Sensing that their party may indeed be on the cusp of returning to power again, seems to have triggered off the unbearable arrogance and over- confidence, now being displayed on a daily basis, by the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) tiresome hawks - such as that bragging-brat: the vulgar, frightfully common nouveau riche Kennedy Adjapong.
Alas, it is clear evidence, if ever it was needed, dear reader, showing just how right former President Rawlings was, all along - in demanding, when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills first came to power, in January 2009, that all those members of the previous NPP regime of President Kufuor, who were guilty of past wrongdoing, ought to be prosecuted and jailed.
Since the daft and suicidal dismissal of the former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, instigated by some of the powerful individuals surrounding President Mills, and the collateral damage it has caused the president's personal standing with millions of ordinary Ghanaians, as well as that of his administration, there has been a growing realisation within the NPP's leadership, that their party may actually be pretty close to realising its goal of returning to power again.
Clearly, it is that realisation which has led to the ratcheting up of the taunting and ridiculing of President Mills and his administration, by those angry-young-men in the NPP - such as the abrasive and verbally-aggressive Anthony Abayeefa Karbos and their ilk - who, it would appear, have never really forgiven ordinary Ghanaians, for having the temerity to vote their sodden party out of office in December 2008: and are thus prepared to see Ghana go to the brink of the abyss, if need be, if that is what it will take to get their confounded party back into power again.
The outrage, which their constant subjecting the person of the president to all manner of indignities represents, also shows up the utter failure of the strategy of accommodation and reconciliation with their political opponents, previously advocated by some of those powerful individuals in the NDC, who surround President Mills - and who supply the presidency's backbone, as it were, and, in a sense, have literally been psychologically propping up that hapless duo: the ever-so-gentle and meek President Mills and the similarly-natured Vice President Mahama.
Those anti-Rawlings NDC big-wigs surrounding the president, apparently counselled, when the NDC initially took power, that President Mills' new regime, ought to chart a new course - by not repeating the negative patterns of the past: when it was almost guaranteed that yesterday's crooked politicians, and the prominent businesspeople who were the previous regime's crony-capitalist bankrollers, and consequently prospered mightily during their tenure, would have their businesses destroyed by endless probes, tying them up in sundry court cases and starving them of the lucrative government deals that made them prosper so, under the departed regime.
The recent utterances of Kennedy Adjapong & Co. - who have vowed to ensure that all those guilty of wrongdoing in the Mills administration, will be prosecuted and jailed when the NPP returns to power again - is proof-positive that the would-be NDC "reconcilers" and "appeasers" have, in effect, been led up the garden path by the perfidious Kufuor & Co.'s NPP.
Simply put, the anti-Rawlings faction of the NDC, have more or less been toying with the power their party won the hard way, after eight long years in the political wilderness - and consequently no longer deserve to be calling the shots in their hard-of-hearing party. Rawlings' faction must now take charge of the NDC and the government. And must do so quickly - before it becomes too late to make any real difference in December.
So, clearly, it is important, for the long-term survival and continued viability of the NDC, that the world-view of the party's "reconcilers" and "appeasers" should no longer be the prevalent and dominant viewpoint, in the NDC's scheme of things - in as far as the adoption of a new strategy to ensure that that party defeats the main opposition party, the NPP, again, in the December presidential election, goes.
That is why it is so important, for the sake of all Ghanaians who love Mother Ghana passionately, that the "real" NDC does not leave the unpleasant but necessary task, of acting quickly to remove President Mills and Vice President Mahama from office, until it is way too late for their removal to have any real effect on the NDC's electoral fortunes, in the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The question is: having been proved to be so right in advocating for the adoption of a tough line, in dealing with members of the Kufuor-led NPP regime, guilty of past wrongdoing when the NDC first came to power, precisely when are ex-President Rawlings, and all those NDC members still astute enough to remain loyal to him, going to act, to ensure that President Mills and Vice President Mahama are forced out of office, one after the other - to enable the NDC replace them with a dream-ticket line-up for the December 2012 presidential election: a President Martin Amidu and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings?
The "house-cleaning" of the crooks in the NDC - which ex-President Rawlings rightly says must now take precedence over the prosecution and jailing of corrupt members of the Kufuor regime, to be credible - can then proceed apace under President Martin Amidu, whose anti-corruption credentials, and determination to deal ruthlessly with wealthy and well-connected criminals ripping off Mother Ghana, no one in this country today, doubts.
With respect, if the loyalists of ex-President Rawlings want their "real" NDC to retain power after the December presidential election, then the time to act to rid their party of that weak and ineffective duo, President Mills and Vice President Mahama, is now - not tomorrow or the day after that. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Saturday, 25 February 2012
PRESIDENT MILLS: THIS IS A NATION OF LAWS - SHOW SOME METTLE & END SOLAR MINING'S IMPUNITY NOW!
A classic example of how a number of highly placed individuals in the Mills regime, are abusing their positions by engaging in unlawful activities - and getting away with it - is the disgraceful shenanigans of Ambassador Budu Saaka's long-insolvent Kibi Goldfields.
When large swathes of land in Akim Abuakwa were inundated with flood waters last year, President Mills, who happened to be visiting the area, was so horrified by the unmistakable evidence of the disastrous consequences of the activities of Akim Abuakwa's illegal gold miners, which confronted him and his entourage, that he vowed to put a halt to the illegal gold mining in the area.
His edict against illegal mining, such as it was, is being cleverly subverted by S. O. Lamptey's Solar Mining, which to all intents and purposes has reversed into Ambassador Budu Saaka's Kibi Goldfields - which describes Solar Mining as its "co-operator": simply as a ruse to enable them get away with their perfidy.
As we speak, although it says it is not doing so, in fact, Solar Mining is said to be actively mining in Kibi Goldfield's concession area - and S. O. Lamptey and his assigns apparently regularly sell gold to the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC). The question is: Why the pretence - if everything is above board? For the information of the authorities, some of the people of Saamang, are said to be tracking those sales.
Yet, if this had been a nation in which officialdom actually cared about, and placed some value, on the natural environment, as a result of the company's repeated past defiance of EPA officials - who at a point in time repeatedly asked it to halt mining gold illegally at Akim Abuakwa Juaso - that company would never be able to secure the necessary valid permits, either alone or as a legitimate concession owner's so-called "co-operator", from the regulatory bodies, which superintend the mining industry - because an entity with such a past record of repeated defiance of the EPA, would not be deemed trustworthy and ethical enough by regulators, to be allowed to mine a concession part of which borders an area with a delicate and sensitive ecology.
How can this outrage, in which greedy and ruthless individuals, put their own personal wealth creation agenda, before the common weal - and more or less have carte blanche to destroy streams and rivers with impunity, in pursuance of that sodden personal agenda - be allowed to go on in what is supposed to be a civilised African nation?
Are the authorities not aware that the people of Saamang, for example, being individuals with considerable foresight, and who clearly also have common sense in abundance, continue to refuse to allow Solar Mining and its co-conspirator (in the hoodwinking of officialdom) Kibi Goldfields, to destroy their cocoa farms and the only stream in the area now remaining wholesome, the Akorsoo?
To enable a few wealthy and well-connected rogues to enrich themselves yet further, should the genuine needs of the cocoa farmers of Saamang, and their human right to be able to continue making a living as farmers on their own land, continue to be disregarded so flagrantly by the authorities - in a nation in which the rule of law is said to exist, and which is also apparently a constitutional democracy, I ask?
The question is : Precisely what is President Mills' regime going to do about the calumny and sophistry of the promoters of Solar Mining and Ambassador Budu Saaka's Kibi Goldfields' disgraceful conduct in conspiring with Solar Mining to enable it short-circuit the laid down regulatory framework governing the activities of surface gold miners - and thus be in a position to actively mine gold, more less through the back-door, as it were, in Akim Abuakwa: and get away with it?
The president's advisors must understand that there is widespread belief in Akim Abuakwa that Solar Mining has bought its way to the very top in the corridors of power at the Osu Castle, Ghana's seat of power, and is consequently untouchable - which is why its promoters fear no one in Ghana. It may be complete nonsense of course, but it is a perception that nonetheless persists - in the face of Solar Mining's perfidy.
(Shades of the infernal arrogance of a certain someone embroiled in a judgement-debt payment scandal, I hear someone say - and is that perchance why its promoters are carrying on as if they think that everyone in the Ghana of President Mills, who matters, has a price, one wonders? But I digress.)
The President ought to prove all those sceptics wrong - by moving swiftly to have the police arrest S. O. Lamptey and Ambassador Budu Saaka - and charging them with mining gold illegally and conspiring to cover it up by misleading officials of the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about the true nature, and purpose, of their so-called "co-operator" arrangement, which has enabled Solar Mining to literally get away with its illegal activities of so many years.
One hopes that there will not be the usual procrastination that has become a byword for this hard-of-hearing regime, in this matter.
They must not wait till that ruthless gang of wealthy rogues, Solar Mining - which is effectively operating illegally with such impunity if truth be told, because it has secured access to a gold concession that it is using as legal cover to engage in mining without having to obtain the requisite official permits itself - permanently compromises the integrity of an area that borders part of Kibi Goldfields concession, and which has been declared a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), the Atewa Forest Reserve.
Finally, it is difficult, dear reader, to fathom how a bankrupt entity has succeeded in hanging on to a gold concession, for as long as Ambassador Budu Saaka's Kibi Goldfields has - when the rules governing the granting of gold concessions, clearly do not permit bankrupt entities to own gold concessions, in any part of Ghana. Otherwise, just how would the reclamation of land degraded by gold mining, be funded - if bankrupt entities could legally hang on to their concessions in Ghana, I ask?
Above all, President Mills must act now to ensure that the part of Kibi Goldfields' concession, which borders an ecologically sensitive area in the unique Atewa Range upland evergreen rain forest - designated a GSBA - is not permanently destroyed by those greedy and arrogant rogues, the promoters of Solar Mining. This is a nation of laws, is it not? A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
When large swathes of land in Akim Abuakwa were inundated with flood waters last year, President Mills, who happened to be visiting the area, was so horrified by the unmistakable evidence of the disastrous consequences of the activities of Akim Abuakwa's illegal gold miners, which confronted him and his entourage, that he vowed to put a halt to the illegal gold mining in the area.
His edict against illegal mining, such as it was, is being cleverly subverted by S. O. Lamptey's Solar Mining, which to all intents and purposes has reversed into Ambassador Budu Saaka's Kibi Goldfields - which describes Solar Mining as its "co-operator": simply as a ruse to enable them get away with their perfidy.
As we speak, although it says it is not doing so, in fact, Solar Mining is said to be actively mining in Kibi Goldfield's concession area - and S. O. Lamptey and his assigns apparently regularly sell gold to the Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC). The question is: Why the pretence - if everything is above board? For the information of the authorities, some of the people of Saamang, are said to be tracking those sales.
Yet, if this had been a nation in which officialdom actually cared about, and placed some value, on the natural environment, as a result of the company's repeated past defiance of EPA officials - who at a point in time repeatedly asked it to halt mining gold illegally at Akim Abuakwa Juaso - that company would never be able to secure the necessary valid permits, either alone or as a legitimate concession owner's so-called "co-operator", from the regulatory bodies, which superintend the mining industry - because an entity with such a past record of repeated defiance of the EPA, would not be deemed trustworthy and ethical enough by regulators, to be allowed to mine a concession part of which borders an area with a delicate and sensitive ecology.
How can this outrage, in which greedy and ruthless individuals, put their own personal wealth creation agenda, before the common weal - and more or less have carte blanche to destroy streams and rivers with impunity, in pursuance of that sodden personal agenda - be allowed to go on in what is supposed to be a civilised African nation?
Are the authorities not aware that the people of Saamang, for example, being individuals with considerable foresight, and who clearly also have common sense in abundance, continue to refuse to allow Solar Mining and its co-conspirator (in the hoodwinking of officialdom) Kibi Goldfields, to destroy their cocoa farms and the only stream in the area now remaining wholesome, the Akorsoo?
To enable a few wealthy and well-connected rogues to enrich themselves yet further, should the genuine needs of the cocoa farmers of Saamang, and their human right to be able to continue making a living as farmers on their own land, continue to be disregarded so flagrantly by the authorities - in a nation in which the rule of law is said to exist, and which is also apparently a constitutional democracy, I ask?
The question is : Precisely what is President Mills' regime going to do about the calumny and sophistry of the promoters of Solar Mining and Ambassador Budu Saaka's Kibi Goldfields' disgraceful conduct in conspiring with Solar Mining to enable it short-circuit the laid down regulatory framework governing the activities of surface gold miners - and thus be in a position to actively mine gold, more less through the back-door, as it were, in Akim Abuakwa: and get away with it?
The president's advisors must understand that there is widespread belief in Akim Abuakwa that Solar Mining has bought its way to the very top in the corridors of power at the Osu Castle, Ghana's seat of power, and is consequently untouchable - which is why its promoters fear no one in Ghana. It may be complete nonsense of course, but it is a perception that nonetheless persists - in the face of Solar Mining's perfidy.
(Shades of the infernal arrogance of a certain someone embroiled in a judgement-debt payment scandal, I hear someone say - and is that perchance why its promoters are carrying on as if they think that everyone in the Ghana of President Mills, who matters, has a price, one wonders? But I digress.)
The President ought to prove all those sceptics wrong - by moving swiftly to have the police arrest S. O. Lamptey and Ambassador Budu Saaka - and charging them with mining gold illegally and conspiring to cover it up by misleading officials of the Minerals Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about the true nature, and purpose, of their so-called "co-operator" arrangement, which has enabled Solar Mining to literally get away with its illegal activities of so many years.
One hopes that there will not be the usual procrastination that has become a byword for this hard-of-hearing regime, in this matter.
They must not wait till that ruthless gang of wealthy rogues, Solar Mining - which is effectively operating illegally with such impunity if truth be told, because it has secured access to a gold concession that it is using as legal cover to engage in mining without having to obtain the requisite official permits itself - permanently compromises the integrity of an area that borders part of Kibi Goldfields concession, and which has been declared a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), the Atewa Forest Reserve.
Finally, it is difficult, dear reader, to fathom how a bankrupt entity has succeeded in hanging on to a gold concession, for as long as Ambassador Budu Saaka's Kibi Goldfields has - when the rules governing the granting of gold concessions, clearly do not permit bankrupt entities to own gold concessions, in any part of Ghana. Otherwise, just how would the reclamation of land degraded by gold mining, be funded - if bankrupt entities could legally hang on to their concessions in Ghana, I ask?
Above all, President Mills must act now to ensure that the part of Kibi Goldfields' concession, which borders an ecologically sensitive area in the unique Atewa Range upland evergreen rain forest - designated a GSBA - is not permanently destroyed by those greedy and arrogant rogues, the promoters of Solar Mining. This is a nation of laws, is it not? A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
IS THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY AS PRESENTLY CONSTITUTED FIT TO RULE NKRUMAH'S GHANA?
The nature of the type of society envisioned by the leadership of Ghana's political parties - with the exception of Nkrumah's Convention Peoples Party (CPP) - seldom features in the narrative told to the generality of Ghanaians, in the never-ending propaganda war, waged in relentless fashion on our nation's airwaves, and in the columns of newspapers, by political parties.
