Author: Fadi Dabbousi
So soon the drapers will be lowered to bring to a close the political journey of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo that has spanned decades, having metamorphosed from a human rights advocacy to expand into political activism, all for the love of humanity and Mother Ghana.
This is one feat that posterity will lovingly smile at when history beckons!
For such a great person to be this much focused on loving his nation, there must be a formidable character that urges on when the going gets tough.
Yes, Her Excellency the First Lady, notwithstanding femininity and the softness of a heart that brims with love, she has been the rock that supported her husband, the President.
In Akan, there is an idiom that says, “aboa a onni dua, Nyame na ɛpra ne ho,” to wit, “those who do not have support, GOD will help them!”
Luckily for the President, he had both the support of his GOD and his wife, “Beautiful Rebecca”, as he fondly refers to her.
It has not been a journey free from hazards, rea life perils, ill-wishes, and evil character assassinations of all sorts.
Once, when he first started campaigning to be the flagbearer of the NPP, many years ago, he got to a place in the depth of a hostile night where he was supposed to meet with a bunch of so-called supporters that were not there. Then he was with three men, only.
It was dark and treacherous, and as if the anxiety was not enough, the car they were travelling in broke down! They had to trek a distance to find a place of refuge for the
night.
Of course, such stories remain in the archives of silent memories until someone picks them off the shelf to tell a more robust story.
One of his companions, who narrated this story to me passed on a couple of years! Yes, he fought for all, irrespective of anyone’s affiliations.
A gentleman from a different political divide once told me how Nana Akufo-Addo ensured that the former accepted a child from a one-night stand. He refused to give up on the baby’s rights.
This gentleman is now a very grateful father, he says, because that child is currently an IT guru, living in the US and making millions.
Such stories abound in his decades on earth, and if you do not like him for one reason or the other, at least, you ought to understand that he is a self-made person, who had strategic businesses and investments.
I find it difficult to swallow the wrongful accusations that some unscrupulous individuals seek to taint his achievements with.
Being the astute lawyer that he is, having served in the UK, France, and all over West-Africa, he is not the one to jump at the least allegation to maltreat anyone at that. He has always believed in adducing evidence before prosecution.
Those that were hurling allegations in all directions accompanied with acidic salvos and diatribes did not come with a shred of evidence to buttress their allegations, so when he referred some cases to the security services and the results came back clean, what was he expected to do?
Whether the investigative bodies colluded with the accused persons to issue clean reports of finding, that is for GOD to judge.
By the way, when in Ghana, at all, have the security services been honest with their jobs? To give you an example, I have a short story to tell before continuing with this article.
I live in a place sandwiched between two very loud businesses that play church music and highlife throughout the day and night.
If you sat in my living room, you’d think that you were in a pub of loud drunkards or at a formula one race track because if the music did not startle you out of your mind, the drunken drivers with their altered exhausts farted their way down the road as they sped like the roadrunner cartoon character! There was nothing that I did not do.
I had meeting upon meeting with the Tesano Police Command and the DCE, but in spite of the promises to conduct raids on these facilities, they all went to sleep.
Their snoring was even louder than the music! So, I called a very big friend of mine, the head of a security institution to seek his intervention.
The response he gave me was the worst of all, even more toxic than the noisy environment I was complaining about; and I wished he had not uttered a word!
He suggested that I bought half packs of rice and chicken to distribute to the church noise makers and drunken patrons of the pub.
Ah, what an insult! So, if such a person was to conduct an investigation, what do you think would happen? Let me leave the rest up to your imagination!
You can hardly blame the president for the curvature of a dog’s tail. It is very difficult to straighten, excuse my French! (Sɛbe, me bo mo bɛ)
At least, he has done his best. Nevertheless, he put measures in place to bring some form of decency into the system! That is not to say that he is not fallible. Who in this world is not a
sinner?
You know, if we were not sinners, ALLAH would have replaced us with sinners so that they can always go back to HIM and beg for pardon, something HE loves to grant.
Yes, the President might have made mistakes! Yes, he might have made some judgements in error, but, then again, is he not a Human Being? It is said that those with glass houses must not cast stones, and, verily so.
Look at the broader picture and you will realise that his social interventions and
infrastructural achievements are unparalleled in Ghana and in West-Africa.
They will speak for themselves and tell their own stories! My pen can never write a concise testimony because it will take volumes to communicate, but suffice it to say that when we remember
His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, we will remember that once upon a time, we were struck with a terrible pandemic that instinctively kickstarted his empathy.
Then we got free water and electricity to alleviate the negative effects on us.
I shall return…!!!
