Ghanapolitics

A PRESIDENT KOFI ANNAN & VICE PRESIDENT PAA KWESI NDUOM - TRULY WORLD CLASS LEADERSHIP FOR NKRUMAH'S GHANA?

2012-01-30T03:46:00.000-08:00

It is rare to see a politician move with the speed of lightening, when given a good idea. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom did a wise thing in setting up his own political party, the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP).

Now he must think outside the box - and make it a party offering hope for ordinary Ghanaian families, and above all, Ghana's educated younger generation. Ditto those young Ghanaians who because their families could not afford it, did not have the opportunity to get an education, beyond the junior secondary level.

In suggesting that he set up his own party, when problems between Nduom and the current leadership of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) came to a head, not too long ago, those of us who made that suggestion, did so because we were hoping that he would see the wisdom of persuading Mr. Kofi Annan to use his new party as a national platform-of-unity to lead Ghana.

So, today, at the risk of sounding presumptuous yet again, my humble advice to him, if he wants a political game-changer, is to do everything in his power, to make his party a platform for the former Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mr. Kofi Annan, to become a candidate in the December 2012 presidential election.

To succeed in December, he must shun the old Ghanaian political model of relying on money-grabbers - the so-called "foot soldiers" - those shameless individuals who do not understand that politics is about service to Ghana and one's fellow citizens, not a chance to grab "awoof-money".

Alas, the PPP is presently jam-packed with many of that kind - who have abandoned the CPP to follow him: no doubt hoping to lay hands on some of his zillions. He does not need to be told that many of them are mercenary individuals, who simply see politics as a wealth-creation opportunity.

To succeed in the December elections, he must use a new political organisational model - wooing tens of thousands of idealistic university students countrywide: to volunteer to join the crusade to help elect Mr. Kofi Annan, as Ghana's next president.

His task is to make them understand clearly that electing a President Kofi Annan and Vice President Paa Kwesi Nduom, is the best way to secure their own individual futures, in present-day Ghana.

They must be made to understand that volunteering to help elect Mr. Kofi Annan as Ghana's president, will be a wise move for them personally. Ghana needs real change - not the present musical-chairs-politics, in which one set of rip-off merchants replace another set of rip-off merchants, to take their turn at bleeding our nation dry.

They must be made to see the wisdom in putting the destiny of Ghana into the hands of a different kind of leadership: truly world-class individuals, who can begin the transformation of our homeland Ghana, and make it a nation of opportunity - in which all those who work hard can always succeed.

The question is: is Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom willing to make the ultimate personal sacrifice for Mother Ghana? One hopes so. The PPP has a historic opportunity to give Ghana a new start - if it gives Ghanaians the opportunity to elect a President Kofi Annan and a Vice President Paa Kwesi Nduom: a truly world class leadership, in the Nkrumah-mould.

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

WHEN WILL THE BRUTAL & REPEATED GANG-RAPE OF MOTHER GHANA CEASE?

2012-01-28T19:16:00.000-08:00

The incredible news that a contractor was allowed to get away with causing damage to a vital pipeline, leading to untreated waste from the 37 Military Hospital - including that flowing from the hospital's mortuary - being discharged directly into Accra's drainage system, perfectly sums up the sorry state our country has been in, for much of the period since Nkrumah's overthrow, in 1966 (in terms of the commitment of our ruling elites to the common weal).

It is unthinkable, that such an abomination would have occurred, when Ghana's visionary and phenomenally hard-working founder, Osagefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, led our nation.

Where in the developed world, would a contractor, executing a contract for a handsome profit, be allowed to get away with such an outrage, I ask?

And the astonishing news that the situation has been allowed to persist and fester for close to a year, by individuals in positions of authority - in the one state institution that we all thought was the only truly world-class entity left, amongst our mostly debased institutions of state, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) - and almost all apparently still at post, despite having superintended this major environmental disaster, which poses a serious health risk, not only to the men and women under their command, but to millions of residents living in a huge swathe of Ghana's capital, Accra, simply beggars belief.

Is that the effect the perfidy of Kufuor & Co. has had on the GAF - with their endless nepotism, egregious tribalism and unfair promotions galore, from January 2001 to January 2009: and all in pursuance of the fulfilment of their absurd, foolish and dangerous hidden agenda, of achieving perpetual ethnic-dominance in Nkrumah's Ghana, till the very end of time?

It would appear that our ruling elites no longer even bother to pretend that they care about our nation. As long as they can personally benefit, it doesn't matter how detrimental to our nation's long-term interests, a particular contract's terms might be: entered into with alacrity, will it be, by those ruling the Ghanaian nation-state - regardless.

So we now routinely have Parliament sanctioning dubious sale and purchase agreements of valuable state assets - built up over the years by the blood, sweat and tears of Ghanaian workers; sundry one-sided and inimical oil and natural gas exploration and production agreements that favour foreign oil companies - and are widely regarded as some of the world's worst in living memory; and usurious loan agreements, all with terms and conditions that no other nation on the surface of the planet Earth will accept, being readily entered into, by agents and assigns of the Ghanaian nation-state - just because it will benefit some well-connected members of our ever-so-clever educated urban ruling elites.

It is the reason why in the Ghana of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of - "double jeopardy" - President Mills and Vice President John Mahama, the selfsame NDC people who once upon a time, railed against that daft foray into the piranha-infested capital markets of the West, by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., for a eurozone bond sale paying out ridiculously high coupon rates, also quickly went for a eurozone bond sale themselves, when they came to power - paying coupon rates more or less double that which the NPP agreed to pay out.

Then to top that list of woes, is the monstrosity of obscene compensation packages paid to board members and senior management of various governmental bodies and organisations, including those of loss-making state-owned enterprises.

A classic example of this never ending rip-off of the hapless Ghanaian taxpayer, by our greedy and ruthless ruling elites, is the scandalous retirement package insisted upon by former President Kufuor. Why do our leaders, who never cease asking ordinary people to make sacrifices for the good of our nation, not do so themselves: and lead by example?

Perhaps the question we must ask, is: Just when will the repeated and brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana - which this unending and unyielding elite rip-off represents - finally cease?

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

DR SEKOU NKRUMAH'S ABSENCE FROM AU HQ CEREMONY HONOURING PRESIDENT NKRUMAH - IS KOKU ANYIDOHO DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE?

2012-01-27T03:44:00.000-08:00

News that Dr. Francis Nkrumah and Ms. Samiah Yaaba Nkrumah are accompanying President Mills to the latest AU summit, illustrates perfectly, how over the years, Mills' image has been damaged by daft decisions of the incompetents that surround him.

Although the professional dissemblers in the Osu Castle will deny it, I am one hundred percent certain that the politically inept decision not to invite Dr. Sekou Nkrumah to accompany the president, was not taken by President Mills personally - and that the president was not also involved in arriving at that short-sighted and foolish decision.

Yet, it is the president's image that has suffered yet another blow - because the incompetents around him, who frequently say and do things in his name that he has no knowledge of, have struck yet again.

I am no fan of Dr. Sekou Nkrumah's - but he is an offspring of President Nkrumah's: which is the precise reason which qualified Dr Francis Nkrumah and Ms Samiah Nkrumah to accompany President Mills to unveil a statute of their late father in the forecourt of the new AU headquarters building in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Instead of making endless excuses, Koku Anyidoho - who the uncharitable amongst us often say wouldn't qualify to be in charge of communications in even the smallest American town's mayor's office, let alone the White House - ought to quickly arrange to enable Sekou Nkrumah to be present at the AU HQ ceremony to honour his late father.

For the information of those "abject failures" (to quote a wag I know!) in the Osu Castle communications team - in case it escapes those geniuses - Dr. Sekou Nkrumah's absence from photographs of the occasion, will be a permanent reminder, for posterity, of their pettiness, short-sightedness and incompetence.

Above all, it will unfairly be a permanent dent on the image of a president, who had no hand in arriving at that incomprehensible decision to exclude Sekou Nkrumah, who as it happens, is coincidentally the most critical of the president and his administration, amongst Nkrumah's offspring resident in Ghana. What does that fact convey - from the standpoint of an independent observer, I ask?

Koku Anyidoho must understand that criticising the president and his administration, isn't committing treason. Indeed there are times when it is an act of patriotism - surprising though it might be for him. And whatever else one might think of Dr. Sekou Nkrumah, his patriotism isn't in doubt.

And is this particular trip with President Mills, by Nkrumah's offspring, not meant to be a national assignment - as goodwill ambassadors breathing new life into, and renewing, the old ties President Nkrumah built across the continent, between Ghana and the rest of the nations on the continent?

What a perfect photo-opportunity to show how tolerant President Mills is, as an individual, the incompetents in the Osu Castle communications team have just missed. But it is typical of them - and more's the pity for the beleaguered President Mills: whose misfortune it is to be lumbered with such clueless and unhelpful helpers.

Koku Anyidoho must not defend the indefensible - in that crass and petty decision, not to invite Sekou Nkrumah to accompany the president to Addis Ababa.

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS MUST SACRIFICE PRESIDENT MILLS & VICE PRESIDENT MAHAMA NOW - FOR VICTORY IN THE DECEMBER PRESIDENTIAL POLL!

2012-01-27T00:30:00.000-08:00

There is no question that President John Atta Mills is fundamentally a good and decent gentleman - as is his vice-president, John Mahama. However, he is in charge of a nation-state, not a Christian fellowship. Ghana needs a strong and dynamic leader, not a platitudinous fatherly figure - held to ransom by ruthless and rapacious crooks.

The fact of the matter, is that in allowing crooks in his party, to hijack the government of our nation for their own ends, he has let Mother Ghana down terribly. That is why he and his vice president must step down - and do so quickly.

