GENERAL MOSQUITO’S DIATRIBE AGAINST FORMER PRESIDENT KUFUOR!

The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr. Alex Asiedu Nketia, is reported by Ghanaweb.com to have made a number of accusations, to counter those made against the Mills regime by ex-President J.A. Kufuor: who recently accused the present government of being corrupt. The report was carried in the ubiquitous (at least on the computer monitors of Ghanaians who go online, i.e.!) Ghanaian website's general news web-page of Tuesday, 10 August 2010, in a story entitled: “Kufuor Is The Most Corrupt Leader In Ghana’s History – Gen. Mosquito.” Amongst the many statements attributed to Mr. Asiedu Nketia, include the following two quoted here: “Kufuor is the first president of this country who requested to be the chairman of a state- owned enterprise as a sitting president. He insisted he wants to be the Chairman and it went to Parliament and it was passed. We have taken over from him and we discovered to our amazement that the first six months that Kufuor was the Chairman, not a single sentence by way of minutes of all the meetings they have attended. All the decisions that were made were done arbitrarily and implemented in a very haphazard manner.'' End of quote.


Quote: ''President Kufuor told Ghanaians that they were going to build a Bui City with a University and Airport as part of the project. Indeed they made a pictorial representation of how Bui City looks like, and then we took over and realized there is no single word about the Bui City in everything that is being done there. There is no pesewa meant for Bui City and you told us that you have brought money from China to build the dam and build a city. If it were any other person, he would have called that person to account for that, and very soon we would have to invite President Kufuor to come and show us where he lodged the Bui City money because we are taking over from a former board, and we have the right to invite the former Board and their chairman to account for their stewardship.’’ End of quote. Ghanaian politicians are such a strange breed, are they not, dear reader? What, precisely, is the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills, going to do about this shocking revelation concerning ex-President Kufour and meetings of the board of the Bui Dam Authority, during the period he held power – and why has the present regime not merged that opaque entity with the Volta River Authority (VRA), in any case?


Perhaps the question that all honest Ghanaians, who actually care about their homeland Ghana, ought to ask Gen. Mosquito, is: Has it never occurred to him and his colleagues in the NDC that it was precisely to avoid enabling such accusations stick like dried mud to their government that some patriotic Ghanaians advised that the Mills regime ought to follow the shining example of Nigeria’s late leader, President Yar’ Adua – by publicly declaring the net worth of all its members, as well as that of their spouses? If they had done so when they first came into office, today, our former Hypocrite-In-Chief would not have the temerity to accuse their regime of being corrupt, would he? Luckily for General Mosquito, it is actually still not too late, for the NDC government to do so: and reap its many benefits in December 2012. The benefits of such a move are so self-evident that many patriotic Ghanaians are puzzled by the continued refusal of the Mills regime to do so. Would their party not occupy the high moral ground in Ghanaian politics if that were done? Saying that the constitution does not require that of the president and his appointees is a very lame excuse – as there is also nothing in the constitution that bars them from doing so. If the NDC wants to retain power after the December 2012 elections, they had better publish their personal net worth pretty quickly (whiles there is still time to do so!), before it becomes too late. Thus far, they have neither been vigorous about bringing the crooks who engaged in corruption during the Kufuor-era to book – nor have they acted decisively when it has occurred within their own regime, to the disappointment of many patriotic Ghanaians, if truth be told.


Consequently, amongst many ordinary Ghanaians, there is the feeling that perhaps all the talk about massive corruption in the Kufuor regime by the NDC, during the campaign for the December 2008 elections, was probably just hot air by opposition politicians desperate to win power at all costs. There is also the feeling amongst some Ghanaians that the NDC is not prosecuting corrupt members of the previous regime, simply because there is also corruption within the present government. Both perceptions are probably wrong and unfair, as the government is doing the best it can, given the dearth of lawyers of the right calibre available to the Attorney General's Department. Still, we cannot deny the fact that this regime appears to be a tad hard-of-hearing. Why did the government not listen to Alhaji Bature, for example, when he said that Mr. Fred Segbefia, the Deputy Chief of Staff at the presidency, ought to resign, because his position had become untenable, after the dismissal of Carl Wilson from both of the jobs he had at the heart of government? What have they done about the astonishing revelation that Mr. Micheal Owusu Darko Bonsu, the son of Mr. Kojo Bonsu, made hundreds of thousands of dollars off the backs of those sent by the government to South Africa to support the national team? Why have they not forced that young man to pay back all the money he made in that disgraceful rip-off of our country to the sports ministry?


