Features
John Mahama’s claim to fame
Certain things or happenings and events we come across in life may be taken for granted but when carefully examined,they reveal useful lessons that may be needed to guide us in critical political decision making to make or unmake our beloved country.
There is a friend of mine who told me about eight candidates who were contesting presidential election in Nigeria. During an interview, one of them was asked that Nigeria was a big country with a large population and many problems,so should indicate how he would address the challenges in that country.
In his answer, he had this to say: “In Nigeria, anybody with two or more wives can understand the problems of that country. I have five wives and I cater for them well. They are all very happy and they do not fight among themselves. Each of them is well catered for so in the same way if I become president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I will be able to diagnose and solve its problems without any difficulty.”
INTERESTING ANSWER
The answer given above is interesting and can be compared with other presidential candidates on the continent of Africa. People should, therefore, be able to decide which of the candidates in Ghana should be taken serious in the next elections in 2024.
A startling revelation has come from former President John Dramani Mahama to the effect that he did not go to the Supreme Court to challenge the Election Petition of 2020, but rather to calm down his supporters and prevent them from disturbing the peace of the country.
This is shocking, coming from a former President who had earlier stated that they had won the election and had majority in parliament. What a shock this is!
NO CONSISTENCY
There is no consistency in this claim when compared with other statements he and his NDC cohorts had made about the 2020 general election. It was like saying something different when they meant the other. Can such contradictions come from a presidential candidate in the person of Mr John Mahama?
It is becoming clear that frustration is setting in their effort to recapture political power in this country. Politics of today is quite different from politics of yesterday. Politics in Ghana in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s is quite different from what is happening now. There is still a problem with lack of enlightenment and deceit on the part of certain people who can easily be deceived by the NDC through propaganda. However, there has been more improvement and when people see what is good, they are able to stand for it.
This explains why the NPP, despite all the lies spread about its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, that he would never be president in this country, was able to win massively and become president of the Republic. There was a similar dose in 2020 when Nana Akufo-Addo, despite all the lies, again won by over 51 per cent compared with John Mahama.
DISTURBANCES
When the results of the 2020 elections were announced by the Electoral Commission, the supporters of the NDC took to the streets and disturbed the peace in various parts of the country the they had won the election not only at the presidential level but had won also 140 seats in parliament. As we all know, this has proved to be a big lie and the NDC today is not believable or credible when it comes to declaration of truthful matters.
Tyres were burnt across the streets in Ghana and most of the people engaged in them were the youth. Also, in certain parts of the country people, including women, collected rubbish and threw them on the streets to create an eyesore. One such incident took place in front of the Electoral Commission but the security officers prevented such miscreants from getting access to the Commission.
PATIENT SECURITY OFFICERS
The security officers, patient as they were on that occasion, skilfully asked the supporters with this unruly behaviour to go back to the streets and collect the rubbish they had spread to create the eyesore. This was a useful lesson to those irresponsible men and women who had been commanded by their leadership, including John Mahama, Asiedu Nketia, Peter Boamah Otokunor and the others to create disobedient and ugly behaviour in this country.
For John Mahama, therefore, to come out today and say that he did that to calm down his supporters shows that he is not consistent when it comes to decision making on his part. If the NPP and the security agency had resisted in the same way, many lives would have been lost on those occasions and the number of injuries of people and the destruction of properties would have been countless.
While all this was going on, the NPP and its supporters, made it clear that the Party and its presidential candidate had genuinely won the election. Well, after eight or nine months, Mr. John Dramani Mahama, has finally confirmed the assertion of the NPP that it is Nana Addo and his Party that won the election in 2020.
WHAT DOES THIS TELL YOU?
It points out that the NDC candidate was not sincere with himself and had only wanted to influence needless fighting in this country, especially at a time when our efforts should be directed towards rebuilding and reconstructing this noble country of ours. Mr. John Mahama made this declaration after the Supreme Court had delivered its judgement in line with the facts concerning what happened during the election outcome. This is shameful and it reveals that my friend, John Mahama, will have to reconsider his political tactics if he wants to be considered serious in this country.
