When exactly are the security agencies going to question the Electoral Commission (EC) officials who were dismissed for allegedlly taking the voters verification machine that they were using at a polling station in Walewale to the family home of Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia?
The question is: Where else in Ghana are EC officials acting in clear contravention of the rules and regulations guiding the current exhibition of the voters register and reregistration of voters who used their National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) cards to register for the 2012 elections?
Assuming there are other EC officials doing so too, why are they doing so - and to what end exactly: and in whose interest are they acting? Food for thought we must all chew and digest, perhaps.
It is important that the security agencies interrogate the dismissed Walewale EC officials to establish their true motives. We must know exactly what ends those unknown persons who allegedly bribed them were seeking in compromising them - and getting them to make the verification machine accessible temporarily to unauthorised third parties.
There is an urgent need to verify the truth or otherwise in claims made in sections of the Ghanaian media that for some extraordinary reason they were apparently paid GHc10,000 for disregarding the EC's rules and regulations guiding their Walewale polling station's voters register exhibition and reregistration assignment.
Hopefully, it will not emerge that they were bribed to deliberately disregard the EC's regulations on the day in question. There will also be relief all round if it is established that Dr. Bawumia and his party the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were not the ones who paid the two EC officials that GHc10,000: if indeed it is established that they did in fact receive GHc10,000.
Naturally, Dr. Bawumia must be questioned too - to clarify his role, if any, in how those two dismissed EC officials came to be in his family home's compound st Walewale, and precisely what they did whiles there. In our democracy no one, no matter how important in society that personage might be, is above our nation's laws.
After the questioning of the two EC officials and Dr. Bawumia by the security agencies, prosecutions must follow swiftly, if they are warranted.
Whatever be the case, the good people of Ghana ought to know whether or not the gentleman who was the star witness in the election petition heard by judges of the Supreme Court after the 2012 elections, Dr. Bawumia, was himself involved in any form of electoral misconduct in the run-up to the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.
That really would be intolerable - which is why we must rule out any possibility that unknown persons might be preparing feverishly to rig the 2016 elections, by bribing EC officials to help them do so successfully by stealth. Only thorough investigations by the security agencies can establish that.
That is why the Bureau of National Investgations (BNI) must move swiftly to invite the two dismissed Walewale EC officials and Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia to establish the truth as regards what exactly happened that led to the dismissal of those two Walewale EC officials on the day in question: and Dr. Bawumia's precise role in this rather unfortunate and murky affair.
Sunday, 31 July 2016
Daasebre Awhofe Gyamenah, Nante Yie!
The passing away of Ghanaian highlife music legend, Daasebre Gyamenah, has saddened and shocked many highlife music fans in Ghana, and across the entire Ghanaian Diaspora.
Some of his fans have cried uncontrollably every time they have heard their idol's songs being played on the airwaves of radio stations, since his death was announced.
Daasebre Awhofe, as he was adoringly referred to by his many fans, put his very soul into his music - which made his many hit songs such as Akosombo Nkaniea so endearing and enduring classics.
His very danceable and joy-inducing music epitomised the sense of joie de vivre that so many Ghanaians share.
His fans are grateful that his marvellous songs will continue to be heard on the airwaves of radio and television stations across Ghana - and wherever Ghanaians live in the Diaspora.
His songs are mostly a celebration of life and an affirmation of the human condition - and they make people happy wherever they hear them. One is sure that they will be listened and danced to in Ghana till the very end of time.
One doubts very much whether any full-blooded Ghanaian who enjoys highlife music and who hears a Daasebre Awhofe tune can ever resist tapping his or her foot to his moving and happiness-inducing tunes.
Ghana has lost a musical genuis who was a gentle soul - who was also a decent and soft-spoken gentleman: who had his feet planted firmly on the ground despite his fame.
I must confess that I am one of the millions who enjoys listening to Daasebre Awhofe tunes - which one is never able to resist dancing to. Since his death was annnounced I have done my own share of sobbing whiles listening to Daasebre's enchanting voice in his moving and magical music.
Speaking personally, I shall miss the infectious smile, humility, sincerity and generous-spiritedness of this giant of highlife music that cruel Death has laid its icy hands on and snatched away from us so painfully.
The lyrics of many of his hits literally pull at the heartstrings of Twi speakers who love highlife music - and they are words of wisdom that resonate with all Twi-speakers who listen to his music.
And what amazing Twi prose poetry Daasebre Awhofe wrote. Veritable words of wisdom that showed his love for humankind and his understanding of the human condition. He was a deep thinker indeed - and a kind and warm man who was always considerate of others.
May his gentle soul rest in peace. He captured the hearts of millions of Ghanaians - all of whom one is sure have his widow, children and extended family in their thoughts and prayers. Ghanaians feel their pain and share their tragic loss.
We shall all miss this incredible, likeable and magical tunesmith - who was such a brilliant highlife-music superstar. And What an amazing performer he was on stage in live concerts, too. Simply brilliant and amazing.
And after he is finally laid to rest, Ghanaians from all walks of life will gather and celebrate the life of the great Daasebre Awhofe Gyamenah by dancing to his marvellous and fantastic music - even as we mourn his passing away.
May he rest in peace. Daasebre Awhofe, na wu koheni? Wu woheni koraa Daasebre Awhofe Gyamenah, nante yie!
Some of his fans have cried uncontrollably every time they have heard their idol's songs being played on the airwaves of radio stations, since his death was announced.
Daasebre Awhofe, as he was adoringly referred to by his many fans, put his very soul into his music - which made his many hit songs such as Akosombo Nkaniea so endearing and enduring classics.
His very danceable and joy-inducing music epitomised the sense of joie de vivre that so many Ghanaians share.
His fans are grateful that his marvellous songs will continue to be heard on the airwaves of radio and television stations across Ghana - and wherever Ghanaians live in the Diaspora.
His songs are mostly a celebration of life and an affirmation of the human condition - and they make people happy wherever they hear them. One is sure that they will be listened and danced to in Ghana till the very end of time.
One doubts very much whether any full-blooded Ghanaian who enjoys highlife music and who hears a Daasebre Awhofe tune can ever resist tapping his or her foot to his moving and happiness-inducing tunes.
Ghana has lost a musical genuis who was a gentle soul - who was also a decent and soft-spoken gentleman: who had his feet planted firmly on the ground despite his fame.
I must confess that I am one of the millions who enjoys listening to Daasebre Awhofe tunes - which one is never able to resist dancing to. Since his death was annnounced I have done my own share of sobbing whiles listening to Daasebre's enchanting voice in his moving and magical music.
Speaking personally, I shall miss the infectious smile, humility, sincerity and generous-spiritedness of this giant of highlife music that cruel Death has laid its icy hands on and snatched away from us so painfully.
The lyrics of many of his hits literally pull at the heartstrings of Twi speakers who love highlife music - and they are words of wisdom that resonate with all Twi-speakers who listen to his music.
And what amazing Twi prose poetry Daasebre Awhofe wrote. Veritable words of wisdom that showed his love for humankind and his understanding of the human condition. He was a deep thinker indeed - and a kind and warm man who was always considerate of others.
May his gentle soul rest in peace. He captured the hearts of millions of Ghanaians - all of whom one is sure have his widow, children and extended family in their thoughts and prayers. Ghanaians feel their pain and share their tragic loss.
We shall all miss this incredible, likeable and magical tunesmith - who was such a brilliant highlife-music superstar. And What an amazing performer he was on stage in live concerts, too. Simply brilliant and amazing.
And after he is finally laid to rest, Ghanaians from all walks of life will gather and celebrate the life of the great Daasebre Awhofe Gyamenah by dancing to his marvellous and fantastic music - even as we mourn his passing away.
May he rest in peace. Daasebre Awhofe, na wu koheni? Wu woheni koraa Daasebre Awhofe Gyamenah, nante yie!
Thursday, 28 July 2016
Only Shared Prosperity Worldwide Will Ensure Victory For Humankind In The Fight Against Global Terrorism
''There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The True courage is in facing danger when you are afraid." - L. Frank Baum (1856-1919)
As terrorist attacks sweep across Western nations one can understand why right-wing political parties and populist far-right politicians are on the ascendancy in virtually all the Western democracies.
Alas, today, fear resulting from terrorist attacks, is spreading hate speech by emboldened racists in many Western societies - with tragic consequences. It has led to an increase in racial attacks on minorities and people of different faiths in many of the Western democracies.
Tragically, that backlash against minorities is also creating a pool of radicalised young people amongst second and third generation immigrant demographics in the West - at precisely the very point in time in human history when all the citizens of the Western democracies need to pull together to fight global terrorism.
Perhaps it is a good thing that right-wing politicians are on the ascendency in the West - in the sense that they are often more effective in pointing out the dangers of uncontrolled immigration to their societies: and how that impacts negatively on their citizens way of life.
It is also proper and fair that such politicians insist that all immigrant communities adapt to the way of life of the host societies in the West that they choose to leave their own countries to settle permanently in.
However, the painful truth is that for the West to end the cycle of violence that we are witnessing in the string of terrorist attacks by unhinged individuals in nations like the U.S., France and Germany, their ruling elites need to move rapidly to end institutional racism.
Vulnerable youths from immigrant communities in the West who feel alienated from society are easy prey for the online recruiting agents of extremist groups and terrorist organisations.
All young people in the U.S., the UK, France and Germany - whatever their skin hue and religion - must have a level playing field in terms of access to good schools for example - to enable them equip themselves with the right skills to become responsible adults able to contribute their quota to society.
Perhaps the point needs to be made that racism in Western societies is counter-productive in an age of global terrorism by extremist groups - as it enables terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS) to recruit from a demographic that feels the harmful effects of social exclusion on grounds of skin hue and religion.
Yet, it is a fact that over the decades, millions of hardworking and ambituous people from all over the world, have helped to transform Western nations into prosperous societies.
That is something that ought to be celebrated and highlighted by mainstream media - and taught in school history lessons in tne West too.
To continue to make the descendants of those immigrants feel that they are second-class citizens in their country of birth is shortsighted and not very wise for societies determined to fight and defeat ruthless terrorist organisations with global footprints.
Racial prejudice in Western nations dispirits and alienates many young people amongst minority groups - and often makes them bitter individuals because their life-chances are unfairly limited by such prejudice.
That has created a preventable societal problem, which will doubtless continue to breed yet more mentally unstable home-grown terrorists in the nations of the West - as sure as day follows night.
Populist right-wing politicians such as Donald Trump, Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen ought to visit the countries where the descendants of immigrant communities of colour and different faiths originally hail from.
Perhaps visiting nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and nations in sub-Saharan Africa might help the West's provincial-minded populist right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders to moderate their extremist worldviews somewhat.
The West needs to collaborate with the ruling elites of the developing nations that most of the immigrant communities in their midst originate from, and work with them to make their societies more equitable and prosperous.
For example, they must work together to end the exploitation of poor nations by the ruthless tax-minimalising multinational companies from the West - that are literally sucking trillions of dollars out of the national economies of emerging nations across the globe.
Could those vast sums extracted so unjustly from the developing world where the multinational companies actually generate most of their massive profits not be used to transform their economies?
The ruling elites of the Western democracies ought to understand clearly that in the final analysis it is only shared prosperity worldwide that will enable humankind to win the fight against global terrorism.
As terrorist attacks sweep across Western nations one can understand why right-wing political parties and populist far-right politicians are on the ascendancy in virtually all the Western democracies.
Alas, today, fear resulting from terrorist attacks, is spreading hate speech by emboldened racists in many Western societies - with tragic consequences. It has led to an increase in racial attacks on minorities and people of different faiths in many of the Western democracies.
Tragically, that backlash against minorities is also creating a pool of radicalised young people amongst second and third generation immigrant demographics in the West - at precisely the very point in time in human history when all the citizens of the Western democracies need to pull together to fight global terrorism.
Perhaps it is a good thing that right-wing politicians are on the ascendency in the West - in the sense that they are often more effective in pointing out the dangers of uncontrolled immigration to their societies: and how that impacts negatively on their citizens way of life.
It is also proper and fair that such politicians insist that all immigrant communities adapt to the way of life of the host societies in the West that they choose to leave their own countries to settle permanently in.
However, the painful truth is that for the West to end the cycle of violence that we are witnessing in the string of terrorist attacks by unhinged individuals in nations like the U.S., France and Germany, their ruling elites need to move rapidly to end institutional racism.
Vulnerable youths from immigrant communities in the West who feel alienated from society are easy prey for the online recruiting agents of extremist groups and terrorist organisations.
All young people in the U.S., the UK, France and Germany - whatever their skin hue and religion - must have a level playing field in terms of access to good schools for example - to enable them equip themselves with the right skills to become responsible adults able to contribute their quota to society.
Perhaps the point needs to be made that racism in Western societies is counter-productive in an age of global terrorism by extremist groups - as it enables terrorist groups like Islamic State (IS) to recruit from a demographic that feels the harmful effects of social exclusion on grounds of skin hue and religion.
Yet, it is a fact that over the decades, millions of hardworking and ambituous people from all over the world, have helped to transform Western nations into prosperous societies.
That is something that ought to be celebrated and highlighted by mainstream media - and taught in school history lessons in tne West too.
To continue to make the descendants of those immigrants feel that they are second-class citizens in their country of birth is shortsighted and not very wise for societies determined to fight and defeat ruthless terrorist organisations with global footprints.
Racial prejudice in Western nations dispirits and alienates many young people amongst minority groups - and often makes them bitter individuals because their life-chances are unfairly limited by such prejudice.
That has created a preventable societal problem, which will doubtless continue to breed yet more mentally unstable home-grown terrorists in the nations of the West - as sure as day follows night.
Populist right-wing politicians such as Donald Trump, Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen ought to visit the countries where the descendants of immigrant communities of colour and different faiths originally hail from.
Perhaps visiting nations such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and nations in sub-Saharan Africa might help the West's provincial-minded populist right-wing politicians like Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders to moderate their extremist worldviews somewhat.
The West needs to collaborate with the ruling elites of the developing nations that most of the immigrant communities in their midst originate from, and work with them to make their societies more equitable and prosperous.
For example, they must work together to end the exploitation of poor nations by the ruthless tax-minimalising multinational companies from the West - that are literally sucking trillions of dollars out of the national economies of emerging nations across the globe.
Could those vast sums extracted so unjustly from the developing world where the multinational companies actually generate most of their massive profits not be used to transform their economies?
The ruling elites of the Western democracies ought to understand clearly that in the final analysis it is only shared prosperity worldwide that will enable humankind to win the fight against global terrorism.
The Supreme Court Was Right To Jail The Montie Three And Fine Montie FM's Owners
The Supreme Court made the right decision in jailing the so-called Montie Three - Alister Nelson, Godwin Ako Gun and Salifu Maase - and fining the radio station's owners: who will now have to pay GHc 30,000 each.
That is as it should be in a nation anxious to preserve its democracy. Hopefully, media owners in Ghana will now no longer allow their media outlets to become propaganda platforms for irresponsible political parties and self-seeking politicians.
Many discerning and patriotic Ghanaians are pleased that the judges of the Supreme Court were courageuos enough to put down a marker that those who take Ghana's democracy for granted - and therefore speak irresponsibly on the airwaves of radio and television stations - must never cross.
Anything less than the decision to jail the Montie Three would have sent the wrong signal to those who if they had their own way would enslave ordinary Ghanaians. Threatening judges is not only dangerous but also extremely foolish.
Judges play an important role in our democracy - serving as arbiters in disputes between individuals and between individuals and the Ghanaian nation-state. Above all, they stand between us and chaos, by upholding the rule of law and helping to enforce the laws of our country through the justice system.
