The Arrogance Of Our Political Appointees

I recently received a Whatsapp post from a friend of mine in Canada which I found to be as interesting as it is unfortunate. According to the story, a 70s-born Nigerian-Canadian, born, bred and educated in Nigeria with a Law Degree from the Univeristy of Lagos, moved to Canada to continue with this life. Through hard work, and with ambition, he went into politics, entered Parliament, and eventually got appointed as the Attorney-General of Alberta, Canada, as recently as August 2020. His name, according to the story, is Kelechi Madu from Imo State, Nigeria. While there may not be anything so extraordinary about a Black Man holding a top political position in Canada or anywhere else these days I think it is quite remarkable, considering that Hon. Madu being a first generation immigrant, to be appointed to such a high profile position as Attorney-General of his State.

And now this is the sad part. Unlike many other countries like his place of origin where all ministers are chauffeur-driven, the Honourable Attorney-General of Alberta, Canada had to drive his own car. He was given a fine of $300.00 for driving above the speed limit in a school area. Instead of going quietly to pay the fine like everybody else, my friend thought it rather more expedient to call the Police Chief of the area to inform or complain to him that 'his boys' had done the unthinkable by issuing a fine to a whole Attorney-General. Not to bore you any further, this phone call to the Police Chief was what led to the immediate sacking of Honourable Kelechi Madu, the first Nigerian, and Blackman to be appointed Attorney-General of Alberta, Canada.

THE TWEAA D.C.

A few years ago the story of ‘Tweaa DC’ stayed on top of the local chat ‘billboard’ for quite some time. It was all about a District Chief Executive (DCE) in one of the Ahafo-Ano districts of Ashanti Region who was so full of himself that he couldn’t accept the ‘impudence’ of some ‘common’ person interrupting his speech, never mind that the comment was an undertone not meant for the hearing of the Honourable DCE. So he interrupted his speech to demand to know: ‘WHO SAID ‘TWEAA’? He waited for a considerable length of time in search of the culprit. But which ordinary man in his normal senses did you expect to be so disrespectful to own up to having said ‘tweaa’ when the DCE was on the floor? And as if to leave no one in any doubt as to who wielded power, he continued by making it clear that ‘yedee na yeetie’ meaning, ‘it is what we are saying that people are listening to’. Depending on what you take our people in authority to be, you would either see him as a ‘powerful’ or notorious DCE. I, for one, was expecting the government of the day to have reprimanded him, but of course I was wrong. The next thing I heard about him after all the noise had settled down was seeing his campaign posters contesting to become the MP for his constituency. Thank God, he didn’t succeed to become a ‘Tweaa MP’.

THE KADE MP

For me personally, if ever I were to be asked to pick one Ghanaian politician in our 4^th Republic whose public behaviour I’ve found to be so distasteful I would have no hesitation picking the MP of Kade, who after finding himself in a Police traffic control in Accra in July 2019, could not understand why they could question his driver while he was in the car. Talking straight into a TV camera in full public view and challenging the Journalist to send the film to wherever he pleased, this honourable Member of Parliament had the courage to claim that as an MP on his way to make laws for the country ‘in the national interest’ (in his own words) he, and by extension his driver, were too big to be stopped by the Police, never mind which law they were breaking. He wouldn’t even listen to the argument of the Police that it wasn’t he, the MP they had problems with but rather his driver who was breaking traffic regulations. No, he was just too big to be interrupted, and not even the Police had the right to question his driver for not obeying traffic rules. Unfortunately, this is a typical example of some of the leaders we have in this country.

THOU SHALL NOT TOUCH AN HONOURABLE ONE

There is an Akan saying that it is only when you have the crowd behind you that you get the needed support to fight on. The only force behind that honourable gentleman that emboldened him to do what he did was the fact that he knew nothing would happen to him. And indeed, from where I sit, I don’t know what was done to him by way of public condemnation by the people and institutions he represented.

We all know the type of official statement that would have been issued by Parliament if it had been a case of the Police attempting to arrest the MP at a chop bar on a reported case of fraud even on a Sunday. We would have been told that the MP had gone to the Chop Bar to eat and continue from there to go to Parliament the following day. Therefore, since it is unlawful for a parliamentarian to be arrested whether on his way to or from Parliament he had immunity from police arrest.

And what about the political party he belonged to? What did they tell him (at least to our hearing) for us to know that they were not in support of what he did? Again, what did the people of his Constituency that voted him into power tell him? Can there be a better case of someone bringing the name of a constituency into public ridicule than that? Or is it supposed to mean that not even the traditional authorities and the religious group of which he’s a member found anything wrong with that public display of ‘I am untouchable’?

AND HERE NOW COMES THE SEKONDI-TAKORADI MCE

Let me chip in here with another Akan saying whose literal translation is that: ‘if you persistently ignore to clear up the bush, it gets weedy’. After the two examples above of public officials behaving as if they were chosen by God Himself and installed in their respective positions and as such were entitled to ride over the public without fear of ever getting punished who should be surprised about the latest episode involving the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Abdul-Mumin Issah? Using the case of our poor Nigerian-Canadian former Attorney-General of Alberta, Canada, as an example, do you think if another Nigerian or Ghanaian gets the chance to find him/herself in a similar situation he/she would behave the way Honourable Madu did?

But to be fair to all three Ghanaian officials cited here it has to be admitted that it is only thanks to the technology of the day and perhaps I should add, their own hard luck that their records are being played all over. It is certainly not the case that they’re the only ones of their kind. How many times in this country haven’t we heard ‘do you know who I am?’, ‘this is an order from above’ or ‘I’ll change your sleeping place and you’ll see’? Even don’t the police themselves and sometimes military men in uniform slap and molest people in public and go scot-free? And this is how it has been since when some of us were kids long, long time ago. Haven’t we heard it before that even within the police service itself the threat of ‘you’ll see where you’ll be transferred to’ has been used to intimidate subordinates?

LET NO ‘SUPPORTERS’ INTERFERE IN THIS

Well, unfortunately for Honourable Abdul-Mumin Issah but fortunately for the majority of Ghanaians his case reached the President quickly before any attempt could be made to cover it up. And the President has acted swiftly by ordering for his immediate suspension pending investigations into the case. And it is the last bit of the last sentence that I’m not so comfortable with. As I speak now I wouldn’t be surprised if a delegation of traditional and religious leaders from Sekondi-Takoradi is already being assembled to travel to Accra to plead with the President to have mercy on their ‘son’ since he’s the breadwinner for a lot of people in the area and their lives would become miserable if he should lose his position as MCE.

Also don’t let us forget members of his political party in his area. Their own case which they’re going to pass through the Honourable Minister for Local Government is that sacking the MCE would have terrible consequences towards the fortunes of the party in the next elections.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, I hear that a powerful delegation from Imo State, Nigeria, is being assembled, and with assistance from the Federal Government, to prepare to fly to Canada to plead with the Prime Minister on behalf of their son for him to be reinstated as Attorney-General of Alberta.

Kwame Twumasi-Fofie

Sunyani