God has killed me - Part 41

"Mr Karl, please I am over here," waved Charles Agbo, Head Pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Kasoa, a man with grey hair and a big flat nose being his trademarks, easily recognizable. He greeted Mr Karl very friendly, shaking both of his hands while George stayed in the car. They were called to the scene to witness the demolition of some structures. Pastor Agbo invited Mr Karl to his church, sat down with him, served him coffee and a piece of cake after which started to talk: "I am so, so happy Sir, that Kasoa is also under your management."

"Yes, I have many responsibilities now. Tema, Dansoman, Adenta and now Kasoa...with more delegations from every corner of the country waiting to be served as well. each day I welcome delegations in my apartment, and I am amazed how much patience they have to wait for me. I can only do as much as I can do at any given time as I do not want to promise what later I cannot fulfil only for the sack that people support me and are happy about me."

"I know Sir, what you mean. Politics is truly nothing to make people happy because they demand it form you, but to dop what is right in their best individual and society`s interest facing today´s challenges of a globalized world."

"Wisely said, Pastor. Wisely said!"

"Before we start the day Sir," got Pastor Agbo up and walked around the living room to look for some papers searching for them on his desk underneath the big window that faced the back garden, "what does your name Karl actually mean?"

"The free and independent man!" answered Mr Karl following each step of the Pastor as he tried to find the papers, he had wanted to present to him.

"The free and independent man," turned Charles Agbo around and smiled at his guest of honour. "Very impressive indeed."

"I have a few more names that I do not use actually!" added Mr Karl. "No one can really spell them; therefore, I never mention them."

"But you should mention them to me as I know how to spell names being a Pastor. We are trained for that and we must have always a particularly good memory for names."

"Heinz which means the King and Günter which means the Soldier and Army."

"Wow...these are all the names given to you?"

"Yes, Pastor...so it is!"

"Your parents are wise people having given you such names as they indeed reflect your character," sat Pastor Agbo down with Mr Karl holding the papers he had wanted to show him in his hands. "Here I have some few documents that show that Pastor Kwame Henry Owusu of Action Ministry Ghana International in Ho is a fraudulent Pastor. He is cheating on his wife, has a baby which these papers show and is treating his congregation rough beating up a couple that had sex before marriage seeing himself as their father and thinking this would give him the right to violate the laws of the country. We as Pastors are all under the laws of God and our motherland Ghana. So, I want you to stay away from that man and take legal actions against him. We do not need fake Pastors among us. They cause great harm to all Pastors in the country. And he is cheating with his own church members, I mean he sleeps with innocent ladies from his church and confuses their minds. What a disgusting and shameful Pastor that is. He must we stop, Mr Karl."

"Pastor Agbo....," got Mr Karl up and walked up and down the living room looking out of the window to see the red blossoms of an unknown tree, "I am not at all interested in such conversations. When Pastors lambast about their fellow Pastors on such a level that is not for the public to hear, when they sit on TV and radio to disturb the peace of the nation...guess what I am doing?"

"What, Sir?"

"I close down such Media Houses and silence these Pastors very well, even fine them heavily so that they stop this nonsense and come to their senses again. This country does not need people that waste precious time of others but focus on the real issues that can bring them and the nation forward. I never entertain such stupidity that has gone out of hands now...never ever!"

"I am sorry Mr Karl," got Pastor Agbo up and joined Mr Karl by walking up and down the room with him. "Please Sir, accept my deepest regrets as I do not want to make you angry in any way. Please, Sir, you are too great that anyone can really attack you and make your life miserable. You are too precious for our motherland Ghana...so, I beg of you...please forgive me as you know I am an African Pastor and that is how we are! Please, Sir, I beg of you!" He wanted to kneel down, but Mr Karl prevented him for doing so. No one should ever kneel before he rather speaks up in truth and his own mind.

"If you promise to change your mind...."

"I do promise, and I declare I want to learn from you, Mr Karl!"

"Ok, I have forgiven you...it is well with you," knew Mr Karl to keep crutches in his heart against anyone would surely be a waste of his precious time. Over time of his long life, going through the shit that life has to offer sometimes, he knew to forgive and forget fast is the essence of progress and to be in line and time with someone's own destiny.

Both left the house, close the iron gate behind them and walked down the street to their next place of call. While walking Pastor Agbo mentioned to him: "Mr Karl...I have something on my mind...and it has been with me for quite some time now."

"What is it?"

"I need a gold mining concession in a reserve which is hard to come by. The land Mr Karl...I assure you, is so much filled with gold...I have made my research very well, Sir. There is more gold per tons that in any other place of Ghana. There is up to twenty percent gold in one ton of soil and lose rock while normally around seven per cent is a good result."

"Ok, interesting," was Mr Karl passing by a bofruz seller, stopped, and bought two for each of them.

"For that, I need a concession but as it is in a reserve...that is against the law we have. You know we must protect our environment and have few reserves to achieve just that. Unfortunately, the gold is just under the trees that stand above it and it is located right in the middle of it. So, I have spoken to the man in charge in the Minerals Commission and he said there would be an alleyway to fast track my confession even it is against the law when only the money he and his supervisor would get is the right amount."

Mr Karl stopped and looked at Pastor Charles Agbo very seriously. He sensed what this conversation was intended for and made sure not to say anything stupid but let Pastor Agbo speak out all his mind. He positioned himself well right before the Pastor to see him well and to listen carefully to his words.