For example, should the Ghana of today, not be an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia - one in which the resources of the nation are, amongst other common-good projects, devoted to building planned new modern communities of well-designed and well-built affordable rental housing units to house ordinary people?
Would the offer of long tax holidays for the rental income earned by private-sector companies building and renting out such affordable housing to ordinary people, not attract such real estate companies in droves, to house ordinary Ghanaians, at reasonable rental rates?
Will that not deal effectively with the huge housing deficit, which unfortunately has left millions of ordinary people at the mercy of Shylock landlords, nationwide, I ask?
And should the Ghana of today, not be a nation led by imaginative leaders, clever enough, for example, to leverage the granting of oil exploration licenses, to attract the best-resourced state-owned Chinese railroad-building companies - to pre-finance the building of that vital Accra to Paga railway line: because such creative leaders understand that the power of the nation-state can be harnessed for such positive ends?
And would long tax holidays for the revenues earned from freight and passengers, not be incentive enough for such state-owned Chinese companies, to agree to build and operate the Accra-Paga railroad for a specified number of years, before finally transferring same to our nation?
And could we not use that same public private partnership model to build Ghana more gas-fired power plants and some of the world's biggest wind-power farms; have vital bridges built to span more points across our major rivers; and build new airports in all our regional capitals - ditto link up all our regional capitals with world-class motorways, I ask, dear reader?
And if our leaders approached Liam Casey (aka Mr. China), could he not find them ten large and well-resourced, class-leading world-class companies from South Korea and China, which would happily accept the same terms - and enable us link up all our regional capitals by rail: and finally give Ghana a modern and nationwide rail network? And would all such public private partnership schemes not create real jobs and generate tangible wealth across our nation?
Should Ghana not be led by leaders who understand clearly, for example - just as our nation's founding father, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, did - that a poor developing nation with aspirations, cannot afford not to provide free education for all its citizens, who have the aptitude to study - from kindergarten to tertiary level?
So why do our current crop of politicians not decide, on a consensus basis, that that ought to be a national policy that has cross-party support - and instead of allowing our oil deposits to eventually end up in the hands of well-connected rogues fronting for crooked politicians, rather leverage them to fund the education of Ghanaians? And do same for healthcare provision for ordinary people, too?
Is that not the sort of vision that ought to motivate and guide those who elect to offer themselves for leadership positions in our nation, dear reader?
Yet, what invariably motivates most of the leading lights of Ghana's political class, who fight in the front-line, in that no-holds-barred propaganda war, now being waged on our nation's airwaves and in Ghana's print media, is the unfathomable greed that drives those mostly-unprincipled and amoral individuals - who cloak the selfish ends that lead them into politics in the first place, as concern for ordinary people and our homeland Ghana: merely in order to enable them get into power successfully, off the backs of ordinary people in our country.
Does the dramatic change in fortunes for Kufuor & Co., who, by the end of the 8-year tenure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, had become some of the wealthiest individuals anywhere on the surface of the planet Earth, not illustrate perfectly, how those clever members of Ghana's educated urban elite, who venture into politics, have ended up ruthlessly exploiting our national economy for themselves, members of their family clans and their cronies - at the expense of ordinary people and the well-being of the Ghanaian nation-state?
Surely, we do not want to experience a situation in which a Mk11 version of such a greedy and dishonest tribal-supremacist cabal, dominates our country and ruthlessly exploits our national economy, so as to enable them send their personal net worth and that of family and friends into the stratosphere, yet again?
Ghana is a nation of diverse-ethnicity, in which no one tribe is superior or inferior to another. That is a scientific fact of life in 21st century Africa. So, does it not follow a priori, that if we were a wise people, there would be no place in the Ghanaian polity, for a political party, which is dominated by tribal-supremacist individuals - who, in this day and age, are so arrogant and backward in thought, as to believe that members of their particular ethnic group's traditional ruling elites are superior to that of all other ethnic groups in Ghana, and therefore ought, as their birthright, to dominate Ghanaian society permanently?
Did we all not painfully witness how during the eight long years Kufuor & Co. ruled our country for, they harnessed the entire machinery of state, in single-minded fashion, to promote their tribal Chieftain, as a de facto sovereign and the ruler of a state within a state - in Nkrumah's unitary Republic of Ghana? Do we want to experience a Mk11 version of that abomination?
That is why the question that must exercise the minds of those discerning and independent-minded individuals, whose crucial swing-votes now decide who becomes Ghana's elected president, ought to be: Should the ordinary people of a modern African nation-state, which aspires to become a metritocracy, tolerate the hijacking of their country, by the amoral and unprincipled descendants, of a pre-colonial traditional ruling elite?
And is it not the case that those tiresome and arrogant individuals, instead of being loyal and devoted to Mother Ghana, are invariably slavishly devoted to, and see themselves as owing allegiance, only to their sodden tribal Chieftains, whose brutish predecessors, were, if truth be told, the equivalent of today's Joseph Koneys - triumphant Hitlerite marauders, whose murderous and ruthless nature assured them of conquest upon conquest: during the dark days of slavery, endless pillaging and scorched earth wars-of-conquest in the Africa of old?
If such backward and arrogant tribal-supremacist and elitist individuals, then constitute themselves into a political party (as perfect legal cover), in order to pursue their absurd secret agenda of perpetual ethnic-dominance, why should ordinary Dagombas; ordinary Fantis; ordinary Brongs; ordinary Ewes; ordinary Asantes; ordinary Nzemas; ordinary Frafras; ordinary Ga Dangbes; ordinary Guans; ordinary Kusasis; ordinary Gonjas; ordinary Sisalas; ordinary Kokombas; and the ordinary members of all the other ethnic groups I have not had the space to mention here, vote for the political party "owned" and dominated by such dangerous and selfish individuals, I ask?
Is inherited privilege not the worst enemy of meritocrcy? If it is, then surely, those Ghanaian patriots and nationalists, who insist that the NPP, as presently constituted - dominated as it is by those who believe in rule by elites, and are themselves mostly the beneficiaries of inherited privilege - does not deserve to rule Nkrumah's Ghana, may indeed have a point after all, do they not, dear reader?
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
For example, should the Ghana of today, not be an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia - one in which the resources of the nation are, amongst other common-good projects, devoted to building planned new modern communities of well-designed and well-built affordable rental housing units to house ordinary people?
Would the offer of long tax holidays for the rental income earned by private-sector companies building and renting out such affordable housing to ordinary people, not attract such real estate companies in droves, to house ordinary Ghanaians, at reasonable rental rates?
Will that not deal effectively with the huge housing deficit, which unfortunately has left millions of ordinary people at the mercy of Shylock landlords, nationwide, I ask?
And should the Ghana of today, not be a nation led by imaginative leaders, clever enough, for example, to leverage the granting of oil exploration licenses, to attract the best-resourced state-owned Chinese railroad-building companies - to pre-finance the building of that vital Accra to Paga railway line: because such creative leaders understand that the power of the nation-state can be harnessed for such positive ends?
And would long tax holidays for the revenues earned from freight and passengers, not be incentive enough for such state-owned Chinese companies, to agree to build and operate the Accra-Paga railroad for a specified number of years, before finally transferring same to our nation?
And could we not use that same public private partnership model to build Ghana more gas-fired power plants and some of the world's biggest wind-power farms; have vital bridges built to span more points across our major rivers; and build new airports in all our regional capitals - ditto link up all our regional capitals with world-class motorways, I ask, dear reader?
And if our leaders approached Liam Casey (aka Mr. China), could he not find them ten large and well-resourced, class-leading world-class companies from South Korea and China, which would happily accept the same terms - and enable us link up all our regional capitals by rail: and finally give Ghana a modern and nationwide rail network? And would all such public private partnership schemes not create real jobs and generate tangible wealth across our nation?
Should Ghana not be led by leaders who understand clearly, for example - just as our nation's founding father, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, did - that a poor developing nation with aspirations, cannot afford not to provide free education for all its citizens, who have the aptitude to study - from kindergarten to tertiary level?
So why do our current crop of politicians not decide, on a consensus basis, that that ought to be a national policy that has cross-party support - and instead of allowing our oil deposits to eventually end up in the hands of well-connected rogues fronting for crooked politicians, rather leverage them to fund the education of Ghanaians? And do same for healthcare provision for ordinary people, too?
Is that not the sort of vision that ought to motivate and guide those who elect to offer themselves for leadership positions in our nation, dear reader?
Yet, what invariably motivates most of the leading lights of Ghana's political class, who fight in the front-line, in that no-holds-barred propaganda war, now being waged on our nation's airwaves and in Ghana's print media, is the unfathomable greed that drives those mostly-unprincipled and amoral individuals - who cloak the selfish ends that lead them into politics in the first place, as concern for ordinary people and our homeland Ghana: merely in order to enable them get into power successfully, off the backs of ordinary people in our country.
Does the dramatic change in fortunes for Kufuor & Co., who, by the end of the 8-year tenure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, had become some of the wealthiest individuals anywhere on the surface of the planet Earth, not illustrate perfectly, how those clever members of Ghana's educated urban elite, who venture into politics, have ended up ruthlessly exploiting our national economy for themselves, members of their family clans and their cronies - at the expense of ordinary people and the well-being of the Ghanaian nation-state?
Surely, we do not want to experience a situation in which a Mk11 version of such a greedy and dishonest tribal-supremacist cabal, dominates our country and ruthlessly exploits our national economy, so as to enable them send their personal net worth and that of family and friends into the stratosphere, yet again?
Ghana is a nation of diverse-ethnicity, in which no one tribe is superior or inferior to another. That is a scientific fact of life in 21st century Africa. So, does it not follow a priori, that if we were a wise people, there would be no place in the Ghanaian polity, for a political party, which is dominated by tribal-supremacist individuals - who, in this day and age, are so arrogant and backward in thought, as to believe that members of their particular ethnic group's traditional ruling elites are superior to that of all other ethnic groups in Ghana, and therefore ought, as their birthright, to dominate Ghanaian society permanently?
Did we all not painfully witness how during the eight long years Kufuor & Co. ruled our country for, they harnessed the entire machinery of state, in single-minded fashion, to promote their tribal Chieftain, as a de facto sovereign and the ruler of a state within a state - in Nkrumah's unitary Republic of Ghana? Do we want to experience a Mk11 version of that abomination?
That is why the question that must exercise the minds of those discerning and independent-minded individuals, whose crucial swing-votes now decide who becomes Ghana's elected president, ought to be: Should the ordinary people of a modern African nation-state, which aspires to become a metritocracy, tolerate the hijacking of their country, by the amoral and unprincipled descendants, of a pre-colonial traditional ruling elite?
And is it not the case that those tiresome and arrogant individuals, instead of being loyal and devoted to Mother Ghana, are invariably slavishly devoted to, and see themselves as owing allegiance, only to their sodden tribal Chieftains, whose brutish predecessors, were, if truth be told, the equivalent of today's Joseph Koneys - triumphant Hitlerite marauders, whose murderous and ruthless nature assured them of conquest upon conquest: during the dark days of slavery, endless pillaging and scorched earth wars-of-conquest in the Africa of old?
If such backward and arrogant tribal-supremacist and elitist individuals, then constitute themselves into a political party (as perfect legal cover), in order to pursue their absurd secret agenda of perpetual ethnic-dominance, why should ordinary Dagombas; ordinary Fantis; ordinary Brongs; ordinary Ewes; ordinary Asantes; ordinary Nzemas; ordinary Frafras; ordinary Ga Dangbes; ordinary Guans; ordinary Kusasis; ordinary Gonjas; ordinary Sisalas; ordinary Kokombas; and the ordinary members of all the other ethnic groups I have not had the space to mention here, vote for the political party "owned" and dominated by such dangerous and selfish individuals, I ask?
Is inherited privilege not the worst enemy of meritocrcy? If it is, then surely, those Ghanaian patriots and nationalists, who insist that the NPP, as presently constituted - dominated as it is by those who believe in rule by elites, and are themselves mostly the beneficiaries of inherited privilege - does not deserve to rule Nkrumah's Ghana, may indeed have a point after all, do they not, dear reader?
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Tuesday, 21 February 2012
COCA-COLA GHANA: SHAPE UP OR FOLD UP!
One wonders whether the current strike action by workers of Coca-Cola's Ghanaian subsidiary, might not be confirmation of the fact that the company might be grappling with serious management challenges - a situation that might also have a bearing on the growing instances of reported cases of unwholesome Coca-Cola products being sold on the Ghanaian market.
More to the point, how can those who run the local operations of an iconic American company, famous worldwide as a quintessential American brand, import raw materials for use in Ghana, which would never be used in any of Coca Cola's American or European bottling plants? Its an unfortunate situation - and an embarrassment. And totally unacceptable in 21st century Africa.
The executives who oversee the global operations of Coca-Cola, from its American headquarters, ought to be concerned enough about what is happening in its Ghanaian subsidiary - for it is a situation serious enough to warrant their sending a team of independent American inspectors and auditors, to carry out a thorough investigation into the operations of the Coca-Cola Ghanaian subsidiary.
The victory in the American law courts by the Ogoniland people of Nigeria, over Royal Dutch Shell - which they successfully sued, and won compensation from, in America, for polluting their Ogoni homeland - ought to remind those who run Coca-Cola in the US, that they could end up in a similar bind: as a result of blow-back from the mismanagement of the company's Ghanaian subsidiary.
Above all, there is a pressing need for Coca-Cola Ghana's parent company in America, to get to the bottom of what has brought about the increase in cases of consumers of the company's products in Ghana, claiming to have been made ill, as a result of ingesting Coca Cola's soft drinks. Coca-Cola Ghana really ought to shape up - or fold up permanently. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
More to the point, how can those who run the local operations of an iconic American company, famous worldwide as a quintessential American brand, import raw materials for use in Ghana, which would never be used in any of Coca Cola's American or European bottling plants? Its an unfortunate situation - and an embarrassment. And totally unacceptable in 21st century Africa.
The executives who oversee the global operations of Coca-Cola, from its American headquarters, ought to be concerned enough about what is happening in its Ghanaian subsidiary - for it is a situation serious enough to warrant their sending a team of independent American inspectors and auditors, to carry out a thorough investigation into the operations of the Coca-Cola Ghanaian subsidiary.
The victory in the American law courts by the Ogoniland people of Nigeria, over Royal Dutch Shell - which they successfully sued, and won compensation from, in America, for polluting their Ogoni homeland - ought to remind those who run Coca-Cola in the US, that they could end up in a similar bind: as a result of blow-back from the mismanagement of the company's Ghanaian subsidiary.
Above all, there is a pressing need for Coca-Cola Ghana's parent company in America, to get to the bottom of what has brought about the increase in cases of consumers of the company's products in Ghana, claiming to have been made ill, as a result of ingesting Coca Cola's soft drinks. Coca-Cola Ghana really ought to shape up - or fold up permanently. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Monday, 20 February 2012
LET US OFFER OUR MORAL SUPPORT TO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY OFFICIALS DEMOLISHING BUILDINGS BLOCKING NATURAL DRAINAGE SYSTEMS
The recent rains reminded one of the fact that during the dry season, the flash floods that usually inundate and devastate a number of residential areas across Ghana, during the annual rains, quickly become a distant memory for many urban dwellers.
