A post mortem of a dead goat

By Cletus D Kuunifaa

I don’t even know where to start from? In the Ghanaian cliché or parlance, should I laugh enter Mahama Ford or I should cry enter his appointees’ mansions? All jokes parried aside, in this election, Ghana won and we have inched a notch higher in our democratic endeavor as a nation. Ghana remains a shining star in Africa, a prototype of democracy and good governance earning her a pedigree of respect and recognition amongst the comity of nations.

Among the reasons for failure are self-inflicted after a post mortem. He just blew another opportunity of a northern descent as president. A golden opportunity for a second term has been shattered and has left many northern kith shocked and sickened to the bone. What happened? He did not see this coming? Brethren Alban Bagbin, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, Martin Amidu and some good hearted genuine NDC gurus had sounded the alarm bells that fell on deaf ears.

The likes of these faithful patriots were said to be envious of the president, whereas their genuine concern was actually to see a brother succeed, was really to see a comrade do well. Some of them having witnessed Dr. Hilla Liman’s presidency come to an abrupt end owing to a military junta, they just could not fathom why the guy was so impervious to genuine pieces of advice.

How many times the security folks did warn Dr. Hilla Liman of the impending danger which was treated with contempt? And then, the unexpected happened. For the records, this current guy was so cloistered with a firewall that was so impervious to voice of reason.

The very day he shipped Dr. Tony Aidoo, Dr. Sulley Gariba, and Mr. Victor Smith abroad as ambassadors to their accredited countries, he literally shut down the opportunity of a second term. These guys were needed back home to steer domestic policy right which was of utmost priority and of critical need.

But their departure signaled a void in policy analysis. He was deprived of the expertise, the experience and competence that he most needed. He literally shot himself in the foot by that singular act of posting these policy hawks abroad. Dr. Raymond Atuguba would later tender in his resignation and Mr. Ben Malor, a communication expert who was to streamline communication also relocated back to his communication position at the UN.

The Oldman then surrounded himself with the other guys with less or without expertise, experience or competence to boot on neither policy nor strategy. The rest of his bunch of appointees would be considered in the words of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as a basket of low energy folks. These low energy sluggards were bootlickers without a slice of a mind on critical analysis of issues. They were a basket case to all intent and purposes.

How could you focus on massive infrastructure without a corresponding need to improve the purchasing power of Ghanaians? The unemployment rate soared, the economy tanked, incompetence reigned and affluent living was the norm for the arrogant appointed few. All the negative lifestyle went on unabated; building of mansions, buying and changing expensive cars, making deals out of contracts and short changing Ghana to that effect in order to support their obtrusive lifestyles?

It did not end there: owning filling stations and companies to facilitate state contracts without proper bidding? The writing was on the wall and he superintended over it to the chagrin of many. He exercised no “parental” control over them and their arrogance and incompetence let him down.

Now that it’s over, my northern brethren are advised to have hope in Dr. Bawumia. As for me, my wish is for the President-elect to tackle corruption with much alacrity. There is an imperative need to retrieve all ill-gotten monies, confiscate all property that were ridiculously acquired within a short span of time, disband all companies established and run by government appointees with intent to loot. Such actions are in contravention of the conflict of interest provision in our constitution.

The President-elect must consider the Nandom and Lawra constituencies for which little was done to improve lives by this guy. We started a voter revolution in the 2004 election campaign with Mr. Ambrose Dery, the NPP candidate for the then Nandom-Lawra constituency and with Dr. S.K Bemile, the NPP candidate for the then Lambussie-Karni constituency culminating in the positive results we see today.

Many of us were, however, disappointed after working tirelessly to create voter awareness and swayed minds as evidenced by the margins of the votes in 2004, only to be spited with the infamous Kufour remark that he did not find any suitable candidate for his cabinet from the Upper West region. That reckless remark disengaged many northern NPP sympathizers from party activism but, who later allowed sleeping dogs to lie.

All said and done, the positive results we have today cannot be delinked from the work we did in the past. We are hopeful; the president-elect will not disappoint us in the Nandom and Lawra constituencies this time around for the massive show of support.

Cletus D Kuunifaa TMC Group Can be contacted at: [email protected], [email protected] or follow him on twitter@ckuunifaa