CHANGE: A PRETENDED SLOGAN

The campaign has been so vociferous that it has come close to becoming a national anthem. To make matters worse, the trumpeters of change are themselves implicated one way or the other in the vices that have brought the nation to its knees, from ethnocentric fundamentalism to corruption and wanton suspicion. Indeed the clouds over Ghana have been coloured by the deafening cries of change that would restore to Ghanaians uninterrupted supply of light to make life and Ghana a place worth occupying. 

I am not a pessimist, neither am I in this case an optimist.  I consciously chose to be a realist especially as I have lived through many promises of change in my lifetime, none of which was fulfilled. I have thus decided to interrogate this new season of the same old promises of change and to do so I have resorted to history as that is the most reliable guide from the past to the future. 

Ghana has historically been in a constant rage of promised change, but as a trip through history indicates, none of that promise either deliberately or not was ever fulfilled. From 80’s when the erstwhile National Democratic Congress leaders campaigned for probity and accountability, we were told that our rich masters were the problem, that it was a crime for a man to own more than one two bed room house, and that one man one house, and that things were going to be better once every citizen was limited to a toilet facility things would change for the better and Ghana would be a prosperous, peaceful, harmonious Eldorado and giant of Africa. 

The rule of the so-called effluents was eventually torpedoed through the barrel of gun, via thuggery, violence, arson and a bloody military coup that truncated the Limman’s administration for a diabolical military regime. In no time Military rule became the problem and we were told that once democracy returned change would come and Ghana would be well on its path to prosperity and harmony.  

Flt. Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings metamorphose  into the scene as the democratically elected president of the  republic in 1992 after his positive defiance mantra and campaigning on probity, integrity and accountability, but soon returned Ghana  to election rigging, corruption, and violence. Once again the leadership became the problem and we were promised again that leadership was the last vestige of hope that would bring change once ‘ Akonta Rawlings’  and his clueless corrupt National Democratic Congress were removed.

 And in came Kuffour and his New Patriotic Party crew with modified diabolical agenda and a revolving door.  

 

Before his coming, we were assured a positive change, and when he came we were told change was coming. In fact, I was busily awaiting the coming into reality that much touted positive change, then Atta Mills came, again we were told change was coming and that the Ghanaian was capable of managing his own affairs. And that Ghana was going to be better under the management of Ghanaians, as if opposite was the case.  Sadly enough, these affairs was never managed by Ghanaians and Ghana never also got better; then Mahama came with ‘ego bee k3k3’ and we waited for it to ‘bee’, but each proved to be worse than the preceding regime. By the time each of them eventually left the scene, human rights abuses and corruption inestimable proportions had become the order of the day.  

Corruption which was one of their principal excuses for coming to power had been institutionalized and all national institutions and infrastructure from Ghana Airways to ECG, TOR to Steel plants, Railways to roads, and hospitals to schools amongst others had been destroyed.  

While the military held sway, pro-democracy organizations started a noisy campaign to end military rule. We were bombarded with a plethora of reasons why the military had to go. We were told that once the military left the problems of corruption, poverty, ethnic and religious divisions, marginalization, human rights abuses and general misrule would end and Ghana would take its rightful place among the comity of nations as a well governed, prosperous, democratic and harmonious giant in the sun.  In 1992 the military departed and in came the present democratic dispensation. 

Rather than the promised change the hitherto democracy campaigners turned themselves into godfathers and unleashed the most systematic looting in the nation’s history. Critical infrastructure has remained comatose. Thuggery, assassinations, election rigging and violence have become national pastimes while general misrule is the single most defining attribute of the present democratic dispensation.  

In 2012 when President John Mahama was elected to power there was again a promise of change and a glimmer of hope. Many suggested he was an outsider who came to power through divine will, a veritable messiah on a rescue mission.  But three years later the promises of change has dissipated and we are back from where we started. 

In all, Ghana has fared worse in the last 23 years of democracy than in any other period in history.  Elsewhere in Egypt and Tunisia  the promises of change that came with the Arab spring has ended up with the status quo, while in Libya and Syria it has ended in violence wracked failed states.  As can be seen, Ghana’s history evidently indicates that time and again the promises of change have remained unfulfilled and in all cases made things worse. 

