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A chance for Ghana women
God made man and woman, He gave man extra strength in recognition of his title as head of the family. When God appoints you, he empowers you. So man was empowered so that in any event of a domestic brawl, he would not be found with a cracked jaw.
The extra strength God gave to man was not to be used to enslave his wife, but to ensure discipline if she became rebellious, disloyal and revolutionary. This implies that, it is in the nature of a wife to overthrow her husband and declare herself head of family, especially when the husband loses his job.
The power accorded man is, however, meant to be exercised not abused. In some cases, men over-exercise their strength to quell domestic riots and their wives end up with an extra eye, half a nose and several teeth missing in action.
The man will justify his excessive application of force to the nature of her wife’s rebellion, the weight of her insults, the rapidity of her curses and the riotous nature of her emotions.
After a few days in hospital, the wife might decide to return to her marital home, loving her dear husband even more.
And she’ll tell her furious mother that it was all her fault. Her husband should not be blamed, because it was in her own interest that she was thrashed, and veritably so. The love between a wife and a husband can sometimes transcend into the boundaries of stupidity!
KUNG FU
In Chinaland, the men don’t have a field day. The woman comes into marriage with a Blackbelt in Kung Fu (9th Dan). She can somersault and flip over ten times in 15 seconds in the small kitchen. So where does the man’s power lie? In his waist?
When a fight breaks out and the man isn’t as skilled in karate or taekwando, he’ll sure end up with a dislocated jaw and a crooked face.
He’ll not be able to tell his friends that he endured a good beating from his wife. What he’ll do is to go for further training so that come the next domestic tournament, he could give a good account of himself to earn the respect of his in-laws. A man who is beaten by his wife cannot earn even a dog’s respect!
Now, God also created the vine, so that sinful man can cultivate grapes and produce wine to gladden his heart. If man doesn’t gladden his heart, he would be too hard on his family. When he doesn’t drink, he goes about finding fault with everything. And before you’re aware he’s slapping his wife left, right and centre!
God understands man better than man understands himself and it was not for any other reason that God created the vine, other than to gladden that heart of man. Unfortunately, the average man goes beyond gladdening his heart. He wants to booze his head off; to booze his eyes blind.
When alcohol goes past gladdening the heart, it becomes a mocker. A drunken man can cause mayhem. So God decided that those whose lives were dedicated to him should never touch alcohol, lest they denigrated His image. Those became the Nazirites!
PERMISSION
God, in His own wisdom, extended the authority of man in the home to the church. So according to the Bible (not according to Kwame Alomele) women are not permitted to be pastors.
Fortunately, the Bible doesn’t debar women from becoming rulers of nations. So a woman can be a second-in-command in her home, but the chief executive of a nation. When she gets home from her office she must salute the husband. The President must prepare her husband’s morning coffee and bring it to him with a slight bow. No presidential pretentions about it!
In parts of Africa, women rarely aspire to become presidents due to the cultural dominance of men over women. So for decades, African nations did not have female presidents until Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson decided to take up the challenge against soccer legend George Weah.
Now, with history having been made with Sirleaf-Johnson as Africa’s first lady president, the question being asked is whether this is not the much-awaited floodgate for the advent of women presidents in African nations.
South Africa has a woman vice-president, a novelty in that part of Africa. In Ghana, the clarion call has been offered for women not to sit on the fence but to participate in politics, society, wherever they find themselves.
Today, we have more lady members of parliament than we ever had. So the time has probably come for Ghana to welcome her first woman president 2028, and why not?
Who says we don’t have women. I can mention at least one who readily comes to mind. Her name is Hawa Yakubu.
We have other academia and business, well-groomed, highly intelligent, who take up the challenge once.
Some people actually want women to lead because of pacifist nature, their avers violence and their milk of kindness. All over, the women who ruled made a Golda Meir ruled Israel, Indira Gandhi – India: Agatha.
Barbara -Malta, Corazon Aquino- Philippines, Chamorro- Nicaragua, Mary Robinson -Ireland, Chandrika Kumaratunga- Sri Lanka, Mary Mc Aleese – Ireland, ( incumbent), Vaira Vike – Freiberga (Lativa), Tarja Halonen – Finland, Gloria Arroyo -Philipines, and Margaret Thatcher- Great Britain.
Hawa Yakubu, a very intelligent and experienced politician and those in her class motivated by Sirleaf- Johnson’s achievement and brace up to it. This will also bring in a lot of excitement into Ghana politics which has so far been dominated by men.
This article was first published on Saturday, December 3, 2005
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty.
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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