Bayie Kɔɔɔɔ IV- I saw My Mother Glow

"I am no more a witch than you are a wizard. If you take my life away, God will give you blood to drink."- SARAH GOOD



Dear Brutus my brother from another mother,



At times like this, the folly of trying to understand the Ghanaian 'Bayiee-sphere' (world of witches) dawns on me. I had to fly thousands of miles to South Africa to escape the "gyratik radius" – the furthest distance at which you can feel the influence of a gyrating witch- of these wicked creatures of unliberated human thought, to compose this mail. I have heard that witches will not chase you when you move southward across the ocean for inexplicable reasons. However, to the extent that these creatures heavily dominate the mindset of the average Ogyakromian no matter how scholarly; my foolishness is excusable. In Ogyakrom, the fact that the widow next door has powers to transform herself into a fireball that glows and lights –up the skyline exterminating any evidence of darkness in deep forests, feeding on neighbours in their sleep, is ebbed into your psyche before you are six, and in many instances stays with you for life. You are given the perfect alibi to refuse to help the frail woman cart her firewood home when you are told she caused your best friend's death.



Like many Ogyakromians, my feelings towards my mother are special. This is borne out of years of sharing the challenges that growing up in Africa throws at you rather than residual ambers of libidinal feelings they call Oedipus complex. How can we forget the love that makes a woman sacrifice her beauty at the prime of her life so we will get educated? The earnings from petty trading were too meager to sustain the demands of modern education. As a result, the gold that has been handed over to daughters for three generations was not spared; neither were the Dumas cloths, the remnant of the bridal price that our late father paid for her hand. 


When famine struck the land, many times she will sacrifice her portion so that we have enough to eat; I don't know how she made it through those nights. When I was admitted into high school, she vowed to get the money to put me through. My heart was broken when I saw her on her knees in the night, the bible in one hand and my admission letter in the other. She knelt by the candle and wept to God. She had asked for a loan from Opanyin Jones, a respected member of the community, but he will only give her the loan if she agrees to sleep with him. Of course, she declined the offer, but in three days my admission will lapse. Why is God pushing her towards prostitution? She asked in prayer. She recounted to the Omnipotent all the promises in the good old book, and asked, 'why have you forsaken me to be confronted by failure on one hand if my son's education is cut short, and dishonor on the other hand, if I sell my body to pay his way to school?' I wept throughout the night and she was shocked to see my swollen red eyes the next morning. Her instant reaction was to assure me I would go to school; 'no mama I have given up dreams of higher education'
was my response. She was shell-shocked. What has happened to obliterate all those big dreams in one night? 'We were still dreaming of the greatness that will follow high education only the night before, did you have a night mare?' She wanted to know. In an attempt to assure me there were still opportunities of getting the money on time, she mentioned Opanyin Jones, 'no you won't take the money from that filth' I blurted out. She was stunned into silence with a half opened gape, she suddenly understood why. 'Did you hear me praying in the night?' she asked tearfully. I nodded my head as the tears freely rolled down my cheeks. We sobbed together in each other's arms as she assured me she will get me to school without selling her dignity. 


 The next day, we went to see the headmaster. She prostrated before him pleading for time to find the money. The man took a second look at my result slip and shook his head. "Just like you, I almost missed out on education because of poverty and no one told me I was qualified for a scholarship" he said as he handed over the application form for a scholarship. Since that day, anytime I see a prostitute I think of a woman heavily disappointed and failed by society, but that story is for another day.



Brutus, you can imagine the emotions that welled up inside my body when I met this Prophet who told me my mother eats up all the children in my wife's womb hence our inability to have babies after five years of marriage. He gave me a handkerchief doused in anointing oil and asked me to rub it on my wife's tummy as he recited prayers in strange languages. He urged me to say the first name that comes to mind. He kept shouting, 'you can see her, you can see her, name her', that is when it happened in a flash, I saw a picture of my mother, there was some kind of fire around her, and instinctively I said Mama? 'Yes she is the one' he quipped. 'She is what?' I asked? 'Tell me what you saw', the Prophet said. 'My mother, there was fire around her', I answered. 'Yes, she is glowing, my brother this is bayie Kɔɔɔɔ , she eats up the children in the womb'. I told him my mother won't do such a thing and he reminded me that I saw her glow. He warned that if I don't bring her to the prayer camp to be exorcised, she will eat me next when the children are finished in the womb. I saw other witches at the camp, they had been shaven clean and chained to trees with no protection from the sun. Old defenseless women, if they are witches why don't they just fly away, I thought to myself. I was confused, angry and sad at the same time. 


Against my wife's advice, I travelled to the village and confronted my mother with what I have seen and heard. She  denied any knowledge of those creatures and wept so bitterly, I didn't know what to do. I don't think my mother is a witch, but I saw what I saw. I tried to assure her I didn't believe any of it but it was important to hear it from her. On my way back to Accra I made a detour to see the retired catechist in the adjoining town. We used to say he was boring and not as hot as the new pastors and prophets who could 'see things'. At this point in time, he was the only one who came to mind. When I narrated my encounters with the prophet and my mother, he asked; "Son, between you and the Prophet, who knows your mother better?" "I know her better than any living soul". "Then only you will know if she is a witch', the catechist said. 'But why did I see her glow?' I was pleading for an answer. My son, did you and the prophet understand the vision you saw? As I left him, he said, 'remember what I used to tell you, believe the word of God more than you believe any man of God'.



The next couple of weeks were the most tormenting of my life. I couldn't shake off images of my mum glowing in the night sky and feeding on innocent and unborn babies. But why will she attack my babies? The prophet kept harassing us to bring my mother for exorcism. Then I remembered the catechist's advice and reached for my bible. I remembered Paul's exhortation in Ephesians 6:12 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.' Where are the witches located? I asked myself. From the description our society paints of witches, they must belong to spiritual wickedness. Then I remembered that the Prophet Samuel accused Saul of witchcraft in I Sam 15:23, 'For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft….' Rebellion, idolatry, wickedness; I know Mama, she won't fit into any of these. Then it dawned on me. Our people describe witchcraft as spiritual. How dare any mortal maltreat another mortal over contentious issues of the spirit? Spirit must answer to spirit. How does chaining a widow, banishing poor women and denying them of their economic and other rights, resolve a spiritual dispute? The prescription to deal with spiritual wickedness was there, there was no physical confrontation. Then I saw II Cor 10:4 " The weapons of our warfare are not canal…" , So what is the position of the cane in driving witchcraft out of people? If these Pastors and Prophets get their prescriptions wrong, can we trust their diagnosis? No. I can't trust them. Suddenly it appeared again. Mama's picture! I could see clearly now, Mama kneeling by the candle with the bible and my admission letter. That is the picture that was played back to me. Oh yes, she is glowing in the lighted candle. Out of the overflow of love in her heart for me she was wrestling with God himself. But why should I have a playback of that incident that occurred many years ago whiles the prophet prayed? It was as if an unseen hand was leading me back one step at a time explaining what happened at the prayer camp. The talk before the prayer was about women and how they influence our lives positively and negatively. The Prophet touched on females; wives, mothers, sisters, rivals, etc, he was leading me on to a conclusion he wanted. Mind games!


I couldn't wait to get back to the village to put things right with my mum. Mama I know it, you're not a witch!, I said excitedly as I burst into her room. She looked emaciated and sick, and I knew the cause. She saw the sincerity in my eyes as I pleaded for forgiveness. Who else can forgive such betrayal? Only Mama, full of love. We both shed tears just like years ago, when she promised I would have my education with her dignity intact, in that same room. I have heard of Christ's love for me, and I have faith in him to save me, but the greatest testament of love I have seen on this earth is my mother, why did I ever doubt her? The love for me in her heart radiates on her face and she glows brighter than any prophet I have known. My next point of call was the residence of the old catechist. "Catechist, thank you for helping me identify witches", I said, "Mama is not one of them", I added almost immediately. "So, who is a witch", he asked? "They are the pastors, the prophets, the herbalists, the juju men, the traditional rulers, the fetish priests, and all others who weigh others down emotionally and torment them physically by proclaiming them to be witches". "Why are they witches?" he asked. "They destroy beautiful relationships of love which perhaps they never had". "That is wickedness of a spiritual order". I continued, "Unfortunately, I cannot deal with that prophet because it is a spiritual matter requiring spiritual remedy". "One day the spirit will answer to the spirit".



God is love, and I know Mama is love, she must be very close to God and far from witches. My wife had a baby two years after this incident without exorcism.



Brutus, Sadly though, I write to inform you that we have just arrested some witches in Ghana. A supposed Evangelist and his cohorts who set ablaze another defenseless old woman who lost her way trying to locate her son in the city. When the graphic reported that her son has disputed claims that his mother was a witch, my heart went out to Madam Ama Hemmah, the victim and Stephen Kwame Ofosu Yeboah, her son. Our society has again failed to protect one of the weak ones. I pray that the laws of Ghana will deal with the arrested witches, be it ever so severely, not for practicing witchcraft, but for being accomplished murderers.



