Opinions of Thursday, 26 July 2018

Columnist: Kwaku Badu

The twelve appalling reasons why Ghanaians don’t need NDC government so soon

Former President Mahama hoping to be the flagbearer of the NDC Former President Mahama hoping to be the flagbearer of the NDC

Understandably, to persistently write and shout about the sorrowful state of Ghana’s economy under the NDC administration which the loyalists bizarrely perceive as innocuous or inconsequential, is to be regarded as a political extremist, or even as a radical conservative, who is mischievously seeking to discredit their beloved party, but we must be true to the faith, uphold and defend the good name of our beloved Ghana.

It is an undeniable fact that the good people of Ghana witnessed so much shiftiness, corruption, incompetence, nepotism, cronyism and frequent abuse of power in the NDC government led by President John Dramani Mahama.

The story is told that in their attempt to lustrate the country off the perceived sleazes and corruption, the founders of the NDC fiendishly elbowed their way through Ghana’s political scene via a series of coup d’états , ruled despotically for eleven years and then formed the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

In fact, despot Rawlings and his disciples proselytised and brainwashed many unsuspecting Ghanaians to believing that the people they deposed emptied the national coffers and the only way forward was to purge the country of the perceived injustices.

Consequently, Rawlings and his cohorts carried out what they termed “house cleaning exercise”. Rawlings and his conspiratorial plotters however went ahead and dealt with the perceived offenders arbitrarily.

Regrettably, Rawlings and his cabal exterminated innocent people, many of whom were accused of legitimately borrowing meagre sums of money from banks to support their businesses.

As a matter of fact, Rawlings and his NDC apologists kept trumpeting their perceived ethos-probity, transparency and accountability to the annoyance of their political opponents.

Isn’t it therefore ironic that the same people, who claim to appal sleazes and corruption and have thus made probity, transparency and accountability their prime mantra, would then cause the collapse of Ghana’s economy through wanton sleazes and gargantuan corruption?

Apparently, many observers hold a strong view that Ghana’s economic downslide came about as a result of the unbridled sleazes and gargantuan corruption that have characterised the successive NDC governments.

Let us however take a critical look of some of the wanton sleazes and corruptions the holier-than-thou NDC apparatchiks have perpetrated on the good people of Ghana all this while.

• The dubious Embraer 190 aircrafts deal which prompted former President Mills to set up a Committee to investigate the then Vice President Mahama.

• The $300 million bill we incurred on the unsuccessful STS housing deal which was spearheaded by the then Vice President John Dramani Mahama.

• The dubious GH800 million judgement debt payments.

• The undeserving GH51.2 million judgement debt payment (create, loot and share) to Woyome.

• The weird $30 million judgement debt payment to Waterville, which the Supreme Court of Ghana ruled as unconstitutional and ordered the NDC government to retrieve, but to no avail.

• The wrongful $25 million judgement debt payment to ISOFOTON, which the NDC government has failed to retrieve despite the Supreme Court’s order.

• The scandal (create, loot and share) at the National Service Secretariat which cost Ghana millions of Ghana Cedis.

• The SADA scandal which deprived the people of the Northern Region millions of Cedis meant for development.

• The SUBA scandal which cost Ghana millions of Cedis meant for the improvement of the economy.

• The GYEEDA corruption scandal which deprived the youth of Ghana millions of Cedis meant for the creation of jobs.

• An amount of $250 million from the Euro bond which was meant for infrastructural development was lodged surreptitiously in an unauthorised bank account.

• Inflated costs of infrastructural projects (the former Minister of Local Government, Collins Dauda raised concerns previously).

In fact, the list is not exhaustive, but time and space constraints would not allow me to enumerate all the corruption scandals. .

Tell me, dearest reader, will the Almighty God forgive the holier-than-thou NDC apparatchiks who have been committing the same crimes (sleazes and corruption) that their party founders killed innocent people for?

“The evil that men do lives after them”. And to those of you who believe in the Holy Book (Bible), it condemns murders in a number of verses.

“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?” And the Lord said, “What have you done?” “The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear (Genesis 4:9-15).”

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image (Genesis 9:6).”

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘you shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment (Matthew 5:21).”

“If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand (Ezekiel 33:8).”

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death (Revelation 21:8).”

How would the Omnipresent God feel when the people who committed the atrocious scandals (such as Woyome’s GH51.2M; $300M STS largesse; Millions of Ghana Cedis embezzled by the officials of SUBA, GYEEDA, SADA and the National Service Secretariat; all the dubious judgement debt payments amounting to GH800M) are all walking freely?

Given that Ghana’s current economic downslide emanated from the unbridled sleazes and gargantuan corruptions under the erstwhile NDC government, wouldn’t God be angry with the NDC apparatchiks for previously taking innocent lives for the same crimes they have been committing over the years?