The continued stay in office of President Mills' National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime, after December 2012, partly depends on the vital task that the Hon. Baba Jamal & Co, are currently undertaking across the nation - interacting with District Chief Executives (DCE) and district-level officials of their ministry.
The Hon. Baba Jamal, who is an important member of the Mills administration, has been quoted in sections of the Ghanaian media, using the word "branding" in connection with the work of District Assemblies in Ghana.
I do hope, for his sake, that it does not mean that he and his colleagues have now come under the baleful influence of the so-called "Brand Ghana Office" (BGO).
If that is the case, then with respect, it is important that they do not allow the BGO to latch on to the vital task of disseminating information about the developmental work going on in the various districts nationwide, to the general public.
For, were that to happen, alas, those crafty sharks will hijack it - because they will see it as the perfect opportunity to justify their continued existence as a taxpayer-funded entity, at the presidency.
And as sure as day follows night, they will mess that crucial undertaking up, completely.
The work the BGO purports to do ought to be farmed out to the private sector - which can fund it as their contribution to the development of Mother Ghana: if they think there is value in such an undertaking, which will redound to Corporate Ghana's benefit.
We will all then see precisely how much money those geniuses can raise to "brand Ghana".
The "branding" of the enterprise Ghana, is not a public expenditure priority-item, in a nation trying hard to reduce its deficit, and re-balance public finances.
That dubious and profligate entity, is regarded by many independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians (who wonder why a regime led by the honest President Mills, should continue to harbour an unnecessary drain on the public purse!), as an egregious example of the devious handiwork of the few sly freeloaders amongst the NDC party membership, which now constitute the current Mills administration.
The impression one gets, is that those in the regime who are determined to milk Mother Ghana dry, regardless, will stop at nothing to hang on to that financial equivalent of a black-hole by hook or crook.
Consequently, it is important that Baba Jamal & Co, do not fall for the BGO's daft Alice-in-wonderland ideas, and smoke-and-mirrors marketing strategies - and allow themselves to be dazzled and beguiled by that marketing clap-trap: which doubtless will be specifically designed to enable the BGO piggy-back off the important task in hand for the information ministry.
With respect, an example of some of the simple, creative, practical and cost-effective ways of enabling the District Assemblies and district-level Information Services Department (ISD) officials of the information ministry, to get news of their hard work developing the areas they administer, disseminated in timely fashion nationwide, is just to upgrade the existing District Assemblies' common online web platform - by adding an e-newsletter feature/application to it.
That will enable the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media who subscribe to it, for example, to receive daily or weekly press releases published in those e-newsletters - containing information about district-level projects (together with photographs of same!), in ready-for-publication online and print formats, in their email in-boxes on a regular basis. Ditto the general public.
And the same must be done for all the websites of public sector entities that currently lack e-newsletter applications/features, too - whiles the information ministry is sorting out the e-newsletter feature/application for the District Assemblies' common online web platform.
If the Hon. Baba Jamal and his ministerial colleagues allow themselves to be sidetracked by all that "Brand Ghana Office" marketing mambo-jambo, they will only have themselves to blame, when their Government is turfed out of power (God forbid!) in December 2012.
There is no nation-state with a national brand more positive or potent, than that of the enterprise Ghana, in all of sub-Saharan Africa, as we speak - and the Hon. Baba Jamal & Co should please note, if it hasn't yet struck them, that our nation's good image around the world, is not the result of slick marketing costing taxpayers millions of dollars, either.
It is the result of a combination of many fortuitous real-life, down-to-earth practical factors - resulting in real-world tangible achievements.
A few that come readily to mind, include: the endearing magic and dazzling skills of our national football team, the Black Stars, whose winning ways and can-do mentality has endeared them to millions of football fans worldwide; the political stability of a democratic Ghana; the relatively peaceful nature of our nation's competitive politics; the vibrant plural media; and the steady economic progress we are making.
With respect, let me reiterate the fact that the Ghanaian nation-state did not have to spend the cedi equivalent of millions of dollars of hapless taxpayers' funds in gaining that sterling image around the globe.
In much the same vein, it is the completion of planned projects at the district level that will burnish the image of their NDC regime - not the foolish and reckless spending of precious taxpayer-funds paying for slick advertising to "brand districts".
That present-day marketing equivalent, of the fools' gold of the zany alchemists of the Middle Ages, is just another clever means of legally transferring taxpayers' money to the cronies of some NDC functionaries and their flunkeys.
Why, are those tiresome, confounded and hard-of-hearing individuals never satisfied at all with the cushy sinecures they have been given in the so-called "Brand Ghana Office" and elsewhere in the corridors of power at the Osu Castle, Ghana's seat of power, I ask?
Their greed for money and day-dreaming, only adds to the general perception amongst so many ordinary Ghanaians that there are some very corrupt people in the Mills administration, who are determined and ruthless individuals who harbour a hidden agenda of their own: to "chop Ghana small".
If not checked, their smart-Alec ways will end up making the Mills regime lose power in the end, as sure as day follows night - just as the widespread perception that corruption in the Kufuor regime had reached unacceptable levels led to that mostly-greedy and selfish lot being voted out of power, in December 2008.
The Hon. Baba Jamal & Co must simply ignore all that fanciful stuff from those day-dreamers - and just make sure that district-level development projects are executed well and completed in time: so that their ministry's officials at the district level can spread the good news countrywide.
That is what will win their government plaudits and votes in December 2012 - not the daft idea of paying for slick advertising "branding districts". A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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