Brutus something eerie happened as I finished the first paragraph of this letter. I had left a web request in my browser to run while I continued to write. A voice suddenly popped out of my computer "hi I am amber, What's your name?" I felt chills down my spine. Do I have a direct response from the witches? I went back to my browser and couldn't find the source of the sound. "Our witches have been credited with many achievements, but none related to technology, this cannot be, a witch can't take over a computer", I tried to allay my fears. I repeated the web request this time with my eyes and ears focused on the browser, then I saw her literally glowing. It is a popup of a beautiful dame asking me for a chat. This witch I know how to deal with. Now I can hear another sound out of the window, is that a bird or a goat? How can the two be confused? The chills have returned. Is that the real response from the witches? Brutus, believe me I am not making this up. I am still an African, when I hear hoots (cry of an owl) at three o'clock in the morning, I can only think of one thing. I have to stop writing.


 
Soo Long

Ogyakromian


 
P.S. This is a tribute to Madam Ama Hemmah and the many other supposed witches including the defenseless women and children locked up in witches camps and prayer camps. Their human rights have been and are still being abused because we lack the courage and political will to confront beliefs that should have been buried with the tenth generation before ours. We do not want to upset the sensibilities of those who think they have divine rights to appoint witches into camps. The government can cause the closure of these barbaric camps handing back liberty to the oppressed. That will send a strong message to all and sundry that an era has lapsed and we need to find new reasons for the unfortunate things that happen to us. But I do not expect that it will be done anytime soon. Shame on us all!


 

The Time to Laugh

"I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician."
-Charlie Chaplin

It is not fun when you are the subject of a joke, but a good joke does not only create great fun, it also provides therapy that makes light work of the misery of our living. Growing up in cosmopolitan Accra taught me never to hand ammunition over to a Tease who is bent on having his day at my expense. An unsympathetic Tease will only increase your misery when he has the slightest inkling that you're deeply hurt by his taunts. I don't know what Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed, the former minister for Youth and Sports wanted to achieve by not only bringing up his Kyikyinga Palava but also singling out Ato Kwamena Dadzie for 'praise' on the issue. He has only succeeded in bringing the issue back to the front page. He has just provided every political satirist in this country material to run a dozen programs at his expense before the year ends.

I learnt very early in life that no amount of tears will stop a Tease. I was barely five years old when my parents moved me from 'Kookoase Korase' (Village) to Accra to broaden my horizon. I was thrust into a nursery in Kotobabi called Providence where the Lord's Prayer was said in Ga. As if my language deficiency was not enough my Mum put my hair to the scissor to deal with lice in my hair (Thankfully, the kids don't even know what these bugs look like today). In those days only one man scraped all the hair off his head. He was and is still called Super OD. With every kid including my only friend who happened to be my next door neighbor taunting and screaming Super OOOOOD, I wasn't going to survive the walk home in one piece, and luckily a good Samaritan rescued me from my misery by keeping me in her home until the road between the school in Kotobabi and our residence in Nkansa Gyan was free of all the kids from the school. I have since learnt how to administer a good dose of tease myself and I can tell you for sure that a cry baby is the best target for a good tease, and that the best defense is to join the fun even at your own expense if you want to stop the joke in its infancy. One thing you never do is to run to your Mama crying 'maaa maaa maaa, Ato is calling me Mukyinga'.

 

I particularly do not understand why some Ghanaian politicians are so sensitive to trivialities. When I tune in to the Weekend City Show on Joy FM on a Saturday morning, I know it is the time to laugh; I therefore place everything that happens there in that context. I couldn't believe it when Mr. ET Mensah rushed to Joy FM to protest the use of a sound bite from a speech he made that sounded like "it is only a fool that does not change his wife". He could just have called into the program with his wife by him screaming 'Rudy, not this wife, not me-love Mercy, I love you Mercy', if he had nothing better to do with his time. Of course, humor doesn't come easily to all Men, but one politician who has it is Dr Charles Wereko Brobbey. In those days when he only wore a mustache (No pirate beard), I paid him a visit in the hideout President Kufuor created for him at the VRA. He had adorned the office with huge frames of different cartoons that had appeared in the media seeking to caricature him in not very palatable terms. If the then president Bush (II) had spent time chasing Daily show host Jon Stewart for making fun of everything he did , even his mannerisms, the economy of America would have been two times worse than he actually left it.

Admittedly some jokes can be very harsh on the recipients. With some people, no subject is off limit for a good laugh. Tribe, race, accent, disability, dentures, mistakes, handicaps, just anything is fair game. At an Observatory Night Special in the notorious Vandal City (Sorry V-Mates), I recall one ethnic sensitive one that I won't recount here. But away from extreme jokes, we must all have a place in our hearts to accommodate some laughter at our expense no matter who we are. Although I do not have any examples of such, I believe our tradition must make room for 'mocking' the King (in the days when they were Kings) without losing your head. My mother tells me that in the island where I trace my origin, it was customary to meet at the community centre and mock people in songs. The system they called 'Halo' allowed rival groups to make fun of each other through songs. I hear the songs could be downright insulting but no punches were thrown. Our politicians must stop playing God and realize that no matter how intelligent one is, a little stupidity slips through at times, and when that happens we all celebrate it with good laughter because it is time to laugh. Taking our laugh from us when the political landscape is dotted with so many jokers is like taking away our tongues when our lips are wet with honey. What do we do when a politician insists he is contracting a loan for Ghana and the lender's address is traced to a hair dressing saloon? What do we do when a man insists God told him he will win an election in which he barely makes 0.1 percent? What about the DCE who says he will close down all the secondary schools in Cape Coast because few Cape Coasters have access to the schools? Oh, and the party Chairman who declared cats as endangered species because his AG is losing too many cases?

In the case of politicians, it is not only the obviously funny acts that lend themselves to laughter, but also the mundane answers they provide when they are caught in their webs of deceit. Naturally we must feel very angry about such insults to our intelligence but really, what can we do about these situations? These are very powerful people who can get away with a slap on wrist for things that lesser mortals will be very hot for doing. There are people whose claim to fame is the ability to stay poor whiles managing the affairs of this country yet they managed to educate their wards in expensive foreign universities because they have friends who took care of the bill. There are those who had a baby with their American mistress and the bill was picked by their friends. Presidential jets were bought in this country that a succeeding government just couldn't find who sold the plane to us no matter how hard they tried. The wife of a head of State sets up an NGO and buys a divested state company and wants us to believe there was no conflict of interest. On the eve of an election plots of State land at prime spots in the city are sold to people very close to the incumbent administration at prices lower than what pertains on the market and we are told these are decent transaction. The ordinary Ghanaian hears and reads such things and knows that somewhere between those lines hides the poverty that consumes this country. He has only two options left – to cry or to laugh. The latter serves a better purpose. Laugh at the people who think they are fooling us because our laws are too short to reach them. Our laughter is a therapy that heals us from all the hardship they have put us through. We can only take them on in 'halo' where we will tell them what we really think about them.

Therefore when I hear Alhaji Muntaka - who sometime ago used his position to acquire a visa that was paid for by the State for a young woman to travel with him even though she wasn't qualified for that travel (an act that was described as 'error in judgment)-crying because we are laughing , I know it is a time to laugh again. Lol!

mail to: ogyakromian@gmail.com

Politically Speaking

On qualifications desirable for prospective politician, Winston Churchill said "The ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year; and to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn't happen."



Politicians, it doesn't matter which party they belong to, have two remarkable characteristics- verbal diarrhea and selective amnesia. The former is very important to walk your way into power and the latter is a defense if and when you are asked to account for the byproduct of the former. The first President of the fifth French republic , Charles De Gaulle, is reported to have said, "Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him". When elections brood across the nation, it distributes gifts to all Parties and the politicians speak in political tongues. In those days if a political 'perspirant' ( a man or woman sweating to get elected) promises your community a bridge, don't bother to remind him that there is no river in town, if you do, he will promise you one, after all he was only politically speaking. Parties in opposition easily catch the verbal diarrhea and notoriously refuse a cure. When Edward Langley said "what this country needs are more unemployed politicians", I don't think he envisaged the situation in Ghana where they make radio stations parliament in exile and do three things only, talk, talk and talk. The talk itself is not the problem, but the irresponsible criticisms bordering on dishonesty and the avalanche of promises which they wish everyone forgets as soon as they get what they want-power. Through the magic of radio, the criticisms and promises drown all good judgment, but don't remind them of their speeches once they gain power, because amnesia is a remarkable attribute in politics.