And under our system judges hold in check those in the executive branch of government who would dearly love to tyrannise over us by wielding unfettered power in our homeland Ghana.
The law of the jungle would prevail in our country if we did not have an upright and courageous judiciary to defend our constitutional rights and hold the other two arms of government - the executive and the legislature - in check through its interpretation of the 1992 Constitution.
That is why it is such an outrage that some of the leaders of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are trying to make out that somehow the decision by the Supreme Court to jail the Montie Three - and fine the owners of that confounded radio station - is abhorrent. It is not.
On the contrary, the Supreme Court's decision to jail the Montie Three and fine the owners of Montie FM was in the supreme interest of our nation and will be beneficial for all Ghanaians in making for an orderly and disciplined society free of hate speech.
Those NDC leaders condemning the judgement of the Supreme Court resulting in the incarceration of the so-called Montie Three for four months ought to be ashamed of themselves for issuing that inane statement that they caused to be put out publicly.
And it is disgraceful that they are also giving the false impression to their members and supporters that the judges of the Supreme Court have done something untoward by jailing the Montie Three - and fining Montie FM's owners on top of that.
Threatening judges is not exercising any of one's democratic rights guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution - it is rather an abuse of freedom of expression: which is why all hate speech is rightly recognised as such by all the Western democracies, all of which now prosecute hate speech as criminal acts.
Issuing veiled threats to our nation's judges is tantamount to attacking the very foundations of Ghanaian democracy - and under no circumstances must such threats ever be tolerated in our homeland Ghana.
No responsible citizen should regard the Supreme Court's judgement on the Montie Three as an attack on press freedom. It is not - and to say so is intolerable, monstrous and intellectually dishonest.
Given our history, some of us have no sympathy for those who make veiled threats against judges, in the Ghanaian media - especially those who are foolish enough to issue threats to judges of the Supreme Court on the very day the nation remembers the three judges murdered so callously some thirty odd years or so ago.
The Montie Three's arrogant disregard for common decency on the day in question that has now landed them in prison was unpardonable, unspeakable and abominable. And incredibly insensitve to boot.
It was the height of irresponsibility and a terrible example of egregious stupidity - and Alister Nelson, Godwin Ako Gun and Salifu Masse have no one but themselves to blame for their plight. Period
The Ghanaian media ought to examine its collective conscience. Their complacency is shocking: do they not realise that ultimately they are the guardians of Ghanaian democracy in their role as society's watchdogs?
The question is: Why are so many journalists in Ghana allowing themselves to be used by political parties and selfish politicians?
Does the Ghanaian media not realise that it is intellectually dishonest to equate veiled threats against judges with an attack on freedom of expression? They ought to condemn those politicians responsible for making such abominable and unpardonable claims.
The time has now come for all Ghanaian journalists to put Mother Ghana's well-being and the promotion of the welfare of the ordinary people of Ghana above partisan politics - and they ought to stop working so hard to advance the pariochial interests of selfish and greedy politicians in our nation.
Threatening judges is a recipe for disaster. It is a dangerous and potentially destabilising crime that no self-respecting democracy anywhere will tolerate. Freedom of expression does not include the right to threaten judges - or any other individual who resides in the Republic of Ghana, for that matter.
Ghana's Supreme Court acted in the supreme national interest in jailing the Montie Three and fining Montie FM's owners.
That is as it should be in a nation anxious to preserve its democracy. Hopefully, media owners in Ghana will now no longer allow their media outlets to become propaganda platforms for irresponsible political parties and self-seeking politicians.
Many discerning and patriotic Ghanaians are pleased that the judges of the Supreme Court were courageuos enough to put down a marker that those who take Ghana's democracy for granted - and therefore speak irresponsibly on the airwaves of radio and television stations - must never cross.
Anything less than the decision to jail the Montie Three would have sent the wrong signal to those who if they had their own way would enslave ordinary Ghanaians. Threatening judges is not only dangerous but also extremely foolish.
Judges play an important role in our democracy - serving as arbiters in disputes between individuals and between individuals and the Ghanaian nation-state. Above all, they stand between us and chaos, by upholding the rule of law and helping to enforce the laws of our country through the justice system.
And under our system judges hold in check those in the executive branch of government who would dearly love to tyrannise over us by wielding unfettered power in our homeland Ghana.
The law of the jungle would prevail in our country if we did not have an upright and courageous judiciary to defend our constitutional rights and hold the other two arms of government - the executive and the legislature - in check through its interpretation of the 1992 Constitution.
That is why it is such an outrage that some of the leaders of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) are trying to make out that somehow the decision by the Supreme Court to jail the Montie Three - and fine the owners of that confounded radio station - is abhorrent. It is not.
On the contrary, the Supreme Court's decision to jail the Montie Three and fine the owners of Montie FM was in the supreme interest of our nation and will be beneficial for all Ghanaians in making for an orderly and disciplined society free of hate speech.
Those NDC leaders condemning the judgement of the Supreme Court resulting in the incarceration of the so-called Montie Three for four months ought to be ashamed of themselves for issuing that inane statement that they caused to be put out publicly.
And it is disgraceful that they are also giving the false impression to their members and supporters that the judges of the Supreme Court have done something untoward by jailing the Montie Three - and fining Montie FM's owners on top of that.
Threatening judges is not exercising any of one's democratic rights guaranteed by the 1992 Constitution - it is rather an abuse of freedom of expression: which is why all hate speech is rightly recognised as such by all the Western democracies, all of which now prosecute hate speech as criminal acts.
Issuing veiled threats to our nation's judges is tantamount to attacking the very foundations of Ghanaian democracy - and under no circumstances must such threats ever be tolerated in our homeland Ghana.
No responsible citizen should regard the Supreme Court's judgement on the Montie Three as an attack on press freedom. It is not - and to say so is intolerable, monstrous and intellectually dishonest.
Given our history, some of us have no sympathy for those who make veiled threats against judges, in the Ghanaian media - especially those who are foolish enough to issue threats to judges of the Supreme Court on the very day the nation remembers the three judges murdered so callously some thirty odd years or so ago.
The Montie Three's arrogant disregard for common decency on the day in question that has now landed them in prison was unpardonable, unspeakable and abominable. And incredibly insensitve to boot.
It was the height of irresponsibility and a terrible example of egregious stupidity - and Alister Nelson, Godwin Ako Gun and Salifu Masse have no one but themselves to blame for their plight. Period
The Ghanaian media ought to examine its collective conscience. Their complacency is shocking: do they not realise that ultimately they are the guardians of Ghanaian democracy in their role as society's watchdogs?
The question is: Why are so many journalists in Ghana allowing themselves to be used by political parties and selfish politicians?
Does the Ghanaian media not realise that it is intellectually dishonest to equate veiled threats against judges with an attack on freedom of expression? They ought to condemn those politicians responsible for making such abominable and unpardonable claims.
The time has now come for all Ghanaian journalists to put Mother Ghana's well-being and the promotion of the welfare of the ordinary people of Ghana above partisan politics - and they ought to stop working so hard to advance the pariochial interests of selfish and greedy politicians in our nation.
Threatening judges is a recipe for disaster. It is a dangerous and potentially destabilising crime that no self-respecting democracy anywhere will tolerate. Freedom of expression does not include the right to threaten judges - or any other individual who resides in the Republic of Ghana, for that matter.
Ghana's Supreme Court acted in the supreme national interest in jailing the Montie Three and fining Montie FM's owners.
Sunday, 24 July 2016
For Mother Ghana's Sake Nkrumahists Must Unite Around A Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom/Dr. Edward Mahama Presidential Ticket
That Mother Ghana needs rescuing from the clutches of the constituent parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being is not in doubt. Tragically for our homeland Ghana their divisive politics has led to the polarisation of Ghanaian society.
The intense rivalry between the constituent political parties making up the NDC/NPP duopoly is also turning the lives of millions of ordinary Ghanaians upside down - as the active sabotaging of the national economy (as part of a scorched-earth political strategy devised by some party hardliners to win power for the main opposition party the NPP) takes its toll on society.
Today, even members of the super-wealthy criminal syndicates committing serious crimes (mostly white-collar crimes ripping off Mother Ghana in massive tax-dodging schemes and sundry crooked public procurement deals) now deem it wise to hide behind the NDC/NPP duopoly in order to escape justice.
Clearly, we are at a juncture in our country's history, when Mother Ghana desperately needs a credible third-force in our nation's politics, to take over the running of our beloved country, after the December 2016 presidential election.
That third-force ought to govern the country after 7th January, 2017, at the head of a government of national unity, made up of the nation's best brains (irrespective of the appointed individual's political affiliation): if our country is to move ahead again.
The sad truth is that our homeland Ghana will continue to mark time if the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) continue to dominate our nation - and political power continues to be alternated between those two opaque and corrupt political parties in the governance of our country.
The question is: Why are the hard-pressed people of Ghana wasting precious time tolerating the NDC/NPP duopoly - when there is not a single nation anywhere in the world that has become prosperous, which prior to that economic transformation taking place, had been a polarised society riven by party politics?
No modern nation today can possibly prosper if it continues to remain a deeply divided society.
Yet that is precisely what Ghanaians are apparently hoping will happen to their much-divided nation - if they vote for either of the presidential candidates of the constituent parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly that have ruled Ghana since the 4th Republic came into being. Some hope.
The wuestion is: Is this not a modern African nation full of intelligent individuals?
Why then are so many Ghanaians determined to ruin their collective future by continuing to blindly support the presidential candidates of the divisive NDC/NPP duopoly - when every discerning and patriotic Ghanaian knows perfectly well that as a people we need to be unified if the enterprise Ghana is to ever succeed and prosper?
Is it yet not obvious to the younger generation of educated Ghanaians that whichever of the two parties that make up that corrupt and super-ruthless NDC/NPP duopoly that finds itself in the political wilderness after this December's presidential election, will resort to actively sabotaging the nation-building effort: as sure as day follows night?
Is that not precisely what the extremists and hardliners in the NPP have been engaged in since they lost power in the December 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections?
It goes without saying that if the NPP's presidential candidate wins the presidential election, the NDC's extremists and party hardliners will also resort to sabotaging the nation-building effort, when they are sent into the political wilderness by voters in December.
The negativity of that nonsensical "my-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" political philosophy that guides so many in this country when it comes to voting in nationwide elections must be jettisoned quickly if Ghana is to be put in a position to enable it move ahead rapidly again.
If Ghanaians make the fatal mistake of voting for either President John Dramani Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, Ghana's economy will continue to deteriorate: because both political parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly are beholden to the selfsame vested interests that are draining our nation of its very lifeblood through high-level corruption.
The two parties are in effect special-purpose vehicles used by Ghana's vampire-elites that are the local lackeys of the foreign carpetbaggers ripping our nation off in those sundry one-sided agreements signed by our leaders over the years - those terrible agreements that have legalised the mortgaging of the younger generation's future well-being.
For once Ghanaians need to put aside blind allegiance to the NDC/NPP duopoly.
The most educated amongst the younger generation of Ghanaians ought to understand clearly that a divided nation can never progress and prosper - not when the main opposition party will actively sabotage the nation-building effort whiles in the political wilderness after January 2017: so as to make the governing party unpopular and help it win power in the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The only hope for Ghana would be victory for the presidential candidate of a united new Convention People's Party (CPP).
The followers of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah should stop claiming to be Nkrumahists, if in the face of all the evidence of the suffering the masses of the Ghanaian people are undergoing, today, they still don't understand why they need to unite under the banner of the Convention People's Party (CPP) and select Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom as their presidential candidate with Dr. Edward Mahama as his running mate.
Do they not still realise that Nkrumah's Ghana needs rescuing from the clutches of the NDC/NPP duopoly - today's neo-liberal tools of neocolonialism and imperialism? How blind can one get? Haaba.
The time has now come for all Nkrumahist politicians to put aside personal ambition and narrow-minded partisanship, and unite around the leadership of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom and Dr. Edward Mahama in a united new CPP - which will lead the transformation of Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia: after emerging victorious in the December 2016 presidential election.
Genuine Nkrumahists need to outhink and outsmart the determined agents of neocolonialism and imperialism who have stopped the Nkrumahist front from reuniting under the banner of the CPP for decades now - and finally reunite and win power to move Nkrumah's Ghana forward once again: for the benefit of all the people of our country.
For Mother Ghana's sake Nkrumahists must unite around the candidacy of a Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom/Dr. Edward Mahama presidential ticket.
When Will Ghanaians Realise That Paa Kwesi Nduom Will Make An Excellent Leader For Ghana?
When will Ghanaians wake up to the fact that amongst all the candidates vying for the presidency, this year, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom will make the best leader for our homeland Ghana?,
Take the not inconsiderable matter of outlining possibilities for the nation's future during campaign trips by various presidential candidates across the country.
The question is: Can one can tell the kind of leadership a candidate for the presidency will offer if elected, by the promises he or she makes?
With all the piled up evidence of the looting of state-owned enterprises by their management and workers, for decades now, why are some politicians promising to build yet more state-owned factories - this time one in each district of Ghana?
Why not outline plans instead to help the hundreds of micro-entrepreneurs in all the districts of Ghana, who only need to have their products certified by the Ghana Standards Authority and Food and Drugs Authority, with soft loans to go through the certification process, and enable them to finally start producing their own products?
In view of the passion that drives such dynamic individuals, given such assistance, would they not grow those micro-enterprises and employ more young people across the country as they expand those businesses organically? It is said that from small acorns grow great oak trees.
If leaders like Nduom talk about creating the right climate for businesses to thrive, would that not enable entrepreneurs to set up solar farms in all the districts, for example, by the simple measure of an Nduom government making the entire renewable energy sector's value-chain tax-free - and would that not be more sensible and pratical: in a nation grappling with skyrocketing electricity tariffs?
When told about the potential of such schemes Nduom's response has invariably been that businesses need the right economic climate to be successful. And he is right.
Unlike your avearge Ghanaian politician Nduom is quick to agree with creative thinkers - and would consequently back those who say, for example, that it ought to be possible to assist District, Municipal and Metropolitian Assemblies to build crematoria - using the public private partnership (PPP) business model - so that all familes can send off their loved ones in dignified surroundings and have their bodies cremated in safe and hygenic fashion.
Backing such ideas clearly indicates that Nduom is a leader who does a lot of lateral thinking: If Ebola ever turns up in Ghana (God forbid), we would have the infrastructure in place to safely dispose off the bodies of all victims countrywide.
And since Ghanaians love sending off their loved ones who pass away in grand style the crematoria would be profitable businesses for the District, Municipal and Metropolitian Assemblies. That is a practical and doable initiative, is it not?
Who but Nduom amongst the presidential candidates in this year's election is talking about dealing with Ghana's mountain of debt - and offers a practical solution to dealing with it, whiles at the same time expanding the national economy using the purchasing power of the state to empower the private-sector?
Is his thriving business empire in a difficult economic environment not a practical demonstration of his ability to create wealth and jobs - and does he not tower far above both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo in that regard? Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o.
Who has ever heard or seen either President Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo making public all the sources of the campaign funds for the corruption-riddled parties they lead?
They cannot and will probably never ever do so - for their parties are beholden to the very vested interests milking Mother Ghana dry.
Is the division in the party Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo leads not mainly about the transparent handling of the New Patriotic Party's bank accounts and the lack thereof?
And is that mega-scoundrel Woyome not getting away with swindling Mother Ghana because he claims to be a financier of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that President Mahama leads?
Ghanaians must show the red card to both the two constituent parties - the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) - which make up the NDC/NPP duopoly and have ruled Ghana since the 4th Republic came into being: by not voting for both their presidential candidates in this year's presidential election.
