GOVERNEMNT SPOKESPERSONS MUST COUNTER THE NPP ‘S SOPHISM!

One simply has to hand it to the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) propaganda machine – which is currently running rings round those who are supposed to disseminate the Mills administration’s “narratives” to the general public: so that ordinary Ghanaians do not become disaffected and impatient with the government.

To describe the government’s public relations effort in that direction thus far, as inept, is to be charitable – for how can that small army of spokespersons allow clever people like Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, to come on Metro TV’s “Good Evening Ghana” current affairs programme, and reel off statistics comparing Ghana’s economy at the end of the period in office of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime in January 2001, and that of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the end of that regime’s tenure in January 2009, and get away with it? One only hopes that the new position given to Dr. Tony Aidoo will bring some steel into the government and help make the government’s effort at countering the NPP’s sophism a great deal more effective.

It is important that the Mills administration understands clearly that occupying the high moral ground is key to their success in countering the NPP’s sophism – and getting Parliament to pass a new law requiring government appointees and their spouses, from the president down to district chief executives to publicly publish their assets, is crucial in establishing their credentials as a regime that is serious about fighting corruption.

Corruption is the single biggest problem facing our country and one that all Ghanaians want to see an end to – and the Mills administration will continue to fail to stem the tide of discontent that arises periodically as a result of the NPP’s sophism, if they do not put clear blue water between their party and the NPP.

That new law on transparent asset declaration will represent, in the minds of the general public, that clear blue water. In the meantime, let that small army of government spokespersons take a cue from the most uncharitable of the critics of the previous government (the ones who care deeply about the stability of our country, i.e.), who insist that those in the NPP who pretend that they are comparing like with like, in comparing the economic performance of their regime, at the end of its tenure, with that of the NDC in 2001, are engaging in sophism – because to make such an unfair comparison amounts to intellectual dishonesty on their part.

Perhaps it ought to be made clear, that what the clever Dr. Anthony Akoto Oseis conveniently forget to point out to Ghanaians, in pretending that one can put the two regimes on an equal footing, in the disingenuous comparison game they are playing so deftly, is the small matter of the NDC regime being saddled, throughout its tenure (from 1992 to 2001), with the Sisyphean task of servicing our crippling external debt – something that was draining the very lifeblood out of our nation. In that sense, it was miraculous that the NDC was able to achieve all that it did during its tenure (which was considerable), in view of what it had to grapple with, but which the NPP regime, fortunately for it, did not have to contend with.

Perhaps an appropriate sporting analogy to illustrate that point, would be that of a boxer (the NDC) with both hands tied behind his back, who is pushed into the same ring to fight an opponent with both hands free (the NPP) – and at liberty to pummel him into submission despite having a shorter reach and lower weight: because it is not a fight of equals.

It would be interesting to know just how the NPP would have fared in office without our large external debt being cancelled during its tenure – which would have enabled us make a like with like comparison of the end-of-term economic performance score-card of the NDC and the NPP regimes. If it hadn’t been for the breathing space that debt cancellation gave the NPP to grow the economy, they would certainly not have had access to their beloved capital markets for a start, even for the securitized debt some of them milked for all it was worth – and mortgaged our country’s future so recklessly piling up.

It is that desire of the NPP’s powerful greedy-brigade to profit personally from debt that has now saddled our nation with such endless debt – and has largely brought about the present economic crisis we face. Looking back, perhaps one got an inkling of what might have been, in that sense, when a hapless President Kufuor, newly-sworn into office as president and completely at sea as to the path to take, in resolving the conundrum of an economy beaten to pulp and stymied by debt-servicing (and akin to the living-dead), which had been handed over to his new regime, promptly told Ghanaians, as reality suddenly hit home hard that his party’s many campaign promises were not going to be easily fulfilled, that (to paraphrase him) our country would have to cut its coat according to the size of its cloth – and that he was the man the Almighty God had sent to make Ghanaians swallow the bitter economic pill that would eventually make their sick economy get better.

That was way before the powerful crooks in the NPP regime discovered the golden path to personal riches in kickbacks from sundry contractors and regime-crony Titans in our financial services sector: who prospered mightily from the fat fees and commissions they earned from our daft forays into the piranha-infested capital markets of the West, in addition to those criminal (because it amounts to mortgaging the future of our nation) collateralized future receipts arrangements that those bright sparks recommended – and enabled all of them to succeed in sending their personal net worth into the stratosphere, as they quickly acquired: hotels; mega-supermarkets; mansions galore; the choicest parcels of land; pretty young bimbos with expensive tastes in cars and Hollywood-style mansions; etc. etc.

The NDC must learn from and take on board the important lesson that the public’s positive reaction, once they got to know that Ghana International Airlines (GIA) was costing taxpayers US$1.5 million every month, represents. Once they discovered the scale of the debt that GIA had succeeded in piling up in the short period it had been in existence, many ordinary people made it plain that they were quite happy to see GIA being allowed to die a natural death and disappear like all inefficient and badly-run commercial entities do the world over – particularly if it was costing Ghana that much every month to keep it flying and keep on losing money on top of that.

