I read the “Letter to Mr. Kweku Baako,” signed by a Dr. Edward Kwame Poku some twenty-four hours ago and found it to be quite disturbing and distasteful, because the author appears to have an impressive facility with the English language that is generally not very common among Ghanaians locally educated in the sciences. And by his very expert discussion of the recent epidemic that struck the country, it is quite safe to assume that Dr. Kwame Poku is a medical professional; perhaps, even an immunologist. The first part of his rather long tirade of an epistle, clearly hints at the fact that the author may be experiencing some frustrations that are commonly associated with those who have been sojourning abroad for a remarkable length of time, particularly in Europe, and especially Germany, where a critical mass of Neo-Nazism still endures with strong official backing in some regions or states.
If by virtue of his own apparently acute sense of frustration, Dr. Poku would rather be back in Ghana than where he is presently domiciled, then, by all means, he is welcome to make the necessary arrangements to the same effect. But he has absolutely no reason or inalienable right to spew such ethnic chauvinism, or Asante Supremacist tirade, to be precise, and hope that such primitive bigotry would be endorsed by or be responded to in any shape or form by President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Indeed, I am cocksure that not even His Majesty, The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei-Tutu II, and the membership of the Asanteman Council, which, by the way, includes a remarkable percentage of non-ethnic Asantes, would endorse the unenlightened promotion of ethnic bigotry. I don’t know why he felt that he needed to direct his rather morally and intellectually insulting letter to Mr. Kweku Baako, the Editor-Publisher of the New Crusading Guide, but the author probably got the sort of media play and attention that he clearly could not get from President Akufo-Addo.
If health matters were primarily what he wanted to discuss with Ghanaian officialdom, then, of course, even as one of the several commentators who responded to his letter in the comments column attached to the same wisely suggested, Dr. Poku could have directed his letter to the Minister of Health, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu. I also don’t know why the Editor-Publisher of the New Crusading Guide decided to publish Dr. Poku’s very hateful letter; but it is almost quite certain that Mr. Baako wanted a much larger and savvier Ghanaian public to make up its mind about, whether, indeed, the letter writer deserved any hearing or response from the originally intended recipient of the same. As of this writing, I was hoping that Dr. Poku would have gotten a good dosage of the kind of feedback that he deserved. The man seems to be worried silly about the ongoing nationwide discussions about the creation of four or five additional regions in the country.
But, of course, the author of the afore-referenced letter knows very well that in a constitutional democracy, tantrum-throwing is the least effective and constructive means of expressing one’s displeasure with any policy initiative, especially where such displeasure clearly appears to be predicated on one’s peculiar sense of ethnic purity and integrity. Resorting to the beating of war drums and vowing to wreak havoc on the country, if things do not go his way, is rather bizarre. Dr. Poku may very well be a physician or scientist of vintage rate, but his trend of thinking tells me that the letter writer may be in dire need of psychiatric examination. Or he is simply a congenital fool or an idiot. I mean, where was this disgruntled ethnic bigot and Asante supremacist when the Trokosi Nationalists, led by the Supreme-Godfather, Chairman Jerry John Rawlings, literally took the entire country by storm and effectively reduced the single most powerful and influential monarch into a domestic hand or housewife called “Auntie Comfort”?
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