After losing two elections on the trot a few years ago, the NDC propagandists had their work cut out for them. They had to get aggressive and they did get aggressive. When Kuffuor's NPP government presented proposals by the Ghana Air Force to augment the communication squadron with a couple of planes, the opportunity was presented to speak , politically. What we heard continuously was that the NPP had lost touch with the need s of the people. How could a government be thinking of luxury planes when the citizenry were hungry? We don't have good drinking water in the country. Two years after winning the election, the NDC government has taken delivery of a presidential jet and has promised getting a few more for the Ghana airforce. What happened to the hungry people in Ghana? Oh they starved to death under Kuffours regime, so it's okay to get a plane now. What about Water? No problem at all. For God so loved the president, that he provided great shades in the sky, so Ghanaians sweat less and as a result, they need less water than they did under Kuffuor. Ignore me, I was only politically speaking. But more importantly, the NDC communication machine has suddenly seen the importance of equipping the air force with their toys.



Today, the NDC communication machine is straining itself to let Ghanaians understand that the planes are for The Ghana Airforce, of course apart from the one presidential jet. I can swear I heard the NPP make the same argument about the airforce, but at the time that was not the emphasis the NDC propagandists were interested in, they were only politically speaking. Unfortunately for the NDC , they can't wish away the populist argument about hunger, water and electricity, yet the plane has been bought, a luxury jet for the president. I think the president needs the plane, Kuffuor was right in ordering the Jet, and Attah Mills was right in paying for it, and he deserves to use it. If only we had less of populist politics, he would fly it without political talk.



The biggest problem with politically speaking, is when it becomes a substitute for the real job. When you acquire the habit, there is the tendency to continue politically speaking even after you acquire the power you so perspired for. I've never understood why NPP converted three years SSS program to four years and changed the name of the program to SHS, at a time that our systems seemed to have adjusted to the three year program. When NDC decided to restore the status quo ante, they had almost two years to make it right. It was obvious we would need more classrooms whether we stuck to NPP's four years or we revert to the three year calendar. Somehow, this fact got lost on officialdom as we spent too much time talking about restoring the three year calendar to the detriment of implementing an action plan. Soon time caught up with us and it was obvious the schools were not ready to receive the next batch of JHS graduates. Important stake holders like CHASS asked for more time, but the politicians and their bureaucrats won't hear any of that, they asked the school heads to improvise. What they put on the political C.V is more important than the condition of living and studying in senior secondary schools. It didn't matter that the infrastructure was not ready to receive the extra numbers.



Faced with the real situations on the ground, some school Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) decided to impose levies to provide the conducive conditions to support the education of their Kids. The GES quickly renounced the actions of these schools and described the fees as illegal. Threats were even issued in certain instances. I admit that sometimes PTA becomes an overzealous instrument that wearies poor parents with all manner of levies. Asking parents to cough up four hundred extra cedis in two days as was the case in Achimota School, was insensitive to parents who are not so endowed. But the truth is , these PTAs only fill voids left by years of government neglect and political talk. The difference between the PTA and the political class is that, the PTA attempts to solve the problems while the politicians talk about them. What other option does the PTA have? Most of the members cannot afford to send their wards to London to educate them, neither do they have the luxury of owning friends who can cater for their fees abroad, so they have only one focus- fix the local school. After 53 years of independence, I'm waiting to hear our politicians pat themselves at the back that we have ingeniously solved this school headache by sending some kids to learn under trees and in garages, of course politically speaking.



In this age of pluralistic media where the Internet, Radio, TV, Newspapers, etc compete to be the first to deliver the political talk to the homes of every Ghanaian living everywhere, one phrase that will be heard several times in every home is "the President, John Attah Mills…" It is therefore not funny when a primary school pupil mentions the opposition presidential aspirant as the president of Ghana. The incident so infuriated the ruling party that the DCE of Atwima Nwabiagya in the Ashanti Region ordered all schools to display the president's portrait in the schools. This position was supported by the deputy minister of Local Government and the minister of communications. As is usual with our politicians, politically speaking is the solution. I want to believe the boy just got confused or his situation is an isolated case. I hope we are not overlooking the real question -what is the quality of education being offered at our public basic schools? Or perhaps, the boy is ahead of his peers in the game, he was only politically speaking.



Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.- George Orwell

Some cats are Sacred

Prov 30 ²¹ "Under three things the earth trembles,      under four it cannot bear up"



I love to draw inspiration from words of wisdom that have stood the test of time. The best place to find them is in the good old book. Proverbs 30 :21 says "Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up". I thought the fourth republic's scariest day would always be the day some people went into a radio station and called on NDC activists to match on the electoral commission building because they perceived NPP was about to rig the election of 2008. I kept praying that the hawkish elements in the NPP wouldn't join them on the streets around the EC because if they had, Ghana would have joined the African Hall of Shame for undemocratic practices in the 21^st century and perhaps we would have been hosting an African Union peace mission in the country today. But sadly, I have counted three panic-filled fear-stricken moments under which our democracy has trembled with great trepidation in the Prof's less than two year old administration. We do not need a fourth, because our democracy may not bear up.


The antics of the marauding NDC foot soldiers, relentless and irrepressible in seeking vigilante justice, are the ugly side of our democracy. In a misguided attempt to counter-balance acts of political patronage in the previous government, these political infantry brigades run amok, venting their spleen on anybody and everybody that does not wear the red, white, black and green NDC bandana. They takeover lorry parks and desecrate the unholy sanctum of human waste without shame. They lock out legally appointed public servants from their offices and "dis-appoint" DCEs appointed by the president. Some have the audacity to dare the police to uphold law and order. Some NDC loyalists can indulge themselves in sophistry, trying hard to justify this madness, but let the truth be told, it is a big sign that leadership is lacking in their party- perhaps this is the Prof's biggest failing.


 
No word, spoken or written, conjures images of fear and panic more than the law on causing fear and panic. Who said we have decriminalized speech in this country? When Ticolo got home with Yaa Beauty, the babe he had been hunting down for the past six months, he was full of expectation until the lady decided to make a quick dash out of the house for her own safety. Ticolo's next door neighbor, Kankama was in a more advanced stage with his own project, and the wooden wall dividing the two rooms did little to conceal the screams from the lady in Kankama's abode. Paralyzed by fear, Yaa panicked at the approaching trauma, a taste of which could be heard next door. She left immediately for her own safety. Ticolo is convinced that Kankama caused unnecessary fear and panic and is contemplating contacting the Ghana police. This law has assumed elastic properties stretching from fools who make wild allegations on radio to journalists who refuse to reveal their sources. It is scaring the hell out of our democracy.


 
Pictures of a slim macho man wearing an Aca P woven in the red, white, black and green, with an enema syringe in hand walking towards the Supreme Court is a nightmare that can force Auntie Georgina to abandon all thoughts of sleep for seven days. Knowing the antecedents of the NDC, threatening to purge the judiciary in the fourth republic is not the smartest "talk" that we expect from an NDC chairman, but when he decides to utter those words at a time when the Parties infantry brigade are on the loose, certainly not only Auntie Georgina, but all lovers of our democracy must be filled with fear, panic, trepidation and horror. Kwabena Adjei's speech of horror underscores one of two things. We either have a terrible judiciary that cannot be reformed using the normal processes or he belongs to a band of irresponsible politicians who talk before they think. Assuming without admitting that the former is the case, any discourse on the perceived bad judgment must focus on the shortcoming of the judgment. Without that, reasonable Ghanaians will struggle to associate with whatever course you want to pursue. Apart from hurling vituperation at the judiciary, Dr Adjei failed to tell us what was wrong with the judgment that necessitated the press conference.    Unless of course, there is no real problem with the judgment, and perhaps the judge is right after all; a case is a good as a lawyer's brief. Maybe the essence of the discourse is to execute a coup de grace to rescue the case on appeal by spreading fear and invoking memories of judicial martyrs, to strike panic. Some people may prefer this approach to appointing new judges to the superior courts to rescue a case. 


Dr. Kwabena Adjei has brought us to the point where no matter the ruling on the Ghana at 50 Case, there will be political meanings read. It will be " The judge has kowtowed to fear from the NDC" or "we said it, the judiciary is against the NDC" depending on which way the case goes. Recently, a judge in the United States discharged some young Somali men arrested in the gulf of Eden from charges of piracy because he disagreed with his country's prosecutors on the definition of piracy. If that happened in Ghana, Kwabena Adjei will call the judge a pirate. We have successfully politicized everything in Ghana including crime and justice. We do not seem to have values in this nation. Because our opinion on a matter is dictated by who is involved rather than the issue at stake, politicians easily find welcoming hideouts in our society to escape confronting the shame that accompanies acts of adult delinquency. With their penchant to have their way at all times, especially if they control power, these politicians care very little about the dangerous repercussions of their public tantrums. They simply have no shame. In support of Dr. Adjei, some NDC chairmen called for a debate on corruption in the judiciary. I wish to respectfully tell them that politicians are perceived to be more corrupt than judges. What will these Chairmen say, if a soldier, totally disillusioned with corruption and cronyism in our body politic calls a news conference and threatens to clean our politics? Does that remind you of our past? It may sound distant now, but if we encourage this kind of irresponsible attacks on the pillars of our democracy, this can be for real. Our democracy will struggle to bear any such attack.


