Speaking Tolling

Just as someone who speaks might have heard, when the word 'cessation' hit my tympanic membrane, I thought it was stop forever; of momentous not momentary consequence. I had heard it in connection with toll collection, actually non-collection, on our roads and bridges. Then it quickly occurred to me ceasefire is about temporary cessation of hostilities. Blame it on so much reliance on someone else's language other than our own, I said to myself.

For the one who spoke a directive (none the business of a lawmaker) in response to what an appropriately executive another had written, though, he seemed to have kneejerk reacted to denote permanence. That made things seem unspeaking. For usurping erroneously number two, but correctly number three, one would feel hearing must be followed by thinking before speaking.

I blame all that on our choice, as sons and daughters of a motherland, to abandon our tongues. The last time I checked, the linguistic experts had listed 52. So the argument of those who seemingly wrongly matter in policy making, the power wielders to whom we have rather unfortunately feebly acquiesced, is too many languages to pay attention to one.

Someone who speaks appears to be on an ego trip. Even that, while his congress mates lambast the first citizen for ostensible luxurious travels, he, the third citizen, hypocritically takes an expensive medical trip packed with family and friends which cost thousands in foreign currency to my taxpayer compatriots.

We don't, when we should, aspire to achieve what a few motherlands, including Swissmotherland with population four times fewer than ours, living in an area virtually one-sixth the physical size of our motherland. That motherland speaks four official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. It's a motherland that has successfully formulated and implemented multilingual policies.

It's been our habitual capitulation to what, such as determining official languages, is difficult to do. We don't have even one official language. It looks like those who have to make the law(s) to give us one or more, don't seem to have noticed that. They'll rather drool over matters of sex; punishing for sexual orientation or adultery.

One SH Addae of the PP, in the late 1960s or early 1970s, was a laughing stock on the floor of the House when he proposed Akan as the motherland's official language. Other proponents have been similarly savaged. As I write, we have none. We pretend it's English. For the record, we haven't acted that daftly. English is never our official motherland language because there is no law that says it is.

Only yesterday, I read an American lawmaker ignorantly attributing whatever his country's 'failures' or non-successes are to language difference. In his view, America is successful because it is monolingual and that it would fail with a bi- or multilingual policy.

He could be told rather, that with all his (as Uncle Tom) knowledge and power, he hasn't been able to weave together a people advancing langue system for him to less develop because of language.

I thought there is a delimiting or delineation difference between cessation and suspension. A bit of reading, as would be expected for one who speaks, suggested a reasonable level of interchanging ability. It's like between ending and stopping; ending as stopping and stopping as ending interchangeably. English as our lingua franca is formulating policy for convenience. We love convenience, almost always choosing it over propriety and what is right.

Maybe the speaking to direct, directive usurpation of what lies with the executive, is the result of too much politicking and too little lawmaking. Let the constitutional experts contest that. Before and after any such challenges, my plea is: Eyidze, kyɛwaranyi; hɔnndzihɔn fie asɛm (mind your house business).

Kwame Nkrumah may have spoken 'go to Ceylon' in apparent reference to Tamil Tiger language as warring divider problem. Obviously, he was in a dilemma; because he had his Bureau of Ghana Languages and Institute of Ghana Languages projects.

Lawmaking cannot be failing the temptation of issuing executive directives. You stick to your legislative instruments. Others stick to their executive and constitutional instruments. That is the democratic division of labour called checks and balances. If you want to be president, you do that from an executive seat and nor from a speaking chair.

I see cessation of hostilities, as in ceasefire, is suspension. Even the Korean armistice, a form of ceasefire, is today seen as temporary; some over 80 years on. So maybe cessation is also 'ending for now;' I want to know whoever media talk plenty read little person is disputing that the road toll action has partly turned lawmaker speakers, what lawmakers are and should be, have now turned directors, clearly the mandate of the executive. Earlier, they turned themselves into law school admission officers. Meanwhile there is deafening silence in their house about double salary!!!

Wish I knew the difference among LI, EI and CI, possibly CuI (customary law instrument) too. Kneejerk reaction, when we desperately need money without quick thinking creates likely chaos of time lapse between announcement and eventual decision to be arrived at after slow pace budget deliberations.

In the system we have chosen, a president directs, including the implementation of the laws the lawmakers make. Lawmakers speak to make the laws. Those who want to direct, compete to be president. It took some time, three primary attempts and three presidential voting attempts for one to succeed with that.

Another had it bestowed on him and then, an electoral commission said he had won one he competed for on his own in 2012 AD to continue to direct as executive. Then he thought he could go on winning like some do who contest to make laws do over and over, whether in residual dictatorship 1992-1996.

Thereafter, he continued in ƆsonoKokroko Kufuor's time of true democracy, or the pseudo democracy interregnum of 2009-2016. He kept going till he became Methuselah or Mugabe for winning lawmaking competitions repeatedly for the highest number of times in the motherland.

Born in dictatorship, lived and profited from dictatorship, after being a Methuselah and seeing none of his predecessors speaking from a chamber executively directing like he's trying to do. He wants desperately direct; he's been trying to do that, and he has almost done that.

I wonder where all the constitutional experts who are obsessed with sex in lawmaking exclusionary orientation and trying to smuggle Christian commandment ten into the motherland's mother of laws, are.

It so much looks like a congress man, born in disruption and doing his best to live disruption by manufacturing powers he invokes to disrupt. He's well on an ego trip in search of an elusive never to be achieved president title.

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh