An Open Letter To Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings!

Ohemaa, if your Mr. Kofi Adams had allowed it, one would have had a more meaningful conversation with you - to ascertain what you think you can do differently as Ghana's president, which hasn't already been done, or isn't being done now.

For example, do you want to be president because you want to make our homeland Ghana, the first nation in the world, to allot one-half of the seats in its Parliament to women - and get a constitutional amendment passed to that effect during your tenure? Ditto the cabinet?

Do you also want to abolish personal income tax, and make Ghana the nation with the lowest corporate tax rates in Africa - because you believe that the most practical way to create jobs in Ghana, is to make this the most attractive place in Africa, for those interested in investing in emerging markets?

Can you also assure us that you will have a law passed that makes tax-evasion a crime punishable by a mandatory jail sentence - to ensure that all those who run businesses in Ghana, contribute their quota to the development of the nation in which they earn their profits?

And will you also ensure that a law is passed to make armed robbery a crime which if convicted of, means one will serve a life sentence, literally - without the possibility of parole or a presidential pardon (as Kufuor did when exiting office!): to protect ordinary Ghanaian families from such dangerous and callous individuals?

And will you, as president, order the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to prepare for implementation, as soon as funds can be made available to it, plans for a one million-strong national service component to the GAF - so that all young Ghanaians will do a compulsory two-year military service, to help Mother Ghana: by farming in GAF plantations nationwide?

It will help lay the foundation for a more disciplined society in our homeland Ghana - alas, a must, if we are to forge ahead in any meaningful way. Work with the Israelis, whose knowledge of raising and managing a citizen-army, is unmatched.

The Thai army also has a component set up by the King of Thailand, the sole purpose of which is the cultivation of vertiver nationwide. Leverage the Thai army's vertiver corps' skills too.

Will you also do a deal with the South Korean and Chinese governments, that in exchange for companies from their nations' being allowed to participate in our oil and natural gas industries, they will fund the construction of ten new green cities (designed for a sustainable-lifestyle - to comfortably accommodate and cater for 3 million citizens!), one each, in all Ghana's ten regions: on a joint-venture basis with the best-resourced and managed Ghanaian construction companies?

And will you also get the constitution amended to give every Ghanaian who cannot afford to build his or her own home, the right to well-designed and well-built affordable rental accommodation provided by District Assemblies?

And will you make access to those flats and houses based on participation in Department of National Lottery (DNL) draws - so that ring-fenced revenues from the DNL will fund the maintenance of those properties and also ensure fairness in the allocation of the properties - and prevent Kokofu-football politricks being played with this basic need of ordinary folk?

And can you also assure us that if elected as president of our nation, Ghanaians will not wake up to hear that your son, Kimathi, has put together a consortium led by state-owned banks, to loan him cash to purchase a multi-million dollar hotel - when in reality it actually is yours?

Can you also assure us that every time the executives of foreign oil companies pay you a courtesy call, friends fronting for you will not claim to be their local partners - and end up being allocated a 5 percent share in a bloc in an oil field somewhere off our shores?

And will you assure us that women will not be given appointments to important positions only on condition that they part their legs for the many misogynists in influential positions in Ghana?

And that furthermore, you will also ensure that no male in Ghana, including the type referred to by society as "big man" who rapes a female in any part of the Ghanaian nation-state, will get away with it - and will be prosecuted and jailed if found guilty in a court of law ? It is time we dealt with violence against women in Ghana, in all its forms.

Finally, will you set an example as president, by publicly publishing your assets - as well as those of your spouse and children: as your personal contribution to the fight against corruption in Ghana?

And will you also demand that from all who serve under you - to put a halt to the naked greed by those at the top of the greasy pole: which is now the silent-killer slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy?

And lest I forget: Do tell your Mr. Kofi Adams that he must have an open-door policy in as far as serious people from the Ghanaian media wanting to interview you goes - or your views on pertinent national issues won't go beyond your inner circle, Ohemaa!

PS Ohemaa, one hopes that were you to become president, we will not see a repeat of the nauseating spectacle, of an NDC president of Ghana, sucking up to the perfidious President Kufuor by welcoming him to the Osu Castle (and telling that greedy and selfish President Kufuor that he is welcome to his "office"- imagine that!).

President Kufuor, as you know, is said by many of his critics to be the most amoral, dishonest and greediest individual ever elected to lead Ghana thus far, since we gained our independence.

Some will suggest that you have a conversation with Nana Fremaa Busia to see the amoral nature of that ace-hypocrite.  And probe to check estimates of the total amount he and the Osu Castle cabal received in kickbacks, and sat on, for confirmation of the charges against him. And that is only one set of his many alleged sins against Nkrumah's Ghana!

Of course, a number of your admirers will also caution you, and say that they also hope that unlike your party leader, you will not toady to President Kufuor's tribal Chieftain.

Naturally, this being Ghana, a nation full of moral cowards and ace-hypocrites, many of who know full well, but will not say so in public, that outside Kufuor's family clan, he, more that any other Ghanaian citizen, benefited the most, from Kufour & Co's profligacy, unparalleled corruption and egregious abuse of power. Hmm, Ghana -eyease o: asem kesie ebeba debi, ankasa!

Only heaven knows how both super-hypocritical gentlemen must be mocking your party's leader behind his back - for seeking solace in their 'friendship' from the relentless pressure you and your husband are piling on him. Poor man - how politically naïve and misguided can you get?

Incidentally, inherited privilege, as you well know, is the worst enemy of meritocracy - so keep all Ghana's Chiefs at arms length, without exception. Don't be sentimental about them - they hold the seeds of our nation's destruction. They are the last bastions of tribalism in our country.

Kufuor's unholy alliance with his over-ambitious tribal Chieftain, nearly destroyed the cohesion of our homeland Ghana - a modern and united African nation-state of diverse-ethnicity: of equal tribal groupings co-existing peacefully side by side (and inter-marrying frequently!): and none superior or inferior to the other. Thank goodness their party was turfed out of power, at just the right time.

And since we are being brutally frank, why do you and your friends not drop the absurd claim that your husband founded the NDC? Legally, no one individual can found a political party under Ghanaian law.

So why not stop using the obsequious phrase "NDC founder" and drop the daft Alice-in-wonderland fairy-tale that he "founded" the NDC? Why not simply say that he was the "inspiration for the formation of the NDC?"

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana. that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR SECTIONS OF THE GHANAIAN MEDIA & THEIR POLITICAL PAYMASTERS!

For those clever Ghanaian media professionals, who collaborate with politicians (to whom they have sold their conscience!), to invade the privacy of critical media voices in Ghana, which they constantly seek to silence, here is a cautionary tale.

It is part of a news story culled from the BBC's website showing how the hubris of some of its journalists has got the UK newspaper, News of the World (NoW) into hot water, over a hacking scandal.

So let them all remember, when they are planting those daft stories that they think will trip some of us up, and hacking into our phones and emails, that they too will get their comeuppance, one fine day. Please read on, dear reader:

"....The NoW printed its apology in its latest edition over the long-running phone-hacking scandal.

The paper said of the victims: "Here today, we publicly and unreservedly apologise to all such individuals."

It added in a page two article that the hacking "should not have happened" and "was and remains unacceptable".

The NoW's owner, News International, has admitted there were at least eight victims and has put aside £20m for compensation.

'Fairly and efficiently'

The paper said a number of individuals had brought breach of privacy claims against it over wrongful "voicemail interceptions" between 2004 and 2006, and others were threatening to do so.

Mark Lewis, representing the publicist Nicola Phillips, said his client had turned down an offer from the NoW.

While lawyer Charlotte Harris, who is involved in several of the current cases, said the NoW's apology was "limited" and left several unanswered questions.

She told BBC Radio 5 live: "It's all very well saying 'okay, fine, we admit that happened', but how are we meant to know the extent of what happened?

"It's not just about money, we want to know who was it you listened to, who else was involved, how far up, exactly what period, what else have you got, why weren't we told?

"These questions need to be answered, and they can only be answered if we carry on with the cases and don't just settle them in one go." Culled from the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13027211

Well, there it is, dear reader, that cautionary tale - and one hopes that those Ghanaian journalists and criticism-averse politicians (as well as the Telcos who aid and abet their crimes!), who collaborate to invade the privacy of critical media voices they wish to silence, will learn a useful lesson from the tribulations of the hapless News of the World.

They must understand that there is a world of difference between using subterfuge to trap a coup-plotter, and snooping on a patriotic individual speaking out against the many third-rate individuals in high places in society, whose unparalleled incompetence is ruining our homeland Ghana,

They must be careful - lest they are hoisted on their own petard. The falsehood about Sahara Oil and that daft coup story said to be by a lady from "Kanashie first light" were both daft entrapment attempts.

Just who did they think they were fooling, I ask? And what have they achieved in stopping us from being able to publish articles on our Ghanaweb blog? Its Ghanaweb's loss - not mine! They must be extremely careful. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

Post Script:
As of midnight tonight , 10/4/2011, I will be going off-line for a while. In the period I'll be away, I shall search for a new ISP. I am tired of the endless snooping and hacking I have to endure with my current ISP. Hopefully Glo's high-speed broadband internet service will soon be up and running for mobile devices.

So it will be goodbye to the prickly Vodafone Ghana (whose perfidy I shall now be able to tackle without fear of retribution in service denials!) and hello to the dynamic and super-fast Glo! And about time too. I do look forward to our conversations again soon, dear readers!

FOR A FAIRER GHANA LET'S HAVE FAIRER EXTRACTIVE-INDUSTRY AGREEMENTS!

Ghana has all the wealth in the world to enable it provide free education for all its citizens who have the aptitude to study (to whatever level they are capable of!), provide free healthcare for all its people and house ordinary people in well-designed and well-built affordable housing estates - except that over the years, its leaders have literally given that wealth away: in unfair agreement after unfair agreement with powerful multinational firms.

