Minister, there are many independent-minded and discerning Ghanaians, who often despair - because so many of the individuals who rule our country, aren't creative thinkers.
Yet another reason, why this group of patriotic Ghanaians often despair, is that so many of our rulers are hard-of-hearing and criticism-averse individuals - who simply ignore good advice proffered freely.
Sadly, sometimes one gets the distinct impression that some of the gentlemen in your regime, take note of advice, only if it is procured at great expense (as was the case with some appointees during the corrupt Kufuor & Co's tenure in office, too!) - from sundry "consult" consultancies: for whom hapless taxpayers' are the millennium cash-cows.
Your regime will do well to listen to the concerns of such patriotic individuals, Minister - if you don't want to end up becoming a one-term administration: something that is beginning to look more and more likely, if some of the members of your regime, don't, to use a Ghanaian pidgin English phrase, follow President Mills' example, and "humble yourselves" and listen to good advice, offered freely by those who want nothing in return.
Why does your regime continue to ignore those independent-minded and well-meaning Ghanaians (the so-called floating voters!) who, for example, advise you to publicly publish the assets of the president, all his government's ministers and district chief executives - together with that of their spouses: and put clear blue water between your regime and those wolves-in-sheep's-clothing lurking in the shadows in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who are successors to Kufuor & Co, that way?
Do none of you realise that it will make your regime hard to beat in the December 2012 elections, were that to happen? So, what exactly stops you from doing so, one wonders?
And now that our nation is an oil-producing country, if done, will that not allay the fears of millions of Ghanaians that our homeland Ghana's ruling elites will somehow succeed in following the example of Nigeria's thieving ruling elites?
Furthermore, if it is done, Minister, will that also not enable your regime to walk the endless probity-and-accountability-talk, so enamoured of your "founder", who whiles in office as Ghana's leader for nearly some twenty odd years, curiously did no such thing himself (come to think of it!)?
Minister, you constantly talk about creative thinking - which is a good thing in a nation so bereft of it. Well, accept a challenge to see the sense in your regime "taking on board" (to use your recent GTV interview phrase!) an old man's advice - meant to make some young Ghanaians actually benefit from your administration's new Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP).
For what it is worth, here is my two pesewas: a troika of thinking-out-of-the-box ideas as it were - to help your regime create an enterprise culture amongst the disadvantaged in Ghanaian society, today, not tomorrow:
(1) Get the relevant officials in Ghana's mission to the US, to get in touch with Solar Sisters' Katherine Lucey immediately - and invite her organisation to come to Ghana as soon as it is practicable to do so: and team up with the 31st December Women's Movement (31st DWM) to work with your LESDEP, to empower disadvantaged Ghanaian women, to become renewable energy micro-entrepreneurs.
Perhaps Tullow Oil may be willing to fund Solar Sisters' work in Ghana - so ask their CEO, Aiden Heavey, Minister. Tullow has proved itself to be a very good corporate citizen of Ghana - unlike some arrogant and corrupt US oil company we all know of.
(2) Then ask those selfsame Ghanaian diplomatic staff in the US, to contact BRAC USA's Susan Davis - and invite her organisation too to come and replicate its hugely successful crab-farming project for Bangladeshi fishing families, in coastal communities right along Ghana's entire coastline.
Again working with the 31st December Women's Movement to empower disadvantaged women in coastal communities along the coastal belt. Don't forget the 31st DWM has experience of empowering coastal communities in Korle Gonno beach, for example - near Lavender Hill.
(3) Then, finally, do look up Fearless Planet's fantastic work empowering rural women - by linking up a number of women organic palm oil producers in Kade, in the Eastern Region, with a US fair trade soap manufacturer: and successfully creating a thriving sustainable local green economy, for their rural communities, in the process.
Do ask Fearless Planet to replicate that business model for female shea butter producers in the three northern regions of Ghana - as a LESDEP partnership project.
Long story short: In other words, Minister, let your LESDEP outsource some of the task of creating young Ghanaian entrepreneurs, to reputable international NGO's with a track record of the empowerment of disadvantaged people around the globe.
