Opinions of Sunday, 4 November 2007

Columnist: Obenewaa, Nana Amma

Agbekeke Menye Nukunu Na Susuto o.

When evil laws exhaust their course, nervy leaders plead. Those who perpetuate injustice using the nation’s unjust laws are blameworthy for the tensions that are slowly engulfing our nation. The government’s attempt to revise the “causing financial losses to the state” law must be rejected. Such a calculated act of partisan mischief must not be allowed to become part of our criminal law. Let the law stay the way it is until it gulps its architects.

Since when the current government realize that the witch-hunting law, which it once prized as essential to its zero-tolerance campaign was no longer effective in eradicating the sanctioned thievery within the current administration? Is it right to speculate that the president is sensing something that is beyond the visual purview of the nation? Kwame Peprah, Tsatsu (E)tsikata, and the grief-stricken ghost of the late Victor Serlomey would curse the very court that convicted them of wrongdoing using such an ill-defined law.

Would the president be prepared to face the nation’s court, and be charged with causing financial losses to the state for refusing to travel on the Gulfstream presidential jet? While I think he should not, I believe that the president’s refusal to stand up to the selective application of this politically-motivated law will came back to haunt him should the political tables turn.

The president’s reason for not using the presidential jet, among the many documented scandals within his administration, is interesting, and deserves some scrutiny. Since assuming the presidency, the nation does not need the world’s renowned financial wizards to tell us that the financial outflows caused by the president’s many travels could exceed the purchasing price of the Gulfstream presidential jet. For refusing to use this jet, is the president violating the laws of the state by burdening the nation with unnecessary expenses?

Given the above, is it morally appropriate, to hound our president before the court to have a taste of a spiteful law that can convict Bill Gates even with the best defence lawyers? The incumbent’s frantic attempts to amend to the law on “causing financial losses” to the state are a clear indication that, the president is beginning to realize that power is not a long-term possession. As history has shown, once power eludes a serving leader, he could be treated like any petty criminal, and his rights thrust into the dustbins the same way he did to his political adversaries. Humiliation is not restricted to society’ subaltern. Sometimes, it befalls the mighty, who in their glory saw politics as an opportunity to become indigenous-capitalists under the Golden Age of “Yenkyendi.”

Does the use of the state’s resources in renovating the president’s private residence, in the early years of his presidency, constitute “causing financial loss” to the state? Is there a part of the constitution, or any of the nation’s laws, for that matter, that permits the appropriation of the state’s resources to renovate the president’s private residence? Unless stated otherwise, the president’s misappropriation of the nation’s resources to renovate his private residence constitutes grand larceny, and could be prosecuted under the law.

The unity of our nation will remain a chimera if we allow the state to create, amend, and expunge laws for the convenience of dishonest politicians. I am not against just laws. However, I vehemently oppose laws that harass, and persecute political adversaries and make the corrupt campaigners of zero-tolerance look like guardian angels, when in fact they relish neo-imperial extravagance that would make Queen Elizabeth look like a pauper by comparison.

My ears have become numbed to the “ye wo oman-panyin to sika mu” fairytale. If the preceding is true, which I know it isn’t, then, I am afraid to say that the rate at which the “ oman panyin-osikani” is cashing in on the nation with the Alan “Cash” and the Kwamena Bartels will make mother-Ghana look like a Berber woman in the middle of the dusty Sahara Desert . Are we not tired of seeing the wrinkles of poverty etched on the temple of Ghanaians ? Maybe, those who continue to link Ghana ’s mass poverty to genetics will, this time around, invoke excerpts from the Bible to moderate the hopelessness of “mmobrowa.”

Our ministers’ dash for French couture, “Not Ordinary Dreams” shoes, and Gucci watches, deluxe automobiles, mansions registered in ghost names, not counting their properties outside of the country, and contracts to their mistresses, will be part of investigative crusade to host criminal elements at the Nsawam penitentiary.

This article speaks for the nation’s underprivileged school children who cannot complete primary education because the nation’s leaders have siphoned off resources meant for social programs to feed their lavish lifestyles. It also speaks on behalf of our siblings in the Northern Regions many of whom have lost, and will lose, their vision to river blindness, because our leaders care less about their afflictions.

Who speaks for the nation’s students who cannot acquire the requisite education needed for the competitive global economy, because our leaders do not see the need to institute the necessary education reform? Who speaks for the sick who are going to die from prevented causes because newly graduated students from our nation’s medical school(s) do not have adequate professional capability to dispense quality healthcare? Let’s add our voice to the debate to educate our politicians, and hold them to account. Where are the “kadzidoe”, and the “ayevu”? Need I translate? Hope all is well. Good day and cheers.



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