I vividly remember telling you in this very column about pito music sometime back. President Ogwanfunu and members of his party are the main political actors in this country who gleefully sing pito music at the discomfiture of their fellow citizens. Their compatriots do not enjoy the music because it sounds discordant to the ear.
To refresh your memory, pito music is sung by people who drink pito. They never sing pito music when sober. It is sung when they are drunk and in a state of nirvana. Their only instruments are their empty calabashes, tiny stones and their feet. It only takes one elated drunk to start a song by tapping a calabash with a stone. The rest then join in with pounding feet and discordant voices. It is a spectacle to behold!
It is not exactly what one might call a very harmonious music, but it is as thrilling to the audience as it is entertaining to the singers themselves. One may not even understand the lyrics of the songs. But one thing that is guaranteed is that one would be held spell-bound by the performance of the amateur singers.
It is interesting to note that the latest to join the pito singing group is a Nigerian politician who resides in this beautiful country. He contested the Nigerian presidential election in 2011 and performed miserably. He is the CEO and Publisher of Ovation International Magazine. The man I refer to is Chief Dele Momodu.
I used the word “interesting” because one tends to wonder the business he has in Ghanaian politics. He takes the least opportunity to glorify the incompetent Ogwanfunu government. To him, President Ogwanfunu is the best thing to have happened to this country after President Kwame Okro.
I call Chief Momodu’s campaign for President Ogwanfunu “pito music” because it sounds discordant to the ears of many of my compatriots. The lyrics of his pito music include the construction of Kwame Okro Circle interchange, the Kasoa road project, the Kumasi Airport renovation and the ultra-modern terminal at the Kotoka International Airport. But what he deliberately ignores is the fact that the cost of almost all the projects had been inflated.
Take the Kumasi Airport renovation, for instance. The renovation cost the country a whopping $29 million. Ethiopia, I’m informed, is expanding its airport reach with the construction of three airport runways in three major regional cities, with a capacity to host big jets like B737 at a total cost of $68.5 million. The first being constructed in the southern city of Hawassa cost $22.9 million. The second for another southern city Robe Gobal cost $24.7 million. The third project in the Far North in the city of Shire cost $20.9million. Clearly, each of the three new airports in Ethiopia cost far less than the renovated Kumasi Airport. Tell me the Kumasi Airport renovation had not been inflated and I would tell you thin-looking General Ntomtom is fatter than chubby-looking Chief Momodu.
For sure, the suffering masses cannot dance to Chief Dele’s pito music, when prices of projects are inflated and the extra cowries used in lining the pockets of public officials and their accomplices. The only persons who would dance to his pito music are those drinking pito with President Ogwanfunu or those who get the opportunity to dance to the discordant tune being dished out.
Indeed, we refuse to sing Chief Momodu’s pito music because we cannot endorse a president who sits on the fence as “create, loot and share” schemes are used to milk the country dry. We are not ready for another SUBAH saga, GYEEDAH debacle, “Akonfem” palaver, phantom tree planting exercise, sad SADA story, messy bus re-branding and dubious AMERI deal. We cannot sing his pito music because we are sick and tired of the wanton looting and sheer robbery.
It is almost four years since the Citizen Vigilante revealed the dubious nature of the Embraer jet purchase, which led to the formation of a committee by late Agya Atta to investigate then Vice-President Ogwanfunu. Not even a cough has been heard from President Ogwanfunu on the matter. If Chief Momodu and his ilk care to know, we refuse to sing their pito songs because we don’t need a president whose hands are tainted with corruption.
Unlike Chief Momodu,, who has the financial muscle, the suffering masses cannot afford a generator during “dumsor”. Neither can they afford Chief Momodu’s lavish lifestyle. It therefore makes sense if the masses do not sing his pito music because they see things differently from the way he does.
Chief Momodu can continue singing his discordant pito music. But we refuse to sing along because we know that not even a heavy rain can remove the spots on the leopard’s skin.
See you next week for another interesting konkonsa, Deo volente!