The big tree is falling …

By Valerie Sawyerr

As I gaze at my stubborn plant on my patio that has flowered for the first time in a year, and savour its unique beauty, a song keeps coming to mind … a song about a ‘big tree and a small axe’ – Bob Marley & The Wailers 1973:

‘If you are the biiiiiig treeeeee

We are the smaaaaall aaaaaxe, Sharpened to cut you down (well sharp) Ready to cut you down, oh, yeah’.

Those who were in the political struggle in Ghana in 2008 cannot forget this song. First-round elections moved into second-round elections, then moved into the decisive Tain Constituency election with our Flagbearer, Professor Atta Mills and his able Running Mate, John Mahama. You could cut the political tension in the air with a knife. Excitement was rife as we moved from one stage to another, sensing and smelling victory.

Radio Gold was at its best with its night broadcasts, a program called ‘Election Forensics’ where things happening in the dark were brought to light. We huddled next to our radio sets all through the night because, come hell or high water, Radio Gold would release new, important, real-time revelations, throwing light on dark, evil machinations for political power and making it difficult for the perpetrators to conclude the execution of these deeds.

Efforts to clamp down on the station to enable control of the media airwaves with pro-NPP stations and rhetoric were resisted stoically. Threats to burn down Radio Gold led to a spontaneous gathering of people who formed a human chain around the station, challenging the Government to set them ablaze before burning down the station. Suspected assassins stalked the station’s presenters and employees to hurt them or snuff out their lives. Dramatic? Sure! But these are facts, not fiction!

When the pot was boiling and scalding hot, we would hear the truth from the station as opposed to the propaganda and staged broadcasts elsewhere. No wonder the NPP Government found a way to shut it down when they took over the reins of government. Getting towards the end, when we tuned in, the voice of the maestro Bob Marley would permeate the airwaves. It seemed like a particular song had been set on replay … it just kept playing repeatedly …

‘If you are the biiiiiiiig treeeeeee

We are the smaaaall aaaaaaaxe …,

Sharpened to cut you dooooown Ready to cut you doooooown …’

Amidst the song playing, we would hear a voice declaring, ‘the big tree is falling’, ‘the big tree is falling’. This is the poignant and expectant atmosphere that ushered in the NDC victory and the swearing-in of President Mills and Vice President Mahama in January 2009.

Even as I sing this song, I feel invigorated – the small axe will cut down the big tree. As I think of the unimaginable things that the Akuffo Addo-Bawumia government have done in the last eight years – the dead bodies, the thuggery unleashed on the unsuspecting citizens, crashed banks, degrading unemployment, the galamsey menace, the emasculated cocoa industry, monies hidden under beds – I see the rubble of destruction everywhere – my arms swing higher. My voice gets louder as I sing the first verse of the song …

‘Why boasteth thyself, oh, evil men, playing smart and not being clever, oh no I say, you’re working iniquity, to achieve vanity, yeah (if a-so a-so)

But the goodness of Jah Jah endureth forever’

As my gaze turns once again to the beautiful flower my stubborn plant had finally released, I ask myself – if the high-ranking members of the NPP succeed in killing the people of Ghana, who will they preside over? Cats, mice, dogs, cockroaches or akranti3? At the rate the country is going, even these non-humans will soon become extinct for lack of sustenance.

Alhaji Bawumia, you have ruled for eight years. You have had the opportunity to do a number of great things for the nation, but you have chosen to be sloppy, incompetent and lacklustre. Why, then, should the people of Ghana suffer because you have decided that you must win the 2024 election at all costs? Why the demonic, destructive and debilitating plans you are hatching to manipulate the 2024 elections?

• I have heard that NPP thugs have been recruited and are being trained to unleash mayhem against the NDC in the coming elections. They say some were sent to Kigali and some to Achiase. I said I have heard ooo – let no demon-controlled persons start stalking me to pluck out my fingernails.

• I have heard that some of these trained hooligans will be slaughtered and strewn at strategic areas and pretence made that the NDC did this to help create a state of emergency. I said I heard ooo – don’t send any miscreants with guns to raid my home and extract my kidneys.