And this being Ghana, a nation in which the long-term outlook, seldom features in the thought processes of many, when local authorities - on whom during the rainy season so much abuse is heaped, when floods occur and lives are lost, scores of homes flooded out, whiles streets are turned into rivers: with the poor souls being villified at every turn in urban Ghana, for not pulling down houses built illegally on watercourses - finally move, as the annual rains cease, to tackle the demolishing of properties obstructing natural drainage systems, the same public that condemned them for not pulling down illegal structures built on watercourses, then perversely sympathise with those who own those illegally constructed buildings.
Thus emboldened, those law-defying individuals then take to fighting a desperate no-holds-barred rearguard action - courting public sympathy - to frustrate those selfsame district-level local government officials.
A key weapon in the armoury of those defiant individuals, is their mastery of the art and science of mendacity. It has enabled them milk public sympathy in the most ruthless of fashions.
Some have the nous to elicit the support of sections of the media, to spin endless hard-luck stories - which conveniently omit to mention the fact that they consistently ignored official warnings to stop building their properties, whiles they were being put up.
To enable them get away with the consequences of their total disregard for Ghana's building and planning regulations, some of them have even resorted to the law courts - and are manipulating the legal system to frustrate those working hard to ensure that as much of the natural drainage system, as is possible, is restored, in time for the start of the annual rains.
And unbelievably, some of them have even claimed on occasion, that they are the victims of party political witch hunting - and are being punished for belonging to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). Wonders.
Needless to say, were the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be in opposition today, they would doubtless claim to be NDC members being victimised by the party in power.
Surely, the time has now come for decent and law-abiding citizens in our country, to elect to fully support district level officials, who are currently working hard across the country, pulling down properties blocking watercourses - to ensure that for the greater good of society, those who defy Ghana's building and planning regulations, are not allowed to continue causing such terrible harm to law-abiding Ghanaians who suffer terribly during the annual rains?
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
And this being Ghana, a nation in which the long-term outlook, seldom features in the thought processes of many, when local authorities - on whom during the rainy season so much abuse is heaped, when floods occur and lives are lost, scores of homes flooded out, whiles streets are turned into rivers: with the poor souls being villified at every turn in urban Ghana, for not pulling down houses built illegally on watercourses - finally move, as the annual rains cease, to tackle the demolishing of properties obstructing natural drainage systems, the same public that condemned them for not pulling down illegal structures built on watercourses, then perversely sympathise with those who own those illegally constructed buildings.
Thus emboldened, those law-defying individuals then take to fighting a desperate no-holds-barred rearguard action - courting public sympathy - to frustrate those selfsame district-level local government officials.
A key weapon in the armoury of those defiant individuals, is their mastery of the art and science of mendacity. It has enabled them milk public sympathy in the most ruthless of fashions.
Some have the nous to elicit the support of sections of the media, to spin endless hard-luck stories - which conveniently omit to mention the fact that they consistently ignored official warnings to stop building their properties, whiles they were being put up.
To enable them get away with the consequences of their total disregard for Ghana's building and planning regulations, some of them have even resorted to the law courts - and are manipulating the legal system to frustrate those working hard to ensure that as much of the natural drainage system, as is possible, is restored, in time for the start of the annual rains.
And unbelievably, some of them have even claimed on occasion, that they are the victims of party political witch hunting - and are being punished for belonging to the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP). Wonders.
Needless to say, were the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to be in opposition today, they would doubtless claim to be NDC members being victimised by the party in power.
Surely, the time has now come for decent and law-abiding citizens in our country, to elect to fully support district level officials, who are currently working hard across the country, pulling down properties blocking watercourses - to ensure that for the greater good of society, those who defy Ghana's building and planning regulations, are not allowed to continue causing such terrible harm to law-abiding Ghanaians who suffer terribly during the annual rains?
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Friday, 17 February 2012
NDC: DO NOT LEAVE THE REMOVAL FROM OFFICE OF PRESIDENT MILLS & VICE PRESIDENT MAHAMA A DAY LONGER THAN IS NECESSARY!
As a Progressive and an Nkrumaist, as well as a pan-Africanist and patriotic Ghanaian nationalist, who loves Mother Ghana passionately, I want to see the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration returned to power again.
This is because it is the lesser-evil-choice to make, in the Ghana of today - and most definitely an election outcome that is in our country's long-term best interests.
A party that is empowering youth from disadvantaged backgrounds through the Local Enterprises & Skills Development Program (LESDEP), and thus bridging the gap between the rich and poor in Ghana so imaginatively, deserves to be returned to power again, for that initiative alone.
It will help defuse the time-bomb we sit on: the huge and unacceptable disparities in wealth, created by the unfathomable greed and self-serving elite-enriching policies of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., during the tenure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, between January 2001 and January 2009.
That yawning chasm between rich and poor in Ghana, will widen and be further entrenched, were the party of Kufuor & Co., the NPP, to be returned to power again, in the December presidential election. That must not be allowed to happen, at all costs: for the stability of the Ghanaian nation-state and the cohesion of our society.
Through the LESDEP an enterprise culture is being created amongst the poorest of the poor - and some of our nation's oil revenues ought to be sunk into it, for its effectiveness as a wealth-creating poverty-alleviation initiative - and as a result, the large underclass created by the results of massive elite-rip-off, during the days of the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co., is being offered hope for a better future and a real stake in the enterprise Ghana.
As it will be recalled, dear reader, even Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, NPP's presidential candidate for the December election, in a candid moment not too long ago, said that the economic transformation of Ghana, will take at least ten years.
So clearly (in my view), it is daft to change regimes midstream. However, in order to ensure that an NDC administration is re-elected to power again, both President Mills and Vice President Mahama must be made to step aside. That will give the NDC a clean-slate start - as well as the opportunity to renew and reinvent itself.
And it must be done quickly - and the sooner the better, for all concerned. President Mills and Vice President Mahama, must be replaced by a President Martin Amidu and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. That dream-ticket stands a very good chance of defeating the presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, in December.
It is said that a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Anyone who saw President Mills deliver the state of the nation address to Parliament a few days ago, must have had one common shared-experience - the evocation of a vivid mental picture, in their mind's eye, of a president seeming to be completely worn out physically and mentally, by the cares of office.
To the independent observer, he came across as a tired and unpopular old man going through the motions of doing his duty to his nation and people, at great emotional cost to himself. If truth be told, it was a sad and pitiful sight to behold - but as is traditionally the custom in this land of hypocrites, none present was willing to say so openly: even though everyone present was clearly embarrassed by the sad and embarrassing spectacle.
Surely, we must end this absurd national charade now - and spare a gentle and decent man: by allowing him to retire gracefully to a quiet life, and enjoy the evening of his life with his dear wife in peace?
For Mother Ghana's sake, President Mills must now be prised away from the many ruthless crooks, who are holding him hostage in the Osu Castle, for their own selfish ends - and want him to carry on regardless and fight the December presidential election.
The Minority in Parliament's cruel but necessary gesture, in flashing red cards en masse at the president, was most definitely done on the nation's behalf - and his NDC party must heed it now: for its own good and the president's peace of mind.
Anyone who listens to Ghanaian language current affairs radio phone-in programmes regularly, will be left in no doubt at all, that if the NDC allows itself to sleep-walk into the December 2012 presidential election, with President Mills as its candidate, he will be roundly defeated - in a landslide win by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
And those who have also watched Net 2 TV's poisonous Street Parliament programme, will attest to the fact that there is clearly a groundswell of opinion amongst a majority of ordinary Ghanaians, that President Mills is not a suitable leader for Ghana, at all.
Indeed, his dismissal of the former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, sealed his fate, with most ordinary Ghanaians - and permanently doomed his chances for the presidential elections in December.
The issues around Martin Amidu's dismissal, crystalised, for the average citizen, long-held but diffused and unfocused feelings, that somehow President Mill's personality and character traits, did not make him the kind of decisive and charismatic individual, that most Ghanaians want as the leader of their country.
The dismissal of Martin Amidu was seen by many ordinary Ghanaians, as an attempt to cover up the truth about the Woyome judgement-debt payment scandal - and to put a lid on the gargantuan crimes being committed against the people of Ghana, by some of the individuals surrounding Mills, at the Osu Castle.
The picture that that grave error of political judgement - Martin Amidu's dismissal and the daft Kweku Anase explanation for same by the government's PR team - conjured up, in the average person in Ghana's mind's eye, a picture of a weak-willed man reluctant or unable to act decisively as a Ghanaian president should in such circumstances.
In the view of most ordinary people in Ghana, President Mills is literally being held hostage, much against his will, in the Osu Castle - by greedy criminal-types (President Rawlings' "greedy bastards"): bent on using the period of the president's tenure, as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to enable them rip Mother Ghana off, on an unprecedented scale, and send their personal net worth into the stratosphere.
There is a general perception amongst most Ghanaians, that Mills and Mahama have failed our nation and their NDC party - by presiding over the worst political shambles (of an administration and party in total disarray) in our nation's history.
It might be an unfair assessment of the administration's many good works spread across the nation - but that perception exists nonetheless: and in politics, perception actually amounts to reality, for many voters, come election day.
The faction of the NDC that is Rawlings personified, to ordinary Ghanaians, must understand clearly, that their party faces an existentialist crisis - which also has within it, the gem of a perfect solution to the mess created by that weak duo, President Mills and Vice President Mahama: and their disastrous always-endeavour-to-please-all-at-all-costs duet-of-disaster and their nation-wrecking "Fa ema Onyame" philosophy of life.
Short of putting a gun to his head, Rawlings and Co. must find a way to force Mills to resign immediately. And as soon Vice President Mahama is sworn in as president, and Martin Amidu is appointed to the position of vice president, Mahama too must be forced to resign as president. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings should then become a President Amidu's vice-president.
Perhaps ex-President Rawlings can then happily go to his grave, knowing that in depriving Ghana of the leadership of a principled northerner by removing President Limman from power in 1981, he finally gave Ghanaians yet another honest president, from the north - by removing the hapless Mills and ensuring that Martin Amidu replaced him to lead the NDC to victory, in the December presidential and parliamentary elections.
Rawlings & Co. must not leave the removal of Mills and Mahama a day longer than is necessay, if they want their party to remain in office after the December elections - for, alas, the NDC will disintegrate were it to lose power in the December elections. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
This is because it is the lesser-evil-choice to make, in the Ghana of today - and most definitely an election outcome that is in our country's long-term best interests.
A party that is empowering youth from disadvantaged backgrounds through the Local Enterprises & Skills Development Program (LESDEP), and thus bridging the gap between the rich and poor in Ghana so imaginatively, deserves to be returned to power again, for that initiative alone.
It will help defuse the time-bomb we sit on: the huge and unacceptable disparities in wealth, created by the unfathomable greed and self-serving elite-enriching policies of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., during the tenure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, between January 2001 and January 2009.
That yawning chasm between rich and poor in Ghana, will widen and be further entrenched, were the party of Kufuor & Co., the NPP, to be returned to power again, in the December presidential election. That must not be allowed to happen, at all costs: for the stability of the Ghanaian nation-state and the cohesion of our society.
Through the LESDEP an enterprise culture is being created amongst the poorest of the poor - and some of our nation's oil revenues ought to be sunk into it, for its effectiveness as a wealth-creating poverty-alleviation initiative - and as a result, the large underclass created by the results of massive elite-rip-off, during the days of the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co., is being offered hope for a better future and a real stake in the enterprise Ghana.
As it will be recalled, dear reader, even Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, NPP's presidential candidate for the December election, in a candid moment not too long ago, said that the economic transformation of Ghana, will take at least ten years.
So clearly (in my view), it is daft to change regimes midstream. However, in order to ensure that an NDC administration is re-elected to power again, both President Mills and Vice President Mahama must be made to step aside. That will give the NDC a clean-slate start - as well as the opportunity to renew and reinvent itself.
And it must be done quickly - and the sooner the better, for all concerned. President Mills and Vice President Mahama, must be replaced by a President Martin Amidu and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. That dream-ticket stands a very good chance of defeating the presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, in December.
It is said that a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Anyone who saw President Mills deliver the state of the nation address to Parliament a few days ago, must have had one common shared-experience - the evocation of a vivid mental picture, in their mind's eye, of a president seeming to be completely worn out physically and mentally, by the cares of office.
To the independent observer, he came across as a tired and unpopular old man going through the motions of doing his duty to his nation and people, at great emotional cost to himself. If truth be told, it was a sad and pitiful sight to behold - but as is traditionally the custom in this land of hypocrites, none present was willing to say so openly: even though everyone present was clearly embarrassed by the sad and embarrassing spectacle.
Surely, we must end this absurd national charade now - and spare a gentle and decent man: by allowing him to retire gracefully to a quiet life, and enjoy the evening of his life with his dear wife in peace?
For Mother Ghana's sake, President Mills must now be prised away from the many ruthless crooks, who are holding him hostage in the Osu Castle, for their own selfish ends - and want him to carry on regardless and fight the December presidential election.
The Minority in Parliament's cruel but necessary gesture, in flashing red cards en masse at the president, was most definitely done on the nation's behalf - and his NDC party must heed it now: for its own good and the president's peace of mind.
Anyone who listens to Ghanaian language current affairs radio phone-in programmes regularly, will be left in no doubt at all, that if the NDC allows itself to sleep-walk into the December 2012 presidential election, with President Mills as its candidate, he will be roundly defeated - in a landslide win by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
And those who have also watched Net 2 TV's poisonous Street Parliament programme, will attest to the fact that there is clearly a groundswell of opinion amongst a majority of ordinary Ghanaians, that President Mills is not a suitable leader for Ghana, at all.
Indeed, his dismissal of the former Attorney General, Martin Amidu, sealed his fate, with most ordinary Ghanaians - and permanently doomed his chances for the presidential elections in December.
The issues around Martin Amidu's dismissal, crystalised, for the average citizen, long-held but diffused and unfocused feelings, that somehow President Mill's personality and character traits, did not make him the kind of decisive and charismatic individual, that most Ghanaians want as the leader of their country.
The dismissal of Martin Amidu was seen by many ordinary Ghanaians, as an attempt to cover up the truth about the Woyome judgement-debt payment scandal - and to put a lid on the gargantuan crimes being committed against the people of Ghana, by some of the individuals surrounding Mills, at the Osu Castle.
The picture that that grave error of political judgement - Martin Amidu's dismissal and the daft Kweku Anase explanation for same by the government's PR team - conjured up, in the average person in Ghana's mind's eye, a picture of a weak-willed man reluctant or unable to act decisively as a Ghanaian president should in such circumstances.
In the view of most ordinary people in Ghana, President Mills is literally being held hostage, much against his will, in the Osu Castle - by greedy criminal-types (President Rawlings' "greedy bastards"): bent on using the period of the president's tenure, as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to enable them rip Mother Ghana off, on an unprecedented scale, and send their personal net worth into the stratosphere.
There is a general perception amongst most Ghanaians, that Mills and Mahama have failed our nation and their NDC party - by presiding over the worst political shambles (of an administration and party in total disarray) in our nation's history.
It might be an unfair assessment of the administration's many good works spread across the nation - but that perception exists nonetheless: and in politics, perception actually amounts to reality, for many voters, come election day.
