Bruce Lumba Lee & Our Absentee Spokesperson

There are certain things you need Dutch Courage to say. Perhaps it explains why the Old Man speaks with such confidence when he enters has his gourd of palm wine by his side.

Hear him: “The Minister of Information, we are told, is the official Spokesperson for the President. Yet the Minister hardly ever follows the President on his trips across the world. Ah well, maybe he does not like travelling. As for plane ticket and visa, that should not be a problem because he is the President’s Spokesperson.

Whatever the reason may be fact is, he is working as a Spokesperson that has to be briefed by another person about what happened on the President’s trips before, he, in turn, gets the information to speak confidently about such trips.  Which spokesperson works based on hearsay?

“What does he speak about when he is never with the person he is to be speaking for and is never present at events he is to be talking about?

My response to his seemingly cynical comments came out as though I had rehearsed the answers. I explained the Honourable Minister has work to do in Accra and that aside be being the President’s Official Spokesperson, he is a substantive Minister and has other equally important responsibilities to attend to at the Ministry.

“Oh, cut the crap! The man has three able deputies to handle any Ministry related works in his absence. And so far, his deputy, Kojo, has displayed some attention-grabbing brilliance in the way he has handled information management. In the Minister’s absence, there would be no vacuum at the Information Ministry.  Some of us have even opined Kojo should have been a deputy somewhere else. Maybe Finance or Trade or Foreign Affairs. He can hold the fort without any hiccups”, the Old Man fired back.

He continued: “If Kojo is too ‘diplomatic’ for the Ghanaian political machinations, there is another deputy, Perry. Perry is actually an underutilized asset.  Perry is a rare breed of a political gem. He encapsulates a fine balance of Kofi Anan and Niccolo Machiavelli mixed together in one body. A smooth operator that stings without hissing. If the saying, hiding snakes live long, then Perry would never get into trouble. Dude hides! And oh yes, there is yet a third deputy.”

The Old Man went on and on and on and spoke about how the Information Ministry, under Kwame Nkrumah was a well-oiled conscientization machinery and how it is a shame that in 2017, our Information Ministry does not have money to pay for even newspapers it subscribes.

I suspected his palm wine had boosted his courage to speak about such unprintable truths.

Ah haaa. Did I hear or read somewhere that our own Stonebwoy had said an unknown person stormed his Ashaiman concert over the weekend with a knife ostensible to stab him but ended up cutting the flesh of the wrong target- his newly wedded wife, Dr. Louisa?

I have been thinking and trying to get more information.

Normally, such criminal episodes, require some police investigation. It is curious that the Ashaiman Police is not the one putting out the information but rather Stonebwoy and his team.

Stonebwoy is a very big artiste and his concert attracted several thousands of people. The Police were there to handle security related issues. That was the ONLY reason the Ghana police service was at the concert. If after the concert, Stonebwoy has put out information that his wife was slashed with a knife from an unknown person who cut through their VVIP tent, why is the Police silent?

What does the police know that they are not telling us? Was the criminal matter ever brought to their attention?

Anyway, it is just a matter of time and we shall know the full details.

Ras, as usual, has been silent all through the noise in the bar today. His only comment was when talks turned to kick boxing.

“Me hear say Daddy Lumba turn kick boxer”, Ras noted.

Lumba has been captured in a video recording giving some wild karate-kicks. He was kicking one of his music fans during his performance an event over the weekend. Watching the video, it seemed the fan was trying to pick one or two of the crisp GHC50 notes being sprayed on Lumba while he was performing and the musician, not happy with that, gave him a sharp kick.

Another school of thought said the particular fan had been “disturbing” Lumba all through his performance and was even pulling at the musician’s shoes so he had a karate kick.

Whatever it is, Lumba had had no reason to turn act Bruce Lee on stage.

No matter the provocation, the kick was a physical assault and was needless.

In the advanced democracy, the assaulted fan would have had his lawyers screaming “assault, assault” before a judge by now with Lumba’s photos splashed on the fronts of the dailies.

Source: Halifax Ansah-Addo