DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE with Amos SAFO: Is Abronye’s mouth a gun?

Once more, the arrest and detention of Kwame Baffoe (Abronye), the Bono Regional chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has compelled me to return to the critical topic of the resurgence of the culture of silence in our body polity. This basic question came to mind when I chose to comment on the topic once more, “Na Abronye’s mouth be gun”?

In one of his great works titled, “Na my mouth be gun”, Kobena Eyi Acquah , one of Ghana’s most insightful authors and poets recounted a World War two incident in the Gold Coast, where a man faced colonial charges of heresy for predicting that Adolf Hitler would be victorious. The defendant’s rhetorical question was “Is my mouth a gun”? In contemporary Ghana, this question highlights the tension between freedom of speech and the repressive legal system, which underscores Aquah’s use of the verse to interrogate historical power dynamics and to advocate for verbal dissent against injustice.

While Aquah’s question was rhetorical, revisiting the question in our current political and legal jurisprudence is both relevant and disturbing. What could account for the incessant arrests and detention of a Ghanaian who is just expressing dissent or heresy, as Aquah called it. Is Abronye that powerful to become a phobia, an anathema or a threat to the government which has all the coercive force of state security under its control? I think President Mahama and his appointees are wasting state resources in a quest to silence one man or the proverbial “to teach him where power lies.”

Last week Abronye’s wife stated publicly that her husband’s condition had deteriorated due to the terrible condition he is being kept. That is a very sad manifestation of our governance system. It is deplorable to reduce our governance to such low levels when a simple comment can lead to inhuman treatment and the violation of someone’s constitutional right to bail. What is happening is a brazen criminalization of freedom of expression as mandated by the 1992 Constitution.

Apart from arresting and detaining Abronye, a few weeks ago, another man was arrested for posting on social media that “Dum sor is back.” Why would state security arrest a man for making such a harmless statement. From what is happening on the political scene it is becoming difficult to draw a line between what constitutes a threat and what is mere comedy or entertainment. Shouldn’t we be humorous anymore? Suddenly our humanity mad humour  have disappeared after change of government.  In my view, Ghana is on a steady decline on the index of freedom of expression. President Mahama and his government are systematically whittling whatever is left of the constitutional provision of freedom of speech and expression.

Power is transient

A few weeks ago, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II reminded those in power that power is transient and can never be permanent. He was commenting on the apparent meddling in the Sampa chieftaincy dispute by some political office holders. According to him, one day their power will come to an end, so they should be careful about their actions and inactions. That advice was a timely reminder that power is temporary and should not be used to destroy people and undermine traditional systems.

One thing is sure, if even a president stays in power for life, death will certainly intervene at a point, and that would be the end of that power. It happened to Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo in 2005. After ruling for close to 30 years, suddenly one day, the once powerful man of Togo failed to beat the count to rise. Paul Biya of Cameroun has ruled that struggling country for 43 years and recently won a controversial poll for another eight years. It appears that like Eyadema, only death can save Cameroonians from Paul Biya’s hold on power. So, you see, death is the unavoidable fact of life. For this reason, I appeal to President Mahama and his government and party functionaries to use their power cautiously. The other time I saw the once powerful and famous former President, Bill Clinton in a social media post walking lonely into a shop, where nobody looked at his direction. No bodyguard, no aide, people just walked past him as if they had never met him before.

Fact is that if Akufo-Addo and John Agyekum Kufuor are ex-presidents today, one day John Mahama will be an ex-president for life. He was once an ex-president and probably learnt that people who were worshipping him withdrew their loyalty because he no longer carried the power and title of president. Mr. President please arise and stop those overzealous party and government functionaries and security personnel to stop intimidating your opponents. Since when did political opposition become a crime. The rampant arrests and detention of people for political dissent is bad and should be stopped. NDC was in opposition and exploited that constitutional mandate to regain power. So, what is criminal about NPP now in opposition using the same opposition platform to seek reelection?

Comparatives

I always want to compare Ghana’s current economic performance to that of Burkina Faso. Our landlocked neighbour is spending millions of dollars in fighting rebel insurgents, yet the country appears to be doing better economically than Ghana, which is relatively stable. Perhaps, Ghana’s version of fighting rebels is arresting and jailing harmless people like Abronye and others for simply using social media as means of democratic representation and participation.

