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09.10.2005 Feature Article

The Life And Times Of J. J. Rawlings: A Rejoinder

The Life And Times Of J. J. Rawlings: A Rejoinder
09.10.2005 LISTEN

It is very annoying reading Dr Kwame Okoampa's series of disjoinder and meaningless articles written for the purposes of rewrite the history of Ghana, propagate hate, and engage in deceitful proganda aimed at placing useless individuals in our history whose contribution has been to aid in our current economic and political problems. In all the series of article Dr. Kwame had written non of them display the kind of academic and intellectual pedigree of Dr. Prof. Okuampa's acclaimed stature. They rather deplayed him as an over zealous terrorist seeking to destroy Rawlings or anyone associated with him . Any serious observer of Ghanaian politics will not take Dr. Okuapa seriously. In fact his article, despite the huge and sometimes confusing vocabs will not pass a first year journalism class. As Professor and Dictor in no less a field than Journalism, readers of this widely read web page deserve far better matured analysis and understanding of Ghana's history and politics than what Dr. Okuampa has to offering. We readers deserve not just insult and go, paise and pass articles. We need from our intellectuals deep analysis of history, politics ans economics. Nowhere in Dr Okuampa's series did he try to address the genesis of political violence in Ghana. Because he knows that addressing the genesis of Ghanaian coups will expose the very people he praised so much in his other series "the legacy of J.B. Danquah" as the key penchants of democracy and rule of law in Ghana. Anyone conversant with our military interventions will recognise the involvement of key elements of the so-called Danquah-Busia tradition in shamely ousting Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's government while he was away pursuing Ghana's interest abroad. After Nkrumah's overthrow key elements within the Danquah-Busia tradition served in the National Liberation Council military government, including Dr Busia himself as the head of the National Council on Democracy. A position he abused to served his later political ambitions. In one of Ghana's most controvercial election in 1969, Dr. Busia was elected Prime Minister (head of goverment) and Nana Akuffo Addo (the current foreign's father) was also made president. So in Ghanaian politics whenever there is a mentioning of politics of violence and deceit, the Danquah-Busia tradition always comes to mind. It was recently rumoured in one of the Tabloids in the United States that an unclassified CIA document mentioned Dr J.B. Danquah himself as a sleeper agent for the CIA in Ghana working to overthrow the Nkrumah government and. Suffice it to say that the Danquah-Busia terrorist were behind the flag star house bombing, and the Kulungugu bombing that threaten life of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and as result ended up killing many innocent lifes in Ghana. I am not in anyway condoning violence but the lifes of the people killed during the above mention terrorist acts committed by Dr. Okuampa's fore-runners was as precious as those of the judges Dr Okuampa is accusing Rawlings of killing. It is therefore incumbent on Dr. Okuapa as a champion of democracy and rule of law, if his articles are not politically motivated, to at least mention these acts as part of the legacy of the Danquah-Busia tradition. It is important to mention that some of Dr. Okuapa's comments are made to insite ethnic passions in Ghana. For instances as part of what he sees as a failure of the Rawlings regimes was its inability to abolish trokosi shrines in the Volta Region in Ghana. He went ahead to paint a very dark picture of our Ewe brothers by suggest that even Kofi Annan had to disassociate himself with that Region in the wake of his campaign for UN secretary general. He failed to recognise that successive governments in Ghana, including Danquah-Busia ones, had left the practice untouched. Besides Rawlings could not change every single negative traditonal practice in Ghana. At least Dr. Kwame Okuapa should be praising Rawlings for enacting the PNDC law 111, which protect his kids from their ancles and nieces should he pass away intestate. I also think that kind of language he uses against the ex-President is very disrespectful and shameful. It also tells the kind of teacher Dr. Okuampa is. I can not help but only pity so much for the poor students who sit in his class every day.

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