Under three things our democracy has already trembled, perhaps if we all speak without looking at who is involved, we will have no cause to discuss the fourth. Yes, there are many ways of killing a cat. In the region where the cat is a great delicacy, nobody will touch the cat from the shrine. Kwabena, some cats are sacred, keep away your sack.   


 

 

 

 

 

 
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My Standards Board Mission

MTN's Charger sold with Nokia 2630

"When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him."-Isaiah 59:19b

Such scriptures give me the conviction that even the good old book will agree that Standards are a protection to a nation. Similarly, I harbor strong doubts that many will disagree with my assertion that the privileges of technological and market democratization must be tempered by strong regulatory regimes to protect nations from sub standard goods. Even with the knowledge that our markets are full of fake and sub-standard goods, several times have I failed to avoid paying for and picking the chaff home. I don't want to believe that I am the only one who scouts the market moving from one shop to another trying hard to convince myself that a gas regulator I want to buy will meet all safety requirements when used at home, or that the electric fan I'm about to pickup will not pack up before the first spin. Is this not why the Standards Board exists- To protect the ordinary man's exposure to such market derailments?


I admire the enterprise of many Ghanaians as they lay claim to their economic portion of the land by lining shops of different sizes with goods of all kinds from countries big and small once they can be located on the globe. Through these efforts, no matter how little, biblical miracle is recreated as bread is multiplied on the table to feed families too large for the spaces they occupy. I've always wondered how some of our kinsmen live on the petty trading that engage them. But poverty is no good excuse to innocently set our houses alight with substandard cables or to populate the intensive care unit of our hospitals with people burnt to several degrees because the wrong gas cylinders were sold. Our shops are filled with all manner of goods whose usages are not understood by the people who sell them. I hope I am not wrong in thinking that the Ghana Standards Board is the nation's armour bearer that must hold aloft the standards that protects us. This is what I was thinking when in early June 2010 I drove into their office in Accra to clear up a little matter.


I had purchased a Nokia 2630 from the MTN shop at the Accra Mall. That was my third time of buying a phone from that shop. The receipts usually bear the name Sell Phone even though the shop is MTN-branded. Three days after my purchase I realized that the charger included with the phone was a strange one I'd never seen. It has two plucks that look like an 'A' with the intersections removed. I took the phone back to the shop and wanted to know why they were selling phones in Ghana with strange plucks that will not fit into our electric sockets. The lady I spoke to didn't understand the fuss I was making since I could buy a converter in any electrical shop to help use that charger in Ghana. A gentleman stepped in to diffuse the argument by rendering an apology, and I left the shop angry. I can understand buying a phone outside Ghana and getting a converter to charge it, but for phones bought in bulk to be sold by a company like MTN, would that be right? Unfortunately, my many years of education both formal and informal in Ghana couldn't help me answer that simple question, and after making two calls to a Customs Officer and a lecturer who teaches electrical engineering in one of the nation's Polytechnic with the question still unanswered, I decided it was time to increase my knowledge with some basic fact that most Ghanaians should know by the time they go through high school. So I drove to the offices of the Ghana Standards Board not too far from the Mall.

When I posed the question to the first lady I was directed to see and showed her the plucks, she misunderstood it and thought I wanted to import phones that use that charger into the country. She was quick to advice that since that is not the nature of  sockets we use in Ghana, why import those chargers  into the country? Then I explained to her that I had just bought the phone and I needed to know if MTN had the right to be selling phones using those plucks, because if they didn't, I was ready to make a formal complaint to the GSB. Here again I couldn't get an answer to the question I thought was a simple one. In the thirty minutes that followed, I spoke to six other people , some at the engineering unit who claimed that was not their specialty and some people at Marketing where complains were to be made. The last person I spoke to has  a director (or deputy director) designation and his counsel was comforting in deed. He asked me "why not return the phone if you don't like the charger?" to which I smiled. Anyway, since the people who had answers to my question were all out of the office and could not be reached by phone, I was advised to leave and wait for a call. To be fair the last of three ladies that I spoke to actually tried hard to get somebody on phone that could speak to the issue but to no avail. She did call me again after a couple of days, I cannot recall her exact words but my question was yet to be answered because somebody wasn't available. It is almost eight weeks now since I went to the Standards Board with my question and it is still not answered. I still do not know if MTN had the right to import phones with the plucks pictured above, so I'm still not sure if I had any right to assert in that shop to ask for a change. If you know, would you be so kind to send me a response on ogyakromian@gmail.com. As for the Nokia 2630 I bought from the shop, I gave out in protest and know where not to buy a phone again.

The Plug

Moving away from my little question, I think our general attitude to standardization in this country leaves much to be desired. We have a huge informal sector oiling the wheels of our economy and daily lives, yet little effort is expended to encourage them to serve us with the right goods and services. The guys who build our houses, those that repair our cars, those that we entrust our hairs to, can we independently certify their knowledge levels and ensure that without the requisite certification they are kept away from the mistakes that spell doom for us? Can we ensure that the woman who sells tiles next door has the capability to advice on the usage of these tiles? We must get into the habit of driving mediocrity a small step away at a time from our culture by raising the standards. 


mail to: ogyakromian@gmail.com

If only I can find Balaam........

I have finally been able to overcome the inertia to take to the keyboard after that painful defeat handed our beloved Black Stars by Luis Suarez, the thief of Joburg. In my last blog a couple of weeks ago, I put out a sarcasm titled Bayie Kɔɔɔɔ III- The gods of the Game. I was basically questioning the role of superstition and religion in the game of football. The way and manner Ghana got kicked out of the tournament brought some fresh perspective to the subject through this one question- Did God abandon Ghana?


There are millions of Ghanaians who believe God is closer to Ghana than any other part of the earth. So strong is this belief that people actually dedicate valuable prayer time to make supplication for football victory, and they believe that the prayer of the rival team is discounted in the presence of the Ghanaian 'Shabalala' delivered in a fresh tongues of men and angels emanating from the bosom of the comforter. This strong force of prayer was deployed both on and off the pitch against every one of our opponents. Then comes Ghana Vs Uruguay on that fateful Friday evening. After taking the lead with Sulley Muntari's last kick of the ball in the first half, we thought we had done it again with the last kick of extra-time when Adiyiah's header headed goal wards, that was until Luis Suarez's hand popped out from the goal line with the ball in hand. The referee could have been excused if he had accepted it as a goal, but alas, he wasn't convinced it had crossed the line. Then comes the cruelty of football. After struggling to get the ball almost across the goal line but for an illegality, the ball is withdrawn 12 yards backward, and Uruguay has the luxury of a goalie to defend the resultant kick. I have followed discussions on the web with many arguing that if Asamoah Gyan had scored the resulting penalty kick, the story would have been different. This may be the case, but you cannot equate a penalty to a goal bound ball that is illegally detained by a man with kleptomaniac tendencies. Surely it is time to mend some of the rules of football, especially if the incident is viewed against the fact that Ghana did not benefit from the red card that was shown to Suarez in the last minute of extra time.


To add insults to injury Luis Suarez speaking before the world's media, ascribed his ignominious achievement to the Omnipotent. Listen to him. "The hand of God now belongs to me", "Mine is the real 'Hand Of God'. I made the save of the tournament."  His coach Mr. Tabarez gave a tacit endorsement to that view when he said "I'm emotional. We didn't play well, but we've gone through," . "It seems there's something forcing us on..." He wasn't finished, he continues:  "Those who believe in fate or destiny they might be able to explain it."  From an Ogyakromian perspective Luis Suarez is a cheat, 'dzulor', 'kubolo', 'dzimakpla' and  public enemy No. 1. But I'm sure many Uruguayans regard his action as a heroic act that delivered a nation, an action that  must have been inspired by God himself. So whiles Ghanaians weep bitterly about an opportunity stolen by the disingenuous act of a gifted footballer, Uruguayans can go to church and thank God for a great favor. This is reminiscent of the story of Jacob and Esau in the bible. Jacob stole Esau's birth right and ended up being the father of a blessed nation whiles his brother was left crying bitterly. In explaining pre-destination, the Apostle Paul expatiated on the situation of the twin brothers thus:

"¹⁰Not only that, but Rebekah's children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. ¹¹Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: ¹²not by works but by him who calls—she was told, "The older will serve the younger."^[d]
13Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." – Romans 9:10-12. (NIV). I'm sure many Christians have read this sentence many times without a drop of sympathy for Essau. Perhaps when we replace Essau with Ghana, and Jacob with Uruguay, the next time we quote the verse to justify anything, we will remember that Essau was a man and had feelings.