All your regime need do, is to empower those NGO's - by removing all red-tape that will hinder their work in Ghana - from the clearing of containers at the ports to registering their organisations, obtaining visas and resident permits for their foreign staff, for example.
And the 31st DWM will make excellent local partners for all of them - which will help your administration reconcile with Ohemaa Awhofe Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings: a must if your regime wants to be returned to power again in the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
That is the kind of creative thinking that will make your regime achieve its goal of creating an enterprise culture amongst young people in our homeland Ghana, quickly, Minister - and change the lives of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young (and not-so-young!) Ghanaians, for the better: in the better Ghana that your National Democratic Congress (NDC) party promised the good people of Ghana.
And don't forget that your regime will soon be held to account by the good people of Ghana (mainly the so-called floating voters - the kingmakers of Ghanaian politics today!), in December 2012 - which is just round the corner: in case those of your colleagues who, sadly, have become so incredibly arrogant, forget!
Post Script
And how about this for a 21st century Nkrumaist "vision," Minister: Access to well-designed and well-built affordable rental accommodation for every Ghanaian family that cannot afford to buy their own home - with the entire building process of such homes farmed out to private sector companies, who will enjoy tax exemptions on all materials used to build those housing units, and will not have to pay any tax on the income they get from the affordable rents they charge!; railway lines to every regional capital in Ghana - also built on a build, operate (for 25 years tax-free revenue!) and transfer to the government of Ghana basis; an airfield in every district capital - built and operated by the Ghana Armed Forces; free education up to tertiary level for every Ghanaian with the aptitude to study to that level and free access to health care facilities nationwide within twenty years; super-cheap internet access for all of rural Ghana - as part of the conditions for any telco having its operating licence renewed by the National Communication Authority (NCA).
And all the above will be achieved by getting maximum value from that windfall from Providence for our country - utilising our nation's oil and natural gas revenues to transform Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
Minister, the exploitation of our oil and natural gas deposits must not just end up enriching fat-cat foreigners and their greedy local lackeys in unfair and one-sided agreements. That is simply intolerable.
The people of Ghana expect those they elect to lead their country to sign agreements that benefit the ordinary people of Ghana - and if they fail to do so, they are then deemed to be acting against the national interest: which is untenable, criminal and unconstitutional. Period.
So, naturally, the kind of Kweku Ananse agreements signed by the neo-colonialist NPP regime of the greedy, corrupt and nepotistic President Kufuor, with oil companies for the exploitation of the jubilee oilfields will have to be torn up pronto (we must have bold leaders prepared to follow Colonel Gaddafi's example when he overthrew King Iddris!).
And if any of the oil companies operating here refuse to agree to renegotiate those rip-offs, they must be told in no uncertain terms that Ghanaians are not fools and will not let foreigners and the quislings in our midst who collaborate with them to cheat us, benefit from our natural resources whiles ordinary Ghanaians lead miserable lives. Never.
If they refuse to see reason, they will be paid fair compensation and those oilfields nationalised - to put our country in the driving seat.
And we will then exercise full control over what is after all a finite resource, which should benefit the people of Ghana first and foremost, whiles it lasts - not mainly the wealthy shareholders of private oil companies: whose agents here succeeded in buying off some of our corrupt and greedy leaders, simply because they are rich and powerful foreign folk able to get away with even murder. Literally. Sod that - Nkrumaists fear no one in our own nation. Period.
If their governments try to bully us, we will simply parley with the Russians, the Chinese and the Iranians instead - all of whom, as a non-aligned nation friendly with all the nations on the surface of the planet Earth, we have no quarrels with.
And by the way, Minister, since there are many ways of killing a cat, we will use different tactics, to frustrate any oil company that refuses to see reason: for example: watch their executives and key staff like hawks 24/7 all year round, and arrest them for the smallest of misdemeanours - and throw them out of our country for those infractions of the law; refuse key staff visas for months on end; and shut down vital equipment for safety checks that take forever, etc.
They will soon come to understand that there is a new Ghanaian they are dealing with - and see reason.
And as I said before, there is always the option of working with the Russians, the Chinese and the Iranians - all of whom we have no quarrels with. Cowards, they say, die many times before their death - but Nkrumaists are no cowards. Period.
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