Peace, be still

In certain parts of Africa, you can’t walk for 100 metres without look­ing over your shoulders twice. May be you’re a top-ranker of a political group and a member of an opposition or rival group might be following you with the intention of putting a bullet into your bloody head.

So when you look back and you see about four people following you rather closely, you’ll start wondering which of them is the killer. You’ll get con­fused and in an attempt to identify the assassin, you’ll start defining the word ‘Killer’. How does the forehead of a killer look like? Do killers have high intelligence quotients, and are they supposed to be married?

When someone calls you from be­hind, you’ll be tempted either to bark or to take off like an Olympic athlete. Just as you are about to decide which is safer of the two, you will realise that the caller is a friend. You breathe easily now. But you still have to ex­amine his eyebrows to see if it fits the definition of a killer.

It may also be that your style of walking suggests you’re a rebel and must be gunned down before you start misbehaving. The fact is that, rebels are very stylish and it shows in their gait.

Imagine you closed from work and you were having a nice time with your friends and just then two hooded fellows entered the joint and started spraying everybody with a Kalash­nikov AK 47 rifle. Stampede, Press reports-18 people died, 12 critically injured, Bar man’s head blown off, and his daughter in hospital in critical condition with an amputated thigh.

Sounds impossible isn’t it? But it is happening in Angola, Togo (which is next door), Liberia, Mozambique, all because of political misunderstandings and socio-politico- economic non­sense.

In Sikaman, the Hand of God is stretched over the territory. Peace be still! God is with us, and we must be thankful.

When a cloud of controversy formed over the results declared at the presi­dential polls, many chanted war songs, some silently, and there was cause for concern. The atmosphere was charged with looming violence.

The opposition refused to contest the parliamentary elections and all thought that was a prelude to civil war. The Christians prayed, Moslems worshipped, Buddhists chanted and Krishnas sang. The time- bomb was defused, and tension fizzled out. And there was peace, heavenly peace, nothing but peace.

It is most commendable that al­though possible strife was forecast, the opposition displayed maturity and today, you can drink in a beer bar without any fear of your head being blown off by an idiot.

Even for us journalists who close late at night, there is no fear. I’ve discharged my bodyguard because I am not in any real danger. Moreover, he has been demanding double pay and I’ve also been reminding him that he is not a civil servant. “Only Civil Ser­vants have the constitutional right to demand double pay, don’t you know?” I often tell him.

He also tells me he is going to buy a copy of the 1992 Constitution to look for the clause on double payment. I pity him because it would take him a life-time to track down the clause since it doesn’t exist, anyway, I’ve paid him off handsomely though and given him an over-coat as his end-of-service benefit.

The whole palaver that journalists are vulnerable and relatively more endangered than any other human breed. Fact is that not everything we write go down well with everybody. Some of our pieces cannot be swal­lowed, much more digested without the swallower vomiting his or her intestines out.

Because of this we make friends just as we make enemies. And with jour­nalism someone can be a friend today and an enemy tomorrow just because you have stepped a bit on his last toe, without asking permission.

Sometimes some people are both friends and enemy simultaneously and they are the most dangerous because when a person slaps you in the dark, you’d wonder how a friend could slap you that hard.

The kind of letters and messages we receive these days demand that I go in search of my bodyguard whom I pensioned not quite long ago. He has the capacity and ability of identify­ing enemies and potential enemies because he has a third eye. And I like him because he is a south-paw and has very good reflexes.

The only problem, however, is that I have to feed him twice daily and he has a helluva appetite. This means the budgetary allocation covering his stomach alone is not a ‘small thing.” Anyhow, it is all for my good because when he is bellyful he automatical­ly gyrates into a third degree alert. When he sees anybody getting close to me he growls like a tiger, and I nod my head in appreciation. That’s the spirit!

Yes, as I was saying, government and opposition have made it possible for peace to prevail in our dear country such that the security of everybody’s left ear is guaranteed. Anyway if you feel that yours is not, you may go and insure it for any eventuality. There are many insurance companies in town.

In any case, it is unlikely that vio­lence would erupt in foreseeable fu­ture. The New Patriotic (NPP) is doing all its best to engage in proper rapport with the government, and I bet you that is a really encouraging sign of co-operation.

The elephant and the umbrella must not be enemies. They must dine together. Politics is not a war. It is a game and even dogs play it better than humans. The dog says, ‘When I fall for you and you fall for me, there is no palaver’.

Fact is that no one party is going to rule forever, so why not cooperate with each other to make democracy meaningful in the country? I salute the NPP for the prudent overtures towards reconciliation, understanding and peace.

However, I must say I was disap­pointed when a leading member of the party went abroad ostensibly to paint Sikaman rather black to potential investors. I was terribly disappointed because I respect him for his intellect.

He must know that the country is not for only Jerry Jot Rawlings or for NDC. It is for everybody including himself. So to go about discouraging investors from doing business in the country just because Jerry Rawlings is in power is not sane politics. It doesn’t speak well of him, and the country deserves an apology.

This article was first published on Saturday, August 21, 1993