Have President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo ever deigned it fit to tell Ghanaians how much they and their spouses own in assets - as a volutary anti-corruption measure to help fight high-level corruption in our country?
Why are they so shy about doing so - when doing so will show Ghanaians in practical fashion that they are truly honest men who can be trusted not to rip Ghanaians and their nation off if elected to lead our country?
The fact that Nduom has stated his net worth and that of his dear wife Yvonne before, as well as publicly published the sources of his party's funding, and intends to do so again before this year's elections shows that he is a genuinely honest and transparent leader: Just the qualities our homeland Ghana actually needs in its leader in January 2017.
The question is: When will Ghanaians ever wake up to the fact that Paa Kwesi Nduom is the leader who actually has all the leadership qualities needed to enable a government of national unity (made up of the best-qualified and most principled Ghanaians from across the spectrum) led by him to transform Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia and vote for him in the presidential election?
Take the not inconsiderable matter of outlining possibilities for the nation's future during campaign trips by various presidential candidates across the country.
The question is: Can one can tell the kind of leadership a candidate for the presidency will offer if elected, by the promises he or she makes?
With all the piled up evidence of the looting of state-owned enterprises by their management and workers, for decades now, why are some politicians promising to build yet more state-owned factories - this time one in each district of Ghana?
Why not outline plans instead to help the hundreds of micro-entrepreneurs in all the districts of Ghana, who only need to have their products certified by the Ghana Standards Authority and Food and Drugs Authority, with soft loans to go through the certification process, and enable them to finally start producing their own products?
In view of the passion that drives such dynamic individuals, given such assistance, would they not grow those micro-enterprises and employ more young people across the country as they expand those businesses organically? It is said that from small acorns grow great oak trees.
If leaders like Nduom talk about creating the right climate for businesses to thrive, would that not enable entrepreneurs to set up solar farms in all the districts, for example, by the simple measure of an Nduom government making the entire renewable energy sector's value-chain tax-free - and would that not be more sensible and pratical: in a nation grappling with skyrocketing electricity tariffs?
When told about the potential of such schemes Nduom's response has invariably been that businesses need the right economic climate to be successful. And he is right.
Unlike your avearge Ghanaian politician Nduom is quick to agree with creative thinkers - and would consequently back those who say, for example, that it ought to be possible to assist District, Municipal and Metropolitian Assemblies to build crematoria - using the public private partnership (PPP) business model - so that all familes can send off their loved ones in dignified surroundings and have their bodies cremated in safe and hygenic fashion.
Backing such ideas clearly indicates that Nduom is a leader who does a lot of lateral thinking: If Ebola ever turns up in Ghana (God forbid), we would have the infrastructure in place to safely dispose off the bodies of all victims countrywide.
And since Ghanaians love sending off their loved ones who pass away in grand style the crematoria would be profitable businesses for the District, Municipal and Metropolitian Assemblies. That is a practical and doable initiative, is it not?
Who but Nduom amongst the presidential candidates in this year's election is talking about dealing with Ghana's mountain of debt - and offers a practical solution to dealing with it, whiles at the same time expanding the national economy using the purchasing power of the state to empower the private-sector?
Is his thriving business empire in a difficult economic environment not a practical demonstration of his ability to create wealth and jobs - and does he not tower far above both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo in that regard? Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o.
Who has ever heard or seen either President Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo making public all the sources of the campaign funds for the corruption-riddled parties they lead?
They cannot and will probably never ever do so - for their parties are beholden to the very vested interests milking Mother Ghana dry.
Is the division in the party Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo leads not mainly about the transparent handling of the New Patriotic Party's bank accounts and the lack thereof?
And is that mega-scoundrel Woyome not getting away with swindling Mother Ghana because he claims to be a financier of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) that President Mahama leads?
Ghanaians must show the red card to both the two constituent parties - the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) - which make up the NDC/NPP duopoly and have ruled Ghana since the 4th Republic came into being: by not voting for both their presidential candidates in this year's presidential election.
Have President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo ever deigned it fit to tell Ghanaians how much they and their spouses own in assets - as a volutary anti-corruption measure to help fight high-level corruption in our country?
Why are they so shy about doing so - when doing so will show Ghanaians in practical fashion that they are truly honest men who can be trusted not to rip Ghanaians and their nation off if elected to lead our country?
The fact that Nduom has stated his net worth and that of his dear wife Yvonne before, as well as publicly published the sources of his party's funding, and intends to do so again before this year's elections shows that he is a genuinely honest and transparent leader: Just the qualities our homeland Ghana actually needs in its leader in January 2017.
The question is: When will Ghanaians ever wake up to the fact that Paa Kwesi Nduom is the leader who actually has all the leadership qualities needed to enable a government of national unity (made up of the best-qualified and most principled Ghanaians from across the spectrum) led by him to transform Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia and vote for him in the presidential election?
Sunday, 17 July 2016
Does The Institution Of Chieftaincy Pose An Existential Threat To The Unitary Status Of The Republic Of Ghana?
Does the institution of Chieftaincy pose an existential threat to the unitary status of the Republic of Ghana?
And if as many Progressives and nationalists in Ghana, insist, the institution of Chieftaincy is a redoubt and the last bastion of Ghana's rabid tribal-supremacists, should Ghanaians continue to accept and tolerate it?
The time has come for discerning Ghanaians to have a conversation about the role of Chiefs in the Ghana of today. It is time Ghanaians understood clearly the real nature of the Chieftaincy institution. Today's piece is this blog's humble contribution to that conversation.
Any system that is built on a foundation of the enslavement of others is an iniquitous one. Societies that tolerate such systems in the 21st century will continue to remain backward nations. Ghanaians must never forget that inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy.
That is why the clear-headed and deep-thinking leaders of India, moved rapidly to rid their country of the miasma that inherited privilege represents, by taking steps to do away with the Maharajas after independence - with Prime Minister Indira Ghandi finally removing the last remaining privileges of India's Maharajas in 1971.
Today, India, a country that once had an agrarian economy with a mostly impoverished population, is a global economic power - whiles Ghana continues to remain stunted economically.
No modern nation has prospered without first ridding itself of feudalism - and Ghana will continue to mark time if puts up with the institution of Chieftaincy, a relic from our pre-colonial feudal past, which in 2016 still literally enslaves some of our fellow citizens.
What then is the point of maintaining the institution of Chieftaincy in modern Ghana? Is it not a fact that the palaces of Chiefs across Ghana are peopled mostly by tribal-supremacist individuals who think that their particular tribal group is superior to all other tribal groupings in Ghana?
Yet, that foolish belief held by many of the denizens of Chiefs palaces across Ghana flies in the face of the results of some of the latest scientific research.
Empirical evidence by researchers show conclusively that Ghanaians are one people: We share virtually the same DNA regardless of the part of the nation we hail from and whatever our ethnic heritage is.
That is why patriotic and nationalistic Ghanaians insist that no tribe is inferior or superior to another in the unitary Republic of diverse-ethnicity that is our homeland Ghana.
Only a nation in which many have the mentality of serfs will delude itself into thinking that a system that enslaves others so that they will be permanently available to fetch and carry for a privileged few, is the embodiment of culture.
Culture is dynamic. How then can the calcified institution of Chieftaincy be the repository of our cultural heritage? It is not. Any system that permits human beings to carry their fellow human beings on their heads in palanquins is abhorrent and an abominable one. Why tolerate it in this day and age, I ask?
Our living culture, which is dymamic, is on display in many aspects of our everyday lives: When we mourn and bury our loved ones who pass away; at child-naming ceremonies; during marriage ceremonies; how the different generations relate to each other when they interact; etc., etc.
In all of my 63 years on this earth, I am yet to come across any Ghanaian who was a deep thinker, who, precisely because he or she mercifully did not have a serf-mentality (the unfortunate malaise that alas afflicts so many in this country), did not also despise the institution of Chieftaincy - because it is a carry-over of the ghastly fuedal system from our pre-colonial past.
There is not a single country anywhere in the world that has progressed without first ridding itself of feudalism. That is why we must not tolerate today's progeny of the ruling elites of our pre-colonial feudal past: especially when they disrespect our democratically elected leaders. That is intolerable.
In light of the totally unacceptable ultimatum issued recently to the regime led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, by Chiefs in Kumasi, if we had a regime in power today that clearly understood the latent threat posed to the stability and cohesion of the Republic of Ghana, by Chiefs, they would be moving rapidly to take a number of steps to neutralise that potential threat.
To begin with, the government of President Mahama must make sure that Act 759, that discriminatory Chieftaincy Act of 2008, is amended before the end of its tenure: and ensure that the amended version clearly states that all Paramount Chiefs are of equal status and share the same protocol-ranking in the Republic of Ghana.
Act 759 of 1971 is one of most outrageous pieces of legislation ever passed by any of Ghana's post-independence Parliaments. With the exception of its main beneficiary, it is an affront to all the other Paramount Chiefs in Ghana.
It is the disgraceful handiwork of the tribal-supremacists and hypocritical politicians who dreamt it up in 1971 as an amendment to the original piece of legislation crafted in 1961 on which it is based.
An egregious insult to all the Paramount Chiefs in Ghana whom it does not name - which means all Paramount Chiefs in Ghana bar one: the tribal Chief of the tribal-supremacist politicians then in power who shepherded it through Parliament in 1971 - Act 759 must be revised to reflect the edict of the 1992 Constituency that no one should be discriminated against in the Republic of Ghana.
Secondly, if it has not already done so, then the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), must not accept the resignation of the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, under any circumstances.
To accept the resignation of the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, would be tantamount to appeasing Chiefs - who clearly have overblown ideas about themselves and need to be put firmly in their place. No weakness whatsoever must be shown to Chiefs who issue ultimatums to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. Ever.
Where, in the 1992 Constitution, is there a state-within-a-state clause - such that any Paramount Chief in Ghana can carry on as if he was the reigning monarch of such a state-within-a-state in the Republic of Ghana? None.
The question is: Since when did a refusal to fawn on Chiefs and a refusal by government appointees to humour arrogant Chiefs been a crime in Nkrumah's Ghana? No one who is clear-headed, who also thinks deeply and does not have a serf-mentality, is a toady. Period.
Clearly, the Hon. Kojo Bonsu does not have a serf-mentality and refuses to kowtow to any Chief in the Republic of Ghana. That is as it should be in a liberal society that is also a constitutional democracy. Hard-working men like the Hon. Kojo Bonsu have no need to be toadies.
If it is indeed true that Chiefs in Kumasi did say that they will frustrate the execution of national development projects in Kumasi if the Hon. Kojo Bonsu remains in office, so be it. If media reports to that effect are true, then it was not the wisest of statements for noble men said to be sagacious to make - but that is their own headache.
The vast majority of the residents of Kumasi will always remember that once upon a time Chiefs in Kumasi put foolish pride ahead of the well-being of their city and the welfare of the people who live in it. Is that really the kind of legacy Kumasi's Chiefs want to leave behind? Incredible.
Finally, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of President Mahama must learn to have an arms-length relationship with all Chiefs in Ghana. Let them treat them with respect, but going to the extent of lending some Chiefs the presidential plane must cease forthwith (if that bush-telegraph Toli is true that is).
That ought to be the position of every government of Ghana that actually cares about the stability and cohesion of our country - for the institution of Chieftaincy without question does pose a long-term existential threat to the survival of the unitary status of the Republic of Ghana.
And if as many Progressives and nationalists in Ghana, insist, the institution of Chieftaincy is a redoubt and the last bastion of Ghana's rabid tribal-supremacists, should Ghanaians continue to accept and tolerate it?
The time has come for discerning Ghanaians to have a conversation about the role of Chiefs in the Ghana of today. It is time Ghanaians understood clearly the real nature of the Chieftaincy institution. Today's piece is this blog's humble contribution to that conversation.
Any system that is built on a foundation of the enslavement of others is an iniquitous one. Societies that tolerate such systems in the 21st century will continue to remain backward nations. Ghanaians must never forget that inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy.
That is why the clear-headed and deep-thinking leaders of India, moved rapidly to rid their country of the miasma that inherited privilege represents, by taking steps to do away with the Maharajas after independence - with Prime Minister Indira Ghandi finally removing the last remaining privileges of India's Maharajas in 1971.
Today, India, a country that once had an agrarian economy with a mostly impoverished population, is a global economic power - whiles Ghana continues to remain stunted economically.
No modern nation has prospered without first ridding itself of feudalism - and Ghana will continue to mark time if puts up with the institution of Chieftaincy, a relic from our pre-colonial feudal past, which in 2016 still literally enslaves some of our fellow citizens.
What then is the point of maintaining the institution of Chieftaincy in modern Ghana? Is it not a fact that the palaces of Chiefs across Ghana are peopled mostly by tribal-supremacist individuals who think that their particular tribal group is superior to all other tribal groupings in Ghana?
Yet, that foolish belief held by many of the denizens of Chiefs palaces across Ghana flies in the face of the results of some of the latest scientific research.
Empirical evidence by researchers show conclusively that Ghanaians are one people: We share virtually the same DNA regardless of the part of the nation we hail from and whatever our ethnic heritage is.
That is why patriotic and nationalistic Ghanaians insist that no tribe is inferior or superior to another in the unitary Republic of diverse-ethnicity that is our homeland Ghana.
Only a nation in which many have the mentality of serfs will delude itself into thinking that a system that enslaves others so that they will be permanently available to fetch and carry for a privileged few, is the embodiment of culture.
Culture is dynamic. How then can the calcified institution of Chieftaincy be the repository of our cultural heritage? It is not. Any system that permits human beings to carry their fellow human beings on their heads in palanquins is abhorrent and an abominable one. Why tolerate it in this day and age, I ask?
Our living culture, which is dymamic, is on display in many aspects of our everyday lives: When we mourn and bury our loved ones who pass away; at child-naming ceremonies; during marriage ceremonies; how the different generations relate to each other when they interact; etc., etc.
In all of my 63 years on this earth, I am yet to come across any Ghanaian who was a deep thinker, who, precisely because he or she mercifully did not have a serf-mentality (the unfortunate malaise that alas afflicts so many in this country), did not also despise the institution of Chieftaincy - because it is a carry-over of the ghastly fuedal system from our pre-colonial past.
There is not a single country anywhere in the world that has progressed without first ridding itself of feudalism. That is why we must not tolerate today's progeny of the ruling elites of our pre-colonial feudal past: especially when they disrespect our democratically elected leaders. That is intolerable.
In light of the totally unacceptable ultimatum issued recently to the regime led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, by Chiefs in Kumasi, if we had a regime in power today that clearly understood the latent threat posed to the stability and cohesion of the Republic of Ghana, by Chiefs, they would be moving rapidly to take a number of steps to neutralise that potential threat.
To begin with, the government of President Mahama must make sure that Act 759, that discriminatory Chieftaincy Act of 2008, is amended before the end of its tenure: and ensure that the amended version clearly states that all Paramount Chiefs are of equal status and share the same protocol-ranking in the Republic of Ghana.
Act 759 of 1971 is one of most outrageous pieces of legislation ever passed by any of Ghana's post-independence Parliaments. With the exception of its main beneficiary, it is an affront to all the other Paramount Chiefs in Ghana.
It is the disgraceful handiwork of the tribal-supremacists and hypocritical politicians who dreamt it up in 1971 as an amendment to the original piece of legislation crafted in 1961 on which it is based.
An egregious insult to all the Paramount Chiefs in Ghana whom it does not name - which means all Paramount Chiefs in Ghana bar one: the tribal Chief of the tribal-supremacist politicians then in power who shepherded it through Parliament in 1971 - Act 759 must be revised to reflect the edict of the 1992 Constituency that no one should be discriminated against in the Republic of Ghana.
