In recent times one Ghanaian politician who has trended so much is Honourable Sam Nartey George, NDC MP for Ningo-Prampram. Especially being one of the proponents of the anti-LGBT bill, he has had more than his fair share of control over our airwaves. His very firm stand, as well as his eloquent and forceful defence of it can be seen as either admirable or nauseating to many depending on which side you stand. And I must confess that on this he earned my admiration.
Sam George Versus Australian High Commissioner
A little over a year ago – 13th May 2021 to be precise - not only did Honourable Sam George warn the Australian High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Mr. Andrews Barnes, to keep off the internal matters of Ghana but went even further to threaten to beat him if he didn’t stop advocating for the rights of LGBTQI+ to be legalised since according to him (Sam George), the Ambassador had no right to tell Ghanaians which laws are right or wrong for us.
To make his point as clear as he wished he queried: “Why can’t I beat him? If he decides not to behave like a diplomat, I will treat him like a non-diplomat because a diplomat has signed up his letters of credence which says he will respect the laws of Ghana.
The laws of Ghana do not allow you to do homosexuality then you with your two left legs, you leave Australia to Ghana to come and redeem your image, do you know his career, he is someone who does not know his identity and has come to Ghana to reinvent himself an wants to dictate to us that we must legalize supi supi.”, he was quoted on Ghanaweb as reported by MyNewsGh.
Where was Asiedu Nketia all this while?
When all this was going on, and people had to maybe physically restrain this relatively young NDC parliamentarian from beating a duly accredited foreign diplomat in our country I, for one, never heard a word from the seasoned politician and General Secretary of the party he represents in parliament who incidentally could also conveniently be his uncle, Mr. Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, popularly known as General Mosquito.
The IGP Versus The British High Commissioner
Only a few days ago, following a tweet by the British High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Madam Harriet Thompson, on the latest arrest of the Fixthecountry Convenor, Mr. Oliver Barker-Vormawor, which by all accounts borded on an attempt to give a warning to our police, an obviously infuriated IGP, Dr. Akuffo Dampare, addressed what he deemed an appropriate response to Her Excellency Madam Thompson, advising her to stay in her lane.
And this is what the veteran Asiedu-Nketia found so annoying that it appears he would have immediately caused for the arrest of Dr. Dampare if he, Asiedu-Nketiah, was the IGP and Dampare the General Secretary of a political party. And since unfortunately for him he can’t do that he is advising the IGP to withdraw his response and apologise to the British High Commissioner.
All of a sudden, Mr. Asiedu-Nketiah who did not find it worthwhile to even jokingly advise his ‘small boy’ Sam George not to threaten to beat people under any circumstances, whether or not they’re diplomats, maybe after undergoing some crash course in diplomacy, and now seeing Dr. Dampare as a ‘common IGP’ thinks he shouldn’t have responded directly to the almighty High Commissioner. He should rather have “raised his concerns with Ghana’s Foreign Minister through the Minister of the Interior for it to be addressed via the usual diplomatic channels.” Otherwise, he proceeds, “this regrettable and misguided letter has the tendency of jeopardizing the enviable cordial bilateral relations between Ghana and Britain”.
Since General Mosquito seems to know that it is not the business of the IGP to be responding to tweets by foreign diplomats he should tell us when he was appointed as the Spokesperson for the British High Commission or other Embassies in Ghana.
The even more annoying part of the Press Release he signed on 31st May is his attempt to justify the U.K. High Commissioner’s interference in our local affairs on the grounds that “the activist of interest is a student in the U.K”. Oh my God! In other words, it should be perfectly in order for Ghana’s High Commissioner in Britain to be telling the British authorities how they should do their job because a British citizen who is a student in Ghana has been arrested by the British police in London?
It is uncomfortable for me to say this but I see it no other way than a clear case of inferiority complex here in the sense that if it was some African Ambassador who behaved the way the U.K. High Commissioner did and received a similar response from even a District Police Commander I don't think Asiedu-Nketiah would have been so uncomfortable in his coat. But the underlying factor in all this is the hypocrisy in it. Because a party is no longer in power every agent of the state has become their enemy. And as the saying goes, any perceived enemy of one's enemy automatically becomes one's friend.
My candid advice to Mr. Asiedu Nketia is to first call his party member, Honourable Sam George, to order and advise him not to threaten to beat people whose views he doesn’t agree with before he tells our IGP not to reply to messages from foreign diplomats in our country.
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