THE NDC ADMINISTRATION MUST AVOID FALLING INTO THE TRAP OF ITS ENEMIES!

One could not help but admire the wisdom of the ordinary Ghanaian, when one heard the reaction of listeners who called in to Radio Gold FM on the morning of the 22nd April, 2009, to pass comment on Professor Karikari’s unfortunate remarks about the youthful deputy-minister, James Adjenin-Boateng, and Radio Gold FM itself. Many of those callers clearly got the point about the events and issues contained in some of the programmes broadcast by Radio Gold in the days between the end of the 7th December, 2008 presidential election and the immediate aftermath of the run-off of that election, which raised the ire of so many New Patriotic Party (NPP) members – when they said that the matters broadcast by Radio Gold FM during the period in question were matters that concerned the security of our country, which sober minds such as Professor Karikari, ought to recommend that the president orders the security agencies to investigate quickly and thoroughly.

Clearly, those members of the previous regime who are guilty of participating in the brutal gang-rape of mother Ghana (carried out mainly by the small but powerful cabal with its HQ in the presidency during the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration), who grew super-rich ripping our country off in those opaque transactions that they thought no one would ever unravel, are fighting a determined rearguard-action to prevent the new administration from eventually exposing them. It would appear that Professor Karikari may have been an unwitting tool of those who are now busy using sophism as a political weapon to enable them paralyze and ultimately destroy the Mills administration – as it now emerges that he had not even actually heard the Radio Gold FM “Election Forensics” tape-recordings, presumably based on which he passed such unfair judgment on the work of dedicated journalism professionals who were only doing their patriotic duty to thwart those seeking to subvert the sovereign will of the Ghanaian people in an election.

Since all the troubles of our nation stem from the fact that it has been ruled mostly by greedy and dishonest self-seekers throughout the post-Nkrumah years, rather than castigating President Mills, perhaps decent and patriotic Ghanaians like Professor Kwame Karikari ought to point it out to the enemies of the masses that whatever its perceived shortcomings, the administration of a newly-elected president who is determined that he and the members of his regime will leave a legacy that ensures that going forward into the future, all elected politicians and their spouses publicly publish their assets, does indeed deserve to succeed and must be given time to complete its tenure. In that regard, the Radio Gold FM listeners who called in to say that the new administration should not allow itself to be diverted from the task ahead, by its detractors, but to remain focused on fulfilling its pledge to improve the general condition of our nation and quality of life of ordinary Ghanaians by the end of its four-year tenure, were spot-on.

The whole purpose of those who are now seeking to undermine the Mills administration is to lead it on a merry-go-round – in the hope that they, and not the new administration, will set the national agenda: as the regime wastes precious time responding to their inane criticisms. An example is the latest NPP press conference during which the party’s chairperson more or less accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Mills administration of deception. Another example of this unfortunate negative mindset of some members of the opposition was the absurd demand by the NPP’s Asare Otchere-Darko on the Metro TV current affairs programme, “Good Evening Ghana”, which was telecast on 21st April 2008, that Dr. Tony Aidoo tells him what solution the government had for halting the depreciation of the cedi – as if the government that had just recently won a four-year tenure to prove itself faced an imminent election to renew its mandate: after only 100 days in office.

Yet, these well-educated morons jolly well know that the root of the problem of the depreciation of our currency lies in the irresponsible smoke-and-mirrors economic policies that the previous regime pursued – mainly because it personally benefited the crooks amongst them and their cronies, instead of serving their nation’s interests: as well as that of the generality of Ghanaians. It was “short-termism” at its worst as policies designed largely to benefit foreign carpetbaggers and their politically well-connected local lackeys in our financial services industry ended up crippling our nation financially. Doubtless, ordinary Ghanaians will eventually come to learn the shocking details of those self-serving economic policies and their dire consequences for our nation, in due course –and Ghanaians will then understand why those rogues never wanted strong characters like Fifi Kwettey anywhere near the ministry of finance.

The government must continue focusing on the things that will grow the real economy, such as its very sensible (and long-overdue) policy of subsidizing fertilizers for farmers – and ignore those in the NPP who quote macro-economic statistics endlessly to score political points (but forget that one can use the same set of statistics to justify every conceivable economic view-point – which is why a depreciating currency is music to the ears of so many Ghanaian exporters!), to continue living in cloud cuckoo-land. For the sake of Ghanaian democracy, one prays that the nationalistic-minded NPP members will try and wrestle control of their party from those of their colleagues whose greed, whiles they were in power, was such that they were always prepared to sell out our country to foreigners – as long as it benefited them personally. To allow their party to remain in the firm grip of the few greedy and dishonest tribal-supremacists amongst them, who hijacked it for their own benefit whiles they were in power, will be suicidal. The truth of the matter is that Ghanaians simply do not want to be led by such greedy self-seekers again.

