We want to remind people in authority that WHEN PEOPLE UNDERSTAND A CAUSE, BECOME PREPARED TO SUFFER FOR THAT CAUSE AND SEE THE GLORY AND HONOUR IN SUCH SUFFERING, IT IS INDEED JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO SUPPRESS THEM OR THE CAUSE THEY STAND FOR (President Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia Shall Be Free).
In just about 24 hours from this moment, as you read this piece, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo will be sworn in as the 5th President of the Republic of Ghana since the Fourth Republican Constitution came into force. I have decided to sit in the comfort of my humble home to watch the event on television. Reasons? I can spare myself the stressful ordeal of having to find a space to park my car, avoid the hustle and bustling of looking for a space in the inner perimeter of the event, and also avoid the shoving and pushing by some overzealous security agents who will genuinely be doing their work to ensure a very successful inauguration. But over and above all, I will be able to resume my leave from mahogany bitters and sip it as I watch the inauguration.
Dear reader, I want to be very honest with you, I also want to hide my tears of both joy and misery, from the prying eyes of members of the public, seeing Nana Akufo Addo being sworn in as the President of the Republic. First, my joy will stem from the fact that this nation is blessed to have a visionary patriot, committed and dedicated to making Ghana proud and prosperous again. A man whose adult life has always been dedicated to ensuring decent and civilized means of governing a nation, with the respect for rule of law as the sub-structure on which the main structure is built, with prudent management of public resources by those who have had the privilege of serving this nation, incorruptible leadership which will ensure the protection of the public purse for the benefit of the majority.
Tomorrow will see the ushering in of a man full of integrity, a man who is not materialistic, a man who frowns on corruption and states publicly that ‘ I am not corrupt, I have never been corrupt, and will never be corrupt’ and nobody contradicts him in his political life. A man who does not need public funds to be able to lead an upper class life if he so wishes, a man who now will have the opportunity to translate his dreams and aspirations for mother Ghana into practical achievements for the good of this country.
My other joy is that the tenacity of purpose on the part of Nana Addo in his bid to hold the highest office of the land, has become an example for the whole nation to learn from, that no matter what the obstacles in life, one is capable of achieving his or her set goals with hard work and an eye on the ball. That the distractions in life, both humanly induced or of natural consequences can only delay the attainment of one’s goals, but they can never abort it and destroy such stated goals as long one has life. Nana Akufo Addo has shown how hard work produces results. He meets the four basic principles for successful life, in my view, of hard work, discipline, honesty and sacrifices. He is a true Christian as well.
What will draw tears from my eyes tomorrow during his inauguration are the fact that he is the most vilified politician in the contemporary history of this nation’s politics, both from within and without. It is normal that even from within, competitors for the same position in a political party will throw some amount of dirt on others, but that some members of the same party will work against a leader of their own political party in a highly competitive elections by so many political parties and a very tough incumbent, is very worrisome. Some, for whatever reason, believed that he was not worthy of being the President of this country.
From the opposition end, a lot of lies and insults as well as epithets, contrary to Akan customs and traditions, were heaped on this man. Accusations and allegations without foundations were heaped on somebody’s son, father, uncle, husband, and friend without a blink of an eye. Young men and women who in their lives have nothing worthy of mention or emulating, congregate at a point, financed by adults without scruples, to plan and rehearse lies to be heaped on this noble son of the land.
He was branded a violent person when there was and still no evidence of him having ever physically hurt any person in this country, his self-confidence, courage and intelligence were defined as arrogance. His bitterest opponents on the other side of the political divide told the world that there is no way this prosperous gentleman will be the President of this country. Virtually saying that for him to be the President of this country ‘stands not within the prospect of belief, no more than to be the {flagbearer}’, but no mortal being, can determine the destiny of any other mortal being. There had been what seemed impenetrable wall built around him by both opposition from within and from without, but patience and tenacity of purpose have totally broken those walls and melted the chains and the artificial shackles moulded as obstructions to his well-intended objectives.
As he walks to the dais to administer the oath of office, what is going through the minds of those who wished him dead and given the opportunity, would have even eliminated him from the surface of this earth? What will be going through the minds of those who had mortgaged their conscience, if they ever had any, for material and monetary considerations to sit on T. Vs and in front of microphones to sing the political dirges of such a gentleman, attributing all manner of sickness for him? How did he ever offend them in their lives? Where did this hatred towards him come from even though they would profess that he is their friend?
Foreign magazines were paid huge sums of monies to denigrate him and assassinate his character, they never saw anything good about him except none existing ills and his weaknesses. He is a human being and surely has his weaknesses, but are they those his opponents and paid agents put out there in the public domain? Local pollsters of dubious character and credibility made paid predictions to meet the planned programme of criminals who had nothing good to offer this country except to loot our resources and drop a few crumbs under the table for those with sycophantic mindsets, blurred eye sights and repetitive cacophonous voices, carrying no inspiring relics, backed by a rhythm of disjointed instrumentation.
A particular Newspaper of very limited circulation and readership made it an agenda to play the Akyems which Nana Addo belongs, against the Asantes when such sour relations do not exist against these two ethnic groupings. That is how desperate their destructive machinery against Nana Addo was, and how they were oiled. They never saw anything good in his policies and programmes for the nation, should he be elected as the President. To them, most of them were not doable. In situations where they turned back to accept any of his policies and attempted to implement them, they messed up.
I will leave the judgement of all those who willfully denigrated this gentleman about to be sworn in as the President of Ghana to the good people of Ghana. To those paid to attack the person of Nana Addo and not his policies, those who acted like Judas in the great NPP, and were paid cowries to destroy not only Nana Addo but our party should be allowed to search their conscience, if they have any, but unlike Judas, should not commit suicide because Nana Addo forgave them long ago.
He has more to do in his mind than to accommodate hatred towards those who have offended him. Those who wanted and made him President are more than those who hated and wanted him down. Hail Him the New King.