“I doff my hat to Dr. Nyaho-Nyaho Tamakloe for braving the storm to criticize his own Party (NPP) and its Presidency when the leadership of the Party was deviating from the Party’s principles” – Kofi ObiriYeboah, Founding Member (NPP) Kumasi.
GHANA is sick and something need be done to restore her health. One is tickled to agree with some political analysts who think it was destiny that made NPP lose the last elections, being whipped mercilessly by the NDC- for the NPP to sit back, regurgitate, re-assess and possibly change their philosophy, strategy and attitude.
The Sambalat and Tobiah in NPP have had the tendency to “criticize the critics” by crudely asserting: “Mede3 ye woo me too NPP mu…” (Born into NPP), so what? Wawa gyiwawe…nsuobedumgya… Obi nkwaseasemyi a, yenntieoo…yes, the die-hard mate-meho, would recall their (and their fathers’) resistance to CPP’S excesses particularly one-partyism and Nsawam Prison. Arrogant posture! Brainy people; intellectuals.
What is happening to the Party now? Do members read and cogitate on the Preamble of the NPP constitution: “With faith in God, Believing in the supreme dignity of man. In common brotherhood of all Ghanaians wherever they may be. And in the right of every Ghanaian citizen to freedom of Conscience, association and expression, we, the members of the Party, HEREBY ADOPT, UNTO OURSELVES AND PROMULGATE THIS CNSTITUTION”.
Do the NPP members reflect on the word? Patriotic” as in New Patriotic Party. “Patriotic” to family, friends, the Party, Ghana, Africa, mankind? How can we extol virtue and practice vice?
We, NPP, who mocked others for so many “bad” things; we, who saw ourselves as enlightened and refined genre of the political stock; we who would not discriminate on the basis of sex, class or heritage… now becoming the “master-serpent” (to borrow Martin Amidu’s words) of all that we criticized others for.
Those of us, who live within the Ejisu Constituency, saw the primaries after the death of John Kumah as a nasty affair! Why would it take a President and a Vice-President to come to the Constituency to campaign for a particular candidate? And why should money be so blatantly displayed – to the extent that Dr. Kingsley Nyarko, MP for Kwadaso, would give Electoral Officers “lunch” money in an envelope? Moneycracy!
“Those to whom much is given, much is expected” (Cui multum datum est, multumabeopostulabitur), Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Genevan philosopher, writer and composer had been influenced in his philosophical thoughts by Montesquieu, Michel de Montaigne, Seneca the Younger, Plato and Plutarch to come up with his “Social contract.”
He argues: “The first man who, having fenced in a piece of land, said ‘This is mine’ and found people naïve enough to believe him, that was the true founder of society… Beware of listening to this imposter; you are done if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody” (1754).
In 1970, Jimmy Cliff, the Jamaican musician released the song: “Suffering’ in the land” in which he described the “terrible situation” of the time with “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer…”. How can we “tighten our belts” while others loosen theirs?
Remember the payments made to the CEO of State Insurance Company (SIC) Hollista rDuah who is challenging her ouster in court. The beautiful lady had forgotten her former Prime Minister, Kofi Abrefa Busia’s televised speech in the Sallah v Attorney-General’s case (dismissal of 568 workers: Apollo 568).
” No court can enforce any decision that seeks to compel the government to employ or re-employ anyone. That will be a futile exercise and I wish to make that perfectly clear…”
Hollistar was enjoying a staggering bounty: a salary of GH¢70,000.00/month; entertainment allowance of GH¢7,000/Month; Canteen allowance of GH¢850/month; professional allowance of GH¢1,200/month; house-help GH¢3,000/month personal security; GH¢3,000/month; gardener GH¢2,000/month; familiarization tour to any destination; $3,000 for air-ticket with $180/diem; payment of all utility bills, property rates, other taxes for her official residence; payment of annual membership fee for one professional association; provision of a Landcruiser (V8) to be sold to her at the end of her 4-year stint; 450 liters of fuel monthly, provision of a mobile phone and a rechargeable unit … all subject to 15% increment; provision of medical care for herself, her spouse, her five children below the age of 18 or up to 22 if still schooling or unemployed…”
Such was the kind of goodies Chief Executive Officers in various establishment (COCOBOD, Forestry Commission, GNPC, DVLA,) were taking home and similar (or rather, more juicy) facilities were granted to Article 71 “persons” which includes the Chairman, Vice Chairman and other members of (i) National Council for Higher Education, however described; (ii) the public Service Commission; (iii) the National Media Commission; (iv) the Lands Commission; and (v) the National Commission for Civic Education.
Let us concede that the President, Vice-President, Speaker, his Deputies, Chief Justice and other Justices of the Superior Courts of Judicature are in a “class” of their own, what about the entitlements of other “Board” members? What values did they add to the establishments they headed and at the end of a period (4 years) they, including MP’s, would be granted “ex-gratia award”!
Some of us who know TogbeAfede, the Agbegbomefia of Asogli State well were not surprised that the respectable citizen wrote “To whom it may concern” on June 6, 2022 to clarify why he returned his ex-gratia award of GH¢365,392.67 for his 4-years’ work as a member of the Council of State. He concluded the piece (par) thus “I want to add that my rejection of the payment was consistent with my general abhorrence of the payment of huge Ex-gratia and other outrageous benefits to people who have, by their own volition, offered to serve our poor country”. What is more “patriotic” than this?
Do all Ghanaians see Ghana as a “poor” country? Are people ready to “sacrifice” for Ghana? Selfishness, greed, lack of patriotism to God and country… And we pride ourselves wallowing in richness while the masses suffer (and a labourer goes on pension penniless because his GH¢6,000 pension entitlement had been consumed by a refund for a loan he took to see his daughter through schooling). James Baldwin in his 1963 book “The Fire Next Time” recalls the Biblical edict; “God gave Noah the rainbow sign: no more water, the fire next time: James Baldwin says: I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do”?
Is it musical chairs about recruitment? TUC’s role
Our good friend, Obiri Boahen then (May 2017) as Deputy General Secretary (NPP) rightly or wrongly defended his government’s action in response to Dr.Apaaak’s criticism over the sacking of workers recruited in December 2016 by the NDC; John Mahama had tweeted: “Bad precedent for our governance… These workers are all citizens…” And Senior Minister, OsafoMaafo had noted. “if names appear on the payroll after December, we will definitely lay them off quietly,” Quietly?
Ghanaians have given John Mahama the mandate. His lean government (60 Cabinet ministers) has been in power for fewer than 120 days. He has committed himself to a charge “I will not ask the new Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr.Asiama to print more money. “Let us be “patriotic” and help, Mahama because his success is our success as Ghanaians. After all he has not promised to build the wall of Jericho!
Like the theme in: Ngugi We Thiong’o (James Ngugi) Weep Not, Child : “(Beware) some people who don’t want others to rise above them”.
