Asawase Mubarak, Parliamentary Experience, and the NDC Failures

Konongo Fordjour - 29 June 2009

Apparently the semi-annual political stock-taking is ending with yet another embarrassment of a beleaguered president, who is still confused with how practical democratic governance should run. The words, DEMOCRACY and ECONOMICS, do not exist in the NDC dictionary, hence the two words tend to baffle the group in trying to wrestle with the use of the words in their vocabulary. The difficulty of the NDC getting down to work, inherent in its continuous blame game on the NPP, is evident of how unprepared the group is with its governance.

For less than two years that I had initially set for myself, I have already compiled more than fifty NDC electoral promises that have turned out to be deceptive to the Ghanaian voters, and they keep adding up day-by-day. I shall deliver all the NDC lies in my annual report on the government at the end of this year. Job creation is one; reduction of petrol price is another, the free fall of the cedi, affordable water, school feeding program, and so forth. Relative to their current mediocre performances, I am positive that the Mills government will add more lies than anticipated including promises made to build schools and hospitals in every constituency.

Lies are synonymous with the NDC group and are composed in their genetic make-up. A fine example is the disgraced minister of sports. The caliber of this dishonorable minister-cum-MP is quite interesting. This is the same guy who displayed acute ignorance, buffoonery and dogmatism by following the astute and seasonal politicians like Koforidua Agyemang in a call for a constitutional amendment to make him everlasting Bokasa-inspired law-maker until death put him and the parliament house ascender.

Please, someone update me; did the president fire him or did he resign? In either way, honestly, I am not surprised. The mindset that this young Asawase guy brought to the house was no short of possible ostracism. His display of small-pocketed opulence in a nation building milieu should hand him an immediate jail sentence. The NPP government jailed its sports minister over a similar corruption charge. We are watching what the NDC is going to do. Serving the sentence at Nsawam will automatically expel him from the house. We are watching, and honestly, with very, very big eyes!

Hello, folks, please look at me a la NDC-law of humanism: free visa for Ms. Zinayela fully paid for by the sports ministry, denial of receipt of lost $20,000, special $2,000 per diem, indecent sourcing of GH$1,410,051.58, baby essential commodities, $1,520 household items, etc. because I am special. What do you think? Please leave me alone… na-ma-di-a-ma-di…if I say that I did not know that my family expense was not to be included in the travel expense; why are you still harassing me with a pretense allegation?

Refusal to do a tour of duty and be fully informed of departmental requirements by Asawase Mubarak before taking charge of a whole national sports ministry is equally as guilty and criminal as the action itself. Ignorance and poorly-informed leadership is absolutely not the option for Ghana of all countries. Even the NDC Ningo-Prampram MP, Hon. E.T. Mensah, attested to the arrogance of this Asawase MP and all his litigant and inward looking attitude brought to the ministry that already had fundamental healthy human developing environment in existence.

Someone help me, please: did Gun-man Jerry Rawlings rebuke President Atta-Mills of his selection of sub-standardized personnel for our ministries? Kwaatta’s administration is filled with young, inexperienced, cheap and low quality personnel that are hurting the efficient functioning of our beloved nation. The low grade performances exhibited by Zita Okaikoi, Fiifi Kwetey, Koku Anyidoho, Mahama Ayariga, etc. and now the disgraced Asawase Mubarak by far are plain exhibitions of a seriously beleaguered presidency. Honestly, I cannot disagree anymore with Gun-man Jerry Rawlings on this important issue facing our nation. Please, Mr. President, can you go ahead with your mid-term reshuffle? There is a lot of background noise out there about the caliber of your selected personnel to man the national affairs. A large section of our community back home believes that your NDC has no stock of quality and efficient personnel capable and comparable with the NPP to execute the national quest effectively. Can you dispute that?

President Mills’ continuous disregard of Ghanaians plea by forcing cheap and poorly-prepared ministerial leadership on the nation to produce sub-standard work show ample evidence of what our good people of Ghana, NPP, and even the NDC-owner, Gun-man Jerry Rawlings himself, had predicted and anticipated. As usual and very much like the NDC, instead of admitting wrong doing, Asawase Mubarak started a blame game on people in the sports ministry ganging up on his non-performing, thievery, and shameful performance.

Can we take the NDC serious with calibers like Asawase Mubarak in its fold? Ghanaians must prepare themselves to get rid of these nation wreckers in 2012 before we descend into a similar Zimbabwean anarchical trend. The NDC group - I will never call it a party because it has no philosophical guidance - has failed to govern. For just in six months, the NDC has shown Ghanaians of their true colours, such as the Asawase Mubarak abuse of office, the Ayariga cheap pricing of tractors, award of contracts to group members and foreigners (as refund for sourcing campaign money from them elsewhere), and so forth.

