When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, “What have I to do with you, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!”- Luke 8:28
The Presidents May Day address was right on point. President Akufo-Addo hit the nail right on the head with surgical precision and with the ferocity of an E&P bulldozer. But that is just one side of the script. The Commander -In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces has by his otherwise harmless address stepped on the tail of a wild and familiar cobra; The Ghanaian Civil Servant.
The Ghanaian Civil Servant has for some decades now developed and perfected what I call the Post Colonial Labor Mentality (PCLM). We were ruled and governed by the British colonial master. Needless to say but we very much hated to be governed.
Our craving for independence led to the deployment of crude means and tactics to undermine the Queens rule and lower the Union Jack. Momentum was on our side, perseverance paid off and independence from British rule came in 1957, but the self inflicted crude tactics and means stayed with the Ghanaian Worker. And so when the Secretary General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr. Yaw Baah following the traditions of old lamented the one sided chorus of workers plight, we were expectant and itchy for some new and wild promises from the 73 year old President. How wrong we were.
The President was cast in the mold of Winston Churchill before the British House of Commons in his first address saying “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”.
President Akufo-Addo chose a bright morning on May 1st to wash our multiple decades of old dirty linens in public. Now our children know we steal the ideal milk we bring home from the office. Our neighbors know we siphon fuel from Government vehicles and abuse fuel coupons.
The trotro and taxi drivers chuckle with disdain when they see us leave home after 8am and complain about intense traffic running late to work. The demons are gloating because our one hour prayer sessions in the office have been struck out. We cannot even visit our dear ones in their various offices as has been the norm for all these years, at least not whilst Akufo-Addo remains President.
The rains are here, and some of us need Government vehicles (Pick-ups) to transplant our Cocoa seedlings and Plantain suckers, go to funerals and help our ex-girlfriends and wives uncles relocate. But now we cannot do all these things just because one President says no?
Even military rulers wielding guns and clubs could not change us, what makes President Akufo-Addo think that he can? He has been in office for barely four months and he wants to stop galamsey, streamline and sanitize sole sourcing, clamp down vigilante groupings, end political vindictiveness, abolish theft/ cheap sale of government vehicles, deny “legitimate and friendly ghosts” their monthly salaries and make Accra the cleanest city in Africa.
(What this means in real terms is that we will be denied the enviable pleasure of defecating at the airy sea shore again. On Nana, do you want to kill us?) . And now, the President wants to stop our small but holy kpakpakpa movements in the office that complements our poor wage system? How dare you, Mr. President?!
Slowly but surely, President Akufo-Addo is scrapping away the very things that makes us Ghanaians. One cannot help but dread what he shall scrap next; the holy 1 cedi susu by the Police personnel on patrol duty maybe. We are Ghanaians, a little filth, a little theft and a long prayer makes us stronger. How dare you, Mr. President?!
My dear Mr. President, I speak the minds of the millions of discerning Ghanaians who have not been won over to the dark side of corruption, depravity, avarice, create loot and share, at least not yet. We account for the over 1.5 million vote’s difference in the landslide victory you won in the 2016 elections.
For the first time in a very long while, you and your Government have given hope and life to the dream of our fore-bearers, brought real meaning to the tag of being a Ghanaian and inspiration to the fight against the ‘evils’ of our days. WE ARE GRATEFUL.
But we shall never forgive you if it turns out that you did not mean to fully carry out your pledge to weed out the evils confronting us or that you underestimated the threat these evil ones pose. We cannot suffer that kind of emotional blackmail, Mr. President. We shall pray for you and work with you knowing that you are fully aware of the reach and power of the evil we are fighting, some of which can even be found in your inner circles.
God bless the President and God bless our homeland Ghana.
Source: Michael Nana-Sasu/ Research Fellow Danquah Institute
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