GHANA TELECOM: WHY THE INDEMNITIES?

Opanin, you ask, quote: "What is he even talking about..." unquote. Well, you will do well to focus on the reference the gentleman in question, who now leads our nation, makes to the Scancem scandal - which occurred during the tenure of the previous regime.

Just in case you have forgotten, Scancem, according to evidence produced in a Norwegian law court in Oslo not too long ago, had a secret slush fund, from which African politicians were regularly bribed and bought off, out of.

That, Opanin, was the corrupt way that Scancem was able to acquire a string of grossly undervalued state-owned cement factories across the African continent, which were mostly near-monopolies in their individual national markets.

Perhaps mentioning the word "Ghacem" (Scancem) was a Freudian slip by the gentleman whom some of the ruling party's more cynical critics, call Ghana's "hypocrite-in-chief "? Hmmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!

Anyway, don't forget that we also heard the same kind of arguments galore, when the bush telegraph had it that some of them had gotten foreigners to front for them - through a series of offshore shell companies controlling Ghana International Airlines (GIA): when Ghana Airways was left high and dry in order to kill it off and privatize it successfully!

Did they not hand over Ghana Airways' routes and its designation as a national carrier to GIA - at the very time they finally succeeded in killing off Ghana Airways?

Perhaps they specifically brought in those GT bosses who got their workers to help them in campaigning for the Vodafone deal, to deliberately run it down, too - so they could cheekily tell us to "listen to the workers of GT"?

Interestingly, amongst the top people who now help to run the hapless GIA, is a beautiful lady who once supervised the loss of a few hundred thousand dollars, in her last place of employment.

It was from there that she then left to set up her own business (giving it a virtually identical name to that of her former employers: by the simple ruse of adding the word "experience" and placing it as the first word before the name of her former employer's company - the very company that her negligence had allowed to be pillaged so ruthlessly!).

Apparently, it was part of her strategy to set herself up in pole position, by stealth, and to enable her compete successfully (so she thought - the poor dear!) with those self-same former employers whose business her negligence had nearly destroyed.

Her "neat" little plan was simply to enable her crucify her former employers - and grab dominant market-share in the process.

Sadly, she fell flat on her face - and has apparently now been rescued by her powerful and well-connected sponsors, who fobbed her off with the international airline industry's equivalent of a Dodo: the near-moribund successor to the defunct Ghana Airways, GIA!

It is instructive, Opanin, that no one on the GIA board, deigned it fit to ask her former employers for any references! Such, are the affairs of our nation handled, today.

No wonder our country has finally been brought to its knees - and those who lead us are busy organizing fire-sales of our nation's most-prized assets.

It is merely to enable them escape the ramifications of defaulting on some of the irresponsible massive new debt from the capital markets of the West, in an election year - and save face that way: with ordinary Ghanaians and the rest of the world

And this, after years of the most egregious and unparalleled profligacy - such as: the lunacy of not seeing the dangers of piling up yet more debt to build presidential palace complexes; the financial madness of a cash-strapped poor nation with aspirations, buying two presidential jets at the same time; and the unforgivable sin of blowing taxpayers' money in the Ghana@50 jubilee independence day celebration extravaganza of "dream-kickback-contracts" galore (dished out like confetti to family, friends and sundry regime-cronies!) - with nothing much to show for it, after the event.

Any surprise then, Opanin, that today we are experiencing what those self-serving men in grey suits from the IMF and the World Bank (who act only in the interests of Western "big-money" corporates!) euphemistically call "debt distress"?

Clearly, we are far away from successfully building a meritocracy under the current crowd in power in our nation - who worship daily at the cult of the mediocre: where they sit in the front pews reserved for tribal supremacists who also believe in nepotism!

It is such a pity that so many of our rulers believe in nepotism - a situation which has seen the stratospheric rise in the personal net worth of so many of the scions of the family clans of our rulers and their siblings - as well as scores of sundry delectable and bright young female beauties, all on the make.

Yet, barely a few years ago, hardly anyone in this small army of much-favoured souls, featured in our nation's brightest-and-best list: as being amongst the most brilliant young business brains, in Ghana's corporate world!

But I digress - is it not interesting that like GT's management, this management superwoman and Obaa Sima, who this regime of supermen have chosen to help run their baby GIA also lacks good management skills?

