Ghanaians lack commonsense -Wayo

... NPP leaders are like 'ofiam' (mice)
... NDC are dogs
... Ghanaians living in a 'culture based on deception,'

Statesman -- Kofi Wayo One of Ghana's most entertaining politicians, Charles Kofi Wayo has concluded that Ghana is under-developed because the citizens don't have commonsense.

But he blames the country's leaders since Independence for failing to instil commonsense in the people, and/or helping them to acquire the needed commonsense.

The cigar-puffing Chuck Wayo, founder, leader and presidential candidate of the United Renaissance Party, therefore plans to vie for the presidency in next year’s general elections to put the country on the "right path to development" by generously sharing his stock of commonsense with the people.

Mr Wayo, who says he grew up in a family steeped in the Danquah-Busia-Dombo tradition, is not very impressed with the tradition now. Indeed, he likens the current crop of adherents, especially officials of the current government, as akin to "ofiam" (mice), "because they will bite you and then sooth you right afterwards, then they bite you again!"

The NDC didn’t fare much better: "They are like a pack of dogs," he insists, who are intent on mauling anything in their path to achieve their objective. But of the two, "NPP is better, at least that's what I believe."

But he has high praise for National Security Minister Francis Poku, who in his opinion is the best performing minister in the Kufuor administration. Ghanaians, he insists, are living in a 'culture based on deception,' where “children are brought up to believe everything an adult says is the truth,” where people are so bound by conventions they are afraid to freely express what is on their minds, “and when you do they say you are crazy.

The country’s education system also came under attack, being "too narrow to allow people to think outside the box."

Chuck, who was on the Legon campus last Saturday observed, "The facilities at the universities, if those at the University of Ghana are anything to go by, are terrible," he told The Statesman and went ahead to repeat same on Accra’s Asempa 94.7 FM. As a result, the country’s youth "have very little or no hope," in spite of the abundant resources in the country.

Asked why he joined the NPP on his return to the country after 42 years in America, he insisted, "I knew the NPP was bad, but the NDC was a greater evil. I had to help get them out of the system. Then we could work to change things from within."

"But when we won, they didn’t give me a chance," he lamented, in apparent reference to his dashed expectation of being given the energy portfolio or at least the management of the Tema Oil Refinery in the first Kufuor administration.

As a consequence, he has continually attacked the Kufuor administration, assailing them on any number of issues including the energy crises and the celebration of Ghana@50.

In an interview with the VOA’s Peter Clottey on February 26, 2007, he described President Kufuor as a "con man."

According to him, the only people who impress him are God and his son, Jesus Christ, a poor man who made a deep impression on the world through talking and making a lot of sense.

"God is wonderful. When you read the Bible you get to know about Him and when you read physics you see the marvel of God in action and you will need to worship Him."

Named Charles Eric Kofi Wayo some 50 or so years ago, Chuck, the first of ten children comprising four boys and six girls (two of the boys are no more), was born at Kofi Pare, near Coaltar in the Suhum-Kraboa-Coaltar District in the Eastern Region.