58 YEARS OF HONOURABLE EXCUSES

The President’s 58^th speech on the state of Ghana proceeding the occasion of Ghana’s anniversary celebrations is conveniently arranged. It reads like wedding refreshment designed to tame and temper the stupor of an inebriate. Ghana at 58 represents the babel of the ancient world that foreshadows our current situation. Languages and politics still divide us, we’re still distrustful of and perplexed by one another. Ghana at 58 is like a football game in which millions of Ghanaians as spectators in need of exercise are watching a handful of players in need of rest.

Have you ever spent the night in countryside? If so, you will have little trouble identifying with the complaints of Ghanaians as John celebrates his achievements on the anniversary of Ghana. A Ghanaian community is a hostile place. By day, the sun beats down pitilessly, and the temperature soars. Food is scarce, and water is virtually nonexistent in our communities. This is the graphic picture. This is the metaphor of Ghana at 58 anniversary celebrations.

Our Presidents’ speech is not an encouragement for Ghanaians who are down in the pits. It is not a discouragement either over temptation from lustful and corruptive thoughts. Surely, it is not a diagnosis for the purpose of living for the mistreated and ignored Ghanaians. For me, it was honourable excuses told in the house full of honourable men and women.

Mr. John said he considered himself “specially privileged to lead our country into its second century of existence… But what I feel most is not frustration, it is not disillusionment. What I feel is great pride and great hope for a country that is bound to overcome the transient pains of the moment and eventually take its rightful place among the greatest nations on earth.”

Mr. President, how could you feel frustration and disillusionment when you are not one of the several shoeless Ghanaians. Speaking of hope, well there is no medicine like hope. However, it is one thing to speak of hope when things look doubtful, when the future of Ghana and Ghanaians are uncertain, when circumstances are crowding them in and when Ghanaians have been crushed to the floor. It is something else to speak of hope when there is no doubt about the present, when the future is certain. Hope in the midst of utter turmoil and butchery of our economy cannot simply be starry-eyed optimism, it must be built upon bedrock reality.

While the occasion of our anniversary undoubtedly calls for celebration, it is also a moment to pause and reflect on our journey of the past fifty eight years. It is sad but true that those who do not learn from history are destined to repeat it. The anniversary should be an occasion for a sobering warning and an opportunity to learn from the past, and not a time for celebrations, what is there to be celebrated?

We are not yet at our destination of greatness; a nation of the future, which future? A hopeless Future? A poverty ravaging future? A corruption infested future? A future of wasted generation of youths? A nation without vision for the future? Which destination of greatness was Mr. John talking about? Mr. President no one except you and your followers can visualize the future you dream of. From all indications and the compelling body of evidence before Ghanaians, we’re a nation of the past. The future is grim and dire and scary. Therefore the arrogation of fake and empty hope of safety by the president and the absolution of ignorance not to keep same is tantamount to a charade and facade of sequential oblivion which is left unsolved after such promises are made. The lives of Ghanaians are no longer safe and rather than going about our normal duties, everybody now walk on the streets with not just ultimate care of consciousness  but every bit of suspicion. It is no longer news that we are under serious attack by darkness enemies who don't wish Ghana any good but have her major aim tailored towards annihilation and extinction of our very existence. 

For Mr. Mahama, the only visible achievement of the country in the past 58 years is democracy, the new Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange of Accra and the uniqueness of Dr. Kwadwo Afari Gyan and how he makes presidents at the expense of the voting populace. 

I have never seen or read of nations of people whose prosperity, strength, and unity were dictated by their ability to build a new interchange. Mr. Mahama must be a unique President of a unique nation.

 How many times do we have to stumble and fall as 58-year old nation before we learn how to crawl, walk, and run? The falls have been many, the falls have been unnecessary; the falls have been shameful, laughable, and ludicrous. And every single time we stumbled, we fall deeper and deeper into the abyss.

A lot has been said as to the wisdom that informed the President’s decision to celebrate the 58^th anniversary This administration in line with past administrations have ruinous infatuations with meaningless and wasteful jamborees that have no economic value to the people. Again, this circus of foolishness like others have not survived the disillusionments and disappointments associated with such infatuations.

