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01.11.2011 Feature Article

The Battle of the Titans II

The Battle of the Titans II
01.11.2011 LISTEN

In quite a pejorative sense, a poem is any piece of writing which abounds in rhythm and rhyme spoken and written by a select few. The one who writes poetry (a collection of poems) is called a poet (and in rare forms bard or versifier). As a Wordsworthian, a class of poets, I would say poetry (the art of writing or studying poems) is a tool for translating ones feelings of a society taking cognizance of diction, imaging, sound, among others which eventually creates happiness for the individual. Poets don't fight wars with cannons/ poets don't take snapshots with cameras/ poets don't sketch images with pencils/ we do so with our words and biros.

It may be imperative to start my submission with the Second Coming, a poem written by an Irish poet, W.B Yeats in the twentieth century, from which Chinua Achebe took the title of the most widely read book in African literature and his magnus opus, Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s. The relevant lines are:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon can not hear the falconer
Things fall apart, the centre can not hold
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world
It is important to recall that though the book was set in Ibo land in south eastern Nigeria it has a significant bearing on the national impasse of the Mills-led administration. No wonder Achebe was thought to be a prophet by an analyst when his book A Man of the People started manifesting in Nigeria's politics.

At this juncture one may ask, but where do we draw the line? The answer is not far fetched. In the first discourse, a man was remarked to have said “those whose palm kernels were cracked to them by some benevolent ancestor should not forget to be humble.” This was uttered after Okonkwo out of sheer anger labeled Osugo as agbala, to mean a man who has taken no title. In fact Okonkwo had cracked his own palm kernels but perhaps forgot that he once neither inherited a barn nor a property. At a point in time Okonkwo had the freedom of choice in collecting seed yams from a prosperous farmer, Nwakibie who was certainly not the only wealthy man in Umuofia. Though Okonkwo was a promising figure no sponsor imposed himself on him. At any rate it was the fault of the season that caused the crops to fail. (Nwakibie yielded because Okonkwo was hardworking but needy.)

“Looking at the King's own mouth one would never think he sucked at his mother's breast.” (I did not mean to quote because I did not have Things Fall Apart at the time of writing this script.) At a tender age this villain had brought honour to his village by throwing a wily craft man, Amalinze, in a wrestling match, and consequently was among the high profile title men in Umuofia.

Without espousing the book, in latter years, the hero out of frustration and ill-support from people he hitherto identified with finally hanged himself, perhaps recounting the partridge's philosophy that it is not good for a man to be in the hands of another, in a calculated attempt to escape from the hands of the District Commissioner and his men for Okonkwo's reluctance to change.

Okonkwo's assault of the innocent boy Ikemefuna might have set up the pace for this tragedy registered in latter years. This assault Obierika forwarned. I don't know if Okonkwo of Ghana has no such Obierika. If he has then he (Obierika) should be preparing to utter the epitath: “This man was one of the greatest men of [Ghana]. You drove him to kill himself and now he would be buried like a dog.”

One may ask but where do we draw the line? To wit, personalities like Professor John Mills, and Professor Kaku Nokoe of Winsconsin earned their PhDs with little or no hitches at twenty seven. Thank God these were at Stanford and British Columbia respectively on the North American continent.

As an analogy to that Africa's PhD (Pull him/her Down) is ubiquitous in Africa. What pains is not men's unwillingness to help but their determination to pull you down. Their basis of accusation are often neither constitutional nor scriptural, and common examples which abound in all spheres are often blamed on clime and pedigree. It is high time we started looking for performers instead of just experienced people if only we look out for holistic development of our nation.

In connection with that, in Yoga literature there is a story of a Brahman boy, Bali Maharaja who requested for a piece of land from Lord Vasmadeva, the Lord of the Universe which he could measure for three paces; the Lord found it disdainful, instead of the boy asking for whole continents. When granted the chance the boy took two steps and was at the ends of the earth and asked his Mighty Lord where he was going to place the third step, and out of regard to his pledge he opted for his head recognizing the power of the Supreme Creator. I will truncate this mystery of contradiction here for want of space.

Call this piece a montage; I will soon drive my point home. There is nothing new under the son. Everything is but repetition of history. Nicolau dos Reis Lobato, an East Timorese statesman became president of that ocean nation at age twenty three just in 1975. Also, Dato Sri Najib the current Malasian Prime Minister became a Member of Parliament at age twenty three. Pointing our torchlight to the continent of America, Steven Thomson Mason (a.k.a Young Hotspur) became the first Governor of the state of Michigan at age twenty four. Even at the age of nineteen he assisted his father as the Acting Territorial Secretary, became the full Territorial Secretary at twenty two, governing the Michigan territory into statehood two years later. In no less a country than the States! And nineteenth century United States was by no means inferior.