Cotton and garments

Currently, Captain Ibraihim Traore and his government are implementing some of the most innovative and transformative economic policies aimed at deswestenising and decolonizing the Burkinabe economy. Last year, Captain Traore banned the importation and use of western fabrics, especially for civil servants. Thereafter, the government banned lawyers from wearing westernized gowns for legal practice. In place of that they launched a customized local attire for lawyers. The new gowns are being designed and sewn by local fashion designers. The policy aims at promoting the use of local fabrics made from cotton grown by local farmers. This no doubt creates more jobs among the youth and reduces over dependence of the economy on foreign garment industries.

Burkina Faso and Mali are two of Africa’s biggest producers of cotton, so it makes sense that Traore’s government took that bold policy initiative to revamp the cotton and the local textile industry. There couldn’t be any better policy to boost the local economy than to ensure Burkinabes wear shirts and dresses made from home grown cotton. To sustain the homegrown policy, the government is establishing more factories and providing more support for cotton farmers. This is geared toward boosting  cotton farming and dress making as full time business for both youth and adults.

During the launching of the policy, Traore envisioned that several jobs would be created by revitalizing cotton production and investing in garment industries. He announced plans to train more youth in vocational and technical skills, as well as industrial design and engineering.  “In 2026 we no longer want to dress in garments that come from abroad. I cannot accept that some people impose the price of cotton on our farmers when we should be processing it ourselves,” Traore said in a statement to back the policy.

On the contrary, Ghana’s cotton industry collapsed during the economic recovery era, when the Rawlings government succumbed to IMF and World Bank pressure to withdraw any form of support and funding for the cotton sector. This was that fed then once vibrant textiles industry in Ghana. Little wonder that most of Ghana’s textile factories collapsed together with cotton farming. In the 60s and 70s farming cotton and rice in the north were the biggest sources of livelihoods for many households.

Fish production

Similarly, Captain Traore’s government has announced plans to revitalize aqua culture to boost fish production for local consumption and export. I am sure Ghana will be the first destination for Burkinabe fish, just as we are the biggest importers of their tomatoes. Ironically, Burkina Faso has no coastline, its land is dry and relies on once-yearly rainfall. Yet, Traore’s government has committed more resources to large scale fishing production as a major source of employment. The government has started creating more dams and dropping fish cages into the dams as a commercial venture and to feed on fish protein, rather than importing frozen chicken as Ghana is doing.

The Bagri dam alone is expected to produce one million tons of fish annually. This is the dam which mostly flows to Ghana and perennially destroys people’s homes, farms and livestock. Painfully the water drains into the sea without Ghana making any productive use, except powering the Akosombo and Kpong dams. It will be recalled that the Akufo-Addo government experimented with the one-village-one dam policy, which was ridiculed by the opposition, purposefully to discourage farmers from using the dams. Today, the dams are deteriorating, as more farmers in the north continue to depend on rainfed agriculture.  Impressively, Burkina Faso is a country that has refused to be held back by its geography, rather the government is transforming the dry land to an economic production zone.

My pain

I have taken pains to highlight the transformation taking place in Burkina Faso to draw the attention of our leaders that they can better utilize their time to make policies that would transform our economy. While other presidents are giving long and boring speeches, having photo opportunities with western leaders, and perhaps, enjoying the arrests and detention of political opponents, Captain Traore is investing in massive human capital development and basic agricultural tools to empower farmers to grow what Burkinabes will consume. This is what visionary leadership is all about. Leadership is not about using the coercive forces of the state to criminalize free speech or silence opponents. Let those who are clapping hands and pushing for more arrests be reminded that they are setting a bad precedent.

On that note, I humbly urge President Mahama and his government to stop chasing shadows and confront the difficult economic situation facing many ordinary people. Teachers and nurses need their salaries, cocoa farmers are crying for their pound of flesh and illegal mining is still destroying our forests and water bodies. These are the issues that need policy attention, not chasing Abronye and other social media commentators around. Our governance should rise above this petty politics. Ghana should be making progress in several indexes and not backtracking. Please Mr. President, harassing political opponents will not add anything to Ghana’s GDP.

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