One would have therefore thought, that at a time when the old rules no longer apply, in a global political and economic climate in flux, our ruling elites would spend their energies thinking of ways to make the beneficiaries of those one-sided agreements see that in fairness, Ghanaians cannot continue to be impoverished, whiles they continue to literally cart our wealth away in the name of direct foreign investment, and that they must therefore be willing to renegotiate more transparent and win-win ones, to replace the rip-offs of the past.

Yet, sadly for Mother Ghana, instead of doing some lateral thinking, members of our political class choose instead to spend their energies making asinine comments and having pointless arguments. It is totally unacceptable - and must cease forthwith.

The Hon. Fritz Baffuor, who is the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) member of Parliament for the Ablekuma South constituency, gained my respect, when during a recent morning TV Africa current affairs programme, he expressed his frustration and exasperation by the painful and irritating fact that valuable time is being lost fuelling that pointless and negative type of politics: in a nation whose suffering people deserve so much better.

Is it not time that there was consensus amongst our ruling elites, for example, that what are some of the worst oil agreements in the world, must be renegotiated? We will have global public opinion on our side, will we not, if we are fair, firm and unyielding on that particular point - and tell the whole world why?

Will that not shame those Shylocks into seeing reason, dear reader: more so when as things stand they are getting away with polluting the waters off our shores and beaches along Ghana's coastline?

In terms of clean-up costs, and harm to society caused by the disruption to local coastal fishing economies, damaged wetland ecosystems and a polluted marine ecology, does only one spillage like the Gulf of Mexico BP disaster, not have the potential to wipe out wealth more or less equal, over generations, to the combined revenues from the entire production lifespan (and probably end up costing more than the combined value too!) of all Ghana's oil and natural gas deposits, I ask?

Why, then, have the geniuses who rule Ghana not put in place the most stringent environmental laws in the world to protect us, and ensure that oil companies responsible for any pollution, pay the clean-up costs, and compensate all those whose livelihoods they destroy with oil spillages - and are forced to return the natural environment to a pristine state too, on top of all that? Did they not see how the Obama administration dealt with BP when it caused that disaster in the Gulf of Mexico?

Ghanaians cannot continue to allow a finite resource to be exploited by foreigners for their sole benefit - whiles we pick up mere crumbs from their table-of-plenty. Rather we shut down production in all our oil fields, than allow that to carry on until the oil and natural gas deposits are depleted.

Tullow Oil has shown itself to be a fair and honest oil company. Let us get them to see that if allowed to continue, the situation could end up becoming an untenable one.

And who is to know, when that happens, if it will not lead to disenchantment amongst ordinary people, which some young military officer could seize upon, and do what Maummar Gaddafi did when he overthrew King Iddris: overthrow our incompetent Establishment and tear up those one-sided oil agreements, which only benefit foreign oil companies and their local collaborators?

Ordinary people are fed up with this musical-chairs-democracy, in which one set of greedy incompetents, who regard political power as the facilitator-in-chief of their personal wealth-creation agenda, follow each other in office, and then proceed to asset-strip the enterprise Ghana for their own benefit, once in power.

It is time ordinary people too enjoyed the material benefits of the democracy dividend, which, thus far, only Ghana's ruling elites have benefited from - as evidenced by the allowance upon allowance they receive, the perks and freebies galore they insist on, as well as those obscene retirement benefits to top all that profligacy at taxpayers' expense.

Let us start the journey to a fairer Ghana, with fairer oil agreements - and also tell AnglogoldAshanti that what Mr. Jonah wrung out of Kufuor & Co., cannot, in fairness, be allowed to stand too.

Unfair agreements signed with poor nations (with even poorer populations!), by powerful and wealthy multinational firms, are amoral and are the financial equivalent of the Nazi holocaust - and re-negotiating win-win ones to replace them, are the reparations they pay for their past sins. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

WHY WE MUST NOT COUNTENANCE NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

In a www.ghanaweb.com general news web-page story of 2011-04-05 entitled: "Ghana Targets Nuclear Power By 2018" the Director General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Professor
Edward Akaho, was quoted copiously, in an interview with Public Agenda. Amongst other things, the Public Agenda story also said: "In the wake of Ghana's energy crisis in 2007, the then President John Agyekum Kufuor set up a Nuclear Power Committee to prepare pre-feasibility studies on the country's chances of expanding its power generation by including nuclear energy.

The committee, chaired by Prof. Daniel Adjei Bekoe, after close to five months of work presented to government a roadmap for adopting nuclear power by 2018."

With respect, Professor Edward Akaho has a vested interest in a nuclear power plant being built in Ghana - nuclear science is his professional life. And was personal interest not the abiding .determinant, in virtually all that Kufuor & Co. ever did, whiles in office - so why should this dangerous idea from an era of self-seekers be cast in stone, I ask? It is typical of the bankruptcy of thought and the foolishness, which so many amongst our nation's educated urban elites are guilty of, that at a time when virtually all the developed nations of the world, and even the Chinese (with their economy's voracious appetite for electric power!), are having second thoughts about building planned nuclear power plants, vested interests in Ghana, are rather asking Ghanaians to accept this folly.

Why, is this still not a nation in which, as a result of corruption at all levels, there is scarce a project in which all design specifications are followed to the letter, in the execution of contracts - because individuals lacking integrity, in supervisory roles at various levels, see turning a blind-eye to corner-cutting by contractors, as a sure-fire means of self-enrichment? Are we still not a nation that has virtually no maintenance culture to speak of - because of the selfsame corruption and the unparalleled incompetence, of so many of our self-seeking professional classes?

Are we not even overwhelmed by the relatively simple task of the disposal of household and industrial waste? Is it therefore not madness to build a nuclear power plant in such a nation - and condemn generation after generation, for thousands of years to come, to the harmful effects of radiation: from an accident, which is bound to occur, at some point, after the commissioning of any such plant, from human error, as sure as day follows night, this being Ghana?

Perhaps I had better get into active politics as quickly as I can organise myself, and operate as an independent pro-Ghana politician - and do everything I can to help overthrow any government of Ghana so foolish that it will allow itself to be talked into giving the go-ahead for the building of what will turn out to be an unmitigated disaster for our homeland Ghana. And all this pure nonsense on bamboo stilts, because vested interests want to benefit from the usual "chop-chop" kickbacks, which invariably go with such large infrastructure projects in Ghana. It won't happen. Period.

Who is to know that the decision to build a nuclear power plant, apparently taken by the Kufuor regime before it left office, was not influenced by the same selfish disregard for the common good, which was the hallmark of Kufuor & Co.? Was their unfathomable greed, not responsible, for example, for that outrageous and nonsensical deviation from the original design plans, for the Tetteh Quarshie inter-change?

Did that monstrosity not occur in the end, just to enable the selfsame President Kufuor and his family clan, as well as their cronies, to put up commercial structures for themselves - in their ruthless and determined quest to send their individual net worth to stratospheric heights, at all costs: even though engineers and consultants supervising it, all knew it would create insurmountable traffic management problems for ordinary private motorists, and the travelling public, I ask?

If even nations light years ahead of us in terms of science and technology, as well as being far far wealthier than Ghana will ever be (given the mostly-moronic individuals who pepper our ruling elites!), are now realising the cost of failure of even one reactor in a nuclear power plant (since that terrible recent Japanese super-quake damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant), and are consequently seriously looking at alternatives to nuclear power, such as renewable energy, why don't our feckless and incompetent educated elite, not simply think of rather building the world's biggest wind-power farm along our entire coastline - in partnership with the biggest and best-resourced state-owned Chinese giant wind-power plant builders: to produce say 20,000 megawatts of electricity?

Would the government of China not willingly and happily fund such a mega-project, in exchange for one of the bigger state-owned Chinese oil companies being allocated a bloc in an oil afield off our shores, dear reader?

Isn't that infinitely better than waiting for another sly rogue to become president, and end up employing sleight-of-hand shenanigans to get one allocated to his fronts-men, courtesy a foreign oil company run by super-clever crooks? Talk about a nation in which creative thinking seldom features in the national political discourse: because of a dearth of creative and lateral thinkers. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo!
Would such a wind-energy mega-project not be an iconic one that will put us on the world map, and for all the right reasons, for once - and unlike nuclear power won't have any attendant radiation dangers associated with it? Ghana must not go down this road-to-hell-paved-with-good-intentions type of project, which will end up spawning a Frankenstein monster, under any circumstances. Period. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works! ): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

Post Script: Below is an article culled from the March 24, 2011
edition of Business Asia, entitled: "The Business Case Against Nuclear Power" and authored by BENJAMIN K. SOVACOOL. It speaks for itself - and one hopes discerning and independent-minded Ghanaians will mull over its contents, and tell the clowns who run our affairs, that a nuclear power plant in Ghana, will only ever be built over their dead bodies! Read on.

"The relentless media coverage of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan has centered on safety and reliability concerns with modern nuclear power plants. Such fears have prompted China to suspend its nuclear building plans at least for the short term and will also affect the prospects for new plants in Europe and the U.S. But this safety debate obscures an economic point that already was emerging before the Japan disaster: Nuclear power makes little economic sense.

Modern nuclear plants are among the most capital-intensive structures ever built. Initial construction of a new reactor consumes close to 60% of a project's total investment, compared to about 40% for coal and 15% for natural gas power plants (the remainder goes to costs such as fuel, maintenance and operations). The nuclear industry is typically the most capital-intensive business in any country that builds nuclear plants.

There are several reasons for this. Nuclear plants are more like one-of-a-kind cathedrals than off-the-shelf cellular phones. Key components like computer systems and reactor technologies may be modular but they still have to go in a facility uniquely—and expensively—designed for its site. A nuclear plant requires special cooling systems, emergency backup generators, spent fuel ponds, radiation shields, and firewalls that must all work in tandem to ensure safety and reliability.


