TWISTED BY THE PRESIDENT

 TWISTED BY THE PRESIDENT 

By Saeed Fadlulahi Froko

A Review by Abdul Hayi Moomen

Since the rise to power of autocratic leaders across Africa after many African States had gained independence, artists, filmmakers, novelists, poets, photographers and song-writers have been preoccupied with the compelling figure of the dictator, placing him at centre stage in their work. Their concern with the question of dictatorship requires little speculation, for African dictators and their regimes have defined the postcolonial period in Africa. Within a decade of independence, nearly all African States had evolved into dictatorships or single-party regimes, and the consequences of their autocratic regimes are still felt across the African continent today. Saeed Fadlulahi Froko adds his voice to these narratives through the lensesof his latest novel “Twisted By The President”.

“Twisted by the President” is set in post-colonial Ghana and presents a fictitious, yet, realistic African dictatorship that owes much to the never-ending persecutions and acts of corruption on the part of those African leaders who come to power, especially through the bullet, and on account of fighting corruption but usually end up being more corrupt, power drunk and dictatorial and generally more evil than the evil they purport to uproot.

Though fictitious, “Twisted by the President” brings back painful reminders of thetraits of despots, from Marcos and Mobutu to Pinochet, Suharto and Idi Amin. Froko presents an embodiment of the putrid body politic, in which the President Kunje outlives his usefulness and resorts to violence, intimidation, imprisonment and killings in order to hold on to undeserved power.

The novel breaks out of the plot and swings into essay mode when discoursing on the topic of politics. The effect isn't as jarring as it sounds, since politics seem to pervade every aspect of daily life, from the pressures of family members to take the only known route out of poverty, to speeches given by rising Ghanaian idealists who grow into fat politicians – corrupted by both society and their selfish desires.

Twisted by the President takes us through the days in many African countries when hope was abating, disillusionment with the joy of being independent was beginning

to take hold, and people were resigning themselves to the sad realities of poverty and inequality. Even though Froko sets the time to the period after the turn of the new century, with most of the plot created and centered around the year 2018, any first year student of the history of Ghana, can easily tell that the period in question can be anywhere between 1966 and 1992 – a period within which Ghana had seen atleast four Coup D’états.

From the over throw of Ghana’s first president in 1966 to the overthrow of Dr Busia, in 1972, from the National redemption Council years, to the years of theSupreme Military Council , from the AFRC and to the PNDC, the reasons for “taking over” were very similar. The general claim was always that the “previousadministration was abusive and corrupt”. Perhaps, Froko seeks to ask a broad question through his Novel, “Twisted by the President” – Has any military government throughout the continent of Africa ever proven to be better than the regime it toppled?

Froko sets out to take a stand, make a political statement, and it is evident in every part of the book - a lot of similes, a lot of hyperbole, painful descriptions, and lots of pontification. It has a way of rousing the anger of the reader and simultaneouslyrousing the reader’s sympathy as well. And it makes the book “painful” to read, butit also gets his point across very well.

What is most likely to keep anyone reading from page to page is how well Froko managed to capture the situation in Ghana fictitiously, but so realistically: corruption, greed, and theft among the leaders, and a sense of utter hopelessness among the struggling masses.

It hasn't changed. Over 70% of Ghanaians still live on less than $2 a day. Corruption has become ingrained into the very fabric of society. In Ghana trying to do the right thing is so hard that it's so much easier to do the wrong thing - just take the bribe; or just offer the bribe because going through the correct procedures won't get you anywhere. And when a person tries to do the right thing, people really do look at you as if you think you're better than everyone else. Doing the right thing gets you nowhere whereas doing as everyone is, will get you everywhere.

More importantly, is how the author captures the inordinate desire to hold on to power. It is clear that President Kunge wants to hold on to power because he is afraid

of what would befall him should his enemies ever become powerful too. The best way President Kunge can deal with such political enemies is to intimidate, imprison and in some cases, kill them in order to ensure his stay on the throne. Incontemporary Africa, the Cote D’Ivoire’s Gbabgo, and Outarra, Senegal’s Wade and Gambia’s Jammeh are just a few examples of Presidents who used the aforementioned ill-strategies to try to cling on to power.

Is “twisted by the President a Satire? I find the details too aggrieved and grim to becalled satire". Yet for all its hyperbole, the books struck me as truthful in its dissection of power, and remarkably free of bitterness. At more than 330 pages, its flaws, of obsessive reiteration, arise partly from its bold experimentation with oral forms, and from giving rein to the pathologies of the corrupt at the expense of the more intimate dilemmas of those who challenge them as is exhibited through the experiences of the young, ambitious Dr Danweribu. But the poisonousness of its targets never infects the author's vision, nor his faith in people's power to resist. Perhaps that in itself is a triumph.

The author finds clever ways of introducing us to his ethnic, cultural, childhood and perhaps religious backgrounds through many of the dialogues in the book. His experiences are mostly captured through the words of Danweribu. Through the eyes of Dr Danweribu an accomplished academician and perhaps, his father, Dr Dabla, we find a representation of the ideal nuclear family life in contemporary urban Ghana -the commitment of both husband and wife to stick to the ideals of marriage. When Dr Danweribu finds himself imprisoned by President Kunge, his biggest worry is not about dying. His biggest worry is what would become of his family if he dies in prison. His wife, seeking not to further burden him with bad news keeps all the tragic events away from him when she gets the opportunity to write him a letter.

Froko does not paint an entirely gloomy picture of the state of Ghana in its dark days. There are always selfless men and women who sacrifice their livelihoods and sometimes their very lives, to ensure that decency is restored and that the freedom and basic human rights of the people are restored. From highly placed academicians like Dr Kaasong, Dorcas and Dr Otiende who exposed the happenings in the country to the rest of the world, to lowly placed people like Mahamudu-Sissala, a Prison guard who sacrificed his life in his bid to save Dr Danweribu, we see how Frokobring the theme of “Sacrifice” alive. All it takes to bring change is not a hugemajority of selfish people, but a few dedicated, selfless people.

For persons from the Upper West Region of Ghana in particular, it feels nice to read a book with people just like us in it; with peculiar turns of phrases I know about; with names I recognize as part of my culture: Dabla, Danweribu, Kaasong, Marya.I very rarely come across fiction that reflects back something familiar to me. I forget the power of recognizing oneself/one's cultural identity in literature.

Behind these stories of violence and excess, lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that have encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.

After unleashing untold suffering on the masses and on individuals and theirfamilies, one’s expectation is that Froko would end the book on a note of poeticjustice. But no! Kunge dies of a mere heart attack – one that killed him almostsimultaneously. There’s a sense of disappointment in how such a wicked person could die of such mild circumstances. Indeed, there was a sense of disappointment among Africans in the way Iddi Amin, Saani Abacha, Mobutu Sese Seko, and others in their ilk died. The question, how would Africans have loved to see them die? Howdifferent are those who would have loved to see their “enemies” suffer before theydie, from these dictators whose primary objective was to see their enemies suffer?

Coups mean nothing when each regime is as heartless as the last, an unbroken string of greedy eyes thinking through their stomachs. Is there any remedy for the disease that afflicts the nation, any hope for the next generation of Ghanaians and Africans in general?

Perhaps, but the road will be a long and torturous one, for all too often history hasshown that the facts have been “Twisted by the President”.