When A Handshake Becomes Part Of Our Politics

Ndoo, I have had a hearty weekend; sipping my sobolo, preparing myself for the oncoming week and enjoying my short stay here on earth. However, I didn't know that my week would turn sour at the pronouncement of someone who was once applauded as a man of himself. You know what our people say here; a man who fights for his wife at the community borehole over who should fetch the water first, is a weak man. Men are supposed to fight battles meant for men,not battles that are reserved for women.

On that note, is Mr Rawlings now fighting a "woman's battle" for engaging in petty things as how Madam Hannah Tetteh squeezed his angel's hand? Can this among other petty things be the reason for his outright hatred for anything NDC from the time of Professor Mills to this day??

Actually, if anybody was to tell the now defeated NDC that their once upon a time celebrated demi-god would today be meddling in how a handshake extended to his senorita forms part of matters of importance in our modern day politics, they (the NDC) would have chased you to the bush as Ghanaians did to the elephant in 2008. Yet the reality is staring right in the face of Ghanaians. That the one person who was hailed as "Junior Jesus", albeit ignorantly, for using the barrel of the gun to topple a democratically elected government is today a narrator of handshakes and how painful it feels in the "smallish" palms of his wife, is nothing but a clear demonstration of over-bloated ego. That in the face of corruption(the low ranking in CPI) , burning of common people's properties for breaking the law and a high rise in armed robbery: the NDC founder found it comfortable to talk about handshakes, is clear manifestation of an individual who thinks of only himself and his wife.

Maybe our Papa J. has now become the Macbeth of our time: anything his senorita says becomes the ultimate. And even now, one may wonder the kind of jamboree this ex-military cum democratic leader of the first republic of Ghana has played with the critical areas of our governance in Ghana during his 19year rule. A reason why many have concluded that the bane of our development as a nation started from the day we accepted the non-existant ideals of Mr. Rawlings and his band of cadres from 1982 to 2000.

Ndoo, during the early days of Atta Mills' rule, I was a person who used to believe that the criticism of Mr. Rawlings was meant to shape the NDC if not weaken it. Fast forward to John Mahama's rule, one could clearly see the destructive nature of the ex-president vis-a-vis his comments on governance. He never for once commended them for any good thing done as if his own 19year rule was the golden age of Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana. Today we can all see what is happening.

Today, Rawlings has not read about the low ranking of Ghana in the yearly Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International under Nana Addo's watch. Today, Rawlings, the moralist, has not heard of cash for seat saga that hit the government some months back. Today, Rawlings has not even seen the archaic "Rambo" style of dealing with sand miners at Afa Yili in the Northern region by the ministry of defense under his friend, president Nana Addo. Instead, he sees it when Hannah Tetteh squeezes his wife's rather "smallish" palms. Something is wrong somewhere.

The NDC (not that they are better than the current government) must forget of Rawlings if they think of recapturing power in 2020. He has nothing to offer them again save politics of "hand squeezing". Or maybe, Ndoo, Mr Rawlings' heart was "squeezed" by the hefty defeat the good old Professor Mills gave his wife in the party primaries in 2011 through hardworking people like Madam Hannah Tetteh? The Dagombas would say that your enemy would say you are blowing dust into his eyes even if you are swimming in a river.

I shall be back!! Akubang?