Then there's the cost of time. In places like the U.S., it takes on average nearly five years to gain approval to pour the first concrete. The average construction time for all global nuclear power plants built from 1976 to 2007 has been more than seven years. While experts may differ on how much of this is necessary, it's not unreasonable to argue that nuclear plants ought to be subjected to a greater level of scrutiny compared to conventional or renewable power plants given the dangers involved.

These long times place nuclear power plants at greater risk than their conventional competitors for unforeseen changes in electricity demand, interest rates, availability of materials, severe weather, labor strikes and the like—all of which threaten the viability of business plans and contribute to severe cost overruns. One study estimated that between 1966 and 1977, when most of America's light-water reactors were built, in every case the U.S. plants cost at least twice as much as expected. The quoted cost for these 75 plants was $89.1 billion, but the real cost was a monumental $283.3 billion—and that excludes fuel storage and decommissioning. But is it worth it?

The expense continues once the plant has come online. Jim Harding from the Keystone Center, a nonpartisan think tank, found in 2008 that projected operating costs for new nuclear power plants were 30 cents per kilowatt hour of power for the first 13 years until construction costs are paid, followed by 18 cents over the remaining lifetime of the plant. That compares to less than 10 cents per kilowatt hour for coal, natural gas, and even wind, hydro, geothermal and landfill gas generators. Moody's Investor Service projects higher operating costs based on the quickly escalating price of metals, forgings, other materials and labor needed to construct reactors.

So how has anyone been able to afford to build any plants at all? In short, government support. The business model for nuclear power generation relies primarily on extracting huge amounts of taxpayer subsidies.

This has been true since the industry's early days. Nuclear power in the U.S. received subsidies of $15.30 per kilowatt hour between 1947 and 1961—the first 15 years during which nuclear technology was used for civilian power generation—compared to subsidies of $7.19 per kilowatt hour for solar power and 46 cents for wind power between 1975 and 1989, the first 15 years when those technologies came into more widespread use. Nuclear operators are often protected by laws limiting liability that shift most of the expense of serious accidents to the public, thus shielding operators from the costs of insuring a potentially more dangerous technology.


All of this ought to raise questions in a lot of minds in Asia, where nuclear increasingly has been viewed as the next big energy thing. Asian governments purport to have plans to build 110 nuclear power plants between 2010 and 2030. Achieving this build-out would necessitate hundreds of billions of dollars of continued subsidies. Conservatively estimating a per-plant cost of $5 billion, and very conservatively estimating subsidies equal to one-third of project costs (it's closer to 70%-80% in the U.S.), that still works out to around $180 billion in subsidies simply to build the plants, let alone operate them. Can Asia afford that?

Nuclear-power proponents often argue that the market should decide whether nuclear makes sense. They're right. The reality is that but for government support, nuclear is a terrible business proposition. Asian policy makers should take note.

Mr. Sovacool, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, is co-author of "The International Politics of Nuclear Power," forthcoming from Routledge." " His article was culled from the March 24, 2011
edition of BUSINESS ASIA.

EX-PRESIDENT RAWLINGS & MRS RAWLINGS: DO NOT CROSS THE RUBICON!

Not being present one's self at any of the places that President Rawlings is reported making critical comments about President Mills' regime, and the president personally, one is hesitant to believe those alleged negative comments he is said to make, which one reads and hears about, in the Ghanaian media.

However, it needs to be said that it is important for President Rawlings, to remember that any Ghanaian president who is not personally corrupt and is selfless, ought to be shown respect by all Ghanaians - especially those who have occupied that privileged position before.

If it is true that he has called for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), to reject President Mills as the party's candidate for the December 2012 presidential election, then he has gone too far - and it is time President Rawlings was told a few home truths:

(1) According to Ghana's constitution, his time is over. He had nearly twenty odd years to turn Ghana into paradise. It didn't happen. Neither did we experience a rule of saints, under him - and it is daft to pretend President Mills can do in two years (or four, for that matter!), what he couldn't do in all the years he had the privilege of ruling Nkrumah's Ghana.

What he is doing is beginning to look suspiciously like a clever coup-maker employing other means to achieve an end no longer feasible by a military coup. For that reason, those of us committed to a democratic Ghana, will not let him succeed in his aim. Period.

The highest position his wife is going to reach, as a compromise to bring peace to their party, is vice-president - on a take it or leave it basis. If she gets there, and they win in December 2012, her fate thereafter, will be in the hands of Providence, for the December 2016 presidential election - if her Maker grants her long enough years on this earth, for her to engage in such contemplation with those who will be advising her then.

(2) It will be fatal for the NDC for anyone to try to prevent President Mills from seeking a second term. Speaking personally, although I will happily vote for a Mills-Rawlings ticket, I will, however, never vote for Mrs. Rawlings if she stood for president. And there are millions just like me.

(3) They must both understand that Mrs. Rawlings must learn to crawl before she can walk. She must aim for the more realistic option of joining the NDC 2012 presidential ticket - and in the short-term getting Vice President John Mahama to step aside for Mrs. Rawlings to become vice-president, as a compromise gesture to unite the NDC: to enable their regime have the peace of mind to concentrate on the important task of nation-building.

President Rawlings and the former first lady, must not let it be said of them, that despite the compassion shown them by so many, including even the most implacable of their political opponents, when fire gutted their Ridge home, they themselves refuse to show others compassion - and that it appears that the tragic fire notwithstanding, they are completely lacking in humanity and humility, to even acknowledge the fragility of human existence: as they lay into President Mills in such relentless fashion.

It will be suicidal if they allowed that to gain currency, as a result of the ruthless manner they appear to be going about the job of destroying President Mills' presidency. What crime has President Mills committed, at all to warrant such hostility?

Yes, we all want the Kufuor-era crooks investigated, prosecuted and jailed - but, at the same time, being decent human beings and fair-minded individuals, we do not want to go about it by persecuting them. Rawlings must remember that he committed treason in December 1981 - but we have all decided to let him get away with it: for peace in our homeland Ghana, not because we are fools or are afraid of him.

Some of us did not fear him even at the height of his powers, when he headed an absolute and brutal dictatorship: which murdered and caused the disappearance of scores of full-blooded Ghanaians, whose only crime was that they wanted our country to be rid of his tyranny. At his time of life, he must be a reasonable man, to show his gratitude to Ghanaians for being so forgiving. Let them not give the impression that they think they are immortal and will therefore live till the very end of time - which therefore makes them indispensable. They are not. Period.

Surely, they are not so foolish and blinded by unbridled lust for power, as to believe so, are they? They must not let fair-minded Ghanaians begin to think that they are motivated solely by personal hatred for President Mills. It is time they showed some humility for a change - for their arrogance is offensive. Enough is enough - they are beginning to irritate some of us with their unreasonableness. They must be more realistic in their ambitions - lest they make complete fools of themselves. They must not tempt fate by crossing the Rubicon. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): +233 (0) 27 745 3109.

The NDC Government's Biggest Failing: Allowing Kufuor-Era Crooks To Escape Justice!

Shortly after the new National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills came into office, a spending scandal occurred. An air force plane was used for a junketing trip abroad by some members of the new administration.

A number of VIP's, led by the then minister in charge of the youth and sports ministry, Alhaji Muntaka, were flown to Abidjan to watch a football match involving the national team, the Black Stars, by the Ghana Air Force (in an aircraft apparently jam-packed with their cronies and sundry regime-hangers-on).

The regime's apologists subsequently claimed that the trip had been sponsored by a private company. Yet, it was to later emerge that in fact taxpayers' had had to fork out some US$10,000 to pay for the air force plane's landing fees at the Abidjan airport.

This being Ghana, the silver-tongued individuals who lied through their teeth, to try and hide the truth, did not have the decency to do the honourable thing - and resign from their positions: and save the new government from embarrassment and enable it keep the squeaky-clean image, which President Mills' personal integrity, initially lent it.

There was a subsequent attempt by some of the new regime's spin-doctors, to try and justify what clearly was an unjustifiable example, of unacceptable and wanton abuse of power in our democracy. It was to prove to be an early indicator of the mastery of the art and science of the exploitation of government perks and freebies (including junketing trips of course) - by those ace hypocrites and serial-evaders-of-the-truth, lurking in the shadows of the Mills administration.

That unfortunate attempt at covering up the truth, was indeed a harbinger of things to come. For, it was an early example of a penchant for the deployment of the cloak-of-obfuscation to hide the truth, by some in the new NDC regime whenever there was the slightest whiff of the unpleasant about the Mills administration (the plain truth, ie!).

Those were the selfsame too-clever-by-half individuals who were later on so aptly labelled as "greedy bastards" by President Rawlings. And it is at the doorstep of those "greedy bastards" that must be laid the blame for what has turned out to be the biggest failure, to date, of the Mills administration.

The fact of the matter, is that it is not in the interest of the NDC's "greedy bastards" that the Kufuor-era crooks are investigated, prosecuted and jailed - as a change in governing parties in December 2012, will see them at the receiving end of a similar calling to account for crimes against Ghana.

Their serial-wrongdoing, often hidden by the deployment of the cloak of obfuscation, is the sole reason for the apparent lack of interest, and reluctance, on the part of the present NDC regime  to investigate and prosecute past wrongdoing from the Kufuor-era.

It is said, for example, that it is the "greedy bastards" love for the Kufuor-era pork-barrel politics that the NDC regime that promised Ghanaians a better Ghana, failed to remove the disposal of "seized vehicles" from the presidency - and make a deliberately opaque process much more transparent.

The question we must ask those self-seekers is: Is this still not a nation that is perpetually in need of money (go and ask any of Ghana's teachers, for the answer to that one, dear reader!)?

 And if it is, why then - when the present regime is led by the most honest individual to lead Ghana thus far, since Nkrumah's overthrow in February 1966 -  is the sale of such confiscated vehicles not seen as a means of raising extra revenue for the Ghanaian nation-state by the denizens of the corridors of power at the Osu Castle, Ghana's seat of government?

