Continue from the Part 1 that was published recently. Please read on.
FORGIVENESS AND FORGETFULNESS
Meanwhile, Ghanaians would never ever forgive and forget the president if he failed to come clean to absolve himself from and/or extricate himself from his alleged complicity in the Amarjaro fiasco, the STX Korea Housing Deal and the controversial Sovereign Guarantee by Ghana Government and the loss of some alleged $295m which he, personally championed and trumpeted; because he spear-headed the deal that went berserk (not until his own public admission, Ghanaians never knew that the late president was so magnanimous that he offloaded and delegated some tons of official duties to him. These plenary powers included those that the Constitution had expressly and explicitly conferred on him to be his prerogative powers and responsibility to so handle i.e. the military as Commander -in-Chief, appointments of the chief justice, service commanders, police boss, ministers, metro, municipal and chief executives and heads of public statutory boards and corporations that were solely his duty were given to him John the Revelator on a silver platter as additional and oversight responsibility to perform. The Embraer aircraft purchase from Brazil and the alleged fishy deal that have become the talk of the town were no exception; its accessories – the stairs and hangar that smack of disheartening corruption are very frightening indeed as the additional cost burden alone on the tax-payer could build a decent regional hospital anywhere in Ghana.
LAST STRAW
The last but not the least, the straw that must have broken the camel’s hunch -back was, of course, the circumstances and mysterious myth surrounding the regional selection and equity, the ethnic balance and the academic competence of the 250 Ghanaian students. Of the total number, about 98% of them according to the inner circles, had strings with the ruling NDC. So, in effect, all Ghanaians must, of necessity, be card-bearers of your party otherwise, there should be no hope for survival. The students have since left the shores of Ghana for medical training in Cuba for 6 years. The irony of it all was that the first year of the course duration was entirely free because it was meant for the study of the Spanish language (but which, for obvious reasons, had been factored in the said ‘Mahama Gate’ MOU Agreement that fees would be paid) because the late president purportedly never sighted a copy because his health was of prime concern to him. To all intents and purposes, this is a complete daylight robbery of the Nation Ghana’s coffers and monumental theft of the highest order. If these have come to light for public consumption, then what happens to the unknown and hidden economic crimes and/or mismanagement acts that he may have single-handedly or collectively with his agents and/or assigns engaged in to cause huge financial losses to the nation? By his own admission, soon after the swearing in ceremony, his maiden message was quite simple; as a result of special unalloyed and unflinching confidence reposed in him by his late boss, he was almost entrusted with the full administration of the country -he could make and unmake Ghana to suit his whims and caprices.
JUICIEST POSITION
So, in a nutshell, that was the juiciest position he held to the blind side of almost all Ghanaians except few; he could ‘make and break’ Ghana, he could, by his own admission, collateralize or decide to so do at his convenience. So fellow Ghanaians, countrymen/women, we should however count ourselves lucky and be thankful to God that as you read this article today or at a later date, the former vice president in his new role as the Chief Executive Officer and executive President of the Republic of Ghana in the year of Our Lord, AD2012, the eighth month of the year, he has not yet decided to ‘collateralize’ soon after his coronation or dream to collateralize the whole nation Ghana after the ceremony and of course, including all the human, mineral and natural resources plus the oil find at his disposal for personal gains. He could go and settle on the moon because the word collateralization cannot be amiss from his vocabulary or from the ‘Encyclopedia Mahama da Ghana ’. After all, his sibling and younger brother, Ibrahim Mahama, the fabulously rich businessman with all that it takes, to enjoy the Arabian type of bourgeoisie lifestyle, could offer his big brother, President Mahama, a jet aircraft to go holidaying and globe-trotting if he so wished.
Who knows he has not gotten his teeth in the pie of the bits and pieces from the said hyped up collateralization that the Chinese would for as long as 15 years, continue to milk Ghana to the fullest. Adanko wants to find out who signed that controversial and detrimental MOU that would be binding us for the next 15 years? Finally, since the president failed in his bid to warn his ‘yes men’ like the Elvis Afriyie Ankrahs, the Kwadwo Twum Boafos and the Okudzeto Ablakwas to desist from the yell or praises of ‘Obama, Obama, Obama choruses to herald his arrival at the funeral grounds at the State House, then God, save the Queen.
SACRED INSTITUTION
Mr. President, the presidency is such a sacred institution and an embodiment of our Ghanaian nationhood so the earlier you comported yourself peaceably – mind you, the establishment of your Heroes Fund to cater for the dead and wounded before, during and after this year’s elections; to avoid profanity towards the opposition otherwise, you’ll certainly meet your match from the serial callers, and to embrace the dignity you deserve as a truthful, honest, and respectful president devoid of encouraging the thievery of the national cake and incessant payment of unnecessary judgment debts, trust me, you’d win my respect. In conclusion, one shoe shine boy spotted by the author at the Abossey Okai spare parts dealers square in tattered clothes quickly, in an unprovoked situation, remarked to stun his clients whose shoe shining work he was doing as thus – how many ‘Johns’ do we have in the Bible? In a quick but brisk mood, he inadvertently, tried to answer the stunning question posed by himself that there were three Johns - I John i.e. ex-president Jerry John Rawlings, II John i.e. ex-president John Kufuor and III John, definitely, the deceased president, John Mills, so if there were no fourth i.e. IV John in the Bible, which obviously was the truth, then it presupposes that HE John Mahama has just some 5 months to finish the un-expired period (166 days) of his former boss’s tenure and retire soon after January 6, 2013 either to be accorded the status of former president or to be appointed to a UN position while cooling off at home.
