What a strange lot some politicians in Ghana are. Instead of finding a way to profit politically, from Pastor Mensah Otabil's latest contribution to the national conversation about governance in Ghana, some National Democratic Congress (NDC) politicians are rather falling into the trap of responding in knee-jerk fashion, to a man who is a world-class individual by any standard - by pillorying him.
How many people in this world have the vision and determination needed to establish universities that eventually grow to become reputable tertiary institutions, from scratch, I ask?
Surely, the few who do so are true nation-builders, deserving of being honoured by Ghanaian society - instead of being disparaged by hard-of-hearing politicians?
Pastor Mensah Otabil has handed a precious gift to the NDC - for which they should be eternally grateful.
It is such a pity that so many of them have failed to recognise Otabil's generous gift to their party.
Instead of railing at him, the NDC's members should ask Pastor Mensah Otabil to tell the nation, just how millions of ordinary Ghanaians - who cannot afford to pay for the private clinics that well-off Ghanaians, such as Pastor Mensah Otabil himself, can access, either through the companies they work for, or pay for, out of their own pockets - will survive, if the state "gets out" of the business of providing hospitals, establishing universities, constructing roads, building affordable housing for the masses, etc., etc., were Otabil to get his wish, if a new government comes to power after the November presidential election.
And why do the NDC members criticising Otabil, not rather ask him to provide Ghanaians with a list of the capable Ghanaian businesspeople, churches, and other civil society organisations that can finance the building and running of the zillions of schools, hospitals, universities, roads, affordable housing etc., etc., which the nation and ordinary people desperately need - but which the Pastor Mensah Otabils want the state to leave to individulas and private entities to build, own outright and operate by themselves, going forward?
Will the poor and deprived parts of Ghana not be seen as unattractive markets, by the dominant players in such a system - in a nation in which short-termism and the get-rich-quick mentality are hallmarks of the corporate culture underpinning most private enterprises, one wonders?
The question is: Should ordinary Ghanaians trust private businesspeople (in a Ghanaian corporate world notorious for unethical conduct, which is a zillion times even more nepotistic and corrupt than the public-sector in Ghana is) to provide them with the goods and services now provided by the state, at reasonable rates - when the vast majority of them are profiteering rip-off merchants like the Smarttys Management and Production Company of infamy?
Why do Otabil's NDC critics not ask him what exactly is wrong with allowing the state to provide social amenities and build infrastructure in transparent win-win public private partnerships (PPP), with reputable and responsible private-sector concerns, instead of ceding all that to greedy and unethical individuals, opaque private businesses, and other shady private-sector entities, I ask?
Instead of casting aspersions on Otabil's integrity, why do the NDC members critical of him, not simply remind Pastor Mensah Otabil that that is exactly what they have been doing for some time now, and are contemplating doing even more of, in future, as it happens - in case that has escaped him?
Be that as it may, thanks to Pastor Otabil's latest observations, the conversation about the nature of the society we ought to build in Ghana, is now on the table - and Progressives in our country can show Ghanaians how a powerful and well-connected few, are busy divvying-up our nation's resources and wealth amongst themselves, at the expense of ordinary people: in the dog-eat-dog society that has evolved in Ghana since the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah on the 24th of February, 1966.
What we need as a people, is leadership that demands ethical conduct from the wealthy and well-connected few, who are milking Mother Ghana dry with such impunity - and think that they and others of their ilk, can continue to steal what belongs to all Ghanaians and get away with it successfully, till the very end of time.
What many independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians also want to hear from the Pastor Mensah Otabils, is forthright condemnation of those who are busy sabotaging the nation-building effort, as part of a scorched-earth Machiavellian political strategy, to enable them win power.
Our nation needs patriotic and nationalistic politicians who are committed and loyal to our country whether in power or in the political wilderness - not selfish and self-seeking fairweather friends of Mother Ghana: prepared to see our country sink because they are not in power at any given point in time in our history.
Independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians also want to hear the Pastor Mensah Otabils denouncing the many hypocritical, closet tribal-supremacists disrespecting the current President of the Republic of Ghana, simply because he is a northerner.
Is that not the elephant in the room that bold and fair people participating in the national conversation about good governance in Ghana ought to be pointing out and condemning in no uncertain terms? Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.
Is such gross disrespect today, not abominable and unspeakable, in a modern and ethnically-diverse unitary republic, in an Africa in which no tribe is inferior or superior to another (despite what the super-ruthless Al Bashirs of Darfur, and Paul Kagames of Eastern DR Congo, infamy, and their ilk think), I ask?
Kwame Nkrumah set a common-good standard of leadership that is protective of the national interest and promotes the welfare of the Ghanaian people at all material times, which all today's politicians and political parties, would be wise to emulate too.
There are many discerning and patriotic Ghanaians who are of the view that the Ghana of today most certainly does not need a leadership that is obsessed with creating the neo-liberal hell-on-earth that the Mensah Otabils want to foist on our country.
And, lest we forget, Nkrumah was a pragmatist, who recognised the important role that a private-sector with a social conscience could play, in the mixed-economy model he adopted, as a strategy to make Ghana prosperous - which is why he was insistent that private businesses had to be underpinned by corporate good governance principles: and had to be committed to contributing financially to the development of a Ghanaian equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
The Pastor Mensah Otabils, and their critics in the NDC, ought to read the speech President Nkrumah delivered, when he officially opened the Tema Oil Refinery in 1963 - for a vision of a sustainable economic development model that serves the interests of all Ghanaians, not just a powerful and well-connected few: with greedy ambitions, and whose ultimate goal, is to divvy-up our nation's resources amongst themselves (to paraphrase the great Nkrumah).
The question is: Should we be satisfied with the present-day selfishness culture, of the dog-eat-dog society we are now lumbered with, and ask the state to step aside as the Pastor Mensah Otabils would prefer - and allow the many crooks in the private-sector of our national economy to have free rein to sell us sundry counterfeit goods, with impunity?
Should we be condemned in perpetuity to be held to ransom by privately-owned hospitals that prescribe and sell unregistered medicines and counterfeit drugs, and forever allow private educational institutions to fleece students from poor families?
Ditto allow private investors to construct shoddy roads that develop potholes after a only a few years, for us to travel on throughout the country, till the very end of time, etc., etc. - or aim instead to build an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia in which principle, ethical conduct, harmony and equity (not crookery, greed and selfishness), rule OK? Eyeasem sebeh.
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