Surely, in the regime of a man of integrity such as President Mills is, the entire process of the disposal of such vehicles ought to be made more transparent than it had been under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) - by opting to dispose of such vehicles through public auctions open to all Ghanaians: so as to yield maximum revenue for the national kitty?

With respect, President Mills must understand clearly, that the failure of his administration to make the investigation and prosecution of Kufuor-era wrong-doing, a top priority item of his regime, shows a lack of political nous and foresight, on its part (or at any rate, the faction of their party that controls the Osu Castle!) - and will come back to haunt the NDC during the campaign for the crucial 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections, as sure as day follows night, if things are allowed to remain as they are. 

That is why many independent-minded patriots and Ghanaian nationalists (the so-called discerning floating voters!), so desperately want President Mills and the NDC to prevail on Vice-President John Mahama, to step aside and have Mrs. Rawlings appointed vice president to replace him - and put in charge of a special task-force of world-class individuals with the relevant investigative and legal backgrounds, to deal with the issue of the investigation and prosecution of the crooks of yesteryear, once and for all.

The NDC needs to take cognisance of the fact that after several years, when federal agencies sought and failed to nail Al Capone for the many murders linked to the organised criminal syndicates  he was such a genius at organising and leading, in the end the U.S. authorities opted to use the IRS to nail him.

Why can't the same method be used to put behind bars, all those who took part in the brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana, during the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co, I ask? What are the tax authorities doing - when there are stories circulating of prominent Ghanaians acquiring assets, both locally and overseas, worth millions of dollars, for example?

And what about those individuals who never cease telling all who will listen that they are single-handedly shouldering the burden of funding the New Patriotic Party (NPP)? Where exactly do they find the means to do so - and is their expenditure on sustaining the NPP  and the many mercenary journalists who are in their very deep pockets, commensurate with their declared incomes, one wonders?

In light of all the above, why should society continue to allow our nation to be held to ransom, by a few biased judges, who all fair-minded and discerning Ghanaians are aware, based on their record, would not last even five minutes, in the judiciary of any of the established democracies of the Western world - for their outrageous tribalism and egregious partisanship?

And much reluctantly, amongst such judicial bias, one must unfortunately include - if we are to believe its source, the Hon. Atta Akyea - the apparent assistance once upon a time rendered by the present Chief Justice to the selfsame Atta Akyea & Co.

To be fair to her, she did say later on in her defence, that it was part of her plan to speed up the adjudication of electoral disputes in the law courts - to which the cynics might counter, "That was before Tain: so how did she know there would be an electoral dispute case, when no votes had been cast, in the decider, the election in Tain constituency?

Did she have the powers of a mystic and a clairvoyant, perhaps?" Hmm, Ghana, eyeasem o: asem sebeh! This shocking news, came into the public domain, when a legal team representing the NPP, sought to manipulate the legal system - in a failed bid to deny the then candidate Mills, the presidency, during the run-off of the December 2008 presidential election.

As we all know, that incredible piece of evidence, of an action that would definitely have led to the Chief Justices of the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, resigning immediately it came into the public domain, had they, in a moment of fleeting moment of madness, done same, was a revelation that came directly from that gentleman's own inference of the aforementioned painful and unacceptable fact: when he complained, in a petulant voice, about "Mame nu" in apparent reference to a message, which he said had been sent through his wife to him, by her relation, "Mame nu - me yeri nu anipa nu": ie, the Chief Justice of Ghana - and all of which was caught on a tape-recording  played on Radio Gold's "Election Forensics" programme, and which the Hon. Atta Akyea admitted publicly to Mr. Kwesi Pratt during a radio interview on Hot FM, was his own voice.

In light of all the above, perhaps the question we must pose those who now rule our nation, is: Will the hard-of-hearing folk in the NDC regime, some of whose members are toying with the power their party won the hard way, listen to practical advice from those who only give such free advice because they love Mother Ghana - and want nothing in return for it: and be creative in nailing the crooks of yesteryear: by putting a Vice-President Nana Konadu Agyemang iRawlings in charge of that vital task?

One hopes they will, for our homeland Ghana's sake - as their regime's failure to investigate and prosecute all those responsible for the corruption of the Kufuor-era, is their administration's biggest failing to date.

WHY GHANA'S VICE-PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA MUST STEP ASIDE FOR FORMER FIRST LADY MRS RAWLINGS!

If anyone had said, during the long years the National Democratic Congress (NDC) spent in the political wilderness, that the party would become so divided, when returned to power again, few Ghanaians would have believed it.

Yet, that is precisely what has happened. And today, one gets the distinct impression, that somehow, the hawkish elements in the two factions, dislike each other, even more than they do those who marginalised them in Ghanaian society, and manipulated the legal system to persecute them, during the tenure of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). How so, one wonders?

It is a situation that cannot, but make anxious, any patriot and Ghanaian nationalist, who loves this country passionately, and is keen to ensure that Nkrumah's Ghana, never again falls into the divisive and grasping hands, of the small, powerful and utterly ruthless Akan tribal-supremacist cabal, which "owns" the NPP - and though small in number, dominates it so completely: unfortunately for our homeland Ghana.

(It must be stressed, however, dear reader, that the vast majority of the NPP's Ghanaians of Akan-descent, are non-tribalistic, and nationalistic in outlook. And, luckily for our homeland Ghana, they outnumber those narrow-minded, powerful and greedy individuals, in the aforementioned Akan tribal-supremacist cabal!)

It is for that reason that many of those, who rather than see Ghana breaking up into tribal entities (the ultimate goal of the NPP's "owners!"), want to ensure that it continues to remain the modern and united African nation-state, envisioned by Ghana's founding father, the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, find it necessary, at this juncture, to urge the NDC's two main factions to put their personal animosities aside, in the interest of Mother Ghana - and unite to work together to win a majority of the votes, in the next presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for December 2012.

Yes, it may very well be the case that both sides have legitimate reasons to be bitter, about certain things that have occurred since the NDC returned to power in January 2009. And, yes, those perceived wrongs must be acknowledged, addressed and resolved, to the satisfaction of the aggrieved parties in the wholly unnecessary feuding that has split the NDC apart, in such glaring fashion.

Ingratitude is a terrible thing - and both sides in this matter, are guilty of it. The Osu Castle "Lets-chop-Ghana-small-whiles-the-sun-shines-on-us" secret-deals-nyafu-nyafu brigade (so aptly referred to by President Rawlings as "greedy bastards") are a disgrace to a party that says it traces its roots to the June 4, 1979 insurrection.

They seem to have completely forgotten, that there are many others who suffered and made tremendous sacrifices, to enable the NDC to return to power again. Their complacency and foolish smugness, is shocking - having got power after eight long and painful years, they are now playing with it: because greed has blinded them, so. Atiyeyia ema awirefriyie, aampah! Pity.

Conversely, the disrespect and disloyalty shown the president, a gentleman who is the most honest and selfless individual to lead Ghana thus far, since Nkrumah's overthrow, is an affront to common decency - and puts those guilty of it, beyond the pale. It is time the green-eyed generals and troops of the "Let-us-bring-the-whole-edifice-down-if-we-cannot-chop-too" sour-grapes battalion, remembered that famous quip by General De Gaulle: "The cemeteries are full of people who thought they were indispensable."

No one is indispensable - and that includes all of them: those infernal so-called foot-soldiers, who do not know the meaning of self-respect and self-sacrifice for the common good, and those hypocrites manipulating them for the most cynical of reasons - and it is time they ended their unhelpful obduracy, once and for all.

This hasn't been the two sides' finest hour, so to speak - and the well-meaning and principled individuals on both sides, must make amends, by pulling the hard-liners on each side, back from the brink before it is too late, and come together to defeat the party of Kufuor & Co. again, in December 2012. Period.

It is extremely important that the two sides understand clearly, that whiles a united NDC can easily retain power in December 2012, it will definitely struggle to do so if it continues to remain as divided as it currently is. One therefore hopes that they will do some creative thinking - including even thinking the unthinkable: in order to achieve an outcome that will redound to the benefit of all concerned, and to Mother Ghana's benefit, above all.

That is what is needed to reunite and re-invigorate the NDC - and create a lasting momentum that will sweep them to power again in the December 2012 election. To that end, one cannot but urge both sides to consider what some may regard as the mother of all political game-changers: a most radical and stunning example of thinking-the-unthinkable in Ghanaian political history - an idea so simple and blindingly obvious, both sides may wonder why it never occurred to them: A Mills-Rawlings ticket for 2012.

This is the perfect time for Vice President John Mahama, to make the best contribution he is yet to make to the well-being and future-good of the NDC: let him step aside for Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings. By so doing, he will enable his party to go into the campaign for the December 2012 elections, a strong and united force.

Clearly, it does not make sense to continue having two mild-mannered and ever-accommodating individuals as president and vice-president of the Republic of Ghana. If truth be told, it is the source of all their difficulties to date: as Ghanaians essentially are a people who want, and take to, strong and tough-minded leaders. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings will provide the backbone President Mills' presidency so desperately needs. The question is: Will Vice President John Mahama make the ultimate personal sacrifice? One hopes he will - for Mother Ghana's sake. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

IT MATTERS NOT WHO HELPS FREE FELLOW AFRICANS FIGHTING TO FREE THEMSELVES FROM TYRANNY!

One finds it extremely difficult to understand why some Progressives in Ghana, are making such a fuss about events now unfolding in Libya - simply because "neo- colonialist" and "imperialist" powers are amongst the nations enforcing the no-fly zone (imposed by UN Security Council resolution 1973), and bombing Col. Maummar Gaddafi's elite ground forces and military installations (so as to protect Libyan civilians).

The question is: Why are some people ignoring the simple fact that what is happening in Libya, is that a long-oppressed people are fighting for their freedom, from a ruthless and murderous regime? Does it really matter, who helps to free fellow Africans, brave enough to pick up arms and fight to rid themselves of a tyrannical regime, which physically eliminates those who dare criticise it - as Gaddafi's repressive regime has done for decades with such impunity, I ask?

