Tuesday 11 November 2008

Re: “Our "Rubber Stamp" Parliament Exposed!”

Quote: “If it turns out that the other party or the person or agent ... did not have the mandate, that’s a matter between the Ghana government and that other party..."

“We have done what we were supposed to do under the constitution,” unquote.

Can this genius of a minister for parliamentary affairs, Mr. Benjamin Osei Aidoo, tell the good people of Ghana, precisely who the "other party or the person or agent" he says "did not have a mandate" is, or are?

When he says: “We have done what we were supposed to do under the constitution,” does he think the job of parliament is to assist crooks in the executive branch of government, to successfully sew up deals, which are inimical to our country's interests? (www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=152881&comment=0#com.)

Could the "other party or the person or agent" that Mr. Benjamin Osei Aidoo mentions (and appears to be so disdainful of!), be one of the many powerful and well-connected Ghanaian regime-crony oligarchs, who are in hock with foreigners - and act as fronts (reaping sundry "finder's fees" - which they share: in addition to the 10 per cent kickbacks they usually get!) for the crooks amongst our political class, who now dominate the ruling party, so completely, in such deals?

Is it the case that "the other party or the person or agent” Mr. Benjamin Osei Aidoo mentions, happens to be the business partners (or agents!) of the crooks amongst our leaders: in those opaque offshore companies that some Ghanaian politicians are said to have set up, in order to launder their kickbacks, through, with such impunity?

The mistake the crooks in this regime made, in this particularly egregious example of the rip off of our country, in a privatisation transaction, by our rulers, is that they forgot that they were dealing with a Scandinavian company that treasures its good name and reputation for corporate good governance.

Norske Hydro was, in all probability, simply not interested in allowing itself to be "shanghaied" into a deal: that was not transparent enough, by their high standards - and would certainly not have countenanced allowing the crooks in government to railroad a bill through parliament, which would have provided them with a law that indemnified their executives: for crooked and underhand actions in a poor developing nation privatisation deal, involving crooked local politicians, and local businesspeople.

In any other nation in the world, this would be a huge scandal - and be investigated thoroughly by the media. Yet, in Ghana, it appears that no one seems to see just how outrageous, embarrassing, and injurious to our country's image, which all this is.

How can it possibly be, that a whole bill could be railroaded through parliament, when no such actual sale and purchase agreement, with the companies that were mentioned, and which formed the basis of the bill, actually existed?

Why, was the transaction rushed through parliament, because the crooks in government, whom this was ultimately meant to benefit, were frightened that the reluctant foreigners were developing a conscience, and would back out of the deal, if there was any further delay?

Why have the Ghanaian media and the opposition parties failed to act to find out if the property portfolio of VALCO is still intact? Has it not occurred to either of them that it is important to find out whether or not asset-stripping has taken place at VALCO, at all?

Is it not important that we find, as soon as it is practicable to do so, for example, whether or not any part of that company’s considerable property portfolio has not ended up in that of some of our ruling elite - or their regime-crony oligarch fronts?

Exactly what kind of a country are our political elite building - and just what kind of an example are they setting for the younger generation of Ghanaians? Have the Benjamin Osei Aidoos of this world, got no sense of shame at all? What perfidy!

Hmmm, Ghana - enti yeawiye paa, enia? Asem ebaba debi ankasa! May God bless our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

No comments: