A Thai Example Of How Ghana's Parliament Can Deal With The Morally Bankrupt GFA

There are many fair-minded Ghanaian lovers of the game of football, who worry about the state of the game in Ghana. Many of them also find it frustrating that the Ghana Football Association (GFA), appears to be a law unto itself.

For all such Ghanaian football fans, who are fed up with the sophistry of the GFA, and want it probed thoroughly, I am reproducing a culled article from the online version of the Bangkok Post, which was written by the paper's own reporters, and posted online on 23/9/2012. It is entitled: "Blemishes in the beautiful game".

My hope is that the article will inspire those in Ghana who want to uproot greed and corruption from the GFA - which many Ghanaians regard as a morally bankrupt organisation run by a number of visionless self-seekers, more concerned with exploiting football for personal financial gain, than growing the game from the grassroots level, and turning Ghana into a global soccer powerhouse. Please read on:

"Blemishes in the beautiful game

Accusations of fraud and illegal profiteering in the Thai Premier League were answered last week, while multiple other allegations of corruption, cover-ups and conflicts of interest continue to dog football in Thailand

• Published: 23/09/2012 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: Spectrum

The findings of an ongoing parliamentary investigation may threaten the existence of the Football Association of Thailand (FAT), said the spokesman of a committee on corruption last week. As a public organisation under royal patronage and a recipient of public funds, the FAT is not allowed to seek profit, but evidence that the Thai Premier League (TPL) runs on a profit-making model could lead to court-ordered sanctions including dissolving the body that runs football in Thailand.

UNDER PRESSURE: Football Association of Thailand (FAT) president Worawi Makudi strongly denies charges of illegally profiteering from the Football Association of Thailand, fraud and financial mismanagement.

FAT president Worawi Makudi is no stranger to controversy, having been implicated in accusations of bribery in his role at Fifa, the world football body, where he is an executive committee member. He has denied wrongdoing in the past, and last week held two press conferences to deny charges of illegally profiteering from the FAT, fraud and financial mismanagement.

Spectrum spoke to many people involved in football in Thailand, including players, coaches, agents, a supporters' group president, the head of the parliamentary investigation into FAT finances and Fifa itself. Whatever the outcome of the latest investigations, allegations of corruption, unethical profiteering and conflicts of interest can be found at every level of the game in Thailand.

PARLIAMENTARY INVESTIGATIONS

Worawi Makudi, FAT president and a Fifa executive committee member, was asked by the House of Representatives Committee on Corruption Protection and Suppression last week to explain FAT financial transactions over the past five years.

Suphachai Jaismut, spokesperson for the committee, told Spectrum the committee has asked the FAT to disclose financial documents, including minutes of meetings regarding formation of the Thai Premier League Co, bank accounts and tax records.

"[The FAT] is a public, non-profit organisation; the Thai Premier League Co was set up for profit, making it illegal," he said, adding that the FAT had no authority to appoint an individual or organisation to do the duties of the association. Setting up the TPL Co, whose profits go to shareholders, or offering companies such as Siam Sport or Dae-un 21 concessions was a contravention of the FAT's status. Any revenue from sponsorship, television rights and such should benefit the association and clubs, not the shareholders of the TPL Co, he said.

The FAT is a body under the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT), which would normally be expected to provide oversight of FAT financial activities, but the SAT had told the committee they leave those matters to the FAT.

The responsibility for managing the FAT's financial affairs was handed to Siam Sport Syndicate for several years until they withdrew from the role in April after several clubs questioned the arrangement. For clubs, there did not seem to be a way to tap into TPL Co profits except at the discretion of the FAT, and how much money came in for the FAT was never disclosed to them. By comparison, the English FA receives about half of English Premier League revenue to invest in the national team and grass-roots sport, while the rest is distributed to the individual clubs.

"Today we decided to send another letter warning Mr Worawi to provide all the documents we already asked for," Mr Suphachai said.

If profiteering and tax evasion could be proven, one potential outcome of the investigation might be dissolution of the FAT, although he added that Mr Worawi would be given time to produce the required documents and clear the allegations.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Worawi replied, "The news that the association may face disbandment is very damaging. The association did not do anything against the laws and regulations."

FAT lawyer Veera Khammee added that the establishment of the Thai Premier League Co complied with Thai laws and the requirements of Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

However, Mr Suphachai said that it clearly operates in contravention of Thai law, and that Mr Worawi himself holds 5,625 out of 12,500 shares in the company, with several other association members also invested in its profitability. As the FAT is owned by the clubs, any profit should be shared among the clubs and directed back into the game, he said, not merely benefit a few individuals.

In another case, Dae-an 21, a South Korean company, is in the process of suing Mr Worawi for failing to honour a contract allowing the firm to oversee FAT commercial rights. It claims it had transferred US$900,000 to an FAT bank account and that the FAT had failed to meet its obligations.

Mr Worawi admitted on Thursday that the FAT had signed a four-year contract with the company, worth $9.6 million from 2007 to 2011, but said Dae-an 21 broke the contract when it stopped making payments.

''It is part of an effort to discredit myself and the FAT. The FAT will sue back to protect our reputation,'' he said.

Mr Suphachai said that according to transaction records, more than 29 million baht was deposited by the Korean company into the FAT's Kasikorn Bank account and that a few days later it disappeared. ''So who got the money?'' he said, adding that the committee would seek more details. If no tax was paid on the income, that would make it doubly illegal, he said. Cases of tax evasion would be brought to the attention of the Revenue Department.

FIFA INVESTIGATIONS

HIGH HOPES: Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is announced as technical director of BEC Tero Sasana earlier this month.

In 2011, Fifa launched a formal investigation after Mr Worawi was accused of spending US$860,000 in Fifa football development grants for grass-roots projects on land he owns. It is understood the matter was dropped after Mr Worawi produced a ''letter of donation'' to transfer ownership to the FAT. How legally binding this arrangement is is unclear, especially as the land in question was under mortgage and transfer of ownership would require bank approval.

Original land title deeds seen by Spectrum indicate that several plots of land in Nong Chok district bought between 2000 and 2009 were in Mr Worawi's name (surrounding a larger plot apparently used by BEC-Tero Sasana), all under mortgage with Kasikorn Bank.

Mr Worawi showed the title deeds for several plots at his press conference to prove they had since been cleared of mortgage.

The plots of land were earmarked for a training centre and pitches for use by the national team, although the facilities have only very rarely been used for that purpose. One former player told Spectrum that the facilities were often used by Mr Worawi's relatives and players felt they were intruding. Additionally, the location was too remote to be convenient for use as a National Training Centre.

When contacted for comment, Fifa's media department referred us to a previous statement made following a Fifa executive committee meeting in December 2011: ''The committee reviewed the investigations involving Mr Makudi [Worawi] regarding real estate and Goal projects, and all was found to be in good order. The necessary documents were provided from Bangkok, so the case is closed.''

Allegations against Mr Worawi were also made to the British parliament by David Triesman, former head of England's World Cup 2018 bid and the English FA. He said that four long-standing Fifa executive committee members, including Mr Worawi, engaged in ''improper and unethical'' conduct in the bidding, which was won by Russia. He accused Mr Worawi of demanding TV rights to a proposed Thailand-England friendly match in exchange for his vote, as well as other irregularities Mr Triesman likened to asking for bribes.

Fifa issued a response on May 30, 2011: ''Having received and analysed the report from the FA regarding the allegations made at the House of Commons on May 10, 2011, by Lord David Triesman against four Fifa executive committee members (Nicolas Leoz, Worawi Makudi, Ricardo Terra Teixeira and Jack A Warner), Fifa has found no elements in this report which would prompt the opening of any ethics proceedings.''

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
Mr Worawi has close to a 50% stake in the Thai Premier League Co, with a number of FAT colleagues also invested in the TPL's profitability. Mr Worawi has been FAT president since 2007, as well as one of 24 executive committee members of Fifa, the global football body, since 1997, able to vote on World Cup bids. He is a member of the Asian Football Confederation.

Suphachai Jaismut.

He is also a founder of BEC-Tero Sasana, whose chairman, Brian Marcar, is also a member of the FAT. TPL president Vichit Yamboonreung is considered a close ally, as was former FAT president Vijit Ketkaew. Mr Worawi is also on the executive committee of the ruling Pheu Thai Party and a trade representative of the government.

Siam Sport Syndicate, which had a contract concession to financially manage the TPL until it pulled out in April, is also an owner of Muangthong United.

Mr Suphachai, head of the ostensibly non-partisan parliamentary investigation into the FAT's financial dealings, is also spokesperson for the Bhumjaithai Party, whose de facto leader is Newin Chidchob, also chairman of Buriram United FC and tipped to be in the running for Mr Worawi's position should he be forced to step down.

Pinit Ngarmpring, president of Cheerthai Power, a national team supporters' group with over 20,000 registered members, explained to Spectrum that to become a member of the FAT, two nominations by FAT members plus approval by the FAT president are necessary. Thus a president can ensure his own continued support by populating the association with close allies.

THAI PREMIER LEAGUE

Thailand's most popular sport, football was introduced in the Kingdom in 1897. In 1916, King Vajiravudh founded the Football Association of Thailand Under Patronage of HM the King. The association joined Fifa in 1925 and the AFC in 1957. For many years the FAT was largely controlled by the army.

A case could be made that the health of club football in Thailand is now stronger than at any point in its history. Three years ago the TPL, originally formed in 1996, was revamped, with 18 top-flight clubs, dozens of new sponsors on board, better marketing and a broader fan base. Last year, crowds averaged nearly 5,000 a match, totalling close to 1.5 million over the season, with every game screened on television. Clubs such as Muangthong United FC, Chonburi FC and Buriram United FC have had strong marketing drives and an influx of sponsorship capital in the last few years to become regional powers. Foreign players entering the league such as former Liverpool FC forward Robbie Fowler have raised the league's profile and standards.

