Would Hajia Gariba shoot at a Mosque?

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

She has every right to feel her own sense of self-importance, particularly if she is also the deputy to a veritable “diplomatic thug” like Alhaji Said Sinare, the Egyptian-mothered Ghana’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I hope these two thugs and liars never get reappointed as diplomats to any other country, once their godforsaken tours of duty end with the Mahama-led regime of the so-called National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The Sinare deputy I am talking about here is, of course, Hajia Boya Gariba, who is widely alleged to have discharged several gunshots towards a church building near her Tamale residence because she claims the Christmas eve’s watch-night members of that church’s congregation, who had been singing some Christmas carols, were disturbing her peace and quiet (See “Deputy Saudi Ambassador Fires Gunshots at ‘Noisy’ Church” Starrfmonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 12/26/16).

Hajia Gariba, who has prevaricated on this report several times, as of this writing, also claims that a young boy sent to the church to tell the congregation to tone down the decibel of their singing had been roughed up and injured. As of this writing, however, the extent of the injuries allegedly sustained by the boy, whose age was not given in the media report, was not known. There was also no mention of the presence of an ambulance or the diplomatic second-bananas herself or any of her assigns having rushed the alleged victim to the hospital.

Then also, Hajia Gariba claims that she had reported her gun-discharging incident to the Tamale police who had already been to her residence several times and were still investigating the matter. As well, the shooter, who claims her gun was licensed, and that she had been duly trained to use the same, says that she had called in the Northern Regional Commander. As of this writing, it was not clear whether the latter description referred to the Regional Police Commander or the Northern Regional Commander of the Ghana Armed Forces.

Whatever the real case scenario may be, it is all too clear that Hajia Gariba is an arrogant politician who is not shy to bring the full force of the coercive machinery of the State to bear on any ordinary citizens with whom she strongly disagrees, on the slightest perceived act of provocation. She curiously forgets that it is the same ordinary Ghanaian taxpayer who pays her salary who also financially supports these law-enforcement operatives. Or maybe this is what the Deputy Ambassador to the Saudi Kingdom learned from her rabidly uncouth boss, namely, Alhaji Sinare.

Well, for those of our readers who may not be familiar with the name of the man, Alhaji Sinare is widely known for his liberal use of profanities in public; and also for his caddishness and pet love for the public abuse of the wives of his political, moral and intellectual superiors.

Recently, for instance, Alhaji Sinare had the temerity to impugn the dignity and integrity of Mrs. Samira Bawumia, the wife of Vice-President-Elect Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. The man is also a thug because recently he reportedly caused the Ghana Embassy in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, to appear as if it had been ransacked and burglarized by some robbers, and shamelessly went on record as claiming that the embassy had been ransacked by thugs sympathetic to the main opposition New Patriotic Party.

The outgoing “diplomat” has yet to provide any substantive evidence to back up his allegation. We know he is a liar because there exists absolutely no critical mass of Ghanaians in the Saudi capital who could have committed the crime alleged and easily gotten away with the same.

I also have a brother-in-law, a clinical pharmacist, who has been living in Riyadh for the past 32 years and recently left that country on retirement, who tells me that most Ghanaians resident in Saudi Arabia are highly trained and educated and well-paid professionals who are most unlikely to resort to the sort of vandalism being alleged by Ambassador Sinare.

At any rate, it is also clear that Hajia Gariba is morbidly afflicted with a kind of religious arrogance and intolerance that have absolutely no place in a multicultural democratic Christian-majority Ghanaian society. Are we therefore right to assume that such insufferable arrogance, such as grossly displayed by Hajia Gariba, was acquired by the latter from her hosts and a country where the practice of the Christian faith is expressly prohibited and punishable by death?

If so, then would we be wrong to suggest that Hajia Gariba renounce her Ghanaian citizenship and apply for both Saudi citizenship and residency, so she could be provided the peace and quiet she seeks?

Maybe it is about time her clearly resented Christian neighbors also acquired licensed firearms and got trained to use the same. We will not have any terrorist living among us and facilely resorting to the reckless use of firearms, merely because she cannot abide the liberal practice of the majority religion in our country.

My profuse apologies to all law-abiding Ghanaian Muslims, but I feel it is about time the psychotic and virulently antisocial likes of Alhaji Sinare and Hajia Gariba got checkmated before their clinically erratic behavior got out of hand.

We are not told that the members of the church in question, the Spring of Life Assembly Church, are in the daily habit of callously disturbing the peace and quiet of the neighborhood; or that they are not licensed to freely practice their faith in the neighborhood.

And so one can safely assume that the alleged “noise-making” was only one of those rare occasions during the year, when the members of the Spring of Life Assembly Church celebrate some of the great pillars/heroes of their faith, just like Muslims are legally permitted to do in the country.

Then also, sending a minor, or a little boy, to ask the members of the Spring of Life Assembly Church congregation to tone down the solemn worship of their Christian God was the height of arrogance. A more cultured and mature adult would have peacefully and respectfully approached the church’s leaders privately and worked out a mutually beneficial deal. Hajia Boya Gariba, truth be told, is an embarrassment to our largely law-abiding Ghanaian Muslim community.