THE RULE OF LAW MUST NOT BE USED TO LEGITIMISE THE CREATION OF AN UNJUST SOCIETY IN OUR DEMOCRACY!

A rather vociferous minority amongst those who sit on the benches opposite those of the majority side in parliament, are giving ordinary Ghanaians the clear impression, that they are determined to exploit the concept of the rule of law to the hilt – to enable them continue furthering their parochial interests: at the expense of the Ghanaian nation-state (and the generality of its citizenry).

How else can one explain the continued insistence by some politicians that those obscene ex-gratia payments are made willy-nilly: in the face of widespread public disapproval – because they were sanctioned by a law passed by parliamentarians: most of whom we now know were in reality merely self-serving, self-seeking and the most dishonourable of individuals, driven purely by the basest of motives, to sanction those payments?

As a consequence of this rather unhealthy development, the question many independent-minded and discerning Ghanaians now urgently want answered by our political class is: Can the rule of law be allowed in Ghana to be manipulated by a clever and greedy few – to legitimize the creation of an unjust society in which only the powerful and well-connected prosper (in what is supposed to be a democracy)?

Yes, it is true that in spite of their nation-wrecking collective-agenda, such politicians may be able to rely on the continued support of those tiresome, “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, whose blind support for political parties ends up destroying them when they eventually win power (because they wear their infernal “blinkers-of-intolerance” permanently – and are hence too blind to see what is wrong with our nation: and too thick to think for themselves).

However, what such politicians must always remember, is that it is a relatively small group of swing-voters: the independent-minded, patriotic, and nationalistic Ghanaians (the so-called “floating-voters”), who ultimately decide who wins power in the Ghana of the 21st century ICT age – and those principled and fair-minded Ghanaians are most definitely not enthused in the slightest by the unfathomable greed that those monstrous ex-gratia payments represent.

Why should ordinary people tolerate what in effect are the building-blocks for the creation of an unjust and unequal society in their country – by those who have an elitist worldview, believe in inherited privilege (the worst enemy of any meritocracy) and, to add insult to injury, did not succeed in improving the quality of life of ordinary Ghanaians, when they were given the opportunity to govern our nation?

Should such political failures be the chosen and blessed few in our country, as well as the only section of society, to enjoy Ghana’s “democracy-dividend”? Why in heaven’s name are ordinary people expected to tolerate such an egregious example of injustice – and accept it quietly as a matter of course too?

More so when those building-blocks of inequality are the handiwork of those whom when they thought no one was listening in to what they believed were secret and seditious meetings (held to engage in a conspiracy to enable them steal the December 2008 elections – and deny Ghanaians the change they so clearly wanted), made no secret of their utter contempt for Ghanaian democracy; the rule of law; and the prevailing national mood for regime-change.

Do these ace hypocrites think that Ghanaians have forgotten their pernicious deeds and words during the December 2008 elections so soon – deeds and words caught on tape recordings (in which they were exposed espousing their shocking elitist and anti-democratic views) broadcast in December 2008 by the brilliant Raymond Archer: who was then hosting Radio Gold FM’s “Election Forensics” programme?

We cannot possibly allow the creation of an unjust society in the democracy we are trying to build in our homeland Ghana, if we want our democratic institutions to survive and thrive – and if we are also truly committed to building Africa’s equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia in our country.

No one begrudges the payment of reasonable ex-gratia payments to those who serve our nation diligently and honestly as public officials, when they eventually retire – but only as long as our nation has the wherewithal to do same for all its public officials working in all spheres of human endeavour in our national life.

The contribution of every Ghanaian worker towards nation-building in our homeland Ghana is as important as that made by the members of our ruling elite – and deserves to be equally well rewarded too when they finally retire.

Excessive ex-gratia payments that do not take the dire economic circumstances of our nation into account, at any given point in time in its history, must never be sanctioned by those who under our constitution, are supposed to protect the public purse. On those grounds alone, the controversial ex-gratia payments for our parliamentarians and other retiring high public officials from the previous administration, can never be justified under any circumstances.

It is important that that bald fact of life in the Ghana of today, is made abundantly clear to those parliamentarians, amongst whose abysmal record of protecting our national interest from predators in the immediate-past, even includes sanctioning that scandalous sale and purchase agreement for the privatization of VALCO – ostensibly to two reputable international metals conglomerates, Norske Hydro and VALE: both of whom strenuously denied ever committing themselves to purchasing VALCO.

The greedy ambitions of a powerful few at the top echelons of society must never be allowed to determine public policy, to the detriment of our nation and its people – particularly when those ex-gratia payments were clearly only ever meant to empower those whom we all now know played fast and lose with public funds when they held power.

Those payments are simply meant to enable yesteryear’s masters of the universe to continue milking our nation dry even in their retirement years – and live in the opulent style to which they had become accustomed during their tenure in office: when they were so incredibly profligate with taxpayers’ money.

Let no one in this country seek to justify those payments – because they can never be justified morally in a poor developing nation that still struggles to meet the monthly emoluments of serving government employees: and a majority of whose citizens (particularly pensioners) can barely afford even two square meals a day.

Those truly honourable ones left amongst our country’s largely self-seeking political class (who still have a conscience, i.e.) must reconsider their stand on this matter – whiles the opportunity for them to right this terrible wrong done to Ghanaians and their nation still remains within their grasp. They must not use the law as a cloak to hide their greed and legitimize an injustice against ordinary Ghanaians.

If the concept of the rule of law is to continue to survive in this country, no groups or individuals must ever be allowed to manipulate that great tenet of democracy, simply to further their parochial interests – and at the expense of ordinary Ghanaians and their nation.

Above all, let no one attempt to use the rule of law to try and legitimize efforts aimed at the creation of an unjust and an unequal society – in which equality of opportunity does not exist. We must ensure that the democracy we are trying to build in our homeland Ghana is one in which all citizens, not just a greedy and powerful few, enjoy a good quality of life – whatever their station in life is. Period. A word to the wise…

To The Cynical Nii Noi Allotey - Who Also Posts Comments On Ghanaweb.Com

Massa, you say: "They will declare assets but acquire and hide wealth using friends and relations. Asset declaration does not work in Africa." Unquote. What an extraordinary thing to say, Massa! Why be so negative about Africa and Africans?

It might very well be that at last we actually do have an honest man for a president, Massa - has that thought ever occurred to you, yet? I would implore you to have some self-belief as an African, Massa.