Failure and lies are synonymous with the NDC. For twenty years on the seat the (P)NDC survived on lies while failing dismally to improve on the living standards of Ghanaians. For twenty years, Ghanaian ears were bombarded with the (P)NDC lies on how the majority Akans had “destroyed” Ghana in (P)NDC-world of language. Are we anywhere far from the same old lies about NPP having “destroyed” Ghana during the last eight years in NDC-world of language? Can anything good emerge from the NDC group? Our immediate national requisitions are determined in jobs.

Any straight thinking Ghanaian wants to know where the jobs are. In the NDC-world, it is unreasonable to demand jobs because the NPP “squandered” the national coffers. The very same coffers that the disgraced Asawase Mubarak sourced his baby diapers funds from. And apparently the same NPP squandered coffers that $12-million for MPs to buy luxury cars worth $50,000 each must come from. Can we take the NDC group serious any longer with their lies? My dear NDC government and group, jobs today are not created by governments, rather by the citizens. Smart governments bring in smart supervision, therefore the NDC should not deceive the nation by lining their pockets in the name of job creation with funds sourced for the nation.

Talk about political largess. The NDC have been telling lies about Kufuor administration leaving a huge national debt to be serviced by this No Development Conscious group. The fact of the matter is that the Kufuor administration worked from negative balance in the coffers in 2000, went on HIPC, and pursued prudent policies to put smiles back on the faces of Ghanaians. The breathing space provided by the various programs that the NPP government undertook, e.g. HIPC, Peer Group Assessment, Millennium Challenge, etc. permitted us to source funds to develop the country.

Once funds were secured, the always disciplined NPP government undertook long-term projects, such as agribusiness production, housing, communication, health, education, roads, railways and transport, and so forth. The good people of Ghana have already started benefiting from the NPP good works. All that it requires is intelligence, brilliance, and hard work from any national caretaker to proceed with the prudent policies. Do the NDC have what it takes to match time and pace set by the NPP? Simply No.

The good thing for the country under the NPP is that soft loans from friendly countries were taken; and definitely not from economic vampires like the World Bank, IMF, etc. A typical credit-worthiness credential that is absolutely deficient from the NDC diary. Today we hear of the NDC successful sourcing of World Bank grants totaling $1-billion; but they can draw $150-million only for the meantime and periodically subsequently over the life of the loan. I will give special attention in my job creation discussion in the future delving into the intricacies of funding from the World-Bank-IMF vis-Ã -vis interest rate, and our national investment. There is nothing in there to be proud of.

By the way, what is Kwaatta’s government projected plan for the secured $1-billion loan? I want to know the government’s strategic planning over the years, such as short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. Should we agree with the NDC “basa-shee-ade” government that the short-term planning targets their salaries, the Asawase Mubarak style? Please I need to know.

Interestingly, the NDC have started talking, which is a good sign of democracy. However, my amusement is that, they make fun of themselves when they tried one. Their arguments are poorly structured, disjointed, and are embarrassingly cacophonic. They attack issues without properly doing their research to provide smart presentations to the already well-informed general public. It shows how poorly-trained our lads in the ruling government are; and the stain they bring along with them into our national public relations quest.

Currently, the NDC is arguing that their group is having a hard time filling the required government-appointed positions. And for more than six months the president is no where closer to finishing with that job; and they feel very proud of that. Six solid months, and still looking for able Ghanaians for the ministerial slots? Honestly, Mills is still having a hard time in waking up from his slumber. A sleeping president means a sleeping state with signs of underdeveloped nation.

Seriously, the NDC have nothing to offer. They are seriously out-of-control, out-of-touch, and deceptively dangerous. They are very good at creating words to deceive and remain in the political business. An organization, born out of philosophical wedlock like the NDC, is prone to hard-to-explain mysteries such as what the president is faced with in the Asawase Mubarak saga. Kwaatta finds it hard to jail him because in the NDC world of wonders, his behaviour exhibited by far is very, very normal.

Please peace loving Ghana, help bring NPP back again. We need jobs, we need to progress as a nation and that progress party is the NPP. We are second to none; we have the experience, we have proven record, and we are ready. And together, we shall succeed as a nation. God Bless!

Konongo Fordjour, Boston-MA E-Mail: [email protected]