The Heavens held up for us last weekend and glory filled our hearts. We had a complete dry weekend after days of non-stop downpour and drizzles so we could welcome our most expected visitors in style.

If you are a Ghanaian and last Saturday you did not feel proud of your ancestry then definitely, you do not belong here.

I do not know about you but for me, the visit of America’s President Barack Obama and his family to our country, the first in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from colonial rulers, and the first to receive the US First Family is exhilarating.

The reception at the airport was great though it featured too many people who just wanted to shake hands and whisper a word of Akwaaba.

The man had had a very long week from Russia through Italy to Ghana and that must have been the reason why he preferred a quiet night with his family and nothing like a state banquet.

Always lively and engaging, the ever vivacious nature of President Obama came to life as he walked over to sample the sound of drums from the Ghana Dance Ensemble.

It was time to twist a fist, move the head to the left and to the right, and tap the legs a little bit too. Why not?

The morning at the Castle was even super. Colourful and up to the minute coverage by the ubiquitous GTV was inviting. You just could not leave your television set. I felt very much a part of the entire ceremony.

The visit to La General hospital was a clever idea for whoever put it together. I can see help coming their way.

The address at Parliament which in effect was President Obama’s tough and firm advice for the rest of Africa was not what some were ready to receive.

For those people, their ears were ready for a package of millions of dollars aid. No way. He said it exactly as it should be. Indeed, I must congratulate Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom for his prophetic vision here. He did not think there was going to be any dishing out of money.

On Joy FM earlier last week, he had said that Ghana did not need to go with cup in hand and that if we were to do all those basic and little things which we already know we should be doing, we should not be where we are.

He said as a country, we have everything to get us where we want to go it is just that we have closed the little windows of opportunities expecting someone from outside to come and open them for us. So President Obama concurred with Dr Nduom in effect.

The connection with the Cape Coast castle was moving, as usual, but that is the reality. The point of no return leaves plenty of questions than answers.

So, the Obamas came, they saw and no doubt they conquered the hearts of most Ghanaians. Now they have gone, the euphoria will stay with us for days to come. We seem to have for a minute forgotten about our floods and the badly affected roads. And oh, did I hear PC also slipped out of the country shortly after attracting bold headlines on Monday.

As we settled down with the sentiments of last weekend, my mind has been going back to early last week when we were preparing for the visit.

We woke up last week Monday with some news that whet some appetites and at the same time forced others to lose their appetites.

Some newspapers were definitely sold out. When I heard from the newspaper reviews that the Honourable PC had spilled some beans, I was eager to get every minute detail and so off I went to my nearest news vendor.

He had sold out the particular newspapers that had the story. A couple of others I checked were as well sold out. That was clearly the gossip of the week giving us something to talk about before the Obama mania pitched.

Coincidentally, my personal computer (PC) of barely two years old gave up on me. A few doses of prescriptions by a couple of IT personnel I contacted could not correct the situation.

I had to fall on my laptop to tackle some assignments that I had to do, including my Reality Zone script for the week.

The laptop also packed up on the second day of use. It had been attacked by 38 viruses. With my limited knowledge of IT, how was I going to cope with the numerous e-mails that the Reality Zone column was generating for me and for which reason I have been keeping a check on my mails on a daily basis?

How was I going to compose my article on Saturday night after the Obamas had gone? Technology is good but this same technology is putting undue pressures on our already pressurised lives.

How did we cope without mobile phones, the Internet and the like some fifteen years ago? Even though a good servant, technology can drive you crazy sometimes.

And what does the New Patriotic Party (NPP) do with their honourable member of parliament, PC? Maybe, the question rather should be what do you do with a ‘prodigal’ son or that son who is always creating problems at your backyard?

It is said that you spare the rod and spoil the child and so it is these days. The days of disciplining a troublesome child the way we saw it when we were growing up are gone forever.

Those slaps that awakened the slumber sense in you, and the canes that checked and quickened any slackened behaviour are all gone for good thanks to the CHRAJs, the DOVVSUs and a host of child rights activists.

The NPP last Monday came face to face with another of PC’s ‘anti-corruption’ crusade shockers which alleged that NPP members of Parliament who belonged to the Fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic, at the time of voting for the Ghana Telecom/Vodafone deal last year took $5,000 bribe from the former Chief of Staff to vote for the Vodafone deal.

According to him, his source of information was the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament.

Like two children confronted with a wrong doing, the deputy speaker who was then the deputy minority leader of parliament has come out to say that he did not make the allegation publicly because as a Lawyer, he knew he did not have a proof.

Meanwhile, another member of Parliament who was mentioned as the one who confirmed knowledge of the bribe has expressed surprise that PC has named him as knowing something about the money given to the former NPP members of Parliament.

The entire episode is turning into a charade. Serious as the allegation is as far as the credibility of the house with honourable men and women and the image of the NPP are concerned, the truth of the matter needs to be established.

PC is increasingly becoming a pricky thorn in the flesh of his own party on whose credibility he asked the people in his constituency to vote for him.

This being not the first time and probably would not be the last time since he is a crusader, the party must prepare itself for many more of such thorns to pick, coming from PC.

PC too may need to search himself and re-look the direction of the campaign that he believes he is championing.

Yes, we all abhor corruption and would want to wage a war right from the grassroots against any form of bribery or improper gifts, big or small irrespective of who the givers and the receivers are. In that case, PC’s war should be stretched to every corner of the society.
But wait a minute, should the denials of the very people who PC claims know something about the $5000 bribe not be a source of worry, looking at the way our honoured institutions are being muddied about?

I may be able to fix my PC and laptop to work again but I am not sure whether the reputations that may be destroyed as the result of unproven allegations can ever be fixed again. PR will tell you that a soiled reputation is hard to erase.


Credit: Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh (Daily Graphic)