A few days ago, I received three messages from some of my readers. All of them were alarmed that Simpa Panyin did not show up last week, and virtually warned me not to repeat my absence.
I have honestly been privileged to have been read by so many high and middle-class people, both private and public officials, and it feels that some of them are becoming somewhat addicted to the column. I apologize to all those readers for Simpa Panyin’s absence last week.
But the nature of the regular feedbacks which keeps coming from readers, whether I published or I did not publish, have imposed on me a certain responsibility, in selecting what to write about, and how I treat what I write about. The column has evolved into not only writing to share my views, or to entertain my readers but the one that has made me to become sensitive to the expectations of those who spend their time to the reading of Simpa Panyin.
And that is why I will like to say to the few who sometimes feel unhappy with some of the things I write, that I am not here to serve a minority interest only. I had said in my previous article that I write with my experiences, and the experiences of other people, but also I write in response to my feelings. So do not expect me to leave you alone if I feel I should reach catharsis on the altar of your wrong doings.
I have prevented myself from touching on some specific obnoxious behaviors, not because I don’t want to, but because Ecclesiastes says there is time for everything. Just as people read and give feedback on what I write, the same people also send me information that needs to be written about. For all those who are manipulating the system and thinking that no one knows about their manipulations, it will happen like bomb.
President Kufuor recently said power sweet, but it is deceptive. My understanding of that statement is that when you hold a position of uncontrolled power, you are unlikely to be surrounded by those who will tell you the truth. You are so intoxicated with the spoils of war, that, anyone who departs from telling you what you want to hear becomes your enemy. After all, power in this country has been manipulated to bring money, and with money comes more power.
It is only in Africa that politicians seem to be the richest in society. A number of them enter politics poor, but the moment they gain power, they gain riches with lightning speed. It is as though the riches were inside the ballot boxes that elected them.
Last week my friend (call him Alhassan) and I visited a very senior member of the present NPP party. Alhassan was my roommate when we were students in Legon, and we have been close since we left school. He knew of my obsession with Nana Akufo-Addo even when we were students, and even in the midst of the “Alan Cash’s craze”, and in the midst of Nana Addo’s many failed attempts to the presidency, I still kept faith with the man. So my friend wondered why President Akufo-Addo never noticed me when he won power.
My good friend, the former US Senator from Iowa, Thomas Richard Harkin, who retired from the US Senate three years ago, served as a member of the House of Representative from 1975 to 1985, and then was elected to the Senate in 1985 until his retirement in the year 2015. I was blessed enough to have been his special guest at his retirement party organized by the global office of the International Labor Organization in Washington.
Senator Harkin was a Lawyer, a US Navy Pilot, and an early frontrunner for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1992, dropping out in support of the eventual winner Bill Clinton. I had the rare privilege of spending a couple of days with this legend. He seem to pride himself in many accomplishments, including several international initiatives, in health, education, Agriculture, and labor. He, together with a Congressman, Elliot Engel, are credited with the Harkin-Engel protocol. The Harkin-Engel Protocol, commonly referred to as the Cocoa Protocol, is believed to be the singular international treaty that saved the chocolate industry from eventual collapse.
It is reported that when Senator Harkin left office in 2015, he was the most senior junior senator after serving 30 years and the sixth most senior senator over all. Yet, on retirement, Senator Harkin is reported to be living in a simple three bedroom apartment in Iowa where he grew up. He did not go into politics to make money; he went there to uplift others.
A former President of the United States of America, Jimmy Carter, who is currently 93, is reported to be living in a two bedroom house with his wife. This house is reported to have been built by Carter himself in 1961, in his home state of Georgia. It is reported that the value of Jimmy Carter’s house is lower than the value of the average two-bedroom houses at where he lives. He is an ex-President of America!
In his inaugural speech, Nana Akufo-Addo said that the resources of the state shall not be seen as spoils of war. And I agree! The man himself was in Kufuor’s government for nearly eight years, and never touched any state resources. He was reported to have lived in his own house for as long as he was a minister. It was on the back of his integrity that no corruption allegation ever came up against his person, and it might have been on the back of his incorruptible nature that he won the election.
Greed, power and evil have unfortunately taken over the minds of some of the people who are working in the name of the President, and they use powers that does not belong to them, they use Nana Addo’s name to peddle influence, to peddle fear, and for destructive tendencies, including subtle hypnotizes of those who are gullible, occupying as many empty spaces as possible in their quest to bleed the state for themselves.
I have come across several instances when the President’s name was used several times for the purposes of manipulations. The bottom line is, maximize the perception that you are powerful, and let everyone believe that everything you say is coming from the President, thereafter your word becomes final, for it is seen as that which the President wants.
Don’t worry, the battle is still the Lord’s…
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