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Opinions of Saturday, 15 March 2014

Columnist: Sangaparee, Clement

Be Careful When Dealing With NPP Members – (Part Three)

The un-expected arrogance on the part of Dr. Busia and his administration showed in the minds of a lot of Ghanaians that since they controlled a large majority in Parliament, they could do as they wanted between 1969-13th January 1972 when he was booted out of office by Col. Acheampong. As if Busia’s government was unaware of the political damage it was doing, it clashed with the Trades Union Congress (T. U .C.) on whose leadership the economic measures took the greatest toll by first trying to change the leadership through Appointment instead of Elections. This, Busia did by endorsing his own candidate for the post of the Secretary General of T. U. C. He was called Mr.Osei Mensah . The T. U. C. in its efforts to resist the Busia attempt to dominate it, formed the Joint Consultation Council with the National Union of Ghana Student s (NUGS) and the newly formed opposition Justice Party,(J. P.) and criticized the newly introduced Development Levy on workers , while Busia rather increased the salaries of Politicians including himself . The general conclusion was that the Progress Party government was more interested in CONSOLIDATING ITS POSITION than promoting national development. The alliance with the Justice Party worsened that government‘s fears of a T. U. C- called general strike. In a desperate move to counter what it termed as the “Anti- national development attitude “of the T. U. C. The government rushed through Parliament the Industrial Relations Act of 1971(ACT 383) which ABOLISHED THE T. U. C. arguing among other things that the T.U.C was an integral party of Dr. Nkrumah’s CPP. What the act did was to give the Minister of labour the power to appoint a board of receivers to discharge of all the Liabilities and Assets of the T.U.C including the tall building that was housing trade unions in Accra. Union membership because voluntary throughout Ghana under Dr. Busia.

NUMBER OF STRIKES BY WORKERS DURING BUSIA’S TIME
In 1970, 56 strikes were organized by workers involving 20, 083 workers. In 1971, 71 strikers were organized by workers involving 32, 164 workers. That mood as summed up by Mr. B.A Bentum, the then Secretary General of T.U.C was that the PP government had shown no understanding of politics. This was another clear evidence of the erosion of those high democratic principles ‘which had been associated with Busia for a very long time. It was shameful.
WORKERS DEVELOPMENT LEVY
Dr. Busia and his party officials misjudged the concerns of the masses whose expectations were not in line with his government’s actions. That government which was blinded by its huge majority in Parliament engaged in battle with all sections of its supporters.
1. It started with the Civil Service.
2. With the Judiciary over the Sallah case where 568 civil servants were dismissed by Busia and Sallah took the case to court which ruled in his favour ordering the government to re-instate all those workers and Busia refused to do so with impunity.
3. His government passed a Legislation under a Certificate of Urgency and abolished the T.U.C. It upset the University students by introducing the Student Loan Scheme.
4. He angered the sick and poor who were in their millions by imposing hospital charges.
5. He wanted to take political control of the Army by replacing Ewe officers with Akans and got booted out by his own Akan country man.


THE DANQUAH/BUSIA GROUP WHICH THE NPP REPRESENT TODAY
Let this country Burn to ashes because we have lost power-NPP. It will be recalled that Kwadwo Owusu Afrifie, a.k.a Sir John General Secretary of the violent prone NPP and his comrade-in tongue, Hopeson Adorye had earlier threatened all the 9 members of the Supreme Court judges and all NDC members with DEATH before; Sir John emplaned to the United States of America to visit his family. He was preparing the grounds to flee the country after setting it in flames but was tamed by the Supreme Court of Ghana. Hopeson Adorye, his comrade-in-tongue and leader of the NDC head cutting team had no where to go and had nothing in his pocket to even pay the Court Fine, let alone fleeing the country.
The swift manner in which Hon. P.C. Appiah Ofori signed the cheque for the Gh¢7,000.00 on the floor of the Supreme Court barely 30 minutes after the two felons were convicted showed that their comments were and are still the official position of the Asante/Akyem NPP.
THE NPP FUGITIVES
These fugitives in the NPP must be well monitored from now until 2021 when president Mahama leaves office and hands over to another NDC President. The foul Mouthed and cowardly Sammy Awuku also fled the country before the Supreme Court Verdict on 29th August, 2013 only to return after the verdict. when the NPP lost their infamous case at the Supreme Court, a sinister motive was hatched by the T.U.C and CLOSAG to embarked on a nationwide strike to make the country ungovernable, yet these two institutions were all in this country when President Kofour increased petrol price by 100% in 2001 and furthered sent Ghana to HIPC-No one coughed in Ghana. In 2004, Prez Kufour again increased petrol price by 100% as well as water and electricity to 100% each and no one coughed in Ghana. Is it now a National Sabotage on the part of the T.U.C. and CLOSAC or what? Let somebody prove me wrong here since the records are there for all to see. We saw the AKAN conspiracy that was engineered by Dr. Busia and Afrifa who used Lt. Yeboah, Lt Osei Poku and Lt Arthur both Akans who killed Col. Kotoka in April 1967 because he was an Ewe.
Is anybody listening? I shall return when the need arise. I am done ‘Jaanbie Iwail” Aluta Continua!

………………………..
Clement Sangaparee
United Cadres Front
Obuasi

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Accra/Ghana
e-mail clementsang@yahoo.comm