IS GHANA SERIOUS ABOUT COMBATING GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE?

An illegal surface gold mining operation being carried out without a valid Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permit, in the Akim Abuakwa Juaso section of the foothills of the Atiwa Range upland evergreen rain forest, encapsulates perfectly, the complete impunity with which powerful and politically well-connected individuals in Ghana, are destroying Ghana’s natural heritage, in defiance of hapless officialdom. Global climate change is impoverishing billions across the developing world – and those at the sharp end in rural Ghana are already seeing its negative effects on their lives. It is thus hard to fathom why those behind the illegal surface gold mining operation being carried out in Akim Abuakwa Juaso, Sola Mining, which was halted by officials of the mining department of the EPA (who travelled all the way to the area from Accra, solely for that purpose not too long ago), never actually ever ceased their illegal activities, although their activities have been brought to the notice of all the relevant authorities (including even government ministers). Incidentally, dear reader, no doubt the gold that is mined illegally in the area will contribute to Ghana's GDP - and clueless politicians will harp on endlessly about our country's impressive GDP growth rate figures (without ever examining what actually constitutes that growth): when the reality on the ground is that the illegal surface gold mining is only worsening the quality of life of the inhabitants of the area. Since the illegal gold miners have also bought a vast swathe of farmland from the area's cocoa farmers, the real cost to society of the perfidy of the illegal surface gold miners, is that those farmers will be impoverished yet further - when the paltry sums they sold their cocoa farms for, and which they obviously think are such huge fortunes, finally run out.


Kibi Goldfields, which is said to be insolvent at the moment (and was also once rumoured – although one cannot obviously verify that because of banks’ commitment to client confidentiality – to be involved in a scandal at the Gulf House branch of the ADB, if my failing memory serves me right, i.e.: in which vast sums were said to have been transferred to Malaysia years ago, under questionable circumstances, for more or less obsolete equipment), does have a concession in the area. When I met with some of the wealthy and influential people behind Sola Mining's illegal operation, they mentioned Kibi Goldfields as their associates – giving one the impression that they were working together with Kibi Goldfields, somehow: thus lending their illegal operation an air of respectability, as it were. The question is: If such an operation can be carried out with impunity in such an important and internationally-recognised biodiversity hotspot (surveyed incidentally by Conservation International some years ago, in a “rapid assessment” of the area’s unique fauna and flora), precisely what will those officials from Ghana, who will attend the December 2009 Copenhagen global climate change conference, tell their colleagues from the developed world who provide them with funds (in the hope that their work will protect grassroots people in rural Ghana from the worst effects of global climate change), when they question them about the current state of the Atiwa Range uplands evergreen rain forest?


In view of the apathy of much of officialdom (where issues to do with the natural environment are concerned), perhaps it might very well make sense for governments in the developed world that plan to provide money for African nations to fight global climate change, to give those funds to non-governmental organizations engaged in conservation work in nations such as Ghana. The EPA did not hesitate to act when they were informed about the destruction going on in Akim Abuakwa Juaso – however, such is the inertia of the bureaucracy of the Forestry Service of the Forestry Commission of Ghana, that they have not been able to do anything to halt the rampant illegal logging and illegal surface gold mining in the area. Since the road to the open pits of the surface gold miners passes right in front of the Akim Abuakwa Juaso Chief’s palace, one can safely assume that the traditional authorities of Akim Abuakwa at Ofori Panin Fie too, are aware of what is going on. It would be interesting to be a fly on the walls of Clarence House, if during a visit there by the present Okyenhene and some of his elders, they were to be asked by Britain’s Prince Charles, exactly why what amounts to a crime against humanity is going on in the area, when the Okyenhene has a reputation for championing the cause of environmental protection in Kwaebibirm? The catastrophe in a rain forest which contains the headwaters of the three major river systems on which much of urban Ghana depends for its drinking water supply, must not be allowed to continue, at a time of global climate change. One hopes that the politicians who head the ministries that are supposed to lead Ghana’s fight against global climate change, will consult committed and dedicated NGO’s involved in conservation work in our nation, such as: Rain Forest Alliance – Ghana; Conservation International - Ghana; the World Wildlife Fund for Nature - Ghana; from time to time: and not rely only on the public sector organizations (that so clearly are not sufficiently motivated to do much in that regard) tasked to help our country combat the worst effects of global climate change. A word to the wise...


Telephone (powered by Tigo – the mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartfone: + 233 (0)21 976238.

AN OPEN LETTER TO MR. KWESI PRATT!

Massa, I shall go straight to the point – you must consider standing for the position of presidential candidate for the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) when the time comes to elect one in 2012. It is obvious that the ordinary people of our country do not want the bourgeois-types who have regarded the party of Nkrumah, much as they see takeover targets in the business world they excel in, to lead the party that is supposed to be the vanguard of the Ghanaian masses – which is why the CPP has failed so abysmally in all the elections in the 4th Republic. You must put aside your sense of modesty – and come to the rescue of our country, at a time when it needs a true Nkrumaist to be at the helm of affairs in Ghana: to ensure that our oil and natural gas deposits do not also end up enriching the shareholders of foreign companies, just as our gold deposits have, over the years. The power of the Ghanaian nation-state must be used to improve the living standards of all Ghanaian – not just a privileged and politically well-connected few and their foreign collaborators, as has been the case in the immediate past.

It is unfortunate that you seem so reluctant to consider this suggestion. The question is: If you love Mother Ghana, how can you possibly refuse standing for the presidency, when she is being so brutally gang-raped by our political elite? Do you not see that it is important, if every one in our society is to benefit from the growth of our national economy, that the crony-capitalism that is cloaked with the innocuous-sounding phrase “private-sector led development” is exposed for what it truly is: a license for our ruling elites to rip our nation off, legally? Did you not hear of the outrageous case of insider-dealing that enabled the son of a sitting president, using a special purpose vehicle to obtain a contract to supply a state-owned entity with electricity meters, to make the staggering profit of over US$ 2 millions? In the internet age, could the officials of the Energy Commission (and other state organizations needing products from overseas, incidentally) not simply have gone online, to find the best value-for-money source for the supply of electricity meters, directly from the manufacturers of such products – and saved the over two million dollars that went into the pockets of a pair of politically well-connected individuals: that could have been used to refurbish some of the many schools and hospitals that cry out for help, in the endless news reports of that nature, from across the country, which we see regularly on our television screens?