But by far, the brainless and despicable part of the politics of the 58^th celebrations is the timing. The 58^th was being celebrated when the sour smell from the offensive odors of fresh blood of innocent children from the killing fields of our hospitals by ‘dumsor’ had hardly cleared out of the air; and to demonstrate the insensitivity and “I don’t give a damn” attitude of President. Mahama to the horror and nightmare that have befallen the Ghanaians as a result of ‘dumsor’, he went beseech promising again to fix ‘dumsor’ perpetually, as if he has not promised enough and failed.

In a single climatic day, our civilization once again was assaulted and threatened. Take a look at the mismanagement of the resources of the country. It is a raw deal for us as citizens of Ghana for Mahama to dare our sensibilities by celebrating a 58^th of no historical essence in the midst of death and funeral. History will judge Mr. Mahama for letting loose the turmoil by given free rein to the saboteurs and for doing absolutely nothing to finally corral the slaughtering of our future.

History will not be kind either to the legislators in Accra. Their lack of initiative, their wavering posture, and their lackadaisical approach with content far away looks on their faces to national issues paved the way for the much deadlier violence and the collapse of our collective civilization.

At 58, Ghanaians live below the poverty line. Our economy is in decline. Pensions when paid are not enough. People are literally hungry. Young people have no future as unemployment hovers all over the place. The oil, supposed to be a blessing is our biggest barrier to progress. We thought it would bring the greatest joy; it is our greatest undoing – a resource curse. Things have never been worse.  

Political promises to improve the economy have never been fulfilled. Badly managed privatization policies continue to stagnate the economy. The same people are holding power all the time. They don’t do anything but they do get the largest salaries in the world. The political system has kept the country balkanized and created restrained economic growth. Our political leadership is divided along ethnic lines. The many layers of government curb economic development because no one is in charge. Now, Ghanaians must starts warming up to the idea that they have to take power in their hands in order for the political elite to feel fear and insecure. 

What a strange, upside-down country Ghana is? We live in a country where those receiving the greatest public applause and financial reward are those who loot the treasury with no regard to their moral character or ethical conduct. By contrast, those fighting for the people are without recognition or reward – the humble, the merciful, those who work for the peace, progress, and fairness – are persecuted for doing right.

Meanwhile, the victims’ parents and the rest of Ghanaians would have to cope with the shock of recent days. The biggest problem now is to come back to our senses it all began like a joke and now it has climaxed to its credulous crescendo leaving almost everybody dumbfounded, hapless and helpless with no valve and vision of hope light at the end of the tunnel. The law is sacrosanct and just like the right to life of every human being exiting under the surface of the sun, hence effects have been dwindled into the dark ray of soliloquy.  

It is therefore worthy to note that; with these present and unpredictable ventures Ghanaians find themselves, the future of our safety is not just bleak but murky and highly acrimonious.  

Before now, it was this popular belief of alluring ethnic diversification and religious jingoism as being promoted by some greedy politicians who apply such gimmicks of deceit to mislead the people whenever they fail in their duty to provide what is due to the electorate. When they lost their sense of commitment to the people, they resort to cheap blackmail and plant seed of discord among the people just to divert attention from the original stable issue on ground and make them embark on a war of ethnic and religious superiority. This is typically against the evil deeds of these miscreants from a strange world because their operations and activities are not secluded, selected or manned in targeted coordinated spheres as no religion is spared.

THE EXTRA TIME MENTALITY

The reason why we are still lagging behind in the comity of nations is because our presidents both past and present have failed to prioritize every given opportunity in ensuring that its citizen's physiological and safety needs are met. They prefer to be lethargic in governance and waste their time on frivolities till the tail end of their administration before they begin to show seriousness. 

Extra time, an additional time needed or given to accomplish a task or project has become a phenomenon in our polity. It has taken over our system and now cuts across every facet of our lives.  

In football, it is a period of usually 30 minutes added to the end of the game if both teams have the same score. In extra time, the unexpected should be expected. Extra time could make or mar a team.  