The Mills administration must tell Ghanaians the practical results of the reckless and imprudent policies that were the realities behind the smoke-and-mirrors economy dressed up as a booming economy, which the NPP claims it handed over to the new NDC regime. Clearly, knowing for example, precisely what Ghana is currently having to fork out, in terms of the regular interest payments on the various loans, including the securitized loans Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei and Co made our country take on, as well as the unconscionable rape of many state-owned entities, including the State Transport Company (STC) and the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), will let most objective and fair-minded Ghanaians see the NPP‘s stewardship in a completely different light.

The truth of the matter, is that Dr. Anthony Osei Akoto and Co just got lucky for a period, because the Western powers, spotting a new Ghanaian regime full of dedicated African stooges for neocolonialism and super-malleable lackeys of Western commercial interests, moved quickly to prop up a clueless and vulnerable regime, which was completely at sea in the early stages of its tenure: and promptly decided to cancel Ghana’s large external debt (which is what some of us had been advocating for during the 1990’s – to enable African nations to be in a position to finally start growing their moribund economies), and increase the flow of aid to our country in addition. Although Dr. Akoto Osei and Co themselves did not have the nous or the imagination to make that argument during the 1990’s, they benefited greatly from debt relief – and there are those who say that they ought to have done a great deal better than they did if they had not allowed self-interest, as opposed to advancing the national interest and promoting the common good, guide their every action whiles in power.

The Mills administration must point out the practical effects on our nation today, of the self-seeking policies and actions of those who messed up Ghana’s economy under the NPP because they were so corrupt – and now seek to stop that from coming to light by saying that negative talk about the economy will erode confidence in our economy. The government must not buy that argument – as any investor worth his salt seeking to invest in our economy knows the reality of a nation with bright prospects but with an economy currently suffering from acute “debt-distress” (to use a World Bank/IMF euphemism).

The fact that the NPP mortgaged our country‘s future is not news to overseas analysts. Why, do those who make that curious argument think that those opaque offshore special purpose vehicles set up for the securitized loans frenzy, which the NPP indulged in, are unknown to analysts in the capital markets of the West, particularly those who specialize in emerging markets?

 Fundamentally, Ghana is a great place to invest in for those who take a long-term view and see a future in Africa – because it is a politically stable democracy and has a welcoming, hardworking, and intelligent population. However, if things are bound to get worse before they get better, then the government ought to lay the blame for our present difficulties squarely where it belongs: at the doorstep of the NPP – so that ordinary people will understand precisely what Ghanaians will have to contend with as a people, going forward, and be prepared to face the hard times with equanimity: in the hope that a better Ghana will eventually emerge by the end of the tenure of the Mills administration.

That is why it is so vital that the government effectively counters the sophism of the NPP’s propaganda machine. The question is: is the NPP that is making those hypocritical noises about human rights amongst other matters today, not the same political party, some of whose most prominent members actively sought to deny Ghanaians their choice in December 2008?

Did they not move heaven and earth to try and rig the run-off of the December 2008 presidential election: from the very beginning of that electoral process (using hired thugs, who were given police and military uniforms and armed, to go round snatching ballot boxes) to its conclusion – at which point they resorted to the law courts on a public holiday, in the hope that a judge they initially believed to be one of their sympathizers, would aid them in achieving the ends they sought in stealing the election at the eleventh hour”.

Incidentally, “right judge” was the phrase actually used by Atta Akyea and his fellow-travellers in the NPP (caught on a tape recording of their conversations) to describe such judges – whom they apparently thought could be relied on to deliver the right judgments, in cases in which they had an interest.

It is astonishing that today, there are some individuals in that selfsame NPP, who have the gall to pretend that they are the champions of democracy and the rule of law – and are even accusing a regime that is actually acting strictly according to law (as it moves to hold past government officials accountable for their years in office), of persecuting them and acting unlawfully. On top of all that transpired during the December 2008 elections, dear reader, is it not intolerable that the NPP’s propaganda machine, is still being allowed by that small army of government spokespersons, to get away with such outrageous nonsense on bamboo stilts?

Whatever else it does, intellectually, the Mills administration ought to grasp the fact that it needs to counter the NPP‘s sophism – and do so effectively: and they can start to do so by listing and progressively disseminating to the public the many crimes against our nation that those NPP members who participated in the gang-rape of Mother Ghana committed whiles in office. They ought to release detailed dossiers on the many white-collar crimes and shenanigans that went on in many state-owned entities after auditing them. Doing so for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), for example, will make it plain to ordinary Ghanaians how clever sabotage at that vital installation, has made a complete nonsense of any government plans for ensuring reasonable fuel pricing.

The government must not forget that the NPP is still largely controlled by the few powerful individuals who hijacked it during their years in power and used it as their powerbase to amass wealth that they cannot possibly account for today – and who want to destabilize the Mills administration (with the help of their placemen who still occupy sensitive positions throughout the public sector) so that they can continue to get away with their crimes against Ghana. Even as it works to improve the circumstances of our country and its people, countering the NPP’s sophism must go on side by side with fixing the economy, as that is in the long-term interest of our nation. It is important that the small army of government spokespersons understand clearly and without any ambiguities that that is the only way for the new NDC regime to eventually succeed in bringing about the better Ghana it promised Ghanaians. A word to the wise…