Today, when even the leading capitalist nations are stepping out of the shadow of conventional economic thinking, in order to secure their national economies, and are using taxpayers’ money to rescue private entities by partially-nationalizing them (so as to save jobs and ensure the long-term survival of those entities), surely, our nation would be better off being led by someone such as yourself – who understands clearly why a poor developing nation with aspirations, cannot, for example, afford not to provide free education, up to tertiary level, for all those who have the aptitude to study to that level, but whose families cannot afford to pay for their education? Would our country not be better of being led by someone who understands that any democracy, in which there are glaring disparities of wealth, and in which there is a growing underclass (consisting of an ever-burgeoning army of disaffected youth), who have no hope of ever escaping from the poverty trap they are caught in, cannot possibly endure for long? Massa, you are the perfect candidate for the presidency of Ghana, for the CPP – and I humbly appeal to you to seriously consider devoting your energies to the task of becoming Ghana’s next Nkrumaist leader, when President Mills comes to the end of his tenure. Clearly, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has no intention of ever stepping out of the shadow of conventional economic thinking – which is why at a time when China is happy, and able to, fund our development plans (up to even some US$20 billions), in exchange for our sovereign bonds, they are rushing to embrace the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Massa, who in Ghana does not know that you abhor corruption – which is why you have consistently said that elected politicians, and their spouses, should publicly publish their assets: both before and after their tenure? Are you not also one of the few figures in this country who has enough self-belief not to be mesmerized by the much-compromised hero of June 4th 1979 – who gets away with so much because he is a half-caste in a nation full of moral cowards with a slave-mentality: who think that somehow he is a superior being on account of his lighter hue, and put up with his pure nonsense on bamboo stilts? Massa, you must put aside your sense of modesty and start seriously considering working towards the goal of becoming the next Nkrumaist leader of our country. Ghana must transformed into Africa's equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia - and only a leader who thinks like you do, can make that happen – which is why Posterity will never forgive you if you continue to refuse to consider the idea. A word to the wise...

Telephone (powered by Tigo – the mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): +233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartphone number: + 233 (0) 21 976238

WHERE EXACTLY IS THE INQUIRER'S INTERVIEW WITH NANA OHENE-NTOW?

I refer to the story posted on the general news web-page of www.ghanaweb.com, on Thursday, 20 August 2009, entitled: “Ohene Ntow Too Loots Bungalow”, which appeared in The Enquirer newspaper of the same date. Perhaps in addition to being old and senile, I am also blind as a bat - but where exactly in the story was Nana Ntow interviewed: and if he wasn't, why was he not interviewed: if The Enquirer sought to give its readers a balanced story, instead of a one-sided one, i.e.?

Perhaps the question a more responsible journalist might have asked himself, in trying to write a more balanced story, would have been: “Could it be, perhaps, that squatters moved in after his departure from the property - and turned it into a pig's luxury mansion, I wonder?” and then proceeded to try and contact the hapless victim of his most unprofessional conduct. Clearly, we shall never know whether that was the case or not - as the lazy reporter who wrote the story did not act professionally in this instance: and has damaged the poor man’s reputation, beyond repair: if the conclusions he drew, in the absence of conducting an interview with Nana Ohene-Ntow to ascertain the truth, did no actually match the true facts on the ground (in a manner of speaking – and no pun intended, incidentally).

Perhaps the reporter will take the advice of an old buffoon (who has no formal education, incidentally), and opt for a different profession, as he has clearly not mastered even the basic tool of his profession - language: in this instance the English language, which this unprofessional hack has crucified so. As for the ever-erudite Nana Ohene-Ntow, it does appear that he and the crowd he belongs to, simply came to improve their own personal net worth (as we are now discovering, to our collective cost): not to improve the quality of life of ordinary people - which is why the powerful crooks who dominated his confounded party, succeeded so brilliantly, in turning our democracy into a kleptocracy: and ended up introducing a dog-eat-dog selfishness culture into the nation of diverse-ethnicity, with a caring-and-sharing culture, which the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah founded.

Having rooked our country silly - the cabal of amoral and Akan tribal-supremacist rogues in the presidency during our erstwhile Hypocrite-in-Chief, President Kufuor’s tenure (who unfortunately dominated the New Patriotic Party throughout their eight years in power), then proceeded to divide our country with their ruthless and infernal Kokofu-football politricks. Alas, their many golden chickens are now coming home to roost, one by one - and no matter how violently those blinkered "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types (who were too blind to see what was wrong in our nation then, and way too thick to think for themselves today: and whose blind support ended up destroying Nana Ntow's party so) protest, nothing can stop the crooks amongst them from eventually ending up in jail – for their many crimes against ordinary Ghanaians: and willfully causing so much financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state. Hmmm, Ghana - eyeasemm oo: asem ebaba debi ankasa!

Telephone (powered by Tigo - the mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0)27 745 3109 & and the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartphone number: + 233 (0)21 976238.

IS THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY BEING HYPOCRITICAL?

Whiles we must all condemn any attempt to abuse the human rights of those members of the previous regime, who are being investigated by the security agencies, one must also upbraid the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for its selective amnesia – and the hypocrisy of some of its leading figures. Surely, it is untenable that politicians who once ruled our country, can resort to manipulating brutish myrmidon-types: and get them to invade the grounds of our law courts and the premises of the Bureau for National Investigations (BNI) – simply to stoke up tension in the country, for purely parochial ends? Perhaps one ought to point it out to the honest ones amongst the NPP, that as a result of the actions of the powerful rogues amongst them, who abused their positions and engaged in acts of corruption on a scale seldom seen in our nation’s history, their party will always be remembered by posterity for being so incredibly successful in turning the nation Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah built (whose citizens’ pre-colonial traditional societies were underpinned by a caring-and-sharing ethos), into a nation full of callous self-seekers and moral cowards – tearing at each other in order to get up the greasy pole of success, Ghanaian-style. That is what has created today's dreadful dog-eat-dog selfishness culture in our country.

