RECOVERING ALLEGED FRAUDULENT MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR PAYMENTS TO CONSTRUCTION PIONEERS & WATERVILLE: WHY NOT SEEK HELP OF THE GERMAN & ITALIAN MEDIA?

If we were a more positive people who thought outside the box, and proffered positive solutions to our problems, instead of the endless negativity and criticism that we see and hear daily in the media, perhaps we would find ways of getting the owners of Waterville and Construction Pioneers (CP) to pay our nation back the vast sums, which apparently should never have been paid them.

That Ghana is in dire need of a more positive national discourse, is not in doubt. A cursory look at the political and media landscapes, reveals a most depressing picture.

An unfortunate characteristic of Ghanaian politics, is the fact that the national discourse (particularly in the media), is almost devoid of offered solutions to Ghana's myriad of problems.

Indeed, as a result of that, incredibly, the biggest party opposing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime in power today, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), might actually be able to win power again - on a diet of never ending negative propaganda: and not one alternative policy offered Ghanaians in place of what it sees wrong with government policy. Amazing.

And it will do so by smartly stepping into the power void created in the wake of the tsunami-of-endless-criticism, of the government of the day, unleashed by its propaganda machine - without ever really offering solutions to the many things it criticises so freely (to repeat for emphasis).

Yet, as any discerning and independent-minded patriot knows, and even Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo admits, the transformation of our country will take at least ten years.

Perhaps that is also why it should not come as a surprise to anyone in Ghana today, that the presidential candidate of the NPP, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, instead of seizing the opportunity presented him, in a recent BBC Hard Talk interview, to show the world just how well-prepared he and his party are to lead Ghana, wriggled out of telling his worldwide audience, precisely how an NPP government under him would fund its free secondary education policy - with the lame excuse that he preferred to tell Ghanaians first.

And as a wag I know said to me, derisively, in reference to Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's BBC Hard Talk interview: "Talk about a sodden cop-out, Kofi. It is typical of those who run and benefit the most, from our largely dysfunctional system."

Perhaps that is why Ghana's airwaves and the columns of our ghastly and biased newspapers, are so full of criticisms of the government of the day - mostly by opposition NPP politicians and their lackeys in the media, almost all of whom are being allowed to get away with blitzing their way to power - by waging a ruthless propaganda war, which actually offers no detailed solutions (thus far, at least) to the many problems confronting the ordinary people, of our homeland Ghana.

So, just as some of his opponents have said, it might actually be true that the real reason why Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo did not tell the world, during his Hard Talk BBC interview, precisely how the NPP proposes to fund free secondary education in Ghana, was simply because it is yet another example of the NPP's usual vote-buying pro-poor "social intervention" wheezes.

The question is: Are we to believe the cynics amongst us, who insist that just as was the case during the eight long years the NPP were in power for, and came up with poorly thought through pro-poor policies, the free secondary education policy is yet another example of the party's on-the-hoof policy making - the political equivalent of a veritable sleight of hand, whose sources of funding won't add up, if scrutinised closely, and, like the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) started during the NPP's tenure, won't actually be sustainable in the long-term, when initiated?

Is it any wonder then, dear reader, that under such circumstances, it has not yet occurred to any of the usual talking-heads and bright sparks we see on television and hear on our nation's airwaves, that both CP and Waterville, could actually be shamed into returning the huge sums they are said to have defrauded Ghana of?

Well, for what it is worth, here is my humble two-pesewa contribution, to a more positive national conversation: As a people, might we not end up with positive outcomes, in both cases, dear reader, were a campaign seeking that end, to be launched by civil society groups, as well as concerned and patriotic individuals in Ghana - such as Martin Amidu and the Citizen Vigilante group he has proposed be set up by patriotic individuals?

And if they were to ask the help of the German and Italian media, could they not positively influence public opinion in Germany and Italy through them - alerting the public in both nations of the fact that vast sums, which could make a real difference to millions of the poor in Ghana, have been pocketed by the German and Italian owners of the two companies, all of whom are said to have obtained those sums through fraudulent means?

Would millions of Germans and Italians not be aghast at such perfidy by their fellow-citizens - in a poor developing nation with aspirations - and shame both CP and Waterville into refunding those vast sums, which they should never have received in the first place, I ask? A word to the wise...


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