The Case Of 'Asabee'

And The Moaning Of An Ewe Gunshot Victim.

“Oouum, oouum, oouum”, so groaned an Ewe male who had just been shot by a gun. At the onset you may see no connection between the incident of a gunshot at an Ewe and the case of Hon. Stephen Asamoah Boateng (popularly known as “Asabee”). Like all of us normal and law abiding persons, you may also hold the view that a gun shot at a person should be visited only to express sympathy and condemn the attack. Read on and at the end you will see the connection between the two cases and you will also have formed your own opinion whether or not to condemn the gun shot at the poor Ewe man and sympathize with him.

The reproduction of the groaning of the Ewe gunshot victim was made to me by the marksman himself who saw and heard it all, first hand. He rationalized his actions to me in Akan as follows. “Ye de won ko firing squad a na won agyae ayigbefuor no, na won akum Akan fuor no”. The English translation reads: “When the courts convicts and sentences them to firing squad (capital punishment), they discriminatorily set the Ewes free and kill the Akans among the convicts”. The gun shot incident was in the 1980’s when as always, the Ewes were the arch perpetrators of arm robbery in Ghana. The marksman who was hard working and law abiding was averse to the destruction of human lives and had experienced several arm robbery attacks on his household. As you may recall, the nation was under the administration of the Rawlings/Ewe thuggish entity in the 1980’s. In that era, the Ewe was above the laws of the land such that when a group of arm robbers were convicted by the courts and sentenced to death by firing squad; the Ewe authorities would latter selectively set the Ewes among the convicts free and hang the non-Ewes. The freed Ewe criminals would go back and continue their criminal art. I hope that you see the lawlessness in the whole situation, whereby the lawful ruling of a court of the land would be unlawfully “overturned” by unauthorized laymen and would be followed by actions that constitute crimes themselves. Thus, at some point, the marksman had had it so he obtained a gun. Next time around the Ewe arm robber got more than what he had bargained for on that particular visit and his groaning was what ensued from his unwelcome visit to the marksman’s house. By the standards and laws in any civilized society the actions of the marksman was totally legal and it constituted a lawful defense of his life, his household and his property. Such has been the extent of Ewe unlawful tribalistic practices in Ghana and the unlawful animosity perpetrated by the Ewe against non-Ewes in Ghana. Unlawful and evil tribal discriminatory practices by the Ewes get institutionalized whenever the Ewes ascend the seat of administration in Ghana. Consequently, it calls into disrepute any agenda by an Ewe administration to bring any non-Ewe to face any law. In these instances, the Ewes under the color of law, promote their hateful tribalistic agenda against non-Ewes. A clear example of this is the ongoing case involving Asabee and others.

As enshrined in the NPP code itself, all sympathizers of the party such as myself, are law abiding persons who support the rule of law. Thus, if Asabee and others have broken the law, as a law abiding person, I will be hesitant to take sides with them. However, the history and traditions of tribalism of the Rawlings/NDC/Ewe entity call ition if it is a legitimate pursuit of justice or the usual tribalistic agenda of the Rawlings/NDC/Ewe entity. Because of the notoriety of the Rawlings/Ewe entity, in unlawful implementation of selective justice along tribal lines, the possibility of an ulterior tribalistic motive on their part cannot be ruled out in the case against Asabee and others.

For those outside Ghana, who may not know this evil tribal discriminatory practices of the Ewe of Ghana, it is identical to the developments that fomented the tribal genocide in Rwanda and elsewhere. For those outside Ghana, do not be misled into thinking that this is a fight by the government against corruption, as they may want us to believe. The real agenda could be tribal hatred. Later on in this piece I shall cite more examples of institutionalized tribal discrimination and the associated unlawful and selective application of justice and the law along tribal lines, as perpetrated by the Rawlings/NDC/Ewe entity. Asabee is a Fante and his wife’s name sounds like a Dagomba name. I am not a member of either of the two tribes neither do I have any family relationship with Asabee or his wife. Thus, the position I have expressed here is purely on the basis of principles. The list of the practice of unlawful and selective justice along tribal lines as perpetrated by the Rawlings/NDC/Ewe thugs is too long and I wish to cite only a few here. Deceptively masquerading as a person had come to clean the socio-economic situation of the country, Rawlings, in his terroristic and murderous campaigns, went as far back as the 1960’s and murdered a national leader from that era, Gen Afrifa, for no apparent reason. The incident of Komla Gbedema and his stealing of millions of pound sterling from the state treasury, while serving as finance minister also falls in this era. Why did Rawlings not murder Gbedema, whose activity constituted stealing and a clear case of crime against the state? The simple answer is that Gbedema was an Ewe.

Following the financial crimes of Tsatsu Tsikata against the state, the United States reportedly demanded that he be jailed. The position of the US would be justifiably understood as a donor who has been fiscally supplementing Ghana’s budgetary programs and would not sit down for the donated resources to be stolen into the pockets of one individual. Did Rawlings heed the call from the US and jail Tsikata? He did not because Tsikata is an Ewe. Tsikata, would later be convicted and jailed by the NPP administration in a legal process that showed fairness and was the exact opposite of the unlawful and selective justice shown by the Rawlings/Ewe entity along tribal lines. Among the persons convicted of financial crimes against the state was ex-finance minister, Kwame Peprah. Besides beign an Ashanti as His Excellency President Kuffuor (HE Kuffuor), it turned out that Kwame Peprah is also a distant relative of HE Kuffuor, through one of Peprah’s earlier marriages. One would think that under these circumstances, the ugly selective justice that shows practiced by the Ewe would be replicated in the trial of Kwame Peprah, since he was not only an Ashanti but he was also a distant relative of HE Kuffour. Nevertheless, the NPP under the able leadership of HE Kuffuor, would uphold the rule of law in an unfettered manner. Kwame Peprah was lawfully and impartially convicted and sentenced.