 It is logical to conclude that Ghana would have been better off if we had continued with the military in spite of its imperfections. There are also so many who think we should have remained under colonial administration; at least until such a time that we would be able to run a democratic system successfully.

I am thus with historical reasons deeply suspicious of every season of promised change as presently obtains, because it has proven time and again to be a deceptive  slogan that only replaces one group  with other power seeking opportunists who always end up making things worse. If history can be an accurate guide then continuity embedded with reforms would make more sense than the deceptive rigmarole of change.

MAHAMA HAS DONE WELL PUTTING GHANA IN DUMSOR, LET'S BE FAIR

A leader can never be a perfect. Most leaders do well in certain respects and fail in other respects. We may never all agree even on one area the leader has done well or has not done well. It all depends on who and the criteria for assessment. For some people, a political leader has not done well except he has given them an appointment, a contract or put money in their individual pockets. A leader can kill himself, but as far as they have received no personal benefit he is no good. For some others, a political leader can only do well if he is from their ethnic enclave or he is from their Political Party. 

For those, the leader can chop off penis of a man; they will ignore and still commend him because of their narrow and myopic prism of assessment. Of course such assessment can be very biased and injurious. Nevertheless they are entitled to their assessment criterion.  And yet for the enlightened others, they use specific and objective criteria to assess leadership performance. There may be some coloration and nuances, but that's because they are human. And that's why I am not really surprised by the recent comments on the economy raised by Dr. Mahamud Bawumia and a couple of other distinguished Ghanaians. 

On this score, I endorse and underscore Felix Kwakye’s invectives on the opposition’s running mate and call for a debate. That to me is the civilized way to conduct a discourse or argument with the objective of presenting the facts, the figures and insights, demolishing falsehood or establishing the truth. I do not subscribe to name calling or demonizing of Professionals or fellow Ghanaians just because our views do not agree. Not all Ghanaians are gullible. Many have brains that work, processing all the information they receive, agreeing, disagreeing and throwing the rest into the garbage.  In my few years of Social Justice Advocacy, I have been schooled by Professors, Engineers and electricity agents on what shows good dumsor Management and Bad dumsor Management from the Public Sector Perspective. It is from this standpoint that I want to justify my conviction that when it comes to the Dumsor John Dramani Mahama his Excellency has done excel, better than many. 

DUMSOR GROWTH In the years that John Mahama has been President, our dumsor has grown from 3hours erratic supply per day in 2012 to 24 hours darkness and 12 hours light. This is one of the highest growth rates in the World, bettered by Ghana. This is the compounded growth rate that has driven us to become the Largest Dumsor Country in Africa and the 1st in the World. If this is not a consequence of good dumsor management, please tell me what is. Even if it happened by 'luck', we must still give the credit to John Mahama's Government. Because if the reverse were the case and the lights were in stagnation as we had many years ago, we will still have blamed it on his poor dumsor management. If a man can take the flak for failure, why must we deny him the right to take the credit for success? Presidents before him did all they could to plunge the nation into complete darkness, but could not realized same before their exit.

DIVERSIFICATION DUMSOR: For 'X' years, where 'X' is not less than 10 years, we had complained that we had a mono generation where water was everything. But we were "shocked" to see that we now have a fairly diversified generation, led by all mighty Akosombo, where water's contribution to electricity has declined to one turbine from six in the hey days! and that even Aboadze Themal had declined from its second in command to almost ‘bob no rank’ because of lack of gas from the west African gas pipes, which cost manufacturing has climbed from postpaid to prepaid and such services as Technocrats as may be determined. It is not yet dé javu as we still depended on crude oil, Gas and water for about 80% of National supply.If all this are not as a result of sound dumsor policies, some of which were started by himself as the then Vice President, then tell me what is. 

 

GENERATOR/PLANT STABILITY For the last four months has sustained ruining businesses that had created a stable income. For the first time in our lives as a nation, our production rate has dropped to Single digit. This was a feat previous Governments dreamt about but could never attain.

