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Opinions of Thursday, 5 June 2014

Columnist: Sarpong, Justice

Pre. Rawlings Sanctimony And Histrionic Voodoo Economics

Another June 4th 'armed robbery' clothed and masqueraded as a revolution is upon us and as usual, 'Saint' Rawlings didn't lose a beat in pontificating and sermonizing to us the mere mortals how incorrigible and amoral we are that fall short of his morality standard. This is a man who murdered a woman lactating a baby of three months without batting an eye and has the audacity to preach to us about morality, GO FIGURE. Mr Morality as usual pointed to his favourite amoral subject, former President Kufuor for special dressing.

In his speech sent to the Press, Former President Jerry John Rawlings questioned the moral uprightness and the rot perpetuated by the erstwhile Kufuor government over their failure to stand for the truth. The problem here is that, Rawlings seems not to understand the meaning of moral. Is Rawlings telling us he has moral uprightness than the gentle giant President Kufuor or Rawlings is 'verbiciding'(Verbicide) the word moral?

According to the former military cum civilian leader, Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor is liable for "setting in motion the moral and economic crisis that the nation is experiencing today".

So redenomination of a country's currency is not moral but a President who was 49 and weighting 240 pounds beating his Vice President who was 68 years old and weighting 160 pounds soaking wet to our "O" level scholar President moral?

Our moral President Rawlings in December 28,1995 beat up his Vice- President Nkensen Arkaah out of a room.Vice-President Nkensen Arkaah, who chairs all Cabinet meetings, was presiding over the session on Thursday, 28 Dec. 1995 when President Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings challenged him over derogatory statements the Vice is alleged to have made at his party congress the previous week.

"President Rawlings challenged Mr Arkaah to go out and prove to the world the questionable or so-called corrupt things which take place during meetings of the cabinet."Until then", the president insisted, "Mr. Arkaah had no moral right to continue to participate in the deliberations of a cabinet for which he had no respect."

A few minutes later the president then took Arkaah's arm, insisting that he should leave. Arkaah reacted by attempting to to shrug off the hand holding him. Arkaah said: "He gave me a terrible blow on the shoulder which sent me falling to the floor. He attempted to pull me up by the shoulder in order to hit me further. He tore the shoulder of the jacket in the process. In his frustration, he kicked me a couple of times in the groin before members present were able to restrain him.Cabinet colleagues rushed to pull off the President from inflicting further physical damage on the 68-year old Vice President. Rawlings is 49. Colleagues prevailed on Arkaah to leave.

Folks, that is Mr. morality Rawlings and I don't think this is the template of morality any Ghanaian will be proud to teach to their children. Not only is the former President not brutish but is financially corrupt but that subject will be treated on later date as most Ghanaians are aware of that part of his history which he protected himself against with that indemnity clause he smuggled into the constitution with the connivance of Justice Annan. Now let's deal with his jibber jabber pontifications and sermonizations about the Ghanaian economy.

In a statement sent to the press on the 35th year anniversary celebration of this highway robbery revolution, President Rawlings said;

"Overnight 10,000 cedis became one cedi or the equivalent of one dollar and 1,000 cedis, which was good money in 2000, became one pesewa, and was no longer considered to have any value," he claimed."

Did Rawlings write this statement himself or one of his praise singers wrote this for him? If 10,000 became one new cedi then 1000 cedis cannot be one pesewa but ten pesewas.What can you expect from somebody who managed to score 9 in Mathematics and was rumored to have scored nine in chains in the "O" levels. Mr Rawlings, the one thousand cedi note in 2008 could only buy a satchet of ice water which the same ten pesewas was able to buy at that time so there was no change in the value of the currency.

"When Kufuor’s government removed four noughts from the cedi, he overnight abolished the people’s economy. He abolished the people’s economy because he abolished the means to exchange goods below the value of 1,000 old cedis.He said the decision by the Kufuor administration to devalue the local currency culminated in "forcing everyone to live above a dollar a day, which is the global measure of poverty".

Who told this "O" level 'Economic scholar' that redenomination is a devaluation of a currency?Redenomination is not done to increase or decrease the value of a currency anywhere and it was not done to in Ghana to devalue the cedi as Dr. Dr. Rawlings is telling us.

Currencies are redenominated for positive reasons like portability in the case of Ghana where one has to carry a lot of the old cedis note in bags and suitcases to purchase consumer big items like Televisions and Cars. It was a move intended to make life easier for shoppers and business people fed up of carrying large bundles of cash that make them easy prey for thieves. Now instead of carrying ten million in the old currency notes in a bag and attracting armed robbers, it has become easier to put the equivalent one thousand new cedis in your wallet or anywhere on your body without attracting attention.

It also became easier to facilitate business transaction because smaller amounts money are transacted.

The new notes that came in one, five, 10, 20 and 50 cedi denominations, while the coins are in one, five, 10, 20 and 50 pesewas and one cedi coin re-introduce the use of coins in market transactions and helped the government to introduce the use of vending machines, car parking meters that require coins.

It is really sad a former President of our country should have this blabbermouth where everything that goes through his brains have to come out of his mouth without the brains filtrating the waste product.

Justice Sarpong

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)