What Is The Name Of This Game? Part 2: The Saga Of Amina!!

To recap Part One:
The President promises at his swearing in on January 7, 2009, that among other things, he was going to ensure that “No Ghanaian should live in fear of armed robbery…”
In the President’s effort to get the Police to support his agenda, he had promised the Police a new housing scheme. The salaries of the police have been bettered. According to the Police, armed robberies have been ‘reduced’.
However the citizenry still ‘live in fear’ because the armed robbers are now making ‘dangerous demands’ on their culprits. They are abusing their culprits sexually and even at times asking ‘captors’ to do same amongst themselves (sometimes fathers with daughters).
A mother-of-three, Amina, reports on several FM stations that a bus she had been travelling on had been attacked, and the passengers subjected to this type of forced sex and orgy. For some reason, President Atta Mills invites the Police IGP and some of his leading men to the Castle. Amina is subsequently arrested and put behind bars.
Now the continuation of what I have called: The Saga of Amina.
Why has Amina’s case gained such prominence?
The President’s Viewpoint:
Here I want to outline some of the possible reasons the President may have had for inviting the Police:
• As the father of the nation he was appalled by the report. He wanted to encourage the Police to do everything within their power to resolve the problem;
• He wanted to express a righteous indignation against the ‘abomination’. Kind of saying: “No, this evil must not be done in Ghana under my godly leadership”. Obviously he has been made to believe that: “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan” (Proverbs 29:2). He surely counts himself righteous. But this promise will define “the righteous” as ‘those who organize their nations well; are fair minded; make good laws; and implement them firmly without fear or favor. Obviously ‘not those who demonize sections of their communities and make the rulers and their supporters untouchables’.
• He was very worried that he was failing to deliver the promise he gave at his Swearing-In; and wanted to shift the burden of fulfilling his promise on the Police. He may have been saying: “Mr. Policemen, why are you failing me? Why are you bringing me to shame?”
• He and those in his Kitchen Cabinet had concluded that this was a fine opportunity to once again point to the NPP as being the driving force behind all these wicked orchestrations.
The Police Viewpoint:
Obviously they felt embarrassed. It seems they were losing the war against the armed robbers and their highway counterparts. They had tried and have been trying. But they know that they may not be fully equipped to completely halt the menace. And yet they know that they cannot tell the President the cold facts. So what do they do? How can they assuage the fears of the President and continue being in his good books? Could the following have been part of their strategy to calm down the President?
• The incident did not happen at all. Amina is telling a lie. And we shall prove this subsequently;
• Amina may not be acting alone. She has been coached by some individuals or organizations (maybe opposition political elements) to say things that will bring the government into disrepute;
• We shall arrest Amina immediately and embark on investigations to expose her as a criminal or maybe mentally unstable person;
The NDC as the ruling political party also wades into the debate. Allotey Jacobs, one of the most ardent spokespersons and media-personalities of the NDC comes out openly to say something to this end: “Amina has been coached by the NPP to lie and to discredit the government of Atta Mills. They did it to Kwame Nkrumah, and are doing same to Ofarinyi Kwaegya”. Almost every NDC voice on the airwaves or in the newspaper or television has sung and repeated this mantra.
Amina was arrested and kept in the Police cells beyond the mandatory 48 hours. Amina is then sent to the Court, and surprisingly he is remanded and sent back to custody. Her lawyers make an appeal and she is granted bail. But she is kept in cells for over four additional days, because of technical details in effecting the bail. She was supposed to appear in court on Tuesday November 9. Amina and her lawyers were in court; but the state prosecutors were nowhere to be found. The judge therefore had to adjourn the case.
Meanwhile there have been at least three men who have come up to confirm the incident. They have said that they were on the Amina bus; that they were forced to indulge in sex with their fellow passengers; and that they were ashamed to put this in the public domain- except for the fact that Amina is suffering unduly for speaking the truth.
Interestingly, the driver of the bus has denied that there was any rape on the bus. He admits that his bus was shot at by highway robbers; but that he sped through the barrier the robbers had raised on the highway. Other people who claimed to be on the same bus, including a Dutch national, have all denied Amina’s story.
