I would like to begin my article with some English lessons.
It has to do with comparatives and superlatives. I believe you remember something like “hard, harder, hardest” and “slow, slower, slowest.” A friend of mine told me an incident which he said happened during his primary school days. According to him, his teacher taught them comparatives and superlatives, and gave them the following examples: long, longer, longest; short, shorter, shortest; fast, faster, fastest.
The next day, his teacher, Madam Abrefa came to school with some visitors to prove to them that she had wonderful pupils.
Madam Abrefa: Now, children recite what you learned yesterday. . . let’s go this way. . .
Madam Abrefa: Long
Pupils: Long, longer, longest
Madam Abrefa: Big
Pupils: Big, bigger, biggest
Madam Abrefa: Fast
Pupils: Fast, faster, fastest
Madam Abrefa was happy with her pupils performance, and said, “Good.”
Pupils: Good, gooder, goodest
Madam Abrefa: Stop
Pupils: Stop, stopper, stoppest
Madam Abrefa: (already embarrassed) Enough!
Pupils: Enough, enougher, enoughest
Madam Abrefa: Ewuradi eeeei!
Pupils: Ewuradi, ewuradier, ewuradiest
As interesting as this joke may be, some developments in our country currently are not the best.
I have watched some videos and audios going viral on social media in which some citizens of
the Volta Region including paramount chiefs have been traumatised by the deployment of the military and other security forces in the region. Which they think is a declaration of war on their land.
This was what the revered Togbe Kporku the Awormefia of Anlo State said in an audio.
“We won’t wield cudgels or cutlasses, but if they dare, they shall not live to take their oath of office.”
I said to myself, “Chai, my in-laws be that.” Since then, I have been wondering what form of weapons they are going to use. Is it going to be the biblical weapons that are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds including governments or Nogopko Weapons of Mass Destructions (NWOMD)?
Positioning security forces in the region ahead of the upcoming voters’ registration exercise amount to intimidation. We are a one people, one nation with a common destiny. What we need as a country is unity and not discrimination. And I think such act is not, not, not: and to borrow words from Madam Abrefa’s pupils, it is bad, badder, baddest.
Anthony Obeng Afrane
