These NPP Hawks Must Stay Off Nunoo Mensah

It seems to me that a tiny but vocal minority is already busy casting aspersions on the conduct of Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, The National Security Advisor with regard to his comments that ��Ghana is not a police state. Take your passports and get out of this country and don�t destroy the country for us; if you can�t sacrifice like what some of us have done, then get out. If the Kitchen is too hot for you, get out.�� This was his reply or if you will, his advice to the Labour Unions who have decided to make life uncomfortable for everybody in this country and most especially hold government to ransom, for their senseless and often needless strikes and threat of strikes. It is about time, we imbibe the saying that, ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. Have we measured the level of productivity of these workers? The answer is no. The �crucify him� crescendo is rising from members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The chorus since Monday is deafening, especially coming from people who ought to know better. What has the old General said that is wrong and warrants the vile attacks that are coming his way, except to say, people are engaging in politics of patronage. Without a doubt, a lot of the people talking now are doing so either from pure ignorance, innocent (even if misguided) apprehension, especially Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, alias Sir John, the General Secretary of the NPP. It needs to be said that anyone who takes seriously the comments of Sir John that �This NPP turned NDC man made these same comments during late President Mills� time, why � does he think he is the only patriotic man, look at the way teachers are suffering, some teaching in dilapidated structures, in harsh and severe conditions. Look at doctors, even when they have closed from work and are at home relaxing with their family, they are called to treat emergency cases so what is wrong for them to demand for better wages�. Sir John needs a crash course in basic logic that is all I can say about this rustic man. The man who surprised me most is Nana Akomea, who also had these kind words to say to the General, who had served this country faithfully and better than him, ��If you are working for the government, the government is supposed to pay you. If salaries received are not enough as workers are complaining now, you can only tell them to leave the work if they cannot do it. But do you openly tell a Ghanaian to get out of this country? Who are you (Nunoo Mensah)�who are you? Even the President cannot under any circumstance tell a Ghanaian to leave this country� He continued that �The President cannot do that�how? What kind of government are we in? Telling Ghanaians if they cannot work, they should pick up their passports and leave the country. Where is he (Nunoo Mensah) expecting them (workers) to go?�to be refugees in Togo or where?� I have refrained from saying anything unpalatable to Nana Akomea, because, like most interested observers, I have been amazed and amused all at once, reading and hearing this uncharitable words, coming from someone many believe has the capacity to be President. For those who continue to murmur grudgingly about what the General has said, must know that his mouth is not law. Like Nana Akomea, Sir John and the drunken master, Kwabena Bomfeh, also known as Kabila, the man has the right to express his opinion. We can disagree with him, but to suggest that what he said is enough to get people packing out of this country is disingenuous and empty propaganda. Where was Nana Akomea, when Papa Owusu Ankomah, as a Minister of Education, under the erstwhile John Agyekum Kufuor administration, threatened to take teachers to court for going on strike? He asked them to go back to the classroom or forfeit their salary. There is so much hypocrisy and double standard among the political elite to the extent that sooner or later the general populace will lose faith in them. Strike actions are not limited to one administration, these workers who are themselves not contributing anything meaningful, yet are always in a hurry to ask for their pound of flesh, must be told to go to hell. How long does it take to process one document at our Ministries, the bureaucracy and the lazy approach to work has not been handled by successive governments, and that is the bane of this country. we pay people for doing nothing and the only way for them to let us know they are working is to embark on strikes. The rot that we hear of through the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament involving Civil and Public Servants is mind boggling. Year in and year out the ritual continues, and despite stealing and nothing is done to them, they still have the guts to ask for more. Most of them at the Ministries, just lazy about. You can pummel truth with all sorts of propaganda, but when things clear up, only truth will remain standing, even if a little wobbly. The bearers of truth need no encouragement to stand by it; what they need is their own conviction Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. So please leave the man alone, if you have nothing constructive to say. It is easy to criticize what somebody has said or done.