By Kofi Akordor
Some time ago someone wanted to draw the whole nation into a bout of fruitless debate. His argument was that Accra was no longer suitable as the national capital because of several problems, including congestion, poor amenities such as accommodation, good roads and poor sanitation. His solution was that the capital should be relocated at a place called Kintampo, which is in the Brong Ahafo Region, a place, according to him, which is more centrally situated.
It is true that Accra is congested, ill-planned and gradually being swallowed up by garbage. But relocating the capital may not offer the best solution. It may only amount to creating another jungle in the middle belt with time, since Accra’s woes will eventually visit the new capital if the culture of discipline, good planning and sanitation practices remains an illusion in our wildest dreams.
Thankfully, that debate fizzled out, even though echoes of it kept reverberating at respectable intervals. That is why I know it will take centre stage sooner than later, since, as a people, we prefer solving problems by creating more problems, instead of confronting the real issues head on.
There was a group which continued to advocate the changing of the name of the national football team, the Black Stars, because, according to that group, the misfortunes of the team were directly linked to the name. When the senior national team was the monarch of football on the continent in the 1960s and 70s, it was bearing the name the Black Stars. It was a name every Ghanaian was proud of because the Black Stars were the team to beat on the continent. When our football started to slide, some thought the solution lay in a change of name, instead addressing the real issues.
Debates will never end and we are currently confronted with another big one, that is, the one on the presidential pension awards. This is a continent where people enter political office empty-handed and return home heavily-laden. But, since there are still honest and honourable persons around, we, as a people, have to do the right thing by ensuring a comfortable retirement for our public officers.
It is just reasonable that a former president is given three vehicles — two for his personal use and one for his household. Any time any of our former presidents is traveling outside, it is only fair that officials at State Protocol are informed and the right thing is done. In the same way, should any of the former presidents receive foreign guests, State Protocol will be called in to handle accommodation, feeding, movement and all the necessary arrangements so that as a nation we do not lose face.
Medical care and personal security are basic things that should be enjoyed by every former head of state who remains a state asset that must be protected. Their pension should be reviewed periodically as pertains to other public pensioners. In order to avoid these facilities and services being provided at the whim and caprices of some politician filled with over-bloated ego and self-esteem, they should be documented and captured in our Constitution.
We have enough honourable and noble men and women in this country to have done this exercise for us without creating the problems that have generated another bout of debate in the country. It is strange that some people could still find justification for giving a former president six brand new vehicles, with one to be heavily armoured.
It is strange because even the palace the president is going to occupy during his tenure was built with borrowed funds. It means as a sovereign nation we are incapable of building a palace for our own president.
It is strange because after 50 years of independence, a lot of our children still squat on the bare floor to take their lessons. A lot of them stare into empty space the whole day because there are no teachers to take them through their daily lessons.
It is ridiculous because a lot of our hospitals, including the major ones, are partly transit camps and partly graveyards because they lack basic facilities and equipment that can save lives at critical times. Granted that the committee members are oblivious of the real conditions of our people in the country, they could have taken themselves out of their comfortable homes and visit a few places in the Accra-Tema metropolitan area and they would have realised that we are engulfed in a massive pool of poverty and misery. May be they have not suffered any frustration before, otherwise they would have understood the discomfort of drivers in Accra who have to battle it out at traffic intersections where traffic lights do not work on a regular basis.
If Accra is not good, then where is the paradise the former presidents have created on this small part of planet Earth to have deserved such a parting gift?
By the way, what is the toil that these people have gone through to attract all these concerns? Is it because they do not pay for anything, not even for sachet water while in office? Is it because they have access to every state property, including vintage land to dispose of as they please to themselves and their friends, relatives and cronies? Is it because they award contracts that are never executed but for which the state has paid huge sums of money? Or is it because when they are passing, the rest of us must give way and allow them and their wailing sirens to pass first? Somebody should tell me what are those sacrifices made that must be compensated for so lavishly.
By the way, which of our presidents or former presidents were dragged from the comfort of their homes and forced to slave for our comfort? Not too long ago, this nation witnessed 17 people from one party alone falling over one another to become the president of this country. Not even the hefty registration fee of GH¢25,000 could discourage them. Were they driven by the motivation to address the sufferings of the vast majority of the people or personal glory and aggrandisement?
We saw how money was splashed all over the place during Election 2008 and no one dares, not even the Electoral Commission, which is empowered by the Political Parties Law, to question the sources of those funds for the campaign.
So why should our former presidents and ministers be sent home like martyrs in that pomp and filthy pageantry?
If a fraction of the time used to think about the comfort of a few people could be used to think about the numerous frustrated and jobless youth of this country; if we could use a little of that time to worry about the congestion, desperation and pain in our health facilities; if we could spare a little thought about an educational system which is not bringing anything good out of our children; if we could think of how to remove the stigma of a beggar nation from this country, we would have done something generations will remember us about.
For now, we have only succeeded in making those who played a big role in our impoverishment, who contributed to the pillage and rape of this country and who amassed filthy wealth in the process to go home smiling all the way, while the rest of us place our hope on the shoulders of a new set of politicians.
The question is, where is the sacrifice?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Honour in defeat
February 4,2009
By Kofi Akordor
The agony of defeat needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated. But in all things, it is a very miserable one. So excruciating is the pain that to soothe it, people always resort to explanations that end up accusing others.
After a typical football match, the defeated team will leave the stadium cursing the match officials for biased officiating. Some will blame the quality of the pitch. Others will put the defeat on the shoulders of hostile spectators or the weather.
What defeated teams never do is to take close look at themselves, for that reason they will never give credit to their opponents for superior display of skills and their ability to exploit chances to advantage.
They will not admit that they played below form, took things for granted and played to the cheers of the crowd most of the time instead of scoring the vital goals that will give them victory.
For such teams, they are more likely to make defeat bedfellows, since they will never make self-assessment and work on their weaknesses and formulate better strategies to confront their opponents in future assignments.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is still nursing its wounds and trying hard to locate where to place the blame. The defeat in Election 2008 was a painful one, it must be admitted, but the search for scapegoats is becoming too much.
At the national level, supporters are blaming the national executive and the campaign team for not doing enough, when enough means what? The NPP Election 2008 campaign cannot find its equal in the country’s political history in terms of resources ploughed into the field, the intensity and extensiveness of the campaign and the exploitation of incumbency to the fullest.
Apart from the rallies that witnessed tens of thousands of people attending, there were the live concert shows, beach jams and radio and television adverts that supplemented adverts in almost all the newspapers.
The billboards in various sizes are still where they were, dominating the highways, city streets and roundabouts with Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidential face with its infectious smile beckoning every Ghanaian to give him the nod so that he can move this country forward. “The best man for Ghana”, is a bold statement, pairing a catchy slogan: “One Touch” on all the billboards, banners and posters.
The musicians, both secular and gospel, and the concert party people were not left out of the bandwagon. It was like the whole country was on a journey to a dreamland, where milk and honey were flowing in copious abundance.
There was no doubt about the results of the December 7, 2008 election. In the estimation and minds of many, it was going to be a day when Ghanaians would finally endorse Nana Akufo-Addo officially and complete the coronation process started at the NPP congress of December, 2007 held at the University of Ghana, to elect a presidential candidate for the party.
The presidential candidate went as far as touring some West African countries campaigning in international arena to espouse his foreign policy, more like a head of state interacting with his counterparts in the sub-region. He also addressed Ghanaians in some foreign lands in the US and Europe to sell himself and his party for Election 2008. So what more was expected from Nana Akufo-Addo and his campaign team?
At the regional level, constituency executives are venting their spleen on the regional executive, while at the constituency level; it is the ward chairmen and polling station chairmen who betrayed the party.
Perhaps, the party needs to take a closer look at its campaign message. Campaigning on the wings of continuity comes with its problems. For all you know, the saying that, “All that glitters is not gold”, has some relevance here. All that were being touted as major achievements of Kufuor’s government that the NPP was so proud of continuing, did not register with the majority of the people. It could also be that while looking at its achievements, and making a lot of noise about them, the NPP failed to take cognisance of its deficiencies captured in the mood of the people.
The apparent over confident posture of the presidential candidate, and the perception that he had not experienced suffering before and that he was in for the presidency for the sake of the rest of us poor people might not have endeared him to many people.
He was heard several times saying at every opportunity that he had not credited yor ke gari before and that he is a successful and famous lawyer. In an environment choked with very, very poor people, one does not score high marks boasting about wealth that may not necessarily have for its origins, hard work, honesty and selflessness. It is good politicians take note of some of these things in our next endeavours in the political arena. Sometimes it pays to be humble.