As they busy themselves with endless press conferences to defend the indefensible, perhaps they must be reminded that their party’s crony-capitalism economic model, was in fact a carbon-copy of early 19th century American robber-baron capitalism – which they cloaked with respectability by giving it the slick marketing catch-phrase: “A golden age of business.” Do they not realize that it caused a great deal of misery nationwide – misery that has worsened now that the effects of their borrowing-binge are manifesting itself in the real world? Needless to say, it was mainly the politically well-connected oligarchs of the Kufuor-era, who prospered most, as a result of their mutually beneficial set of relationships with the powerful crooks who dominated the NPP regime, during its tenure. What then is the point, one wonders, in their insisting on tarnishing their party’s image – by blindly supporting those of their colleagues who are now facing the music: and whose corrupt ways turned Ghanaians against their party?

Surely, the honest NPP members must think of the long-term well-being of their party, rather than give succour to those whose perfidy lost them the trust of the good people of Ghana – thus giving independent-minded and decent people the impression that they are a cynical lot? There is something particularly unsavoury about a political party burying its head in the sand – and pretending that roguish colleagues are being persecuted: when in actual fact, all that is happening, is that they are being called to account? If they are not aware of it yet, they must understand that it is obvious to most ordinary Ghanaians that the loud-mouthed Mr. Asamoah-Boateng and his abrasive wife were leaving our shores, with the intention of seeking political asylum in the UK – because they knew that the chickens would soon be coming home to roost. Why then is the NPP calling press conferences to defend people of their ilk – and creating tension for such outrageous reasons? Does that not amount to hypocrisy on the part of people who really ought to know better – precisely because they have held power before, dear reader?

Telephone (powered by Tigo - the mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot Vodafone wireless smartphone number: + 233 (0) 21 976238.

No One Can Stop Kofi Thompson From Commenting On Ghanaian Politics!

I made a grave error of judgment when I elected to publish a book in Ghana – rather than do so abroad. 

Somehow, those in the Ghanaian political world who wish me ill, got wind of it – and quickly swung into action to cripple my efforts in that direction: using their extensive networks, built up through their munificence whiles in power. 

The upshot of their recent actions is that my personal computer has been sabotaged – because I had to send it to be repaired for me.

Consequently, I have lost all the digital content stored on my computer. Perhaps, those well-heeled morons thought that that would stop me publishing my book. 

However, nothing on this earth can stop me publishing any of the books I am currently writing – and neither can the subtle pressure they are exerting on me by remote control through other parties on several fronts (trying to make my life a misery), stop me from continuing to comment on Ghana’s politics and expressing my opinions about our shortsighted and mostly-dishonest political elite: many of whom are fervent adherents of the “Cult-of-the-mediocre.”

At the height of the acrimonious campaign for the run-off of the December 2008 presidential elections, some of our previous rulers (who were active participants in the brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana during their era in power) used their hirelings in the defunct Ghana Telecom (GT) to disrupt, and eventually deny me, my broadband internet access from McCarthy Hill. 

Although they have used their long reach yet again to touch my life negatively, they reckon without my tenacity of purpose: and the nerves of steel my maker blessed me with.

The loss of my personal computer and non-availability of broadband internet access of my own is only temporary. For their information, I shall find a way around those particular mountains of adversity eventually – just as I have overcome countless other obstacles throughout my life, thus far. 

In any case, if the worst comes to the worst, and I even have to leave the shores of Ghana to enable me continue writing books and posting articles about Ghanaian politics and politicians online, on my internet web-blogs, I shall do so.

Writing is my life – and no one can stop me from doing my life’s work. I am a Leo and a really stubborn smallish-big-cat. 

Were I to lose the human equivalent of a cat’s nine lives, and lose a total of nine lifetimes’ work stored digitally (on the requisite number of computers to hold them), I shall create new work to replace them: for, I am an original thinker: not a follower of fads and a panderer to crowds of “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, in my writing.

Let those ace-liars who tricked their way to power in December 2000, and used it as legal cover to exploit our national economy for their personal benefit, as well as that of their family clans, and their cronies, not think for a moment that Kofi Thompson can be prevented from expressing his opinion about their appalling stewardship.

Did they not think that they could milk our country dry till kingdom come – and get away with it successfully?

Do they think that some of us have forgotten their criminal activities at the time they were trying to steal the December 2008 presidential election – in hope that their party could remain in power that way, through their chicanery: and enable them to continue hiding their many corrupt multi-zillion cedi deals?

Do we not all now know that their combined net worth and that of the members of their family clans, as well as their cronies, constitute a significant chunk of Ghana’s GDP – even as they insist on those obscene ex-gratia payments being paid to them despite our country’s precarious economic situation?

When they were in power, and though they were invincible, they were so contemptuous of those of us who told them not to forget that wise old Ghanaian saying, “No condition is permanent.”

They tried hard to shut us up through many subtle ways because we were criticizing them for being so greedy and corrupt. They will face the music for their corrupt ways in due course, for sure. 

One hopes that they have taken note of the fact that those crooks in the regime of President Rawlings who took bribes from the British firm, Mabey & Johnson all those years ago, have only recently been exposed – when they least expected it: and thought they had gotten away with their criminal activities, whiles in power.

Years hence, the crooks in the previous regime too, will wake up one day to find their dirty little secret with Vodafone being exposed, when they least expect it – just as the crooked Kenyan politicians whom Vodafone bribed when it was taking over Kenya Telecom, were also exposed when they thought they had gotten away with their crime against Kenyans and the Kenyan nation-state.

Let them remember that long before typewriters and personal computers were invented, throughout the centuries, writers have created, shaped, and shared their thoughts with the rest of the world, by putting pen to paper. As they can see, I have bounced right back using pen and paper, not my personal computer, to write this little "love-ditty" to them. 

I can do without a personal computer for now, until I eventually get myself another one to replace the one that was destroyed through their agency – and when that ever develops a glitch, I shall be super-careful just whom I send it to, to be repaired for me: now that I know just how far they are prepared to go, to stop me writing about their reprehensible activities. 