The trouble about the present hard-of-hearing National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime, is that instead of being proactive, it rather reacts to the agenda set by its political opponents, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) - now running rings around it in the relentless propaganda war the NPP is waging to enable it return to power again.

The NDC must not wait till it is far too late to ask President Mills to step aside - when it will not make the slightest bit of difference, to the landslide victory that its opponents will win, if President Mills stands in the presidential elections.

The best present President Mills can give his party, the NDC, is to step aside now - not tomorrow or the day after that. Both President Mills and Vice President John Mahama must be sacrificed by their party, as soon as practicable - and be replaced by a President Martin Amidu and Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as his vice-president.

That is what must be done, if the NDC is to retain power in the December presidential poll. Consequently, and unpleasant though it might be, the NDC ought do what has to be done, and, quickly, in order to stop the perfidious Kufuor & Co.'s NPP, from returning to power again in January 2013 - to resume asset-stripping our nation, yet further, to increase their personal net worth: from where they left off, in January 2009. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

NDC: SACRIFICE PRESIDENT MILLS NOW TO ENSURE DECEMBER POLLS VICTORY - AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT RAWLINGS

2012-01-23T07:58:00.000-08:00

Dear President Rawlings,

I shall go straight to the point: the National Democratic Congress (NDC) must rid itself of President Mills as quickly as it possibly can - for the sake of our nation. And it must be done sooner - rather than later.

(Incidentally, I am a patriotic Nkrumaist, a Ghanaian nationalist and committed pan-Africanist, who, until a few days ago, actually believed in President Mills - and also was frequently critical of you, Your Excellency. Now I realise you were right all along - so: "Ofaene, J. J., ba ni obahe ote, oo!"

President Mills' giving in so easily, to the sodden crooks amongst those who surround him, over Martin Amidu's revelation that criminal-minds within your party, are committing gargantuan crimes against Ghanaians, has suddenly turned the president into an electoral liability - and an unmitigated disaster, politically.

Today, alas, President Mills has no credibility, whatsoever: When put to the ultimate leadership stress-test, he failed our nation.

Luckily, however, your party ought to be able to recover from that disastrous situation it now finds itself in - by doing some creative thinking: which ought to make it possible for it to actually find a fool-proof means of getting President Mills to resign immediately.

Once that is achieved, the NDC should then get Martin Amidu to become vice-president to John Mahama - and then get Mahama too to resign immediately after that. And it will all be perfectly legal and constitutional.

Sir, it is important that your party grasps the fact that moments of exceptional danger, demand exceptional solutions. No one need put guns to their heads - but, go, they must: in the supreme interest of Ghana. Sir, you must take your party back, from those careless individuals, whose ineptitude has allowed crooks to hijack it for their own selfish ends.

Your party can then appoint Mrs. Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings as vice-president to a President Martin Amidu. That is a formidable and winning ticket by any one's reckoning, for the December presidential election, is it not - and will such a move not be perceived widely by Ghanaians, as a dramatic return to the NDC's core principles of probity and accountability?

Just ask the average person walking along the Kwame Nkrumah Circle overhead footbridge - and you will see that there's not a single soul in Ghana today, who is in any doubt about Martin Amidu's anti-corruption credentials.

And who in Ghana today, does not also now see President Mills as a cynical and weak leader, alas? And is his vice-president not compromised-by-association too - and therefore an electoral liability too?

If the NDC were to come up with such a neat solution to its widely-perceived weak leadership problem, and also check-mated the many bold crooks holding the president hostage in the Osu Castle, and, by extension, holding Mother Ghana to ransom, will your party not then be assured of certain victory in the December 2012 election?

And, above all, will that not help save our country, from falling once again into the grasping and dishonest hands of the powerful and wealthy rogues, who dominate the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in December?

Clearly, those amongst that unimaginative and self-seeking lot surrounding President Mills, at the Osu Castle, who perhaps thought that the end of the world would come, were the notorious Woyome to get what he has coming to him - courtesy Martin Amidu - and therefore conspired to rid themselves of Mr. Amidu, ought to have been a tad more imaginative, in their thinking.

Why did those incompetents not see that it is perfectly possible, and legitimate, for example, to scour the world for a wealthy individual - hailing from any part of the planet Earth - to loan a trusty and totally honest and patriotic Ghanaian businessperson, sympathetic to the NDC, tens of millions of dollars, free of interest, for the expansion of his or her own private business, and literally to do with as he or she pleases?

And are there not such wealthy folk living in Equatorial Guinea, today, as we speak, for example? What then stops such a lucky and patriotic Ghanaian tycoon, from subsequently helping a group of credible and equally patriotic individuals, also sympathetic to the NDC, from setting up, and funding, a Social Democratic Foundation, to do good works in Ghanaian society?

And could such a foundation then in turn not be able to provide and fuel a fleet of hundreds of cross-country vehicles, for example, which it could make available to target beneficiaries - to aid the educational aspect of the work of political parties in Ghana (which espouse the philosophy of social democracy), for a period of say two years?

And is engaging potential voters in regular mass open-air interactions, not a legitimate civic- educational task for political parties, I ask?

And who in this country of laws, can successfully challenge such open and transparent help, from a legitimate charitable foundation, set up to support mass civic education encounters of that nature, in any court of law in Ghana - as long as the tycoon met all tax obligations to do with the acquisition of the interest-free loan and his or her freely given gift, to that selfsame foundation?

Sir, it will interest you to know that your hard-of-hearing party, failed to listen, when some of us recommended, when they first came to power in January 2009, that a party committed to fighting corruption, ought not to rely on wealthy individuals for its funding, but should rather use the sms text-platforms of the mobile phone networks, to solicit for small sums of donated cash from the millions of ordinary people, who support it.

This was long before your main opponents, the corrupt Kufuor & Co.'s NPP, even thought of doing same. Would your party have had to be beholden to wealthy rogues, and held to ransom by those selfsame crooks, if those sodden geniuses had paid heed to our advice, I ask?

Sir, the more honest individuals in your party, must get President Mills to resign immediately - and make him a sacrificial lamb: to save our nation from falling into the dangerous and corrupt hands of the tribal-supremacist individuals (the perfidious Kufuor & Co.) who dominate and control the NPP. For all our sake - and that of Mother Ghana, above all, rid your party of President Mills. A word to the wise...

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi.

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109

AN EMAIL TO ALICIA MARIE

2012-01-23T04:49:00.000-08:00

Hello Alicia Marie,

I assume you are still exploring the many fascinating experiences that wonderful India offers.

Whiles waiting for all the information I have to provide Ian and all of you, I thought I'd share a few thoughts with all of you.

It suddenly struck me yesterday, that we had not made it crystal clear, what our expectations actually are.

We simply see ourselves as lucky stewards of a gem of nature, who want to use it as equity, in an "eco-tourism-as-a-conservation-tool" venture, to help preserve it for present and future generations of humankind to enjoy.

We count ourselves lucky, to have been given a marvellous opportunity to realise our dream, by a wonderful group of nature lovers and individuals, who care about their fellow human beings sufficiently enough, to want to invest in a project that will not only bring a return on their own individual investment, but also make possible a sustainable development business model, which will create wealth for all your local partners too.

It is important to stress, right from the beginning, that we prefer your side (indeed, we are adamant that that is the case!), to handle all the finances to do with every aspect of the project, from start to finish - as that is the only way to ensure that you can safeguard and control every cent of the money you put in an eco-tourism destination business, which your investment is going to make possible: and ensure is turned into a truly world class destination.

We see our role simply as local in-country coordinators and facilitators - guided by an ethical ethos - of all the local deliverables, which will ensure that your team's work can be done in a seamless, smooth and effective manner, at all material times.

We are ready to welcome you, whenever you decide to come - between now and just before the start of the rainy season, around June-July (alas, our seasons are no longer so predictable: climate change having made a complete nonsense of the old established weather patterns, we had hitherto been used to).

Finally, I am happy to report, that I am hoping to soon be in position to give Ian, and all of you, all the various bits of information I've written formally to request from officialdom. Regards to all of you - nice touching base with each one of you, again.

Kofi.

END IMPUNITY OF ROAD CONTRACTORS CAUSING RESPIRATORY ILLNESS WITH EXCESSIVE DUST-POLLUTION

2012-01-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

One doubts very much, whether in their own home countries, foreign road contractors who win contracts to build roads in Ghana, will be allowed to cause the kind of excessive dust-pollution, which they regularly force Ghanaians to put up with, when constructing new roads here.

Surely, the time has now come for both the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to be proactive - and start taking steps to protect inhabitants of areas where new roads are being constructed: by simply demanding that water is constantly sprinkled on all such roads, under construction across our country?

It is intolerable that companies - both local and foreign - constructing new roads, for vast profits, are allowed to get away with causing dangerous man-made health hazards - such as excessive dust-pollution, which can have disastrous long-term consequences, for the health of those forced to breath in such dust regularly.

A couple of examples of such outrages, are that produced by the contractors working on portions of the Accra-Kumasi highway and the Mallam junction elevated roads interchange project.

Hundreds of thousands of Ghanaian citizens, are being forced to suffer daily in silence, breathing in dust - and will probably continue doing so, for the entirety of the duration of both projects: if something drastic isn't done soon, to force the contractors to sprinkle water regularly, on both roads currently under construction.

To protect the health of Ghanaians, Parliament ought to quickly pass a law, which makes such excessive dust pollution illegal. And those laws must give the EPA and the GHA sufficient teeth, to enable them enforce such laws strictly.

The impunity of road contractors causing excessive dust-pollution must be brought to an end - for it has a negative affect on the quality of life of those Ghanaians who have to endure this needless man-made health hazard. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!):
+ 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

WILL PRESIDENT MILLS COME TO RUE THE DAY HE FIRED MARTIN AMIDU?

