Open Letter To Ato Kwamena Dadzie

Ope

n letter To Ato Kwamena Dadzie
Massa,
Long time no see. How have you been since returning from your over two years sojourn in Canada? I hear you went to study. And many people have been asking me about what you may have probably studied abroad. Some are doubting that you actually went to study. Others are convinced you went to hustle in the kitchens and washrooms of Toronto. Did you study? Did you hustle? Or you did a bit of both? I hope you will clear the air and set the records straight.
The last time I wrote something about you - not that you are important to be written about - you went to blast me on your defunct blog. That was over three years ago. I Ignored you at that time because you were not worth my time.
Ato, I hope you know why people don't believe that you went for further studies. It is possible you don't know. I know you don't care. I will tell you anyways.
Although I hardly listen to radio, especially "rented airwaves" like yours, I have been told you came back to a lower seat at that discredited multi-media house. I also hear you are still doing the same old sarcastic news paper reviews every morning- the same childishness that you displayed for several years before fleeing to Canada. Is that true? I can't believe it!
Is that why you now call yourself "senior journalist"? Don't you think it is more appropriate to rather call yourself "senior news paper reviewer"? Because that is what you are. Or does it take a diploma in journalism from GIJ to review stories in newspapers and put your arrogant opinions before your listeners? I double doubt it.
First of all, there is nothing like a senior journalist. It is about the content of your work. But even if we admit that people with long practice are seniors in journalism, we will also expect such long term practioners to have worked for various media houses - print, electronic, broadcast etc - and may even own their own media houses. Massa, you have done the same thing on same station for several years, you cannot even run your own blog constantly and you have the audacity to call yourself a senior journalist? Senior journalist my foot!!!
Anyways Ato, what have you been yapping about since your return on the airwaves? Did I hear you have been pontificating and trying to act sanctimoniously as if you were a clean journalist with integrity? I heard you now even call "soli" a bribe. Since when? How about the "soli" that you and your ilk from Joy FM used to take from Kojo Mpian in President Kufuor's reign? Or is it because of the small Canadian Nokofio dollars you got from your Toronto hustle, you now see "soli" as a bribe?
Well, if you now see "soli" as a bribe, then that must be the first glimpse of noticeable change since your return. Some of us only wonder why your change has not occurred in your thinking and reasoning. Even your lyrics are the same stinking water-cooler gibberish.
Massa, I hear even your logic has not improved. Foresooth, it has gotten worse. And that is why you fail to understand a simple analogy of the dead goat syndrome by his excellency the President.
Let me explain in simple class one English so that even the "dullest school kid who is always last in class" can understand. The consolidated fund is the goat.The single spine salaries of workers is the goat meat. The workers of Ghana have taken over 70% of the goat parts. That includes the liver and the heart of the goat etc. And that makes the goat DEAD. If workers now threaten to go on strike, so as to get more salary(more goat meat), those workers are demanding what does not exist - a dead goat. And there is nothing more the dead goat can offer.
Ato, it is either you understand this simple analogy - which means you have more than two brain cells - or you misunderstand it - which means you have less than two brain cells. And so if your so-called further studies in Canada cannot help you understand this simple analogy, then I double doubt if your diploma in journalism from GIJ can help you.
There is little wonder that you now call the president a Dead Goat just because he used this analogy to drive home a point to the discerning people of Ghana about austerity times.
After all, I hear that the reason why your contrastingly beautiful Ex-wife divorced you, and from which ignominy you run away from Ghana to escape, is that, apart from your nerdy behavior, you used your stinking lyrics on her at home too.
And could it be as a result of your lack of reasoning improvement that you returned to the now deserted Joy FM not as a news editor like before but now as what? Do you even have a designation at Joy FM now? A senior newspaper reviewer? What an ignominious stagnation!
It is only at your radio station that people go for further studies and return to a lower position. You should probably call yourselves a topsy-turvy radio station.
And, Ato, what makes you guys think you can single-handedly change a governing regime in Ghana by sitting on your microphones? Do you guys realize the increasing numbers of microphones in town?
So that when you say that President Mahama is gonna be a first term President, do you mean to say that you are speaking for the people of Ghana? Have the people of Ghana spoken into your "chosen" ears? Since when you were abroad? And can you honestly say, with your hand on your heart, that you believe what you are saying?
By the way, Ato, if you really believe in Ghana why did you run away for over two years? And what did you come back with? More vitriolic talks?
massa, you cannot be taken seriously - not by your discerning listeners - unless you think your listeners are namby-pambies. Are they?
not exactly your friend
SaCut Amenga- Etego

NPP Murdered Yaa Naa To Fulfill Campaign Promise

NPP murdered Yaa Naa to fulfill Campaign Promise

Some of us were old enough in 1992 when the ban on partisan party politics was lifted in Ghana.

