RE: We'll Kill to win Power – Karbo

London, 6^th of February, 2012: NDC UK/Ireland Youth Wing Reacts to Anthony Karbo

On Friday, 3 February, the youth wing of the NDC UK/Ireland chapter read the daily democrat news report on Ghanaweb with momentous apprehension. In the said news item the National Youth Organizer of the New Patriotic Party, Anthony Karbo is reported to have stated that the NPP is desperate to see change and desperate to see the presidency of Nana Akufo-Addo. He further states that, the NPP youth would not hesitate to crush anyone who tries to thwart that effort. The party, he said, would use all possible means, foul or fair to capture power. He encouraged the youth to be militant saying that “If the Egyptian and Tunisian Youths could do that, then we can also certainly do it”.

Members of the youth wing of the NDC UK/Ireland Chapter call on our colleagues in the NPP and all Ghanaian youth to denounce such calls on them to be violent and take up arms against their compatriots. We further call on all youth especially the youth of northern Ghana not to allow themselves to be used as tools by politicians such as Anthony Karbo for their selfish political aims.

It is unconscionable that a National youth organizer of a political party in our good country Ghana is indulging in such recklessness for political expediency. We want to point out to the NPP that the issues and political atmosphere which culminated in the arab spring in the middle east are not comparable to the political situation in Ghana. We recognise that the NPP is trying to use the arab spring as a template to whip up a violent political storm that would mar election 2012 and disturb the equanimity and recognition that Ghana currently enjoys. We are well aware of the intentions of the NPP to use violence as a tool to broker a power sharing deal should their flag bearer come short once again as he is destined to. We call on the security services to be extra vigilant and to begin to prosecute individuals who try to use their political platforms to incite hatred and violence in the lead up to election 2012.

We want to reiterate the view of our national youth organiser that Anthony Karbo's comments are unacceptable, ill-informed, malicious and have no place in the body politic of our nation. We urge all NPP youth to be law abiding and desist from acts which could breach the peace of the country ahead of election 2012.

We call on civil society, the clergy and religious groups, chiefs and other opinion formers and leaders in our country to join us in calling on the parliament of Ghana to clarify and where absent to enact laws that will ensure the prosecution of people who incite and indulge in actions and pronouncements that are inimical to the peace and stability of mother Ghana.

Scripture says by their works ye shall know them. The NPP only last week organised an interdenominational crusade aimed at presenting the view that they are God fearing and yet their crusade is immediately followed by such pronouncements leaves very little doubt about their true political intentions.

We believe that Ghana deserves as never before, political leaders who are measured thinkers, thinkers of great thoughts. Our country deserves doers, doers of great deeds, deeds and pronouncements that are exemplary. Of what use is the education of Anthony Karbo and his cohorts in the NPP, if they as political party leaders cannot help our country in her hour of need. Mother Ghana, in 2012, more than any other time, needs all of us, educated and uneducated, youth and non youth, to join forces in ensuring her stability and socioeconomic development beyond election 2012.

Source:

Gameli Kewurabi Hoedoafia (Youth Organiser)

Youth Wing, NDC UK/Ireland Chapter

Suite 12775, Second Floor

145-157 St. Johns Street

London EC1V 4PY

Is Nana Akufo Addo Bisexual or is he Protecting Someone within?

To borrow the words of David Field, discussing homosexuality today is like fitting a plug to the lead of a lamp without being able to turn the current off first.  Without insightful, talented knowledge, skill and enormous political maturity and care the risks of disaster are high.  All too often, more heat is generated than light. I am tempted to believe that the fear of putting another foot wrong, the risk of compounding the woes of a ‘popular’ but intrinsically damaged and scandalous political persona; has browbeaten a recently buoyant ostentatiously bungling political elephant into a suricata suricatta.  The shining light of Ghana’s political opposition, who assert intelligence, intellectualism and charisma to himself has been caught pants down in mire, inevitably through his own think big, talk big, deliver little mantra. Nana Addo’s failure to address the burning issue of homosexuality and the Cameron ultimatum sodomises his president in waiting posture and raises new questions about his character.

In Ghana’s young political history, Ghanaians have rightly taken to leaders who have seized the mantle, willing to risk all for their conviction of a free, independent nation. Ghanaians have overtime carved a place in their hearts for leaders who are willing to galvanise the energy, spirituality and power of the masses to assert our nations pledge to rid oppressors rule with all our heart and might. Kwame Nkrumah during the fight for independence, Jerry John Rawlings during the revolution and uprisings of the late 70’s, early 80’s, and today, we have President Mills; a son of the nation who inherited a socially hopeless, economically near collapsed state, burdened with debt and deliberate state corruption. A man, who in two and a half years has set this county on the path to significant economic stability and set to achieve economic growth unparalleled by any other world nation in 2012.

Our president, showing significant leadership that is in tune with the spirit and embodiment of his people, took on the neo-colonial ultimatum of a fledgling UK Prime Minister, struggling to assert himself within his own country, party, regional body (EU) and as a world leader. Who needs the commonwealth anyway; that absolutely obsolete derelictus of a body, clutching at the straws of acceptance in a new world order.  I stand to be corrected, but I believe President Mills, is the only sitting President across Africa and the so called out of tune commonwealth nations who responded directly to the intellectually limited UK Prime Minister who spoke out of turn not bothering to contextualise the cultural, moral and religious sentiment of his intended audience as far as the subject of homosexuality was concerned.

