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Now, what needs to be done is for President Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ensure that the Ghanaian people, especially those who will be going into the polling booths December next year to determine who governs our beloved country for the next four years, are fully in the know about the dastardly attempt made by former President John Dramani Mahama and his fellow Gonja Boy and cabinet appointee and scam-artist Mr. John Jinapor to literally gift the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) for free to the Philippines-based firm called Power Distribution Service (PDS). That was what likely compelled Nana Akufo-Addo to timeously and effectively abrogate the ECG-PDS contract (See “Government Seeks to Replace PDS with a Restricted Tender Process” MyJoyOnline.com / Ghanaweb.com 10/20/19).
The ECG-PDS contract was perhaps the most criminal of its kind in the 63-year history of postcolonial Ghana. It was the most criminal contractual agreement because the purported private power distribution partner of the state-owned and operated ECG literally put absolutely nothing on the table, by way of the required fiscal investment to guarantee that in the event of any terminal kinks cropping up in the operation of the ECG-PDS partnership, the Ghanaian people whose bona fide property ECG is will not depart empty-handed.
Meanwhile PDS, whose operatives had mischievously come to the table with absolutely nothing in hand would have walked away with a bonanza. Now, what this shamefully means is that for more than 16 of the 27 years of our Fourth-Republican dispensation, Ghana was firmly in the control of leaders who had absolutely no appreciable clue on how to initial or sign worthwhile contracts with foreign investors in the name of the Ghanaian people.
Simply put, these National Democratic Congress’ leaders were plain crooks who were hell-bent on selling the country up short down the creek, as it were, hook, line and sinker, gratis, with absolutely no qualms, in return for the payola mess of diddly commissions. But you see, Dear Reader, all too predictably, the NDC robber-barons and scam-artists are determined not to walk quietly back onto the gray margins of the veritably defeated political scumbags that they have shown themselves to be and been auspiciously exposed for being.
Now, they also want to tag President Akufo-Addo and his visionary team of hardworking and eagle-eyed executive operatives who timeously exposed them with the political propaganda equivalent of Judgment-Debt Crimes, which is why the Mahama Posse has commissioned an equally reprobate gang of media shills and thugs who have been telling Ghanaian voters and taxpayers that the all too savvy abrogation of the patent scam that was the Mahama-contracted ECG-PDS racket has Ghana risking the imminent loss of at least some $190 Million, in whatever presently remains of the American government-sponsored $498 Million compact called the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which was originally established by the George Bush II government to help Ghana to significantly reduce its mounting cost of energy bills and operational challenges.
The fact of the matter is that leaving this Mahama-brokered contractual scam intact is unlikely to benefit Ghanaians in the long-term; and the American sponsors and patrons clearly seem to fully appreciate this reality. You see, contrary to what the hired goons of our media terrain would have Ghanaians and the rest of the world believe, whether the country stands the risk of losing an additional $500 Million from the MCA or even a $1 Billion loan facility from the US-controlled World Bank is really not the issue at stake here and presently. Rather, it is the long-term interest and benefit of the country that is at stake here. And the latter, of course, demands the visionary initiative of no less of a tough-minded leader than President Akufo-Addo (See “Government Cancels PDS Deal Despite US Opposition” CitiNewsRoom.com / Ghanaweb.com 10/19/19).
The fact of the matter is that the Americans are not really opposed to the very wise and strategically and temporally constructive decision by Nana Akufo-Addo to definitively cut out the rot that has scandalously come to characterize the way that contracts are negotiated by Ghanaian leaders presently. They, very likely, may be plain flabbergasted by the fact that Ghana has leaders who really appreciate what it means to tough-mindedly look towards the long-term interest of our small but great country of some 30 Million-Plus hardworking and, for the most part, honest and forward-looking citizens and residents.
*Visit my blog at: kwameokoampaahoofe.wordpress.com Ghanaffairs
By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., PhD
English Department, SUNY-Nassau
Garden City, New York
E-mail: [email protected]