‘when cat sleep, rat go bite him tail’

I am one of those people about whom Peter Tosh sang as follows: “Everybody wants to go to heaven but none of them wants to die.”

That is why I get uneasy with statements such as what the Ghanaian Chronicle of Monday, November 2, attributed to Brigadier General Sampson Adeti, General Officer Commanding the Southern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces. 

His assurance, that “the Ghana Armed Forces have loyal officers who are ready to fight and defend the country against either foreign or home-grown threats”, seemed innocuous. As a matter of fact, in normal times, statements such as that  should cause the chest of every Ghanaian to swell with pride.

I checked what time it was. We are not in normal times, especially because of his references to the “foreign threats”: they included Boko Haram. Even as I read the story, there was news that in a border-town of one of the countries sharing boundaries with Nigeria, home of Boko Haram, there had been a terrorist attack. 

I re-read the Chronicle story. Something about the officer’s assurances seemed familiar. Did Nigeria’s General Buhari not make a similar promise recently at his inauguration? There have been some successes since then, thank God; but no-one, not even the most incurable optimist, can describe the carnage in Nigeria as anywhere close to being over.

Fact is, the likes of Boko Haram are not a regular army; their strategies are not even your typical guerilla warfare. That is why though Goodluck Jonathan desperately needed victory over Boko Haram to boost his chances in the last election, he felt so paralysed by his army’s inaction.

I have heard it said before that Ghana’s military is one of the best for combat anywhere around. I believe it. Problem is, with the likes of Boko Haram, Al Shabab, etc., you are fighting a soldier who, in expectation of a blissful pay-day in paradise, considers death a reward. He is not just unafraid of death; he welcomes it. 

It is not a war among countries; it is a war against ideologies, doctrines, concepts without boundaries; armies whose recruits come from everywhere and anywhere. You are fighting the enemy you do not know, the enemy coming at you with bombs strapped around his body. This is not an enemy you scare with words; not even the officer’s assurance that “Ghana’s security agencies are aware of possible unguarded entry points that the terrorist group could exploit to infiltrate the country”. 

I am not advocating that our security agencies should, therefore, go to sleep. By all means, we need the eternal vigilance which the Ghana Armed Forces is noted for. But I am a typical Ghanaian, one of 25 million-plus “blood-fearing” people who so love peace that it formed the basis of their choice of Atta Mills in 2008 because he was perceived to be an “Asomdwehen”.

I believe I speak for Ghanaians when I refer the officer to the song by Fela Anikulapo Kuti in which he wondered why “When cat sleep, rat go bite the tail”. Fela asks, “Wetin he (rat) dey find?” The answer is: “Palava he go get”.

Solution? One: Let’s keep quiet. Two: Starting with our National Service persons, let’s train all Ghanaians to be security- conscious, especially staffs of our hotels and restaurants.

At any rate, what called for the Army Commander’s assurance? In times like this, let us remember the words of Dr Busia’s Centre for Civic Education: “If you have nothing to say, don’t say it here”. Let sleeping dogs lie.

The power barge is coming – or is it?

Like every other Ghanaian, I hope to say that the Daily Guide newspaper got its facts wrong, and that the power barge from Turkey has set sail. Ghanaians have been described as “cynical”. That may be true, but we were not born cynics: our governments have made cynics of us. Who wouldn’t be when a Minister of Power promises a power barge in April, shifts it to September and is unable to deliver in November?

All cynicism aside, I have a feeling the barge is really on its way. My greatest fear, however, when it does arrive, is the acerbic tongue of the Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor. From the language that has spewed out of his mouth so far whenever the media has dared to ask him about the barge, in particular and dumsor in general, I live in dread of that day.

I remember his famous description of Ghanaian creative artists just because they dared to demonstrate in public against dumsor. He said our artists were not worth the name because their works were not on display or on sale in foreign lands!

Months later, when he was asked if he stood by his April promise, our Power Minister went wild. He did not understand why Ghanaians were making such fetish of power barges. According to him, barges were not the only solution. My question to him, then, was: if power barges were not so critical, why the hype (and by none other than himself)?

The next time he was asked about the end of dumsor, he demanded to know if the radio interviewer knew everything going on within his own media organisation. The implication was that nobody should expect him to know everything about the power crisis. 

When he was reminded that it was the President who had, a day earlier, promised that he (Power Minister) would give further particulars about the power crisis getting better in coming months, his answer was: “Am I the spokesman for the President?”

Why are some Mahama appointees so disrespectful of the people?