Secondly, if it has not already done so, then the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), must not accept the resignation of the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, under any circumstances.
To accept the resignation of the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, would be tantamount to appeasing Chiefs - who clearly have overblown ideas about themselves and need to be put firmly in their place. No weakness whatsoever must be shown to Chiefs who issue ultimatums to the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. Ever.
Where, in the 1992 Constitution, is there a state-within-a-state clause - such that any Paramount Chief in Ghana can carry on as if he was the reigning monarch of such a state-within-a-state in the Republic of Ghana? None.
The question is: Since when did a refusal to fawn on Chiefs and a refusal by government appointees to humour arrogant Chiefs been a crime in Nkrumah's Ghana? No one who is clear-headed, who also thinks deeply and does not have a serf-mentality, is a toady. Period.
Clearly, the Hon. Kojo Bonsu does not have a serf-mentality and refuses to kowtow to any Chief in the Republic of Ghana. That is as it should be in a liberal society that is also a constitutional democracy. Hard-working men like the Hon. Kojo Bonsu have no need to be toadies.
If it is indeed true that Chiefs in Kumasi did say that they will frustrate the execution of national development projects in Kumasi if the Hon. Kojo Bonsu remains in office, so be it. If media reports to that effect are true, then it was not the wisest of statements for noble men said to be sagacious to make - but that is their own headache.
The vast majority of the residents of Kumasi will always remember that once upon a time Chiefs in Kumasi put foolish pride ahead of the well-being of their city and the welfare of the people who live in it. Is that really the kind of legacy Kumasi's Chiefs want to leave behind? Incredible.
Finally, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of President Mahama must learn to have an arms-length relationship with all Chiefs in Ghana. Let them treat them with respect, but going to the extent of lending some Chiefs the presidential plane must cease forthwith (if that bush-telegraph Toli is true that is).
That ought to be the position of every government of Ghana that actually cares about the stability and cohesion of our country - for the institution of Chieftaincy without question does pose a long-term existential threat to the survival of the unitary status of the Republic of Ghana.
Friday, 15 July 2016
#GhanaStandsWithNice&France!
The latest terrorist attack in the French Reviera city of Nice yesterday has horrified and saddened scores of people across the globe. It is the third major terrorist attack on France this year.
It was an unspeakable and unpardonable act of cruelty, and a heinous crime against humanity that saw an unhinged terrorist ploughing through a Nice street crowd, which was celebrating Bastille Day, with a truck.
He shot a number of people dead whiles mowing down and injuring others in the deadly attack on innocents out celebrating a French national holiday. He apparently also had a fake grenade and replica guns in the cab of the truck.
Yesterday's deranged act of terror in Nice demonstrates clearly the threat that terrorists continue to pose to humankind in general.
That such a tragedy - in which 88 innocent people were killed in horrific fashion with 202 others sustaining various degrees of injury - could occur is troubling. It confirms what those who insist that preventing all terrorist attacks is simply not feasible, say.
The attacker, Mohamed Lahouaeij-Bouhlel, a French citizen of Tunisian descent, was shot dead by police to bring his murderous rampage with the 19-tonne truck to an end.
It would appear that in a sense we must all begin to see ourselves as potential victims of extremists from around the world, with the capability of leveraging a global network of unhinged extremist individuals, who are ready and willing to commit acts of terror, in virtually every part of the one biosphere that humankind shares with plants, animals and other life forms.
Clearly, humankind now finds itself living in an age of global terrorism - and no one can be completely safe from random acts of terror: no matter which part of the planet Earth he or she resides in.
In light of that new reality, it is important that as one of the arrowhead security organisations at the frontline of Ghana's war against global terrorism, the Ghana Police Service is properly resourced urgently.
A key aspect of ensuring that the Ghana Police Service is well-resourced is to motivate the men and women - who put their lives on the line every day, in order to ensure public safety countrywide, and in countering the threat posed by terrorists to Ghana - by improving their conditions of service to bring it up to par with that of our military.
We ought to stop regarding the Ghana Police Service as a poor relation of the Ghana Armed Forces, and instead see both security agencies as equal partners, tasked to ensure the safety of the Republic of Ghana and all its citizens, at all material times.
At the very least, the men and women who serve in both those frontline security agencies must both enjoy the same pay scales, allowances and retirement benefits - for, today, in the age of global terrorism, they both share the same risks involved in protecting their nation and its people.
Perhaps the most sensible way to proceed might be to transform the police into a paramilitary force and change its name to the Ghana Police Force, with military ranks for the men and women who serve Mother Ghana, in police uniforms.
Finally, we are sure we speak for all Ghanaians, when this blog says to the residents of the city of Nice in particular, and the entire population of France in general, in solidarity with them: We share your pain.
Furthermore, the people of Ghana embrace all the people of France and link arms with them in solidarity against those who perpetrate abominable and unspeakable acts of terror in their attempt to subjugate all of humankind through fear.
France has been a generous partner in Ghana's development for decades now, and we mourn with the all people of France, who are yet again having to prepare to bury another group of innocent French citizens murdered in cold blood by an act of terrorism. We stand with the French people in their moment of grief.
Our hearts go out to all those who lost their loved ones in this senseless and cowardly act of terrorism. May the souls of their loved ones rest in peace.
One cannot possibly begin to imagine the nightmarish last-breadth-moments, which must have been marked by the most intense of fears, that the 88 victims who died probably experienced.
The 202 who were injured but nonetheless survived that senseless act of terrorism will probably relive those frightening few minutes periodically for the rest of their natural lives.
Ghanaians pray for strength to cope with a sad and terrible loss, for all the friends and relations of those departed innocents, whose lives were so tragically cut short in Nice yesterday.
What is most unfair about such tragedies, is that a few mad individuals can rob so many innocent people of their lives, in these senseless and cowardly terrorist attacks.
The Nice Bastille Day massacre will neither cow France nor intimidate the rest of humankind. In the end the human spirit will doubtless triumph over the evil that is terrorism.Terrorists will never subjugate humankind. Ever. #GhanaStandsWithNice&France!
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Why The Commander-in-Chief Of The Ghana Armed Forces Cannot Entertain Altimatums From Any Quarter In The Republic Of Ghana
I still refuse to believe media reports that the Asanteman Council has issued an ultimatum to the government to dismiss the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), within a week.
Why would the Asanteman Council issue such an ultimatum and do so publicly when it knows perfectly well that that would put the government in an impossible position: as no government of Ghana that is led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces can give in to such an ultimatum from any quarter in Ghana,?
The solution to the impasse over the position of the KMA's MCE actually lies in the bosom of the Asanteman Council. The point also needs to be made that no one in Ghana can stop the Hon. Kojo Bonsu from resigning as the KMA's MCE if he so desires. That is as it should be in a functioning democracy.
All that has to be done to resolve this storm-in-a-calabash is for the Asantehene to simply state that like all compassionate fathers, whose offspring err and apologise for their sins, he will forgive his own son the Hon. Kojo Bonsu - and that Kojo Bonsu should go and sin no more. Case closed.
On the other hand, if it is actually true that the Asanteman Council has indeed issued a public ultimatum to the government to dismiss the Hon. Kojo Bonsu within a week, then it is important that President Mahama understands clearly what is really at stake - and why his regime must ignore all such ultimatums: no matter where in Ghana they emanate from.
No one within the borders of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Ghana can order the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces about. That is sacrilegious and an abomination.
Those who issue such public ultimatums cannot have the good of our country at heart: and every government of the day has a moral obligation to be firm with such people at all material times.
We must never entertain such disrespect to Ghana's President, and head of state, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, under any circumstances - especially when such ultimatums come from Chiefs who are not elected by their own people but chosen by a priveleged few from a few particular extended family clans.
That is intolerable in a constitutional democracy in which the rule of law prevails and in which all public officials (in both the elected and appointed categories) are required by law to follow due process in carrying out their duties.
President Mahama's administration ought to understsnd clearly that Ghana is a sovereign state that has full control over the entire landmass within its territorial borders - and that the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state exercises the power of life and death over all who reside within its territory.
Furthermore, none of the 10 administrative regions of this country, is the private property of any individual or group of individuals (including so-called traditional councils) - for there is not a single state-within-a-state arrangement outlined anywhere in the 1992 Constitution, which is the basic law of the land.
Where will it all eventually lead to if the government caves in to such arrogant demands from Chiefs? Perhaps the time has now come to discard the Chieftaincy Act of 1971 - drawn up by a few tribal-supremacists: and disrespectful to all the other Paramountcies in Ghana.
President Mahama's administration must understand that appeasement is not an option in this pure nonsense on bamboo stilts tantrum being thrown by grown men who ought to know better. Enough is enough.
If the government caves in to this outrage from the spoilt and over-pampered progeny of the ruling elites of our pre-colonial feudal past, this blog confidently predicts that a host of other traditional councils across Ghana will be issuing their own ultimatums. What, then?
The traditional authorities in Bawku will doubtless be next in line and demand that the government removes all the security forces from Bawku within a week - so that the people there can get on with the important business of murdering each other without any hindrance.
Then the traditional council of Bimbilla will also follow Bawku's example and make the same arrogant and foolish demand - as will that of Alavanyo and every other area in Ghana where Chieftaincy and land disputes currently rage.
Where will all that insurgency (yes that is exactly what that confounded rubbish is) end, I ask?
Will it not lead to lawlessness across our homeland Ghana? And will it not ultimately threaten the stability and cohesion of our nation? President Mahama must ignore all such ultimatums - and his administration must treat all of them with the contempt they deserve.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces cannot entertain ultimatums from any quarter within the territorial borders of Ghana - and it is time every Chief and traditional council in the Republic of Ghana understood that clearly.
Some of us are gradually getting fed up with the tiresome arrogance of some of Ghana's Chiefs: who need to understand clearly that the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces cannot be ordered about by anyone - and will never entertain ultimatums from any quarter in the Republic of Ghana. Period.
Why would the Asanteman Council issue such an ultimatum and do so publicly when it knows perfectly well that that would put the government in an impossible position: as no government of Ghana that is led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces can give in to such an ultimatum from any quarter in Ghana,?
The solution to the impasse over the position of the KMA's MCE actually lies in the bosom of the Asanteman Council. The point also needs to be made that no one in Ghana can stop the Hon. Kojo Bonsu from resigning as the KMA's MCE if he so desires. That is as it should be in a functioning democracy.
All that has to be done to resolve this storm-in-a-calabash is for the Asantehene to simply state that like all compassionate fathers, whose offspring err and apologise for their sins, he will forgive his own son the Hon. Kojo Bonsu - and that Kojo Bonsu should go and sin no more. Case closed.
On the other hand, if it is actually true that the Asanteman Council has indeed issued a public ultimatum to the government to dismiss the Hon. Kojo Bonsu within a week, then it is important that President Mahama understands clearly what is really at stake - and why his regime must ignore all such ultimatums: no matter where in Ghana they emanate from.
No one within the borders of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Ghana can order the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces about. That is sacrilegious and an abomination.
Those who issue such public ultimatums cannot have the good of our country at heart: and every government of the day has a moral obligation to be firm with such people at all material times.
We must never entertain such disrespect to Ghana's President, and head of state, who is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, under any circumstances - especially when such ultimatums come from Chiefs who are not elected by their own people but chosen by a priveleged few from a few particular extended family clans.
That is intolerable in a constitutional democracy in which the rule of law prevails and in which all public officials (in both the elected and appointed categories) are required by law to follow due process in carrying out their duties.
President Mahama's administration ought to understsnd clearly that Ghana is a sovereign state that has full control over the entire landmass within its territorial borders - and that the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state exercises the power of life and death over all who reside within its territory.
Furthermore, none of the 10 administrative regions of this country, is the private property of any individual or group of individuals (including so-called traditional councils) - for there is not a single state-within-a-state arrangement outlined anywhere in the 1992 Constitution, which is the basic law of the land.
Where will it all eventually lead to if the government caves in to such arrogant demands from Chiefs? Perhaps the time has now come to discard the Chieftaincy Act of 1971 - drawn up by a few tribal-supremacists: and disrespectful to all the other Paramountcies in Ghana.
President Mahama's administration must understand that appeasement is not an option in this pure nonsense on bamboo stilts tantrum being thrown by grown men who ought to know better. Enough is enough.
If the government caves in to this outrage from the spoilt and over-pampered progeny of the ruling elites of our pre-colonial feudal past, this blog confidently predicts that a host of other traditional councils across Ghana will be issuing their own ultimatums. What, then?
The traditional authorities in Bawku will doubtless be next in line and demand that the government removes all the security forces from Bawku within a week - so that the people there can get on with the important business of murdering each other without any hindrance.
Then the traditional council of Bimbilla will also follow Bawku's example and make the same arrogant and foolish demand - as will that of Alavanyo and every other area in Ghana where Chieftaincy and land disputes currently rage.
Where will all that insurgency (yes that is exactly what that confounded rubbish is) end, I ask?
Will it not lead to lawlessness across our homeland Ghana? And will it not ultimately threaten the stability and cohesion of our nation? President Mahama must ignore all such ultimatums - and his administration must treat all of them with the contempt they deserve.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces cannot entertain ultimatums from any quarter within the territorial borders of Ghana - and it is time every Chief and traditional council in the Republic of Ghana understood that clearly.
Some of us are gradually getting fed up with the tiresome arrogance of some of Ghana's Chiefs: who need to understand clearly that the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces cannot be ordered about by anyone - and will never entertain ultimatums from any quarter in the Republic of Ghana. Period.
Sunday, 10 July 2016
Younger Generation Ghanaians Must Not Risk Ghana's Future By Voting For Either President Mahama Or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo
''When a subject is highly controversial...one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker."
-Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).
Apparently, our blog post entitled, "The Inherent Dangers Associated With Our Byzantine System" made a few Chiefs in Kumasi apoplectic, when they got to know of its contents. If true, then that is most unfortunate.
They must not let their blood pressure rise on my account. Above all, they must not take all this personally. I have the highest regard for them as private citizens - but like many a Ghanaian progressive and nationalist, it never escapes me that the institution of Chieftaincy is a remnant of our feudal past.
That is why some of us despise it and want it abolished - because it blocks the path to Ghana becoming a meritocracy. Inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. So why should discerning Ghanaians who want our nation to progress tolerate it, I ask?
Perhaps Chiefs in Ghana who disapprove of my some of the opinions I hold ought to simply regard Kofi Thompson as their village idiot - if it will help them come to terms with my plain-speaking and refusal to be sucked into the absurd Alice-in-Wonderland fantasy world they inhabit.
With respect, they must rather be grateful that someone - who is clear-headed because he does not have the serf-mentality responsible for so many Ghanaians being in awe of Chiefs - was honest and bold enough to point out to them, the absurdity of Chiefs acting in 21st century Africa, as if they were the rulers of a sovereign state within the Ghanaian nation-state, when in reality they are citizens of the Leviathan that is the Republic of Ghana, and subject to its laws (which are disobeyed at the pain of imprisonment or death), like the rest of us.
In any case, all one wanted to do, was to help them understand clearly, the long-term risks posed to the institution of Chieftaincy, which their unfortunate confrontation with the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, actually entails.
As it happens, abuse from those one criticises in one's writing, it is par for the course, for this irreverent and cantankerous old fool, Kofi Thompson. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.
The flak one has to take, and the collateral damage one has to endure, for being a patriot and nationalist, are many and varied indeed, in going about one's life's work as a full-time writer in a nation in which even the well-educated seldom read and writers are often held in contempt if they are not well-off.
However, the point needs to be made that the abuse of the Chiefs in question, is like water off a duck's back to me. But I digress.
