Talking Back

As any of the opposition M.P.s presently in jail can testify, it is not healthy to lambaste Ghana's government or its leader, Osagyefo (the Redeemer) Kwame Nkrumah. Hence the public astonishment last week when two of Osagyefo's own Cabinet ministers took the floor in Parliament itself to rake the great man over the coals.

Four weeks ago, Nkrumah, under pressure from scandalized Marxist trade unionists around him, took to the radio at dawn one morning (the customary hour for Ghana's elders to give advice) to announce a new decree to his people: deputies in the legislature who engaged in outside businesses were violating the aims of socialism, and would be forced to give up their seats. "Some party members in Parliament," warned Nkrumah, "are tending to become a separate social group ... of self-seekers and careerists."

No House? No Car? Nkrumah's Cabinet was stunned and indignant, for almost everyone in high position has taken advantage of "freedom" to arrange some lucrative deals on the side. And why not? asked Minister of Transport and Communications Krobo ("Crowbar") Edusei, who has acquired four mansions in Accra since he became a government minister. Before independence he used to earn $22 a month as a debt collector for a newspaper; now he earns nearly $1,400. "When I receive my salary am I expected to throw it into the sea?" he demanded. "I must not build a house, or buy a car, or enjoy the fruits of my labor? If that is so, the Osagyefo must explain again what he means by socialism!" As the legislators gaped, Edusei's voice rose: "These people who are talking about socialism must go to the ideological school and study it!" he cried. "We are not small boys for anyone to shout unnecessary slogans at us!"

Minister of Social Welfare Patrick Quaidoo was so aroused that he even dared to attack the elaborate myths which Osagyefo's propagandists have woven around the boss. "People are stupidly engaging in flattery," he sneered. "They say the leader is immortal and will never die. This is rank stupidity or sycophantic adulation. You can never have a President who is infallible . . . The methods being used are exactly the methods which the Nazis and Fascists used!"

Nkrumah himself was silent as his critics raged, but his controlled press was quick to hit back at those "who take the liberty of their membership in our august National Assembly to hit below the belt." Crowbar had better stop overspending in his ministry or "get out," rumbled the Evening News darkly. As for Quaidoo, added the Ghanaian Times, "he is a Tshombe-faced nincompoop who stands out as one of the biggest buffoons who ever walked the floor of free Ghana's Parliament." Clearly, both had fallen from grace with Osagyefo. The next question was where else they might fall.

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