Tellingly, our president spoke and all of Ghana was overjoyed except for one individual; our big thinking, big talking main opposition leader. He had to wait to fly to a summit in the UK, meet with David Cameron in private and we are told by his general secretary that he “took the opportunity to firstly talk about the gay matters that have been pervading the country [Ghana], " adding that “Nana Addo expressed the sentiments of the people of Ghana by stating that our cultural and religious framework should not be disrupted by foreign powers especially coming from Mr. Cameron.” What a load of tosh!  Nana Addo has been all over the place like a plague, looking for platforms to deliver headline making political speeches and yet over an issue that elicits and commands very strong cultural sensitivity; he can only be found under the dining table of Mr Cameron, competing with the cat for the crumbs! What a sad, sad situation! What sort of leadership will such a desperate la-di-dah of a person offer Ghana? Knowing that there is an election coming up, for which he is already beating war drums and wants to win at all cost; he needs an ally in David Cameron should the sticky fingered neo-colonialist decide that Ghana is their next target for invasion.

Nana Addo claims to believe in Ghana. On his facebook page he urges all Ghanaians to “have BIG faith, dream BIG, think BIG, act BIG.” He says that “to believe in Ghana is to be proud of Ghana's rich diverse culture, customs, traditions and history. To believe in Ghana is to be devoted to her welfare and freedom. It is to stand up in defence of the state even if, in dissenting, you offend the temporary custodians of the state”.  These are the words and conviction of the man who sees himself as a president in waiting. However, in keeping with his proclivity for anticlimax, he builds us up to crescendo with his very bold, loud speeches and phrases and without warning, deflates the balloon with the urgency of a manic depressant, letting Ghana and all his supporters down. It must be such a rollercoaster ride supporting the NPP under Nana Addo. He is the leader without bottle, without the akukudro to put his money where his mouth is. Ghana deserves better and it will be a great travesty to ever give this man the opportunity to run our truly beautiful country with a history of courageous leaders. It will be an anticlimax in our nation’s history. If Nana truly, believes in Ghana, then he must stand up on a podium in Ghana, denounce and ‘chide’ David Cameron openly, loud and clear for Ghana and Ghanaians to know once and for all that electing him some day in the distant future, will not be a vote for homosexuality in Ghana.

Interestingly, there is another school of thought which holds that, Nana’s failure to openly address the issue of homosexuality in general and in relation to Cameron’s ultimatum; has to do with his own sexual preference and/or that of some key members of his inner cycle. There is a famous akyem proverb which says that ‘a man doesn’t throw away his child, even if that child is a snake’. Rumours have it that very prominent members of Nana Addo’s campaign team are ‘shitus’ and a family member also indulges in lesbianism. If these rumours are true, then once again the man is caught between a rock and a hard place; what should he do, denounce and risk the wrath of his inner cycle which undoubtedly will have implications for his presidential ambitions. Or come out in search of futility, to make a bold stance on an issue for which he has already lost the high ground to the President. This is where like Ama Atta Aidoo, Akufo Addo asks the question ‘Shall I go to Cape Coast or to Elmina’? Nana Addo’s hesitation stems from both these arguments.

Therefore, if these rumours are true as in the case of his drug use and penchant for womanizing as reported by wikileaks; then the man must stand down as flag bearer and give way to Kyeremanteng. Believing in Ghana is not to burden it with baggage and a miasma of smoke. Ghana, at this stage in its history, needs insightful, bold, decisive, sober and responsible leadership as offered by Prof. Mills. I believe in Ghana, I believe Ghana is moving forward in the right direction under the NDC and President Mills. Hence, there is no vacancy for a morally corrupt politician who is unable to read the mood and desires of his people. Typical of all bisexual humans, there is a crisis of identity and preference, thus our country will truly be ‘all die be die’ in the hands of a lose bisexual cannon. Nana Addo, clouded by his selfish and poorly conceived posture of entitlement has by his usual inability to act decisively exposed another incurable weakness of his being. Ghana is not ready for a sexually and morally perverse President. God bless Ghana.

Gameli Hoedoafia

Croydon, Surrey

United Kingdom

Togbegh@gmail.com 

  

Reforming Our Labour Laws to Prevent Future Strikes by Essential Service Providers

In the thick of the GMA strike action, we heard arguments in favour of and against the action by the medical doctors. Decisively, we heard directives from the national labour commission for the GMA to call off their strike. These arguments and calls were based on the premise that with the continuous absence of doctors from hospitals and health facilities, there was a greater danger for significant and needless loss of life. However, a proportion of the arguments centred on the fact that the medical profession was from its genesis, aimed at restoration of life; therefore it is morally and ethically wrong for medical doctors and other allied health service professionals to withdraw their services under the pretext of collective bargaining. Another school of thought holds that the strike action by the GMA was totally illegal as laid down procedures enshrined in law were not adhered to.

Listening to and reading the sometimes overly passionate, openly hostile and dangerously political debate about the GMA strike that has characterised our print, broadcast and new media over the last few weeks; I couldn’t help but draw the conclusion that Ghana has been presented the opportunity to undertake root and stem reform of its industrial and labour statutes. Primarily, industrial and labour market laws as I understand them are aimed at ensuring that every working person has a minimum condiment of rights in their workplace as well as safeguarding the interest of the employer. These rights are necessary because the relationship between an employee and an employer is inherently inequitable. In the same way as Max Webber characterises human social interaction; the relationship between the employer and the employee operates as a power relationship, with one party seeking to enhance their position in the relationship. Therefore, since the industrial revolutions of centuries past, Kings, Queens and Governments with significant nudging from the masses by way of social and industrial unrest have enacted laws to safeguard the state and employers on one hand whilst increasing the rights of workers on the other.

