My brothers and sisters, distinguished members of the podium, district men and women, I write wholeheartedly to register my philosophical appreciation to Mr, Hakeem Umar Tonia for his effort and precious time spent to analysed some opinion leaders spoken words and vindicated me by my constructive criticism about the abysmal performance of Alhaji A.A Suleman (Roads and Highways Minister). I sincerely acknowledge and appreciate your effort. May almighty Allah bless you in all your endurance. May the Creator of all Creation guide you through you Academic field and beyond. I'm highly proud of you. I thank the almighty Allah for His timely Divine Justice Intervention. To let opinion leaders come out to register their displeasure concerning the poor roads network in our land. This have actually vindicated me in and on time. I'm humble and glad that I have been vindicated.
My brothers and sisters, agreed on break, but when an opportunity present itself. You need to make maximum use of it. Let me use this opportunity again to engrave a write-up. The NDC government consists of a gang of men exactly like Dr. Spio, Hon. Bagbin and many others competent people. The president JM has appointed certain individuals as ministers who lack technical knowhow instead of the competent once. He has, taken one with another, no special talent for the business of government; such ministers have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods ( Mencken).

In this regard, can a minister work in a sector that he lacks knowledge or the technical knowhow. Seriously, almost all his ( president) appointees lack the technical knowhow to tackle the developmental challenges in the country. I'm yet to see the quality of calibre of competent people with accurate technical knowhow ex-president J.J Rawlings appointed in his administration as ministers to handle the developmental challenges in the country. Dr. Spio handle two ministry positions (education and energy). He set-up Ghana education Trust Fund that has been the backbone of many projects in the educational sector. As an ambassador to the USA from 1994 to 1997, Dr. Spio was noted for his success in rebuilding Ghana's image across the USA including organising an unprecedented eight-city investment promotion programme for Ghana's president in the USA. As a result Ghana became the first country to be visited by the former US president Bill Clinton during his famous five-country African visit in 1998 and is now a recipient of the millennium challenge Account. Dr. Spio -Gabrah was also in charge of the public education committee which successfully reintroduced the VAT to Ghana after a disastrous first attempt in the early 1990's had left scores of protesters dead. The VAT today mobilizes billions of cedis for socioeconomic and infrastructure development in Ghana today.
All in all he was able to deliver yet such a person is on bench. We do blame the coach of a team when he lost a match. Simply because he has done poor selection. I don’t think any serious coach who expect to win a match will bench L. Messi or C. Ronaldo. It will be a tremendously curse for the coach to do that. So it is applicable in politics. It is a deliberate attempt JM doesn’t want to deliver for benching the most technical knowhow men in his administration. Who could have help him out of this his abysmal performance. Still in his 'first gear'. What a pity!. In a nut shell, almost all, his ministers can speak only big English language but lack the technical knowhow to solve our numerous challenges. I will not be tempted to mention names because we all know them by their action and inaction (performance). Let's reason beyond politicking.
On the other hand, I believe our democracy has all the ingredients to serve us well. We happen to have made just one mistake! That mistake is the failure to keep separate parliament from executive. The parliaments of the 4th republic have been the most useless institutions over which scarce state money has and continues to be spent! Almost all the government-side MPs are acting in a way to catch the attention of the President so they can be appointed to ministerial position. The MPs themselves know what they are involved in, is in the main useless. That is why they don't attend sittings. In many instances they intentionally close their eyes to the lack of quorum just so some semblance of work can progress. A bill comes from government and all government-MPs are for it, while all opposition MPs are against. What can be more unnatural than this? The polarization has trickled into the society. Today you open the radio to a political discussion. The moment the party affiliation of panellist is mentioned, you straightaway know his views, and he/she will defend it as if part of the the looted money will be sent to him/her after the program. What we are seeing in the 4th republic is in sharp contrast to what pertained during the 3rd republic where MPs could not be appointed ministers.

Let us reflect and read books about Dr. Limann appointment of ministers. Check the quality of the ministers Dr. Limann appointed. Dr. Limann was forced to do so because these appointees needed to be persons who could stand their ground against a truly independent Parliament where the grilling of Ministers was thorough. So thorough that Limann's budget (IMF/WB-back austerity) was rejected by the Parliament in which he (Limann) had majority. The current arrangement makes a President run a term in comfort and without a pressure to rule and rule well. He appoints any characters and parliament endorses just anybody will sail through!! In this 4th republic, executive can send bills on millions of dollars of Loan and it can be approved almost overnight!! We need to divorce Parliament form the Executive if were to enjoy the fruits of true democracy! - Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances!

Written by Justice Ali. 0204803328