General Oladipo Diya was Deputy to the late Nigerian Dictator, General Sanni Abacha in the early nineties. He was implicated in a coup plot against his boss. He was arrested, handcuffed and taken to the residence of the late dictator at Aso Rock. In the presence of Abacha, Diya knelt down, cried and begged for mercy. He attributed his action to the work of the devil. Whether his cries and remonstrations were genuine or not, I cannot say. But I can say for sure that Diya indeed did weep. Abacha took a tissue paper from his table, gave it to his disgraced Second in Command and told him,” Dipo, do not weep like a baby. Be a man”.
Martin Amidu, until a few days ago was the Chief Legal Officer in the country. His appointment ushered in a new lease of vibrancy at the Justice Ministry for he was a man of action and meticulous in all his doings. But there is one thing nobody could take away from him. He was a Rawlings man to the core. He plunged into serious business and discovered some gargantuan crimes which border on felony against the State. What made the issue quite complicated was the fact that these crimes were committed by ‘gargantuan persons’ within the party. What was he to do? Keep sealed lips and pretend everything was on course or spill the beans and be regarded as a ‘saboteur’ and someone who rocks the boat? In the end, patriotism got the better part of him. He visited people and places, asked probing and gargantuan questions, consulted people, read reports and pierced pieces of evidence together. “
“Eureka! I have found it! Ei, human beings!! How could people be that wicked? I have to clear my conscience and keep my promise to serve the Lord with all my heart. These gargantuan crimes cannot be hidden, and even if I am to hide them, where would I do so? God is watching me. The masses who appointed me deserve to know what crimes have been committed and who the culprits are.”
Martin Amidu went public and became an endangered species and Public Enemy Number One within the NDC. Various attempts were made to destroy and tarnish his reputation. “Lynch him, Destroy him, Hound Him, A Mole, Jail him for Causing Fear and Panic, He’s not a Ghanaian, He’s a friend of Akufo Addo, Rawlings is using him to destabilize the NDC, Deport him, or send him to Nsawam, Sack Amidu with the greatest alacrity. Give him revolutionary justice. Let him spend gargantuan years in prison, He’s a saboteur – He doesn’t deserve mercy. Arrest and him over to Boko Haram”. These were the many utterances one heard at various places, particularly, bus stops, drinking bars and radio/FM stations.
Credible and unimpeachable source told me on condition of anonymity that the sacked Attorney General, had in an encounter with the President the previous week mentioned the names of the colleague Ministers to him but that did not go down with those holding the President hostage at the Castle. The power brokers and pronounced their verdict. Martin would have to go. It was non-negotiable. Thus came to an abrupt end, the Ministerial career of a fine, amiable and professional lawyer, called Martin Amidu.
The Daily Graphic, a State sponsored newspaper went to the ridiculous extent by painting a gory picture of Martin Amidu kneeling or was he prostrating himself before the President. He was crying and begging the President not to sack him but to give him a second chance. The paper said the sacked Minister could not name the colleague Minister involved in the gargantuan crimes against the state. In one breath the paper created the amusing spectacle of Martin Amidu virtually on his knees, crying and begging the President not to sack him just as General Oladipo Diya did before Sanni Abacha. Like Diya, according to the Graphic, Martin Amidu also attributed his misconduct before the President to the devil.
During the hearings at the Justice Oputa-led National Reconciliation Panel set up by Ex President Obasanjo of Nigeria, the tape which captured Oladipo Diya kneeling down before Sanni Abacha and pleading for mercy was replayed. Diya, who was in company of his two wives, was asked how he felt when the tape was aired and his response was “After all, Jesus wept”. And so, dear Martin, there was nothing wrong if indeed you wept before Mills who is touted by his devotees as the most Gargantuan President in this gargantuan World. His sycophants have fanatically and blasphemously elevated the man who chooses to wear a juju ring in place of his wedding ring to the status of a demi-god.