For those Libyans fighting for their freedom, the idea that there are people in places like Ghana making a fuss, because "neo- colonialist" and "imperialist" powers are amongst the coalition of willing nations, enforcing the no-fly zone imposed by a UN Security Council resolution, and degrading Gaddaffi's military, by bombing his elite forces and military installations, must be exceedingly irritating.

Why should anyone think that when they eventually gain their freedom, after decades of life under the repression of Col. Maummar Gaddafi, they will countenance the occupation of their liberated nation, by "neo-colonialists" and "imperialists"? Or are we to assume that they are risking their lives just so that the new democratic Libya they are fighting to bring about, becomes a puppet of "neo-colonialist" and "imperialist" powers? One doubts that any Libyan will ever tolerate that - not after risking life and limb for a free and democratic society in Libya.

Yes, there may be a preponderance of "neo-colonialists" and "imperialists" in the Establishments of some of the nations enforcing the no-fly zone, such as: the US, the UK, Canada, France and Germany - and, yes, the national systems in place in those nations may be inherently racist (for historical reasons!).

But, surely, in the 21st century ICT age, Progressives in Ghana ought not to think that should "neo-colonialists" and "imperialists" ever pose a threat to the vital interests of our homeland Ghana, the forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism, would be invincible foes, which clever and determined Ghanaian nationalists and pan-Africanists across the continent, couldn't possibly take on, in the courts of public opinion in those selfsame nations, and trounce soundly: should the need to do so, ever arise in our homeland Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa?

The usual knee-jerk reaction of the past, when the forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism have threatened our vital interests, simply won't do today - and Ghana"s Progressives need to be more nuanced in their approach, in such matters: and aim to out-think and outsmart such negative forces.

Take the cheeky case of the abiding arrogance of Kosmos Oil, for instance. If Ghanaian Progressives had been more creative in their thinking, could they not have advised our current rulers, when they first came into office in January 2009, to invite the whole of the US Congressional Black Caucus to Ghana: shown them round Nkrumah's Ghana - and asked them to do for Mother Ghana, what the Israeli lobby in the US, does so effectively on a daily basis, for the state of Israel?

Why does it never strike Progressives in Ghana, for example, that at the height of Kosmos Oil's impudence, they could have advised that rather than Ghana caving in to that company's outrageous demands (which was sheer brinkmanship in any case - as the company's executives knew perfectly well that they had their backs to the wall: with a projected US stock market IPO looming), at the very least, the Mills administration ought to have wrung a confession out of the company's executives, about the real secret behind that Kufuor-era slieght-of-hand: which saw the transfer of a bloc in an oilfield, which should have become the property of all Ghanaians, to a couple of individuals - whom President Kufuor himself, used the word "front" in reference to, in a Freudian slip (when in his usual boastful manner, he was recounting the story of how he brought a "small oil company in Texas", Kosmos Oil, to Ghana and more or less, single-handedly changed its fortunes!)?

Would such a coup not have made the current regime's final capitulation (to a perfidious company, amongst whose many acts of disrespect towards Nkrumah's Ghana, according to bush-telegraph sources, include even having the effrontery to insult the honest and selfless President Mills, by supposedly offering him a bribe!), a tad more bearable - if that was what had to be done for pragmatic and long-term strategic reasons?

Incidentally, one wonders whether if President Mills had not been the most honest and selfless leader to rule Ghana, thus far, since the overthrow of the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, our homeland Ghana's founding father, in February 1966, we would not have suddenly seen a new partner of Kosmos Oil, the Z. Z. Group (Zuu Zaa Group!), emerging on the scene, and owning a 5 percent stake in a bloc in an oil field, somewhere off Ghana's shores?

Alas, we shall never know - as unfathomable greed and lying through the teeth, aren't written into the DNA of President Mills: who flatly turned down what many an African politician would have quickly grabbed with both hands and their two feet, too. And that is the leader some bright sparks in his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, want to be rid of - for the most cynical of reasons. Complete lunacy, I say! Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa!

Then there is that long-standing Aqua Vittens Rand palaver, too: Rather than march in protest, and shout themselves hoarse, demanding that the agreement with Aqua Vittens Rand (an entity so dedicated to Ghana, it can shut a major water treatment plant "for maintenance", in the midst of a cholera epidemic!) should not be renewed, when the time comes, why don't Ghana's Progressives simply ask our current rulers, to get Left-wing Dutch parliamentarians to start asking questions in the Dutch Parliament, about that ongoing Dutch rip off in Ghana, otherwise known as Aqua Vittens Rand - in which our drinking-water supply provider, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), has been handed over (lock, stock and barrel!) to Aqua Vittens and its South African partner, Rand Water, to exploit for private gain, at Mother Ghana's expense, and for no charge whatsoever?


Would such an intervention by Left-wing Dutch parliamentarians, not stop Dutch diplomats from the Royal Netherlands Embassy here, engaging in the usual arm-twisting that diplomats posted here usually engage in - whenever Ghana demands that companies from their nations abide by the selfsame post-Enron corporate good governance principles, which underpins their corporate ethos in their operations in their countries of domicile? Would the Dutch people tolerate their drinking-water supply providers, being handed over to foreign entities, in a similar smoke-and-mirrors commercial-sham, I ask?

(Hopefully, the dynamic and patriotic Hon. Alban Bagbin, the water resources, works and housing minister, who is a consensus politician par excellence, who listens to good advice, and believes in protecting the national interest, at all material times, will refuse to renew such a foolish and unproductive agreement - and instead send Aqua Vittens and Rand Water packing, soonest. Hmm, Ghana - enti yewiaye paa, enie?)

A similar approach ought to have been adopted in the case of Vodafone (whose British executives are today living the life of Riley, at our expense - in a period of austerity in both Ghana and the UK, and at a time when even Arab oil Sheiks are reining in their spending: and understand that excess is extremely foolish!). If that had been done, perhaps by now, instead of that daft process and outcome, ridiculously labelled "re-engagement" and the virtual taking of Ghana's communications minister, 'prisoner,' by the pro-NPP and pro-Vodafone top-level civil servants in his ministry (so obliging and incredibly stupid, they actually even waived Vodafone's payment of a G3 licence - by saying it was included in that paltry US$900 millions that company paid for a business with assets worth some US$5 billions, at least, in today's values!), perhaps outraged Left-wing members of the UK Parliament, as we speak, might have succeeded in getting the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to investigate and prosecute all the Ghanaian and British citizens, who in deliberately ignoring Section 2 of Ghana's Divestiture of State Interest Act (DSIA), are responsible for that massive fraud, known as the sale and purchase agreement for (an unlawful and unkown-to-the-laws-of-Ghana state-owned corporate entity!) - cleverly christened the "Enlarged Ghana Telecom (GT) Group", to outwit ordinary Ghanaians, by yesteryear's greediest rogues, amongst the largely-corrupt New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime of President Kufuor. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa!

One certainly hopes that if they are really sincere individuals, instead of allowing the UK Anti-Bribery Act 2010 to be shelved, the initiators of the moral Big Society (launched exactly a year ago, today, incidentally!), David Cameron & Co. will allow it to come into effect this April, 2011 - to keep Corporate UK on the straight and narrow, when operating abroad: particularly in Africa! That will enable the good people of Ghana to get justice in the British courts, for that egregious example, of the rip off, of a poor developing nation, by British-big-money, and its local lackeys (those infernal quislings!) amongst our ruling elites.

Finally, on the issue of Libya, the point ought to made, that Ghana's Progressives, need to understand that the right of all Africans to live in free societies across the continent, is a non-negotiable right - and if takes even the military might of "neo-colonialist" and "imperialist" powers to free fellow Africans living under tyrannical rulers on the continent, at any given moment in our history, then so be it.

When that is the only viable option, striking a temporary alliance with even those who once occupied and exploited Africa (and may still have designs on the our abundant natural resources as we speak!), makes perfect sense, in my humble view. No one can re-colonise Africa, if the people of the continent themselves don't allow them to do so. In the 21st century ICT age, no African people, desirous of living as free individuals in the land of their birth, and the continent of their ancestors, will ever exchange the oppression of African rulers, for the re-occupation of Africa by neo-colonialists and imperialists, under any circumstances. That is why in the final analysis, it matters not who helps Africans fighting for their freedom from the last of the continent's tyranical regimes, such as Libya - and the sooner Ghana's Progressives take that on board, the better it would be all round in Africa. Even a senile old fool like me can see the sense in that - and so should they: more so, when as a rule, they invariably are such highly-intelligent individuals. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

An Open Letter To The Executive Director Of Ghan's EPA!

The Executive Director,                       28/3/211
Environmental Protection Agency,
Accra.

Dear Sir,

Re: Creation Of A Buffer Zone For Atewa Range Forest Reserve & The Off-Reserve Slopes - Bordering Kibi Goldfields' Concession.

At a meeting between P. E. Thompson Farms & Commodity Exports Limited, and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Mining Department, on Friday, 18th March, 2011, your Mining Department's officials agreed, after sighting a map provided by the Minerals Commission, that if we wrote to you indicating the necessary scientific evidence to support it, the EPA would create a buffer zone to ensure that the operations of Kibi Goldfields, do not in any way endanger the vital ecosystem of what has been designated a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), and, which, unfortunately, part of that company's concession borders.

In that regard, we refer your Mining Department and all the other relevant EPA departments, to the recommendations contained in Conservation International's (CI) Rapid Assessment Programme's (RAP) Bulletin 47.

It provides all the necessary scientific evidence, and reasons, why such a buffer zone ought to be established to protect a key ecosystem services provider, with watersheds, the health and well-being of which about 80 percent of urban Ghana's population's drinking-water supply, depends on.