In Africa both Ghana and Nigeria have had Ministers of State appointed in their twenties. (I see no contradiction in this), some of whom have received various awards for their meritorious services.

In furtherance, I was glad after analyzing Steve Malory of Africawatch magazine's first report on the performance of politicians, a thing which generated much heated controversies, the age range in Cabinet (or among Ministers of State) was close to forty years. But the grand daughter and grand dad, I suppose, had healthy interactions, co-operated as co-equals and not servant-master.

More so, junior ranks from the military defied the orders of senior ranks in the late 1970s in an attempt to stamp out the chaos and economic repression of the SMC regime. This insurrection was led by a thirty two year old Flight-Lieutenant, who restored the country to normalcy. To give the devil its due, this terracotta beast went back to the military and returned two years later to rule again as the head of state. In the academia, Tsatsu Tsikata, a renown legal brain, graduated from the University of Ghana at the age sixteen and then with a law degree at eighteen (I see no contradiction in that). Digging further into our political history , Hon. Kwesi Plange of the first republic, Hon. Dominic Nitiwul of the present administration were both elected to the legislature at the age of twenty five, as well as Hon. Moses Kofi Armah of Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai , perhaps the youngest DCE in Ghana's history thus far, was appointed at the same age.

Without prejudice, I have witnessed cases where in many public offices we have de facto and de jury heads. The de factos being the boys doing the bullock works and the de juries being the big men taking the glory. The true linchpins of many development organizations including MDAs are often out of the limelight. Bravo if the de jury head is not a square peg in a round hole and is his own man, and is not too busy.

The constitution by inference spells out a minimum age of twenty one for ministerial appointments. As for diplomatic representations the least said about them the better.

As a matter of antiquated history, Josiah became the King of Judah at age eight, doing "what was right in the sight of the Lord." See the boy-king's reformation in the second book of Kings. David was anointed King at a tender age instead of any of his seven elder brothers; God saw he was the right person. Earlier on, the boy David after recounting his exploits to fellow Israelites went after the giant Goliath of the Philistines and flawed him with just a stone in a sling to the amazement of all Israel.

Jeremiah, the longest serving prophet of God, often beleaguered for his doom prophecies, albeit preaching hope after a time of punishment, received his appointment at the age of twenty, according to Bible scholars. Jeremiah preached on change for a better Israel notably on social justice. Jesus' own ministry started at thirty (and you know we can do greater works). He was often in the company of full-blown, white bearded men, and women and children.

Not all, Gan Luo of ancient Greece-China was elevated to a status with privileges equivalent to that of a Prime Minister only at the age of twelve. The old age of Methuselah, we are told, has got nothing to do with the wisdom of King Solomon.

Quite a substantial number of the electorate in Ghana are below the age of twenty nine. So let governments not sideline the visionary youth for age considerations or any ominous reason of which they have no concrete justification. This they will never utter from the podium. It has the tendency of plunging the nation into doldrums.

President Barrack Obama was quite prophetic when he remarked the future of this country lies in the hands of the youth brimming with energy. This he said while addressing a cross section of Ghanaians during his first visit to an African country as president of the United States. (I do not seek to know what may be happening in his administration now).

To expatiate, the inertia of the Mills-led administration in the third quarter, as yet leaving no real legacy in the field of health (worsening maternal and child health cases), governance including corruption( note: a party and not government threatened purging the judiciary, and poorly organized District Assembly elections), water works (the country recording the worst floods and rainstorm in the northern sector and in the slums of the south), housing (the plummeting of much ululated STX housing project ), is a thing both irksome and harmful. Governance is now a tool for subjugation and oppression of the underprivileged by the powers that be. As for investigation of corrupt cases it is like the dead being sent to visit the sick. Enrolment has been a tradeoff with academic standards as recorded in this year's BECE. The cutting down of the number of ministers is mere gimmickry. Who said government expenditure is cut down? Gender mainstreaming nil (at least in top public offices), the single spine with all its repercussions in the ongoing heat between the GMA and the relevant bodies, government officials falling surreptitiously into the work of awards selection committees for national award schemes and becoming major driving force. The nation seems to loose its conscience. The state seems to loose its focus.

