Reactions to the breaking news were varied: utter dismay and grief among party folks. Then nail bites, tear drops; ‘Eeei,’ ‘Aww,’ then ‘Hmm, this is political persecution. We shall appeal.’
But there were also muted celebrations, giggles, whispers of ‘Amen,’ ‘Thanks God, ’ plus a clink of champagne glasses. I refer to those with stony tear buds, only struggling to shed tears for Wontumi, and off camera whispering, ‘good riddance.’ Wontumi then deserved his plight: ‘he is too boastful,’ ‘too loud,’ ‘consider the open display of gold bars; ‘I am richer than JDM,’ then ‘nobody can arrest me.’ This quietly gave the impression, the man’s trial was more for his boast than Galamsey!
Finally then, Wontumi had met his ‘meeter.’ The jail sentence was a composite anti-biotic prescribed to stop his chronic verbal diarrhea. It was indeed payback time. In his own favorite exclamation: ‘Woboooowa!’
Monday, July 26 noon time. Ghana’s airwaves were clogged by the breaking news: a 20-year jail term for Wontumi. His forgotten name? Bernard Antwi Boasiako. His guilt was involvement in illicit mining: Galamsey. Over a period of 12 months his trial lasted, court days were crowded and anxieties were high. Would this flamboyant business tycoon ever submit to jail? But earlier signs of a coming doomsday were clear. Check the body language of his lawyers ahead of judgment day. Principal Lawyer dramatically dropped out of the case. Lawyer Two, the substitute, sought alibi ahead of judgement; he would be ‘out of jurisdiction’ was the legal lingo. On arrival at court that day, Wontumi’s warm reflexes had dimmed, his signature smile and typical finger swings, giving way to stress marks on a cheerless countenance.
Mid morning, news flashed across screens countrywide: 20 year imprisonment imposed on the famous regional chairman of NPP; a bombshell dropped to crack his very nickname Wontumi: ‘Unbreakable.’ 8.30am, he had arrived at court in a plush Lexus saloon car. 2 pm, a dramatic reversal of narrative. He left the court in handcuffs, on board an enclosed police wagon, Black Maria. By 4.30pm, the new home of ‘Wontumi’ was no longer the luxury mansion at Kwadaso; but the dreaded security facility reserved for authors of complex crime: Nsawam Prisons. Original capacity 717, but currently hosting over 3000 inmates in communal dormitories. Nsawam, Wontumi’s new address.
Among those who exploded in joy was a moral majority of concerned Ghanaians, and Galamsey nay-sayers who were quietly awaiting a day of reckoning for terrorists, nation wreckers, and masqueraders bent on poisoning the Black Star to death. Those were faces behind the sudden upsurge of kidney disorders, poisoned rivers, malformed babies, devastated forest cover, convulsed marine life, and degraded farmlands.
If Wontumi has been a catalyst in the Galamsey pandemic destroying this great nation, damn it: ‘No Tears for Wontumi.’ In that case, Let our tears recoil.
But the tale is more complex. A guilty Wontumi is only a drop in the ocean. The wide world knows the roll call. Govt knows guilty MCEs MPs, high officials, chiefs, but will not give them away. ‘Touch not my appointed’. Indeed true love of country, sad to say, exited with Osagyefo Kwame and the Big Six. The country is now a chaotic Republic: check the sprawling heap of filth and flowing sewage once called rivers. A lawless colony of scavengers; debris, squalor across the country, with piggy nationals sniffing, snorting, swimming; the free feasting on carcasses; forest reserves plundered and shared; boys and girls diving for blood gold in muddy pits; while helpless leaders stand and stare: a kind of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Did our ancestors not say ‘The elder that looks on while children eat a python meal, is added to names of python eaters.’
Every now and then, one political Wontumi is arrested, showcased, and sentenced; a celebration, and then we go back to bed, leaving poor citizens to their fate, in a fight with armed miners.
Unfortunately the opposition is learning fast, quietly compiling their own register of Nsawam candidates for 2029 and prisoners to be freed. The law has a strange term they call ‘presidential pardon’, and another monster, ‘Nolle Prosequi.’ This gives men in authority the moral right to free criminals, or abandon unfinished cases. It simply means, ‘Free our beloved criminals; let them go with their stolen wealth; and bill the taxpayer.’
Let Wontumi reflect deeply on his current plight and seek the favor of God. But let’s also recall the past and say, Wontumi’s new home is meaningless unless it is linked with the total prosecution of other kingpins, including those the Umbrella shelters.
If not, join me to echo his famous expression:
Woboooowa!