The same reaction is apparently also evoked in certain political circles, over this blog's determined campaign to get Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom elected as Ghana's next President - which is also a real pity: although it is to be expected from those who think they must rule Ghana willy-nilly because they were born to dominate our nation and its people. What impudence.
For their information, the campaign to get Nduom elected President is completely altruistic, and is being undertaken for purely patriotic and nationalistic reasons only. Kofi Thompson's conscience is not for sale at any price to anyone. It has never been for sale and will never be for sale. Period.
I actually respect and like both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo on a purely human level - surprising though it might be to some. Both are charming and affable gentlemen who are full of humour - but duty to Mother Ghana, alas, necessitates this blog's campaign to get Paa Kwesi Nduom elected as President.
The simple truth is that the election of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom as Ghana's next President, will be in the best interest of our nation, and redound to the benefit of all its people, at this particular juncture of Ghana's history.
Having a truly world-class individual as our nation's next leader is critical and a must - if we are to move ahead as a people.
The people of Ghana deserve better than having to make never-ending sacrifices for the better tomorrow promised them by the NDC/NPP duopoly since the 4th Republica came into being, which never comes. Now they want their share of the democracy dividend.
That is why we must bring the era of the empty-promises-makers in our nation's politics to an end - and force the powerful and amoral thieves-in-high-places, who dominate the NDC/NPP duopoly from the shadows on behalf of sundry vested interests, out of both parties.
Electing Nduom as President will hasten that process - as both parties in the NDC/NPP duopoly will be forced to carry out reforms to rid themselves of the undemocratic and intolerant extremists, closet tribal-supremacists and thieves-in-high-places in their midst: in order to attract new members and supporters.
Amongst all the candidates running for president in this November's election, Nduom is the only candidate who can actually transform Ghana. All the others will only come to power and spend the best part of their 4-year tenure blaming the debt piled up by the NDC government for their inability and failure to turn our national economy round. Nduom knows exactly how to overcome that particular constraint.
At a time when our country is polarised as never before, Ghana desperately needs a unifying figure who can get the nation to unite, and use its brightest and best professionals - regardless of their party affiliation - to transform Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia. Nduom is that unifier.
Nduom also dwarfs all the members of our nation's political class in terms of personal achievement and personal integrity. He has demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that he is a focused and results-oriented leader who can effectively execute his own ideas and those recommended to him by other creative minds.
We must not darken the future of our potentially great nation, and blight the collective future of its well-educated and gifted younger generation, by risking the descent into violence and chaos that will follow - as sure as day follows night - if either the presidential candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), President John Dramani Mahama, or that of the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, were to be elected as President on polling day.
That is why we must repeatedly drive home the point to Ghana's younger generation - whose future really is at stake in this year's elections - that they must not risk Ghana's future by voting for either President Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
To do so would be to literally write a blank cheque which would allow the corrupt NDC/NPP duopoly to destroy their individual futures - and in effect sanction a national disaster in the making and waiting to happen.
The writing is on the wall for all who have eyes to read to do so - and come to their own conclusions. Literally.
Today, thanks to the machinations of the NDC/NPP duopoly, ignorant villagers are being organised to pelt presidential convoys with stones, as part of a scorched earth political strategy of amoral and super-ruthless politicians, and myrmidon-hirelings of the vilest of the rogues in the regime currently in power, are issuing veiled death threats to members of the Judiciary on behalf of their paymasters.
The NDC/NPP duopoly's powerful and super-ruthless men and women of violence, who are feared by the moderates in their own parties, have made their intentions quite clear: They will only accept the results of the November presidential election if their own party's candidate, not that of their major opponents, emerges victorious in that election.
A vote for Paa Kwesi Nduom will neatly sidestep the slippery stone to that violence and chaos that the NDC/NPP duopoly's men and women of violence are predicting awaits Ghanaians.
Ghana's younger generation ought to avoid that predicted hell-on-earth scenario simply by not voting for either President Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo in this November's presidential election. They must plump instead for Paa Kwesi Nduom: and vote for him in their numbers to become Ghana's next President. Just one's humble two pesewas. What is yours, dear reader?
-Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).
Apparently, our blog post entitled, "The Inherent Dangers Associated With Our Byzantine System" made a few Chiefs in Kumasi apoplectic, when they got to know of its contents. If true, then that is most unfortunate.
They must not let their blood pressure rise on my account. Above all, they must not take all this personally. I have the highest regard for them as private citizens - but like many a Ghanaian progressive and nationalist, it never escapes me that the institution of Chieftaincy is a remnant of our feudal past.
That is why some of us despise it and want it abolished - because it blocks the path to Ghana becoming a meritocracy. Inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. So why should discerning Ghanaians who want our nation to progress tolerate it, I ask?
Perhaps Chiefs in Ghana who disapprove of my some of the opinions I hold ought to simply regard Kofi Thompson as their village idiot - if it will help them come to terms with my plain-speaking and refusal to be sucked into the absurd Alice-in-Wonderland fantasy world they inhabit.
With respect, they must rather be grateful that someone - who is clear-headed because he does not have the serf-mentality responsible for so many Ghanaians being in awe of Chiefs - was honest and bold enough to point out to them, the absurdity of Chiefs acting in 21st century Africa, as if they were the rulers of a sovereign state within the Ghanaian nation-state, when in reality they are citizens of the Leviathan that is the Republic of Ghana, and subject to its laws (which are disobeyed at the pain of imprisonment or death), like the rest of us.
In any case, all one wanted to do, was to help them understand clearly, the long-term risks posed to the institution of Chieftaincy, which their unfortunate confrontation with the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, actually entails.
As it happens, abuse from those one criticises in one's writing, it is par for the course, for this irreverent and cantankerous old fool, Kofi Thompson. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.
The flak one has to take, and the collateral damage one has to endure, for being a patriot and nationalist, are many and varied indeed, in going about one's life's work as a full-time writer in a nation in which even the well-educated seldom read and writers are often held in contempt if they are not well-off.
However, the point needs to be made that the abuse of the Chiefs in question, is like water off a duck's back to me. But I digress.
The same reaction is apparently also evoked in certain political circles, over this blog's determined campaign to get Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom elected as Ghana's next President - which is also a real pity: although it is to be expected from those who think they must rule Ghana willy-nilly because they were born to dominate our nation and its people. What impudence.
For their information, the campaign to get Nduom elected President is completely altruistic, and is being undertaken for purely patriotic and nationalistic reasons only. Kofi Thompson's conscience is not for sale at any price to anyone. It has never been for sale and will never be for sale. Period.
I actually respect and like both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo on a purely human level - surprising though it might be to some. Both are charming and affable gentlemen who are full of humour - but duty to Mother Ghana, alas, necessitates this blog's campaign to get Paa Kwesi Nduom elected as President.
The simple truth is that the election of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom as Ghana's next President, will be in the best interest of our nation, and redound to the benefit of all its people, at this particular juncture of Ghana's history.
Having a truly world-class individual as our nation's next leader is critical and a must - if we are to move ahead as a people.
The people of Ghana deserve better than having to make never-ending sacrifices for the better tomorrow promised them by the NDC/NPP duopoly since the 4th Republica came into being, which never comes. Now they want their share of the democracy dividend.
That is why we must bring the era of the empty-promises-makers in our nation's politics to an end - and force the powerful and amoral thieves-in-high-places, who dominate the NDC/NPP duopoly from the shadows on behalf of sundry vested interests, out of both parties.
Electing Nduom as President will hasten that process - as both parties in the NDC/NPP duopoly will be forced to carry out reforms to rid themselves of the undemocratic and intolerant extremists, closet tribal-supremacists and thieves-in-high-places in their midst: in order to attract new members and supporters.
Amongst all the candidates running for president in this November's election, Nduom is the only candidate who can actually transform Ghana. All the others will only come to power and spend the best part of their 4-year tenure blaming the debt piled up by the NDC government for their inability and failure to turn our national economy round. Nduom knows exactly how to overcome that particular constraint.
At a time when our country is polarised as never before, Ghana desperately needs a unifying figure who can get the nation to unite, and use its brightest and best professionals - regardless of their party affiliation - to transform Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia. Nduom is that unifier.
Nduom also dwarfs all the members of our nation's political class in terms of personal achievement and personal integrity. He has demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that he is a focused and results-oriented leader who can effectively execute his own ideas and those recommended to him by other creative minds.
We must not darken the future of our potentially great nation, and blight the collective future of its well-educated and gifted younger generation, by risking the descent into violence and chaos that will follow - as sure as day follows night - if either the presidential candidate of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), President John Dramani Mahama, or that of the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, were to be elected as President on polling day.
That is why we must repeatedly drive home the point to Ghana's younger generation - whose future really is at stake in this year's elections - that they must not risk Ghana's future by voting for either President Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
To do so would be to literally write a blank cheque which would allow the corrupt NDC/NPP duopoly to destroy their individual futures - and in effect sanction a national disaster in the making and waiting to happen.
The writing is on the wall for all who have eyes to read to do so - and come to their own conclusions. Literally.
Today, thanks to the machinations of the NDC/NPP duopoly, ignorant villagers are being organised to pelt presidential convoys with stones, as part of a scorched earth political strategy of amoral and super-ruthless politicians, and myrmidon-hirelings of the vilest of the rogues in the regime currently in power, are issuing veiled death threats to members of the Judiciary on behalf of their paymasters.
The NDC/NPP duopoly's powerful and super-ruthless men and women of violence, who are feared by the moderates in their own parties, have made their intentions quite clear: They will only accept the results of the November presidential election if their own party's candidate, not that of their major opponents, emerges victorious in that election.
A vote for Paa Kwesi Nduom will neatly sidestep the slippery stone to that violence and chaos that the NDC/NPP duopoly's men and women of violence are predicting awaits Ghanaians.
Ghana's younger generation ought to avoid that predicted hell-on-earth scenario simply by not voting for either President Mahama or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo in this November's presidential election. They must plump instead for Paa Kwesi Nduom: and vote for him in their numbers to become Ghana's next President. Just one's humble two pesewas. What is yours, dear reader?
Friday, 8 July 2016
Why Voting For Paa Kwesi Nduom To Lead Ghana Makes Perfect Sense
Today, this blog is posting a culled news report posted online by Joshua S. Hill, about a U.S. Department of Energy sponsored research project to facilitate the building of a new generation of giant offshore wind turbines that will produce 50MW of renewable power. Such renewable energy innovations will be a real boon for nations like our homeland Ghana.
It is the considered view of some of those (myself included) who refuse to hide their contempt for the unimaginative doom-mongering politicians and their mean-spirited lackeys in the Ghanaian media, forever painting Mother Ghana black, that the sharing of such culled online content about life-enhancing innovation, ought to be one of the creative ways that the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media can give hope to Ghanaians, that their country's future can indeed be very bright - if they make the right choice in this November's presidential election.
If Ghanaians are wise, they would dump both presidential candidates of the corrupt duopoly made up of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which dominate our nation's politics - and instead vote in their numbers to elect Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom as Ghana's next President.
Nduom, who can actually transform Ghana into a prosperous nation, whose citizens enjoy a high standard of living, will prove to be the best leader for our nation, since the overthrow of President Nkrumah in 1966, if elected President in November.
In terms of personal achievements that positively impact the lives of many, he towers above both President Mahama and the NPP's Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
Nduom has an enquiring mind that enables him to look for and accept cutting-edge breakthroughs in all fields of human endeavour that Ghana can leverage to power its economy. It enables him to seize opportunities when industry-disrupting innovations appear and use them to create wealth and jobs in the real economy.
It is a very special gift he is blessed with - enabling him to quickly seize opportunities to build solid businesses that create wealth and jobs.
That is why he is not criss-crossing Ghana making empty promises that can never be kept in a zillion years by any responsible government made up of truly honest, patriotic and nationalistic individuals.
Nduom says what he means and never says what he cannot do - unlike so many Ghanaian politicians: including the NDC/NPP duopoly's President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, alas.
He understands that it is private-sector businesses in the real economy that will bring about the transformstion of our country, and that the next President's administration must therefore create the right climate for SMEs to flourish. That will be his focus.
His stellar track record in creating 50-plus businesses of his own in three continents that provide fulfilling jobs for the younger generation and wealth for their owners is just the kind of real-world-economy experience that Ghana's next leader ought to have and needs at this juncture of its history.
Most of the NDC/NPP duopoly's leading lights are too busy scheming to enrich themselves at Mother Ghana's expense, to bother about the well-being of our nation and its people - otherwise why do some of the duopoly's most influential members repeatedly threaten to resort to violence if their candidates fail to win the presidential election?
The question is: Why is the NDC so desperate to hold on to power - and why is the NPP so desperate to wrestle poiwer from the NDC? And, above all, why have the leafding lights of both parties studiously ignored calls for them to publicly publish their assets and those of their spouses?
Ditto disclose all the sources of their parties' campaign funds and the amounts each donor contributes? If they are reluctant to do so - as evidence of their good intentions in seeking power - what right do they have to threaten mayhem if they don't win November's presidential election? What gall. What perfidy.
Is governing the Republic of Ghana a matter of life and death? Incredible.
If some of the NDC/NPP duopoly's leading members want to win power at all costs, and are even prepared to resort to violence and set Ghana ablaze, for that end, is it not obvious that they want power for the sole purpose of looting our homeland Ghana?
That is why Nduom is determined to probe all the regimes that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being. He is determined to end impunity in Ghana. Too many people have ripped our nation off and gotten away with it - and Nduom will not stand for it. Fantastic.
The fact that he is committed to publicly disclosing his assets and those of his wife is ample testimony to his honesty and the mark of politician with a moral compass. Just the very qualities that our nation needs in its next leader.
Ghanaians must awaken to the threat that the two corrupt parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly pose to their nation - and dump the presidential candidates of that confounded duopoly in the November elections.
Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom will lead a government of national unity made up of the most brilliant and creative minds from across the spectrum to transform our homeland Ghana - by leveraging the very best bleeding-edge ideas from around the world to power our national economy. Cool.
Nduom has the imagination, nous and gumption to invite the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Limited, to explore the possibility of forming a consortium of Ghanaian and Chinese entrepreneurs, to seek funding from China to build the world's biggest offshore wind farm off our shores to generate 10,000 MW of affordable renewable power for Ghana.
That is the kind of visionary and achiever who should lead Ghana after the November presidential election - not the corrupt, clueless and incompetent NDC/NPP duopoly's serial empty-promise-making candidates, President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
Younger generation Ghanaians must awaken and choose the right leader for Ghana, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, to secure their collective and individual futures.
Please read on:
''Mammoth 50 MW Wind Turbine Blades Could Revolutionize Offshore Wind In US
A new design for mammoth wind turbine blades longer than two football fields could deliver 50 MW offshore wind turbines.
The research for the new wind turbine blades designs has been conducted by the Sandia National Laboratories, a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. According to Sandia, it was challenged to design a low-cost offshore 50 MW turbine with wind turbine blades of more than 650 feet, or 200 meters in length.
That’s two and a half times longer than any existing wind turbine blade.
“Exascale turbines take advantage of economies of scale,” said Todd Griffith, lead blade designer on the project and technical lead for Sandia’s Offshore Wind Energy Program. Sandia has been working on wind turbine designs for a while now — including 13 MW systems using 100 meter blades, which are the basis for Sandia’s Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR) designs.
Sandia’s 100-meter blade is the basis for the Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR), a new low-cost offshore 50-MW wind turbine. At dangerous wind speeds, the blades are stowed and aligned with the wind direction, reducing the risk of damage. At lower wind speeds, the blades spread out more to maximize energy production. (Illustration courtesy of TrevorJohnston.com/Popular Science)
50 MW wind turbines are a long way off, but according to Sandia, “studies show that load alignment can dramatically reduce peak stresses and fatigue on the rotor blades.” This would not only reduce blade costs, but eventually lead to the mythical 50 MW wind turbines.
