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POLITICS OF PERSONALITY DESTRUCTION
DATELINE: MAY 9, 2011
Kofi Nyame
Ten years to the day, May 9, 2011 Ghana witnessed one of its
darkest moments as a nation. This was the results of the tragedy
that occurred at the then Accra Sports Stadium where 126
football fans lost their lives with 325 others sustaining
various degrees of injury during a football match between Hearts
of Oak and Asante Kototo. The day should therefore be a period
of serious introspection to ensure that such an avoidable
incident never occurs. It should also have been a time for the
bereaved families to show respect to the memory of those who
passed away and for all those who blessedly escaped possible
death to spend a respectful thankful moments with their God.
Indeed coming on the heels of the recent tragedy at the La
Pleasure Beach where over nine people died as a result of bad
crowd control, the day should have afforded us an opportunity to
work on our ability to control crowd movement during public
functions.
Yours truly is very sad not just for what happened on the day
but also for the shameless opportunism being shown by the
Richard Quarshigah, Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National
Democratic Congress (NDC), peddling blatant lies and destroy his
political opponents. The obvious politics of destruction of
Quarshigah of Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the Chief of Staff to
the President at the time of tragedy is clear. In a statement
issued in the name of the ruling party ostensibly to mark the
day, Richard Quarshigah in a radio interview claims that Mr.
Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, who is presently the Chairman of the
opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), has not accounted for
donations made to the victims. The seriousness of the
accusations does not just stem from the impugning of wrongdoing
by Richard Quarshigah in his personal capacity but as a
spokesperson of the ruling NDC. Let it be reiterated that the
statement was issued on behalf of the ruling NDC party. Dear
reader, yours truly would like to crave your indulgence to quote
some of the comments attributed to the NDC Propaganda Secretary.
In a report sourced on www.myjoyonline.com today headlined
“PROBE JAKE OVER STADIUM DISASTER MONEY – RICHARD QUARSHIGAH”,
he is quoted as saying that:
“The National Democratic Congress (NDC) is also deeply worried
that funds raised running into billions of cedis by the then NPP
government from corporate institutions and individuals in
different denominations ranging from Euros to Cedis intended for
assuaging the economic plight of those orphaned by the disaster
especially, have not to date been adequately accounted for.”
It must be noted at the outset that available records from the
Auditor General’s Department and Parliament House demonstrate
that the donations made towards alleviating the suffering of the
bereaved and injured have been properly accounted to date.
Granted there is evidence of malfeasance on the part of Mr.
Obetsebi-Lamptey or any other persons, nothing stops Richard
Quarshigah who is part of a ruling government from bringing the
facts out and providing the appropriate state agencies to deal
with anyone found complicit. It is a total lie that to date the
donations have not been accounted for and that Richard
Quarshigah and not the Auditor General can better provide the
nation with better accounting of public funds.
The NDC Propaganda Secretary’s accusation of Mr.
Obetsebi-Lamptey further states in his statement that:
“It is sad that Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey the current NPP
Chairman then Chief of Staff and Minister for Presidential
Affairs who collected these monies without accounting for them
is on a ‘Deception Tour’ with the NPP flag bearer Nana
Akufo-Addo while the victims who lost their bread winners in the
May 9, Stadium Disaster continue in pain,” the statement added.”
Richard Quarshigah from the above betrays his real purpose for
the false accusation with the above. This brings to attention a
comment attributed to President Ronald Reagan that, "Politics is
supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to
realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”
This demonstrates the level to which some politicians would
descend just to gain power or cling to it. Two issues stand out.
Firstly, Richard Quarshigah is deliberately lying about Mr.
Obetsebi-Lamptey and more seriously riding on the emotions of
bereaved families (roping in the death of the Overlord of Dagbon).
It is very irresponsible on the part of the NDC Propaganda
Secretary to rely on the raw emotions of people to cling on to
power. Sadly, our politicians do not seem to learn from their
own mistakes and that of others. After all these denigration
Richard Quarshigah further stated that:
“One wonders with which credibility Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey is
out there selling the NPP to Ghanaians when his actions nine
years ago may have compelled the spirits of the 126 lives lost
in the stadium disaster to be crying for justice and
accountability just as the spirit of the late king of Dagbon and
forty others are crying for justice.”
From the foregoing an obvious pattern is established here. Our
politicians think that they have a carte blanche to say anything
that gets them elected, while feeling no obligation to tell us
the truth. Yours truly has taken the liberties to reproduce
these copious quotations to enable the reader make informed
judgment based on the exact words of the accuser. This amply
shows how cheap our politics has become and the level to which
it has sunk. It is of no wonder many well-meaning individuals
would not like to enter into politics for fear of their good
names being literary run through the mud. The above shows that
Richard Quarshigah has no respect for the dead and the bereaved,
and indeed, for the citizenry of this country otherwise he would
not bring in such a tragedy into cheap partisan politics. His
statement is dripping of an opportunity to try to undermine the
opposition party by his reference to a tour being undertaken by
the NPP as “Tour of Deception”. From every indication, Richard
Quarshigah is seeking to attack the NPP on whatever the
opposition aims to achieve in the said tour, fair gain. This is
a political season with the NPP having just completed their
parliamentary primaries with the ruling NDC preparing for their
presidential primaries. It is obvious that each party would
employ campaigning strategies to promote their own party and its
chosen candidates while detracting from their opponents. That
must be seen as fair gain in politics and voters understand that
parties would embellish the qualification and abilities of their
candidates while belittling their opponents. But when a campaign
distorts the truth and promotes outright falsehoods, it crosses
the threshold into the politics of personal destruction.