In politics, anything can happen in extra time, it is in extra time that our government pretends to get serious with governance. At every given task, most Ghanaians especially in government prefer to handle such with levity till the dying minutes, when they run out of time, they put the blame on other people and after wards seek for extra time. There hardly seems to be a politician, institutions or profiteers of the government that are not guilty of extra time. The recent cancellation of the district assembly elections scheduled for March 3rd is a good example of an extra time phenomenon. 

After reassuring Ghanaians repeatedly of its readiness for the elections after several postponements, it took a supreme court to tell the Electoral Commission, it was working outside the laws of the soil, whence  directed same to stay and operate within the confines of the law because they are a creation of law themselves.

In explaining their reasons for the cancellation, Supreme Court panel, allotted all the blames at the door steps of the commission and reiterated its commitment for the polls and insisted the postponement was necessary and could not be circumvented.

How else does one explain such an unmitigated effrontery of our electoral commission                                                                                                                                                                                                     in the attempt to deny an aspirant? After 23 years in this same battle without much improvement, the Ghana electoral commission has in a release asked Ghanaians for an "extra time" of unnumbered weeks to be able to rout lay a new bill before our legislature and I am is forced to ask why the seriousness in this "extra time" and what magic do our electoral commission intend to perform in weeks unknown in dispelling those ragged tagged terrorists which they have not done in four years?

After failing to fulfill its core campaign promises and with less than a year to the general elections, the ruling government has suddenly realized they are in extra time and have started showing seriousness in all their unfinished projects all over the nation. How possible it will be for these unfinished projects to be completed in less before the December polls is what I am yet to know but in extra time, just as it is in football, anything can happen.

Before now, it has always been an easy ride by hook or by crook for the ruling government in the capture of the seat of power and for the first time in our democratic history, an opposition party is going neck in neck with the ruling party in the capture of the seat of power. Right now millions of dissenting Ghanaians are considering the opposition as an alternative government at the centre to fix the dumsor. 

Instead of asking themselves how they got entangled in this web by allowing the wind of change mantra catch up with them, the ruling party and its members have resorted to blame games, they have continued to blame the past rulers and opposition for the myriads of problems bedeviling our nation.

Just as it is done in football, after the normal regulation time without a winner, we have been caught in the web of extra time and, the most anticipated day of the year is the day this extra time will be played. It will be between the ruling party, National Democratic Congress, (NDC) and the main opposition party, New Patriotic Party, (NPP). 

Will the defending champions NDC be able to beat the rising opposition party, NPP and win the trophy back to back or will PPP or CPP the under dogs who many never believed will get to this final stage rise up to the occasion and beat both parties to the title?

December 7, 2016 will tell.

THE ELITES OF GHANA

Too many have had to suffer at the hands of political economic elite whose only fight is for them by them, with them and them... And with a bureaucracy so bloated and confused, the powerful always win...but...Onyedikachi Ndidi 

 In a recent conversation with friends on the state Ghana, I reminded of the Marxist theorem that says, "When a society is on the verge of collapse, the ruling class is thrown into confusion."

Ghana's current identity is that replete with confused, factionalized and extremely corrupt elites with a limited sense of nationalism. As my late Mother puts it, "These elites lacking strong and viable base in production, have for long used the nation as its primary instrument of primitive accumulation." In the end, the country has been mangled and rendered impotent in the quest for nationhood, growth and development, much less democracy. 

The genesis and development of the Ghanaian elite is as interesting as the generic rooting of the Ghanaian nation. The elite, which took over power from the departing colonial authorities, also took over from them the development ethos of the colonial administrations. 

This could be stated as the self-interested exploitation of the people and the country. This self-serving ethos, which had been the foundation, was what the colonialism had engrained in the mentality of the emerging Ghanaian elite. The devastating effect of this formed the basis of development orientation in the postcolonial Ghana. 

While one can argue rightly so too, that though the elite is meant to play a central role in promoting and designing democracy, as it is quite impossible to prosecute any democratic project in any society without the input of the elite, the Ghanaian elite has sadly continued to impede and frustrate the democratization trend. 

They see democracy or governance more as a means to an end, and in Achebe's words, have a tendency to ‘pious material wooliness and self-centered pedestrianism’. Consequently, the group remains just like its colonial progenitor an instrument of exploitation and suppression of the popular classes and a tool for primitive accumulation and class consolidation for the hegemonic groups. 

In other words, the few who control the system have access to all imaginable perks while the many who are excluded are victims of all forms of abuses. Perhaps, it is for this reason, the struggle to attain and retain power has become a veritable war fought without restraint and with total disregard for the ethos and conventions of democracy and giving birth to an unprecedented level of corruption and misgovernance irrespective of the party or group. 

In twenty-first century Ghana, elite corruption is demonstrated in various dimensions, namely, presidentialism, clientelism and rent seeking. 

Now, let us look at presidentialism, it implies the systematic concentration of political power in the hands of one individual who more often resists delegating all but the most trivial decision-making tasks. 

This concept is likened to patrimonialism or personalized rule, where an individual rules by dint of personal prestige and power. It can emerge from either the army or a dominant political party, whichever way; the point is that power is consolidated by asserting total personal control over formal political structures thereby making ways for corruption (Bratton and Van de Walle, 1997). 

For example in Kuffour’s government, President John Kuffour was the minister of roads and transport, a portfolio he never wanted any other individual to handle. 

He was minister of roads for several months yet he did not build a single road. So it is foolhardy for any sane person to be moved by his exhibitionism of lampooning John Mahama, a man who continuous to pay his dues to him (Kuffour) timely.

In Ghana, primitive accumulation comes in form of theft, looting, graft, expropriation, money laundering, enslavement and internal colonization. In this sense, even governments are not eager to probe the sources of personal wealth. 

What is more? The prevailing trend among the Ghanaian elite is how to enrich oneself in order to remain relevant in the polity and how that is done is nobody’s business. To this class of individuals, ‘the end justifies the means’, and not ‘the means to justify the end’. 

Little wonder, the cases of DUMSOR being viewed as a political tool, coupled with ritual incompetence, photo-shopping and secret recordings. To this end, the average Ghanaian simply sees the elite as an opportunist, who’s first and foremost is in office for his own end and probably those of his immediate constituency. 

What is serious about plutocracy is that, it breaks the unity of the state into two contending classes: The rich and the poor. Plutocrats are consumers of good things and seekers of constant pleasure, and when they have used up their money, they become dangerous because they want more of what they have become accustomed to. 

This then is my admonition, and the analysis of all the big-sounding words I have narrated above—If indeed elections do hold, if NPP wins, NDC would pretend to have conceded defeat, only to organize a press conference to lunch a new set of campaign message for the next election, if NDC wins, NPP would go back to Supreme Court in other to find time to finalize bedroom agreements before the verdict.

However, whether any of them wins and it stays so, with a little season of misunderstanding, it will simply be because either party will see a re-congregating of elites, and so therefore very little governance will take place.

Here, uprising of good people may follow to correct all the evil deeds. Only time would tell.

COME LET US REASON HIS EXCELLENCY MR. PRESIDENT

                                                                                              

It has become necessary that I invite you to around table for mutual Reasoning. Prior to this writing, I had invited Nana Addo too sometimes last year; as contained in a piece titled; "As the clock ticks, will Nana Addo ever learn?." I need to state this clearly lest some persons with itchy fingers and acidic tongues begin to perceive my pen as being biased. And if they still perceive it so, it may be due to their myopic perceptions.

Before I engage on this journey of mutual reasoning, I would like to quickly rebuke wholeheartedly the unpatriotic behaviours of Nana Yaw Osarfo Mafo, who hurl stones and sachets of water at the minority regions in terms regional contributions. His unpatriotic behaviours, although he claimed the tape was altered, depict lack of manners in the pursuit of nationalism. 

Equally, the National Democratic Congress leaders/elders ought to caution their workers of lawlessness now lest the situation exacerbates into a catastrophic scenario. If these uncouth behaviours photo-shopping and voice doctoring are not nipped in the bud now, one wonders what would happen at the heat of elections.