Let all of them, from the Hypocrite-in-Chief himself (who turned the seat of government at the Osu Castle into the white-collar criminal command-centre of Ghana – where kickbacks from sundry contractors awarded government contracts were received by those who were supposed to lead the fight against corruption, but who rather chose to ruthlessly fleece our country that way, instead), to the lowest of those mini-rogues he appointed into office to enable him and his favourites impoverish ordinary Ghanaians yet further by “chopping our country small, well-well” (as the Nigerians say in their local parlance), know that I despise all of them – and that they can never stop Kofi Thompson from writing to criticize their shameful legacy, ever.

They would be wise to concentrate their energies instead, on preparing their minds for the long jail sentences that await them for willfully causing financial loss to the Ghanaian nation-state.

After all, am I not one of those simple souls that philistines like them are so contemptuous of – because we do not believe that the end justifies the means: and believe instead that a good name is better than tainted wealth, and will thus not sell our consciences and become praise-singers for crooked politicians? 

Nothing can ever stop Kofi Thompson from expressing his opinions about our largely-incompetent and dishonest political class – and it is time the crooks amongst them got that bald fact into the considerable amount of cotton wool between their ears. 

PRESIDENT MILLS MUST ENSURE THAT THE DISABLED SPORTS SCANDAL IS THOROUGHLY PROBED!

There is a phrase in local parlance that shocked me to the core, when its meaning was first explained to me: “No mercy for the cripple.” That cruel and mean phrase, with its dismissive and callous attitude towards the physically and mentally-challenged in society, reveals a ruthlessness in the character of those for whom its take-no-prisoners and the-end-justifies-the-means ethos, serves as a personal guide in life. It is no wonder that this has become a country in which people can look one straight in the eye and yet still lie through their teeth to one – a character trait that cost me dear when I first returned from a long sojourn abroad. Life in Nkrumah’s Ghana of the early sixties, was very different from today’s nation in which homes are protected by high “fence-walls” topped with electrified barbed wire, in a country in which daily life is akin to a game of Russian roulette – not knowing if a particular night might be the one during which one would have one’s personal experience of an encounter with a drug-crazed and gun-wielding youth: on a deadly mission to find money to provide him with the means to feed a drug habit. Most people did not lock the front door of their homes then – and when someone gave one their word, they meant it: and kept it.


Those were the halcyon days of my youth – when Ghanaians cared about their family name and integrity was what gained one the respect of one’s family and the rest of society: not wealth acquired through corruption and other dubious means. It is because I come from that generation of Ghanaians that I have been particularly appalled and horrified by the latest scandal to hit the sports ministry – in which an official used a disabled sports meeting in far away Australia, as a cover for visa racketeering. According to the umbrella association for people with disability, disability sports events overseas have apparently been used by corrupt sports council officials and their accomplices in crime for decades. It is a blessing that this latest scandal has occurred at a time when we have a serving president, who quite apart from his own personal health challenges, also happens to be a sincere and compassionate human being (unlike most of the members of our cynical political class). Apart from asking that he be personally kept informed about the progress of the investigation and prosecution of all those involved in this particular scandal, the president must widen the scope of the probe into the affairs of the sports ministry to include this avenue for the enrichment of the criminal syndicates that are behind human trafficking and visa racketeering in Ghana. One hopes that the president’s personal interest in the matter, will eventually lead to measures being taken to prevent such a scandal from ever occuring again. This being Ghana, if the president does not ask to be personally kept informed of the progress of the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the Australian disabled sports meeting visa fraud, the powerful criminal syndicates that profit from such illegal activities will ensure that it gets absolutely nowhere – so as protect an obviously lucrative source of income for the syndicates’ members. A word to the wise…


Telephone: (powered by Tigo – the mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!) + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot Vodafone wireless smart-phone landline number: + 233 (0) 21 976238.

WILL THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY SHED ITS AKAN TRIBAL-SUPREMACIST UNDERPINNINGS?

Any modern-day political grouping in Africa, which shares the philosophy of the colonial-era quislings (those well-educated, narrow-minded, and tribalistic Africans, from that dark period in our history – who actively cooperated with the colonial powers, and were on the payroll of Western intelligence agencies: because it served their parochial interests), has no future in the new and dynamic Africa, which is bound to emerge in the coming decades – when the next generation of 21^st century educated Africans take over the running of the nation-states in the continent: and usher in the long-awaited African Renaissance. 

Today’s Ghanaian equivalent of such a reactionary political grouping is the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Its very clever propagandists have largely succeeded in masking the true nature, of the one individual amongst that retrograde political tradition’s early leaders, Dr. J. B. Danquah – whose Akan tribal-supremacist triumphalism, most typifies the political culture of much of the current leadership of that political tradition. 

However, such negative thinking is clearly out of tune with present-day realities on the ground in Nkrumah’s Ghana – a modern and politically stable African nation-state, with an ethnically-diverse but united population that shares a common destiny, and in which there are virtually no extended family clans that do not contain family members, who hail from at least four different tribal groupings: and are related either through marriage or by blood-ties.

Unfortunately, if the NPP insists on continuing to remain the same kind of hidebound Akan-dominated political party, which it has been for the last eight years, that selfsame baggage from the past (like all the negative things that often end up landing politicians on the wrong side of history), will eventually doom the latest incarnation of the right-of centre Ghanaian political grouping, which draws its inspiration from that archetypal colonial African quisling (Dr. J.B. Danquah). 

Although most political commentators are reluctant to discuss it openly, the Akan tribal-supremacist ethos that essentially underpins the NPP, makes it a non-viable political party in the long-term – in a nation that has a majority of its citizenry made up of a new post-independence generation (most of them born after the overthrow of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in 1966), many of whom are lifelong urban dwellers: who even seldom know the villages their parents hail from. 

For such Ghanaians, tribe means absolutely nothing, in their choice of companions – and does not feature in their world-view, either. Since the NPP lost the presidential election last year, there has been a determined (but failed) effort by a faction of the NPP, to get their party to retain Nana Akufo-Addo as the party’s candidate for the December 2012 presidential election. 

Yet, when it suited them, those selfsame individuals (who had their Eureka-moment after the event, and have now conveniently discovered the benefit of retaining a well-known figure as their presidential candidate), did not hesitate in insisting that their party’s so-called democratic culture (another of the inventions of its imaginative propagandists), demanded that they elect a candidate for the December 2008 presidential election, rather than proclaim one by consensus.

