Features
Mr. Big Stuff
- /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 27
&description=Mr. Big Stuff', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
- Share
- Tweet /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
Warning: Trying to access array offset on false in /home/u249204778/domains/spectator.com.gh/public_html/wp-content/plugins/mvp-social-buttons/mvp-social-buttons.php on line 72
&description=Mr. Big Stuff', 'pinterestShare', 'width=750,height=350'); return false;" title="Pin This Post">
In 1971, American singer, Jean Knight, released her hit single, Mr. Big Stuff. The lyrics say in part: “Who do you think you are, Mr. Big Stuff; you’re never gonna get my love. Now, because you wear all those fancy clothes (oh yeah), and have a big fine car, oh yes you do now; do you think I can afford to give you my love (oh yeah)? You think you’re higher than every star above, Mr. Big Stuff! Who do you think you are, Mr. Big Stuff? You’re never gonna get my love ……’cause when I give my love, I want love in return (oh yeah), Now I know this is a lesson Mr. Big Stuff you haven’t learned. Mr. Big Stuff, tell me, who do you think you are?
The song speaks of an amorous relationship gone bad because the man gives himself some airs and graces after his social status improves. But it also describes the irritatingly abominable streak of egotism inherent in most Ghanaian politicians. Just as Mr. Big Stuff feels he is higher than every star, these officials think they are above the supreme law of the land (Constitution). Sometimes, they behave as proudly as Lucifer did. Yes, Lucifer wanted to establish his throne over and above God’s. And if you fail to pay obeisance to these megalomaniacs, their ego is bruised badly and they seek revenge by “changing your situation” using various tools, including transfers as we found out from events in Takoradi.
The aberration dates back to the days of yore. Ghanaian folklore relates the story of Krobo Edusei, one time, Minister of the Interior under Nkrumah’s administration. He paid a working visit to a certain region where a police officer had earned rave reviews for his sense of integrity and professionalism. But he courted the displeasure and disdain of some members of the ruling CPP in the area, peeved that he would not play ball with them when they broke the law, which they did often just as present-day political folk also do. So, they reported his “bad conduct” to Krobo Edusei.
At a durbar, the police officer was pointed out to the minister. While he addressed the people, Krobo Edusei said in the twi language: “Hei, Papa polisi, nea woy3 no nyina, mate. MekՉ sremu aba. M3ba no, naw’ayi mataade3 abobՉagu me hՉ.”This translates to: “Look here, policeman, I have heard all that you are doing here. I am travelling to the North. Put off my uniform and fold it nicely for me to pick it on my return,” suggesting he owned the police uniform. Of course, he was not going to come back anytime soon. It was a display of clout to publicly shame and threaten the policeman to stop “messing” with party people. Sounds familiar?
In 2014, the then DCE of Ahafo Ano South in the Ashanti Region, Mr. Gabriel Barimah, threw a tantrum and stormed out of a programme after he overheard someone in the audience making an interjection while he was addressing a meeting attended by chiefs, government officials, health workers and some town folk, among others.
While the people were all ears for news beneficial to them, the DCE turned attention to himself, bragging, perhaps, in a veiled reference to someone he thought envied his office, that he, as the DCE, rather than somebody else, had been offered the platform to speak and grace the occasion. What did those effusions have to do with the programme? Someone not the least enthused about the speech, could not stomach the nonsense and shouted “Tweaa!” an interjection that can mean, “to hell with your statement.” In a fit of uncontrollable rage, Mr. Barimah demanded: “Who said tweaa?”
He stormed out of the programme, repeating questions like: “Are you my co-equal?” “Am I your friend?” “Why did you say tweaa?” Then, he returned momentarily and declared: “Take your programme. I am not talking again. I have handed my speech,” [sic]. Just because he was challenged, he childishly and impudently snubbed everybody at the meeting as if they did not exist. In his estimation, there was no one as important as himself. He was suspended but reinstated after some intervention by party members. What made him assume that in his jurisdiction, his word was law, or that he had a licence for autocracy? Mr. Big Stuff, who do you think you are?
The latest in the line of arrogant politicians competing for a dishonourable mention in the nation’s hall of shame, is the MCE of Sekondi-Takoradi, Mr Abdul-Mumin Issah. On Wednesday, February 2, he exhibited gross abuse of political power by spewing unprintable (words) against a police officer at a checkpoint, and even threatening to beat him to death if he dared him. The severity and bitterness of temper with which the mayor spoke showed a palpable demonstration of the presumed power and might of some political appointees in Ghana. The officer’s only crime was insisting that for orderliness to prevail at the checkpoint, the MCE’s vehicle should join the queue like any other to be properly cleared to move.