It was a crazy period. Crazy because many young people in Ghana heard the phrase "political party" for the first time. Many were confused about the meaning of the concept.

Until then, all some of us ever heard about a "party" was an event where one went to gather with other people in public to eat rice and soup and drink Fanta.

PNDC was in power with chairman Rawlings large and in-charge. When the ban was lifted, the PNDC was no more provisional. It metamorphosed into a national democratic congress NDC. The structures of the NDC were already on the ground for nineteen years during PNDC.

The National Patriotic Party which later became New Patriotic Party(NPP) however, had to create entirely new structures from the bottom up..they had to be wickedly creative.

Having been in opposition since the 70's, the elements who came together to form the NPP chose to adopt an incendiary tactic for mass organization and mobilization. This method had implications for our national security then, and still persist today.

The primary tactic adopted by the NPP in 1992 was to "touch base" with "aggrieved gates" or "minority factions" in every local traditional area. In other words, where ever the NPP found out that there was a power struggle in any local community - be it over chieftaincy, land, etc - what they did was to align themselves with the weaker party in the power struggle.

They didn't only align themselves with these minority aggrieved groups, they also mobilized and organized them along their common interests.

Throughout Ghana, from Bawku to Yendi, from Ga Mantse to Alavanyo and Nkonya, from Wa to Bimbila, the NPP cultivated and motivated aggrieved and minority groups to join their ranks with the promise of turning the "tables of power" of the various communities in favor of the aggrieved gates should NPP be voted into power.

This incendiary tactic largely worked for the NPP. Though in the minority from 1992, they succeeded in sustaining that "aggrieved base" for eight years until year 2000 when the tables of power turned in favor of the NPP and their various "aggrieved allies" throughout the nation.

And what did we see beginning in 2002? There was suddenly a resurgence of conflicts spearheaded by emboldened minority groups within various local communities throughout Ghana with the tacit endorsement of state machinery under President J.A Kufour.

Check it. The 2002 Yaa Naa's murder in broad day light in Yendi was supervised by Military officers under the command of President Kufour. His interior minister Alhassan Malik Yakubu is a native of Yendi and a member of the minority aggrieved gate in the Yendi chieftaincy conflict.

For eight years, the NPP and President Kufour could not find the Yaa Naa murderers. Of course, NPP could not find them. NPP are the murderers. In my books, if a crime of such a gargantuan magnitude is committed next to a military barracks, and the state is unable to arrest the culprits within the shortest possible time, it goes without saying that the state itself is the culprit.

In a word, the murder of Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II was the fulfillment of a campaign promise of the NPP to murder him and instal a new overload from the "aggrieved rival gate". The murdered Dagbon King has still not been buried 'up till tomorrow'!


The people of Bawku lived peacefully under one overlord until the NPP took power. They turned the town into a war zone. They armed the aggrieved gate in the town and endorsed their impunity. They failed to arrest people who were riding motorbikes in town with guns hanging on their shoulders and shooting as and when they felt like. Today, natives of Bawku cannot even go home because of insecurity.

Men, for several years, can no longer ride motor bikes in Bawku town. Their freedom has been taken away for political expediency. Business has come to a halt in that commercial and border town.Thanks to the NPP, President Kufour and their incendiary tactics.

The NPP are pure machiavellian. For them, the ends justifies the means. If they have to murder to capture and maintain power, they will always do it. That's why they now say "all die be die".

It is little wonder, that the NPP now want to lie their way into power. Character assassinations is now their modus operandi. If the NPP wins power again, they will not assassinate characters, they will assassinate people.

All peace loving Ghanaians must think twice about ever allowing the NPP back to power. For if a so-called "gentle giant" had the temerity to murder for power, can we imagine what a war mongering desperado like Nana Akuffo Addo will do to capture and maintain power? His may be "ethnic cleansing" or "Genucide".

Amenga -Etego Akaabitono SaCut - The writer is a Ghanaian political journalist, political activist and ghost writer

Who is dividing? And who is ruling NDC?

Who is dividing? And who is ruling NDC?