Buriram United held its own in the Asian Champions League earlier this year, winning its first two games against two of Japan and China's best teams before losing momentum. Sven-Goran Eriksson, former manager of the England national team, just s igned this month as technical director of BEC-Tero Sasana FC, another of the ''big four'' clubs.

Money from sponsorship and TV rights alone is thought to run into the hundreds of million baht a year, but how this money, which Mr Suphachai said should have been shared with clubs, has been used is unclear and under investigation by the committee.

Without being able to depend on profit-sharing by the FAT, and ticket or merchandise sales insufficient to cover costs, most clubs rely to an unhealthy degree on revenue from club sponsorship deals. Fluctuations in economic conditions could leave them unable to pay players wages, and this has been the case at some clubs in recent years.

PROBLEMS AT CLUB LEVEL

One pressing issue that players and coaches have raised is that contracts aren't adhered to by Thai football clubs, as they are largely protected from litigation by the FAT.

David Booth, former coach of Sisaket FC before it became Esan United this season, was awarded US$222,500 plus interest in a contract settlement case by Fifa. The organisation gave the club until February to pay Mr Booth or face sanctions, but the deadline passed with no sanctions imposed.

On Aug 14 the Fifa Disciplinary Committee sent a letter to the FAT to be forwarded to Esan United. The club was urged to transfer 485,000 baht to an account in Switzerland within 30 days or face a six-point deduction, followed by enforced relegation or even exclusion of all Thai teams from international competitions. No deduction has yet been enforced.

Regarding such disputes, one former TPL player commented to Spectrum, ''The Thai FA have stated they will not punish clubs for non-payment or contract cancellations _ that's crazy; it's their job to manage and govern the players' interests, especially with clubs who are members of the Thai football league who are ruled under Fifa.'' He added that any player or coach who complains may encounter problems ''distracting his career''.

Emmanuel Obinna Nnodim, a former footballer and current players' agent in Thailand, concurred. ''Clubs like to avoid paying players and coaches and at the end nothing is done about it. There is a lot of breach of contract by clubs and they usually get away with it.''

Another issue in the league, he said, is the problem of agents bribing coaches.
''There is something like agents bribing coaches to sign their players. It's more of a business than a real sport at times. And some players take up blind contracts and don't have anyone to guide them, and some clubs take advantage of that.''

The former TPL player said, ''I have seen agents involved with coaches and most know it goes on ... you see the good players who did not get signed and questions are raised.

''It comes back to the coaches' lack of professional education or the money men being involved with football decisions,'' he said. ''From a local player development view, surely having better players who perform or are more experienced and professional is more beneficial to Thai football in the long term.''

Another former TPL footballer, Stuart Kelly, once a Scotland youth international, terminated his contract with Khon Kaen FC earlier this year.

''Management and higher up decisions were terrible and I knew they would be detrimental to the team _ which they were, at the end of the day,'' he said.

He said the club initially tried to terminate his contract without following Fifa rules on compensation but that they came to an agreement after he invoked international football law.

''In the end the club acted very professionally and we parted ways with no bad feelings.''

He said he remains grateful to the club for giving him the opportunity to experience Khon Kaen and Thailand.

Kelly, 31, had assumed it would be possible for someone of his ability and experience to find another TPL club, but after several months no offers came. Currently he plays for Finnish club PK-37.

Of Thailand, where he hopes to return to play, he said, ''Away from football it's a great place to live, with nice people away from football decisions and good fans, stadiums and media.''

As a former youth player at Rangers in Scotland, Kelly has been following the swift decline of what was once one of Europe's powerhouses, and while he said it is possible some Thai clubs could follow suit and collapse financially, it isn't easy to compare.

''When I signed, Rangers were financially bigger than any English club _ before the Sky TV deals. No Thai club has that fan base, global appeal or 130-year history.''

Here, ''clubs are funded by sponsors'' rather than gate receipts, he said, with salaries not always sustainable. ''Already the bubble has burst at some clubs.''

He said Thai football should develop the quality of coaching in the country and add transparency to the league. ''This will develop the talented youth they have and they can go on from there; however, the corruption will always hamper things.''

RESTRUCTURING THE FAT

On the possibility of disbanding the FAT, Mr Pinit, the supporters' group president, said, ''I cannot agree or disagree. It's a matter of law enforcement and fact finding. The association can't make profit and share it among the members or executives.

''The FAT should maximise its revenues, of course. However, it should spend the money on developing Thai football, including the national team, clubs' competitiveness and youth development.

''I think disbanding the FAT would come at the cost of ... more democracy, transparency and a public-oriented management. I can't agree if we disband the FAT just to remove Mr Worawi and promote a new figurehead.''

Mr Pinit said there are three options _ the FAT electing a new president, the court disbanding Mr Worawi if found guilty, or the court disbanding the FAT if the executive board and members are found guilty.

He said the first option was preferable, although it was unlikely as Mr Worawi was allied to the majority of FAT members.

He was also confident that a shake-up in the FAT wouldn't unsettle the national team too much. ''The Thailand national team can't get any worse,'' he said of the team ranked 131 in the world. ''We've had nothing but setbacks under Mr Worawi's management. Changing the FAT would see a vacuum period of up to four to six months but we could move very fast with better management.

''Worawi could have used his role as a Fifa executive committee member to benefit Thai football,'' he said. ''But he cares about himself more than Thai football. He is the CEO of a company with no competitor. A leader needs good governance, vision and responsibility. When he first stepped into the position, the fans were very positive and put high hopes on him. He has let them all down.''

INFURIATED FANS: Thai football enthusiasts stage a protest in May, 2011, demanding that Mr Worawi resign as president of the Football Association of Thailand.

SETTING GOALS FOR A BETTER GAME

As a journalist, Pinit Ngarmpring, now head of the Cheerthai Power supporters' group, once interviewed the former president of the Japan Football Association, Saburo Kawabuchi, who told him that Japan would develop the J-League in a manner similar to the country's successful automotive industry: "We will study the best aspects from all over the world, 'Japanise' them, and then we'll export it all over the world." The fruits of that philosophy are now being felt, with Japanese players successful in most of the top leagues in Europe and the national team ranked highest in Asia and 23rd in the world.

By comparison, "the FAT doesn't have any vision", said Mr Pinit.

Pinit Ngarmpring.

He has no problem with the appointment last year of Winfried Schaefer as national team coach, however. "Schaefer is a good coach with experience. I saw he was training the team with good technique and devotion that excited the players."

He argues that four structural changes need to be implemented by the FAT to improve grass-roots and club football in the Kingdom and raise the quality of the national team.

The association needs transparency and effective management, the lack of which is hindering the game at the moment, he said.

Secondly, a technical development strategy is needed, from grass-roots, through youth, to national team level. This would develop off-the-ball movement and technical ability, as well as a "national style" that could be honed from youth level, whose benefits would later be felt in the national team. A unit is needed to prepare the national team for upcoming fixtures. By comparison, Japan has a 20-member committee to deal with national team preparation, getting supporters to away games, and scouts to prepare dossiers on opposition players and teams from three months in advance.

"It's a kind of like an intelligence unit that deals with risk management. It's not only the 11 players on the pitch; you need a backing team." He pointed to a World Cup qualifying match in February, 2008, against Japan in snowy conditions at Saitama Stadium when the Thai players weren't prepared enough for the cold, taking off their jackets 10 minutes before kick-off and losing valuable energy.

Thirdly, the FAT needs to develop the quality of competition, he said. Warm-up games should be prepared in advance with reasonable opponents in the pipeline. "There also need to be 10-year plans and targets such as a competitive strategy to improve sports infrastructure."

The FAT also needs its own stadium. The stadiums it currently uses, such as Rajamangala National Stadium, are rented from the Sports Authority of Thailand.

Fourthly, the FAT should develop marketing and public trust. "This is not just about money, but rebuilding public trust in the Thai game," he said.

The fan base should be increased, supporters' groups promoted and the profile of the national team raised through advertising and information drives. "This doesn't have to be exclusive of the financial aspect, as the national team logo can be used on sponsors' products, for example, and people can help the national team by buying affiliated products. So a broader fan base will draw more corporate money in a positive cycle."

Above such structural changes, he said the organisation needs real elections and accountability. An independent body should provide oversight, and Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation, which donate money to the FAT, should have the right to check accounts.

About the author

Writer: Post Reporters
Position: Reporters"

End of culled article from the online version of the Bangkok Post newspaper.

Are Locally Produced Neem Seed Oil And Neem Seed Cake Key To The Growth Of Ghana's Organic Farming Sector?

Most Ghanaians are now aware of the importance of eating a balanced diet - one that includes vegetables and fruits.

And as more and more Ghanaians become health-conscious, and adopt healthy lifestyles, the presence of synthetic pesticide residue on most of the vegetables and fruits sold in markets across the country, is becoming a major food safety concern for many in Ghana.

Before our contact with the first Europeans who stepped on our shores, we lived in harmony with nature, and grew and ate organic food.

Today, there is a yearning for a return to the old ways of growing wholesome food. The use of natural pesticides such as pure neem seed oil, and organic fertilisers (including neem seed cake), could enable vegetable farmers in Ghana to produce synthetic-pesticide-free vegetables across the nation.

That there is pent-up demand across the country for fruits and vegetables grown without synthetic pesticides, and synthetic fertilisers, is not in doubt.

It is also a fact that many Ghanaians now worry about the wholesomeness of the food products they buy in markets and supermarkets across the nation - as Ghana becomes a dumping ground for dodgy imported food products from China and elsewhere.

The recent food scandal, in which a number of market traders who sold palm oil laced with the carcinogenic Sudan1V dye, were arrested, highlights the scale of the task the woefully under-resourced Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) faces.

The FDA has its work cut out policing the Ghanaian economy's domestic food production, and the importation, distribution and sale of foreign food products, across the country.