Notwithstanding their complaints and reservations, the rather antagonistic stance the party adopted towards the people of the Volta Region cannot be downplayed because of the dangerous forebodings it has for the unity and cohesion of this country.
The national executive, apparently to address the concerns of the rank and file, saw a good scapegoat among the people of the Volta Region. Their solace is that but for the people of the Volta Region, who were at their animalistic best, the NPP would have won the election.
It was only in the Volta Region that NPP’s hundreds of thousands of supporters were prevented from voting. It was only in the Volta Region that their polling station agents were intimidated, harassed, beaten and, in what turned out to be the most outrageous of all claims, murdered.
It is strange how the NPP should anchor their hope of victory in Election 2008 on the support they expected from the Volta Region. And here a few truths, albeit harsh, need to be confronted. This is a region that for eight years did not seem to be part of this unitary country called Ghana. For its record in the military and the police service, Volta Region was the only region in Ghana for eight years that did not have any officer qualified enough to hold any command position in the security services.
Those who care may kindly tell readers how many officers from that region in the military commanded any of the services or units of the Ghana Armed Forces or held any command position in the Ghana Police Service over the last eight years.
They should tell us how many of them headed any of the state public institutions or even served on their boards.
The absence of people from the Volta Region in former Kufuor’s cabinet was explained that Members of Parliament from the region were not on the Majority side. What about the positions of deputy ministers? What about the hundreds, if not thousands, of qualified and competent professionals the Volta Region has produced? Could their talents not have been exploited to the glory of this country?
A few of them were in the news though. That was when they were being escorted to serve prison sentences or when they were lucky to be granted presidential pardon. As a final act to seal their isolation, the people of the Volta Region were only those who suffered the pain and disgrace of having their border with their Togolese brothers and sisters closed at short notice before the December 7, 2008 election contrary to the assurances by the government to the diplomatic community that Ghana’s borders would remain open during the election.
To alienate a whole people like this, and expect them to support your bid for the highest office of the land, to say the least, is to credit them with no natural intelligence. That should not be and it is the naked truth people must be ready to face if they expect better things in future.
People may take things for granted, but when it matters most, the people of the Volta Region will prove that they are not blind to see. This country must be seen to belong to all and it should not be deemed as an act of charity or benevolence if a few crumbs should be thrown at some people while others are feeding fat on the nation’s resources.
By Kofi Akordor
The agony of defeat needs to be experienced to be fully appreciated. But in all things, it is a very miserable one. So excruciating is the pain that to soothe it, people always resort to explanations that end up accusing others.
After a typical football match, the defeated team will leave the stadium cursing the match officials for biased officiating. Some will blame the quality of the pitch. Others will put the defeat on the shoulders of hostile spectators or the weather.
What defeated teams never do is to take close look at themselves, for that reason they will never give credit to their opponents for superior display of skills and their ability to exploit chances to advantage.
They will not admit that they played below form, took things for granted and played to the cheers of the crowd most of the time instead of scoring the vital goals that will give them victory.
For such teams, they are more likely to make defeat bedfellows, since they will never make self-assessment and work on their weaknesses and formulate better strategies to confront their opponents in future assignments.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is still nursing its wounds and trying hard to locate where to place the blame. The defeat in Election 2008 was a painful one, it must be admitted, but the search for scapegoats is becoming too much.
At the national level, supporters are blaming the national executive and the campaign team for not doing enough, when enough means what? The NPP Election 2008 campaign cannot find its equal in the country’s political history in terms of resources ploughed into the field, the intensity and extensiveness of the campaign and the exploitation of incumbency to the fullest.
Apart from the rallies that witnessed tens of thousands of people attending, there were the live concert shows, beach jams and radio and television adverts that supplemented adverts in almost all the newspapers.
The billboards in various sizes are still where they were, dominating the highways, city streets and roundabouts with Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidential face with its infectious smile beckoning every Ghanaian to give him the nod so that he can move this country forward. “The best man for Ghana”, is a bold statement, pairing a catchy slogan: “One Touch” on all the billboards, banners and posters.
The musicians, both secular and gospel, and the concert party people were not left out of the bandwagon. It was like the whole country was on a journey to a dreamland, where milk and honey were flowing in copious abundance.
There was no doubt about the results of the December 7, 2008 election. In the estimation and minds of many, it was going to be a day when Ghanaians would finally endorse Nana Akufo-Addo officially and complete the coronation process started at the NPP congress of December, 2007 held at the University of Ghana, to elect a presidential candidate for the party.
The presidential candidate went as far as touring some West African countries campaigning in international arena to espouse his foreign policy, more like a head of state interacting with his counterparts in the sub-region. He also addressed Ghanaians in some foreign lands in the US and Europe to sell himself and his party for Election 2008. So what more was expected from Nana Akufo-Addo and his campaign team?
At the regional level, constituency executives are venting their spleen on the regional executive, while at the constituency level; it is the ward chairmen and polling station chairmen who betrayed the party.
Perhaps, the party needs to take a closer look at its campaign message. Campaigning on the wings of continuity comes with its problems. For all you know, the saying that, “All that glitters is not gold”, has some relevance here. All that were being touted as major achievements of Kufuor’s government that the NPP was so proud of continuing, did not register with the majority of the people. It could also be that while looking at its achievements, and making a lot of noise about them, the NPP failed to take cognisance of its deficiencies captured in the mood of the people.
The apparent over confident posture of the presidential candidate, and the perception that he had not experienced suffering before and that he was in for the presidency for the sake of the rest of us poor people might not have endeared him to many people.
He was heard several times saying at every opportunity that he had not credited yor ke gari before and that he is a successful and famous lawyer. In an environment choked with very, very poor people, one does not score high marks boasting about wealth that may not necessarily have for its origins, hard work, honesty and selflessness. It is good politicians take note of some of these things in our next endeavours in the political arena. Sometimes it pays to be humble.
Notwithstanding their complaints and reservations, the rather antagonistic stance the party adopted towards the people of the Volta Region cannot be downplayed because of the dangerous forebodings it has for the unity and cohesion of this country.
The national executive, apparently to address the concerns of the rank and file, saw a good scapegoat among the people of the Volta Region. Their solace is that but for the people of the Volta Region, who were at their animalistic best, the NPP would have won the election.
It was only in the Volta Region that NPP’s hundreds of thousands of supporters were prevented from voting. It was only in the Volta Region that their polling station agents were intimidated, harassed, beaten and, in what turned out to be the most outrageous of all claims, murdered.
It is strange how the NPP should anchor their hope of victory in Election 2008 on the support they expected from the Volta Region. And here a few truths, albeit harsh, need to be confronted. This is a region that for eight years did not seem to be part of this unitary country called Ghana. For its record in the military and the police service, Volta Region was the only region in Ghana for eight years that did not have any officer qualified enough to hold any command position in the security services.
Those who care may kindly tell readers how many officers from that region in the military commanded any of the services or units of the Ghana Armed Forces or held any command position in the Ghana Police Service over the last eight years.
They should tell us how many of them headed any of the state public institutions or even served on their boards.
The absence of people from the Volta Region in former Kufuor’s cabinet was explained that Members of Parliament from the region were not on the Majority side. What about the positions of deputy ministers? What about the hundreds, if not thousands, of qualified and competent professionals the Volta Region has produced? Could their talents not have been exploited to the glory of this country?
A few of them were in the news though. That was when they were being escorted to serve prison sentences or when they were lucky to be granted presidential pardon. As a final act to seal their isolation, the people of the Volta Region were only those who suffered the pain and disgrace of having their border with their Togolese brothers and sisters closed at short notice before the December 7, 2008 election contrary to the assurances by the government to the diplomatic community that Ghana’s borders would remain open during the election.
To alienate a whole people like this, and expect them to support your bid for the highest office of the land, to say the least, is to credit them with no natural intelligence. That should not be and it is the naked truth people must be ready to face if they expect better things in future.
People may take things for granted, but when it matters most, the people of the Volta Region will prove that they are not blind to see. This country must be seen to belong to all and it should not be deemed as an act of charity or benevolence if a few crumbs should be thrown at some people while others are feeding fat on the nation’s resources.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
First Step in consensus building
read by SSB
January 27,2009
By Kofi Akordor
Our transition in 2001 was quite chaotic. But it could be pardoned. We were just picking our first steps in multiparty democracy after many years of military and civilian dictatorship.
It was also the first time a ruling party lost at the polls and was transferring power to a party coming out of opposition. Considering the fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had been in opposition for decades, that is if its roots could be traced to the Progress Party (PP), which was pushed out of government by soldiers on January 13, 1972, it could be understood, the frenzy with which the Kufuor Administration zoomed into power and captured the reins of government, giving little breathing space to the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC), then under President Jerry John Rawlings.