This was after the mayor allegedly drove dangerously and carelessly while approaching the checkpoint at the Kwesimintsim cemetery in an attempt to drive past the queue. A police officer in charge of the operation, identified as Inspector Sarfo Andrews, detained him, and told him he had called for the patrol team to come and handle the matter. Mr. Issah went ballistic, breathing fire and brimstone, and insisting that as the MCE, he had the right to just drive past without submitting to any check, and that the police could not treat him like any other citizen. I do not know where he found it in the statute books that the police should recognise that a mayor is above the law. Mr. Big Stuff, who do you think you are?
An exchange of words ensued during which the MCE told the officer he was stupid, ugly and many more. “I will change your situation…I will send you to Enchi,” (that is, on transfer), as if that town were inhabited by beasts of prey. Unfazed by the MCE’s threats, Inspector Andrews called his bluff with accurate, intelligent reasoning that exposed the mayor’s scant capacity for scholarship, etiquette, and leadership as well as earn respect and commendation for the police. Those who charge the police officer with insubordination should not forget the Akan proverb: “S3 wone kraman di agoro a, Չtafrew’ano, to wit “If you play with a dog, it will definitely kiss your mouth.”What did you expect from the officer when the mayor displayed such brazen incivility towards him?
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo has swiftly suspended the MCE for his misconduct while the police have also processed him for court charged on three counts of assault of a public officer, offensive conduct conducive to breaches of the peace and disturbing the peace in a public place contrary to Sections 205, 207 and 298 respectively, of the Criminal and Other Offences Act of 1960, Act 29.
In another development, the youth of Enchi, aggrieved by the disparaging remark made against their town by Mr. Issah, are reported to have asked him to apologise and retract his statement or face further action. But, rather unashamedly, the embattled mayor has issued a statement promising that the whole truth will come out. What exactly he meant by that is not clear because the whole encounter was captured by the smart policeman and posted on social media for all to judge for themselves. He must be told that truth is absolute and there is nothing like alternative truth. He might have some interesting ideas, but nothing can obscure the essential truth portrayed vividly by the viral video.
Mr. IGP, COP Dr George Akuffo Dampare, your determination to transform policing in Ghana is already showing results. Your leadership by example such as your reported obedience of traffic laws even when movement is at a snail’s pace, undoubtedly influenced Inspector Andrews to apply the rule without fear or favour. I trust your sense of rectitude will prompt you to “mention” the gallant officer “in dispatches.”
While swearing in his appointees on the first day of his presidency, US President, Joe Biden, gave them a grim and straightforward warning: Show respect to all or I will fire you.“I am not joking when I say this, if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect… talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” he emphasised. “On the spot. No ifs, ands or buts. Everybody… everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity,” he added.
“The only thing I expect with absolute certitude is honesty and decency — the way you treat one another, the way you treat the people you deal with. And I mean that sincerely,…Remember: The people don’t work for us. We work for the people. I work for the people. They pay my salary. They pay your salary. They put their faith in you. I put my own faith in you. And so, we have an obligation,” Mr. Biden stressed.
This is the plain truth that all the narcissists parading as tin gods should know and apply. Otherwise, Mr. President, take a cue from your US colleague. Fire them!
“A woman who abandons her baby in a dustbin at Kasoa Lorry Station is not always a wicked woman. Sometimes, she is a wounded woman whose mind has broken, whose family has rejected her, and whose society has left her with only one terrible option: disappear or be disgraced.”
That is the hard truth Ghana must hear.
In the last 10 days alone, our nation has been confronted with the same painful headline, twice.
Case 1 – Kasoa Main Lorry Station, Central Region: A newborn baby girl was found abandoned inside a dustbin at the public toilet of the Kasoa Main Station. A woman who went to use the facility discovered the infant and raised an alarm. Commercial drivers and bystanders quickly retrieved the baby and rushed her to the Kasoa Polyclinic for emergency medical care.
Case 2 – Asante Bekwai, Ashanti Region: On Thursday morning, August 20, 2026, a two-week-old neonate was reportedly abandoned by an unknown nursing mother at Bekwai in the Ashanti Region. Residents who came across the child raised the alarm. The baby was admitted to the Bekwai Government Hospital as police commenced investigations.