Today, our nation is faced with industrial action and growing agitation within our labour movements for improved salaries and working conditions. However, no matter how legitimate these demands are, we need to balance them against the nation’s ability to afford these or better still meet them. The western world is currently gripped by significant financial uncertainty and undergoing austerity measures because at a point in their history they didn’t cut their coat according to the cloth they had available to them. Consequently, on a daily basis we see on the international news channels, massive, chaoto-destructive demonstrations against governments for trying to put in place now, measures they couldn’t envisage or thought about during their boom time.

For that reason, we need to learn and we need to learn fast. The government must ride the wave of public sympathy it is enjoying during this difficult doctors strike by overhauling the whole system of engaging workers especially in the public sector, more so our essential public services. My views here are limited to the areas I believe need to be looked into and do not presuppose that other critical areas should not be looked at or the absence of such.

First and foremost, Ghana needs to change the current practice of centralised recruitment in favour of a decentralised system with accompanying decentralisation of financial management. Public sector institutions should be able to recruit and lay off staff at each hierarchical level of their operations. If a particular institution is organised and structured from National to District, then each level of that structure should enjoy autonomy within a decentralised recruitment budget. Management would then have the flexibility and discretion to recruit staff either on a temporary basis, on fixed term contracts or on permanent contracts based on the needs of the organisation and its ability to pay. In the same way, they will have the flexibility and discretion to lay off staff following strict, laid down recruitment procedures based on a chain of evidence that cannot be easily concocted and supported by a strictly applied punitive measures regime to safeguard the process. These safeguards are needed because I believe the average Ghanaian will abuse any system to satisfy their selfish whims.

This change will save the state gazillions of Ghana cedi currently wasted on superfluous, under performing, and unproductive staff who sit around offices reading newspapers, engaging in petty trading in the office and leaving the office to go to church to pray for promotion; without necessarily putting in the man hours and applying themselves effectively as they should, to ensure the organisation delivers its core business and attain its intended objectives.

It is worth noting that to ensure the achievement of the intended benefits of a decentralised recruitment procedure; there is the need for enforced transparency. What do I mean? When management decides that it needs to fill a recruitment gap, they must develop detailed written job descriptions, expectations, responsibilities and benefits of the post holder. This will show the salary scale, the spinal columns and the starting salary points. So you know what you will and will not be getting. This must not be done in isolation. They must necessarily develop a written person specification; this will include qualification, experience, aptitude and all other essential qualities and skill set needed to do the job effectively. They will also detail what potential employees should expect through the process, e.g acknowledgement of applications, testing and interviews, feedback for those who are not successful etc. In effect this will prevent the recruitment of square pegs for round holes and will help eliminate the ‘who you know’ and not ‘what you know and can do’ practice which is so inimical to our country’s growth and prosperity.

Another important facet of a decentralised recruitment system is giving the option to staff in essential sectors such health to work as independent self employed consultants or contractors. Offering their labour on flexible terms strictly defined in law which removes the right to strike but also gives the employee the flexibility to terminate their employment as and when they choose to do so and thereby denying the employer the security of a permanent or fixed term contract. This also gives the employee the immunity against prosecution for any losses or mishaps during the performance of their duties, the employer is held accountable instead.

In the same regard, there is the need to do away with the vertical promotion pattern currently practiced in our public services, in favour of an inbuilt transparent career grade with associated salary packages, spinal columns points with specific guidelines on annual increments once an employee reaches the end of their particular career grade before their retirement age and or have not moved on to another career grade pathway or moved to the private sector. Consequentially, management and the rise to management or senior positions of various Teams and services within any hierarchical level of government operation will not be based on promotion and for that matter seniority. Management or the rise to senior positions will therefore be based on a combination of factors among them, experience, academic qualification and aptitude, leadership skill set and the willingness to put oneself through the interview and testing process. This will ensure that promotion patterns do not become a constant bone of contention between unions and employers and will increase competition; the absence of which has contributed to the laid back culture and consequently under development we have become accustomed to in Ghana. This will also facilitate the administration of salaries and the internal management of employees.

Similarly, Ghana needs a change in the current system of ‘ready jobs’ immediately after University or college for majority of its public sector workers such as those in the health and education sectors. The state spends enormous amounts of money subsidising the training of until recently all the workforce, including those who then go on to work in the private sector. Our nation started on a premise of the state being provider and dispenser of all things. So that for starters you went to school to receive formal education, which equips you with a level of literacy and consequently the aptitude to function within the apparatus of the state to bring about development to march what pertains in the Whiteman’s land. However, the world has moved on, majority of nations have had to change, in the interest of being able to meet the development and wellbeing of their peoples. Therefore, to be able to compete and ensure our best brains remain within our nation to oversee its development, we need to change our ways. How can you be competitive when you cannot pay your doctors and other essential staff a decent wage to prevent them from falling prays to the lure of the developed nations. One way, is to cut the waste and inculcate a competitive streak in the DNA and culture of your people.