 This has happened, because Mamaha have decided not give free hand to the Professionals at the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) and those in the Ministries of Energy, Ministry of Power, Energy Commission, etc to run with needless interference of redeployment. Additionally, he involved the Communications Ministry and the National Democratic Congress Propaganda Team where they used real market and propaganda experience to balance academic energy suply theories. If this is not good dumsor management, please tell me what is. Some Presidents in some Countries have been voted out of office because they could not manage continuous dumsor! 

AVAILABILITY OF TRANSFORMERS, METERS AND CABLES it is easy to take things for granted when they are going well, but when they go wrong, we come to realize that certain things are more important than others. People can find time to make an issue of the increment in our accessories reserves, because we do not have plenty. 

To be sincere, Ghana has had an acute ECG accessories shortage. Thanks be to John Mahama and thanks be to a decline in importation. Iam personally surprised that after the recent devaluation of some meters, and some adjustment of some, the prices of ECG items in the market remain fairly expensive, keeping overall inflation much higher than I had predicted which indicates a lower proportion of locally produced ECG items. Does anybody remember 1990S, when we had to queue for ecg items and other necessities, including sockets and lump holders at ECG offices? 

The days of essential commodities (Essenco) and import licensing when many companies including my Grandpa’s downsized or closed down because they could not bribe to get enough import license.   

I am sure Ghanaians have taken for granted the unavailability of Petrol and diesel. In the last couple of years, except for occasional inflows caused by private importers, we have had almost hassle -free unavailability of Petrol and Diesel in virtually every nook and cranny of the Ghana selling at controlled and unregulated prices, depending on your distance from Accra, Kumasi or Takoradi. What is more, the price of fuel began to go up, helping to reduce the cost of production for Tema Oil Refinery (TOR). 

INCREASING UNEMPLOYMENT:   The growing employment hit t the peak in 2011 per Ablakwah declaration although ET Mensah did not put any currency on it. Today, in 2015 unemployment rate in the general population is nearer to the brim. As at today overall unemployment has galloped to more than 60%. 

Like it or not, the Generator Repairs Industry is coming back to life with the new National Generator Policy which seeks to encourage importation of all kinds of Gensets from all over the World. Many of the World auto companies have started to invest in production plants. 

This industrial revival and upgrade is happening in many Industries which hitherto had been practically impossible. Now Ghanaian companies can compete with International and Multinational companies for global supplies. 

The level of Policy inconsistency and flip-flops we have been subjected to see in dumsor in the past has significantly taught as not to follow sheepishly. In growing, we must look out those who are ready to create more confidence and attracting more investments into the Country with Ghana receiving the highest.

I could go on and on. I have said nothing about the massive investment in training and fueling ‘fisherman’ Energy Commission member Allotey. The impact of good policies and other modes of Allotey’s commission to any dumsor are too obvious for any further elaboration. Some people who are reading this and who may have joined the bandwagon of those who say nothing is happening in the dumsor or that Dramani John is clueless, may be angry at me and may think that I am campaigning. But these are facts which are verifiable. Yes, these may not be the best possible but we must acknowledge what is the correct situation. JM may have questions to answer concerning Economic mismanagement or on other issues but on Dumsor, my verdict is that he has done well, though he could do better by increasing the 24hours to 36hours by May. My bible says "Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter ".

TOMORROW WILL REMAIN ELUSIVE TO THE GHANAIAN YOUTH UNDER THIS 1992 CONSTITUTION.

I know the biggest crime is just to throw up your hands and say "This has nothing to do with me, I just want to live as comfortably as I can." ~ Ani DiFranco

In the words of the Jewish American Professor, Elie wiesel "there are times when we may be powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time when we fail to protest it". 

I am a man of simple faith. I do not care so much about definitions. When I see that something works I say so, when it does not work I also say so. I stand on the side of truth, although these days, the truth is equally part of the problem of Ghana.

It bleeds me so hollow that the hopeless symptom of apathetic attitude of youths involvement in the affairs of the country that bothers our lives is rather treated with disdain and complacency alibi. Any country whose youths are progressively known to be sashaying on the fading table of acute involvement in its affairs, such a country is best described as a Country with no plans and hope for tomorrow, and same is of Republic of Ghana.