Readers will recall that that was more or less their standard refrain, at that point in time, when there was talk in certain circles of retaining the then serving vice president, Alhaji Alihu Mahama – and letting him succeed President Kufuor as a consensus presidential candidate to unify the party. 

In the event, as many as seventeen hopefuls lined up to follow in their hypocritical, greedy, and philandering leader’s footsteps – hoping to imitate him, were they to be successful and win the election to become Ghana’s next president: and turn their family clans too, into Ghana’s equivalent, of America’s early twentieth century Rockefeller family. 

As we all know, our ex-Hypocrite-in-Chief’s family did eventually metamorphose into just such a family clan – with one influence-peddling lucrative deal after the other, sending their combined net worth into the stratosphere, by the end of that clever gentleman’s tenure as president. 

For an unbiased outside observer, it is a wonder that the northerners who continue to play second fiddle in the NPP, do not demand a bigger role in their party – as the NPP would never be able to claim to be a national party without their continued support. 

Sadly, it has been thus, from the days of the struggle for independence – when the elitist Dr. Danquah once incredibly dismissed the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) as a party of “veranda boys” with some “Ntafuo” in it. 

The question is, why do they not demand that a competent northerner with nationwide appeal leads their party the next time round – more so when the internecine fight for dominance in their party by the two factions of the traditional Akan tribal-supremacists who have dominated their party since its inception, threatens to tear their party apart?

Why do they not team up with the de-tribalized and honest Akans (who after all are more representative of ordinary Akans – who, as it happens, are amongst the most welcoming of people, on the surface of the planet Earth), as well as the other honest and principled non-Akans in their midst, and battle together on a united front to gain the ascendancy for one of their own, in the fight to choose the party’s presidential candidate for the December 2012 elections? 

(Incidentally, dear reader, a fascinating source that is also an easy read, which sheds light on the true nature of Dr. J. B. Danquah, is the brilliant Dr. Kwame Botwe-Asamoah’s contribution to the book, “Fight Back” (pages 46-66), published by the Socialist Forum of Ghana. It is available at the Freedom Centre: next door from the offices of The Insight newspaper at Kotoko Avenue, in Accra’s Kokomlemle.) 

Surely, at the very least, an NPP presidential candidate of northern extraction for the December 2012 election could be regarded as a suitable consensus candidate, whose choice might help unify that party quickly? 

Do they not realise that that is the surest way of giving their discredited party a new lease of life – and could be the first tentative step for them to take, in ridding their party of the miasma, which the baleful influence (now mercifully waning, but still palpable nonetheless) of the greedy and corrupt Akan tribal-supremacists in their midst, represents? 

The time has now come for the honest and detribalized NPP members to end the dominance of the once all-powerful cabal of Akan tribal-supremacists in the Kufuor presidency – who controlled their party throughout its years in power.

It was the unfathomable greed of that cabal of ace-liars, philanderers supreme, and irritating philistines, which was responsible for most of the many egregious examples of unethical practices and cases of corruption, which bedeviled their party during its period in power – many, alas, now coming to light at long last: much to the astonishment and horror of most independent-minded patriots in Ghana. 

If their party is to have a fighting chance of ever returning to power again, any time soon, they must sideline those whose terrible stewardship alienated most Ghanaians from their party, and lost them the power they won the easy way in December 2000 – largely because most of the good people of Ghana had become so thoroughly fed-up with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime. 

As we all know, the truth of the matter is that by December 2000, most Ghanaians were sick and tired of the high-handed ways of some of the NDC big wigs – especially as there was also the perception, amongst ordinary people throughout the country, that corruption in high places was rampant. 

Amazingly, it was even rumoured at the time, that the hero of June 4^th I979, was apparently being bankrolled by the British company, Biwater – which was said to be funding the education and living expenses of his children overseas. 

The plain truth, which few, in a nation full of fence-sitting moral cowards, are prepared to state publicly (because they fear the fallout from such open candour), is that in the interest of Ghanaian democracy, and the cohesiveness of our nation, it is imperative that the NPP rids itself of the greedy and dishonest Akan tribal-supremacists, whose dishonourable ways lost it the goodwill of ordinary Ghanaians, in the December 2008 elections. It is most unfortunate that those respectable-looking rogues appear to be still holding that party to ransom – even as we speak. 

Will Ghana's Political Elite Learn Lessons From The Horrific Northern Nigerian Islamic Mass Murderers?

The shocking mass murders committed recently by Islamic fanatics known as Boko Haram (the so-called “Nigerian Taliban”) -  who seem to forget, in their sworn aim of removing every trace of Western influence from Nigerian society, that Islam itself, is also a foreign influence in African society - apparently caught officialdom in Nigeria, both at the state and federal levels, completely by surprise.

For the average pan-Africanist, who cares about the fate of major nations in the continent, such as Nigeria, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Kenya, the constant threat posed to their stability by a variety of divisive forces, is a source of great worry.

The tragic and horrific events in which misguided Islamic fanatics unleashed a reign of terror in coordinated attacks on police stations and other public buildings in a number of northern states, during which hundreds of innocent people were murdered for the most incredible and lunatic of reasons, could never have occurred, if the ruling Nigerian elite had ensured that the massive revenues, which they have misappropriated over the years, were applied to improving the quality of life of all Nigeria’s citizens: thus making it less likely that such an evil organisation would be able to find so many vulnerable young people to influence with such catastrophic consequences.

One can only hope that they will now wake up to the danger posed to the long-term future of their great country, by their continued insistence on siphoning billions of dollars from their national treasury – money that ought to be used instead to develop Nigeria into a more equitable society for the benefit of its teeming and impoverished millions.

In the light of the abominations in northern Nigeria, one could not help but be apprehensive, as one listened to the smugness in the tone of Mr. Mahama Ayariga, the presidential spokesperson, as he blithely mentioned, in passing, during a telephone contribution he made (whiles commenting on a number of points the host of the programme sought his clarification on) to a discussion about strengthening the constitutional bodies mandated to fight corruption in Ghana, such as the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), on Joy FM’s “Super Morning Show” programme, which was broadcast on July 28, 2009. 