Believe me, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with either Africans or the nations they are citizens of. Don’t forget that it took the so-called developed nations many centuries to get where they are today - and we are also making progress after a fashion: and at our own pace, too.

There is a lot to be proud of about Africans and their continent. Perhaps an intelligent man like you might see some of the many positive things about Africans and Africa, were you to travel around a great deal more in your own nation - and the rest of our continent too?

Massa, do please be proud of your own race – especially as you appear to be such an intelligent man! Hmmm, Ghana – eyeasem oo! God give us patience! May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

A BRIEF NOTE TO AFUA - WHO POSTS COMMENTS ON GHANAWEB!

Ohemaa, with respect, we are not doomed - and Ghanaians do have brains: surprising though it might be to your good self! Why the cynicism - what is wrong with a president demanding that his appointees declare their assets within seven days?

If we do eventually get fed up with Professor Mills' regime, we will turf them out of power in 2012 or 2016 - just as we did the previous regime: when we finally got fed up with that greedy lot. Ohemaa, Ghanaians aren't fools at all! Ever heard the popular and wise Ghanaian saying: "No condition is permanent!"?

It might do an intelligent woman like you well to always remember that not all Ghanaians are the “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types: who wear blinkers permanently and are too blind to see what actually goes on in our country, and too thick to work out just what is wrong with our nation, at any given point in time – and whose blind support for political parties destroys those parties eventually: when they win power; in the final analysis.

Ohemaa, it is the independent-minded and discerning Ghanaian, the so-called “floating-voter”, whose vote on election-day, effects regime-change in the democratic Ghana of the 21st century ICT age. I do hope you are one yourself too! In any case, it precisely because of such Ghanaians that Ghana will always confound the cynics who think ill and negatively of her.

Hmmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo! God give us patience! May God bless and protect our homeland Ghana, always. Long live freedom! Long live Ghana!

THE GOVERNMENT MUST LEAVE GHANA INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES TO ITS OWN DEVICES!

It was recently reported that Ghana International Airlines(GIA) is asking the government of Ghana to bail it out - to the tune of some US$52 millions, apparently. If the Mills administration has the national interest at heart, it must simply leave GIA to its own devices – and use the US$50 million plus that GIA is said to be seeking from it, to rather help in the effort now underway to ensure that Ghana’s power problems are resolved quickly.

That GIA is today said to be seeking funding from the Ghanaian nation-state, vindicates those who criticized the previous regime, for allowing foreign investors who did not own a scheduled airline, to step into the vacuum created by the demise of Ghana Airways.

It also brings into sharp focus the negative effect on our country’s development when governments of the day sacrifice the national interest – by allowing the greedy ambitions of a powerful and politically well-connected few to prevail: when deciding the future of state-owned entities.

At the time when there was talk of finding a replacement for Ghana Airways, because it clearly could no longer be sustained by state subsidies, some of us argued (when the ridiculous idea for GIA was being canvassed by those who sought to profit from it), that it was far better to let that ethical businessman Sir Richard Branson’s airline company take over Ghana Airways and merge it with Virgin Nigeria: and call it Virgin ECOWAS.

The attraction for us then, was that Virgin was not only a world-class carrier (run by a man who is famous for being an ethical operator who refuses to pay bribes in his operations worldwide), but was also one of the most innovative and profitable of the world’s leading airlines – which was already familiar with the West African business environment: through its Virgin Nigeria joint-venture with the Nigerian government.

The logic of a Virgin ECOWAS for us was that it could eventually grow to encompass all the loss-making national carriers in the ECOWAS region and contribute revenue to their owner-governments in terms of profits from such a West Africa-wide joint-venture.

Above all, it would have made the skies of a sub-region of an African continent notorious for the atrocious safety-record of its many dangerous domestic carriers, a safe one, for air travellers in the whole of West Africa – thus promoting intra-regional trade and encouraging multi-nation-destination tourism in the area.

One does not know if GIA is still run by the same individual who used to own Experienced Student Travel Services Limited (ESTS), but the government would do well to talk to those who used to employ her as General Manageress of Student Travel Services (STS).

Apparently, her poor supervision there led to the disappearance of substantial sums of money – which ended up with a pastor whom it was said could double money: via the company’s accountant.

That she was employed by GIA during the previous regime to run that company without anyone ever asking for references from her former employers at STS speaks volumes about the nepotism that underpins the company culture of GIA. It is also instructive that when she left STS she sought to reap where she had not sown – by setting up a rival firm to compete with her former employers.

By the simple ruse of adding an E to the acronym STS she sought to carry on business as usual – profiting from the usage of the commercial network and contacts built up over the years by STS at great cost to the company that once employed her. Surely not the most ethical of moves for anyone who believes in the principles of corporate good governance to make, is it, dear reader?

The government of Ghana will definitely be better off without GIA – because as presently constituted it amounts to the financial equivalent of a black-hole: through which taxpayers’ money will continue to disappear regularly. The new Mills administration must simply leave GIA to its own devices – and if that be its fate, let it die a natural death, as it struggles to survive against the odds, in an international airline industry facing massive losses, in a world in the grip of a severe recession. A word to the wise…

LET OUR LEADERS BE MODEST IN THE DEMANDS THEY MAKE ON THE PUBLIC PURSE!

Former President Kufuor’s recent defence of the proposed ex-gratia payments to members of the former parliament has generated a great deal of public comment. His critics point to the “unprofessionalism” displayed by members of that particular parliament the former president commends so highly – who apparently simply approved Mr. Kufuor’s own ex-gratia payment as a matter of course: without actually ever examining it in any detail whatsoever.

Such critics also chide Mr. Kufour for what they say is the cynicism contained in his assertion that those opposed to the ex-gratia payments to those parliamentarians did not know the “value” of their work in parliament – by pointing out the fact that in similar fashion, and without any due diligence checks, those selfsame parliamentarians incredibly approved the sale of VALCO to a non-existent special purpose vehicle, grandly christened by some of the rogues associated with the previous regime whom it was going to benefit personally, as, International Aluminum Partners: allegedly made up of two reputable international metals conglomerates that both strenuously denied ever agreeing to buy VALCO.

To such critics of our political class, it is outrageous that those parliamentarians, whom former President Kufuor defends so spiritedly, did not take into account the dire economic circumstances of what is still a poor developing nation, when they approved those astonishing ex-gratia payments to the former president and a host of other highly-placed former public officials.