The faction of the NDC that is Rawlings personified, to ordinary Ghanaians, must understand clearly, that their party faces an existentialist crisis - which also has within it, the gem of a perfect solution to the mess created by that weak duo, President Mills and Vice President Mahama: and their disastrous always-endeavour-to-please-all-at-all-costs duet-of-disaster and their nation-wrecking "Fa ema Onyame" philosophy of life.
Short of putting a gun to his head, Rawlings and Co. must find a way to force Mills to resign immediately. And as soon Vice President Mahama is sworn in as president, and Martin Amidu is appointed to the position of vice president, Mahama too must be forced to resign as president. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings should then become a President Amidu's vice-president.
Perhaps ex-President Rawlings can then happily go to his grave, knowing that in depriving Ghana of the leadership of a principled northerner by removing President Limman from power in 1981, he finally gave Ghanaians yet another honest president, from the north - by removing the hapless Mills and ensuring that Martin Amidu replaced him to lead the NDC to victory, in the December presidential and parliamentary elections.
Rawlings & Co. must not leave the removal of Mills and Mahama a day longer than is necessay, if they want their party to remain in office after the December elections - for, alas, the NDC will disintegrate were it to lose power in the December elections. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
YET ANOTHER EMAIL TO AIRTEL
Dear Mr. Hotor,
PLEASE don't send me any more attachments. My phone simply can't read them.
If you can, why don't you just simply type out whatever it is, that is in the attachment, yourself - and send that instead?
If you are unable to do that, then let's just leave it.
I think I have done my civic duty by alerting Airtel - a responsible company: and a good corporate citizen of Ghana, one hopes - of a possible fraud being perpetrated against Ghanaian mobile phone owners.
So, as far as I am concerned, even if nothing now happens to stop it, at least my conscience will be clear - as I would have done my best: under what are rapidly becoming exasperating circumstances.
In any case, thanks for trying. Let's just leave it here - and not waste each other's valuable time any further.
Kindly pass on the same message to your colleagues who have also sent me attachments regarding this matter.
Many thanks once again - and regards to you and your colleagues: to all of whom I am indeed most grateful, for sparing their time to deal with my original email.
Yours in the service of Ghana,
Kofi.
PLEASE don't send me any more attachments. My phone simply can't read them.
If you can, why don't you just simply type out whatever it is, that is in the attachment, yourself - and send that instead?
If you are unable to do that, then let's just leave it.
I think I have done my civic duty by alerting Airtel - a responsible company: and a good corporate citizen of Ghana, one hopes - of a possible fraud being perpetrated against Ghanaian mobile phone owners.
So, as far as I am concerned, even if nothing now happens to stop it, at least my conscience will be clear - as I would have done my best: under what are rapidly becoming exasperating circumstances.
In any case, thanks for trying. Let's just leave it here - and not waste each other's valuable time any further.
Kindly pass on the same message to your colleagues who have also sent me attachments regarding this matter.
Many thanks once again - and regards to you and your colleagues: to all of whom I am indeed most grateful, for sparing their time to deal with my original email.
Yours in the service of Ghana,
Kofi.
AN EMAIL TO AIRTEL
Dear Airtel,
I wonder if your dynamic network can help me solve this puzzle.
On 16th February, 2012, at 14:58:12 GMT, I received this text message from Austrian phone number +43820946409:
"We have an important message for you to know it call this number 0043820946409"
As my phone number ends all my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com blog articles, I thought it might be a reader wanting to provide me with some important information.
So, at 15:15:19 GMT on 16.02.2012, I placed a call to the aforementioned number. It was answered by a female voice.
The lady at the other end then proceeded to ask me if I was the owner of my number. When I answered in the affirmative, she informed me that I had won a prize.
Without even asking what the prize was, I immediately told her that I did want it - and immediately ended the call, as I thought there was something amiss.
It struck me as odd that anyone reading my blog online, and wanting to tell me about a prize I had won, wouldn't email me to give me details of the prize - such as why I had won it.
I also noted that far from it being a free call, I had indeed been charged for the call. Could you use your anti-fraud contacts in Austria, to investigate that number's user - and find out why they are sending text messages to mobile phone numbers in Ghana?
I do hope there will be a positive outcome to this tip-off from me - and above all, that it will ensure that if it is some fraud being perpetrated against unsuspecting owners of mobile phone numbers in Ghana, those behind it in Austria, will be apprehended by the Austrian law enforcement authorities.
Many thanks in advance for your help - and I do look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours in the service of Ghana,
Kofi.
I wonder if your dynamic network can help me solve this puzzle.
On 16th February, 2012, at 14:58:12 GMT, I received this text message from Austrian phone number +43820946409:
"We have an important message for you to know it call this number 0043820946409"
As my phone number ends all my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com blog articles, I thought it might be a reader wanting to provide me with some important information.
So, at 15:15:19 GMT on 16.02.2012, I placed a call to the aforementioned number. It was answered by a female voice.
The lady at the other end then proceeded to ask me if I was the owner of my number. When I answered in the affirmative, she informed me that I had won a prize.
Without even asking what the prize was, I immediately told her that I did want it - and immediately ended the call, as I thought there was something amiss.
It struck me as odd that anyone reading my blog online, and wanting to tell me about a prize I had won, wouldn't email me to give me details of the prize - such as why I had won it.
I also noted that far from it being a free call, I had indeed been charged for the call. Could you use your anti-fraud contacts in Austria, to investigate that number's user - and find out why they are sending text messages to mobile phone numbers in Ghana?
I do hope there will be a positive outcome to this tip-off from me - and above all, that it will ensure that if it is some fraud being perpetrated against unsuspecting owners of mobile phone numbers in Ghana, those behind it in Austria, will be apprehended by the Austrian law enforcement authorities.
Many thanks in advance for your help - and I do look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours in the service of Ghana,
Kofi.
Thursday, 16 February 2012
IS A POLITICAL PARTY DOMINATED BY ASSET-STRIPPING TRIBAL-SUPREMACIST POLITICIANS FIT TO RULE NKRUMAH'S GHANA?
I am hoping he was quoted out of context, but I was appalled and taken aback, when I read newspaper reports of the latest effusions by a leader of yet another Christian church in Ghana - this time from the head of the Presbytarian Church of Ghana.
Why do so many leaders of Christian churches in Ghana, appear to be completely blind, when it comes to the crime against humanity and the abomination, which Kufuor & Co.'s unfathomable greed and amoral leadership, represented, when they ruled Ghana?
Where was the current head of the Presbytarian Church of Ghana, when with ruthless efficiency, Kufuor & Co. turned our country into a dog-eat-dog society, full of selfish and greedy individuals - as they exploited our national economy for their own benefit and that of their family and friends?
Was he not aware of the fact that Ghana had become a nation of hypocritical church-goers, who routinely lied through their teeth, from Monday to Saturday - as they too followed the example of those then in charge of Ghana: and carved out mini niches for themselves to milk Mother Ghana dry, in the rip-off culture of the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co.? What hypocrisy.
Did he not see Kufuor & Co. asset-stripping our country with a degree of ruthlessness never before seen in the annals of our nation's history - the deliberate killing off of Ghana Airways, in order to asset-strip it, being a classic example, I ask?
Did he not hear of the extraordinary situation in which Parliament passed a sale and purchase agreement, for the sale of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), to a non-existent company, International Aluminium Partners (IAP) - said to be a joint-venture between Norske Hydro and VALE: both of which strenuously denied ever agreeing to a joint-venture to purchase VALCO?
Has it never occurred to him, that the original owners of the parcel of land on which President Nkrumah built the International Students Hostel, the people of La, must have felt cheated, when Kufuor & Co. (who were quick to return similar land taken from their tribal Chiefs by the Nkrumah regime, for national projects, to that tiresome nest of vipers) re-zoned it into residential land, and divvied it up amongst themselves - instead of returning it to the people of La because the foreign ministry had been made to give it up?
Is a political party dominated by asset-strippers, in power solely to oversee the transfer of what belongs to all the Ghanaian people - built up over the years, by the blood, sweat and tears of Ghanaian workers - to a well-connected and powerful few with greedy ambitions (to paraphrase President Nkrumah), fit to rule Nkrumah's Ghana?
Has he pondered how two individuals, not previously known to the tax authorities in Ghana and the U.S.A., as high net worth individuals of extraordinary wealth, came by a stake in the Jubilee oilfield - without even paying a pesewa upfront for it?
Why did he not object to the morally corrupting influence, of the amoral and lascivious old men, then in power, on the bevy of beautiful young women they encouraged to join them in milking Mother Ghana: in exchange for unending sexual favours?
And worst of all, where was he, when the entire machinery of state of the Ghanaian nation-state, was put at the disposal of Kufour & Co.'s tribal Chieftain? Has it never occurred to him that that was tantamount to dividing our nation along tribal lines?
Did he not see the monstrosity and abomination of tribal-supremacist individuals, using the power of our unitary Republic that Nkrumah founded, in our nation of diverse-ethnicity - in which no one tribe is superior or inferior to another - to try and impose their tribal Chieftain on Nkrumah's Ghana, as a de facto monarch: as part of a grand secret-agenda of perpetual ethnic dominance?
Furthermore, is he not aware, that by definition, the descendants of our pre-colonial traditional ruling elites, to a man, are arch tribal-supremacist individuals of overweening ambition, and, as beneficiaries of inherited privilege, enemies of meritocracy - who pose a latent threat to the cohesion of Ghanaian society, and the unity and stability of our nation?
And, finally, let us be brutally frank: If the head of the Presbytarian Church of Ghana and other Christan leaders, are working extra-hard to get the New Patriotic Party (NPP) returned to power again in December 2012 (God forbid), then they need to understand clearly that in our multi-ethnic nation, a political party that has a secret agenda of perpetual ethnic dominance, as its raison d'etre, such as the NPP, is not fit to rule Nkrumah's Ghana - whatever dubious leadership Christian church leaders might think that party provided our country, during the eight years Kufuor & Co. ruled our nation for - and in their own sodden elite-self-interest. Period.
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Why do so many leaders of Christian churches in Ghana, appear to be completely blind, when it comes to the crime against humanity and the abomination, which Kufuor & Co.'s unfathomable greed and amoral leadership, represented, when they ruled Ghana?
Where was the current head of the Presbytarian Church of Ghana, when with ruthless efficiency, Kufuor & Co. turned our country into a dog-eat-dog society, full of selfish and greedy individuals - as they exploited our national economy for their own benefit and that of their family and friends?
Was he not aware of the fact that Ghana had become a nation of hypocritical church-goers, who routinely lied through their teeth, from Monday to Saturday - as they too followed the example of those then in charge of Ghana: and carved out mini niches for themselves to milk Mother Ghana dry, in the rip-off culture of the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co.? What hypocrisy.
Did he not see Kufuor & Co. asset-stripping our country with a degree of ruthlessness never before seen in the annals of our nation's history - the deliberate killing off of Ghana Airways, in order to asset-strip it, being a classic example, I ask?
Did he not hear of the extraordinary situation in which Parliament passed a sale and purchase agreement, for the sale of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO), to a non-existent company, International Aluminium Partners (IAP) - said to be a joint-venture between Norske Hydro and VALE: both of which strenuously denied ever agreeing to a joint-venture to purchase VALCO?
Has it never occurred to him, that the original owners of the parcel of land on which President Nkrumah built the International Students Hostel, the people of La, must have felt cheated, when Kufuor & Co. (who were quick to return similar land taken from their tribal Chiefs by the Nkrumah regime, for national projects, to that tiresome nest of vipers) re-zoned it into residential land, and divvied it up amongst themselves - instead of returning it to the people of La because the foreign ministry had been made to give it up?
Is a political party dominated by asset-strippers, in power solely to oversee the transfer of what belongs to all the Ghanaian people - built up over the years, by the blood, sweat and tears of Ghanaian workers - to a well-connected and powerful few with greedy ambitions (to paraphrase President Nkrumah), fit to rule Nkrumah's Ghana?
Has he pondered how two individuals, not previously known to the tax authorities in Ghana and the U.S.A., as high net worth individuals of extraordinary wealth, came by a stake in the Jubilee oilfield - without even paying a pesewa upfront for it?
Why did he not object to the morally corrupting influence, of the amoral and lascivious old men, then in power, on the bevy of beautiful young women they encouraged to join them in milking Mother Ghana: in exchange for unending sexual favours?
And worst of all, where was he, when the entire machinery of state of the Ghanaian nation-state, was put at the disposal of Kufour & Co.'s tribal Chieftain? Has it never occurred to him that that was tantamount to dividing our nation along tribal lines?
Did he not see the monstrosity and abomination of tribal-supremacist individuals, using the power of our unitary Republic that Nkrumah founded, in our nation of diverse-ethnicity - in which no one tribe is superior or inferior to another - to try and impose their tribal Chieftain on Nkrumah's Ghana, as a de facto monarch: as part of a grand secret-agenda of perpetual ethnic dominance?
Furthermore, is he not aware, that by definition, the descendants of our pre-colonial traditional ruling elites, to a man, are arch tribal-supremacist individuals of overweening ambition, and, as beneficiaries of inherited privilege, enemies of meritocracy - who pose a latent threat to the cohesion of Ghanaian society, and the unity and stability of our nation?
And, finally, let us be brutally frank: If the head of the Presbytarian Church of Ghana and other Christan leaders, are working extra-hard to get the New Patriotic Party (NPP) returned to power again in December 2012 (God forbid), then they need to understand clearly that in our multi-ethnic nation, a political party that has a secret agenda of perpetual ethnic dominance, as its raison d'etre, such as the NPP, is not fit to rule Nkrumah's Ghana - whatever dubious leadership Christian church leaders might think that party provided our country, during the eight years Kufuor & Co. ruled our nation for - and in their own sodden elite-self-interest. Period.
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
MILESTONE DESIGN: TAKING PLASTIC RECYCLING APPLICATIONS TO A NEW LEVEL?
Dear Milestone Design,
Would it not help your company to grow organically, by leaps and bounds - if you developed a turnkey plastic recycling plant manufacturing division? Surely, those export markets could help increase the UK's GDP?
It would also enable entrepreneurs in the developing world, to purchase such factories - and manufacture tiles, table tops, kitchen cabinet panels, etc., from recycled plastic, in their home markets.
Furthermore, Milestone Design could gain an additional revenue stream, providing consultancy services, to help those developing world entrepreneurs, successfully build their factories and start operating.
Can do - at some point in the not too distant future, Milestone Design?
And finally, if you could collaborate with a UK university to develop recycled panels for low-cost housing, you could help billions of poor people to live in decent and affordable housing, for the first time in their lives.
May I also add that if you could get the commercial attache of the UK High Commission in Ghana, to link you up with the founder and owner of Zoomlion Limited, Mr. Adjapong, perhaps you could work with him to develop a working model of cooperation with developing world entrepreneurs, who are world-class, that you could work with to take recycling to a higher level.
Bravo, Milestone - you are a marvellous design house, indeed.
Incidentally, if I did sound presumptuous making those suggestions, please forgive me - and put it down to cultural differences.
I simply thought I might spark a creative thought-trend that could help developing nations to benefit from collaborating with you.
Best wishes,
Kofi.
Would it not help your company to grow organically, by leaps and bounds - if you developed a turnkey plastic recycling plant manufacturing division? Surely, those export markets could help increase the UK's GDP?