Oh Satan, how could you be so cruel to the children of Adam and Eve? We are mere mortals. Were you not the same ‘devil’ that used guile to deceive our first parents into tasting the forbidden fruit? You, who tempted Diya into trying to unseat his boss, have done a similar thing to Amidu? How powerful you are! You were the same ‘devil’ who made Absalom rise up against David, his father. You were instrumental in the betrayal of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Judas Iscariot. Now, you have done your worst! How terrible you are!
But I have my doubts about Martin Amidu prostrating himself before the President and pleading for mercy. Martin will never condescend to that level. Was he forced to do that as it happened to Oladipo Diya? But in the case of Diya there were video evidence to buttress that fact. But for a credible newspaper like the ‘Daily Graphic’ to engage in the ‘theatre of absurd’ and tell us that Martin was on his knees and pleading with the President not to sack him should give all of us genuine concern.
We are told the meeting was held at closed doors. From where did the Daily Graphic reporter get the information that Martin Amidu was on his knees begging for mercy? Is there a mole at the Castle leaking secret/ and classified information to the outside world? After all, did the bully of a man at the Presidency not ask the NPP to supply Ghanaians with documentary evidence of Akufo-Addo’s meeting with the British Prime Minister during the impasse on Gay Rights? We too demand pictorial evidence of the crying and whimpering Martin on his knees and pleading for mercy.
Martin Amidu knew the repercussions of his public pronouncement on gargantuan crimes committed against Ghana by Mills appointees. It was either he mentioned the name or refused to do same. In either case he would be sacked or forced to resign. He chose the latter option, but not before he had told the President that the issue of payment to ‘Wayo’me had been discussed at Cabinet Meeting and it was the President who directed that the money be paid to the wayo man. So reminding the President of his gargantuan crime against mother Ghana is what is now being misinterpreted as ‘misconduct’. Since when has the sacking of ministers been accompanied by reasons or explanations? How did he misconduct himself when the official version put out by a Government newspaper was that he was on his knees begging? In any other administration, except that of our juju ring wearing President, Martin Amidu would have been commended not vilified! But are you surprised? No, you shouldn’t be! Look at the treatment the Rawlingses are receiving at the hands of the Mills-Ahwoi-Anyidoho’s Triumvirate. Ghanaians should not speak of Justice, for it vanished from our dictionary when we handed over the destiny of the country into the hands of this fumbling and wobbling Triumvirate. Dark days have encircled our collective destiny and Ghanaians must toughen themselves to embrace yet stiffer conditions under this Rehobeam who has publicly vowed to whip us with scorpions. After all, if the bat decides to fly by day instead of night, it is needless to ask if all is well.
Do you remember that Moses Asaga’s ministerial position was put on hold because according to this our Rehobeam of a President, he (Moses Asaga) ordered the payment of ex-gratia to some former MPs without his express approval? Does the ‘wayo’me have a contract with government? If he has, let him produce it. In fairness to all the parties involved, the man at the centre of this gargantuan crime has stated emphatically that he does not have any paper contract signed with the Government of Ghana. Why this hullaballoo in the first place? Was due diligence done before payment was effected?
Asamoah Boateng’s wife did some renovation works at the Ministry of Information. She used her own money to do that. She has not been paid a kobo. Today, she and others are standing trial for causing financial loss to the country. The ‘wayo’me who, I still believe might not be a full blooded Ghanaian never did any work for the country but was persuaded by some top members of the Mills-Ahwoi-Anyidoho Triumvirate to put up a claim (against his better judgement). This man who does not have any contract agreement with the Government of Ghana has been paid such gargantuan amount of poor people’s money is walking the streets of Ghana a free man. How can this Rehobeam at the saddle of power say he could not sack Betty Mould as Minister of Education for paying such gargantuan amount to one person? Is the President telling us the truth? Can the President take the Holy Bible and swear before God, His Maker and all Ghanaians that he knew nothing about such payment?
The President once told us if he had money less than what he has awarded to ‘Wayo’me he would have spent it on roads whose period of completion even God does not know. When alligators eat their eggs, the flesh of frogs means nothing to them. And so those using the Nsawam-Suhum-Apedwa Road will continue to inhale dust into their systems for donkey number of years – All due to the callous, visionless and unprincipled nature of Mills-Ahwoi-Anyidoho Triumvirate.
One aspect of the theatres of absurd has to do with the ‘resignation’ of Mrs. Betty Mould as Minister of Education. You see, when General Sanni Abacha died, the Northern Elders in Nigeria came to the conclusion that”Abiola too must go” the same way Abacha went in order to balance the equation. We learnt Abacha foamed at the mouth, jerked and gave up the ghost. The same sequence was enacted, resulting in the demise of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, ‘93 Presidential Elections. Martin Amidu was sacked and to balance the equation, Betty Mould was also ‘sacrificed’ (sacked). But Betty’s sack was coached in such flowering language so as not to ignite the anger in her, lest she tells the truth, nothing by the truth that it was the President who instructed her not to contest the case in court. Who says man no dey? Man dey kampe! Now as the Americans would say, “Two down, One to go!” Who is next on the line of scrimmage? Kwabena Dufuor. Dear old Kwabena Dufuor, begin to prepare your Hand-Over Notes. Your days in office as Ghana’s Finance Minister are numbered.
From the angle which President Mills and the NDC are pursuing this ‘Wayo’me saga, they want to create the impression that Ghanaians are suffering from amnesia and that the Wayo man is a sacred cow. There is everything immoral in the President instructing his Attorney General and Minister of Justice to pay a whopping sum of our heritage to a ‘swindler’ without contesting the case in court. It is only President Mills, the untouchable demi-god in Ghanaian political circles who sees morality in such payment.
Is it a Godly Act to pay such gargantuan amount to one person and his few cronies whilst the rest of us wallow in abject poverty? Is this the Social Contract President Mills and those misdirecting him signed with Ghanaians? The God Almighty who revealed to Samuel the treachery of King Saul has also given us an insight into the dark and sinister wardrobes of President Mills and his political atavists. And this is only but a tip of the ice berg. It is no wonder that the performance indices of the President have been abysmally poor.
When the lion is hungry, it only thinks of how to get a fellow animal for food. President Mills and the NDC, like the devil, came to steal and destroy. What pragmatic policies has they put into place to better the lot of you and I since coming to power more than three years ago? None! Yet on daily basis, we see and hear on Television and Radio the likes of Allotey Jacobs, Stan Dogbe, Felix Ofosu Kwakye, Peter Otukunor, Dela Cofie, Abbass and a host of the so-called NDC Communication Team insulting us about the good lives Ghanaians are enjoying under this ‘sleeping’ and juju president and that those who have not seen any improvement in their status are either sleeping or deaf, or blind. This, I feel, is the greatest insult of the century. Just because Allotey Jacobs receives more than 1.2 Billion Cedis a month for attending a board meeting of the Electricity Company of Ghana once or twice a month should not make him lose sight of the fact that the greater percentage of Ghanaians live below poverty level with a feeding formulae ratio of 0:0:1 or 0:1:0.
Just because they are enjoying the benefits of ‘Wayo’me gargantuan ‘crime’ against mother Ghana should not becloud their sense o reasoning that it is criminal, ungodly and inhuman to destroy other people’s abode without providing an alternate means of accommodation for such people who Scrooge describes as ‘surplus population’. What happens to the schooling and future of the Ghanaian child born under such circumstances?
It is to this end that I entreat all Ghanaians, Children, Young and Adult, Males and Females, Blacks, and Light skinned, Obolos, Fatty Bum bums and the Atea –Adonkos, irrespective of various Religions, and Political Creed and ethnic background to unite and reclaim our destiny from the hands of the President and his men. They have shown by their various acts of omission or commission, that they do not have our welfare at heart.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the most vilified but charismatic politician in the country today has promised to give Ghanaians a free fee Education up to the SSS Level. Why don’t we buy into his vision? He will not disappoint you. Vision 2012 is on course. Vote Nana! Get Free Education!!

Daniel Danquah (damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297.