It is such a pity that some of those in the inner circle of the NPP’s presidential candidate who led the NPP campaign, and are now being blamed by many in their party for losing them the December 2008 presidential election, think that there is traction in the lost cause they are passionately pursuing (trying to make out the Mills administration is clueless). Perhaps one ought to remind the sober minds in the NPP that ordinary people are not nearly as stupid as some politicians think. They must understand that those ordinary Ghanaians who decided in December 2008 that it was time for regime-change, and voted accordingly to make it happen, clearly understand the absurdity of making a three-month old administration, which has just taken over a nation suffering from acute “debt-distress” (to use a World Bank/IMF euphemism!) to rule for the next four years, appear to the world, as some kind of failure already. Obviously, some people never learn from the past – because they are too arrogant to admit their mistakes.

Perhaps good people like Professor Karikari should also ponder why there is such desperation in certain quarters to give Ghanaians the impression that they are now ruled by a dishonest, incompetent, and clueless regime – when that clearly isn’t the case. As a cynic said to me, “Perhaps the reason for all the kerfuffle is that the desperate Titans in our financial services sector who prospered mightily from the fat fees they earned as “transaction advisors” in the privatization deals galore and our daft forays into the piranha-infested capital markets of the West under the NPP, want their overseas collaborators to still remain hopeful that business will flow again soon at some point going forward.” Do those who abused their positions to acquire super-wealth illegally in the previous regime really think that in this day and age they can stop their crimes against our nation and its people from ever coming to light?

It is a pity that good and respectable people like Professor Kwame Karikari, who have worked hard to build such a good reputation for themselves over the years, seem to have unwittingly allowed their judgment to be clouded – as the ruthless and greedy politicians whose tribal-supremacist tendencies whiles in office during the tenure of the Kufuor administration destroyed the cohesion of our nation, as never before in our post-independence history, deftly manipulate them. Clearly, whiles the members of the NDC must keep their lines of communication open at all times to even the newspapers that oppose them (such as The Statesman), they must, however, keep the so-called Danquah Institute at arms length. It is not what they think it is: an intellectual powerhouse generating ideas for the deepening of Ghanaian democracy. Has it not occurred to them, that perhaps those cynics who insist that in reality it is nothing but a reactionary Akan tribal-supremacist sponsored NPP propaganda unit and centre for spin-doctoring, which masquerades as an independent think-tank to give it some respectability, may actually have a point?

There are some of its critics who even say that it was set up more or less as a vehicle to enable those in Nana Akufo-Addo’s inner circle, who thought that they were going to become the Mk11 version of the family clans and cronies of the small but powerful cabal of Akan tribal-supremacists in the presidency, who succeeded in hijacking the NPP during President Kufuor’s eight-year tenure (and ended up abusing their power to such an extent that it enabled them send their personal net worth, as well as that of their family clans and cronies, into the stratosphere), to wield maximum influence through the back-door: in what they clearly thought was going to become the next NPP administration, which was coming to power after the December 2008 elections. The NDC’s membership must avoid functions organized by the so-called Danquah Institute like the plaque – for its aims are neither benign nor non-partisan. They must not lend respectability to it by partaking in its activities – as that would be tantamount to allowing themselves to be used by those for whom it serves as a vehicle designed to smoothen the path to the acquisition of political power.

They must never forget that their political opponents are desperately seeking clever ways to undermine their administration – as they plot their way back to power again in 2012. As far as the economy goes, rather than focusing mainly on negotiating with the IMF and World Bank for funding, the new administration ought to try and also leverage the goodwill Nkrumah built with China to source funds from the Chinese to fund the bulk of their projects. The Chinese are still quiet happy to fund projects in Africa despite the global recession – and accepting the sovereign bonds of Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana (underpinned by future oil and natural gas revenues) in exchange for China funding joint-venture projects in our country’s energy and housing sectors, as well as in other sectors of the economy to the tune of even some twenty billion dollars, if need be, is not an impossibility for them, if our leaders approach them with creative proposals. Better that than taking up the NPP’s cheeky suggestion that the Mills administration collaborate with their party to solve Ghana’s many problems that they could not themselves solve in eight long years in power. Whatever it does, the new NDC administration must avoid falling into the trap of its enemies, at all costs. A word to the wise…