It would also enable entrepreneurs in the developing world, to purchase such factories - and manufacture tiles, table tops, kitchen cabinet panels, etc., from recycled plastic, in their home markets.
Furthermore, Milestone Design could gain an additional revenue stream, providing consultancy services, to help those developing world entrepreneurs, successfully build their factories and start operating.
Can do - at some point in the not too distant future, Milestone Design?
And finally, if you could collaborate with a UK university to develop recycled panels for low-cost housing, you could help billions of poor people to live in decent and affordable housing, for the first time in their lives.
May I also add that if you could get the commercial attache of the UK High Commission in Ghana, to link you up with the founder and owner of Zoomlion Limited, Mr. Adjapong, perhaps you could work with him to develop a working model of cooperation with developing world entrepreneurs, who are world-class, that you could work with to take recycling to a higher level.
Bravo, Milestone - you are a marvellous design house, indeed.
Incidentally, if I did sound presumptuous making those suggestions, please forgive me - and put it down to cultural differences.
I simply thought I might spark a creative thought-trend that could help developing nations to benefit from collaborating with you.
Best wishes,
Kofi.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
SHOULD GHANA NOT GET BETTER VALUE FROM ITS OIL & NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS?
If an oil find was made off Ghana's coastline, which was similar in magnitude, to the four oilfields in the waters surrounding Britain's South Atlantic possession, the Falkland Islands - over which it fought and defeated Argentina in a brief war in the 1980's - I doubt very much if we would be talking about a sum, anywhere near the £111.7bn tax-windfall, which the Falkland Islands is said to potentially stand to reap, from production in the aforementioned oilfields.
Without a shadow of doubt, in exchange for anything up to a secret 1.5% pro bono stake in each one of those oilfields, some of the geniuses amongst our ruling elites, would have probably quickly agreed to sign an exploration and production agreement which would have left Ghana with only a fraction of the £111.7bn tax-windfall, which the Falkland Islands apparently stands to gain, if those four oilfields are drilled.
Naturally, that secret stake would have been hidden for those of our rulers selling Ghana short, as a result of collusion with the oil companies - in facilitating the setting up of legal fronts: probably using special purpose offshore entities to hide their real ownership.
(Perchance, is that how the E. O. Groups of Ghana's oil industry are born, one wonders, dear reader? But I digress.)
Ghana, which does not face the potential risk that the Falkland Islands faces daily - the likelihood that Argentina could try and seize the island from Britain, by invading and occupying it again - logically ought to be more attractive to investors than the Falkland Islands: and be able to demand and get even better exploration and production terms than the Falklands.
Or, more to the point: It would be interesting, to see precisely what terms and conditions Tullow Oil (the African oil giant) and its partner, Royal Dutch Shell (as well as the other oil companies exploring the Falklands' waters), operate under, in the 200-mile exclusion zone around the Falklands - and compare that to the Shyster's agreement, which Tullow and its Jubilee oilfield partners successfully wrung out of those crooks who used to rule our nation - the perfidious Kufuor & Co. - and who literally, for a mess of pottage, gave away that windfall, which Providence so generously gave to Nkrumah's Ghana, as a second-chance opportunity, to help transform Ghanaian society, into an African equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
In the light of all the above, clearly, had we made such a discovery in Ghanaian waters, there is no question that thanks to the perfidy of our greedy and mostly-dishonest ruling elites, chances are we would most probably have ended up receiving paltry sums in taxes comparatively - which is precisely the case, presently, with those relatively minuscule revenues from the Jubilee oilfield.
The question is: Has the time not now come for the ordinary people of Ghana, to demand that those who they elect to protect our nation's interests, do precisely that: particularly when negotiating exploration and production agreements with foreign oil companies?
A report by Edison Investment Research (EIR) - headquartered in London, and one of Europe's leading independent investment research companies - prepared by the company's oil and gas analysts, predicts that if all four prospective oilfields were drilled by the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that are now exploring those four Falkland Island oilfields (which incidentally include the African oil giant, Tullow Oil), the island could collect a tax windfall of a little under US$180bn.
Our nation's failure to maximise the lost opportunity the Jubilee oilfield represents, is why it is so important that Ghana extracts as much value as it can, from what after all is a diminishing asset - by making the most of the present bad situation of one-sided oil agreements galore (reputedly amongst the worst in the world: from the producing nation perspective).
Perhaps one method of trying to get better value from Ghana's oil and natural gas deposits, is by strictly enforcing the take-back clauses, which allow oil blocs not developed by a certain time frame, to be returned to the Ghanaian nation-state.
We can then offer them, under much better and fairer terms, to new and eager players from places like Japan; South Korea; and China - and make up some of huge losses we have had to put up with, thus far, as a result of those disgraceful, pernicious and one-sided agreements, which the perfidious Kufuor & Co. signed with foreign oil companies, much to Ghana's detriment.
Our ruling elites must end their days as stooges for foreign governments and the lackeys of foreign commercial interests - for ordinary Ghanains are now totally fed up with their leaders acting as agents of foreign business entities and foreign powers (large and small).
The good people of Nkrumah's Ghana, and the Ghanaian nation-state, most certainly deserve to get far better value from the oil and natural gas deposits off our country's coastline, than presently is the case.
Those now in charge of Ghana must address those concerns. Above all, let them ensure that our natural gas deposits, instead of enriching foreign oil companies, end up powering Ghanain industry - and help lower their production costs and make them truly competitive; help stop deforestation - by replacing firewood and charcoal with liquefied petroleum gas for cooking in our nation's kitchens; and help give Ghanaian cities and towns better air quality - by encouraging vehicle importers to start selling gas-powered vehicles in Ghana. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Without a shadow of doubt, in exchange for anything up to a secret 1.5% pro bono stake in each one of those oilfields, some of the geniuses amongst our ruling elites, would have probably quickly agreed to sign an exploration and production agreement which would have left Ghana with only a fraction of the £111.7bn tax-windfall, which the Falkland Islands apparently stands to gain, if those four oilfields are drilled.
Naturally, that secret stake would have been hidden for those of our rulers selling Ghana short, as a result of collusion with the oil companies - in facilitating the setting up of legal fronts: probably using special purpose offshore entities to hide their real ownership.
(Perchance, is that how the E. O. Groups of Ghana's oil industry are born, one wonders, dear reader? But I digress.)
Ghana, which does not face the potential risk that the Falkland Islands faces daily - the likelihood that Argentina could try and seize the island from Britain, by invading and occupying it again - logically ought to be more attractive to investors than the Falkland Islands: and be able to demand and get even better exploration and production terms than the Falklands.
Or, more to the point: It would be interesting, to see precisely what terms and conditions Tullow Oil (the African oil giant) and its partner, Royal Dutch Shell (as well as the other oil companies exploring the Falklands' waters), operate under, in the 200-mile exclusion zone around the Falklands - and compare that to the Shyster's agreement, which Tullow and its Jubilee oilfield partners successfully wrung out of those crooks who used to rule our nation - the perfidious Kufuor & Co. - and who literally, for a mess of pottage, gave away that windfall, which Providence so generously gave to Nkrumah's Ghana, as a second-chance opportunity, to help transform Ghanaian society, into an African equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
In the light of all the above, clearly, had we made such a discovery in Ghanaian waters, there is no question that thanks to the perfidy of our greedy and mostly-dishonest ruling elites, chances are we would most probably have ended up receiving paltry sums in taxes comparatively - which is precisely the case, presently, with those relatively minuscule revenues from the Jubilee oilfield.
The question is: Has the time not now come for the ordinary people of Ghana, to demand that those who they elect to protect our nation's interests, do precisely that: particularly when negotiating exploration and production agreements with foreign oil companies?
A report by Edison Investment Research (EIR) - headquartered in London, and one of Europe's leading independent investment research companies - prepared by the company's oil and gas analysts, predicts that if all four prospective oilfields were drilled by the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that are now exploring those four Falkland Island oilfields (which incidentally include the African oil giant, Tullow Oil), the island could collect a tax windfall of a little under US$180bn.
Our nation's failure to maximise the lost opportunity the Jubilee oilfield represents, is why it is so important that Ghana extracts as much value as it can, from what after all is a diminishing asset - by making the most of the present bad situation of one-sided oil agreements galore (reputedly amongst the worst in the world: from the producing nation perspective).
Perhaps one method of trying to get better value from Ghana's oil and natural gas deposits, is by strictly enforcing the take-back clauses, which allow oil blocs not developed by a certain time frame, to be returned to the Ghanaian nation-state.
We can then offer them, under much better and fairer terms, to new and eager players from places like Japan; South Korea; and China - and make up some of huge losses we have had to put up with, thus far, as a result of those disgraceful, pernicious and one-sided agreements, which the perfidious Kufuor & Co. signed with foreign oil companies, much to Ghana's detriment.
Our ruling elites must end their days as stooges for foreign governments and the lackeys of foreign commercial interests - for ordinary Ghanains are now totally fed up with their leaders acting as agents of foreign business entities and foreign powers (large and small).
The good people of Nkrumah's Ghana, and the Ghanaian nation-state, most certainly deserve to get far better value from the oil and natural gas deposits off our country's coastline, than presently is the case.
Those now in charge of Ghana must address those concerns. Above all, let them ensure that our natural gas deposits, instead of enriching foreign oil companies, end up powering Ghanain industry - and help lower their production costs and make them truly competitive; help stop deforestation - by replacing firewood and charcoal with liquefied petroleum gas for cooking in our nation's kitchens; and help give Ghanaian cities and towns better air quality - by encouraging vehicle importers to start selling gas-powered vehicles in Ghana. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
GHANA'S POLITICAL CLASS: CRONY-CAPITALISM & RIGGED MARKETS WON'T CREATE A PROSPEROUS SOCIETY IN GHANA!
"A society of markets, laws and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty and compassion."
- Jeffrey Sachs.
There are many independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians, who believe that most of our nation's woes, stem directly from the fact that a majority of the rich and powerful in our society, are invariably neither very honest, nor compassionate, as individuals.
Those failings are reflected in their poor stewardship of our nation's resources. And our ruling elites have often not acted with genuine respect either, when dealing with the masses of the Ghanaian people. Being constantly lied to, is certainly not a relationship based on trust and respect, is it, dear reader?
And worst of all, our educated urban elites have conspired to ensure that Ghanaian democracy will almost always fail to deliver the so-called democracy-dividend to the ordinary people of Ghana - by successfully turning it into a plutocracy, in all but name.
It is for all the reasons above, that I could not help but contrast the reality of the iniquity of the days of the golden age of business, which Kufuor and Co. created for themselves, with the picture of a rosy and benign economic landscape and political climate painted in the speech delivered recently, by the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) candidate, for the December 2012 presidential election, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, in Houston, Texas, to an audience that was said to include American businesspeople.
In a sense, whiles Nana Akufo-Addo's Houston speech sought to project what he clearly wanted his audience to believe, will be a pro-American stance, were he to come to power after the December presidential election, and to reiterate the party's supposed belief in free markets, the truth of the matter, is that the reality of the NPP's eight years in power, was one of unalloyed crony-capitalism on an unprecedented scale, with wealthy crooks operating with impunity in opaque and rigged markets.
It resulted in the golden age of business, which Kufuor & Co. conjured up for themselves; members of their family clans; sundry bottom-power girlfriends (of the lascivious old men amongst those in power then); and their favourites amongst their regime's crony-capitalist backers.
They exploited our national economy, with a degree of ruthlessness, never seen before in the annals of Ghana's history. Said to be apparently guided by Nana Akufo-Addo's father's Beyeeman Freezing Company's ownership-losing-template, they learnt and perfected the art and science of how not to hide ownership of assets.
Deriving their own hidden-ownership-formula from that bitter Akufo-Addo lesson, Kufuor & Co. struck strategic alliances with only trusted crony-capitalist legal-fronts - resulting in the lucrative deals that have made them some of the wealthiest Africans on the continent today.
Accra's Tetteh Quarshie interchange stick-your-fingers-up-at-Ghana's-planning-laws Villagio apartments and Accra Mall, are monuments to their abuse-of-office-for-personal-enrichment investment strategy, and the unfathomable greed that drove their steely determination, to ensure that their personal net worth reached stratospheric heights, before they exited from office, during the entire period they were in power for. It was their number one priority, whiles in government.
One of the golden untouchable princes of that sunny era of plenty-for-a-powerful-few, was the Kufuor family clan's business associate, the owner of Trassaco Valley Estates, Michelleti and Consar, the Italian-Ghanaian, Ernest Tarricone. Now it turns out he was allegedly also in cahoots with Woyome to dupe Ghana of tens of millions of dollars.
Every social intervention policy made by Kufuor & Co., ostensibly to help ordinary people, simply ended up becoming an avenue for well-connected rogues to rip Ghana off. Nothing was sacred.
NPP big-wigs and influence peddlers grabbed unit upon unit, in the affordable housing project initiated by their regime, even whiles the sodden units were under construction - and although the funding for it had been used up and the project had more or less ground to a halt.
Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) loans meant to uplift the hard-working poor-with-aspirations, were swiftly grabbed by the selfsame greedy group of selfish individuals.
It was indeed a pitiless and cruel dog-eat-dog age - during which the moral fabric of Ghanaian society was destroyed beyond repair, by the ruthless and power-drunk individuals then in power.
Even the school-feeding programme for primary school children, was not spared. In reality, it was designed, for political reasons, to be preyed upon by the regime-small-fry - and ended up sometimes being used as a means to buy off, and placate, fallen women taken advantage of by deceitful and philanderering male NPP politicians.
Meanwhile, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) became a lucrative cash-cow for white-collar criminals - enabling well-educated and mostly middle class thieves and swindlers, to steal billions of cedis from the hapless taxpayers of Ghana, through never ending fraudulent claims by pharmacists; private hospitals; and private medical laboratories, amongst others.
Sadly, it is no accident that it is the Ashanti Region, which has been targeted as the first region in Ghana, to pilot the Mills administration's long overdue initiative, to plug the many NHIS loopholes, which brazen fraudsters were taking advantage of with such impunity.
Unfortunately, the Ashanti Region's major city and capital, Kumasi, ended up becoming the fraud capital of Ghana, during the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co.
That is why the NHIS claims fraud was so pervasive in the Ashanti Region - which easily topped (and still tops) the list of scheme areas with the most fraudulent claims. And it was classic NPP pork-barrel politricks at work - in its heartland.
(Incidentally, the Ashanti Region is the land of my birth - Kwadaso's Soil Research Institute, of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), to be precise. I grew up and was educated in Kumasi. And I love its warm and welcoming ordinary people, to bits. But I digress.)
And, alas, true to form, the present regime's hapless PR people, inexplicably damned the NHIS reform initiative from birth, by giving it the daft nomenclature, "capitation" - when it should have simply been made crystal clear to Ghanaians nationwide, that it was an initiative to reform the NHIS: and rid it of the massive fraud it was bedevilled with, and which was crippling and gradually killing it.
The coming into existence of the Metro Mass Transit Company, also enabled Kufuor & Co.'s crony-capitalist pals to grow even richer - from amongst other lucrative wheezes it made possible, the importation of completely unsuitable buses, for our rugged terrain, from China.
