NPP@50 - Not Ghana@50 -Bagbin

As Ghana prepares fervently to celebrate its 50 years of independence, Minority Leader Alban Bagbin has gone to town on the Kufuor administration, accusing its functionaries of hijacking the celebration to the exclusion of other equally full-blooded Ghanaians.

The Minority Leader, who is also the NDC Member of Parliament for Nadowli West, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with GO at his Parliament House office last Friday. Labelling the celebration NPP@50 and not Ghana@50, Honourable Bagbin lamented why the Government decided to go it alone without involving other notable Ghanaians in the planning of the programme, since Ghana belongs not only to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), but also to all Ghanaians living everywhere.

`What we have now is NPP @ 50, and not Ghana @ 50…We had expected that, at least, Government should have added very influential people in the society and representatives from all the political parties to the Ghana @50 Secretariat to make the event look more national and not a one-party celebration,` Hon. Bagbin said.

The Minority Leader argued that if the celebration of Ghana`s 50th anniversary is a national event, then it should have a national character `where very serious social sector actors, institutions, the media and academia would be involved in the preparations, but as at now, we are all just onlookers…That is not giving it the national character and that doesn`t mean that Ghana is @ 50; what we are celebrating now is Ghana @ NPP,` he charged.

He was worried that, `at the moment all that one can witness is the predominance of the NPP talking about their fore-fathers, with the rest left in the cold and complaining bitterly, because they feel the NPP is neglecting other great people who don`t belong to their political ideology.` Hon. Bagbin said he would have preferred a situation of political diversity in which, `while you saw or heard one laud Nkrumah, for example, you would hear another laud Obetsebi Lamptey, J.B. Danquah or J.J. Rawlings. In the same vein, he would also have expected that whilst unsavoury comments were made about the Preventive Detention Act, the circumstances that called for the PDA would also be cited to balance our national history.

`This whole year is a great opportunity for the people of this country to rectify the wrongs and try to unearth the truth and, from experience, reflect and improve upon what we intend doing tomorrow…But it looks like we are allowing this golden opportunity to go waste,` Hon. Bagbin said He lamented again that the NDC, as a party, does not even know anything about the celebration because they are not part of the preparation. Hon. Bagbin said he however believes this is an initial error of the government of the day; and he would therefore urge government, `though belated, to still call in the stakeholders of the country to participate in the preparation towards the anniversary.`

When GO sought to know his opinion on whether Ghana has come of age socio-politically, Hon.Bagbin indicated that, taking into consideration some of the issues he has raised in this interview, Ghana as a country is not yet of age. According to the seasoned politician, in terms of democratic culture, Ghana has moved a bit forward because the rancour, divisiveness and bitterness of the early days of our people`s political have subsided.

He however stressed that even though the politics of hate has not been eliminated altogether, it is not as serious as it used to be in the last decade. He however stated that there is still some considerable level of political hatred which results from the fact that there is some level of political hypocrisy we have to contend with. `The pretence in politicians is there…and even under that pretence you still see a lot of vivaciousness and hatred…and as a result of that, they are creating new ones…and more people are becoming victims…and this circle of hatred and anger must be stopped,` Hon Bagbin charged.

`We are yet to come together as a country with one vision, one people and one destiny. We haven`t achieved this yet; and that is why you see at the highest level the difference between former president JJ Rawlings and President John Agyekum Kufuor`. He said Ghana`s politics cannot continue always to be all gloom and doom, but that there`s hope on the part of the people of Ghana for happier days ahead.

Touching on democracy, the Minority Leader pointed out that the understanding of multi-party democracy in the country is still not deep enough. He is convinced that many people still d o not understand the meaning of good governance and open, transparent governance and, therefore, when people are raising critical issues, the tendency is for the many who don`t understand to blacklist such well-intentioned personalities and refer to them not just as critics, but as people who are trying to prevent government from implementing its constitutional agenda. He explained further that what people do not know is that the Minority is also part of the government machinery, though it is the Majority that is in the saddle.

To enhance a healthy interplay of those two vital forces, therefore, Hon. Bagbin reminded government and Parliament that both Majority and Minority owe it a duty to the people of Ghana to constantly pressurise the government and keep it on its toes by conscientiously dealing with issues in Parliament.

Hon. Bagbin believes that the moral and ethical standard and the levels of integrity of the forbears of this nation were higher than what exists today, because many people are focusing too much on the gains of politics rather than their contribution to the nation and the people. `We are not placing emphasis on the dignity of humanity…and people are thinking that life or happiness is determined by the level of opulence…I think that is wrong,` he pointed out.

Hon. Bagbin told this paper that he does not think that Ghana is better off economically now as compared to the immediate post-independence era. He explained that even though the indicators, according to economics, reveal that the micro-economy looks good, the situation on the ground is that the micro- economy is bad, because industries are rather collapsing; whilst the economy has seen very little expansion, if any.

He said for the country to move forward, it is important for politicians and other public service personnel to recognise that when they are elected into office, they don`t represent their personal interests any more, but those of the people who elected them into office. `That is why they shouldn`t allow their personal interests to overcome the general interests of the people and nation…They must also appreciate the contribution of others, and give recognition when it is due…They must sit down and evaluate the performance of all the sectors of the country and straighten things when they get wrong.` `With these and other positive moves, I believe Ghana will achieve more than it has now in the next 50 years,` Hon. Bagbin said.