President John Mahama’s infamous “dead goat” comment has been named one of the best African quotes for the year 2015 by the BBC.
President Mahama made the “dead goat” comment while he was addressing Ghanaians in Botswana in March this year in response to industrial actions in Ghana .
President Mahama essentially compared himself to a dead goat saying, “I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is dead already. I have a dead-goat syndrome.”
This metaphor from President Mahama elicited lots of discussion and scorn from Ghanaians with many accusing him of failing to empathise with them despite the dire economic crisis they were languishing in.
Another Ghanaian Anas Aremeyaw Anas, an investigative journalist was also captured in the BBC’s list for comments he made on transparency and development after his judicial corruption exposé.
He said, “It’s not about unmasking Anas. It’s about all of us putting our hands together and ensuring we have a better continent. I think that anonymity has always been my secret weapon and I have always used it to the benefit of society.”
Find below the full list of BBC’s best African quotes for 2015:
1. 1. “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari on the day of his historic inauguration in May
2. “We must change our lawless habits, our attitude to public office and public trust. We must change our unruly behaviour in schools, hospitals, market places, motor parks, on the roads, in homes and offices.
“To bring about change, we must change ourselves by being law-abiding citizens”
President Buhari said four months later on Nigeria’s independence day Can Nigerians stop being unruly?
3. “The time for vision has come. I request our South African government to help us clean our land of lice. We need to remove all itching bedbugs and lay them bare in the sun.
“We request that all foreigners should take their baggage and be sent back”
4. “If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study obviously I wouldn’t have taken it. Nobody in our hunting party knew before or after the name of this lion.”
US dentist Walter Palmer, who killed Zimbabwe’s famous Cecil the lion in JulyWhat Cecil the lion means to Zimbabwe
5. “Dear white people in the fashion world!… Why do I have to bring my own make-up to a professional show when all the other white girls don’t have to do anything but show up.
“Don’t try to make me feel bad because I am blue-black – it’s 2015”
6. “I have seen more demonstrations and strikes in my first two years. I don’t think it can get worse. It is said that when you kill a goat and you frighten it with a knife, it doesn’t fear the knife because it is dead already. I have a dead-goat syndrome”
Ghana’s President John Mahama, being dismissive in March of the protests against his government. The quote has earned him the nickname “The Goat”
7. “This is surreal for me, I’m not going to lie, growing up in the dusty streets of South Africa, I never dreamed that I would one day have two things really: An indoor toilet and a job as host of the Daily Show.
“And now I have both, and I’m quite comfortable with one of them”
8. “I’ve just concluded – since President Obama endorses the same-sex marriage, advocates homosexual people and enjoys an attractive countenance – thus if it becomes necessary, I shall travel to Washington DC, get down on my knee and ask his hand”
Zimbabwe’s leader Robert Mugabe, mocking a US Supreme Court decision in June to legalise gay marriage
9. “I love my work. But under our constitution, I cannot run again… I actually think I’m a pretty good president – I think if I ran I could win. But I can’t.
“When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife – as we’ve seen in Burundi. Nobody should be president for life”
US President Barack Obama on his visit to Ethiopia in July What’s Obama visit done for Africa?
10. “We are going to create a special wheelchair for President Mugabe until he rules to 100 years because that is what we want. That is the people’s choice. We want a leader that respects us”
11. “The way to treat a boil is to squeeze it out, and I have made it my responsibility to do that. I know squeezing out a boil hurts but unfortunately there are no two ways about it”
12. “I organised a meeting in 2005 to solve our family issues. When I asked them about their opinion, they said I should build each family member a house and give each of them a monthly wage… I just want other African families to learn from this”
Togo football star Emmanuel Adebayor, denying in a Facebook post in May claims that he failed to support his family financially
13. “Christians and Muslims are brothers and sisters.
“Together, we must say no to hatred, no to revenge and no to violence, particularly that violence which is perpetrated in the name of a religion or of God himself. God is peace, God salaam.”
Pope Francis on his visit to a mosque in the Central African Republic in NovemberPope of the poor makes big impact in Africa
14. “Relaxing your hair was a rite of passage. My hair suffered a lot with those chemicals and I cut it all off and my hair grew and I realised it wasn’t that bad after all”
Kenya’s Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o told the BBCBeing African: What does hair have to do with it?
15. “A court is the guardian of justice, the cornerstone of a democratic system based on the rule of law. If the state does not abide by court orders, the democratic edifice will crumble stone-by-stone until it collapses and chaos ensues”
Judge Dunstan Mlambo, who criticised the South African government for letting Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir leave the country in June despite an International Criminal Court arrest warrant Why South Africa let Sudan’s Bashir escape justice
16. “It’s not about unmasking Anas. It’s about all of us putting our hands together and ensuring we have a better continent. I think that anonymity has always been my secret weapon and I have always used it to the benefit of society”
–
citifmonline.com with additional content from BBC
Mahama’s ‘Dead Goat’ Listed in Africa’s Best Quotes
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