Professor Kofi Agyekum is Head of the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, but that is not what has shot him to fame.
He is revered, almost adored, for the native wisdom that pours out of him on the Peace FM programme, ‘Kokrooko’—even if his millions of admirers cannot tell him apart from Adam.
Today I ask him to rise and proceed to the altar as I anoint him with olive oil and confer on him the title of Prophet.
Oh, he is not God. So like many prophets, including even the true biblical prophets such as Elijah and Elisha, he does not get it right all of the time.
For instance, based on the wrong interpretation of the law given him by a lawyer he trusted, he misinterpreted the judicial decision in the matter of the University of Ghana’s road toll court case, and plaintiff lawyer Egbert Faibile phoned in to set the records straight. What’s my point? As Kwesi Pratt commented after Egbert’s intervention, these are the things that make all of us human and fallible.
Over 90 per cent of the time, however, the man known to his admirers simply as Opanyin Agyekum, whose wisdom has guided conduct on the Peace FM morning for over a decade, is spot on in his analyses and counsel. No wonder, everybody defers to him on the programme.
A year or two ago, he prophesied with his eyes open, warning of a time to come in Ghana when, at the market, buyers will demand to know and insist on buying foodstuff grown or sold by NDC or NPP farmers or traders.
He went on; at the lorry station, there will be two queues: one for NDC buses/taxis and the other for NPP buses/taxis.
That prophecy has somewhat come to pass.
At Atimpoku, the town where the Volta River separates the Eastern and the Volta regions, there are two ferrying vessels that are now in use following the temporary shutdown of the Adomi Bridge to traffic. One vessel is said to belong to the NDC because it was put there by the District Chief Executive (DCE). The other is considered an NPP vessel, apparently by virtue of its ownership.
At peak times when the traffic is heavy, it is not unusual to find one vessel practically empty though the queues are serpentine. The passengers simply refuse to board the empty vessel because it is the NPP or NDC vessel!
Multi Media Broadcasting’s irrepressible social commentator, Nana Ansah Kwaw, was a witness and carried the story on his must-listen Thursday afternoon (2p.m.) programme on Joy FM.
With objective analysts such as him, I didn’t need to cross-check the information.
Where else in this world has politics polarised a nation the way it has done to Ghana since 1992! Like tribalism, this evil is not likely to go away any time soon.
Why? Because the politician feeds on it. Without tribal politics, there are MPs who, by their own stature, level of intelligence and influence would never win an election.
Ethnicity keeps them there because without it, there would be no “world banks” made up of people who would still vote 90 per cent for NPP or NDC even if the candidate has just been dragged out of a mental asylum and is campaigning in his birthday suit.
Like Opanyin Agyekum, I can prophesy with my eyes open and declare that this country is doomed to live with this problem for all time.
Simple truth everybody knows: there will be no third force in Ghanaian politics. When will those otherwise men and women of influence in the Nkrumahist parties ever rise out of their pettiness, or forsake their stomachs to put Nkrumah or Ghana first?
In a country where MPs are the best paid (GH¢7,200.00 - basic), irrespective of academic qualifications and experience, and are the most fashionably dressed professionals, with their designer suits and three-piece agbada/babariga, who wants to risk political life outside NPP or NDC?
Is there any other explanation why politicians are resigning their party executive positions in droves to contest parliamentary seats less than six months after being elected to party offices? Certainly, there is something in the soup!
To win, they must whip their followers into ethnocentric frenzy, keep them permanently monetised even if it means stuffing GH¢250,000.00 into car boots because those people don’t trust bank cheques, or promise them control of public toilets in the event of victory!
All because politics is now the surest means to wealth and power and influence – without fail. With wealth, I can buy political power; with power, I wield influence. The Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) police will not dare to stop me even if my vehicle is not roadworthy. How dare you—didn’t you see the MP sticker!
At the bottom of it all is the “winner-takes-all” guarantee which makes our Presidents powerful, so powerful they can do the only thing which political scientists, Harvey and Barther, have said the UK House of Commons cannot do—change a man into a woman!
Otherwise how do we explain why Akua Donkor was on the President’s delegation to Italy? Don’t we know she is more important than 92 junior doctors?
Check the air fare (Business Class), the rack rate of four-five star hotels in Italy, the per diem etc. Who born dog!
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