WHEN WILL THE BRUTAL & REPEATED GANG-RAPE OF MOTHER GHANA CEASE?

The incredible news that a contractor was allowed to get away with causing damage to a vital pipeline, leading to untreated waste from the 37 Military Hospital - including that flowing from the hospital's mortuary - being discharged directly into Accra's drainage system, perfectly sums up the sorry state our country has been in, for much of the period since Nkrumah's overthrow, in 1966 (in terms of the commitment of our ruling elites to the common weal).

It is unthinkable, that such an abomination would have occurred, when Ghana's visionary and phenomenally hard-working founder, Osagefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, led our nation.

Where in the developed world, would a contractor, executing a contract for a handsome profit, be allowed to get away with such an outrage, I ask? So why should our ruling elites tolerate such costly recklessness that borders on the criminal?

Do those in charge of the 37 Military Hospital not see a clear-cut case of criminal negligence, and dereliction of duty in this shabby affair, when it stares them in the face, on a daily basis? Above all, has it not occurred to them that responsible construction firms are supposed to insure against accidental damage of such nature?

And the astonishing news that the situation has been allowed to persist and fester for close to a year, by individuals in positions of authority, almost all of whom apparently still remain at post, despite having superintended an environmental disaster of apocalyptic proportions, which poses a serious health risk, not only to the men and women under their command, but to millions of residents living in a huge swathe of Ghana's capital, Accra, simply beggars belief.

How did we arrive at such a sorry pass that this could occur in the one state institution, which we all thought was the only truly world-class entity left, amongst our mostly debased institutions of state, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF)?

Is that the effect the perfidy of Kufuor & Co. has had on the GAF - with their endless nepotism, egregious tribalism and unfair promotions galore, from January 2001 to January 2009: all in pursuance of the fulfilment of their absurd, foolish and dangerous hidden agenda, of achieving perpetual ethnic-dominance in Nkrumah's Ghana, till the very end of time?

It would appear that our ruling elites no longer even bother to pretend that they care about our nation. As long as they can personally benefit, it doesn't matter how detrimental to our nation's long-term interests, a particular contract's terms might be: entered into with alacrity, will it be, by those ruling the Ghanaian nation-state - regardless.

So we now routinely have Parliament sanctioning dubious sale and purchase agreements of valuable state assets - built up over the years by the blood, sweat and tears of Ghanaian workers; sundry one-sided and inimical oil and natural gas exploration and production agreements that favour foreign oil companies - and are widely regarded as some of the world's worst in living memory; and usurious loan agreements, all with terms and conditions that no other nation on the surface of the planet Earth will accept, being readily entered into, by agents and assigns of the Ghanaian nation-state - just because it will benefit some well-connected members of our ever-so-clever educated urban ruling elites.

It is the reason why in the Ghana of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of - "double jeopardy" - President Mills and Vice President John Mahama, the selfsame NDC people who once upon a time, railed against that daft foray into the piranha-infested capital markets of the West, by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., for a eurozone bond sale paying out ridiculously high coupon rates, also quickly went for a eurozone bond sale themselves, when they came to power - paying coupon rates more or less double that which the NPP agreed to pay out.

Then to top that list of woes, is the monstrosity of obscene compensation packages paid to board members and senior management of various governmental bodies and organisations, including those of loss-making state-owned enterprises.

A classic example of this never ending rip-off of the hapless Ghanaian taxpayer, by our greedy and ruthless ruling elites, is the scandalous retirement package insisted upon by former President Kufuor. Why do our leaders, who never cease asking ordinary people to make sacrifices for the good of our nation, not do so themselves: and lead by example?

President Kufuor is easily the most dishonest, the greediest, the most amoral and by far the most tribal-supremacist individual ever to lead our nation. One hopes we will never have the misfortune of having a leader of that ilk again.

(And as I always say, I am waiting for him to sue me in the law courts, for saying that about him - whereupon he and his cronies will realise that their dear friend Kweku Baako Jnr., is not the only soul who has sensitive documents to back what he says. But I digress.)

Finally, perhaps the question we must ask, is: Just when will the repeated and brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana - which this unending and unyielding elite rip-off represents - finally cease?

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