FEATURE: The Challenge to Kufuor

When President J. A. Kufuor nominated Mallam Yusif Ali Issa as the Minister of Sports, he(the President) seemed to have produced a better balancing act than an acrobat crossing the Niagara Falls on a tight rope. Mallam Issa was then the acting Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), a party that, together with the UGM, the CPP, the NRP and the GCPP, had thrown whatever weight it had behind Mr. Kufuor in the presidential run-off.

Mr. Kufuor had promised an all-inclusive administration in case he won the presidency. Mallam Issa’ s nomination was, therefore, in fulfilment of that pledge, or so it seemed. Of course, there were those who had grave misgivings about the ability of Mallam Issa to perform his ministerial functions.

The critics considered his lack of any meaningful experience in sports administration, in spite of his reported stint as a one-time director(?) of Real Tamale United (RTU). They were also concerned about the Mallam’s halting acquaintance with the English Language. But did that matter? After all, as Ms Elizabeth Ohene, Minister for Media Relations, said, a person’s ability to “rattle the English Language” is no sure-fire guarantee that he will necessarily be a good minister.

Such a person may not even be good at teaching the language, let me add. In any case, how many persons become ministers after ten or twenty years experience as ministers? One has to start somewhere, even as a green horn. Apart from being the acting chairman of a party other than the NPP, Mallam Issa is also a Muslim from the “North”. Moreover, it was well known that the electoral fighting in Bawku was not only a political matter but an ethnic one too.

The NPP had won through Madam Hawa Yakubu, a Mamprusi. Mallam Issa is Kusasi, both ‘right and left’, to quote him. From all indications, Mr. Kufuor had produced a winner: a youngman to handle youth and sports, a Muslim to deepen the new ‘love affair’ between the NPP and the Zongos, a “Northener” to satisfy the Savanna Caucus even further, and a Kusasi to balance Madam Hawa’s Mamprusiness. Sports can produce surprises: the quickest goal scored in a football match, the fastest knock-out in boxing, etc.

Mallam Issa’s ‘reign’ as a Sports Minister could be a record as the shortest in the nation’s history. Was the disappearing ?46,000.00 (Forty-six thousand dollars) in Mallam’s suitcase or had it been taken out before the suitcase was taken to the airport? Did Mallam enter into a conspiracy with a person or persons unknown to make the money vanish? There have been financial wizards, you know, who could make billions of cedis disappear without trace.

Did Mallam Issa inform the Vice President about the alleged loss of the money as soon as he (Mallam Issa) returned from the Sudan or was it after The Dispatch had broken the story? Is it true that Mallam Issa hid the letter from President Kufuor inviting the PNC to suggest someone for the post and simply put himself forward without letting the party know? If it is established beyond reasonable doubt that Mallam Issa indeed informed the Vice President as soon as he (Mallam Issa) returned from Sudan will the Vice President resign to save his honour? It is the hope of all Ghanaians, I believe, that the Police inquiry will unravel the mystery surrounding the allegedly missing $46,000.00.

Meanwhile, the political fall-out cannot be pleasant for a President determined to stamp out corruption and all forms of malfeasance. Shie, the word ‘malfeasance’, where did it spring f rom? Why do they not simply say ‘wrong-doing’? It is now the vogue word and everyone wants to use it.

Well, since I hope to do a piece on political English in the country, I will reserve my comments for now. As I was saying before the word ‘Malfeasance’ got in the way, Mr. Kufuor must be an unhappy and disappointed and embarrassed person indeed. His NPP majority had rubber-stamped and pushed through the nominee and now the President accuses him of lack of judgment. I bet you that there are those who might say, with the benefit of hindsight, that Mr. Kufuor had also showed lack of judgment in nominating Mallam Issa in the first place.

The President has certainly burnt his fingers. As King Duncan in Shakespeare’s play, MACBETH says of the Thane of Glamis, so must Mr. Kufuor be probably saying of Mallam Issa: There is no art to find the mind’s construction in the face; He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust. Now, with the sad case of Mallam Issa haunting him (Mr. Kufuor) whom will he trust sufficiently to entrust the Ministry of Youth and Sports to? We wait and see. Talking of trust, I say Mr. Kufuor should not think that everyone will listen to his preaching about zero-corruption, morality and austerity.

He should check on his ministers so that they do not engage in any ostentation that could cause him and his administration further injury. Is it true that one female minister has kicked against her office and wants it refurbished to her taste even though it was not too long ago that some refurbishment was carried out? I have been told that, according to the lady minister, the office was not ‘gender-friendly’, whatever she might mean by that. I want to hope that it is all rumour. Still, it would be worth the President’s while to find out which of his ministers, male or female, are not aware that they should set a very good example in leading moderate life-styles at this moment when we have told the whole world that we qualify to join, the club of the world’s highly indebted poor countries (HIPC).

Mr. J. H. Mensah made it sound as if being a member of HIPC was a badge of honour to be proudly and conspicuously worn. No one expects the President and his ministers to stand by the roadside looking for tro tro, or buying waakye and eating it in public. But we expect them to show that they understand the grim situation in which this country finds itself. So far, the Kufuor Administration appears to continue to enjoy the goodwill and understanding of the people. Increases in fuel prices were accepted without too much murmur, though drivers wanted something more than the fifteen per cent increase in fares.

But Mr. Kufuor should not continue to count on the people’s forbearance forever. Increases in fuel, fares, water and electricity charges, high school fees, even the cost of food and such necessities as soap and medical care could soon burst the dam of patience and out would gush resentment, demonstrations and violence. President Kufuor should remember that, according to the Biblical account, when the Israelites had no food and water as they wandered across the desert, there were those among them who hankered after the fleshpots of Egypt and wanted to go back to servitude. When the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power, I often reminded them of what a British newspaper once wrote: that a Government is elected to solve problems, not explain them. After sometime, the explanations will no longer be accepted as music to the ears.

After all, the child who goes to his father for school fees will not listen to long-winded explanations about non-payment of salaries, starvation wages, medical bills, etc., when the child had been driven away from school. Because I did not have a solution to the country’s problems, I never stood for election for president. Mr. J. A. Kufuor did and won. Now he should start thinking seriously of solutions, not explanations. His future political life depends on that.