Opinions of Sunday, 20 April 2008

Columnist: Ahiabor, Kwame

Fallouts From Anloga

I am wondering why Joy FM would also descend so low to join the Daily Guide, Peace FM, Crusading Guide and the others with the kind of partisan reportage they have been subjecting this country to without regard for the truth.

It was 5 p.m. and the news was about last weekend’s GRAND STATE BURIAL OF THE MARTYRS OF ANLO which was attended by Togbi Xornametor Jerry John Rawlings I.

Joy FM’s Agbeko Ben Kofi reporting from Anloga unashamedly wanted Ghanaians to believe that the people of Anloga were disgruntled about the Former President’s harangue in which he referred to Kufour and his Minister’s as thieves and nation wreckers.

According to Ben Kofi, the people were angry with Togbi Xornametor Jerry John Rawlings I, because being a native of Anlo and having ruled Ghana for close to two decades, but unable to bring development to the area, he had absolutely no right to condemn the sitting president in the manner he did.

Subsequently, he placed three individuals on air who expressed such sentiments to delude the public into believing that the people of Anloga were enraged by the tirades of the former President.

To set the records straight, the Former President, Togbi Xornametor’s speech marked the highest point of all activities marking the day. When the former President grabbed the microphone to deliver his speech, there was a thunderous applause and followed by a standing ovation at a point during his speech.

This was in sharp contrast with the boos and the hoots accorded the NPP’s delegation led by my cousin the greenhorn politician, Mr. Edward Kofi Ahiabor, the Municipal Chief Executive of Keta Municiaplity. Indeed, when Ahiabor, who earlier on was nearly prevented from paying his last respect to the dead due to the role he played in aiding the NPP government to murder his own people, was led to the michrophone, many thought it was an opportunity for him to say sorry to the families of the dead and also apologize to the people of Anloga and the entire Anlo state.

Contrary to this expectation, he rather went to talk about how he was in Atlanta Georgia recently on the taxpayers’ pocket. How that benefited the people of Anlo, no-one is able to fathom that yet. The next moment, all I could hear was ‘hoooo! hoooo!! hoooo!!! Ame dorwui, ame runu marifo,’ literally meaning ‘a hungry man who is never satisfied with anything’ and this continued until he disgracefully was led away to find his seat. I felt so sorry for my cousin who is aspiring to contest the Anlo Parliamentary Seat on the ticket of the NPP.

With this development, many observers are forecasting a disastrous campaign for the NPP in the Anlo constituency. The NPP’s already infamy in the Anlo constituency is currently at its lowest ebb and the NPP does not need an unripe politician like Ahiabor at the helm of affairs to turn the tides.

But a critical look at available political alternatives revealed that those capable hands who could come to the rescue to give quality leadership to the people of Anlo are all NDC sympathizers. The only name that keeps coming up within NPP’s inner circle, who could probably replace Ahiabor who, since the incident on the 12th of April 2008, has become aloof and disenchanted about politics altogether, is Mr. Makafui Woanyah, the 2nd Vice Chairman of the NPP in the Volta Region.

The chances of Mr. Makfui Woanyah who is also the assembly member for Lashibi, may look very bright from within the NPP’s inner circle but he will be the NPP’s waterloo in the Anlo constituency if they dare take that foolhardy decision.

‘Makafui Woanyah, a known hoodlum whose profile stinks like a rotten egg would rather aggravate the situation of the NPP in the Anlo constituency,’ a young man who would like to remain anonymous told this reporter.

Makafui as a student at the Zion College at Anloga had to be sacked from school because he was a complete misfit. At the Keta Secondary School where he continued till the ‘O’ level, there were tougher boys who stood up to him. Trailing in all his ‘O’ level papers, he found solace at the Akatsi Training College where he continued with his nonconformist behavior and left without a certificate. As a pupil teacher, he was always A.W.O.L. and when he was around, the headmaster under whom he worked turned into a punching bag.

Then the NPP emerged in Anloga and was unwelcome by the people and that was the opportunity for nonentities like that to become leaders.

Today, he has six private cars and a fleet of properties. Some constituents are even agitating for the Serious Fraud Office to move into action to investigate his source of wealth. So he may not add anything to Akuffo-Addo’s ticket; he is a big minus!

Turning to those three individuals who were influenced with money by the faceless murderers to discredit the speech of the Former President, it is obvious that they will go all lengths to make it look as if the people of Anlo have any problems with the Former President’s speech.

What they have failed to appreciate is that Togbi Xornametor I has never been known be a tribalist who would find dubious ways both covert and overt to promote only his region and place of birth. He distributed the resources of this country on ‘wants and needs’ basis. Many even believe that he did a lot more for the Ashanti region to the neglect of his own region.

But the question is: under whose regime has the Anlo area seen much boost in social infrastructure? The Dabala-Anloga-Keta road was initiated under his regime; the rural electrification project which connected the whole Anlo area and other parts of the country were under his watch; so was the extension of treated water from the Sogakope river to the whole Anlo area; crowning all this was the mighty US$94 million Keta Sea Defence Project from which the NPP government scooped one-quarter of project money for their pockets leaving parts of the work shoddy

Togbi Xornametor stole the show when he was leaving the Hogbe ground on that Saturday. The chant of ‘J.J edor mia wum. Asante Kufour gbe dor nana mi’ literally meaning ‘J.J. we are hungry, the Asante-tribalist-Kufour has been denying us jobs’ could be heard from a group of Anloga youth numbering several thousands who besieged the street to give their message to the Former President.

Kufour and his accomplice gangsters in Anlo should understand that we adore Torgbi Xornametor Jerry John Rawlings I. We are at pains to be reminded by what they did to the late Victor Selorme and are doing to Dan Abodakpi. We can assure them that the people of Anlo will see true justice soon when the reign of a vicious Kufour comes to an end soon. You best can measure the length of a frog when it is dead, very truly dead.

We are aware of the tacit policy of the government to foment trouble in Anlo. Now that their plans have failed and they have been sighted in US security report for being behind chieftaincy disputes in the country, they have resorted to using crooked individuals among us to advance their failed agenda.

Amartey Addo and Digidon and their AK-47 carrying cohorts are still in the area threatening the peace-loving and law-abiding citizens of the area, while the ban on ammunitions in the Anlo area remains in force. Even the 11th and the night of 12th April after the burial of the fallen heroes, sporadic gun-shots could be heard in Nyonyo Atitsogbui’s house.

The police in Anloga have failed to enforce the law. One of them jokingly told this writer that ‘if the Kufour government, so scared of Anlos and their juju’s wanted break your ranks but failed and you can now help him by fighting among yourselves, does he have any duty to protect you? They are happier watching you Anlos massacre yourselves. That is exactly the situation.’

In this regard, it is incumbent on all Anlos, especially residents of Anloga, to take their personal security seriously and forget about the police. They will never offer any protection or play their enforcement role in this matter; and that is exactly how the youth of Anlo were able to coordinate more than 50 000 strong mourners and sympathizers during the funeral rites of the martyrs, and the tax recipient Ghana Police was redundant.

We should all rest assured that MAWUGA SOGBOLISA is on our side and the reigns of a villain like Kufour would soon come to an end and we shall be free in our own land. Just like tyrants like Lumorvi Atitsogbui and Agor Akorli before him.



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