And as we all know, our nation's second city, Kumasi, also became Ghana's smuggling capital - and a mecca for tax-dodgers and well-connected wealthy fraudsters dealing in imported fake products, during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co.
Today, the opaque and rigged markets of our nation's economy, are frequently given perfect legal cover - by clever and powerful people: cynically manipulating our legal system. It is what made the Woyomegate judgement-debt scandal possible and inevitable.
Naturally, it is an unacceptable situation, which has alienated most ordinary people, yet further, from Ghana's so-called democracy - in reality nothing more than a rapacious plutocracy masquerading as a democracy.
There is no question the NPP of Kufuor & Co. was very very bad for Ghana - and white collar crime in Ghana will worsen for sure, were it to return to power again (God forbid!).
So for those Ghanaians with rather short memories, who might be tempted by the NPP's relentless propaganda barrage on our nation's airwaves and in the rented NPP print media, to vote the party of Kufuor & Co. back into power again, it is important to remember a few pertinent facts.
Amongst some of the many evils of the boom years of plenty-for-a-powerful-and-greedy-few, made possible by the NPP-era's opaque and rigged markets, in the real-world economy developed by Kufuor & Co., was that only the politically well-connected prospered - and did so mightily indeed.
And underpinning their success, were these factors: unfathomable elite-greed; endless abuse of power; the routine use of insider-information by many of Kufuor & Co.'s crony-capitalist pals (an example being a contract to supply the Electricity Company of Ghana with pre-paid meters won by one of his sons - whose cool US$2 million profit on that one deal alone, was an egregious example of profiteering at Mother Ghana's expense); and worst of all, the victimisation of businesspeople (including taking government contracts away from even known NPP supporters in the Ghanaian business world), who were perceived enemies of Kufuor & Co. Should Ghana go back to those days again by returning Kufuor & Co. to power again?
Does that kind of abuse of power and never ending impunity of the rich and powerful in our homeland Ghana, not pose a real threat to continued peace in Ghanaian society and ensuring the stability of the Ghanaian nation-state? Most of their actions and policies whiles in power, did not actually redound to the benefit of the ordinary people of Ghana, did they?
Well, it did not do so yesterday, when the NPP ruled Ghana, dear reader - and it is most certainly not doing so today, either, under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills and Vice President Mahama.
And neither will it do so, were Kufuor & Co. to be returned to power again (God forbid!), after the December presidential election.
So faced with a Hobson's choice type of dilemma, as to who to vote for in December, were the NDC to rid itself of President Mills and his partner Vice President Mahama, in a few weeks hence (hopefully), and replace them with the NDC anti-corruption dream-team of a President Martin Amidu, and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, then for the sake of Mother Ghana, opting for the NDC ticket will be the lesser-evil choice we must all make.
Finally, dear reader, I shall end by repeating the opening quotation by Jeffrey Sachs - for the benefit of all the members of Ghana's political class, particularly President Mills and the members of his administration, and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, as well as the decent-minded members of the NPP.
One hopes that all of them will always be guided by the wisdom it contains: "A society of markets, laws and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty and compassion."
- Jeffrey Sachs.
Certainly, our homeland Ghana will be a much much better place, for all its citizens, if our ruling elites turned over a new leaf. Crony-capitalism, opaque and rigged markets, will never bring prosperity to the ordinary people of Ghana. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
- Jeffrey Sachs.
There are many independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians, who believe that most of our nation's woes, stem directly from the fact that a majority of the rich and powerful in our society, are invariably neither very honest, nor compassionate, as individuals.
Those failings are reflected in their poor stewardship of our nation's resources. And our ruling elites have often not acted with genuine respect either, when dealing with the masses of the Ghanaian people. Being constantly lied to, is certainly not a relationship based on trust and respect, is it, dear reader?
And worst of all, our educated urban elites have conspired to ensure that Ghanaian democracy will almost always fail to deliver the so-called democracy-dividend to the ordinary people of Ghana - by successfully turning it into a plutocracy, in all but name.
It is for all the reasons above, that I could not help but contrast the reality of the iniquity of the days of the golden age of business, which Kufuor and Co. created for themselves, with the picture of a rosy and benign economic landscape and political climate painted in the speech delivered recently, by the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) candidate, for the December 2012 presidential election, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, in Houston, Texas, to an audience that was said to include American businesspeople.
In a sense, whiles Nana Akufo-Addo's Houston speech sought to project what he clearly wanted his audience to believe, will be a pro-American stance, were he to come to power after the December presidential election, and to reiterate the party's supposed belief in free markets, the truth of the matter, is that the reality of the NPP's eight years in power, was one of unalloyed crony-capitalism on an unprecedented scale, with wealthy crooks operating with impunity in opaque and rigged markets.
It resulted in the golden age of business, which Kufuor & Co. conjured up for themselves; members of their family clans; sundry bottom-power girlfriends (of the lascivious old men amongst those in power then); and their favourites amongst their regime's crony-capitalist backers.
They exploited our national economy, with a degree of ruthlessness, never seen before in the annals of Ghana's history. Said to be apparently guided by Nana Akufo-Addo's father's Beyeeman Freezing Company's ownership-losing-template, they learnt and perfected the art and science of how not to hide ownership of assets.
Deriving their own hidden-ownership-formula from that bitter Akufo-Addo lesson, Kufuor & Co. struck strategic alliances with only trusted crony-capitalist legal-fronts - resulting in the lucrative deals that have made them some of the wealthiest Africans on the continent today.
Accra's Tetteh Quarshie interchange stick-your-fingers-up-at-Ghana's-planning-laws Villagio apartments and Accra Mall, are monuments to their abuse-of-office-for-personal-enrichment investment strategy, and the unfathomable greed that drove their steely determination, to ensure that their personal net worth reached stratospheric heights, before they exited from office, during the entire period they were in power for. It was their number one priority, whiles in government.
One of the golden untouchable princes of that sunny era of plenty-for-a-powerful-few, was the Kufuor family clan's business associate, the owner of Trassaco Valley Estates, Michelleti and Consar, the Italian-Ghanaian, Ernest Tarricone. Now it turns out he was allegedly also in cahoots with Woyome to dupe Ghana of tens of millions of dollars.
Every social intervention policy made by Kufuor & Co., ostensibly to help ordinary people, simply ended up becoming an avenue for well-connected rogues to rip Ghana off. Nothing was sacred.
NPP big-wigs and influence peddlers grabbed unit upon unit, in the affordable housing project initiated by their regime, even whiles the sodden units were under construction - and although the funding for it had been used up and the project had more or less ground to a halt.
Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) loans meant to uplift the hard-working poor-with-aspirations, were swiftly grabbed by the selfsame greedy group of selfish individuals.
It was indeed a pitiless and cruel dog-eat-dog age - during which the moral fabric of Ghanaian society was destroyed beyond repair, by the ruthless and power-drunk individuals then in power.
Even the school-feeding programme for primary school children, was not spared. In reality, it was designed, for political reasons, to be preyed upon by the regime-small-fry - and ended up sometimes being used as a means to buy off, and placate, fallen women taken advantage of by deceitful and philanderering male NPP politicians.
Meanwhile, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) became a lucrative cash-cow for white-collar criminals - enabling well-educated and mostly middle class thieves and swindlers, to steal billions of cedis from the hapless taxpayers of Ghana, through never ending fraudulent claims by pharmacists; private hospitals; and private medical laboratories, amongst others.
Sadly, it is no accident that it is the Ashanti Region, which has been targeted as the first region in Ghana, to pilot the Mills administration's long overdue initiative, to plug the many NHIS loopholes, which brazen fraudsters were taking advantage of with such impunity.
Unfortunately, the Ashanti Region's major city and capital, Kumasi, ended up becoming the fraud capital of Ghana, during the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co.
That is why the NHIS claims fraud was so pervasive in the Ashanti Region - which easily topped (and still tops) the list of scheme areas with the most fraudulent claims. And it was classic NPP pork-barrel politricks at work - in its heartland.
(Incidentally, the Ashanti Region is the land of my birth - Kwadaso's Soil Research Institute, of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), to be precise. I grew up and was educated in Kumasi. And I love its warm and welcoming ordinary people, to bits. But I digress.)
And, alas, true to form, the present regime's hapless PR people, inexplicably damned the NHIS reform initiative from birth, by giving it the daft nomenclature, "capitation" - when it should have simply been made crystal clear to Ghanaians nationwide, that it was an initiative to reform the NHIS: and rid it of the massive fraud it was bedevilled with, and which was crippling and gradually killing it.
The coming into existence of the Metro Mass Transit Company, also enabled Kufuor & Co.'s crony-capitalist pals to grow even richer - from amongst other lucrative wheezes it made possible, the importation of completely unsuitable buses, for our rugged terrain, from China.
And as we all know, our nation's second city, Kumasi, also became Ghana's smuggling capital - and a mecca for tax-dodgers and well-connected wealthy fraudsters dealing in imported fake products, during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co.
Today, the opaque and rigged markets of our nation's economy, are frequently given perfect legal cover - by clever and powerful people: cynically manipulating our legal system. It is what made the Woyomegate judgement-debt scandal possible and inevitable.
Naturally, it is an unacceptable situation, which has alienated most ordinary people, yet further, from Ghana's so-called democracy - in reality nothing more than a rapacious plutocracy masquerading as a democracy.
There is no question the NPP of Kufuor & Co. was very very bad for Ghana - and white collar crime in Ghana will worsen for sure, were it to return to power again (God forbid!).
So for those Ghanaians with rather short memories, who might be tempted by the NPP's relentless propaganda barrage on our nation's airwaves and in the rented NPP print media, to vote the party of Kufuor & Co. back into power again, it is important to remember a few pertinent facts.
Amongst some of the many evils of the boom years of plenty-for-a-powerful-and-greedy-few, made possible by the NPP-era's opaque and rigged markets, in the real-world economy developed by Kufuor & Co., was that only the politically well-connected prospered - and did so mightily indeed.
And underpinning their success, were these factors: unfathomable elite-greed; endless abuse of power; the routine use of insider-information by many of Kufuor & Co.'s crony-capitalist pals (an example being a contract to supply the Electricity Company of Ghana with pre-paid meters won by one of his sons - whose cool US$2 million profit on that one deal alone, was an egregious example of profiteering at Mother Ghana's expense); and worst of all, the victimisation of businesspeople (including taking government contracts away from even known NPP supporters in the Ghanaian business world), who were perceived enemies of Kufuor & Co. Should Ghana go back to those days again by returning Kufuor & Co. to power again?
Does that kind of abuse of power and never ending impunity of the rich and powerful in our homeland Ghana, not pose a real threat to continued peace in Ghanaian society and ensuring the stability of the Ghanaian nation-state? Most of their actions and policies whiles in power, did not actually redound to the benefit of the ordinary people of Ghana, did they?
Well, it did not do so yesterday, when the NPP ruled Ghana, dear reader - and it is most certainly not doing so today, either, under the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills and Vice President Mahama.
And neither will it do so, were Kufuor & Co. to be returned to power again (God forbid!), after the December presidential election.
So faced with a Hobson's choice type of dilemma, as to who to vote for in December, were the NDC to rid itself of President Mills and his partner Vice President Mahama, in a few weeks hence (hopefully), and replace them with the NDC anti-corruption dream-team of a President Martin Amidu, and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, then for the sake of Mother Ghana, opting for the NDC ticket will be the lesser-evil choice we must all make.
Finally, dear reader, I shall end by repeating the opening quotation by Jeffrey Sachs - for the benefit of all the members of Ghana's political class, particularly President Mills and the members of his administration, and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, as well as the decent-minded members of the NPP.
One hopes that all of them will always be guided by the wisdom it contains: "A society of markets, laws and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty and compassion."
- Jeffrey Sachs.
Certainly, our homeland Ghana will be a much much better place, for all its citizens, if our ruling elites turned over a new leaf. Crony-capitalism, opaque and rigged markets, will never bring prosperity to the ordinary people of Ghana. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Tuesday, 7 February 2012
Global Coalition Urges Libya to Join the International Criminal Court
Libya Should Prioritize Accession to the Rome Statute
New York/Rabat – The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) — a global network of more than 2,500 civil society organizations in 150 countries advocating for a fair, effective and independent ICC and improved access to justice for victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity — today called on Libya to demonstrate its commitment to international justice and the rule of law by acceding to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC). The Coalition has selected Libya as a focus for its February 2012 Universal Ratification Campaign (URC), a monthly campaign launched to encourage countries to join the Rome Statute system.
In a letter dated 7 February 2012 to Chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) H.E. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the Coalition urged the TNC to demonstrate its commitment to international justice and the rule of law by acceding to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC — the first permanent international court capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
At a time when sweeping changes are occurring across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Coalitionbelieves that Libya can further strengthen this growing movement in the region towards ending impunity by joining the ICC.
“Acceding to the Rome Statute would be consistent with the commitment of the government of Libya to uphold human rights as enshrined in its Constitutional Declaration,” said Brigitte Suhr, Director of Regional Programs.
In the letter, the Coalition highlighted a series of developments in the region relating to the ICC during the past year. This included Tunisia’s accession to the Rome Statute and Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC), the Regional Diplomatic Conference on the ICC held in Doha, and comments made by former International Court of Justice Judge Nabil El Arabi when appointed Foreign Minister of Egypt mentioning ratification as a priority. In addition, representatives of Kuwait and Palestine have also stated their intent to join the ICC.
“Today, the Libyan criminal justice system must meet new challenges based on a changed international environment. The police, prosecutors, and legal framework are now called upon to become scrupulous actors in observing evolving standards of human rights and accountability,” said Leila Hanafi, the Coalition’s MENA Regional Coordinator. “By joining the ICC, Libya will motivate more MENA countries to ensure universal acceptance of the Court, to gain a stronger voice within the world of global justice, and participate in making the ICC a truly effective, international mechanism for justice and peace.”
On 26 October 2011, the Coalition sent a letter to H.E. Mustafa Abdul Jalil urging Libya to prioritize accession to the Rome Statute similar to the steps taken by Tunisia. With respect to the situation in Libya, ICC arrest warrants remain outstanding against Saif Al Islam Al Gaddafi and Abdullah Al Senussi.
With Vanuatu’s accession to the Rome Statute on 2 December 2011, 120 states have now acceded to or ratified the treaty. To date, the Arab League, consisting of 22 states, has only 4 states parties to the Rome Statute – Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Jordan and Tunisia. Accession to the treaty would allow Libya to participate as a state party in the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC.
Background: The ICC is the world's first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Central to the Court's mandate is the principle of complementarity, which holds that the Court will only intervene if national legal systems are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. There are currently seven investigations before the Court: the Central African Republic; Cote d’Ivoire; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, the Sudan; Uganda; Kenya; and Libya. The ICC has publicly issued 19 arrest warrants and nine summonses to appear. Three trials are ongoing. The ICC prosecutor has also made public that it is examining eight situations on four continents: Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Palestine.
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is a global network of civil society organizations in 150 countries working in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; ensure that the Court is fair, effective and independent; make justice both visible and universal; and advance stronger national laws that deliver justice to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. For more information, visit:
www.coalitionfortheicc.org.