Are we not in deep trouble when our party General secretary Asiedu Nketia aka General Mosquito begin to tell us, that our party the NDC was founded on the basis of 'divide and rule'?
Is this history or "mis - history"?
...and that due to his adroit leadership, such a 'bad foundation' has been uprooted?
Having scored such a cheap political point, our beloved general secretary proceeds to accuse some contestants of the National executive positions of making attempts to reintroduce 'divide and rule' into the party..
Self - conceited about his own powers and level of control within the NDC, our general secretary went on to literally threaten we - the - party - people - and our delegates - to not attempt to vote in 'useless people' to work with him as GS at NEC or else, despite being unopposed, he will not "waste his time" working for the party.
Very interesting! Let's clap hands for general Mosquito. And whiles clapping for him, let us remind him that we are not in a Mosquito Republic!
Please allow our honorable delegates who voted you into power, again, on their own free will, and in their own wisdom, choose the leaders for the NDC this time round without your "undue influence" which you are trying very had to impose on the delegates with this "emotional blackmail".
Mr. Asiedu Nketiah! please be a domocrat. If the NDC delegates choses our new leaders, those leaders will not be 'useless people' just because you say so.
We respect you as our general secretary but we reject your 'divide and rule' tactics which you falsely claim that you have eliminated from the NDC.

Occupying The Flagstaff House: foolhardiness, anarchism and incendiarism

I have followed the trend - FB, twitter, whatsApp - and noticed the social media momentum gathering on this lost cause masterminded by faceless characters.

They have sat behind their computers to invite Ghanaians out on the 1st of July to illegally occupy the flagstaff house lawns - the seat of government - in protest or demonstration and dramatization of the suffering of the poor masses under the JM government.

Citizens have the right to assembly, yes. But that assembly must be within the law. No government in the world will tolerate the occupation of its seat of government by incendiary citizens and anarchists.

Things are truly hard in Ghana today, yes. I am feeling it more than some of the characters leading this lost cause. But and so what? Aren't we the same people who voted for this government? Didn't we have an option? Don't we have another option in 2016?

Or do these incendiary characters - who by the way and surprisingly includes some NDC members - suppose that Egypt is better off today under a military dictatorship after using anarchy to reject their so - called Non - performing Democratic leader?

Did we not have similar situations in the past under various leaders? Under President Kufuor, this nation degenerated to a point that poor trotro drivers were put into prison for violating traffic rules. Some drivers under Kufour were forced to kiss corpses at the 37 military hospital mortuary. Water became more scarce than petrol to the point that we introduced the "Kufuor gallons" in Ghana. Under all these bizarre situations nobody occupied Kufour's Presidency. We demonstrated everywhere in Ghana. Yes, I joined the WAHALA Demos personally. We did it from region to region. Nobody attempted or even contemplated on occupying the Presidency because we knew better. We love Ghana.

Why now?

Is it just a matter of demonstrating unhappiness and sufferings to the President? And occupying the lawns of the Presidency is the most prudent tactic? How about law and order?

Even under the military government of Chairman Rawlings, nobody in their right senses attempted to occupy the castle under worse circumstances. University students who once attempted to present a common petition to the castle met a brutal force that saw no repeat of such recklessness.

I think the organizers of this incendiary event are simply foolhardy. They even claim to have support from Europe for this event. Yes, they got the BBC to discuss it. The faceless and cowardly leaders are still not bold enough to disclose their identities, yet they expect well meaning and reasonable Ghanaians to join them on this misadventure.

I personally don't take these characters behind the planned occupation of the seat of government seriously. It is very easy to sit behind a computer or even on your phone and incite anarchy. It is a totally different ball game getting people out to join you in lawless acts. If the organizers were indeed that courageous to defy the public order act and the public force, they should have had the courage to show their faces by now. Why are they still wearing masks?

What difference do these guys intend to bring to the situation in Ghana with the flagstaff house occupation that cannot be realized through civil deliberations or demonstrations on the streets?

Do they actually believe that the President and his appointees will suddenly become better governors after the illegal occupation? - that is if they are ever allowed to occupy the lawns - which I double doubt. Or do they intend to forcefully remove the democratically elected President from power because they think he is not performing well?

Let the characters behind this reckless organization to occupy the seat of government be very clear on their minds, and not to be confused - not even for a second. Their intended action is very serious with regrettable consequences.

They may end up making noise about police and military brutalities under a democratic government when the security agencies carry out their lawful duties by forcefully getting rid of, or arresting the intended law breakers.

However, the people's government, legitimately elected and mandated to rule for four years have the constitutional mandate to protect the sovereignty of the state and the general will of the people.

I therefore call on the security agencies not to renege on their constitutional duties but to enforce the supreme constitution of Ghana come tomorrow - despite what anybody or group of bodies will say.

