Writer: Dela Coffie
Some things in life are difficult. Like attempting to learn the drums in your ’50s, or, consequently, having to readjust to new neighbours. And there are some things in life that are really difficult, like ordering food in an unfamiliar language and then trying to persuade your 10-year-old child to eat boiled goat’s testicles in a restaurant without making a fuss.
But there are some things in life considered so difficult that conventional wisdom deems them as fool’s errand. Such as making peace with a dead man who you despised while alive. Which is why I finds it strange that the John Mahama led NDC is actually out there organising vigils and Accountability walks in honour of President Rawlings.
I still can’t get my head around the hypocrisy of the NDC ruling elite. I just don’t get it.
I’m going off my rocker, and I want to bite off my head in exasperation.
How is it alright for Mahama and friends to hold a vigil for Rawlings, which quickly turned into campaign forum? They claim to be holding a vigil for Rawlings and yet Mahama’s campaign banner overshadowed that of the man whose memory they claim to be honoring?
By our traditional Ghanaian values, was it even proper to use such a forum for political profiteering purposes? How calculative and opportunistic!
In the middle of the arrangement to give Rawlings a befitting burial, Mahama and his frontmen went out of their way to profit politically from the demise of the fallen hero?
These actions are unconscionable, and we cannot stand aside and watch these ingrates finish off what is left of the Rawlings legacy.
It is more clear than ever that the Mahama leadership of the NDC does not have the best interest of Rawlings in mind. And with him leading all these vigils and so-called Accountability walk in honour of Rawlings is a horrifying reality.
We know these people and what they represent. We know what they did to Rawlings in his lifetime. These people have no shame. They wagged vilification campaign against Rawlings when he was alive. Innuendos, suppositions and monstrous lies works by implanting them in feeble minds. The Mahama led NDC knows this for a fact and strategically inplanted them on the minds of the gullible believers. They schemed and lied about Rawlings at every turn and almost alienated him from the political organisation he built with his blood and sweat. Their circus act, put-downs and disdain for Rawlings while he was alive was evident to all and sundry.
Valerie Sawyerr till today happens to be one of the trusted Mahama henchmen. This woman sworn to destroy Rawlings singlehandedly. She is on record to have boldly described Rawlings’s June 4 Revolution as an aberration. Valerie Sawyerr went further to describe the June 4 Revolution as the darkest day in the history of Ghana, and that it’s commemoration must not be tolerated. Today, Mahama and friends are organising Probity and Accountability walk in memory of Rawlings?
Jesus Christ! What are pearls to swine?
Was it not Rawlings’s call for Probity and Accountability that led to his ostracism from the NDC by these crop of NDC leaders? Was it not Rawlings’s call for Accountability that led to the Mahama leadership to use their temporary hold on the leadership of the NDC to relegate him to the background in order to capture the juicy fruits borne from his sacrifices?
All Rawlings did was to be a voice of conscience reminding them of his enduring principles of probity, accountability and anti-corruption- creeds the NDC under John Mahama blatantly disregarded when they assumed the reins of power. As a result, they sought to silence him so as to prevent him from publicly repudiating them for their unprecedented levels of corruption.
Sometimes, I scratch my head in extreme frustration to make a deductive distinction between what these guys stands for, and what Rawlings represent.
Today, the political henchmen like Valerie Sawyerr who were utilized for public humiliation of Rawlings are sitting in meetings and helping plan Rawlings’s funeral at Mahama’s behest?
Yes, Valerie Sawyerr was Mahama’s right hand woman when he received the official announcement of the demise of Rawlings. This is the same Valerie Sawyerr who never misses the opportunity to berate Rawlings when he was alive. Does it mean that Mahama was actually the one propping Valerie Sawyerr up to humiliate Rawlings publicly?
Again, what is the relationship between John Mahama and Centre for Democratic Transition, the outfit that published Kwamena Ahwoi’s so-called memoir to humiliate Rawlings?
Rawlings publicly expressed his disgust about this but Mahama was quiet. He never uttered a word, and today he’s organising vigils and Accountability walks in the name of mourning Rawlings?
Indeed, the grapevine hadn’t lie, the same people who grabbed a bottle of whisky with juvenile glee when the news of Rawlings’s demise made the headlines are pretending to be mourning him? Truth is, the Probity and Accountability walk has no meaning. It has no meaning because the people leading this enterprise has no moral authority to lead it. This is purely an opportunistic enterprise and Mahama and friends must bow down their heads in remorseless shame.
Even in death, they’re still humiliating Rawlings by being opportunistic with their actions and inactions
I guess after burning their bridges with Rawlings while alive, these ingrates are desperate to appease his corpse and weasel their way to the heart of the unsuspecting public by this little stunt. Trouble is, we ain’t buying this bulshit.
I shall return