2012-01-20T09:29:00.000-08:00

There must have come a precise moment, when fallen leaders like former Tunisian leader Ben Ali, Egypt's Mubarak and Libya's Gaddafi, realised that their miscalculation had made them lose everything - and resulted in their finally being ousted from power, by the very masses, who for decades, had so feared them.

What goes through the human mind at such moments, one wonders? Would spurned advice to take a different course, offered by a brave-hearted lowly aide, in the midst of their regime's existentialist crisis, at great personal risk (for boldly telling a ruthless leader, under siege and wielding unfettered power, the bitter truth - instead of following the path of sycophants: and telling the leader only what he felt he wanted to hear), come to the fore, at such an end-game moment - because exactly what it predicted would occur, if the great leader persisted, had indeed occurred: leading to such catastrophic results?

Perhaps at such a low point, when all is lost, each one of those North African Arab leaders, must have wished they had not taken so many things in their privileged existence, for granted - and that they had frequently reminded themselves of that old wise saying, "No condition is permanent": and consequently been less inflexible whiles in power?

Will President Mills and those around him, who miscalculated so terribly, in not leaving Martin Amidu alone, to deal with those who he said were committing gargantuan crimes against Ghanaians, and allow his efforts in that direction to reach its logical conclusion, also have their Ben Ali-Mubarak-Gaddafi-moment, one day in the not too distant future?

At that point, will they wish they had not taken the Emperor-with-no-clothes approach, in firing Amidu - and at the same time trying to square that with their claims that unlike Kufuor & Co., they were indeed committed to fighting corruption in Ghana?

Will the firing of Martin Amidu, mark the point when the beginning of the end came, for President Mills and the self-seeking cynics around him - who have profited so mightily from their association with his presidency?

Alas, if even those of us, who until yesterday, hailed him as the most honest and principled individual to lead Ghana, since the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966, have lost all hope in him, and now want our nation and his party to be rid of him quickly, what hope has he, I ask?

In a nation in which altruistic individuals are few and far between, unlike those who profit materially from his presidency, and almost always give him interested advice, I have never sought to benefit materially from Mills' presidency - just as I never sought to benefit materially from Kufuor & Co. - so for the sake of our nation, I proffer him only disinterested advice: he must step down honourably now, to enable his party re-invent itself in time - using President Rawlings' guidelines - to enable it defeat the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the December polls.

If truth be told, Mills and those who counselled him to fire Martin Amidu, have dug their own political graves - it was a terrible miscalculation, and a grave error of judgement. And as sure as day follows night, they will come to rue the events of 19th January 2012.

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

HAS PRESIDENT MILLS ALLOWED GHANA TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF POWERFUL CRIMINALS?

2012-01-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

If it is true that Mr Henry Martey Newman, the president's Chief of Staff, was actually copied all correspondence to do with the Woyome judgement-debt payment scandal, then there is no question that he would have been fired long ago, had that occurred in any of the established democracies of the West - yet, in Ghana, he is still at post, and incredibly, in Kafkaesque fashion, signing a letter today, supposedly on behalf of the president, firing the very minister who refuses to allow powerful crooks to rip-off our nation, the Attorney General, Mr. Martin Amidu.

If it is also actually true that President Mills is really firing Mr. Martin Amidu himself, as opposed to it being done in his name by others acting on their own, to save their own skins, then obviously the gentleman we all believed was an honest man, has taken the side of those who want to defraud Ghana.

That is simply intolerable - and from today onwards I shall become one of his severest critics. I will do everything possible, through my writing, to ensure that the "real" National Democratic Congress (NDC), represented by the faction led by President Rawlings, acts swiftly to get rid of President Mills - and all those holding him captive in the Osu Castle, using the presidency as cover to hide their crimes against Ghanaians, and ripping Ghana off, behind his back.

Whatever be the case, the firing of Martin Amidu, an honest and principled gentleman, who refused to condone the ripping-off of Ghana by powerful criminals, is proof positive, that Mills is no longer fit to lead our nation - especially if, in view of the grave nature of the crimes against our country that Martin Amidu refused to condone, the president chose not to overlook whatever disrespect purported to have been shown him by Amidu, which this part of the Chief of Staff's press release refers to: “Mr Amidu’s behaviour is incompatible with acceptable standards expected of ministers and appointees of the president,...”.

With respect, what utter rubbish is that? At exceptional moments, when the Republic of Ghana is imperilled, surely, it cannot be business as usual?

At such times, must the usual fawning and fun-full-respect-deference (local parlance phraseology), referred to in the press release as "acceptable standards expected of ministers and appointees of the president", not be put aside if necessary, by those fighting against great odds, to protect the nation's best interests?

And under those special circumstances, is what in normal times would be called showing disrespect to the president, not rather described as showing exemplary leadership in a crisis - which is precisely what is needed to protect the national interest at such moments: not the daily sycophancy expected from ministers and appointees of the president, as a matter of course?

And what is mere disrespect, shown a president, by a minister under siege by wealthy and powerful crooks, in the heat of the moment, and obviously occasioned by a determination on the part of Amidu - staring weak leadership in the face in a crisis, and obviously frustrated by it - not to allow Ghana to be ripped-off under any circumstances, I ask?

This is totally unacceptable, and untenable, and President Mills must be gotten rid of quickly for the sake of our nation, using constitutionally approved means - for in allowing the crooks lurking in the shadows in his administration, to conspire to fire Amidu, in his name: and get away with it, he is effectively allowing our nation to fall into the hands of powerful criminals. It won't happen - and he must step down now.

He and the crooks who surround him, must understand that some of us risked our lives fighting to rid our country of Kufuor & Co., because we did not want the governance of our nation to be based on cynicism and criminality. We did not fight that battle to help bring Mills' NDC regime to power, only for the same misfortune to befall our nation again.

We will risk our lives yet again, to help prevent Ghana from falling into the hands of amoral cynics and powerful master-criminals. Our loyalty, as always, is to Mother Ghana - not to political parties or individual politicians.

Clearly, it is now in the best interest of our nation that President Mills steps down. President Mills must resign now - for in allowing the crooks in his regime to prevail in this matter, he has forfeited his right to our support and loyalty. If this is not yet another of his communication team's many daft online hoaxes, then he has shown that he is no longer fit to lead our nation. He must do the honourable thing - and resign now. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE TRUE STATESMAN!

2012-01-19T07:09:00.000-08:00

Dear Sir,

Thanks for clarifying the recent alleged assault on the Daily Guide's photo-journalist - supposedly by agents of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), but it now turns out, if we are to believe the National Security Coordinator, Lt Col Dovlo-Lartey's account, that the account by the Daily Guide, of that day's events, are not borne out by the actual facts on the ground, of what actually transpired that day - for all Ghanaians.

If it is true that she actually subsequently later appeared on television in torn clothes - as 'proof' of their version of events on the day in question, then it is worth the True Statesman pursuing that story further - in my humble opinion - as they have, in effect, more or less fooled all Ghanaians.

It will be worthwhile telling the whole nation precisely how that appearance on Metro TV came about and what their motivation was for that torn-clothes-falsehood - in the light of the version recounted to the nation by the national security coordinator.

Opanin, perhaps you can pursue that interesting angle - as it will reveal the underhand and unethical ethos that underpins much of the work of the NPP's rented-media?

In their own interest, your pro-NDC media friends should start wearing Martin Amidu's "rented media" label with pride - instead of being furious about it.

They will find that if they were to do so, it would quickly take the pleasure out of using it, for the NPP propagandists' - who are now busy milking it, for all it is worth.

If your NDC "rented-media" friends are wise, henceforth, they should simply say in response, whenever the NPP's propagandists taunt them with it, by saying something along these lines: "Massa, the NDC's 'rented-media' does exactly the same thing the NPP's 'rented-media' does for the NPP."

They can add further to that, with something like this, for example: "The NPP's 'rented-media', Ghanaians will recall, met at the Highgate Hotel, in Asylum Down, not too long after the NPP lost power - presumably to plot how to fight and defeat the new Mills regime. We have all since seen the results of that meeting - in their many half-truths and endless dissimulation: for the past three and a bit years."

They can then end the interaction, perhaps by saying, for example: "We wear the Hon. Martin Amidu's label with pride now: as we know that the NDC is on the right side of history - and that the NPP, which works to advance elite-interests by stealth - as opposed to seeking the welfare of ordinary people - is on the wrong side of history."

Do you get the general idea, from that hypothetical example above, of a cleverer and more suitable response to those who might want to make fun of them - by referring to them, as the NDC "rented-media", as NPP's propagandists are now wont to?

Opanin, is it not a rather more mature response than Opare Djan's petulant response - and designed to take the sting out of that painful truth?

They must also revise their notes on the Hon. Martin Amidu. Is he not now a hero to many discerning and independent-minded Ghanaians, whose crucial swing-votes decide who becomes Ghana's president in presidential polls - as opposed to the teeming millions of "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types, whose blinkered support for political parties and politicians, is slowly destroying Ghanaian democracy, and can be counted on by both the NDC and the NPP, to vote for them regardless?

To such patriotic and discerning Ghanaians (the so-called floating-voters whose crucial swing-votes now elect our presidents), the Hon. Martin Amidu is living proof that at the core, the NDC is a party that believes in the virtues of probity and accountability - and always protects the national interest whenever it is in power.

In contrast, the NPP is a vehicle for elite rip-off - that uses the power of the Ghanaian nation-state to advance the personal interests of a powerful few, with greedy ambitions (to paraphrase President Nkrumah) who dominate the ruling elites in our country, and amass wealth by exploiting our national economy, by stealth and under legal cover - a classic example being the deliberate killing-off of Ghana Airways, in order to asset-strip it by stealth and with perfect legal cover.

