Of Quack Herbalists, Money Doublers And Criminals In Cassocks

I am not a happy man because I go to bed and wake up the following morning with my pillows soaked in tears and pain in my heart. You don't see it in the morning if you encounter me because as the sages say only the one who cries in the rain knows where his tears are coming from.

Crooks, charlatans and criminals have taken over our dear nation and everyone seems to be helpless if not hopeless. These crooks know very well that if God picks up a stone, He takes time to throw it so they have a field day to operate.

It is an undeniable fact that before the white man came to the shores of Ghana to introduce their medicines which could cure some diseases, our forefathers invented herbs that could also cure some diseases as well. Other than that the white man would not have met a single soul when they arrived. The white man was able to dissuade our forefathers to abandon the use of herbs to cure diseases because our forefathers did hide behind idols to prescribe the herbs and the white man dissuaded us not to worship idols not to talk of obeying what our fetish priests and priestesses prescribed for us to use as panacea for our ailments.

When measles came to the shores of Ghana or Gold Coast for that matter we had herbalists who could cure the diseases with herbs. They were able to find the cure before the white man came out with vaccines. Similarly when whooping cough ravaged the land of our birth, our herbalists prescribed lizards, particularly the male ones with yellow heads for children who were attacked by the diseases to toast and eat the lizards to cure the diseases and it worked like magic. Don't laugh because it is a serious thing.

Times have changed. Today, almost everybody is a herbalist or native doctor. To become rich quick in Ghana, go back to your village and consult an old man who may show you herbs or roots of a particular tree which were used in the olden days to cure one disease or the other.

Back in Accra or wherever you live, boil them and fill them in bottles, label them and give it a name and you are on your way to making money. You need not indicate any expiry date for the drugs because many Ghanaians don't read. Just identify common diseases that worry people and advertise that your concoction could cure them and money will start to flow.

If people come to realize that your medicine has no efficacy and sales drop, order different bottles, print a new label with a new name and different colour and the game will start afresh.

The sad truth is that people are dying every day through the use of these concoctions. What is most worrisome is that medical doctors who are well trained to cure us of our diseases at the various hospitals are the final place to call by people who take these concoctions when they are about to die, thereby making our doctors work beyond human endurance to save their lives.

And if doctors could not cure them and they die, their family blame witches for their death.

The world has never been short of fools. That is why the Akans say everyday some fools go to the market. Anytime I tune in to my television set and see and hear so-called Mallams, money doublers and fetish priests and priestesses inviting people to come to their shrines to get help in the form of making them rich overnight I begin to wonder if people who visit these crooks were conceived by women for nine months.

Some of these criminals even profess to get lotto numbers which would drop and invite people to come for the numbers to stake. Meanwhile you look at the person offering the lotto numbers and you wonder whether he has been able to get money to buy banku that morning. All along I have been harboring some anger in my angelic heart for the way the National Communications Authority (NCA) has been issuing licenses for these criminals to operate TV stations to propagate their lies and dupe unsuspecting Ghanaians.

The happiest day in my life was when the NCA closed down some TV stations which were used by these misfits to dupe Ghanaians. They say it is better late than never .Yes, these criminals have already made money but what we should look out for is that they may use another channel to advertise their criminal activities. Ghanaians should collectively rise up against these guys and the media in particular should expose them on a daily basis. But will the media do so? The answer is no because some journalists are used by these guys to trick the people for some pertinence. That is another sad story. If the watchman is bribed, how safe is your wealth?

A year ago I wrote in this column that I would never comment on the behavior of criminals in cassocks because for many years I have drawn the attention of Ghanaians to the way these criminals are stealing in the name of the Lord but it seemed my pontification fell on deaf ears. But how do you stop running when the man chasing you refuses to stop chasing you? That is why I am on these criminals again. They call them One Man Church owners and they are the masters of whatever they survey. They call themselves Overseers, Bishops, Men of God among other accolades.

They are being worshipped like the Lord they claim to represent and they milk their followers dry. They tell their foolish and idiotic followers that they have cure for every disease including HIV/AIDs, Hypertension, Corona Virus, leprosy, bareness, infertility and can even make them rich and conjure visas for them to travel abroad. As for women who want husbands, their sanctuaries are these churches. Some of them even make their gullible followers to drink the Bishop's urine because they are made to understand that it is curative. If these tricksters want a luxurious car, it is their church members who contribute to buy them one and they show off their wealth while their church members continue to live in abject poverty, unable to make ends meet. More than ninety percent of their members are women as if only women have problems. This is my story. This is my song. Surely, the day of reckoning is beckoning. Help me say AMEN and excuse me while I pollute the air with my sweet scented Havana.

By Eric Bawah