• I have heard that some policemen from a certain unit will be dressed up in mufti as NPP agents and posted in certain constituencies in the Greater Accra Region. Where necessary, they will raise issues and invite police squads in police uniforms and police- branded vehicles to the polling station where the ballot boxes will be put in the police vehicle, claiming to secure them for the sanctity of the elections. These boxes will then be switched in the police vehicle with ballot boxes containing ballot papers stamped for the NPP. I said I heard oooo – let no unlicensed car cross me in the middle of the night somewhere and try to pull out my intestines.
• I have heard that soldiers are being deployed to the Volta Region to conduct random searches in homes for small weapons and that this is to create a diversion for the evil plans being hatched for the Ashanti Region. I said I heard ooo – let no hood-wearing thugs kidnap me and try to scoop out my gall bladder.

Those who have ears to hear, let them hear! We do not want soldiers at the polling stations! No soldiers at polling stations! No soldiers at polling stations! No soldiers at polling stations! In as much as we are proud of our soldiers, we do not want the few rotten ones to infuse the atmosphere with toxic behaviour. We also do not want non-soldiers wearing military attire to be thrown into our midst to slaughter our people.

As for this election, it belongs to John Mahama, the nation builder who does what he says he will do; the visionary who really loves the people and wants to see them prosper.

Those who intend by evil tactics to change this – those who are sitting in closed door meetings making diabolic plans to switch ballot boxes in police cars, to fire guns in NDC strongholds or wherever the counting does not seem to be favouring the NPP candidate, to burn farms in NDC strongholds to distract the attention of the NDC voters on that day – we call down the fire of God upon them. May you and your generation never know peace if you subvert or attempt to subvert the will of the people.

The blood of those who have unjustifiably been slaughtered for political gain in the last eight years is crying to the heavens. Likewise, the majority of the masses who are dying of illnesses because they are not receiving necessary medical treatment, those who are dying of hunger because they simply cannot make ends meet, those who are dying from the effects of galamsey, those who are dying from stress, frustration, suppression and oppression, those who are committing suicide because they do not know where next to turn to. Their souls are crying for help.

The answer is simple – John Mahama – the man of truth!

The man who extends developmental projects to all corners of the country regardless of religious, ethnic or political affiliation. He will roll out his 24-hour economy programme to enable businesses and public institutions to operate 24/7 by working three shifts of eight hours each, to create jobs for the unemployed and increase their spending power; establish the Women’s Development Bank to support women in business; implement the $10 billion Big Push programme for strategic infrastructural development; abolish the e-levy and other burdensome taxes that the Bawumia Government has imposed on the citizenry; upgrade the free Senior High School (SHS) programme by extinguishing the double track school system, decentralising the supply of foodstuff to schools and expanding infrastructure … and many more.

So, members of the NDC, polling agents, monitors, supervisors – we must be vigilant! We must man the polls with distinct alertness and quickened minds. We must not allow any man, woman or hermaphrodite to apply any means whatsoever to manipulate the system.

• Watch every stage of the process with eagle eyes. If you know an agent who has been bought by the NPP, report this to the Elections Directorate. The matter will be investigated, and if confirmed, the person will be removed.
• Do not allow anyone, even the police, to take away your ballot boxes. If it happens, insist on sitting in the police vehicle. If they will not allow you to, let them open up their vehicles for serious scrutiny. Check every part of it for ballot boxes or ballot papers. Follow them to the station and be alert for any ambushing along the way.
• Anyone who knows a trained policeman posted as an NPP agent on election day should report immediately to the Elections Directorate.
• Voltarians, be alert – when military men enter your home to search for so-called small arms, be polite to them. Do not let them find any excuse to create an uproar, which will be used to announce a state of emergency. However, under no circumstances must you leave them alone in your rooms lest they plant weapons or anything else on you.

Let us refuse to sink into dungeons where we devour one another. Let us reject a future of civil war, chopping of arms and legs, eradication of infrastructure and further destruction of an already destroyed economy. Let us reject a state of emergency where people wake up terrified and go to sleep petrified. Whoever sets up this nation for disaster, will have the blood of the victims on their heads and upon the heads of their children.