Knowing that he had lost the election, he could have called the leadership around him to immediately calm down the supporters some of whom were not mature enough to understand what was going on as far as the election results were concerned. Indeed, the NDC did not effectively collate results at the constituency and regional levels to prove to its supporters that they had won or lost the election. He should have been decent enough to also congratulate Nana Addo on his victory. This is something he has not been able to do till now.
BEING WIDE AWAKE
Ghanaians must, therefore, be wide awake and stop following people of that kind whose only agenda is to create mayhem in this country. When it comes to peace in West Africa, Ghana comes first. The same Ghana occupies the second spot in Africa. It occupies an enviable position of peace in the whole of the world that is why countries like Germany, Britain, France, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Peru and many others – all see Ghana as a dependable nation that must be embraced by all countries.
The embezzlement of funds amounting to US$200 million under the Saglemi Housing Project in Accra and other projects under which the money quoted has been embezzled shows that Ghanaians must be prepared to follow Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his hardworking government rather than allowing themselves to be deceived by the deceitful NDC whose only agenda is perhaps the destruction of this country!
Features
The Cop, press and lost fingers
The job of a policeman, whether he is short or tall, is not a cheap one. He is supposed to keep the peace, protect society and monitor the activities of local magicians and money doublers who are specialists in making civil servants lose their pay within seconds.
By far the most difficult job of the policeman is when he is expected to arrest a murderer who is not only armed but also has a record of appearing and disappearing at will. Even if the tough cop is in the company of other policemen all armed to the teeth, his stomach will turn to water when the criminal suddenly appears.
He is terrified not because the criminal is a better marksman, but because nobody dies twice. The problem also is that a criminal might be prepared to die in a bid to shoot his way to freedom. But is the police-man prepared to risk death in the course of duty when he has a family to rear.
If he had just acquired a new girlfriend with whom he is enjoying life, should he not run away with his tail between his legs and tell his boss that the criminal is uncatchable?
Before some policemen go on patrol duties, they actually pray solemnly. “God send me into the wilderness and bring me back safely with my nose intact because I’m worth more than a common rat. I also do not want to die like a stray dog. If a bullet is targeted at my forehead, Holy Spirit please let it go over the bar, because six children is not a small palaver. If I die, who will look after them? Lord keep me safe day by day. Amen!”
The Sikaman policeman’s job is a risky one because he is not properly equipped with even a trained dog to help track down criminals easily. So he has to use his own nose judiciously in sniffing out suspects while making sure a bullet doesn’t catch him square on the jaw.
My friend Sir Kofi Owuo, a.k.a. Death-By-Poverty was telling me journalists are in an even riskier profession. Apparently, he had been reading about the palaver of journalists in places like Algeria and Columbia. Algeria, even women journalists are not spared assassin’s bullet. You’d see them lying in front of their homes with their heads full of bullet holes.
In Columbia, no journalist is safe. When a journalist is leaving home, he has to tell his wife. “Darling, when I don’t come back by 7 p.m. check the mortuary
The drug trade in Columbia has made journalism a profession not worth practising. If you write on cocaine and the harm it is inflicting on society, you’ll certainly receive a phone call.
“Hello, Mr Journalist, your article yesterday was great. Congratulations! We never knew you were such brilliant writer, championing the cause of society. Again we say congrats! But you know something, by your article, you want to take the bread out of my and that of my family. You don’t want us to beak. We are aggrieved beyond measure”
“Oh, I was just… “You’d try to say something
“You don’t have to explain. The harm has already been done by your award-winning masterpiece. We have an appointment with you. You’ll hear from us.
Rest In Peace!” After such a phone call, you just have to pray to your soul, sing a hymn or two and get prepared fort appointment with death. For, death will surely come
I think pressmen in Sikaman would also have start informing their families appropriately before leaving for work now. “If I don’t come back early, I’m probably at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Korle- Bu checking a leakage in my left ear due to a gendarme slap from an AMA official. If you don’t see me there, track me down to the emergency ward. If you see a newly-made cripple, I’m the one”
What about referees? These days they are guarded during football matches so that the risk they bear in terms of lost teeth is minimal. Formerly, it used to be a job full of woes and tribulations.
