SECOND TIME LUCKY, BUT I NO DEY SHAKE.

It was not until Wednesday, 27th August, 2008 when I received a threatening phone call from an anonymous caller did I realize the dangers journalists are exposed to in the discharge of their primary task of bringing news to the people.
The clock read 3.23a.m. I slept late the previous night because I was engrossed in an article I wanted to send the next day. The points kept flowing and as long as my brain was not saturated, I felt there was no need to abort the “flow” prematurely. And so there I was with my pen scribing things on the paper. At a stage, I felt constrained to call it quits, for what I was doing was no longer writing but drawing. The pen would simply not stay in my hands. It kept slipping from my fingers every now and then.
It was 1.45 a.m. when I jumped into bed, but when exactly I drifted off to sleep, I did not know and so cannot say. However, be as it may, it was when I was beginning to enjoy the sweet bliss of sleep that the phone rang. Oh no, not now! I cut off the call without looking at who was calling at such an ungodly time of the night. It rang again and again. The caller would not give up. I looked at the clock and it was 3.31a.m. Who would be calling me at this time of the morning? I asked myself.
I picked up the phone and the figures 000 appeared on the screen.
“I believe I am taking to Mr. Damptey” the caller at the other end said. I answered in the affirmative. Then the tirade began. I cannot report verbatim exactly what the caller said, but I shall try. Readers should therefore bear with me if my attempts to do so do not meet their expectations. But whatever it is I am giving a clear, truthful and objective narration of what transpired between the caller and my humble self.
It went on like this. “I am advising you in your own interest to stop deceiving people by posting such rubbish and stupid things about the former President on the web. If you have forgotten, let me remind you that it is Rawlings who has made it possible for whatever you call yourself to be breathing the air of freedom you are enjoying now.” He asked if I didn't know it was Rawlings who risked his life to save us, 'moborowas' from the vultures at the time the country was drifting off its course. He said it was no longer going to be “monkey dey work, baboon dey chop”. “Tell those co… barons in your party that we have had enough of their nonsense”. He had plenty of unprintable words for the leaders of the party and warned me to stay clear of the name Rawlings, for since Rawlings was his mentor, he would do anything, and repeated the word 'anything' to safeguard his good name.
I had wanted to respond but yours sincerely 'ordered' me to listen further. “Next time, I shall not call” and the line went dead.
By this time I was fully awake, and my sixth sense had taken control. I had overcome the shock and was now in control of my faculties. The hymns, 'Courage, brother, do not stumble' and 'What a friend we have in Jesus' quickly came to mind. I sung them quietly and then went into a lengthy prayer session to fortify myself against attacks from the unseen enemy.
My initial reaction had been shock, then fear and later boldness. I felt emboldened because my belief in Christ gave me hope that my Saviour is “with me always, even to the end of the world'. This is the second time I have been threatened on the phone. The first threat came nearly a year ago after I had written a piece titled “Rawlings – The Greatest Demagogue Alive”. The caller gave his number and so could be traced if the necessary logistics were put in place. But this one … mm… It is as if the killer squad was lurking at the corner in the dark ready to pounce on its defenceless victim or prey just as is narrated in the poem, titled, “Nightfall in Soweto”.
I wish to re-iterate that threats or no threat, I shall continue to comment on national issues and sing the death-knell of the National Democratic Congress as long as God gives me breath. Our forefathers played their parts and handed the baton over to us. They abhorred cheating and dictatorship. Some even paid the supreme price for their strong resistance against oppression. We have to build on have been handed over to us.
What these faceless individuals are attempting to do is to induce the element of fear amongst the generality of the citizenry so that they will have the whole landscape to themselves. But this is something some of us will not countenance, for we shall resist with the last atom of our breath. Fear is a mark of failure.
If the anonymous caller feels so strongly about Rawlings, whom he regards as his mentor, the best he could have done was to write a rejoinder to refute the points or issues I had raised, and not to resort to threats and intimidation.
I always try to rationalize whatever I write. Even though I am a strong NPP activist, some of my write-ups have been very critical of the party. But not once have I been called by the party leadership or a member of the party and been castigated for the stand I have taken on a particular issue. That is 'democracy' in the “Nnipa Pa Party for you”.
But like what Portia in 'Julius Caesar' asked Brutus, her husband, in Shakespeare's “Julius Caesar”, why those who visited him should wear dark shades even in the night, I am asking why the anonymous caller is hiding his identity if he strongly believes in the cause he /she is pursuing?
That notwithstanding, I am very happy that since the satirical feature, “The Confessional Statement of John Jerry Rawlings- The Greatest Demagogue Alive Today” appeared on the Ghana web on Sunday 24th August, 2008, and some newspapers, I have been inundated with numerous calls from the good people of Ghana, both within and outside the country all complimenting me for whetting their appetite with such an appetizer. One jokingly told me the NDC people would come for me to which I responded that I was prepared and waiting for them.
I am issuing this challenge to those faceless individuals who feel uncomfortable with my write-ups to engage me in an open discussion or debate on one-to-one basis, but not to resort to unorthodox and unconventional methods of using threats and intimidation to gain political advantage.
“Unless the Lord watcheth over the house, the watchman watches but in vain”

Daniel Danquah Damptey.
[email protected]
0243715297