What did Ghana do wrong? We prayed steadfastly and played well and yet victory was stolen from us. If you will believe Luis Suarez, God stretched forth his hand and literarily appointed Uruguay into the semi final of the 2010 world cup over Ghana. It is as if he said "Uruguay I loved , Ghana I hated".  So that leads me to my big question, Did God abandon Ghana or this is evidence that God does not play football? 


For the answer why don't we draw inspiration once again from the bible. In the book of Numbers, we are told that as the Israelites journeyed from Egypt to the promise land, the Moabites got jittery and their King by name Balak called for a man named Balaam to curse the intruders. No matter what Balaam did, he did not find a curse tailored for the Israelites. Before he finally gave up, he declared in his second oracle in Numbers 23:23


 
'There is no sorcery against Jacob,
           no divination against Israel.
           It will now be said of Jacob
           and of Israel, 'See what God has done!'


If only I can find Balaam, I will ask him to search all the books of divination, if he cannot find a curse against Uruguay, then I will conclude that like Israel, Uruguay is a favored son of God. Then we can say, the  Lord has done this thing to Ghana. He has blessed Uruguay, and who he blesses, stays blessed. But if  we find just one curse, then I know it is not the Lord. If God hasn't done this, I will gather all the curses I can find  against Uruguay, and like the Ghanaian that I am, I will hurl all at Uruguay; that they will never qualify for the world cup for the next 70 years, Let Uruguay snatch defeat from victory seven times, What Uruguay has built in fifty years may the hand of Suarez pull down in a day, Kaita shall be the portion of Uruguay, Let the male Uruguay team lose to their female counterpart. As for Luis Suarez, may he carry seven portions of Asamoah Gyan's shame when he lost the penalty kick.

Ah , I'm beginning to feel better. The curses have assuaged my anger, I'm a Ghanaian indeed, an Ogyakromian.


 

 

Bayie Kɔɔɔɔ III- The gods of the Game

Dear Ogyakromian,

Reports on some websites claim that the injury that ruled out Ghana's football Superstar, Michael Essien, from the 2010 World cup is a result of a spell cast by his own father in revenge for being neglected by the Chelsea star. I have gone through your earlier mails explaining the power and the wonders of witchcraft in Ghana, but I don't see how this supposed curse fits. You may be cursed by enemies, soothsayers and all, but not your own Dad. Does the man hate his son so much?

Then there are reports that this world cup is jinxed as many high profile players keep falling before the games. Apart from Essien, Ballack, Drogba, Mikel, Robben , Ferdinand, Pirlo, and Nani have either been ruled out of the world cup or have been declared doubtful. Ogyakromian, what is going on in African witchdom as far as the world cup is concerned?
Yours from the North Pole,

Brutus.



Dear Brutus my brother from another mother,

There is little I can say about Essien's case, but what I know is that, the curse of a parent is not taken lightly in Ogyakrom. When your mama tells you don't step at my funeral if you marry that girl, you may have to choose to stay celibate for the rest of your life. It is worse if she shouts your name as she sweeps the sandy red floor with her bare buttocks, 'you will never turn well'. The confusion in Essien's matter is that, the father claims he has been fasting for his son. But does that matter? In this part of the world, when society says you are a witch, then that is what you are. For me the bigger question is, have the witches of Africa cursed the tournament?

The day FIFA declared the World Cup in South Africa as an African world cup; I knew they were courting trouble. For most of us in West Africa, hosting the football festival in South Africa doesn't bring it closer. It doesn't only take the same number of hours (six) to get to Johannesburg and London, but also costs us much. With an economy that is slowly but surely moving to the beat of the President's orchestra, there is little chance of going to South Africa to experience the World Cup. But that is the case for most of us. This leaves our neighbors who exist in the fourth dimension- the witches (lower your voice). In their world, time and space exists on one horizontal plane, meaning South Africa is closer to them than for the average Ogyakromian. They can afford to participate in the world cup with little or no hindrance, and with FIFA's invitation, the extent of their participation will underscore the usual role they play in African football. The tournament would have been challenging enough with only the witches from South Africa participating, but it is another ball game if you call for an ensemble of African witches. Let me give you an indication of their role in football as I have come to understand it.


In Western Europe, there is only one way of fixing matches - compromise any of the agents of the game. In Ogyakrom, there are three ways of influencing the outcome of matches beyond the relative abilities of the two teams on the field. It is either by God, juju or compromising the human agents. You may combine them as you wish. You are quite familiar with human intervention in the system, I will tell you a bit about the other two.

The God factor in the Ghanaian game is phenomenal. Ghanaians believe that we must win all games regardless of the strength of team we present because God is on our side. I do not envy God in these circumstances. What is the bearded old man expected to do when two teams compete in a game and both call on him for help. How does he resolve this conflict? By doing what we did as kids when we had to make a choice? "Cee, cee ,cee. Cee nana…"? Many times in the past, I tried fixing some games using the God method myself. I used to sit behind the radio or TV monitoring the fortunes of Asante Kotoko or Black Stars, and for the duration of the game, I will be stopping balls from entering our goalposts in the name of Jesus! I overcame that stupidity when I asked myself, "Why should God be interested in the result of football matches?" "There are real problems like incurable diseases confronting the descendants of Adam that need his attention, why should he be bothered by a game to determine who earns the bragging rights on a day?" Since that day, I got my liberty and I enjoy my games better. I have been waiting for the day a Ghanaian coach will soar with the Black Stars to prove that the colour of a Man's skin is irrelevant to the game. After winning the world cup with Ghana's supposed youth side, I thought Selas Tetteh was the one. But when the man confessed that the selection of the final game was done by a certain Prophet T.B . Joshua, I didn't know how much of the success to attribute to Coach Tetteh's soccer prowess.

 
Unlike the God factor which is generally considered to be positive because the aim is to get your team to win, the juju factor can be very destructive. That is where the witches pitch their camp. Brutus, you should have been in Ghana during CAN 2008 soccer fiesta. Many nonentities gained popularity by their ability to convince a huge number of Ghanaians that they had the ability to see into the crystal ball and win Ghana's matches. All manner of prophets appeared on radio and TV programs claiming that God revealed the scores to them during a church service. I saw a few of these wanabes holding chickens at the stadium to symbolize the score line in a game. Even when the number of chickens didn't reflect the actual scores, they explained away the discrepancies. But at the end of the day, new prophets and new juju men are discovered. Their churches and shrines will burst at the seams, and their fame will travel with the game. 


In Accra New Town where I grew up, tales of how Juju and witches influenced the game at the colt level were not difficult to find. Rumours that boys, many below the age of sixteen, were taken through all manner of rituals including passing the night in a cemetery to fortify them for a game of football gave me the jitters. The Mallams had a field day 'crafting' the career of many of these youngsters with talismans. When a footballer seems to have lost his scoring boot, it was common to attribute it to what his rivals had done to him through Juju. It was at one of the colt games at the SWAG Park that I realized that my Physical Education teacher in school worked as a part time juju man. I saw him reciting incantations as he paced up and down the field and he didn't appear to have noticed me when I attempted to speak to him. A friend later told me he "worked' for one of the teams. It was common practice for owners and coaches of some colt teams to pick up boys from the street and nurture them into good footballers. The coach of one club in Kotobabi had a few of these players in his house. One of them rebelled and left him to join another team. Unfortunately, the boy later fell sick and died. Guess who killed him. After spending on this player for years and getting no thanks for it, the poor chap gets tagged as a wicked man who kills through Juju. On the way to the cemetery, the crowd sang and chanted, calling on the spirit of the dead boy to avenge his death.


With that kind of introduction to football at an early age, the footballer's belief in juju stays with him for life. It therefore didn't surprise me when Theophilus Jackson a goalkeeper for the then premier division side Sekondi Eleven Wise turned Samuel Affum , an Accra Hearts of Oak striker into a punching bag because the latter dropped an object in the former's goalposts. Recently, there had been calls to find a successor to one of the national teams' goalkeeper. A new goal tender who was tried in a friendly match performed so poorly that rumours were rife that he had been 'worked'. By who? Only the witches can tell.
The story is told of a cup match in a neighboring West African country that was rudely interrupted twice because the Juju men were not happy with the results. In the first match, The Juju Man for 'Team A' caused the flood lights to go out when his team was two goals down, and the game was rescheduled. The second game didn't have better luck because 'Team B's Juju man conjured heavy rains to stop the match midstream when his side was losing the match. Before the game was called again, the football association called all juju men for a meeting and appealed for clemency for the game. In the Democartic Republic of Congo, lives were lost over a witchcraft allegation in a game in 2008. The story is also told of a club playing in the the final of an important competition. A rival management faction within the club, who feared that success delivered by their rivals would obliterate their own chances of running the club, hired a juju man who sent word around that the player that scores the first goal dies. They lost the cup.


