NII NOI NORTEY: A GEM OF INESTIMABLE VALUE

Princes master their feelings by fulfilling their duties to humanity while others in silence bow down and accept destiny that oppresses them.

But for Nii Noi Nortey who is from a humble home, he has learnt to take his destiny into his hand despite his tough beginning. As the first child in a family of three, the young Valentino knows too well the inherent challenges that lie ahead of him.

He is the teenager whose near Spartan upbringing only helped to shape his future. Hence, he left nothing to chance in pursuit of Education. Today, he is a renowned Estate Developer in international business. Despite these accomplishments, the erudite intellectual would not want to flaunt this.

For him, humility remains his slogan. For me Chairman Nii Noi is akin to a man who rose from zero to hero and who wants to take Klottey Korle to greater heights.

Not only is he the youngest political party chairman of a constituency at his age, but also double as the Osu land committee.

Nii Noi Nortey Owuo

Young Nii Noi cut his educational tooth at the Osu Home School. Upon completion, he proceeded to Presbyterian Boys School in Legon-Accra. While in Secondary School, Nii Nortey demonstrated an uncommon intelligence and exhibited an exemplary character that marked him out in the crowd. 

His studious disposition earned him an unsolicited scholarship from his uncles to study in University of Ghana.

Nii Noi’s knack for education left him with two master degrees. First, he bagged a B.A. degree in Political Science before he proceeded to acquire an MBA in Management with effortless ease. Not done yet, the erudite Nii Noi saw the need to attain the zenith of his chosen career. Hence, he proceeded to read Legal Studies. All these he accomplished in record time. 

At the peak of his educational pursuit, he ventured into the academic world because he wanted to impact positively on the lives of youngsters. He stepped up his game by picking up another teaching job at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

Nii Noi Nortey rose through the ranks and was subsequently appointed Deputy Director of Denny Developers International.  

Nii Noi, not extravagantly wealthy as one would have imagined. But he’s ready to share the little he has when he sees one in need.  A man of his words, Nii Noi is peace personified; a giver by nature and also a contented man who doesn’t believe that stealing public funds for his personal use can ever make him rich. He believes in matching responsibility with accountability.

He is a strong believer, who prefers to empower and invest in lives through knowledge, like he had always done in the past and he would do in the future if given the opportunity.

Through his foundation (Nii Noi Foundation), he has helped the less privileged children and youths in schools. He has equipped schools with learning facilities by providing exercise books and computers.

As a constituency chairman of the Klottey Korle, he has to his credit a chunk number of the youth under the banner name (Friends of Nii Noi-FONN).

Nii Noi Nortey the grandson of Nii Noi Owuo ii and an heir to the throne of the Osu Stool and Kingdom has thrown caution to the wind as he proudly identify himself with the commoners in society.

Nii has also assisted school leavers in Asylum down, Osu, Adabraka and beyond to gain employment and be self-employed.  He is not a man who would want to blow his trumpet. He is a quiet performer and silent achiever.

He is married to a trainee journalist. The marriage is yet to be blessed with children.  

 

WHAT WILL THEY TELL US ON THE NEXT CAMPAIGN TRAIN? (Epistles Code V1)

We have less than one year to the campaign trail as the 2016 general election draws close. What will they tell us this time around? There is chronic unemployment; acute inflation and economic meltdown; poor public electricity supply; crumbling road infrastructure and insecurity.

The problems of the country are multiplying every day, growing, spread in leaps and bounds! What will they tell us again? Take for example the fact that the Government of Ghana has not constructed a single road in the Volta Region since 2008, what will our political leaders from the region tell us concerning the deplorable, dilapidated and utterly bad Accra-Ho-Hohoe Highway?

Will our political leaders have the courage, the mind to implore or urge us to vote for President John Mahama or whoever emerges the presidential candidate of the NDC in the face of the failure of successive NDC controlled Governments since to construct this very vital highway that links the South-North with the Volta?

