Political Odyssey 2: Caging NPP '08 Presidential Aspirants

?You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns.? William Jennings Bryan. 1896.

If you are an NPP Minister of State or a Public Official, check your presidential ambition at the doorstep of your house for now, so goes the spoken word of H.E. John Kufuor, NPP Leader.

In his supreme wisdom, the NPP leader who must be obeyed warned fidgety aspirants to the NPP Presidential candidature to cool things and not to peak before their time. It was at a time his brother, Defense Minister Addo Kufuor, Interior Minister Paapa Owusu Ankoma, ?Iron Lady? Hawa Ogide Yakubu, Energy Minister Mike Ocquaye, Water Minister Hackman Agyeman and Education Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo were foraging in the Western and other Regions for support. Minister Alan Kyeremanteng was busy washing himself off the Ashanti tag and praying to be painted as a real Fante on account of matrilineal lineage. NEPAD Minister Kofi Konadu Apraku, who struggled mightily to ?win? his 2004 Parliamentary seat by a mere 300 plus votes was so busy with his presidential planning that he may not have heard the NPP Supreme Leader?s edict, before announcing his stake. Dr Arthur Kennedy of America and Dr Frimpong Boateng of Korle-Bu have made known ! their intention, whereas Veep Aliu Mahama, though reeking off as a presidential campaigner has not publicly declared interest, perhaps weighing in on his inability to be a factor in the resolution of the Dagbon crisis and the non-burial of the murdered Ya-Na, and what that portends. Be that as it may, the Statesman Newspaper, has stepped in to do proxy campaigning for those listed above, starting with Nana Akufo Addo on February 17, 2006.

Prior to 2000, it was a great political ploy for then Candidate Kufuor to lie low in order not to risk ?exposure? of any kind with the potential to rock his chances. He judged correctly then, that the groundswell of sustained, unfounded attacks on the incumbent NDC without reciprocal response, would take its toll and a w! hipped up, emotionally charged electorate would vow to vote for anybody but NDC?s candidate. As we approach the 2008 electoral season, will these same tactics work flawlessly again? The NPP had no record for it to be judged by prior to 2000. In 2008, the NPP?s record would be stuck to them like crazy glue sticks to unprotected fingers. In 2004, NPP asked the electorate for more time for their policies to bear fruit, just as the NDC had been given a stretch of 8 years from 1992-2000, and also to enable them to have a similar 8 year-rule (2000-2008). The patient electorates have given both NDC and NPP 8 years each. There are now level grounds for critical assessment of both NDC and NPP. Well, 2008 is almost here, but there is no other worthy alternative to these two giants. Having been the ruling party for eight years, the NPP can no longer rely on the excuse that it has never been in power, and as such deserves a chance to prove that its policies and politic! ians are better than those of any other party.

NPP seems to have perfected its repertoire of saying a thing with high sounding note to the people, which means nothing at all. But, unfortunately for them, the electorate has become wiser to this trickery. They are asking for specifics as to how NPP is alleviating poverty. William Jennings Bryan sided with the poor when he ?spoke on one of his favorite populist issues, free silver, at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He championed the idea that the dollar should be backed by more plentiful silver rather than gold, as was the present U. S. policy. His speech?characterized, like so many of his speeches, by a religious quality?for a monetary policy more favora! ble for debtors ended with the memorable words, ?You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns.?? Would the poor majority who labor receive fair share of Ghana?s national cake in an environment permeated by venture capitalists, whether foreign or indigenous, whose only burden is to make as much profit and pay as little as possible in remuneration? On another note, it may be fanciful to surmise that had Silver become the backbone of the dollar, Ghana?s gold may have had other uses. Would NPP aspirants speak for the poor as openly and forcefully as Bryan did centuries ago?

How would NPP?s performance between 2000 and 2008 affect the alleged presidential aspirants, including Foreign Minister Nana Akufo Addo, Defense Minister Dr Addo Kufuor and the others? Suffice it to say at the onset, that these two putative NPP leaders each have big obstacles to surmount simply because they are Ghanaians and not Saudi Arabians or Americans for that matter. The Oil-rich Kingdom of the Saudis practice family succession. When King Fahd died recently, he was replaced by his brother, the Crown Prince.