We do hope that this crucial step will be undertaken quickly, with the help of scientists from Ghana's tertiary institutions, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Water Resources Commission and the Forestry Commission, to protect what is one of the world's most important biodiversity hotspots, and arguably, the most important ecosystem services provider in West Africa.

We are extremely grateful to your Mining Department's officials, for their patience, thus far - despite my often frayed temper when we have met - over the little over two years that we have been interacting: to try to ensure just such a positive outcome, of the sort that we have now finally arrived at.

We would like to commend Mr. Sekyi, and his very able team, in your Mining Department, for their sense of professionalism, which has informed all our discussions. It is gratifying to know that Ghana has such dedicated public servants protecting our nation's natural heritage.

And many thanks too, to the whole of your very important organisation, for finally agreeing to protect the Atewa Range upland evergreen rainforest reserve, and the off-reserve slopes area, Sir.

At a time when global climate-change is impacting so negatively on our homeland Ghana, in so many ways, it is definitely the right thing to do!

Thank you.

Yours faithfully,

Kofi Thompson
(DIRECTOR)

HAS THE NPP PRESENTED A GOLDEN GIFT TO PRESIDENT MILLS' NDC REGIME & THE GHANAIAN NATION-STATE?

When the New Patriotic Party (NPP) introduced a new element, which takes the national political discourse to a more mature level (of reasoning, ie!), by more or less making it clear, that it believes that it will take a minimum of 10 years, to transform Ghana, many an independent-minded patriot and Ghanaian nationalist, hoped that the geniuses in charge of President Mills' National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime's public relations, would seize that golden opportunity it offered their administration, to finally slay, and bury for good, that regime-changing and highly-toxic propaganda word-of-mass-destruction (WMD): "Enkoyie."

That very clever and potent Twi language WMD, encapsulates perfectly, all the frustration and disillusionment, felt by many, who clearly had unrealistic expectations, of what life under a new government led by President Mills (or any other presidential candidate and political party, assuming power after winning an election in Ghana, for that matter!), would be like. But as all those who know, know, it is a known known, not an unknown unknown (apologies to former US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld!), that Rome was not built in a day - and neither will our homeland Ghana be suddenly transformed, into a land flowing with milk and honey, overnight, either.

With revenues from oil production now coming on stream, surely, it is time the more sensible and responsible sections of the Ghanaian media, made that bald fact of life, abundantly clear, to the broad masses of the Ghanaian people - to avert a future upheaval, caused by the frustration of citizens fed up with unfulfilled expectations (occasioned by the glacial pace of change, which, alas, of necessity, cannot but evolve slowly!), and every one of them desperate for a bit of the riches they see our ruling elites, their family clans and their cronies, amassing at the speed of light: once they get into power?

The transformation of our homeland Ghana into an African equivalent, of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, will certainly take more than two terms of any political party's tenure. And that is a fact of life that all Ghanaians ought to accept. It is to his eternal credit that the NPP's Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo is accepting of that reality - and responsible enough to more or less openly admit so: by even producing an economic development plan based on that time-frame.

(Regarding the need for realism, is it not a fact, dear reader, as someone pointed it out to me, that after a little over 16 years of combined NDC and NPP rule, during which two presidents (one from each party!), have served out the maximum two-term limit on a president's tenure, ordinary people's lives haven't seen much change - and in many respects in fact has gotten worse, over the years? Yet, their ruling elites collect obscene retirement packages, regardless, when they leave office - after which a new batch of hopefuls, line up for the empty-promises-stakes, to compete for the right to come to power, to ruin ordinary Ghanaians some more, too. We must break that cycle with the honest and selfless President Mills. But I digress, yet again!)

Having been presented with such a precious gift by the NPP, one hopes that most independent and fair-minded Ghanaians (as opposed to the "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types, whose blinkered support for political parties, and individual politicians, is slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy!), will now no longer hear those geniuses at the information ministry (and their equally super-bright Osu Castle colleagues!), making daft remarks about the minimum 10-year time-frame the NPP now admits, is needed to transform our homeland Ghana.

They must respond to it, not by rubbishing it, but by pointing out the positive achievements galore, nationwide, which is slowly but surely bringing about the better Ghana, promised the Ghanaian masses, by President Mills. To do so much work across the nation, in a little over two years, out of a required 10 years, is no mean achievement, is it, dear reader? And in case those government PR geniuses miss the point, it is called getting-ordinary-folk-to-see-things-in-their-proper-perspective: and seeing through the NPP's self-serving propaganda. Hmm, ensu yesi yewo neemdie - eyeasem oo!

It is such a pity that those information ministry geniuses (and their equally-brilliant seaside pals!) have thus far failed so miserably to convince Ghanaians, that it is in their self-interest, and in the national interest, that they continue keeping faith with the most honest and selfless individual to lead Ghana to date, since the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in February 1966: H. E. President Mills.

Above all, one hopes that President Mills himself too, will now sit up and act decisively, to weed out the smug incompetents and sinister crooks (former President Rawlings' famous "greedy bastards!") lurking in the shadows in his regime - for, their continued presence in his government, only adds to the sense of frustration felt by many of those who wish him well: and want him to succeed for Mother Ghana's sake. Simply put, their continued presence in his administration, only gives his regime a bad name and a poor image, both on the home-front and internationally.

Will he also take action to bring to an end, their outrageous junketting around the globe, at taxpayers' expense, on what is often said to be personal or party business, but which apparently is sometimes disguised as a public-good assignment overseas, for the Ghanaian nation-state? We do know that politicians are particularly susceptible to President Kufuor's highly-contagious wanderlust bug - but are we not supposed to be in austere times, and do they not see President Mills' own example of a spartan lifestyle, as well as his abiding humility, I ask, dear reader?

The first on the list of those the president ought to dismiss, are the bright sparks at the so-called Brand Ghana Office - that financial equivalent of a cosmic black-hole that a regime headed by an honest man like President Mills ought never to countenance. He must close it down - and ask the geniuses who work there to take their cutting-edge ideas to the private sector: where market forces will decide their fate. It is intolerable that hapless taxpayers' money is being dissipated on that pure nonsense on bamboo stilts: and that he is allowing it to stay open. How can that be?

President Mills must be ruthless in dealing with all of those blackguards in his administration - if he wants to be re-elected in December 2012. But I digress. I do not know of a single well-educated and fair-minded Ghanaian, who thinks that Ghana can be transformed into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, in less than five years.

There is also not a single such Ghanaian, who does not know that Mother Ghana will, unfortunately, continue to remain a corrupt and inefficient country that is unable to realise its full potential, as long as Ghanaians remain a people: who lack discipline; are unpatriotic individuals who rather than make sacrifices for the common good, seek instead to rip Mother Ghana off, at every opportunity that comes their way; avoid paying their taxes; constantly break the regulations and laws meant to ensure an orderly society; don't eschew corruption in their day to day interactions with officialdom, and with each other on a private level; and above all, do not lead lives underpinned by ethical considerations.

(Incidentally, even in the aftermath of near-apocalyptic serial-disasters and multiple family tragedies, look at the amazing discipline and resolve of the Japanese people - and the quiet efficiency with which they are going about the herculean task of picking up the pieces, and starting the rebuilding of an even more prosperous Japan, in earnest. Those are the kind of qualities and virtues we will need to transform Ghana - that and hard work on the part of all Ghanaians: not the empty promises of mostly-incompetent and largely-corrupt politicians. Period.)

It is so irritating that ever since Ghana was returned to constitutional rule in 1992, politicians have behaved irresponsibly, by constantly pretending, when out campaigning for votes during elections, that they can change the lives of the Ghanaian masses, as soon as they come into office.

That is why Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's NPP, needs to be congratulated, for alluding to the fact that nation-building is an ardours task that takes a minimum of 10 years. Of course, one doesn't need a PhD, to work out that having convinced itself that it will be returned to power again, the NPP is clearly preparing the ground, for successfully managing expectations of ordinary Ghanaians, after the December 2012 elections - which is the main reason why it has given a 10-year time frame, for transforming Ghana.

Clearly, their hope, is that by so saying, it will enable them to neatly side-step any chants of "Enkoyie" from their political opponents, when they come to power again - having seen the devastating effect the deploying of the word "Enkoyie" has, politically, on any audience listening to the electronic media, during current affairs programmes, in which the state of the national economy, and the future outlook for Ghanaians, are discussed.

Well, one must congratulate the NPP for that stroke of genius. And I say that, despite the fact that I loathe all that it really stands for - as opposed to what it tells the Ghanaian public it stands for. What I find most repugnant about the NPP, speaking as an Nkrumaist, a patriot who loves Mother Ghana passionately, and a Ghanaian nationalist keen to protect the cohesion of the Ghanaian nation-state, is the hidden agenda of its antedelluvian Akan tribal-supremacist and elitist clique, which is at the core of that party. Though consisting of only a few tribalistic individuals, it unfortunately has a vice-like grip on the NPP.

Any African in the 21st century ICT age who thinks a particular tribe is superior to another tribe anywhere on the continent, is an ignoramus, and has a mind-set set firmly in the Dark Ages - and definitely on the wrong side of history!

Their real goal, is to use the political power gained through national elections, to deliberately weaken the Ghanaian nation-state, and somehow work to revive the power, which was once exercised by the forebears, of their favourite tribal Chiefs, who ruled certain pre-colonial tribal entities. This was done during the Kufuor-era, by leveraging the entire machinery of state, to empower the favourite tribal Chiefs of the cabal that wielded real power in Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, at the time.

A classic example of this divisive enterprise, during the NPP's tenure, was the absurdity of the issuing authority of what is a unitary Republic, describing certain tribal Chiefs as "Kings" - in diplomatic passports, issued unfairly, in a clearly discriminatory fashion, to a select few, amongst the many traditional rulers in our homeland Ghana, and what in reality, actually is an ethnically-diverse nation-state of equal ethnic groupings: none superior or inferior to the other: and in which, in a strictly legal sense, no kingdoms actually exist (and we are a nation of laws, after all, are we not - not a banana republic in which the citizenry have to bow to the whims and caprices of plutocrats?).