You were expected to oversee a match in such way that would favour a particular team. If that is not done, you’ll get back home and your wife will not recognise you. She’ll mistake you for Frank Bruno who had just lost a bout. When she finally recognises you, she’ll fix some hot water to massage your poor face.
I hear that these days, apart from the protection referees receive, some are well-armed with Damfo Dzai, a kind of jack-knife that can carve a rowdy supporters face in several designs.
My Press Secretary and part-time bodyguard Devine Ankamah, was telling me if he happens to be a referee, he’d surely carry a Kalashnikov AK 47 rifle with him, complete with loaded magazine, before officiating matches. According to him, that is the only way to do the job without fear or favour. Anyone dares will lose his jaw.
Anyway, risky jobs require good remuneration. As Kwame Korkorti once said, risky jobs require risky salary. A policeman would require a good pay so that when a criminal targets his left ear it would be worth the ‘amputation’. Same for journalists and cameramen.
But go round private workplaces and factories and you’d see really risky occupations where workers are receiving salaries they can’t see with the naked eye.
In fact, in some private workplaces, environmental safety is completely absent. Workers breathe in fumes, poisonous gases and risk lung and respiratory problems. Their employers do nothing about protecting them against these hazards. Check out their payer.
In other places, workers have their fingers chopped off on the job, some losing as many as four fingers in stretch. The compensation they get can best be described as “wicked”. Their employers live big, chop big, ride big but are not willing to pay more than ¢120,000 for lost fingers.
Actually the more fingers you lose, the more money you get. So if you intend losing your fingers on the job, it is advisable to lose as many as possible so that you can get more cash. Those who have lost one finger have not benefited much and are encouraged to lose more next time around.
Sikaman Palava is undertaking to investigate some of these cases of very risky jobs in private setups and companies where workers are being exploited to unnecessarily but not offered protection against health hazards, and not properly compensated when they sustain injuries.
This article was first published on Saturday, September 28, 1996
Features
Position yourself for God’s blessings
Motivated by the impending 40-day fasting and needless to add prayer programme, preceding the Greater Works Conference scheduled for August in Accra, I would like to draw attention to how believers can receive blessings from God.
There is a scripture in Hebrews 11:5 that “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: and before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God”.
This clearly shows that in order to receive blessings from God, you must please God. How can one please God? You can only please God by obeying him and walking in line with God’s word. Just like how children who obey their parents, enjoy special treatment, so does God deal with his children who obey his word.
There are ways by which people receive blessings from God and holiness is an important criteria in the whole equation. Holiness is a process and not a one day event.
It is a mindset borne out of walking in obedience to God’s instructions i.e. his word. In order to have a mindset of living to please God, requires studying God’s word coupled with praying and fasting.
This helps us to develop trust in God by knowing his nature, what he likes and dislikes. This is what will enable us to live to please him and for our faith in him also to increase.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”
Fasting is one of the required criteria for blessings to be released and it goes with prayer because fasting without prayer is just a physical exercise. Fasting enables a person’s inner man to be in tune with the spirit of God and also becomes spiritually empowered to hear from God and also obey God.
Fasting enables a person’s spirit to feed on God’s word in a much more focused manner as compared to studying God’s word in normal times. As a result our spirit gains the upper hand to dominate the body and the soul, so that we are more conscious of the presence of God in our lives which causes us willingly the desire to live to obey God.
Holiness which is a prerequisite for pleasing God, can only manifest in our lives if we are able to overcome the desires of the flesh and this only happens when the flesh is subject to the spirit.
Apostle Paul said that “But l keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should not be castaway”, according to 1 Corinthians 9:27.
In order to bring the body or flesh into subjection so that believers will be able to live to please God, we have to study, God’s word in a certain state of mind which fasting and prayer appropriately provides.
Our minds are the battle grounds for decisions that either please God or the Devil. In order to please God so his blessings can be released upon our lives, we must continuously engage our minds with thoughts that is in line with God’s word.
Philippians 4:8 says that “Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things”. May God help us to live to please him by meditating on things that please the Lord, so we shall be blessed in all aspects of our lives. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
