..... And Do Your Work



Another painful example of the government's indifference to issues that might hurt the National Democratic Congress (NDC) came to light when the Education Minister told parliament that a six-classroom block costs between GHS 250,000 and GHS 270,000.



Smelling blood, the minority in parliament, run with the story and as you would guess, started pillorying the government and the NDC. Apparently, there was a mix up in the communication. The minister was referring to the Emergency Classroom blocks which was approved under the "certificate of urgency" to accommodate fourth year Senior Secondary School students.



What the opposition in parliament thought the minister meant were 6-unit classroom blocks, which currently cost a little over GHS 1400,000 across the country. These are two different things.



It has been a week now since Betty Mould made this announcement to parliament. She was poorly briefed, which was not too surprising as this seems to be the daily ritual since the government took over, but more shocking is the deafening silence of the Ministry of Information, which amongst other things is responsible for clarifying government's policy positions and programmes.



Instead of telling the people of Ghana the truth, instead of informing the nation that what the minority is talking about is completely different from what Betty told parliament, the issue was left unclarified by the government, and the NDC is getting a pounding from the opposition for that. You can't blame the opposition for exploiting the government's weaknesses can you?



Unlike the government, the main opposition party members understand that they are in a political contest and would hit at the NDC and its government where it hurts the most.



The Vice President, John Mahama, once told a gathering of NDC Youth in Winneba that the young people at the Ministry of Information are doing a very good job. Well, if the monumental ineptitude exhibited by some of these appointees is our example of doing a good job, then God save Ghana. We are seriously glorifying mediocrity and calling it "good job."



I will concede, that if engaging in skulduggery, flip-flopping and inertia are the basis for judging their work then indeed they are doing a very good job. But there is more to articulating government's programmes than just propaganda.



The government's communications unit has been turned into a propaganda outfit for President Mills' re-election campaign in the NDC primaries and they do just two things.



First, if the ministers and their hired friends and relatives are not spending their time scheming and plotting against Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings and her friends, they are thinking about their careers and future.



We have a situation where appointees are spending the public time on party or personal business, like being a member of the president's re-election team whilst serving as a sworn appointee of government. This is unacceptable in any serious democracy.



In any serious government, ministers who wished to help the president get re-elected would have stepped aside. Recently in the United States, Jim Messina, had to step aside as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff to help run Obama's re-election campaign. Let us not waste the taxpayer's time and money.



We are often being told that, those of us who have attempted to share some of these concerns privately, but have been met with indifference, disdain and snobbery are the ones irking the government and dragging the name of the party into the mud.



What they, the government and its apologists would not admit is their shortcomings and barrage of daily mistakes. And if the Commander-in-Chief is irresolute about cracking the whip, it provides an impetus to calls for a change.



If families worked hard, and got their hands dirty and government reached deeper into their pay pocket, they would want change. If people can¹t get commodities like gas, stable electricity, they want something to change. If the business community cannot expand and grow, they want change and these are the issues, which inspired people to ask Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings to step in and save us from sinking further.



The job of the people working in government's communication is to get the success stories of government high up in the news. If they cannot achieve that, and the president would reward instead of rebuking them, it provides an impetus to calls for a change. They must focus on doing their work and save the party of having to clean up the mess by the government.



RAS MUBARAK skype.com/ras.mubarak