THE NDC MUST NOT CLONE THE NPP’S HYDRA-HEADED MONSTER WITH 2,065 HEADS!

I could not help but wonder why a world-class individual like the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Dr. Ekow Spio-Gabrah, would recommend to his party, that it follow the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) example – and widen the number of delegates who elect the presidential candidate of the party (but, alas, presumably still limit it to party executives at the local level, nationwide: and national executive members!). What would make the process of electing any party’s candidate for presidential elections truly more democratic is simply to give all card-bearing party members who pay their dues the right to elect its flag-bearer. That way, instead of a relatively small number of some 2,065 kingmakers who will benefit from the pork-barrel politics practiced by our political class (in which state resources are channeled to such individuals – at the expense of ordinary people!), because the president is beholden to them, there will be millions of electors who cannot possibly collude to hold a sitting president to ransom, because of their sheer numbers.


Has he forgotten how during the Kufuor-era, sundry well-connected NPP insiders took loans from the Micro-finance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to purchase taxis, for example, and yet failed to pay for them? Far from being such a brilliant idea, the NPP will doubtless realize the dreadful mistake it has made, when it finally gets into power again. The new government will discover to its horror that it cannot possibly satisfy those 2,065 kingmakers by bribing them: because Ghanaians demand that every pesewa of the revenues from oil and natural gas are accounted for properly – and because the vigilance of civil society groups makes the crooked old ways of building up party funds through kickbacks from government contracts and loans, clever schemes of the past, which are also no longer open to governing parties, to enable them rip Mother Ghana off by stealth, with impunity. We will also witness high-handedness by many of those little-dictators on a scale, which will make today's foolish antics by the NDC 's so-called foot-soldiers, look like mere child's play.


Does Dr. Ekow Spio-Gabrah not realize that the NPP’s clever new idea for electing its presidential candidate, could eventually lead to a type of politics, akin to the corrupt 19th century American Tammany Hall-style of politics, in our country – and the domination of political parties at both the local and national levels by politicians in the mould of the infamous Boss Tweed, who led a ring of crooked Democratic Party politicians that between 1865 and 1871 siphoned off about 75 to 200 million dollars from the coffers of the city of New York (and only heaven knows what that amount is equivalent to in terms of today's values!)? If the National Democratic Congress (NDC) truly wants to make the process of electing its presidential candidate more democratic, let it simply allow all card-bearing party members who pay their dues, to vote to choose who will become the candidate of that party, in presidential elections in Ghana. That will be breaking new ground in Ghanaian politics: and we will all then witness real grassroots democracy in action in our homeland Ghana. They must certainly not follow the NPP’s shortsighted example, and create a super-dangerous, hydra-headed monster: with as many as 2,065 heads. 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.