Hmmm, Ghana - ayeasem oo! What short memories the members of our political class have.
Yes, we all know that our current "hypocrite-in-chief" leads the most profligate and tribalistic regime we have ever had the misfortune of electing into office, in our country.
However, Ghanaians aren't fools - the day of reckoning will come for all those who have participated in the gang-rape of Mother Ghana.
Professor Mills had better make it clear to the discerning Ghanaians whose votes will make the difference between victory and defeat for him and his party on the day of the presidential elections, that his government will not turn out to be a regime of clever crooks, too. He has his work cut out.
Frankly, the signs aren't very good. Like the ruling party, his party has the same kind of intolerant and arrogant "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidons who wear blinkers permanently, and who also never see anything wrong with his party and its policies.
Well, listening to those brain-dead party fanatics 24/7 will not help him beat the ruling party's candidate for president, in the coming elections this December. If he wants my vote, and the votes of those who also think about the well-being of our nation and its people, as opposed to those whose blinkers blind them to the many ills of our society, he had better tell us more plausible things than he has done, thus far.
To start with, if he wants my vote, he ought to be telling me that he and his better half will publicly declare and publish their assets before the day of the presidential and parliamentary elections - and that they will do same when he comes to the end of his tenure.
I also want him to tell me that he will demand same from all the members of his government - and their spouses, too.
I would like him to tell me that one of the first things his regime will do, will be to take Ghana Telecom back - because the transaction flouted the constitutional provision that enjoins all Ghanaians to fight corruption: the moment they railroaded a law through Parliament indemnifying those involved in the negotiations for the deal from prosecution for criminal actions associated with the takeover by Vodafone.
It is a law that will not be accepted by the Europen Union - and neither should his regime tolerate it.
He must also make it plain to the many party hangers-on who were not public officials but were allocated government properties to live in free of charge and were paid for no work done in places like the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), when his party last ruled our country, that there will be no spongers under his tenure.
They must all look for work like everybody else in our country - not be given cushy sinecures at mother Ghana's expense: for party political ends.
If he wants me to believe that he will create an enterprise culture in Ghana, then let him tell me that he will abolish personal income tax - and bring down Ghana's corporate tax rate to just 9 per cent: and make this an attractive place for those doing business on the continent to locate their company headquarters here, that way.
He must also promise to get parliament to pass draconian laws which will make those found guilty of dodging those very low corporate tax rates, receive mandatory lengthy jail sentences - to protect Ghana's tax revenues from the many tax-dodging crooks in the private sector.
Above all, he must tell me that they will take a leaf from the book of Russia and Venezuela - and engage in "resource nationalism": by seizing control of all our oilfields and natural gas deposits from those currently controlling those resources, without any real oversight by present-day authorities - who only toady to Western interests instead of protecting the national interest: and are the lackeys of Western capitalism in our country. Bottom line!
Under no circumstance must he tolerate any international intervention or calls for arbitration, when that happens - for, the revenues from those finite resources, ought to be used for the sole purpose of transforming Ghanaian society into Africa's equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia - not line the pockets of high net worth, fat-cat Western oil company shareholders. Period.
Yes, as an honourable people we must pay them fair compensation - by issuing them with Ghana's sovereign bonds, not cash: to show the ordinary people of Ghana that they are ruled by politicians who aren't as clueless as the present incompetent regime.
He must also promise to stop piling up yet more hard currency debt to lumber future generations of Ghanaian with - just to line the pockets of crooks in his regime: who might want to increase their net worth to stratospheric levels, by stealth: laundering hard currency kickbacks through opaque offshore shell companies fronted by paid Western fronts.
If he wants to be president, then let him think of creative solutions to the many problems our nation faces. For example, instead of the idiocy of extending the national grid to rural Ghana using present methods, let his regime work in partnership with the Biochar Fund, to use their sustainable rural development model, which focuses on the production of biochar and the free power produced in the process.
It is the perfect sustainable model for providing free renewable off-grid electricity for rural Ghana.
His government must also work with Sustainable Villages Africa, for the same ends, in a private public partnership (PPP) that involves local communities, district assemblies and the two organizations, as partners in sustainable development in rural Ghana.
Naturally, as a firm believer in devolving power from central government to the districts, I expect Professor Mills to assure local grassroots people throughout Ghana, that his regime will give them the power to elect district chief executives (DCE) - for, that is the best way of ensuring that the well-being of grassroots people, rather than the self-interest of the president and his party, dominates the thinking of DCEs
May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!
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