Opinions of Tuesday, 17 December 2019
Columnist: Kofi Thompson
Ghanaian Politicians don't realise it, but their favourite watering hole, 'The Last Chance Salon', is about to be shut down permanently, by ordinary Ghanaians.
We have no intention of allowing our vampire-élites to turn Ghana into their privately-owned welfare state. Not being content with engineering the creation of tribally-based new regions, Chiefs in Ghana, now apparently want the Council of State to be abolished, and replaced with an upper chamberof Parliament, a Senate, which they will be members of, and which will have the power to initiate new legislation. Wow. Amazing. Incredible. Intolerable. Unacceptable. Haaba.
The more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media should do the figures, and tell us how much the Council of State actually costs taxpayers annually, currently, and how much the proposed Senate will cost hapless taxpayers, should we be so foolish, as to adopt that abomination. What bloody cheek.
Our vampire-élites have now become so bold (with their insufferable arrogance). Today, some of them even have the gall to tell us, the good people of Ghana, that the divisiveness of party politics at the "national level" should not be allowed at the grassroots level, in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs). Yooooo. We shall see.
They will soon be taught a big lesson, by the thoroughly-fed-up-masses of the Ghanaian people - for denying local communities the opportunity to influence the choice of which individuals are elected to run Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), as chief executives - a systemic change that will bring to an end the criminal neglect of the needs of local people, by sundry local government appointees and high-level decentralised public-sector officials.
It is precisely because chief executives are not elected that one hears the constant negative-refrain emanating from local communities nationwide, outraged by having to put up with: delapidated school buildings (in countless villages and small towns); pothole-riddled-roads; lack of well-resourced healthcare facilities within their reach; ending the non-collection of household waste regularly that results in mountains-of-rubbish piling up in local communities across Ghana, to name but a few of the many ills plaguing the current system of unresponsive-to-local-needs unelected chief executives of MMDAs, who are appointed by sitting presidents, to do the bidding of ruling party executives, not serve local people.
Under the current system, appointed chief executives' first priority, is to pander to the whims and caprices of ruling party executives, at all levels - not working hard to improve living conditions for local communities. If they were elected, the opposite would be the case - and local communities across Ghana would be transformed rapidly, in short order.
Be that as it may, henceforth, ordinary people will no longer allow our vampire-élites to continue dividing Ghanaians and their nation, at the "national level" - with their NPP/NDC duopoly's never-ending propaganda battles, and outrageous-equalisation-politricks. No. No. No. We shall bring General Kutu Acheampong's Unigov idea into being soon. (No libilaba -divisiveness possible under that system, koraaaa, oooo, Massa. But I digress)
Resurrect General Acheampong's Unigov idea? How, you might wonder, dear reader? Simple, really. Ordinary Ghanaians will eventually sieze power themselves, by taking a leaf from the mass-revolt-regime-change-books, of their Arab brothers and sisters, with massive street demonstrations that will paralyse Jubilee House, and then go on to impose General Kutu Acheampong's Unigov idea, on the country. Case closed.
The military will then take over and lead an emergency government of national unity, which will do an intensive anti-corruption house-cleaning-exercise. The new government of national unity, will demand that all the previous government appointees (from the President down to the last District Chief Executive), publish the assets they declared to the Auditor General, in sealed envelopes, before assuming office. Sarjewah. Who born dog, Massa?
Simultaneously, in tandem with the house-cleaning exercise, the good people of Ghana will draw up a tailor-made, and fit-for-purpose constitution, for a new 5th Republic, which will be designed to eliminate all public-sector corruption. Ghanaian politicians have been getting drunk-with-power in the Last Chance Salon since 1992. Ordinary Ghanaians are about to close down that confounded elite-watering-hole permanently. Cool.