According to Mr. Ayariga, the Mills administration would not breach the constitutional provisions, which guarantee privacy for ministers who have declared their assets to Ghana’s Auditor General, as required by the constitution. It made one wonder if Ghana’s obdurate political elite, will ever learn any lessons from tragedies that occur elsewhere in Africa, such as the horrific events that have just occurred in northern Nigeria. 

Do privileged people in Ghanaian society, such as Mr. Mahama Ayariga, not understand that beneath the patina of a civilized and peaceful nation lies a seething cauldron of disaffection: a potent and toxic mix of anger and hopelessness that could blow up at any time – if this regime, at the very least, does not show by concrete action that it is serious about fighting corruption? 

Why have they not prosecuted Alhaji Muntaka yet, for example? Do the Mahama Ayarigas not understand that instead of the endless platitudes about transparency and accountability, most discerning Ghanaians simply want all those in government, from the president down to the last district chief executive in the land, and their spouses, to publicly declare their assets?

In their view, that is the best way of confirming, by deeds, not mere words, that the Mills administration is serious about fighting high-level corruption in Ghana – so that the good people of this country will be able to keep an eye on any crooks lurking in this regime: who might now be biding their time to rip our country off, by stealth, as they too await their Alhaji-Muntaka-type opportunity: and eagerly look forward to the day when Ghana’s oil and natural gas revenues start coming on stream. 

The demand that the assets of high government officials and their spouses, ought to be publicly published, is a non-negotiable political fact on the ground, in the Ghana of today – and if the government of President Mills does not make that happen soon, they will find some of us becoming their most implacable of foes: who will wage a determined campaign and fight relentlessly to ensure that they are not returned to office again in 2012 (as we did their corrupt and amoral predecessors in office). 

As the many egregious examples of abuse of office, aimed at the amassing of wealth illegally, by some of the most powerful members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime of ex-President Kufuor, begin to come to light, Mr. Mahama Ayariga, and the other members of the regime of which he is such a prominent member, must understand clearly, that there has been a sea-change in Ghanaian politics – and that Ghanaians will simply not tolerate a repeat of the corruption that went on in the past regime under any circumstances. 

It was that fundamental change in Ghanaian politics that ensured the victory of President Mills in the run-off of the December 2008 presidential elections.

He won that election, largely because the real kingmakers of Ghanaian politics, the independent-minded patriots and Ghanaian nationalists, who put the interests of Nkrumah’s Ghana above that of party affiliation and tribal sentiment, in all matters that concern the well-being of our country, and the welfare of its people, believed that he was the candidate most capable of changing Ghana for the better, despite the mostly-corrupt nature of our political class and the opaque system they superintend and exploit for their own ends: because of his honest and fair nature. 

In a very real sense, the opinions of the fanatical party supporters, whose unflinching support the Mahama Ayarigas and their political opponents can always rely on (and often manipulate for their own parochial ends), do not really matter any more, in the politics of today’s Ghana – as they are equally distributed amongst all the political parties in our country. 

Those zillions of “My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong” myrmidon-types, are simply too blinkered to see what is wrong with our nation, and too thick to think for themselves (when being bamboozled by “book-long-politicos”). 

A quintessential example, are the ethically-challenged and intellectually-challenged pro-New Patriotic Party political-zombies, who call themselves the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) – who seem to have lost sight of the fact that the economic situation of our nation today, is a direct result of the dishonesty and monumental incompetence of their ruling party, especially towards the end of its tenure. 

The leaking roofs of the new presidential palace, after a figure of some US$170 millions had been expended on it, sums up the Kufuor regime perfectly: It was simply a regime dominated by a powerful cabal of hypocritical and greedy world-class incompetents – who simply came to exploit our national economy for their own benefit.

Perhaps it might interest those geniuses in AFAG to know that even oil-rich Angola is having the same problems we are currently experiencing here too. The question is: what alternative solutions do they have to offer that might bring about the paradise they seek for Ghanaians? 

At least the Committee for Joint Action (CJA), which they doubtless model themselves on, invariably offers solutions, whenever it criticizes the government of the day’s policies. But I digress. 

If the Mahama Ayarigas want to continue being successful at election time in this country, going forward, into the future, they must take the views of Ghana’s independent-minded and discerning voters (the so-called “floating voters”), far more seriously, than they currently do. 

The end of their four-year tenure of office, might very well turn out to be the end of the road for their party, as Ghana’s governing political party, if they fail to amend the constitution: so as to make all the relevant public officials who are now required to declare their assets to the Auditor General, henceforth do so publicly: and declare those assets, as well as that of their spouses, openly, for all the good people of Ghana to know the true extent and value of their declared personal net worth, both before and after serving their various tenures of office. 

Let them understand clearly, and without any ambiguities, that that really is a small price to pay to enable their regime restore the credibility of our political class amongst ordinary Ghanaians – a vital prerequisite for the continued survival of Ghanaian democracy: in a nation whose over-pampered political class has, after nearly fifty-two years of independence, still not been able to deliver an equitable and fair society to the good people of Ghana.

Yet, Ghanaians simply yearn for an equitable society in which ordinary people (who are constantly being called upon to make never-ending sacrifices for a better tomorrow for their country: even as politicians insist on obscene ex-gratia payments and overly-generous retirement packages for themselves – and all that, in a nation in which scores of mothers still die during childbirth, because of inadequate health-care facilities nationwide, and in which most homes do not even have potable water regularly, if at all), are able to live happy and fulfilled lives, too: just like their leaders do at hapless taxpayers' expense. 

Surely, that is not asking for too much, is it, dear reader? It is important that the Mahama Ayarigas in our country understand that the growing disparities of wealth in Ghana does indeed pose a real threat to the stability of our nation. 

The burgeoning underclass that is increasing in numbers at such a frightening rate (and in inverse proportion to the spectacular rise in the value of the personal fortunes of the politically well-connected lucky few – who have prospered mightily from the dramatic increase in Ghana’s GDP since our large external debt was written off in 2001 ), is a ticking social time-bomb, which is persisting because a large army of disaffected rural youth continue to flock to the urban areas in search of their dream of the good life: access to which they are totally cut off from, in reality. 

