Friends, time and time again some of us are becoming more and more convinced that God is indeed a Ghanaian. We are definitely a dear people to the Most High. If you look at our history; how we begun from a collection of kingdoms and chiefdoms, and how we led the fight for the emancipation of the African people and inspired a million Africans to demand their own freedom, one can only conclude that we are an ‘elect’ nation. God has had a special purpose for this country. And it is surely borne out of good thoughts. He has chosen us as His ‘elect’ to set the pace and chart a noble trail for all peoples of African descent to follow. We were the first nation in Africa to demand our right of independence from the colonialists. We were the first nation in Africa to link our own destiny with the collective destiny of our African brothers and sisters when Nkrumah declared “the independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of Africa!” We knew that in numbers we would be a powerful people. We were also the first nation in Africa to have a well-developed civil service and an advanced educational system. In fact, our educational system trained leaders for many of our sister nations including our next door neighbor, Nigeria. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the man who led Nigeria to independence, was educated in our country.

Today the Almighty has redeemed us from the yoke of captivity. He has redeemed us at a cost so dear. We went wayward as a country. We did not fully fulfill our destiny. In 1957 when Dr Nkrumah proclaimed our country as “free forever!”, only the sky was the limit. But sadly, Nkrumah became consumed by his own importance. He thought and believed that he was indispensable in the fight for the unity of the African people. He was convinced that it was his destiny to lead our continent to become one nation. So he proclaimed himself ‘President-for life’. But he failed to realize that God has a billion and more ways to work His own plans. That before the Almighty no mortal being is indispensable. So sadly, Nkrumah became a demigod. In fact, he became so much consumed in his own importance that he assumed deity to a lot of people and set out to create institutions that indoctrinated our youth to believe that he was immortal, that he will never die, that he could perform miracles. He then began to suppress our rights via the Preventive Detention Act (PDA). But our people are a proud and noble people.

The average Ghanaian is born with an innate nobility which is revealed in all his ways. We are calm and collected. We think deeply about issues. We value our God-given rights: the right to freedom of speech and movement. We also value our right to pursue happiness in our own way without unnecessary intervention from the central government and we do not like to have these rights toyed with. The history of our forefathers has shown us that we have always resisted dictatorship. We resisted the Brits militarily successfully when they tried to conquer our country. So that which they could not by force win, they won by adopting subtle and canny methods offering the olive branch to our chiefs and uniting with them to rule us by proxy through our own chiefs; i.e. indirect rule.

So all in all, we resisted Nkrumah when he became a dictator and since then all dictatorships have been resisted however long it took to be successful. Truth surely triumphed over falsehood. Righteousness over evil. Today we celebrate 50 years of our independence. Our country is at the forefront of the democratization of the African people. Our people have all the freedom that is their God-given rights. We do have a God-fearing leader in this country. A leader who freely offers himself to be subjected to criticisms and insults from his own people, in the hope that democracy will be deepened and entrenched in our land. To appreciate the humility of Mr. Kufuor all one has to do is to take a look at his or her own life and how they handle criticisms and insults. Many of us will be found guilty of responding to criticism or insults with physical assaults. That kind of spirit of humility and deep tolerance which our President has is from God! We pray not for another, but we as a people have had so many “hand I known’s” that we ought to open our eyes and appreciate what which we now have else we will regret when we lose it. When Kofi Abrefa Busia devalued our currency knowing that a devalued currency would stimulate exports and earn more foreign exchange for the country, some of us foolishly resisted him. Now we know that he was in the right and we were wrong. When he concentrated his development agenda to the rural areas, he was not allowed to implement his plan but was removed from office. Decades later we realize he was so right! Hence, the massive rural development that’s currently ongoing in our country. It’s time we appreciate what is right whilst we still have it.

We have one of the best leaders our country has ever known in office today. Millions of kids are being educated via the Capitation Grant which in its first year of implementation alone enrolled 600,000 of our children in primary schools. Children who would otherwise have been hawking our streets. Hundreds of thousands of our children are receiving supplemental nutrition at our schools through the School Feeding Program. The plan is to extend this School Feeding Program to all our children in public schools. Today, basic education is totally free with the full implementation of the FCUBE (Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education) which our constitution guaranteed to our children but which was never implemented and had to wait till Kufuor was sworn in. Today school children can ride free of charge on state-owned buses – the mass transport buses. Every district is being given one fully modernized secondary school with all the necessary infrastructure that goes with it. Go to our villages, and you’ll be impressed with the number of development projects that are in the works there. Streets are being tarred and built. Potable water is being provided. Our people no longer have to die because of Cash-and-Carry. They have a National Health Insurance program that is fully functional in most areas of the country. Our economy is growing faster than ever. Our currency is so stable that our Central Bank is now convinced that the time is right for us to drop some zeroes from our currency. Our nation’s foreign exchange reserve, which stood at $200 million dollars after 20 years of dictatorship, now stands at over $2.4 billion in only 6 years of good governance. And the list goes on and on. Now who says true democracy is bad and does not pay?

