By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese
(An angry footsoldier from home)
The art of POLITICS is indeed complex; one as such, not because it’s rules dictates so, but because the people behave so. What is the politics is not the elections, appointments, the long embellished speeches and arguably not the buildings that house the authorities, but it is the aggregation of greed, ambitions, self-seeking, secret deals, pretense, outsmarting, pragmatic maneuvering, backstabbing, betrayals, etc. of a clique who mostly patronize the proletariat and subject them to perpetual slavery. This subjective notion of mine may sound cynical, but it probably could be the unstated but dusty truth.
I stated in one of my epistles in the past, that if there was any President, in the history of the 4th Republic, who got recklessly vilified, attacked, bad-mouthed and insulted, then, it was John Mahama and none other. At the time I made this observation, I knew there were betrayals from within, what I didn’t know and expect was the proximity of it. Well, like they say, when the last man amongst the trusted loyalties shuts the door against the knife-bearers from murdering the King, mind their smiles, because the daggers are hidden in them; the nearer in blood, the nearer bloody.
Indeed, a leader is made by the people around him. And to unmake a leader is to poison the conscience and souls of his/her immediate army (mostly refer to as the Mafia group), who take the last decisions in the last cubicle and get the last whisper before he (the leader) goes to bed. Well, some of the whispers (from Gonjaland) were looking for their last pound and not interested in what will make John Mahama. In fact, they were solid trained gossips and tactical brutes who played the “Brutus” to perfectly fit into the grand scheme of things.
Unfortunately the nakedness of John Mahama is very obvious now and the picture as painted around it is getting clearer as time passes. It is unfortunate because of the timing and the circumstances under which he’s mostly stripped by the traitors. His nemesis are unfortunately the babies of his own hands.
Very lately, Koku Anyidoho, the bull who feeds on his own dung, has gone into a deep sleep with the NPP. Just like Martin Amidu did in the past which got him elevated and finally deflated by the Akyem Mafia, Koku has decided to play to the whims of the mafia, and has thus become their defensive missile who is always initiated to make the NDC play foolish games anytime the Akyem Mafia’s backs are against the wall. Koku act his part well; he does so by exploiting and courting the sympathies of the gone souls of Mills and Rawlings. Well, that is the politics; it’s always about who gets what and not from where it came.
Surprised? Koku boomed in the midst of the confusion as to what drags him into this new found person (traitor) of his. He started to post pictures of his 50th birthday celebration. As usual, the first picture got my colleague NDC foot soldiers mad, and this was shared by Gabby O. Darko in which there is Koku, Egbert, Kweku Baako and Sefa Kayi. When the foot soldiers decided to go after Koku as usual, he then posted what I call the real picture of the masked faces behind his bitterness. He tells us who they are; his mentors and those who motivate him into becoming his new found Koku without conscience.
Need I fault Koku or those faces in the picture for what the realities are today? Obviously not! There were a creation of the hands of John Mahama himself. A deliberate creation for a genuine reason for his people who rather became his Achilles’ heel. They had a game plan, they perfectly executed it and finally created a mess behind for Mahama to deal with.
I painfully went into silence after the elections, particularly not because Hon Garlus lost the election, but largely because, the very monsters that are hunting John Mahama in his own land were his own creation which he couldn’t control when they came hunting all of us. Those who observed from afar could feel that His Excellency Baba Kamara had only fallen out with John Mahama and that’s the end of the story. There is more to that which we can’t see and those that we can, can’t even be discussed. Those of us who think it is just a mere brawl between them, let me say this-it takes hell or the genes of Donald Trump to get a President to fall out with his National Security Advisor immediately after a general election. Think it!
The Gonjaland story:
When H.E John Mahama ultimately became President in 2013, he came with an opened heart to serve. He dreamt of an ideal situation and fit in his agenda. The Gonja Kingdom gave him the support and blessings that he needed as a son. Out of seven seats, Gonjaland gave six to John Mahama and the NDC. The first time a Gonja rose to become a President-we saw him as the emblem of accomplishment for Gonja.
Surprisingly, even before John Mahama could settle down, the Gonja Mafia has already set up a parallel system to fight the existing one which made John Mahama. And they labelled any subscriber to that ostracized group “haters of John Mahama”. So, even before Mahama could set up his government, they made him to believe that there was a group of haters from Gonjaland who were there to harm him, so he shouldn’t let them get closer.
When President John Mahama made his first appointments minus all the 6 MPs from Gonjaland, out of irrational exuberance, support to a clansman and probably out of unalloyed loyalty, we supported and defended everything. We went ahead to make the case that, John Mahama as President alone was enough to compensate for 6 cabinet ministers. When some of our people bluntly told us the truth, we called them names, all because we didn’t want our clansman’s decisions questioned in public by his own. Today, the dividends of those actions which were mostly orchestrated by the so called Gonja Mafias is the struggle for prominence and control of Gonjaland by Nana Addo and John Mahama. Should that be the case? Shouldn’t John Mahama be creating another stronghold for the NDC just like Rawlings created in Volta, Oti and in the Northern Regions?
When the story is told by outsiders that Gonjas have betrayed their own John Mahama in the 2020 general elections, I felt ashamed and insulted by my own conscience. Regrettably, that is what they see and feel, but the reality is that the hate which has manifested in the betrayal during the election was actually created and planted in the hearts of our people by the very Gonja Mafia which didn’t even exist anyway. They became a blockade and brutes who made it look like we didn’t just matter. If an advisor or confidant (a son from the land) could advise President Mahama not to mind Gonjaland MPs and their people, and that the votes we add to the national aggregate is just about 1.9% or even less, what do you expect in the final analysis? This was the realities of the day.