For the sake of arguments let us commence from the premises that
indeed Richard Quarshigah as a member of government has access
to information confirming the complicity of Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey.
One would have considered that the best avenue would have been
passing on the incriminating information to the appropriate law
enforcement agencies to deal with the transgressor. Not in this
case. Rather Richard Quarshigah has chosen the media as a
platform to make unsubstantiated allegations against somebody
who has not just founded a company that continues to provide
jobs for many individuals and families but has served the
country at the highest level as a minister of state and is
presently the Chairman of the major political party in the
country. Sad to note that some individuals in the present
administration in the persons of Kojo Twum-Boafo, Chief
Executive of the Free Zones Board and Akyena Brantuo of the
Office of the President have also in radio interviews accused
Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey of complicity in accounting for the
donations. None of these accusers have provided a shred of
evidence to support their accusations and sadly attempts to play
on the emotions of the populace but this is sad, deceptive and
insulting to the intelligence of all Ghanaians and most unfair
to the memory of the dead.
Indeed there is every indication that Richard Quarshigah and his
friends in the NDC are deliberately putting out this palpable
falsehood. It is sad that people in government who have access
to information can put out such information maligning their
political opponent is so bad and below any acceptable behavior
in public engagement. According to the Ghana News Agency report
of May 16, 2001, the then Greater Accra Regional Minister,
Sheikh I.C. Quaye in the presence of the National Chief Imam,
Sheikh Usman Nuhu Sharabutu made an initial payment of two and
half million (old) Ghana cedis to each deceased family towards
the burial of the victims. After an unsurpassed donation towards
alleviating the plight of the victims of the disaster and their
dependents, the government set up a committee to administer the
fund. The committee has as its Chairman, Mr. J.S. Addo, former
governor of the Bank of Ghana with members being Ms. Helena
Cobbina of the Ghana Police Service, Mr. Kwesi Essel Koomson,
Managing Directro of KEK Insurance Brokers and Mrs. Regina
Apotsi, then Judicial Secretary. The committee was constituted
into a board of trustees to invest and administer the funds for
the benefit of the victims and their dependants.
The Daily Graphic of May 18, 2005 reports of an amount of ₵169.5
million having been paid to 103 out of 325 injured victims of
the disaster. The same report quoted Mr. Addo, Chairman of the
Board of Trustees as stating that the fund had then yielded
₵4,833,117,257.88 as of March 31, 2005 out of which
₵2,783,624,412.88 had been paid to families and other
beneficiaries and ₵2,344,146,215.00 invested (all monies quoted
in old Ghana cedis). This clearly indicates that Mr.
Obetsebi-Lamptey is no more accountable for the monies as yours
truly or Richard Quarshigah. The NDC Propaganda Secretary has
been most unfair to Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey, the victims of the
disaster, to the decent members of his party and all Ghanaians.
Yours truly does not have to reiterate here why Mr.
Obetsebi-Lamptey has been most unfairly treated. Richard
Quarshigah has sunk to the lowest level of propaganda to use the
misery of some sections of the society to score the cheapest
possible political points against his political opponents. He
has insulted decent members of his own party by subjecting them
to public ridicule by his unacceptable behavior. To the Ghanaian
who had expected better from the ruling party this can be no
less than an insult to our intelligence.
The actions of the NDC Propaganda Secretary bring to fore the
various calls by President Mills for politics devoid of insults
and lies. One wonders after such acts whether the nation can
take the president serious on such issues. It would be at the
highest possible height of dishonesty for yours truly not to
sympathize with countless number of politicians, including the
president, who have been insulted just for offering themselves
for public office. Indeed, some members of the NPP and other
parties have also told lies and insulted other members of their
own parties and their political opponent. It is noteworthy
however that President Mills in recent times have even called on
religious leaders to moderate on temperate language in political
discourse. The standard bear should therefore be the President
and his party people, the onus lies on them to set the stage for
decency in our politics. If the President continually fails to
rein in his party people and turns blind eye to their indecent
behavior then it will be hypocritical to make those appeals
since he himself has not demonstrated any willingness to lead by
example. In recent weeks we have had ministers of state openly
insulting the Nana Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate of the
NPP. Some clergy called on the president to crack the whip to
serve as an example and nothing happened. Hopefully, members of
the opposition will not behave likewise however we should now
understand why politics is said to be dirty.
The general wisdom in political circles is that the first
campaign to engage in negative attacks is usually compelled to
do so because their internal numbers show that their candidate
is getting no traction —ergo the need to go negative. If the
President is sure of victory, not just in the NDC primaries but
also election 2012, let him set the tone by reigning in his
attack dogs. Whoever wins the next elections we should live in a
country where personal dignity is respected and politicians are
not considered equal to members of the oldest profession.
God bless Ghana
Kofi Nyame
Gbawe – Accra
kofinyame@gmail.com
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