Opinions of Sunday, 3 June 2018

Columnist: Rockson Adofo

Has President Nana Akufo-Addo's plan for saving Ghana failed or he failed to plan?

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

It is a proven fact by more knowledgeable and accomplished persons that when you allow anyone to change your own basic plans, then you are bound to fail for part of, if not the entirety of, your life.

For example, if you have planned to go abroad to pursue further education, and once you get there you allow friends to change your initial plan to rather pursue quick money by straightaway going into some employment of some sort, same believing that “all money be money”, that is the beginning of your failure. When it does happen, you will turn round to say your plans have failed. No, plans never fail but just that we either fail to plan well or fail to stick to our initial plans.

I am going to relate the above reference to the current situation of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as many a Ghanaian has come to perceive him. As a supporter of the President, people keep sending me messages eith

er to draw my attention to what is transpiring on the ground that may be harmful to his cause, or send messages to tease me for supporting him when they receive any negative publicity about him and his NPP Government.

Be that as it may, the President must be supported through suggestions, constructive criticisms and be advised to keep to the initial noble plans that persuaded many a Ghanaian to see him as a liberator hence casting their votes for him at the 2016 general elections.

I, like many other Ghanaians, do not see the flame that attracted many people to support the President currently glowing in him as otherwise expected. It appears his plans have been changed through the influence of some powerful persons who in their heart of hearts are not his friends or true supporters.

If indeed, the rumour that Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who is known by many Ghanaians not to have wanted Nana Akufo-Addo to ever become the President of Ghana, has admonished him saying,”amanmuo nye patapaa” (it is not force that is employed to rule a nation) and the President has subsequently agreed, contrary to his initially devised means to employ to rule Ghana, then the President has failed.

No wonder that under his watch the police are still openly on the roads taking bribes from drivers; armed robberies still going on if not on the increase; corruption still going on and does not seem to be abated with public perception of strong corruption taking place within his administration.

Before coming to power, and the immediate weeks following his accession to power, many a Ghanaian was scared of him for being a strict no-nonsense disciplinarian.

The very people who were campaigning against him for the fear of him coming to imprison them for their committed acts of corruption against the State and the people are now emboldened to talk anyhow and even accuse his government of being super corrupt and super incompetent. How come, if Nana Akufo-Addo might not have failed to implement his own initially designed strict methods for governing Ghana, although as a Democrat, not an authoritarian?

To be honest with him and Ghanaians, I feel hurt to hear of so many wrongdoings still ongoing under the administration of the President, a person specially anointed by God to come to liberate Ghanaians from their many problems experienced under the John Dramani Mahama’s NDC-led government.

How I hope the President would discard any negative advice given to him by whoever that has mitigated his mojo for ruling Ghana? How I wish I could seek an audience with him to impress upon him the need to listen to his own voice and that of God but not that of those seeking in their hearts to weaken him or douse his vibrant flame in order to continue to practice their corruption with impunity.

I was expecting His Excellency the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to be like the President Dr John Magufuli of Tanzania, nicknamed the “Bulldozer” or Paul Kagame of Rwanda.

For adhering strictly to their personal strong beliefs to improving their countries by ridding them of corruption as well as strengthening the various institutions, they have earned not only national but also, international fame and recognition.

The following case situations should never be allowed to happen under the administration of the until now publicly-admired incorruptible Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

I have read on Ghanaweb under its General News of Friday, 25 May 2018, a publication headlined, “Mac Manu and family grabbing GHAPOHA contracts – Staff”. In the said publication, the full content of which can be accessed via the web link below, it is alleged as follows.

“Workers of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GHAPOHA) in the Western region have accused their board chairman, Mr Peter Mac Manu, of conflict of interest by giving contracts to his wife and children. The Union further accused Mr Mac Manu of awarding a $4 million contract to wire the newly constructed electrical and materials block of GHAPOHA to his own company”

https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Mac-Manu-and-family-grabbing-GHAPOHA-contracts-Staff-654750

Should it be true as alleged, regardless of the effective role by Mac Manu as the NPP’s Campaign Manager for Election 2016, the President must cause investigations to be conducted into his activities and conduct as the Board Chairman of the GHAPOHA?

If the veracity of the allegations is proven, he has to be sacked followed by the prosecution without any ifs or buts. It amounts to the corruption that Dr John Magufuli will never tolerate hence the remarkable success of his administration. Once you do that, it will put fear into many would-be peddlers of similar corrupt activities to bring sanity into the country.

Finally, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Cocoa Board, Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman, is accused by the workers of ruffling a lot of feathers. He is withholding some of their numerous benefits, allowances and whatnot. He believes the allowances and the other benefits they are enjoying are abnormally huge hence a slap in the face, or an insult to the intelligence, of the poor cocoa farmers whose sweat and toils have made it possible for the workers to enjoy such benefits at the expense of the farmers.

He has a good reason to cut down on their benefits but on condition that he will do so sensibly through the restructuring of the Ghana Cocoa Board. Drawing on my experience as acquired at the workplace and living abroad, he can make those enjoying such huge benefits redundant; pay them off and within months change the name of the departments they worked in and start recruiting new people with restructured fewer benefits and pay. Normally, after making some people redundant, you have to wait three or six months before employing people to fill their positions or else, they can sue you for unlawful dismissal. However, if you change the name of the department from say, “Cocoa Inspection Department” to say “Cocoa Examination Branch”, you can start recruiting new people to fill the positions of those made redundant without them being able to sue you. Should they do, they will fail in their suit because the department they worked in as “Cocoa Inspection Department” does no longer exist but a new department of “Cocoa Examination Branch”, although the same work is being done. Additionally, the titles of the workers in the restructured department can be changed despite the newly recruited persons doing the same job. In the former department who was called General Manager of Research can now be called as Senior Inspector of Research. The redundant worker’s job does no longer exist so he/she cannot sue Ghana Cocoa Board or Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang for unlawful redundancy/dismissal.

Let Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyeman continue with his good job to save the country much-needed money to help the poor cocoa farmers. However, he needs to do it prudently.

For how long will I continue to give free advice for which consultants will charge huge fees without incurring the wrath of my senior brother in Toronto, Canada? Ghanaians do not appreciate the value of advice given free of charge unless charged for it, he admonishes me.

Subsequently, I will end here to pursue my genuine personal agenda without spending most of my time lamenting about mother Ghana and her obstinately corrupt sons and daughters who are resolutely determined never to reform their disastrous black mentality.