I still remember as if it were yesterday the taunting chants of children in 2008. Nana Cocaine! Nana Cocaine!! Nana Cocaine!!!! on the streets of James Town.
They sang it in a clattering rhythm, like that of a pestle banging the base of a mortar but with so much glee, without effort and malice and obviously innocently.
And if you are wondering how children got involved in the dirty politics of the time, well a rally had just ended at the Mantseagbonaa park in James Town. Leading members of the then opposition National Democratic Congress had taken turns to address the partisan crowd.
And just like a typical drunkard will take in a little liquor to get him ready for the main menu, majority of those leaders before their addresses threw in that reprehensible phrase Nana Cocaine! to get the crowd excited. As they did children were part of that crowd and they were excited too.
Nana cocaine!! Nana cocaine!!! Nana Cocaine!!!! became the refrain, a chorus sang not only by the political opposition leaders at the time against the incumbent party's presidential candidate- Nana Akufo-Addo- but regrettably by children who had been led by people who should know better but who had the alluring trappings of political power dangling so low like ripe mango before their very eyes and who would do anything to pluck it even if means exploiting the innocence of children.
Seven years down the line, I covered yet another political activity. This time not a rally but a demonstration. Political fortunes have changed. The NDC is now in power and the NPP is in opposition. The NPP is feeling the heat in the eternal darkness of John Mahama's government and decided to take their frustration onto the streets.
In the process of the march, I heard children, school pupils in another taunting chants all over again- Mahama is a thief! Mahama is a dumsor!!! I felt sad again.
These pupils, even though were not part of the mainstream demonstration, had again been led by the New Patriotic Party demonstrators who were chanting such reprehensible tunes and fed the school pupils with same.
I had to recount these two political episodes, different yet similar in many respects to underline my vehement opposition to any severe sanctions against head teachers of four schools whose pupils were said to have participated in last week's 'won gbo' demonstration and hurled insults against the president.
Deputy Education Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced the impending sanctions on Accra-based Radio Gold, quoting copiously the GES guidelines and chiding the headmasters and mistresses of the four schools accusing them of dereliction of duty.
I did not see what pupils in the other three schools did but for the avoidance of doubt pupils of the Rev Ernest Bruce school, in the real sense of the word, did not participate in the demonstration as the Deputy Minister would have the world believe.
It was after 10am and the kids were on break at the time the demonstrators filed past the school. They were confined to their premises eating and playing at the time. It was some of the demonstrators who went close to them, sang the chants which Mr Ablakwa said were too indecent to be repeated, and encouraged the pupils to sing along. They were still in their premises which had been locked by the way.
Maybe the pupils should have been denied their break period that day. They should have been kept indoors the entire day whilst the demonstrators did their own thing.
But if those kids had to eat and needed a break period to do so and any other thing done during break time, the headmaster or mistress cannot and should not be used as scapegoat for a crime our political elites are the most guilty of.
I am sick and tired of politicians breaking the law with impunity when it suits them and when it doesn't, they come out, with their holier than thou attitude, preaching virtue and daring to punish the powerless citizens for the same crime they helped in committing.
From the year 2000 till date school pupils have been used in political campaigns on radio, TV ads. Where were the GES guidelines when our honorable politicians were wearing the badge of dishonour, manipulating and exploiting the innocence of school kids?
In the heat of the 2012 elections, school kids were made to carry their boxes either to campaign for the free SHS or to condemn it and all these were done by these same politicians. Where were the GES guidelines?
We live in a country where limited contact hours of public school children are limited all the more when politicians drive school kids onto the streets, on a hot scorching sun, to welcome visiting presidents or ministers of state into a region.
We live in a country where we paint, adorn and etch pictures of political figures on cups, laptops, books meant for school kids only for the Deputy Education Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to turn around to quote religiously GES guidelines and seek to educate Ghanaians about how school children in primary JHS and SHS are not supposed to be used for political activities.
When a village school kid somewhere in the Ashanti Region said Nana Akufo-Addo was the president of Ghana instead of then President John Mills, the Local Government Ministry ordered the production of mugs and other paraphernalia with the president's picture to be distributed to all schools. And this was done. That was not partisan politics.
Ablakwa announced that the heads of the four schools involved in the fallouts of the NPP 'won gbo' demo have been cautioned as a first disciplinary measure and as investigations continue.
I hope it ends with the caution! Showing brutal power for a crime you are equally guilty of is the height of reckless hypocrisy.
SOURCE: myjoy
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