Those days, many things were done wrongly including the invasion of the residence of the then Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills, who contested and lost the presidency against Mr J.A. Kufuor. The scars of those acrimonious days remained with us throughout the administration of former President Kufuor and contributed a great deal to the tension which engulfed this nation, before, during and after the struggle for political supremacy in Election 2008. The transitional hiccups of 2000 drew a wedge between the then former President Rawlings and the then President Kufuor, which several prominent and distinguished personalities tried fruitlessly to remove.
If in 2000 we made mistakes because we were infants in the game of multiparty democracy and because people were overzealous to capture political power, we cannot get the same pardon the way we organised and celebrated our 50 years of nationhood. As if it was an afterthought, this nation made mockery of its Golden Jubilee and reduced it to a feast savoured by a few who made personal fortunes out of what should have been a national historic event.
Malaysia, which shares the same birth year with us but is younger by a few months, announced her 50th anniversary five years in advance, and notified the world about her intention to climax the celebration of its 50 years of excellence in 2007. The different ways the two countries celebrated their golden jubilee were a whole story about how they conducted themselves during the first 50 years of their national life.
Malaysia came out of backwardness and advanced into modernity and industrialisation, while Ghana continued to pride itself as a major exporter of raw cocoa beans. So when it came to celebrating the event, Ghana planned its own haphazardly, imported anniversary cloth and other souvenir items from China, while Malaysia did a meticulous planning and showcased its achievements over the 50 years and gave a hint where it wanted to be in the next 50 years.
Even as we struggled to lift up our celebration that was nothing to write home about, there was evidence to suggest people placed in responsible positions to see to a successful celebration, even though it was planned belatedly, were busy lining their pockets with state funds and acquiring properties in the name of Ghana@50.
Painfully, we could not, as a nation, point at any monument to remind us of Ghana@50 when we celebrate Ghana@100. We did not feel any shame, when we announced that we spent US$4 million to renovate the Independence Square constructed at independence and then known as the Black Star Square. Other projects envisaged including the Jubilee toilets, schools, recreational parks and many other things are nowhere to be found, even though their costs have been captured in the Jubilee Budget. That is the story of Ghana, which at the least opportunity will not fail to remind the world that it was the first country south of the Sahara to gain political independence from colonial rule.
We have come a long way between 2001 and 2009, so when the time came for another transition ritual the people of this nation were expecting something better, at least not the repetition of the mistakes of 2001.
The first glimmer of hope came when the new Parliament went through the motion of electing the Speaker and the two Deputy Speakers without any hitch. We have come of age, many applauded, and the expectation was that as the days rolled by more of such consensus building would emerge to prove us as a maturing democratic people.
Then the cracks started to emerge. Former President Kufuor in his last day in office decided to take credit for increasing the salary of public servants by between 16 and 32 per cent and left the burden of payment on the shoulders of President Mills, who is yet to confer with his economic team to know how much is in the national kitty. Will it appear as if President Mills is insensitive to the plight of workers and has, therefore, refused to pay public servants what the departed Kufuor administration had announced?
Thankfully, many saw the announced salary increase more of treachery than an act of genuine concern and have, therefore, rubbished it. Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, a senior member of the New Patriotic Party and one-time Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the Kufuor Administration, did not find it difficult to condemn the increase as unfair and misplaced.
There were also last-minute appointments in the Foreign Service, which every well-informed person knows is a very strategic unit within the government bureaucracy. In the same last-minute effort, promotions, transfers and appointments were made in the police service and the military. Why should someone exiting from government make appointments in the security apparatus? It would help to recall here, some of the excesses of the new administration including seizure of vehicles suspected to be government vehicles being cladenstinely registered by individuals.
Government must continue to function even as a baton change is effected and things must be done in a way that does not create room for suspicion or where people could be pushed into a corner that would compel them to do things that could be misinterpreted. That is why it should be possible for an outgoing government to incorporate in its handover notes, outstanding issues such as salary increases for public servants and make recommendations where necessary for appointments, promotions and transfers for the new administration to apply its good judgement to take the appropriate decisions.
When outgoing governments leave such doubtful decisions in their trail, they put the incoming administration on the alert and they also begin to take panic measures such as dismissal of officers, who should be at post to brief the incoming ones.
The seeds of bitterness, rancour and suspicion are then planted and the cycle continues. We must be able to come out of our pettiness and do the right thing. We cannot continue to excuse our mistakes and misdeeds with the claim that ours is a young democracy. We do not need to trek 200 years to do what enlightened societies are doing today. We have all to learn from those who have treaded the same path we have chosen for ourselves.
Most of us were privileged to see via the international media what happened on Inauguration Day in Washington DC, on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 when Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States of America. That was the culmination of events that began on November 5, 2008, when he was declared winner of the US presidential elections.
The transition was not at the pleasure of any individual or political party and when the Inauguration Day came, it was a national affair. All previous Presidents and Vice Presidents were present with their spouses. All those who matter in American politics including Senators and Members of the House of Representatives were there.
After Obama’s oath, it was a beauty when he escorted the immediate former President, George W. Bush, to Executive One, the official helicopter of the presidency, to be flown to Andrews Air Force Base and then to his home state of Texas.
From then on, President Obama was in full control. We can do the same here, and it should not take us a whole generation to learn from the American example and put some sanity into our political lives. The first step is for us to learn to be accommodating and to realise that public office is held at the behest of the people and not a personal property that should be guarded and protected even at the expense of human lives.
That is why the spirit which guided Parliament to elect the Speaker and the two deputy Speakers without any confrontation should be the preferred one to lead us to national consensus building on important matters of state.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
January 27,2009
By Kofi Akordor
Our transition in 2001 was quite chaotic. But it could be pardoned. We were just picking our first steps in multiparty democracy after many years of military and civilian dictatorship.
It was also the first time a ruling party lost at the polls and was transferring power to a party coming out of opposition. Considering the fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had been in opposition for decades, that is if its roots could be traced to the Progress Party (PP), which was pushed out of government by soldiers on January 13, 1972, it could be understood, the frenzy with which the Kufuor Administration zoomed into power and captured the reins of government, giving little breathing space to the outgoing National Democratic Congress (NDC), then under President Jerry John Rawlings.
Those days, many things were done wrongly including the invasion of the residence of the then Vice-President John Evans Atta Mills, who contested and lost the presidency against Mr J.A. Kufuor. The scars of those acrimonious days remained with us throughout the administration of former President Kufuor and contributed a great deal to the tension which engulfed this nation, before, during and after the struggle for political supremacy in Election 2008. The transitional hiccups of 2000 drew a wedge between the then former President Rawlings and the then President Kufuor, which several prominent and distinguished personalities tried fruitlessly to remove.
If in 2000 we made mistakes because we were infants in the game of multiparty democracy and because people were overzealous to capture political power, we cannot get the same pardon the way we organised and celebrated our 50 years of nationhood. As if it was an afterthought, this nation made mockery of its Golden Jubilee and reduced it to a feast savoured by a few who made personal fortunes out of what should have been a national historic event.
Malaysia, which shares the same birth year with us but is younger by a few months, announced her 50th anniversary five years in advance, and notified the world about her intention to climax the celebration of its 50 years of excellence in 2007. The different ways the two countries celebrated their golden jubilee were a whole story about how they conducted themselves during the first 50 years of their national life.
Malaysia came out of backwardness and advanced into modernity and industrialisation, while Ghana continued to pride itself as a major exporter of raw cocoa beans. So when it came to celebrating the event, Ghana planned its own haphazardly, imported anniversary cloth and other souvenir items from China, while Malaysia did a meticulous planning and showcased its achievements over the 50 years and gave a hint where it wanted to be in the next 50 years.
Even as we struggled to lift up our celebration that was nothing to write home about, there was evidence to suggest people placed in responsible positions to see to a successful celebration, even though it was planned belatedly, were busy lining their pockets with state funds and acquiring properties in the name of Ghana@50.
Painfully, we could not, as a nation, point at any monument to remind us of Ghana@50 when we celebrate Ghana@100. We did not feel any shame, when we announced that we spent US$4 million to renovate the Independence Square constructed at independence and then known as the Black Star Square. Other projects envisaged including the Jubilee toilets, schools, recreational parks and many other things are nowhere to be found, even though their costs have been captured in the Jubilee Budget. That is the story of Ghana, which at the least opportunity will not fail to remind the world that it was the first country south of the Sahara to gain political independence from colonial rule.
