Zu-za’s Wry Smile!

It is said that failure is an orphan because no one wants to be associated with it, but success has many parents because everybody wants to be associated with glory. It is also said that even those who are remotely connected to one’s achievement would want to partake in one’s success so as to feel glorified. With the little I’ve seen in this world, I cannot doubt the validity of the sayings.

Taking a cue from the Vice President, who told the tale of the three proverbial birds, I will also tell you a story about a bird called Dantata.

Dantata was a female dancer who participated in a national competition and lost. The whole town neglected her because they thought of her as a failure. But that did not discourage her. It rather emboldened her to train harder than before.

She entered the competition the following year and instantly became the laughing stock of the town. The question on the lips of her town folk was, “What is this failure doing here again?”

But they all ended up opening their mouths because she was the first to cross the tape. Those calling her names made an immediate turnaround and joined in the celebration, proclaiming to the world that the victor was their kith and kin.

When later asked how she felt about the praise-singing from the very people who not too long ago branded her a failure, Dantata just laughed and said, “Failure is an orphan, while success has many parents.”

At a ceremony at the US State Department in Washington on Wednesday, June 22, 2011, former President John Kufuor was named joint recipient of the 2011 World Food Prize Foundation (WFPF) award with the former President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The citation, among other things, said that under the able leadership of Mr. Kufuor, Asomdwekrom made history by becoming the first Sub-Saharan African country to reduce by half the proportion of its people who suffered from hunger and on course to meet the UN Millennium Development Goal One.

All Asomdwekromanians leapt for joy when the good news reached them because the Gentle Giant had brought honour to their beloved country.

Surprisingly, however, the jubilation in the Akatamanso camp was louder and more intense than in any other. They even looked more jubilant than the recipient of the award himself.

I viewed their gesture with suspicion because the tsetsefly’s head can never be ridded of blood. I did not hide the fact that I doubted the sincerity of their gesture as I told whoever cared to listen that theirs was a wry smile. A friend, who was obviously fooled by the sweet words in their congratulatory message, told me I was seeing ghosts where there was none.

But I did not have to wait too long to be vindicated. Okudjeto Ablakwa, who issued the statement which heaped all manner of encomiums on Mr. Kufuor, came out a few days later to describe the recipient of the coveted WFPF award as a hypocrite. The futility of his hypocrisy was however not lost on his compatriots as more congratulatory messages filled the former President’s mail-box.

Am I surprised? Not at all! I’m only surprised that some of my compatriots have allowed themselves to be fooled by the infantile propaganda. Okudjeto-Ablakwa and his ilk almost always say the exact opposite of what they really mean. They would tell you ‘we will reduce fuel prices drastically’, when they really mean ‘we will increase fuel prices exponentially’.

Have you forgotten so soon how they did everything in their power to make sure that the Mo Ibrahim Governance award eluded Mr. Kufuor? Their joy knew no bounds when their machinations yielded fruit and the award was mysteriously cancelled at the eleventh hour. No wonder they popped champagne, ate ‘chinchinga’ and gushed it down with a creamy tea.

For me, the cancellation of the Mo Ibrahim award was a very good thing. If nothing at all, it afforded me and my compatriots the opportunity to realize that some of our so-called senior diplomats are nothing but sheep in wolf clothing. “I’m relieved that former President John Agyekum Kufuor did not win the award,” was how Ambassador Victor Gbeho couched his feelings. Tell me that was the voice of a diplomat, and I would tell you the Pope is a Muslim.

As I prepared to write this piece, I couldn’t help wondering how Ambassador Gbeho and his kind felt when news of the WFPF award to Mr. Kufuo first reached them. If indeed they were relieved when the Mo Ibrahim award eluded JAK, then sadness was their lot when they heard of the honour done him in far away America. I’m therefore very certain that any smile coming from them in relation to the WFPF award cannot be genuine. At best, it can be described as a wry smile.

Former President Kufuor is human, so he cannot claim to be infallible. But truth be said, he was a very good leader. It is in that light that I prophesy that more awards are in the offing, the name-calling notwithstanding.

Some may want us to believe that it is the tail that wags the dog, but we know better. We know the reverse is the case. They can deceive themselves with all they want; but they cannot deceive us. For we know very well that theirs is a very big wry smile!