"...(T)he spring of 1957,...Dr. King traveled across the Atlantic to witness Kwame Nkrumah become the first prime minister of the newly independent Ghana....(It is)...a lesser-known sermon, "The Birth of a New Nation,"...delivered to his congregation at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church upon his return from Ghana... While much is made of his 1959 trip to India to follow the footsteps of...Mahatma Gandhi,...so much less is made of his earlier trip to West Africa to bear witness to Kwame Nkrumah as he nonviolently led his nation to independence from the British Empire...Finally, Nkrumah walks in, with members of his cabinet who had been fellow political prisoners. King reflects: 'The thing that impressed me more than anything else that night was the fact that . . . they didn't come in with the crowns and all the garments of kings, but . . . with prison caps and the coats they had lived with for all of the months that they had been in prison.',....(W)e know that Martin and Coretta returned home to face the wilderness of Alabama, circa 1957; and King brought his sermon home, too...He delivers repeated refrains of "Ghana teaches us" and "Ghana has something to say to us,"...", Josslyn Jeanine Luckett, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Vol. 41, Nos. 3 & 4.

“...Our leaders should understand that their living conditions should not be superfluous than the ordinary man. They should be able to take decisions that will profit the masses...The living condition of a President is far better than a taxi driver. So if a security guard, chop bar operator, trotro driver and the rest could build their own houses, then why should the state offer to build Presidents houses...I can’t understand why we should bring such a burden on us as a people...", Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.

QUESTION: Is Ghana on the move?

ANSWER: Maybe!

QUESTION: Who's gonna stop Ghana from moving?

ANSWER: Members of Parliament like that one from Nsawam Adoagyire, Frank Annor-Dompreh and side-kick Kobina Takir "Hybrid" Hammond. Presidents, former presidents and their Vices like Jerry Rawlings, John Mahama, John Kuffour, Akuffo Addo, Amissah-Arthur. And all their numerous, obscene, unconscionable, and almost permanent demands for so much.

So many demands for so much, when they've taken so much already!

So many demands for so much when they've not even begun to pay income taxes on the high incomes they take from the People and are acutely uninterested in addressing that sad disgrace.

So many demands for so much they never built by themselves, when they cannot even be bothered to speak to all the fraud that the same warts-infested Rawlings Constitution allows them to get take property they never paid for.

Serious Akufo Addo must stop all that nonsense!

Now, to all you wiseacres who would be inclined to come back at us yelling, "Separation or Power", "President Akufo Addo Dankwa can't consider that because he just assumed power, to all you we say:

Probity!

Accountability!

Promises!

So, here we are!

It is January 2017, and we have people like Nsawam Adoagyire Frank Annor-Dompreh and Tafo Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei saying they are not too happy with GIMPA, a government facility, as the venue for orientation of MPs this year. The MPs are demanding the 2017 MP orientation "...session be moved to a more serene location outside Accra, one of them saying:

"...We are not aware if there is any particular reason for the choice of GIMPA, I recall almost four years ago the orientation was held at the same location...I would have thought that after the pressures of elections we would move to a much serene atmosphere...coming from that motivation, I would make some propositions like Aqua Safari, Senchi...and it wouldn't be a bad idea to even consider Dubai...".

You are not aware "if there is any particular reason for the choice of GIMPA"?

Did you forget you are a public official, that public facilities are more cost effective, that you are a leader in a country where under the best circumstance the vast majority of the people earn less that $1,400 per year, per capita?

Yes, they are asking the orientation be held in a Resort, in Accra Dubai, in Ghana!

Imagine, Annor-Dompreh, Akoto Osei, and the other cheering MPs want all 275 of them to get away from Accra at government expense, but they will take Accra Dubai on any day.

Mr. Frank Annor-Dompreh, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, and all the other cheering MPs rather want the government to host the orientation at additional government expense at a plush 4-Star-plus hotel, in a Resort, if you will.

What preposterous nonsense!

If we can borrow a page from Mr. Kofi Opare-Addo and his brilliant essay about beneficial copying, we could ask the MPs:

Tell us, sirs, as Ghana is borrowing and buying so much from China today, what do you all think Mr. Deng Xiaoping, an original Chinese Tiger, shocked to the bone and marrow about the incredible progress he saw in Singapore on a visit, what would Deng Xiaoping say to you and your colleagues now sitting in Parliament, in Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana?

What will Serious Akufo Addo say to these MPs?

What will Serious Akufo Addo do, now?

Here is our Ghana-centered/Ghana-Proud prescription, a Ghana-Centered alternative.

Charter 6 (six) 50-passenger-Coach buses to haul these egoistical and ungrateful MPs to the middle of Ghana by road, both smooth and rocky as they are.

Send them to Atebubu, to middle Ghana, to the geographic center of Ghana, thereabouts 175 miles north of Kumasi, between Paga and the over-fed capital, Accra.

Call it ROP-MP, the Rotational Orientation Plan for MPs!

We imagine during the 680-mile trip, back-and-forth, all NDC MPs will be reminded about some of the things they failed to do; and the NPP ministers, some of the things they ought to do, now that they have the keys to the entire ship and row boats.