I call on all peace loving and civil citizens to ignore the call to go out and occupy the seat of government. We have chosen the rule of LAW and not of MEN. The rule of law must reign supreme.

SaCut Amenga - Etego

Aspiring Propaganda Secretary (NDC)

Can You Imagine?

Ghana is really changing indeed! I recently met this maiden. She is beautiful on the outside. I mean standard beauty. She is smart above average. She is charismatic. She is independent. Her attitude is tolerable. And her company is fun. She is a great decoration. However, there is a problem. She insisted on introducing me to her business man father. I hesitated, as i usually do with these sorts of requests but she was adamant. Eventually, i obliged. Now here is the bomb. The man introduced himself as a future father - inlaw. What?? Just now?? I think he got manipulated by my beard and quickly thought I would be a great husband! By the way, his house is an edifice. The man spoke lavishly. In fact, he is a braggard! In less than 30 minutes he told me of all his gargantuan worth. I was amazed at the speed at which he was going.. He then proposed to me to marry his daughter or not waste her time. He was stern. May be he wanted to intimidate me. He added, that he knows i don't have money but a bright future. Therefore, he will gimme aid to marry his daughter. The 'aid' will come in the form of a house, a highly priced car, and some cash. He wants a societal wedding! Shocked by his proposal, i asked him why he will do such a thing - considering that his daughter is capable of winning the heart of any man without inducement? And then he said, ' i hear you are famous. You have prospects and political connections. My daughter will be secured with you'. 'well, this sounds like a bribe, in anticipation of future considerations', i said. 'yes, i don't have money. I don't have a house. And yes, i only own an old fashioned rickety car but this your proposal sir, has made me feel even cheaper'. My 'father - inlaw' was not impressed with my response..so he asked me to go and think about it. Let me confess; I don't love his daughter. Help me think about it!

An Apology Of A Propaganda Secretary

I have received so many telephone calls from many young political animals in the past couple of months. All of them asked me the same question " Is it true you are running for NDC national Propaganda secretary"? 'Yes, I am considering running for the deputy position', I will say to them on the phone. 'Why not the main position? Who else can do it better than you in our generation', They would ask? I confess; that question gives me a smile. Why not the main position?? Why deputy?? Many of my friends have said to me that they cannot see any new generation political activist, well abreast with old and new media communication skills, more capable of running a propaganda secretariat for the NDC than I can. What a challenge! Unbelieving of my friends, I decided to embark on the onerous task of finding out if indeed there aren't more qualified people capable and committed enough for that strategic office of communication than I. I began by asking what basic skills are required to run a propaganda outfit. I found three most important: writing skills, speaking skills, and scheming/networking skills. Writing skills are crucially required since the mass media - print, broadcast, web portals, new social media etc - provide the channel for propagandists to disseminate their information. Speaking skills cannot be done without since the propagandist will need to substantiate what he writes through voice speech. Scheming/ networking skills form the foundation for propaganda since the propaganda scheme of the political opponent is laced with malice and demands an above average mind operating in the third dimension to be able to decipher and counteract appropriately. PROPAGANDA IS A BLOODLESS PSYCHOLOGICAL WAR that aims at either totally annihilating the political opponent or repairing the lethal impact of the political opponent's Propaganda machinery. And this WAR is not for weak hearts or unprepared minds. Besides, it takes a certain thinking to be able to align your propaganda war forces in scattered patterns, and to undermine the minds and psychology of your opponents. So: basically, these three qualities combined, the propagandist only need the full support of the party machinery to be effective. On this score, I dare say that, in the past five years, Propaganda within the ruling party has been so ineffective that a certain government and party communications team has taken over propaganda work, and they do so at their abysmal best, to no positive effect. Still in my quest to find the most qualified candidate for the December congress, I first looked within the office. The current secretary, Richard Quashiga (Hon) abandoned his post two year ago to join the legislature. He will excel at his new job provided that legislating is easier than propagating. I double doubt that anyways. The first deputy, Hajia Laadi (Hon), followed her boss to parliament as MP for Pusiga. With two Party propaganda officials now in parliament, there remains one deputy propaganda secretary Solomon Nkansah. Naturally, Mr. Nkansah feels like a heir apparent to the main position of Propaganda secretary of the ruling NDC. After all, he is the lover boy of General secretary Asiedu Nketia. He is also the god - son of "uncle Ato", one of the richest men in Ghana today and NDC kingpin. Unfortunately, god - Son - ism really does not bear propaganda fruits for a political party wanting to maintain power. I have never read a single piece of article authored by Mr. Nkansah as deputy propaganda secretary for the past four years. Mr. Nkansah does not even operate a Facebook account - not because he does not want to but because he lacks the know - how in such hi-tech areas. And I know it for a fact. On this score of writing/hi - tech networking skills, he is counted out in my books. On speaking skills, Mr. Nkansah specializes in speaking Fante. I cannot imagine that speaking eloquently in Fante can really propagate party policy or program to the entire nation, since Fante is not a lingua Franca. That also provides a deficiency in him. As for the third dimension thinking, it requires writing and speaking skills to manifest. Without the first and second skill, the third does not manifest at all. I know that It will not be pleasant in the ears of Mr. Nkansah and his surrogates, what I am writing here. However, it is the truth: that he is woefully unskilled and unqualified at this moment for the position of national propaganda secretary of the NDC. And Supporting him is tantamount to endorsing mediocrity. And since I am not in the mediocrity business, I disapprove of him. Having cast him aside in the analyses, there remains no one in the current office until elections are held in December 2014. What I don't understand is why so far, we have had people opt to run for the two deputy propaganda positions but no one seem BOLD enough to challenge the hegemony of the ruling national executive. And since I don't understand it, I opt to be different. I have written and published in the past seven years, over a hundred feature political pieces of articles, news paper columns, press statements and conferences, youth manifestos, not to mention new social media publications and constant blogging. These does not include my unpublished manuscripts. Again, taking the words of my friends, not as flattery, they tell me that I am an adroit writer when I try. I am not such an excellent speaker, but with practice, I can manage. And if what some people say I have an "evil genius" is anything to go by - what ever that means - then I believe I can think in the "third dimension" and translate that into writing and speaking propaganda. Besides, as a media man, I am strategically positioned to align more prudently with the conveyors of propaganda. Since the daunting investigation have yielded no suitable candidate - both capable and committed - to run effective and results oriented propaganda for the ruling NDC, I am left with no option but a moral mandate to take up the challenge and contest the ultimate position to prevent a mediocre propaganda outfit totally incapable of matching the opposition NPP boot for boot in the next general election from emerging. We can do better. I will do better. Amenga -Etego Akaabitono SaCut (Aspiring National Propaganda Secretary, NDC) www.sacutamenga-etego.blogspot.com — with Larry Gbevlo-Lartey and 20 others.