Luckily, however, in the case of the contaminated locally-produced palm oil, the FDA rose magnificently to the challenge - and dealt swiftly with the Sudan1V menace to public health in Ghana: with the help of the Ghanaian media.

However, many challenges still remain: for example, one never knows, whether or not the bananas or mangoes that one has purchased, were ripened artificially with carbide or not. Calcium carbide (CaC2), which contains traces of arsenic and phosphorous, is harmful to the human body.

Naturally, one's prayer, is that the fruits one purchases, were allowed to ripen the way  nature intended - slowly over a given period.

Luckily, all hope is not yet lost for those in Ghana who want to eat organic agricultural produce, but are unable to grow their own fruits and vegetables - because that is not a practical option.

In a recent exchange of emails with a member of the campaign group, Food Sovereignty Ghana (FSG), concerning the Arusha New Plant Variety Protocol, which FSG is urging Parliament not to ratify, it emerged that plans are afoot to create an umbrella organisation, Ghana4Agroecology, that will bring together all those who want to see a steady growth in a more sustainable way of farming in the agricultural sector, as well as those who believe that for public health reasons, Ghanaians ought to have greater access to organic agricultural produce.

One's prayer, is that such an umbrella organisation will help provide a market for all those cottage industries in  rural Ghana that produce and sell high-quality pure cold-pressed neem seed oil and neem seed cake - many of whom are unfortunately struggling to stay in business.

This blog will be happy to provide contact details of the cold-pressed neem seed oil producers it knows, who produce high-quality neem seed oil and neem seed cake, to those readers who are keen to grow synthetic-pesticide-free vegetables and fruits.

Incidentally, speaking as a cocoa farmer, whose family grows cocoa without any synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilisers, at Akyem Juaso (in Akyem Abuakwa), in the Eastern  Region, I find it frustrating that our nation's political class constantly focuses on increasing the application of chemical inputs in the cocoa industry - to enable Ghana produce 1 million tonnes of cocoa beans per annum.

Yet, in a world in which consumers of cocoa products increasingly prefer organic cocoa products, common sense dictates that we should be focusing instead on making Ghana the world's leading producer of organic cocoa beans - if we want to have a sustainable cocoa industry with a secure future.

As a people, should we not take the occassional rejection of consignments of Ghanaian cocoa beans in places like Japan because of the presence of pesticide residue in the beans, as a harbinger of things to come - and stop continuing to bury our heads in the sand about the issue of synthetic pesticide usage in the industry impacting Ghana's market share negatively in the long-term: and instead confront the challenge of switching to organic cocoa farming head on?

(Our ruling elites' lack of foresight and lack of imagination in that regard, is just so irritating. Such an unimaginative lot, Ghanaian politicians. Veritable blockheads, most of them. And contemptible incompetents, too. Cocoa farmers in Ghana must fight to ensure that the vested interests that make vast profits from the agro chemicals currently in use in the industry - who some of our nation's politicians and political parties  are beholden to  - don't deny us the opportunity for Ghana to switch to organic cocoa farming to secure the industry's future. But I digress.)

Be that as it may, the good news for Ghanaians who want to see an increase in the availability of organic agricultural produce in Ghana - particularly organic  fruits and vegetables - is that Ghana can produce all the pure cold-pressed neem seed oil, and neem seed cake, which its nascent organic farming sector requires, for use as an effective broad spectrum natural pesticide, and, as organic fertiliser, respectively.

Ghana will not need to import neem seed oil and neem seed cake to help grow its organic farming sector - unlike the billions of cedis equivalent in American dollars, needed to import agro-chemicals that pose a long-term threat to public health, into the country.

Locally produced high-quality neem seed oil and neem seed cake, are key to the growth of Ghana's organic farming sector.  They are affordable and always available - and, crucially, using both products in organic farming, will never impact negatively on our trade balance. Thank God, for small mercies, sayeth I. Amen.

The Ghana Football Association Must Retrieve All The US$15,000 Per Person Ex Gratia Payments Recently Made To Some Of Its Members

The State, through the Registrar General's Department, grants the status of company limited by guarantee for use as a special purpose vehicle, to enable sincere and capable individuals  to engage in charitable activities, which will benefit society generally - without risking their personal wealth in the process.

The Ghana Football Association (GFA), was granted the status of a company limited by guarantee,  to enable those who run it to organise the game of soccer in such a manner that it will be accessible to and benefit all lovers of the game in Ghana - at both the amateur and professional levels: as players; match officials; club technical team members; club members and supporters; club owners; etc., etc.

Although some might say it is a moot point, it could be successfully argued that with the exception of the GFA's paid employees, none of its members, who after all volunteer their services freely to the GFA - presumably because of their love and passion  for the game - are supposed to benefit substantially, financially, from the GFA's funds.

At best, they are only entitled to sitting allowances for attending GFA meetings, and to per diems when travelling locally and abroad on the GFA's behalf, like the members of  similar voluntary organisations across the globe,  are.

It matters not a whit where those GFA funds originate from: be they from the government of Ghana; Fifa; sponsorship deals; or,  "the GFA's own internally generated funds" - a cynical phrase deployed by the morally bankrupt individuals amongst those now running the GFA, to justify the blatant siphoning off GFA funds into private pockets, which they deviously labelled  "ex gratia payments" to deceive Ghanaians.

The question is: can the GFA, a company limited by guarantee to develop and promote the game of soccer nationwide - and therefore an entity that ought to have an element of the public interest ethos underpinning all its disbursement of funds - lawfully distribute its "internally generated funds" to the tune of some US$15,000 per person, to a number of its members as "ex gratia payments" totalling US$300,000; instead of using it to develop and promote  the game of soccer across Ghana, as it is mandated to, by law?

I submit that any charitable organisation - such as one set up to run an orphanage for example - that distributes its internally generated funds as ex gratia payments to any of its retiring members instead of using it for the benefit of the children in the orphanage, would have its charitable status swiftly withdrawn: and all those who distributed and benefited from the sharing out of any such internally generated funds prosecuted and jailed for fraud.

So should it be the case with the GFA, too. The GFA, surprising though it might be to some of its smug and more arrogant members, is not actually above the laws of our country.

Those ex gratia payments amount to making disloyal payments - a crime elsewhere: which is why the Swiss police investigating Fifa are also focusing on all such payments made by Fifa.

That is why those who now run  the GFA had better retrieve the US$15,000 per person ex gratia payments paid out to a number of its members from the GFA's internally generated funds  - and apply the total amount of US$330,000 involved to the development of youth soccer instead: perhaps in  junior and senior level secondary schools across Ghana, for example.

If they refuse to retrieve those unlawfully paid out sums one hopes that some of the GFA's many critics will approach public interest law NGOs (such as the Centre for Public Interest Law) to take the GFA to court - for misusing money that should be used to develop and promote soccer in Ghana: by doling it out as ex gratia payments to some of its members. Monstrous.

Food For Thought For Martin Amidu?

When President Mills dismissed Mr. Martin Amidu as his administration's attorney general, I told a few of the leading lights in the National Democratic Congress (NDC), that it was a miscalculation that no amount of spin could prevent from permanently damaging the Mills regime - and that it would come back to haunt their party one day.

There was also a time when I used to urge the NDC - in my writing - to drop President Mills and Vice President John Mahama, and replace them with Martin Amidu as president and Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as vice president.

It was my humble view that that could be achieved by first getting John Mahama to resign as vice president - and replacing him with Martin Amidu.

Shortly after that, Mills would also then resign as president, and be succeeded by Martin Amidu - who would then pick Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as his vice president.

It was my humble view at the time that it was a neat solution to the painfull reality that Mills and Mahama had lost all credibility with Ghanaians - and would never win the 2012 presidential election.

So there is no question that I have always had the highest regard for the incorruptible Martin Amidu. That is why I find his diatribe against Anas Amereyaw so puzzling and disconcerting.

What exactly is he seeking to achieve by attacking Anas Amereyaw's work and methods as an investigative journalist?

The general consensus in Ghana today, is that corruption poses the single biggest threat to the long-term stability of Ghana.

I am pretty sure that Mr. Martin Amidu would agree wholeheartedly with that - as, if high-level corruption is not curbed,  its debilitating effects on sections of society, that result from the siphoning off government revenues into private pockets, which otherwise could be used to improve living standards generally, might eventually lead to social upheavel in Ghana.

As a people, if we are to succeed in bringing high-level corruption under control, it must be fought on the basis that like terrorism, it poses an existential threat to our nation - and use unorthodox methods, including deploying the most creative crime-fighting strategies possible, if need be, to expose it.

That is what will provide law enforcement agencies with the hard evidence needed to ensure that those guilty of high-level corruption can be successfully prosecuted and jailed for their egregious crimes against Ghanaians.

I am also sure that Mr. Martin Amidu would agree that no man or woman of genuine honour, who has integrity, will ever fall for any inducement at the heart of any entrapment scheme designed to expose corruption - because by definition an honest man or woman acts honourably at all material times, be it in public, or in private, away from the public gaze: and will never accept bribes under any circumstances.

 If we can only win the fight against terrorism by empowering the State to use all the means necessary to achieve that desirable end, then, in similar vein, if we are ever to bring high-level corruption under control in Ghana, we must also use the very same unorthodox and legally-grey methods that even democratic nations like the US and the UK, are now resorting to, to fight global terrorism.

That is why I humbly submit that the methods used by Anas Amereyaw as an investigative journalist to expose high-level corruption in all spheres of our national life (including the justice delivery system) are appropriate and lawful - for the constitution enjoins all Ghanaians to fight corruption.

Corruption, which is an unlawful and secretive phenomenon, by its very nature, cannot be successfully exposed, by using traditional legal methods.

Anas Amereyaw's methods used in his investigative journalism practice, are perfectly suited to exposing the corrupt individuals in our midst, some of whom have such enormous power and influence in Ghanaian society, that they can exploit every legal loophole there is, and successfully bribe their way out of virtually every possible situation, to enable them escape punishment.

