For God and country, saying it as it is (a)
No one was ever given the privilege at the point of conception to choose which family, ethnic group, country or which race he or she will like to belong. God in His wisdom, the Triune God who is Three Persons in One God, solely takes that decision and for a purpose.
God knowing where He is putting a soul, will give that soul, gifts that should be used wherever that soul will find herself, to first and foremost glorify God and secondly glorify herself.
These gifts include the virtues and talents. And one of the things souls must do is to bring love and togetherness within the family, within the community, within the society, within the ethnic group, within the country, within the sub-region, within the continent and within the world, always being in link with the Heavens.
Humility is said to be the foundation of all virtues and this virtue plays an important role in bringing God to people and to the world.
God created us differently and He did so, so that we will unite our differences for right purposes. God is Three and God is One. The Triune God has Three Persons who are equal to One Another.
Everything One does, all Three will do. God the Father creates, and He creates through God the Son and this creation comes into being through the power of God the Holy Spirit.
So, God’s purpose for man is for us to look at one another and work together, co-habitat in peace and love one another, despite differences. That is one of God’s purpose for man and it is Unity in Diversity.
Unfortunately, for every good purpose of God, Satan comes with means to profane it. For example, God gave man the gift of procreation but Satan introduces LGBTQ+ to break down human and family values and nullify procreation.
God made man to associate with one another and together to grow and subdue the earth. Since no one is a complete fulfilment of all of God’s gifts, to make things go on in great harmony, each person is to give up what he has and together what is to be achieved will be achieved in perfection and in the glory of God.
Just as one person may be better in one area than others, tribes or ethnic groups are also the same. No person or tribe must be looked down upon but accepted as an integral part of the society. No person or tribe or people must see themselves better than others and so no person or tribe should condemn others. This is not Godly, what is wrong should be classified as wrong irrespective of who commits the offense.
Coming on the issue at stake where a certain retired warrant officer of the Ghana Armed Forces, Bright Segbefia decided to take me on, for just suggesting to the Nogokpo chiefs and elders to allow what Bishop Agyinasare said to pass so that life can go on, I stand to say things as they are.
Firstly, with his clouded mind and mentality, Bright, blindly wanted to suggest that I am an Asante and implying that anyone who criticizes Ewes are Asantes, I once again want to remind him, that yes, I am an Asante and also an Ewe, just as I am Asante.
My first languages I learnt were Dangme and Ewe. Due to my wide ethnic dispensation, I have witnessed and experienced the bad side of ethnicity from all the four bloods I have in me.
And with that experience, I hate ethnicity to the core and will say things as they are, about or against any of the four tribes I belong to, without apology.
Bishop Agyinasare only said that Nogokpo to him, is the headquarters of demons in the Volta region. Seriously!!! But then Jesus also announced that Satan is the prince/ruler of this world. So, what happens to us, the living who are struggling to make to Heaven?
To me it is all about the spiritual realm and no indigene of Nogokpo should be worried about that statement, because I know that the gods in Nogokpo are the fallen angels who regretted rebelling against God and they are here doing good to society as a form of penance, hoping to be exalted on the Judgment Day and allowed back to Heaven.
I say this, because everything I hear about the Nogokpo gods, is righting the wrong and punishing the guilty ones. I have never heard of human sacrifices to suggest the manifestation of demons there. But the man of God who sees into the spiritual realm, says demons are in and around Nogokpo.
If indeed that is the situation, then they are there to fight the fallen angels for truncating their evil agenda in the region and this always continues in the spiritual realm.
Between what the bishop said and what Bright knows that is said about the Nzema people, which he is too coward to admit that it is also said among Ewes, and that Nzema is a witchcraft citadel, which is more an attack on the indigenes?
Witchcraft is an evil that certain people accept and use against the good of man and society. I cannot call it demonic possession but rather voluntarily accepting to be on the side of Satan.
Now, for a whole ethnic group to be declared as witchcraft is more serious than for an area to be declared as demons’ headquarters. It is to say that for every Nzema person one meets, there is either witchcraft in him or in his family or in both.
Can Bright Segbefia compare which is more a serious statement to make? And yet the Nzemas do not seem bothered about our ignorance to this day. And one thing, we all followed an Nzema man to lead us to independence and so if we follow a wizard, what should be said about us?
Saying it as it is, there are many occasions where Akans, especially Asantes are insulted but they merely ignore. That is not the case of other minority tribes, especially Ewes. When something least is said about them, then as Rawlings would say, the security alert in this country is raised.
The Asantes and the Anlos built a sounding blood relationship which could have seen both ethnic groups forever united in love, but for politics.
It must interest people like Bright to know that in October 1957, six minority political groups merged to form the United Party (UP). Of the six, two were Ewes based parties and one was an Akan (Asante) based.
If the Ewes could again unite with Asantes to form a political party, it can be assumed that political unity and tolerance would merge with ethnic unity and love to make this country a loving peaceful place.
This did not happen as Nkrumah did all in his power to breakup the UP and he used ethnicity to help him to achieve just that. After his exit from power and the country returned to civilian rule, Nkrumaists especially those in the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) took up the mantle to contaminate politics with ethnicity.
At 9:45 am on Tuesday June 16, 1970, in his speech on the floor of Parliament, Dr. Agama of NAL and leader of the Opposition, called the Busia Administration, backward-looking.
He further went on to make false allegations that Ewes were not being employed into public and civil services and suggested the PP administration was tribalistic. This debate was on the constitutional dismissal of public and civil servants by the PP administration.
In his response, on June 17, 1970, Victor Owusu, reminded NAL of its diabolic agenda, using evil forces to compile a list of 1,800 people, who were mostly Ashantis, Fantis and Northerners to be dismissed from the public and civil service, if NAL was voted into power.
It is just like NDC putting in their 2020 Manifesto, a policy to introduce what would be similar to E-Levy when voted into power, but kicked against it when NPP implemented that policy.
Victor reminded NAL and all Nkrumaists that under the PP government, Ewes had more than their quota when it came to employing CEOs, and whenever an Ewe took office, he or she makes sure that only Ewes were employed in their workplace. This he called an inward-looking nature of those Ewes.
This phrase is what woke up almost all Ewes from slumber and gingered them to prepare for war. And to this day, most Ewes, and I believe the likes of Bright Segbefia as well, hold this against Asantes and the NPP.
But what exactly is the meaning of inward-looking? It is a person or society that are more interested in themselves than in other people or societies. And it showed in the way Ewe CEOs employed mainly Ewes, leaving out other tribes.
Saying it as it is and based upon the above, was Victor Owusu wrong in describing the Ewe CEOs as such, in the face of Dr Agama alleging without proof that Busia was tribalistic and employed only Akans?
Saying it as it is, Rawlings in 1979 decided to end the lives of eight military officers including three former heads of state. Four were Akans, and the others were a Guan, a Ga, a Northerner and an Ewe.
He gave excuse that some of those killed had overthrown constitutional governments and they were all corrupt people. Barely three years later, Rawlings came back to overthrow a constitutional government.
(Bright, please stay tune for the third and final part).
Hon. Daniel Dugan
