When Perceptions Make Or Mar A Man

Life is indeed not fair and so is nature, in my opinion. One of my favourite television programmes is Nageo Wild. I take delight in looking at the behavior of nature, particularly living organisms. I love the inter dependence of animate objects to preserve nature. Many animals survive on plants, indeed as these animals even feed on plants, they are selective of the plants they can survive on. It is not every plant that a herbivorous animal feeds on. Herbivorous animals have great sense of scent and that is what they use to select edible plants.

Other animals are carnivorous, feeding on other animals for their survival and existence. While I accept that those animals also need to live, I always pity the prey of those carnivorous animals. The prey ranges between small rats to huge buffalos depending on which animal is hunting for survival. Sometimes I marvel at the agility and the tactical approach with which some of these carnivorous animals attack their victims in the jungle.

It is also amazing to observe the alertness and sense of security with which some of these preys escape danger and survive the aggression of their attackers. However, it is also very chilling to see a helpless and defenceless antelope being attacked by a number of hungry looking tigers. The only defence of the antelope is its ability to outrun its attackers. The animal at this point is so helpless and will have to succumb to its attackers with its life.

Human beings are endowed with all the defence mechanisms to survive based on how productive they use their brains. Human beings have dominion over all things and are supposed to use them in a manner that will meet their needs and the needs of generations unborn. There is however, one thing that the human mind cannot know and act upon. The ability to know what is in the mind of a person before he acts. Shakespeare puts it nicely when he says 'there is no art to find the mind's construction from the face'. No one can determine the thoughts of a person by merely looking at the face of that person.

The image of many otherwise innocent people have been tarnished not by what actions or inactions they have exercised but by what some believe they are or are capable of doing. Some people have been judged by one single action they took at a particular point in time or on the basis of a prevailing circumstance to address a situation. It is also very sad that a man's principled position on a matter where almost everybody else has joined the band wagon towards another direction, has been branded 'too known'.

Some individuals on the basis of their convictions, self-esteem and confidence have been tagged arrogant and they have carried this cross in their lives when their accusers have not been able to provide a shred of evidence to support their claim.

If there is any single individual in this country who has been given a tag and has had to live with it all his life, that individual is President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. I have not known him that much, but at least from my secondary school days when he was an active member of the then Movement for Freedom and Justice (MFJ) which stood up against the Supreme Council government of the late Gen. I.K Acheampong, and when I was a practicing journalist.

The regime had imposed untold hardships on the country; the economy was on its knees. Scarcity of basic everyday consumables which come to be known as essential commodities had hit the nation. The regime was bent on holding onto power in spite of the anguish and covert agitations and protestations of the generality of the Ghanaian populace against it.

The regime, at the peak of its bankruptcy in ideas had imported what it termed UNIGOV as a substitute for a return to democratic governance in this country. A number of sycophantic organisations funded with the tax payers' monies had been formed to propagate the UNIGOV idea. People like Kwesi Ghapson, S.K. Danso, Kankam Dacosta, just to name a few, were criss-crossing the country preaching the gospel according to UNIGOV. Who dared speak against UNIGOV at the time?

Then emerged the MFJ with very prominent politicians in the persons of K.A. Gbedemah, Prof. Albert Adu Boahene, Gen. A. A.Afrifa and others and among them was a vibrant young man in the person of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, openly countering the propagandist information on UNIGOV being forced down our throats. These were very challenging times in our political history. The result of the actions of the MFJ and other such bodies like the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) led to the palace coup of August 1978 which paved the way for constitutional rule.

Then with time, the PNDC took over power and kept all of us as a people in an open cage but with no right of movement for 11 years. Once again, covert agitations and indoor whining and pining, hastened by the collapse of the Berlin wall gave us the right to elect our leaders. Even though the nation was ushered into a democratic governance, the freedoms and liberties of the citizenry in relation to leadership of government and its policies were limited.

In the midst of all the political and economic hardships, a further policy of new tax system, the Value Added Tax (VAT) was introduced. The poor implementation of it in a period we describe as lean season in the agricultural calendar of this nation had worsened the plight of the citizenry. The nation needed salvation, and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo was available.

The Alliance For Change (AFC) he led with other patriots in the persons of Kweku Baako, Dr. Charles Wereko Brobbey, Akoto Ampaw, Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe, Kwesi Pratt, Victor Newman, Kakraba Cromwell and a few others came to the rescue of the nation. A series of regional demonstrations were held, a few of them I partook and reported for the Ghanaian Chronicle then. These demonstrations led by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo at the time compelled the government of the NDC at the time to with draw the VAT.

The tenacity of purpose and his firm belief in the democratic process and his courage to confront dictators in the interest of Ghana attracted the tongue lashing and perceptive adjectives which indeed are not the true characters of the man, Nana Akufo Addo. He has been described as arrogant and warlike by his political opponents simply because he will express his views and hold on strongly to his beliefs.

That accounts for the 'near disappointment' by people who have not been very close to the President, and that emanates from the perception built in the minds of many that he has bellicose and aggressive personality – dispositions he had not been exhibited since he became the President of the Republic. A lawyer of his stature, no matter his personality, cannot engage in actions against anybody outside the confines of the law.

That is the cross that people like him have to carry in a society of docile sycophantic individuals who complain in the quiet about situations they are not comfortable with. And when an individual gets the courage to talk about those things that bother the whole society, he is given names that are at variance with his personality.

My humble self, have and still carry some of these adjectives and sometimes some epithets that are not in tune with my character because I speak my mind and stand by what I believe in even when the majority disagree with me. That is the world we were put in by our maker. Such perceptions have had very negative effects on otherwise very good people in our society. But for the fact that he has become the President of this country, he might have left this world leaving behind a certain perception in the minds of some people that he is a violent person.

Daavi, just three tots for today.
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By Kwesi Biney