Jermaine Nkrumah

Kofi is my best friend and I love him like my brother. But Kofi cannot dance to save his life. We always tease him that on the dance floor, as all of us are dancing to one song, he would be dancing to a different one that is playing in his own head. It has now become one of my life’s objectives to figure out why moving one’s feet to the beat of a song is such an arduous task for my friend. I am equally perplexed as to how much in common my dear friend has with the NDC party. But while Kofi is rhythmically challenged, and can’t help himself, the NDC consciously ignores the facts to the extent that when its members open their mouths, I cannot help but wonder if they are talking about the same Ghana that you and I know and love, or a different one that they have imagined in their heads.

Here are a series of statements by the NDC and how much they deviate from reality:

The NDC says: “The new pro active transforming policy commitment of the National Democratic Congress seeks for a transparent and accountable governance, building on a stranger economy for real jobs, investing in people and expanding infrastructure for economic growth. But no sooner had the NDC government set about to deal with the economic challenges facing the country that the new administration began to unravel, to our astonishment a murky world of corruption, gross economic mismanagement, nepotism, personal greed and malfeasance on a gigantic scale that characterized (sic) NPP 8 years in government.”

This “new proactive transforming commitment” is very evident by the deer-in-the-headlight performance that has even the father of NDC criticizing it on a daily basis. The transparent and accountable government waited and passed a shady Petroleum Agreement in a Parliament that did not even have a quorum. The stronger economy for real jobs has so materialized that the NDC boys have resorted to taking over public toilets and ransacking NHIS offices on a weekly basis. The NDC’s idea of real jobs is simply to take them away from perceived NPP sympathizers and hand them to unqualified NDC sympathizers.

On new administration’s findings, the NPP took over an economy in 2001 that had enough reserves to sustain the country for three weeks. In contrast, the current NDC administration met a country with enough reserves to sustain itself for two years if no additional revenues came in. These are undeniable facts. On corruption, Quality Grain, Mabey & Johnson, Ayariga’s “Tractorgate,” Mubarak’s spending spree of government money, and the lost reparation money that the British government paid to Ghana are just a few of the multitude of corrupt behavior that the NDC is known for. To date, despite all the noise and distracting penchant of this administration to find fault with members of the NPP, this government is yet to successfully prosecute a single NPP official.

The NDC says: “For 8years Ghanaians were denied the basic and fundamental necessities of life such as education, electricity, healthcare, decent housing and access to good drinking water. • And for 8 years Ghanaians were sidelined and reduced to innocent bystanders, whilst the NPP and their partners in the Diaspora plundered the wealth of our country, looted the national coffers to fill their pockets, built mansions in the affluent parts of the country, drove the best cars and sent their children overseas for better education.

The Vodaphone Review Report, the Ghana at 50 Report, the Auditor’s General Report at the Ministry of Information and the recent Investigation into the operations at the Tema Shipyard all revealed the corruption practices, malfeasance, non transparency and non accountability and above all nepotism that characterised NPP 8 years in government.”

The NPP instituted National Health Insurance Scheme, which is not only the envy on the continent, but has been highlighted in a speech by President Obama. The NPP also instituted free maternal care for pregnant women. Today the NDC has all but destroyed them. The NPP righted the wrongs of the previous NDC government by restoring our secondary school system, and initiated a free school feeding program. Today the NDC has all but destroyed them. Under the NPP, housing and electricity in Ghana became subjects of admiration by our peers ranging from Mauritania to South Africa.

On Diaspora involvement, the NPP actually followed the law, albeit flawed, to keep the Diaspora out. Conversely, the NDC is employing a selection of the Diaspora who has nothing positive to offer Ghana. Finally, while Kufuor’s children were already abroad toiling like the rest of us before he became president, Rawlings’ children were sent abroad to be educated after he decimated our school system such as closing down the universities on dozens of occasions.

The NDC says: “Whilst we expect the NPP as an opposition party to offer constructive criticisms and to provide alternatives to government policies, instead the NPP and their surrogates in the Diaspora use Ghanaian tax payers’ money as slush funds to pay certain media outlets and the use of the internet to function, cater and feed their diabolic deficiencies to the Ghanaian communities both in the country and in the Diaspora in order to tarnish the reputation of the NDC government and to make the government look bad in the eyes of the people.”

First, the NDC government does not need any help in the image tarnishing department. In fact, if there is one thing the NDC does masterfully, it is to tarnish its own image and that of the entire nation. And since when did any part of the Diaspora use Ghana’s tax money? Listen to the song that’s playing and dance to it. In the area of criticism, we have always been constructive, and you can tell by how members of the NPP speak on issues, and how members of the NDC resort to name calling. Look up the word “constructive.”

The NDC says: “Today, the NPP has become a political party of extremists. They believe society can function without a government as they disagree with both efficiency and morality. The use of violence has been become the hallmark of NPP politics and a tool for intimidating government institutions, the judiciary and the security agencies. Ladies and gentlemen, while the NDC government remained focused, unfazed and refused to buckle under the barrage of NPP predictable criticisms, they have now resorted to the use of FOREIGN AGENTS, one of whom is identified as John Hardy, a British legal practitioner, invited to Ghana to peddle falsehood and to ridicule a democratically elected Government of Ghana.”

First on extremist postures, when was the last time an NDC agent said anything objective or complimentary about the NPP? Then ask how many times some members of the NPP have made objective and complimentary, even if undeserving, about the NDC? Second, was “the use of violence” by the NPP a typo? Even a child born today in Ghana knows the NDC is the violent party. thirty-two politically related killings in one year, the Ashanti Regional Minister asking supporters to beat up opponents, declaration of Jihad by the deputy Eastern Regional Minister, murder suspect found under the bed of deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, the attempted lynching of Baafi for suggesting that Rawlings’ burnt his own house, the beating of NPP executive officers during the Akwatia by-elections, etc. Again the song has a highlife beat; do not dance to reggae beat. Finally, when we say it, they claim we are lying. Now when a neutral person says it, they claim we are using foreign agents. Now we would have to bring God to tell Ghanaians how bad the NDC is for Ghana.

To be continued.