That is the sort of battle of ideas, about the nature of the society we ought to have in Ghana, which your pro-NDC media friends must fight - not their senseless fight to get rid of the gentleman, who is now seen nationwide, and across the political spectrum, as one of the most principled politician's in Ghana's history.

Above all, let them rather concentrate their energies on telling the younger generation of Ghanaians, about the NDC's narrative-of-good-works, such as its youth empowerment initiatives: like the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Program (LESDEP); the government's plans for affordable housing projects countrywide, meant for ordinary working people, and the planned supply of subsidised seeds for farmers nationwide - to boost production of staples like maize, for example: and enhance food security in Ghana, yet further.

And instead of focusing on the Hon. Martin Amidu, why do they not point out to Ghanaians, for example, that two individual Ghanaians, who did not pay even a pesewa upfront for it, ended up owning a stake in our oil and natural gas deposits?

Why do they not compare the over some US$350 millions the E. O. Group is getting from Tullow Oil, for part of that stake in our oil and natural gas deposits, to all the judgement debts paid by successive governments, over the years since Ghana gained its independence, to show Ghanaians the gargantuan crime-against-humanity that that oil-industry asset-stripping by the perfidious Kufuor & Co., actually constitutes?

Have they forgotten President Kufuor's Freudian-slip on national television in which he described the E. O. Group's founders as a "front" they went looking for in Texas?

Why do they not point it out to Ghanaians that instead of refusing it, if President Mills had accepted the bribe offered him by American oil company executives (the selfsame oil company executives who also paid a courtesy call on President Kufuor before the E. O. Group formally came into being - if my memory serves me right: or conversely, not too long afterwards, if that is the case), perhaps there would have been an NDC equivalent of the E. O. Group - perhaps known as the Z. Z. Group (Zuu Zaa Group) - and use that to point out the fact that Ghana's oil and natural gas deposits are much much safer in the hands of President Mills and the NDC, than those of the NPP and its kingpins?

Surely , it is that sort of thing that will help the NDC win the next elections - not the unhelpful and unfair vilification of the Hon. Martin Amidu: who is doing an excellent job as Ghana's Attorney General, if truth be told - in a profession which by definition, is a veritable byword, for "caution": and whose other motto might be said to be: "Make haste slowly?" A word to the wise...

Yours in the service of Ghana,

Kofi.

PS You and your pro-NDC media friends are welcome to cull articles posted on my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com google blog - for free: to serve the Progressive cause in our country.

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109

THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY DOES NOT DESERVE TO GOVERN THE MULTI-ETHNIC UNITARY REPUBLIC OF GHANA UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

2012-01-18T09:06:00.000-08:00

It will be a real tragedy for Ghana, if former President Kufuor's prediction that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) will be returned to power again, were to come to pass, after the December elections.

The nepotism, and unprecedented abuse of office, which characterised the entire period in power, of the tribal-supremacist cabal - the perfidious Kufuor & Co. - which dominated the NPP regime, succeeded in making it the greediest and most corrupt regime, ever elected to rule Ghana, thus far, since the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966, by the end of their tenure, in January 2009.

Let no one who actually cares about creating a fair society in our country, in which there is equality of opportunity for all, forget that in a hurry, in December.

The NPP's most powerful rogues - in a regime, which, whiles they were in power, was dominated by a few lascivious and tribal-supremacist old men: an amoral bunch of hypocrites - ruthlessly exploited political power to enrich themselves; members of their family clans; sundry bottom-power girlfriends; and the brace of crony-capitalist pals who hid their wealth for them.

Those super-rogues, who brutally and repeatedly gang-raped Mother Ghana, must never ever be given yet another opportunity, to permanently erase every trace of their many crimes against ordinary Ghanaians - and escape just punishment, that way. Let no one who loves Mother Ghana and cares about the well-being of all Ghanaians, ignore that in December.

The political party that produced the most tribalistic regime to rule Ghana, since we gained our independence in 1957, most certainly does not deserve to be allowed anywhere near the seat of power in Ghana, the Osu Castle, again.

From what all those who care about the cohesion of our homeland Ghana saw, during the eight years that that amoral and divisive lot were in power for, a return to power by the party they dominate so completely, will be an abomination and a national disaster, no less - for our united and ethnically-diverse society, in which no one tribe is superior or inferior to another: despite what those tiresome tribalistic-morons-with-an-inferiority-complex-dressed-up-as-a-superiority-complex might think.

Tribal-supremacist individuals do not deserve to hold elected office in Nkrumah's Ghana - for they pose an existentialist threat to the modern African nation-state that Nkrumah founded: the unitary Republic of Ghana.

Let no true patriot, Ghanaian nationalist or pan-Africanist, who wants there to be a meritocracy in Ghana, forget that in December - when the elections that will decide the future of our homeland Ghana, and its continued existence, as a united nation, made up of one African people sharing a common destiny, will be decided.

Inherited privilege, as we all know, is the greatest enemy of meritocracy. Consequently, for the sake of Mother Ghana, and, above all, in their own supreme interest, ordinary Ghanaians - be they: Gonja; Ga Dangbe; Akan; Dagomba; Frafra; Ewe; Brong; Guan; Nzima; or Ghanaians of other ethnic extraction too numerous to mention here - must elect to keep those who think they were born to lord it over others, and are above the laws of our country, far far away, from the corridors of power, in Ghana, in the December elections.

The unpalatable truth, dear reader, is that the NPP, as presently constituted - dominated by its super-ruthless "real owners" (with their daft and dangerous secret agenda, of perpetual domination of our nation by their ethnic group's present-day successor-representatives of their pre-colonial traditional ruling elites) - most certainly does not deserve to rule Ghana again, any time soon. Not under any circumstances. Period. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

GOOGLE: GET HUMANS, NOT CLEVER SOFTWARE, TO HANDLE EXCEPTIONAL COMPLAINT CASES!

2012-01-17T03:35:00.000-08:00

- An open letter to Google Ghana:

Dear Google Ghana,

I am contacting you, yet again - after not getting a satisfactory resolution of my adsense payment complaint, using Google's complaints system.

I last spoke to a very nice Google Ghana chap sometime last year, about the same issue - who directed me to go to Google, click "my account", and follow the required steps for resolving complaints.

Well, it seems to me that your parent company, Google, assumes that we are all tech-savvy, when in actual fact not all of us are so lucky.

Whiles billions around the world might be, unfortunately I am not one of them - and after being given the run-around by Google's complaint-resolution software, in my bid to get my years of accumulated adsense ad payments paid to me, I am thinking of going public with what I think is a failing of the search Leviathan, your parent company, Google.

I am a journalist and simple organic cocoa farmer, who also blogs - with a worldwide audience, which, though not huge, nonetheless is spread globally, virtual footprint-wise.

My "Ghanapolitics" google-blog was monetised some years ago. Ditto my www.ghanaweb.com "Thoughts of a native" blog: which I unfortunately no longer publish. I forget exactly when the monetisation took place - being a somewhat forgetful old man who is nearing 60.

In all those years, I have not been paid for any of the adverts appearing on my blog - although I do admit that I am not a very practical fellow, when it comes to such things: and consequently have not been as proactive in chasing payments as I should have been.

Actually, it has a lot to do with the fact that the side of my brain that processes information to do with following instructional manuals and the like, is rather retarded.

Simply put, it just doesn't function - and as a result, alas, I am unable to follow written instructions of any sort in instructional manuals, etc.

Please do try and find a way to get your parent company, Google, to get a human being from their support team, to help - by taking me through the necessary steps required to get paid what I am owed.

Its not a huge amount, I know - but it is mine, nonetheless: and in austere times, every little bit helps, especially if like an old fool like me, you aren't a corrupt and crooked journalist, in a nation in which a majority of media professionals are on the make and on the take, and firmly in the pockets of our ruling elites.

But I digress - so back to the topic: What can Google Ghana do to help me get paid what I am owed by your parent company for the adsense advertisements that appear on my "Ghanapolitics"Google blog?

Above all, and finally, would it not help individuals like me, if your parent company, Google, made sure, that instead of clever computer software being the intermediary, in the interface between user and Google, there were actual human employees, to help resolve cases of complaints of an exceptional nature, like mine?

Many thanks in advance for your help - and I do hope that as a result of Google Ghana's intervention, there will be a positive outcome to all this.

Yours faithfully,

Kofi Thompson.

Tel: + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

MARTIN AMIDU'S BOMBSHELL PUTS PRESIDENT MILLS' PRESIDENCY AT THE CROSSROADS - & HE MUST CHOOSE THE VIRTUES OF PROBITY & ACCOUNTABILTY TO DEAL WITH IT

2012-01-14T06:47:00.000-08:00

I find Ghanaian politicians hard to understand. When a senior cabinet minister is honest and bold enough, to openly accuse a colleague of being involved in "gargantuan crimes" against Ghanaians, you would think that the government's PR team will think creatively, see it as a golden opportunity, and counsel their colleagues that it should be seized upon by the government (in which the accuser and accused both serve) - to show the rest of the nation that when solid evidence of corruption within its ranks is brought to its notice, it will be dealt with swiftly, and resolutely, instead of being covered up, as is usually the case in Ghanaian politics.

Will that not put clear blue water between them and the perfidious Kufuor & Co.'s New Patriotic Party (NPP): which came to power ostensibly to encourage an enterprise culture in Ghana, but ended up with Kufuor & Co., asset-stripping the enterprise Ghana, and turning their own private enterprises - fronted by trusted crony-capitalist pals - into sprawling conglomerates?

So why are the geniuses in charge of the government's PR rather in a flap - and seem to see it as a calamity, and an unmitigated disaster-in-the-making, which will somehow lead to the implosion of their government? Do they lack the creativity to turn a disaster into an opportunity?

