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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Ebo Quansah
16 June 2011
analysis
Accra — The Government of Ghana says in an official statement published elsewhere in this paper that contrary to people's perception about its role in the events leading to the installation of Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, the Atta Mills Administration has no hand in the matter.
The interesting thing about the statement is that the government referred to the former Ga Traditional Area as the Ga State. And that is precisely the new name given to the traditional area by the new chief and his elders.
While nobody is suggesting that it was Atta Mills and his administration that engineered the installation of Nii Tackie Adama Latse II, the reference to Ga State in an official government bulletin tells something about the government's inclination to move in the direction chosen by the new chief.
The installation and occupation of the office and residence of the Ga Mantse by Nii Tackie Adama Latse without resistance, has the resemblance of activities organised by footsoldiers of the ruling party. It is interesting to note that the first official proclamation from the palace was the need to collect tolls from drivers.
In other words, the need to extort money is at the heart of the palace coup, a scenario that reminds the average Ghanaian of the posture of footsoldiers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) when Prof. John Evans Atta Mills and his NDC Mark II came to power. The victory by the sitting President triggered communal seizures of toilets, lorry parks and taxi ranks by footsoldiers.
The government may make any statement it likes. Some of us cannot be fooled by the NDC. We have a fair idea about how this administration treated King Tackie Tawiah II, as if he did not exist. It got to such a ridiculous extent that pouring of libation at state functions in Accra, which had always been the prerogative of the Ga Wolumo, has of late been kicked to touch.
When I state that some of us cannot be fooled, my statement is grounded on the fact that Atta Mills' administration has, within the two and half years it has been in power, insisted that the installation of Dr. Joe Blankson as Ga Mantse was not proper. And they are not the kingmakers in the Ga Traditional Area.
As you read this piece, the President of the Republic has either refused or failed to have any meaningful interaction with the occupant of the Ga stool.
One interesting aspect of the Government statement issued by the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council, and signed by Mr. E.T. Nartey, Chief Director, is the stated readiness of national security to deal ruthlessly with anybody who would foment trouble.
What the statement is saying is that having got Tommy Okine, an avowed NDC activist, using his position as Gbese Mantse to enstool someone in the good books of this administration, the Atta Mills Presidency would unleash all the force at its command on anybody who attempts to usurp the powers of the new chief.
By their deeds, they shall be known. The other day, I got this interesting text message from someone who has a fair idea about what is happening. The message reads: "The installation of another Ga Mantse is to make it possible for President Mills to visit Greater Accra, as the handlers could not have him calling on the sitting chief, Nii Tackie Tawiah, whom the NDC does not recognise."
The time is still young. As time goes on, some of us would be monitoring how this administration would relate to events in the Ga Traditional Area.
Writing about the Ga Mantse reminds me of police brutalities that greeted attempts by some fishermen in the Accra metropolis to present a petition to President Atta Mills on Tuesday. According to The Chronicle account of the event, the demonstrators began a peaceful march from Mantse Agbona through the Accra High Street.
The demonstrators carried placards, some of which read: 'President Atta Mills aka Nana Kwegyir, your people are dying, fulfill your campaign promise'; 'Our children cannot go to school because no fish,' 'No money, President Atta Mills what are you doing about this?'
This is not the first fishermen demo since this government came to power. A few months ago, fishermen at Elmina went on demonstration and blocked the main Cape Coast-Takoradi Road. In response, some agents of government organised fisher-folks at Saltpond to stage a counter demonstration.
The interesting thing about the fishermen demonstration is that in spite of the roof-top advertisement of building a 'Better Ghana' and securing the fishing industry all is still not well with fish and its industry in this country.
Fishing was one of the major issues in the 2008 elections. In the course of the campaign, then candidate Atta Mills stood at Mumford, near Apam in the Central Region, and played the tribal card with fishing. The one-time Vice-President and professor of law, told the poor fisher-folks that because former President Kufuor, being an Ashanti, did not appreciate the Fantis and their fishing industry, he had collapsed the fishing industry, and taken the biggest cold store in Ghana to the Ashanti Region.
At the time, the now sitting President made this pronouncement, he knew it was false. He knew, as a fact, that the state of Ghana had no cold stores at the time. He was also aware that all the 37 cold stores belonging to the state were diversified under the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) and NDC Mark One, of which he was the Number Two Gentlemen of the land. All the cold stores owned by this land of our birth, were all packaged and sold under very strange circumstances.
Prof. Mills, the man being sold to Ghanaians as God's representative on earth, poked ethnic fire with the suggestion that Kufuor, an Ashanti, had collapsed the fishing industry and sent the biggest cold store to the Ashanti Region.
The ethnic sentiments this statement provoked in the coastal belt of the Central Region could be linked to the loss of all the eight seats in the Fanti areas of the Central Region, standing in the name of the New Patriotic Party of ex-President Kufuor in the 2008 parliamentary elections. The loss of the presidential votes in the Central Region by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo could also be linked to this same Fanti-Ashanti conundrum outlined by Prof. Atta Mills at Mumford.
As a matter of fact, throughout the campaign leading to the vote, it was as if the Fantis were at war with the Ashantis. The fishing scandal and the invocation of the 'Adze Wo Fie A Oye' slogan was what propelled the NDC to sweep the votes in the Central Region, especially.
Having won the vote, based primarily on the fishing scandal, one would have thought that President Atta Mills and his administration would make the fishing industry a priority area for improvement.
The two demonstrations at Elmina and Accra have brought it home that talk is cheap. Action is a different ball game altogether.
Relevant Links
One interesting outcome of the demonstration in Accra is the response of the police. Reports in media houses in the national capital were unanimous in their verdict that the police went over the top in unleashing hot water and rubber bullets on the poor fisher-folks.
One interesting thing about the demonstration is that the police chose to be violent at the cross roads. It should remind the average Ghanaian of what happened at the cross roads on 28th February 1948, when Sgt. Adjetey, Lance Corporal Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey were shot dead while leading ex-servicemen to petition the colonial government.
That shooting triggered the boycott of goods and services rendered by the Association of West African Merchants (AWAM), and the eventual riots that speeded up the process for independence for the then Gold Coast.
If our own government could unleash such violence on our fisher-folks marching to present a petition, what then is the difference between the callous colonial administration and ever-promising administration of the so-called 'Asomdweehene'?
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