Dear God, we pray that you will mellow the hearts of all those tiresome "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons, who flock to www.ghanaweb.com - and remove their blinkers, so that they will see truth clearly when they meet it: even at night.
As you are aware, O Lord, today, the wealthy nations of the capitalist world, are busy nationalising private banks, in order to secure their national economies.
Please give our political class the wisdom to understand that it is only because we did not think of good business models for our state-owned entities that most of them never did well - and that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with that model of development: as prosperous Singapore has amply shown the whole world.
Soften the hearts of our selfish and obtuse neo-liberals - and let them understand that "trickle-down" economics, never has made sense: as it enriches a powerful few, whiles impoverishing the rest of society.
Lord, it is a recipe for political instability that Ghana's selfish and cowardly middle classes, simply fail to see and to understand - so open their eyes widely O Lord: and give them the wisdom to understand the danger an underclass poses to their well-being and that of our homeland Ghana.
O, God Almighty, as you know, the present business model of a typical Ghanaian state-owned entity is one in which management gets given all the perks - such as: posh cars, luxury company-owned homes, all with stand-by power generators (and with fitted kitchens - which are even worth a great deal more than the retirement benefits of the average worker, dear Lord!).
Please we also pray that you will bless our political class with the wisdom to create new business models for our state-owned entities - in which workers get a 20 per cent stake in the business, 20 per cent is floated on the Ghana Stock Exchange, and the state keeps 60 per cent of the shareholding: and of course rewards management well, when they perform as well as those who pay them expect.
It is also the prayer of all ordinary people in Ghana, dear God Almighty, that you will let that arrangement come into force next year, immediately after the new president is sworn into office.
O, dear God Almighty, please send us a miracle immediately, so that our political class will suddenly become infected with the benign bacteria known as "patriotism" - and make them do what is in the best interest of Ghana, currently: agree to field a consensus candidate for president of Ghana, and choose the man most qualified for that exalted position, today, in our country - Mr Kofi Annan.
For, he will move rapidly to create a government of national unity (made up of honest and patriotic technocrats, who are apolitical!) for us, and use our oil and natural gas revenues wisely, as only he can, and will - and, as you know O Lord, use those revenues to transform our society into Africa's equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
Let them also choose our current lady Chief Justice to become his vice president - so that we can have two incorruptible individuals at the helm of affairs in our homeland Ghana, for a change, for once!
Above all, dear God, let them decide to make the position of district chief executive and the district assembly membership, elected ones - so that there will be real democracy at the grassroots level in Ghana. That, O Lord, will ensure that those in charge of local government will be responsive to needs of grassroots-level people: instead of toadying to the president and doing his bidding, rather than serving the local people they are paid to serve.
As you know, dear God, that will have the added bonus for our country, of creating a vast pool of experienced men and women with solid track records - and years of experience of executive decision-making under their belts: a perfect way to create a meritocracy in our ruling elite.
We would also plead, dear God that instead of creating a new underclass of truly lazy people in the rural areas of our country, as this new madness surely will (that daft new World Bank poverty alleviation scheme, i.e., dear Lord!), you will have mercy on our country and give our leaders the wisdom to contact the organisations I will list at the end of this email to you, O Father.
That list contains links to a number of sustainable development organisations and ideas that will bring prosperity to our rural folk, if our country works with them. That list is part of an article I wrote to Nana Asante Bediatuo, of Akyem Abuakwa - who ignored it completely: because I am neither an important personage nor a boot-licking hack, which, sadly, is all that that kind of Ghanaian has time for, at the end of the day. Bottom line, Lord!
Well, dear God, you know perfectly well that what rural people in Ghana really need is the opportunity to have sustainable livelihoods during their adult working years - not miserly handouts from the World Bank to boost the chances of the discredited neo-liberals whose selfishness and greed has finally brought our nation to its knees.
Do not let this sop to the poor in our country, be used to trick them to vote for those who, when given the historic opportunity to change our country for the better, and to set new standards of public morality, simply ended up outdoing their predecessors in office, in the very same vices they condemned them for, when they were in the political wilderness.
The poor in rural Ghana do not need their dignity toyed with to enable our incompetent leaders to be reelected into office, on their backs. Certainly they deserve better, O Lord.
Yet another point, dear God: please let our leaders see the sense in abolishing personal income tax and lowering the corporate tax rate to just 9 per cent to make it one of the lowest in the world, if not the lowest - so that working people will save what they now pay on their income and which our rulers just fritter away (mostly, as you know, on useless undertakings, such as endless travel overseas for per diem - at taxpayers' expense).
Of course, dear God, as you know, corporate tax at 9 per cent will quickly attract scores of companies that presently have their African headquarters in Europe, South Africa and elsewhere, to our shores. That will mean jobs galore, as they hire local people, a mini property boom, as they buy and rent property, and best of all, more government revenue from them.
It need not even be said openly by me, that all the crooks in our private sector who make zillions but dodge their taxes, will troop to do the decent thing and pay up, annually - for it is so obvious they will play their part in nation-building, by paying such low corporate tax rates.
Finally, dear God, here is the portion of that article I wrote but which Nana Asante Bediatuo, ignored completely - as our "big men" here are wont to do. Please let all who read it, click unto the links to the various websites - so that they too may benefit from it personally.
Above all, let our big men and those who read such irreverent articles for them, contact the organisations: so that all rural communities in Ghana and our district chief executives (whom you will send us a miracle that will let us quickly amend our constitution to enable ordinary people elect to four-year tenures!) can collaborate with them in private public partnerships, to bring prosperity to rural Ghana.
Many thanks indeed, dear God Almighty - and do listen to this humble prayer, O Lord: for mother Ghana's sake! Please bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!
PS Please find below, O Lord, the portion of that article I mentioned earlier, which Nana Asante Bediatuo ignored totally:
"Nana Asante Bediatuo, if you guys really want to promote sustainable development in Akim Abuakwa (as opposed to merely talking about it!), you can contact the following: Graham Knight's DIY Solar: (http://biodesign.webeden.co.uk/), Folke Gunther (http://www.holon.se/folke/), Ken Hargesheimer - MiniFarms organisation(http://www.minifarms.com/.), the South African sustainable development organisation, Sustainable Villages Africa [SVA] (http://www.sva.co.za/.), and the Biochar Fund organisation in Europe(http://biocharfund.com/index.php.).
Do study biochar too (http://www.biochar-international.org/) - it will blow your minds! For good measure see the possibilities here for young welders and other young craftsmen: (http://www.aussiethings.biz/coolgardie_safe.html)
Nana Asante Bediatuo, you and your cousins can help all the rural communities in Akim Abuakwa create sustainable livelihoods and real wealth, if you help them leverage the environmentally-friendly and sustainable development models for rural development, of all those marvellous organisations and individuals, whose website links, I have taken the trouble to give to you - for the sake of our homeland Ghana, and Akyem Abualkwa. "Over to you", as we say in local parlance!"
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