In those days, whenever a bad boy was spotted at the village square, using a bad word, bullying, or making a nuisance of himself, the question often raised was who is your father, or in whose house were you breed
The question often implied that your parents had ignored their parental duties, or probably had passed on their waywardness.
It was often such a boy that made an entire livelihood out of pickpocketing at Kejetia, from where he would pick his way up through smoking the dreaded stuff, then get a diploma in unemployment, a certificate in hooliganism, honorary mention in drunkenness, before he finally graduates as a thug: KOBO.
It is often not easy to tell a kobolo from his forehead, but hawkers at the lorry park often see them operating, yet decide not to blow a whistle, in the interest of peace, and political stability. In parts of Mamobi and New Town in Accra, owners of small enterprises like drinking spots and retail kiosks would advise new entrepreneurs to report and introduce themselves first to the kobolo-in-chief, before their stores begin operating.
That way, you purchased your home insurance. But that also was a license for the chief to visit anytime and openly help himself to anything in your store.
Of late, the koboloi must be a happy lot, and lucky are you if you should be called upon on a dry 'broken' day or weekend for a small operation, or sometimes for a small 'national' assignment. Start an opposition rally, and they are there to start a fight.
Organize an anti-Government procession or Kume Preko, and they are worried about your rights to free expression... Appear in court on a politically related issue, and they come in their numbers, booing, maiming, heckling, and intimidating judges and political opponents on the court premises.
All this for five thousand cedis, a tee shirt, and a ball of kenkey Kuboloi would happily claim responsibility for the heckling of Kofi Coomson & Co. in court and the harassment of female journalists covering the case last week.
The boys were in full attendance heavily soaked in booze and drugs, chanting, booing at court verdicts, and molesting sellers and passers-by. It took warning shots by the police to disperse them. Ask me not, dear reader, who sponsors such political kuboloi, and what perfume they wear while on duty.
With the benefit of hindsight, it may be said they were officially inaugurated in the ill-fated AcheampoTheir duty, as of now, was 'unbecoming when they going simply frustrates the 'people fighting tyranny. One of the first victims was the secretary of the Ghana Bar Association, who was waylaid and simply beaten up in the late seventies.
Months later, they attempted to set ablaze the house of Professor Kontopiaat, then a leading member of a movement for freedom and justice, and currently a presidential aspirant in the Elephant Party. That was nearly twenty years ago. Thereafter, they burnt to ashes a car belonging to the President of the Ghana Medical Association.
But their most memorable day came in 1978 at a symposium organized at the Accra Community Centre, by the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies to discuss Lord Acheampong's Union Government concept.
I sat on the second row that day behind four or so Makola women, keenly observing proceed-attendance maintain order bederprevailed until it was the second speaker's turn to speak.
Professor Kontopiaat stood up, cleared his throat, and was halfway through his second sentence when hell broke loose.
The parked hall had been half-filled by Kuboloi, and it needed only a signal from the Kuboloi-in-chief, to set the ball rolling. And stones indeed rolled. Hell broke loose. Missiles were pelted, chairs and tables were up-turned; there was general pandemonium.
The speakers and audience were whipped, kicked, slapped, and chased away. Come and see professors and lawyers in the race of their lives.
All this while, a dozen or so armed policemen on duty stood idle and watched, enjoying the wise ways of the kuboloi. It was later we heard a good number of the kuboloi were ex-convicts.
Since then, political kuboloi have come to stay, and will for a fee do your bidding. In 1992, they struck several times, and invaded the premises of the high court, when 29
'eminent' citizens were challenging an electoral law forbidding the use of certain party symbols and names.
Now here they come again, pelting stones at Kofi Coomson and Co molesting innocent women at the Cocoa Curt premises, while the 31st December Women, the National Council for Women and Development, and the Association of Women in the Media look on.
The National Council for Civic Education has a long way to go. Listening to their members at the recent New Year School, they must be working hard indeed. But they need not concentrate in the rural areas.
They need to do a major workshop and seminar for the kuboloi, on democracy. The message should be simple: democracy borders on tolerance; disrupting an opponent's rally or procession is a sure sign of desperation.
At such an NCCE seminar let the kuboloi come along with their ministerial and party sponsors. They all need civic education.
Source: The Mirror
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