NPP, The Worse Govt In Ghana?s History V

I have read and understand the words of Martin Luther King JR where he said and I quote

?The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force ?.

Now these are my words to my compatriots who are disappointed by the performance of the current government.

Let it be reiterated that we did not vote the NPP to power only for them to justify their incompetence with the failures of their predecessor government.

We voted NPP into power thinking that they will be the better of the two evils (so to speak). And one thing remains certain; when we were chanting the slogans of change, we did so with the unflinching belief that we wanted a positive change; we wanted to see a clear manifestation of the winds of change blowing on the shores of our judiciary, the legislature, and most importantly the executive of which the president himself is one. But what we have seen so far is even worse: a president who will not listen to the genuine cries of the suffering masses; ministers of state who will run after anything in skirt; parliamentarians who deal in drugs.

Instead of telling us ?we have promised and now we are delivering?, the NPP government is rather telling us ?we cannot do the job because the NDC hasn?t laid the foundation for us?. What they seem to be saying is ?you have given us the job, we can?t do it?get the right people to do it?. And for those who keep challenging me to provide the evidence of corruption against the government, I refer you to read those brilliant articles written by Djokoto Dawukpor, Kotey Nikoi, Nana Amma Obenewaa and other well meaning compatriots whose hearts bleed with pain on seeing the rot that is going on in this government. I cannot expatiate on these articles any better.

When we voted for Kuffuor, we did so because he came forward with a message the heart of which constituted the problems of Ghana. We did not vote him into power because of his message on the creation of jobs. The reason being that just before the 2000 elections, one of the economic "gurus" of the party was part of a panel of speakers at a debate organised by NUGS at KNUST. I was there. And the said NPP guru was no less person than Dr Apraku (who used to flex his political muscles on the airwaves and especially on GTV's TALKING POINT). It was on that day we got to know that when it came to the economy, the NPP had no answers. And we came to this realisation when the Dr was asked a simple demand and supply question by an Agric Science student who was doing Economics as a ?borrowed subject? (that tells you that the questioner was not well versed in the technicalities of that model)?. The Dr was all over the place trying to coin an answer to the question culminating in his being booed by the student body at the Great Hall. So we knew NPP had no answers to the problems of the Ghanaian economy. We also know that when it comes to economics and business-related matters, the president himself is a personification of failures. So his message on the economy didn?t ring a bell as far as I was concerned.

Now when we voted the NPP into power we did not do so because we thought they were better at providing the badly-needed infrastructure in Ghana. Some of us have had the opportunity of travelling the length and breadth of Ghana- from Pusiga in the arid savannah regions to the rainforest regions of Axim. We have seen that in terms of infrastructure, the Rawlings administration had done what Napoleon couldn?t do. So I did not vote the NPP to better the infrastructural facilities in Ghana. No! That was not my reason for voting for NPP.

I voted for NPP because I sat behind the same dinning table with Mr Kuffuor and ate kebab bought from the ghettos of "Allah bar" in Kumasi. I sat with Kuffuor and drank from the same bottle, wine ? quintessential French wine. And that was when he lost his beloved sister to the icy hands of death. It was behind that table that he told us of his plans to rid Ghana of corruption in that he had realised that corruption was the root cause of the Ghanaian predicament and he argued (succinctly) on that fateful day that ridding Ghana of corruption is the sine qua non to accelerated development. He spoke eloquent Twi and we listened with alacrity and enthusiasm. I believed him and thought he could do it. My reason for believing him was based on one conviction; baring greed and selfishness, the reason for corruption is need. Kuffuor is not in need as far as I am aware. At least his children are OK enough to look after him till the end of his life. So after that conversation we went out in our numbers and spread the message. We chanted the slogans and made the message to permeate through every nook and cranny of Ghana. Under the scotching sun we went out from one market stall to the other, from one chop bar to the other selling the message of ?zero tolerance for corruption?. And the message was bought.

So today if we the same people who dined and wined with Mr Kuffuor turn around to reprimand him, it is not because we have some deep seated prejudices against that individual, but it is because he has turned us into liars . It is because he has made it impossible for us to look into the eyes of that market woman who bought our message with her hard earned money earned through the drudgery of everyday work in the precincts of the Makola market. It is because Kuffuor has made it virtually impossible for me to go back to Kumasi Asafo market to tell that Hajia in the market who bought our message with money earned through the sale of ?tuo zaafi? under the scotching sun that "we told you so". It is because Kuffuor has made it impossible for me to go back to that farmer in the village to say ?veni vidi vici? (I came, I saw, I conquered).

So we shall continue to remind Kuffuor of the promise he made; the promise that got us out on the streets spreading the message that ?here cometh a messiah to wipe away your tears?. Now we shall continue to remind him of that commitment bearing in mind the sayings of Bess Myerson - ?the accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference?. So we shall not remain indifferent to the rot that is going on. We shall not close our eyes to the decadence manifested by the likes of Dr Anane, Amoateng, Wereko Brobbey, Edumadze, Kofi Broni, Bamba, Jake, Apraku and even Kuffuor himself. We will sing that song till we lose our voices. And we shall sing that song with the energy and resilience of a bulldog.

And in singing that song we shall not yield to the threats of the foot soldiers that have been bought to silence the weeping child. We shall not yield to the campaign of calumny indulged in by a few who have little or no knowledge of the genesis of the struggle to rid Ghana of corruption. And we shall conduct our struggle on ?the high plane of dignity and discipline? as admonished by Martin Luther. And we shall continue to fight knowing that the fight is as difficult as passing a horse through the eye of the needle. We shall however be placated by the words of Bill Cosby when he said ?I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.?

So we shall not try to please cohorts and sympathisers. We were there before and we know exactly what it means. We shall fight hard to make the voices of the malnutritioned-children of Ghana heard. WE shall fight hard to make sure the judicial system is rid of corruption. WE shall fight real hard until we can see light at the end of that tunnel. If that means anything to you then join hands with me to chant that slogan that will emancipate Ghana out under the shackles of perpetual corruption in the hands of rather obstinate leaders who have lost their sense of orientation to the whirlwinds of corruption; leaders who have no compassion for the weeping child strapped to the back of his mother who is carrying a gourd of water with firewood in her hands. Why must I sit by the banks of a river and yet wash my hands with spittles?
Good morning!