Let me be clear from the start: Newborn abandonment is wrong. It is dangerous. It is criminal. And it can kill. This article does not excuse it. But if we only arrest and shame, we will never stop it. We must treat the root, not just punish the fruit.
What exactly is newborn abandonment? – The two definitions
The Legal Definition: Under Ghana’s Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), Section 96, and the Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560), abandonment of a child under 12 years is a criminal offence. It is classified as exposure and abandonment, punishable as a misdemeanor or felony. The law sees the mother as a perpetrator.
The Psychological definition: In clinical textbooks, newborn abandonment is defined as the intentional, permanent relinquishment of all parental rights, care, and responsibilities over an infant within the first 28 days of life without making formal, legal arrangements for care.
To understand this crisis properly, we must not confuse it with child abandonment. Newborn abandonment happens within 0-28 days of life, often driven by acute panic, denial of pregnancy, or postpartum psychosis where the attachment bond never formed. Child abandonment, on the other hand, involves toddlers to teenagers where a bond existed but collapsed over time due to chronic poverty, family breakdown, or parental burnout. One is an acute crisis of the first month; the other is a chronic breakdown over years. Both are harmful, but they need different interventions.
Psychologically, newborn abandonment is the ultimate rupture of the primary attachment bond. Think of a 19-year-old university student who secretly gives birth alone in her hostel room, wraps the crying baby in a polythene bag, and drops it at a refuse dump at midnight. That is not just a crime scene; it is a scene of extreme panic and psychological dissociation.
Why would a mother carry a baby for 9 months and then abandon it?
This is the question every Ghanaian asks. If you wanted to abandon it, why not abort? The answer is deeply psychological:
1. The psychodynamics of denial of pregnancy: This is a profound defense mechanism, not a lie. The mother’s subconscious mind completely rejects the reality of the pregnancy. She does not gain weight normally, feels no kicks, does not seek antenatal care, and genuinely convinces herself she is not pregnant until sudden, shocking labour pains take her by surprise in a toilet or bedroom.
2. Fantasy of a dissolving problem: This is called cognitive avoidance. She believes “my boyfriend will come back,” “my mother will forgive me,” or “something miraculous will happen before birth.” So she waits, paralyzed, until the baby is here.
3. Barriers to safe abortion: Deep religious guilt, moral anxiety, fear of dying from a back-alley abortion, lack of money for a safe procedure, and family laws force her to carry to term even when she feels incapable.
4. The shock of reality and acute panic: Upon delivery, the physical presence and crying of the newborn shatters all denial. Confronted with immediate exposure, shame, and reality, her brain enters a trauma response — “fight, flight, or freeze.” For many, it becomes “flight” — physically escape the threat of exposure to survive socially. That is why babies are left in places where others will find them -lorry stations, churches, hospitals.
Source:
Counselor Prince Offei, CPAC’s founder, is a leading Mental Health Professional, Marriage Counsellor, Author, ADR Expert/Arbitrator, and Spectator Newspaper Columnist. He writes on relationships, marriage, parenting, special needs support, and their connection to mental health. For therapy, counselling, or enquiries, contact Counselor Prince & Associates Consult (CPAC) in Accra on 0559850604 / 0551428486.
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
Features
Environmental stewardship is an act of worship: The Islamic response to climate change, environmental degradation (Part 4)
The environmental consequences of illegal mining have reached alarming levels in Ghana. Several major rivers, including the Pra, Ankobra, Offin, Birim and Tano, have experienced significant pollution from illegal mining activities, increasing the cost and complexity of water treatment while threatening the availability of potable water for millions of citizens (Water Resources Commission, 2024; Ghana Water Limited, 2024). These developments underscore the urgent need for stronger environmental governance and collective action.
Islam equally emphasises accountability in governance. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught that every leader is responsible for those under his or her authority (Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 7138; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1829). This principle extends to public officials entrusted with environmental regulation, traditional authorities responsible for communal lands, mining companies, local assemblies, and community leaders. Environmental protection cannot succeed
where accountability is absent.