If Lady Luck has smiled on them and blessed them to the extent that even the highly-intelligent Jake Obestebi-Lampteys (they of the share-and-grab-grace-and-favour-state-properties lark), have made the grave error of judgment, of entering the fray when they ought not to (living in massive glass-houses - and it not being wise to throw stones at others), will the Mills administration's dealing resolutely with those in its midst, behind the "gargantuan crimes" against Ghanaians - by having them prosecuted for wilfully causing financial loss to the cash-strapped Ghanaian nation-state - not show ordinary Ghanaians that there is a world of difference between their confounded regime, and that of the greedy tribal-supremacist Kufuor & Co.'s sodden NPP, I ask, dear reader? Incredible.

Instead, we now have the bizarre situation, in which the regime's PR team's members are busy heaping blame on the Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu - for revealing something that they think will somehow threaten the very foundations of their hard-of-hearing regime. Amazing.

After nearly four years in power, do they still not get it: that ordinary people are sick to the back teeth, of corruption by our ruling elites - because they understand perfectly, that elite rip-off impoverishes ordinary people unfairly: seeing it in the diminishing of their quality of life, in inverse proportion to the stratospheric rise, in the net worth of the thieves-in-high-places and that of the goons-in-the-media, whom our educated urban elites rent, to polish and protect their phoney cut-and-paste reputations?

And all this huff-and-puff furore, because a patriotic and nationalistic individual, is bold and honest enough, to reveal rot at the very top of what it turns out is a rather greasy pole - which is precisely what ordinary Ghanaians hope their leaders will choose to do, in such circumstances: to ensure that our nation's resources don't end up being hijacked by wealthy and powerful rogues. Wonders will never cease, dear reader, will they?

Are they so blind that they do not see that it will give their embattled regime, which is currently facing an uphill task to get re-elected again, in the December polls, an eleventh-hour reprieve, and an opportunity to re-invent itself - as an incorruptible regime that will not shield those engaged in wrongdoing in its midst? How clueless can you get?

For once, President Mills must ignore the oft self-serving advice, of those around him that have his ear, and who for nearly four years, have failed to sell him and his regime to Ghanaians effectively, and seize this opportunity to show Ghanaians that he is not the weak, hypocritical and visionless leader his opponents (a majority of whom grew super-rich, ripping-off Mother Ghana, during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co.) accuse him of being - but is rather a cool, strong and incorruptible leader who doesn't hesitate to deal with corruption in his own government, when presented with incontrovertible proof of serious wrongdoing.

That the government's PR team is unable to recognise what a rare opportunity this is, for their administration to make Ghanaians see it in a new and more positive light, but are talking instead in riddles, which give the discerning the unfortunate impression, that somehow they are desperate to find a clever way to cover up corruption at the very top, in which a colleague is apparently implicated, shows clearly that they are definitely not fit for the purpose they were appointed for, and must all be sacked.

In effect, they have wasted precious time, and more or less toyed with power, for nearly four years - instead of their regime using the historic opportunity Providence presented them with, when they were elected to power in December 2008, to make a real difference for Mother Ghana: and help change the nature of our nation's politics forever, by visibly making Ghanaian politics, in word and deed, a more honest and honourable pursuit.

They will be incredibly foolish to follow their usual instincts, and try to spin their way out of a situation that demands honourable conduct and transparency and accountability in all their deeds and words, not endless forked-tongued sugar-coated words and coded-riddles, to try and fool Ghanaians.

This is a golden opportunity for President Mills to win massive approval in Ghana, at long last - and finally shed the negative image he unfairly has today, as a weak, hypocritical and visionless president (thanks to the effectiveness of the propaganda, of the many ruthless and cynical New Patriotic Party rogues - who are desperate to return to power again to resume their brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana, after the December polls).

Let him simply ask the Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu, to go ahead and publicly name the colleague he accuses of being involved in crimes, and substantiate his allegations - and then after asking the accused minister to temporarily step aside, move swiftly to ask Interpol to find outside serious fraud investigators from reputable criminal justice systems elsewhere, such as the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to assist their Ghanaian counterparts, the Economic and organised Crime Office (EOCO), to quickly get to the bottom of Martin Amidu's bombshell.

If he does that, who in Ghana will not approve of such action by their president, and see that indeed, they have a truly honest leader in President Mills - completely different from the corrupt, sly, cynical and tribal-supremacist President Kufour, whom he succeeded as president of Nkrumah's Ghana?

President Mills must understand clearly, that he can forget about being re-elected again in December, if he allows the cynics who surround him - and have used the whole of the period they have been in office for, to do the very same things they accused the perfidious Kufuor & Co., of doing when they were in the political wilderness - to try and cover up, what cannot be covered up under any circumstances, at this late stage of their regime's four-year tenure.

Were that to happen, his presidency, along with their hard-of-hearing regime, will definitely implode - as that clueless so-called government communications team, which has failed so miserably to communicate in any meaningful fashion with ordinary Ghanaians, for nearly four years now, seem to think will happen, if their regime is honest and transparent in dealing with Martin Amidu's bombshell.

This is no time to be talking like cynical politicians, about sinking or swimming together - not to cover up alleged grand corruption in the Ghana of today. And not if they themselves are not also ripping-off Mother Ghana too.

One certainly hopes that that is not the case - for some of us did not risk our lives in the fight to turf out the perfidious Kufour & Co., only for a bunch of neophytes like them to come to come to power and engage in the self-same crooked activities that that selfish, greedy tribal-supremcist NPP lot got up to, to grow super-rich at the expense of the ordinary people of Nkrumah's Ghana, and the Ghanaian nation-state. Enough is enough - the government's entire PR team ought to be sacked, if its members persist in continuing along that cynical path in dealing with this shabby and shameful affair.

President Mills must choose transparency and resoluteness, as his only weapons, to confront and deal with what is the biggest crisis of his presidency.

His presidency has come to the crossroads - and how he deals with Martin Amidu's bombshell, will determine how history will eventually judge him as a Ghanaian leader. He must elect to do what any honest and honourable individual, who is a man of integrity, will do in dealing with this particular crisis, in his shoes - be completely transparent, at every stage, till the crisis is resolved and finally ends positively for him and for Mother Ghana. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109

COALITION URGES BAHRAIN AND MOROCCO TO JOIN THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

2012-01-13T18:11:00.000-08:00

Morocco Can Further Demonstrate its Commitment to the Rule of Law

Rabat/New York — The Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) — a global network of more than 2,500 non-governmental and civil society organizations — called on Bahrain and Morocco to demonstrate their commitment to international justice and the rule of law by ratifying the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and acceding to the Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC).

The Coalition has selected Bahrain and Morocco as the focus for its January 2012 Universal Ratification Campaign (URC), a monthly campaign launched to encourage countries to join the Rome Statute system.

In two separate letters dated 11 January 2012 to King of Bahrain HM Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and King of Morocco HM Mohamed VI, the Coalition urged both governments to demonstrate their commitment to international justice and the rule of law by ratifying the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC —the first permanent international court capable of trying perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

At a time when sweeping changes are occurring across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the Coalition believes that Morocco and Bahrain can further strengthen this growing movement in the region towards ending impunity by joining the ICC.

“Transformational changes in the region require a new impetus to advance government accountability and justice reforms, including through the International Criminal Court,” said Brigitte Suhr, director of Regional Programs. “Morocco and Bahrain are each well placed to lead the field. Morocco initiated significant headway in the area of judicial reforms and should reaffirm its commitment ratifying the Rome Statute, and Bahrain should do the same to show its commitment to put recent violence in the past.”

In the letter, the Coalition highlighted a series of developments in the region relating to the ICC during the past year. This included Tunisia’s accession to the Rome Statute and Agreement on Privileges and Immunities of the Court (APIC), the Regional Diplomatic Conference on the ICC held in Doha, and comments made by former International Court of Justice Judge Nabil El Arabi when appointed Foreign Minister of Egypt mentioning ratification as a priority.

In addition, the National Transitional Council of Libya looked to the Court in order to ensure justice for the Libyan people and representatives of Kuwait and Palestine have stated their intent to join the ICC.

“The ICC is engendering the trust of people seeking justice and relaying the message that there can be no impunity for crimes against humanity in the region and across the world,” said Leila Hanafi, CICC MENA coordinator. “We call on Morocco and Bahrain to take steps now to join in.”

With Vanuatu’s accession to the Rome Statute on 2 December 2011, 120 states have now acceded to or ratified the treaty. To date, the Arab League, consisting of 22 states, has only 4 states parties to the Rome Statute — Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Jordan and Tunisia. Ratification of the treaty would allow Bahrain and Morocco to participate as states parties in the Assembly of States Parties to the ICC.

Background:

The ICC is the world's first permanent international court to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Central to the Court's mandate is the principle of complementarity, which holds that the Court will only intervene if national legal systems are unwilling or unable to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

There are currently seven investigations before the Court: the Central African Republic; Cote d’Ivoire; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Darfur, the Sudan; Uganda; Kenya; and Libya. The ICC has publicly issued 19 arrest warrants and nine summonses to appear.

Three trials are ongoing. The ICC prosecutor has also made public that it is examining eight situations on four continents: Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Guinea, Honduras, Republic of Korea, Nigeria and Palestine.

The Coalition for the International Criminal Court is a global network of civil society organizations in 150 countries working in partnership to strengthen international cooperation with the ICC; ensure that the Court is fair, effective and independent; make justice both visible and universal; and advance stronger national laws that deliver justice to victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

For more information, visit:

www.coalitionfortheicc.org.

