Opinions of Friday, 26 August 2011

Columnist: Abubakar, Shuk

Abayifa Karbo's attack on President Mills smells political

The NPP had on several occasions made boastful victory predictions for 2012 election, but the NPP youth organizer is determined to make a noise of Mills’ bold victory prediction for 2012
A word of caution to Abayifa Karbo
Insulting and casting deceitful comment about a president is still a criminal offence but, fortunately for the NPP youth organizer, prosecutions are rare. Even more fortunately for him, we are lucky to have a God fearing man as their president.
Abayifa Karbo’s Cheap Politics
The statements given by NPP Youth organizer over president Mills recent statement in Ho that he will “hand over a peaceful nation in 2017” is indicative of his cheap thinking and opportunistic politics. Before leveling allegations against the president and his government, the NPP Youth organizer should remember Ghanaians value credibility and not false allegations
Abayifo karbo = hypocrisy
To understand how hypocritical and untrustworthy the NPP organiser is, you need to analyse the following statement made by the same Anthony Abayifa Karbo, The National Youth Organizer of the opposition New Patriotic Party:
Statement one; In an exclusive interview with Citi News, Anthony Abayifa Karbo was reported that “President John Evans Atta Mills’ recent statement in Ho that he will hand over power in 2017 confirmed the NDC’s grand agenda to rig the 2012 general elections.”
Statement two; Speaking on Asempa Fm’s “Ekosii Sen” on Monday, the same Anthony Abayifa Karbo said “the NPP will win the 2012 elections in the northern regions hands down.”
I do not know why Abayifa Karbo will accuse the president of planning to rig an election for simply predicting NDC victory and then turn round to make the same prediction for his NPP party. What does he want to prove? He somehow does not tell us why his statement was not an expression of the NPP’s intention to rig the 2012 election but we should see president mills’ in such negative light. Doesn’t this Youth Organizer realize that he is only harming his own party’s already tattered reputation? What sort of dirty politics is this man playing? Why is he weakening the little credibility left for his party? The entire nation is united in fighting against election violence and this man is trying to make a political gain out of it. I pray that God gives some sense to this man and he stops talking all this nonsense.
The Myth: NPP slams NDC on failed promises to the people of the North
"The administration has totally failed to meet the aspirations of not only the indigenes of the region but the nation at large.”

This junk was from the NPP Youth organizer, Abayifa Karbo when he accuses the National Democratic Congress Government of not able to fulfil its campaign promises and electoral contracts to the people of the Northern parts of the country:
Someone should ask this moron what did the Northern region got from the NPP’s eight years in power. Let me tell him what Northern Region got from NDC rule: Under the NDC’s bold Rural Electrification Program, every district in Ghana was connected to the National electricity grid- Akufo Addo was quoted saying “it is waste of money to send electricity to the North”. Yes!!! That was from the man who now needs northern support to become the next president. The NDC implemented the best and most innovative urban transport system in West Africa for Tamale and this project was stopped when the NPP came to power. This project includes the construct new road network connecting Salaga district, Yendi district, Bimbila District and Makongo. When the NPP came to power, the project was half-way to Yendi from Tamale and just few kilometers to Kumdi towards Salaga. After eight years of NPP rule, not a single kilometer was added to this network. As a result several youth lost their job with the contractor-the rest is history.
Under the NPP rule, Northern Region especially Tamale, suffered the worst water shortage in recent history. When the people call on their Regional Minister to help, the then Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Boniface told them bluntly and I quote "... if you are a member in a community which is craving for development and you don't want to join the government of the day then you are deceiving yourself. So if the NDC people want to see development in their areas then they should all come on board. This is the term of NPP and you must move with it. If you are an NDC this is not your time so why don't you join NPP and enjoy the national cake? Let's face the fact and hold the bull by the horn"!
My God, First of All I wanted to know how did the then NPP President reacted to this comment. Well, as expected after successfully implementing NPP’s apartheid policy in Northern Region, Mr. Boniface was promoted to the position of Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing to implement the NPP’s apartheid policy nationally and was even touted as the presidential running mate for Akufo Addo.
Does the NPP think Northerners are cheap and that their political allegiance can be bought? No!!! The Northern voters told Boniface and his NPP paymasters to get lost in 2008.
If a northerner is to become the President of Ghana, I can guarantee you he will be from the NDC and not the NPP. This proved the NDC as a plural and forward looking party with equal opportunity for all Tribes and Religion. We’ve all witness how the NPP dismissed and undermined the former vice-president Alhaji Mahama by labelling his position as a product of an affirmative action to appease Northern voters. The fact stands today that, a Blackman has greater chance of leading the racist British National Party (BNP) or the KKK (Klan) in American than a Northerner leading NPP and this is a FACT.
NPP and Tribalism
What the NPP continually fail understand about northerners is that, our support for NDC has nothing to do with Tribal or Religious affiliations. Neither Mr. Rawlings nor Mr. Atta mills were from the Northern Region nor are the NDC party a political movement from the Northern Region. Northern support for the NDC was purely the result of physical development projects that the NDC brought to Northern Region. We then gave the NPP the chance to do better than the NDC in 2000 and for 8 years we got nothing to show for, so we went back to the NDC like the biblical prodigal sons who learnt their lesson the hard way.
The people of Ashanti region may religiously back the NPP and the people of Volta Region may show an unshakable commitment to the NDC however, we the good people of the Northern Region only support a party that will better our community and it will take more that political deception and empty promise for the NPP to get our vote.
How many development project did the NPP implemented in northern region vis-à-vis (or better: dollar-to-dollar) the Ashanti region? I bet you that when all is said and done the number is big time negative. But why allow those facts to crowd/ 'beclown' the narrative?
I have to laugh, because otherwise the option is to cry at the stupidity of the NPP to think Ghanaians are fools. Think anyone in the NPP will point out Abayifa Karbo is an economic illiterate douche? Not holding my breath.
On agriculture, Abayifa Karbo said the NDC promised to encourage large-scale dawadawa development and processing, set up sheanut development board, develop the cotton industry to play a role in reducing poverty and rehabilitate existing irrigation schemes but the promises had not been fulfilled.
These sweeping remarks are very unfortunate and it seems Abayifa Karbo as always is engaging in cheap politics. I have never seen such a cheap politician. This only shows that the NPP youth organizer has poor knowledge about Northern Region. Abayifa Karbo is shedding crocodile tears when he spoke about the problems in Northern Region. It seems as usual the NPP shows sympathy only before elections and not after.
My advice to Mr. Abayifa Karbo is, if NPP cares that much about the northern region (and not for political gains) and its people then they should use their parliamentary power to table an urgent debate on the region and the state of any project. This could force the NDC government ‘to put or shut up’ and we the people of northern region will appreciate them for that.
It's cheap politics to blame the NDC for every problem. The causes go deep.
No doubt there are those like Akufo Addo and Abayifo Karbo who seek to blame the NDC for everything bad in Ghana today.
Yet, the NDC Government has only been in power for two and half years and, even with the current financial restraints, public spending is still above 2008 levels under the NPP. NPP left office with youth unemployment at 43 per cent - hardly likely to strengthen the social fabric of the nation. To blame it all on the NDC Government, is not just cheap politics, but ignores much deeper causes.
I welcome a sensible debate about improving Northern Region from the NPP. I will let you know when it starts.

Author:

Shuk Abubakar

(Student of Educational Planning)
Institute of Education, University of London
s.abubakar@ioe.ac.uk / abushuk2000@yahoo.com