Is Ghana worse than it was 6 years ago? Well, you break the country down into its various sectors and see for yourself. I bet you, you’ll never be more proud as a Ghanaian. We are definitely on the right course, and there should be no going back. The Education system is way better. Teachers have had a 437% pay increase since 2001 when Kufuor came to power. Teachers who earned 3.2 million cedis in 2000 today earn 17 million cedis. With the cedis being very stable, this increase in teacher’s salary is real and very significant. Could a retrogressing nation afford this, as our detractors would have you believe? Today FCUBE is in operation. School Feeding Program is growing and expanding. Free Bus Rides on the Metro Mass Transport is working. The Education Reform is to be implemented starting September 2007. The academic schedule is running smoothly without any interruptions via strikes at our universities. Student loans have been increased to help the not-so-fortunate to educate him or herself. The infrastructures of our academic institutions are being developed. Our educational system is definitely better today than it was 6 years ago! What about the Health Sector? Strikes are less frequent than before. Cash-and-Carry is gone and buried. National Health Insurance is working and thriving and saving human lives. Hospitals and clinics are being built and equipped. In terms of democracy and the rule of law: Ghana has never had it better than now. Need I say more on this? In terms of infrastructural development our nation is on the right path. Highways are being built left and right. Streets are being expanded and paved. Bridges are being built. In 6 years, two brand new stadiums at Tamale and Sekondi are being built and two old ones (Ohene Djan and Baba Yara) are being completely rebuilt from scratch to modernize and expand them. In terms of national pride, until recently one of our own headed the United Nations, one of our own heads ECOWAS, one of our own is now the head of the African Union for at least one year. Our beloved Black Stars have never been better than now. Is this a country in crisis as our detractors would have you believe? Why would you allow yourself to fall for the propaganda of men who have no spirit of truth in them, men who have long made a pact with the devil? Wake up and live, people!

Now in a February 7th, 2007 interview with Orla Ryan, a journalist of the international media organization, Reuters, this is what the Devil Incarnate, the god of the NDC, Jerry Rawlings said about our country, “There is nothing as far as I am concerned to celebrate on our 50th anniversary…” Hmmm? And this was coming from a man who had almost half of our 50 years-post-independence to himself? If there’s nothing to celebrate after 50 years of which he had absolute power for 20 years, ‘Na whose fault be that? Na who cause am?’ But why does the Devil Incarnate say that? ““…because the freedoms that were unleashed as a result of the revolt (in 1981) and the creative energy, they have been destroyed," Rawlings told Reuters in an interview.” Oh naa so? Nna waa o! Either Rawlings is mentally deranged or it’s just the devilish spirit in him on display. For it is only a satanic spirit that would cause a man to see the righteous as evil; the good, bad; the positive, negative. How else can one explain this? Friends, otan ewor hor yi, efiri dompem mu ampa! (Hatred is a deep and malignant cancer which eats the entire fabric of the person who harbors it). For how on earth can he call his killing of our own citizens ‘freedom’? How can call the suppression of the press or media under his rule be ‘freedom’? How can he tell the Appiah-Menka’s, the Siaw’s, the Dr. Addison’s, the Sarfo-Adu’s that it was ‘freedom’ that made him destroy their businesses?

He went on further to state "If they had continued from where we left off, Ghana would be flying so sky high". In other words, Kufuor should not have lifted the Criminal Libel law with which he (Rawlings) used to incarcerate the likes of Kweku Baako Jr, Kofi Coomson, and Tommy Thompson (who died as a result of Rawlings’ persecution). Kufuor should have also signed on to his (Rawlings’) “shit-bombing” campaign and waged a “shock and awe” war against media houses that dared resist or disrespect him. If Kufuor had, like he (Rawlings) did, smeared human excreta at the offices of his critics like Jojo Bruce Quansah “Ghana would be flying so sky high”. If Kufuor had continued suppressing the right to free speech, had not opened himself to the local Ghanaian media and the ordinary Ghanaian citizen via the People’s Assembly, “Ghana would be flying so sky high.” If our little children had been left to hawk items on the street and had not been enabled to pursue education via the implementation of the FCUBE and Capitation Grant, “Ghana would be flying so sky high.” Such nonsense! Yes, truly “grey hairs alone, does not make a wise man out of a born fool!” And “a monkey is a monkey whether in coat or not.” Rawlings would forever be evil whether we like it or not. He will forever be the Devil Incarnate.