We have come a long way between 2001 and 2009, so when the time came for another transition ritual the people of this nation were expecting something better, at least not the repetition of the mistakes of 2001.
The first glimmer of hope came when the new Parliament went through the motion of electing the Speaker and the two Deputy Speakers without any hitch. We have come of age, many applauded, and the expectation was that as the days rolled by more of such consensus building would emerge to prove us as a maturing democratic people.
Then the cracks started to emerge. Former President Kufuor in his last day in office decided to take credit for increasing the salary of public servants by between 16 and 32 per cent and left the burden of payment on the shoulders of President Mills, who is yet to confer with his economic team to know how much is in the national kitty. Will it appear as if President Mills is insensitive to the plight of workers and has, therefore, refused to pay public servants what the departed Kufuor administration had announced?
Thankfully, many saw the announced salary increase more of treachery than an act of genuine concern and have, therefore, rubbished it. Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, a senior member of the New Patriotic Party and one-time Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in the Kufuor Administration, did not find it difficult to condemn the increase as unfair and misplaced.
There were also last-minute appointments in the Foreign Service, which every well-informed person knows is a very strategic unit within the government bureaucracy. In the same last-minute effort, promotions, transfers and appointments were made in the police service and the military. Why should someone exiting from government make appointments in the security apparatus? It would help to recall here, some of the excesses of the new administration including seizure of vehicles suspected to be government vehicles being cladenstinely registered by individuals.
Government must continue to function even as a baton change is effected and things must be done in a way that does not create room for suspicion or where people could be pushed into a corner that would compel them to do things that could be misinterpreted. That is why it should be possible for an outgoing government to incorporate in its handover notes, outstanding issues such as salary increases for public servants and make recommendations where necessary for appointments, promotions and transfers for the new administration to apply its good judgement to take the appropriate decisions.
When outgoing governments leave such doubtful decisions in their trail, they put the incoming administration on the alert and they also begin to take panic measures such as dismissal of officers, who should be at post to brief the incoming ones.
The seeds of bitterness, rancour and suspicion are then planted and the cycle continues. We must be able to come out of our pettiness and do the right thing. We cannot continue to excuse our mistakes and misdeeds with the claim that ours is a young democracy. We do not need to trek 200 years to do what enlightened societies are doing today. We have all to learn from those who have treaded the same path we have chosen for ourselves.
Most of us were privileged to see via the international media what happened on Inauguration Day in Washington DC, on Tuesday, January 20, 2009 when Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States of America. That was the culmination of events that began on November 5, 2008, when he was declared winner of the US presidential elections.
The transition was not at the pleasure of any individual or political party and when the Inauguration Day came, it was a national affair. All previous Presidents and Vice Presidents were present with their spouses. All those who matter in American politics including Senators and Members of the House of Representatives were there.
After Obama’s oath, it was a beauty when he escorted the immediate former President, George W. Bush, to Executive One, the official helicopter of the presidency, to be flown to Andrews Air Force Base and then to his home state of Texas.
From then on, President Obama was in full control. We can do the same here, and it should not take us a whole generation to learn from the American example and put some sanity into our political lives. The first step is for us to learn to be accommodating and to realise that public office is held at the behest of the people and not a personal property that should be guarded and protected even at the expense of human lives.
That is why the spirit which guided Parliament to elect the Speaker and the two deputy Speakers without any confrontation should be the preferred one to lead us to national consensus building on important matters of state.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Friday, January 23, 2009
The final lap
Dec 2,2008
By Kofi Akordor
The final lap in any distance event in athletics is the most crucial. That is what determines victory or defeat. Usually, at the starter’s gun, some, as part of their strategy, sprint into the lead and maintain the momentum to victory at the finishing line. Not always does that strategy work to plan, because some, in their determination to keep the lead, over-exert themselves and burn their reserve energies, ending the race far behind.
For others, it is a slow start and a gradual build-up as the race progresses and with a last minute burst powered by conserved energy, victory is attained. Like the fast start strategy, the slow start is not necessarily the best at all times. Sometimes, quite against your expectation, the more you expect the other competitors to tire and burn out, the more they gallop and before you are aware, you have ended up where you began — last.
When it started, the race for the presidency and parliament looked too long to end soon, but so soon, we are close to the finishing line and whatever strategy the various candidates adopted, December 7 is just five days away and we all await to see those who will cross the finishing line with smiles on their faces, in Usain Bolt fashion, or those with contorted faces out of wasteful exhaustion.
In a world where polls are conducted on no serious scientific basis, it will be fallacious and self-deluding for any of the contesting parties or candidates to pin their hopes on any of the so-called opinion polls.
As should be expected, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as the party in power, took off in whirlwind fashion and thereafter became the target of the other parties. Even the primaries to choose the flag bearer of the NPP was a spectacular exercise in itself, coming close to be like a process to elect the President of the Republic. When the chips were down and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo got the nod at the 2007 December Congress held at the University of Ghana, Legon, the party heavyweights quickly put the past, with all its acrimonies behind, and joined forces with Nana Akufo Addo, for the ultimate — the Presidency.
If resources and publicity alone could win elections, then I dare say the NPP had a great advantage that will be difficult to overturn. But as the saying goes, the race is not for the swift nor the sure, and so it will be foolhardiness to drop guard out of complacency and expect miracles to happen.
A party in power has its advantages of incumbency, including limitless resources, both in cash and kind, a powerful propaganda and publicity machinery, using both the print and electronic media. The NPP played its cards well in this regard. It battled the baggage of incumbency also. A governing party’s weaknesses, real or perceived, are hammered at at will. After all, the only way to oust a ruling in power is to say a lot about its failures, trying to rally round the masses on the general economic and social weaknesses in the system, which are always in abundance in a third world country like Ghana. The NPP was not spared its fair share of the whipping.
The NPP, however, found an escape valve. That is, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had been in power before and so it was easy for the NPP to play the comparison game to soothe some of the pains of criticism.
That brings us to the campaign machinery of the NDC, which started slowly with Professor John Evans Atta-Mills’s door-to-door ‘I-Care’ strategy. The selection of a relatively younger John Dramani Mahama as his running mate brought some fire into the Atta-Mills’ campaign.
The firebrand of the party, in the person of its founder and former President J.J. Rawlings, was on course as usual, pulling huge crowds wherever he went even if some of his pronouncements sound controversial. The performance of the NDC, in all, had not been bad and this had heavily diluted any lead the NPP had at the start of the race. In fact, on December 7, the result can tilt either way, even though the ruling party has a slight edge.
Apart from the two leading parties, the party that made the most dramatic entry in the race was the rejuvenated Convention People’s Party (CPP), under the flagbearership of Dr Paa Kwasi Nduom, popularly known as the ‘Edwumawura’. There is no doubt that the CPP is going to eat into the fortunes of both the NPP and the NDC and should the polls move into a runoff, the CPP may hold the trump card.
The other presidential candidates, namely Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC); Mr Emmanuel Ansah-Antwi of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP); Mr T.N. Ward-Brew of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP); Mr Kwabena Adjei of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) and Mr Kwasi Amoafo Yeboah (Independent), are at best spicing the democratic gravy. They may only become a force to reckon with in the event of a runoff when their support could tilt the fortunes of eitherof the two major parties.
The campaigning itself has been very vigorous, sometimes acrimonious and on a few occasions bloody. The Electoral Commission (EC) has been battered from several angles by the various political parties, sometimes with some justification, . In some cases too, people were just seeing objects where there were no shadows.
It was easy to feel some desperation in the campaign messages of the parties, especially the NPP and the NDC, and it was not too difficult to understand why. The NDC has tasted power before and clearly understood the vast difference between being in power and outside it. The NPP is still enjoying fruits of political power and, therefore, could imagine what it would be like to return to the wilderness of opposition. All the parties have made so many promises that one wonders whether in four years time, there will be anything like poverty, disease, squalor, hunger and deprivation in this country.
All the actors, while preaching peaceful and transparent elections, sometimes go to the extreme trying to allay fears of members of the public. Just recently, a top police officer dropped guard when he told a listening public that the police would not hesitate to shoot to maim anyone trying to tamper with a ballot box. Even armed robbers are not to be shot unless under circumstances when the police are compelled to do so to defend themselves. So why shoot somebody who will be foolish enough to go and carry a whole ballot box to where only God knows?
Even though we have gone through the exercise of voting to elect our political leaders over the years without any serious breach of the peace, knowing ourselves very well, as a breed of people whose behaviour cannot be predicted, we are always suspicious of everything, thereby heightening tension unnecessarily. That also kept our religious leaders busy fasting and praying for peaceful elections.
