The Pains In The Heart Of The Veep...

If the lizard of the homestead should neglect to do the things for which its kind is known, it will be mistaken for the lizard of the farmstead. (Chinua Achebe, Arrow of God). In every human being, there are times when the subdued emotions in us which make us look different from others break bounds, freely flow and make us the humans that we are. That is exactly what happened to His Excellency the Vice President, John Dramani Mahama. �I have never fought anybody. You are maligning me and I am taking you to court� and many more are what the Vice President is alleged to have said in his moment of rage. For the Vice President to have fought a Minister of State over a policy seen to be going awry is not pleasant news at all, particularly when the two gentlemen are known to be gentlemen in the real sense of the word. It may however not surprise many Ghanaians and followers of Ghanaian politics if indeed that happened because there is a precedence of a President of this country having once beaten his Vice President in the same place, the Castle, Osu. Ironically, these two gentlemen were in government and might have either defended the action of the President then, or concealed it. If there was a heated disagreement over an issue under discussion between the two gentlemen (I insist they are very good gentlemen by all standards), and a section of the media decided to describe it as a fight figuratively, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But to insist that there was a fisticuff, which obviously would have led to bruises on all of them or one of them, would amount to needless exaggeration. Such description would also expose the people involved as indecent people who cannot even control their tempers in the face of disagreements, let alone manage a nation. The Vice President has reason to be furious. Not quite a long time ago, the President and one of his closest advisors were accused of engaging in bestial acts unbecoming of people in that high office. The President naturally was not enthused about it and the other person, in the name of Ato Ahwoi, as at the last report, had gone to the courts to redeem his image. That certainly is his right. Baba Jamal, the man who interprets the President�s gestures and sayings, is also supposed to be in court for being categorized as a galamsey dealer in parts of the Eastern Region. He is also going to the court to clear his name. He should be cautioned however that in the court, one cannot elevate a black goat to the position of a stainless white cow. Did I hear Stan Dogbe also threatening to go to court, and for what? Koku Anyidoho is also going to the court to �redeem his image�? I am wondering if he has any image at all left considering his professional miscommunication from the seat of government. First let me deal with those who put the �fight� information out there in the first place. In fact, journalism is being thrown to the dogs these days. It has become an avenue for gaining notoriety or popularity, as the case may be, by some journalists. This unprofessional conduct, supported with �arrogance of power�, seems to be ruining this nation. In this case, politicians and other interest groups are taking advantage of the situation to further heighten tension by maligning political opponents without course and justification. These days, one hardly hears a journalist, who perhaps genuinely had it wrong on a report filed for public consumption, coming out to apologize for the initial error. Even when all the evidence indicates that there is something wrong somewhere with the initial report, some journalists play macho by insisting that they are right. I believe that human as we are, and like any other human institution, we are bound to make mistakes once a while and when that happens, we should be honest and humble enough to admit our error and retract and apologize. It takes nothing away from us. I remember when I was editing the Daily Guide, two things happened which were not good but were dealt with without recourse to the law courts. One of them was somewhere in 1999. A younger brother of mine was involved in an accident which paralyzed 70% of his body. Being in Accra then, he was brought to Korle Bu and the responsibility of taking care of him rested on me. During my to and fro movements to Korle Bu, I had little time to thoroughly go through all the pages for a period. He died anyway. One day, I was in the office at Adabraka when a gentleman came in with a letter from a Law Chamber. It was a suit from someone who felt maligned by the paper. I read through the letter and could not believe that the said libelous materials were in the paper. I thought wrongly that the people might have mistaken the DAILY GUIDE for the Crusading Guide. When I did a close check on the particular issue, I found that the said libelous material was indeed there. I was so scandalized and could not believe that such deliberate libel could be in my paper. I immediately called the chamber and asked for the telephone number of the complainant. I called him personally and apologized profusely to him for the error and promised a retraction and an apology. He accepted it, I did it, and the matter died. I subsequently suspended the reporter. There are other instances that time and space will not allow me to relate. Today, even when we are blatantly wrong, we challenge those we have offended to go to court. While I sympathize with the Vice President, I dare also say that his reaction is only an addition to the hypocrisy which the NDC and its government have come to symbolize in the political arena of this country. Mr. Vice President, is it that painful to be associated with a violent character when indeed you are not that type? Not too long ago, the President, your boss, in terms of the leadership of this country, also had cause to complain about the spate of insults which have become part of our politics, unfortunate though as it is. But Mr. Vice President, I am sure that just as you heard those allegations against you on air, you equally hear worse things about your opponents on air as well, coming from your stable. For over 15 years, your party members have labeled Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as a drug addict without any evidence. In spite of his humble denial and even evidence to prove to the contrary, the allegations that he was once arrested in the U.S.A for cocaine, your people, including Ministers of State, continue to throw this mud on this gentleman in the belief that some will stick for political advantage. He ignored and still ignores them. President Kufuor was maligned by no mean personality than Hon. Alban Bagbin, the man you allegedly engaged in fisticuffs with and perhaps floored. Bagbin had alleged that Kufuor had twins elsewhere and that the children would be paraded before the Ghanaian public. Kufuor ignored him and other NDC propagandists. So many lies continue to be heaped on your political opponents by people very close to you. Your response has been deafening silence; today, you see how painful it is to be associated with a crime you have not committed. The last time, you were on Kwesi Pratt�s �Bare Fact�, once again to clear yourself of some rumours about you which are making the rounds. That was a good thing for your monies worth, but believe me, many people like me switched from that channel to other channels because we are too matured for this kind of, what I consider paid propaganda, to be inflicted on us. Today, it has become very fashionable for NDC officials to run to the courts to redeem their image while encouraging some men and women of delirium tremens, indeed people who are depraved, to continue to shred the image and integrity of others with callous disregard for how they feel. Etua wo nyonko ho a, etua dua mu. Much as I detest the sheer arrogance with which some media houses operate, I also shudder to see what would have been the situation if the criminal libel law had not been repealed. I bet you all those cases would have been criminalized and those involved arrested and detained, using state apparatus to redeem the so-called image of a certain idiot just because he or she happened to be in government. I was a victim of that law and was hosted by the James Fort Prison for a while in 1998. Media practitioners should forever be grateful to Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo. Since leadership in every society is drawn from among some of the best from its crop of people, we have a collective responsibility to respect those who lead us irrespective of their political, religious or ethnic orientations. If we keep on destroying those who lead us today, there will not be any leaders for this nation tomorrow. As leaders, we should be very united on this issue, not because it is our turn today, but to set a very good standard for the leaders of tomorrow. Mr. Vice President, since this allegation has pierced your heart, just put yourself in the shoes of those who are criminally branded as drug addicts without any basis other than political advantage to you and your party. Please call your party followers to order and let us see the response from the other side. That perhaps will be the beginning of sanity in our body politics. My advice however to you is that any time you feel so strongly about media attacks on your person, please take three shots of mahogany bitters and you will be alright. It calms nerves, reduces stress and eliminates the desire to litigate over trivialities. Mahogany Bitters, eye gye. Let�s drink together now and be alright, one more time.