SHERIFF IN TOWN
However, he would do himself good if he curtailed the use of profane words in his everyday language that have been very often characteristic in his speeches; or he does not spare the whip either on the left-over appointees of the Mills govern -ment that may seem to be an uphill task for him to do to incur the displeasure of such people. If he acts, the better it would be for him, but such persons might engage in vilifying campaign against him come the December 7 elections; whereas if he doesn’t exert discipline to bring them to book, the worse it would be for him. So in a nutshell, the new Sheriff in town (to borrow from Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh of the Manhyia constituency) who only announced his presence as the new Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, the Master of all that he surveys and Master of all the yet-to-be Ceremonies till elections - the recent past Eid ul Fitr, the impending Graduation ceremony of the young military officers at the Military Academy & Training School, Teshie (MATS), the National Farmers Day slated for a date in November, and of course, all the-yet-to-be-finished projects started by the late president but could not be commissioned by him due to the mishap etc., would be permanently seen on our TV sets commencing last Wednesday, August 15, 2012. He does not know what to do precisely now as he finds himself between and betwixt the crop of Team ‘B’ ministers, players and appointees that he led some three-and-a-half years ago when the late president’s health began failing. If he decides to act decisively to axe some of the notorious ones that everybody knows, they would turn against him and stab him in the back.
SUICIDAL
It would be suicidal and bitter for him, but, however, on the other hand, if he doesn’t do that too, to personalities such as the Elvis Afriyie Ankrahs, the Nii Ante Vanderpuyes, the Sammy Okudzeto Ablakwas, then, the opposition too would also have the field day to blast, blast, blast because they would not stop at nothing but continue to rain insults on Nana Akufo Addo instead of issues to relieve us from economic stagnation for them to go to the gutters and do their worst. We would then see whether the Ghanaian clergy some of which have donned the partisan garbs, will be up on their feet, rekindle themselves and sharpen their eyes to call for ceasefire by which time it will be too late. You mark my word. In wishing our numerous Muslim brothers and sisters, a belated Barke da Sallah, I expect the President to put the brakes on the infamous but very clandestine and mischievous machinations perpetrated by the Local Government Minister, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo and being discreetly polished to shape neatly by the Majority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Cletus Avoka and to halt it because none of their actions was constitutionally democratic. They are just pursuing an agenda of undemocratic gestures and overtures. I entreat you to call them to order to save your dignity for posterity to judge you as a credible man of integrity; otherwise, your name would be dragged in the mud and perhaps, be written with indelible ink in the Guinness Book of Records as being the cause of the woes of Ghanaian refugees one day. Hmm, you mark my word! The author does not want to sound tribal; but from the look of things, Prof. Mills’s death could be an act from God. He has died to pacify the odds. In trying not to rake the wounds and prolong the grief and pain of the surviving spouse, Dr. Naadu Mills, the only begotten son, Kofi Sam Mills, sibling Dr. Cadman Mills, the entire bereaved family and possibly, the recently ‘adopted family nephew’ Koku Anyidohu’, his death has come to rid Ghana of the river of blood that this nation would obviously have been plunged into as well as to cleanse the nation also of the bloodshed that would have been visited on the country by the likes of notorious persons such as the Nii Lante Vanderpuyes, the Collins Daudas, the Eric Opokus, the Kwabena Nyamekye Marfos, the Baba Jamals, the Anita de Sousos, the Asiedu Nketiahs, the Ofosu Ampofos, the Kempes Ofosu Wares, the Okudzeto Ablakwas and for that matter, blood stained NDC apparatchiks who were bent on using every available means, fair or foul, to cling to power. But a word to the wise, they say, is in the far away north. Hope they take a cue from that.
HUMOUR
If the current president and his late boss could not make the Kotukuraba market and the Robert Mensah Stadium in Cape Coast happen in 42 months of their 4-year term, with the passing on of the genuinely validated licensed aeronautical pilot in command, then what justification and logical sense could it be for the incumbent who, until the close of last month, July, was the co-pilot of the flagship Ghana, bravely belly-land at any of the Ghanaian airports that don’t have the requisite facilities for such emergency landings or politically, finish the same in this last lap of the mandatory term? Honestly, while both of them slept with their faces upward, they could not see the skies for God’s guidance to alleviate the perennial suffering of Ghanaians, reduce the astronomic fuel prices drastically, check the ever-increasing prohibitive customs duties at the country’s ports, minimize the quadruple increases in the utility bills that had stifled most, or all Ghanaians, improve upon the health delivery facility that had been initiated by the predecessor government, reinvigorate the Capitation Grant, encourage the free cocoa spraying policy with extra incentives, expand the free bussing of school children on public buses and the ‘unwarrantable ’ freeze on employment for the youth generally except for the hasty payments of unjustifiable judgment debts, i.e. God in the high heavens, how come, then, that Mr. Mahama sleeping with the face downwards, could miraculously see God in the skies? And in the end, Ghana was bound to produce some tens of thousands of young men and women who would roam the streets of our cities and the urban towns with delight in the smoking of the Indian hemp, heroin, sniffing cocaine, et cetera et cetera. I entreat you to kindly refrain from the vain promises as before, to earn your honour and dignity, Mr. President, for you cannot finish both the Kotukuraba Market and the Robert Mensah Stadium in Cape Coast as well as the two public universities at Ho and Sunyani before the end of the year for admissions. The Akan idiomatic expression and proverb – Wo da ayaya mpo no, wo anhunu Nyame, na afei a woabutu no, na wo behunu Nyame? Certainly not! While you were asleep with the face upwards and pointing to the skies, you never saw God but now that you are in deep sleep with the face downwards, how come that you’d see God? The English illustration of the darkened local proverb is crystal clear as daylight. It is a herculean task and an impossibility that he thinks could be easily overcome.
By: kofiappiah2002@yahoo.com