Is Former President Kufuour Being Hypocritical In Criticising The Mahama Administration?

The marvellous example of former U.S. President George Walker Bush - who has persistently refrained from criticising his successor President Obama since he left office - is one that this blog humbly recommends that former President Kufuor emulates.

As long as both the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), continue to ignore calls for them to publicly publish all the sources of funding for their campaigns for the November presidential and parliamentary elections, discerning Ghanaians must reject both parties.

Ditto President Kufuor's egregious hypocrisy in criticising the Mahama adminstration. When has he ever condemned the active and deliberate sabotaging of the nation-building effort by the malevolent Bernard Antwi-Boasiakos? Is that not proof positive that he cares more about his party than our homeland Ghana?

As a people, if we are serious about eliminating high-level corruption, we must insist that all politicians, and their spouses, should publicly publish their assets, immediately before assuming office, and immediately after the end of their tenures.

In the final analysis, that is the most effective means for Ghanaian society to keep track of the net worth of members of our political class and the top echelons of the public sector.

It is instructive that we are yet to hear former President Kufuor recommending such a measure to ordinary people as an effective way to fight high-level corruption in Ghana.

During his inaugural speech at the Independence Square, for his first term as President, he promised that he and his wife would publicly publish their assets. Needless to say, he did not keep his word, alas.

With such a history of cynicism, it is not surprising that it appears that former President Kufuor has conveniently forgotten what life was actually like for ordinary Ghanaians who were not well-connected NPP members during his tenure - who struggled and suffered daily whiles some of his party's supporters regularly bought confiscated imported luxury vehicles for a song and sold them for vast profits.

It is still happening today, too, incidentally - and will continue if the NPP is returned to power again after the November presidential election.

And who has forgotten those poor families that carried "Kufuor gallons" searching for treated water, during his period in office - whiles he himself, members of his extended family clan, and their cronies, grew super-rich during the golden age of business for themselves?

One hopes that former President Kufuor sees the pitiable state that the Obuasi mine of AngloGold Ashanti is in today - whiles Randgold Resources' mining operations in Mali and eleswhere remain profitable: bucking the worldwide industry trend of massive labour layoffs (resulting from high costs) and slump in gold mining company profits globally.

It symbolises, and  encapsulates, perfectly, the abandonment of the national interest, in agreement after agreement, signed by his regime, during its tenure.

If Randgold Resources had won the bid for Ashanti Goldfields, the Obuasi mine would be profitable today. Its CEO Mark Bristow's cost-cutting expertise and innovative leadership would have ensured that.

Did Kufour's hard-of-hearing regime not reject the advice of those of us who said it was in the national interest that it accept the bid of Randgold Resources - which gave an undertaking  that it would allow Ghana to hold on to its golden share, and that it would move its headquarters here, and be domiciled in Ghana?

And when his government was told by some of us that as a result of global climate change - which would lead to prolonged drought periods and hence result in low dam water levels - it was more prudent to build a thermal power plant instead of a hydro power plant, did he listen?

Has he also forgotten that it was his regime that took asset-stripping the enterprise Ghana to a whole new level of unethical conduct never once seen before in Ghana's chequered history - selling valuable government residential properties that served as the official residences of ministers and senior public officials, and valuable government land, at rock bottom prices, like confetti, to their family members and cronies?

And was he not once accused by his party's then chairperson, the  verbose Haruna Esseku, of receiving kickbacks at the Osu Castle - and withholding it from the party: and starving it of funds? And where did most of the trillions of old cedis in the highly indebted poor countrires initiative (HIPC) funds disappear to?

President Kufuor, who run what is by far the most corrupt regime, thus far, since the 4th Republic came into being, has no moral right to condemn President Mahama's administration, and ask Ghanaians to vote the NPP back into power again. To come and do what exactly, I ask?

Why should ordinary Ghanaians elect ruthless and amoral politicians, who are criticism-averse, and say they have no intention of publicly-publishing their assets, and those of their spouses, into power? Perchance, is it just so that the garullous John Boadus, and sly  Freddie Blays, can come to power, and enrich themselves too, at Mother Ghana's expense? No. Never.

Yes, life in Ghana today, is difficult - especially for those who grew wealthy through high-level corruption during Kufuor's eight-year  tenure as President: and no longer have the political connections to leverage to enable them rip Mother Ghana off as they used to do in the past.

Who does not remember that during Kufuor's tenure, many pocketed sundry government funds, such as the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC)  funds - and refused to repay those loans: although many had bought taxis with their loans?
 
And who has forgotten the thousands of well-connected high net worth crooks, who regularly diverted bonded goods, in transit to places like Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali,  to our second city, and grew super-rich selling cheap imported goods on which no taxes had been paid - during the period in office of the NPP regime of President Kufuor?

The fact of the matter, is that both the NDC and NPP are corrupt entities - full of ruthless and  amoral thieves prepared to destroy our homeland Ghana in their quest for power. Ghanaians should reject both of them - lest their intense rivalry sets our homeland Ghana ablaze after the November presidential and parliamentary elections.

Ghanaians would be wise to vote instead, for someone who knows how to create jobs and establish and run profitable businesses that create profits for shareholders, such as Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, leading a reunited Convention People's Party (CPP) - and reject the corrupt NDC/NPP duopoly.

If elected president, Nduom has promised to investigate all the regimes that have held power, since the 4th Republic came into being. That is someone who is actually serious about retrieving stolen government cash - not the NDC/NPP hypocrites who are beholden to the very vested interests bleeding our homeland Ghana dry.

That is what  fighting high-level corruption is about. With the help of the leaked Panama Papers, a President Nduom, ought to target the Kosmos Energy/E. O. Group deal first - so we can all see what a phoney our former Hypocrite-In-Chief really is. Former President Kufuor is being hypocritical in his criticism of President Mahama's administration.