In my about 15 years of political activism, what I practically learnt is that mafia groups are mostly set up to create a shield around the leader and to exude goodwill, so that the goodwill builds up by itself. A perfect case has been shown us by Nana Addo and his Akyem Amaria. The goodwill starts from home-where the people, no matter how small, feel belonged and identified with the leader. The so called Gonja Mafia was ironically installed to Mafia Gonja. On the contrary, as outsider see the people of Gonja Kingdom as bad, we are good, maybe we felt we were not treated well by the very self-created Mafia who were suppose to be the face of John Mahama in the land.
Today, NDC has painfully lost 3 seats out of seven in Gonjaland. We nearly lost Salaga South again, but for the intervention of unseen hands, we would have lost that seat too. In Damongo, there are divisions which were obviously created by the same Mafia group. If not checked on time, the deliverables of this division will leave to hunt the NDC forever in Damongo. In Daboya, there are divisions created by the same Mafia, and this is gradually sinking into the very core base that should serve as manure for future exploits. In Salaga South where the Mafia’s umbilical cord is buried, there are visible divisions so created by the same Mafia. Even in Bole, their hands nearly touched the extreme ends at a point. When we lost Salaga South by just about 34 votes in 2016, the signs of the Mafia underhand dealings had manifested and its concomitant effect at the remaining constituencies where their actions were breeding was going to be more damning than in Salaga South. The outcomes of 2020 elections has vindicated this position.
They operated perfectly, because they skillfully barricaded any such outlet that voices of reason from the land could get to their own John Mahama. Aside sidelining the MPs from Gonjaland, the mafia ensured that they never got the opportunity to get any such genuine audience from John Mahama. They gossiped, lied and created more enemies for the poor John Mahama who did nothing wrong but gave his own people the opportunity to get closer. In fact, they succeeded in goose-stepping us into the current leadership crisis Gonjaland is plunged into. Any love you see from the land is natural and not created. Today in Okyeman, the Akyem Mafia has created a god out of Akufo-Addo-an artificial love which will last for decades. These are the realities.
Their underhand dealings has ultimately got one of the most committed appointee of John Mahama who served Gonjaland well, incarcerated for crimes he didn’t commit. His painful incarceration, got a blessing from some of the people within the Mafia (monster) group. They aided it and made it happen. They did same for some of our brothers who unfortunately fell victims of the National Service investigations. What a wicked world we live in.
They created a clique of appointees who owe allegiance to them instead of President Mahama-allegiance they exploited to set the system against Mahama in the future. Go back to places where we have issues in Gonjaland and get to the bottom, you would understand the extent of damage done John Mahama in Gonjaland. In the end, they will usually play the victim and make it look like if one doesn’t fall within their operational zone, then, you are one of the enemies to President Mahama.
Instead of building an empire of youth to stand up for John Mahama and Gonjaland in future, they were interested in building power blocs for their political future. And those of us the young ones who strived on our own small way to defend him and also get our due in future, we are usually tagged, destroyed, bad-mouthed and eventually create a kind of enemy out of us. In the end, we are all boxed into one basket of people who “hate” John Mahama. Why would Kudus Gbeadese hate John Mahama when he defies all odds and put his life on the line to defend him at all times? Is that another layer of witchcraft or what?
Sadly, Gonjaland chiefs who were/are dying for John Mahama rather don’t get mention before him, but those who are digging his grave are the ones who get his attention and audience. This is why you can’t have Gonjaland chiefs coming out to his defense after the passing of Bolewura Gbeadese, because the real lovers are relegated while the masked faces in smiles are those being worshipped and given a red carpet to the inner chambers of John Mahama.
It is not the case that John Mahama didn’t bring physical development to Gonjaland, he did his best. He has his footprints across Gonjaland. What was and still missing is to get our people identified with him, and this was denied us by the so called non-existent mafia group. Even the youth of Bole felt neglected by their own and Damongo was worse, all because some clique from our stock felt we don’t really matter maybe because we don’t make the numbers. Any reason the youth mostly from Bole come attacking the innocent John Mahama without any provocation? “Eshi Ebuto”.
Do you ask yourself why the Damongo water project came at the later part of John Mahama’s administration? What about the Busunu-Daboya road? What about the Tamale-Salaga-Mankango road? What about the Salaga hospital project? What about the Teacher Training College in Bole? Couldn’t we capture some of these as emergency projects under the national security outfit? What about the creation of the Savannah Region? Who was advising John Mahama on this? These simple things that could make the man a legend in his own land were rather left undone all because their execution was probably going to benefit some others who don’t fall within the clique.
Well, to master the art of backstabbing, one need to be able to show a false face which can mask what a false heart knows. They did this and got him naked before the world. The people who really love John Mahama from Gonjaland do so not because they were created but because they feel obliged by virtue of political affiliations, ethnic considerations and maybe a little of issues of community development. We need to build a new layer of youngsters who can stand up and defend themselves and their own clansmen in times of need. It begins with you! Vim!
NB: Some of the appointees of JM from Gonjaland did their best and still doing their best and therefore don’t fall within the brackets of the so called Gonja Mafia. Those described in this context know themselves. Shalom!
19th January, 2020.