"So, as I do not have the money...Mr Karl," started Pastor Agbo to explain himself, "I thought, as you are a Man of God...I mean interested in our progress...that you might talk to these people in the Commission so that they can bring down the money they ask for their own families as I want to build a new church structure so that I can get more people into my church and also to expand and establish more branches."

"I hear your, Pastor," said Mr Karl and walked on looking for the Police Station h wanted to visit for his morning engagement, the reason why he had come from them all the way to Kasoa leaving woken up just before four in the darkness of the early morning. There it was, the Police Station. Both entered. Mr Karl asked for the Commander and was asked to follow the Police Officer at the reception to come into the office of the Commander that was located at the back of the building accessibly only through a special side door.

The Commander greeted Mr Karl complimenting him for the good works he had done and reassured him his men would be ready to join him in his exercise.

"Commander," looked Mr Karl the Police Office right into his face, "arrest this man, Pastor Agbo for attempted bribery, attempted defamation and attempted destruction of our environment."

"Oh, why...Mr Karl?" was Pastor Agbo shocked and shaking. "Why, Sir? What did I do to you?"

"Commander," said Mr Karl and took one step away from Pastor Agbo as a clear sign of who he was, "here is my body camera, all the conversation with Pastor Charles Agbo is recorded here. Take a copy of the hard drive and use it as evidence in court against this Pastor to get motherland Ghana one step closer to political sanity."

The Commander asked his assistant to arrest Pastor Charles Agbo, take the body camera and present the Pastor before the court as soon as possible. While Pastor Agbo was led away in handcrafts Commander Afriyie guided Mr Karl outside the premises where a group of officers were already waiting for both of them to follow their instructions. Commander Afriyie before heading off to the scenes of engagement gave them last orders of what was supposed to be done by each of them. A few minutes later the cars started to move to an area where illegal structures by politicians, businessmen and ordinary citizens were built.

They reached the area in question, saw many structures at various stages of completion. Most houses were intended to be built, but also churches and small company office buildings and shops. Mr Karl looked over the illegal structures and saw many people in attendance among them the owners of the structures. Bulldozers were ready on standby to demolish everything down to the ground and make the land empty.

"Please Mr Karl," approached an elderly man with grey hair Mr Karl and begged him by folding his hands, "in this structure, in these concrete blocks and timber and roof shields...all my saving is in. So, therefore I beg you for mercy, Mr Karl, and spare my family and myself from losing our life`s savings going back to poverty. Please, Mr Karl, have mercy on us...I beg you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Another man that wanted to open a small provision shop stood by the old man`s side and begged Mr Karl by saying: "Please Sir...Mr Karl...you know that there is not much work in this country and I have put all my savings and my hops into this business which will give employment to three people that are supposed to work with me. Therefore, Sir, please I beg...you cannot allow these bulldozers to bring my future down and make rubble out of it. This simply cannot happen, that would be a sign of injustice...simple injustice and not at all fair to us here. We are not rich; we try with our sweat to make a decent living for our families...that is all. And that can't be wrong. So, please...we all beg you for your kind mercy, Mr Karl!" He wanted to go down on his knees and weaken Mr Karl`s heart and shake his spirit.

"The court has ruled and presented the judgements that I hold here in my hands. You all knew that it was illegal in the first place to build any form of structures here in these lands. You all were aware of it. You also knew that this area is intended for something else as we have set out in our generation plan which spans over sixty years with every five years revising and adopting it as time passes by and new unforeseeable developments need new thinking and adjustment. So, that was well communicated to you all. Some of you even do not have a building certificate, no permit in your hands. While others went to the respective local authorities, bribed them to get such a permit and then started to build these legal structures here. All these aspects had been well presented in court and lengthy discussed from all angles of the arguments. Now the day of judgement has come, and I follow the law and I execute the law...it is simple as that. No one can play with my mind...no one!"

"But Mr Karl...please consider my family...what shall they eat now?" asked the old man and got down to his knees holding his arms around the legs of Mr Karl.

"You all knew that what you did here was against the law and therefore you must face the consequences...regardless of how difficult it would one day be for your family. When the law is clear, the law rules and everyone needs to obey the law. If you find the law unfair or no longer fit for purpose...you are free to change it and made adjustments. But, old man, as the law has not changed and you knew what you would one day eventually have to face...I have ordered the bulldozers to take down all illegal structures as it is ruled in the judgements. That´s it and there will be no exception. So, please get off my legs as you will not be able to change in any way my decision." Mr Karl looked over to Commander Africa and asked him through his eyes and looks to help him take the old man away from his legs in a human and decent manner. Finally, his legs were free, he went over to the drivers of the three bulldozers, ignored the Media Houses present and in no time the land was cleared ready to be used on the day for the state decided developments.

"George, job done... let's go home," was Mr Karl leaving the scene and thanked Commander Africa for his assistant making sure he and his men would always have a constant eye on the building situated in the area and report any development he thought should course eyebrows to rise.

"Good morning, Mr Karl," greeted George the driver his German boss before heading to Accra City Center around Cantonments and other places, "today is a terribly busy day for us. No break and no lunch in between!"

Mr Karl responded by smiling and said: "Job must be done!"

"That is true," agreed George while turning out of Sakumono Estate into the road along the Gulf of Guinea through Nungua and Teshie before turning right onto the newly tared road that passes by Trade Fair an old place still not suitable to be used for any national or international exhibition, badly managed by the manager of the facility and the Flagstaff House itself. "Let me ask you something if I may, Mr Karl."

"Go ahead, George!"

"Is the poor mind responsible for poverty or is the poverty we find ourselves in responsible for our poor mind?"

"You mean the egg and the hen...which was first?"