WHEN CHANGE BECOMES CERTAIN

If you have been following recent happenings in our polity objectively as it concerns the general elections in the past three months, you will understand it is now clear to the discerning, obvious to the dissenting and acceptable to the pragmatic that change has become certain in our polity. 

This article was inspired by one of my favorite songs of Lucky Dube- of blessed memory, "It is not easy".  

In the song, he called on his mother, "mama I'm getting married". She replied, "Son did you take out time to know her"? 

The artist: "Mama she's the best, but today it hurts me so to go back to mama and say mama am getting divorced, this choice I made, didn't work the way I thought it would, it hurts me so mama...".     

The lyrics of the song are exactly what are playing out in our polity today. 

Rewind back to 2012 presidential election, we were so carried away by the circumstances surrounding president Mahama's emergence that we ignored many things and forgot to ask necessary questions. He gathered all the sympathy, popularity and attention through his "Ede bee K3K3” cliché. Thinking he's the Moses of our time, people defied ethnic, political and religious affiliations to vote and ensure he emerged president.  

Fast forward to 2015, just a year to the next election and everything has changed. The ones trusted and popular John Mahama had become the rejected stone. It is an irony that same process that ensured the emergence of a younger president in 2012 is same process that has kept him on the verge of losing the 2016 presidential election. 

The National Democratic Congress in its quest for jaded attention allowed itself to be sub-tenanted in the last 7 years by every paid and unpaid apologist of the government. The president's incorrigible media team didn't help either, they were beyond reproach, with their misleading and contradicting information they made it difficult for citizens to get accurate information on the happenings of the government, they hurled bitter diatribes and tirades to every critic of the government, in doing so their language deteriorated and included every profanity and obscenity on their lips and ended up accumulating more enemies for the president within and outside the shores of the country thereby making change certain.  

In the area of corruption, President Mahama has shown little willingness to tackle corruption. He identifies with the corrupt and presides over a government that embezzles public funds with reckless abandon.

Right now our nation is hemorrhaging from all sides, the bleeding is imminent and inevitable, with the daily decline in our economy, there hardly seem to be anyone who is not feeling the economic hardship this government has reduced us to.  

Many unfulfilled campaign promises of the ruling government have contributed to this certain change. The fact that Ghana is yet to generate more megawatts of electricity after expending millions of dollars in fifty-eight years in the power sector is beyond comprehension. 

Until recently, security is near zero with insecurity and insurgency taking a lead in wanton killings and destruction of lives and properties in almost all parts of the country.  

With its little and infinitesimal performance, the attack dogs of the ruling government have been obfuscating in defense that Mahama and the National Democratic Congress in the last seven years has performed more than all our past rulers.  

They pretend not to know records have shown under President Mahama Ghana has generated more funds per annum from loans, and the sale of crude oil. It is saddening that nations of equal promise like Ghana have left Ghanaians in its elementary level while at different levels of advanced development, hence the need for a change of government.  

The opposition New Patriotic Party may have its flaws but sometimes where there are no good options, a former dictator is a better choice than a failed president. 

 Back to the song, "It Wasn't Easy", same way the above named reggae artist went back to his mother, "mama am getting divorced", Ghanaians want a divorce from the ruling government, because the choice we made in 2012 didn't work out the way we thought it would and it hurts us so much. 

I take consolation from the words of his mother in the song, "it's not easy to understand it son, but I know you'll make it, you'll be happy again". 

Ghanaians will make change possible come December 7 2016 and we will be happy again.  

WHERE LAY THE SPIRIT OF CLASS STRUGGLE?

Class struggle, as opined by Karl Marx, a German Scholar, in his theory of historical materialism, is about the peasants’ strives for success. It is about war commissioned against perpetual hegemony, status quo and exploitation by the proletariats being used by the bourgeoisies to produce what they cannot buy. Class struggle is about the common people struggling towards restoring their battered souls. It is about the poorest of the poor striving towards becoming the richest of the rich. 

In Ghana today, the spirit of class struggle seems to have died amongst the youths. The youths have had their today and tomorrow strangulated by the old cargos that currently held the insignia of power. Sadly, the youths are not thinking. They have accepted that their future be mortgaged. The youths have refused to take their destiny into their hands. 

Those who ruled Ghana in first and second republics are still controlling the polity and economy of the country. How old was Dr. Botchey when he was appointed Minister; today, at his age, he still determines who get what, when and how in Ghana. Accra Metropolitan Assembly Boss under President Kuffour, Agyiri Blankson is 78, yet, he still want to be a Minister. Honourable Bagbin is still the heading the majority throne in parliament at his experience.

Member of Parliament, ET Mensah has been in Parliament at the advent of multi-party democracy and its first republic, but still remain a very powerful element in the country. Nana Addo, 71, has enjoyed power since; yet, he has refused to bow out. Sheikh Quaye, 76, has been in front line politics since 1969; yet, he has refused to retire for the younger generation to take over. Dr Richard Anane, is presently fighting 36 years old Stephen Amoah of Nhyiaso Constituency for political relevanc.