###
New York/Rabat – The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) — a global network of more than 2,500 civil society organizations in 150 countries advocating for a fair, effective and independent ICC and improved access to justice for victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity — today called on Libya to demonstrate its commitment to international justice and the rule of law by acceding to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC). The Coalition has selected Libya as a focus for its February 2012 Universal Ratification Campaign (URC), a monthly campaign launched to encourage countries to join the Rome Statute system.
In a letter dated 7 February 2012 to Chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) H.E. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the Coalition urged the TNC to demonstrate its commitment to international justice and the rule of law by acceding to the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC — the first permanent international court capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
At a time when sweeping changes are occurring across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Coalitionbelieves that Libya can further strengthen this growing movement in the region towards ending impunity by joining the ICC.
“Acceding to the Rome Statute would be consistent with the commitment of the government of Libya to uphold human rights as enshrined in its Constitutional Declaration,” said Brigitte Suhr, Director of Regional Programs.
In the letter, the Coalition highlighted a series of developments in the region relating to the ICC during the past year. This included Tunisia’s accession to the Rome Statute and Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC), the Regional Diplomatic Conference on the ICC held in Doha, and comments made by former International Court of Justice Judge Nabil El Arabi when appointed Foreign Minister of Egypt mentioning ratification as a priority. In addition, representatives of Kuwait and Palestine have also stated their intent to join the ICC.
“Today, the Libyan criminal justice system must meet new challenges based on a changed international environment. The police, prosecutors, and legal framework are now called upon to become scrupulous actors in observing evolving standards of human rights and accountability,” said Leila Hanafi, the Coalition’s MENA Regional Coordinator. “By joining the ICC, Libya will motivate more MENA countries to ensure universal acceptance of the Court, to gain a stronger voice within the world of global justice, and participate in making the ICC a truly effective, international mechanism for justice and peace.”
On 26 October 2011, the Coalition sent a letter to H.E. Mustafa Abdul Jalil urging Libya to prioritize accession to the Rome Statute similar to the steps taken by Tunisia. With respect to the situation in Libya, ICC arrest warrants remain outstanding against Saif Al Islam Al Gaddafi and Abdullah Al Senussi.
With Vanuatu’s accession to the Rome Statute on 2 December 2011, 120 states have now acceded to or ratified the treaty. To date, the Arab League, consisting of 22 states, has only 4 states parties to the Rome Statute – Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Jordan and Tunisia. Accession to the treaty would allow Libya to participate as a state party in the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC.
Background: The ICC is the world's first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Central to the Court's mandate is the principle of complementarity, which holds that the Court will only intervene if national legal systems are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. There are currently seven investigations before the Court: the Central African Republic; Cote d’Ivoire; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, the Sudan; Uganda; Kenya; and Libya. The ICC has publicly issued 19 arrest warrants and nine summonses to appear. Three trials are ongoing. The ICC prosecutor has also made public that it is examining eight situations on four continents: Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Palestine.
The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is a global network of civil society organizations in 150 countries working in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; ensure that the Court is fair, effective and independent; make justice both visible and universal; and advance stronger national laws that deliver justice to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. For more information, visit:
www.coalitionfortheicc.org.
###
Monday, 6 February 2012
Ghana Should Replicate Britain's Pilot Roads Initiative For Utility Companies Digging Up Roads To Lay Or Repair Pipes & Cables
Today, I am reproducing a story that appeared in the online version of the UK newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. It was written by David Millward, the paper's transport editor, and posted online, on the 26th of January, 2012.
Entitled, "Utility companies face "lane rental" scheme", it really ought to be required reading for Ghana's minister for roads and transport - and the technocrats in charge of our nation's roads: at both the national and local government levels.
Perhaps if similar measures are implemented here, it could halt the irresponsible manner in which roads and pavements, built at great cost to Ghanaian taxpayers, are being ruined with such impunity, by the utility and telecom companies that dig them up, in order to lay or repair, pipelines and cables.
The culled Daily Telegraph story by David Millward follows below. Please read on:
"Utility companies could be charged up to £2,500 a day to dig the roads up in an attempt to cut delays faced by motorists.
Utility companies face "lane rental" scheme
By David Millward, Transport Editor
4:33PM GMT 26 Jan 2012

They will be expected to "rent" stretches of road where they intend to work in a scheme intended to encourage companies to complete projects as fast as possible.
This is the Government's latest attempt to tackle a problem which has frustrated millions of motorists for decades and is seen as one of the biggest causes of urban gridlock.
According to the latest official figures, the delays caused by roadworks is costing the country £4 billion a year.
The Department for Transport plans to run three pilots of what it calls a lane rental scheme later in the year. One will be in a big city and the other two in smaller towns.
Eventually they could be implemented by local authorities across the country.
Currently utility companies such as those laying internet or electricity cable or installing new pipes for gas and water are legally obliged to give councils notice of any schemes and can be fined if the works overrun.
In some parts of the country, including London and Kent, councils have stronger powers through a permit scheme.
This gives them powers to dictate when works will take place, impose penalties for running late and also set strict rules governing noise and disruption.
The lane rental scheme, however, goes a step further, providing an incentive for utility companies to complete work as fast as possible while causing as little inconvenience to motorists as possible.
Charges would be highest for digging up the road during the height of the rush hour, with a maximum daily rental of £2,500 a day.
In non-residential areas utility companies would be encouraged to carry out work at night to minimise delays faced by drivers.
"It is incredibly frustrating to find vital roads being dug up in the middle of the rush hour or, even worse, traffic lanes closed when no one is even carrying out any work,” said Norman Baker, the local transport minister.
The initiative was welcomed by the AA. “Motorists have for too long stuck in traffic jams because of utility companies working at their convenience and not the road users.
“Bringing discipline into play, especially backed by financial penalties, may bring a measure of order to our roads.”
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Entitled, "Utility companies face "lane rental" scheme", it really ought to be required reading for Ghana's minister for roads and transport - and the technocrats in charge of our nation's roads: at both the national and local government levels.
Perhaps if similar measures are implemented here, it could halt the irresponsible manner in which roads and pavements, built at great cost to Ghanaian taxpayers, are being ruined with such impunity, by the utility and telecom companies that dig them up, in order to lay or repair, pipelines and cables.
The culled Daily Telegraph story by David Millward follows below. Please read on:
"Utility companies could be charged up to £2,500 a day to dig the roads up in an attempt to cut delays faced by motorists.
Utility companies face "lane rental" scheme
By David Millward, Transport Editor
4:33PM GMT 26 Jan 2012

They will be expected to "rent" stretches of road where they intend to work in a scheme intended to encourage companies to complete projects as fast as possible.
This is the Government's latest attempt to tackle a problem which has frustrated millions of motorists for decades and is seen as one of the biggest causes of urban gridlock.
According to the latest official figures, the delays caused by roadworks is costing the country £4 billion a year.
The Department for Transport plans to run three pilots of what it calls a lane rental scheme later in the year. One will be in a big city and the other two in smaller towns.
Eventually they could be implemented by local authorities across the country.
Currently utility companies such as those laying internet or electricity cable or installing new pipes for gas and water are legally obliged to give councils notice of any schemes and can be fined if the works overrun.
In some parts of the country, including London and Kent, councils have stronger powers through a permit scheme.
This gives them powers to dictate when works will take place, impose penalties for running late and also set strict rules governing noise and disruption.
The lane rental scheme, however, goes a step further, providing an incentive for utility companies to complete work as fast as possible while causing as little inconvenience to motorists as possible.
Charges would be highest for digging up the road during the height of the rush hour, with a maximum daily rental of £2,500 a day.
In non-residential areas utility companies would be encouraged to carry out work at night to minimise delays faced by drivers.
"It is incredibly frustrating to find vital roads being dug up in the middle of the rush hour or, even worse, traffic lanes closed when no one is even carrying out any work,” said Norman Baker, the local transport minister.
The initiative was welcomed by the AA. “Motorists have for too long stuck in traffic jams because of utility companies working at their convenience and not the road users.
“Bringing discipline into play, especially backed by financial penalties, may bring a measure of order to our roads.”
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
An Email To Epic Global Media
Dear Mrs Tiffany Steeves,
We would be grateful if you could explain to us, precisely how your company, EPIC Global Media, came to be commissioned to, as www.ghanaweb.com puts it: "produce a multimedia branding campaign aimed at building and presenting the brand of Ghana internationally."
Secondly, we would be grateful if you could also give us a breakdown of the specific amounts paid by each of the Ghanaian public-sector organisations, said to be meeting half the cost of your undertaking, together with a number of private sector entities in what www.ghanaweb.com describes as a "consortium of public and private sector organizations in Ghana".
The other half of the funding for your undertaking, apparently comes from "the American people through USAID".
Finally, it so happens that I am doing some background research for the next article to be posted on my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com google-blog, and would be most grateful if I could have the information requested, as soon as it is practicable for EPIC Global Media to let us have it.
Many thanks in advance for your assistance.
Best wishes,
Kofi Thompson.
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!):+ 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
We would be grateful if you could explain to us, precisely how your company, EPIC Global Media, came to be commissioned to, as www.ghanaweb.com puts it: "produce a multimedia branding campaign aimed at building and presenting the brand of Ghana internationally."
Secondly, we would be grateful if you could also give us a breakdown of the specific amounts paid by each of the Ghanaian public-sector organisations, said to be meeting half the cost of your undertaking, together with a number of private sector entities in what www.ghanaweb.com describes as a "consortium of public and private sector organizations in Ghana".
The other half of the funding for your undertaking, apparently comes from "the American people through USAID".
Finally, it so happens that I am doing some background research for the next article to be posted on my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com google-blog, and would be most grateful if I could have the information requested, as soon as it is practicable for EPIC Global Media to let us have it.
Many thanks in advance for your assistance.
Best wishes,
Kofi Thompson.
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!):+ 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Saturday, 4 February 2012
TO THE ANTHONY KARBOS OF GHANA'S POLITICAL WORLD: THE SAVAGERY OF THE DARK AGES HAS NO PLACE IN NKRUMAH'S GHANA!
The savagery of the Dark Ages has no place in the Ghanaian polity. It is therefore important that all the members of Ghana's political class understand clearly that ours is a civilised nation - not for us the violence and chaos of other nations on the continent and elsewhere in the world.
That is why it is intolerable that politicians who seek to rule our nation one day, should constantly make reference to possible actions by their supporters, which can only result in chaos, death and destruction across Ghana.
Perhaps politicians like the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) national youth organiser, Mr. Anthony Karbo, who constantly use weapons-grade words and phrases, do not actually yet fully understand, that Ghana's stability and its reputation as a peaceful and well-functioning multi-party democracy, is priceless - and vital for the continued flow of both private local and foreign direct investment into our nation's economy.
The Anthony Karbos, who constantly issue threats to their political opponents that cause tension in Ghanaian society, need to remember that those in our country, who, rather than resort to the law courts to resolve electoral disputes, elect instead, to urge their supporters to resort to violent protest against disputed election results, risk paying a very high price indeed, for their selfishness and arrogance in risking Ghana's stable political climate in their power-at-all-costs quest to rule our nation.
They must not think for a moment that they are invincible. They aren't in the slightest - and although verbally aggressive and prone to physical violence on occasion, indeed are very vulnerable beings.
Let us remind politicians of that ilk, that today, we are in an age when drone pilots of our allies, sitting thousands of miles away, can mount surgical strikes, to take out those selfish individuals in our country, who would seek to carry out a hidden agenda that can only result in our nation descending into violence and chaos - merely in order to satisfy their unbridled lust for power.
Ghana does not need such violent, unprincipled and amoral individuals: whose breathtaking arrogance, seems to make them think that ruling Ghana is their birthright. Well, actually, it is not - surprising though that might be to those sodden megalomaniacs.
(Incidentally, today, even primary school children all over Ghana, are aware, that inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. Who wants to have anything to do with a backward and hidebound system, which routinely used to murder innocents in ritual-killings, and, even as we speak, still enslaves others - potential doctors, engineers, research scientists, lawyers, economists, writers, etc. - in order to maintain itself and persist in its present discredited form, I ask, dear reader? But I digress!)
Above all, let those verbally-violent politicians in our midst remember, that civilised people out-think and out-smart those they come up against, in politics. Its brains, not brawn, that matter in today's world of competitive African politics.
For their information, actually, this is a constitutional democracy and a modern African nation-state, which is a unitary Republic - we are not a federation of feudal-style states, in which violent war lords, own personal fiefdoms full of serfs beholden to tribal Chieftains (all of whom, as we all know, owe their positions in society to accidents of birth and history, not merit).
Those of us who love Mother Ghana passionately, will not tolerate any violence - either before, during, or after, the December polls. Let the Anthony Karbos beware: There are patriotic and nationalistic officers in the Ghana Armed Forces, who love Mother Ghana passionately, and who in the face of supine and spineless political leadership, will not hesitate to intervene swiftly, to ensure the maintenance of law and order throughout Ghana - wherever in our country widespread violence flares up, as a result of disputed election results.
Mr. Anthony Karbo and politicians of his ilk (across Ghana's political spectrum), will be the first to feel the full force of the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state, were our country to face an existentialist threat as a result of electoral violence sparked by them in December. They must not tempt fate, whatever they do.
The savagery of the Dark Ages has no place in the civilised and modern African nation-state of diverse-ethnicity, which Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (of blessed memory) founded. Let the Anthony Karbos of Ghana's political world, revise their power-seeking-notes, pretty quickly. They are in for a rude awakening, otherwise. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
That is why it is intolerable that politicians who seek to rule our nation one day, should constantly make reference to possible actions by their supporters, which can only result in chaos, death and destruction across Ghana.
Perhaps politicians like the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) national youth organiser, Mr. Anthony Karbo, who constantly use weapons-grade words and phrases, do not actually yet fully understand, that Ghana's stability and its reputation as a peaceful and well-functioning multi-party democracy, is priceless - and vital for the continued flow of both private local and foreign direct investment into our nation's economy.
The Anthony Karbos, who constantly issue threats to their political opponents that cause tension in Ghanaian society, need to remember that those in our country, who, rather than resort to the law courts to resolve electoral disputes, elect instead, to urge their supporters to resort to violent protest against disputed election results, risk paying a very high price indeed, for their selfishness and arrogance in risking Ghana's stable political climate in their power-at-all-costs quest to rule our nation.
They must not think for a moment that they are invincible. They aren't in the slightest - and although verbally aggressive and prone to physical violence on occasion, indeed are very vulnerable beings.
Let us remind politicians of that ilk, that today, we are in an age when drone pilots of our allies, sitting thousands of miles away, can mount surgical strikes, to take out those selfish individuals in our country, who would seek to carry out a hidden agenda that can only result in our nation descending into violence and chaos - merely in order to satisfy their unbridled lust for power.
Ghana does not need such violent, unprincipled and amoral individuals: whose breathtaking arrogance, seems to make them think that ruling Ghana is their birthright. Well, actually, it is not - surprising though that might be to those sodden megalomaniacs.
(Incidentally, today, even primary school children all over Ghana, are aware, that inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. Who wants to have anything to do with a backward and hidebound system, which routinely used to murder innocents in ritual-killings, and, even as we speak, still enslaves others - potential doctors, engineers, research scientists, lawyers, economists, writers, etc. - in order to maintain itself and persist in its present discredited form, I ask, dear reader? But I digress!)
Above all, let those verbally-violent politicians in our midst remember, that civilised people out-think and out-smart those they come up against, in politics. Its brains, not brawn, that matter in today's world of competitive African politics.