In the view of many independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians those selfsame parliamentarians whose work Mr. Kufuor praises, also let our nation down badly, on each occasion that they allowed the Kufuor regime to manipulate the legislative branch of government – by railroading bills inimical to the national interest through that particular parliament.

The question Ghana’s hard-pressed taxpayers would like answered is: Have the over-pampered members of our political class now completely forgotten that this is a nation in which there are such huge disparities in wealth – and whose government struggles to pay its own employees regularly? Do they not understand that no nation in which there are such glaring inequalities will remain a democracy for very long?

It is instructive that the gentleman who once campaigned for the presidency by asking Ghanaians to examine their personal circumstances and vote accordingly, has now forgotten his own apparent personal sense of outrage at the straightened circumstances the vast majority of ordinary people happened to find themselves in, when he was seeking to be their president, in 2000.

Mr. Kufuor’s amnesia is typical of the mentality of the generality of Ghana’s educated urban elites – a majority of whom do not really care about the plight of our nation and the endemic poverty most ordinary Ghanaians suffer from: as long as the going is good for them personally. His party’s philosophy of personal greed (respectably dressed-up with the innocuous-sounding phrase: “a property-owning democracy”) led to selfishness amongst Ghanaians rising to its apogee in the dishonest “dog-eat-dog-society” it turned our nation into.

Mr. Kufuor’s message then (when he was campaigning for the presidency in 2000), of a fair society in which there would be positive change in the personal circumstances of all Ghanaians, struck a cord with a majority of Ghanaians – who duly voted for the change in government that brought him to power as President Rawlings’ successor in office in January 2001.

What Mr. Kufuor and those who think like him in our country must understand, is that the dignity of nations, such as ours, does not lie in sumptuous presidential palace complexes (in our particular case the financial equivalent of a black-hole through which zillions of hard-pressed taxpayers’ money legally disappears regularly as costs for its construction escalate) and the luxurious lifestyles of its ruling elites – but in decent living standards and a positive overall quality of life for ordinary Ghanaians: both those presently employed and their compatriots who are now retired.

Ordinary people in Ghana do not begrudge their nation’s high and mighty ruling elite any generous retirement benefits paid them by the Ghanaian nation-state at the end of their tenures of office – as long as they are able to improve the living standards of all strata of Ghanaian society whiles in office. Until that happens, Ghanaians expect their leaders to be moderate in their demands on the public purse – as regards both their pay and perks of office whiles serving Ghana: and their retirement-benefits when they finally retire from office.

Former President Kufuor must remember that he once told Ghanaians that as a people we must learn to cut our coat according to the size of our cloth. The same advice applies in the size of the retirement packages that the Ghanaian nation-state offers its most important officeholders upon their retirement. That the former president and some of his supporters find it difficult to understand that simple fact of life illustrates perfectly the gulf that exists between them and the ordinary people of Ghana.

Since Ghana gained her independence in 1957, the ordinary people of our nation have constantly been called upon by their political leaders, over the years, to make personal sacrifices – in order to help build a better Ghana for the entirety of its people.

Today, times are tough everywhere in a world that has tipped into what by all appearances might very well turn out to be a rather severe recession. It is a situation that calls for Ghanaians from all strata of society to tighten their belts. Surely, those who volunteer to serve the people in government must set an example and also make sacrifices – such as accepting more modest retirement benefits, too? A word to the wise…

A RARE INSIGHT INTO GHANA’S BYZANTINE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR!

Critics of Ghana’s Byzantine financial services industry say that the latest scandal to hit that sector of Ghana’s economy illustrates perfectly the lax regulatory regime governing the industry. They claim that that regulatory environment is the result of the many incestuous relationships between regulators and players in the industry.

According to those critics the latest industry scandal also exposes the widespread ignorance that exists in much of the Ghanaian media about that sector of our national economy – a fact that has unfortunately allowed sharp practice in the industry to persist.

For many independent-minded and discerning Ghanaians the scandal offers a rare opportunity to take a peek at Ghana’s financial services sector – and it is not a pretty sight they see, sadly. Critics claim that like their counterparts in the decimated capital markets of the West, insider-dealing and plain crookedness, amongst industry players, are rife, in our financial services sector too (and that greed also definitely rules OK in it).

Naturally, over the last eight years that Ghana was ruled by our country’s stooges for neo-colonialism (and eager lackeys of the now-discredited neo-liberals of the West), the industry’s powerful and politically well-connected oligarchs were able to successfully hide behind the coattails of the political Establishment – whose desire to hide their own crookedness from the rest of the world, worked in their favour.

According to “bush-telegraph” sources, for example, powerful politicians using special-purpose offshore vehicles, apparently received kickbacks from the massive fees earned by some of those who profited so mightily from Ghana’s senseless forays into the piranha-infested capital markets of the West, which were made during the tenure of the previous regime.

It meant that whiles a few well-connected and powerful individuals became super-rich, Ghana (a nation whose very lifeblood was once being constantly sucked out of it, as it made regular interest payments on its large external debt of old during the Rawlings regime), incredibly, succeeded in piling up yet more debt once again.

Thus, although Ghana had much of its old debt forgiven not too long after the previous regime first assumed power in 2001, today, as a consequence of the piling up of new debt by that selfsame old regime the country has now ended up suffering from (to use a World Bank euphemism) the same debilitating “debt distress” that once crippled the Rawlings administration.

It is obvious that many more scandals, connected with the frenzied and senseless piling up of that large new external debt by the previous regime, will also soon come to light. The scale of the greed that drove some of those who profited from the massive fees generated by the piling up of that debt will shock most ordinary Ghanaians.

Doubtless, the usual admonishment used to try and silence those who seek to expose corruption in our financial services sector that, quote: “It will discourage foreign direct investment…” unquote, will be deployed against those who seek to expose past corruption within the industry and to criticise its greedy ways.

In the end, ordinary Ghanaians, now having their sensibilities insulted yet further by being asked by some of the selfsame individuals responsible for much of the corruption of the past to pay obscene amounts in ex-gratia payments to the high and mighty of yesteryear (some of whose greed it appears knows no bounds), will be prevented from getting to know the truth about how their nation was crippled because the greed for money of a few powerful individuals drove the previous regime’s insatiable thirst for foreign loans.

Clearly, Ghana would have been far better off seeking loans from China to fund its development during the tenure of President Kufuor, for example, rather than opting to raise money from the capital markets of the West. Much of the nation’s troubles under the previous regime stemmed from the difficulties it was having finding money to meet interest payments on the US$750 million sovereign bonds and the US$200 million GT corporate bonds (issued in London on GT's behalf by Iroko).

