By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

I am not the least bit enthused by President Atta-Mills’ exuberant remark, to the effect that negotiations were ongoing to ensure that the NDC campaign promise of supplying elementary school pupils with free uniforms was wholly and solely undertaken by local Ghanaian textile companies.

To begin with, there is absolutely no convincing evidence that Ghana’s so-called Social Democrats did anything substantive to ensure the survival and development of our nation’s textile industry during the two decades that the party’s founder ruled the proverbial roost. Actually, the P/NDC nonchalantly presided over the dramatic and scandalous collapse of “Akosombo” and “Juapong,” for two ready examples.

Thus it reeks of nothing short of abject hypocrisy and downright insulting for the Ministry of Information to be telling Ghanaians that “The Ministry of Education has over the last five months engaged the local textile companies to determine their capacity and capability to produce the required materials for the uniforms” (JoyOnline.com).

Then also, doesn’t the Ministry of Education have its own Public Relations/Information Directorate to perform the very basic task of informing parents, guardians and other major stakeholders about precisely what it has been doing to fulfill the NDC campaign promise? To be certain, looking at the quite grotesque jockeying for platform, over which is best qualified in informing the public about the government’s supply of school uniforms, it becomes glaring that the Ministry of Information is an idea whose time has passed.

Besides, there is something repugnantly charlatanic about Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa having to sign off on just about every official statement issued by the Ministry of Information. And on the latter score, we quickly add the fact that Mr. Ablakwa is only the deputy information minister.

On the preceding score, we observe two disturbing things. One, either the substantive Information Minister, Ms. Zita Okaikoi, is being incessantly, invariably and deliberately upstaged according to some weird and bizarre strategy orchestrated by some shady operative located at supra-cabinet level, or the minister is ineffably incompetent. We, obviously, prefer to envisage matters in the former light, which may well imply the deft, if also abjectly unsavory, fact of raw nepotism being the operative mantra, in this particular instance. Then again, it could be the lurid “social-climber instinct” in Mr. Ablakwa furiously asserting itself.

In any case, about how many of these government officials pontificating about prioritizing our local textile industry vis-à-vis the supply of school uniforms are themselves staunch patrons of “Made-in-Ghana” textile products? Or do President Atta-Mills and his minions think that just because our pupils would be supplied uniform materials gratis, therefore, it ought to go without saying that just about any quality of material would do?

This, indeed, is all the more reason why we find the entire uniform-supply episode to be rather bizarre, to speak less of the downright disgusting. After all, eight long months into its tenure, oughtn’t the Atta-Mills government have already figured out whether our local textile manufacturers were capable of supplying all our schoolchildren with uniforms without the assistance of external suppliers? And just how much longer is it going to take for the NDC to fully size up the piddling and schlocky capacity of our local textile industry, let alone begin supplying our schoolchildren with such basic need?

What is even more horrifying is that at the time of composing these grim observations, it was being reported elsewhere that more than a half-million Ghanaian children who ought to be in school have yet to be registered for the same purpose. And this comes at the same time that the Atta-Mills government has ill-advisedly decided to reduce the curricular duration of our hitherto 4-year senior secondary educational system by a year.

On both preceding counts, the critical “concept” of quality does not seem to be one that rings the proverbial bell in the ears of these pseudo-Social Democrats. Else, why would the NDC government so casually presume that quixotically pursuing a faux-protectionist agenda, devoid of healthy competition, is the most cost-effective method of supplying our pupils with free uniforms which, by the way, are being fully underwritten by the Ghanaian taxpayer, in reality, since it is the latter who economically and financially sustains the central government anyway?

In seeking to parry rumors about the Atta-Mills government having already contracted with a Chinese firm to supply the school uniforms, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa sounded even more of a ministerial misfit, especially if one factors in the fact that five months after “engaging local textile companies to determine their capacity and capability to produce the required materials for the uniforms,” Oguaa Kofi’s minions have yet to employ a single Ghanaian tailor or seamstress!

And if the Chinese can do a far better job for a cheaper price, then why let empty talk of “patriotism” impede the progress and comfort of tomorrow’s leaders?

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is also a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI), the pro-democracy think-tank, and author of 20 books, including “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Atumpan Publications/Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@aol.com. ###