Dr Addo Kufuor is the junior brother of Mr. John Kufuor, the current president. He is not however, a Crown Prince, and therefore could argue that he should be looked at as an individual and on his own merit. Does merit! ocracy count in Ghana politics, more than other perennial issues such as an ethnic group lording it over the several other groups in Ghana? Why is Alan Kyeremanteng distancing himself from his Ashanti father?s origin? Has he recognized it would be a hard sell for an Ashanti to replace the Ashanti Kufuor? The question is whether Ghana is ready to be ruled consecutively by two brothers. Is Ghana so much in love with the Kufuors that blood line would triumph over people?s antipathy to family inheritance of Ghana?s presidency? Whatever ! Dr Addo Kufuor brings to the table, the electorates see him first and foremost as the brother of Kufuor the president. Secondly, they see him as an Ashanti, not necessarily an Akan. Thirdly, as regards his achievements and failures in office, opinion is divided and never unanimous. Right now, another Kufuor candidature has the greatest potential of splitting the front of the NPP. Hello Dr Kufuor, meritocracy doesn?t matter as much as it ought to in Ghana Politics. Were that the case, President Kufuor would not have won elections in 2000 or 2004.

In the case of Nana Akufo Addo, his father, the late President Edward Akufo Addo was sworn in as Ghana?s president in 1969. Is it the ! dream of the son, Nana Akufo Addo, to be sworn in on January 7, 2009, as president of Ghana, that is to say 40 years after his father?s presidency? Would Nana Akufo Addo invoke the example of the USA, where George W. Bush has served as president, just like his father George H. Bush did? Is the body politic of Ghana analogous to that of the USA? Whereas in the USA, it can be argued loosely that ethnicity in terms of tribal origin does not count much in electoral politics, one would be hard pressed to argue the opposite with regard to Ghana. !

At this moment, it is Nana Akufo Addo and Dr Arthur Kennedy of America who have outlined what the pundits refer to as their ?Manifestoes?. Dr Kennedy?s ?Manifesto? may feature in subsequent Political Odysseys, as we look at salient points of Nana Akufo Addo?s Manifesto here. In February this year as noted above, the STATESMAN founded by Nana Akufo Addo, widely regarded as one of the mouthpieces of the NPP printed his ?Manifesto? verbatim and added their own analysis. As a matter of opinion, it was simply a ?feel-good, rah-rah? speech to graduate students at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Here is the reason for this viewpoint:

The ?glittering generality? described as ?Indigenous Capitalism?, explained by Nana Akufo Addo as his major plank, is said to be for ?wealth accumulation that ensures no one has to go hungry, that ensures the greatest number of the population actively participates and benefits from the economy.? He interchanges ?Co-Operative Capitalist Democracy? with the concept he propounds as a way to ?ensure success of multiparty democracy in the midst of poverty?. He wants citizens to ?become active players in the formal economy?. How are citizens supposed to do that? These are fine words that elicit warmth. No far-reaching specific policies to attain his goals were enumerated, or seem to be forthcoming, on closer analysis. For example, he quoted UNCTAD report of September 2005 that ?revealed that Ghana gets 5% of the value of Gold E! xports?. Only 5% of the total revenue of Gold production accrues to Ghana! What specific policies have been proposed to ensure that Ghana receives a fairer proportion of the significant amount of revenue that accrues from exports of gold? It is not clear whether there is a serious plan for that. Neither would this be a campaign hot-button issue!