Brutus, if there is a force in Africa that can influence the outcome of football matches, shouldn't that force be working to get an African State to win the World Cup on African soil? Shouldn't that force preserve the African Greats in the games to showcase our greatness? If in its destructive fervor it consumes Michael Essien, Mikel Obi and Didier Drogba whiles threatening the likes of Sulley Muntari, what can we say about that force? From an Ogyakromian perspective, I can only conclude that it bears all the vestiges of 'Bayiee' or witchcraft (remember to keep the voice low). It is the only force known in Africa that destroys its own. 'Bayiee kɔɔɔ; threatening to glow'. Personally, I'm not surprised the story of Essien's curse and the world cup jinx caught up on some very popular websites. That is the image the western media wants of Africa- the Dark Continent with self destructive tendencies. Poetic imageries, that question the Continents suitability to host the competition for the football World Cup. As usual, the ammunition for such stereotyping is provided by no one else than Africans.


I believe mind games are important to winning in the modern game. Teams use it to great effect to create a winning mentality and to deflect pressure away from the playing body. However, when the team that is supposed to benefit from these psychological antics become a victim of these tools, then, it goes beyond psychology. It doesn't matter if it exists or not, neither does it matter if it can be seen or not; it is called witchcraft. When players attribute loss of form and injuries to juju, when supporters are made to believe that some weather patterns spell doom for their team, then juju hangs over our game like the sword of Damocles. The gods of football are created on the field of play, they are not formed in a shrine . It is a tragedy for young people aspiring to greatness in the game to grow up with the belief that there exists an enchantment that is a fitting substitute for talent, hard work and discipline . This fact is well expressed in the old Jama song in Ga, that says "all that matters in football is what you can do with your legs, not juju". The game was made for men and played by men.


So Brutus, in South Africa, we will chant the psalms and declare the oracles, but play the game of men.

Soo long,

Ogyakromian

Much Ado About A Vandal

Their anger must have been bursting at the seams as they sat to deliberate the matter. There must have been a feeling in the room that they were positioned in history to get rid of a perennial irritation that has overgrown the average working life of a Ghanaian. They must have felt righteous in taking a decision that perhaps they had the power to. I presume there might have been a Vandal or two at the round table. Even they, might be tired of the antics of the current generation. Some may even express surprise that the problem has outlived many generations of the powerful Council. The centre piece of the debate and the fiery language in the room was The Vandal. Who is he? He is the occupant of the commonwealth hall of residence on the University of Ghana Campus at Legon. An enigmatic young man whose claim to fame is pushing the boundaries of what many consider as decency and decorum. He may even be the son of one of them. His presence on the campus may be a first step to earning some of the fanciful titles in the academia conspicuously worn by most of them at the round table. But today, he stands accused of heckling the chancellor of the University in the person of Busumuru Kofi Annan, the former Chief of the United Nations Organisation. The Executive Council of Legon has had enough. The meeting has come to a conclusion. The problem of the Vandal City is excess testosterone, it is time to calm the wayward hormone by injecting a dose of Oestrogen and Progesterone. Effective next academic year, the hall which has remained an only male hall for decades will become Coed and will be reserved only for postgraduate students. Ostensibly, the decision was taken to forestall further embarrassment to the University.

If it is just for the purpose of maintaining tradition, I wouldn't care a hoot about lining the wardrobes of Vandal City with skimpy skirts. In fact, that may be the joy of the sons of Bacchus assigned to the Waste Management unit of the hall. The choir master will bear the only complication arising out of the move as he has to decide what to do with the lines in the stupid songs that refer to Volta Hall. Under these conditions the position of the hall anthem becomes untenable and he may have to replace Volta 'Basia' with Vandal 'Basia' in many other songs? I believe traditions should be jettisoned once we have no more use for them. But in this case, I hold the view that the Executive Council's attempt to silence the Vandal tradition is high handed and misplaced. If it was a policy decision with stated aims, one would lend his sympathy. But this is borne out of rage and anger. They are not only hitting a fly with a sledge hammer, but they are doing so at a time the harmer is needed to fix the dining table without which dinner won't be served. There are many more important things in the university which require the intensity of the attention they devoted to the issue not to mention the publicity it generated. For many years the University has been crying for radical and innovating ways of dealing with overcrowding, filth, attracting motivated young lecturers, outmoded courses and a sinking image among African elite Universities. These and other problems which have been nursed and nurtured by various university administrations over the years are the real dent on the image of the university. The stench that hits you in the corridors leading to overused toilet facilities which lack regular flow of water is improperly located at the nation's premier University in the twenty-first century. These problems would welcome some real punch that puts them not only on the front page of our newspapers for days but also on the minds of every Ghanaian until resolved.

There have been no shortages of assaults on Vandalism over the years. Among other things, Vandals have been accused of using profanity in their songs, practicing occultism, and being excessively boisterous; and they cannot totally plead innocence to these charges. Meeting Vandals for the first time is a rude awakening. For many, this happens when they first join the Legon community. The reaction varies. For the Charismatic and Pentecostal Christians, Vandalism features highly on the prayer list. I prayed many of such prayers in the hall chapel when I was a bona fide member of the Commonwealth Hall JCR. Don't ask me what I prayed for because I can't be sure that what is happening is not the answer to some of those prayers. For some people, their encounter with Vandalism creates a total revulsion towards the Hall which they carry decades after student life. When such people sit in council over Vandalism, what do you expect? Skin Pain 'sonnnn'. So right from the first year, Vandals are used to being cursed and criticized from within the hall and in the colonies. But I doubt if anybody expected the mega assault ostensibly coming from the Executive Council. The punch is power laden and devastating in two directions. First, they will get rid of all Vandals who presently occupy the hall. Then they will bring in post graduate students who I believe will be sieved to make sure that no ancient Vandal finds his way back to his roots. This is tantamount to robbing the hall of its memory (like an induced computer disk crash). With the memory goes the culture and tradition. This is exactly the kind of solution required to change the bad and damaging cultures in many Ghanaian institutions, the University not excluded. But alas, such a powerful tool used on 'small boys' whose youthful exuberance doesn't endear them to some powerful dons. Secondly, making the hall a graduate hall minimizes the chances of the culture sneaking back through the backdoor. On the average, graduate students spend less time in the University and are occupied with other matters other than building camaraderie in the hall. Within one or two years most are out, and most of that time is spent between lectures, family and work. I don't know who mooted the idea, but his genius can be better deployed elsewhere in the university. Not even the direct assault on the soul of Vandalism, which I suspect was carried out by the Christian fraternity, when the brass statue of the so called Father Bacchus vanished inexplicably in the mid 90s, could be more devastating. This new attack touches the spirit.

Coming from the Christian charismatic circle, I'm aware that the belief that Vandalism is occultism is strong. This belief is fueled by activities that herald the inauguration of the Chief Vandal. Personally, I do not believe that the young men are possessed. It is just a play that goes too far. I have had major challenges with the profane songs. I will never forget the year (93/94) in which I had to abandon my room at the A-Block when the PAWA (Profane Association of West Africa) competition was held at the observatory. In the year that followed, as the hall President, I had to live with about half an hour of profane lyrics anytime I had to Chair a hall meeting. Luckily for me, the music writers were so lazy they never wrote original songs, it was always an adaptation of well known songs. To block my mind from capturing the unwanted lyrics, I always hummed the true words when they get intoxicated with the profanity that flowed freely from the LPs. But I do not believe that these songs or the antics that go with them bring any disgrace to the University. In fact, most of the criticisms of the songs stem from the fact that they are sang in a local language-Twi. I have heard similar descriptions in songs written in English and no eyebrows are raised. I don't know why we are so hypocritical when we speak our local languages. The other day on JoyFm, a young man was accused of raping a girl he had earlier saved from being raped. The word sex was used several times without trouble in the exchanges. When a lady police officer used the same word in twi, some colleagues in the office couldn't repeat it. They had to whisper it to each other. In any case, if profane lyrics merit throwing out thousands of students from a hall, then let's disband the Ghana army. There are many Christian s today who serve in the security services. What songs did they sing when they were in training? Praises and worship? ' Awala'. Oh, and we sang some of those songs in the secondary school too. I recall my days in West Africa Secondary School when we declared ourselves the Jama Lords as we took trophy after trophy in the Interco competition. The only difference then was that most of the songs were in Ga not Twi. Maybe the students should be dismissed.

