William Quaitoo, Double Standards And The Travesty Of Justice In Ghanaian Political Culture

The resignation of Deputy Agriculture Minister William Quaitoo comes as a traumatic surprise to me, more so because I never heard of any group of Northerners, either from Parliament or civil society, call for the immediate resignation of former President John Dramani Mahama for categorically stating on the ground, as it were, that even if his government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) paved all the streets and highways of the Asante Region with gold, so pathologically ungrateful were Asantes that they would never appreciate such magnanimous gesture.

Mr. Mahama also frontally and disdainfully insulted The Okyenhene and the people of Akyem-Abuakwa by, literally, calling them morons who had absolutely no fundamental sense of environmental preservation as to wantonly convert their traditional polity into Ghana’s Galamsey Capital. The significant contribution of his own brother, Mr. Ibrahim Mahama, to such predatory environmental degradation and destruction was conveniently ignored. Here again, I never heard any politicians of northern descent or civil society leaders call their self-proclaimed Messiah to order.

This is why I am disconsolately outraged by the decision of Mr. Quaitoo to resign his post. But I am even more perturbed by the decision of President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo to accept such gunpoint-induced resignation. I have also traumatically watched Nana Akufo-Addo take the people of Okyeman, and Akyem-Abuakwa, in particular, for granted by officially inaugurating his indisputably laudable “One District, One Factory” in the hometown of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills. This flagrantly contrasts with the distribution of school uniforms to public schoolchildren, which the late President officially launched in his home enclave of the Central Region.

That was a very judicious decision because as our elders of yore discovered ages ago, our very humanity inescapably dictates that “Charity ought to begin at home.” The stark elementary fact of the matter is that you cannot hate yourself and your kinsfolk and clansmen and women and hope to be loved and respected by onlookers. It simply does not work that way.

For all our relatively disproportionate contribution to the political culture and material development of the country, Akyemfo and Okyeman remain one of the most impoverished communities in Ghana. Nana Akufo-Addo perfectly knows that he did not leave a proud legacy as a longtime New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Akyem-Abuakwa-South. Just look at the Accra-Potroasi-Bunso road.

I personally know a couple of our Kyebi relatives, including a second cousin of Nana Asante Bediatuo, the President’s Protocol Chief, who have vowed to never vote for an Akufo-Addo-led party and government, no matter what. And the reason? Not once did MP Akufo-Addo hold a meeting of Kyebi youths to discuss their wishes and aspirations. I had to earnestly plead with this hardworking relative, who owns two private schools back home, to change his mind. And the evidence has been clear for all to see, to wit, the fact that Nana Akufo-Addo has consistently failed in the past to clinch upwards of 70-percent of the ballot in his own home district.

Indeed, I was totally mortified to see and hear former President John Agyekum-Kufuor literally go down on his knees and beg Okyeman to dignify itself by overwhelmingly delivering the votes for one of their own. Don’t get me wrong, dear reader, I am not about to give up on Nana Akufo-Addo; at least not just yet. But, of course, he can rest assured that there is also absolutely no guarantee that my unstinted support will be incessantly forthcoming.

After all, nobody lives or holds any position, however lofty, and however long, forever. Condoning the vicious and dastardly scapegoating of Mr. William Quaitoo for the Kobby Acheampongs and the Atta-Millses of Ghanaian political culture, will not go unrewarded in the form of poetic justice (See “Deputy Agric Minister Resigns Over Tribal Comment” Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 8/29/17).

At any rate, what makes Mr. Quaitoo’s apology for calling northeners “difficult liars” any less significant than Mr. Mahama’s scripted and poorly rehearsed apology for calling Akyemfo congenital morons? We live to see, as the saying goes.

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