Socialists are known for lying and lying until the lie appears to be the truth. And this they feel proud of.Unfortunately for Ghana, we have an unfair share of such socialists among us who could lie with straight and innocent looking faces that even angels would believe them.
Some of these persons seem to have the chemical composition of lying fully embedded in their genes. Such people are called the chronic and addicted liars.
On the other hand, there is another group of socialists who actually are ignorant about what they say, but because it would help their socialist course, they will spread this ignorance any way. We may call such a person, acelebrated ignoramus, who celebrates his or her ignorance with such pomp and pageantry.
In Ghana today and in fact since the birth of this fourth republic, we have one such fellow, who can sometimes come out with lies, which can easily convince the ill-informed.
I had the unpleasant duty to correct Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr, in this esteemed newspaper about two decades ago, when he went about finding anything at all to destroy the image of H.E. John Agyekum Kufuor, who was then president of this republic. The title of my feature article on him was,
“The Most Difficult Person To Wake From Sleep, Is The One Pretending To Sleep.” I decided to use this again as the title of this opinion of mine, because in truth, I sometimes believe that Kwesi Pratt Jnr., knows he is lying but will just hang on to it and would never retract even if he is proven to be lying.
My problem with him is that in recent times, he blatantly lied on at least two very hot and delicate issues, which could have thrown this country into confusion.
The first was when he spoke on the Western Togoland issue and said Prime Minister K.A. Busia, knew that Hon. S. G. Antoh was a successionist and yet awarded him the position of an ambassador. He even went on to say that Mr. Antoh was among those Evedome Ewes of Asogli, who caused bloodshed in that area as away of protesting Ghana gaining independence.
These Ewes, never wanted to join the union called Ghana and had voted against this during the 1956 Plebiscite. Independence Day in Ghana meant Trans-Volta Togoland was going to be part of Ghana, which these Ewes did not want and so decided on the path of bloodshed.
The truth is, towards our journey to independence, Mr. S.G. Antoh formed a political party, called the Togoland Congress Party (TCP), in 1951, which campaigned for the unification of the Ewe people in British Togoland and French Togoland as a separate Ewe state.Mind you he did this in a peaceful and civil manner, by appealing to the conscience of the people.
In April 1954 the TCP contest the elections and won three seats. In May 1956, the Plebiscite on the Trans-Volta Togoland issue, showed that majority in that region preferred to merge with Ghana on Independence Day.
In July 1956, TCP campaigned and contested on a different issue without the mention of uniting all Ewes into one state. It won two seats. And in October 1957, TCP merged with five other political parties to form the United Party (UP).
There was nowhere that S.G. Antoh, was found involving himself in successionist activities and yet Kwesi Pratt Jnr, called him one.
Respectfully, how can one describe Kwesi Pratt Jnr, himself in the light of his adoration of Nkrumah’s name and his professing him to be the best ever in the world? When the only united Nkrumaist party, the Peoples National Party (PNP), to form government after the CPP to Nkrumah, was overthrown by Rawlings, what did Kwesi do?
During the early days of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, Kwesi had a hint that his close pals were assisting foreign invaders to topple the Rawlings’ regime. With a bottle of imported hard liquor and a full package of cigarette he went to the authorities in Gondar Barracks and told on his friends and they were arrested and imprisoned.
Kwesi was heard saying that he was a true nationalist who would not allow foreigners to invade Ghana. If so, what about the December 31, 1981 coup which toppled the Nkrumaist PNP? Was it not Libyans who spearheaded the coup? Are Libyans, Ghanaians? What did Kwesi do about this but to be part of a group which celebrated J.J Rawlings.
Last week, a video was posted on my WhatsApp, where I could see and hear Kwesi Pratt Jnr., at what he best knows how. Kwesi was in a studio with others discussing this evergreen Founders’ Day issue, and he said Dr. J.B. Danquah was the Eastern regional chairman of the UGCC, who twice lost the Akim Abuakwa seat which was in his own hometown.
These are the facts: J. B Danquah was not a Regional Chairman of the UGCC. That party was founded by Paa Grant who approached J.B to assist him grow it.The Akyem man went to call his nephew, Paa Willie and the husband of his niece Edward Akufo-Addo, to join the UGCC, of which he, J.B Danquah was the vice chairman of the UGCC. And if his position in the UGCC was a regional chairman, then what was Kwame Nkrumah’s in that party?
In 1951, J.B won one of the two Abuakwaseats, the Akim Abuakwa Central. The other one, the Akim Abuakwa West was won by Paa Willie.Both stood on the ticket of the UGCC. Gerald Otto Awuma won the Akpini-Asogli seat the third for the UGCC.That party won only three seats and disbanded in 1952.
J.B. Danquah joined the Ghana Congress Party (GCP), which was founded in 1952 by K.A Busia, and he stood on the ticket of GCP in Akim Abuakwa Central in 1954, but lost.The CPP swept all five Akim Abuakwa seats. In very brief summary, this is about J.B. Danquah’s political story.
I am compelled to believe that Kwesi Pratt Jnr., is widely awake to the truth but chooses to pretend and lie, big time, to promote or enhance his socialist course. Such a person is surely very dangerous to society and the way to describe Kwesi is to use the adage, “the most difficult person to wake from sleep, is the one pretending to sleep.”
Hon Daniel Dugan
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s stance.
