Does anybody remember Kofi Awornoor? He was born Awornoor-Williams. He died about a decade ago in a terrorist raid on Nairobi, Kenya. He was very well educated and became an author, poet and a professor of English.
When Jerry John Rawlings rose from the barracks to lead this country through the June 4 uprising and the 31st December coup d’etat of 1981, he was one of the intellectual giants behind the so-called revolution.
Unfortunately, he could not hide his pro-Ewe sentiments no matter how he tried. At the peak of the Provisional National Defense Council era- precisely as the nation prepared to democratise in 1992, he published a book – The Ghana Revolution- in which he claimed that politics and for that matter election in Ghana is a contest between Ewes and Ashantis.
The general uproar against the tribal tone that the book took, forced those behind its publication to withdraw it from circulation, quietly. Since then, all has been quiet on the tribal front except some effusions from politicians,anytime the people prepared to go to the polls.
The other day, Fifi Fiave Kwetey borrowed a leaf from the book. The one-time minister of state rocked the boat with a declaration that is as eccentric as it is bigotry. By the way, I am told that ‘Fifi’ sounds more Togolese than Ghanaian, a Ghanaian Ewe name. Fiave, according to my Ewe tutor, means Oheneba.
Fifi Kwetey used to command the third floor of the NDC headquarters at Adabraka, Accra, as the head of the propaganda unit of the party. He knows a thing or two about propaganda, I bet. But this one is way over the top. The General Secretary of the NDC mounted the podium at Dodze, in the Volta Region and castigated his tribesmen who support the governing New Patriotic Party.
To him, election in Ghana is a straight fight between the Ewes and Ashanti/Akans.
It is a statement borrowed straight from the pages of Kofi Awornoor’s Ghana Revolution. He made it clear that the NDC as a political concept belongs to Ewes.
He asked Ewes to take the NDC as a religion and worship it as God. He was speaking at a retreat for party members in Dzodze, in the Ketu North Constituency.
“You talk to some young people of the Volta Region, they think it’s something of pride to say as for us we are not like our fathers and uncles and we believe that we should not continue with that (supporting the NDC). There is nothing wrong holding to the clear foundation that has built our culture.”
What exactly is the former propaganda secretary suggesting? Is the NDC the culture of Ewes? For all I know, the NDC was founded in 1992, when Jerry John Rawlings and those who claim to believe in him converted the Provisional National Defence Council into the NDC, without the P, using the resources of state.
Influential people in the Ewe community, like the overlord of the Asogli State, Togbe Afede and the Awomefia of Anglo, Togbe Sri, should call Fifi Kwetey to order. I think in his desperation for power, he is belittling the influence of Ewe in national culture. The Volta Region or Eweland existed long before the PNDC and its NDC, without the P.
I cannot quantify how much thought went into this declaration. Officially, Ewes make up only 13 percent of Ghana’s population. The Ashantis or Akans he so derided, are about 49 percent of the local population.
That is not the only reason Ashanti/Akans are so pronounced in this part of the world. If it is now recommended that Ewes should vote for the NDC and other tribes should vote another way, how on this earth would the NDC win an election? As we speak, the National Chairman of the NDC, Asiedu Nketia and his Communications Director, Sammy Gyamfi, are Akans. They are definitely not Ewes, which flies against the Gospel according to FiFi Kwetey.
Desperation is driving some top notch of the NDC into frenzy. I believe you know Mr. Asiedu Nketiah and what begat the famous ‘Kwasia Bi Nti’ concept. Once upon a time, General Mosquito, then General Secretary of the party that Jerry Rawlings founded, sued the Daily Guide newspaper for libel.
Long before the judgement was pronounced in court, the NDC Scribe went on a radio programme and announced that the proceeds from his court casewould go into constructing a house, which he would name as ‘Kwasia Bi Nti.’
Trust the late Sir John. He was then General Secretary of the rival New Patriotic Party.
Sir John (Real name Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie) promptly answered General Mosquito with an interesting rebuttal.
“A house with ‘Kwasia Bi Nti’ as its signature signboard must have Nkwasiafou (fools) in residence”.
Please note again! Desperation is driving some top officials of the main opposition party into frenzy. The lasttime Iheardthat the 24-hour economy thing was receiving all kinds of interpretations from those who are required by the party to sell the idea.
I am toldthat the General himself is on the field, armed with the 24-hour concept. While we await the party’s manifesto to understand what the 24-hour policy is, General Mosquito has engaged some farmers in the Brong East Region and told them how their lives were going to be transformed under the concept.
24-hour economy, he is reported to have told the farmers, means that farmers would be provided with electricity to farm in the night. What he apparently failed to add is how and at what cost, would floodlight be raised all the way to their farms.
In their bid to come to power, ridicule is being raised into a political concept. If we are to farm in the night, how are we going to raise electricity for theventure?
Last week, I wondered in my column, how carpenters coming to roof my building, would in the night, arrive with extra staff holding floodlights for the project.
I am told that former Deputy Minister of Sports, Joseph Yamin,is raising the expectations of hunters in my beloved Ekumfi District. If you are unaware, Ekumfi is the unofficial grass cutter hub of Ghana. Now, a top official of the party is proposing a special vehicle to cart the carcasses of the hunters prey to the various markets in Accra and beyond in the night, instead of hunters waiting for buyers during the day.
While composing this piece for publication today, an NDC foot-soldier called at my office and told me that they have been told that under the 24-hour economy, after The Chronicle staff, for instance, had finished their normal shift, another group of people would take over and work the night shift. In other words, there would be two productions a day instead of one, and that is the route America, Britain and the Western countries generally took to development.
Oh! what a lofty idea! The political party that begat Dum-so and crippled the country’s ability to mobilise resources for development is now going to provide so much power that instead of weeding my farms at Assin Wawaseduring the day, I could do so with glee during the night.
What really is new in the 24-hour economy? The security services are on call 24 hours. The medics are at work 24-hours. The Chronicle you are reading took 24 hours to produce. What is this roof-top advertisement of a 24-hour economy to transform the nation.
Last time around,‘one lap-top per child’ fizzled out after scarce state resources had been given to the proprietor of Rlg. I cannot count any computer in any of our schools still at work. We are still waiting for migrating birds (Nkofem) to return to the north. Huge investment in afforestation in the north only emptied state resources.
Ask Mr. Martin Amidu, former Special Prosecutor, to name you who was identified as Government Official One in the scandal that so disgraced this nation in a Crown court in London some six years ago? These are issues we need to avoid to move this nation forward.Of course,Woyome is still in the equation.
It sounds ridiculous that Mr. John Dramai Mahama, the scandal-soaked ex-President is touring the country, selling this hoax as the panacea for all national ills. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride, they say.
I still picture my late Auntie in my mind’s eye, pointing her fore-finger at a family gathering as she admonishes family members. According to Auntie Hannah, long called to her maker, her colonial head teacher asked her graduating class to always remember that rolling stones gather no moss.
A word to the wise is in the vote!
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