Some latter-day prophets and prophetesses also are not to be left in the interesting game. They have already seen in their dreams (or were they hallucinations?) the winner of the presidential seat even before the first ballot could be cast.
It is the wish of every Ghanaian that our next election is conducted in a free, transparent and trouble-free environment. Wherever the verdict goes, we shall all be smiling while we read this column next week.
By Kofi Akordor
The final lap in any distance event in athletics is the most crucial. That is what determines victory or defeat. Usually, at the starter’s gun, some, as part of their strategy, sprint into the lead and maintain the momentum to victory at the finishing line. Not always does that strategy work to plan, because some, in their determination to keep the lead, over-exert themselves and burn their reserve energies, ending the race far behind.
For others, it is a slow start and a gradual build-up as the race progresses and with a last minute burst powered by conserved energy, victory is attained. Like the fast start strategy, the slow start is not necessarily the best at all times. Sometimes, quite against your expectation, the more you expect the other competitors to tire and burn out, the more they gallop and before you are aware, you have ended up where you began — last.
When it started, the race for the presidency and parliament looked too long to end soon, but so soon, we are close to the finishing line and whatever strategy the various candidates adopted, December 7 is just five days away and we all await to see those who will cross the finishing line with smiles on their faces, in Usain Bolt fashion, or those with contorted faces out of wasteful exhaustion.
In a world where polls are conducted on no serious scientific basis, it will be fallacious and self-deluding for any of the contesting parties or candidates to pin their hopes on any of the so-called opinion polls.
As should be expected, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), as the party in power, took off in whirlwind fashion and thereafter became the target of the other parties. Even the primaries to choose the flag bearer of the NPP was a spectacular exercise in itself, coming close to be like a process to elect the President of the Republic. When the chips were down and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo got the nod at the 2007 December Congress held at the University of Ghana, Legon, the party heavyweights quickly put the past, with all its acrimonies behind, and joined forces with Nana Akufo Addo, for the ultimate — the Presidency.
If resources and publicity alone could win elections, then I dare say the NPP had a great advantage that will be difficult to overturn. But as the saying goes, the race is not for the swift nor the sure, and so it will be foolhardiness to drop guard out of complacency and expect miracles to happen.
A party in power has its advantages of incumbency, including limitless resources, both in cash and kind, a powerful propaganda and publicity machinery, using both the print and electronic media. The NPP played its cards well in this regard. It battled the baggage of incumbency also. A governing party’s weaknesses, real or perceived, are hammered at at will. After all, the only way to oust a ruling in power is to say a lot about its failures, trying to rally round the masses on the general economic and social weaknesses in the system, which are always in abundance in a third world country like Ghana. The NPP was not spared its fair share of the whipping.
The NPP, however, found an escape valve. That is, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had been in power before and so it was easy for the NPP to play the comparison game to soothe some of the pains of criticism.
That brings us to the campaign machinery of the NDC, which started slowly with Professor John Evans Atta-Mills’s door-to-door ‘I-Care’ strategy. The selection of a relatively younger John Dramani Mahama as his running mate brought some fire into the Atta-Mills’ campaign.
The firebrand of the party, in the person of its founder and former President J.J. Rawlings, was on course as usual, pulling huge crowds wherever he went even if some of his pronouncements sound controversial. The performance of the NDC, in all, had not been bad and this had heavily diluted any lead the NPP had at the start of the race. In fact, on December 7, the result can tilt either way, even though the ruling party has a slight edge.
Apart from the two leading parties, the party that made the most dramatic entry in the race was the rejuvenated Convention People’s Party (CPP), under the flagbearership of Dr Paa Kwasi Nduom, popularly known as the ‘Edwumawura’. There is no doubt that the CPP is going to eat into the fortunes of both the NPP and the NDC and should the polls move into a runoff, the CPP may hold the trump card.
The other presidential candidates, namely Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC); Mr Emmanuel Ansah-Antwi of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP); Mr T.N. Ward-Brew of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP); Mr Kwabena Adjei of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) and Mr Kwasi Amoafo Yeboah (Independent), are at best spicing the democratic gravy. They may only become a force to reckon with in the event of a runoff when their support could tilt the fortunes of eitherof the two major parties.
The campaigning itself has been very vigorous, sometimes acrimonious and on a few occasions bloody. The Electoral Commission (EC) has been battered from several angles by the various political parties, sometimes with some justification, . In some cases too, people were just seeing objects where there were no shadows.
It was easy to feel some desperation in the campaign messages of the parties, especially the NPP and the NDC, and it was not too difficult to understand why. The NDC has tasted power before and clearly understood the vast difference between being in power and outside it. The NPP is still enjoying fruits of political power and, therefore, could imagine what it would be like to return to the wilderness of opposition. All the parties have made so many promises that one wonders whether in four years time, there will be anything like poverty, disease, squalor, hunger and deprivation in this country.
All the actors, while preaching peaceful and transparent elections, sometimes go to the extreme trying to allay fears of members of the public. Just recently, a top police officer dropped guard when he told a listening public that the police would not hesitate to shoot to maim anyone trying to tamper with a ballot box. Even armed robbers are not to be shot unless under circumstances when the police are compelled to do so to defend themselves. So why shoot somebody who will be foolish enough to go and carry a whole ballot box to where only God knows?
Even though we have gone through the exercise of voting to elect our political leaders over the years without any serious breach of the peace, knowing ourselves very well, as a breed of people whose behaviour cannot be predicted, we are always suspicious of everything, thereby heightening tension unnecessarily. That also kept our religious leaders busy fasting and praying for peaceful elections.
Some latter-day prophets and prophetesses also are not to be left in the interesting game. They have already seen in their dreams (or were they hallucinations?) the winner of the presidential seat even before the first ballot could be cast.
It is the wish of every Ghanaian that our next election is conducted in a free, transparent and trouble-free environment. Wherever the verdict goes, we shall all be smiling while we read this column next week.
The day we missed Armageddon
December 9,2008
By Kofi Akordor
SOME of the allegations and rumours were not only wild, but so weird that one could wonder if they originated from human minds. There were rumours that there was to be a massive invasion of the country by foreigners to indulge in the country’s electoral process.
The government, apparently to prevent this, ordered the closure of the country’s borders. This action, if it was to give confidence to Ghanaians and to assure them that the sanctity of the electoral process cannot be compromised only added to the mounting tension and to heighten suspicion that there was a gigantic design to use state machinery in favour of one of the two candidates in the presidential run-off.
It was getting close to a precipice and there were stories of people relocating to their home towns before the ‘end time’. When polling day finally arrived, the atmosphere was so polluted that people started seeing evil in the eyes of others.
At Ashaiman, near Tema in the Greater Accra Region, rumours that some people were holing up in a hotel near a polling station with stuffed ballot boxes caused panic. When the police went into action, there were neither ballot boxes nor those who were supposed to be keeping them.
Again in Tema, a party executive was whisked away under heavy police escort because of rumours he was plotting to snatch ballot boxes away. This time, the police acted pre-emptively, but could there be any truth in that allegation? We might have just succeeded in creating more trouble for ourselves.
In the midst of all these, the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Election Security Task Force, the National Security Co-ordinator and the government kept on assuring Ghanaians that everything was under control and that there was no cause for alarm. As usual, the Ghanaian’s level of patience and tolerance was on full exhibition.
As I survey the unfolding turmoil on our political landscape, my mind went back to November, when over 300 million Americans went to the polls to elect a new person to replace President George W. Bush.
In a matter of hours, the elections were over and in less than 24 hours, Americans came to the realisation that Barrack Obama, the 47-year-old Senator from Illinois was going to be their next President and in effect, the most powerful leader in the whole wide world.
Sweet and simple, isn’t it? Senator John McCain, his challenger conceded defeat and congratulated him. President Bush congratulated him and offered to co-operate with him to ensure a smooth transition and handing over.
As you read this, President-elect Obama has virtually finished picking his working team, and it is a mix of Americans from all persuasions including Republicans. That is why Robert Gates remains the Defence Secretary. Victory for Obama was not a licence to plunder or share with friends and relatives.
It was an opportunity to put his vision into action and every material available in the US is there for his pick and utilisation to transform his dream into reality. That was why everything returned to normal, a day after the elections.
We go to the polls here as if we are at war and sometimes we are not able to hide our intentions and why we are desperate for political power. That is why we get polarised instead of focusing on national issues and determining who is best suited to give us the leadership we need for national development.
The apprehension and tension which engulfed the country were grounded on the history of the continent.
On December 27, 2007, Kenyans went to the polls. Everything went on smoothly until the declaration of the results. Then a peaceful country went into turmoil. The carnage that followed left at least 1,500 people dead, according official figures. But the extent of the mayhem was such that it was likely more people could not be accounted for.
