Are You An Ayariga?

The NDC seems to say:
And if the whole Ghana should lie in ruins
No matter, we don't give a damn
We'll just keep marching and sing our tunes
For today, Ghana is ours,
And tomorrow, we shall rule Ghana.

Members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government have created serious social and economic disequilibrium that has inflicted hardship on the citizenry at various levels. Normal human beings exhibit sobriety, moderation, sensibility and use temperate language even in the face of provocation by those who are suffering from their actions and inactions. But nay, the NDC will add salt to our injuries by making all of us look stupid.

Names are natural identifications which distinguish individuals, families, communities and nations from one another. A man's name can easily indicate where he comes from. One distinguishing trait of Ghanaians the world over is the fact that many of us are identified by our first names, often given according to the day we were born, particularly among the Akans. The Kofis, Amas, Kwesis, add to them, readily identify us as having Ghanaian blood in us.

Here in Ghana, one can guess which part of the country another person comes from by one's name. And within a community, one's name can lead another to his family within the community. The Akans have other ways of naming their children. Apart from the family names, they could name their children after people who have helped them in the past. They can also have proverbial names as well as names which reflect life itself. Indeed some names have effects on those who bear them. If you are Yaw Beeko, surely your life is likely to be full of challenges; you may be 40 years and yet not have GH¢40 to your credit. If you are unfortunate to be named Koo Hia, surely poverty and misery shall live with you for the rest of your life. If you happen to be called Kofi Nkrabea, then nobody can determine your destiny.

I met a beautiful Asante lady and asked of her name. She said Yaa Boatengmaa, and quickly added that 'as for me, I am a lucky one'. Her response was to a song sung by J.A. Adofo, one of Ghana's foremost highlife musicians, which stated that Yaa Boatengmaa had been very unlucky all her life. She wanted to assure me that she was a lucky one. The Ewes translate their cherished names into the English language: Innocent, Prosper, Godknows, Fortune, Destiny, Happy, add to them. There are also names no one would want to associate with his or her child because of what a previous bearer of that name did to either bring shame unto the family, community or to himself.  I do not see any serious Denkyira person naming a child after Ntim Gyakari because of what he did to destroy the Denkyira Kingdom. I am yet to hear anyone in the Christian world name a child after Judas.

There are some names that so many people will want to be associated with as well. On countless occasions, when I was growing up, I had been asked whether I was related to the late Kweku Hamiliton Biney, the Ghanaian Business tycoon who finally settled in Lagos, Nigeria or Pobee Biney, the Trades Unionist of Ghana Railways of old. In fact in my struggling days in Nigeria, I had a lot of goodwill from the Nigerians who preferred calling me Chief Biney because of Hamiliton Biney.

I have gone to this length to drum home the importance of names and their influence on those who bear them. The name AYARIGA sounds beautiful in the ear, but I must say that I do not know the full meaning of it. I must also state that the name became popular in the political arena because of Hon Mahama Ayariga's position as a Member of Parliament. A brilliant young lawyer, articulate and outwardly affable, he was respected even by some of us on the other side of the political divide. The next Ayariga to jump on the political platform was Hassan Ayariga who became the flagbearer of the People's National Convention (PNC), the late President Limann's party formed in 1992.

Some of us outside the PNC thought that the party had been led by an individual in the person of Dr Edward Mahama for quite a long time, and that a change in leadership was going to be of great benefit to the party. However, Hassan Ayariga turned out to be a major political liability not only for the PNC but to the whole political landscape in the year 2012. His performance at the IEA Presidential Debate in Tamale exposed him as a person who, in my view, did not even qualify to be an assemblyman. He came out as a very hollow individual as far as politics and the issues of even identifying the challenges confronting the nation and proffering solutions to them were concerned.

His conduct at the debate, aside his ignorance, was most disgraceful and detestable even to his very close friends. His unbecoming and provocative coughs each time Nana Addo was speaking was a major embarrassment to his party and relations. This gave him the name 'Ayaricough', a cough mixture to treat coughs. Unfortunately it is not found on the shelves of pharmacy shops. He really put the name 'Ayariga' into disrepute. Sadly, just a few weeks back, Mahama Ayariga, who is supposed to redeem the image of the 'Ayariga Family', has added a new gash to the wounds of the family's name, which by all intents and purposes might be a very respectable name up north where he comes from.

Mahama Ayariga's display of arrogance towards journalists, who have the constitutional and moral mandate to hold accountable those of us who are just privileged to be employed by the public and paid by the taxes of the members of the public to hold our resources in trust and manage same for our collective good, has further driven down the good name 'Ayariga'.  Mahama Ayariga is telling media practitioners that he shouldn't be asked to account for public funds. He says questions from media practitioners are useless and stupid, that media practitioners must use their time to talk about useful issues.

Who determines which issues are useful and which of them are useless? Is it Ayariga Mahama who will determine what is useful or otherwise for the media? When he was the Minister for Information, he almost on a daily basis briefed the press on what in his view the government was doing. He was not obliged by any law to assemble media practitioners to the seat of government to give them any information of public interest, or so he thought. He did not feel that he had to report whatever information he had to any other state institution but directly to the public through the media.

Most of the information he churned out at the time was just good for propaganda sake: the 'government intends', 'that project is in the pipeline', 'government has directed, instructed, ordered' this and that. These did not materialise into practical achievements for the benefit of Ghanaians, yet he found them so useful to waste public time, money and space to tell those stories via the media.

Today, he has handled millions of cedis of the taxpayers' monies, and when asked to tell us a little about what the monies were used for, he says the media is asking useless questions. It is not his fault; it is the fault of those who voted the NDC. So people like him without scruples can talk down on us and insult us after he has dissipated our resources on whatever. 'Akoko bloo nsa, na ne wilε efiri akroma', to wit, 'when the fowl gets drunk, it tends to forget the existence of the hawk'.

Daavi, some three tots of mahogany bitters.
Kwesi Biney
[email protected]