B.A. MENSAH—-A Man Of Strength

Last week, I was advised by a lady well wisher to go slow on the mahogany bitters. I was very glad and took it as an advice coming from a mother, a sister or a wife. Vic Yaa Digee is a well wisher and I respect her advice and concern for me. However, I beg Victoria to allow me to go over board today for reasons that would be known presently. As you read this piece, I have taken six shots of very well verified mahogany bitters and Daavi, my unfailing customer was very shocked. Those who do not have the courage should stop reading beyond this paragraph because I am going beyond town today out of misery and anger as well.

Tomorrow, the remains of B.A. Mensah will be interred in his hometown Kumawu, in the Ashanti region. The one week celebration of my father Dr J .A. Addison, one time President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) is also taking place today here in Takoradi. Last Tuesday, the one week celebration of Kweku Owusu, popularly known as Kowus was also celebrated in his home town in Akyem-Kukurantumi. Now, Victoria, you can understand why I have increased the consumption of my mahogany bitters, I am very distraught, more on it soon.

As a young journalist in the early 1990s, I regularly met the late B.A. Mensah at various public functions, primarily fora for business people and economic discussions. One could visibly see solemnity on his face, and imagine the pains in his heart. Every opportunity B.A. had at any of these public gathering, he drew attention to the confiscation of his business, the International Tobacco Company, producers of Rothmans cigarette, the first ever Ghanaian to have produced cigarettes in Ghana and other property. B.A. believed and I still believe even in death, that the PNDC government was very unfair to him. He told his story over and over again, but nobody listened to him.

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B.A Mensah
B.A. Mensah, soldiered on to the courts of this country to challenge the seizure of his three Mercedes Benz  which were not part of the business which the PNDC claimed had committed an offence against the state and for which reason his business was taken away from him. The Courts had found favour with his case and had asked the state to pay him the equivalent of GH¢800,000 then for denying him the use of his cars. The PNDC treated the courts judgement with contempt. His business colleagues within the AGI were too timid to speak on his behalf. It was natural since the leadership at the time was by CEOs of Multi-National Corporations and came from my Fanti ethnic background. No sacrifice of cheese and bacon breakfast for a colleague.

B.A. Mensah was not broken down, he continued to tell his stories by personally taking columns in newspapers to tell not only his story, but those of other businessmen who had suffered unfairly under the PNDC. The political environment at the time did not also encourage many Editors of the then burgeoning private print media to sustain the views of B.A. In 1998, when I took over the Editorship of the then 'The Guide', B.A. drove to my office one afternoon to present a handwritten script for publication. He took a seat and allowed me to read through the script and I assured him of publication of the article. I did so and said I was going to publish it. That was the beginning of the relationship between B.A and my humble self.

I offered him the platform to get off his chest, the pains that had concretized in him as a result of a system which by all intents and purposes was envious of success in our society. He became my father and called me anytime he thought he had something to discuss with me. So strong was this relationship that when President Kufuor was elected as the President of this Republic and B.A.Mensah decided to organize a party in his residence for the new President, B.A. elected me as the RSVP, distributing invitation cards to those I thought were good enough to be at the party. How honoured I was such that senior party members like Nana Akufo Addo, Dr. Apraku and so many others could only attend the party at my discretion. Me too I am somebody. That is how close I was with B.A.

The most worrying thing about how the PNDC/NDC treated B.A.Mensah and other categorized businessmen in this country is what is worrying. Under the PNDC/NDC administration, Akan businessmen were deliberately targeted and their businesses ruined without recourse to the judicial processes of Ghana, so to speak in the name of a revolution. The regimes above destroyed the businesses of people like;

1. The Appentengs and their investments in salt in the Ada area

2. J.K.Siaw and the Tata Brewery
3. Kowus Motors
4. Mr. Owusu of Combined Farms, which was exporting raw Pineapples to Europe

5. Dr. Safo Adu and his Chemical industry
6. Dr. J.A. Addison's Multi-Paper Wall industry in Takoradi

7. Appiah-Menka's Apino Soap
8. Boakye Mattress
9. Kindom Herbal in recent times
10. B.A.Mensah and many more who lost their businesses in silence.

It is very evident that the PNDC/NDC with its Ewe leadership targeted Akan businesses and destroyed them, sending some of them into their early graves while impoverishing others as well. It is sad that in a developing country like Ghana, a government will deliberately want to even out the gap between the successful people and failures by destroying the businesses of targeted successful people from a section of our society. One wonders how many Ghanaians lost their jobs through this ethnic-based business cleansing by the PNDC/NDC administrations.

I am very sure that some people will start accusing me of raising ethnic sentiments and tension in this country. The question to those people is whether what has been stated above did not happen. The above individuals contributed their knowledge and efforts, resources and time to help build this country, and in one fell swoop their businesses were taken from them and given away to others. In the case of Kowus Motors, Dan Abodakpi offered it to SABAT Motors, formed by three Ewe business people, virtually against the rules of divestiture, true or false? We should not pretend that there is ethnic harmony in this country. It is a fact that there is a systematic attempt at relegating the majority of the people of this country to the background and allowing the minority to take control of every facet of our national life. That is very dangerous.

We killed our Pioneer businesses because they belonged to Akans, today we are raising to the high heavens, businesses like rLG of Roland Agambilla and Asogli Gas Plant owned by none-Akans. They and many more are new generation of businessmen. Did we have to destroy old businesses and shift the balance of business ownership from particular ethnic groupings to other ethnic groups?  If the B.A. Mensahs and many of those examples above, no matter what their offences were, had been guided unto the part of 'business righteousness', their contributions to the economy today would have been immense. The ill-motivated ethnic intents by the regimes against Akans have not helped this country grow the way we wanted it to. They were born out of envy and hatred towards the successful Akans and it does not seem to have abated.

B.A. Mensah, Kweku Owusu, Dr. J.A.Addison, and all those affected by this ethnic cleansing both earlier departed or alive, your intentions for this country were noble; you created jobs for the youth then and fed so many mouths. Your strengths and tenacity of purpose for this country, your patriotism and hard work, earned you your well deserving reputations and no amount of ethnic hatred and palpable envy from those who can only make it in life through access to public funds cannot be wiped off the history of this country.

B.A, I should have been by your graveside to sing dirges but I am unable to do so but I believe that even in death, you remain strong, consistent and principled. What else can your detractors do to you as you join your ancestors, nothing but the shameful knowledge that they destroyed your business because you were not one of them. Adieu and may the Good Lord offer you everlasting peace. Hihihihi, aoo, me nee?

Kwesibiney2009gh@yahoo.com
By Kwesi Biney
 

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