In my Historical Odyssey Series on Agricultural Policies, the just concerns of Environmentalists, especially Dr Yao Graham touched on this same issue. Our natural resources are depleted, our water sources are contaminated, exotic creatures are decimated and our forest reserves are encroached and pillaged with careless abandon with the active connivance of NPP government and its collaborators. On assumption of office, NPP?s Minister for Mines Kwabena Adjei Darko gave in to the demands of Foreign Mining Companies to excavate our Forest Reserves. He had the audacity to compare Ghana?s desecration of Natural Resources to the Industrial Revolution period of Europe where charcoal was dug from the ground to fuel the Revolution. According to him, keeping those reserves intact at the time people are hungry is not progressive. So today, we have river sources polluted from the activities of these foreign miners. Does Nana Akufo Addo says anything categorical about this except to say ?Ghana needs to analyse foreign investment carefully according to costs and benefits and coordinate inflows with domestic needs and to ensure broad policies designed to attract as much foreign investment as possib! le?? Lay out your specific policies and shun the ?glittering generality? propaganda, Nana Akufo Addo. How would ?Indigenous Capitalism? affect the mad-rush to lay red carpets at the tarmac of Kotoka International Airport for Foreign Exploiters, whose only goal is to reap the maximum profit by reaping out the heart of our heritage, laying waste to the rich natural resources bequeathed to Ghana by Mother Nature?

Truth be told, poverty has been known in Ghana before NPP came to power. However, it is unpardonable that today, p! overty afflicts over 70% of Ghanaians living mostly in rural areas. Meanwhile, 61% of all arable land lies fallow and uncultivated. Why has the NPP not made revamping the agricultural sector its topmost priority, as it promised to do when campaigning for elections? The urban areas exhibit this phenomenon as a result of high unemployment, to which NPP this week ?declared war? by ordering Government Institutions to use a percentage of their budget on its eradication. More empty words?

According to Nana Akufo Addo, ?Progress Party won power in 1969 on five slogans which aptly captures the thinking of the NPP, the successor party: 1. to every Ghanaian- a job; 2. to every worker- security; 3. to every family-a nutritious meal and a decent home;4. to every individual-the essent! ial freedoms of speech and expression, of movement and association, freedom of conscience and of worship; 5. to all Ghanaians-progress. In the words of...Busia, ?there can be no meaningful democracy if the vast majority of the people live in poverty?. It has been a saving grace for PP/NPP that Acheampong?s coup in 1972, offer them excuse as to whether these promises were met. What could not be excused was the blatant corruption of that era culminating in Prime Minister Busia ordering the transfer of his two years? Future Salary in foreign exchange abroad, under the watch of then Progress Party economic czar J.H. Mensah! There was so much hunger and distress in Ghana under Progress Party that Acheampong gleefully seized on a funny note as one of the reasons for his coup; that the few amenities like Sardine and Corned Beef that the soldiers enjoyed were ?whittled away? and babies were dying as a result of economic mismanagement of Busia?s Progress Party. Progress Par! ty cannot be credited with achieving any of their goals.

The NPP under Kufuor on the other hand set forth 3 and not 5 slogans; good governance, promotion of the private sector and human resource development. It depends on who one talks to in a survey as regards their economic fortunes or economic failures. Most NPP sympathizers claim things are going swell for them, but the rest of the opposition swear nothing is going well in Ghana. In the Diaspora, people returning from Ghana reflect the same positions depending on their politics, but people agree that ?money disappear like running water, once they exchange their foreign money for the local Cedis?.! This they say is the result of unreasonable high prices of goods, whether imported or of local origin.

Education Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo also has hurdles to overcome. It was under his stewardship that the bogus IF ?C? loan was pushed through parliament only for NPP to go back later to repeal the Act, under strong objections from the opposition and the World Bank. Again, voters would be reminded of the other bogus Chinese Barber Loan Scheme. His ?role or non role? in that whole saga will come under scrutiny. Mr. Marfo has his work cut out for him for signing sole contract on July 2005 with MacMillan Educational Limited without tender and contrary to Public Procurement Board Act 2003 (Act 663) worth 27.9 million dollars. He will have to answer the question: Who are the Local Representatives of MacMillan in Ghana? The Ghana Education Trust Fund, GETFund, a brain ?child of NDC is supposed to be a lock-box to finance education, not as a piggy-bank to enrich party associates who so happen to be local representatives of foreign conglomerates.