Hear him again as he “spoke with passion, sometimes incoherently, and frequently gesticulated about the government's failings,” “"The water in my toilet tank is much cleaner than the water that the majority of our rural folk are drinking." I see. So what sort of water were our rural folks drinking when the Devil Incarnate was in power? Purified water? Were our people in the rural areas drinking bottled water till Kufuor came to power, then he banned them from drinking the purified water and offered them water that is worse than that which is found in the Devil’s toilet tank? How many water dams and water purifying plants did the Devil build in the 20 years he was in power? Or is he saying that those boreholes he gave to some of our rural folks have been shut down by Mr. Kufuor? Does he know that in all his 20 years in power he never tried to build any water system for our people in the Northern Region? All he did was bore holes, bore holes. Bore holes don’t last forever, they dry up with time. Why does he ignore the fact that it is this present government which is constructing a water system at a cost of over 40 million dollars for the Northern Region? Our people have drank from the same source of water, except that more and more people have also being given access to potable water. So to insult our rural folks in this manner before an international media, whose reportage is picked up by various news outlets is an insult to every true Ghanaian. How can he disrespect us so much! And to think that even that water in his toilet tank with which he ‘rubs in our face’ is being paid for by us, for he spends neither a penny nor a pesewa to pay for any utility. The same rural folks he is disrespecting are the ones who pay for this water in his toilet tank. How uncultured he is!

So why does he chronically insult the sitting president and work overdrive to ensure that political tension remains high in the country? "From a tactical point of view, I would not be so stupid as to give them the opportunity to enjoy a so-called reconciliation with Rawlings." I see. So Rawlings the one who committed genocide against our people, terrorized our citizens for decades, committed injustice against hundreds of thousands of our citizens, yet indemnified himself against prosecution whilst always crying for justice, would not want to be reconciled with the Ghanaian people. He takes us for fools. We are all stupid before him. He can kill, maim, destroy us, then ask us to vote for him and his people because Ghanaians are so stupid. Like Charles Taylor of Liberia, he is bold to campaign “I killed your parents, stripped your mothers and aunts naked on the streets and whipped them, I destroyed your businesses, yet I ask you to vote for me or my poodle.” How disrespectful! So to him because Ghanaians are so stupid he would work over-time to maintain unhealthy political tension in the country. Only a devilish spirit has no appreciation of peace and tranquility. Our God will save us from the Devil Incarnate. He came by the barrel of the gun, murdering innocent citizens, yet when his cup was full, God used the power of the thumb (kokromoti power) to remove him and his worshippers from power. Our God is good!

“When Rawlings took power, eight generals, including three former military rulers, were executed. Middle class witch hunts and business and property seizures forced many into exile. But he has no regrets. More would have died if the generals had not been killed, he says, such was the public "craving for blood".” – Reuters. Ghanaians were not craving for more blood. Rather, the Devil Incarnate who seeks to maim and destroy incited the evil passions of our citizens to follow his lead. Forensic psychologists would tell you that once a criminal has ‘tasted human blood’; once he has killed a person he always craves for more. After ‘drinking’ the blood of our citizens by murdering them, he craves for more blood. Until we forever ‘kill’ and bury him in the abyss of political history, he and his bootlickers alike, Ghana will forever face the threat of blood thirsty hoodlums vying for power to murder its citizens again. In the jungle, once a lion or tiger, or any wild animal kills a human being, it is generally known that that animal will kill again if given the chance. Hence, that animal is often tracked down and killed. Until we throw Rawlings and his NDC idolaters and murderers into political oblivion, by voting against them, and decreasing their minority status in parliament and replacing them with the CPP or some other third-force party, we would still have that human-killer amongst us. We ought not to literally take his life. That would be a grievous sin against God. For vengeance is the Almighty’s. We ought to use the power of the thumb to silence and in effect ‘kill’ his party and all those who belong in that satanic temple called the NDC.

Victory belongs to our Lord. For even after all the devilish things he said about our country the Reuters reporter wrote “Since giving up power in 2000, Rawlings has been a fierce critic of President John Kufuor's government, under which Ghana has earned a reputation for political stability and steady economic growth, earning plaudits from world leaders.” The whole world and every objective person knows that Kufuor’s government is one of the best, if not best that this country has ever had, except those who belong in the house of the devil.

PS: For the original version of the Reuters interview please see: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07300465.htm

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