Calus Von Brazi

Very reluctantly have I decided to share this piece with those who love to read this column. I have been informed that some very influential people have started using this column as a gauge to ascertain the thinking within a so-called camp within the NPP. I would not play the ostrich nor would I ascertain that there are no camps within any political party for in all truth, every registered political party in this country contains camps. These camps comprise people of all sorts; influential, not so influential, praise singers, ego masseurs, mischief makers, idea generators, liars, plain thieves and yes, marksmen, the kind that someone was so incensed that my article titled “In the Name of Busia” made reference to. I pose the question for the umpteenth time: does every political party not contain the above listed people, groups and more? It was Dr. K.A. Busia I am told who once said that political parties are like the Techiman market where you find criminals, clergymen, prostitutes, appeasers and the like. Any leader worth his or her worth would display his or her leadership capabilities by managing these numerous interests for the benefit of the wider group. Thus when anybody says he or she has no faction or people in any political party registered under the laws of Ghana in these contemporary times, I am forced to ask whether that person just dropped from the de-planetized planet of Pluto. By the way, are you my dear reader aware that Pluto is no longer recognized as a planet? I hope this question is not also twisted for there is a hidden meaning in my “Pluto is no longer a planet” statement. Now ask yourself, if Pluto, which everybody believes is the 9th planet can be reduced to nothingness, how much more non-celestial bodies such as human beings who have rallied troops against the collective interests of the wider group to which they claim a sense of belonging? Would such people not naturally lose some clout within the group and with it would go any high influence they wielded hitherto? I can already feel the twisting of my statement and the reportage that I am again writing divisive articles, as if telling the truth as painful and bitter as it may be has suddenly become an abomination. I am not yet ready for purgatory so I will simply bypass that by telling the truth no matter whose ox is gored.

MISCHEIF

I smelt mischief when a considerably respectable party colleague of mine went on air and vented what was meant to be attacks on ideas I had put forth within this column. This person, whose father’s unfortunate death made my father drag me to almost every Martyr’s Day celebration even when I did not understand what that was about is someone I considered a friend. I would have thought that the proper thing to do would have been to ask me the basis of my position so as to understand why I take the positions I take on matters pertaining to congresses and conferences of our party. As it turned out, simple anecdotes and euphemisms were deliberately twisted to create the impression that my figurative writing was a code for some untoward acts to be visited upon the persons or personas of more senior members of our party. If my favourite gladiator from the other side Ametor Quarmayne did that, I would have accepted it with relative ease. However, when I see people who should know better quoting copiously from articles I write to buttress flawed arguments, I cringe with amazement for I know that is not the person I know and have so much confidence in as a future leader of this country. I grieved inside, not for the fact that this person who I consider very intelligent would allow himself to be blinded by his preference to the extent of doing what he did. Truth be told, I know that a day would come very soon when I would no longer be a “small boy” or “young man” as they love to call me. When that day comes, I would also be in the same situation that the so-called “big men” are and I would have to generate tons of tolerance for the young men who would also fling such salvoes in my direction. I would bear that with grace, the same way that we watched within our confined space of exclusion while my friend who embarked on the mischief making spree who also went haywire on my persona in order to drive home his point, enjoyed under the diminished order of the immediate past era. At that time, it was fashionable to disregard things that we submitted, be they in the form of research findings, warnings or admonishments. Today, as they say, we are where we are and instead of some embarking on reflection to make sure that we eject ourselves from the unfortunate pitfall of today’s political doldrums, the mischief makers are at it again, sulking at a perceived “loss of face” and heaving self-defeating sighs of angst against the very people who made them gain any prominence within the political echelons of this Land of Our Death. As I keep saying, mischief, retribution and reprisals are not the sole preserve of any faction. To be more precise, anybody is at liberty to respond to any attack in a way and manner that would pacify him or her, provided that the laws of fairness and equal measure are adhered to. In the case of political mischief however, recent events have shown all of us that ‘equal measure’ is as relative as the word relative itself for Ghanaians love to have interest and profitable interest usually becomes the lot of those who by their actions and inactions induce the processes of reprisals with amazing compound interest. I don’t envy anybody at the receiving end of reprisals at all; as a matter of fact, I am inclined to pray for the person’s soul.

GALLERY GAMES

There is a very interesting phenomenon I have noticed around one of my favourite hangouts. Would somebody advice the security operatives who wallow in the mediocre type of eavesdropping to at least buy a drink when they sit at the coffee shop to listen to “young boys” talk about their extra-curricular activities? While at it, would they be advised to put their GOTA phones away? Maybe it is time for Zizi to send them for refresher courses for I sincerely think they are becoming dull and unprofessional. Perhaps, if they had found time to do something meaningful, we shall not be saddled with an Agbogbloshi Albatross by this time. They could also be trailing the mediocre people and characters former President Rawlings talked about, including those braggadocio type deputy ministers who have bought new cars for their girlfriends, the ones that are making previous non-ministerial type girlfriends fume with rage at Kokomlemle when they remember how they funded and supported never employed before non-respectful braggarts. Who said power is not sweet? And who said power cannot be abused? It really is not for the mere fact of playing to the gallery that former President Rawlings has been calling on the sitting president to “shine his eyes” for naturally and as he is wont to do, he keeps his ears to the ground. It is therefore not surprising to some of us that the former President has made his views known, hard hitting as they may be for it would be highly irresponsible of him not to protect the integrity of the party he founded and the future of the legacy he has created. So if President Rawlings finds that some deputy minister who claims Kwabena Duffuor has not paid them goes on a shopping spree at Macy’s in which Ghanaian workers are and actually sit at the till of payment enough to know who is buying what, what do you think he would say concerning people who have been appointed with appointments? Maybe he is only questioning the source of their new found wealth and how it is likely to impact on the perception index both within the party he founded and the wider Ghanaian body politic as well as its ramifications for his party in the run up to the 2012 general elections.

Not so for some people in my party. They want us to keep quiet and pretend all is well. They also think we should uphold their principles, principles we may not believe in but which serves their parochial interests instead of advancing the cause of the collective. Why did I warn about and predict the outcome of the just ended conference so accurately? It is simply because being in opposition, even while my own party was in power afforded me the opportunity to look beyond the ordinary and think outside the box well enough not to believe in the order of ego massaging and bootlicking. Together with a number of like-minded young men, we developed a party perception index (PPI) which allows us to gauge the mood of the NPP at any given time. If we were mischievous, we would have used our now well-honed system to line our pockets instead of putting it at the disposal of the party we believe in. Fortunately we know better and thus can beat our chests even in humility to warn those who just dream of outcomes without working to make those dreams realities. It is this strong affinity to the viability of our PPI that allows us to tell outcomes long before they actually happen. Thus, unlike those who love to be on the airwaves casting aspersions at “young men” and feeding cow dung to their bosses by twisting figures of speech to please their paymasters, we take cognizance of the aspirations of our party people, combine that with ‘ground troops’ and get the outcomes we want. If I was ever a member of the so-called non-existent camp, I would have told them this: that you don’t go on air when you are not on the ground. Big names alone is no longer enough, neither are past glories. What you sell must reflect what the ordinary people who make you hold some titles want and aspire to. You do not hold meetings after congress ostensibly about the expansion of the Electoral College only to make an unexplained dramatic U-turn to oppose that which you, in concert with other defeated flagbearer aspirants worked very hard for. The moment you make that turn, you can only become a prime candidate for mischievous political mischief through which your politics of political gymnastics become manifest to the discerning. In such cases, Jehovah Bara makes sure that you and your coterie of parochial mischief makers are always left confounded. Jehovah Ma’oz be with you now and always!