The Ghanaian Condition (Part 3)

The recent spat within the body politics of the N.D.C Party in regards to the performance or non-performance of the ruling Government is nothing new in Politics.

Every political party is made up of so many diverse interest groups but the central goal is the attainment of power and how that power when gained is used hence their adherence to the party’s adopted manifesto.

Unfortunately for our President,it appears to some of his own supporters that he is not moving fast enough in the execution of the Party’s Agenda whilst the opposition Party –the N.P.P is also blaming him for similar offence.

What this clearly shows is that with all the best of intentions,the President is trying to ride two horses at the same time,a clear recipe for disaster. You simply cannot please all of the people at the same time.

The first rule of Politics is that when you gain Power,you reward your friends and punish your enemies. Any student of Politics who have read “The Prince” by Machaeveli will tell you that. President Mills should realize by now that there is no way he is going to placate avowed die-hard CAPITALIST ORIENTATED Party like the N.P.P. Just look at what they did to our first President Dr.Kwame Nkrumah. Their mantra is “Property Owning Democracy and we are all witnesses to how they STOLLE STATE PROPERIES left,right and centre.

There is nothing wrong with owning a property but it has to be through your own sweat and labour,not through stealing and subterfuge like traveling outside the country every week and pocketing thousands of dollars as a per diem.

Mr.President,as the year is drawing to a close,I humbly suggest that you reshuffle your cabinet first thing in the New Year. There does not appear to be any BIG-HITTER in your front bench cabinet.

Urgently bring to the fore people like Dr.Tony Aidoo and either make him the Minister of Communication or Information with Fifi Kwetey as his Deputy or one of the Ministers. The weakest links in the present set-up are the Ministries of Comminication,Information and Power and Energy.

You see,at times your ministers do not appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet but from different notes hence they tend to confuse us with different messages on any given issue. The tremendous good-will (human capital) that you generated after the election is in danger of evaporating if you do not ACT DECISIVELY-------we are waiting and watching.

We are still awaiting your decision on the Yamson Committee Report regarding the End of Service Benefit to Ex-President Kuffour and a host of others.You simply cannot grant those ridiculous emoluments to those people without giving the same to the other working Ghanaians.

Even though Iam no admirer of Dr. Spio Gabrah,he is one hell of a chap you will ignore at your peril. Better have him in spitting out than have him out spitting in,you simply can not exclude him.

Other serious matters that you need to address in the New Year are a) The Vodafone Saga

b) The TOR Indebtedness and how those Debts were accrued

c)The Ghana Oil Find and how this oil revenue is going to be used for the benefit of ALL GHANAIANS and not the foreign oil companies.

It came as a shock to read that the Deputy Minister of Energy stating elsewhere that when the oil drilling begins,all the crude oil will be transported overseas for refining for 20 good years. What then is the use of the Tema Oil Refinery.This kind of mentality smarks of nothing short of Colonial or Slave Mentality.Surely if we can go to the Koreans and convince them to invest billions of dollars into our housing stock,why on earth can’t we go to other countries and convince them to build extra refinery for us to refine and add value to our oil.

We have cocoa and gold in Ghana but there is not a single cocoa processing factory nor gold refining factory either. The vision and mentality of our leaders is so pathetic that one wonders when will the Blackman use his God-given brain to the advantage of the less fortunate ones in our society.

Mr. President,please let next year be your year of ACTION. Be bold,proactive and above all,be ruthless .Politics is not for the faint-hearted.Please remember you just have less than 36 months left.

In your Xmax and NEW Year address,please state clearly and unambiguously what you intend to do and how you are going to for it.You will carry the vast majority of Ghanaians with you if you state what you STAND for instead of what you are AGAINST. Some of us are dreading the second coming of the N.P.P,for they will surely STEAL the remainder of what they did not loot the first time round.

With the oil revenue under their control what is happening in Nigeria and Equitorial Guinea will look like a child’s play. If ( God- forbids) that happens, may the last person leaving Ghana please remember to SWITCH –OFF the lights. The writer is neither pro N.D.C nor anti N.P.P. Iam simply pro GHANA. I have never been a member of any Political Party and I do not intend joining any in my life- time.

Kwaku. Kele. Ashiagbor