Pride comes before a fall

The arrogance with which acolytes of President Mahama speak has reminded me about happenings during the twilight of the short lived Biafra Republic. It also brings to mind the fire brigade approach made by the dying Lucky Ebele Jonathan’s PDP administration to perpetuate itself in power.

These men and women in the NDC have all the time behaved as conquerors of the down trodden people and have bluntly refused to pleas by the emasculated people to reduce their burden for them. They have arrogantly told us to the face that they will never listen to any advice, even if offered with the best of intentions.

Their mantra has been “Yenntie Obiara” (We will not listen to anybody). They have enjoyed the best of everything, winning and dining with women of questionable character and snatching other people’s wives.

Just look at their long convoys. But one thing is certain. They live in absolute fear of the unknown. They wear dark glasses even in the night. Why? Because they have committed a lot of atrocities against the masses and are afraid of the fate that awaits them. They had acted and behaved as if there would be no tomorrow. But now, the day of reckoning awaits every singular individual of the nefarious contraption.

These were people who were like one of us. They told us that the ousted NPP Government was for the Bourgeoisie and that they would live like ordinary men and women. But the moment they came into government, everything about them changed. Could you believe that a whopping One Point Two Billion Cedis (I.2 Billion Cedis) was used to renovate a bungalow which had been used by a “bourgeoisie” to be occupied by NDC apparatchiki’?

Just look at the puffy cheeks and thick necks of their ministers and Deputies, the new dental formulae of some of their communicators and the shinning “Lord is my Barber’s” head of some appointees and you cannot but conclude that indeed, these new breed arrivals have milked the country dry. But that is the NDC for you. They discourse like angels but live like common criminals.

Yet, these people do not want to have anything to do with us. In fact, they despise us. They think our emaciated bodies and kwashiorkor stomach are signs of some deadly virus. And to keep them from being contaminated, they always keep us at arm’s length. They tell us to meet them at a certain place at a certain time.

You get there and you are told “Big Oga” has left to keep appointment with another “Big Oga”. And the person who delivers the message looks you down from head to toe as if you had bugs in your pants. These men! Time will tell but it will be sooner than they expect.

When the sound of the trumpet is sounded, it is then we shall know who amongst us will be “transfigured” and those to be cast into the fiery fire. It is on that day, we shall use our “kokromoti’ power to teach these necromancers and sons and daughters of Belial that we have had enough of their arrogance. It is on that day we shall hear the gnashing of teeth and the cry of pain.

A few years ago, Koku Anyidoho had the temerity to refer to Osei Kyei Mensah, Minority Leader and Opare Addo, MP for Suhum in very uncomplimentary language. When called upon to apologize, he retorted that he would not do so. He was goaded on by the top hierarchy and boot lickers of his party not to appear before the Privileges Committee of Parliament if summoned.

I reproduce a copy of his reckless utterances for perusal of the reading public to know whether or not Koku Anyidoho is a patriot or nation wrecker. It was this same bully of a man who ill-advised late President Mills to put the country’s Armed Forces on Red Alert.

One should not forget the arrogance of Agyenim Boateng, former Deputy Information Minister under late President Mills. He it was, who said that unlike Ex-President Kufuor, Mills would never appoint any taxi driver into his cabinet.

Are taxi drivers not human beings? If because of obnoxious policies of the NDC administration, qualified Ghanaian graduates found the economic situation unbearable and therefore drive taxi cabs to supplement their income, what’s wrong about that?

By the way, the taxi driver appointed by Kufuor was performing his duties creditably. What can NDC say about the “largesse” being extended to Akua Donkor who had earlier appealed to the masses not to vote for President Mahama on account of non performance?

She went on to state emphatically that if the President does not produce the post mortem report on the death of President Mills, it means President Mahama knows something about his predecessor’s death. The tape is there for all to listen.

What job is Akua Donkor performing? Why buy her cars and build a mansion for her? Was it to buy her silence? Ghanaians deserve to know.

As if the effusions emanating from the stables of the NDC are not enough, a few day ago, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, the “hater of Akan people” said it emphatically during the launching of the NDC Campaign that the Presidency is not for short people and those who wear glasses.

When he made that reckless and divisive statement, most of the people at the launching including President Mahama clapped. When called upon to apologise, he retorted that he would not do so. Is history repeating itself?

But be as it was, the innuendo was not lost on discerning listeners. Was it not at the campaign launch that the President said if it comes to insults, the NPP has won gold medals? Again Nana Addo’s name came up Seventy One (71) times whilst that of President Mahama came up only 15 times. Why? Was it the NPP that was launching its campaign?

But I am not surprised because top members of the Nefarious Contraption always blame God for everything. A few years ago, the President blamed God for the “sinking” of a ship that was bringing crude oil to the country.

Today, President Mahama is blaming God for creating Akufo Addo short. In the Nineteen Nineties, when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) was in power, late business mogul and internationally acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Elections, late Chief Moshood Kolawola Olabisi Abiola used his money and newspaper (The Concord) to support the NPN.

Later he decided to challenge President Shehu Shagari for the party’s Presidential slot in the Primaries. Alhaji Umaru Dikko, then Minister of Transport who was playing the same role as being performed by Nii Lante made his infamous speech that “the Presidency was not for sale to the highest bidder”. The innuendo was not lost on Abiola and his supporters.

He resigned from the NPN and all support coming from his end ceased immediately. The consequences were catastrophic. The NPN behaved like a bull in a China shop. It trampled upon people’s right and did the unthinkable. It even rigged itself into power. The result?