Such individuals are a menace to Ghana and its people - and Mr. Martin Amidu must come to terms with the fact that Anas Amereyaw's methods in exposing high-level corruption, have been amongst the most effective ever deployed, in the varied inter-agency strategies used to expose high-level corruption, in Ghana, thus far.

Anas Amereyaw deserves the support of all anti-corruption campaigners in Ghana - including Mr. Martin Amidu. Food for thought, for the good, decent and incorruptible Mr. Amidu, perhaps?

Should GREDA Not Expand Into Equatorial Guinea And Gabon?

In my late teens, I came across a dynamic young trader, who dealt in building materials,  and was blessed with lots of charisma. At the time he cut quite a dashing figure and drove a Mini Minor - with the phrase "Run Baby Run" emblazoned across the rear windscreen.

We admired him greatly, and had absolutely no doubt, that he would become an extremely wealthy businessman, in future.

Although he was not the scholarly-type, it was obvious that he was incredibly intelligent. Shortly after meeting him, he built his first house a few meters away, from the then very popular Swanlake supermarket at North Kaneshie. He would eventually go on to build and sell hundreds of houses.

That young trader is now the CEO of Devtraco Estates, one of the biggest real estate companies in Ghana today. Astute businessmen like Devtraco's Mr. Joseph Adu, hold the key to making Ghana an economic powerhouse in West Africa.

There is no reason on earth, for example, why the Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), should not present President Theodore Mbiang, with a proposal to build housing estates that will enable Mbiang's regime to provide modern accommodation for virtually all of Equatorial Guinea's population - something that will enable his regime to use some of Equatorial Guinea's accumulated oil and gas revenues to improve the standard of living of his people.

If GREDA finds conditions in the housing sector of our national economy difficult because of high interest rates and endless taxes, that need not necessarily lead to a slump in that sector - if the association looks for business in places like Equatorial Guinea and Gabon for the most capable of its members.

If they get such government contracts the African Development Bank might be willing to fund GREDA's members - as part of its drive to grow Africa's private sector.

With business genuises like the Joseph Adus comprising its membership, GREDA can effectively compete with even the Chinese in places like Equatorial Guinea and Gabon -  if our government lobbies the leaders of such oil-rich African nations on GREDA's behalf.

Will that not help reduce youth unemployment in Ghana somewhat - as skilled Ghanaian artisans usually given sub-contract jobs here by GREDA's members would be given work in those nations too?

A New Political Movement For Libertarians In Ghana?

"Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit."
                                  - Mahatma Ghandi

Listening to the noble and uber-respectable elder statesman, Mr. C. K. Tedam, trying to justify the decision of the New Patriotic Party's (NPP)  national executive committee, to suspend Mr. Paul Afoko, the party's national chairperson,  one could not help having a sense of deja vu - and remembering the spin-doctors who tried so hard to justify the unjustifiable sacking of Mr. Martin Amidu by President Mills.

The idea that a few powerful, influential and highly-intelligent individuals, and their allies in the NPP,  think that they can actually manipulate a large political party with a nationwide footprint, as if it were a mere family enterprise, and get away with it, is baffling.

There are those who posit that the NPP now has far too many individuals who are intolerant of divergent opinion - and are criticism-averse to the point of paranoia - in it, for its own good.

Those critics  blame that culture of intolerance, and the uncompromising attitude of some of the NPP's plutocrats, for the fault-line that has now opened up in the party.

It is said that out of every disaster, is the possibility of renewed opportunity, for its victims.

Perhaps the time has now come for the creation of a new political movement, which will provide a home for the millions of hardworking, non-tribalistic, one-nation Ghanaians, who believe in individual liberty and want to live in a  low-tax, fiscally responsible and economically well-managed free society, in which hardworking individuals get to keep virtually all the rewards of their honest endeavours.

Alas, for many in our country, today, the NPP no longer provides an attractive home, for libertarians in Ghana.

Some of the party's critics make the point that it has allowed itself to be hijacked by bad-faith politicians who never accept electoral defeat - and who are not interested in compromise: and hound their opponents (both inside and outside their party), by demonising and vilifying them. That is simply intolerable.

Furthermore, some of the party's critics also question why politicians who want to govern Ghana, should resort to activities that amount to sabotaging the nation-building effort - as a strategy to win power for the NPP: and expect ordinary people to vote them into power, at the same time.

Have such perfidious politicians become so ruthless and callous that the misery their abominable and unspeakable actions cause to millions of families across Ghana, does not mean anything to them at all - in their ruthless, tunnel-vision quest for power?

Worst of all, are those NPP politicians, and their assigns, who constantly threaten mayhem in Ghana, if they do not have their way. Just who do they think they are, one wonders?

Do they think Ghanaians are serfs with no rights - who they have a divine right to govern come hell or high water?

What Ghana needs are creative and patriotic opposition politicians who always offer alternative solutions to the challenges our country faces, every time they criticise government policies. Politicians always beating metaphorical-war-drums are of no use to ordinary people - who refuse to dance to their discordant rhythms.

The NPP's Sammy Awukus must be very careful - for it is not entirely out of the realms of possibility that it will get to a stage when some frustrated Ghanaians will begin targeting politicians threatening the stability of Ghana, for elimination, one by one: if that is what will keep Ghana peaceful and stable.

The Sammy Awukus in our midst must understand clearly that democracy is not only just about constitutional arrangements to do with institutions of state, and the checks and balances designed to ensure that tyranny never returns to Ghana again.  Neither is it just about upholding the concept of the rule of law - that outline laws governing relationships between individuals, and between individuals and the State,  etc., etc.

They need to understand that democracy is also a way of life based on tolerance and the preponderance of a culture of compromise amongst the citizenry. In case it hasn't dawned on the Sammy Awukus yet, that is precisely the nature of the society the vast majority of ordinary Ghanaians want to live in.

Perhaps that yearning for a tolerant society in Ghana, provides the besieged Paul Afokos and Kwabena Agyapongs of the NPP, with an opportunity to work with others to form a new political movement, for Ghana's libertarians. One without any of the NPP's dreadful baggage-of-negativity.

Liberal Democratic Party would make a perfect name for that new party for libertarians in Ghana, would it not? It has a nice ring to it for libertarians. Cool.

The time has definitely come to form a new political movement for fair-minded, one-nation libertarians in Ghana.

Should The Association of Ghana Industries Not Be Collaborating With Its Japanese Countetpart?

It is time our ruling elites realised that Ghana could develop a very special and unique win-win partnership with Japan - in which the captains of Ghanaian industry collaborate with the captains of Japanese industry: to provide the Japanese economy with a disaster-risk reduction strategy to make it even more resilient than it currently is.

Because Ghana is located at the centre of the world, so to speak, by building factories here, Japanese companies could still export their products worldwide, were Japan to be struck by even the most severest of earthquakes ever experienced in world history - one that  virtually wipes out its entire industrial capacity (God forbid).

The question is: Now that the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) is setting up an industrial development bank, why does its leadership not head for Japan, to kill two birds with one stone -  explore new sources for ultra-low-interest long-term funds for the industrial development bank, and to discuss the unique opportunity Ghana offers Japanese industry, to build further disaster-risk reduction resilience, into their business models?

Perhaps a good start to such joint-venture partnerships between Japanese companies and Ghanaian entities (both public and private), would be: cocoa processing; the Shea butter sector; gold refining and other benefication activities such as minting gold coins, producing small credit-card-sized  gold bars, gold jewellery; vehicle assembly plants; power plants; fish processing plants; agro-forestry plantations, to name a few.

 Such collaboration would benefit both nations' private sectors and help Ghana to grow its export trade across West Africa - and the rest of the continent.

The leadership of the AGI should definitely head for Japan - if the AGI's industrial bank is to be able to secure long-term low-interest funds. They ought to make developing  close relations between the AGI and its Japanese counterpart a priority.

A Possible Role For Zenator Rawlings?

The battle for the right to represent the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in the Korle Klottey constituency, in the presidential and parliamentary elections of November 2016, is an interesting one.

It has turned out to be a battle between the old-style big-man/big-woman politics of patronage, represented by the Hon. Nii Armah Ashittey, and the new servant-leader/community activist politics - of the kind that eventually propelled President Obama to the White House from Chicago - espoused by Dr. Zenator Rawlings.

Zenator Rawlings definitely represents the future of the NDC - as a party of servant-leaders and community activists: helping marginalised communities across Ghana to pull themselves out of poverty by their own bootstraps.

Alas, the Nii Armah Ashitteys, represent the NDC's past - a faded and jaded brand that no longer appeals to the hearts and minds of millions across the country.

That brand, ruined by the cynicism and dissembling of the Stan Dogbes, has no future - and its cynical and corrupt heavyweights are passe. They are history: because Ghanaians are now fed up with the greed-filled polititricks that  breeds high-level corruption.

In support of her community-activism, here's an  idea for Zenator Rawlings - which could easily be scaled-up and replicated across the entire coastline of Ghana, to empower fishing communities.

Why does she not fly to Ireland, to meet with kindred-spirit, Dr. Easkey Britton, the world-famous surfer, and researcher with the Too Big To Ignore (TBTI) research network - which promotes and raises awareness for small-scale fisheries - to discuss working together to leverage aspects of the European Union's (EU) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), for the mutual benefit of the fishing industries of Ireland and Ghana?

Easkey Britton is ambassador for the EU's INSEPARABLE campaign - which is a sustainable fishing campaign to encourage people to eat, buy and sell sustainable seafood, and to take an active role in helping to improve the state of the oceans around us, globally.

The EU needs to make further cuts in its total fishing fleet - to enable it conserve fish stocks for future generations.  Now that the Ghana Navy can effectively police our 200-mile economic zone in the waters above the continental shelf off our shores, that downsizing of the EU's fishing fleet could benefit Ghana's fishing industry.