Kenyans went to the polls to elect political leaders and not warriors. But should this otherwise national exercise which is a constitutional responsibility be exploited by power-hungry politicians to bring war among the people and divide them?
The case of Zimbabwe is now well-documented just as what happened in Cote d’Ivoire. We have not reached the other side of the river yet. However, we hope at the end of day, we will wake up firmly believing that we have elected a new President for the Republic.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
By Kofi Akordor
SOME of the allegations and rumours were not only wild, but so weird that one could wonder if they originated from human minds. There were rumours that there was to be a massive invasion of the country by foreigners to indulge in the country’s electoral process.
The government, apparently to prevent this, ordered the closure of the country’s borders. This action, if it was to give confidence to Ghanaians and to assure them that the sanctity of the electoral process cannot be compromised only added to the mounting tension and to heighten suspicion that there was a gigantic design to use state machinery in favour of one of the two candidates in the presidential run-off.
It was getting close to a precipice and there were stories of people relocating to their home towns before the ‘end time’. When polling day finally arrived, the atmosphere was so polluted that people started seeing evil in the eyes of others.
At Ashaiman, near Tema in the Greater Accra Region, rumours that some people were holing up in a hotel near a polling station with stuffed ballot boxes caused panic. When the police went into action, there were neither ballot boxes nor those who were supposed to be keeping them.
Again in Tema, a party executive was whisked away under heavy police escort because of rumours he was plotting to snatch ballot boxes away. This time, the police acted pre-emptively, but could there be any truth in that allegation? We might have just succeeded in creating more trouble for ourselves.
In the midst of all these, the Electoral Commission (EC), the National Election Security Task Force, the National Security Co-ordinator and the government kept on assuring Ghanaians that everything was under control and that there was no cause for alarm. As usual, the Ghanaian’s level of patience and tolerance was on full exhibition.
As I survey the unfolding turmoil on our political landscape, my mind went back to November, when over 300 million Americans went to the polls to elect a new person to replace President George W. Bush.
In a matter of hours, the elections were over and in less than 24 hours, Americans came to the realisation that Barrack Obama, the 47-year-old Senator from Illinois was going to be their next President and in effect, the most powerful leader in the whole wide world.
Sweet and simple, isn’t it? Senator John McCain, his challenger conceded defeat and congratulated him. President Bush congratulated him and offered to co-operate with him to ensure a smooth transition and handing over.
As you read this, President-elect Obama has virtually finished picking his working team, and it is a mix of Americans from all persuasions including Republicans. That is why Robert Gates remains the Defence Secretary. Victory for Obama was not a licence to plunder or share with friends and relatives.
It was an opportunity to put his vision into action and every material available in the US is there for his pick and utilisation to transform his dream into reality. That was why everything returned to normal, a day after the elections.
We go to the polls here as if we are at war and sometimes we are not able to hide our intentions and why we are desperate for political power. That is why we get polarised instead of focusing on national issues and determining who is best suited to give us the leadership we need for national development.
The apprehension and tension which engulfed the country were grounded on the history of the continent.
On December 27, 2007, Kenyans went to the polls. Everything went on smoothly until the declaration of the results. Then a peaceful country went into turmoil. The carnage that followed left at least 1,500 people dead, according official figures. But the extent of the mayhem was such that it was likely more people could not be accounted for.
Kenyans went to the polls to elect political leaders and not warriors. But should this otherwise national exercise which is a constitutional responsibility be exploited by power-hungry politicians to bring war among the people and divide them?
The case of Zimbabwe is now well-documented just as what happened in Cote d’Ivoire. We have not reached the other side of the river yet. However, we hope at the end of day, we will wake up firmly believing that we have elected a new President for the Republic.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
The Hit List
By Kofi Akordor
The culture of political campaigning is almost the same everywhere. It is the time politicians make a lot of promises most of which are never fulfilled or were not meant to be fulfilled. It is also a period when various allegations are levelled against opponents to weaken them and reduce their chances of winning the elections.
It is almost an acceptable norm that governments in power are particularly criticised for bad performance and everything that goes with that – corruption, unemployment, nepotism, incompetence, maladministration and many others are amplified to the highest decibel.
It is also a normal practice for governments seeking re-election to extol their virtues if even the positive changes they are hammering on were restricted to the fortunes of top government officials, their relatives, friends and a few party loyalists.
There is also the fear theory. This is to create a scenario of fear and insecurity the electorate should expect under a particular administration. This theory is fuelled by threats of victimisation, loss of jobs and prestige, project denials, national chaos and instability and in extreme and desperate situations, death, should the electorate vote in a particular way That is the game of politics.
By some strange coincidence, Ghana shares electoral calendar with the United States of America. They both elect their presidents in the same year, except that the US holds its presidential elections in November, a month earlier than Ghana.
All the ingredients found in the political game featured in the US elections, from the primaries to pick the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to the national to elect the next president of the US. There were the smears, mudslinging, trading of accusations and the throwing of the searchlight on George W. Bush’s administration which did not score high marks among most Americans.
They also had their fair share of the fear theory. Already waging two useless and senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans could not imagine how their world will be if they should vote for John MaCain, who had very little to separate him from the outgoing President George W. Bush.
Americans, of course, see politics as a serious business and not a battlefield to slaughter one another. The contestants made their promises but not in vain, knowing very well that the electorates are very sophisticated and will, therefore, hold them to their word at the appropriate time. They also do not just listen to promises; they question the capacity and capability of the person making the promise and how reliable that person was to fulfil them.
When the Americans finally settled on Barrack Obama, they might have done so for good reasons. They have a collapsed economy to rebuild. The global credit crunch took a heavy toll on the world’s biggest economy. America’s image as the world’s sole superpower had received a severe dent and its war-mongering posture had been condemned world-wide.
Many Americans may not want to see their children sent to war in Iran or North Korea and with George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan as a guide, chose Barrack Obama, a man who spoke against those wars. At least he represents a new image for America. He is relatively young and brilliant. He comes from a modest family and is of a mixed race (Black and White) and, therefore, fresh on the market.
At the time Barrack Obama was campaigning for the White House, we were also having our political campaigns here. We did everything the Americans did. But in all cases, we went into the extreme. We threw mud at each other freely. We were insulting and we said things about our opponents we knew very well were lies.
The government was loudest, saying very good things about itself, sometimes as if there was nothing good about this country until it came to power. We saw nothing good about previous administrations and we could not give credit for the good things we came to inherit.
The promises were in abundance and they were coming from all angles. Here, unlike America, we make promises with the hope that with time, the electorates will forget them. Thank God, there is a gradual awakening and governments cannot run away with empty promises.
There was also the fear or scare commodity. In 2000, it was widely rumoured that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was then in power was so enamoured with power that it might cause havoc if it should lose the elections. It, therefore, became a campaign strategy that in order to maintain the peace and stability of the nation, the then NDC presidential candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, should be given the nod.
Of course, when people are fed up with a system, they are prepared to make sacrifices to effect a change. So the change came, notwithstanding threats of chaos and violence.
In 2008, the scaremongering came, albeit in a more vicious form. It started when Pastor Mensa Otabil, a popular motivational speaker and evangelist, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, another popular evangelist, Mrs Justice Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, the judge who convicted Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on June 18, 2008, and a few others, who claimed they had received death threats through text messages sent to them. And the message was that they would be eliminated should the NDC win the elections and come to power.
The issue even became more intriguing when the victims of the so-called threats claimed the messages were sent from an e-mail address bearing the name of former President J.J. Rawlings. Can you believe that anyone planning such a horrendous enterprise will not only leave a trail but virtually make a public announcement informing his would-be victims of his criminal intentions?
Those behind what I see as a gigantic scam chose Mrs Mensah-Bonsu because of the role she played in Tsatsu Tsikata’s conviction and which can make her a target of aggrieved supporters of Tsikata. The popular evangelists were chosen because they command large followings and their withdrawal of support for the NDC in solidarity with their leaders will constitute a big reduction in that party’s votes.
Soon the number on what became known as the Hit List started to swell to include more pastors and evangelists who have large following in the country, musicians, especially those who openly associated with Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign, almost all the ministers in former President Kufuor’s government and New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentarians, media people, including those who spend all their time talking on the radio and television or writing scandalous things in the newspapers.
The list continued to grow and those who joined included people in business, intellectuals and other professional groups. Soon, it became fashionable for any person to wake up and declare publicly that he or she had received death threats via text message or phone call.