It ushered in the duo of Generals Mohamadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon. Umaru Dikko was just damn lucky. He had escaped to Britain immediately after the coup. He was parceled into a crate and put aboard an aeroplane in the luggage compartment to be sent to Nigeria to meet his nemesis. Destiny however saved him from such humiliation.

I am not an advocating a coup d’état. No, Far from that! But that reckless statement by one of the top notches of the country nearly plunged the country into a mess.

Now, let us look at the reckless and unwarranted statement of Nii Lante Vanderpuye. It is true Nii Lante did not mention any name but as I said earlier, the innuendo and sarcasm are not lost on discerning listeners. When the Present referred to Freddie Blay as “Opana, did he mention any name? He didn’t, but everybody knew he was referring to Freddie Blay.

People are suggesting the description aptly fits both Paa Kwesi Nduom and Nana Akufo Addo simply because both of them are short and wear glasses. I leave that to your judgment. But one thing we should not forget is that we do not have a say as to how we were created. Therefore, we cannot question our Heavenly Father as to why he created some people tall and others short.

We might inherit some genes from our parents and grandparents. Even here, we cannot say how and why the progenitor of our family came to be this or that. What is most relevant is the depth of a person’s character and how a leader impacts positively on other people’s life. This is the question that should be agitating Ghanaians, not how short or tall, and how beautiful or ugly a person is.

So, if today, Nii Lante and President Mahama are echoing the mantra of the apartheid policy in South Africa to score cheap political points, I leave them at the judgment seat of Almighty God. Proponents of Apartheid had used the Holy Bible in their attempts to relegate black people into a position of inferiority.

Such people argued that the black race is descendants of Ham who had been cursed by his father to be hewers of wood and carriers of water. And so, if Nii Lante Vanderpuye and the Nefarious Destructive Cancer are arrogantly twisting history and attempting to rewrite the Holy Bible to suggest that God has decreed that only tall people should be leaders, once again I leave them to wallow in their myopic intelligence.

But one thing President Mahama, Nii Lante Vanderpuye and the rest in the NDC seem to forget is that Saul, the First King of Israel was a very tall person. But he disobeyed God and the kingdom was torn from him and given to David. Would you say here that history was operating against tall people?

Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte were not tall people, yet they made their impact on the world. Napoleon nearly conquered the entire world. Do you remember Frank Amankwaa, that diminutive defender of the Black Stars?

In spite of his smallish and short stature, he played a yeoman’s game for the Black Stars that the fear of that player became the beginning of wisdom for attackers from other countries. What about Rev. Osei Kofi, Ghana George Best? Then, there is Isaac Asare. They have all written their names in the annals of history when it comes to Soccer. Even though we had tall players like Kwesi Owusu and Wilberforce Kwadwo Mfum, the Bulldozer, others like Dan Owusu and Anthony Yeboah have also carved a niche for themselves in soccer.

What about Diego Maradona?

Former President Chiluba easily comes to mind when leaders of diminutive stature are mentioned. He would be remembered for efforts he made in transforming the lives of Zambian people. Adams Oshiomole, current Governor of Edo State of Nigeria had been President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

He is very short in stature and it was during his tenure as head of the Labour Movement in Nigeria that he battled President Obasanjo PDP’s administration to reverse most of the unpopular and anti people’s policies in the country. It was on account of those achievements that he was elected twice to become Governor of Edo State.

Have you forgotten about David and Goliath? From Nii lante’s permutatation, President Mahamais equated to Goliath and Nana Akufo-Addo to David. What was the outcome of the encounter between the tall man and the short man?It was defeat and humiliation for Goliath, the Giant and David the Liliputian.

And as it was in the beginning, so shall it be at the end. Nii Lante Vanderpuye has unwittingly prophesized doom for his own candidate and it shall surely come to pass, Insha Allah.

Just put President John Dramani Mahama in place of Asebu Amenfi. Just count or name the attrocities the President, like Asebu Amenfi has committed against Ghanaians and see the chosen path of perfidy and Armaggaddon being followed by the President, who is touted as the draconian dictator of Africa and one cannot but conclude that, indeed even hell cannot accommodate him and his “muntie” bootlickers.

And like what Dr Aggrey said about the use of both the white and the black keys on the piano to give melodious tunes to our music, it is in the same way that we need both short and tall people in our political dispensation.

If Nii Lante Vanderpuye and President Mahama have forgotten, I want to tell them that our First President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah whom they all claim to adore was not a tall person. Again, will Nii Lante Vanderpuye and President Mahama be honest to tell Ghanaians how tall was late President Mills whose legacy they are trying so hard to obliterate from history? And late President Professor John Evans Atta Mills wore glasses!

I had expected that on an important occasion like the launch of the party’s campaign, the Nefarious Destructive Cancer would observe at least a Minute Silence in memory of their departed leader, Professor Atta Mills. This the party didn’t do. But Nii Lante Vanderpuye had the effrontery to blame God for creating people short. Was that an indictment of its General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah?

I am using this medium to appeal to all short people and those who wear glasses to teach infidels like Nii Lante Vanderpuye and all those who applauded his infamous and reckless statement a bitter lesson by voting against them in the December 12 Election. This will send a signal to those who think like him that it was no fault of theirs that they were created short.

Those who live in Glass Houses should not throw stones. We live in a wonderful world where anything can happen.

Writer's e-mail: [email protected]