On March 11 this year the President of Ghana, John Mahama addressing Ghanaians in Botswana said “he had become impervious to threats of strikes and demonstrations back home and adopted the dead-goat syndrome, telling agitating labour groups and the opposition that a dead goat does not fear the knife”.
He added “ I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is already dead. I have the dead goat syndrome”, he told the Ghanaians in Botswana.
The president’s statement was received with mixed reaction back home with the opposition describing it as a sign of insensitivity but those on his side stressed that it was a metaphor indicating the unwillingness of the first gentleman to bow to unnecessary pressure to throw the country’s budget out of gear.
A blogger by the name Abdul-Mumin Sofo Yumzaa in an article titled “ the dead goat syndrome- how do you understand it?” stated that “ the President’s comment was a METAPHORIC analysis of a given situation in relation to fiscal discipline, juxtaposed with a ritual indiscipline in every election year.
It was an assuring statement of hope : HE would not fall to pressures of “unwarranted demonstrations” by labour unions that may influence an unnecessary fiscal indiscipline. This is responsible leadership! He went ahead to say that anyone who takes the dead-goat syndrome literally or out of context is suffering from “selective myopia”.
But I beg to differ because what this writer failed to do was to ask himself how did we get to this level of fiscal indiscipline? This is because Ghana recorded her biggest deficit ever in history which was in the tune of 4.3 billion dollars just after the 2012 elections though the president had promised to break that jinx which always shows up after every election.
There were many a Ghanaian who tried to explain that if one looks at the dead goat syndrome from traditional settings of the Akans then it was wrong for the president to use the dead goat to explain the stance he has taken with reference to strikes and demonstrations. To them, he should have used the “ dead sheep syndrome” because in the Akan language it is said that “ Odwanfunu nsuro sekan” literally meaning the “dead sheep is not scared of a knife.”
The dead goat syndrome according to the president was taken out of context, so on the 11th of August 2015, when he was being interviewed by George Sappor on Uniiq FM, he said “ he is no longer a dead goat but a living one”. The resurrection from the land of dead goat also came at a time that medical doctors for the first time in the history of Ghana had declared their longest strike which lasted for 21 days without emergency services. The strike was described by the dead goat turned a living goat as not “making sense and illegal.”
Then came 15 August at the Ghana Journalists Association, GJA awards night, President Mahama again addressing journalists stressed he is no more a dead goat but a living one.
Come August 19, then came a report that journalists at the presidency had been involved in an accident after covering an assignment at Ho. This set me thinking that whether it is sheer coincidence that after the declaration of am no more “a dead goat but now a living goat “in the presence of journalists back home then one life is claimed and several others wounded in an accident. It is like dead goat in abroad but at home a living goat. This incident has led to division on the front of the inky fraternity with the president of the GJA supporting the living goat’s chief of staff explanation of how the accident happened though he was not in the vehicle. That is amazing because if you work with the living goat you are able to see things differently hence the call for the resignation of the president of the GJA, Affail Monney. The presence of the living goat at the GJA awards night might have been seen by the GJA president as a privilege to the extent that when one of his own junior staff, in GBC Radio, Yahaya ….had his recorder destroyed by the dead kids turned living kids, Stan Dogbe, Affail Monney and his executives at the GJA see nothing wrong with this acts of impudence.
My pondering over this dead goat syndrome drove me to look for the Webster’s dictionary and Free dictionary on the internet to find out figurative expressions that are related to the goat.
Interestingly, I realized that basically all the figurative expressions connected to the goat were not positive.
For example, get your goat means to annoy someone. So one can say “ it really gets my goat when people push past without saying excuse me”.
The third example is to act or play the goat, which is an informal expression. It implies to behave in a silly way, sometimes in order to make people laugh. That is one can say Kwame resorted to acting the goat to get people’s attention.
The next expression perhaps what I considered very important from the Webster’s dictionary was the expression “separate the sheep from the goat or put differently separate the men from the boys”. Figuratively, separating the sheep from the goat means to separate the competent from those who are less competent. Many of the challenges confronting Africa including Ghana is mainly due to our inability to separate the sheep from the goat when it comes to choosing leaders during elections hence the dumsorisation, that is to borrow from the words of Professor P.L.O Lumumba must stop.
As a practicing Christian my coming across the expression separating the sheep from the goat reminded me of what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31-34.
31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
From the above Jesus is saying that in the end times nations will be categorized into two- that is sheep nations and goat nations. One should not lose sight of the fact that nations are not just the geographical boundaries but the people within including their leaders.
The key thing is that Jesus is saying those who have the goat nature will be put at his left hand side but while those with the sheep nature will be at the right hand side. The right hand symbolizes the place of power and favour. From the scripture, Jesus described the sheep on his right hand as the blessed of the father implying the goat are cursed and will also not inherit the kingdom prepared by the father in heaven.
Lessons to be drawn are that goat-minded men will always incur the wrath of God and am not surprised since 2012 Ghana has witnessed disaster upon disaster as well as unimaginable corruption scandals but these goats don’t feel ashamed because of their seared conscience.
Another scripture worth looking at is in Leviticus 17;7 “So they shall no longer offer their sacrifices to goat-idols or demons or field spirits with which they have played the prostitute. This shall be a permanent statute for them throughout their generations.
In the New American Standard Bible, the goat demon is referred to as Shaggy in Isaiah 13;21 But desert creatures will lie down there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND THE GOAT PROPHECY DANIEL 8:21
The Goat 21 The shaggy (rough-coated) male goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the great horn between his eyes is the [g]first king. 22 Regarding the shattered horn and the [h]four others that arose in its place, four kingdoms will rise from his (Alexander’s) nation, although not with his power and heritage. (Amplified Version)
23 “At the latter period of their reign, When the transgressors have finished, A [i]king will arise Insolent and skilled in intrigue and cunning. 24 “His power will be mighty, but not by his own power; And he will corrupt and destroy in an astonishing manner And [he will] prosper and do exactly as he wills; He shall corrupt and destroy mighty men and the holy people. 25 “And through his shrewdness He will cause deceit to succeed by his hand (influence); He will magnify himself in his mind, He will corrupt and destroy many who enjoy a false sense of security. He will also stand up and oppose the Prince of princes, But he will be broken, and that by no human hand [but by the hand of God].
From the above it is clear that any nation whose leader likens himself to a goat are heading towards doom because the goat symbolizes rebellion, pride, evil and corruption. I will therefore advise parents to cease calling their children kids because etymologically kids are not human beings but little goats.
THE CHINESE LUNAR CALENDER AND THE GOAT
The Chinese lunar calendar for 2015 says it is the year of the GOAT. The Chinese say people born in the year of the goat should beware of financial loss.
“The propensity for good fortune will not be very good for those born in a year of the Goat, and they will easily become involved in financial difficulties. Therefore, they should adopt conservative strategies when dealing with investments. They should try their best to increase their income, decrease their expenditure, and live within their means. Lottery fans should restrain themselves from gambling too much in order to avoid big losses.”
Per the Chinese believe, perhaps it is not by accident that the Shangai stock market and the Chinese economy as well as their currency, the Yuan are going through turbulence. And back home in Ghana can one say that the cutting of expenditure and increasing of taxes by the dead goat turned into a living goat government is a reflection of the Chinese mindset?
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