Opinions of Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Columnist: Newton-Offei, Justice Abeeku
There is this famous Akan axiom which says “edaa atwer bewu no, na yebehu ne tsentsen” to wit, “the actual length of the frog is known after its demise”. For 8years, under the Mills-Mahama-Amissah-Arthur ndc-led administration, the good people of Ghana were subjected to levels of untold hardship never ever experienced anywhere on this planet, since God created the universe. Ghana, a tropical country where temperatures can often hit as high as 40degrees celcius,new-born babies were made to sleep in sweaty conditions at nights for close to 5years of acute energy crisis. Industries became extinct; hundreds of thousands of people were rendered jobless, patients died on operation tables during surgical procedures and so on.
Taxes on goods and services were raised to the skies and ordinary Ghanaians bore the full brunt of this reckless economic hopelessness brought about by gross governmental incompetence. In all this, anybody who dared complained of hardship was declared persona-non-grata and ordered to pick-up his/her “passport and get the hell out”.
Verbal terror
The good people of this country, virtually, became hostages of incompetent, insensitive and disrespectful bunch of ndc propagandists who always responded to genuine criticism with putrefied verbal flatulence. Juvenile delinquents/adult vagabonds as Koku Anyidoho, Felix Kwakye-Ofosu, Peter Boamah-Otokunor, Fifi Kwetey, Omane-Boamah, Kofi Adams and Sam George were at the fore-front of this charge against decent members of Ghanaian society who dared professed divergent views to that of then ndc government.
The clergy, civil society organisations,think-tanks etc., who saw the socioeconomic dangers staring our nation in the face and mastered the courage to make their voices known, were branded NPP-turn-coats and taken to the cleaners by way of uncontrolled caustic verbal attacks. All notable professional bodies as Ghana Teachers’ Association, Ghana Registered Nurses’ Association, Christian Council, Ghana Bar Association etc., were branded NPP surrogates and relentlessly subjected to barrage of unadulterated verbal assault for daring to raise flags over the obvious collision course our country was being taken by the ndc government.
A platform provided by Institute of Economic Affairs [IEA] for presidential candidates to present their vision to Ghanaians, was poopooed by ndc who branded the institution as an NPP surrogate. Executive director of IEA,Mrs Jean Mensah, then became doormat which BABIES WITH METALLIC DENTAL FORMULAE used in wiping every floor of ndc $20m headquarters at Adabraka-Accra.
Non-existent message
Campaign messages of NPP which clearly spelt out cogent policy alternatives to revive our nation’s dwindling fortunes and put it back on track of socioeconomic revival, were scorned and described as utopian by the bunch of pipe-dream ndc propagandists. FREE SHS, ONE-DISTRICT-ONE-FACTORY, ONE-CONSTITUENCY-ONE-MILLION-DOLLARS etc., were branded as pure campaign gimmicks by ndc propagandists. But in return, these ndc people were promising the good people of Ghana “USAIN BOLT ANTICS, SHATTA WALE BUGALOOS AND often completely non-existent development projects with prohibitively astronomic price-tags.
In all this, the good people of Ghana kept their cool, waited for the day of elections, and decisively dealt a deadly blow to John Mahama and his bunch of INCOMPETENT, INSENSITIVE, ARROGANT AND CORRUPT nation-wreckers masquerading as social democratic patriots.
Lack of ideology
As a matter of fact, ndc has never had a clear political ideology except coming together at the time of elections, putting in-place elaborate rigging scheme, stealing their way into political officialdom and looting state coffers to enrich themselves. This character of ndc was fittingly articulated by the party’s former secretary, the late Vincent Assiseh who described it as an “ELECTION-WINNING MACHINE”.
