WILL PRESIDENT MILLS CLOSE DOWN THE "BRAND GHANA OFFICE" - OR DOES HE WANT GOD ALMIGHTY TO DO SO FOR HIM?

When too-clever-by-half individuals, who know perfectly well that what they are doing is morally wrong and untenable, suddenly realise that they face persistent and principled opposition, they wheel out naive souls with big names, to lend respectability to their dodgy enterprise.


That is precisely what is now happening with that financial equivalent of a cosmic black-hole, the so-called "Brand Ghana Office" in the heart of the government of President Mills, at the Osu Castle. And how right President Rawlings was, when he hit out at the "greedy bastards" in the Mills regime - who clearly see the tenure of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration, as a perfect opportunity to enrich themselves: at Mother Ghana's expense.


It is an outrage, that the government should continue wasting taxpayers' money, in such crass fashion. Why, is this not a regime elected to create a better Ghana for us all? And is this still not a nation in which in some public schools, for example, as many as three children have to share one desk: in classrooms jam-packed (incredibly!) with over seventy children in some cases - because of the usual crippling lack of funds to effect real change in our homeland Ghana?


And at a time when the government cannot even find money to fully implement the single-spine salary structure, which will help boost public-sector productivity, what right do these "greedy bastards" (who have now taken to hiding behind the coattails of decent gentlemen in important positions at the Osu Castle) have, to waste taxpayers' money for the sake of that monstrosity?


Why are they persisting with this scandalous idea that entails the spending of scarce public funds "branding Ghana" - when it is something that in Ghana's present dire public-sector financial circumstances, is best done as a private-sector initiative, led and coordinated by the advertising industry, as corporate Ghana's nation-building gift to Mother Ghana?


If they are so convinced of the merits and benefits of what they are doing, instead of continuing to embarrass the president personally, and their regime as a whole too, in such shameless fashion, why don't they, to prove their point, just take their bright ideas to the private sector - and raise money themselves to carry it out for the national good?


We will then see how many private sector companies will be prepared to lavish the kind of money now being wasted on this stupid game - because the money involved happens to be " Awuff Ghana abanyi asika". This really is enough to make one want to back Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings' bid to turf them all out of the Osu Castle - as one doubts very much, if she would allow a bunch of such boy-wonders to get this wheeze past her, under any circumstances: not even whiles she was asleep.


Why, is this not supposed be a regime that is different from that which went before it? So why should it continue to waste hapless taxpayers' cash, funding the money-wasting activities of the nebulous and daft "Brand Ghana Office" - that affront to common decency at the heart of what is supposed to be the regime of a man of integrity, President Mills?


Will this hard-of-hearing regime put a stop to this pure nonsense on bamboo stilts, once and for all, and act now to close down this useless and pointless entity, staffed by geniuses who wouldn't be employed even as temps, to make and serve the office coffee (let alone fill top positions that fell vacant today!), by any of the world's leading advertising agencies: were those canny entities even offered millions of dollars to do so for only a few days as a lark - for fear the boy-wonders would destroy what years had been spent building?


Just who are the faceless individuals and bold brains behind what we should never tolerate at a time when times are tough for so many ordinary Ghanaians, including government employees, one wonders?


Or does one have to pray to God Almighty himself - before the God-fearing gentleman who is now Ghana's president, H. E. President Mills, finally orders a halt to this idiotic and Quixotic rubbish? The argument isn't that we shouldn't "brand Ghana". The point, is that at a time of austerity, public funds should not be committed to doing so - and that if politicians insist on "re-branding Ghana", the private sector ought to shoulder the burden, not hapless taxpayers: for whom it is definitely not a priority. Period. Hmm, Ghana - enti yewieye paa enia? Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa!


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