Could the owners of some of those laid-up fishing boats not be encouraged to register those fishing boats in Ghana, and form joint-venture partnerships  with cooperatives of young fishermen, in  fishing  communities along our nation's coastline - as a first step to developing a modern world-class fish processing industry in Ghana?

Ireland's fishing industry could develop partnerships in Ghana to grow a modern and world-class fish-processing industry (and aquaculture industry) here to supply markets in the continent of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. When established, the industry will have a built-in comparative cost-advantage - and earn its players far  better margins than processed seafood exported from Ireland and Europe to those markets.

Could Zenator Rawlings not kickstart that by partnering Easkey Britton to create partnerships between Irish fishing companies and cooperatives of young fishermen in Korle Klottey, to transform canoe fishing into a modern industry with  modern fishing boats that is world-class?

Could she also not play a role in helping Korle Klottey's older generation of canoe fishermen (and older-generation canoe fishermen elsewhere along our coastline) to develop adventure tourism in which they take adventure-seekers out to sea for Ghc20 per trip - complete with life-jackets and the newly-invented inflatable tubes that people can cling to should the canoes capsize: that is now helping to save the lives of refugees who end up in the Mediterranean Sea when their boats sink?

Incidentally, additionally, she could also do similar deals  with  Leila Janah's Samma Group for digital jobs for the  young people in her constituency. Ditto with Katherine Lucey's Solar Sisters for young women there.

The future of the NDC definitely lies with honest,  idealistic activist-leaders like Zenator Rawlings -  who genuinely seek a fairer society for our nation and all its people. Good luck to her!

An Open Letter To Switzerland's Ambassador To Ghana

Your Excellency,

When you recently spoke about the need to make Ghana a more attractive destination for investors, you were no doubt showing your commitment to strengthening the ties that bind the government and people of Switzerland, and the government and people of Ghana.

Those ties go back to 1843 when the first missionaries from the Basel Mission came to live and work in what then was the Gold Coast.

They were organised and sent to the Gold Coast by Swiss businesspeople who wanted the people of the Gold Coast to become Christians.

Those early  Basel missionaries - comprising Afro-Caribbeans, initially, and Europeans later on - left a legacy of uprightness, discipline and hard work that still underpin all the structures of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

Your Excellency, as regards the issue of making Ghana an attractive destination for investors, there is something that the Federal Swiss government can actually do to help the government and people of Ghana to attain that end  - at a time when most Ghanaian families have to struggle daily to survive: because of the prevailing harsh economic climate.

Over the years, there has been talk of the US-dollar equivalent of trillions of cedis lodged in accounts of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund, at the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS), supposedly belonging to the government and people of Ghana.

As you very well know, Your Excellency, behind the facade of uber-respectability, the world's leading banks that caused the global financial crisis, are centres of greed, chicanery and criminality. The recent benchmark rate-fixing Libor scandal being the latest manifestation of those unfortunate tendencies.

If they actually exist, it is only the Federal Swiss government that can force UBS to give all the funds said to be held in the Oman Ghana Trust Fund accounts back to the government and people of Ghana.

Your Excellency, by the simple measure of transforming those funds in the Oman Ghana Trust Fund accounts into a sovereign wealth fund for Ghana, which UBS can manage for a fee, those funds can be used to fund infrastructural projects, and to retire Ghana's debts, as and when contracted foreign loans mature, and to service those selfsame debts in the intervening years.

That way, it will not leave a massive hole in the balance sheet of UBS - and the crooks-in-high-places in Ghana will not have access to those funds: and the Ghanaian economy will be given a second-chance-opportunity to grow again.

Ghana can then finally be set on a course of becoming a fiscally-responsible and well-managed econony - and  uber business-friendly base from which Swiss businesses can manufacture and sell their products across the continent of Africa.

You can rest assured that the hard-pressed people of a grateful nation, will ensure that Swiss engineering firms bidding for contracts here, can play a leading role, in the expansion and modernisation of Ghana's infrastructure - paid for from the Oman Ghana Trust accounts converted to the Republic of Ghana Sovereign Wealth Fund, through the intervention of the Federal Swiss government.

Your Excellency, simply put, the best way the government and people of Switzerland can help the government and people of Ghana, for their mutual benefit,  is for the Federal Swiss government to order its secret services, and law enforcement agencies, to find that money sitting in the accounts of the Oman Ghana Trust Fund at UBS - and ensure that it is converted into a sovereign wealth fund for Ghana, which UBS can manage for a fee.

Thanks!

Kind regards,

The Ghanapolitics Blog.

 PS Your Excellency, since the Swiss are renowned the world over, for their meticulous record-keeping, Ghanaians would be grateful if you could request your secret services and law enforcement agencies now carrying out investigations into the financial affairs of Fifa, to give the people of Ghana details of all payments made to the Ghana Football Association (GFA), by Fifa, since Mr. Ohene Djan affiliated the GFA to Fifa in 1958, to date. Thanks.

Why Is The New Patriotic Party Tearing Itself Apart So Glaringly In The Open?

Why is Ghana's largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), tearing itself apart so glaringly,  and in such open fashion, one wonders?

Why the confounding struggle for power that risks destroying the party's chances of winning the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections?

According to bush-telegraph sources, and some of Ghana's conspiracy theorists, the infighting in the NPP, is for control of the billions of cedis in kickbacks expected to flow into the party's coffers, when it wins the November 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Naturally, some might be say that that is a rather cynical and unfair view, for anyone to take.

Those who take that view of the NPP's current difficulties, insist that the plutocrats amongst those who organise funding for the party, saw the election of their preferred candidate as the party's candidate for the 2016 presidential election, as an opportunity to transform the NPP into the financial equivalent of a special purpose vehicle, which they would take full control of.

The election of the strong-willed and independent-minded Paul Afoko and Kwabena Adjei Agyapong as national chairperson and general secretary, respectively,  of the NPP, with overwhelming majorities, was therefore a major setback for those plutocrats.

It ought to be pointed out that the NPP's plutocrats don't actually believe in democracy - a mindset encapsulated perfectly in Atta Akyea's infamous and revealing December 2008 statement uttered in a secretly recorded conversation aired on Radio Gold FM's Election Forensics programme hosted by Raymond Archer: "Saa democracy nonsense yi."

It is also a fact that those super-clever NPP plutocrats have conveniently cloaked themselves ostentatiously with the garb of democracy - in order to remain respectable in Ghanaian society. Their ultimate goal is to dominate Ghana from the shadows when the NPP wins power in the November 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Apparently, they vowed to cut short the tenures of Afoko and Agyapong, and remove them from office, the very day the two gentlemen were elected to their positions - hard facts on the ground regarded as mere irritating irrelevances by the said plutocrats.

And as is the case with plutocrats worldwide, the NPP plutocrats seeking to depose Paul Afoko and Kwabena Agyapong, in a coup, feel that somehow they are above the laws of Ghana and that they are not bound by societal norms - and can therefore act with impunity whenever it suits them. What, hubris.

Alas, they don't care a whit, what effect their actions have on the party's reputation and image - as long as they achieve the ends they seek. Unfortunately, their hubris has left the image and reputation of the NPP in tatters.

And it explains why two leading and longstanding party members, both elected to their national executive positions with overwhelming majorities, in a political party that says it is a bastion of individual liberty, and an upholder of the rule of law, have suddenly become the victims of a scorched-earth Machiavellian-strategy, meant to enable those NPP plutocrats take full control of the NPP's finances.

Unfortunately, the NPP's plutocrats have miscalculated terribly. That grave error of judgment will almost certainly result in the NPP losing many crucial votes amongst independent-minded and patriotic Ghanaians who are totally fed up with the fact that the NDC/NPP duopoly continues to be beholden to the vested interests bleeding Mother Ghana dry.

It is unfortunate that a political party many Ghanaians hoped would replace the party now in  power is tearing itself apart so glaringly and in such open fashion - because a few amoral plutocrats want to take full control of its finances before the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections: and doubtless make hay whiles the sun shines on them in the period between January 7th, 2017 and January 7th, 2021. Pity.

Ban The Purchase Of Diaries For Distribution As Gifts By All Public-Sector Entities

One of the loopholes through which spendthrift public officials used to siphon off taxpayers' money to businesses owned by their families and friends, was by purchasing overpriced Christmas hampers, for distribution as Christmas gifts.

Tens of millions of cedis regularly disappeared from the public purse that way until President Mills ordered a halt to that outrage - in a nation struggling to balance its finances.

Luckily for the nation, President Mahama has continued that policy - and has maintained the ban imposed on the purchase of Christmas hampers by public-sector entities by President Mills.

What President Mahama should now do to save taxpayers' from bring diddled yet again, by spendthrift public officials, as the Christmas season approaches, is to ban the purchase of diaries by all public-sector entities - including the presidency and all state-owned enterprises - for distribution as gifts.

It is outrageous that in an era of austerity, when millions of families struggle daily to survive in a harsh economic climate, money that can be used to help improve the quality of life for people in poor rural and urban communities, is wasted on the purchase of diaries by public officials.

It is a practice that can never be justified - as it only enables those who benefit from  inflating the prices of goods and services supplied to public-sector entities to enrich themselves. Most of those who receive such gifts invariably give them away in any case - because they don't actually need them.

The time has now come for the government of President Mahama to ban the purchase of diaries by all public-sector entities for distribution as Christmas gifts. The world will not come to an end if President Mahama bans such wasteful expenditure by public-sector entities, will it? We rest our case.

Younger Generation Ghanaians Must Leverage The Positive Money Movement's Ideas For Society's Benefit

"The way monetary economics and banking is taught in many - maybe most - universities is very misleading."
                                                     - Professor David Miles, Monetary Policy Committee, Bank of England.

If Ghana's younger generation want to ensure that at a time when global climate change is impacting Ghana so negatively, they, their children and their children's children, can at least enjoy the same standards of living as today's population of Ghana does - if not better - then they had better take their generation's destiny into
their own collective hands.

