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| Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey |
“Yes…! What don’t you understand?”
The very patient teacher would ask the
back-benchers for clarification on what they say they didn’t understand. For some
of us, just the mere topic “Mathematics” written on the board was enough a
sleeping tablet.
So, this teacher, Reverend Nyame Duodoo,
had no problem in the hands of the sleeping students.
Indeed, Rev. Duodoo was patient. Not
even the annoying response of “the whole show” from a student- to mean that he/she
did not understand everything taught- pissed him off. He had heard we called
him Ja Rule because whenever it was
time for his class, he will show up with his file capped under his armpit. He
was “Always on Time.” Yet, he was not perturbed.
But that afternoon at the 3Arts3 classroom at the then Sunyani
Secondary School, Rev. Duodoo was worried. Some students had seen him riding a
bicycle on campus and the ‘news’ had gone viral. For these okra[o]-mouth-students,
he was not expected to be in the bracket of bicycle riders.
Silly, it sounds? Unfortunately, our
larger society turns to make similar remarks about some group of people we
think are too holy to comment on national politics. Indeed, so men who
propagate the gospel are seen as such.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the back and
forth of the news of the controversial preacher, Bishop Obinim and the infamous
Montie 3 got drowned in the wake of the outgoing Moderator of the
Presbyterian Church of Ghana’s $100, 000 bribe claim.
Rev. Prof.
Emmanuel Martey on Tuesday, August 30, 2016 made a claim that some politicians
attempted to bribe him with an amount of $100, 000 in order to tame.
“Politicians had tried all means to
muzzle me, to get me but they can’t, they come with bribes, fat envelopes,
$100,000.
“[They also come with] the promises
that if you keep quiet, we will give you a house at Trasacco with swimming
pool… We will give you Four Wheel drive. But you know what; these people were
lucky that I do not have big dogs in my house else I would have released the
dogs for them to bite them.”
Could
Prof. Martey’s claim be true? Well, this has been one question that has been
tossed like a dice on Ghanaian media’s ludu and I would not want to base my
argument on it. After all, you and I were not there.
My concern
has to do with some people who say Prof. Martey is a minister of God and should
be remained as such without talking politics. So, what is politics and who can
talk politics?
In an
article on 3news.com dated August 31, 2016 and titled “Rev Martey ‘can now wear
NPP jersey,’” General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson
Asiedu Nketia, is reported to have asked Prof. Martey to go public with his
affiliation with the opposition New Patriotic Party.
“He can wear the NPP shirt and walk
around, and possibly, the NPP can choose him as the running mate or the
flagbearer…that will help him instead of hiding behind the Presbyterian Church
to make unguarded comments.”
In our country called Ghana, many
are those who have pretended and still pretending deaf and dumb for fear of
commenting on political issues in other not to be tagged as an NPP or NDC.
But if men of God have voter’s card
and they are equally legally allowed to vote, then, why do we attack them when
they criticize policies or ideas of a sitting government or the opposition
respectively?
Prof. Martey, we know, has been very
critical with the sitting government but does it in anyway make him an NPP?
Who would have thought that former Supper
Morning Show host of Joy FM, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, was/is an NPP member?
In the Election 2012, Mr. Nkrumah
was the lead anchor of his station’s election coverage and he projected victory
for the NDC. This, his own party members [who perhaps never knew he was with
them] would chase Joy FM’s reporters in town threatening to beat them up.
Sad enough, we often draw
conclusions of people who criticize us as being our enemies. If General
Mosquito and the NDC in general prefer Ghanaians keep quiet and watch things
unfold in wait of another election period, they should tell us.
I think that it was totally below
the belt General Mosquito adding that: “If he [Prof. Martey] wears the NPP
jersey openly, we can then attack him when he make political comments but if he
wants to be neutral, then he should not talk about political issues.”
According
to the White House, President Obama reads 10 letters from Americans across the
country every night. In one of his response to a young lady, who had sent her
letter via Facebook Messenger, Obama encouraged her.
“As you continue to advance your
education, find your voice and seek out opportunities to make the world a
better place. I encourage you to speak up on the issues that matter to you,”
wrote the world’s most powerful man to Kathleen.
Indeed, Prof. Martey and men who
seek the good of Ghana will and must continue to speak on issues that matter to
them.
While
you choose to do so, in Ghana, remember the attacks will definitely come as
they are tearing the man of God to shreds. But relax and take a cue from
Mahatma Gandhi.
He
once opined: “Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with
love.”
The writer is a broadcast
journalist with 3FM. Views expressed here solely remains his opinion and not
that of his media organization.
Email:
nehusthan4yahoo.com
Twitter:@Aniwaba
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