BRAVO, CPP - SUPERB GT PRIVATISATION STATEMENT!

Hmmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo! Privatization in today's Ghana appears to be driven solely, by the very fat fees the regime-crony oligarchs who dominate Ghana's financial services industry, are raking in.

And their "advice-cum-recommendation" to our present rulers, in return for their massive fees?

Well, dear reader, they are asking our incompetent rulers to sell everything of value in our nation - to enable it ride out the current economic storm (compounded by its own ineptness and lack of foresight!) and tide it over: until oil revenues start flowing in earnest, a few years down the road.

And naturally, to keep up the momentum, those clever and politically well-connected regime crony-oligarchs, have made the greediest of the "too-clever-by-half " rogues in this regime (said by the most uncharitable of the cynics amongst its critics, to be full of well-educated imbeciles!), drool at the mouth - at the hard currency kickbacks to be had: through yet more dodgy and insane privatizations.

Who led Iroko to GT, is a question some of us have asked for months without any answers forthcoming from GT.

The good people of Ghana must know whether Iroko has connections in our political class and within Ghana's financial services industry. And if yes, who are they - and what role did they play in the GT privatization process?

How on earth do the regulators in Ghana expect there to be investor-confidence in our financial markets, when such sharp practice appears to be standard practice here - and 'respectable' white-collar crooks can get away with such actions?

Iroko is domiciled in Mauritius to hide its ownership, according to the more cynical critics of this regime. In addition, it was spun off and sold by its erstwhile Botswanan parent because it was loss-making and hemorrhaging badly.

Is it not worrying and incredible that such a concern could come to Ghana - and secure the right to issue corporate bonds in London on GT's behalf?

Who led Iroko to Ghana - and straight to the doors of the corporate boardroom of GT? Where were the regulators? Were they fast asleep, perhaps?

There are many people in Ghana, who are very concerned about the incestuous relationships between players in the industry and regulators.

And if it emerges that any of the members of the GT board were also connected with any Ghanaian financial services sector players who led Iroko to Ghana, they ought to be prosecuted for insider dealing - and banned permanently from working in the industry. Period.

Apart from Ghana, there is nowhere else on the planet Earth, where so many ex-central bank governors and senior executives, either own banks or are significant players in the most prominent banks in the country, after their retirement!

The question we must demand a straight answer to, from our rulers, is: what repayment plan did GT have in place, to meet payments on the interest it had to pay those overseas investors who invested in the GT corporate bonds issued in London by Iroko?

And was the repayment plan one that would not compromise the earnings of GT and imperil its long term viability, if indeed the GT management did have one in place?

And if they did not, what does that tell us about Iroko and the GT management, in this shabby affair?

Most Ghanaians have no doubt that this most egregious of senseless privatization transactions, will, in the fullness of time, land all those who took part in it, before the Fast Track High Court in the not too distant future - and then after their conviction, they will all head straight from there to the Nsawam prison, as sure as day follows night!

And whiles we are on the touchy subject of financial skullduggery in Ghana's national life, precisely what repayment plan (for the amazingly good interest payments to the Western investors overseas who piled into Ghana's "super-awuf " US$ 750 million sovereign bonds!), did the minister of finance have in place before those confounded sovereign bonds were issued, amidst such fanfare?

And if it is the case that the regime simply wanted money to develop Ghana with (as opposed to collecting kickbacks from the fees earned by their professional advisers!), why did they not rather approach the government of the People's Republic of China (which has long-trumpeted its desire to have a special relationship with resource-rich Africa!), and convince them to buy Ghanaian sovereign bonds with an interest of say 3% and "loan" them say US$10 billions, in return?

If the minister of finance did not have a repayment plan to meet those interest payments to the investors who bought the sovereign bonds, is that not an indictment of the regime of which he is such a prominent member - as well as its expensive local and overseas financial advisers?

Well, dear reader, this is yet another case heading for the Fast Track High Courts, when this regime is finally turfed out of power - for, it is an egregious example of the propensity of our political class, to recklessly cause financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state!

Were so many of the members of this regime not driven by the unfathomable greed that is making them milk Ghana dry so ruthlessly, but were rather a group of incredibly creative thinkers and true patriots who loved their country, would they not have talked the Chinese government into taking our sovereign bonds at say 3% interest - and giving us say US$10 billions in return, for infrastructural development, in Ghana?

And if that had been done soon enough, instead of the present dire situation: one in which our country has literally been brought to its knees, would we rather not now be in the happy and positive situation in which Chinese and Ghanaian joint-venture construction companies, would presently be executing such projects: paid for by the "loan" from the Chinese government, which the Ghana's sovereign bonds sold to them would more or less act as guarantees for?

Well, if we are saddled with a regime that actually believed, at a certain point in time, that the owners of a seedy Chinese hairdressing salon in the backstreets of London, could, and would, loan them zillions to develop Ghana with, should we really be surprised that Vodafone is taking us for such a huge ride?

And do those loudmouthed "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons remember all the amazing Kweku-Ananse-toli stories we were told by the masters of the universe now temporarily in charge of Nkrumah's Ghana, during that disgraceful period in our recent history, one wonders, dear reader?

So to recap, CPP, well done - but please make it absolutely clear to all Ghanaians that should you come to power after the December 2008 elections, you will definitely re-nationalize GT, if upon closer forensic examination of its affairs and books, any sharp practice was detected at any stage of this amazingly one-sided and obscene deal.

Hmm, Ghana - asem ebaba debi! May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!