Obviously, there were no juicy fees to be had in plumping for the Chinese option – which would have meant that there would be no money forthcoming from that quarter to be shared amongst those who constituted the partnership between the Titans of our financial services industry and the powerful crooks who dominated the previous regime.

Consequently, those then running Ghana chose the capital markets of the West instead – influenced by those amongst them who wanted to secure kickbacks from their cronies in the financial services sector: and it was dressed up as evidence of the confidence the world had in our nation (a corrupt nation swirling with cocaine money that precious few reputable long-term investors – with the exception of those interested in the extractive-industries – would touch with a barge-pole if truth be told).

Currently, as we speak, a number of media-folk (described by uncharitable social commentators as “clueless and mercenary hacks”) are being deployed in an effort to stop the public from discovering the massive profits made by the lucrative partnership between some of the greedy crooks amongst our previous rulers and the more dishonest of the Titans of our financial services sector.

Those massive profits are said by some of the industry’s critics to have been made possible only as a result of insider-dealing and other unethical practices – and that it was the partnership between the influential Titans of the financial services industry and some of the most powerful amongst our previous rulers, which enabled a small number of the respectable and super-wealthy crooks in the industry, to get away with their crimes against our nation successfully and for so long.

For simple folk, such as me, it will be interesting to know the dénouement of the latest scandal to hit our financial services sector. What I yearn for most, is that above all, those curious Ghanaians who for years have been dying to know who the owners of Iroko are (and just which of the Titans amongst our financial services sector are their local associates or partners), will finally get their wish.

One certainly hopes that those Ghanaians, who are outraged that at a time when the world is grappling with the consequences of a global credit crunch, when even the most dynamic of economies have tipped into recession, their nation’s resources are being toyed with by clever and respectable white-colour criminals, will have the patience to wait for the murky details of the latest example of the “Kweku-Ananse” creative-accounting and financial-engineering schemes, said to be replete in our financial services sector, to be unraveled.

At some point, going forward, perhaps Ghanaians will finally get to hear how it came about that a bunch of faceless rogues amongst those running a shadowy trading company with Asian antecedents and not having much of a background could come to our country and literally make money from thin air at our cash-strapped nation’s expense because they had friends in high places.

Patriotic Ghanaians must pray that some of the many tentacles of that particular giant "octopus-of-greed" engaged in the massive rip-off of our nation do touch the jurisdiction of least one of the regulators and prosecutors responsible for policing the financial services industries in the US, the EU and the UK. The opportunity to make an example of crooked and wealthy Africans as well as their Asian partners in white-collar crime will definitely be hard to resist in the corridors of power in the capitals of those nations of the West.

As for those in the media who in the past sold their consciences to the once-powerful crooks of yesteryear and are now allowing themselves to be manipulated by the super- wealthy white-collar criminals who dominate our financial services sector (for personal financial gain), one simply hopes that they will at least try and find answers to a few simple questions from the devious minds they are now seeking to sell their consciences to – for the sake of their country and its hard-pressed taxpayers.

Perhaps they can finally redeem themselves by finding out for Ghanaians (and thus helping them separate fact from fiction), the true facts, as regards the wild grapevine stories now doing the rounds and which have to do with the ownership of Iroko – and how it is said by some of Ghana’s conspiracy theorists to have woven a tangled golden-web of unfathomable-greed with honey-coated words to take advantage of our clueless leaders and the nation they ruled to enrich its owners and their local associates. It is said to be a Mauritius-registered offshore entity.

The praise-singers of old, who were such fierce guard-dogs of the previous regime, would do well to tell Ghanaians if any their nation’s wealthy and well-connected business elite, who were able to send their personal net worth into the stratosphere so easily during the previous regime, actually own a stake in Iroko – and if not who are the Ghanaians who led Iroko to the boardrooms of Ghana Telecom and that of the National Investment Bank (NIB) and what was in it for them.

Are they willing, for example, to get in touch with the UK financial services sector regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), to ask them if in their opinion, those uncharitable Ghanaians s who condemn the kinds of methods they say were used by Iroko to obtain business in Ghana – such as the ethics (or lack thereof) underpinning the GT corporate bond it issued on that company’s behalf in London and for which there appeared to be no credible interest-payment plan in place at the material time those bonds were issued in London – have any basis in pointing accusing fingers at Iroko for alleged sharp practice in that transaction?

Perhaps they could also get the FSA to tell them whether in its view the curious NIB promissory notes Iroko discounted for that shadowy trading firm (with Asian antecedents) that is said by some of Ghana’s conspiracy theorists to have “questionable ethical standards” would be acceptable to any self-respecting Western regulator – keen to see corporate good governance principles underpinning all financial transactions entered into by London-based financial institutions worldwide.

Given the circumstances of our nation, and at a time when even bigger financial institutions in the wealthy Western nations face an uncertain future and are being propped up by their governments (which are busy pumping vast amounts of taxpayers’ money into private banks in partial-nationalizations), how would the FSA view what industry critics describe as a “financial-sleight-of-hand “(the “Ali-Baba-magic" financial-skullduggery) that the prompt discounting of those promissory notes by Iroko represents?

Just what were those promissory notes issued for? Is what one hears (from the bush-telegraph) that discounting those promissory notes netted that shadowy trading company with zillions of hard-to-come-by US dollars in the blink of an eyelid? Above all, how would the FSA react if such an “odd” and unsanctioned transaction (by a publicly-owned bank's board of directors)had occurred in the UK’s financial services sector between a bank funded with taxpayers' money and a shadowy private foreign-based trading company?

Over the last eight years that Ghana was ruled by the greedy stooges for neo-colonialism (and lackeys of the now-discredited neo-liberals of the West), the clever and respectable rogues in our financial services sector were able to successfully hide behind the coattails of the political Establishment – whose desire to hide their own crookedness from the rest of the world, worked in their favour. It worked a treat for those oligarchs.

It is the desire to hide the massive profits made by the lucrative partnership between some of our previous rulers and some of the Titans of our financial services sector (made possible by insider-dealing and other unethical practices), which enabled the respectable and super-wealthy crooks in the industry, to get away with their crimes against our nation successfully for so long.

Today, they now have to face the music for their arrogance and hubris of the past. Sadly, now that the day of reckoning is upon them they are scrambling to avail themselves of the services of some of the amoral mercenaries in the Ghanaian media world – in a desperate attempt to prevent the law from finally catching up with them.