Instead of putting their faith in the older generation of leaders that have so egregiously failed Ghanaians, because they are unable to think creatively, they would be wise to arm themselves intellectually to secure their future,  by leveraging some of the ideas underpinning the reformist campaigns, for better societies, run by radical youth-oriented organisations across the world, which are freely available online.

To understand why our economy is in such a mess, and how radical action by creative policymakers could help Ghanaian businesses thrive, instead of being destroyed by high interest rates and a free-falling currency, for example, I humbly suggest that every university student in Ghana, calls for the setting up of a Ghanaian affiliate of the International Movement for Monetary Reform, the global arm of Positive Money.org, by the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS).

If all the students in Ghana's tertiary institutions were to access the information available on the Positive Money movement's  website, they would see the sense in NUGS taking such a step - if young people in Ghana are to arm themselves with the requisite knowledge to enable them protect their own individual futures.

Positive Money is a movement for a money and banking system that works for society and not against it.

 Its members are campaigning for the power to create money to be used in the public interest, in a democratic, transparent and accountable way, rather than by the same banks, that caused the global financial crisis - to paraphrase the organisation's online website.

To students in the UK, it points out the fact that "Universities often teach ideas about money and banking that have been out of date for decades" and calls on them to "make sure academics and students in your University understand how banks really work today, and how that affects the main social and economic challenges we are facing today."

And that is the UK, today. One shudders to think what the prevailing situation in university lecture rooms where similar course subjects are taught across Ghana are like.

Hopefully, by learning more from Positive Money. org, some tertiary students in Ghana will begin to think creatively about monetary economics and the banking system - and how radical ideas by policymakers can make the national economy benefit us all: instead of policies impoverishing society, as is currently happening with stratospheric interest rates.

As a patriot who cares about our homeland Ghana's future, one's  hope, is that all younger generation Ghanaians currently studying in our country's tertiary institutions, will leverage  the Positive Money movement's radical ideas, for Ghanaian society's benefit.

 Post Script

Naturally, all the above is also meant to benefit  media entities in Ghana too.  And to help Ghana's media professionals, and those members of the younger generation who attend our tertiary institutions, to police their nation's nascent oil industry much  more effectively, one's humble advice to Ghanaian media entities, and to NUGS and its affiliates, is that they should collaborate with Johnny West's online oil industry transparency platform, OpenOil.net.

That collaboration will enable Ghanaian media professionals, as well as  student's in all Ghana's tertiary institutions,  to have the necessary tools to enable them gather information about the oil industry globally - and demand policies that will make Ghana's oil and gas deposits benefit all Ghanaians: not just a greedy and powerful few.

Issues Ezenator Rawlings Must Confront Head On

It is painful to see Dr. Ezenator Rawlings being so super-careful and groping to find a way to establish herself in Ghanaian politics. Yet, she has a lot going for her. She should simply be her usual self: earnest, creative, outspoken, hardworking and compassionate.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being President Rawlings' daughter. She has as much a right to participate in our nation's politics, as all Ghanaians of sound mind do - if they are so minded.

She must not allow the fact that she is former President Rawlings' daughter to become an impediment for her in her career as an activist politician.

Here is some free consultancy for her: To begin with, she ought to make the point to Ghanaians that she is in politics to give back to society - and because she believes that Ghana needs more servant-leaders who are prepared to mix in with ordinary people and work with them to improve their quality of life.

Her recent health walk initiative and lobbying for the dredging of the Klottey lagoon show what stuff she is made of. They are exemplary examples of community leadership in action - and show what a difference someone like her can make to the future of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

And it is that future that ought to be her focus in the NDC party. Good, young, honest, creative and hardworking leaders with a moral compass are sorely needed in all the political parties - if our nation's moral fabric is not to be completely eroded.

She has complained of  vote-buying by some of her opponents in the NDC primaries for the Korle Klottey constituency. It is instructive that whiles she works to improve the lot of others less fortunate than herself, her cynical self-seeking opponents are buying votes instead.

She should make the point that there is a pressing need to halt the takeover of political parties (across the spectrum) by monied vested interests.

She must state clearly and unequivocally that some of her energies will be devoted to that national transparency and accountability challenge as an activist politician.

 She must tell Ghanaians that on a purely human level, she feels the pain and trauma that victims of the excesses of the 1979 and 1981 military coups suffered - and that like many younger generation Ghanaians she wished that that had never happened.

Naturally, she should state the obvious: that she loves and respects her father, just like all normal daughters do - and that she is proud of the fact that from being a military ruler, he finally ended up as a democratically-elected  leader of Ghana, who handed over power to the main opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), when it won the December 2000 presidential and parliamentary elections with a majority.

She should also make the point that she knows that there are some who will say that her father was dragged kicking and screaming to commit to making Ghana a standard bearer of African democracy - but that that's OK with her too.

Above all, she must commend her mother's contribution to empowering women from all classes in Ghanaian society throughout her adult life. The demand for gender parity, now, made recently by Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, should be Ezenator's big political idea too.

Many men in our country don't seem to realise it, but Ghana will never move forward, if a law isn't passed reserving half the seats in Parliament for women.

When that happens, it will change the nature of Ghanaian society in  positive fashion - to the wonder of all Ghanaians. Such a development will help hasten the day when Ghana finally achieves gender parity - spurred on by the nation's empowered women legislators from across the spectrum. Ezenator Rawlings must be in the vanguard of that particular battle.

She can end by saying that she is definitely her own woman - and not an appendage of her parents: for which reason she would henceforth not be answering any questions posed to her by the Ghanaian media about them. She is not their spokesperson - and has no wish to speak on their behalf.

As everyone in Ghana knows her parents are not shy and retiring types - but are an outspoken and plain-speaking couple who are perfectly capable of answering questions posed to them by the Ghanaian media themselves.

Finally, why does Ezenator Rawlings not contact the founder of the NGO, Solar Sisters, Katherine Lucey, and get them to work with her to assist disadvantaged women in the less affluent parts of the Korle Klottey constituency, to enable them sell robust solar lanterns, without first having to make any upfront payments?

Perhaps she could even get the energy company Vivo to sponsor such an empowering initiative for marginalised women in the Korle Klottey constituency - and elsewhere in Ghana?

 One hopes that Ezenator Rawlings, who has charisma in abundance, will have the nous and gumption to confront all the issues outlined above in her own inimitable way. Good luck to her!

Ghana's PURC Must Study The Bahamian Government's Deal With PowerSecure International To Manage The Bahamas Electricity Corporation

The Bahamian equivalent of Ghana's Electricity Company of Ghana Limited (ECG),  the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC), is going to be managed for the next 5 years - once all the details are worked out after legislation for a new entity to replace the BEC is passed - by the US company, PowerSecure International, which is headquartered in the American state of North Carolina.

According to the online Bahamian newspaper, Tribune242.com, the main objective of putting the management of the BEC into the hands of PowerSecure International, is to bring relief to electricity consumers in the Bahamas, in the the form of lower tariffs - by making it a better-resourced and better managed entity.

Incidentally, the BEC is both a power generator and distributor, it ought to be pointed out.

The question Ghanaians should be asking is: why does the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) of Ghana, not approach the Bahamian authorities, for a copy of the deal between PowerSecure International and the Bahamian government?

Surely, by closely studying it, the PURC could recommend some of the measures outlined in that document - to ensure that the PowerSecure International BEC management contract results in lower tariffs for electricity consumers in the Bahamas - to those in Ghana seeking to transfer the management of the ECG into private hands?

Apparently - according to Tribune242.com - the PowerSecure plan for restructuring the BEC, calls for a substantial reduction in the cost of electricity to consumers. And it targets a minimum price in the $0.20 cents per kilowatt hour range - which it says  would represent a 30-50 per cent reduction on the BEC's current average tariff.

The successor-company to the old BEC will also be owned 100%  by the Bahamian government.

An aspect of the deal that should be of particular interest to the Ghanaian authorities, is the idea of using Rate Reduction Bonds, proposed by some  US banks, to refinance the BEC's legacy liabilities without a government guarantee, and to provide working capital and fund other needs of the successor company to the pre-PowerSecure BEC.

All things being equal, were the government of Ghana to go for a similar win-win agreement - such as the one between the government of the Bahamas and PowerSecure - when transfering the management of the ECG (and other state-owned power sector entities) into private hands, surely, protecting the interests of electricity consumers in any such agreement would ultimately result in lower tariffs, here in Ghana, too?

It is time the welfare of Ghanaian consumers, not egregiuos profiteering by private companies at public expense, was made the sole objective of transferring state-owned entities into private hands.

Surely, by any logic, lower electricity tariffs ought to be the  end result, which the supposed efficiencies to be derived from better and more effective management of the ECG, under a private-sector entity, should produce for society's benefit?

Simply put,  in the matter of transfering  state-owned power generating and distribution companies to private-sector entitties, to manage, what is good for the Bahamian electricity consumer, is equally good for the Ghanaian electricity consumer, too.

That is why in addition to listening to the views of electricity consumers across the nation, on tariff increases, the PURC ought to study the details of the deal between the Bahamian government and PowerSecure International, to restructure and manage the BEC for the next 5 years, and bring down the cost of electricity for consumers in the Bahamas - and recommend a similar deal for transferring the management of Ghana's state-owned power sector entities into private hands: to enable  electricity consumers in Ghana to enjoy lower tariffs too.

Yes, Plan We Must - But Let Us Also Discard Aspects Of Our Culture That Hinder Creativity In Young People

It is worrying that as a people, we seem to be ignoring the fact that it is only by becoming an innovative society in which cutting-edge ideas are constantly produced by research institutions, businesses and individuals; and the taking hold of an  enterprise culture amongst young people, which will eventually make Ghana a prosperous African nation - one underpinned by sustainability.

Why, when some disruptive technology could come along to suddenly change a particular sector of the national economy, for example, and render its business model obsolete, should we shackle ourselves with the straightjacket of a 40-year national development plan?