For their information, actually, this is a constitutional democracy and a modern African nation-state, which is a unitary Republic - we are not a federation of feudal-style states, in which violent war lords, own personal fiefdoms full of serfs beholden to tribal Chieftains (all of whom, as we all know, owe their positions in society to accidents of birth and history, not merit).
Those of us who love Mother Ghana passionately, will not tolerate any violence - either before, during, or after, the December polls. Let the Anthony Karbos beware: There are patriotic and nationalistic officers in the Ghana Armed Forces, who love Mother Ghana passionately, and who in the face of supine and spineless political leadership, will not hesitate to intervene swiftly, to ensure the maintenance of law and order throughout Ghana - wherever in our country widespread violence flares up, as a result of disputed election results.
Mr. Anthony Karbo and politicians of his ilk (across Ghana's political spectrum), will be the first to feel the full force of the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state, were our country to face an existentialist threat as a result of electoral violence sparked by them in December. They must not tempt fate, whatever they do.
The savagery of the Dark Ages has no place in the civilised and modern African nation-state of diverse-ethnicity, which Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah (of blessed memory) founded. Let the Anthony Karbos of Ghana's political world, revise their power-seeking-notes, pretty quickly. They are in for a rude awakening, otherwise. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
NDC: RID YOURSELVES OF PRESIDENT MILLS & VICE PRESIDENT MAHAMA BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!
To stop Nkrumah's Ghana from falling into the grasping hands of Kufuor & Co.'s New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC) must rid itself of President Mills and Vice President John Mahama, quickly. They have become electoral liabilities, unfortunately.
Alas, thanks to the daft and politically inept decision to dismiss the former Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu (in the eyes of the public, over his allegations of gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana, by individuals in the Mills administration), President Mills and Vice President Mahama, have lost all credibility with ordinary Ghanaians.
They will be roundly defeated in the December presidential election, as sure as day follows night - if their party makes the grave error of judgement of allowing them to stand as its candidates.
Simply put, allowing Mills and Mahama to continue remaining in office, and letting them stand in the December presidential poll, will amount to the NDC committing political suicide, alas.
In fact so confident are the NDC's main opponents, the NPP, that today, more and more of the many ruthless and tax-dodging wealthy-crooks, who prospered so mightily, during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co., have started coming out of the NPP-woodwork. In droves - literally.
After breaking cover, those dissemblers-supreme, are all over our nation's airwaves - with their selective amnesia and revisionist history of their days in power. Clearly, they think they are on a roll, the sods.
One often wonders, listening to those sly self-seekers during current affairs radio and television discussion programmes, precisely what systemic loophole they used to regularly exploit for personal financial gain, when the NPP was in power - and which has since been closed by the more honest Mills NDC regime, which came to power in January 2009.
No wonder they are all so desperate for their party to be back in power again - and are waging a relentless propaganda war using half-truths and plain falsehood, as the political equivalent of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
They are all in a hurry to be in a position, once more, to be able, by administrative fiat, to rip Mother Ghana off - purchasing state assets, such as choice state lands in posh areas for peanuts. Ditto expensive state residential properties they can purchase for a song.
What shameless crooks many of them are - and only heaven knows what other lucrative wheezes those liars and thieves used to dream up, when the NPP of the greedy Kufuor & Co. was in power.
Those super-greedy and crony-capitalist pals, of the elitist tribal-supremacist individuals, who made up the ruthless cabal, which dominated the New Patriotic Party (NPP) so completely, during the eight years that that party ruled Ghana for, now boldly predict, openly, that the NPP is returning to power again this December.
To a man (Ditto the many bottom-power female tycoons - made rich by lascivious and power-drunk old men - who competed fiercely with their male counterparts to rip the Ghanaian nation-state off), they are now firmly convinced - thanks to the widespread ramifications of the Woyome judgement-debt scandal - that many Ghanaians have now completely forgotten the NPP's endemic corruption; endless abuse of power; outrageous nepotism; unfathomable greed; and egregious tribalism of the Kufuor-era, and that that fact will smoothen their path to power.
Their hope, is that a majority of Ghanaians will therefore now vote the NDC regime of President Mills and Vice President Mahama - whose administration's members are in fact veritable saints: in comparison to the selfish and super-greedy tribal-supremacist rogues of the Kufour clique - out of power, in the December presidential and parliamentary elections.
The question is: will the lethargic and hard-of-hearing NDC big-wigs, have the courage and nous to initiate the processes, which will enable their party to lawfully rid itself of President Mills and Vice President Mahama as soon as it is practicable to do so - and somehow legally end up with a President Martin Amidu and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings (just in time for their sodden party to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat) in the December presidential elections?
Well, they had better do so quickly - for every day that passes with Mills and Mahama still hanging on precariously to power, simply brings forth the inevitable - a devastating defeat for the NDC in the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
This is no time for their usual lets-bury-our-heads-in-the-sand attitude, when confronted with the unpleasant. The fact of the matter, is that for the good of Nkrumah's Ghana, and the welfare of all the ordinary people of our nation, the NPP, which unfortunately is still dominated by the selfsame greedy Kufuor & Co., must not be allowed to return to power again any time soon, under any circumstances - for they simply bled our country dry, when it held power: and in the most egregious of fashions, if truth be told.
Without a shadow of doubt, they will do so again, and in short order too, were their party to succeed in returning to power again in December - which is why the NDC must quickly sacrifice Mills and Mahama, to prevent that from occurring.
Alas, if only Mills and Co., had ensured that the crooks of yesteryear were pursued vigorously and tried for their crimes against Ghana, as some of us advised, when the NDC won the December 2008 elections, today, those clever crooks would never have the gall, to ask Ghanaians to return their party to power again.
For most discerning and independent-minded Ghanaian patriots, as well as the nationalists in our midst, the metaphor for the NPP's stewardship of our nation's resources, is the shabby story of the deliberate killing-off of Ghana Airways - just to enable the fat-cats of that looters-era to asset-strip it. That unforgivable crime against Mother Ghana, indeed sums up the Kufour-era perfectly.
Another classic example of Kufuor & Co.'s asset-stripping genius, was the fraudulent sale and purchase agreement - of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) to a non-existent entity, International Aluminium Partners (IAP).
IAP was purportedly a joint-venture between Norske Hydro and VALE to purchase VALCO - yet both companies strenuously denied ever being in such a partnership to purchase VALCO. Incredible, but true.
For the information of the millions of gullible Ghanaians, who behave like lemmings, the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types, who are being ruthlessly exploited by the "real owners" of the NPP to enable their party return to power again, that gargantuan IAP VALCO purchase fraud, was deftly railroaded through Parliament by the NPP of Kufuor & Co.
And the swift passage through Parliament of that fraudulent sale and purchase agreement for VALCO, was brokered by none other than the then Majority Leader in Parliament at the time (now the Minority Leader), the Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu - who guaranteed its being railroaded through Parliament in record time.
Yet, today, like many in the NPP, he has conveniently forgotten that crime against the Ghanaian nation-state and its people - a fact that is yet another example of the brazen dishonesty, of those amoral hypocrites and greedy crooks, who now want to be allowed to rule Ghana, again (God forbid!).
And only heaven knows the number of VALCO assets, which have now ended up in the property portfolios of those amoral greedy-monsters - almost every one of whom has the art and science of lying written into their sodden DNA. They have always been driven by unfathomable greed to asset-strip Nkrumah's Ghana, whenever they have had the opportunity to rule our nation.
But we will never permit that to happen again. Period. Who, in Ghana today, that has any brains, does not resent how two individuals, not previously known to the tax authorities in Ghana and the U.S., as high net worth individuals, and who did not pay even a pesewa upfront, ended up owning a stake in the Jubilee oilfield, as if we had suddenly become another Abacha-ruled Nigeria - as a result of Kufuor & Co.'s sleight-of-hand manoeuvring and their mendacity, I ask?
So at all costs, every independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaian, must do everything in his or her power, to prevent those greedy rogues of yesteryear, from returning to power again - to enable them resume their brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana.
That is why it is so vital that every discerning Ghanaian, who loves Mother Ghana passionately, gets into the business of daily urging the honest and patriotic individuals amongst the NDC's current leadership, to listen to those of us who for purely altruistic reasons, are asking their party to act quickly to rid itself of the now largely-discredited President Mills and his partner Vice President Mahama - before it becomes way too late to prevent the NPP from returning to power again in the December polls. A word to the wise...
Tel (Powered by Tigo - the
one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
Alas, thanks to the daft and politically inept decision to dismiss the former Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu (in the eyes of the public, over his allegations of gargantuan crimes against the people of Ghana, by individuals in the Mills administration), President Mills and Vice President Mahama, have lost all credibility with ordinary Ghanaians.
They will be roundly defeated in the December presidential election, as sure as day follows night - if their party makes the grave error of judgement of allowing them to stand as its candidates.
Simply put, allowing Mills and Mahama to continue remaining in office, and letting them stand in the December presidential poll, will amount to the NDC committing political suicide, alas.
In fact so confident are the NDC's main opponents, the NPP, that today, more and more of the many ruthless and tax-dodging wealthy-crooks, who prospered so mightily, during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co., have started coming out of the NPP-woodwork. In droves - literally.
After breaking cover, those dissemblers-supreme, are all over our nation's airwaves - with their selective amnesia and revisionist history of their days in power. Clearly, they think they are on a roll, the sods.
One often wonders, listening to those sly self-seekers during current affairs radio and television discussion programmes, precisely what systemic loophole they used to regularly exploit for personal financial gain, when the NPP was in power - and which has since been closed by the more honest Mills NDC regime, which came to power in January 2009.
No wonder they are all so desperate for their party to be back in power again - and are waging a relentless propaganda war using half-truths and plain falsehood, as the political equivalent of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
They are all in a hurry to be in a position, once more, to be able, by administrative fiat, to rip Mother Ghana off - purchasing state assets, such as choice state lands in posh areas for peanuts. Ditto expensive state residential properties they can purchase for a song.
What shameless crooks many of them are - and only heaven knows what other lucrative wheezes those liars and thieves used to dream up, when the NPP of the greedy Kufuor & Co. was in power.
Those super-greedy and crony-capitalist pals, of the elitist tribal-supremacist individuals, who made up the ruthless cabal, which dominated the New Patriotic Party (NPP) so completely, during the eight years that that party ruled Ghana for, now boldly predict, openly, that the NPP is returning to power again this December.
To a man (Ditto the many bottom-power female tycoons - made rich by lascivious and power-drunk old men - who competed fiercely with their male counterparts to rip the Ghanaian nation-state off), they are now firmly convinced - thanks to the widespread ramifications of the Woyome judgement-debt scandal - that many Ghanaians have now completely forgotten the NPP's endemic corruption; endless abuse of power; outrageous nepotism; unfathomable greed; and egregious tribalism of the Kufuor-era, and that that fact will smoothen their path to power.
Their hope, is that a majority of Ghanaians will therefore now vote the NDC regime of President Mills and Vice President Mahama - whose administration's members are in fact veritable saints: in comparison to the selfish and super-greedy tribal-supremacist rogues of the Kufour clique - out of power, in the December presidential and parliamentary elections.
The question is: will the lethargic and hard-of-hearing NDC big-wigs, have the courage and nous to initiate the processes, which will enable their party to lawfully rid itself of President Mills and Vice President Mahama as soon as it is practicable to do so - and somehow legally end up with a President Martin Amidu and Vice President Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings (just in time for their sodden party to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat) in the December presidential elections?
Well, they had better do so quickly - for every day that passes with Mills and Mahama still hanging on precariously to power, simply brings forth the inevitable - a devastating defeat for the NDC in the December 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections.
This is no time for their usual lets-bury-our-heads-in-the-sand attitude, when confronted with the unpleasant. The fact of the matter, is that for the good of Nkrumah's Ghana, and the welfare of all the ordinary people of our nation, the NPP, which unfortunately is still dominated by the selfsame greedy Kufuor & Co., must not be allowed to return to power again any time soon, under any circumstances - for they simply bled our country dry, when it held power: and in the most egregious of fashions, if truth be told.
Without a shadow of doubt, they will do so again, and in short order too, were their party to succeed in returning to power again in December - which is why the NDC must quickly sacrifice Mills and Mahama, to prevent that from occurring.
Alas, if only Mills and Co., had ensured that the crooks of yesteryear were pursued vigorously and tried for their crimes against Ghana, as some of us advised, when the NDC won the December 2008 elections, today, those clever crooks would never have the gall, to ask Ghanaians to return their party to power again.
For most discerning and independent-minded Ghanaian patriots, as well as the nationalists in our midst, the metaphor for the NPP's stewardship of our nation's resources, is the shabby story of the deliberate killing-off of Ghana Airways - just to enable the fat-cats of that looters-era to asset-strip it. That unforgivable crime against Mother Ghana, indeed sums up the Kufour-era perfectly.
Another classic example of Kufuor & Co.'s asset-stripping genius, was the fraudulent sale and purchase agreement - of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) to a non-existent entity, International Aluminium Partners (IAP).
IAP was purportedly a joint-venture between Norske Hydro and VALE to purchase VALCO - yet both companies strenuously denied ever being in such a partnership to purchase VALCO. Incredible, but true.
For the information of the millions of gullible Ghanaians, who behave like lemmings, the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types, who are being ruthlessly exploited by the "real owners" of the NPP to enable their party return to power again, that gargantuan IAP VALCO purchase fraud, was deftly railroaded through Parliament by the NPP of Kufuor & Co.
And the swift passage through Parliament of that fraudulent sale and purchase agreement for VALCO, was brokered by none other than the then Majority Leader in Parliament at the time (now the Minority Leader), the Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu - who guaranteed its being railroaded through Parliament in record time.
Yet, today, like many in the NPP, he has conveniently forgotten that crime against the Ghanaian nation-state and its people - a fact that is yet another example of the brazen dishonesty, of those amoral hypocrites and greedy crooks, who now want to be allowed to rule Ghana, again (God forbid!).
And only heaven knows the number of VALCO assets, which have now ended up in the property portfolios of those amoral greedy-monsters - almost every one of whom has the art and science of lying written into their sodden DNA. They have always been driven by unfathomable greed to asset-strip Nkrumah's Ghana, whenever they have had the opportunity to rule our nation.
But we will never permit that to happen again. Period. Who, in Ghana today, that has any brains, does not resent how two individuals, not previously known to the tax authorities in Ghana and the U.S., as high net worth individuals, and who did not pay even a pesewa upfront, ended up owning a stake in the Jubilee oilfield, as if we had suddenly become another Abacha-ruled Nigeria - as a result of Kufuor & Co.'s sleight-of-hand manoeuvring and their mendacity, I ask?
So at all costs, every independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaian, must do everything in his or her power, to prevent those greedy rogues of yesteryear, from returning to power again - to enable them resume their brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana.
That is why it is so vital that every discerning Ghanaian, who loves Mother Ghana passionately, gets into the business of daily urging the honest and patriotic individuals amongst the NDC's current leadership, to listen to those of us who for purely altruistic reasons, are asking their party to act quickly to rid itself of the now largely-discredited President Mills and his partner Vice President Mahama - before it becomes way too late to prevent the NPP from returning to power again in the December polls. 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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