What has Attoh Quarshie and ET Mensah got in common?

Those who conspired to have Enoch Teye Mensah lose his Ningo-Prampram seat (and I know who they are: they are the same people that wanted JJR out of the National Democratic Congress) did him a lot of evil. But that was part of the devious fallout of the dogfight between two ethnic groupings in the NDC which were seeking the attention of Jerry Rawlings to the point of attrition.

Poor Papa J trusted the Ahwois so much at the peril of his life. But those who know the truth would admit that Jerry did not want to look too ‘Nyebro’, for political reasons. That’s why he sacrificed his own to court what he must have realised too late as the offending party in the struggle for recognition.

That was why he allowed the Ahwois so much space to explore and dictate issues when he was in power. But the Dzelukope Mafia also didn’t help their own cause. They weren’t development conscious like the Ahwois. They didn’t invest back home and lobby for goodness and mercy in their backyard.

The internal ethnicity war was what culminated in Kofi Portuphy not seeking re-election and Volta boy Dan Abodakpi losing the NDC national chairman slot to Ofosu Ampofo and the decision by the NDC bigwigs in Anlo not to risk their lives to vote multiple for Bole Boy John Mahama.

Trust me, that fight is still as ‘active’ as a volcano; and would be showing at the next NDC flag bearer congress, likely to be won again by Mahama ‘by force’ and likely to culminate in chaos and the creation of a new NDC.

But the inability of endowed NDC goons in the Volta Region to create wealth and jobs is becoming a source of concern to NDC youth, as I gathered during a funeral I attended at Anyako recently. Again, that is, I thought, because they didn’t want constituents to see that they are living ‘good.’ Our cousins in the Volta Region want to hide their wealth for good reasons. In communities where every clan has 99 gods, you can’t tell where an anti-development missile would come down from.

So, while the Ahwois went ahead and took control for good and not for evil, the Dzelukope Mafia simply froze, though leading lights like Tsatsu could be as wealthy as Peter Ala Adjetey and could have modestly invested home in Anlo like the Appentengs and Apinos and Safo Adus and Herbert Mensahs did and continue to do in Ashanti.

So, ET, who didn’t know which of the factions to side with in a game in which his indigenous Ga brothers were losing out, decided, after his bout with the eccentric young man Sam George, to lie low and take a fitting rest, as they would say. Rest is good when it helps you reinvigorate. However, when it becomes too much, your systems get squeaky and you find limbs and bones getting apart.

That may have dragged ET back into the fray. And, his comeback reminds me of a story J Attoh Quarshie told me about the days when he and his boys, including late MacJordan Amartey, annoyed Kwame Nkruamh and his security boys and were chased all over town.

Those tales were told over Ga kenkey and fish bought from some corner at Mamprobi. Dr Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe, Deku Jnr, son of the late AK Deku, late Member of the National Liberation Council and AFRC Liason lawyer Kojo Smith were then regular visitors. The only strange guest who appeared around that time was Speaker Alban Bagbin. In my opinion, he did not appear to like this report about the boys in the Fante Caucus trying to ice Josiah Aryeh from the NDC against the wishes of JJR. He still is a unifying force in the NDC.

I am glad that Alban did his Christian duty of mediation and attempts at reconciliation, instead of joining the fat cats on the other side. Rawlings; damirifa due, having to deal with such strong-headed brothers.

Josiah eventually died, with his assets almost being pillaged by girls from that same corner, but for the angry clan heads of Asere in Central Accra who flushed out the NDC ‘sluts’ from Josiah’s Madina and Community koomini properties.

Your wife or politics

One of the tales I vividly recall was Attoh Quarshie telling me that he was summoned by his father-in-law to La over his future as prison graduate of Dr Kwame Nkrumah. When the father-in-law, after the necessary courtesies, asked him what his plans were for the future, he said: “politics, of course.”

“What about your marriage with my daughter?” the old man queried.

I have no problem with that. I shall settle down and look after her.

“With politics and your prison life…?”

“Yes.”

“Again?”

“Yes”.

The veteran politician left the meeting unabashed about the genuine concerns of the father-in-law and a husband perpetually being absent from the home or chased round because he must see the back of Nkrumah, even if it took decades. And that was the last time he saw his in-laws.

Over 95, he still doesn’t appear to me to be tired of it – even up till today – though he misses the topics and people believe he confuses them, sometimes.

I believe that has been our common disease, sometimes, as writers and politicians. Adwoa Yeboah-Afari writes with the same passion as Elizabeth Ohene does. Cameron Duodu, too…Just when you felt you needed a break, some beast or idiot in the system annoys you, and you are compelled to “make a statement” to change something somewhere.

Sam George

Just when Sam George thought he had defeated the Goliath in his political life, up pops ET Mensah on another pedestal – higher and more glorious – and still competing for space in his own constituency…

But that is the nature of politics. Today, you are up; tomorrow you are down…

ET and I share the same ancestry and names like Naadu, Larteley, Anorkor and Leengoi. My cousin Naadu Aggie is a good friend of ET’s tough Makola wife. So, after Homowo, she used to take me there for a post-Homowo meal – though my anatomy for food is that of a cat.

ET still holds on to his NDC cadre credentials for the sake of the future. But, I know he became lonely after some of the NDC kingpins started poking their fingers into his mentor Rawlings’s eyes. Since politics is the profession he has chosen, he decided to live with the pain.

It is the same with very good doctors; not the nurses and teachers. Very good doctors, however, hardly go on official retirement. Like consultant Dr Laryea, who used to head the Ridge Hospital from the mid 80s into the 90s…He was so good.

Barking dogs

Greyed, ET understands that he has been young and a barking dog himself before. From Teshie through Mantse Agbonaa to Mawuli Restaurant…But now he is old and has seen it all. That’s why he would be a very good actor in helping contribute to the future of Ghana’s politics at a time we are seeing too many barking dogs because dog-eating is becoming an open culture among boys in indigenous Ga. (I don’t know that the same applies to junior Okudzeto or the communicator-lawyer or the Juaben Adehye, who is acting Zongo).

ET Mensah taking his oath of office as member of the Council of State

Again, I don’t know which of the too many Sams in the NDC take dog meat and wake up screaming in the night into the next day because it is alien to their culture. It is not so in Navrongo and Paul Afoko’s Sandema. But growing teaches us many things – the most precious among them being patience and tolerance.

Isn’t it interesting that when a cat (NPP) and dog (NDC) live in the same home, the incidence of barking is virtually muted? Or that a male dog doing ‘it’ to a male dog certainly attracts a bark?

Bravo, Bishops Conference and welcome, my cousin Teye Mensah.