The pride of nations is indeed in the strength of her youth. Instead of nurturing ours and empowering them for productive ventures, we deplete their numbers and strength with constitutional provisions. Ghanaian Youth have come under attacks since 1992, not from some arm bearing miscreants but from the very laws that were supposed to protect us under the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. Ours is a constitution where youths count for nothing. That is why there is no sense of outrage when the youth of the country is continuously raped and sidelined. Our youths only find value in the hands of our leaders during elections when we are recruited as agents of electoral malpractices and afterwards, we are abandoned to suffer in joblessness.

Suffix it to say that unlike the past where those that are elderly are at the helm of affairs and blames are apportioned to them for consistent occupancy of various positions, especially political appointment, the youths of nowadays have not only ignorantly sold their conscience and tie their fate to the apron string of melancholy but has provided the hammers designed for nailing their ambition as future leaders to the coffin.

We are still on the sidewalk, galloping on a scale of recurrent decimal of hopeless hope. This is an obvious indication that same people who know the innermost genesis about this occurrence are also responsible for the backwardness of the rescue exercise and the constant sabotaging of same.

The destiny of today's youth squarely rest on our hands and our fate of tomorrow is intertwined with our own attitude of obliviousness which has climaxed to the height of Eldorado. In other words, their consistent ‘I don't careerism attitude’ is in direct proportion to their doom. 

Ghanaian youth, like Esau in the Bible, have sold their birthright and destiny for a plate of jollof rice with fried fish (Kpanla). I do not only lament because I am a youth but I weep for the impudence of the youths who has contributed to the mugging of our tomorrow by not just the political leaders and their lunatic advisers but also the constant behavioral dysfunction towards their tomorrow. I then ask: where and how did we find ourselves at this distorted and regrettable juncture?  

Unlike what Professor Wole Soyinka pointed out, the youth of this generation are dead on arrival. Neither our present nor our future speaks volume of our involuntary will of involving in Government activities under the current arrangements and wicked clauses in the Constitution from preamble to schedules. We have been made to succumb to the will of redundant decision and appellation of the rogue elderly in power and thereby allowing our tomorrow to be decided by those who are waiting in the departure lounge and without tomorrow by same constitution.

Events of varied degrees can attest to the fact that at every given moment, the average Ghanaian youth is only concerned with the instant gratification of self-fulfillment without thinking or sampling the weather of tomorrow's occurrence or the aftermath of such lukewarm action in a concave of personal assertion and measurement.   Conceding and seceding the relevance of tomorrow to same set of people whose decisions and involvement in early politics never or did heed little or nothing to the growth of the Country is tantamount to  planting and sowing seeds on a rock and expect to get maximum increase at the harvest period. They walk in haughty strides and flaunt looted monies and encourage the youths to die in their place of some corrupt politicians whose only aim of being in politics is for their own self-s aggrandizement. They gave room to these politicians whose families are only resident in Abroad. The question therefore is; for how long will it take the youths to refocus and redirect their steps into the rightful track?   

Selling your souls to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) or National Democratic Congress (NDC) communicators, rallies and campaigns is not a total assurance or guarantee of your tomorrow. The question should rather be: what structures and qualitative manifestos do these aggrieved political rogues struggling for power have on ground? They made us, the youths to be spectators of their shameful display of inept manifestation of their indoor agreement and urge us to take up arms against their political opponent.  

Even with the present administration of John Mahama, a supposed youth, where is the leverage provided for the youths and job employment that is feasible to all? all I am aware of is the several propaganda in different tabloids.  

Even the office of the National Youth Authority (NSA) and or Youth Enterprise Support (YES or YEA) on job creation headed by Ras Mubarak is nothing short of an office where he gathers his associates and waste the whole day discussing irrelevant issues and gallivanting without positive daily outcome and depart before the closure of the day. Nothing good except the practice of silence and abode for smokers who come there to while away their time has emanated from that office since the inception of its creation.  

It is inexcusable for our political leaders to continue basking in the euphoria of stagnancy of youth’s welfare development because they are surrounded by charlatans and sycophants whose major aim is to continue gathering grains from the National resources even when they don't need it. 

