Are we really co-equals?

“Tweeeeea, are we co-equals?” is a phrase almost every Ghanaian can identify with.  Its popularity even soared when one obscured government official burst out the phrase amidst other vituperations in response to a taunt from the audience while honoring his call to duty at a public function – an act that eventually got him trending for days to come and every observer of our Country knows this by now. The mudslinging comments and its parallel self-righteous postures were enough to hang the man on a pillory.

Since when did public officials started carrying themselves above their subjects – the people they were chosen to serve? While practically begging for our support, they also vow to serve us even through rough times. Public officials must comport themselves even in the face of all indignation and must be modest about their business at all times. Such uncouth behavior is unbecoming of public officials who cannot take a joke, they must learn to suffer fools and work on their sense of humour. Infact! They have to move out of the Kitchen if they find it hot enough!

Then you take a long walk the next day and start asking yourself some obvious but hidden rhetoric such as “are we really co-equals?” and granted that we are co-equals, shouldn’t respect be reciprocal? Does ascendance to public office immune people from public ridicule? Is the high tide of democracy also sweeping away our morals which were hitherto the pillars of our culture or we have just given in to the global movement?

 What happened to our class society or we are just a bunch of lying hypocrites who will practice politics of convenience instead of principles? Methinks, anybody who holds on to the fallacious notion that we are all equals must have their heads examined and all illusory thoughts gotten rid of. We may be one but are not and cannot be equals!

God in his own infinite wisdom created us with varying differences to distinguish each of us from one another; same God who created the low and the high born, angels and archangels, the graceful and the ugly, the weak and the strong, the giant and the dwarf and what have you, so why the tenacious stance that we are all equals?

consequently, If ever the phrase “we own the people who own the town” rings a bell, then be reminded that, your favorite bakery is owned by someone who sometimes buys goods on credit from his/her suppliers and if that is far-fetched then be reminded that your pay cheque is signed by someone who is sanctioned by another man in that order.

If indeed God made us equal simply because we all have attributes of humans, then it will be a perversion against the divine plan to have all these Caucasians, Blacks, Dwarves, Giants and Gays fighting on continuous basis to entrench their varied differences. In same vein, it would be wrong for you to look at that unkempt guy across the street and say he is not your type, likewise would it be wrong for a guy to say, someone does not belong to his class. It actually behooves us to do unto others what we expect them to do unto us.

Thus far anybody who thinks we are co-equals is a Populist and should be dismissed summarily. They just like to create trouble where there should be none and also like to over-estimate their self-importance but one friendly advice to them is, they should find their rank and file and feel at home for some people are way elevated beyond our class and level.

 The writer tweets @vilejah

The Running Man

He ran home as fast as he could, panting like a hunting dog feeling accomplished after pinning down its game. He dashed straight to his door and reached for the knob as he frantically dug into the back pocket of his faded denim Jeans with the other hand for his key.

After what seemed like ages to properly insert the key into its hole, he opened the door with ease, entered and slammed the door into its frame behind him as though he won't go out again. He would have still been turning the key in its hole like a demonstration globe in its axis if it was his former lock set. He's had nasty times with that lock but the most embarrassing of all times was the day a borrower followed him home for some money he owed the latter but for some inexplicable reasons, he could not open the door until after three or more hours. And I am not even about to delve into what transpired in-between the time he was battling to get the door opened. Times have been tough and rugged. He must be thankful for the seemingly little things such as changing the lock just last week.

All the while he was ripping the door apart, his neighbors were just looking on as though there was nothing distressing about the young man's activities. It was his umpteenth time so they were used to it.  Sometimes he barged into the house with the whole community in tow and other times it was the Police. They were used to his showmanship and his adept ways of solving his fallouts with members of the community. He is terror personified and no one dares to meddle in his affairs.

He sat on his single bed and fell on his back. His breath uneven, sweat breaking into tiny bubbles, eyes wide open as he stared into the Ceiling.  No polished or patterned ceiling to draw him in or play tricks on his mind. Apart from his double bulb holder that has held his ever faithful blue bulb and the remains of the fan hook where his spoilt fan used to hang, there wasn’t much to see anyway. His mind was blank indeed.

 It was just another passing moment in his neighborhood except this passing moment occurs one too many times. He loathed his community and longs to see when things will change. Longing for days when water will flow through their taps again. To see days his beloved community will stop experiencing erratic power supply to prolong the life span of their electrical appliances and gadgets. His community must have a recreational park like any gated community. They should even have a Football Park. The days where every nook and cranny will be rid of the decaying blue kiosks that will do anything for money even if that includes selling alcohol to minors. And Lord knows they have been responsible for far too many deaths in the community than statistics can avail.

He despised his community. It was a congregation of people who think alike. Everybody seemed to be thinking as though they have been programmed. He doesn’t even know which one of the two words best suits them; Clowns or Clones.  They all do things the same. No role models. For a community that has the presence of the Police even more than a barracks can contain at a given time, members of the Community are locked away in Cells and Prisons every day and sometimes without offences. Your looks are enough cause for concern and the perpetual fear of waking up to traumatic experiences such as people vanishing without a trace and in extreme cases people dying without a known cause. A community where the Police never finds the culprit in murder cases.

He doesn’t want to think that they have been forgotten by the Government because that would be tantamount to sentencing legions of generations into perpetual physical and emotional pain. He even recalled hearing the President in the recent state of the Nation Address the other day on his old President TV reassuring them of good times ahead.

It must come to pass! This is non-negotiable. The government must pull them from their predicament and there shall be no more sixteen and Seventeen year old proud mothers who do not know a thing about babies neither will there be ladies bleaching their skins any longer. They need good schools like any other community because the fight for survival has become global. They must also celebrate birthdays and take vacations just like his friends from the other side of town.   

No! He is not a coward as his friends from the other side of town like to think. They only front because they don’t know what it takes to be at the battle front by default; just by virtue of your bloodline. He is not always running around and through the community because he has athletic prospects. It’s because he has seen enough trouble to last him a lifetime and tired of having one more. Unlike them, no one will come for him should he be whisked away so none of their taunts will get to him neither will his new accolade of a Running Man  deter him from sticking to his guns. 

And until these things have been provided somehow to drastically change things considerably and to level the playing field for him and his friends from the far end of town, he will be running with all the speed he can gather home, to his room – the only place he can find peace and he doesn’t care if his perceived cowardice or actions are justified. Infact, he must run until he finally runs out of town.

The Regressives

I see a melee of regressives
hurrying back into the future
boasting and priding in adhoc features
with no direction nor perfect pictures
A cue signifying their illusion is real

The simple and good; their last resorts
The bad and the complex; their ideal slots
Reverence for the superficial; their delight
Their purpose; fizzled, blurred and hazy
With no desire to nurture their sixth senses

A legion of leaders without willing followers
Goons who only wage war for the sake of peace
From their gated abodes, they protest with ease
Terrified, as they stare at the petrified rebels
heckling free men in shackles...

I am not leaving because i stopped living
Neither will i stop because i stopped moving
I am rewriting the scenes to avert the common sins
To bring to the fore, the damage and the carnage
Until everyone is freed from their raged anger

For their respite, they will need expressive love
To break their silence in the face of freedom of speech
To make the simple and good; their ideal slots
The complex and bad; their last resorts
And Get back to the basics to become progressives