Re: “Outgoing minister suggests aeroplane for parliament”

Massa let them simply use aircraft from the presidential fleet - as they are all the property of the Ghanaian nation-state.

Let us also maintain the independence of the legislature and the judiciary by allocating money from the consolidated fund for both institutions. Ditto the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

It simply doesn't make sense to allow members of parliament to serve in the executive, if we take the oversight responsibilities of parliament in the concept of separation of powers seriously.

If we want to fight corruption effectively, let us pay our ministers and parliamentarians well and provide them with all the facilities they need to do their work efficiently - or else they will be beholden to wealthy crooks both within and from outside our nation: particularly the international drug cartels from South America that are now targeting West Africa.

Brilliant idea to elect district chief executives and all district assembly members - as that will make district assemblies more responsive to the needs of grassroots people: and lead to a constant improvement in their quality of life, whichever political party is in power at that level, at any given point in time.
It will also diffuse power in our country and give all the political parties a feeling that they too have a stake in the running of our nation - because some of their own party members will be elected as DCE's and district assembly members. Surely, that is something that can only help improve the stability of our country - and deepen our democratic roots yet further?

Above all, it will create a large pool of brilliant young politicians with years of executive experience under their collective-belt. That can only be good for our nation's long-term democratic future as we strive to build a meritocracy here. It is also a good idea to place a limit on the number of Supreme Court judges - to avoid cynical regimes packing the court for political expediency.

On the subject of changing the length of the tenure of our presidents, although that subject was mentioned by someone else, since it was said in parliament I shall comment on the pure nonsense on bamboo stilts idea that we increase them from four to five years.
That effectively will mean that a sweet-tongued administration that is an expert in the kind of smoke-and-mirrors economics that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime was so good at, lasting for a solid ten years – which in effect would amount to ten wasted years.
Can you imagine, dear reader, what would have happened to our nation in the end, if the NPP had had another two years to carry on with their disastrous smoke-and-mirrors economic policies before the end of President Kufuor's tenure?

They would probably have ended up selling the whole of our country’s landmass and all the assets within it, to foreign carpetbaggers - and topped that by selling the Ghanaian people too into slavery (earning themselves huge kickbacks in the process).

Can you imagine what another two years of having to put up with endless Kokofu-football politricks that made some tribal-supremacist Chiefs think that they were the masters of the universe (who were more important than all the other tribal Chiefs in Ghana), would have done to the sense of equanimity of Ghanaian patriots and ultra-nationalists? It simply doesn’t bear thinking, Massa!

As for limiting the term of office of the chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC) and his leading officials, why do so – when that will make them probably fear for their individual futures? As the Americans say:”If it ain’t broke, why fix it?”
Surely, limiting their tenure is bound to make some of them insecure and amenable to the blandishments of the corrupt progeny of our pre-colonial feudal ruling elites, seeking to stay in power regardless of the existence of an overwhelming national mood for regime-change at election time? Going forward into the future, just where will that land Ghanaian democracy – now hailed worldwide as an example to the rest of Africa?

What will happen, for example, if they came under the sway of the Atta Akyeas of this world (the beneficiaries of inherited privilege from our feudal slave-owning past), whose philosophy of life is underpinned by the paternalistic (to be charitable!) ethos that says: ”Mediye mema okomu endi obiaraa obenime” - a Twi phrase (meaning: "As for me, I never allow those close to me, to ever go ‘hungry’!”) a euphemism that is pregnant with meaning in a corrupt society full of moral cowards and barefaced liars such as the Maxwell Kofi Jumahs of this world?

Let us stick to the present arrangements as far as the EC goes – for, they have served us incredibly well thus far, over the years. What we should rather do as far as elections go, is to rather change the present arrangement which makes the candidate who obtains 50 per cent plus one of the votes in the presidential election the winner.

Is it not far better to replace it with the more sensible one of the winner of the presidential election in a majority of the ten regions of our nation, becoming Ghana’s president – in a nation of many tribes that needs to stay united in order to stay stable and prosper?

Such an arrangement will serve as a major disincentive for any Ghanaian leader to try and divide our nation along tribal lines in order to gain electoral advantage for his party – which is why there was such nationwide resentment at the blatant favouritism of his tribal Chiefs shown by the former president Mr. Kufour and the few tribal-supremacist politicians who were in his inner circle and who unfortunately succeeded in dominating the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime throughout its tenure.

If truth be told, it is as a result of the endless Kokofu-football politricks of those few tribal-supremacist politicians who dominated the previous regime that our nation is so divided today, as never before, in all its post-independence history.
Consequently, let us take positive steps to ensure that no regime with such a retrograde agenda is ever elected into office again – and end up destroying our nation by dividing a united nation of diverse ethnicity along tribal lines.
Surely, electing to make the winner of the presidential election in a majority of the ten regions of our country will stop tribal-supremacist politicians who trick their way to power (by successfully hiding their tribal-supremacist agenda), from trying to tear our country apart in future like Mr. Kufuor did, will it not, dear reader?

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