The nation of Ghana is presently being governed by those who had in one way or the other contributed to her woes, yet, the youths are looking. The current advocates of Change are not exempted. Akuffo Addo, Agyemang Rawlings and Dr. Ndoum all governed Ghana without achieving much. The Volta dynasty have been in charge of Volta Region  since the return of democratic rule to Ghana, yet, the region has the worst road network in Ghana. Dr. Kwabena Adjei has served as Minister and Chairman of National Democratic Congress, yet, the unemployment profile of the region is out of check. The progressives have been controlling the string and button of Ghana since 1992, yet, pipe borne water is not available for people to drink in the centre of capital despite the fact that the country is surrounded by water. 

 The Elites are rotating power amongst themselves while the large numbers of the less privileged youths are wallowing in squalor. Our fathers continue to recycle themselves in government instead of giving way for the younger generation. They made education, which most of them in the Ghana acquired free of charge, almost unaffordable with allowance on top.

The older generation has refused to retire and quit the civil service so that the younger ones could be employed. Instead, they continue to hang on by falsifying their age. The looting and widespread corruption by our fathers has battered the economy so badly that small and medium enterprises, which should be the main employers of labour aside the government, are virtually non-existent. 

Youths are the building blocks of a nation. The stronger, more vibrant and politically aware the youths are, the more developed the nation is. Countries that had empowered the younger generation in the past are now better off. David Cameroon became the Prime Minister of Britain at 43, one of his predecessors; Tony Blair has already retired from politics at 63. Americans elected Barrack Obama at 47.

Furthermore, Juan Barreto became the Prime Minister of Dominica at 32 in 2004. Joseph Kabila became the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at 31 in 2001. Nikola Gruevski became the Prime Minister of Macedonia at 36 in 2006. Today, Macedonia has risen from a periphery nation to a semi-core country in the international politics. 

Mikheil Sakashvili fought a fierce battle against the order of gerontocracy in 2004; he triumphed and became the President of Georgia at 37. Faure Gnassingbe was inaugurated as the President of Togo at 39 in 2005. Bulgaria elected Sergei Stanishev as Prime Minister at 39 in 2005. Dmitry Medvedev made history when he became the youngest President of Russia in 2008 at 41. 

All the examples cited above are successes recorded in 21st century. In Ghana today, many youths at 36 are still single, looking for jobs whereas their mates are already Presidents and Prime Ministers in European and American sovereign nations. The next British Prime Minister might be a Nigerian. The young guy, Chuka Umunna, 37, a member of the British Parliament, hail from Anambra State. 

Unfortunately, I once coined a piece, arguing that age is not a barrier; hence, Nana Addo who served as Minister of Justice and Foreign Affairs becoming the President of Ghana at 72 is not a bad idea. While many Ghanaians wrote to commend me over the article, a colleague, a blogger, Ghana Institute of Journalism sent me a mail thus;

“My dear friend, you wrote well but I want to advise you to stop writing like an Ancient Analyst; start writing like a modern commentator. At your age, instead of demanding for generational shift, you are agitating for institutionalization of the politics of gerontocracy. My brother, though I am not a fan of Mahama, but we can count of many young people that he has empowered; please how many brilliant young Ghanaians can we trace to Addo Dankwa’s school of thought? I agree with you that the Akyem Mafia is the only one who can give the NDC the run for its money; he’s loved by the majority of his party folks, but through Nana’s utterances, it is obvious that the Kyebi born former parliamentarian has lost touch with the reality of 21 century. Ask, why Americans rejected Senator Mc Cain (71 then), in 2009? Akufu Addo is just being packaged by those who have money but lacks electoral value”, my friend concluded. 

Many people constantly intimidate the youths (in fact, the youths intimidate themselves as well) that we are too corrupt, but they did not say that our fathers and grandfathers used their ill-gotten wealth to destroy our sense of decency and value system. 

Most Ghanaian youths are so disconnected from political happenings and government’s activities; as they do not know or care how they are being governed. The way youth argue blindly on social media whenever salient national issues are raised call for concern. 

One of the cogent reasons Ghana is moving a step forward then four steps backward is because we lack vibrant and informed youths. We youth are supposed to be the center of gravity of the society. The youth should be the ‘life’ of a society. The youth should be the hope for a better and brighter future of any society. But this is not the case in Ghana.

Even the older generation does not have ample confidence in us. In Ghana today, our leaders have abandoned the youths to start grooming their children who will eventually take over from them. It is not surprising, therefore, that most of our former and outgoing ministers, District Chief Executives, Members of Parliament, Ministers and Presidents have strategically “planted” their children into politics. 

Now, I begin to wonder and ponder, what then is the gain of millions of youth who support these leaders? Is it that the youths aren’t good for anything than being used for “bugabuga jobs” only to be dumped afterwards? For how long shall we continue like this? Ghanaian youths, where lay the spirit of class struggle?

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.