The President, Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice  is very much aware of this fact, let no pretense prevail; a practice of sheer wickedness and delusional propensity of a sincere self-participatory lacuna towards the strides of youth development. What a blatant shame!  

We now live in an era where events spread like wild fire and the people jerk up to reaction for just a few minutes after which it will die down like such an incident never took place. If the truth is to be told in all sanctity, the people whom we registered our vacuity to put in political offices and who swore to protect our sovereignty, lives and properties did not only throw our hope into the thin air but has also smirched us on our cheek bone. How can a country whose tomorrow is being tossed like a coin by some miscreants decides to abandon her line of priority and chooses to tow on the tiny lines of personal aggrandizement by few who had been benefitting from the bounty of absolute corruption? I weep for my mother's land. 

We have a full fledge of rogues whose only aim in government is to make the people weep and bath with regrets. A country that has all these as her products has invariably lost her virtues before her foreign counterparts. The President is not left out as he has paid blind attention to the corruption affecting most of his commitment towards the concern of youth participation in politics and development. 

With all these analogies with as many as FIVE provisions in the constitution on ground to inhibit the youth, we need no soothsayers to tell the youths that our present and future as enshrined in our constitution is worth nothing reasonable in guaranteeing the future of Ghanaian youth. The youths have remained at a particular junction of rigmarole and walking round in a circle. The so called corrupt rogues we have as leaders are aware of these facts and rather than postulating avenues of revival, they have embarked on their normal practical theory of 'control response stimuli ', a situation whereby the lives of the youths are made so hard that they have to beg for crumbs from the tables of our corrupt and unreasonable politicians. Where they will remain in a motion mode of classical conditioning without any hope of springing forth out of the circle. 

Our constitution makes us beg for bread and end up becoming perpetual slaves to our dastardly acts of inhumanity because of their inordinate ambition. If this trend continues, it therefore goes to define and assuage the past cries of being the leaders of tomorrow as a poet sang and re-echoed in the dark of unwanted voice bellowing for a reason of attention that is never required.  

Of a truth, Professor Wole Soyinka was right when he said and I quote" the youth of this generation is dead on arrival". 

The bells of political jingles are ringing boisterously on every corner and the youths as usual are the major target of shameful insolence of public show of shame and display of idolatry sagacity. 

We have a full fledge of rogues whose only aim in government is to make the people weep and bath with regrets. A country that has all these as her products will certainly lose her place in the global political market. 

Where do we go from here? Every nooks and crannies of the country is flooded with campaign posters with negotiations going on and the very issue on the tabloid has been left unattended to.  A country filled with acclaimed visionary leaders with no value, no vision and no shame.  

These are what we have been living with and from all indications, all these abnormalities will continue to remain static except the youths rise up and wake up from their slumber and rise to their feet and redirect their destinies by saying no to clauses that prohibit our involvement in decision making of our nation. We must fight the inconsistencies in the constitution in order to liberate the Ghanaian youth.

Per our constitution, we are told it’s our natural and inalienable right to establish a government which shall secure our prosperity, liberty, equality of opportunity and posterity. Can we say we have achieved this as a nation?

How can article 17 (1) say all persons shall be equal before the law , 17 (2) say a person shall not be discriminated against on grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or economic status and conspicuously missing is age?. 

Article 21 clause (3) for instance, bestows on all citizens the right and freedom to join political parties and to participate in political activities subject to such QUALIFICATIONS and laws as are necessary in a free and democratic society and are consistent with this constitution. The question is where would article 17 (1) be?

The most annoying portion of the constitution is the right to vote as enshrined in article 42, where every citizen of eighteen years of age or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections and referenda. How can I vote for, and cannot be voted for? Where is the sense in article 62 (b) which states a person shall not be qualified for election as the President of Ghana unless he has attained the age of forty years? As if, the age forty is magical. I restrained myself to comment on the use of (He) as if it is only men who are born and allowed by law to run to be president. Can you see the deliberate discrimination against us by the framers and users of the constitution? How do I determine a president by voting if I cannot be a president or think like a president? Could this not be the reason why politicians think the nation is made up of short minded voters?