Well, finally, one wonders if those hapless geniuses managing the government's PR, from both the seat of government at the Osu Castle, and from the information ministry, will now work in unison and seize this marvellous gift-from-the-gods, and political game-changer, which Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's NPP has suddenly introduced into the national discourse.

Henceforth, they must repeatedly make the point, whenever "Enkoyie" is deployed by their political opponents, that the NPP knows perfectly well that it takes at least 10 years, to change the fortunes of nations: so how can any fair-minded and discerning individual, expect the NDC to. bring about the better Ghana that it is already slowly, surely and methodically bringing about, in any case, in a shorter time-frame than the NPP's stipulated minimum ten years? Time is not on their side - so they must have the wisdom to listen to free advice, humbly offered for purely altruistic reasons, by those who never seek a reward, for serving Mother Ghana. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

THE AFRICAN UNION MUST PROTECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL ORDINARY AFRICANS!

It so sad that in the 21st century ICT age, many ordinary Africans, still face unimaginable hardship daily. Many also have to live with the frightening thought, that they could suddenly become victims of the very system - which according to international conventions - is supposed to protect them.

This unfortunate state of affairs, is a painful fact of life for millions of struggling humanity, across the continent. And very often, many do indeed end up becoming victims of their nation's system - either by being brutalised, or when their luck runs out, get murdered by state security agents.

Perhaps the time has come for Africa's young generation, to start demanding that the African Union (AU), ends its shameful existence as an exclusive and wealthy club, which provides a place of refuge and comfort for cruel and despotic leaders: and is a protector of brutish and murderous regimes.

Who heard a whimper from the AU, whiles thousands were being brutalised and hundreds murdered, in the violent death-throes of repressive regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria (still an off-on work in progress, unfortunately)?

It is shameful that in all those instances, the AU failed to utter even a single word in condemnation of the abominable acts of savagery, visited upon citizens, completely fed up with being enslaved by their own governments, and demanding to be allowed an existence as free individuals: in truly democratic nations.

Pretty much the same was the case, when the eccentric tyrant, Muammar Gaddafi, decided to quell the uprising now threatening his regime's hold on power, by resorting to extreme violence - including the use of military aircraft, incredibly, to bomb his own people.

True to form, we are yet to hear from the AU - which had yet again, failed to express its disquiet and indignation, at the monstrous actions of Gaddafi's ruthless and murderous elite forces. It is not surprising that it has taken joint action by the "international community" to halt the Gaddafi regime's dreadful crimes against humanity. Left to the AU alone, the opposition in Libya would have been wiped out by now, no doubt.

The Libyan opposition's salvation has been the UN Security Council's passage of Resolution 1973 - which authorised the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libyan airspace. And so luckily for the vast majority of ordinary Libyans, today, as we speak, military aircraft, ships and submarines from a coalition of willing nations, are busy degrading Gaddafi's military assets - to ensure that he no longer has the means to enable him to continue the massacre of his own people, and hang on to power - when a majority of ordinary Libyans are clearly tired of him, and want to live as free citizens in a proper democracy.

If ordinary Africans throughout the continent want to ensure that they too can live as free men and women in the land of their birth, and the continental home of their ancestors, in systems that do not brutalise and murder them when they criticise their leaders, they must mobilise young people around the world, to influence global public opinion, in their favour.

They can help create a tide of support for that end, by enlisting the help of their peers, particularly young people in the developed nations of the West, in leveraging social media network platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, to fight to bring about a new era of freedom and true democracy in Africa.

Why should scores of ordinary Ivorian citizens, for example, continue to live in fear of their lives, whiles others unfortunate to be in the wrong places at the most inauspicious of moments, are murdered in cold blood with total impunity by their killers - simply because there is no continental organisation with the moral fibre to bring to bring to book, those callous and narrow-minded politicians who must bear ultimate responsibility for the atrocities being committed daily, by their supporters. It is unfortunate that such people dominate the Ivory Coast's ruling elites - for their foolishness is slowly destroying what once used to be an oasis of stability and relative prosperity in West Africa.

Is it not time that the AU stepped in boldly, and took the steps necessary to ensure the protection of all the citizens of that tragic nation? Surely it is not beyond the AU's capacity to take a number of well thought out measures, designed to eventually remove Gbago from power: beginning with the authorisation of a naval and air blockade, to prevent both sides in the conflict, from acquiring yet more arms?

And should the AU not demand that henceforth, all African states must commit themselves to respecting the fundamental human rights of all the people of Africa, guaranteed by the UN Convention on Human Rights? Would it not be able to redeem its honour, if it became that kind of an international organisation? Question is, will they see the pressing need to change for the better? One certainly hopes so - speaking as a pan-Africanist and an Nkrumaist. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, DEAR READERS!

On the 13th of February, 2011, I posted an article on this blog, entitled: "What will Ghana do to help the people of Japan - in their hour of need?" In it, I mentioned my anxiety about not being able to contact my daughter Michiko and her family.

Today, I am happy to report that I have finally been able to make contact - and that they are all safe and very much alive! My dear Michiko just got back to Akita from Tokyo yesterday, as a matter of fact.

I am grateful to the many readers of this blog, who emailed and telephoned to commiserate with me, when they read the article. I thank them all from the bottom of my heart, for their concern - as do Michiko and her entire family!

Although I am no fan of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), they deserve to be commended for going to see the Japanese ambassador to Ghana, to share their horror at the recent tragic events in Japan and to commiserate with him.

Through the obviously grateful and deeply touched ambassador, they also sent their condolences, to the families of those who perished in that massive earthquake, and the terrifying tsunami that followed almost immediately, in its wake.

The quick reaction of the NPP's leadership, headed by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the party's presidential candidate for the December 2012 election, surely puts to shame the government of the flat-footed (in this instance, ie!) National Democratic Congress (NDC), which on the surface of things (as far as one can tell!), has been extremely tardy in this instance, does it not, dear reader?

Alas, monitoring the Ghanaian media thus far, it does appear that the NDC government has no plans to venture beyond conveyance of its shock and sorrow at their plight, to the Japanese government and people. Does that mean that apart from the occasion during the so-called national day of prayer, when President Mills asked for prayers for the victims, as well as for the surviving families, and the Japanese nation as a whole, nothing more practical will be done - to show our solidarity with them?

How can that be - when Japan would have rushed to our aid, if such multiple disasters had struck Ghana, all at once? Surely, we must let the people of Japan know that we share their pain - by a simple and practical widow's mite gesture that we can afford despite our much-straitened circumstances? Mere expression of concern and sorrow, will not do - not when a nation that has been so generous to Mother Ghana over the years, finds itself experiencing such a calamitous moment - and faces a daunting rebuilding challenge.

We can do better than merely expressing our sorrow: and leaving it at that. The question is: When exactly will our slow-but-sure (and hard-of-hearing!) rulers send at least two plane-loads of dark Ghanaian chocolate and other cocoa products to Japan, accompanied by a team from the 48 Engineers Regiment (as some have suggested they do!), as Ghana's widow's mite contribution to the Japanese people, in their hour of extreme need? It is still not too late for the foreign ministry to act to redeem the Mills administration's sunken image in this matter, by so doing.

Above all, the minister who heads that key ministry, must be intelligent enough to understand clearly that it is important that they do not miss the opportunity that such a gesture would provide them, to end our days of infamy and ignominy, as a global super-power in begging-bowl diplomacy, once and for all.

Will that super-clever lot have the nous and gumption needed, to heed free advice humbly offered by a well-meaning patriot, who only wishes their often-irritating and patience-trying regime well, one wonders? Hmmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa!


Tel (powered by Tigo, the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

BRAVO TO PRESIDENT KABILLA'S GOVERNMENT - FOR PROTECTING VIRUNGU NATIONAL PARK FROM CORPORATE PREDATORS!

News that the Virungu National Park in the DR Congo, one of the last African refuges left for the continent's mountain gorillas, will not be allowed by the government of President Kabilla, to be preyed upon by greedy foreign oil companies (desirous of exploring for oil in it, incredibly!), is one of the most refreshing news reports to come out of Africa for a long time.

The idea that the UK oil company, Soco International, wanted to be permitted to search for oil in the Virunga National Park in the first place, particularly at a time when global warming is impacting so negatively on the continent's natural environment, is simply outrageous.

Would Soco International dare ask the British authorities to allow it to explore for oil, in an area of the UK declared a national park, and widely acknowledged as one of the most bio-diverse places on the surface of the planet Earth (and on the UN's World Heritage sites list to boot, too!), I ask?

It is time that corporate entities that have a global footprint, adopted the environmental regulations of their countries' of domicile, as a global standard, which regulates their operations worldwide - if the standards of the country their subsidiaries operate in, are not as stringent as those of their country of domicile.

It is unethical to carry out operations that impact negatively on the natural environment in poor developing nations, if they would never do same in their own home countries, in similar circumstances. Does humankind not inhabit one biosphere, and is it not time that the corporate world took cognisance of that delicate fact of life - and became environmentally responsible, in every part of the planet Earth, where they pursue profits with their usual single-mindedness of purpose?

What will Soco International's chief executive, Roger Cagle, tell his grand children someday, when he retires: that he went to Africa, made a vast fortune - and in the process destroyed delicate ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots around the continent, at a time of global climate change: because it was all in a day's work for him, in the wealth-creation process that built their family fortune? Where is conscience and morality in this attempted gang-rape of Mother Nature, by Soco International?

It was brave of a number of Congolese politicians to put the preservation of the Virungo National Park ahead of the usual short-term cop-out excuses, which are are usually trotted out by spineless politicians on such occasions - job creation and attracting foreign investment. They are the usual good intentions that the road to the environmental equivalent of hell, is paved with - and are deployed across the African continent daily by not-so-intelligent politicians without a scintilla of vision in them, to aid super-ruthless investors driven by short-termism and unfathomable greed: in a blatant attempt to justify the unjustifiable.