That very unfortunate corporate leadership deficiency that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars of her former employer's money disappearing down the financial equivalent of a black hole - thanks to her negligence in her oversight responsibilities as regards that company's accountant.

Does that not sound familiar? Is that not what has more or less happened to GT? That such a person now helps to run GIA speaks volumes about the lack of nous and the zilch business acumen of the masters of the universe now running our homeland Ghana.

Perhaps that is why they had to make sure that being personally prosecuted tomorrow, would be precluded for all the actors in this egregious and shabby business deal - including even the foreign carpetbaggers buying into the state-owned GT?

Have you ever heard of any regime in this country covering its tracks so brazenly with such unheard of legal indemnities, in the partial privatization of a state-owned entity, since the wave of privatizations began in earnest, after the overthrow of the Nkrumah regime in the 24th February, 1966 military coup?

Incidentally, that coup was bankrolled by the CIA - according to declassified US State Department and CIA documents (please refer to page 19 of that very interesting book published by the Socialist Forum of Ghana [SFG]: "Fight Back - A response to anti-Nkrumah propaganda" ditto part 1 of: "The Great Deception" also published by the SFG).

Opanin, never in the long history of dodgy privatizations in our homeland Ghana, has any group of politicians wielding power in Ghana, been so arrogant in assuming that Ghanaians are so daft that it would not strike them as odd, that Vodafone was apparently demanding such legal protection in purchasing a 70 per cent take in GT!

Opanin, where in the world, apart from Ghana, can foreign businesspeople buying a significant stake in a state-owned telecoms company, make such outrageous demands? Would we not be outraged if even a foreign government were to make such insulting demands - let alone their private citizens?

Why, just what has Vodafone got to hide - in the post-Enron era of global corporate good governance: in which multinational companies are supposed to be guided by, and run in accordance with, ethical principles: in all their markets worldwide?

There is one simple question you must ask our current leader, and the large army of the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons, who never see anything wrong with what their leaders do that injures our nation's long-term well being - and consequently enables some of our more dishonest politicians to blithely take such self-serving actions whiles in power.

With respect, the simple question we must ask our current leader, is: whether or not any of the people that Scancem paid bribes to in the previous regime, and who subsequently then allowed them to acquire the Ghacem cement factory at Tema for a song, also acted in a similar manner - and passed laws to indemnify their self-serving and unpatriotic actions ?

Did they pass any laws to ensure that their regime and their cronies then running Ghacem could get away with all acts of omission or commission that took place before the close of the Scancem takeover deal (ditto Scancem itself and its executives!), without their ever being prosecuted - to cover their backs: in the event they were ever turfed out of power?

So, Opanin, the code language you were wondering about, was simply to tell you and all Ghanaians who disagreed with their sale of 70 per cent of GT's shares to Vodafone, in a round about way, that in their Ghana of today, " man" indeed "dey pass man" - as we say in local parlance.

In other words even if tomorrow it were to emerge (should this regime eventually be finally voted out of power!), that in this particular case the foreign carpetbaggers taking us for a huge ride in a privatization deal, were not told to "go and come back again" (to use a phrase of infamy in recent Ghanaian political history!), and that Vodafone may indeed have also even used Scancem's dubious methods, in getting their hands on their 70 per cent shareholding in GT, no one in our country, can still touch them, ever!

That, my brother, is their particular take on the concept of the rule of law: railroad parliament into passing laws to protect yourself from ever suffering the same fate as the Tsatsu Tsikatas of this world, should you suddenly lose power - and there suddenly arose a deafening chorus up and down our country: demanding that you account for your eight-year stewardship of Ghana's affairs. Hmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo!

However, the geniuses now running Nkrumah's Ghana, will be hoisted with their own petard one fine day, in the not too distant future. For, when they eventually lose power, they will be pursued as relentlessly as they have pursued the jailed Mr. Tsatsu Tsikata - whom they have jailed for recklessly causing financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state.

In the stupor of being totally drunk with power, they forgot one small point: the law they passed to cover their backs, is an illegality: for our constitution, enjoins all Ghanaian citizens to fight corruption - not to aid and abet those taking part in it! Hmmm, Ghana - asem ebaba debi ankasa!

May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!