Consequently, you eliminate ‘ready jobs’ and put in place a platform which requires every qualified doctor, nurse or teacher after national service to apply for a job and compete with their peers for the best locations, the best starting salaries and benefits, etc. This will also offer the employer the opportunity to include clauses in the employee’s contract of employment, which bars them from withdrawal of essential services such as health care. Competition in this area becomes a dualism, as employers compete among themselves for the best talent and the potential employees compete for the best packages available. This mechanism will only work in a properly regulated manner with qualified HR managers and officers in place. Subsequently, there will be jobs for the many HR graduates who come out of university and cannot find employment or reduced to working in banks as teller and customer service officers. In addition, we need to establishes a broadly applied and actively deployed national minimum wage for the entire workforce of the nation, including specific declarations on overtime pay, a broadly agreed market premium and basis of annual salary increments once an employee reaches the upper limit of the spinal column point of their salary scale, and specific instruments establishing standards to guard against child labour.

Further, Ghana needs to streamline its provisions on the formation and workings of unions. This will include membership patterns, union rights and responsibilities, withdrawal of services and its implications for the delivery of services especially essential services such as health care, security services and education as well as implications on the continuous enjoyment of the full benefits package of employment. The need to examine the liability of unions and union leaders for any losses necessitated by their strike actions and how employers should manage individual employees should not be overlooked. Crucially, our labour statutes should expressly make provisions which stipulate that employees will have no rights to conditions of service benefits when they are on strike. However, procedures will need to be adopted which make it clear whether an employee is taking part in strike action or is on sick leave, holiday or other legitimate absence.

There is the need to ensure union leaders are devoid of political influence hence, card bearing members of political parties must declare such information before contesting union elections. Also, any personal, private or professional associations with leaders of political parties must be declared before assuming office. More importantly, union members should be formally balloted before strike action can be called and unions must attain a minimum threshold of up to 70% plus one of all union members voting in favour of a strike before a strike can be called. In addition, balloting should be transparent and all members who are legally registered and of current standing should be balloted, in the absence of which strike action cannot be called. This requirement inherently presupposes and enjoins unions to keep proper membership records which can be verified by third parties.

Further, there is the need to categorise employee and employer disputes into two major strands; namely mandatory and permissive. Mandatory disputes will include those in relation to wages, working hours, and working conditions, and should be the items for which employers and employees or their representatives will be required to bargain. Permissive disputes will then be all other disputes not related to the mandatory strand. A typical example of this was the case of the doctors at the cardiothoracic centre going on strike because of the removal of Prof. Frimpong Boateng as honorary Director. This dichotomy is essential as only strike action based on disputes under the mandatory strand and not the permissive will be allowed by law.

In my view, Ghana and for that matter Ghanaians must begin the dialogue which will lead to the enactment of laws to safeguard Ghanaians against strikes by essential service providers such as doctors and allied health professionals.

Gameli Hoedoafia

Croydon, Surrey

United Kingdom

Togbegh@gmail.com  

Election 2012, Nana Akufo-Addo’s Swansong - “All Die Be Die”

The Bible in Ecclesiastes 3:1 notes that “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven”. For one Ghanaian politician, this passage from the holy book takes on gargantuan significance albeit pejorative, as we approach election 2012.

Nana Addo-Dankwah Akufo-Ado, the flag bearer of the opposition New Patriotic Party, the druggie of Ghanaian politics, according to the American Embassy in Ghana, has started his campaign; seeking the advantage of the early bird but clearly also out of desperation. A benign emotion, metamorphosed into an inherent incessant fear gnawing at his being. Largely, the man goes about his listening campaign, delivering speeches and doing his utmost to sell himself to the electorate as a confident, sombre, intelligent and unintentionally arrogant alternative to Prof. John Evans Atta Mills.

However, at his core, he is fearful of an impending crushing defeat which will send him to his abyss; overseen by the machinations of his own ilk and party men. In his subconscious mind, Nana Addo recognises that election 2012 presents his last opportunity to stake his claim and live his boyhood dream of becoming the president of Ghana not by merit but by entitlement. It is his inalienable right to be the president of Ghana, a duty his family has primed him for since his childhood and for which he is owed the right by our good country Ghana.

Nana recognises that loosing election 2012 will give credence to the view that he is damaged goods, comes with a lot of baggage, a serial womaniser and as the Americans will have it; a druggie who cannot win an election for the NPP. Nana accepts that Nietzsche couldn’t have put it better when he said that it was easier to cope with a bad conscience than with a bad reputation. Only now has he realized that the evil that men do lives after them, he is reaping the fruits of his youthful penchant for and over indulgence in ganjamalitis. Consequently, Nana is faced with a quandary, to jump or be pushed and whether to jump now or wait till after the election. He knows that another loss to the Asomdwe Professor will force President Kufuor and his henchman Alan Kyeremanteng to bring out the guillotine seeking his head ‘all die be die’ style.

To overcome his fears, Nana Akufo has accepted his fate and resolved to fight, he will not go down like a chicken, and neither would he go down alone. In ancient times his ancestors were accompanied to their graves with their servants and foot soldiers, to lead them and cater for their needs in the spirit world. Therefore, to continue this rich but obsolete tradition, Nana has engineered a beautiful contraption for his party machinery by declaring election 2012 ‘all die be die’. He and his kinsmen and their surrogates will shed innocent blood come November/December 2012, to ensure he becomes President of Ghana at all cost; ‘all die be die’.