And these developments are vital to the offshore wind industry in the US.
“The US has great offshore wind energy potential, but offshore installations are expensive, so larger turbines are needed to capture that energy at an affordable cost,” Griffith said.
“Conventional upwind blades are expensive to manufacture, deploy and maintain beyond 10-15 MW. They must be stiff, to avoid fatigue and eliminate the risk of tower strikes in strong gusts. Those stiff blades are heavy, and their mass, which is directly related to cost, becomes even more problematic at the extreme scale due to gravity loads and other changes.”
That’s where Sandia’s segmented designs come in (as seen above). Not only do they provide more cost-effective manufacturing and installation — as the blades can be manufactured in segments rather than as a massive long blade, which extends to transportation and installation as well — but, inspired by how palm trees move in storms, the blades would be positioned downwind, and the segmented sections would bend in the wind while retaining segment stiffness.
“At dangerous wind speeds, the blades are stowed and aligned with the wind direction, reducing the risk of damage,” explained Griffith. “At lower wind speeds, the blades spread out more to maximize energy production.” "
End of culled online news report by Joshua S. Hill.
It is the considered view of some of those (myself included) who refuse to hide their contempt for the unimaginative doom-mongering politicians and their mean-spirited lackeys in the Ghanaian media, forever painting Mother Ghana black, that the sharing of such culled online content about life-enhancing innovation, ought to be one of the creative ways that the more responsible sections of the Ghanaian media can give hope to Ghanaians, that their country's future can indeed be very bright - if they make the right choice in this November's presidential election.
If Ghanaians are wise, they would dump both presidential candidates of the corrupt duopoly made up of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which dominate our nation's politics - and instead vote in their numbers to elect Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom as Ghana's next President.
Nduom, who can actually transform Ghana into a prosperous nation, whose citizens enjoy a high standard of living, will prove to be the best leader for our nation, since the overthrow of President Nkrumah in 1966, if elected President in November.
In terms of personal achievements that positively impact the lives of many, he towers above both President Mahama and the NPP's Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
Nduom has an enquiring mind that enables him to look for and accept cutting-edge breakthroughs in all fields of human endeavour that Ghana can leverage to power its economy. It enables him to seize opportunities when industry-disrupting innovations appear and use them to create wealth and jobs in the real economy.
It is a very special gift he is blessed with - enabling him to quickly seize opportunities to build solid businesses that create wealth and jobs.
That is why he is not criss-crossing Ghana making empty promises that can never be kept in a zillion years by any responsible government made up of truly honest, patriotic and nationalistic individuals.
Nduom says what he means and never says what he cannot do - unlike so many Ghanaian politicians: including the NDC/NPP duopoly's President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, alas.
He understands that it is private-sector businesses in the real economy that will bring about the transformstion of our country, and that the next President's administration must therefore create the right climate for SMEs to flourish. That will be his focus.
His stellar track record in creating 50-plus businesses of his own in three continents that provide fulfilling jobs for the younger generation and wealth for their owners is just the kind of real-world-economy experience that Ghana's next leader ought to have and needs at this juncture of its history.
Most of the NDC/NPP duopoly's leading lights are too busy scheming to enrich themselves at Mother Ghana's expense, to bother about the well-being of our nation and its people - otherwise why do some of the duopoly's most influential members repeatedly threaten to resort to violence if their candidates fail to win the presidential election?
The question is: Why is the NDC so desperate to hold on to power - and why is the NPP so desperate to wrestle poiwer from the NDC? And, above all, why have the leafding lights of both parties studiously ignored calls for them to publicly publish their assets and those of their spouses?
Ditto disclose all the sources of their parties' campaign funds and the amounts each donor contributes? If they are reluctant to do so - as evidence of their good intentions in seeking power - what right do they have to threaten mayhem if they don't win November's presidential election? What gall. What perfidy.
Is governing the Republic of Ghana a matter of life and death? Incredible.
If some of the NDC/NPP duopoly's leading members want to win power at all costs, and are even prepared to resort to violence and set Ghana ablaze, for that end, is it not obvious that they want power for the sole purpose of looting our homeland Ghana?
That is why Nduom is determined to probe all the regimes that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being. He is determined to end impunity in Ghana. Too many people have ripped our nation off and gotten away with it - and Nduom will not stand for it. Fantastic.
The fact that he is committed to publicly disclosing his assets and those of his wife is ample testimony to his honesty and the mark of politician with a moral compass. Just the very qualities that our nation needs in its next leader.
Ghanaians must awaken to the threat that the two corrupt parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly pose to their nation - and dump the presidential candidates of that confounded duopoly in the November elections.
Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom will lead a government of national unity made up of the most brilliant and creative minds from across the spectrum to transform our homeland Ghana - by leveraging the very best bleeding-edge ideas from around the world to power our national economy. Cool.
Nduom has the imagination, nous and gumption to invite the world's biggest wind turbine manufacturer, Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Limited, to explore the possibility of forming a consortium of Ghanaian and Chinese entrepreneurs, to seek funding from China to build the world's biggest offshore wind farm off our shores to generate 10,000 MW of affordable renewable power for Ghana.
That is the kind of visionary and achiever who should lead Ghana after the November presidential election - not the corrupt, clueless and incompetent NDC/NPP duopoly's serial empty-promise-making candidates, President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo.
Younger generation Ghanaians must awaken and choose the right leader for Ghana, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, to secure their collective and individual futures.
Please read on:
''Mammoth 50 MW Wind Turbine Blades Could Revolutionize Offshore Wind In US
A new design for mammoth wind turbine blades longer than two football fields could deliver 50 MW offshore wind turbines.
The research for the new wind turbine blades designs has been conducted by the Sandia National Laboratories, a multi-program laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration. According to Sandia, it was challenged to design a low-cost offshore 50 MW turbine with wind turbine blades of more than 650 feet, or 200 meters in length.
That’s two and a half times longer than any existing wind turbine blade.
“Exascale turbines take advantage of economies of scale,” said Todd Griffith, lead blade designer on the project and technical lead for Sandia’s Offshore Wind Energy Program. Sandia has been working on wind turbine designs for a while now — including 13 MW systems using 100 meter blades, which are the basis for Sandia’s Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR) designs.
Sandia’s 100-meter blade is the basis for the Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor (SUMR), a new low-cost offshore 50-MW wind turbine. At dangerous wind speeds, the blades are stowed and aligned with the wind direction, reducing the risk of damage. At lower wind speeds, the blades spread out more to maximize energy production. (Illustration courtesy of TrevorJohnston.com/Popular Science)
50 MW wind turbines are a long way off, but according to Sandia, “studies show that load alignment can dramatically reduce peak stresses and fatigue on the rotor blades.” This would not only reduce blade costs, but eventually lead to the mythical 50 MW wind turbines.
And these developments are vital to the offshore wind industry in the US.
“The US has great offshore wind energy potential, but offshore installations are expensive, so larger turbines are needed to capture that energy at an affordable cost,” Griffith said.
“Conventional upwind blades are expensive to manufacture, deploy and maintain beyond 10-15 MW. They must be stiff, to avoid fatigue and eliminate the risk of tower strikes in strong gusts. Those stiff blades are heavy, and their mass, which is directly related to cost, becomes even more problematic at the extreme scale due to gravity loads and other changes.”
That’s where Sandia’s segmented designs come in (as seen above). Not only do they provide more cost-effective manufacturing and installation — as the blades can be manufactured in segments rather than as a massive long blade, which extends to transportation and installation as well — but, inspired by how palm trees move in storms, the blades would be positioned downwind, and the segmented sections would bend in the wind while retaining segment stiffness.
“At dangerous wind speeds, the blades are stowed and aligned with the wind direction, reducing the risk of damage,” explained Griffith. “At lower wind speeds, the blades spread out more to maximize energy production.” "
End of culled online news report by Joshua S. Hill.
Wednesday, 6 July 2016
The Inherent Dangers Associated With Our Byzantine System
Although we might have a Byzantine system ours is still a democracy nonetheless. That is why as a freedom-loving African people we must all actively work together to protect Ghanaian democracy from its many enemies.
We must have a simple message for those who secretly despise constitutional democracy, and wished that they could tyrannise over us again.
We must make them understand clearly that we will constantly reiterate one point (especially to those of them who would enslave us if they could: to enable them reclaim what they lost when foreigners once occupied our country in the colonial era): that this is still a democracy and that we will not allow them to behave as if they owned our homeland Ghana and we were their serfs.
They do not own our homeland Ghana. And neither are we beholden to them. We are not their slaves and we are not afraid of them at all. And neither will we ever allow them to treat any of our fellow citizens as if they were their serfs.
As we are all aware, in every democratic society, Judges of the Law Courts act as arbiters in disputes between individuals, and between individuals and the State - and vice versa.
The Judiciary is therefore an important arm of government that is essential for the protection and safeguarding of the Constitutional rights of all who live within the territorial boundaries of the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state.
Members of our Judiciary also ensure that those who wield power in Ghana do not abuse that power and tyrannise over ordinary people.
Without the Judiciary Ghana would eventually become a tyranny - because of the propensity for politicians and senior public servants to abuse the powers of the offices they are appointed to.
Power, it is said, corrupts. Without the Judiciary, this country would become a totally corrupt police state, and no one in Ghana would be safe from arbitrary action by our vampire-elites.
And the law of the jungle would operate in our homeland Ghana, alas - with powerful individuals and groups pursuing their own interests at the expense of society and ordinary people: who would all be marginalised should that abomination ever occur in our country. God forbid.
It is therefore vital that all ordinary Ghanaians understand clearly why they ought to take an active interest in ensuring that Judges and their families are protected at all material times by the authorities.
And we must demand that those who threaten or harm Judges in any way are always prosecuted and jailed. An assault on any Judge is literally an assault on the sovereign people of Ghana and an assault on Ghanaian democracy.
That is why all the political parties in our country must rid themselves of their members and supporters who threaten or harm Judges. Such dangerous characters are beyond the pale - and people of their ilk should never be allowed to become members of political parties in our country.
No one is above the law in our country - and our nation's Judiciary will always ensure that that basic tenet of democracy underpins their decisions in the Law Courts: to ensure that impunity does not take hold in our nation. The rule of law must prevail in Ghana.
Which brings one to the unfortunate demand by traditional rulers in Kumasi that the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCA) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), must be dismissed from office. Pity.
Do they not see the extraordinary work he is doing to enable the great cosmopolitan city of Kumasi rise again - and regain its past glory? If they remove the blinkers from their eyes perhaps it might help them see better.
Why are they being so unreasonable in what after all is a constitutional democracy that bars them from meddling in politics? Have they also forgotten that they have no shared-role in governing our homeland Ghana in tandem with the Executive branch of government?
Talk about ancient 17th century mean-spirited pettiness in 21st century Africa. Amazing. And it is all based on the foolish pride of grown and accomplished men.
Do they not appreciate the hard work of the Hon. Kojo Bonsu - moreso when there has never been such unprecedented development of our second city's infrastructure since the 4th Republic came into being?
It is also a fact that Kumasi has never seen such dynamic leadership in the entire post-independence history of Ghana thus far - and one is sure that most of the city's residents will forever remain grateful that the Rattery Park came into being during the Hon. Kojo Bonsu's tenure as the MCE of the KMA.
So why do some Chiefs in Kumasi want him dismissed? Talk about ingratitude. And talk about a nest of vipers. Talk about sheer vileness.
No self-respecting government in 21st century Ghana must ever cave in to such absurd demands under any circumstances.
It is intolerable that Chiefs in Nkrumah's Ghana should make such arrogant and totally unacceptable demands in what is a democracy underpinned by the rule of law and due process.
With respect, Chiefs in Ghana - the beneficiaries, let us not forget, of inherited privilege that is a throwback to an antediluvian system from our precolonial feudal past - would be wise not interfere in the administration of this country.
For their own good, this blog will outline an example of the fate that could befall them if they choose to continue proceeding along the path that some of them have now chosen to trod on.
All lands held by Chiefs in trust for their people could be nationalised one day, and placed in a land-bank access to plots of land from which will be available only to holders of tickets in a special National Lotteries Authority (NLA) lottery, to raise money to fund affordable housing initiatives across the country.
That lottery will be reserved for only Ghanaian citizens nationwide and will help improve the living standards of the masses of the Ghanaian people on a sustainable basis by giving them access to modern housing.
Ordinary people will no longer be beholden to Shylock landlords and will finally have access to well-designed and well-built modern houses and apartments they can easily afford to own in new green communities.
It will also ensure the equitable redistribution of all the land taken away from those whom an old wag I know refers to as "Those sodden leeches!" across the country.
The monies raised by the said national housing lottery will fund the nationwide affordable housing initiatives - in which holders of winning tickets not allocated houses or flats in affordable housing initiatives are provided with long-term loans at 3% interest to build their own homes on their newly-acquired plots.
Those long-term loans will be repaid in installments over 25 years in creative fashion: in the form of agreed reasonable monthly rent payments that will be regarded as loan repayments. Nananom, yesii se wu enim owua, shwe ennda. Hmm...
If Chiefs in Ghana do not want to hasten the end of the institution of Chieftaincy, as happened in India in 1971 - when the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi finally abolished the last remaining privileges of India's Maharajahs - then they would be wise to develop thicker skins than they currently posses.
And they need to be a tad more grounded in all their interactions with their fellow citizens across what is a nation of diverse-ethnicity in which no tribe is inferior or superior to another - and in which all citizens are equal before the law.
In that regard Chiefs in Ghana would be wise to follow the advice of the British writer George Eliot (1819-1880): "A few idle words about us, we must not mind that, anymore than the old church-steeple minds the rooks cawing about it."
Many in Ghana - including this cantankerous old fool Kofi Thompson - respect all Chiefs in Ghana, and regard them as important members of Ghanaian society, whom we must honour as noble private citizens.
However, there are also many who despite the respect they show to Chiefs, because they are important members of modern-day Ghanaian society, at the same time also regard Chiefs as a clear and present danger, to Ghana's status as a unitary Republic.
Such patriotic and nationalistic citizens also regard the institution of Chieftaincy as a bulwark of tribalism that poses a latent threat to the cohesion of our homeland Ghana - and therefore take a very dim view of it.
In their view the institution of Chieftaincy ought to be abolished - if Ghana is to ever develop into a truly modern and prosperous society: which is an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
No nation on the surface of the planet Earth has ever progressed without first abolishing feudalism. That is why India's post-independence rulers moved swiftly to abolish the kingdoms of India's Maharajahs. We must also abolish the institution of Chieftaincy for the same reason.
We can all see the difference that that wise decision taken by its first post-colonial era leaders has made to India's transformation from a backward agrarian nation into a global economic power - whiles Ghana is yet to fulfil even a quarter of its full potential.
If only time had permitted President Nkrumah to focuse on ridding our country of the Chieftaincy institution. Hmm, life...
Inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. Ghana has to become a meritocracy if it is to be transformed into a prosperous society - so we must no longer tolerate the inherited privilege of today's progeny of the precolonial ruling elites.
That antediluvian and invidious system bears sole responsibility for the mentality-of-serfs that afflicts so many in Ghana - who have been brainwashed into thinking that somehow Chiefs are the repository of Ghanaian culture: and therefore the institution of Chieftaincy ought to be maintained.
They are not the embodiment of Ghanaian culture. Culture is a lived-experience shared by all Ghanaians. It does not lie in locked golden chests in the palaces of Chiefs.