At the same time, addressing galamsey requires more than law enforcement. Sustainable solutions must tackle the underlying socio-economic realities that drive individuals into illegal mining. Many young people are motivated by unemployment, poverty, and limited economic opportunities. Islamic principles of social justice therefore call for the creation of alternative livelihoods through sustainable agriculture, vocational training, responsible small-scale mining under strict environmental standards, entrepreneurship, and skills development. Environmental protection and economic empowerment should not be viewed as competing priorities but as complementary goals that promote human dignity and national development.
Faith communities also have an indispensable role to play. Mosques, churches, schools, traditional councils, and civil society organisations possess significant influence in shaping public attitudes and behaviours. Imams, in particular, should consistently remind congregations that wealth acquired through actions that destroy communities and Allah’s creation cannot be regarded as a blessing. Religious education should cultivate environmental ethics alongside spiritual devotion, reinforcing the understanding that protecting rivers, forests, and farmlands is an expression of gratitude to Allah and a fulfilment of the trust of Khalifah.
Ultimately, the struggle against galamsey is more than a campaign to protect natural resources; it is a struggle to uphold justice, preserve human dignity, and honour the trust that Allah has placed upon humanity. Lasting solutions will require strong governance, responsible citizenship, sustainable economic opportunities, and renewed moral leadership. Only when these elements
work together can Ghana safeguard its natural heritage for present and future generations.
Water conservation, waste management and sustainable development: Practical expressions of Islamic stewardship
Religious education should cultivate environmental ethics alongside spiritual devotion, reinforcing the understanding that protecting rivers, forests, and farmlands is an expression of gratitude to Allah and a fulfilment of the trust of Khalifah.
Ultimately, the struggle against galamsey is more than a campaign to protect natural resources; it is a struggle to uphold justice, preserve human dignity, and honour the trust that Allah has placed upon humanity. Lasting solutions will require strong governance, responsible citizenship, sustainable economic opportunities, and renewed moral leadership. Only when these elements
work together can Ghana safeguard its natural heritage for present and future generations.
Islam is not merely a religion that condemns environmental destruction; it also provides practical guidance for preserving and sustaining the natural world. Through its teachings on moderation, cleanliness, conservation, and responsible consumption, Islam cultivates an environmental ethic that remains remarkably relevant to contemporary challenges such as water scarcity, pollution, waste management, and climate change. These teachings encourage Muslims to become
responsible custodians of Allah’s creation in both private and public life.
Water conservation: A sacred responsibility
Water occupies a unique position in Islam as the source of life and an essential element of worship. Allah says, “And We made from water every living thing. Then will they not believe?” (Qur’an 21:30, Sahih International). This verse reminds believers that water is not merely an economic resource but a divine blessing upon which all living creatures depend. The importance of water is further reflected in Islamic acts of worship. Muslims perform ablution (wudu) before the five daily prayers and ritual bathing (ghusl) under prescribed circumstances.
Yet, despite its central role in purification, Islam strongly discourages wastefulness. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) once advised one of his companions not to waste water while performing ablution, even when using water from a flowing river (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith 425). This timeless guidance establishes the principle that abundance does not justify extravagance.
Conservation remains a religious obligation regardless of the apparent availability of natural resources.
This Prophetic teaching carries profound implications for contemporary Ghana. Illegal mining has severely polluted many rivers, increasing the cost of water treatment and limiting access to safe drinking water for numerous communities. Climate change has also intensified seasonal variability in rainfall, placing additional pressure on freshwater resources (IPCC, 2023). Against this
backdrop, conserving water is no longer simply an environmental preference—it is a moral imperative grounded in Islamic teaching.
Water conservation should therefore become a shared responsibility among households, educational institutions, industries, and places of worship. Simple practices such as repairing leaking pipes, harvesting rainwater, protecting riverbanks, avoiding contamination of water bodies, and promoting efficient irrigation contribute to safeguarding one of Allah’s greatest blessings. Every effort to preserve water is an investment in public health, food security, and the
wellbeing of future generations.
Unfortunately, indiscriminate disposal of refuse remains a significant challenge in many communities. Plastic waste clogs drainage systems, contributes to flooding during the rainy season, pollutes rivers and beaches, and threatens marine ecosystems. Open burning of waste further degrades air quality and poses serious health risks, particularly for children and the elderly (UNEP,2024).
The author is Chief Imam of Katamanso Municipal and Certified Counsellor and Governnace Expert.
SKIP THE QUEUE, TAP THE NEWS
You can now read the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator newspapers from the comfort of your device via TimesNewsPlus.
Join our WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBElzjInlqHhl1aTU27