Seriously Speaking

Yes, I am seriously speaking. We live in a society in which human rights have been ursurped by dogs. And who are they that have transfered the rights of man to dogs?? Dogs nowadays don't feed on crumbs of bones like we saw growing up. It is men who now look for crumbs - but to no avail. The rich and powerful - of course! Who else? Aren't they the ones who champion the social gospel of Christ? And don't they occupy the front seats in the church at congregation? Akin to the pharisees? Yet these are the people who have taken away the fundamental human rights of the poor to food.. Not only that, these rights have been transfered to dogs. And yes, that is what is envoke. Rich and powerful people keep a 'foreign dog/s', feed them on a foreign meal at a dollar price per day - a cost relative per day capable of alleviating hunger in large communinal house holds for a week in Ghana. Well, these days there are rationalising but untenable arguments about security etc. Of course, the rich man has the right to protect himself, his family and property from intruders with all the dogs they want. However, the rich man has more to fear from hungry neighbourhood mobs whose rights to food has been transfered to watch dogs. The hungry masses are the ultimate threat to the rich and powerful. And even though the beastly dogs may protect them -for a while-after eating the fat crumbs - animals have never been able to tame man in the course of history. Therefore, ultimately, dogs can never protect man from man's machinations against man. This makes the security argument an illusion. What is sad about this 'popular culture' is how unaware, or rather more appropriately, how unconcerned or indifferent, rich people are about what destruction it is they are doing to the human society - the elevation of so - called pet - animals above poor people. Let me just remind all the rich and powerful people - lawyers, doctors, bankers, politicians, business men, pastors, con men, artists, journalists, foot ballers etc etc - that if they ever die any where in the absence of their family, or friends, their well fed dogs will have no role to play. The poor starving neighbour may give them a burial or even a police report. Better still, since the rich have become obsessed with their own funerals, and since funerals are all about human numbers to dignify them, let the rich men and women be aware that Dogs - foreign or local breeds - do not attend funerals. Again, they will need the poor miserable masses to make up the numbers for their final dignity - that's if they have any left at end of their greedy lifes! It's a shame!