The bald and painful truth, is that in terms of their educational backgrounds and qualifications, achieving that goal through honest means, will always be well nigh impossible for the vast majority of them – despite their expectations to the contrary, when they initially set off from their villages to urban Ghana: because they are so inadequately prepared for upward social mobility in the modern 21st century ICT age. 

It is a pity that our not-so-bright political class (well, what else can one call a class of politicians, in which a cabinet minister, rather than be outraged that Vodafone, which would not dare make a similar offer to his British counterpart, because it would be regarded as unethical, had had the nerve to offer to pay for his hotel accommodation at Newbury, when a delegation from Ghana visited the company's UK HQ, instead comes on national television to congratulate himself for refusing an improper and unethical offer, clearly meant to corrupt him, dear reader?) has not yet grasped the fact that a poor developing nation with aspirations, cannot possibly afford not to provide free education up to tertiary level, for all those with the aptitude to do so from underprivileged backgrounds, whose families cannot afford to educate them to that level.

As things now stand, clearly, if nothing is done about it, at some historic point, many of the members of the new underclass will doubtless end up as cannon fodder for the political ambitions of others – to be manipulated by the ruthless demagogues in our midst: who are forever waiting patiently in the wings, ready to strike to end our experiment in democratic governance, when the opportunity to do so presents itself to them. 

The availability of oil and natural gas revenues, is bound to make that possibility a reality in the end, if our political elite chooses to follow in the footsteps of Nigeria’s political elite. 

Whatever they do, they must not siphon off those revenues, which we are all counting on to help transform our country into Africa’s equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, into their bank accounts, to enable them send their personal net worth into the stratosphere as Ghanaian politicians are wont to – despite their protestations to the contrary: because they invariably end up exploiting our national economy for their personal enrichment, as well as that of the members of their family clans and their cronies. 

If President Mills is serious about fighting corruption in Ghana, he must make sure that the constitution is changed, to make the public declaration of the assets of government members, and that of their spouses, a reality as soon as it is practicable for that to be done by Parliament. 

Ghana’s political elite must learn the lessons inherent in the tragic events in northern Nigeria – and quickly change their ways, and make transparency their watchword in governance: and ensure above all, that all aspects of our public life are underpinned by an ethical ethos. That is a sure-fire way for President Mills to ensure a long-lasting legacy for his regime. 

DID EX-PRESIDENT KUFUOR TELL POISONOUS LIES TO THE WORLD?

A friend who listened to some of the comments by investigators in recent news reports about the culmination of a ten-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) into corruption in the American state of New Jersey, said that whiles listening to those comments, for one brief moment, he saw in his mind’s eye, the final unmasking, of what he described as one of the most amoral and corrupt of regimes, ever elected into power in our country. To quote him: “In a flash, I saw the final exposure of the countless sins of that government-of-many-rogues – which is precisely what the 8-year tenure (underpinned by unfathomable greed) of our ex-Hypocrite-in-Chief, that sly gentleman, former President J.A. Kufuor, represented.” In my friend’s view, much like the crooked goings-on in New Jersey’s apparently corruption-riddled political circles, behind the carefully crafted image of democratic respectability, which was sold so successfully to the world by Kufuor and Co.’s propagandist praise-singing cronies in the Ghanaian media (and paid agents from elsewhere), was a regime that grabbed every opportunity to exploit our national economy for the personal benefit of its members: which is why they ended up selling scores of government-owned properties to themselves and those in their inner circles, with such abandon.

To my friend, the Kufuor regime was in fact nothing more than “a nest of vipers that paid its praise-singing cronies in the Ghanaian media (and mercenary agents elsewhere), to hide the reality behind the façade of good governance: a regime afflicted by moral decadence, and jam-packed with grown-up liars extraordinaire; delectable-bimbo-loving philanderers supreme; and ruthless tribal-supremacists of the most rabid kind”: who abused their power to such an extent that they ended up destroying the cohesion of our country, in furtherance of the daft, treasonable, and overweening ambitions of their “tunnel-visioned” tribal Chief – “who apparently thinks his mission on this earth is to restore the sovereign power of his pre-colonial feudal predecessors, by any means necessary.” Strong words some might say – but brave of him to say so, nonetheless, in a nation full of fence-sitting moral cowards, and in which none dare mention the unpleasant truth when it concerns the powerful in society, for fear of its repercussions. Personally, I miss the wisdom and humility of the gentleman whom many, who know about such things, consider to be greatest of the modern-day Asantehenes: Otumfuo Opoku-Ware 11 (may his soul rest in peace) – who understood that, paradoxically, a modern-day Asantehene, by definition must be humble, always keep a low profile, and shun publicity, in a nation of diverse ethnicity: because of the weight of history behind the Golden Stool. But I digress. It is significant (because it says a great deal about the negativity of their vindictive and vicious natures) that ex-President Kufuor & Co. chose to begin a propaganda offensive shortly before the visit to Ghana by US President Barrack Obama.

Clearly, he and the fraudsters in his regime (well, what else can one call those who, incredibly, railroaded the VALCO sale and purchase agreement through Parliament, and sanctioned same, to a non-existent international consortium – said to be made up of two international metal conglomerates, Norske Hydro and VALE: which both denied ever agreeing to purchase VALCO, dear reader?) think that their hour has now come. It is obvious that despite widespread public disapproval, they are determined to get their pound of flesh: and obtain those overly-generous retirement packages, at the expense of the hard-pressed Ghanaian taxpayers (whom ex-President Kufuor amazingly once labeled “lazy” – forgetting that they were at the bottom of the heap in society, only because they did not have the same kind of opportunities, which his Kokofu-football brand of crony-capitalism opened up for the members of his family clan, and his cronies, during his confounded “era-of-the-blessed-golden-thieves that he thinks was the Ghanaian Renaissance” to quote my friend). His critics say that that is the sole reason why our former president pulled strings so furiously in his network of contacts built up during his tenure, in order to be made a “UN Hunger Ambassador.” They also go on to say that it is characteristic of one of the most insincere of men on the surface of the planet Earth, that he is ruthlessly exploiting a convention used by the UN system to raise awareness of various issues globally, by making prominent people (most often international celebrities from the world of sports and entertainment) “UN Ambassadors” – and that in the hands of an insincere man, today, it has become a useful building-block in the not-so-subtle behind the scenes campaign he has embarked on, to ensure above all, that somehow he realizes his dream of obtaining the million-dollar “seed-money” to set up a foundation: which was the centerpiece of the overly-generous retirement package he got the Chinnery-Hesse committee to recommend he be given.