As our recommendation to Serious Akufo Addo goes, none of these ministers will stay in any hotel in Atebubu upon arrival, except the limited number of staffers doing the briefings and those helping with health and safety.

We would ensure that 48 hours before the 6-coach caravan arrives in Atebubu, Akufo Addo's Defense Minister would have already had a Task Team of Joint military forces install gender separated, sleep ready, water-proof, mosquito-proof tents for the MPs. The system would include generators, lights, portable toilets, and showers. Canteens would be setup to provide hot government issue meals to the MP, no allowance for meals necessary.

Yes, send Frank Annor-Dompreh, Anthony Akoto Osei, and all the cheerring MPs to Atebubu by road on a 1 week, 3-day working Orientation.

Send them to Atebubu with all the maps of Accra-Tema they would need when they return; with all the forms they would need to sign up for government service; with all the "Reports" and documents they must know about; with all the Contact Information they would need to better serve average Ghanaians other than themselves, when they all get back from the 2017 ROP-MP in Middle Ghana, Atebubu.

We are sure this alternative plan would be most beneficial to the MPs, and more important, would definitely be a great cost-saving alternative for the people who pay all those income taxes.

The Rotational Orientation Plan for MP (ROP-MP) would provide 5 great benefits, not the least of which are:

1. Provide a temporary jolt to the local Atebubu economy, if announced in time

2. Save Ghana some money as the free us of official vehicles - wear and tear, and gasoline by 275 high officials would be avoided for about 7 days

3. Save Ghana some money on $120/per night/per diems/per 275 MPs because it is the government that would provide temporary lodging, meals, and transportation

4. Provide opportunity for other towns/cities/villages to see all their MPs at least once every 4 years, and for their areas to get a temporary jolt to their economies. (We are sure some of those areas would have super smart business people who could permanently capitalize on the idea that so many VIPs visited their area during 20XX, in their life times).

5. Provide the military another chance to train - construct, install, repair, demolish, sanitize, transport, account, learn, serve the community, etc

In conclusion, we are very sure that when Nsawam Adoagyire Frank Annor-Dompreh, Tafo Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, and all the other MP return to Accra from Atebubu, from visiting the people who elected them, they would be a lot better oriented as to what needs doing in Ghana that has capability to actually help suffering Ghanaians.

Yes, we are pretty sure that when the MPs get back to Accra in the VIP coach buses and they are let out of the buses in the parking lot of the Parliament building, most of them would be more sufficiently reflective to better service. They would then be more inclined to support Ghanaians who pay their tax-free salaries, benefits, and allowances.

Then, they would annul that predatory Act 619, the 2016 Petroleum Exploration and Production bill!

Then, they would themselves vote as a group to begin paying taxes on their high government incomes and allowances!

Then, they would rush to pass the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) BILL, substituting that for the anomalous, weak-sounding, and pathetic Right to Information bill. (They have the latter in Zimbabwe, we must remind you).

Then, they would complete the important work on that funky Rawlings Constitution from 1992, the year the United States refused to sign The UN convention on Climate Change and Biological Diversity in Rio De Janeiro under George H. W. Bush, and South Africans vote for political reforms to end apartheid and create a power-sharing multi-racial government

But, change the location for the ROP-MP Orientation the next time. Spread the blessings, if we may, from one corner of Ghana to the other every 4 years

Spur responsible, responsive, and accountable governance!

Probity!

Order!

Order!

So it goes, Ghana!

SOURCES/NOTES: 1. Josslyn Jeanine Luckett. What Ghana Taught King, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Vol. 41, Nos. 3 & 4, (http://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/articles/summerautumn2013/what-ghana-taught-king).

2. Kwesi Pratt Jnr. Think of affordable houses instead of private homes for fmr. Presidents – Pratt to gov’t, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Think-of-affordable-houses-instead-of-private-homes-for-fmr-Presidents-Pratt-to-gov-t-500944).

3. Kofi Opare-Addo. Me, plagiarism and Mariamma... but I digress, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Me-plagiarism-and-Mariamma-but-I-digress-501336).

4. Myjoyonline.com. MPs want to ditch GIMPA; push for luxury resorts for orientation session, (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/MPs-want-to-ditch-GIMPA-push-for-luxury-resorts-for-orientation-session-501442).

5. The People History. The Year 1992 from the People History, (http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1992.html).

VISIT WWW.GHANAHERO.COM/VISIONS, FOR MO' INFORMATION: FOIB - Freedom of Information Bill (FOIB/FOI/Ghana), Ask for it! (http://ghanahero.com/FOIB.html). SUBJ: Send orientation MPs to Atebubu by VIP Road, Serious Akufo Addo!, by Prof Lungu. Support Fair-Trade Oil Share Ghana (FTOS-Gh) Campaign/Petition: https://www.change.org/p/ghana-fair-trade-oil-share-psa-campaign-ftos-gh-psa/ . Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com©15 Jan 17. (Powered by: www.GhanaHero.Com).