###

INCORPORATE LESSONS FROM REPORT OF THE NATIONAL RECONCILIATION COMMISSION IN TRAINING OF SECURTY SERVICES PERSONNEL NOW!

2012-01-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

If true, then the shocking and totally unacceptable story of the apparent assaulting of journalists, from the Daily Guide - amongst them, Ms Gifty Lawson, a photo-journalist - by individuals alleged to be officers of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), is yet another example, of the urgent need to incorporate lessons learnt from the sittings of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), into the training courses, of all our security agencies.

It is typical of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., that when they received the NRC's report, no such thing was thought of - because the sittings were meant to serve a political purpose: embarrass ex-President Rawlings and his closest associates over the years - such as Kojo Tsikata and Tsatsu Tsikata.

Naturally, those of us who recommended that that be done, were simply ignored - because we were not regime praise-singers. But,
clearly, the time has now come for the security services, to incorporate lessons from the report of the NRC, into the training of all their personnel.

For years since the overthrow of Nkrumah in 1966, a culture of illegality has evolved in our secret services - reaching its apogee in the dark-days-of-impunity, during the tenure of the perfidious Kufuor & Co.

Amongst their many sins, were: the psychological torture of innocents; illegal detentions; the entrapment-of-innocents by agent provocateurs - an example being Victor Smith's entrapment and subsequent trial for allegedly threatening to kill Kweku Baako and Margeret Amoakohene; and, today, the tapping of phones and hacking into emails.

It must cease forthwith - for they are all building blocks for a future tyranny.

Let Mr. Yaw Donkor make the implementation of the same kinds of reforms that the UK's secret services have made to ensure that their agents always act within the law - except when terrorism is involved - his goal and preferred legacy.

In our democracy, the secret services must always seek approval from judges, in the law courts, before detaining people, tapping phones and hacking email accounts.

Above all, they must understand that they are not undercover wings of ruling parties - and that critics of our rulers are neither traitors nor subversionists. Period.

I am no fan of the Daily Guide - indeed only yesterday I was castigating them in a blog posting - but it is a newspaper, and in our democracy, the media plays a watchdog role for society. So I sympathise with them, in this particular instance.

Individual journalists - no matter how unprofessional their work might be, incidentally - in a sense embody the right to freedom of expression of all Ghanaians in our democracy.

The alleged assault on Ms. Gifty Lawson, and her subsequent detention, amount to an assault on freedom of expression in Ghana, and an attempt to suppress our right to free speech, no less - and that cannot be tolerated in our democracy.

If all the facts in the story now in the public domain, are true, then the Daily Guide must head straight for court - and sue the BNI: and hopefully get the law courts to order it to pay a huge sum in compensation to Ms. Gifty Lawson.

It is time someone brought such a case before the law courts, so that a definitive judgement can be delivered, which clearly sets the boundaries, beyond which personnel of the security services, cannot, and must not cross, in their daily interactions with the civilian population.

Why brandish weapons in the grounds of the law courts - in arresting a fragile and unarmed female journalist, I ask? If true, then that was totally wrong - and highly irresponsible. And all the officers involved must be disciplined.

Individuals who serve in the security services of today, must understand clearly, that we no longer live under the jack-boots, of tyrants in uniform, who wield unfettered power.

The highly intelligent and well-spoken director of the BNI, Mr. Yaw Donkor, must ensure that all the officers under him, understand perfectly, that they are employed by Ghanaian taxpayers, to serve them - not brutalise Ghanaian citizens and their kith and kin with impunity.

He must recommend to his superiors, that the lessons from the sittings of the NRC, contained in its final report, are incorporated into the training of all those whose work it is, to secure the safety of the general public, and that of the Republic of Ghana.

That will finally ensure that in our democracy, the personnel of the security services, always treat the civilian population with respect, tolerance and understanding. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

GHANA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL THE HON. MARTIN AMIDU DESERVES OUR RESPECT & ADMIRATION!

2012-01-12T04:32:00.000-08:00

The latest press release issued by the Hon. Martin Amidu, Ghana's Attorney General, confirms my view of him, as a decent and highly principled gentleman. President Mills and Mother Ghana must be thankful that he currently serves Ghana as its Attorney General.

He is just the type of politician Ghana needs today. His view of the nature of the society we ought to have, shows that he is someone on the right side of history. This is a nation that is gradually being ruined by elite rip-off.

And that is why today's crooks in the ruling National Democratic Congress
(NDC), definitely deserve the same fate as the crooks of yesteryear - who grew super-rich at Mother Ghana's expense, during the golden age of business for the perfidious Kufuor & Co.

If only more of his kind surrounded President Mills, and had his ear, the NDC wouldn't face such an uphill task securing a second-term in the December polls. The crooks who lurk in the shadows in the corridors of power at the Osu Castle and elsewhere in the Mills administration, have given the NDC a very bad name indeed.

That is why President Mills ought to take ex-President Rawlings' views on dealing with the crooks in the NDC seriously. If it is true that he is going to reshuffle his government's ministers then perhaps he ought to bring Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings into the cabinet as senior minister - and make her husband anti-corruption czar: in charge of a special presidential task force to root out corruption in the NDC: working in tandem with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO).

As regards the section of the pro-NDC media, which has attracted the ire of the Hon. Martin Amidu, I agree with his view of them absolutely. They are a dreadful and unprofessional lot - and are indeed no different from much of the equally ghastly pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) media: headed by the cheeky and oft-dissimulating Daily Guide.

Alas, the Hon. Martin Amidu's press release, does highlight the depths to which much of Ghanaian journalism has now sunk. It also highlights the mercenary nature of most of the politicking that goes on in this country - and the virtual absence of principle and the virtue of altruism in much of our national life.

It is a timely reminder that far too many Ghanaian journalists forget that they are members of what is supposed to be a profession, which collectively acts as a fourth arm of government - and whose watchdog role in society, places special responsibilities on all its practitioners.

In a mostly-corrupt society, such as ours, the main function of journalists operating in what has - for decades since the overthrow of Nkrumah - been a cash-strapped developing country with a chequered history, and which is now a stable oil-producing African nation with aspirations, ought to be: ensuring that ours becomes a society in which public life is guided by an ethos of probity and accountability; help to protect the national interest at all times; help nurture and protect Ghanaian democracy; defend the rights and liberties of all Ghanaians; ensure that due process and the rule of law underpin the day to day functioning of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary - as well as all the agencies, departments and state institutions, which come under those three arms of government.

Above all, they must help fight the few powerful and ruthless individuals, whose greedy ambitions constantly threaten the stability of our country, and the cohesion of the Ghanaian polity - whatever political flag-of-convenience those blackguards may fly: at any given point in time in our history.

The tragedy for our nation, is that the vast majority of Ghanaian journalists are the hirelings and paid agents, as well as bedfellows, of those selfsame blackguards, who over the years, have succeeded in hijacking the bulk of our nation's wealth, by stealth - in the name of private sector-led and market-driven economic development.

It has given those wealthy crooks perfect legal-cover and carte blanche to asset-strip Ghana with impunity - and in reality are nothing more than a set of self-serving policies, which enable our ruling elites to leverage the power of the Ghanaian nation-state, for successful collaboration with corrupt foreigners, to bleed our country dry and grow super-rich: all of them merrily riding off the backs of ordinary people, who are called upon to make never-ending sacrifices.

The Hon. Martin Amidu is a real hero of our times - and an example to all Ghanaian politicians. He deserves our respect and admiration.

Finally, dear reader, I shall end by reproducing an article I wrote in support of the Hon. Martin Amidu, when he came under unfair attack from a young journalist, then working for the Enquirer, who not too long after I posted that article, tragically lost his life, in a road accident, involving the bus he was travelling on. May his soul rest in peace.

The article was posted on my blog on
18/11/2011. Please read on:

"THE ENQUIRER'S DAY OF SHAME: MUST IT RENDER AN UNQUALIFIED APOLOGY TO THE HON. MARTIN AMIDU - GHANA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL?

An interesting news item that appeared in the 18th November 2011 edition of the general news web-page of www.ghanaweb.com, caught my eye.

It was a press statement issued on the 17th of November 2011, by the Attorney General, the Hon. Martin Amidu, as a rejoinder to a number of stories carried by the Enquirer newspaper, entitled: Re: “Tussle Over Judgment Debt A-G Attacks Business Tycoon …”

The Hon. Martin Amidu's rejoinder, paints an unflattering picture of the arrogance and tyranny, which many in the ignoramus-filled and mostly intolerant Ghanaian media world, are so guilty of. Indeed, in effect, his rejoinder shines a spotlight, on the dark side of Ghanaian journalism.

For the discerning individual, reading between the lines, the sense of outrage felt by a principled gentleman of the old school, the Hon. Martin Amidu, whose training as a lawyer, makes caution over many issues, second nature, was palpable.

Although couched in restrained language, the Attorney General was clearly scandalised by the lack of appreciation shown by the Enquirer's reporter, Samuel Abane Anaba, who it was so obvious, was oblivious of the limitation ethical considerations place on the reporting of matters that are sub judice, by the media.

It is understandable that seasoned lawyers, such as the Hon. Martin Amidu, who never forget the bounds of what is acceptable ethically in their profession, invariably feel that it is an affront to common decency and a travesty of natural justice, that today so many individuals, including even lawyers and journalists, whose training ought to make them super-cautious whenever matters before the law courts come to their notice - to avoid being in contempt of court - rather resort to trial-by-media tactics: co-opted by litigants as part of their strategy to win cases pending before the courts, or actually being tried.

The Attorney General's justifiable outrage, ought to make us question what motivates many in the Ghanaian media world, in such instances. What public interest consideration exactly, was driving that story in the Enquirer, one wonders?

Did the paper think that the Attorney General had a personal interest in frustrating a plaintiff in a matter before a court of competent jurisdiction in the Republic of Ghana?

