Mamprugu, Am I Surprised?

Ndoo, our people say that it is not a new thing when a dog bites a man; it is rather a shock when we hear that a man has bitten a dog. For Mr Akuffo Addo and his legionnaires, I have never expressed surprise at anything. Why? Blood runs through and deep. Genes hardly miss targets.

For those who do not know the relevant history of the men who today claims to uphold the law above customary considerations and traditions as well, I would not blame them. However those who know this government and its leaders, know that there was a time the forebears of Mr Akuffo and his legionaries sought this consideration.

Those who know and read, know that in the 1940s, when the Omanhene of Akyem Abuakwa touched the gods' feet, the Odikro of Apedwa, Nana Akyea Mensah was murdered in brutal ritual at the forecourt of the late chief in Kyibi. The facts as presented at the trial was that the Odikro was first struck with a sharp knife through his teeth. This act was done to first of all prevent the Odikro from screaming, and to prevent him from invoking a curse on his murderers. He was then dragged to a secret location where his blood was drained and his body dismembered.

And to think that the Odikro was on his way to the Palace to perform the traditional custom of Wirempe – the consecration of the stool of the deceased Omanhene with ‘a mixture of soot, eggs, and the blood of a dog and brown sheep’, was the shocker. Truly, the people of Apedwa never saw their Odikro again. And they never got justice.

Who was the man who came to the rescue of the accused murderers? The man whom this particular party is built on, JB Danquah. And which people did he ensemble to defend the murderers in court? Nii Amaah Ollenu (later to become Speaker ofParliament in Ghana’s Second Republic), Edward Akufo-Addo (father of the current President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo) and Sarkodee-Addo (both of whom went on to be Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana.

The plea of these respected people or so we thought was for the colonial government led by Allan burns to factor in the rule of exceptionalism for the murderers, who were mainly chiefs of the Akyem area. It was for the courts to respect the status of the murderers and grant them respite.

The rest is history as the so called doyen of Gold Coast politics together with the forebears of this government lost the case terribly in all angles: from Gold coast to British Parliament;the details which we will narrate some other day.

However, the worry is that if the party whose forebears rode on this exception and respect for customary rites no matter how it contravenes the laws of the land, why wasn't same granted the Nayiri, king of modern day Mamprugu?

Our people say that we do not tell the old they are wrong when they err, we rather remind them of what they already know. Why couldn't the government just "remind" the king if indeed he erred in his discretion on the Bawku chieftaincy fued?

Or is it a matter of respect for traditional authority being relative and limited to some parts of the country?

For people like Yours Truly, I have always known that it was only a matter of time we saw the monkey's buttocks as it climbed higher. And as the dying embers of Mr Akuffo Addo's reign nears, we can only but see him in his true colors: no respect for the man and tribe who helped him win the elections.

I shall be back.