Fellow Ghanaians, if you have not heard the news yet in the aftermath of the flagbearership balloting of the New Patriotic Party, NPP, on the 26th July, Hon. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong surprisingly picked the number one (1) position as the first candidate on the ballot paper, and vice President Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia picked the number ten (10) position as the last candidate on the ballot paper. It can be noticed that from their vetting results two weeks ago, there was similar similarity between the two when Dr. Bawumia came first with 88.3% and Kennedy Agyapong had 61.3 at the bottom of all the other candidates. Could it be their birth circumstances God Himself has been interested in in bringing forth with these similarities or what? And what does the NPP seek to hide from the public with latest political distraction they orchestrated with Mrs. Dapaah, former minister of Water and Sanitation, washing her dirty linen in public?
While as a shepherd growing up in the then Tolon-Kumbungu Constituency, one method we used a lot to get our lunch from people’s farms was to allow few of us to remain behind – the “thieves committee” strictly selected by the leader – then the rest of us would intentionally allow the sheep into the farm to graze. Immediately, out of anger, all the attention of the farmer would go to the grazing sheep and their reckless and careless herders. Then the few of us positioned from behind would steal his farm produce – maize or yam. And that would serve as our lunch for the day. Sometimes, we could get caught and severely caned. But most times, we had our way, because the farmer would notice the premature harvest another day.
For those of us who were always unlucky and got selected by the leader for the theft and yet we always got caught by the farmer, we carried the stigma till date as “thieves”. It was a great way of distracting the farmers to get our lunch, but the victimization and subsequent stigmatization was another issue. This must have been 23, 22 or 21 years ago – between the 2000 general elections and the Dagbon crisis in 2002. Yet, some of us still carry the label by mostly our naysayers. That’s why it’s dangerous for anyone to allow himself or herself to be labeled as a thief simply for any form of joke or distraction by anybody (leaders, politicians).
Fellow Ghanaians, the Cecilia Dapaah’s “money laundering ” saga has been nothing but a political distraction, and the people who agreed to be used to do it would soon carry the stigma the rest of their lives, including the minister herself.
You see, it was William Shakespeare who said that, “the robbed who smiles steals something from the thief.” And former President Obasanjo of Nigeria observed that, “Nigeria is the only country where a thief would steal and is the first to go to court again. But methinks in Ghana the thieves are the first to accuse innocents of thievery and are the first to report to the police. In a lump sum, Henry George’s attempt to explain what Shakespeare said in connection with former President Obasanjo’s lamentations, averred that, the three ways to make money as an individual is either by work, gift or thievery. He however lamented that, the obvious reason why the workers (citizens) get so little is that the beggars and the thieves (gov’t officials) have gotten so much. And the Cecilia Dapaah’s “money galore in our bedroom” saga, is an eloquent testament to this.
On his part, Murat ildan suggests politicians are the known thieves in any society. For him, instead of the politicians, the monkeys be made to govern; at least they would steal only bananas. Aesop agrees, when he asserts that the petty thieves are hanged and the significant ones – many politicians – are left to occupy public offices. And Israel Ayivor thinks an atomic bomb should not have been constructed to destroy nations. That, politicians who value their pockets more than the lives of their citizens are worse than the atomic bomb. Because they kill their citizens on a large-scale daily. Everyone is negatively affected in one way or the other. Hunter Thompson sums up everything as an advice against being stupid again amidst being a victim of thievery. According to him, “in a world of thieves, the last sin anybody can commit is to be stupid”. (Now, this is a kind of literature review in an opinion article, not academic, and it is not expected to be forwarded to thesis supervisor for marking. Hence, no references captured and that can’t render the work a plagiarized piece of writing)
Fellow Ghanaians, by and large, in our political experimentation of late, we have been unable to heed to this priceless and timeless piece of advice by Hunter Thompson. And Cecelia Dapaah and her thieving government, the NPP, have actually downplayed our intelligence and have sought to literally declare war on our commonsense with the latest developments in respect of thievery within government circles. Thus, we have been treated like some zombies and a nation bereft of common sense.
In July 1979, former President Jimmy Carter of the United States of America delivered his famous speech of “Crisis of Confidence” amidst the unfolding energy crisis he believed was accentuated by social, political, economic crisis and indecencies.
The political indecency in particular, was adjudged to be the mother of all the other crises to be exact – the foreign policies of the US government, especially the Vietnam war, cast a very evil shadow upon the USA in the aftermath of the war and drove it into an island of countries triggering a huge response of lack of confidence in the USA leadership by citizens. A situation that kept the USA descending into the dark books of history. There was the need to restore hope and confidence in the citizens, and most specifically, the capabilities of the leadership of Uncle Sam for its lack of confidence.
