A few days ago, I had a rough dream-filled night. Here is what I think caused it. I ate my all-time favorite meal from my Ocansey-Kope roots – banku and gooey okro soup – late evening although I had no business over-loading my tender stomach with such heavy meal. You can take a woman out of a village but you can’t take the village out of a woman. So in the state of restless belly-full, I went to sleep, tossing and turning. Then, I began to dream dreams.
There were first, some petty useless forgettable baby dreams. Then, the late Professor PAV Ansah, who during my student days, we affectionately called Uncle Paul, came through. I bombarded my school teacher with questions on politics. So dear reader, listen in on whatever my post-dream memory has gifted to me.
PAVA: Oh, it’s you, Doris. Foolish girl! What do you want? Why have you disturbed me from a peaceful rest in God’s blessed bosom?
Yaa Doris: Uncle Paul, Ghana misses you, a lot. We are still in the Fourth Republic! No new Republics. You checked out 15 years ago at a young age of 55, just one year into the Fourth Republic. Things have happened oh! President Rawlings ruled for eight years. In late 2000, NDC lost the elections and smoothly handed over to an NPP administration with JA Kufuor as President for another eight years. Here is a juicy one: Nkrumah’s Flagstaff House is now a palace, a place of envy for the occupants of the White House and Number 10 Downing Street!
Late last year, the NPP lost narrowly and is currently painfully transitioning to hand-over to the NDC with JEA Mills as President. It’s so much fun watching the NDC and NPP play a game of ‘oware’ with Ghana. The post-election period was tense. Some FM radio stations dragged the press freedom you fought for into the gutters, with audacity. You should have been here. I’ve wondered a lot what you would have done. Oh, I’ve news for you. One of your students, John Mahama, was just sworn in as Vice President. Yes, he was!
PAVA: Is Ghana still practicing affirmative action even at the highest office? Those radio stations should have been muted to stop the foolishness. Why should Ghana allow complete idiots with selfish motives to drag the country down to their low-cost levels? Unacceptable! What was the National Media Commission doing? Where is Rawlings? Is the NDC continuing change or changing continuity? Are cabinet members ancient and/or modern? Is it old wine in new/old bottles? Are there any reminiscences and continuities of PNDC?
Yaa Doris: The VP position appears to be packaged and reserved safely for northerners. Rawlings is there as father and founder and soul of the NDC. The NMC issued a press statement during the post-election crisis (I think). Several of the old political names including PV are still floating around. Weird! Unlike you, they are not ghosts – yet. As for change, it was the mantra of the NDC campaign – for votes. Ghanaians are still a sophisticated, enlightened, proud and decent people. We now fully understand the power of the thumb. If you disappoint us, we boot you out with our thumbs and say, ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’. It’s such a beautiful thing.
PAVA: So what else is happening?
Yaa Doris: Uncle Paul, in last Saturday’s (January 7, 2009) issue of The Ghanaian Times, there was a report of NDC vigilante groups attempting to take over public toilets and bath-houses in parts of Accra. Reason: their government was now in power. They forcibly ejected the managers and made away with undisclosed sums of money. These are clearly acts that are incompatible with the spirit and intent of democracy.
PAVA: What? This was a perverse pig-headed behavior by emasculated rascals, ruffians, rogues, gangsters and ragamuffins. The NDC government must end such iniquitous activities of pestilential bands of miscreants, knaves and scoundrels before Ghana begins to look like the PNDC and NDC1 eras. If such thugs are left on the loose, you shall have on your hands a spate of highway robberies, brigandage and other types of violence. This will be very sinister and ominous for our beloved peaceful land.
Yaa Doris: Women are still endangered species in Ghanaian politics. Women’s representation in parliament has dropped for this election period from 25 to 15. Besides, women, who constitute 50 percent plus of the population still operate in the backyard cooking and cleaning. But the good news is that we have a female Chief Justice and Speaker of Parliament.
PAVA: I hope Mills is not a male chauvinist intoxicated with machismo but a man with a soft spot for the daughters of Eve. There are many dynamic, agile, formidable and active women in Ghana who can perform efficiently. If it’s decided to have a third of the cabinet as women, they will be there for the asking. Mills should give the daughters of Eve a chance not out of paternalistic or patronizing inclination but out of equity and fair play.
Yaa Doris: If you, a Scholar, a Christian and a Gentleman – a pure maverick from Number A69 Prabiw Street, Saltpond, had been President now, what would you have done?
PAVA: I would have a tall shopping-list. I shall not violate or rape the Constitution. I would be very cautious and circumspect in nominating people for appointment. I shall be my own man and keep at bay all low-cost rabble-rousers, praise-singers, flatterers, courtly fobs and other sycophants because those crying Hosanna today are the same who will shout ‘castrate him’ tomorrow.
I shall not turn the Presidential Palace into a transit lounge, employment bureau or social welfare center. I shall make sure that in addition to moral probity and transparency, I look for excellence and competence, going beyond the average and mediocre level because a low-cost cabinet can be a serious handicap to governance. I would get more women into my cabinet. As President, I shall ensure an equitable distribution of national resources and save the youth from trouping to Accra to sell made-in-China goods by the roadside.
To make sure that the truth gets to me unalloyed, undistorted, unprocessed, or in any way manipulated before transmission, I shall allow freedom of the press. I shall give a monthly press conference to keep in regular touch with the people and direct my information minister to hold weekly press conferences after each cabinet meeting to keep the public informed about the state of the nation’s business, especially regarding all the many promises I made to the electorate when I desperately needed their votes.
Yaa Doris: Out there, do you get the chance to ‘inflict unedifying and insipid homilies on docile people’? Are you still foul-mouthed and use strong language to make your point? Or, you’re actually resting?
PAVA: Doris, you’re still a foolish girl! Keep an eye out there for what happens during the first 100 days of Mills’ administration. There should be no kid-glove treatment. Keep this in your coconut head: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Suddenly, my phone rang and I woke up with a start, sweating, crying! How I hate the cell phone!
Footnote: Much of the words of PAV Ansah were his actual words, taken from his writings, “Going to town: The writings of PAV Ansah.” The book was published after his death.
dorisdartey@yahoo.com
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