A major concern of many of those who have closely monitored the extraordinary growth of the financial services sector of our economy has been the many incestuous relationships between regulators and players in the industry. For example, it would appear that a tradition has now been firmly established that no self-respecting central bank governor in this country should fail to spend his or her years of retirement as either the owner of a private bank or the director of one.

It would be interesting to know what those now clamouring for tighter regulation in the financial services sectors of the major Western capitalist nations would say about such a development – were such an unfortunate occurrence to evolve there too: and regulators were busy setting up their own banks or taking up plum non-executive roles in financial services companies, upon their retirement.

The Mills administration must understand that transparency in all business transactions is what attracts reputable foreign direct investors into emerging markets. They must resist the temptation to allow opaque practices and the corruption it breeds to continue to be hidden from public view and to go unpunished – because they fall for the mantra used by the clever crooks who profited so mightily from the Kufuor administration’s corrupt ways and enabled them to get away with their nation-wrecking activities: that shining the spotlight on corrupt business deals “will frighten away foreign direct investment.”

On the contrary, transparency in our financial services sector (as well as all the other sectors of our national economy) is precisely what will attract the kind of long-term foreign direct investment that is guided by corporate good governance principles, into our country.

Hopefully the new minister for communications, the Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, wll bear that in mind when he tackles the GT/Vodafone sale and purchase agreement that the previous government entered into - and which in furtherance of they also succeeded in railroading a bill through the previous parliament: which astonshingly passed an "illegal law" indemnifying all those who participated in that shabby deal from future prosecution for any illegal actions they may have been guilty of in striking the deal (contrary to our constitution which admonishes Ghanaians to fight corruption - not encourage it).

The corruption of the past that bedeviled Ghana’s financial services sector and eventually led to the difficulties our nation faces today must never be allowed to occur again – and the only way to prevent their reoccurrence is to expose all the shady deals that went on during the tenure of the previous regime: and prosecute all those who helped to cheat our nation and enriched themselves at our nation’s expense in the process. A word to the wise…

Could Ghana’s "Tro-Tros" Constitute An Efficient Private-Sector Mass-Transportation System?

I recently spent a day with a dear friend from the Pennsylvanian city of Scranton, visiting some parts of Accra that are usually included in the itineraries of most local tour companies – as places of interest for tourists that are worth visiting. Our day-trip was undertaken exclusively travelling around Accra with the city’s famous tro-tros (mini-buses).

As we made our way around town, I could not help but wonder what insights, if any, into the life endured by ordinary people, on a daily basis, which the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December 2008 election, Nana Akufo-Addo, gained, during the presidential election campaign – when he too decided to visit parts of Accra by travelling in some of Accra’s tro-tros.

What first struck me most, as my friend and I travelled around town during our day-trip, was the fact that it took ages to get a tro-tro – because the ones that came by, were invariably full or did not have two free seats available to enable us board them together. A considerable amount of time therefore went by before we got on one whenever we had to change tro-tros to get to different destinations at various stages of our sightseeing trip.

Our starting point was Mendskrom – which is the nearest tro-tro stop from where I live at McCarthy Hill. Clearly, if we were employees of any establishment in Accra, we would have had to venture out of the house roughly a good three hours ahead of time daily – in order to get to work by 8.30 am.

If ordinary people have to put up with such inconvenience daily, then perhaps the question we ought to pose our leaders is: Are they sufficiently aware of the difficulty workers face as they struggle to get to work on time daily – and if they are, what do they propose to do about it: in order to help boost productivity nationwide?

Another of the not inconsiderable number of observations we made during our day-trip, was that virtually every one of the tro-tros we got around in, was a mini-van that had been converted into a bus. It was obvious to my Scranton friend and I that in effect we were travelling in vehicles that were death-traps – and that were we to be involved in a vehicular-collision at any point during our journey, many of the passengers on the tro-tro, including both of us, would most probably be seriously injured.

One could easily imagine the number of passengers who would end up in hospital with broken legs and probably suffer some internal injuries too – because of the fact that the seats of the tro-tros would most certainly become dislodged and crash into some of the passengers: simply because those seats were bolted unto the thin floors of the mini-buses with the flimsiest of bolts and nuts.

Anyone observing the bolts and nuts used to hold their seats in position in any detail, does not need to be a qualified engineer to conclude that those who carry out such conversions do not take into account the structural need to prevent such an occurrence – because those ‘mini-buses’ had not been structurally designed to carry any significant number of seated passengers, other than two front-seat passengers, in the first place.

In a nation with one of the highest vehicular accident rates in the world, would it not make sense to ensure the safety of the travelling public – by passing a law to make it illegal for any vehicle not structurally designed to ferry passengers, to do so? We must certainly never allow converted vans and mini-vans to be registered in our country to carry passengers in 21st century Ghana.

Surely, if Chinese companies have invested in assembly-plants here, some of the many banks and other non-banking financial services sector entities could be persuaded by government, to partner them: to make it possible for the owners of Ghana’s fleet of privately-owned tro-tros, to acquire purpose-built mini-buses on more generous hire-purchase terms, than are currently available – so that a national tro-tro fleet renewal programme could gradually be undertaken in the next four years?

If young tro-tro drivers, imbued with the spirit of enterprise, who are currently employed by comfortably well-off tro-tro owners up and down our country, were helped to acquire their own tro-tros: with funds from a special youth-enterprise fund set up for just such a purpose, would we not help such young men and women to become self-employed micro-entrepreneurs – and help give birth to an enterprise-culture amongst the younger generation of Ghanaians sadly  currently only being ruthlessly exploited by our nation’s many Shylock tro-tro owners?

Clearly, Ghana’s tro-tros have the potential to constitute an efficient nationwide mass-transportation system – operated entirely by the private sector. Consequently, as a nation, we ought to make a conscious effort to help the many entrepreneurs who invest in that sector – as well as encourage young people imbued with a sense of personal initiative, who find employment in that sector of our economy as drivers and “mates” (conductors to the initiated), to become owner-drivers.

Currently, many of such young people are merely exploited for their labour – and are at the mercy of selfish and hard-hearted tro-tro owners: who care more about obtaining their daily sales than the welfare of their employees and the safety of the travelling public who use those rickety and unsafe tro-tros daily plying roads up and down our country.

Perhaps it is time the members of our political class currently in power did some creative thinking: and explored the possibility of creating a new generation of an entrepreneurial-class for the transport sector of Ghana’s economy – by empowering some of the many young people employed in that sector of our nation’s economy to own their own tro-tros: thus helping them improve their standard of living, whiles providing the public who depend on them with purpose-built and safe tro-tros to travel on.

