The Mess at Congo, how Flippant could the President be!

Like many Ghanaians and citizens of the world at large, I was appalled to read the screaming headlines about the behavior of John Agyekum Kufour, the President of Ghana and the AU recently in Congo. How petty could the President of our country be, I mean how flippant could he lower the position or positions he occupies in the eyes of Ghanaians and the world! For Christ sake do he forget he is the President of a country called Ghana and the African Union! Did I read right that his Excellency John Agyekum Kufour refused to attend the parade in celebration of the Congolese Independence in Brazzaville, if Rawlings was to be present at the same grounds? Notwithstanding the fact that the former president was invited by his Excellency Sasu Ngueso, the president of Congo? The behavior of John Agyekum Kufour at Brazaville smacks of ignorance, childish temper tantrum of a three year old and a disgrace to our country and continent! I mean how low can the president of our nation and continent go begs my imagination! Does this behavior tell is the quality of leadership we have in Ghana and the rest of Africa as a whole? Of course yes! I would have expected the Congolese President, Sasu Nguesso, to tell Kufour to cut his bluff and show up at the parade grounds or go back to Ghana with the same flight that brought him to Brazzaville! This behavior is an indictment of the rulers of the continent of Africa, a continent that happens to hold the richest natural resources on planet earth but its citizens are one of the poorest and suffering class of humans in the world!

An historical pity that we cannot get our minds together in the 21st century and harness the vast amounts of rich mineral resources our continent is endowed with so that we can enjoy a quality of life replete with healthcare and economic vitality! Think about it, not one cocoa plant is grown in Europe let alone Switzerland! Cocoa is harvested in Ghana and other West African countries but the finished product from cocoa is shipped back to Ghana and other cocoa growing areas on our continent with the moniker “Swiss chocolate” Swiss hell! The cocoa was grown in my back yard! Britain and the United states hold monopoly on the “finest Tea” in the world yet not a single crop of tea is planted in these countries. Talk again of Dutch oil, AKA, Shell. There isn’t one oil well in Amsterdam yet ship loads of crude from many African countries like Nigeria and Angola and possibly Ghana in the near future are shipped to refineries in Amsterdam and the finished products sent back to some of the producing countries at prices their citizens cannot afford! A guy in Lagos buys a gallon of petrol at nearly $4.00. Conversely, a guy in Venezuela buys the same product and quantity at 20 cents a gallon because leaders in his country have the gumption to control the resources they generate for the good of their own citizens! Nigeria used to be the fourth largest oil producing country in the world!

This brings to mind the present leadership in Ghana popping Champaign on the news that Ghana has strike large oil reserves! Though the discovery itself was no news to many Ghanaians the leadership behaved like the news holds the panacea to the economic woes of our dear country! The highest figure put on the reserves discovered by Tullow Oil, is 600 million barrels. Nigeria can produce that much oil in a single year. Currently, Nigerias producing is about 2 million barrels a day; if you multiply that by 365 days, you get 730 million barrels. Yet another discovery of 800 million barrels may lead to more popping of imported Champaign I guess by Kufour and his team! This news should have led to a serious national debate and planning to prevent what happened to our closest neighbors and friends, Nigeria, from happening in Ghana. Our leadership is leadership as screwed up in failure of leadership as you can now imagine! The present oil policy in Ghana is a copy of the same failed Nigerian policy left by the Rawlings administration!

Talk about Diamonds, Gold,Coltran, Platinum, Manganese, bauxite and hundreds of other mineral resources that are easily marketed in Western and now Asian countries that comes from the bowels Africa. The 21st century case of Africa should have been Economics 101 and straight out good governance, but good governance is what we do not have! Our leader’s treat the country as their personal property! Any diversity in opinion is treated as an affront and challenge to the ruling government that leads to severe reprisal! Ruling governments and the opposition normally debate on how the money in their countries are spent and no tangible policies about consolidating our sovereign structure and for our major resources. Nor do we see policies that organize systems to process our resources and direct them for fair markets that will match the value with the price. Our home grown corporations and industries must be given a boost with good central government policies and the entrepreneurial spirit channeled to generate wealth to the savvy and jobs with quality paying income to the millions. Our currency must be able to stand the pressures of the world economy and not fluctuate in value so that it can earn the trust of our people and foreigners alike!

Over 6 years in office, President John Agyekum Kufour would like us to believe that his predecessor is the course of the failures of the current administration! What policy differences do we see in the NDC, NPP, CPP or other parties? None ! It’s the same property acquiring bullshit policy of the NPP or manage the resources of the country for the benefit of all by the oppositions! How we to achieve these goals are a mirage!

Our country is more divided on tribal lines since the past 6 years than at any other time in our history. Under Kufour, the crime rate has increased over 20 percent. Violent crime such as armed robbery has increased over 60 percent since Kufour was elected president of our country! Our citizens, visitors and businessmen are murdered in broad day light, Hollywood style, since the golden age of business started. Ghana, our beloved country, has become a major drug hub in the international illicit drug trade! Senior members or children of the ruling class and senior Narcotic officers appointed by the NPP party are mostly arrested as the culprits in this illicit drug trade! At the same time, illicit drug use in Ghana has increased over 45 percent since 6 years ago. Not even when foreign governments warn our security agencies could they mustered courage to arrest those bringing drugs into Ghana in ship loads!

The governments own experts inform us that forty percent of all government purchases go into private individual pockets and the president still claim there is no corruption going on in our country! Are you kidding me?

The president and his henchmen have increased their perdiem to over 1500 percent since they took office six years ago. Currently the leaders in parliament take $1000.00 a night and $2000.00 in unaccountable imprest anytime they travel to the United States and other developed countries! Meanwhile Teachers, Nurses, Doctors and other workers for the government are denied a mere 150 dollars a month of what the government have agreed to give them every 4 weeks! The president himself, my deep throat sources reveal (since not the accountant general nor the office of the president would make open the figures) awarded to himself $5000.00 dollars per night and $10,000.00 in unaccountable imprest per travel! Parliament had no hand in the implementation of the new perdiem structure! Golden age to fleece Ghana indeed!

Our roads are still death traps to road users whilst our schools, hospitals, and other national infrastructure are begging for attention but the president of the land is indulged in petty squabble with his predecessor to the disgrace of our nation and continent! Rawlings did not buy his popularity and Kufour must understand that for the guy to be that popular after 6 years of leaving office tells a lot of what he current administration is not doing, good performance!

Mr. John Agyekum Kufour, please we elected you to lead our nation to economic prosperity not behave as flippant as a three year old in temper tantrum after he was refused a candy in far away Congo!