Though a few claims may be made I view the top 50 achievements of the tax professor as mere expectations and routine phenomena. I can set to work to debunk the work of that armchair compiler in lyrical ballads. As was recently spread through the air waves no government leaves money for the other to come and continue with its projects. Taxation, we are told, is the main source of government revenue. The structures used by previous governments are still there no matter what metamorphosis they might have undergone. We should not loose sight of the fact that it is because of the inadequacies of one government and our own expectations that necessitates a change to another and no government should have any excuse for its inability to deliver. The global economic downturn does not affect Ghana alone; are we saying no other nation is thriving well?

Quite soon, we will be going to the polls. If there were modalities that analyse political parties manifestos vis a vis the achievements of the parties in government the educationist and tax man's own will register a D+ on a Malorean scale. Who said 70% of the so called social democrats party's campaign promises have been fulfilled. I do not want to vent my spleen on this polemicist.

One needs no glass eyes to determine that the government is taking undue time in preparing its tongue to respond to the cries of Ghanaians. We were told there is no need to rush and make mistakes. It only partly fits the palates and digestion of many Ghanaians. We are moving at a snail's pace to the detriment of many Ghanaians which is certainly not devoid of errors. This kind of Abraham Lincoln's sharpening of an axe seems ludicrous. How can we entrust the future of our dear nation into the hands of stomach politicians who have taken three quarters of their time trying to handle internal wrangling, rival camps, personality cults within their own party as well as revenue generation for the government and so forth!

We look out to the larger set--all Ghanaians and indeed all living in Ghana. Professor Ayi Kwei Armah addressed such batch of gob in The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born. Though I do not seek to dispute that, I am also of the assertion the beautiful ones are born but society will rather not allow them to function. I use the word also most carefully because other ones well meaning statesmen thought along those lines though they contradicted and discredited themselves in latter years.

From the foregoing, we are making strenuous efforts to distort our hard-earned democracy and replace it with oligarchy and populism. As the Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says, "a tiger needs not proclaim its tigritude, it acts." I am more than determined to fight any government of perversion and I know many will rally behind me in the fight for the course of freedom and justice. When men that were thought to be level-headed now play bizarre and misleading roles we must be quick to remember " a man must not swallow his cough because he fears to disturb others..."( Achebe, Anthills of the Savannah). Our coxswain appears tipsy and we must dey on guard.

But where do we draw the line? In a bid to throw more light on the above, during the 2004 electioneering campaign a publication was ever captioned in the print media The Battle of the Titans. It was between Hon. Alban Bagbin of the NDC, the then Minority leader of parliament, and Dr. Daniel Bagah, the then Dean of the Faculty of Integrated Development Studies of the University for Development Studies (UDS) for the Nadowli West hot saddle. Whatever was the outcome, Dr. Boye Bande, Executive Secretary of SIDSEC seems another formidable personality to reckon with. Here, I wish to categorically state that, the year 2012 will not only witness a battle between the said Alban Bagbin and his would-be fiercest contendant Dr. Bande but also with Biliguo bie Ansobie, an IT professional and a literary man. By the tip of my biro I will tear him off from the table for literary men fight wars with words. We are two lions littered in one day and I being the younger am the fiercer (apologies to Shakespeare). I say so because he is the chief misleading propagator of these pathologies of technical backwardness. It may be useful to submit the parallel profiles of the despot Bagbin and the indefatigable bie Ansobie, but that will be later.

This political Okonkwo, in motion
like a particle in an asymptotic curve,
or for the sake of the general population, lingering

sideways like a lizard under pursuit, should
not forget the blind catches the child asleep.
This half-eared sheep should sooner expect a wither or a droop.

As Spio-Gabrah would say, because we identify with the ruling government should we remain like one with a swollen tooth and allow its wound to gangrene? Certainly not. This deadlock is of the kind in which Daniel fought the princes of Persia and Greece in a 21 day battle. It is my prayer that Michael will soon descend even as I sing the beautiful melody of Beast of England to my pupils, otherwise the Vicar of the son of God or better the International Criminal Court will hear this.

In conclusion, let's call a spade a spade: there is a national impasse; there is inertia in development. I don't need statistics to buttress this. I have been the cynosure of teletention and subjugation, and I studied statistics to the university level. If any body could but cough loud enough for bie Ansobie's ears to hear I will sooner let out the exposé. We speak to the wise man in proverbs and not in plain language. Like Fulani dance, this one is yet preparatory. And Ghanaians should not dance lame before the actual dance comes. So let us draw the curtain here with a denouement each song and how it is sang, each drum and how it is played. We wait to hear from the horses' own mouth.

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