Happy Belated Birthday Osagyefo,

Kwame, some people in this world are old, but as for you, you are grown. What! 99 years! I am struggling with my quarter-life crisis and am dreading the next few years; I can't even imagine a mid-life crisis. Happy belated again sir, and may you find rest and sleep at the same side of the bed you slept on September 20th. Do find that spot again because you smiled at your fans. You must have smiled when you read the news about the national launch of your rejuvenated party's campaign for this year's election. The CPP is back, new, vibrant and attractive.

Nkrumahists like us cherish your birthday like other holidays in the Ghanaian calendar. Were you called the African Showboy due to the flamboyant parties you threw for your birthday? Were you called the African Showboy because of how you lavished cedis (when they were as good as dollars) on your friends and sympathizers? September 21st is remembered as your birthday but the chapter has been re-written, the 2008 version will go down as the day Paa Kwesi Nduom's CPP launched its national campaign with a rally for the ages and introduced the running mate in the race for the FlagStaff house, the site of the new Presidential Palace. Actually, the Presidential Palace is on hold due to a myriad of problems, so let's call this election the race to be the first citizen of Ghana. Shall we?

Yo Osagyefo,
I know it's been a while since you heard from me. It's not me o, I have been busier than the busiest Chinese fast food joint in Osu. The times have not been good, I haven't been inspired to write to you and it's something I can't even explain. You know what else I can't explain, the fact that we have 17 candidates all vying for the opportunity to run for the president of Ghana through the New Patriotic Party. Osagyefo, you need a couple more hands to count 17, only one person shall win the slot, and 16 people would have gotten nought from a 250 million cedi investment. I know you'll be wondering how 17 different people in Ogyakrom could get 250 mill, but massa, these are the times.

You may also be wondering what happened to your brain child, the Convention People's Party. Kwame, why was Convention such a popular word in those days? What does it mean? Because these days when the regular golden boy or girl hears convention, the first thought that comes to mind is a Christian gathering with thousands of people receiving miracles from above. You could ask Efo Mawugbe and he'll tell you too, if the CPP of today wins the next Ghanaian election, that will be a miracle from above. Osagyefo, send down a miracle if you would.

...Sounds on da ground and seens on the see-ins

You know I love Bernard Avle's CITI FM breakfast show. Guess what? It just won an award as the best talk show in the whole of Africa. So you've got to listen as often as I do, ;-) Anyway, Daasebre Dwamena was recently freed from prison and declared innocent in his London cocaine trial. A lot of people have welcomed this news and Daasebre arrived in Ghana to a hero's welcome. His latest hit, Wafom (you have wronged), has been played on CITI FM regularly and recently, Bernard passed a comment saying that the Electricity corporation of Ghana has wronged the Ghanaian populace for reneging on their promises to provide electricity to certain parts of the population as part of their load shedding exercise. They are not only ones failing to do deliver on their promises, politicians are equally at fault. Is there anything we can do as a populace to ensure better accountability? Are we too naive to get hooked onto promises?

Perhaps, what makes the forthcoming American presidential elections eventful is the ‘audacity of hope’ firing through the United States from the camps of Barack Obama, the black Illinois senator, who is tipped to turn the political stakes. But the presidential race is also remarkable for one thing: it is the first time since the 1820’s that neither a sitting president nor his vice, is seeking to occupy the Oval office at the White House. Whoever is lucky enough to win the race is for America to decide.

Whenever men of science and men of faith meet, they often contradict each other. Sometimes they manage to arrive at the same conclusion, but that seldom happens. This is one of the sub themes explored in The King and I, an Oscar winning musical by Rogers and Hammerstein. Men in politics; the breed we have most appropriately called politicians, do not take delight in contradicting each other; rather they persistently contradict themselves, and often with careless abandon. That is why a politician will promise bread only when he knows the flour is not coming from his wife’s kitchen.