A befitting swansong for a man who has struggled to cope with being passed over by President Kufuor as NPP flag bearer and subsequently president of Ghana; for which he has never forgiven his party and its foot soldiers. A man who has struggled to shed a bad reputation, throwing money at it and engineering a systematically oiled media machinery. All of which have inadvertently made him even more out of touch with the electorate. To buttress his ambitions, Nana sent out a clarion call to his supporters and so called young patriot as well as giving notice to his political opponents that “all die be die”; he was prepared to go on the rampage, charging them to ready themselves for “battle Desperado”.                                                                                

Undoubtedly, we have already seen manifestations that the NPP and its entire party machinery is indeed preparing itself for ‘all die be die’. The NPP goes into overdrive when the law enforcement agencies undertake steps and actions to ensure the rule of law when party activist such as the mindless John Kumah make inflammatory and prosecutable pronouncements. The NPP cries foul, they mass up, bus their preposterous young patriots and foot soldiers to the offices of our law enforcement agencies prepared for confrontation, looking for an opportunity to trigger their own ‘arab spring uprising’ to destabilise the motherland thereby allowing Nana Addo to claim his so called entitlement. I beg, Nana e no go happen!! Unbeknown to the NPP, Ghana’s security apparatus has ‘sourced them out’ and will never give them the opportunity to execute their desperate agenda.

In furtherance of Nana Addo’s grand ‘all die be die’ master plan, the NPP has resorted to gutter politics of insults in all media - print, broadcast and new social media. Recently Ghanaians have been treated to very colourful choice words and language by NPP activist who like their flag bearer have become increasingly and impatiently desperate for power. This foulmouthed brigade is led in chief by Nana Akomeah who has been charged with overseeing a hard hitting campaign unlike that reportedly run by Kennedy Agyepong in his book ‘chasing the elephant to bush’. In this regard, Nana Akomeah has gone on record by declaring that their campaign will be executed ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. He goes on to say we will insult if we are insulted and attack if we are attacked. These are words of a desperate bunch of people, who claim to be responsible and accomplished people in their private lives and yet adopt a public persona which incites violence. The NPP and its activists have internalised the teachings of their ham-fisted flag bearer – they believe no Ghanaian outside the NPP can lead our nation to the promise land of greater prosperity and economic independence. The NPP is the only political party which has the manpower, the political will, philosophy and the tribal stock to lead Ghana; all others are minions and must be sacrificed on the NPP alter presided over by the ambitious chief priest Nana Addo-Druggie Akufo Addo. Tofiakwa! I beg to differ!

The NPP as part of Nana Addo’s grand ‘all die be die’ master plan, has ingeniously started the instigation of tribal and religious sentiment in our body politics in the lead up to the 2012 election. Nana Addo himself started arousing tribal sentiments when he said that they the Akan people will not sit idle and let things go out of hand during the election; they will fight to take their country back. Notice he did not use the singular term Ashanti or Akyem but chose instead the plural term which refers to the single largest ethnic/tribal formation in Ghana, namely, the twi speaking people. Undoubtedly, these are pronouncements of a dangerous, murderous man out of touch with the wishes and aspirations of the people of Ghana. Similarly, after the 2000 election, NPP activist in their euphoria at winning the election are on record to have made pronouncements to the effect that they were claiming their country back – ‘ye gye nye oman’. Therefore, Nana Addo is only bringing out tools the NPP under Kufuor have used previously without success and lend credence to the fact the NPP is the only political party in Ghana based on tribal lines and which advocates the dominances of the Akan especially the Ashanti/Akyem coalition over all others. Our parliament must take steps to safeguard Ghana from the Ashanti/Ayem hegemony.  

In addition, the NPP is threading the cataclysmic path of religious politics and inciting religious tensions. In advance of and in the wake of the recent wikileaks cables, the NPP declared that Nana Addo will certainly choose a Muslim as his running mate. The NPP and their media partners have also blown out of proportion the analysis and private opinions of Fiifi Qaurtey as reported by wikileaks that hypothetically, it was practically difficult for a Muslim flag bearer to win elections in the country. The NPP and its young patriots have also embarked on a coordinated and systematic campaign using new social media such as facebook to vilify Fifii and to cast the NDC as an anti Muslim party thereby calling on Muslims to vote massively against it. These are the machinations of a dangerous flag bearer and a dangerous political party bent on a blood bath just to wrestle back power. You ‘believe in Ghana’ indeed!

In a further indication of what Nana Addo and the NPP have in store for Ghana, the flag bearer believed so much in Ghana he omitted Ghana’s security, crime, justice, the rule of law and conspicuously the fight against the narcotics trade in a major policy speech. Nana Addo’s liberty lecture speech was hailed a major and comprehensive policy statement to bring about freedom, opportunities and economic prosperity. How on earth can we achieve freedom, opportunities and economic prosperity without the rule of law, without an effective law enforcement apparatus, without an effective, independent judiciary, without effective anti narcotic laws and policies? People!  There is no excuse that such a major speech leaves out such key issues unless it was intended so, to ensure that Nana as president, if he ever gets near it; oversees a porously flawed state as far as security is concerned, to enable his financiers recoup their investment in his campaign through the narcotic trade and other nefarious activities at the detriment of mother Ghana.

I call on the NPP, Nana Addo and his brain washed young patriots, to give mother Ghana a chance to thrive and grow as a middle income economy, with single digit inflation which ensures that commodity price increases are slowed and manageable. I call on all well meaning Ghanaians to appeal to the better, humane side of Nana Addo, that through his desperate actions, inactions, and speeches he doesn’t jeopardise the peace we currently enjoy which many of Ghana’s neighbours don’t have. If Nana truly believes in Ghana first, then he should tone down the rhetoric, cut the religious and ethnic incitement and the political insults. I urge Nana to run a free, honest campaign like Professor Mills has done time and time again. Failure to do so will bring about more disappointment, more depression, more crushing defeats as he will continue to endear himself as a desperate, out of touch politicians who will stop at nothing to achieve his selfish ambitions. We want a grand all life be life, all be peace be peace master plan from the Nana Addo and the NPP for Ghana election 2012.