Fellow Ghanaians, unless we are really a nation of jokers or some collectible bunch of idiots, it is obvious that there’s a serious “crisis of confidence”, and even competence going on in the current government of the NPP. And the government has been quite desperate to rescue that decaying situation. A reason why Cecelia Dapaah was chosen to craft a Cock and Bull story of theft case at her house to save that situation. And the incident itself has created another suspicion and crisis of confidence within the country.
So far, from the claims by the minister, it’s quite obvious that it’s not true there was such cases of theft that happened at her house: the NPP needed to cover up some sensitive issue that has the proclivity of destroying their party. The political brand of their expected presidential candidate – Dr. Bawumia – was under attack.
Now, it’s so interesting that the government could easily divert Ghanaians attention in such a jiffy about that unfolding issue. The compelling questions anyone must raise to expose the fact that madam Cecilia had something fishy under her sleeves for reporting herself to the police are as follow: 1. How come that madam Cecilia decided herself to report a theft case that would expose her own theft issues, almost one year later? 2. Didn’t madam Cecilia know that, for reporting a case involving a huge sums of money such as what has been discovered could trigger suspicion and for which reason, she must have hidden the rest of the money from investigators? 3. Why did madam Cecilia not told by her government that there’s going to be a follow up search in her house hence the need to hide the rest of the money? 4. Is there a CCTV footage of how the ladies left the house with that stealing cash? 5. And judging from the quick comments by the president regarding her integrity even before the subsequent cash was discovered not send a message that it was a well rehearsed plan?
The question now is, what did the government want to divert the attention of citizens from and which gravity and magnitude was too heavy that the reputation of the minister and her government and that of the so-called house helps, could be dragged in such a wicked mad and sacrificed in order to be carried out? Fellow citizens, the answer is that it was to safeguard the identity of Dr. Bawumia which surfaced and suggested that the Veep is “I am Not Yvonne Nelson”. That is, the circumstances surrounding his birth which makes Dr. Bawumia an illegitimate son of his father, if it’s true, has cast a big shadow over his integrity and credibility since he has never mentioned it and has chosen to present himself as legitimate even though some of his supporters, and “mallams” who are also deemed as illegitimate, are calling others out for their illegitimacy.
The implication of this is that, if it turns out to be true, Dr. Bawumia’s credibility would be highly questionable as we may not know whether his so-called economic degrees and pedigrees are also accurate. Again, in our African soil, it’s a serious taboo for a woman to legitimize her illegitimate children born out of wedlock, especially if the children were conceived outside the union of matrimony with other men for the husband to take care of. This is very serious taboo in our African context and can invoke the curse of the God upon us. While we believe Dr. Bawumia’s case must not have been about a woman giving a pregnancy to the wrong owner, however, does Dr. Bawumia’s case of pretending to be legitimate son of his father has some dire consequences to do with our economic woes? If his economic qualifications are right and correct, why are Ghanaians suffering this economic mess under such a most talented economic manager? Is it because he has pretended to be a legitimate son when he is not? Must Ghanaians give him the nod to continue as their president and economic manager despite the mess caused by these blatant violations of local taboos? And if he doesn’t confess this or contradict it, would Ghana continue to experience this economic turbulence under him if he becomes president?
Fellow Ghanaians, this is what the NPP have realized is coming and have decided to perpetuate this false identity of Dr. Bawumia for the public so that no one gets to spotlight the highly possible genuine reasons why Ghana is struggling today like this. Because, a damning revelation like this would have triggered the most disastrous electoral consequences even before the 2024 general election is held.
As a result, the last few weeks since this anomaly about the Veep came under the scanner, the president and the NPP have been looking for a political distraction to divert public attention from X-raying the legitimacy or otherwise of the Veep and their next flagbearer. Hence, the desperation to wash a different dirty linen of the government in the public by Cecilia Dapaah in order to prevent the citizens from knowing whether Dr. Bawumia has been an economic, a political and social, or legitimate imposter or not. And the consequences it may portend for the country is greater if Dr. Bawumia is allowed to continue without confessing to Ghanaians but continues to pretend.
This is indeed a crisis of confidence challenge to the government. Thus, our economic woes are not only generated from mismanagement and corruption alone, it’s as a result of a very bad omen because we have a man who is supposed to be known as illegitimate child masquerading and deceiving us as legitimate, if that is true.
As a student of religion, both the Qur’an and the Bible as holy Books of Muslims and Christians detest adultery. While both religions do not despise children from adultery, they resist any attempt to disguise. And God is ever ready to expose their identity if attempt is made to disguise even if an economic turmoil is to befall the people.
My advice is that we must never allow ourselves to be held by the jugular vein by people who can’t be honest with us.
Let Dr. Bawumia come clear on the matter. Ghana can’t risk the wrath of God because of the maniacal ambition of desperate citizens to lead at all cost.
