Just a few days ago we were campaigning and singing loud praises of everything that moved and called itself a Mahama. Last week we dealt with the excuses of incumbency disadvantage, a new term that will shape a lot of future quotes in political discussions.

This week we have turned a new corner and the emphasis is now very much on conflicts of interest with anyone remotely unfortunate to have a name with Addo or Akuffo in it. Unfortunate slip of a birth name.

But before we get there, let’s talk about Bugri Naabu and Otiko Djaba and the disgraceful display of uncouthness only credited to Kennedy Adjapong and the likes of the “Montie 3”.

When that Montie 3 incident and subsequent jailing on contempt happened, we were all appalled and very much on tenterhooks about how the Judiciary would react and how for a long time the “lame horse jockey” would play his cards. At that time he was only a “dead goat” waiting to be carved up to the electorate to give him a ravaging thumbs down, road infrastructure and all. Had we known how the results would turn out then, we would have advised JSC Sophia Akuffo at the time to give more than four months to those foul-mouthed three and challenged JDM to release them anyhow, which he would have done, because he considers infrastructure development far more critical to winning elections than corrupting the system and releasing convicted felons because the Constitution says he can. Without thinking whether it was sensible to do so, well maybe he did, because he thought he could pour it all into the concrete and wish it away, he went ahead and set them free.

But now we are all the wiser and can see the way he thinks.

And to clear the air on the economy and who is working to impress the West, rating agencies have released their view on the Ghana economy when we haven’t even started spending any money. Read from the following link if you are online with this article or retype the link into your browser if you so choose. Ratings.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ghana/rating

Standard & Poor’s credit rating for Ghana stands at B- with stable outlook. Moody’s credit rating for Ghana was last set at B3 with stable outlook. Fitch’s credit rating for Ghana was last reported at B with stable outlook. In general, a credit rating is used by sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and other investors to gauge the credit worthiness of Ghana thus having a big impact on the country’s borrowing costs. This page includes the government debt credit rating for Ghana as reported by major credit rating agencies.

A “B” rating just based on a budget and some arguments in the international circuits and some promising explanations about where we are heading seems to have scored highly and restored come confidence. Certainly we have to meet the targets and prove that revenue, especially, will recover and we will see the back of some poverty.

The arguments are convincing but my concern is whether we can actually get things moving on the IT infrastructure side in good enough time to ensure efficiency. I think we have enough road links, which can be maintained, tarred with bitumen, concrete, whatever, but we need to ensure that cheaper transportation and railway links are in place to move food cheaper through to the consuming centers.

We can copycat the smaller Western countries such as Switzerland, Netherlands and Japan etc., who have a huge per capita even without the natural resources. Until we become the leading producer of chocolate in this world, we have not achieved anything. Until we become the leading gold jewellers in the world, we are nothing. These specific two advantages, because we have gold and cocoa, must drive the industrial train. Then we can worry about other more artificial intelligence stuff, especially when the youth have work to do and don’t go following the examples of the likes of Otiko and Bugri.

The slanging match between these two persons who have been tickled with slaps on the wrist by the NPP party is not enough example for the rest of the youth to copycat with the expectation that we will have a good crop of politicians in the near future.

If Parliament can be stronger, tougher on crime and corruption (probably too difficult) and work faster to pass laws and tighten the loopholes in existing ones. Maybe add a bigger voice to the galamsey fight and give us rights to our information, we might just start navigating a corner.

Bugri and Otiko have simply demonstrated the problem we have, because politicians still think they can say almost anything and no one will be able to stop them. And the NPP have proved them right. This is what reinforces the crude display of incivility that we just overlook in Ghana and expect our youth to be on auto good manners when they grow up.

That Bugri should even say that he received cows and goats from his followers; sees nothing wrong it because it is a norm. We all know they do it, but why put it in the public domain as if it is not against the law and he is above it, because his party cannot bite and in this instance cannot even bark loud enough.

Why won’t a Chinese woman hold us all to ransom while she pollutes our rivers and steals as much gold as she can? We have the laws in place, we don’t have Institutions that do their work, but collect a pay cheque regularly and go home at the end of their incompetent appointments with government largesse in the form of Toyota Prados and other perks we don’t even know about.

This is an uphill battle from where we have sunk and I doubt we will dig out of it if we continue appointing the Bugris and the Otikos.

So Bugri Naabu slipped a tongue for ten minutes and more and the NDC immediately saw a conflict in the President’s nomination of the Chief Justice. Even before the dust could settle on the nomination, their social platforms could relate all the persons named “Akufo”. “Addo” and “Nana” to the President. Some even started calling all the “Nanas” relatives of the President. I could not find my link to the President and so was spared the agony of conflict. But for the record, my grandfather and the President’s father were in the fight for independence, so I guess I am related? Ha ba!

The shame of all this really is that they miss convincing the electorate that they are even skilled at opposing.

So far we have not done five months of the new government but clearly unless Otiko Djaba and Bugri Naabu slip more fodder to chew the cud, we are in for a very long four years and another and a further eight after that.

Oops, did my fingers slip?

Ghana. Aha a y? d? papa. Alius valde week advenio. Another great week to come.