Archer. Only God knows what would have happened if their evil plans had not been exposed by Radio Gold.
What have the people of the Volta Region (Ewes) done to deserve this callous attacks and insults from these NPP crooks?
Enough is enough, with NPP’s insults and provocations!!! Let it be clearly known to the NPP charlatans that they will fall on their own sword and dagger!!! They will eat their own flesh and drink their own blood!!!
By
Daniel Dotse
Virginia
USA