The quest for change should not make us cast common sense to the wind. "Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality," averred Edmud Burke. Enough of these thoughtless and uncivilized behaviours. 

President Mahama, let us now reason. Agatha Christie once said, "Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that is no reason not to give it." Permit me to remind you that you are NEVER the best president that Ghana has ever had as being bandied about by your hypocritical and mendacious handlers. Power is sweet; but its abuse leaves a sour taste on the tongue of whoever abuses it. You may not be the worst president of this nation, but you would surely agree with me that you are the luckiest of all. 

Anyone who disputes that your ascension to the presidency is not divine is either a marina or alien to realities of life. In fact, Mr. President, you are a good luck. However, your fervent quest for continuity through human efforts in a divine position has brought you nothing but unceasing mess and a fading popularity. 

It is an open secret that you facilitated your walk into the path of clueless; due to your ‘Yen tie Obiaa’ attitudes. Your purposeful actions and inactions have birthed frustrations in the land; and thereby caused hatred in the hearts of many Ghanaians towards you. For instance, you have never ceased to portray yourself as a President of only Christians or an ethnic champion. At times one wonders whether you truly think that you head a nation of multi-religious and diverse ethnic affiliations. Please stop being a Christian or ethnic jingoist; be a Ghanaian president. 

In furtherance of objectivity, Mr. President, your deafening silence over the security threats by your kinsmen speaks a volume of your intent towards the forthcoming elections. Although we are used to your deafening silence; you did show it to us during the malevolent saga of your aide, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah a.ka. Choboi, former minister of Sports; even if you have no cause to be held responsible for the balderdash utterances, you have the constitutional duty to caution them or get them removed. Their songs of insults may be amusing to your hearings because it is in tandem with your political aspirations; but I fear that if you keep listening or dancing to it without any caution, you may end up in No-Man's land. These babies with sharp teeth’s-become-political-thugs only know their own limitations; they do not know what other people have in stock, in case decorum is let out of the window. 

Furthermore, if your thought is that you will win the election as you did in 2012, then you need to quickly discard such thought. Many Ghanaians now know that your acquisition of shoes in the Flagstaff House has caused them ubiquitous sufferings. If your wish is that, should in case you lose, Ghana should disintegrate or cease to exist as prognosticated by some doom Sayers, then you are probably not in touch with history. We had fought the (un)democratic war and still exist; hence, this nation will live beyond you and your wish. A Ghanaian sage once said, "In a time of political unrest, visit history to resolve the mess; and in a time of political harmony, visit history to prevent the mess." I am one of those Ghanaians with strong conviction that this nation can NEVER disintegrate by God's Grace. This nation is bigger than anybody, regardless of his political gamut. 

Mr. Mahama, I beg you to be a great man. How? A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society. You can be a great man if you really ensure that the coming elections are freer and fairer than the freest and fairest conducted in 2012; and making sure the elections reflect the yearnings of many Ghanaians. Remember what Akufu Addo often says that no Ghanaian soul is worth his political aspiration. Therefore, you must enshrine all pragmatic steps to bring about credible elections; in order to avoid post-elections violence.

In time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act. The truth is that you probably mean well for this nation, but you have surrounded yourself with sycophants and egocentric liars; who keeping deceiving you that all is well. All is not well; our nation had been unhealthy before your administration. But it has now been taken to the emergency unit. We hope it would not die in the unit. If only you truly take time to reason with me, you would realize that these sycophants have ruined your administration; except for a very few amongst them. For the ‘ronadonic’ schemer, Rawlings’ regime to be compared to yours, it means yours is enmeshed in a sardonic and pungent state of obtuseness. 

In conclusion, Mr. President, watch your thoughts, if your intentions are wrong your actions cannot be right. Any discerning person that looks at the nation's status quo in many sectors would surely see that we are in a mess. Someone needs to clean up this stench of mess; and it seems you are honourably not fit to do so. Your crass actions and inactions brought us here. And this clearly brings to the fore the fact that "people who do not apply strategies end up in tragedies." As we go to the polls again come December 7, hopefully for free and fair elections, I wish you your best friend and cohort’s name - Good luck.