Common Sense and Patriotism Matter More than Mere English Proficiency

He is a versatile and proficient essayist of the English Language and may be as good an investigative journalist as he deems himself to be and, in fact, has a laurel or two from the Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA) to shore up his vaunt or prove the same, in much the same way that in 1988, yours truly was the first to be awarded the John J. Reyne Artistic Achievement Award for English Poetry, the highest undergraduate poetry award, then, at the City College of New York of the City University of New York (CCNY of CUNY). The award was named after the Chairman of City College’s English Department at the turn of the Twentieth Century, as I vividly recall. In any event, as a skillful or critically thinking critic, however, the University of Ghana’s Master’s Degree Holder in Communications Studies does not measure as nearly to par as Mr. Manasseh Azure Awuni may either suppose or envisage himself to be.

In an opinion piece captioned “Why Proficiency in English Matters in Ministerial Jobs,” in which the former Senior Correspondent for Joy News caustically and mordantly castigates Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson for being woefully unqualified or underqualified for the cabinet portfolio of Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, the critic characteristically cynically claims that the greatest achievement of Mrs. Koomson as Minister-of-State in Charge of Special Development Initiatives (SDI), was the importation into the country of some 300 State-of-the-Art Ambulances. Well, this is what Mr. Awuni brazenly has to say in his rather unnecessarily long and inordinately pontifical article: “The ministry’s major achievement [That is, the Ministry for Special Development Initiatives] is that the government gave it money to procure ambulances. Buying ambulances with State funds is something an adult with the intelligence of an average primary school kid can do, especially when the usual incentives that come with government procurement were very much present in the deal (See AfricaNewsAnalysis.com / Ghanaweb.com 2/19/21).

Now, this is a very interesting critical observation to make, if also because it strongly and poignantly contradicts the argument of the locally renowned freelance investigative journalist. You see, the last time that any ambulances were imported into the country by the previous Mahama-led regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), of which the critic was a staunch supporter and radical propagandist, it was done under the direction and instruction of a highly schooled man by the name of Mr. Alexander Segbefia, the Mahama-appointed Minister of Health, who held at least a baccalaureate from one of the major public universities in Ghana, plus a postgraduate law degree. We must also quickly add that Mr. Segbefia, prior to his appointment as Health Minister by the then-President John “European Airbus” Dramani Mahama, had worked as a prosecutor in England, the original home of the English Language. And yet, Mr. Segbefia could only import more than 300 veritable lemons, that is, practically unroadworthy or unmotorable ambulances from, of all places, the Democratic Federal Republic of Germany, home of the manufacturers of some of the very best and most luxurious and durable vehicles in the world, including Mercedes Benz, BMW and Volkswagen, two of which my noncollege-educated wife owns right here in The Bronx, New York City.

Indeed, even as I write, the bulk of the ambulance hulks or vehicular shells, properly speaking, that Mr. Segbefia, with the very public and official approval of President John “Expedition Kanazoe” Dramani Mahama, imported into the country are still sitting idle in some government-owned parking lots and garages, doing absolutely nothing! I am also very certain that Mr. Segbefia, who has also vehemently defended Little Dramani’s key role in the European Airbus Payola Scam which, by the way, Mr. Martin ABK Amidu, the recently resigned Independent Special Prosecutor had also flatly refused to prosecute, obviously going by the playbook of the age-old Northern Alliance, had received far more generous incentives to import than Mrs. Koomson. And for his personal edification and enlightenment, that is, if Mr. Awuni is not already aware of the same, Mr. Segbefia had used much more of the Ghanaian taxpayer’s money to underwrite his scam or these criminally unmotorable “toy” ambulances.

Interestingly, Mr. Awuni would have his readers and audiences believe that it is only “well-educated and well-spoken Ghanaian citizens” like Mr. Alexander Segbefia and, perhaps, himself who deserve to be appointed to cabinet and/or ministerial portfolios. How inexcusably absurd! You see, Dear Reader, cynical and shameless political propagandists like Mr. Awuni have every inalienable constitutional right to label the One-Village, One-Dam policy initiative so progressively, constructively and unprecedentedly undertaken by Mrs. Koomson as virtual or even practical “dugouts,” until it is brought to public attention that like the protracted scourge of Dumsor, the previous Mahama Administration did absolutely nothing to meliorate or reduce the perennial water crisis in the northern half of the country, largely caused by the annual bouts of drought. In Damongo, capital of the Akufo-Addo-created Savannah Region, the chiefs and people are still wondering what Little Dramani ever did for them in the 8 long years that he was comfortably holed up at Jubilee House or the Presidency. And yet, ironically, Candidate Mahama, in the leadup to the 2012 Presidential Election, smugly and pontifically styled himself as the “North Star,” that is, the last and only hope for the catchup development of the Five Northern Regions, back then, the Three Northern Regions, with their relatively more economically advanced southern counterparts.

Indeed, were he an honest journalist and critic who had the prosperity and the general development of Ghana at heart, Mr. Awuni would be drawing up the balance sheet between the outcomes of the One-Village, One-Dam policy initiative, on the one hand, and the deliberately and regressively “Ntafo-composed” Board of Directors of the epic scam and hoax that was the so-called Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), on the other hand; and then look the entire membership of the Global Ghanaian Community in the eye and tell us which of Ghana’s previous two governments did better, with regard to the material development of the Five Northern Regions. I mean, where are the Mahama Guinea Fowls which were purchased with the Ghanaian taxpayer’s money? At least we all know where each and every one of these dugouts is/are.

Ultimately, the problem that the operatives of the opposition National Democratic Congress have with Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson is the incontrovertible fact that the Awutu-Senya-East Constituency’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) is the one tough cookie who flatly refuses to be intimidated or cowed into submission by the certified terrorist goons of the Mahama-chaperoned National Democratic Congress. You see, not very long ago, it was only the bloody operatives of the National Democratic Congress who had ready and unlicensed access to the Ghanaian taxpayer-underwritten Ak-47s and the Bazookas and could slaughter and intimidate defenseless Ghanaian citizens, among them Supreme Court Judges, at will and at whim. And now, there retributively emerges Mavis “Araba” Hawa Koomson, literally from out of the blue, thumping at her chest and daring these NDC scofflaw rapists, kidnappers and butchers to an epic contest of valor and manhood. And, naturally, of course Hawa Koomson has become the most dreaded nightmare of the Mahama Posse.

*Visit my blog at: KwameOkoampaAhoofeJr

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD

English Department, SUNY-Nassau

Garden City, New York

February 20, 2021

E-mail: [email protected]