What did they also do to clear the air when that self-same Alex Sebgefia was making mealy-mouthed excuses about the unauthorized use of a plane belonging to the Ghana Air Force (GAF) – to fly sundry spongers and regime hangers-on to watch the national team play in Abidjan early in the life of the Mills administration: the genesis of Alhaji Muntaka's kebab–diapergate scandal? Why, when they knew what fuss they themselves made about the use of state funds to renovate President Kufuor’s principal private residence, did they go on to allow the use of state funds in renovating Mrs. Nana Kunadu Agyemang Rawlings’ mother’s residence? How inept can one be politically, I ask, dear reader? Have they not heard the most uncharitable of her critics asking if the "grasping" Mrs. Rawlings "has not had enough of the generosity of the Ghanaian nation-state?" Do they not know the resentment felt by many small NGO’s that struggled to survive whiles the whole machinery of state was put at the disposal of the NGO she controlled, and which though ostensibly set up to empower poor women in both urban and rural Ghana, actually served as a political power-base for the over-ambitious wife of a serial coup-making husband, who held unfettered power in Ghana for over a decade after overthrowing the regime of President Limman, in the December 1981 military coup?


Of course, there are also those who will say that at least, some poor women benefitted from the activities of Mrs. Rawlings’ NGO: Whereas during the Kufuor-era, the whole machinery of state was put at the disposal of the greediest; most amoral; corrupt; and over-ambitious clique of Ghanaians we have ever seen at the pinacle of power, since independence – who then proceeded to exploit our national economy for their personal benefit. According to the conspiracy theorists, it was part of the long-term strategy of one ethnic group dominating Ghana permanently, by the Akan tribal-supremacist cabal that dominated the NPP, during President Kufuor’s tenure. To buttress their argument, they point out the fact that prominent amongst the beneficiaries of the munificence of the Kufuor regime, were the most megalomaniac of their tribal Chiefs: some of whom, incredibly, even became de facto sovereigns in a unitary Republic of ethnic-diversity, founded by no less a personality, than that most committed of pan-Africanists, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (who incidentally was not tribalistic in the slightest!). If the General Mosquitoes of this world want their party and government to be taken seriously by the independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians who chose to vote for President Mills in the run-off of the December 2008 elections, rather than let the greed-filled NPP return to power again to destroy Nkrumah's Ghana (despite their personal loathing of the NDC because its domineering so-called "founder" still insists that democracy is not right for Africa – although we all know that the yearning for freedom is no less strong in the hearts of ordinary Africans than it is in that of the members of other races on the planet Earth!), then they had better revise the notes for their party's December 2012 election battle-plan very quickly.


They must start by getting rid of all the greedy self-seeking rogues in their party, who seem to think that Ghanaians are going to sit unconcerned and allow the nation’s oil and natural gas revenues to be fritted away, by carpetbaggers in clever little schemes – such as the one to do with the “Muzinda Residence” scandal, which enriched that young get-rich-quick magician son of the clever Mr. Kojo Bonsu, during the World Cup tournament in South Africa. Why does General Mosquito think the knives are out for the current hardworking female sports minister – is it not because there is a greedy cabal in the NDC that sees sports as a super-lucrative business arena, which wants to get one of its own to head that ministry: so that they can grab as many opportunities to enrich themselves as they possibly can, when that happens? Some of us used to quote this famous Ghanaian saying to the greedy Kufuor & Co (who thought they were invincible during the period that they held power in Ghana!) – “No condition is permanent.” There are far too many people in the NDC who seem to have forgotten that wise saying too, now that they are also in power, and driving around in luxury sedans and cross-country vehicles (all fueled at vast expense to Ghanaian taxpayers’!). Well, they had better get wise quickly: and let that old Ghanaian saying guide them henceforth, in all they do – and if Vice President John Mahama is half the wise man he is said to be (and wants his government to be returned to power again in December 2012!), he had better, in the absence of the vacationing President Mills, order every soul appointed to a ministerial position by the president, to quickly declare his or her net worth publicly: and that of their spouses too. A word to the wise…

Tel (powered by Tigo – the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartfone: + 233 (0) 30 2976238.