On the contrary it is on display in many aspects of our everyday lives, such as our participation in traditional marriage ceremonies, child naming ceremonies, how we mourn family and friends who pass away, how the different generations are supposed to relate with each other, etc., etc.
In any case if we are so in love with the idea of having Chiefs, why do we not simply abolish the Chieftaincy institution, and operate on the assumption that every Ghanaian is a "royal" and can therefore stand in an election to become Ghana's elected Monarch?
Such a Monarch will be elected to serve for a 5-year tenure and have the same powers that Ghana's President currently has under the 1992 Constitution.
The elected King or Queen can only serve as Monarch of the Royal Kingdom of Ghana for a maximum of two elected 5-year tenures. Perhaps an ex-Chief might even be elected as Ghana's first elected Monarch one day if we decide to transform Ghana into the world's first elected Constitutional Monarchy. Cool.
Our elected Monarch's will definitely not ride in palanquins and be carried around on the heads of their fellow human beings in the name of "culture" and "tradition". No. Never. Not in the Royal Kingdom of Ghana.
Any system in 21st century Africa that enslaves others so that they will always be available to carry their fellow human beings on their heads in palanquins, and to slave for them fetching and carrying till they die, is not worth preserving. Such systems are an affront to common decency and to humankind.
Chiefs palaces across Ghana are jam-packed with potential engineers, lawyers, medical doctors, architects, high-flying entrepreneurs, inventors, etc., etc. - forever salaaming to men and women, a few of whom, are even worthless characters, though noble-looking and of respectable demeanor: judged by their unspeakable and vile deeds behind closed doors away from the public gaze.
It will be a grave error of judgment on the part of President Mahama's administration to remove the Hon Kojo Bonsu, from his position as the MCE of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly - merely because a few Chiefs felt and still feel slighted by him.
That is not how a nation with aspirations is governed. For many fair-minded Ghanaians - who think it is an unfair criticism - sacking the Hon. Kojo Bonsu for such a frivolous reason will only confirm what some of his critics say about the President: that he is spineless.
Let him prove those critics wrong in this particular instance: by making it plain to the Chiefs in Kumasi who are at loggerheads with the Hon. Kojo Bonsu because they feel slighted by him that it is simply out of the question to sack Kojo Bonsu just because Chiefs feel slighted by him.
He must remind them that they all know perfectly well that they have access to him 24/7, and will always have his ear, but sacking any MCE or DCE in Ghana on grounds of slighting Chiefs, could land him in the Law Courts for abusing their human rights: meaning it is best they made their peace with Kojo Bonsu by finding a suitable face-saving formula for that purpose. Simple.
Incidentally, what good did his sop to the Machiavellian Akyem Abuakwa State Council do to him?
Was all he had to do - instead of apologising for speaking the truth in that instance of proud Chiefs feeling slighted by state officials - not to have simply gotten a few of those slippery snakes from that particular nest of vipers, to survey the harm that illegal gold mining has caused to the natural heritage of that part of Ghana from the air by helicopter: so they could see for themselves why Akyem Abuakwa is indeed the galamsey capital of Ghana? But I digress.
With respect, Chiefs in Ghana are in no position to make any such demands on those who govern our country. Period.
Their arrogance in that needless confrontation with the Hon. Kojo Bonsu is a typical example of the dangers inherent in our Byzantine system that we must confront boldly if Mother Ghana is to ever progress. This blog rests its case.
We must have a simple message for those who secretly despise constitutional democracy, and wished that they could tyrannise over us again.
We must make them understand clearly that we will constantly reiterate one point (especially to those of them who would enslave us if they could: to enable them reclaim what they lost when foreigners once occupied our country in the colonial era): that this is still a democracy and that we will not allow them to behave as if they owned our homeland Ghana and we were their serfs.
They do not own our homeland Ghana. And neither are we beholden to them. We are not their slaves and we are not afraid of them at all. And neither will we ever allow them to treat any of our fellow citizens as if they were their serfs.
As we are all aware, in every democratic society, Judges of the Law Courts act as arbiters in disputes between individuals, and between individuals and the State - and vice versa.
The Judiciary is therefore an important arm of government that is essential for the protection and safeguarding of the Constitutional rights of all who live within the territorial boundaries of the Leviathan that is the Ghanaian nation-state.
Members of our Judiciary also ensure that those who wield power in Ghana do not abuse that power and tyrannise over ordinary people.
Without the Judiciary Ghana would eventually become a tyranny - because of the propensity for politicians and senior public servants to abuse the powers of the offices they are appointed to.
Power, it is said, corrupts. Without the Judiciary, this country would become a totally corrupt police state, and no one in Ghana would be safe from arbitrary action by our vampire-elites.
And the law of the jungle would operate in our homeland Ghana, alas - with powerful individuals and groups pursuing their own interests at the expense of society and ordinary people: who would all be marginalised should that abomination ever occur in our country. God forbid.
It is therefore vital that all ordinary Ghanaians understand clearly why they ought to take an active interest in ensuring that Judges and their families are protected at all material times by the authorities.
And we must demand that those who threaten or harm Judges in any way are always prosecuted and jailed. An assault on any Judge is literally an assault on the sovereign people of Ghana and an assault on Ghanaian democracy.
That is why all the political parties in our country must rid themselves of their members and supporters who threaten or harm Judges. Such dangerous characters are beyond the pale - and people of their ilk should never be allowed to become members of political parties in our country.
No one is above the law in our country - and our nation's Judiciary will always ensure that that basic tenet of democracy underpins their decisions in the Law Courts: to ensure that impunity does not take hold in our nation. The rule of law must prevail in Ghana.
Which brings one to the unfortunate demand by traditional rulers in Kumasi that the Hon. Kojo Bonsu, the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCA) of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), must be dismissed from office. Pity.
Do they not see the extraordinary work he is doing to enable the great cosmopolitan city of Kumasi rise again - and regain its past glory? If they remove the blinkers from their eyes perhaps it might help them see better.
Why are they being so unreasonable in what after all is a constitutional democracy that bars them from meddling in politics? Have they also forgotten that they have no shared-role in governing our homeland Ghana in tandem with the Executive branch of government?
Talk about ancient 17th century mean-spirited pettiness in 21st century Africa. Amazing. And it is all based on the foolish pride of grown and accomplished men.
Do they not appreciate the hard work of the Hon. Kojo Bonsu - moreso when there has never been such unprecedented development of our second city's infrastructure since the 4th Republic came into being?
It is also a fact that Kumasi has never seen such dynamic leadership in the entire post-independence history of Ghana thus far - and one is sure that most of the city's residents will forever remain grateful that the Rattery Park came into being during the Hon. Kojo Bonsu's tenure as the MCE of the KMA.
So why do some Chiefs in Kumasi want him dismissed? Talk about ingratitude. And talk about a nest of vipers. Talk about sheer vileness.
No self-respecting government in 21st century Ghana must ever cave in to such absurd demands under any circumstances.
It is intolerable that Chiefs in Nkrumah's Ghana should make such arrogant and totally unacceptable demands in what is a democracy underpinned by the rule of law and due process.
With respect, Chiefs in Ghana - the beneficiaries, let us not forget, of inherited privilege that is a throwback to an antediluvian system from our precolonial feudal past - would be wise not interfere in the administration of this country.
For their own good, this blog will outline an example of the fate that could befall them if they choose to continue proceeding along the path that some of them have now chosen to trod on.
All lands held by Chiefs in trust for their people could be nationalised one day, and placed in a land-bank access to plots of land from which will be available only to holders of tickets in a special National Lotteries Authority (NLA) lottery, to raise money to fund affordable housing initiatives across the country.
That lottery will be reserved for only Ghanaian citizens nationwide and will help improve the living standards of the masses of the Ghanaian people on a sustainable basis by giving them access to modern housing.
Ordinary people will no longer be beholden to Shylock landlords and will finally have access to well-designed and well-built modern houses and apartments they can easily afford to own in new green communities.
It will also ensure the equitable redistribution of all the land taken away from those whom an old wag I know refers to as "Those sodden leeches!" across the country.
The monies raised by the said national housing lottery will fund the nationwide affordable housing initiatives - in which holders of winning tickets not allocated houses or flats in affordable housing initiatives are provided with long-term loans at 3% interest to build their own homes on their newly-acquired plots.
Those long-term loans will be repaid in installments over 25 years in creative fashion: in the form of agreed reasonable monthly rent payments that will be regarded as loan repayments. Nananom, yesii se wu enim owua, shwe ennda. Hmm...
If Chiefs in Ghana do not want to hasten the end of the institution of Chieftaincy, as happened in India in 1971 - when the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi finally abolished the last remaining privileges of India's Maharajahs - then they would be wise to develop thicker skins than they currently posses.
And they need to be a tad more grounded in all their interactions with their fellow citizens across what is a nation of diverse-ethnicity in which no tribe is inferior or superior to another - and in which all citizens are equal before the law.
In that regard Chiefs in Ghana would be wise to follow the advice of the British writer George Eliot (1819-1880): "A few idle words about us, we must not mind that, anymore than the old church-steeple minds the rooks cawing about it."
Many in Ghana - including this cantankerous old fool Kofi Thompson - respect all Chiefs in Ghana, and regard them as important members of Ghanaian society, whom we must honour as noble private citizens.
However, there are also many who despite the respect they show to Chiefs, because they are important members of modern-day Ghanaian society, at the same time also regard Chiefs as a clear and present danger, to Ghana's status as a unitary Republic.
Such patriotic and nationalistic citizens also regard the institution of Chieftaincy as a bulwark of tribalism that poses a latent threat to the cohesion of our homeland Ghana - and therefore take a very dim view of it.
In their view the institution of Chieftaincy ought to be abolished - if Ghana is to ever develop into a truly modern and prosperous society: which is an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.
No nation on the surface of the planet Earth has ever progressed without first abolishing feudalism. That is why India's post-independence rulers moved swiftly to abolish the kingdoms of India's Maharajahs. We must also abolish the institution of Chieftaincy for the same reason.
We can all see the difference that that wise decision taken by its first post-colonial era leaders has made to India's transformation from a backward agrarian nation into a global economic power - whiles Ghana is yet to fulfil even a quarter of its full potential.
If only time had permitted President Nkrumah to focuse on ridding our country of the Chieftaincy institution. Hmm, life...
Inherited privilege is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. Ghana has to become a meritocracy if it is to be transformed into a prosperous society - so we must no longer tolerate the inherited privilege of today's progeny of the precolonial ruling elites.
That antediluvian and invidious system bears sole responsibility for the mentality-of-serfs that afflicts so many in Ghana - who have been brainwashed into thinking that somehow Chiefs are the repository of Ghanaian culture: and therefore the institution of Chieftaincy ought to be maintained.
They are not the embodiment of Ghanaian culture. Culture is a lived-experience shared by all Ghanaians. It does not lie in locked golden chests in the palaces of Chiefs.
On the contrary it is on display in many aspects of our everyday lives, such as our participation in traditional marriage ceremonies, child naming ceremonies, how we mourn family and friends who pass away, how the different generations are supposed to relate with each other, etc., etc.
In any case if we are so in love with the idea of having Chiefs, why do we not simply abolish the Chieftaincy institution, and operate on the assumption that every Ghanaian is a "royal" and can therefore stand in an election to become Ghana's elected Monarch?
Such a Monarch will be elected to serve for a 5-year tenure and have the same powers that Ghana's President currently has under the 1992 Constitution.
The elected King or Queen can only serve as Monarch of the Royal Kingdom of Ghana for a maximum of two elected 5-year tenures. Perhaps an ex-Chief might even be elected as Ghana's first elected Monarch one day if we decide to transform Ghana into the world's first elected Constitutional Monarchy. Cool.
Our elected Monarch's will definitely not ride in palanquins and be carried around on the heads of their fellow human beings in the name of "culture" and "tradition". No. Never. Not in the Royal Kingdom of Ghana.
Any system in 21st century Africa that enslaves others so that they will always be available to carry their fellow human beings on their heads in palanquins, and to slave for them fetching and carrying till they die, is not worth preserving. Such systems are an affront to common decency and to humankind.
Chiefs palaces across Ghana are jam-packed with potential engineers, lawyers, medical doctors, architects, high-flying entrepreneurs, inventors, etc., etc. - forever salaaming to men and women, a few of whom, are even worthless characters, though noble-looking and of respectable demeanor: judged by their unspeakable and vile deeds behind closed doors away from the public gaze.
It will be a grave error of judgment on the part of President Mahama's administration to remove the Hon Kojo Bonsu, from his position as the MCE of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly - merely because a few Chiefs felt and still feel slighted by him.
That is not how a nation with aspirations is governed. For many fair-minded Ghanaians - who think it is an unfair criticism - sacking the Hon. Kojo Bonsu for such a frivolous reason will only confirm what some of his critics say about the President: that he is spineless.
Let him prove those critics wrong in this particular instance: by making it plain to the Chiefs in Kumasi who are at loggerheads with the Hon. Kojo Bonsu because they feel slighted by him that it is simply out of the question to sack Kojo Bonsu just because Chiefs feel slighted by him.
He must remind them that they all know perfectly well that they have access to him 24/7, and will always have his ear, but sacking any MCE or DCE in Ghana on grounds of slighting Chiefs, could land him in the Law Courts for abusing their human rights: meaning it is best they made their peace with Kojo Bonsu by finding a suitable face-saving formula for that purpose. Simple.
Incidentally, what good did his sop to the Machiavellian Akyem Abuakwa State Council do to him?
Was all he had to do - instead of apologising for speaking the truth in that instance of proud Chiefs feeling slighted by state officials - not to have simply gotten a few of those slippery snakes from that particular nest of vipers, to survey the harm that illegal gold mining has caused to the natural heritage of that part of Ghana from the air by helicopter: so they could see for themselves why Akyem Abuakwa is indeed the galamsey capital of Ghana? But I digress.
With respect, Chiefs in Ghana are in no position to make any such demands on those who govern our country. Period.
Their arrogance in that needless confrontation with the Hon. Kojo Bonsu is a typical example of the dangers inherent in our Byzantine system that we must confront boldly if Mother Ghana is to ever progress. This blog rests its case.
Sunday, 3 July 2016
Power-Hungry And Power-Drunk Politicians Must Not Be Allowed To Set Ghana Ablaze
''The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.
In the face of the blatant thuggery and verbal aggressiveness being shown by some members of our political class, middle-class Ghana's deafening silence ought to be a source of worry, for all men and women of goodwill and good conscience, in our country.
The question we must all ponder over is: What right do politicians have to engage in activities that can only lead to widespread violence and chaos in Ghana - when what our nation needs is peace and stability to attract the necessary investment that will create the desperately needed jobs for the younger generation?
The fight for power in a democracy such as ours cannot be a matter of life and death - such that some politicians are prepared to resort to violence if their party's candidate does not win this November's presidential election: because in their view such a result would only mean that it had been rigged.
How can any genuine believer in multi-party democracy make such outrageous statements? Are the law courts not there for precisely such situations - for those who say they believe in due process and the rule of law?
Or, perchance, is it the case that such cynical politicians only 'care' about the well-being of our nation and the welfare of its people when they wield political power?
Is that why they invariably resort to sabotaging the nation-building effort whenever in the political wilderness - to ensure the governing party becomes unpopular as their policies are sabotaged at various stages of implementation: to guarantee regime-change at election time? What perfidy.
How does their egregious scorched-earth-politricks benefit ordinary Ghanaians - who have to endure the terrible consequences of such nation-wrecking sabotaging tactics?