CAN THE JUDICIARY DOOM THE NEW MILLS ADMINISTRATION?

After a rather strained conversation with a friend one Saturday afternoon (7th February, 2009) it suddenly dawned on me that he was right in saying that the new Mills administration faces a potential danger that many Ghanaians are unaware of.

The post-election regime-change euphoria generated amongst many Ghanaians, including even some of those in the media who truly love mother Ghana, has blinded many of us too, to a clear and present danger facing our nation.

It is important that those in the media who take their watchdog role in society seriously (and have never allowed their consciences to be bought by members of our political class – from across the spectrum of Ghanaian politics) act to alert the nation to what is one of the biggest dangers now facing the enterprise Ghana.

Our nation’s march towards progress, the transformation of our society into Africa’s equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, could be halted in its tracks – if the new administration is held hostage: by an alliance between those who benefited so mightily from the patronage of the powerful tribal-supremacist cabal that dominated the previous regime and some of the members of a supposedly-independent judiciary: who were apparently sympathetic to the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime.

For Ghana’s independent-minded patriots, including the so-called “floating-voters” (the discerning, non-partisan and non-tribalistic Ghanaians, whose crucial votes gave President Mills victory in eight out of Ghana’s ten regions), it is vital that Professor Mills’ administration succeeds. Consequently, it is important that the dark forces of the past are not allowed to sabotage his regime, by stealth, under any circumstances.

Initially, I was appalled by the thrust of my friend’s argument – as I saw it as an attack on an independent judiciary. However, upon reflection, it suddenly occurred to me that what my friend was saying was indeed profound. An alliance between the anti-democratic elements in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and those judges who were apparently being relied on by the Maxwell Kofi Jumahs and the Atta Akeas, to overturn the 2008 presidential and parliamentary election results in a number of key constituencies is indeed a distinct possibility.

It will be recalled that both Maxwell Kofi Jumah and Atta Akyea, in recorded conversations broadcast on Radio Gold FM’s “Election Forensics” programme, made statements that made it clear that both knew their party could always rely on certain judges to deliver favourable judgments for the NPP government, in cases in which the previous regime had an interest.

No one who listened to those recordings could have failed to understand that the Maxwell Kofi Jumahs, the Atta Akyeas and the Malik Yakubu Alhassans (who were obviously having what they all thought were secret conversations being held behind closed doors) were working feverishly to subvert the will of ordinary Ghanaians – and steal the election by stealth: in the immediate aftermath of the December 2008 elections.

A key part of their strategy was the role that members of the judiciary, whom they referred to as the “right” judges, were expected to play in their attempt to deny Ghanaians the change they so obviously desired – as those cynical oligarchs masquerading as believers in democracy and the rule of law, sought to manipulate the judiciary in what in effect was a rolling coup attempt: which their recourse to using a section of what in reality is an unelected and unaccountable judiciary, represented.

It is also instructive that just recently, a key figure amongst those who only yesterday sought to deny Ghanaians the change they so clearly wanted, the newly-elected member of parliament for Abuakwa South, Atta Akyea, conveniently forgot his own anti-democratic utterances and disgraceful attempt to manipulate the legal process and help the NPP steal an election, when he made an intervention during the sitting of the parliamentary committee vetting the president’s nominees for ministerial appointments.

During the vetting by the parliamentary committee responsible for vetting those nominated by the president for ministerial positions, Atta Akeyea (who in the infamous “Election Forensics” tape-recordings broadcast by Radio Gold was heard saying in Twi: “…saa democracy nonsense yii…”) sought to pose what many saw as a most absurd question – which made reference to the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) era when Ghana was ruled by a military dictatorship.

There are some who wondered what Atta Akyea’s real motive was for posing what on the surface seemed an innocuous question. Was the idea to possibly evoke in the minds of some of those listening to the committee’s hearings, the positive picture of a member of the party apparently dedicated to freedom in Ghana, the NPP, questioning a former cadre of yesteryear’s dictatorial PNDC regime – now about to become a minister in the new Mills administration, perhaps?

Clearly, one of the tactics in the strategy adopted by those who benefitted materially from the previous regime and consequently now wish the new Mills administration to fail, is to define it as a natural successor to the PNDC military dictatorship – which Maxwell Kofi Jumah made an oblique reference to when he was recorded giving a pep-talk to the myrmidon-types (the “Macho-men”) that his party had recruited to snatch ballot boxes and to help them successfully rig the December 2008 election.

Are the verbal-sleights-of-hand of the Atta Akyeas of Ghanaian politics a pointer to the future – and part of the propaganda tactics in the strategy adopted by those powerful anti-democratic and elitist Akan tribal-supremacist elements in the NPP: who apparently thought Ghanaians had no right to vote their party out of power and sought to use all possible means (fair and foul), to achieve their aim of staying in power regardless of the national mood, perhaps?

If the new Mills administration is to succeed it must clip the wings of the dangerous tribal supremacist cabal that dominated the previous regime – and hijacked virtually the whole machinery of state for their personal benefit as well as that of their family clans and cronies.

To checkmate those enemies of our nation, it is in the national interest that the new Mills administration investigates what was a clear coup attempt by those who tried to rig the December 2008 polls. There is enough evidence to prosecute some of those who sought to deny Ghanaians the change they wanted – such as the shocking things heard in the “Election Forensics” programme tape-recordings played by Raymond Archer and broadcast by Radio Gold FM during the December 2008 elections.

The government must prosecute all those who were part of what clearly was a conspiracy to subvert Ghanaian democracy, during, and in the immediate aftermath, of the December 2008 – and whose outrageous plans, thank God, were thwarted by the vigilance of those Ghanaians whose heroic actions that day showed the wisdom in the popular saying: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

The new administration must also do what all US administrations do to ensure that their political agenda is not frustrated by the judiciary – make sure that they promote people who share their worldview to the US Supreme Court whenever vacancies occur amongst the justices of the US Supreme Court.

It is clear from those infamous Maxwell Kofi Jumah and Atta Akyea tape-recordings that the NPP was able to pack the judiciary with judges, whom it was obvious, they could manipulate at will. Professor Mills’ regime must do all it can to help protect Ghanaian democracy by finding a way to get all such compromised judges to retire from the bench quickly, on their own accord.