The scam operators became so unscientific or is it unreasonable that they continued to add more names, including those who could be described as nonentities until it became obvious that the hatchet men who are going to do the elimination will need expert advice from Rwanda, where the Hutu warriors succeeded in massacring over 900,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a 90-day killing orgy in 1994.
The fear theory failed because the longer the list, the more the deceit was exposed and the more the potency of the expected fear the hit list was to invoke among the people diluted.
Well, just as it happened in 2000, Ghanaians went to the polls for the second time on December 28, 2008 and it was like majority of them preferred to die than remain with a system they were tired and fed up with.
The change did come. All the pastors who claimed they had received death threats are going about freely doing their pastoral work and evangelising to those who care to listen to them. The media people are still talking and writing, some with greater vigour. The musicians are still pumping their sweet and inspirational songs into our system.
The business people, including some of the endangered species, have started sending congratulatory messages to President Mills. Some have even met the President in person at the Castle.
On Inauguration Day, almost all those on the hit list including the clergy, were at the Independence Square to witness the swearing-in of Professor John Evans Atta Mills as President of the Republic. Any lessons?
When we reflect over the events of December, 2008, we ponder to ask; where did the Hit List originate? Why did those so-called Men of God fail us miserably by not denouncing that dubious list which most of them knew very well could not be true? At what point did we lose our sanity to come up with a hit list that defies all logic? Should we be so hungry for political power that we can paint a heinous picture of our opponents as sadists, beasts, megalomaniacs and murderers and thereby create such panic and fear among the citizenry?
Those who underrate the power of the human mind and natural intelligence have a lot to learn from the story of the hit list. There are very simple and effective ways of drawing sympathy and convincing people to your side. You only have to look for them. You do not need to put the fear of the Lord in them to win their support. Thank God, we are alive, hit list or no hit list.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
The culture of political campaigning is almost the same everywhere. It is the time politicians make a lot of promises most of which are never fulfilled or were not meant to be fulfilled. It is also a period when various allegations are levelled against opponents to weaken them and reduce their chances of winning the elections.
It is almost an acceptable norm that governments in power are particularly criticised for bad performance and everything that goes with that – corruption, unemployment, nepotism, incompetence, maladministration and many others are amplified to the highest decibel.
It is also a normal practice for governments seeking re-election to extol their virtues if even the positive changes they are hammering on were restricted to the fortunes of top government officials, their relatives, friends and a few party loyalists.
There is also the fear theory. This is to create a scenario of fear and insecurity the electorate should expect under a particular administration. This theory is fuelled by threats of victimisation, loss of jobs and prestige, project denials, national chaos and instability and in extreme and desperate situations, death, should the electorate vote in a particular way That is the game of politics.
By some strange coincidence, Ghana shares electoral calendar with the United States of America. They both elect their presidents in the same year, except that the US holds its presidential elections in November, a month earlier than Ghana.
All the ingredients found in the political game featured in the US elections, from the primaries to pick the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to the national to elect the next president of the US. There were the smears, mudslinging, trading of accusations and the throwing of the searchlight on George W. Bush’s administration which did not score high marks among most Americans.
They also had their fair share of the fear theory. Already waging two useless and senseless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Americans could not imagine how their world will be if they should vote for John MaCain, who had very little to separate him from the outgoing President George W. Bush.
Americans, of course, see politics as a serious business and not a battlefield to slaughter one another. The contestants made their promises but not in vain, knowing very well that the electorates are very sophisticated and will, therefore, hold them to their word at the appropriate time. They also do not just listen to promises; they question the capacity and capability of the person making the promise and how reliable that person was to fulfil them.
When the Americans finally settled on Barrack Obama, they might have done so for good reasons. They have a collapsed economy to rebuild. The global credit crunch took a heavy toll on the world’s biggest economy. America’s image as the world’s sole superpower had received a severe dent and its war-mongering posture had been condemned world-wide.
Many Americans may not want to see their children sent to war in Iran or North Korea and with George W. Bush’s war in Iraq and Afghanistan as a guide, chose Barrack Obama, a man who spoke against those wars. At least he represents a new image for America. He is relatively young and brilliant. He comes from a modest family and is of a mixed race (Black and White) and, therefore, fresh on the market.
At the time Barrack Obama was campaigning for the White House, we were also having our political campaigns here. We did everything the Americans did. But in all cases, we went into the extreme. We threw mud at each other freely. We were insulting and we said things about our opponents we knew very well were lies.
The government was loudest, saying very good things about itself, sometimes as if there was nothing good about this country until it came to power. We saw nothing good about previous administrations and we could not give credit for the good things we came to inherit.
The promises were in abundance and they were coming from all angles. Here, unlike America, we make promises with the hope that with time, the electorates will forget them. Thank God, there is a gradual awakening and governments cannot run away with empty promises.
There was also the fear or scare commodity. In 2000, it was widely rumoured that the National Democratic Congress (NDC), which was then in power was so enamoured with power that it might cause havoc if it should lose the elections. It, therefore, became a campaign strategy that in order to maintain the peace and stability of the nation, the then NDC presidential candidate, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, should be given the nod.
Of course, when people are fed up with a system, they are prepared to make sacrifices to effect a change. So the change came, notwithstanding threats of chaos and violence.
In 2008, the scaremongering came, albeit in a more vicious form. It started when Pastor Mensa Otabil, a popular motivational speaker and evangelist, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, another popular evangelist, Mrs Justice Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, the judge who convicted Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) on June 18, 2008, and a few others, who claimed they had received death threats through text messages sent to them. And the message was that they would be eliminated should the NDC win the elections and come to power.
The issue even became more intriguing when the victims of the so-called threats claimed the messages were sent from an e-mail address bearing the name of former President J.J. Rawlings. Can you believe that anyone planning such a horrendous enterprise will not only leave a trail but virtually make a public announcement informing his would-be victims of his criminal intentions?
Those behind what I see as a gigantic scam chose Mrs Mensah-Bonsu because of the role she played in Tsatsu Tsikata’s conviction and which can make her a target of aggrieved supporters of Tsikata. The popular evangelists were chosen because they command large followings and their withdrawal of support for the NDC in solidarity with their leaders will constitute a big reduction in that party’s votes.
Soon the number on what became known as the Hit List started to swell to include more pastors and evangelists who have large following in the country, musicians, especially those who openly associated with Nana Akufo-Addo’s campaign, almost all the ministers in former President Kufuor’s government and New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentarians, media people, including those who spend all their time talking on the radio and television or writing scandalous things in the newspapers.
The list continued to grow and those who joined included people in business, intellectuals and other professional groups. Soon, it became fashionable for any person to wake up and declare publicly that he or she had received death threats via text message or phone call.
The scam operators became so unscientific or is it unreasonable that they continued to add more names, including those who could be described as nonentities until it became obvious that the hatchet men who are going to do the elimination will need expert advice from Rwanda, where the Hutu warriors succeeded in massacring over 900,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a 90-day killing orgy in 1994.
The fear theory failed because the longer the list, the more the deceit was exposed and the more the potency of the expected fear the hit list was to invoke among the people diluted.
Well, just as it happened in 2000, Ghanaians went to the polls for the second time on December 28, 2008 and it was like majority of them preferred to die than remain with a system they were tired and fed up with.
The change did come. All the pastors who claimed they had received death threats are going about freely doing their pastoral work and evangelising to those who care to listen to them. The media people are still talking and writing, some with greater vigour. The musicians are still pumping their sweet and inspirational songs into our system.
The business people, including some of the endangered species, have started sending congratulatory messages to President Mills. Some have even met the President in person at the Castle.
On Inauguration Day, almost all those on the hit list including the clergy, were at the Independence Square to witness the swearing-in of Professor John Evans Atta Mills as President of the Republic. Any lessons?
When we reflect over the events of December, 2008, we ponder to ask; where did the Hit List originate? Why did those so-called Men of God fail us miserably by not denouncing that dubious list which most of them knew very well could not be true? At what point did we lose our sanity to come up with a hit list that defies all logic? Should we be so hungry for political power that we can paint a heinous picture of our opponents as sadists, beasts, megalomaniacs and murderers and thereby create such panic and fear among the citizenry?
Those who underrate the power of the human mind and natural intelligence have a lot to learn from the story of the hit list. There are very simple and effective ways of drawing sympathy and convincing people to your side. You only have to look for them. You do not need to put the fear of the Lord in them to win their support. Thank God, we are alive, hit list or no hit list.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
PRESIDENTIAL HANDOVER NOTES (JANUARY 13)
BY now President John Evans Atta Mills is busily poring over a voluminous set of handover notes in the Executive Office of the Golden Jubilee House. He is likely to find in those notes briefs on government business, both finished and unfinished, the state of national security, loans contracted or due to be contracted and many others that will guide him in his new role as the President of the Republic.
