The Blunderheaded Are At It Again

That no one is perfect, but most people are good; That people can�t be judged only by their worst or weakest moments; That harsh judgments can make hypocrites of us all; That a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; That laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only response to pain. That everyone has a story- of dreams and nightmares, hope and heartache, love and loss, courage and fear, sacrifice and selfishness. Bill Clinton, My Life. I have had the opportunity to humbly attempt to educate our compatriots in this country that politics is about issues and not about personalities, but it seems that some people in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in the face of their ineptitude and the higgledy-piggledy hanging around their necks like the dead man�s noose, believe that the last straw to hold on to for political survival, come the 2012 general elections, is to revisit an allegation they made and hyped in the last elections against the Presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. This noble, courageous, self confident, formidable legal luminary with unbridled democratic credentials was tagged with drugs and branded as arrogant. He laughed them off �as the only response to pain�. Nana Akufo Addo, in his political and professional career, has never been associated with any act of corruption; a canker which many people, not only in Ghana but the world all over, believe is associated primarily with public office holders. It is also widely believed that corruption is the major hindrance to the development and growth of any nation since it makes public expenditure on service delivery more expensive. In his private law profession, no charge of corruption or act of impropriety has been leveled against him. In his political career, ranging from his struggle against UNIGOV, a system of government which the late General Kutu Acheampong tried to impose on Ghanaians as part of his desire to continue to misrule this country, through the �Kume Preko� series of demonstrations which rocked this nation in 1995, forcing the blood thirsty PNDC/NDC administrations to realize that there are men in this country, no charge of corruption was ever made against him. All we heard about him were that he was arrogant, and then the issue of drugs was also thrown at him. This is a country where many people cannot distinguish between self confidence and arrogance, just as it is easy to equate timidity with humility. When an associate professor of law, who out of fear, and with no record of having ever spoken out publicly on matters of arbitrariness of a regime, nor taken any position in the nation�s political history, succumbs to and lays prostrate before a person who could not even pass his O�Level exams, just because he has found himself as a Vice President of a bloody dictator of a President who wanted to add a touch of respectability to his Presidency, such a person is considered a humble man. When the charge of Nana Akufo Addo being arrogant did not stick, he was branded a drug addict. Strangely enough, the first allegations against Nana Addo in the matters of drugs were made under the ruthless regime of Jerry John Rawlings. No evidence was gathered to bring him before any court of justice. When he became the flag-bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2008, the allegations and accusations were revisited with the greatest of intensity. Yet, no evidence was adduced to support the claim. Now, in 2011, when the NDC is in a self-destruct mode and is just on its way to a major humiliating defeat in 2012, the issues of drugs have come out again. Knowing very well that they would still not have any evidence, even as they are in power, to prosecute Nana Addo on that subject, they are now throwing it onto his relations and compatriots. What a disgraceful bunch of political nincompoops? When Bill Clinton was the Governor of the State of Arkansas, his brother, Roger Cassidy Clinton, was jailed in that State for dealing in drugs. That did not make Bill Clinton a drug dealer, nor sever the relationship with his brother after his sentence. If any member of a family commits a crime against the state and is punished by the state, 30 years or more after, should that person remain ostracized just because he or she once committed an offence? With the shift from Nana Addo to his cousin, it has become evidently clear that the NDC lied shamelessly when they put this courageous man in the class of drug dealers or users in this country. I dare the NDC, now that they are in power, to produce whatever evidence they have on Nana Addo and drugs, and arrest him and prosecute him, or else forever keep their stinking mouths which spew nothing good but filth on very noble personalities, shut. They should listen to the late Lucky Dube: �if you can�t say something good about somebody, just shut up�. Last year when some former ministers under the Kufuor administration were charged before court and Nana Addo cautioned against the Mills campaign promise of persecution, the Deputy Minister for Information, Okudzeto Ablakwa, came out on Joy FM to chastise Nana Addo on his comments, adding that he, Nana Addo, had not been brought before any court because no act of corruption had been found against him. No charge of malfeasance has been found against this man of vision and courage, except to play on the emotions of Ghanaians about issues they cannot prove. For the twelve years when he was in Parliament, eight out of which he was a minister, no act of fraud or malfeasance was found against him. In fact, in the NDC�s blitz in attacking and labeling everybody in Kufuor�s administration as being corrupt, they never mentioned Nana Addo�s name. These are ignoble characters, hiding behind a timid man as President and attempting to denigrate every single soul in this country who disagrees with them politically. If indeed President Mills was a man of peace and was humble as they want everyone to believe, many of the people around him who speak as if they never had a shred of traditional Ghanaian home training would not be where they are in the first place. The NDC �has lost the essence of political responsibility; which is being able to concentrate on what is really important for a long period of time until the problem is solved�. Their spokespersons and ministers of state, who have no ideas to help deal with the basic challenges confronting this nation, have resorted to the use of abusive language on their political opponents who are better achievers in life than the fathers of those heaping the insults. The last time it was Stan Dogbe on Prof. Kwesi Yankah. Hei, Stan, did your father once work with the Information Service Department in Axim in the Western Region? Yes, the man in question raped a young woman in the bush in those days, the 1970s. He was arrested and made to pacify the gods for that unholy act. He was made to carry a sheep and parade the streets of Axim. He subsequently fled the town. He retired recently as a top official at ISD in Accra. If he is, then I am not surprised you were alleged to have raped a young lady at KNUST. These are all spokespersons of a supposedly humble and peace loving president; a vindictive man who has brought untold division in the NDC ever since Jerry John Rawlings made the mistake of bringing him from nowhere into the party. Look at how divided the NDC is today under the leadership of an asomdwoehene. Where ever the asomdwoehene goes, trouble brews. The NDC has seen its worst period in its checkered history under a man so humble and peace loving, as well as God fearing. For the first time ever in the political game since 1992, a political party is assembling police personnel, almost half the size of the delegates, to its congress for an internal contest. Where is the peace? Much as I do not wish the NDC well, the people in that party are Ghanaians and therefore hope that nothing bad happens to them since they are the sons, daughters, wives, husbands, mothers and fathers of other people. But in the unfortunate event that anything bad happens to them, President Mills should re-consider his accolade of being an asomdwoehene. There has been too many a problem under this asomdwoehene than it would otherwise have been under a rabble rouser of a leader. I wish all of you well in Sunyani, but let me sound a note of caution, and that is if any amoral person, without any shred of evidence, descends on Nana Addo with this lame duck accusation of drugs without any proof, I shall descend into the gutter with that person irrespective of his or her status. Be warned. I am on mahogany leave so no tot today.