Where exactly were the Enquirer's gate-keepers, whose professional duty it was to ensure that what so clearly ought never to have been carried by any responsible newspaper, alive to its civic responsibilities, was dropped - and was not allowed to appear in the paper's pages in the form they did: so that it could keep its reputation intact, that way?

Above all, as is usually the case in Ghana in such matters, was anyone paid substantial sums to put this outrageous example of irresponsible reportage of matters before the law courts, in the pages of what is supposed to be a leading newspaper in Ghana?

This is a story that those very intelligent people in charge of the Enquirer, ought to bow their heads in shame over. It also raises troubling questions about the personal integrity, or lack of it, of the paper's reporter, Samuel Abane Anaba.

Did he, or did he not, receive substantial sums as inducement to publish this disgraceful example of irresponsible journalism practice - in as far as matters sub judice goes? This has certainly not been the Enquirer's finest hour.

There are some who will say that to save face, and make amends for this series of unprofessional and outrageous stories concerning a matter before the law courts, at the very least, the paper ought to dismiss Samuel Abane Anaba - and render an unqualified apology to the Attorney General.

Samuel Abane Anaba has been highly irresponsible and unethical - in effect seeking to question the integrity of the Hon. Martin Amidu: by creating the impression that somehow Ghana's Attorney General had a hidden interest in a matter before the law courts, in which the Republic of Ghana is also a party. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109. "

WHY IT IS ABSURD TO QUESTION THE INDEPENDENCE OF GHANA'S ECONOMIC & ORGANISED CRIME OFFICE!

2012-01-11T01:27:00.000-08:00

"The Director of the SFO (Richard Alderman) is appointed by and accountable to the Attorney General (Mr Dominic Grieve QC MP) who is responsible to Parliament for the SFO and the other Law Officers' Departments:"

- Quotation from the UK Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) official website.

"Serious Fraud Office (SFO)

"SFO was established in 1987 to investigate and prosecute cases of serious fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The current criteria applied by the SFO to take on a prosecution are that the suspected fraud was such that the direction of the investigation should be in the hands of those responsible for the prosecution. This includes factors such as whether the sum at risk is estimated to be at least £1million; the case is likely to give rise to national publicity and widespread public concern; investigation requires highly specialised knowledge; the case has a significant international dimension; is complex; and there is a need for legal, accountancy and investigative skills to be brought together."

- Quoted passage culled from the official UK Attorney General's website.

I am not, dear reader, a lawyer, and neither do I pretend to have any expertise in the law. However, commonsense informs my view, that it is significant that when it matters most, in the attempt to establish the truth about the Woyome judgement-debt payment matter, the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) apostles of the rule of law, who are shouting themselves hoarse about the Woyame saga, are refusing to appear before the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), and help establish the truth in this matter.

Instead, as the cynics amongst us might say, the apostles of the rule of law, are now seeking to get their allies in the judiciary - Atta Akyea and Malik Yakubu Alhassan's infamous "right judges" - to enable them successfully manipulate the legal system to prevent the EOCO from interviewing them.

Those selfsame cynics, might probably also ask, what exactly the NPP's members are so afraid will emerge, were they to appear before the EOCO - whiles the uncharitable in our midst, might also add, that the Osafo Maafos are hypocrites, whom, when it suits, prefer to remain beyond the reach of the law.

I find it extraordinary that any sincere and honest individual in Ghana, would make excuses, and cast doubt about the independence of a law enforcement body, merely because it comes under the Attorney General's Department. Are we not a democracy?

Whom exactly, do they want Parliament to hold responsible, when exercising its oversight responsibility, for the EOCO, I ask? Which government minister do they prefer to ask questions about the EOCO, on behalf of the good people of Ghana, on the floor of Parliament, when something goes amiss in its work, one wonders?

Osafo Maafo's reluctance to be questioned by the EOCO is astonishing. It is as if a voluble potential witness, whose evidence can help expose a fraudster and career-criminal, who he has been castigating extensively in the media, for defrauding Ghana, refuses to appear before the EOCO, when invited by it, because in his view it is under the Attorney General's Department - and therefore cannot be trusted to investigate a case of fraud against the Ghanaian nation-state involving the said fraudster, fairly. Simply, ridiculous.

Why talk endlessly about due process and the rule of law, in such a matter, then - when it is the basic law of the land that placed the EOCO under the Attorney General's Department, in the first place? How very absurd, dear reader.

To understand just how absurd, irresponsible and dangerous the NPP's position is on the EOCO, one needs to ask the question: What former government minister in the UK, the nation from which much of our common law originates, would take Mr. Osafo Maafo's inexplicable position, in similar circumstances? I doubt very much, dear reader, that any former British cabinet minister would refuse an invitation from the SFO.

I also doubt very much whether any self-respecting judge in the UK, would entertain, even for five minutes, the action Mr. Osafo Maafo's lawyer, Mr. Godfred Odame, has initiated and brought before a Ghanaian judge - seeking an injunction preventing the EOCO from interviewing him.

What kind of democrat and believer in the rule of law is Mr. Osafo Maafo - and those of his ilk, in the NPP, I ask? The trouble about most of those who are the "real owners" of the NPP, is that deep down they think they are a breed apart and above the law. But Ghana is not some feudal state belonging to them, is it, dear reader?

It is obvious that the powerful tribal-supremacist cabal that dominates the NPP, the perfidious Kufuor & Co., has swung into action - and every legal trick known to crooked lawyers, will be employed to delay the Osafo Maafos from being interviewed by the EOCO.

That will buy time for and prevent those who know that their arbitrariness and arrogant abuse of power, during their tenure, is what has led to so many judgement-debt payments, being made to those who were at the receiving end of their sodden pettiness and short-sightedness.

Now they are being hoisted on their own petard - and are getting their just desserts for forgetting that they would not control our nation for the rest of their dishonest and greed-filled lives.

They ought to have been wiser and chosen to act within the law, at all material times, whiles they were in office - but they elected not to do so: and now the chickens are coming home to roost, they think they can hide. It won't happen. Period.

Clearly, their hope is that they will succeed in holding off the EOCO, till the NPP wins power again in the December presidential elections (God forbid!). They can forget that pie-in-the-sky dream. Providence will ensure that they all pay for the brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana, from January 2001 to January 2009.

(Incidentally, I also doubt very much, whether any sane lawyer in the UK, would advice a client to seek an injunction preventing the UK equivalent of the EOCO, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), from interviewing a client, for the ridiculous reasons the Osafo Maafos give.)

To show discerning Ghanaians just how absurd and disingenuous the NPP's position is, as regards the EOCO's independence - or lack of it - I am posting content about the UK SFO, culled from the UK Attorney General's Department's official website, and that of the SFO itself, below: Do read the content from both, and make up your own mind, dear reader:

(1) Culled from the official UK Attorney General's website:

"Serious Fraud Office (SFO)

"SFO was established in 1987 to investigate and prosecute cases of serious fraud in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The current criteria applied by the SFO to take on a prosecution are that the suspected fraud was such that the direction of the investigation should be in the hands of those responsible for the prosecution. This includes factors such as whether the sum at risk is estimated to be at least £1million; the case is likely to give rise to national publicity and widespread public concern; investigation requires highly specialised knowledge; the case has a significant international dimension; is complex; and there is a need for legal, accountancy and investigative skills to be brought together."

End of culled content about the SFO, from the UK Attorney General's official website.

(2) Culled content from the UK Serious Fraud Office's official website:

"Who we are

We are the Serious Fraud Office (SFO); an independent Government department that investigates and prosecutes serious or complex fraud, and corruption. We are part of the UK criminal justice system with jurisdiction in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but not in Scotland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.

Our expert forensic accountants and professional investigators and lawyers investigate and prosecute the most serious or complex instances of fraud and corruption.

We use our special legislative powers to obtain the evidence needed to build successful cases and bring criminals to justice and so help maintain confidence in the UK's business and financial institutions.

Using the lessons we learn from the cases we investigate, we try to prevent extensive, deliberate criminal deception which could threaten the public further.

The Director of the SFO (Richard Alderman) is appointed by and accountable to the Attorney General (Mr Dominic Grieve QC MP) who is responsible to Parliament for the SFO and the other Law Officers' Departments:

Crown Prosecution Service,

Treasury Solicitor's Office

the Department of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

In July 2009 the then Attorney General (Baroness Scotland) published a protocol which set out clearly the relationship of the Attorney General with the prosecuting authorities she superintended. This was produced in collaboration with the directors of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO).

Protocol (.pdf*)

We are part of a network of Government agencies and other organisations which work to combat fraud and corruption. For more information on how we fit into the counter-fraud and corruption network, visit External relations and What we do and who we work with.

What we do and who we work with

Our work is part of the overarching aims and objectives of the criminal justice system and we contribute to:

reducing fraud and corruption and the cost of fraud and corruption

delivering justice and the rule of law

maintaining confidence in the UK's business and financial institutions

We aim to do this by:

taking on appropriate cases, investigating them and bringing them to a successful conclusion as quickly as individual circumstances allow

prosecuting fairly and in a way that helps the jury understand the issues.

In doing this we try to:

work effectively and efficiently

help deter fraud and corruption

We work closely with:

External agencies and organisations

Overseas jurisdictions

Counsel"

End of culled content from the UK Serious Fraud Office's official website.

Well, there it is, dear reader. I shall say no more. I rest my case. I shall end by saying that one hopes that the Ghana Bar Association, the Chief Justice and all the judges under her, will always remember, when cases such as that of Mr. Osafo Maafo come up, that in the internet age, every aspect of their work, can be scrutinised in all the corners of the globe, at the click of a computer mouse.