Admittedly, some of the acts attributed to vandalism are indefensible. You may get away with profane lyrics and call it freedom of expression, gloss over libation and suspected occultism and call it religious freedom, but how do you justify the attempted burning of another hall? What can you say about S..t bombing of colleague students? Try making sense out of nudity in the form of BWT and others on a University Campus. Some of them border on criminality. The good news is that such acts have been internally resisted by decent minded Vandals for decades. Over the years there have been skillful maneuvers to redefine Vandalism from its original meaning (the dictionary vandal ) to an acronym- Vivacious Affable Neighborly Devoted Altruistic and Loyal . As a hall president, I openly took on the chief Vandal over the 'Nibinson & Dibinson' affair for an act that I felt he should have taken responsibility for, though not entirely his fault, in an article titled "Wither Drifts Vandalism?" The Old Vandals Association has had cause to openly reprimand Vandals over excesses. These efforts demonstrate that many of us are on the side of the university council to get rid of the excesses in Vandalism. That is why their decision is a smack in the face of partners they had to uphold. To hurt the bad and the ugly, they didn't care about offending the good.

Bluntly put, these excesses are youthful exuberance wrongly expressed. I want to believe it is the responsibility of the University authorities to mold the young men and women who pass through the university into useful assets for the nation. That is the spirit with which they should engage the Vandals. The university code of ethics is clear. People who breach it, must be identified and dealt with. It sends a very important message to these young men that you're free to express yourself in society as you want, but you must avoid breaking the rules. This is one thing Legon has done quite well in the past. The resort to totalitarianism this time is unnecessary. Throwing these young men out of the hall is defeatist and a sign of failure. It's like a father who throws out a fourteen year old son because he can't rein him in. Many young men will still come into the university with that same energy. In the absence of Vandalism, they will find new outlets to vent them. Rather than rally round a defined group with structures known to all, underground groups may emerge with totally wayward leadership, then will the greatness of this idea to quash Vandalism burst forth. When the university has to deal with ninja style disruption of congregations, they will recall the days of heckling with nostalgia. If anyone thinks it is farfetched, take a look at the gangs that reign in Nigeria's universities. By the way, doesn't Vandalism provide the psychology and sociology departments a good laboratory to study and propound interesting theories about humans? Sounds funny huh?

One cannot also discount the positive attributes of Vandalism in this matter. There are way too many timid Ghanaians. This is partly a result of our upbringing in our educational institutions. You're suppressed and not allowed to express your thoughts if the authorities are not comfortable with them. Instead of engaging you in reason, to show why you are wrong, you are tagged disrespectful and undisciplined. By the time you leave the Vandal city, you learn to express your thoughts without fear or favour. It doesn't matter if your diction is sick or you suffer from vocabulary epilepsy. Nobody cares about the village secondary school you attended or how broke your parents are. We all sit on the green grass and eat Daavi's banku whiles trading ideas, unflattering remarks about each other and anybody, and encouraging each other. Your confidence is fully built by the time you walk out of the place. It is one place to find a family bonding that lasts for years. It is not by co-incidence that for decades, Commonwealth hall has remained the centre of student resistance. Of course, some universities administrators hate their guts. They prefer docile students who will succumb to any poorly constructed policy because they're too scared to speak their minds. Why won't they throw out the Vandals and then Okponglo will follow since the introduction of ladies in that hall didn't succeed in taming anybody, then maybe KNUST will follow with Katanga and so on ….. Is it any surprise the university has almost become a glorified secondary school?

To my younger V-Mates, I say, there is a time to fight and there is a time for diplomacy. This is a time to be really smart and use diplomacy to achieve an end. Disrupting examinations and petulance will only serve to erode all goodwill your course has attracted. Many voices in the land including those from the colonies have screamed in your support. Hopefully, the dons shall see reason. They will not choose the path of creating a monster bigger than what they think you are.

As always, Truth stands!


 
PS: Is it true the Kwatroit is behind theses wahalas? He is one Don I've admired since childhood o.

Chieftaincy, an Albatross We Can Do Without

Chieftaincy is a revered institution in Ghana, but I belong to a minority of people who think it has outlived its usefulness. It doesn't matter if it is chiefdom or kingdom, it is simply incongruous with what we want to achieve as a people- Statehood- that is what Ghana stands for. A king is the ruler of an independent State (according to Oxford's dictionary), while a Chief may be the ruler of a tribe. To the extent that there is only one independent State called Ghana that we belong to, I get amused by the claims to Kingdoms in Ghana. I have heard arguments asserting that one traditional leader is a King and another is not. That might be the case three hundred years ago, but they lost that title from the very moment they couldn't defend their territories against the white man who merged them with other States and tribes to form what we know today as Ghana. Lesotho and Swaziland are States that exist as kingdoms in Africa today, but the same cannot be said of Ghana. If nations had been created from the former states of Asante, Anlo, Ga, or Okyenman with monarchs at the helms, then we could be talking about kingdoms.

Whether Chief or King, in the period when they had some relevance, their function was to provide leadership and governance for their people. They made laws, they passed the death sentence, and they banished people from their territories because they had the authority and power to do so. The idea that blood qualifies you to exercise such authority provides nature with the platform to mock humanity. Putting a moron in line is a scary proposition that may compel some king makers to look elsewhere for a successor in order to rescue the stool from the games of nature, but these acts only lead to another dangerous game called war. Luckily, the power to govern has been taken away from the chieftaincy institution and handed over to a system that provides opportunity for all citizens so willing, to stake their claim to leadership regardless of whose DNA they carry. If monarchs cannot fulfill the purpose that defines them, why do we have to keep them? It is not surprising that many of them think they can still wield these powers, once we keep them, they must fulfill their function.

A few years ago, a group from the Asante region declared Kumasi as a no go area for some journalists because they said unpalatable things about the Asantehene. Assuming traditional authorities still retain the authority to banish people from their traditional areas, and the Ga Mantse decides to exercise that authority in Accra, people will clearly be robbed of their right to make a living in Ghana. How ludicrous does that sound? But now and then, we hear of traditional leaders banning people or groups from their areas. We cannot preserve the sanctity of our State in this manner. Clearly Chieftaincy is an albatross we can do without.

Those who argue that chieftaincy is relevant in our context because it is a tradition that defines us as Africans, forget that Chieftaincy is not a Ghanaian or African invention. There were empires far bigger than any in Africa, with Kings at the helm. Most of these empires have been reformed into modern democracies. In fact, there are still monarchs who preside over independent states in Europe and the Arab world among others. These monarchs are the heads of State not the heads of a tribe that is a subset of the State. Ironically, many chiefdoms existing in Ghana today were spared the violent overthrow that consigned some of their counterparts in other parts of the world to the dustbin of history, by the actions of the colonialists who took away their powers and formed modern African states. If that hadn't happened, some of the existing chiefdoms would have been abolished by their own people who would have gotten tired of the undemocratic and dictatorial nature of this system of governance. Others would have fallen to other empires, and maybe some of them would have reformed into great democracies. Africans wouldn't have put up with practices like sacrificing their children to accompany dead kings or chiefs forever. But the reality beyond these ifs is that, Europeans intervened in Africa and demarcated it into States made up of former States.

Beyond colour, I see little difference between the invading Europeans and our own Kings. They were both spurred on by greed and notoriety to conquer and establish empires. They even collaborated in selling our kinsmen as slaves. But on the flip side of the coin, the States created by the European invaders created a stable condition to conserve the various chiefdoms. The stability created, combined with our own irrational emotional attachment to the past, is responsible for the sustenance of these chiefdoms up to date. If they had been left to the law of the jungle that created them, many of them would have been history.

As an agent of development, Chieftaincy is superfluous. With all the problems we have with democratically elected leadership, it remains a better agent of development and accountability than Chieftaincy. At least there is no law that forbids citizens from criticizing the way elected leaders apply our taxes, and we can fire them if we're not happy with their performance. But our chiefs love to live in the tenth century. They are 'beyond reproach' and can do no wrong. Try criticizing them and you will slaughter a sheep. Reality is that we pay taxes to the State of Ghana, why should we pretend we need Chiefs to develop our towns and cities?

Whiles we romanticize with the past by tenaciously holding on to an institution we do not need, the institution itself is loudly calling on the museums to prepare a place for it. Succession is still guided by outmoded rules carried along by oral tradition and different people have their own version of the tradition, with little room for reform. The senseless war of attrition among gates in the north, the needless deaths resulting from attempts to install an Awomefia in Anlo, the question of allegiance between Techiman, Tuobodom , Asanteman and the aftermath are indicators that beg the relevance of the institution in our modern world. I admire the efforts of three big chiefs namely, Okyenhene, Asantehene and the Agbogbomefia, to bring relevance to the institution. But the mission impossible nature of their endevour is underscored by the Techiman- Asanteman palava.