I will not be surprised if former President J. A. Kufuor were to bare his heart to his successor and admit in his handover notes some of the promises he made but which he could not fulfil during his tenure. Promises are common on political platforms and are even tolerated sometimes even though the electorates who are expected to be beneficiaries of such promises may be sceptical and doubtful about their being fulfilled.
How do you conduct a political campaign geared towards wining the votes of the people in order to gain political power without making promises? There are always promises for job creation, new roads, expanded and modern educational facilities, more and better health facilities and many more. Some of these are made in the euphoria of the moment, while others are well-thought-out and may be part of a party’s manifesto. And so, as the promises flow, the crowd will cheer, regardless of whether they are realistic and practicable or not.
Former President Kufuor and his government made their fair share of promises and in fairness to his administration, some of them have been fulfilled, either fully or partially. They include the Bui Hydroelectric Dam Project, repeal of the criminal libel law and the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover the whole nation.
There are many others, which for several reasons never took off. It could be that, at the time those promises were being made, the true picture of the projects were not well captured and, therefore, their magnitude and financial implications were taken for granted.
One project dear to my heart and I believe that of many Ghanaians and our northern neighbours in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali that was promised by former President Kufuor but which we dearly missed was the Accra-Paga railway project.
A railway linking Accra with northern Ghana would have brought a major change in the socio-economic development of this country. It would have made easier and cheaper, the transportation of goods and persons between the extreme geographical ends of the country. But of greater economic benefit to the country would have been the improvement in trade between Ghana and the Sahelian countries up north that have to channel their imports and exports through our ports. It could also have contributed immensely to sub-regional integration.
We were not told what prevented former President Kufuor from meeting that target. We can only guess that the reasons may be financial and technical. I did not hear President Mills making any promise to build a railway linking the south and the north, but I will suggest that in view of the strategic importance of such a project, both economically and socially, he should give it a serious attention.
There was another project that never took off. That was the James Town Fishing Harbour promised the fishermen of that community in Accra. As part of his last days in office, and in an apparent attempt to bolster Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidential ambitions, former President Kufuor went round the country cutting sods for the commencement of various projects.
The James Town Fishing Harbour project was one of them. We do not know whether funds have been solicited for these projects, but it is a burden President Mills has to carry. It is only accidental that former President Kufuor may take the credit or at least share in it, if the Mills administration succeeds in bringing them to fruition.
The James Town Fishing Harbour, as well as the landing sites and storage facilities promised the various fishing communities by the previous administration is very important and President Mills, knowing where he is coming from and his support base among the fishing communities, will do well to meet their demands.
One major project that was never inaugurated by former President Kufuor and which remains a mystery is the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange. This was a project that was intended to ease traffic around that part of the city and add to the beauty of the capital city. But many Ghanaians realised disappointingly that none of the two major objectives was met.
Instead of easing traffic, the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange has become a huge jungle where motorists are constantly fighting for survival into and out of Accra. In the midst of the confusion, nothing beautiful could come out of the interchange. Maybe that explains why the former President, while he found time to open a shopping mall situated on the neck of the interchange, could not perform the official inauguration of the facility.
As things stand now, President Mills will have to assemble a team of road engineers to redesign the interchange to conform to 21st century designs and demands and to look for funding for the reconstruction of the interchange so that it can assume the physical character it was originally intended to.
If President Mills looks through the handover notes critically, he will notice that a road yet to be constructed has been named after President George W. Bush of the US. That is the Tetteh-Quarshie-Mallam Junction road, which is to be reconstructed into a dual-carriageway to be funded from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
The sod-cutting ceremony for this project received a lot of media attention and it is only obvious to expect that Ghanaians will like to see it completed as early as possible. There are many other road projects that have been scratched without completion and the new administration will have to see to their early completion.
There are outstanding bills to pay, which include moneys owed contractors who worked on government projects and the Ghana@50 jubilee projects, some of which were never executed but were captured in the jubilee budget.
As President Mills goes through the handover notes, he will notice that many of the promises made on campaign platforms could not be fulfilled and that should remind him of his own promises, which will very soon be staring him in the face as he settles down for serious business.
There are many other outstanding matters that as the days roll by will be brought to the attention of President Mills and his team. In the meantime, this column welcomes the President to the hot seat and wishes him well.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
I will not be surprised if former President J. A. Kufuor were to bare his heart to his successor and admit in his handover notes some of the promises he made but which he could not fulfil during his tenure. Promises are common on political platforms and are even tolerated sometimes even though the electorates who are expected to be beneficiaries of such promises may be sceptical and doubtful about their being fulfilled.
How do you conduct a political campaign geared towards wining the votes of the people in order to gain political power without making promises? There are always promises for job creation, new roads, expanded and modern educational facilities, more and better health facilities and many more. Some of these are made in the euphoria of the moment, while others are well-thought-out and may be part of a party’s manifesto. And so, as the promises flow, the crowd will cheer, regardless of whether they are realistic and practicable or not.
Former President Kufuor and his government made their fair share of promises and in fairness to his administration, some of them have been fulfilled, either fully or partially. They include the Bui Hydroelectric Dam Project, repeal of the criminal libel law and the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover the whole nation.
There are many others, which for several reasons never took off. It could be that, at the time those promises were being made, the true picture of the projects were not well captured and, therefore, their magnitude and financial implications were taken for granted.
One project dear to my heart and I believe that of many Ghanaians and our northern neighbours in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali that was promised by former President Kufuor but which we dearly missed was the Accra-Paga railway project.
A railway linking Accra with northern Ghana would have brought a major change in the socio-economic development of this country. It would have made easier and cheaper, the transportation of goods and persons between the extreme geographical ends of the country. But of greater economic benefit to the country would have been the improvement in trade between Ghana and the Sahelian countries up north that have to channel their imports and exports through our ports. It could also have contributed immensely to sub-regional integration.
We were not told what prevented former President Kufuor from meeting that target. We can only guess that the reasons may be financial and technical. I did not hear President Mills making any promise to build a railway linking the south and the north, but I will suggest that in view of the strategic importance of such a project, both economically and socially, he should give it a serious attention.
There was another project that never took off. That was the James Town Fishing Harbour promised the fishermen of that community in Accra. As part of his last days in office, and in an apparent attempt to bolster Nana Akufo-Addo’s presidential ambitions, former President Kufuor went round the country cutting sods for the commencement of various projects.
The James Town Fishing Harbour project was one of them. We do not know whether funds have been solicited for these projects, but it is a burden President Mills has to carry. It is only accidental that former President Kufuor may take the credit or at least share in it, if the Mills administration succeeds in bringing them to fruition.
The James Town Fishing Harbour, as well as the landing sites and storage facilities promised the various fishing communities by the previous administration is very important and President Mills, knowing where he is coming from and his support base among the fishing communities, will do well to meet their demands.
One major project that was never inaugurated by former President Kufuor and which remains a mystery is the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange. This was a project that was intended to ease traffic around that part of the city and add to the beauty of the capital city. But many Ghanaians realised disappointingly that none of the two major objectives was met.
Instead of easing traffic, the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange has become a huge jungle where motorists are constantly fighting for survival into and out of Accra. In the midst of the confusion, nothing beautiful could come out of the interchange. Maybe that explains why the former President, while he found time to open a shopping mall situated on the neck of the interchange, could not perform the official inauguration of the facility.
As things stand now, President Mills will have to assemble a team of road engineers to redesign the interchange to conform to 21st century designs and demands and to look for funding for the reconstruction of the interchange so that it can assume the physical character it was originally intended to.
If President Mills looks through the handover notes critically, he will notice that a road yet to be constructed has been named after President George W. Bush of the US. That is the Tetteh-Quarshie-Mallam Junction road, which is to be reconstructed into a dual-carriageway to be funded from the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
The sod-cutting ceremony for this project received a lot of media attention and it is only obvious to expect that Ghanaians will like to see it completed as early as possible. There are many other road projects that have been scratched without completion and the new administration will have to see to their early completion.
There are outstanding bills to pay, which include moneys owed contractors who worked on government projects and the Ghana@50 jubilee projects, some of which were never executed but were captured in the jubilee budget.
As President Mills goes through the handover notes, he will notice that many of the promises made on campaign platforms could not be fulfilled and that should remind him of his own promises, which will very soon be staring him in the face as he settles down for serious business.
There are many other outstanding matters that as the days roll by will be brought to the attention of President Mills and his team. In the meantime, this column welcomes the President to the hot seat and wishes him well.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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