Recall that the Government has made more money since from the services of our human resources and sale of timber, yet such an important Highway that is so strategic to the socio economic growth of the Volta Region is left in such benign neglect for the past 22 years! I combed the appropriation Act of 2014/15 thoroughly to find out if the construction of this Highway has been budgeted but it turned out to be an exercise in vain.

This is the last national budget President Mahama will be implementing before 2016 election, yet this Highway is left out. So what will they tell us? Will they tell us to simply vote for President John because he is from the North and NDC?

One can imagine the economic losses we suffered each time this Highway is blocked as a result of its deplorable nature! Take again, another l Highway in the Region that has remained deplorable for the past 15 years! It is the Sogakorpe –Hohoe Highway. This Highway has completely collapsed and it is overdue for a new one, yet nothing has been done on it for 15 years. The Highway has shrunken so much in size over the years so much so that it simply cannot cope any longer with the heavy traffic that it is currently saddled with .

The result is that the road has become one of the most dangerous roads in the world. It is a death trap. Each day deadly and ghastly accidents take place on this road. It takes divine intervention for one to travel through this road and arrive safely in his or her destination! Yet our political leaders from this clime do not bother to draw the attention of the powers that be!

They will simply tell us to vote for so and so come 2016. They will buy bags of rice, Maggi seasonings etc and distribute to our hapless people to continue to vote for those who do not care about our well –being.

Our young people forgot to ask our political big wig why the Government has woefully and spectacularly failed to create employment for them so they can live more meaningfully! So the question remains this: What will they tell us next time?

STOMACH GROUNDWORK CONCEPT WILL NOT WORK IN AYAWASO CENTRAL AGAIN

Stomach groundwork is a very recent unfortunate political vocabulary which connotes political office seekers could have a short-cut route to gain upper hand by using the sharing of food items such as 5kgs of rice and some half bottle of frying oil to delegates as means to buy their undivided support and votes.  The proponents of the theory have cited, quite illogically, the continuous victory of the New Patriotic Party former parliamentarian, Sheikh Ibrahim Cudjo Quaye which was allegedly based on this shameful act as justification. 

The reality is that the Ayawaso Central delegates of the New Patriotic party are far too matured and it would be too ridiculous to allow this theory to stay forever. 

Is it not an insult to our collective psyche that an incumbent in the upcoming parliamentary primaries in Ayawaso Central, of the New Patriotic Party descending to the abysmal by distributing bags of rice and kegs of cooking oil to secure their votes after abandoning them for close to two years? 

The action, if leads one is getting is anything to go by, is derogatory and rude to Ayawaso Central Delegates. The delegates of the constituency are by far too politically aware to be deceived and conned through the distribution of food items to get their votes. One wonders where this theory of stomach infrastructure, as derogatory as it is of our collective pride, is coming from. The New Patriotic Party Persons, from time immemorial has been known for principled and independent political choice. The New Patriotic Party has always been known to lead other political groupings in political maturity and anyone who now wants to reduce their collective pride to mere bread and butter is no doubt an enemy of the people of the constituency/tradition, and is on the journey of reckless catastrophe.  

The action is laughable, as the Ayawaso Central Delegates are rare breed in political maturity. No wonder in the 2014 Presidential election, the people of Ayawaso Central demonstrated this maturity by voting overwhelmingly for the candidate of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu Addo out of choice irrespective of youthful or tribal sentiments. That candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufu Addo, was a man of the people, loved by all for his forthrightness and loyalty to the New Patriotic Party and nation despite his limited financial means. 

It is on this platform that one would want to condemn the recent desperate move by the sitting member of parliament for the people of Ayawaso Central Constituency of the New Patriotic Party in the upcoming parliamentary election in the constituency. While other candidates in the same election are making moves on daily basis to sell their programmes through whispering campaigns, Henry is reportedly sharing rice and oil to convince the Ayawaso Delegate to vote for him.

One would have better ignored him to go on with his journey of disgrace if his moves were not directed at sending very wrong signal to the outside nation about the good and mature people of Ayawaso Central Constituency. If not checked, Henry Quartey, a sore loser in the upcoming parliamentary election to the National Democratic Congress if not replaced, would only succeed in reducing Ayawaso Central indigenes as people being ruled by their stomach rather than their intellect. He should not wear our people with the garb of hungry citizens who will sell their votes because of mere cups of rice. 