If the NDC regime fails to do so because they fear being accused (by those who probably wish them ill, in any case) of interfering with the judiciary, they will wake up to find, four years hence, that their regime had effectively been held hostage by a few corrupt, unelected and unaccountable judges loyal to the crooks who gang-raped mother Ghana so brutally, during the tenure of the NPP.

We must not allow those who when presented with a historic opportunity by Providence to set new standards of morality in our public life and deepen the roots of Ghanaian democracy by committing themselves to the rule of law, failed our nation, to stop the new administration from implementing the manifesto it presented to Ghanaians and which eventually won them the December 2008 elections.

If President Mills wants his regime and our country to succeed, he must act boldly to rid the judiciary of all those judges who chose to collaborate with the previous regime in pursing its selective-justice agenda.

If the president fails to do so his regime risks being held to ransom by those selfsame judges – who for all we know may still be loyal to those amoral men (and women) of yesterday, who held power not too long ago and abused it with total impunity: and who now wish to get away with their crimes against the ordinary people of Ghana and their nation, by manipulating the members of the judiciary whom they referred to once upon a time as the “right” judges, to frustrate the work of the new administration. A word to the wise…

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

The U.N. Has A Moral Obligation To Protect The People Of Darfur From Sudan's Brutal And Oppressive Rulers - And It Must Do So Now!

The world was saved from catastrophe in 1945 as a result of the moral courage shown by a number of that era's leaders during the Second World War. Adolf Hitler’s evil Nazi regime was defeated because leaders such as Britain’s Sir Winston Churchill and US President Roosevelt, rather than appease Adolf Hitler, confronted and defeated him.

The people of Darfur expect the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ky-Moon, to follow the example of Churchill and Roosevelt – and have the moral courage to confront the leaders of Sudan, not appease them. The government of Sudan has adopted a scorched-earth strategy in its ethnic-cleansing war against the people of Darfur.

Surely, the U.N. of today exists to protect vulnerable members of the one human race from the 21st century’s Adolf Hitlers – not to give succour to regimes carrying out pogroms? So why is the UN Secretary General giving the world the impression that he does not want to offend the sensibilities of the mass-murderers who now rule Sudan?

The Sudanese government is as brutal and cynical as the Nazi regime was – and its racist attempt to wipe out the people of Darfur is an affront to all of humankind. The time has now come for the international community to put aside the kind of political correctness that enables a number of repressive and brutal regimes around the world to commit crimes against humanity with impunity – and confront Sudan’s leaders.

One of the most outrageous arguments made by those who in reality do not want to help protect the people of Darfur from their brutal rulers, is that confronting the Sudanese regime will only worsen their plight – when in the meantime Sudan’s racist rulers are literally busy wiping them off the face of the earth.

The people of Darfur are members of the one human race too – and the world must protect them from a racist regime of Africans that is responsible for an African equivalent of the Nazi Holocaust. Sudan’s racist leaders regard the people of Darfur as less than human – simply because they are of a darker hue.

The sad irony in all this is that the Arab world, which Sudan’s leaders claim kinship with, despises Sudan’s so-called ‘Arabs’ too – because they are also seen by Arabs as a dark-skinned people. The international community must encourage the International Criminal Court (ICC) to indict Sudan’s President Bashir – and to issue a warrant for his immediate arrest.

President Bashir and the members of the apartheid regime he leads are as evil as the Nazi regime was. Humankind must never tolerate such regimes – and that is why the U.N. has a moral obligation to protect the people of Darfur from their despotic and barbarous rulers. The international community must put aside political correctness and confront the government of Sudan – not appease it: for, that would be unforgivable moral cowardness. Period.

Is The Kakum National Park's Forest Canopy Walkway Not A World Class Eco-Tourism ICON DESERVING OF WORLDCLASS PROMOTION?

On the 28th of January 2009, I joined a dear friend from the Pennsylvanian city of Scranton, to visit the Elmina Castle – from where we then set off for the Kakum National Park to brave the canopy walkway.

That canopy walkway provides visitors to Kakum National Park with a rare opportunity to experience a truly unique way of viewing a tropical rain forest.

It is unquestionably a world-class tourism icon that few responsible travellers who enjoy adventure travel will be able to resist pitting themselves against – once they discover its existence. After reaching the end of the last footbridge of the canopy walkway, I wondered if a creative way could not be found to make this gem of Ghana’s eco-tourism industry known throughout the world.

Surely, if all the responsible-travel professionals in the developed nations of the world, who cater to the top end of the adventure-travel niche of the global eco-tourism market, were made aware of this gem in the tourism sector of the Ghanaian economy, a lot more visitors would come to experience that unique attraction?

Would a little creative thinking that led to a series of webcams being placed at strategic points on the platforms surrounding the trees that support the seven footbridges making up the canopy-walkway, not make it possible, for example, to have year-round live webcasts of visitors crossing the footbridges – on a dedicated Kakum Forest canopy-walkway YouTube channel?

Traversing the 333 meter-long footbridge concentrates the mind wonderfully – as the thought of dropping the twenty-seven meters that they are off ground is certainly not something that one would want happening to one.

However, no matter how much one sways getting across it (and one does indeed sway – which is an understatement!) one is completely safe: for, in addition to being well-designed and constructed, it is also protected by very strong rope-netting throughout its length.

Not being as brave as my Scranton friend, I was thrilled to bits at having successfully crossed all seven footbridges and emerging in one piece: and with my heart still safely in place – although it occasionally missed a beat as its cowardly owner traversed the span of those seven footbridges held up at a giddy height by the seven stout trees to which they are tied.

At the end of that incredible experience, it was obvious to me that if a world-class eco-lodge had been sited in the Kakum National Park on that particular day, they would have definitely had a booking of a few days duration – to enable a nature-lover from Scranton to savour being in a unique tropical rain forest preserved by the use of imaginative measures: that also clearly benefit the local community and helps preserve their natural heritage too.

It is the prayer of the many nature-lovers who want to see rain forests such as the one protected by the creation of the Kakum National Park that the commercial department of the Wildlife Division of Ghana’s Forestry Commission, will succeed in attracting a suitable investor to put up a world-class eco-lodge at the Kakum National Park.

Surely, such suitably green accommodation would enable the Kakum National Park take its rightful place at the top reaches of the list of the world’s most exhilarating adventure holiday experiences?

Why The NPP Must Now Rid Itself Of The Tribal-Supremacists Who Dominate It!