All those DR Congo politicians in the government of President Joseph Kabilla, who said no to Soco International, are true African heroes - and will be so regarded by future generations of pan-Africanists and Congolese citizens (especially the 500,000 local families dependent on fish from Lake Edward!), till the very end of time. Conservationists from around the entire world too, salute them - and say bravo to each one of them!


Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

Eendemic Poverty Will Kill Ghanaian Democracy As Sure As Day Follows Night!

If it persists, endemic poverty will eventually kill Ghanaian democracy, as sure as day follows night.

To prevent that from happening, it is extremely important that our ruling elites understand clearly that they ought to end those endless and pointless arguments, as well as their inane, irritating and foolish point-scoring - and focus instead, on the hard work needed to finally eradicate the scourge of poverty, from Nkrumah's Ghana.

Perhaps the question we ought to ask is: Why do they not rather concentrate their considerable energies on thinking creatively about how Ghana can leverage the new green economy (including tapping the burgeoning carbon markets!), and focus on fashioning a new paradigm that ensures we are put on a path of sustainable development, and, at a time of global climate change, protect our long-term future that way - from the very real threat, which global-warming poses to our collective well-being as a people?

Ordinary Ghanaians are totally fed up with the endless and non-productive arguments of politicians.

Take the disingenuous and deliberately distracting argument about Ghana "going HIPC again" for example. Ghanaian politicians know full well that loans from the capital markets of the financial capitals of the developed world can lead to growth-inhibiting "debt distress" - the World Bank and IMF's euphemism for a poor debt-laden nation's inability to service its loans.

A classic example from the Kufuor-era, during the final years of his New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime, being our having to fork out some US$38.8 millions every six months, on coupon payments (paying interest) on the money raised from the former administration's foolish and short-sighted decision to issue sovereign bonds to the tune of some US$750 millions - and not making good use of most of the cash raised either, much to the Ghanaian nation-state's detriment: to compound that foolishness.

Yet, almost all our politicians know perfectly well, that the more sensible thing to do, if it becomes absolutely necessary to borrow, is to resort to borrowing concessionary loans from friendly governments, such as that of China's, for example. F

The reason being that such concessiinary loans by friendly governments pose very little threat to our country's long-term financial well-being. What proportion of the debts that were written off under the Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC), were loans from private-sector financial institutions, I ask?

Perhaps the question we ought to ask is: Why don't our politicians spend their energies, arguing instead, about how best to ensure sustainable development, which will guarantee all of us a good quality of life and ensure that future generations of Ghanaians too, can, at the very least, enjoy the same living standard as ours today, if not better?

If our ruling elites want our nation to become a prosperous one for all its citizens (not just a "powerful few with greedy ambitions" - to quote Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah), then they must step out of the shadow of conventional economic thinking. It is such folly, to continue to pursue (and be blinded by "impressive") gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate figures, to the exclusion of everything else.

What is the point of impressive GDP figures, for example, if much of what constitutes that growth are economic activities that destroy the natural environment - when the preservation of our natural heritage guarantees and underpins a good quality of life for all who live in Ghana?

What self-respecting primary school child in Ghana, does not know that in the compilation of Ghana's GDP figures, account is seldom taken of how objective conditions in the real-world affect people's quality of life - as experienced in their everyday existential interactions which form part of the sum total of economic activities that make up Ghana's GDP? (Yes, dear reader, there is absolutely nothing wrong with even a semi-literate old fool like me bringing in a hint of Sartre and Kierkegaard into economic discussions - in the small matter of the formulation of every-day free-will purchasing decisions, by thinking and supposedly rational beings.)

That is why, for example, although the NPP's many apologists used to make such a din about Ghana's "impressive GDP figures" during the Kufuor-era, in the real everyday world of hard-working ordinary folk, life was a constant struggle for survival: in an existence that more often than not was based on a one-day-at-a-time philosophical underpinning, to keep highly-stressed individuals sane.

The absurdity of their political leaders' obsession with GDP figures, to the exclusion of everything else, for ordinary Ghanaians at that point in time in our history, was that whiles the politically well-connected who were the main beneficiaries of those "impressive GDP figures" prospered mightily under Kufuor & Co, ordinary people's lived experiences over that entire period in effect amounted to seeing a steady erosion in their living standards and a deterioration in the quality of their lives, as the years rolled by.

In the meantime, along with the expansion of the economy, and those "impressive GDP figures", the personal net worth of the lucky few thousands with solid political connections soared to stratospheric heights. And all that, whiles most ordinary Ghanaian families in urban Ghana were spending a substantial part of their stressed-out days regularly searching for water to fill their "Kufuor-gallons" with.

Yet, they witnessed the quality of life for their ruling elites, on the other hand, improving in leaps and bounds and in inverse proportion to the deterioration in their quality of life, as evidenced by the drudgery and misery piled upon them, as a result of a failing system being milked dry by a ruthless, amoral, and rapacious politically well-connected few.

Today, at a time of global climate change, under the Mills regime too - a regime that promised us a better Ghana - inaction on the part of officialdom has led to a vast swathe of the Ghanaian countryside being rapidly destroyed: as gold-fever drives mad those who are motivated solely by unfathomable greed and don't care one jot about the harmful effect their activities have on the natural environment, in our homeland Ghana.

They are gradually destroying much of our natural heritage, and with a degree of ruthlessness seldom seen in our history, and, alas, doing so with complete impunity. Their enormous wealth enables them buy off officialdom at the local level, with ease and very little pain financially.

Alarmingly, everywhere one turns, when one seeks to halt their illegal activities, one finds one's path blocked by the actions and inactions of the mostly poorly-paid public officials that those wealthy criminals are corrupting - the selfsame public officers who are supposed to be the Ghanaian nation-state's first line of defence against illegal activities that harm the natural environment.

The results of their success in inducing such officials to look the other way for them is that a blind eye is turned to their harmful, mostly-illegal and environmentally-damaging surface gold mining operations. If current trends, such as the current goings-on at Akyem Abuakwa and elsewhere in the Eastern Regions continue in the direction they are heading, we must not at all be surprised, if soon they all eventually metamorphose into local warlords.

That is exactly how Liberian and Sierra Leonian warlords started their rebellions against lawfully constituted authority in those two sister nations. Yet, the dangerous and harmful gold mining operations of these criminal syndicates yield a fair bit of ounces of gold, which doubtless contribute to our GDP. But, in effect, are they not actually ruining the quality of life of millions of rural folk nationwide, I ask?

Sadly, much of officialdom appears to be helpless in dealing with this particular group of ruthless criminal-types, whose untold riches, and greed for even yet more wealth, make them chase Mammon, their god, with such steely determination and tunnel-vision resolve. Yet, stopped, they must be, for all our sake!

The continuing upward climb in the price of gold has encouraged the criminal syndicates behind galamsey operations nationwide to strike alliances with equally ruthless foreign adventurers (mainly Chinese nationals).

Poverty and hopelessness, it is said, are the biggest enemies of democracy. It is therefore extremely important, if Ghanaian democracy as we know it, is to survive, that the iniquitous monkey-dey-work-baboon-dey-chop-nyafu-nyafu society, which the greed of our ruling elites has turned the Ghanaian polity into, is ended quickly - and the laying of the  foundation for the transformation of Ghana into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia is began in earnest.

More so, now that Ghana has started receiving revenues from the exploitation of its oil deposits (and in the not too distant future, hopefully, revenues from its natural gas deposits too). Our ruling elites ought to focus on policies that will ensure outcomes that give all Ghanaians a better quality of life than they presently have.

If members of our political class continue to fail to listen to those of us who over the years have constantly urged them to make the provision of modern, well-designed and well-built affordable public-sector housing estates (with different types of units available for renting out to ordinary people nationwide), a top cross-party national priority item, life for most ordinary Ghanaians will only continue to gradually worsen under the current system, I am afraid.

Ghana's ruling elites must take a cue from the canny Chinese leadership - which has just announced a housing programme to avert future social discontent. An important factor in having a bearable life, is a decent roof over one's head - with modern amenities such as a bathroom and lavatory; kitchen; electricity; running potable water 24/7; and rental rates that are reasonable and affordable.

The Ghanaian nation-state must therefore, either directly itself, or through tax incentives to attract the private sector to do so, immediately embark on a policy of providing good quality and affordable rental accommodation for all those Ghanaian citizens who can never build or purchase their own homes, within their lifetime.

That, and free education for the academically-gifted who cannot afford to pay fees (at all levels), are the key building-blocks in ensuring that all Ghanaians get a good quality of life. Unlike Ghana's ruling elites, ordinary people don't aspire to owning as many as twenty homes, ten luxury vehicles, have zillions in fifty different bank accounts and travel abroad every month to sleep in their luxury homes in the capitals of the developed world, for a few days, and return again to Ghana: to continue enjoying their zillion-dollar lifestyles.

Ordinary people do not ask for the moon - they just want to be able to work and receive fair compensation for their labour (or own and run small businesses that will not be taxed out of existence by profligate rulers!); have decent and affordable accommodation in planned and leafy neighbourhoods, with proper infrastructure; educate their children in good public schools (with no more than 25 children per class!); be able to pay their bills regularly; eat three decent meals daily; and have enough money from their wages put aside, to see them through life's emergencies, when they occur.

Above all, they want to live in a nation with a just and fair system, which makes all the above possible for the average hard-working family with simple middle-class aspirations. Surely, that is not asking for too much, is it, dear reader?

If our leaders continue milking the system, and exploiting our national economy for their personal benefit, as well as that of their family clans and their cronies, they must not be surprised if ordinary people eventually rise up one fine day and act to finally rid themselves of the unjust and iniquitous 4th Republic - and replaced it with a new 5th Republic that serves the interests of all Ghanaians: not just those of a powerful few with greedy ambitions. A word to the wise...

Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.