The Dr Percys Of Ghana

GHANAIANS AS a people tend to believe that this nation will never travel down the road of the Liberians, Sierra-Leonians, the Ivorians or any such countries far or close to us.

We tend to trust that we cannot look straight in the eyes of our fellow Ghanaians and butcher them the way some nationals of other countries do to their compatriots. It is very good for any group of people think in that positive manner because the evils that war can bring, peace can never equate in life.          

Ghanaians pride ourselves with the saying that we are a peaceful people. We also falsely believe that God, wherever he might be, loves us so much that he would not want to see us degenerate into the chaos and agony other nations have found themselves in.

By extension what we are saying is that God loves us more than those He watches as they exterminate themselves. That is a complete fallacy.

If this country is in one whole piece today it is not that God or Allah loves us so much, it is because, among other things, we are so docile that we would rather allow nincompoops to roughshod us than stand up to them, so we can create a deceptive calm while we harbour the pains endlessly in our hearts and either discuss the pains in our bedrooms or quaff liquor over the pains to assuage it.  

About a fortnight back I wrote and cautioned Ghanaians and the NDC in particular against picking on some high profile politicians in this country because of their ethnic background.

I gave a few examples which indicated that there have been covert but systematic efforts by some Ewe intellectuals and their cronies in the security agencies who have targeted the Asantis for destruction. Happily, nobody has disputed those assertions because they are factual.

My concern does not stem from any hatred towards the Ewes either, nor is it out of any special love for the Asantis. It stems from my love for this country and my wish, at least in my lifetime, to see a Ghana which is whole, in the midst of our disagreements and differences.

I had quite a number of responses in my mail which indicated that I am not the only person who has observed that trend, except that the docility in us will not allow people who are also not happy to come out publicly to condemn this creeping canker that can set this nation ablaze in future.

Thinking that those Ghanaians who have had the benefit of formal education and can reason better than those of us who completed J.S.S and are struggling to have either three year or four year S.H.S, to check our how far, I came to realize that we should not put so much premium on many of those who throw their arms around with PHDs, WFGs, and XYZs who speak better whiteman's language than their native languages for our salvation and unity as a nation.

They can be the cause of our national disintegration. One of them is a gentleman who calls himself Dr. David Percy. I will come to the name soon.

Last Saturday, the 14th of November 2009, I was traveling to my holy village on the Cape-Three Point road to celebrate one week of the interment of an Aunty.

As usual, I tuned in to Radio Max, which hooks up with Joy Fm in Accra, for the popular Newsfile Programme. Dr. Percy was at his best, running down anything Kufuor and NPP.

That for me is not a problem, but when it came to the discussion of the Golden Jubilee House and its present use, my heart bled.

While justifying the use of the colonial slave warehouse as the seat of government, he did not understand why the Indians should even build a Presidential Palace for use by our President. That once again is not worrying.

His ethnocentric statement which by all intents and purposes is meant to cause disaffection towards the Asantis followed. And that is, the building, I mean the Golden Jubilee House was designed like the Golden Stool.  

In this country, we know that when we talk about the Golden Stool, it is nothing but the stool which history tells us was conjured from the skies by Okomfo Anokye as a symbol of Asanti unity, among others. By implication, Dr. Percy is telling Ghanaians that even the Presidential Palace was designed with Asanti culture and customs in mind.

There could not have been any better display of ignorance of the culture of this country than what was exhibited by Dr. Percy.  

Indeed, with the exception of our compatriots from the three Northern Regions, whose traditional authorities sit on the hides or skins of animals, the traditional authorities of the rest of this country sit on stools.

Dr. Percy, this is the reason why in the three Northern Regions, Chiefs or Nabas are EN-SKINNED while down south, the chiefs are EN-STOOLED. Repeat after me; enstooled, again, enstooled, once more, enstooled. Good.

Now listen, the STOOL is not limited to the Asantihene or the Asantis.

In fact, when I got to my village, as I was saying, the chief of my village happened to be my uncle, and I met him and the elders of the family sitting on stools with the skins of animals on them. I was invited to sit on one.

Whoever designed the Jubilee House in the form of the stool did so having in mind that traditionally that is the seat of authority in Ghana.

If Dr. Percy does not like the stool, he can say so because I believe there is none in his family home.

How can there be one?  Percy from which traditional area in Ghana? Well you cannot blame him; there are so many adopted names in Ghana which emanated from European immorality inflicted on our ancestors, so I will not be surprised if the name Percy is one of such.  

The man was seriously and furiously chastising everything colonialism, and yet he himself is an embodiment of colonialism.

There is nothing Ghanaian about this man. DAVID PERCY? What is GHANAIAN about that name?

He cannot even pick Kobla, Kwesi, Yao, or Kwame to add to the Percy, and he is shouting his voice hoax.

He hates the colonialists to the core, and there he sits creating ethnic hatred towards fellow Ghanaians because of his own ignorance.

I hear Dr. Percy is an Agriculturist, how many acres of maize, cassava or plantains does he produce in this country every year. He will argue that he is an Agriculture Consultant, good.

We are not hungry because of the colonialists. We are hungry because we have so many agriculturists who sit in offices without producing food.

They eat fried rice and toads for lunch, drink whisky and cognac instead of akpeteshie and pito, and turn round to blame others for their woes.

Looking at what happened at the end of last week and early this week, the bloody killing of Ghanaians over issues that could be resolved through round table discussions, let no one foolishly think that we cannot have that on a national scale if one group of people purposefully smears another group of people.

When their patience gets exhausted, some crazy persons from among them will only have to mobilize and the nation will be up in flames.

Again let no one also think that because one particular ethnic group, the Ewes, dominate the security agencies, it will be easy for them to quell any ethnic-induced conflict in this country.

Why have we not been able to deal with the Bawku issue and others which rear their heads every now and then?

The Dr. Percys of this country should spare us this ethnic divisions based on very dishonest intellectual analysis. If they do not, this country will be gradually heading towards disintegration. And if that should happen, we can never integrate again.

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