During my school days in Ghana, the Scholarship Secretariat was a place that any Ghanaian could go to apply for state scholarship to study abroad, regardless of his/her tribe. During the terroristic reigns of the Ewe/Rawlings entity (1979-2000), the doors of the secretariat were literally closed to non-Ewes, especially Akans. The Ewe administrators at the secretariat would selectively tell Akan student visitors to go back to the Akan Kings to seek scholarship supports. This unacceptable and blatant act of tribalism at the secretariat was unheard of during my school days in Ghana. The evil and the gross injustice in this whole situation is that the Ewes who are a minority group in Ghana, have no natural resource or wealth in their land. Most of the resources such as coffee, cocoa, gold, diamond and timber, which fetch the revenue on the international market that financ the scholarship programs come from the lands of the Akans who constitute the majority in Ghana. Besides their majority status, the Akans are richer and more successful. Recently, it was reported in the news that the organization that had acquired the Ghana Telecommunication Company (Vodafone) is going to lay off about 1900 people. Based on the history of Rawlings/Ewe tribalistic practices, one can accurately predict that most of the laid-off persons will be non-Ewes. One area that the Ewe tribalistic agenda has constantly shown its ugly face is in employment discrimination against non-Ewes. For the period 1979-2000, which saw the reign of the terroristic Rawlings/Ewe entity, practically most jobs in Ghana were held by the Ewes even though the Ewes are a minority and the Akans are a majority. The Ewe could even go to the extent of offering employment to Ewes from other West African nations (Togo and Benin), and intentionally keep non-Ewes, especially Akans, out of job.

The plan to build a state sponsored university was in the news last Thusrday (August 20th, 2009). As an individual who believes in the power of education in the development of both the individual and the nation at large, I laud the idea. However, the great concern is that considering the blatant and open tribalistic practices of the Ewe, such a university is not going to serve all Ghanaians, the way that KNUST, Legon or UGCC serves every Ghanaian. There is enough evidence in the history of the Ewe to substantiate a prediction that the university would serve only Ewes. Ewes would not allow other tribes in Ghana to study at the university. Again, the evil irony is that the Ewes are a minority tribe and there is no natural resource in their land that fetches any revenue for the country. The Akans are a majority and resources such as coffee, cocoa, gold, diamond and timber which fetch the revenue for the nation that would finance the university would come from the Akan lands. Again the Ewe could even go to the extent of offering admission to Ewes from other West African nations (Togo and Benin) and intentionally keep non-Ewes, especially Akans, out of the university. Rawlings uses the barrel of the gun to unlawfully terrorize and disenfranchise the Akans and to enforce the Ewe tribalistic agendas. It therefore seems to me that the elimination of Rawlings from this equation would certainly mitigate the Ewe tribalistic practices in the nation. At some point, the Rawlings/Ewe entity would push non-Ewes in Ghana, especially Akans, to the wall and the only option that would be opened to Akans would be “to push Rawlings out of the way”. Rawlings and his Ewe thugs take advantage of the fact that the Akans are peace loving people who are very slow to react violently, if at all. From this perspective, Rawlings appears to have a false sense of invincibility. I spoke earlier about a gunshot against an Ewe arm robber. There is another loaded gun that did not get fired and the incident is probably known only to me and the would be marksman. It happened when Rawlings ventured into one of our territories when he held the reign of power in Ghana with his Ewe thugs. The marksman confidentially and truthfully narrated the adventure to me. He aimed his loaded and powerful gun at Rawlings as the bastard descended from the staircase of the state-owned helicopter. The marksman had the binoculars on the gun well focused on Rawlings, but the marksman said he had an instant change of mind and he gave up. The unlawful disenfranchisement and terrorizing of Akans can push any Akan to the edge, despite our peaceful instincts.

The long tradition and notoriety for tribal animosity of Ewes against non-Ewes, especially against the Akans, casts a blemish on the legitimacy of the case against Asabee and others. The Rawlings/Ewe entity may pretend to be fighting corruption to deceive the outside world, but their real agenda could be promotion of tribal hatred as has been their long tradition, which is encrypted in their notorious record.

I late 1990, an NDC functionary would boastfully reveal to me that the party would actively shield them from prosecution. This evidences the lawlessness that characterizes the Rawlings/NDC/Ewe entity. You may recall the theft to the tune of several thousands of dollars perpetrated by an Ewe clerk employed at the Ghana Embassy in Abidjan (Ivory Coast), about two years ago. The crime was detected by the NPP administration and it was all over the news. Thus, under the Rawlings/NDC reign in which selective justice along tribal lines prevailed, this Ewe thief would have gone scot free. Only God knows how much money was stolen from the state, by Ewes that was not reported under the Rawlings/NDC reign. You may wonder why I have been addressing Rawlings instead of Atta-Mills when it is Mills who occupies the president’s seat. Note that all these shots are called by Rawlings, not Mills. All this agree perfectly with a feature article that I wrote late last year in the heat of the presidential elections. In the article, I warned that voting Atta-Mills into office would translate into voting Rawlings into power. This is exactly what we are seeing. A contributor at this forum recently characterized Atta-Mills as a remote controlled president. Remote control in the sense that Rawlings imposes policies and the tribalistic Ewe agenda on Atta-Mills from his (Rawlings’) home in the same way as one controls gadgets like TV and VCR with a remote control, from a distance.