Reports that are unfortunately coming from some areas in the constituency suggest that Henry is, in his desperate move to get the votes of Delegates, which of course he knows he does not deserve, is moving around and begging people to accept his bags of shame. 

I CAN NO LONGER BEAR JM'S POLICIES

I wish I get the nod of the New Patriotic Party to fly its ticket to champion those of our nation who could no longer bear" JM’S policies.

I understand the anger and concerns of a great number of Ghanaians, unemployment, job insecurity, poor housing, poor healthcare and lastly insecurity which is becoming a prolonged nightmare in Ghana.

I understand the fears about our common future, the failures of our democracy to lift Ghanaians out of poverty to prosperity"

Ghana must find a path again which will give it back all of its meaning; I am willing to show Ghanaians a different perspective of what the presidency should look like. I want a candidate of reconciliation and trust to rally the nation together to prosperity. 

I want to offer Ghanaian youth a better life than I had not seen: I want to put the drive back in the Ghanaian dream.  For  “where there is no visions the people perish.” a biblical declaration very true of a generation that has succumbed to unbelievable levels of mediocrity, one that sing and dance for MM/DCES, Members of Parliament and Presidents who build a few roads and then endlessly justify all the other failings of government.

My heart bleeds at seeing the large agents of mediocrity across Ghana who have made a career from justifying the inexcusable failure of the past and present governments at all levels and count some mediocre projects as achievements even after some fifty six years (57) of independence; Ghana is a certified failed country in spite of abundant human and material resources.

We live in the 21st century, an era that has heralded the most advanced technology ever known to man. From the internet to face book, YouTube to twitter, solar energy to wind energy, GPS to space tourism, the world is navigating through revolutionary technology in all spheres at a dizzying pace. Technology brings with it possibilities and solutions for all kinds of human challenges, it takes away the constraint and arduous task of needing to “reinvent the wheel,”  yet in the age and midst of such possibilities, Ghana has regressed into a failed state lacking the most basic infrastructure. 

Sadly, there abound so many soaked in the muddied waters of mediocrity, willing to applaud and defend the government in the open glare of colossal failings. Most worrying is the well-travelled and educated elite who are now either the purveyors, enablers or chief defenders of mediocrity. Ghana is the only country where so called leaders are endlessly praised and celebrated for doing less than 15% of their job even when the 15% is mostly of doubtful quality. This trend is evident all across Ghana as governments construct a several substandard roads, erect some cranky boreholes in a few communities and get treated to dance troupes and praise singers for failing in his job. Same goes for the members of parliament who are toasted and celebrated for patching up a few spots in some badly damaged asphalt roads that continues to kill thousands of victims annually. 

Every year endless hypes and noise is made  about the purported achievement of government; how things are improving; how this and that president is ‘performing,’  but beneath all that deceit  propaganda is the reality of failure across all strata of  governance in Ghana. Neither the president nor any of the ministers are successful.  None of them can pass even the most basic test of good governance and accountability. Government in this time is all about scamming and mediocrity. They loot public funds, deceive the public with some mediocre projects and together with a mediocre populace celebrate their failings as success. 

Notwithstanding the mechanics of state failure, all too present in Ghana, the justifiers and enablers of mediocrity are everywhere singing praises of government for non-performance and giving endless excuses why the much desired basic infrastructure and social services does not exist. A nation where so many are ever too willing to defend visionless and underperforming governments cannot succeed. At a time when so many ambitious and progressive nations around the world are blazing an audacious trail in economic, infrastructural and social development, Ghana is behind in time. A dirty, stumbling, un-ambitious giant of failure consigned to the ignoble depths of penury.

The choice is clear, it is either we emancipate ourselves from the veneration of mediocrity, and put our leaders under enormous pressure to fulfill our aspirations for economic, social and infrastructural development or continue with mediocrity and be consumed by the social violence of a failed dysfunctional nation.