Yes, election 2012 will be the last time Nana gets the nod over the relatively younger generation within the NPP. He knows and Ghana knows that like Julius Caesar there are several Brutus’s waiting in the wings, ready to pounce. However, what will really endear him to Ghanaians and his party will be a clean, intellectual campaign so that when the crushing, depression triggering defeat comes, he will be more gracious and he will know within him that it wasn’t for lack of trying but that the discerning Ghanaian electorate choose a more credible, more qualified and a better man for a better Ghana with less skeletons in his cupboard. That will be a befitting swansong for a Ghanaian gentleman, if he truly is one.

Gameli Hoedoafia

London, UK  

RE: Does Ghana Need To Buy Five Aircrafts Now: The Hypocrisy of Gabby and the NPP

I read with angst Gabby’s submissions in his article of the 25^th of July which was published on the 26^th July. Gabby’s attempt to present himself and the Danquah Institute as a respectable non-aligned voice of reason was frankly pathetic.  We all know that Gabby and the Danquah institute are nothing like the paragraph below asserts, but underscores the cacophony in his and the NPP submissions;

[Otchere Darko, is a centrist, semi-liberalist, pragmatist, and an advocate for “inter-ethnic cooperation and unity”. He is an anti-corruption campaigner and a community-based development protagonist. He opposes the negative, corrupt, and domineering politics of NDC and NPP and actively campaigns for the development and strengthening of “third parties”. He is against “a two-party only” system of democracy {in Ghana}....... which, in practice, is what we have today].

It is a widely held view that ever since Ghanaians said ‘enough was enough’ by unceremoniously chasing the elephant back to the bush at the end of 2008; the NPP, its ilk and surrogates have taken a rather regrettably nimby attitude to President John Evans Attah Mills and the NDC led government. A government which fought against near impossible odds to overcome the elitist, affected, property guzzling, self enriching, so called market leaning money grabbing Neo pillagers. 

Until the 7^th of January 2009, our beloved country went through eight years of organised and systematic looting, plunder of state and national assets and resources; in some cases state assets were deliberately run down to devalue them in order to justify offloading these to quaffed up NPP financiers struggling to wake from their stupor, caused by the copious late night binge parties at the Presidency. We have heard severally, the argument that our courts and judicial system have so far found no culpable evidence to warrant the jailing of any member or surrogate of the previous NPP government. Then again, Ghanaians and the international community witnessed eight years of systematic opportunitistic rape of our judiciary into subjugated capitulation. A situation which has left a sacred arm of the state perpetually handicapped thereby unable to effectively ensure a fair and just society.  However, against sway within his own party, the President has insisted on allowing the cause of justice and rule of law to take its place albeit with the knowledge that mysterious fires, the efficient shredding of evidence coupled with a cancerous judiciary and a perilous economy will make the journey very difficult.

The current NDC government under Prof. Mills has fought very hard since January 2009 to stabilise an economy that was near collapse during the latter days of NPP rule in 2008. The situation was so dire they didn’t have money for salaries. In order to raise cash to pay public servants, the NPP in the last two quarters of 2008 rushed into a poorly negotiated deal to offload 70% of Ghana Telecom and its sought after assets to Vodafone amid outcry from Ghanaians of all persuasions. They also violated the precept of the Eurobond special instrument to keep them afloat as the end was in sight. To add insult to injury, the ‘genteel’ giant increased public sector salaries by 30% across board, not caring where the incoming government was going to find the money to satisfy such gratuitous buffoonery. 

Notwithstanding the terrible state in which the NPP in government left the Ghanaian economy, the NPP in opposition, have at the slightest prospect, jumped on the bandwagon to cry wolf. Seeking shamelessly to score cheap political points out of wholly nationalistic and public interest issues to prep up a largely out of touch presidential candidate.

A case in point is the government’s acquisition of aircraft to support the operational capacity of our men and women in uniform to better protect our sovereignty in the face regional instability, to protect our oil and other natural resources from marauding intruders and pirates on the high seas, to help with disaster interventions and to aid the fight against the drugs trade that the NPP was so complicit with as we now know from the wiki leaks telegraphs.

In defence of their political mischief, the NPP and its surrogates such as Gabby Otchere Darko have sought to portray the NDC government as amassing debt through “stupid borrowing and spending” which is inimical to Ghana’s long term future. Interestingly, it was the same NPP and Gabby who argued that the Prof. Mills led government was not spending enough money to complete NPP era infrastructural projects and to undertake new ones hence the ability of the government to uncharacteristically manage to reduce and keep down inflation in single digits. This line of thinking went in the face of several annual and supplementary budgets further boosting spending. A few months down the line, the NPP and Gabby have done a U-turn, now scolding government for spending in the public interest.

In a very classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, the NPP in opposition now with the benefit of hindsight of wrong doing, are impugning the same to the current government. The NPP in government benefited from substantial debt cancellation and increased aid in the form of HIPC and G8 Gleneagles initiatives as well as individual country debt cancellation arrangements with Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. These arrangements gave the NPP the best foundation and the largest resource base since President Nkrumah to transform this good country of ours. Instead we all witnessed the all talk and no action mantra from the NPP and after eight years they left Ghana gaping at the abyss head in hands.