Yes, plan we must, but why are we not also devoting the same energy to examining those aspects of our cultural heritage, which  hinder the development of curiosity in children, and block the fostering of creative minds in the education of young people?

Development plans indeed are essential for a nation's  growth - but they need to be implemented by people with the imagination and agility of mind to adapt them to the challenges of an ever changing world.

Talking of creative thinking, why, for example, as a people, do we not see that gender parity will immediately double the available talent-pool needed to move the enterprise Ghana forward?

Towards that end, should we not therefore, as a matter of urgency,  pass laws reserving half the seats in Parliament for women - so that the legislative arm of government spearheads efforts at making Ghana a nation in which women are truly equal in all spheres of our national life?

Will that not enable Ghana's gallant and hardworking womenfolk to make an even greater contribution to the creation of a more prosperous society than they currently do?

As a result of the fact that there is a dearth of leaders who can think creatively in resolving our problems, sadly,  at a time of global climate change, we continue to spend billions of cedis constructing roads that develop potholes soon after being built, and are easily washed away by flash floods.

Yet, we have the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which could transfer to road contractors the simple technology of mixing melted plastic waste with bitumen, to enable our nation to be provided with a network of climate-change-impact-proof plastic roads, at virtually no extra cost.

Plastic roads last three times as long as conventional roads, remain pothole-free throughout their lifespan, bear heavier loads, and are not washed away by flash floods because plastic is impermeable to water.

A national network of plastic roads will  provide Ghana's national economy with some resilience and disaster risk-reduction capacity at a time when extremes of wheather have become the norm, and widespread flooding more frequent.

So, yes, plan we must, but it is only through constant innovation and creative thinking that Ghana will become a prosperous society. The various research institutes of the  CSIR should work closely with the Ghanaian business world to exploit their research findings for society's benefit.

By commercialising some of those research findings, could we not resolve the problem of youth unemployment, for instance, by encouraging young people to become self-employed, and teach them to access markets across the globe through the internet's plethora of e-commerce platforms including Alibaba, EBay, Amazon, Zulily, and Etsy?

And are there not crowdfunding websites that they could raise funds for their projects from, such as Greenvolved, GoGetFunding, Kickstarter and Indiegogo, I ask?

Whiles we plan for the long-term, we must also move quickly to discard those things in our culture that block curiousity in children, and kill creativity in the educated youth of our country - and witness the resultant flourishing of innovation that leads to the development of dynamic and profitable businesses and industries in Ghana, spearheaded by creative minds with cutting-edge ideas.

Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo Now Deserves To be Taken Seriously - Since He Promises To Publicly Publish His Assets

The recent undertaking given by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, that he will publicly publish his assets before assuming the presidency, if elected, deserves our respect. He must be congratulated for so deciding.

For discerning minds, however, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) presidential candidate must go further, if his undertaking is to affect the way they cast their votes, in the 2016 presidential election.

To begin with, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo ought to agree to publicly publish his wife's assets, too, when he does his.

And he must also give Ghanaians a solemn undertaking that that will be a condition all his public-sector appointees must also meet, in order to be given the privilege to serve Mother Ghana, under his regime.

The fact of the matter, is that many patriotic Ghanaians have not forgotten that President Kufuor also promised to publicly declare his assets, and those of his dear wife, at a speech he delivered at the Independence Square - shortly after his inauguration as President in 2001: but, alas, failed to honour it.

 In the end, he and his favourites among the members of his extended family clan, and his circle of friends, exploited his presidency in ruthless fashion, for personal gain, as they set about sending their net worth to stratospheric heights - in tunnel-vision fashion seldom seen before in Ghana's chequered history.

As we all know, they prospered mightily, during the golden age of business, for  Kufuor & Co.

Well, perhaps in his case, we can trust Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo never to rip Mother Ghana off, too, when he becomes President - but as a people we would be big fools to assume that that will also be the case for all his family and friends.

The plain truth, is that our homeland Ghana will not survive another set of greedy hypocrites, operating with impunity, from the heart of the presidency - to enrich themselves at Ghana's expense.

It is for precisely that reason that all patriotic Ghanaians must demand that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, also gives the good people of Ghana, a solemn undertaking that publicly publishing the assets of appointees, and their spouses, before assuming office, and at the end of their individual tenures, will be a pre-condition for all the public-sector appointments he makes.

Above all, since Freddie Blay - who is a powerful presence in the NPP - has already made it absolutely clear that as far as he is concerned, no public publishing of assets will occur under an NPP administration, headed by Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, the NPP's presidential candidate for the 2016 election would be wise to promise Ghanaians that as long as Blay and others of his ilk, maintain that perfidious stand, they will not serve in any capacity in an Akufo-Addo administration.

To show that he will be an anti-corruption crusader, who will zealously protect the public purse at all material times, as President, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo ought to demand that all the leading lights of the NPP, should publicly publish their filed tax returns for the last 8 years, before the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections take place.

If entrenched, the public declaration of assets by public officials, will discourage the self-seeker-types from venturing into politics in Ghana - which will help lessen the incidence of high-level corruption.

That is why the point now needs to be made that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo deserves our respect -  since he has promised to publicly publish his assets before assuming the presidency.

(It is such a pity that since he assumed office, as a result of the baleful influence of the crooks-in-high-places amongst those who surround him, President Mahama has always ignored those of us who have consistently advised him, in our writing, to publicly publish the assets of both himself and his wife - to enable him occupy the moral high ground in Ghanaian politics. Subsequent events have proven that it is the crooks-in-high-places who were the real fools - not us. Pity.)

Indeed, by promising to publicly publish his assets, whatever his shortcomings, one would go as far as saying that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo deserves to be taken seriously, by all Ghanaians.

  Post Script

Incidentally, to maintain continued respect for him, amongst the discerning in Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo must also go ahead and rid the NPP of its tall list of party big-shots resorting to Kweku-Ananse-accounting-principles - to enable them play fast and loose with money that is not theirs. Impunity for such rogues won't bode well for an Akufo-Addo presidency. That was the undoing of President Mills. Nana Addo-Danquah Akufo-Addo must never forget that.

These Indeed Are Interesting Times In Ghana

HOW THE DESPITE MEDIA GROUP CAN HELP DEMOCRATISE GHANA'S PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

A thought occured to me, when I heard one of Peace FM's female news readers - whose name escapes me - asking a question this morning, about the format used by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), for the debates it organises, during campaigns for Ghana's presidential elections.

I have always wondered, whiles listening to them on the airwaves of Peace FM, why patriotic, one-nation media professionals - like the Kweku Baakos, the Kwesi Pratts and the Kwame Sefa Kayes - don't come together as a syndicate, to use the Despite Group's electronic media platforms, to organise a series of live presidential debates in all the 10 regional capitals, one after the other, so that topics sent to moderators by ordinary people in all the 10 regions of Ghana, are debated by all the presidential candidates, and aired live, nationally.

Would that not be a more meaningful contribution to the deepening of Ghanaian democracy, than the IEA's elitist and discriminatory presidential debates, I ask? And, best of all, would it not be equally beneficial to all Ghana's political parties, too, during the campaign periods leading up to presidential elections? Food for thought.

PRESIDENT MAHAMA'S COMMITMENT TO THE FIGHT AGAINST HIGH-LEVEL CORRUPTION AND IMPUNITY IN GHANA

That President Mahama is a good and decent gentleman is beyond doubt. He has also shown that he has the courage to fight high-level corruption, when it is brought to his attention. Seldom in our nation's history have there been such  numbers of high-profile prosecutions of high-ranking public officials alleged to have engaged in acts of corruption.

The Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), and National Service Scheme (NSS) prosecutions come readily to mind.

The question the president and his advisors ought to ponder over is: Why is there such widespread concern that we are losing the fight against corruption in Ghana - when some practical action is being taken to fight it? Sadly, in a sense, President Mahama is his own worst enemy, when it comes to the issue of the public's perception of his willingness to fight  high-level corruption and end impunity in Ghana.

He seems to lack the moral courage to rid himself of those around him who engage in unethical conduct. Why, for example, is the brutish Stan Dogbe still at post - after physically attacking a journalist?

Is he above the law - or does he perhaps possess information that could bring the president down if it is revealed publicly: as some cynics and conspiracy theorists unfairly suggest (according to bush-telegraph sources)?

President Mahama's attitude, when his blood relations and those in his inner circle of friends mess up, always ought to be that they must not expect him to put his position at risk, by rescuing them from their own foolishness.

His family and friends have a moral obligation not to embarrass him by getting themselves into trouble of any kind. Ever. That is why he must get rid of the despicable Stan Dogbe now. From his own conduct Dogbe has shown clearly that he is simply not fit to work in the presidency. We all await the denouement of the Stan Dogbe saga-of-impunity.

Furthermore, President Mahama must ensure that his brother, Ibrahim Mahama, answers all the questions raised by the Hon. Kennedy Adjapong, and the rest of the minority caucus in Parliament. Did Ibrahim Mahama receive a payment of US$20 million from the Accra Metropolitan Authority (AMA) for dredging the Odaw River - or did he not?

In fairness to him, it must be said that this being Ghana, many of those who criticise Ibrahim Mahama, probably do so because they are envious of his business acumen, and the enormous wealth he has accumulated over the years.

The ministry of local government and rural development, must give the good people of Ghana a detailed breakdown, of the total amount spent on fuel by the government for the use of the trucks, excavators and other heavy equipment, which Engineers and Planners  used to dredge the Odaw River.

It would also help the public to appreciate his public-spirited gesture better, if Ibrahim Mahama told the world the exact amount, which Engineers and Planners spent paying its employees to undertake that particular task.

And when exactly did Engineers and Planners take delivery of the ministry of local government and rural development's excavators, trucks etc., etc.?

Did the company also resort to using state-owned equipment in executing road construction projects at Tafo and Klago, as alledged by the Hon. Kennedy Adjapong and his New Patriotic Party colleagues in Parliament? Hopefully there was no question of the state paying for the fuel used for powering the equipment in either of those two road projects.