His critics accuse him of hiding behind his lackey, his so-called spokesperson, Frank Adjekum, to direct the fight to enable him to win the battle of empowerment – and obtain his full ex-gratia retirement package, come hell or high water. It is all so sad and needless – especially as President Mills is such a God-fearing and fair individual who will not countenance any of them being persecuted in any way. Can they not see that he is an honest gentleman (probably the most honest of the post-Nkrumah rulers we have had, thus far) whom they must cooperate with, so as to isolate the hawks in his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party – who wish for the trials of all those in the Kufuor regime who took part in the gang-rape of Mother Ghana to be speeded up: so that he might be predisposed to pardoning those of them who will end up in jail for willfully causing financial loss to Ghana, midway through their jail terms? In response to his latest criticisms of the present regime, former President Kufuor’s harshest critics say that they are not in the least bit surprised, that a selfish and nepotistic leader, who did not care one jot about the unlucky and the hard-up in society whiles in power, now talks endlessly about feeding school children on BBC programmes: because it suits his purpose. Those same critics also say that they hope that now that the scales have been finally removed from the eyes of the “born-again” Christians in the present regime (as a result of ex-President Kufuor’s vituperative “Focus on Africa” interview-of-many-lies broadcast on July 22, 2009 by the African Service of the BBC World Service), the government of President Mills will finally see him for what he really is: an ace hypocrite and a very dangerous man – who should not be given the benefit of the doubt under any circumstances by the current regime: because he is undeserving of it. Incidentally, I must admit that that selfsame thought did strike one: as one heard his self-serving nonsense-on-bamboo-stilts during the BBC African Service “Focus on Africa” interview.

I was speechless as I listened to his fantasizing about his many “achievements” and how others were now vilifying him (and acting as if there had been a military coup), simply to focus attention on their regime, and away from him, with Ghanaians. Does he not know that as a result of the many kickbacks that he and his cronies received from the road construction sector (amongst other sectors), most of the drains and roads that he boasts about were so shoddily constructed, that they have almost all been washed away by the recent floods? How true to form, that the dissemblers in Kufuor & Co. as usual think that they are being terribly clever – and appear to believe that they have chosen their moment well: hence their new-found boldness in giving that dissimulating BBC African Service “Focus on Africa” interview. It is also interesting that that selfsame BBC interview followed closely on the heels of a similar self-serving Voice of America (VOA) African Service interview, with the host of its “Straight Talk Africa” (the VOA’s current affairs programme on Africa) programme, Shaka Ssali. What, dear reader, does one say about someone, whose critics say that whiles serving as a sitting president, turned the shady business of receiving kickbacks at the seat of government, into an art form (and whose own dreadful example of unfathomable greed, unmatched abuse of power, and unbridled nepotism, set the tone for his corrupt and amoral regime) – and gave free-reign to the very worst natures of his coterie of shameless sycophants: as they embarked on their gang-rape of Mother Ghana, to enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary Ghanaians and their country? How can he then have the gall, to turn around, upon leaving office, to describe himself as an exemplary leader who served his country well, in a BBC African Service radio interview?

The Mills administration must remember that when President Kufuor was asked, at the inception of his tenure, how he would treat his immediate predecessor, ex-President Rawlings, he gave a very clever answer that he never actually ever meant a word of – and said that he would treat him as he wanted to be treated when he left office. Yet, his regime then set about promptly demonizing former President Rawlings and rubbishing his regime, at every turn. Clearly, ex-President Kufuor will do everything he can to try and hide the terrible things his regime did whiles in office – which really is what this current bout of dissimulation is about. For the sake of the stability of our country, one hopes that the pacifists in the present regime (who preach what in effect amounts to the appeasement of crooks, in wanting to be accommodating, to the powerful rogues in the previous regime), will understand that our former president is a man, whom, in order to protect the image of his regime and stop the truth about its corrupt practices from leaking out, was even prepared to allow others to label Dr. K.A. Busia’s highly intelligent and sane daughter, Nana Fremaa Busia, who made serious allegations against him and some of the leading members of his regime, as a lunatic – just so as to destroy her credibility: in the hope that the world would ignore the embarrassing criticisms of a regime-insider, who knew at first-hand, a great deal about the corruption, nepotism, and abuse of power, which was going on in his regime. The current administration would be wise to heed the advice of those of Mr. Kufuor’s critics, who say that the current regime must end its naivete in wanting to please the whole world and be loved by all in it: and must now deal ruthlessly with the former president and all the members of his regime who took our nation for such a ride.

Perhaps they must not also forget, above all, that he is a politician, whom upon his election to office, promptly set about hijacking the entire machinery of state, to further the treasonable ambitions of his tribal Chief – and did not particularly care about the fact that he had been elected as president of the unitary Republic of Ghana (that also happens to be a nation of diverse-ethnicity), and had also sworn an oath to defend its constitution, but was prepared to actively help in its Balkanization too: in furtherance of the tribal-supremacist agenda that motivates him; his tribal Chiefs ; and the ruthless and greedy cabal who controlled the presidency, throughout his years in power as president of Nkrumah’s Ghana. They must also not forget that there are indeed many patriots and nationalists in this country, who see Mr. Kufuor as a traitor and a devious man, whose goal is the fulfillment of the Akan tribal-supremacist agenda of Dr. J. B. Danquah: and whom the new government must always be wary of. They also go on to say further that the government must expose him and his cronies to the world for what they think they really are: amoral philanderers and world-class liars of the worst sort – who turned the seat of government into a trading-floor for receiving kickbacks, yet have the effrontery to tell the world they were exemplary leaders. If his harshest critics are right in what they say about him, then the new administration must not treat ex-President Kufuor with kid gloves in the slightest after the web of lies he spun during his BBC African Service radio interview. They hope that the Mills administration will let him “smell pepper” (which are the exact words he used when he thought that his immediate predecessor, ex-President Rawlings, was attempting to destabilize his regime and overthrow it) if he continues along the path he has apparently now chosen to protect himself. A word to the wise…

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