Friends, please get ready for today’s English lesson. Tenses show when an action took place. There are five types of tenses. 1. Simple tenses, under which we have present, past and future. Example: climb, climbed, will climb.
2. Perfect tenses, under which we have present perfect, past perfect and future perfect. Example: have climbed, had climbed, will have climbed. 3. Progressive tenses, also under which we have present progressive, past progressive and future progressive. Example: am climbing, was climbing, will be climbing.
4. Perfect progressive tenses, under which we have present perfect progressive, past perfect progressive, future perfect progressive. Example: have been climbing, had been climbing, will have been climbing.
5. Emphatic form, under which we have present emphatic and past emphatic. Example: do/does climb and did climb. There is no future emphatic because one can’t emphasize something that hasn’t been done yet.
In congruence with the above lesson, the following ensued between a teacher and his pupils:
Teacher: One day Bawumia will become the president of Ghana. Which tense is that? A boy raised up his hand and shouted, “Teacher, teacher.”
Teacher: Yes, Samuel, tell us the answer.
Samuel: Future impossible tense, sir.
Kikikikikiki, Samuel is bad paa. But I may want to agree with him because of the history of the Elephant in choosing its rider.
The Late Alhaji Aliu Mahama was the Vice President of Ghana under the NPP from January 2001 to January 2008, but didn’t succeed in becoming the flag-bearer of the NPP.
He was one of the contestants for the NPP presidential primary election which was held at the University of Ghana campus on December 22, 2007. He garnered a paltry 146 votes, representing 6.384 of valid votes cast, while the eventual winner, Nana Akufo-Addo had 1096 or 47.965.
H.E. Alhaji Aliu Mahama told Joy News’ Evans Mensah that he had expected to perform better than what delegates gave him, and that the results really did not reflect the run of play.
“As you know I had 146 votes as has been announced here but I didn’t expect that actually because I had done a lot of work and I thought that truly, that certainly did not reflect the run of play,” he said.
If the alleged statement by a leading member of the NPP: “Yen Akanfuo di3, ye do yenho” meaning, “We the Akans, we love each other,” is anything to go by, then Richard’s “future impossible tense” answer seems to make some sense.
I want to be honest here. Alhaji Bawumia’s association with Christianity dates way back, perhaps decades, and he is not doing it now because he wants to be president, I think. I remember somewhere in 2007 he visited a church where I was worshipping, in the company of his friend who is now a Supreme Court judge. Dr Bawumia looked more affable, innocent, sweeter and happier without the weight he now carries. How I wish he had remained like that.
When I was growing up, there was this saying in Akan that, “It is only at the end of a movie that you will see Charlie.” The movie of who leads the NPP to the 2024 presidential election is getting fascinating by the day, but the picture does not look good for my friend, Dr. Bawumia even though he has worked very hard for the NPP as the Late Aliu Mahama did.
The latest national tracking poll conducted by the Global InfoAnalytics Limited has tipped Alan Kyeremanten, as the man to lead the NPP in the 2024 elections.
The polls, which were conducted in all 16 regions in the country, saw Alan Kyeremanten lead Dr. Bawumia by 36% to 33%.
Allan won all the regions except the Northern, North East, Upper West and Upper East regions.
In the first poll conducted by the same institution in January this year, Dr. Bawumia won by 40% as against Allan’s 28%. Sharp decline, isn’t it?
Ah, well, the movie is still ongoing and we will definitely see Charlie in the end. But as to whether Richard will succeed in changing English grammar with his “future impossible tense” as the sixth type of tense, time will tell.
Anthony Obeng Afrane