Sam Iago George Exposes His Treachery Against ET Mensah

I readily own and declare in toto that I had absolutely no sympathy, whatsoever, for Mr. ET Mensah, the National Democratic Congress’ perennial fixture, when the former Greater-Accra Mayor was savagely albeit soundly and justifiably mowed out of office as the longtime Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament by Mr. Samuel George Nartey, the much younger man who claims to have run errands for Mr. Mensah for some three years without pay. “I worked with Hon. ET Mensah for 3 years without collecting a salary…. He didn’t need a PA but I offered myself to work for him because I wanted to learn… he didn’t ask me to come for employment… so why would he?” We didn’t pressure Chairman Jerry John Rawlings out of office and power only to be replaced by dozens of elected local chieftains. Mr. Nartey is reported to have told a local radio station interviewer what appears in the foregoing quotes (See “Mahama Rejected Me, He Didn’t Give Me 1 Pesewa – Sam George” PeaceFM.com / Ghanaweb.com 5/26/20).

You see, the unmistakable implication, vis-à-vis the foregoing quote, is that after having worked gratis for Mr. Mensah for some three long and famine-wracked years, Sam George, naturally, expected to be paid at least an honorarium or a decent one-time gratuity payment. “I did everything from washing plates to cleaning shoes to carrying bags to driving him… and I still see him as my father,” Sam George is reported to have told Mr. Adakabre Frimpong-Manso, the locally renowned radio talk-show host. Now this is rather intriguing because what the preceding really implies, in the unmistakable opinion of Mr. Nartey, is that Mr. Mensah is a leech or a political and a socioeconomic parasite who was literally and liberally willing to accept and even wantonly abuse without giving anything in return whatsoever. Here in the United States, there is a maxim that runs as follows: “There is absolutely no free lunch anywhere.”

In other words, in facilely consenting to have the much younger and apparently unemployed Mr. Nartey serve as his unsolicited Personal Assistant or PA, as the presently incumbent NDC-MP calls it, the much older Mr. Mensah was literally and decidedly digging his own grave. We ought not to forget the fact that Sam George claims that in offering to work gratis for Mr. Mensah, he wanted to learn from the much older man. So, the next most logical question becomes: Precisely what did Mr. Nartey want or expect to learn from Mr. Mensah? And the most obvious answer, of course, is to become just like his master. And, inevitably, becoming like his master or mentor meant that sooner or later, Mr. Mensah was going to give way to his unsolicited and unsalaried factotum or errand boy. And to be certain, that was precisely what happened. The young man is not clearly or directly saying this, but what Sam George is unmistakably implying here is that somewhere along the line, a morally, culturally and politically ungrateful Mr. Mensah had to dearly pay for consenting to callously use the services of his would-be Iago.

This also clearly explains why Mr. Nartey felt horribly betrayed by the fact that former President John Dramani Mahama would not support him in the former’s entitled course and quest to unseat the politically entrenched albeit jaded and superannuated but piggishly selfish and narcissistic Mr. Mensah. You see, in the unmistakable opinion of Sam George, it was time for Mr. Mensah to pay up and ship out. And now, having come to the grim realization of the stark fact of Candidate Mahama’s having indisputably hit a political brick wall, it is time for Sam George to suavely fabricate a self-vindicating pretext for his equally opportunistic actions in order to rationalize his quite opportune decision, at least in our protagonist’s own imagination, to jump ship without obviously seeming to have been the one who broke the presumable trust between these two men.

In sum, if, indeed, all that he has been receiving from former President Mahama has been rude and raw betrayal and, to be certain abject disdain, then, of course, it stands to reason to conclude that Sam George owes the latter absolutely nothing, in much the same way that he also owes Mr. Mensah absolutely nothing. Mr. Nartey, thus, in essence, has fully and unapologetically earned his keep. This, in a gist, is what his recent interview with Adakabre Frimpong-Manso is irrefutably about. Henceforth, Sam George is absolutely his own man. He owes all his meteoric achievements to absolutely nobody else but himself and thus an allegiance to absolutely no major player or powerbroker within the establishment of the National Democratic Congress.

On the home front, the head of the NDC-sponsored goon squad that criminally attempted to snatch the ballot boxes in the Ayawaso-West Wuogon byelection just a little over a year ago, may also very well be wisely reading the proverbial handwriting on the wall. In essence, having become increasingly notorious on the Ghanaian political landscape, this desperate political waif may very well be looking for some sympathy across the political and ideological divide, thus the imperative necessity for him to play himself off as a veritable political pawn and the victim of unconscionable bigtime and big-league players like Messrs. ET Mensah and John Dramani Mahama.

Ultimately, it is clearly a no-win situation for Mr. Nartey or Sam George who claims to have put up his house for sale, to find his hitherto flagging campaign for the Ningo-Prampram parliamentary seat. “My wife was 8 months pregnant. I had to sell my house to fund that campaign because nobody was going to give me the money; nobody believed that I would win that election. My wife told me, ‘If you sell this house and lose the election, don’t come home.’” Well, Sam George did win the election and come home to a rousing royal welcome. But the clearly obvious question now becomes: Is Sam George the happier for putting his ravenous hunger for power above his humanity and all else? Reader, I bet your guess is as good as mine.

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By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

May 27, 2020

E-mail: [email protected]