Again article 94 clauses (1a) says a person shall not be qualified to be a member of parliament unless he or she is a citizen of Ghana, and has attained the age of twenty-one years and is a registered voter. For Christ sake, how can persons not qualified to be president by law make laws to be used in administration of a nation? 

It is apparent to conclude that the Republic of Ghana Constitution-1992 is the bane of the progress of Ghanaian youth. And until it is repealed to appreciate the importance of the youth, Ghana will be round aground by clueless grandpas.

Tomorrow will obviously remain elusive to us under this selective constitution if we don’t resist the segregation. We shall continue to be willing tools in the hands of deceitful governments, for there is no future anywhere for us under this constitution. Let’s join hands devoid of political and dialectical boundaries that often put us apart and fight the system to consolidate our constituency.

Dear Mama,

Fourteen years ago today I had the worse day of my entire life. Fourteen years ago today I awoke to the news that you were in the emergency ward. Fourteen years ago today I knew that the next Mother’s Day I wouldn't spend with you either. Fourteen years ago today I began a two year long downward journey into insanity, depression, and fear unlike any I'd ever experienced in the past. Fourteen years ago today I no longer had hope and I felt like my life was over. Fourteen years ago today I wanted to be at the hospital, climb into bed with you and hold you as much as I couldn't stand the thought of hearing your voice or seeing your face ever again. Fourteen years ago today I kept waiting to wake up from the nightmare.

Today I awoke to the terror of a nightmare involving you (and my asking you to not be so grumpy), a next door explosion and open windows that needed to be closed due to the giant smoke cloud, puppies, strange poetry (about taking a "sit" instead of taking a "stand"), and letters from high school friends.

Today I awoke to thunder, loud rain, and wind chimes. Only not the wind chimes that dad made because, despite what he says, they do dry rot and fall apart over time. 

Today I started my day sandwiched between a boy and girl, giving many thanks to the Lord for giving their mother the strength to land them here, amidst emotional instability.

Today I wept, felt hopeless, missed you the most.

Today I realized that my journey out of depression was difficult but worth it in the long run.

Today I would imagine that you are celebrating in heaven and that makes me happy, even though I feel really distant from you. You wouldn't even know or recognize me.

It was hard watching you go, but it's was harder letting you go, knowing that this goodbye could be the last and that I might never hear you say HELLO ever again...

Thanks for the friendship, thank you for the smile. Thanks for the love you showed even though it was only for a while. True my heart was broken and yes, my eyes did cry. But the pain is all over now because I have learned to say goodbye.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, Mama.

WEEP NOT FOR GHANA

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter." -Walt Disney 

"Why do the heathen rage; and men imagine vain things."-Bible 

To the killers of Late Republic Gold Coast and those who have held Ghana captive, today I seek the permission of the sons and daughters of Gold Coast and Ghana the Republic of ‘Dumso’ to say we forgive you Mr. and Mrs. Politician.

I ask for them to be forgiven because I realize that in forgiveness, we can get justice. Even Jesus Christ while on the cross said: “Father forgives them, for they know not what they are doing." 

No matter who you are, we breathe the same air. We will all be buried in the same grave size, irrespective of the fact that, you were tall or short while you existed on earth. 

To all those who are part of the ‘Drop that Yam’ campaign, weep not for Ghana. Rather, weep for the people that made Ghana an abortive country. 

No matter how dead your conscience may be, it still breathes life, meaning that all men are still equal.

Weep for the people whose end will be worse than their beginning. Weep for those whose eyes seem to be overshadowed by injustice. Weep for the people which posterity will never judge right Weep for the people who can only destroy the flesh and not the soul. 

Weep for the people who killed their joy on the very day Gold Coast was murdered and Ghana switched to hibernation. 

Never weep for Mahama, for he has failed in paying a price for the youth. Never ever weep for the Mahama’s s but rather be consoled that their generations will suffer together with yours, and that your accentors will never be victims of political malady after him, Mahama. 

Weep not for Ghana, for someday, like Ken Agyepong had regained his freedom from political detention, freedom is on the way for Ghana. 

We are ever united in one accord to say Drop that Yam for a reputation founded on integrity and nurtured by truth!