On health, the continued exodus and frequent strikes by doctors and nurses, presents a formidable challenge to the NPP candidates especially the heart surgeon Dr. Frimpong Boateng, who is the head of Korle-Bu, to explain why the NPP told Ghanaians that mismanagement by NDC was the cause of exodus of these Health Professionals, yet this phenomenon has continued and been magnified under NPP. The current ?hospital imprisonment? of new born babies and their mothers, present another question. The status of the healthcare industry is an importan! t one; after all, there are few things more important than the state of one?s health and the institutions designed to safeguard it. Still, the NPP continues to focus on providing superficial ?solutions? to Ghana?s health care crisis such as national ID cards and ROPAL, rather than focusing on the structural problems that are causing most of Ghana?s best and brightest to leave its shores. These professionals abandon the poor whose taxes were used to educate them for free. Now that they are earning their big bucks, they do not pay taxes to Ghana, but want taxpayers to pay for the setting up of ballot boxes in front of their luxurious abodes abroad, whilst the poor farmer in Ghana continues to walk miles to cast his ballo! t. What an NPP-inspired insult!

The theory of structural migration proposes that people's fate determined ultimately by structures - social, economic and political, that shape their lives ? and these structures play a significant role in the decision to emigrate. Thus, structural factors such as unemployment, wage inequality, and poor wages and compensation, for example, are viewed as pushing emigrants from their homes and 'pulling' them to their foreign destinations. Ghana, as a developing country, cannot afford to lose thousands of dollars spent in educating and training its doctors and nurses that then disappears when these valuable human resources take their skills abroad. Will these pretentious presidential candidates debate this issue? In Ghana, it is estim! ated that some 26% of Ghanaian graduates leave for work in overseas destinations. This high rate of migration has two major damaging implications for Ghanaian society. One major issue is the loss of skills, particularly in the field of medicine, science and technology. It is estimated that two thirds of the doctors and nurses trained in Ghana have left the country for better economic prospects overseas. Rural areas are particularly hard hit and many Northern regions have no access to doctors at all. Secondly, there is the loss in educational investment: currently around $60 billion-worth of developing country investment in tertiary education has essentially been lost to the OECD countries.

What is the NPP?s position on encouraging these professionals to rema! in within the country? What use is a national health ID card when there are no medical professionals left in Ghana? And how would any of the potential NPP presidential candidates for 2008 propose to resolve this issue? In particular, what solid proposals do these candidates have for addressing the little support for strategic planning, limited management expertise, weak health systems coordination, leadership and stewardship, inadequate or lack of accommodation in rural areas, low salaries, long tortuous and 'difficulty-prone' recruitment procedures that all combine to serve as compelling motivations for trained health workers to leave the country?

Another major aspect of the NPP?s administration platform was its self-labeled promotion of the ?Golden Age of Business?. ! To date, after five years of this so-called impetus to stimulate private investment, the Ghanaian economy has not shown any noticeable improvement. In fact, important sectors such as manufacturing, energy and water generation have actually been in decline since 2000, to say nothing about the moribund state of the education, health and agricultural sectors.

It is difficult not to emphasize how seriously the NPP is damaging the country with its policies, while managing to pull the wool over the eyes of many because of their intellectual-sounding politicians and government officials who camouflage deceitful policies with ivory-tower rhetoric. The real issues, such as land tenure reform, unemployment, industrialization, and so on, which should be at the forefront of the NPP?s economic agenda, have been relegated to the background. Mea! nwhile, it seems that the NPP?s priorities are concentrated on a long list of unrealistic and impractical schemes, such as ROPAL, the presidential palace and aircraft, international airport, and so on.

Will we hear about all these above issues from the 2008 potential candidates? Or will we be treated to further flights of rhetoric about the need to become more fully participatory citizens in the democratic process, whatever that means. For now, to all those who are wary of golden-tongued politicians with presidential ambitions, it is enough to recall the words of the great William Shakespeare, who, in ?The Merchant of Venice? counseled,

?All that glitters is not gold; Often have you heard it told;?Gilded tombs do worms unfold.?

Beware, giddy presidential aspirants, Ghana?s political terrain is inhabited by patient folks who give politicians long rope to hang themselves.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.