Coronavirus And The Rise Of "Judas Government"

Fellow Ghanaians, obviously, the Ghana government has been Judas if not Pharisee, in its fake efforts and counterfeit commitment to containing the novel deadly virus of corona in the country. And without mincing words, let me put it succinctly, loud and clear, that the disease has actually exposed not only phony world leaders but the severity of mankind's limitation of knowledge as well.

In the Dagbani language, we say: "A yi je ta kahi, a bi nyari sokpang bindi." That, "if you abhor embarrassment or being disgraced, you must not defecate by the roadside."

Hypocrisy, the last time I checked in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, was "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel." The dictionary furnished me with an example to appreciate what this trait is all about. Thus, "His hypocrisy was finally revealed with the publication of his private letters."

Fellow Ghanaians, if the government's allowing and goading on of the National Identification Authority, NIA, to continue with its exercise of mass registration of the Ghana Card is not the highest form of hypocrisy, I do not know what hypocrisy is according to the Merriam Webster dictionary defined above.

The magic justice and ruling on the activities of the NIA by the Accra High Court say it all. I think there are two aspects of the law: its letter and spirit. In some cases, the legal luminaries lecture us, judgment has to be delivered considering the spirit of the law, and not the letter of the law. This is Ghana where everything is politicized and monetized. Lord have mercy.

Tragicomically, to digress with your indulgence, I must say with all the seriousness I can mobilize, that we live in a society where truth-telling becomes more dangerous than the COVID 19.

There's a gradual increase of apostasy of honesty and truthfulness today in every corner of our social milieu. Deception, disloyalty, dishonesty, debauchery, greed, and avarice, have now, instead, been in the ascendancy. Expectedly, many of the leaders, with mathematical accuracy and precision, are the embodiments of these bad traits.

No wonder Prophet Muhammad (S. W. A) once said: "at any point in time, Allah foists upon a people, the worst amongst them as leaders."

Look at the amount of fraud, dishonesty, betrayal, deceit, etc. among us.

In societies like that, according to Prophet Muhammad (S. A. W), Ph.D. holders and gold medal winners in such bad character traits, are imposed on the people as leaders.

We live in a society where people voluntarily and happily come together to out-door a baby with prayers such as: "may God bless him, may he become great and useful to society," showered upon the baby. And before the baby starts to show signs of these blessings, the same people would gang up to plot the downfall of the same person they prayed for. Mostly, these categories of people become the baby's worst frenemies. That's why witchcraft in our communities is more popular than the Coca Cola bottle. And the number of mallams continues to rise: evil!

That's the unfortunate tragedy of our time and clime. And it would remain the gaping sore of Ghana (Africa) which would continue to fester dangerously. Hence, our continuous stay in the muddy waters of underdevelopment.

The majority of people, especially youngsters in this country, hoard their talents "society" prayed and helped them to acquire since their infancy. Because of the misguided but real notion that the same society would hunt them down if they try to showcase the talents. There are dormant talents in this country called Ghana.

And as if that's not evil enough, today, the social class of an individual as well as the heaviness and depth of his or her pocket, are the yardstick for the consideration of what they say to be true or otherwise. In order words, only the rich or those at the upper echelon of the social ladder, are listened to, whether they make sense or not. The ideas of a member of the lower class of our society, have always been consigned to the dustbins.

Unfortunately, these groups of people society "worship" and usually listen to, hardly make sense.

That's the tragicomedy of our time which has poisoned the well of humanity in general.

Consequently, when the majority of the Ghanaian populace are disagreeing and lambasting leadership, one is at a loss. Whether is it because of the usual "pull him down" brigade of those the society itself blessed and prayed for some time ago to prosper whose prosperity it (society) now hates or what exactly is triggering such public backlash is not known.

Why would many Ghanaians lampoon and lambaste the government despite its efforts to contain the malignant?

Perhaps, the government's efforts have not been borne out of sincerity.

The "animal farm attitude of one nation two moralities" displayed by the government, by in one breadth, banning public gatherings, and in another breadth, finds it convenient to allow public gatherings simply because it's for voting, smacks of hypocrisy and betrayal of its mandate as government.

How long does it take to register Ghana Card, and how long does it take to sit for church service or observe Jumu'ah prayer?

Yet, one cannot call the government out for this blatant, flagrant, and matured hypocrisy. To spotlight such political iniquity, social bias, and lack of leadership morals and justice, is tagged as repugnant to authority, and one must lose his limbs for that or suffer the rest of their life for calling the government out for negotiation of integrity in their administration of the affairs of citizens.

Unless those who were living under a rock, the President address to the nation last night 27th March 2020, was the greatest form of propaganda. He had admonished Ghanaians to desist from making politics out of our current predicament of the coronavirus. And before we could clap for him, His Excellency violated his own advocacy and exploited the situation for cheap political gains!

It is shameful that President Akufo Addo would actually want to downplay the intelligence of Ghanaians, by claiming to have dished out his salary as seed money to combat the virus. Let me explain.

The primary aim of every government is to ensure the security of its citizens first and foremost. The government has borrowed more money never heard of before in our political history in their less than four years of governance. According to the Bank of Ghana, as at September 2019, the debt stock hit 208.6 billion cedis. It might be hovering around 103 or more by now.

It's important to note that the government borrowed that money on behalf of Ghanaians to govern (to protect their security).

Why would President Akufo Addo and his gigantic government borrowed over 100 billion cedis on behalf of Ghanaians to ensure their security, but has to donate his meagre salary to that effect?

Right now, it is obvious that the government's efforts, so far, have woefully been inadequate which is the reason why the President has decided to dash his salary to the course of fighting the pandemic. Yet, of the colossal amount of cash the government has borrowed on behalf of citizens, not even less than a quarter of it has been used to fight the virus. The President and his Finance Minister plus the galaxy of economic management team members have decided to "hoard" the money for other purposes ignoring the fundamental essence of government.

Meanwhile, the President has allocated funds to the Electoral Commission for a compilation of voters' register. And because of which, some section of Ghanaians must be exposed to the disease by gathering and queueing up to acquire Ghana Card.

On Citi FM, earlier this week, Honorable Casiel Ato Forson mentioned how lucky Ghana has been at the Bond Market when she managed to secure 3 billion dollars. According to him, the government has initially budgeted on how to spend the money: basically, to strengthen the economy, to restructure the energy sector, and to take care of liability management, with each sector getting one billion US dollars. One would have expected that a government that claims to have the people at heart, would have resorted to that money to rescue the situation.

But because of scoring few and cheap political points by stealing from Peter to pay Paul, government officials decide to rather give out their salaries to combat the deadly COVID 19, when there's money sitting in the Central Bank.

Which responsible government in anywhere in the world, would do such a thing? Yet, the President wants us to believe he is really committed to serving Ghanaians and not his narrow interests of winning the next election?

In the land of our ancestors, "every victim of fire burns first feels cold, then he goes for a brand of fire to warm himself and subsequently and consequently gets burnt".

The Battle still remains the Lord's.

Submitted by:

Iddrisu Abdul Hakeem,

The Young Prof.

(The Young, by the permission of their Creator, shall GROW.)