Gabby and the NPP are calling on Ghanaians to cultivate a toughness of mind and resolve to stand against the only truly social democratic party in Ghana with a track record of delivering  roads, rural/urban electrification, social housing, education and educational infrastructure, health infrastructure more than any other political party before it. However, I take the opportunity to call on Gabby and the NPP to engage in solid thinking of the kind needed of a party in opposition, proposing strong alternatives and putting the ruling party on its toes. To borrow from Martin Luther King Jnr, I think for far too long there has been an almost universal quest within the NPP for easy answers and half baked solutions as though having to take the time to think is such a pain within the party.

Writing directly to the issue of the acquisition of aircraft, the NPP in 2006 contravened parliament and the supreme law of the land by going ahead to trade in the Gulf Stream III presidential jet as a down payment for the acquisition of four K8 Chinese attack aircraft and a flight simulator in excess of 80million dollars at the time. This was a clear violation of articles 178(1)/(2) and 182 of the constitution of Ghana. Against this backdrop, it takes a group of people with serious affected egos to cry wolf suggesting complacency on the part of the top brass of our men and women in uniform as well as the integrity of the Brazilian government and all others associated with the current deal when the right procurement laws and processes are being followed to the letter and spirit.  It is therefore, very pathetic and reckless for Gabby and the NPP to argue that the aircrafts and the soon to be built housing units under the STX for our security and armed services amounts to ‘election bribery’ and inducement; a truly unfortunate assertion.

The NPP led by Osei Kyei Mensah in parliament were brandishing papers taken from the website www.aircraftcompare.com like a child, excited at the prospect of a parent treating her/him to fan ice. They felt they had discovered their ace that will throw the spanner in the works. If only as advocated by Martin Luther King Jnr, the NPP before getting all excited had applied a small measure of solid thinking,  they would have discovered the disclaimer on the bottom of the pages they were brandishing with grammatical errors and all, which read “*Please note- The price of the aircrafts may vary depending upon customised specifications, though we have tired to gather information from the best possible source-not all of them is official...................Also we request the aircraft manufacturers to share with us their official spaces and pricing information and help us in serving the aviation industry ...............” Please read the full disclaimer on the website given above.

Now this is the party of so called intellectuals, who brought such information to parliament purporting that it came from the manufacturers of aircraft. Even their super sure Danquah institute couldn’t point out to the minority the following rules of thumb;

1.      That due to the very nature of the industry, aircraft builders do not publish prices on their websites. Further that defence budgets the world over are not subject to such scrutiny or public discussion due to national security considerations

2.      That they were looking at information relating to civilian aircraft not military, with listings of the basic package without any modification or enhancements

3.      That the same website also offers information which suggests that they inflated figures when they arranged to purchase an airbus 319 for 67 million dollars in 2008 when in fact the current price in 2011 is 51million dollars. But for the diligence and forthright leadership of Prof. Mills, in cancelling the deal, Ghana will have lost millions of dollars

4.      Again the official parliamentary Hansard of Wednesday 19^th of May 2008 indicates that Ghana paid at least 43million dollars for the Dassault 900EX support air craft when its current price in 2011 is 36 million dollars. NPP! Where is the difference?

5.      Again, in trying to trivialised the aircraft hanger as a common garage without recognising the fact, that argument further alienates the NPP from our men and women in uniform, is frankly baffling to say the least

Gabby and the NPP argue that from the lay mans point of view based on common sense, the NDC is embarking on frivolous spending aimed at increasing their election kitty without consideration for socio-economic infrastructure. I believe this is a non starter as in the same week that parliament debated and approved the purchase of the aircraft,  359miilion was also approved for the construction of a 597 bed capacity University of Ghana hospital as well as the upgrade of the Ho and Hohoe Regional and District hospitals respectively.

Similarly, parliament also approved 13 million Euros for the Barekese water treatment plant, 25 million dollars for further works at the Aboadzi Thermal Plant in Takoradi to increase operating capacity and output as well as 103 million dollars to further government’s agenda of further rural and urban electrification projects in the country. In addition, an amount of 36 million dollars was also approved by parliament for Agric development. These are all worthy examples and evidence of a party and a government in power working towards equitable spread of developmental projects across board without playing mischief.

Further, I want to draw the attention of Gabby and the NPP to the fact that, the NDC under Prof. Mills has so far achieved 68% coverage of public services with the roll out of the single spine salary scheme and in last week’s supplementary budget; provision has been made for the remainder of workers currently not on the scheme. This is a government which cares about the people of Ghana, which represents their will and within two and half years of government have done what the NPP couldn’t muster the courage to do in four years under President Kuffour.

It is a widely held view in Ghana that, the NPP is out of ideas, out of touch with reality and has resorted to propaganda and insults hence in real danger of losing any shred  of credibility they have left. Therefore, I call on Gabby, the Danquah Institute and the NPP national executives, members of parliament and above all Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo, to think long and hard about playing the politics of entitlement and mischief that has characterised their history or risk losing their place to the CPP as a formidable opposition.

God Bless Ghana, God Bless the NDC.

Gameli Hoedoafia

Croydon, Surrey

UK

Togbegh@gmail.com

Ghana’s vice president visits D.C., lives life out loud — from Twitter to Facebook

While checking his Facebook page on a recent night, Ghana’s vice president, John Dramani Mahama, read a posting slamming his West African nation’s water system as “one inefficient monstrosity.”