I hope you can hear me, Mrs Jean Mensah –

• you are our first Electoral Commissioner to churn out three different results for one election;
• you ignored precedent and decided to conduct registration only at district offices;
• your daily tally of voter registration figures exposed the incompetence of your team;
• you refused an audit of the voter register;
• you disqualified the NDC parliamentary candidate for Amenfi Central with no proper justification such that court process to lift an injunction (that had been placed on an election that had already been nullified by the National Executive of the NDC) was concluded on November 11, 2024, leaving barely one month to election day. It took the diligence and perseverance of our NDC National Legal Director, Edudzie Tameklo, and others to have the injunction set aside;

Did you take up the post to move the country forward or backwards? If you avail yourself to be ‘useable’, your masters will not respect or honour you. Aaaba, Adukwei, I expected you to be smarter than this. Day in and day out, I look for your redemptive factors, but I still have not found any. I challenge you to take the breastplate of righteousness and gird your loins with truth. Conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. Refuse to be cowered into submission by an evil slave master. Think of the nation’s children and the future of this country. There is an enormous weight on your shoulders, and you must execute to perfection so that when you are no longer at the post, you would have left behind a slither of a legacy.

That voting right that people fought for, and died for in various parts of the world, is sacred. It is a sacred property that equalises the society – that does not discriminate between poor and rich, tall and short, beautiful and ugly, educated and non-educated … it is that sacred property of every registered Ghanaian voter which you, a 21^st century woman, should seek to protect. May God be your guide!

I hope you can hear me, Madam Chief Justice Gertrude Torkonoo. With all due respect, who told you that you can take over the reins of the judiciary and do as you please? There are rules and norms that reasonable-minded people expect to be followed. What is this wanton display of power? Have you not heard that wisdom on the head of blessed persons resides to a great extent in the art of subtlety and modulation? I am still in a state of disbelief! I did not expect this from you, Trudy. We are in a democratic state, even though President Akufo-Addo, day by day, seems to reduce this state to one of autocracy and anarchy.

My sister, this is just the beginning of your journey – one that is expected to have serious bumps, which you must navigate. Ask God for wisdom to navigate this difficult journey so you can do better. I will not go into the details now, but let me say that I rate you an ‘F’ so far. This is MY opinion!

I call on members, supporters, and sympathisers of the National Democratic Congress (the NDC) to let us rise up and finish hard! Let us send the elephant into the bush. The opponent is cornered and will fight to its last breath thrashing around in the mud with diabolic antics. But we are also fighters. We do not kill and steal, but we do not run away from a fight. We will stand our ground till the end!

We did it in 2008 when we faced tear gas, water cannons and bullets but did not budge until it was announced that the deciding factor would be another election in the Tain constituency. We will do it again in 2024. By the grace of God and our focused vigilance, we will usher in a ‘superior presidential candidate, a candidate with a superior vision and message, backed by a superior proven track record’, if I may borrow the words of our brave, gallant and eloquent Sammy Gyamfi. God be our helper!

NDC National Director Elections & IT, and members of the Elections Directorate, you have worked very hard. You have gone beyond the call of duty. Your sense of integrity, your focus and your rejection of mediocrity is amazing. Let us finish hard. As is said in the military – let us cut the head of the snake! Ahoa!

The small axe must cut down the big tree! It is a battle for the soul of the nation – ‘And whosoever diggeth a pit, shall fall in it, shall fall in it

Whosoever diggeth a pit, shall ‘bury’ in it, shall ‘bury’ in it If you are the big tree, we are the small axe

Sharpened to cut you down (well sharp) Ready to cut you down, oh, yeah’

My plant is a type of Bromeliad. Some of them flower only once in their lifespan. So, when I saw the flower, I exclaimed and jumped for joy. I felt a victory. The wait had not been in vain. The labour had reaped rewards. So unique, so enduring, so peaceful, so beautiful, so painstaking, so pure, so powerful, and so quietly strong … John Mahama is coming!

If you are the big tree … we are the small axe!

They say I am for war, but the truth is … I am for peace … Shalom!

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