Is it any politician's birthright to rule the Republic of Ghana? If it isn't then why should politicians resort to violence because in their view their party cannot possibly lose the November presidential election - and will therefore reject the election results if their candidate fails to win that election? What gall and effrontery. What arrant nonsense. Why take Ghanaians for granted in such arrogant fashion?
What if voters decided that to prevent post-election violence they will neither vote for President Mahama nor the candidate of the biggest opposition party, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo: and sensibly cast their votes for Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom instead to give him a landslide victory in the presidential election? What then?
Let no politician in this country be under any illusion: They will never get away with setting Ghana ablaze.
There will be serious consequences for them individually. And there will be no appeasement from any quarter then - as Ghanaians demand their pound of flesh from them. Justice will definitely catch up with them.
And they will pay dearly for their crimes against the Ghanaian people as sure as day follows night. Why do they think patriotic and nationalistic individuals like Paa Kwesi Nduom say that they will probe all the regimes that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being?
In case it escapes middle-class Ghanaians, they ought to understand clearly that Ghana faces an existential threat from the intense rivaly between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
That is why they must get off the fence and start demanding that all the political parties in Ghana purge their memberships of violence-prone and verbally-aggressive characters. Ghana belongs to all its people. It is not the private property of any political party.
It is imperative therefore that all Ghanaians work actively together to ensure that this nation remains peaceful and stable at all material times.
Men and women of good conscience in Ghana have a moral responsibility to prevent politicians from destroying our homeland Ghana - by speaking out against intolerant and criticism-averse politicians: and demanding that political parties shun such morally-bankrupt individuals.
When amoral, super-ruthless, verbally-aggressive and violence-prone politicians start making veiled threats, directed at some judges in our nation's law courts, on the airwaves of FM radio stations, and start organising stone-throwing mobs to attack presidential convoys, we must all awaken to the danger Mother Ghana faces.
It is crucial at such a time that all men and women of goodwill and good conscience in our country summon the courage to speak out and stand up against violent types in our nation's politics - and do so before this November's elections.
In such circumstances it will be unwise and unjust on the part of our nation's men and women of good conscience and goodwill to choose to remain silent and allow Ghana to be set ablaze by power-hungry and power-drunk politicians fighting for power. Such a national catastrophe and tragedy for our people must simply not be allowed to occur. Ghanaians do not deserve such a terrible fate. They deserve better.
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr.
In the face of the blatant thuggery and verbal aggressiveness being shown by some members of our political class, middle-class Ghana's deafening silence ought to be a source of worry, for all men and women of goodwill and good conscience, in our country.
The question we must all ponder over is: What right do politicians have to engage in activities that can only lead to widespread violence and chaos in Ghana - when what our nation needs is peace and stability to attract the necessary investment that will create the desperately needed jobs for the younger generation?
The fight for power in a democracy such as ours cannot be a matter of life and death - such that some politicians are prepared to resort to violence if their party's candidate does not win this November's presidential election: because in their view such a result would only mean that it had been rigged.
How can any genuine believer in multi-party democracy make such outrageous statements? Are the law courts not there for precisely such situations - for those who say they believe in due process and the rule of law?
Or, perchance, is it the case that such cynical politicians only 'care' about the well-being of our nation and the welfare of its people when they wield political power?
Is that why they invariably resort to sabotaging the nation-building effort whenever in the political wilderness - to ensure the governing party becomes unpopular as their policies are sabotaged at various stages of implementation: to guarantee regime-change at election time? What perfidy.
How does their egregious scorched-earth-politricks benefit ordinary Ghanaians - who have to endure the terrible consequences of such nation-wrecking sabotaging tactics?
Is it any politician's birthright to rule the Republic of Ghana? If it isn't then why should politicians resort to violence because in their view their party cannot possibly lose the November presidential election - and will therefore reject the election results if their candidate fails to win that election? What gall and effrontery. What arrant nonsense. Why take Ghanaians for granted in such arrogant fashion?
What if voters decided that to prevent post-election violence they will neither vote for President Mahama nor the candidate of the biggest opposition party, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo: and sensibly cast their votes for Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom instead to give him a landslide victory in the presidential election? What then?
Let no politician in this country be under any illusion: They will never get away with setting Ghana ablaze.
There will be serious consequences for them individually. And there will be no appeasement from any quarter then - as Ghanaians demand their pound of flesh from them. Justice will definitely catch up with them.
And they will pay dearly for their crimes against the Ghanaian people as sure as day follows night. Why do they think patriotic and nationalistic individuals like Paa Kwesi Nduom say that they will probe all the regimes that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being?
In case it escapes middle-class Ghanaians, they ought to understand clearly that Ghana faces an existential threat from the intense rivaly between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).
That is why they must get off the fence and start demanding that all the political parties in Ghana purge their memberships of violence-prone and verbally-aggressive characters. Ghana belongs to all its people. It is not the private property of any political party.
It is imperative therefore that all Ghanaians work actively together to ensure that this nation remains peaceful and stable at all material times.
Men and women of good conscience in Ghana have a moral responsibility to prevent politicians from destroying our homeland Ghana - by speaking out against intolerant and criticism-averse politicians: and demanding that political parties shun such morally-bankrupt individuals.
When amoral, super-ruthless, verbally-aggressive and violence-prone politicians start making veiled threats, directed at some judges in our nation's law courts, on the airwaves of FM radio stations, and start organising stone-throwing mobs to attack presidential convoys, we must all awaken to the danger Mother Ghana faces.
It is crucial at such a time that all men and women of goodwill and good conscience in our country summon the courage to speak out and stand up against violent types in our nation's politics - and do so before this November's elections.
In such circumstances it will be unwise and unjust on the part of our nation's men and women of good conscience and goodwill to choose to remain silent and allow Ghana to be set ablaze by power-hungry and power-drunk politicians fighting for power. Such a national catastrophe and tragedy for our people must simply not be allowed to occur. Ghanaians do not deserve such a terrible fate. They deserve better.
Saturday, 2 July 2016
Why Should Ghana Borrow Money For An ECG Destined For A Private Company To Manage For 35 Years?
It so happens that even a not-so-well-resourced old fogey like Kofi
Thompson, living a continent away in Ghana, was able to access some of
the essential parts of Power Secure International's (PSI) proposal to
the government of the Bahamas, for the management of the Bahamas
Electricity Corporation (BEC).
The question then is: Why on earth have the geniuses who rule our country not made available to the good people of Ghana, all the many proposals said to have been received from private companies from as far and wide apart as India and the U.S., to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)?
And could those selfsame geniuses explain to this uneducated old fool, Kofi Thompson, why it is that despite the fact that most Ghanaians now accept that the ECG ought to be given out to a private company to manage, because it is inefficient and financially-challenged (in short a veritable corporate basket case), they are still planning to saddle taxpayers with yet more debt, by going to borrow money to purchase prepaid smart meters (that are anything but smart), for that selfsame state-owned corporate basket case they are proposing to give to a private-sector company to manage for as long as 35 solid years?
It is something that is befuddling to an old ignoramus like Kofi Thompson. Is the whole point about handing over the management of the ECG to a private company to manage, not to unburden ourselves from having to bear the cost of fixing the many ills (most of it resulting from the crooked dealings of its many dishonest employees) afflicting the ECG, and get the private company whose proposal wins it the valuable ECG management contract, to fund the entirety of the modernisation and transformation of the ECG, needed to turn that benighted company into an efficient and profitable power distribution entity?
So what is the point of asking Parliament to approve a hefty loan of some U.S.$84 million or thereabouts to buy prepaid smart meters for the ECG?
This blog humbly suggests that Ghana's Parliament should request that the government and Parliament of the Bahamas make available to it the management services agreement between the Bahamian government and Power Secure International for managing the BEC.
They will see what a win-win management services agreement for the ECG ought to look like: One in which the private-sector bid winner commits to fund the entirety of the modernisation of the ECG and bring down the cost of electricity for all consumers. Such a step by Parliament will save Mother Ghana from being saddled with yet another rip-off agreement with a foreign entity that does not benefit the good people of this country in the slightest.
It is worth pointing out to Ghana's Parliament that Power Secure International has a renewable energy subsidiary that is world-class. They ought to insist that the eventual bid winner to manage the ECG also has a world-class renewable energy subsidiary - since off-grid energy independence from renewable sources with storage might be the best way to lower bills for electricity consumers in Ghana.
Ghanaians must not allow our nation's vampire-elites to rip Mother Ghana off in the transfer of the ECG to a private company - by borrowing money to fund the purchase of prepaid smart meters for an ECG that will soon be transferred to a private company to manage for the ridiculously lengthy period of 35 years. Let the private company pay for those confounded prepaid smart meters. Ghana fuo abre eni ebusiabo. Haaba.
The question then is: Why on earth have the geniuses who rule our country not made available to the good people of Ghana, all the many proposals said to have been received from private companies from as far and wide apart as India and the U.S., to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG)?
And could those selfsame geniuses explain to this uneducated old fool, Kofi Thompson, why it is that despite the fact that most Ghanaians now accept that the ECG ought to be given out to a private company to manage, because it is inefficient and financially-challenged (in short a veritable corporate basket case), they are still planning to saddle taxpayers with yet more debt, by going to borrow money to purchase prepaid smart meters (that are anything but smart), for that selfsame state-owned corporate basket case they are proposing to give to a private-sector company to manage for as long as 35 solid years?
It is something that is befuddling to an old ignoramus like Kofi Thompson. Is the whole point about handing over the management of the ECG to a private company to manage, not to unburden ourselves from having to bear the cost of fixing the many ills (most of it resulting from the crooked dealings of its many dishonest employees) afflicting the ECG, and get the private company whose proposal wins it the valuable ECG management contract, to fund the entirety of the modernisation and transformation of the ECG, needed to turn that benighted company into an efficient and profitable power distribution entity?
So what is the point of asking Parliament to approve a hefty loan of some U.S.$84 million or thereabouts to buy prepaid smart meters for the ECG?
This blog humbly suggests that Ghana's Parliament should request that the government and Parliament of the Bahamas make available to it the management services agreement between the Bahamian government and Power Secure International for managing the BEC.
They will see what a win-win management services agreement for the ECG ought to look like: One in which the private-sector bid winner commits to fund the entirety of the modernisation of the ECG and bring down the cost of electricity for all consumers. Such a step by Parliament will save Mother Ghana from being saddled with yet another rip-off agreement with a foreign entity that does not benefit the good people of this country in the slightest.
It is worth pointing out to Ghana's Parliament that Power Secure International has a renewable energy subsidiary that is world-class. They ought to insist that the eventual bid winner to manage the ECG also has a world-class renewable energy subsidiary - since off-grid energy independence from renewable sources with storage might be the best way to lower bills for electricity consumers in Ghana.
Ghanaians must not allow our nation's vampire-elites to rip Mother Ghana off in the transfer of the ECG to a private company - by borrowing money to fund the purchase of prepaid smart meters for an ECG that will soon be transferred to a private company to manage for the ridiculously lengthy period of 35 years. Let the private company pay for those confounded prepaid smart meters. Ghana fuo abre eni ebusiabo. Haaba.
Friday, 1 July 2016
How A Creative Approach Can Help The Minority In Ghana's Parliament Get The EU To Probe Djibril Kanazoe's €24 Million Road Contract In Ghana
On Republic Day, one cannot help but ponder over the refusal of the Majority in Parliament, to allow the circumstances surrounding the gift of a luxury Ford Expedition SUV from the Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, to President Mahama, to be probed by Parliament.
If such an enquiry by Parliament will clear the air and establish the full facts of the matter, and confirm whether or not Kanazoe's gift was a bribe or not, why refuse to allow a probe by Parliament?
If the President simply erred in his judgement in accepting that gift from Kanazoe, as opposed to accepting it on the understanding that he would return the favour by helping him to obtain yet more contracts in Ghana, will such a probe not be in the President's own interest?
Would he not humbly accept such a conclusion from a bipartisan Parliamentary probe, and agree that on hindsight he erred in accepting the vehicle as a gift from Kanazoe - and take steps to return the luxury Ford Expedition SUV to the Burkinabe contractor as soon as practicable?
Does that not in effect mean that President Mahama has absolutely nothing to lose by such an enquiry by Parliament - and everything to gain from it: unless of course he has something to hide, that is?
Why do some of the members of our nation's ruling elites sometimes give one the impression that they have completely lost their powers of imagination? What are they afraid such a bipartisan probe by Parliament will reveal to the world? Hmm, Ghana - asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.
In any case, there is such a thing as tyranny of the majority, in democracies. The refusal of the Majority in Parliament to agree to a bipartisan enquiry into the matter, is one such example.
Since this blog is against all forms of tyranny, our humble advice to the Minority in Parliament, is that they ought to use a creative approach, in order to get to the truth in this murky affair.
Why do they not approach eurosceptic politicians in the European Union (EU), such as the far-right Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, and France's far-right politician and leader of the National Front Party, Marine Le Pen - both of whose parties want their countries to leave the EU - and tell them about the scandal involving a Burkinabe contractor who executed an EU funded road project in Ghana worth some €24 millions, which has developed potholes within a few weeks of its inauguration by President Mahama?
Because both Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen regard the EU as wasteful of Dutch and French taxpayers' money, they will demand a full probe by the EU to ascertain the full facts in the scandal - and notify right-wing media in Holland and France about it: and ask them to investigate it too.
The Minority in Parliament will find that that simple approach will enable the truth to finally emerge - despite the refusal of the Majority side in Parliament to establish a bipartisan parliamentary probe to enquire into the matter. Simple, really. Good luck to them - and happy Republic Day to them and to all our other Ghanaian readers.
If such an enquiry by Parliament will clear the air and establish the full facts of the matter, and confirm whether or not Kanazoe's gift was a bribe or not, why refuse to allow a probe by Parliament?
If the President simply erred in his judgement in accepting that gift from Kanazoe, as opposed to accepting it on the understanding that he would return the favour by helping him to obtain yet more contracts in Ghana, will such a probe not be in the President's own interest?
Would he not humbly accept such a conclusion from a bipartisan Parliamentary probe, and agree that on hindsight he erred in accepting the vehicle as a gift from Kanazoe - and take steps to return the luxury Ford Expedition SUV to the Burkinabe contractor as soon as practicable?
Does that not in effect mean that President Mahama has absolutely nothing to lose by such an enquiry by Parliament - and everything to gain from it: unless of course he has something to hide, that is?
Why do some of the members of our nation's ruling elites sometimes give one the impression that they have completely lost their powers of imagination? What are they afraid such a bipartisan probe by Parliament will reveal to the world? Hmm, Ghana - asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.
In any case, there is such a thing as tyranny of the majority, in democracies. The refusal of the Majority in Parliament to agree to a bipartisan enquiry into the matter, is one such example.
Since this blog is against all forms of tyranny, our humble advice to the Minority in Parliament, is that they ought to use a creative approach, in order to get to the truth in this murky affair.
Why do they not approach eurosceptic politicians in the European Union (EU), such as the far-right Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, and France's far-right politician and leader of the National Front Party, Marine Le Pen - both of whose parties want their countries to leave the EU - and tell them about the scandal involving a Burkinabe contractor who executed an EU funded road project in Ghana worth some €24 millions, which has developed potholes within a few weeks of its inauguration by President Mahama?
Because both Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen regard the EU as wasteful of Dutch and French taxpayers' money, they will demand a full probe by the EU to ascertain the full facts in the scandal - and notify right-wing media in Holland and France about it: and ask them to investigate it too.
The Minority in Parliament will find that that simple approach will enable the truth to finally emerge - despite the refusal of the Majority side in Parliament to establish a bipartisan parliamentary probe to enquire into the matter. Simple, really. Good luck to them - and happy Republic Day to them and to all our other Ghanaian readers.
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