Feature Article of Wednesday, 8 March 2017

Columnist: Okoampa-Ahoofe, Kwame

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By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta says that when the National Democratic Congress parliamentary minority members shoved up placards calling his 2017 maiden budgetary presentation 419, a rather intellectually and morally regressive evocation of a Nigerian military-era edict dealing with fraudulent commercial acts of criminality, he felt even more emboldened and righteous in his cause because the figure 419 reminded him of the Biblical scripture of Philippians Chapter 4 Verse 19, which tersely and poignantly reads as follows: And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. Now, that is a creatively constructive way to wear down ones cynical political opponents: meet infantile imbecility with wisdom and spiritual enlightenment.

This is likely what might have provoked Mr. Kwesi Pratt, the faux-socialist National Democratic Congress propagandist, to bitterly complain to the host of an Accra-based radio station that he was annoyed by Mr. Ofori-Attas constant references to Biblical scriptures during his budgetary reading in Parliament recently. Well, I just finished reading the full-text of the Finance Ministers 2017 Asempa or God News budgetary statement and find absolutely no untoward or inordinate references to the Christian Bible in it, other than during the first few opening paragraphs of the same.

At any rate, this is a patent non-issue and squarely reflective of the sour-grape attitude of a political sponge and a veritable parasite whose political and economic feeding trough and paymaster just got electorally jack-booted out of the Flagstaff House. Besides, if he were that particular about Ghanas being declared a secular democracy, Mr. Pratt would have vigorously campaigned to have the name of God removed from our National Anthem. But what is even quite remarkable about the undeniably uncouth flashing of placards labeling Mr. Ofori-Attas budgetary presentation a 419 scheme, by people who ought to know better, regards the fact that we are reliably informed that the Haruna Iddrisu Group of Certified Political Charlatans had earlier on come to a mutual agreement with their parliamentary majority counterparts that they were going to avoid precisely this act of gross infantility.

Knowing their past gross misbehavior in the august House on such occasions, especially when the New Patriotic Party operatives held the reins of governance, I wouldnt have expected any better, let alone waste precious time striking any sort of a gentlemans agreement with these notorious pathological scofflaws and political scam-artists. We must also underscore, in no uncertain terms, that notwithstanding the fact of Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumias being a bona fide Muslim, albeit a very liberal Muslim, Ghana is a predominantly Christian nation whose Christian majority are intent on maximizing our inalienable right to free-speech without any let or hindrance, just as we have solemnly respected and staunchly supported the Vice-Presidents right to the democratic expression of his religious beliefs. For at the end of the day, both major religions are rooted in Judaic moral principles and cultural values. Two faces of the same coin, fundamentally speaking.

We also know Mr. Pratt to be a self-proclaimed socialist and a diehard Nkrumacrat; and we absolutely do not begrudge him his inalienable right to confess, profess and espouse his faux-Marxian political beliefs. By the same token, Mr. Pratt would be grossly remiss to suppose that he could lecture the Christocentric likes of Mr. Ofori-Atta on how to rhetorically conduct themselves privately or publicly, even in the august House of Parliament. I also dont know about what Mr. Pratt thinks about Speaker Michael Aaron Oquaye, the distinguished legal scholar and retired Dean of the University of Ghanas Faculty of Law, who is also an ordained evangelical Christian priest.

And would Mr. Pratt, himself a Presbyterian by baptism and schooling, have felt annoyed if Mr. Ofori-Atta had presented an extensive disquisition on Marxian Economics or Nkrumaism before the plenary session of the august House? I have said this many times before and, here again, reiterate the same: that if any of the key operatives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress and their media shills want Ghanaians to take them seriously, they would have to put on their thinking caps, if they really have any, and begin debating their majority counterparts of the ruling New Patriotic Party on the issues, rather than acting and behaving facilely like some disgruntled teenagers who just got their Junior Drivers License taken away from them by one of their parents.

By: Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. English Department, SUNY-Nassau Garden City, New York E-mail: [emailprotected] *Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs

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