Thursday 24 October 2019

Senior Kweku Bio: Kofi Thompson Neither Hates Nor Envies Anyone In Ghana

Massa, that is the trouble about this country. Who hates who, I ask? We are talking about a specific number of super-wealthy individuals in Ghana, who tried to use their power and influence, in an egregious state-capture manoeuvre, to enable them asset-strip the enterprise Ghana, successfully. Nothing more nothing less.

Do you realise that since their  Power Distribution Services (PDS) took over the Electricity Company of Ghana  (ECG), as much as U.S.$  2.5 billion has allegedly flowed into the coffers of PDS? The question is: Where is all that money - and what happened, and is happening, to it? Hmmm, Oman Ghana, eyeasem ooooo. Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.

Massa, it is time we all understood clearly, as an aspirational people, that at all material times, Ghanaian  entrepreneurs deserve our support, only if they are honest,  and anchor their businesses on corporate good governance principles. Full stop. That is the only sure-fire-way to get us to the Ghana beyond aid, which we all want to see coming into being, within our individual lifetimes.

If our nation's entrepreneurs don't anchor their businesses on corporate good governance principles, they don't deserve society's support. Simple. Hate ourselves indeed. You really are taking liberties.

Massa, Kofi Thompson hates no one. Never has and never will. Did you not see that I made the point that a Ghanaian inventor, Raphael Afordoanyi,  had developed  cutting-edge technology, which could give us a 50 percent reduction in electricity tariffs? Is Raphael Afordoanyi too,  not a Ghanaian, I ask? Or does his surname sound foreign to you? Togolese, perhaps? Haaba.

Massa, do you know what his serendipitous energy sector invention  would do for our national economy,  were he to be allowed to bring his invention to bear on our energy sector? It will dramatically transform our national economy overnight. Literally - on account of the mood of unprecedent optimism it will create nationwide. And, above all,  it will enable us do without the U.S. $190 million the U.S. Embassy in Ghana is taking liberties with us over. We are not beggars - so they can go to blazes  with their money.

Massa, the best way to make the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), and other state-owned enterprises (SOEs ), with potential, thrive, in sustainable fashion, is to simply float their shares on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GES), in IPOs. No libilaba in that process. Simple. That is the most transparent way to privatise public-sector entities. It worked for the United Kingdom during the Maggie Thatcher-era, and it will work for Ghana, too, if we go down that privatisation route.

It is instructive that the US Embassy in Ghana has not recommended that to our hard-of-hearing and mostly-clueless leaders. GOIL is a good example of this. If we adopt that transparent privatisation process, it would  also help to turn Ghana into a share-owning democracy, whiles raisIng trillions of cedis for the ECG, and other divested SOEs.  Ditto the Ghanaian nation-state too  - which ought to keep golden shares in all such divested SOEs, for common-good reasons. Massa, get this right: Kofi Thompson  neither hates, nor envies, anyone,  in Ghana. There is no reason for him to.

Finally, and I say this in matter-of-fact fashion, only, not boastfully, simply to prove that I have no need (materially) to envy or hate anyone in Ghana: Yes, I may be cash-poor, very; but in terms of family assets, those aforementioned  super-wealthy  crooks (and they are crooks) are definitely not my co-equals - to quote a disdainful Ghanaian pidgin English phrase of infamy.  Hate ourselves indeed. I, who is always giving out free consultancy ideas, as my widow's mite contribution, to the nation-building task, to help make our country prosper? Ebeeii. Massa, wan  try koraaaa. Haaba. Senior Kweku Bio, Kofi Thompson neither hates, nor envies anyone, in Ghana. Haaba.

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