MR. PETER MAC MANU: IS GHANA'S RULING PARTY MERELY WHISTLING IN THE DARK?

Hmmmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo! How very typical - a political party, dominated by a few powerful and greedy tribal supremacists, and completely bereft of original thinkers, has wasted the eight years they were voted into office for: to change our country for the better.

(Incidentally, I refer, dear reader, to the statement attributed to the chairperson of the ruling New Patriotic Party, Mr. Peter Mac Manu: www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=151323&comment=0#com.)

Not satisfied, he and his party still want an extension to their tainted tenure. Perhaps they forget that not all Ghanaians have a personal philosophy similar to that of the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons who support their party, regardless?

For the independent-minded Ghanaians, whose votes will make the difference between victory and defeat for his party, in this December's elections, the question simply is: Just where does Mr. Peter Mac Manu's party propose to raise money to develop our country with, in the present global economic climate?

Yes, we all know that his party quickly graduated from seeking funding for Ghana's development from Chinese hairdressing salons in the seedy back streets of London, to the piranha-infested waters of the capital markets of the West (now melting down at the speed of lightning - just as some of us warned them could happen!).

From what we gather (if the bush telegraph is to be believed!) they ventured there on the advice of the clever and greedy high net worth rogues swarming our financial services sector - who saw a golden opportunity in their ignorance and the unfathomable greed that drives the few powerful crooks, who dominate his party, to earn millions of dollars in easy fees.

Now that the opportunity to milk Ghana dry, from the fees earned from the zillions of dollars in debt-stock that they have piled up, no longer exists, can he tell us just how they propose to develop our homeland Ghana, going forward?

Perhaps they have the financial equivalent of a sleight of hand they propose to employ to prise money from those aforementioned previously-lucrative sources, which have dried up so suddenly, as the masters of the universe in those Western capital markets, whose greed they shared, have been emasculated financially: and are very frightened individuals now?

Hmmmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo! Well, clearly, for some of the crooks amongst his party's top brass, Ghana's forays into the capital markets of the West were very lucrative occasions, indeed.

They were apparently able to earn yet more "dosh" for the offshore companies, which their more uncharitable critics say they set up purposefully, to launder the profits from their systematic plundering, of our nation's wealth.

In their determination to take their personal net worth into stratospheric heights, by stealth, and in record time, they are said by their critics to have struck deals that gave them foreign currency kickbacks from the regime-cronies in the financial services sector, and their foreign carpetbagger-collaborators in the capital markets of the West, who issued bonds on our nation's behalf, and "arranged" loans too, for our country.

Those deals emanated from the massive fees their cronies in our Byzantine financial services sector earned from Ghana's gargantuan foreign currency borrowing, in the capital markets overseas.

Let this quintessence of a square peg in a round hole tell the good people of Nkrumah's Ghana, just where are they going to get money from to develop our nation with, now that that once-lucrative avenue, is no longer available to the masters of the universe in charge of our nation.

At any rate, can Mr. Peter Mac Manu tell the independent-minded Ghanaians who will decide who wins the December elections - not the many who wear blinkers and blindly support his party no matter how abysmally they perform - where they are going to find the US$388 millions that they say are needed to pay for Ghana Telecom's debt - and out of which, according to that other genius, Dr. Akoto, as much as US$72 millions will be used to pay for "other costs"?

Whiles he is at it, can Mr. Mac Manu also tell us, item by item, what those "other costs" Dr. Akoto mentions, are? Hmmm, Dr. Asemfofro ba ni abahe ote, oo! Perhaps they should have had the good sense to listen to those of us who told them to strike deals instead with the Chinese to build our infrastructure, by nationalising our oil and natural gas industries, and exploiting those finite resources with joint-venture business models, when they were busy crowing over the US$750 million sovereign bond issue.

If they had listened to us, today, we would all be sitting pretty as the global financial contagion spreads.

For, if, instead of going to borrow expensive money from the capital markets of the West, they had talked the Chinese into accepting Ghana's sovereign bonds at minuscle rates of interest and long grace periods to repay same, to finance our country's development (in collaboration with the state-owned Chinese companies that are world class entities in their individual areas of competence), today, we would truly be creating real wealth in the real economy for all Ghanaians - not just a ruthless and powerful few, with greedy ambitions, growing rich, from leveraged "funny money".

Now they are frightened men and women, wondering aimlessly in the corridors of power, whistling in the dark - and hoping against hope that Ghanaians won't notice that they aren't actually wearing fancy designer clothing, after all - but are stark naked (figuratively speaking, i.e.!).

The more uncharitable and cynical amongst their critics would probably say that it serves them right for allowing their party to be so completely dominated, by a few greedy and powerful tribal supremacists. They are being hoisted on their own petard, for their hubris!

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