The Chief of Techieman arrests another chief from Tuobodom, who claims allegiance (what does that mean in the 21^st century Ghana?) to the Asantehene, and is alleged to have abused him in his palace. The chief of Tuobodom reports this to the Asanatehene, who is enraged (rightly so) that the security system failed to address an obvious injustice. What does he do? He asks the President to choose between him and the Techimanhene, and also threatens to serve the chief of Techiman with a dose of his own medicine (kidnap him) if he sets foot in his traditional area. All these would have made perfect sense in the year 1810, but we are in 2010. But not exercising the authority the Asante stool is known for will undermine the myth surrounding the office. So the Great King Solomon is caught up between pre-medieval practices of his ancestors and the reality that he doesn't wield the powers his ancestors enjoyed. Unfortunately, threatening to kidnap another person is an offence under the laws of Ghana. Will anybody dare to drag Asantehene before a court of law? The answer is no. Will the Techimanhene be called to answer to the charges of kidnapping? Possibly so. Chieftaincy has led us into a trap. The chief of Tuobodom is before a court of law for an alleged offence. If the Chief who is alleged to have kidnapped and molested him is not charged, that is a big problem. However if he is charged, but the Asantehene is left off the hook, we have another problem. The situation will degenerate into inter tribal bickering with accusations that some tribes and their Chiefs are treated differently even though we are all supposed to be equal before the law. This is my biggest problem with Chieftaincy.

The institution does not only emphasize our tribal differences but exaggerates them. At a time when we need to focus on integrating Africa into one powerful unit, we are busily dividing the already small national components of the continent along tribal lines. Most discussions on Internet message boards and other places quickly degenerate into inter-tribal insults. Chieftaincy plays a big part in dividing us along tribes when we need to foster a sense of national identity. It courts allegiance onto itself rather than Ghana. Some of these Chiefdoms and their followers delude themselves into believing that they are so popular around world, and that is their claim to fame. The truth is that the State of Ghana itself is not that popular. Your tribe may have been mentioned in history books in Africa but that is all there is to it, many forget the name before they graduate and as for the rest of the world, you never existed. Asia accounts for over fifty percent of the world's population, I will be surprised if 0.5 percent of Asians have ever head of Nana Osei Tutu I or Togbui Sri I, or the States they represent. Ethnicity is one great danger to the stability of our State. Rwanda Burundi and Kenya are examples that should deter us from threading the path of the unthinkable. Unfortunately, we have an institution called chieftaincy which is revered by too many, which either consciously or unconsciously draws us to the precipice.

Politicians have latched on to the confusion created by the position of Chieftaincy for cheap popularity. Ministries have been created to look after chieftaincy. The constitution contains phrases to massage the egos of some Chiefs. But if we want this nation to thrive, we must rise above these attempts to placate an institution that is begging to be buried. I'm hoping for a time when the institution will be consigned to the museum, so Ghana can move on.

Fools Denigrate Martyrdom

"Like a thorn which falls into the hand of a drunkard, So is a proverb in the mouth of fools"—Proverb 26:9


 
The first president under Ghana's fourth republic is passionate about many things including discipline, albeit defined in his own terms. His passion for discipline saw three ex-military heads of state and five generals dispatched to the otherworld to 'cleanse' the military. For him, Solomon's admonishing expressed in Proverbs 22:15- Foolishness is bound into the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him- is profound. As a thirty something year young officer who shot his way into power twice, he is used to being referred to as 'the oldman' even by much older men as a sign of respect. So when it comes to discipline ala Proverbs, he is the oldman and everyone else his son. For many years the rumour mill had it that he dished a few slaps to this and that minister at the castle to straighten them out. I only believed them when he pounced on his own vice-president a man far his senior in age at a cabinet meeting. President Mills has received a verbal lashing from him for not living up to the Rawlings standard of discipline resulting in too many 'twits' perambulating the corridors of the castle.

So it happened that a certain 27 year old Nana Darkwa thought the shortest path to fame was to talk his way. At a time the whole country was commiserating with the former first family for losing their house in a valentine day blaze, he alleges on a radio station I personally didn't know still existed that ex president Rawlings set fire to his own house. He goes ahead to throw down the gauntlet inviting the Ex president's aid to challenge his facts. Kofi Adam, haven been schooled in the Rawlings discipline doctrine, picks up the gauntlet the Rawlings style. He gets the police to storm the radio station, arrest Nana Darkwa, present him before a judge who remands him for two weeks under a law that most advocates of free speech didn't know existed, all within a matter of hours.

After he was admitted to bail by another court the next day, Nana Darkwa granted interview to JoyFM. Listening to the interview I couldn't help but admire how martyrdom easily opens its doors to fools once it can find foolish conspirators. Like a beautiful piece of art placed in the wrong setting, lovers of free speech had to rally round Nana Darkwa, an epitome of what we don't want free speech to become, to assert our right to speak. Nana Darkwa's speech on radio was not only irresponsible but reckless and repugnant, and must be condemned by all opposed to gagging our society. Ironically, such reckless commentary on radio provides ammunition to those who think our freedom of speech must be criminalized. If we allow the likes of Nana Darkwa to run riot with speech terrorism on our airwaves, we run the risk of reversing all the gains chalked in our quest for a free speech society. It behooves all lovers of free speech to condemn such irresponsible use of our priceless freedom to maintain its sanctity and scare off the likes of Nana Darkwa. I understand he went to church with his parents to thank God for his bail. If I was the preacher for the day, I would have read him Proverbs 18:6 – 'A fool's lips bring him strife, and his mouth invites a beating'. Criminal libel may be off the statutes but people who feel defamed by unsubstantiated allegations may seek their pound of flesh in a civil court. Going on radio and swearing to things that be not as if they are is not the smartest thing to do. Mama, please call your son at dawn as our elders used to do and find him some words of advice, surely there is something left in the pot for him at 27.

What do we say about the other conspirators in this saga? Kofi Adams says Rawlings didn't know about his actions and I say, Yeah Right! When it comes to making unsubstantiated and wild allegations against people high and low, Chairman Rawlings stands tall. Where are the names of the people who murdered dozens of women in Ghana? Of course we need a lie detector and Atoa Nyama to bring them out. Between what Nana Darkwa said and the many things the ex president had said, from which commeth fear and panic? Would Kofi Adams have found it prudent, if his boss had been dragged before an over-zealous regional police commander when he made wild allegations against President Kufuor and many other people? The last time I checked, the 'twit' Ludwig said he never used a police escort home. Rawlings and Co are the last to throw stones at Nana Darkwa. They live in a tall glass house. If Chairman Rawlings finds a dose of his own medicine too bitter to swallow, perhaps it can help reform him. Unlike Nana Darkwa, there is little advice left in the pot for him at his age, but maybe a dose of his bitter medicine will be more successful. I hear he will be praying for the young man. So are many men slandered and called thieves by him praying for him. It will be interesting to find out from the police commander what she thinks in retrospect. Were all the resources and efforts spent in the dramatic arrest of Nana Darkwa worth it? The melodrama only popularized Nana Darkwa's allegations. Before Nana Darkwa opened his mouth too wide for his own good, I'd read a humorous piece on Ghanaweb that claimed Yaa Beauty saved Valentine by the blaze. Many contributors told the author what they feel about his piece and they were not all complimentary. Because Auntie Rose didn't create operation Cyber Storm, the good majority of Ghanaians never heard the ludicrous meaning the author read into the blaze. I believe if Kofi Adams and the police had acted differently, not many souls will ever have heard of a certain Nana Darkwa or his nonsensical ramblings at the station. How many Ghanaians listen to that show on Top Radio? But I guess now that they have a star panelist, many more will listen including Rose Atinga, Kofi Adams and a certain judge Wilson.    

Legal experts like Ace Ankomah have delivered informed treatises on the contribution of our laws and the judicial system in creating this avoidable saga. From a lay man's perspective, I'm just at a loss as to how our laws allow a judge to send someone to jail for two weeks even before his case is heard just because he shouted arson! Are we serious about decongesting our prisons? I find it difficult to understand how shouting arson can create panic and fear. How come some people can get a battalion of policemen to execute such a needless operation with alacrity whiles majority of the people will be lucky to get one police man (woman) to defend them when they are really under attack. Is somebody running a parallel security system within the state security apparatus?

The real heroes in this drama are all those who stood to be counted when our freedom was under attack. The message has been succinctly delivered; Ghanaians cherish our freedom of speech and will rise to defend it even if the speech belongs to misguided commentators like Nana. Kudos to the GJA, NMC, Prof. Karikari, Kwesi Pratt, His Excellency President Mills (who doesn't respond to Atta anymore) and many ordinary Ghanaians who told Kofi Adams, his employers and other conspirators that we frown on flagrant abuse of power, even if the perpetrators have unfettered access to the State security apparatus. Had it not been for these heroes, Nana Darkwa would have achieved undeserved martyrdom. I find this particular thought very offensive. Fools denigrate martyrdom, but the truth is they can easily achieve it once they find conspirators who have 'it' in equal measure. When the role call of Ghanaian martyrs is made and we hear Nana Darkwa's name, it should be for reasons more noble than his post valentine day babble. This generation have no business soiling the achievements of  Sergeant Adjetey, Lance Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey-Lamptey who we salute today on the 28th of February.