It has been over a month since this story popped up. And the Ghanaian populace is at a loss as to whether to believe the story or not. We have over one-hundred newspapers and similar numbers of FM radio and TV stations. On the whole government forces are denying the story and the opposition is affirming it. But most of us ordinary Ghanaians are shocked and surprised as to why a simple reported crime should be reduced to this level of Presidential fanfare and partisan political considerations.
As usual I have a few questions for all Ghanaians, including the President:
1. For the President and the NDC: Both President Rawlings and Kufour involved the Police and the Military in national security and night patrols to help better protect the citizenry. Yet they could not eradicate armed robberies and highway robberies.
Why is it so surprising that such things are happening under your leadership? Even in the USA, violent crimes are reported everyday. In what is popularly referred to as 9/11; it was not only the World Trade Tower that was raised down, but even the Pentagon, the Headquarters of the US Army was attacked.
Why do you therefore think that because you are the President of Ghana, such things cannot happen? We appreciate your intentions- but please stop playing God!
2. Mr. President, if you are accusing the opposition NPP for being the brains behind today’s crimes; will it be fair to say that you, Atta-Mills, was at the head of all the crimes that took place under Kufour? Are you an armed robber? In your speech at Bawku recently, you fingered your detractors as those behind crimes in the country. One of your spokes-persons, Alex Segbefia said on Joy FM that it was the NPP you were referring to in your speech. Were you the one who murdered the Ya Na- you were in Opposition then- did you, Mr. President?
3. Is the high-handed manner Amina is being treated meant to send a clear warning to others on the bus not to come up? Is it meant to send a clear signal to Ghanaians to ‘shut up’ and silently suffer within the four walls of their rooms or compounds when they suffer such predicaments as Amina did?
4. Can anything go wrong under our ‘holy and righteous leader’? After all, since he is a righteous man, in the leadership of Ghana; somehow there must be no crimes in Ghana- or?
5. Why has this case been singled out and given such prominence? Armed robbers have raped their victims on several occasions. Armed robberies are happening everyday. There was a lady who called in to a radio station to report of a similar event she was involved with some few years back. She claimed when her husband heard that she had been raped, he never recovered from it till he died.
6. To the women’s organizations in Ghana: Is it very likely that a woman who suffers such an indignity may rather want to keep it to herself than pursue justice in the public domain? If it is so, why are you all so quiet?
7. Ghanaian journalists have surprised me a lot. Here are a few questions for them:

• Do you know that there could have at least been three buses involved with the incident?
• Do you know that the driver of Amina’s bus said there was a bus before him that was shot at; before he got there?
• Do you know that there was another bus that came behind the Amina bus? That this third bus and its passengers accompanied Amina’s bus to the Police station?
• Has any journalist spoken to the driver of the first bus? Did he also report to the Police?
• How long did it take the third bus to catch up with Amina’s bus- before joining them to the Police station?
• Could it be that those in Amina’s bus who have confirmed the story were indeed in Amina’s bus; and that the Dutch girl and the others who have denied the incident were rather in the first bus that was also shot at? Can anybody please check the ticket numbers of the two groups?
• How could we have two different groups giving two completely differing accounts about an event in the same bus? And Ghanaian journalists are unable to help us resolve this ‘riddle’ within the several weeks we have been at it?
Friends whether Amina is right or wrong, I am completely overwhelmed with shock at the posturing of the President, the Police, some radio presenters and their productions, and the low level analysis of even serious issues in this country. What has really muddied the waters of this case is the Presidential involvement and the political spins. Why should a country under the leadership of a Professor of Constitutional Law sink so low in handling a crime whose authenticity could have been easily handled by the Ghana Police? This same President wants all his citizens to know that he is a Christian. Where is Christ in his President’s handling of this Amina case?
The Prophet’s Counsel:
I think that Christianity has sunk to a very low level in our country. Our leaders have surrounded themselves with Religious men, many of whom, to say the least, are ‘False Prophets’. They give false counsel to our leaders. We have ignored the counsel of the sober-minded and theologically astute prophets. Who listens to Cardinal Appiah Turkson; Arch Bishop Palmer Buckle; and several others of their kind; who will not give counsel for gain? So long as our leaders are following religious leaders who are bent on building their earthly kingdoms- and have reduced their churches to appendages of political parties; we will have leaders who claim allegiance to Christ, but are nothing, but glorified hypocrites.
God Save Ghana (GSG)!!!
Prophet Micaiah
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