And Not Kill Themselves For The “Greedy Bastards” Who Bark Like Dogs, But Who Run Away With Their Tails Hidden In Their Legs, Like Them (The Same Barking Dogs), To Seek Refuge In Foreign Countries When War Breaks Up, Leaving The Poor Parents And The Loved Ones Of Sacrificed Youth Alone To Suffer The Agony And Pain Of War.

By Otchere Darko

Reference: “Don’t shed your blood for me – MP”; [Heading of a news report published by Ghanaweb General News of Sunday, 4 November 2012; Source: GNA].

The heading under reference above captured my respect for, and enthusiasm in its author when I saw it; and, accordingly, I wasted no time to open the page to read it. To my surprise, it was made by one “Mr Kofi Frimpong, Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwabre East Constituency, [who] has stated that the December 7, general elections would not be a ‘do and die’ affair.” Why was I surprised?

I was surprised because the MP who allegedly made the appeal to his supporters was an NPP...... a party whose flag bearer (Nana Akufo-Addo) has been heavily criticised, [and rightly so], by the Ghanaian public, but most especially by those who support the ruling NDC, for seemingly calling on the youth in his party to defend their party by ‘all means’, including by means of the infamous “do and die” method of self defence. My being surprised is by no means an indication that I doubt the integrity of Mr Kofi Frimpong. On the contrary, my surprise stems from the fact that Mr Frimpong is probably the only high ranking member of NPP who has come publicly to directly or indirectly condemn Nana Akufo-Addo’s war-mongering rhetoric that did more damage to his chances of winning the presidential election on 7th December than it enhanced them. *Being able to stand up against one’s own party leader when he (the party leader) goes wrong is the greatest mark of courage and political maturity; and therefore one would have expected most high ranking NPP members to have long condemned Nana Akufo-Addo. *The courageous NPP MP should go a step further, though, to convince Nana Akufo-Addo to come public to condemn and withdraw his “do or die” rhetoric; and, thereafter, apologise to the Ghanaian public for using such ‘tough language’ that has the potential to misdirect the youth in his party to do some ‘stupid’ things that he (Nana Addo) might not have meant. Whether Mr Kofi Frimpong will dare, and succeed to convince Nana Akufo Addo to publicly condemn and withdraw his war-mongering “do or die” rhetoric remains to be seen.

The youth of Kwabre East, and of Ghana in general, irrespective of which side of the political divide they belong to, should seriously heed the wise advice of Mr Kofi Frimpong and desist from ever allowing themselves to be used by politicians who have [rightly] been referred to as “greedy bastards” by ‘domfo-kumfo’ Jerry John Rawlings, the man some Ghanaians in the late Nineteen-Seventies and early Nineteen-Eighties used to call “Junior Jesus”. *As a matter of fact, these “greedy bastards” are in all political parties in Ghana. Ghanaian youth don’t need to know these many “greedy bastards” individually. All they need to know is that they (the greedy bastards) exist in their numbers, and are ready to use the youth to satisfy their unquenchable greed. They (Ghanaian youth), irrespective of their party affiliation, must therefore not allow themselves to be bought with cedi and garri by politicians to fight for them. If they “do [fight] and die” for the “greedy bastards” in the various parties, their souls, [that is the souls of the sacrificed youth], will weep in their graves after realising that they (the sacrificed youth) have died for nothing.


Source: Otchere Darko