One hopes that the president and his advisors will realise the significance of the public being given precise dates of exactly when the ministry of local government and rural development's heavy equipment and trucks were handed over to Engineers and Planners to work with - and why the President must ensure that that is done immediately. It will give clarity on the issue of where the equipment used by Engineers and Planners for the Tafo and Klago road construction projects actually came from.

 WHY DOES ANAS AMEREYAW NOT POST HIS TIGER EYE VIDEO CLIPS ON FACEBOOK AND YOUTUBE - AND STRIKE A BLOW FOR FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN GHANA?

Such is the gravity of the crime of accepting bribes to pervert the course of justice that those guilty of it deserve no sympathy when caught. That is why it is so hard not to be contemptous of dishonest individuals in the justice delivery system, who when caught in the act, fight to prevent the world from viewing evidence that reveal acts of alledged corruption that they have been involved in, by manipulating the law - in the hope that they will be saved from punishment by legal technicalities.

This is the 21st century information age. Do such individuals not understand that in an era dominated by social media, in the long run,  adopting such a stonewalling strategy, is an exercise in futility? We must not allow those with such antediluvian mindsets to turn back the clock of progress - as Ghanaians seek to create an open, just and liberal society for themselves.

For the common good, why does Anas Amereyaw's Tiger Eye not simply post the results of its latest investigation, which exposes alleged corruption in the justice delivery system, on Facebook and YouTube -  and strike a blow for freedom of expression in Ghana: against those plutocrats in the system who (as a face-saving tactic) seek to use the law courts to censor free speech in Ghana?

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IS INDEED A THREAT TO PEACE AND STABILITY IN GHJANA

Finally, it is a good thing that the Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, who is one of the leading political figures of his generation, now recognises that youth unemployment poses a long-term threat to peace and stability in Ghana. Having come to that conclusion, he ought to carefully study the  European Union's (EU) carbon offset initiative - that it is collaborating with the Forestry Service of the Forestry Commission to implement - to empower rural communities to establish agro-forestry plantations, and recieve payments for same bi-annually.

The vast swathes of land degraded by illegal gold miners across rural Ghana could be restored through such low carbon development initiatives. Cooperative societies of unemployed youth could benefit financially from such green-economy initiatives. Is that not  a creative way to curb youth unemployment at a time of global climate change, one wonders?

The question is: Will those who now lead our nation see the enormous benefit of such green initiatives for the younger generation? With the citizenry now determined to force Ghana's leaders to produce policies that help to improve the quality of life for ordinary people - instead of having to put up with being fed with never-ending sugar-coated propaganda - those who say that these indeed are interesting times in Ghana, are definitely right to say so: This is a time when ordinary people expect positive action from politicians, not mere platitudes.

A Few Home Truths The Leaders Of Today's Nkrumahist Parties Must Pay Heed To

When Nkrumah's followers united and rallied around Dr. Hilla Limman he won the presidential election of 1979.

If today's followers of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah do the same thing too, and unite under the banner of their mother party, the Convention People's Party (CPP), they could win the 2016 presidential election - if Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is selected to be the candidate for the presidency for a reunited CPP: with Samia Yaaba Nkrumah as his running mate.

It is the view of many ordinary people that with Ghana's largest opposition party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in such disarray - riven by an ancient (and pointless) tribal rivalry between its leading lights who hail from Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern Region, and those who hail from the Ashanti Region - a re-united CPP could offer voters a credible alternative, worth being voted into power to govern the country, in the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The vast majority of Ghanaians are totally fed up with the leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and that of the NPP - because of their refusal to put the well-being of Mother Ghana and the promotion of the welfare of ordinary Ghanaians, above party advantage and self-interest. The brutish and Machiavellian Stan Dogbes; the cunning, greedy and selfish Victoria Hammahs, James Afenyo Markins and Freddie Blays come readily to mind.

In light of all the above, the time has now come to tell the leading figures amongst today's Nkrumahist politicians, a few home truths.

HOME TRUTH NUMBER 1:

The only presidential candidate of a united CPP, capable of  winning the 2016 presidential election as that party's candidate, is Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. He dwarfs both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo in terms of creating wealth and jobs. And he will make a far better president for Ghana than both of them. However, if he stands for the 2016 presidential election as the candidate of the party he founded, the Progressive People's Party (PPP),  he has absolutely no chance of winning that election.

HOME TRUITH NUMBER 2:

In the same vein, Samia Yaabah Nkrumah can never win the 2016 presidential election, as the candidate of a stand-alone CPP. Her route to the presidency lies in first serving as Nduom's running mate for the 2016 election. Her four-year tenure as Ghana's vice president, under a President Nduom, will prepare and propel her to the presidency in 2020.

HOME TRUTH NUMBER 3:

As far as most Ghanaians are concerned, as stand-alone political  parties, the CPP, the People's National Convention (PNC), the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), and the Progressive People's Party (PPP), are all seen as minor parties not worth casting votes for.

It is a clear message that today's leading Nkrumahist politicians ignore at their peril politically. To be taken seriously by voters, they have no alternative but to reverse their respective parties into the CPP - and do so in time to mount an effective  campaign for the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

 HOME TRUTH NUMBER 4:

Clearly, Ghana needs a change of direction - and must be prised out of the clutches of the NDC/NPP duopoly: the opaque vessels through which vested interests are ruthlessly draining Ghana of its lifeblood.

That is a task that Nkrumahists are well-suited for - which is why a united Nkrumahist front to repeat President Limman's feat in winning the 1979 presidential election in 2016 is a must and so vital. The question is: will the leaders of the separate Nkrumahist parties pay heed to the four hometruths above? They ought to - for Mother Ghana's sake. And for the sake of Ghana's younger generation.

When Will The Transfer Of Ghana's Natural Capital To A Powerful Few End?

During a 2003 meeting in the  UK, attended by the Eton-educated ex-SAS officer, and mercenary, Simon Mann, and the Nigerian-born Lebanese businessman, Ely Calil, at which the overthrow of Equatorial Guinea's President Theodoro Obiang was discussed, Ely Calil was said to have remarked: "Now there's a place I would like to be king for a day."

Now that is a phrase pregnant with meaning: As Equatorial Guinea's king-for-a-day, Ely Calil would probably have spent the day signing oil agreement after oil agreement, favouring companies fronting for him, which gave ownership of that oil-rich nation's oil deposits to Calil and his associates.

Perhaps Ely Calil should head for Ghana instead - for it is a welcoming place where he will not need to spend vast sums to effect regime-change by invading mercenaries, to enable him grab a valuable share of Ghana's untold wealth.

He can simply buy greedy and selfish politicians, who will happily collude with him to shortchange Ghana, by signing some of the world's worst agreements, to favour him, for small change: just a few million dollars.

With greedy and cunning politicians like the James Afenyo Markins, the Freddie Blays, and their ilk, around, there will be no dearth of politicians happy to accommodate Calil - and with their help he will soon become the wealthiest Nigerian-born Lebanese tycoon in the world: and swiftly rise to the top of the list of the world's 50 most swashbuckling billionaires.

The crimes of our political class are many and egregious. Where else in the world but Ghana, would politicians ignore national laws giving a monopoly on the development and operation of ports, to a Ports and Harbours Authority - that has already borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to extend and enlarge the nation's ports - and instead give a foreign company with no money of its own, and with a chequered past like Calil's late friend Tiny Rowland's rump Lohnro, the go-ahead to build a freeport to service Ghana's oil and gas industry, as a monopoly? Pure madness.

The Ghanaian countryside is crawling with Chinese nationals engaged in small-scale gold mining - a sector reserved for Ghanaians only. Yet, behind them are said to be  powerful and politically well-connected Ghanaians.

In the meantime, rivers and soils in vast swathes of Ghana's landmass, as well as its ground water table, are being poisoned with heavy metals and toxic chemicals such as cyanide and mercury with impunity. Why are those small-scale Chinese gold miners not being forced to pay for the clean-up of the environmental pollution they are responsible for - which will affect the quality of life of present and future generations of our people? Do they not pay reclamation bonds upfront as required?

And do our leaders not realise that the impunity with which the wealthy criminal syndicates behind illegal logging in Ghana operate (especially those behind the illegal logging that goes on unabated in the Akyem Juaso section of the Atewa range upland evergreen rainforest) has so emboldened them, that they are now putting the Densu Basin at serious risk?

Where will Accra and other urban areas dependant on the Densu River for their drinking water supply, get water from, if the Densu's watershed is eventually destroyed?

Do National Security officials not recognise the threat posed to the Densu Basin by the wealthy criminals who sponsor chainsaw gangs to engage in illegal logging at Akyem Juaso  - and its security implications?

Why should a few super-rich crooks be allowed to grow even wealthier by destroying an upland evergreen rainforest providing ecosystem services vital for ensuring the well-being and quality of life of millions of Ghanaians?

When will that abomination be halted, I ask? There is only one route out of the rainforest at Akyem Juaso for the illegal chainsaw gangs to evacuate their bush-cut lumber: the road off the Accra-Kumasi highway, which begins from Akyem Juaso through Saamang and ends at Osino junction to join the Accra-Kumasi highway.  So why don't the security agencies place surveillance cameras along it? And if they also know that the illegal logging is centred in the areas bordering forestry reserve pillars 92, 93, 95, 96, 97 and 98, known locally as "Thompson" and "Francois" why don't they focus on that section of the Atewa range?

As the Anas Amereyaws work hard to hasten the end of the days of impunity in Ghana, the question our educated urban ruling elites must answer is: When will their transfer of Ghana's natural capital to a powerful few end?  There will doubtless be consequences for them one day. They had better beware - for the ordinary people of Ghana cannot be fooled forever. And neither will they remain forever patient. That is why the transfer of Ghana's natural capital to a powerful and greedy few must end.