Couldn’t Mahama break it up and allow cities to run the system, the Facebook friend asked? 

The vice president, who was Ghana’s former minister of communications, said he thought about the posting all night and all he could think was “Well, this young person is absolutely right,” said Mahama in an interview at a Mayflower Hotel suite, where he was staying during the Washington leg of his nine-day U.S. visit.

Mahama’s trip came just days before first lady Michelle Obama’s five-day tour this week of sub-Saharan Africa, which will focus on HIV/AIDS projects and helping young adults on the world’s poorest continent.

Mahama was in Washington to meet with leaders at the World Bank, the IMF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC), an independent U.S. foreign aid agency created in 2004 by Congress to bring “smarter” aid and development to fight global poverty.

Ghana is Africa’s newest oil producer, and one reason Mahama came to the United States was to meet with energy companies and tout his country as a destination for U.S. businesses.

“Africa is crawling with Chinese and Brazilian and Indian businessmen looking for opportunities to invest,” he said, adding that it’s time for American corporations to follow suit.

For many Africans, Mahama is engaged in a way that few heads of state are. His actions contradict the cliched idea of the Big Man African dictator who clings to power and jails journalists, and is unresponsive, isolationist and, on average, over 70 years old.

Mahama is 52, answers e-mail from citizens directly and tweets. He also writes often and lyrically for a daily online magazine, the Root (owned by The Washington Post). In his widely read June 9 essay, Mahama chronicles the legacy of Fela Kuti, the Nigerian Afrobeat singer. Mahama wrote about how Kuti’s music might have been inspired by Africa’s outburst of democracy.

Mahama is also an author, having written a forthcoming and critically praised collection of short stories titled “My First Coup d’Etat. And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa.”

“Nobody is too old to go onto the Internet,” he said in his hotel room, where a Ghanaian American cook had brought in trays of waakye (boiled rice and beans with tomatoes and chili pepper), along with banku (fermented corn dough), pepper sauce and tilapia.

“Sometimes, wonderful contributions come on your Facebook. Somebody makes a post and it clicks some idea in your mind and you think, bingo, you can resolve some important issues for your people.”

Within weeks of receiving the Facebook post on the Ghana Water Company Limited, Mahama was holding news conferences recommending that his country decentralize water, which he predicted would help the health of citizens and the economy.

At the World Bank, Mahama put the finishing touches on a zero interest loan of $100 million to Ghana, which will begin in July, said Herbert Boh, World Bank senior communications officer for Africa. The money will be used to develop Ghana’s northern region to bring more commercial agriculture and employment for youth in the historically marginalized region, where there is a 63 percent poverty rate, compared with about a 28 percent rate in the South, Boh said.

Mahama often writes on his laptop late into the night. “It’s not normal for leaders to find time to write,” he said. “But at night, thoughts come brimming into my head and I just put them down.”

Andrew Solomon, winner of the National Book Award, compared Mahama’s short story collection with the work of Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Polish Jewish American who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. These days, political opposition leaders say that his administration has not done enough to develop the North and that the government could crack down more on corruption. But even critics of Ghana’s government say Mahama is respected and well known in Washington.

“To me, Mahama embodies the new Africa. He knows that in this century, Africa has to connect to the rest of the world,” said Rosa Whitaker, former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Africa and current chief executive of the Whitaker Group, which helps U.S. companies invest in the sub-continent.

Mahama has helped develop a $100 million Cargill Factory, a U.S. headquartered international company that, in Ghana, processes cocoa butter and cocoa powder from Ghana, the second-largest producer of cocoa in the world.

“Part of the reason that Africa’s been so poor is that they have been only exporting raw products,” Whitaker said. “Vice President Mahama realizes that aid is not a good tool to help people move out of poverty. So he’s been instrumental in helping move Africa up the value chain.”

Bilateral trade between the United States and Ghana in 2010 reached nearly $1.3 billion, including exports such as cocoa, machinery and vehicles. Part of the reason was a new partnership between Ghana and the U.S. Agency for International Development to fund West Africa Trade Hub in Accra, offering training to export firms who deal in apparel, cashews, handmade home decor, shea butter and fish.

Mahama did not meet with President Obama while in town. He did meet the president when Obama visited Ghana in July 2009 and agreed with his message that “Africa’s future is up to Africans.”

Mahama said he disagreed, however, with criticism among some Africa advocates that the first U.S. president with African roots should be making African policy more of a priority.

“I feel the Obama administration has been extremely engaged with Africa, given its domestic pressures and obligations,” Mahama said. “With the global economic meltdown, these are trying times for all governments. I believe these situations have to be understood in context.”

Dressed in a maroon kaftan, Mahama spoke with hundreds of Ghanaians at Washington’s Ghana Embassy. He spoke about a meeting on AIDS that he attended at the United Nations and reported that Ghana’s HIV prevalence had declined from a national high of 3.6 percent in 2003 to 1.5 percent in 2010.

The crowd clapped and cheered. But he got the most applause when he spoke about bringing more roads and development to Ghana.

“One of the major things that made America great is roads,” he said. “In Ghana, today, we want to do the same.”

After his speech, which was posted online, residents of Ghana immediately started sending Facebook messages.

“Thank you, my brother! My vice president!” wrote one. “Africa is very proud of you.

Source: By Emily Wax, WashingtonPost