Yeah, election 2008 is history now and so is election 2000. But there are some issues that just won’t go away that easily, at least not for me. So I’ve been thinking a lot, a whole lot and somehow some of these thoughts have found their way on these pages.
Remember when women were being murdered left, right and centre? And remember when the government of the day (the NDC) seemed to be at its wits end and couldn’t put a stop to the murders? Remember also when the NPP, then in opposition, promised to deal a onetime blow to the problem if elected?
Well the NPP got elected and true to their campaign promise, they captured the perpetrator and thus gave our women right to life once again. The nation was happy to finally see the end of this rather bizarre and very embarrassing period in our history. But there were others who were not so happy at the turn of events and so they embarked on a negative campaign: They said O, the NPP were only able to stop the murders because they (the NPP) were the perpetrators in the first place. They knew exactly what they were doing and that is why they were able to promise, before the election, that if elected they would end it. These accusations came from the NDC and were actually spearheaded by the ‘godfather’ himself. According to the NDC’s logic, the NPP ‘contracted’ people to commit such atrocious crimes just to discredit the NDC, make them unpopular, in order for them (NPP) to win power. It didn’t bother the NDC one bit that such a charge against another political party was baseless and unwarranted. So here we are in 2009 and the NDC is back in power. President Atta Mills and the NDC had campaigned to deal with the menace of armed robbery that is overwhelming the security services. What have I been thinking about on this issue? Well, what if President Atta Mills and the NDC succeed in combating armed robbery? Can the argument be made then, by the NPP, that the NDC was behind it all along? You see where talking ‘by heart’ for political expediency can lead us?
Here is another thought: Some members of the NDC and quite a sizeable number of the population raised ‘hell’ whenever a foreign delegation went to greet the Asantehene at Manhyia. J.A. Kufuor was always accused of holding the Asantehene up above all other chiefs, as if the Asantehene needed anybody to help spread his fame across the world. As anybody who has ever traveled outside the country would testify, the one chief that foreigners tend to have some knowledge about is the Asantehene. Foreign dignitaries were going to Manhyia long before J.A. Kufuor became president and they would continue to long after he’s gone. Just recently the Korean Ambassador went to see the Asantehene. Can the argument be then that, President Atta Mills ‘arranged’ for that meeting? Again, with the appointment of Togbe Afede to the transition team, is President Atta Mills ‘promoting’ Togbe Afede over the others? Where are the people who constantly shouted foul whenever J.A. Kufuor involved the Asantehene in anything? Or is it that for as long as it is not the Asantehene then it must be alright with them. The same Togbe Afede went to China and brought back an investment group to build a power plant somewhere in Ghana. This was done under J.A. Kufuor’s NPP, but nobody accused Kufuor for ‘favouring’ the Togbe. J. A. Kufuor is even reported to have personally intervened in the matter between Togbe Afede and the VRA about land for the project. Still there were no complaints against the former president. There would have been uproar if it had been Otumfuo instead of Togbe. How do I know? Well when the World Bank accepted a proposal from Manhyia, and subsequently released funding to provide safe-drinking water and other amenities to the people of Ghana, that did not sit well with……the same group of people we’ve been talking about. They right away accused J.A. Kufuor and the NPP for going for the grant and giving it to the Asantehene. I have done some studies on the workings of the World Bank. I have never known the World Bank to just give monies to governments to pass on to traditional authorities. Even the World Bank admitted that it was quite unprecedented and so they became interested just to see how that level of collaboration and cooperation between the Bank and a traditional authority would play out. They were ready to replicate it across the globe if it succeeded. One would have thought that Ghanaians would be proud of this but …….the initiative happened to have come from a ‘wrong’ part of the country and for which reason it should be condemned. I must add though that some right-thinking Ghanaians came out strongly to support the initiative but they formed the minority.
The NPP’s byword, after the 2000 elections, was ‘we knew the economy was bad, but we didn’t know it was this bad’ Well it is the NDC’s turn to return the favour. They have tried everything to paint to Ghanaians that the economy they just inherited is in such a bad shape. According to some critics the ‘success’ story of economic stabilization over the last 8 years was only in the minds of the NPP government officials. A report purported to have come from the World Bank was their basis for such allegations. But there are some clear pieces of evidence to prove otherwise. So were all the indices fraudulent? The bank rates, the interest rates, inflation rates and others that we were told had gone down did not happen? And what did the banks and the other non-banking financial institutions do about it? Why did the international banks (Barclays, Stanchart, Stanbic, etc) sit quietly and silently whilst such false claims of economic stabilization was being bandied around? Interesting!!!!!! That is all I can say, but there were 2 personalities, who should know what they are talking about, who decided to call it like it is: First, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor (the minister for finance designate) has come out to state categorically that indeed Ghana is not broke!! Second, Dr. Kwesi Botchway also added his voice in saying that, yes; the economy has done well over the last 7 years and that 2008 saw some bad decisions being made by the NPP government which had the potential of derailing some of the gains earlier achieved. Beyond these, let’s get to the ordinary people on the streets.
We were all witnesses to when inflation was so bad that you were bound to meet a new (and higher) price should you go back a day after you last asked of the price of a particular commodity. Businesses could not put together any realistic forecasts on the markets. The cedi had fallen faster than Lucifer himself and kept falling. Now let all the good people of Ghana stand up and refute the fact that the economic environment, vis-a vis the indicators listed above, went through a transformation, and a positive transformation at that. Already there are signs that the cedi has started its free-fall again. The NDC would do well to concentrate on the economy and make sure it doesn’t run amok.
Again there are calls from the NDC and certain quarters for Ghana@50 secretariat to come clean and render proper accounts. That is very legitimate. Ghana@50 committee actually went to parliament and then told Ghanaians how much has been voted for the anniversary. If there were any additional spending, they should own up and account for it. In the same spirit, can the Ghana@40 committee tell Ghanaians how much was spent on that celebration? Yes there was a Ghana@40. Mrs. Rawlings and her ‘crew’ were practically in charge and they never said a word about how much they spent to anybody. Why did we need to celebrate 40 years anyway? When people who actually spent millions on a celebration with no significance, (as far as I am concerned) without rendering any accounts to the people of Ghana, suddenly find religion and demand accountability, I just have to think aloud!
Did we have bad roads in Ghana when the international conference centre was built for the NAM conference? Did we have children going to school under trees when the government contracted millions in loans to put up the national theatre? So millions are contracted to put up a presidential palace and suddenly we realize how poor we are. The hypocrisy is too much to contain sometimes!!
I am still thinking aloud!!!!!
Yaw Opare-Asamoa oasamoa@gmail.com
Written and submitted on February 19, 2008