PROPHETIC POLITICS
With Prophet Micaiah
The Dangers Of Presidential Double –Speak III
"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18When I say to a wicked man, 'You will surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will die for [a] his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin; but you will have saved yourself
( Ezekiel 3 : 17-19 NIV)
This is the third and final part of the subject. In our two previous write-ups, we outlined some of the speeches and actions of the President that send confusing signals to the generality of the Ghanaian public, because of their inherent contradictions and divisive ends. Some of these are so serious that they even threaten our efforts at harnessing and managing our rich heterogeneous ethnic orientations and histories; into our fifty-three year old experiment at forging ourselves into a unitary state called Ghana. The President is the Number-One Citizen of the land. He embodies our collective sovereignty, aspirations and honor. His thoughts, utterances, actions and inactions impinge directly on us all; irrespective of whether we are in his team or not, agree with him or not, love him or hate him. The same laws that give him such a high honor also mandate us to criticize him, offer suggestions and alternatives to his policies, and organize ourselves to vote him out when his immediate term of office expires- if so desired. And this we shall do in service to God and country!
Thus in service to country, this Prophet continues with his cataloging of the diatribes of the President, with the end that he will improve his serve.
Our President embarked on trips to Japan and China recently. Obviously there were some good things that came out of the trip. But the following fall-outs were rather confusing and troubling; to say the least:
It was widely publicized both in the Ghanaian and in the international media that bilateral agreements had been signed that was bringing loans totaling about $30 Billion to Ghana. In fact Alex Segbefia on one of the FM stations even stated that the loans could grow to multiples of the above ‘if Ghana played the good boy’ (or something to that end). Both the IMF and the World Bank raised some concerns about these ‘huge loans’. Later on, one of the Deputy Minister’s of Finance, Fiifi Kwettey, explained that the actual loans signed were up to about $450 million; and that the ‘huge ones’ alluded to were only very loose ‘Intents’ and Memoranda of Understanding the two nations entered into. Friend, what he said amounted to either you or I (or any Kofi, Abdulai or Naadu) entering into any shopping mall or factory and collecting Pro-Forma invoices totaling millions of Cedis/Dollars/Pounds; and going back home to tell our family and friends that we have so much money coming ‘very soon’- just because of the invoices. How does this sound to you? And because of this propaganda and ‘spin’ over whatever transactions took place in China; several Ghanaians were mobilized to go to the airport to welcome the President when he finally arrived from China. “Uncle Atta has done what even Kwame Nkrumah could not do” (obviously one of the songs that run through the hearts and minds of the gullible and hungry Ghanaians)
The interesting aspect of this whole ‘concert’ is that, on a similar visit by President Kufour somewhere in 2006 (I stand for correction about this date), he had succeeded in brokering a $600 million deal with the Chinese for the construction of the Bui Dam. In fact this was the highest amount given to any other African country on that particular Chinese-African Conference. I believe the Kufour delegation may have also been offered such billions of dollars of loans- ‘whenever they had what it took to access them’. Indeed friend, you are I can get such undertakings even from our regular ‘Waakyi and Woley’ sellers!
Question: Why should an elderly Law Professor- who also wants to be seen as an excellent Christian- without any moral spot; stoop so low in political propaganda and pretensions?
The second leg of the President’s trip was to take him to Japan. However the President came home from China to Ghana on 26/09/2010. His reason was to participate in the launch of Ghana’s Population and Housing Census on the eve of same day. This according to him was to demonstrate the importance he attached to the program and also to be amongst the first to be counted. The census itself was going to last for two weeks. He could have therefore gone to Japan and come back home early enough to be enumerated- without the fanfare of breaking his trip. This is a man who refuses to take per-diems on his trips- because he wants to be frugal. I hope coming back to Ghana from China and then going back to Japan truly saved Ghana lots of money- right?
President Mills and the NDC government embarked on a policy to rezone portions of government lands for redevelopment in Accra. A law to this effect was passed in 1999 or thereabout. But even before this law came into effect several government lands had been sold out to private individuals and companies for the purpose. Several NDC operatives and companies belonging to some of them benefited from this program. PNDC/NDC operatives also bought several of the over 300 divested government-owned companies from 1983 till the NDC left office. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and the 31st December Revolution Women’s Movement and its offspring- Cariderm- benefited immensely from these programs.
President Kufour’s government- so unwisely decided also to exploit this terrain created by the NDC to sell several of the government lands to themselves.
Atta Mills in his characteristic double-speak fashion- is drawing all kinds of strings and instigating his officers to drag this issue as far as they can gain political mileage on. He does not care a hoot about the ethnocentric dimensions of the discussions and the threat this poses to national cohesion and peace.
Personally I am shocked at the insatiable propensity of our politicians to acquire wealth once in office. It is a complete disgrace. Any politician who has already done this; or is planning to do so, must bow down his/her head in shame. I am worried especially that President Kufour who was quite elderly and an experienced politician- and who lived through the political trauma of the mid seventies and the eighties could descend this low in handling State property. Do people not care any longer about their reputations? I weep for my country. And I shall definitely revisit this subject!
The Prophet’s Advice:
Gentlemen and Ladies, we are building a country. We are still very young and fragile. Let us make sure the laws of this country are not selectively applied. The law is what binds us together. If we will use the law to criminalize one person and free another for the same offence- friends we are not doing well. We are undermining our stability. Mr. President, please sit up and pull the plugs on some of your actions and inactions that are driving us to the precipice.
Prophet Micaiah
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