Those of us, who have the capacity to study the character/antecedents of this organization called ndc, have never been taken aback by their inherent wickedness and matchless insensitivity towards the plight of ordinary masses. We have also never been surprised by the fact that the party’s hierarchy is populated by a bunch of highly deceptive characters whose sole purpose has always been capailiazation on total ignorance of the masses. Since time in memorial, the party’s top-guns have always fought, tooth-and-nail, to thwart any effort by all progressive forces of our country, to bring about policies that will see majority of our populace being educated. We were all in this country during electioneering campaign of 2012 when Nana Addo introduced the vision of FREE SHS. This noble concept was so bastardised by evil, but well-oiled ndc propaganda machine, to the point where ordinary Ghanaians, rather sadly, were convinced that an item like ordinary aluminum head-pan [hweaseambo] was much more valuable than sending one’s child to school to gain knowledge. I personally, witnessed some of our brithers/sisters in the fishing communities in cape coast, actually parading the streets amidst brass band music and singing “we want head-pans and not free education”. Fooled-soldiers Again, the ndc leadership has succeeded in conscientising their party FOOLED-soldiers that their party is of the social democratic leanings and therefore jettisons property ownership; and I really feel sad when I hear some of these party FOOLED-soldiers also repeating same in their arguments on radio/tv. But what these followers, whom I fittingly term as FOOLED-SOLDIERS do not seem to realize is that, their party leaders are only using them as BULLDOZERS. And the concept of BULLDOZING is simply this: when it is time for elections, these party FOOLED-soldiers are provided with free barrels of ‘Akpeteshie’ and all kinds of contraband concoctions, both herbal and liquid perperations,and send them on ballot-snatching escapades. And when the power comes, these soldiers are made FOOL of and dumped by the wayside, while close family members of their party leaders are sent overseas to acquire the best of education in prestigious institutions that will then come back and perpetrate the dynastic culture of their party leadership. Effectively, the FOOLED-SOLDIERS are used to clear the weed, seal the potholes, put in-place asphaltic overlays and make it passable path for the infinitesimal party leadership, and thereafter, are carried on pay-loaders, packed in the garage till another electoral cycle arrives. Property ownership When it comes to property ownership, the ndc leadership has succeeded in deceiving their FOOLED-SOLDIERS into believing that they are social democrats; and this means working hard to succeed in life is evil, and that, it is perfectly good for an individual to perpetually remain subservient to someone for the reward of left-overs from the dining-table. And you will often hear these ndc FOOLED-SOLDIERS repeating such woefully self-demeaning mantra on the airwaves and accusing NPP for being a PROPERTY OWNING ENTITY. But on the blind-side of these ndc FOOLED-SOLDIERS, is the real character and taste of their party hierarchy. Today, over 300 state vehicles which miraculously vaporized into thin-air under the noses of the defeated ndc government, have tuned out to have been bought by appointees. According to Samuel George Nertey on 11th February,2017 edition of ‘Big Issues’ on Citi-Fm. Multimillion-dollar mansions, both home and abroad, have been acquired, through fair and foul means, by the top-guns of ndc. And as I have stated earlier, children of these ndc leaders are cooling off in executive mansions in Western Nations and United Arab Emirates. These children are schooling in top-notch institutions and having every luxury the world can offer, at their disposal. On the other-hand, these ndc FOOLED-SOLDIERS who were deceived into thinking that their party was, once again, going to succeed in stealing the people’s mandate in 2016, have been left in the woods to lick their wounds. Even cash earmarked for campaign activities were pocketed by these ndc leaders and this has actually triggered a series of physical assaults from their party followers across the country. Free SHS is here By the grace of the Lord Almighty, the FREE SHS policy which has been the brain-child of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, actually kick-starts in September,2017,and those ndc pipe-dreamers who, for parochial political-point-scoring, threw caution to the wind and deliberately put on the garments of CONSTIPATED UNREASONABILITY,and shouted over the roof-tops that it was not achievable, can go with payments of fees of their wards so that the monies can be rolled back into the nation’s coffers to be injected into the policy to encapsulate more needy students.
I would also like to admonish all ndc FOOLED-SOLDIERS to please wise-up, reject the age-old subjugation by their party leadership, take full advantage of this policy, improve their lots,academically,and liberate themselves from the shackles of merciless intra-party exploitation.
Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei E-mail: [email protected]