The Dr Percys Of Ghana

GHANAIANS AS a people tend to believe that this nation will never travel down the road of the Liberians, Sierra-Leonians, the Ivorians or any such countries far or close to us.

We tend to trust that we cannot look straight in the eyes of our fellow Ghanaians and butcher them the way some nationals of other countries do to their compatriots. It is very good for any group of people think in that positive manner because the evils that war can bring, peace can never equate in life.          

Ghanaians pride ourselves with the saying that we are a peaceful people. We also falsely believe that God, wherever he might be, loves us so much that he would not want to see us degenerate into the chaos and agony other nations have found themselves in.

By extension what we are saying is that God loves us more than those He watches as they exterminate themselves. That is a complete fallacy.

If this country is in one whole piece today it is not that God or Allah loves us so much, it is because, among other things, we are so docile that we would rather allow nincompoops to roughshod us than stand up to them, so we can create a deceptive calm while we harbour the pains endlessly in our hearts and either discuss the pains in our bedrooms or quaff liquor over the pains to assuage it.  

About a fortnight back I wrote and cautioned Ghanaians and the NDC in particular against picking on some high profile politicians in this country because of their ethnic background.

I gave a few examples which indicated that there have been covert but systematic efforts by some Ewe intellectuals and their cronies in the security agencies who have targeted the Asantis for destruction. Happily, nobody has disputed those assertions because they are factual.

My concern does not stem from any hatred towards the Ewes either, nor is it out of any special love for the Asantis. It stems from my love for this country and my wish, at least in my lifetime, to see a Ghana which is whole, in the midst of our disagreements and differences.

I had quite a number of responses in my mail which indicated that I am not the only person who has observed that trend, except that the docility in us will not allow people who are also not happy to come out publicly to condemn this creeping canker that can set this nation ablaze in future.

Thinking that those Ghanaians who have had the benefit of formal education and can reason better than those of us who completed J.S.S and are struggling to have either three year or four year S.H.S, to check our how far, I came to realize that we should not put so much premium on many of those who throw their arms around with PHDs, WFGs, and XYZs who speak better whiteman's language than their native languages for our salvation and unity as a nation.

They can be the cause of our national disintegration. One of them is a gentleman who calls himself Dr. David Percy. I will come to the name soon.

Last Saturday, the 14th of November 2009, I was traveling to my holy village on the Cape-Three Point road to celebrate one week of the interment of an Aunty.

As usual, I tuned in to Radio Max, which hooks up with Joy Fm in Accra, for the popular Newsfile Programme. Dr. Percy was at his best, running down anything Kufuor and NPP.

That for me is not a problem, but when it came to the discussion of the Golden Jubilee House and its present use, my heart bled.

While justifying the use of the colonial slave warehouse as the seat of government, he did not understand why the Indians should even build a Presidential Palace for use by our President. That once again is not worrying.

His ethnocentric statement which by all intents and purposes is meant to cause disaffection towards the Asantis followed. And that is, the building, I mean the Golden Jubilee House was designed like the Golden Stool.  

In this country, we know that when we talk about the Golden Stool, it is nothing but the stool which history tells us was conjured from the skies by Okomfo Anokye as a symbol of Asanti unity, among others. By implication, Dr. Percy is telling Ghanaians that even the Presidential Palace was designed with Asanti culture and customs in mind.

There could not have been any better display of ignorance of the culture of this country than what was exhibited by Dr. Percy.  

Indeed, with the exception of our compatriots from the three Northern Regions, whose traditional authorities sit on the hides or skins of animals, the traditional authorities of the rest of this country sit on stools.

Dr. Percy, this is the reason why in the three Northern Regions, Chiefs or Nabas are EN-SKINNED while down south, the chiefs are EN-STOOLED. Repeat after me; enstooled, again, enstooled, once more, enstooled. Good.  Continued    Source: Daily Guide - Daily Guide