The election by the United States, of its first African-American president, has been followed by yet another stunning and historic first – the astonishing news that the Republican Party, the ideological home of most US conservatives, has elected an African-American as that party’s chairperson.

The fact that an African-American is now the US Republican Party’s chairperson ought to be food for thought for Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP). For, if the NPP is to succeed in returning to power again, it is crucial that the party loosens the iron-grip that today’s narrow-minded tribal-supremacist descendants of the pre-colonial Akan feudal ruling elites (with whom they share a similar worldview) have on it.

It is vital that Ghana’s political equivalent of the white-supremacist Establishment elites that dominate the societies of the West, who control the NPP, shed the absurd notion that somehow Akans are superior to all the other tribes in Ghana – and that they, the arrogant and archetypal beneficiaries of inherited privilege, in turn, are superior to all ordinary Akans: and therefore, a priori, have a divine right to rule Ghana.

That pure-nonsense-on-bamboo-stilts notion was what informed the attempt by the NPP’s desperate Akan tribal-supremacists to rig the rerun of the December 28th presidential election. Those who listened to the infamous tape-recordings played on the Radio Gold FM programme “Election Forensics” will recall Atta Akyea's astonishing statement in Twi: “…saa democracy nonsense yi…” For non-Twi speakers, translated, what he said meant: “…this democracy nonsense…”

(Incidentally, essentially your typical elitist Akan tribal-supremacist does not believe in democracy – and they never have: it being merely a cloak of respectability designed and donned to enable them hide their lust for dictatorial power successfully.)

But I digress. To be successful in future elections, the NPP must become a truly multi-ethnic political party – not just a vehicle that in reality is simply a cloak to hide the secret agenda of the party’s Akan tribal-supremacists: whose desire is to ultimately dominate Ghana permanently by stealth. The fair-minded and non-tribalistic Akans who have some influence in the party ought to work hard to rid their party of the baleful influence of the few powerful Akan tribal-supremacists who now dominate their party so completely.

Clearly, the NPP cannot continue deluding itself that it is still a very popular political party simply because its large army of “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types (who wear blinkers permanently and are too thick to think for themselves – and whose blind support for Ghana’s governing political parties encourages much of the corruption and incompetence in our public life), turn up at their “thank-you” rallies in droves.

The truth of the matter, is that to win elections in the Ghana of today, political parties need to take the opinions of the independent-minded and discerning voters, the so-called “floating-voters” (patriots who actually love Ghana and care about its future) into account – because political parties that ignore the invariably sensible opinions of such key voters, do so at their own peril.

Unlike the narrow-minded and blind-multitudes who follow our political parties, the “floating-voter”, when casting his or her vote, takes into account factors such as: the respect politicians have for all of Ghana’s ethnic groups; the competence and integrity of our political leaders; whether or not they are stooges for neocolonialism,  who will collaborate with foreign interests to gang-rape our country – and above all, the effect a ruling regime’s economic policies have on the quality of life of all Ghanaians and the well-being of the Ghanaian nation-state: particularly the preservation of its biodiversity at a time of global climate change.

It is instructive that the defeated presidential candidate of the NPP in the December 2008 election, won in only two of the ten regions of Ghana – and that both were regions in which Akans form overwhelming majorities. As things currently stand, the painful truth is that the NPP, like all the parties that over the years have evolved from the Busia-Danquah political tradition, has become the natural home of Ghana’s equivalent of the Western world’s racist Establishment elites.

On the 19th of October 2007 I wrote an article entitled: “The Disrespect Shown to Alhaji Aliu Mahama.” In it, I made the point that if Alhaji Aliu Mahama had been an Akan, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would have found a way of making him succeed President Kufuor.

Today, true to form, and even at this early stage, there apparently are some members within the party who, in 2009, want Nana Akufo Addo to be proclaimed the NPP’s presidential candidate for the December 2012 presidential election.

If a section of the NPP membership is now minded to make him the party’s presidential candidate again to contest the December 2012 presidential election, the question that needs answering is: Just why did they not save themselves the zillions of old cedis they frittered away, by allowing the former vice-president, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, to succeed President Kufuor in similar fashion for the December 2008 election?

Perhaps there are still some people amongst the Akan elite who dominate the NPP, who also secretly share Dr. J. B. Danquah’s contempt for non-Akans (evidenced by Danquah’s outrageous dismissal of the Convention Peoples Party regime as a government with “veranda boys” and “Ntafuor” in it), for whom  that contempt for non-Akans resonates – in as far as the tribalistic “Ntafuor” bit goes?

In the 21st century ICT age, any Ghanaian politician who thinks that his or her tribe is superior to all Ghana’s other tribes, is a contemptible individual – and completely unworthy of leading Nkrumah’s Ghana. Such divisive politicians are unlikely to be voted into power in the Ghana of today – particularly after the divisive and tribalistic “Kokofu-football” politricks of the Kufuor regime

The time has now come for the progeny of the Akan pre-colonial feudal ruling elites (for whom the parties that evolved out of the Busia-Danquah tradition over the years, have always been mere vehicles to enable them ascend political power and dominate Ghana) to stop deluding themselves that they have a divine right to rule Ghana – for they do not.

No tribe can ever successfully dominate Ghana – and the sooner the few powerful Akan tribal-supremacists (who have had such an iron-grip on the NPP) understand that and begin to genuinely respect all the other tribes in Ghana as equals, the better will it be for them politically.

If they maintain their attavistic worldview, they will never be allowed by Ghana’s patriots, to rule our nation again.

Incidentally, when they were in power, those selfsame NPP Akan tribal-supremacists, loathed Ghanaian media professionals who criticized them for patriotic reasons, and did all they could to subtly repress critical voices – and thus ignored whatever little wisdom was contained in those criticisms.

One hopes that having lost power because they were hard of hearing, they will now listen to those who criticize them constructively during their years in the political wilderness, going forward into the future.

It is important that the NPP understands clearly that the Ghana of today is not a nation that unprincipled and self-seeking individuals who neither believe in the rule of law nor the concept of constitutional democracy can take for a ride. Politicians masquerading as individuals committed to constitutional democracy (but who in reality are not) have no future in this country.

The NPP has no option but to change if it wants to be returned to power again – and to do so it must force those powerful Akan tribal-supremacist members who dominate it to shed their secret tribal-supremacist agenda.

Above all, the NPP must never allow itself to be dominated by the kind of dishonest and unprincipled men and women (driven by such unfathomable greed) who constituted the powerful cabal that operated in the presidency during the tenure of the Kufuor administration. A word to the wise...