Opinions of Sunday, 17 January 2016

Columnist: Damptey, Daniel Danquah

Mr. President, do not swim against the current!

“In the art of life, every man must be a self starter. We cannot wait for lucky breaks. We cannot demand our cheers in advance. To sit down idle and wait for the propitious moment when fate will smile upon us is to court personal disaster”.
Should Ghanaians sit down to be fooled by green grass? Definitely the answer is “no”. Co-incidentally, the ruling party has catalogued its so-called achievements in a book which it has been christened “The Green Book”. This book has become a sort of Mecca and reference point for all NDC apparatchiks. It is similar to Arthur Kennedy’s “Chasing the elephant into the bush”. These two books are full of misrepresentations, distortions, falsehood and blatant lies.
Come to think of it. Wasn’t it their leader and President of Ghana, late Professor Atta Mills who propounded the “Dzi wo Fie Asem” Mantra that sent the country into obscurity and oblivion? A friend of man translated literally, to mean “eat your house matter”, amidst a great deal of laughter. Mills mantra is similar to that of Mao Tse Tung’s policy of shutting the doors of China to all foreigners. The United States had earlier on adopted the policy of isolation and non interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Latter events were to compel the country to review that policy. Late President Mills cannot there lay claims as the originator of the “Eat your House Matter” mantra.
Let us go back into history. You will recall that when ECOWAS decided on the use of force as the last resort to flush out the illegal government of Laurent Gbagbo from power, late President Mills who had earlier endorsed the agreement returned home only to repudiate the agreement which he had earlier on endorsed.
At that time all the top men of the NDC who today are singing the Alleluia chorus for bringing two criminals to Ghana were full of praises for the late President. They touted his credentials into the highest heavens and described him as the best thing to have ever happened in the country. They stated that late President Mills had saved Ghanaian soldiers from being slaughtered in Cote d’Ivoire. They further said that if Ghana joined forces with ECOWAS to flush out Gbagbo from Cote d’Ivoire, our citizens and our interests both within and outside might be targeted by forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo.
But today, less than four years after the demise of the former President under mysterious circumstances, the NDC has made a u-turn and gone to beg the United States to send two of the worst criminals being detained in Guantanamo to be sent down to Ghana, obviously for peanuts.
What has happened? With this singular act, the Nefarious Destructive Cancer has desecrated the memory of late President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills. In essence they have denounced the late President as an insincere and uninspiring leader who doesn’t have to be remembered in our history and statute books for anything. This is the greatest sacrilege of the century. Indeed, the NDC as apolitical party has put a nail on the coffin of our late President. It is tantamount to the greatest desecration of his name and all that he stood for.
The late President might be turning in his grave for this singular act of betrayal by people he had trusted who turned out to be wolves in sheep skin
President Mahama’s emphatic statement that the two released detainees are innocent of the crime they were accused of because they were never tried, nor convicted will make him a laughing stock amongst the comity of nations. What does he know about international diplomacy and terrorism? I am ashamed that my own President could come out with such and infantile statement which does not portray him and the rest of his Cabinet as being on top of issues.
We are talking of international terrorism and not about petty thieving. Let the President answer this question. Was Osama bin Laden tried and convicted in a normal Court of Law before the American sniffed the life out of him? The detainees were arrested after an exhaustive investigation process. Why didn’t they arrest every Yemeni they found? Their arrest was made after tracking them down with sophisticated devices for long periods of time. The president should not dabble into unfriendly terrain where he knows nothing of. Left to me alone, he should fire all those who briefed or ill advised him into make that unguarded statement. They should not be given any award for common sense because they failed the president and the country at the most critical moment in the nation’s history.
Have Government and the BNI accepted responsibility for the pregnant woman who died in the BNI Cells a few years back? What happened to the operatives who were interrogating her? Have the operatives been apprehended or reprimanded? Nothing of that sort has happened. And the President went off tangent to state that the detainees were innocent of the crime which they were accused of. What do the President and his Mismanagement Team know about international terrorism? Nothing!
Let it be said here and there that it was International pressure on the United States that was paramount in the decision to release the criminals and nothing more.
Hush, Government and its Mismanagement Team are plunging us deep into Golgotha and Armageddon. That will be our eventual destination. We have been there before and nobody is ever going to convince me that the decision to accept the two detainees will ever bring us any good. The only “positive” thing that will accrue from that diabolical plan is that some unpatriotic scoundrels will smile their way to the banks. You want to bet?
Readers will recall that the Nefarious Destructive Cancer had made the issue of finding the killers of Yah Na and Issah Mobilla a campaign issue. When the NPP was leaving office after losing out in the December 2008 Presidential Elections, it handed over to the NDC three security personnel, who had been implicated in the death of Issah Mobilla,
What happened after is something we cannot say because “you and I were not there”. We woke up one morning to be confronted with the news that one of the culprits had escaped from lawful custody. And this information came to us almost six months after the culprit had made good his escape. Haba! How is this possible in a high profile murder case, one might ask? It sounds unbelievable but it is true.
What assurances is President, John Mahama who has relegated to the background the “Dzi Wo Fie Asem” (Eat your House Matter) mantra of his predecessor giving to Ghanaians that none of these international criminals will be allowed to escape from our prisons? If an ordinary Ghanaian murder suspect could escape from our prisons with ease, I shudder to think what would happen when two freed Guantanamo detainees, who are well versed in international terrorism, are placed under our custody? Will our security capos, not turn the other way and even show these detainees the escape route?
And you know that under the Nefarious Destructive Cancer with John Dramani Mahama at the helm of affairs, anything can happen. My brothers and Sisters, these are my genuine fears.

The words of our elders are words of wisdom. The wise man hears and gets s wiser. Mr. President and the cohorts in the Nefarious Destructive Cancer should please cool their heads. They cannot invent God and overthrow the world tomorrow. There have been their betters who tried this feat and failed. They should not suppress nor intimidate the masses with their threats of mayhem because they are not sure how long their power to ferment trouble will last. We live in a wonderful world, where the unexpected can happen at any time,
Man is not all that sufficient! Mr. President and the Nefarious Destructive Cancer should take note of that.

The past cannot be changed. But we must work through the Present in order to shape the Future. I stand as a link between the Present and the Future.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (damptey_daniel@yahoo.com)0243715297
Self -Appointed Special Aide to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo