The hope of NPP becoming the saviour of Ghana is fast fading

Unless Ghanaians begin to shed their political colouration, devastating infatuation with ethnic inclinations, nepotism and singing the praises of people all for selfish reasons, all attempts by anyone to liberate Ghana from her numerous economic, social and physical problems will all be gimmicks. Good intentions, promises and talks are way off from translating such things into actions hence the saying, you have to walk the talk; the real liberation needed.

His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has noble intentions meant for salvaging Ghana from her suffocating financial restraints, joblessness and the killer institutional corruption often masterminded and orchestrated by the very politicians, traditional leaders and public officer holders in whom we entrust our welfare and lives. However, unless we accept the realities to behave responsibly, condemning what is to be condemned and praising what is to be praised, Ghana will stagnate or be in a state of merry-go-round as regards our quest for socio-economic emancipation.

To be honest with myself, I can see and hear more of similarities between the NPP and the NDC than of differences when it comes to the administration of the country as things stand at the moment. I am not a pessimist but an optimist. Nonetheless, until we begin to evaluate the state of Ghana, her financial strengths and weaknesses to cut our coat according to our size, and go about the implementation of the good policies by the President judiciously, we shall get stuck along the way to render all that have been started meaningless.

In Ghana, where there is no any nationally-accepted long term development plan in place, but governments operating on their political short-termism manifestos, much borrowed money and half-completed projects go to waste. No government wants to continue with uncompleted projects started by their predecessors. They want to start their own by abandoning those projects all for reasons bordering on our black mentality. Should I complete the projects, the previous government that started them will take credit for them. That administration may say my government has no programme of its own to develop Ghana. What an absurd philosophy! Is it not Ghanaians that suffer and incur the cost of such wastages? Indeed, I cry for my beloved country Ghana because of our evil-mindedness coupled with our lack of farsightedness to managing the country.

It is excellent, the uniqueness of the Free Senior High School education in Ghana. It is second to none in the world. Even in the most advanced Western countries as far as I am aware of, such a system does not exist. In the Western world, public High Schools all Day schools and are free. The students pay for their meals with those from poorer families receiving some subventions. There are no free boarding and lodging as is being done in Ghana. My question is, can our economy support it for the long term without falling apart half-way through? A means must be found to fund the project to make it more sustainable or some changes must be made as soon as possible.

The President should not see himself as obliged to fulfil all the electioneering promises made to Ghanaians. No government in their first or two terms in power has been able to deliver all their electioneering promises. All that is needed is to ensure those that you have started are completed; become functional to benefit the citizenry and are appreciated by all as a value for money.

The NDC were criticised of operating a government of family and cronyism. Are the NPP any different? The NDC were accused of running a large government and Presidential staffers. Are the NPP any different? Allegations of corruption were made against the NDC. Truly, they were corrupt and were running the nation aground. Some NDC cardholder members who were importers were said to, and has been confirmed by my former Tweneboa Kodua Secondary Schoolmate whose brother-in-law was a member of the NDC and an importer that they used to pay a minimal import duty, pay something into the party’s coffers and then clear their goods. In all, they would end up paying about less than a third of the actual duty to clear their goods from the ports. Have the NPP stopped that? There are rumours that the same method is still in operation although I have not heard of some payments being paid into the party’s chest as was done under NDC.

Numerous accusations of corruption are being made against some members of the NPP. As corruption is inhered in the Ghanaian, it is difficult to refute such allegations. Some people have come out boldly to accuse some members of the NPP of involving in acts of corruption. Corruption is not all about embezzling State funds and assets but abusing one’s powers to favour his friends, family members or party members.

Unless we stop all partisanships once a political party wins power to see ourselves as Ghanaians of close-knit fraternity, to pursue the collective interests of the citizens, many will still be the Ghanaians that will suffer poverty and denigration. Favouritism is rumoured to be rife in NPP as it was in NDC. One person can be awarded so many government contracts because he is a friend, a crony or whatever of a party guru, a Minister etc., while others are starved of even one contract. What does this mean to any rational being? Are we still not helping to widen the gap between the rich and the poor instead of seeking to abridge it?

Corruption is the cause of the woes of Ghana’s development. The euphoria of His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo coming to curtail, let alone, uproot corruption from Ghana is dwindling if not completely evaporated. There is a Special Prosecutor but without honest judges that share the same desire, they will keep on posting the cases brought by the Special Prosecutor and in the end, nothing will be achieved.

My fear is if the politicians continue to abuse their positions, taking Ghanaians for fools and cowards, one day when the cornered coward musters courage to fight back for their freedom to liberate themselves from subjugation under the elite, the situation will be unpalatable.

We still have the obligation to help the President succeed but he has to put his foot down to fight corruption and ensure that all the loopholes through which public fund is seeping are sealed. He has to keep eyes on those surrounding him for they are the very people sabotaging him.

I am yet to see a clean break by the NPP from all the crimes we accused the NDC of. Presuming I am blind that I can’t see, when there is an applause for the government achieving its target of successfully fighting corruption, can I not hear?

Are all politicians not like the mocking proverbial statement of, “Korkor ba ne Dede ba nyinaa ye adekro, efrise won nyinaa ye Krobofo3”. I am not going to translate that but simply put, and like NDC and NPP, the value is the same. Is it true?

What baffles me is, I know of certain persons that were sabotaging Nana Akufo-Addo and the NPP but they are now being held in high esteem and awarded more contracts. Strangely enough, it is what these people say that goes. One of such persons come from my own Kumawu town. Much as he sabotaged the election of the NPP parliamentary candidate, the person he himself later handpicked after the election and introduced to Nana Akufo-Addo was accepted as the DCE for Kumawu-Sekyere District against the preference of the majority of the party members who campaigned and voted for the party and its presidential candidate. Again, the same person has been awarded four contracts of the School Feeding Programme including that of Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School. Such things do not make any sense to me at all but amounts to playing on the intelligence of the people.

Unless we speak up, the rot will continue regardless of which party comes to power. However, there will be a day that Ghanaians will say enough is enough with the mainstream political parties (NDC and NPP) to bring in a newly-formed political party either through a civil revolution or by their thumbs at elections. All this will happen through educating the electorates who at the moment are not politically savvy hence selling their votes for pittance at elections.

Most of the debts our governments have incurred through borrowing will mature for payment from 2052 and 2054 according to what I heard from Captain Smart on his programme a few days ago. Who will pay these debts if it is not our children and grandchildren, yet a few politicians and crooks are availing themselves of the money dubiously. These revelations are angering the youth and one day, Ghanaians will wake up to face the reality of what they least expect to see.

Ghanaians are to be sensitized to the dangers of corruption which is happily often in perpetration and perpetuation by our politicians. We are obliged to create awareness in people of the repercussions of such attitudes on our children and grandchildren. Honestly, I need months of break from writing feature articles to concentrate on something else. Let others take over from us while I retreat into my lair to hibernate.

Are Africans, especially Ghanaians, indeed capable of managing their own affairs? How I wish His Excellency the President could have some consultations with His Excellency Paul Kagame of Rwanda and His Excellency John Magufuli of Tanzania. They have already chalked successes so our President can check with them how they did it to replicate it in Ghana alongside his own noble initiatives.