Alas, today, it is not only amongst Ghanains that they must be mindful of their individual reputations - the whole world can now judge them online: so they must seek the common good and what will best serve the whole of Ghanaian society, at all material times.

Their professional reputation is now a matter that is of some global significance - and must be guarded jealously at all times. Serving the interests of Kufuor & Co., ought to be a thing of the past, for those judges who are partial to the NPP. With respect, they were appointed to serve society - not pander to politicians. Period.

Surely, no world-class professional in the legal world, in any established Western constitutional democracy, would entertain a similar request by a citizen, for an injunction preventing a body such as the EOCO from interviewing them?

Would their UK colleagues entertain such an absurdity? Surely, it is absurd for any Ghanaian citizen to say that the EOCO is not independent because it reports to the Attorney General?

Ghana's world-class judges must not support such an outrageous request in a democracy. Despite what the Osafo Maafos of our political world think, they are not above the law in our democracy - and the judiciary must make that absolutely clear to all Ghaianians of that ilk: in as far as being interviewed by the EOCO and the other investigative bodies of the Ghanaian nation-state goes. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109

THE ROGUES OF YESTERYEAR MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO POWER AGAIN IN DECEMBER!

2012-01-10T03:21:00.000-08:00

Many of the rogues of yesteryear, who bled our country dry during the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co., are now brimming with new-found confidence. It would appear that somehow they have been suddenly emboldened - which is why we have seen a ratcheting up of attacks on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) regime of President Mills, of late.

And it is being done in relentless fashion - because many of them apparently firmly believe that they finally have the Mills regime reeling on the ropes, as it were. So they are now looking to delivering the killer-punch - which they hope will permanently floor the Mills regime.

Clearly, they see that killer punch, in the controversy they have succeeded in creating around the Woyome judgement-debt payment palaver. But the question is: Is that indeed the political equivalent of the perfect knockout punch, that they think it is?

Their over-confidence is now making many of them incredibly reckless - leading them to make all manner of wild allegations, at every opportunity they have to do so, on radio and television.

But if the NDC is clever, that miscalculation by some of the more voluble members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), could end up tying those hypocrites, up, in the law courts, for most part of this year.

For any patriot who loves Mother Ghana, and still remembers the endless abuse of power by Kufuor & Co., it is irritating in the extreme, for example, to hear those who were regularly benefiting from the US$ 1.5 millions monthly government subsidy, for that international airline industry equivalent of a dodo, Ghana International Airlines (GIA), attacking President Mills - a man of such unalloyed character and integrity, whose regime was left to pick up the pieces and sort out that dreadful corporate mess, which the rip-off rogues of yesteryear, deliberately killed-off Ghana Airways, for.

Naturally, there are those who will say that Woyome's lawyers are on the right track - and must go about the business of suing all those who slander their client, in ruthless fashion.

No one who remembers the unfathomable greed that underpinned the eight years, which the tenure of Kufuor & Co. lasted for, and during which decisions were often taken, not because they would benefit Ghana, but only because certain powerful individuals would benefit from the execution of particular projects, will not be alarmed that such unrepentant rogues might ride to power again, by successfully hiding their crooked past: in a nation notorious for forgetting negative and painful past events, so quickly.

That is why every time one hears those responsible for nation-wrecking outrages, such as the deliberate killing-off of Ghana Airways, in order to asset-strip it, one wonders at the barefaced cheek, hypocrisy and cynicism of those who clearly see political power, as a means to an end: a perfect wealth-creation resource, to enable them send their personal net worth into the stratosphere - rather than an opportunity to help make a difference for our country and all its people.

The question is: Why should we allow those who authored that shabby and mysterious Volta Aluminium Company Limited (VALCO) story-of-gargantuan-fraud, in which Norske Hydro and VALE, were said to have formed a joint-venture partnership, International Aluminium Partners (IAL), to purchase VALCO, when in fact nothing of the sort had been agreed, and furthermore, no such entity actually existed, to return to power again - when they haven't yet paid for that egregious crime against Mother Ghana?

It is such a pity that so many Ghanaians have forgotten that during the golden age of business for Kufuor & Co., a determined attempt was made, to grab a stake in VALCO, without paying a pesewa upfront for it - by the selfsame faceless-rip -off-merchants, who found perfect legal-fronts, to enable them successfully hide the fact that high-level-abuse-of-office had enabled them to purloin part of the jubilee oilfield: through sleight of hand manoeuvring, done in tandem with corrupt foreign oil company executives?

Incidentally, it will be interesting to know the extent of the asset-stripping that has gone on, since Kaiser Aluminium and ALCOA were bought out by the Ghanaian nation-state - and precisely who have acquired VALCO's choicest residential and other properties, following their exit. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo!

The idea that such clever self-seekers, interested only in the acquisition of wealth through a deliberate policy of pork-barrel power-play-politricks, in the award of major contracts in our country, are seeking to return to power again, by successfully cloaking the unfathomable greed that underpins everything they do, in the very respectable clothing of newly-found-concern-for-Mother-Ghana, is painful and very worrying indeed.

It appears that they are indeed getting away with past crimes and might even successfully return to power again (God forbid!), by cleverly wrapping themselves up in that very special silken kente cloth - otherwise known as forever-protecting-the-national-interest-kente. The idea that through such cynicism and subterfuge, they might return to power again (God forbid!), simply doesn't bear thinking.

Who does not know, for example, dear reader, that contracts awarded to companies perceived to be sympathetic to their opponents, even within the NPP, such as a contract for a solar-powered irrigation project, which was casually abrogated arbitrarily, because the promoters of the company that won it, were seen as being sympathetic to those NPP members whom Kufuor & Co., were not particularly enamoured of?

The ruthless cabal that controlled the NPP regime of Kufuor & Co., is easily the most dishonest; the greediest by far; and the most sly group of self-seeking politicians, ever to dominate a ruling political party elected into office in this country, since Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966.

Under no circumstances must they be allowed to return to power again, for they will end up asset-stripping Ghana completely - to yet further enrich themselves, members of their family clans, their bottom-power girlfriends, and the tax-dodging oligarchs who hide their wealth for them in special purpose offshore entities. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

WHY SWING-VOTERS MUST ADOPT A LESSER-OF-TWO-EVILS PLAN - & VOTE FOR THE NDC'S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE IN GHANA'S DECEMBER ELECTIONS!

2012-01-09T01:37:00.000-08:00

It is bad enough that across our homeland Ghana, there are still pockets of groups of tribal-supremacist individuals, who, incredibly in 21st century Africa, actually believe that their particular tribe, is somehow superior to all other tribes in Ghana - but worst still is it, dear reader, when individuals of that ilk (with such backward and divisive beliefs!) seek to rule today's oil-producing Ghanaian nation-state.

Luckily for Mother Ghana, however, there is now abundant scientific evidence that clearly show that we are all essentially the same - and that it is only cultural differences, which for centuries, have made fellow Africans, in this corner of the continent's land-mass, delude themselves into thinking that we are different peoples.

In terms of our DNA, there can be no doubt that we are basically one people. That cannot be disputed, and explained away, by clever arguments to the contrary, by the tribal-supremacist sophists in our midst.

(Incidentally, it is for that reason that some of us can never forgive Kufour & Co.'s treasonable activities, whiles in power - literally putting the whole machinery of state at the disposal of a cabal of tribal-supremcist individuals, whose sole purpose, was to impose their tribal Chieftain on our nation as its de facto monarch. It was part of a secret agenda to revive an absurd dream of ancient tribal glories - in the modern African nation-state Nkrumah founded: the unitary Republic of Ghana. Imagine that.)

And that is why those tribal-supremacist individuals in our political class, who are now vying to lead our nation yet again, and are said to have struck secret alliances with their tribal Chieftains (by definition, tribal-supremacist megalomaniacs, to a man!) - to use the power of the Ghanaian nation-state, after the elections, to advance that selfsame hidden agenda, meant to revive those absurd ancient glories - must never be allowed to succeed in their aim.

It is that imperative, dear reader, which unfortunately makes it necessary that the New Patriotic Party (NPP), in its present form, is prevented from returning to power again in our homeland Ghana, at all costs - until the baleful influence of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., eventually wanes.

It is a known fact that Kufuor & Co., continue to have a vice-like grip on the NPP. And that makes that party - despite the many good, honest, patriotic and nationalistic individuals in it - a rather dangerous political entity, which actually poses an existentialist threat to Nkrumah's Ghana.

The fact of the matter, is that this is a modern African nation-state of diverse-ethnicity, in which no one tribe is superior or inferior to the other. So despite what the NPP's "real owners" think - including the tribal-supremacist tribal Chieftains in their midst - a majority of ordinary Ghanaians will always continue to remain true to Nkrumah's vision of a united nation, with one people, sharing a common destiny, till the very end of time.

The sad reality for our nation, is that Kufuor & Co., still have a hold on millions of poor and malleable Ghanaians, of whom, a wag I know once remarked: "They are individuals, who, as a result of the misfortune of having the mentality of serfs written into their political DNA, literally believe in that revival-of-ancient-glories pure nonsense on bamboo stilts. The question is: Even if their tribal Chieftains' predecessors' once ruled the whole world, and conquered all the peoples on the surface of the planet Earth, in battle after battle ad infinitum, so what? That is history and this is today's world - in which all human life in the Republic of Ghana, is of equal value. Period."

And with such a large base of "My-party-my-tribe-right-or-wrong" myrmidon-types, to count on for support, it is important, in order to counter that grim NPP reality, that those independent-minded individuals, for whom the continued existence of Nkrumah's Ghana matters (and whose crucial swing-votes now actually decide who becomes president), clearly understand one crucial thing, going forward, this year.

It is vital that in December they adopt a lesser-of-two-evils attitude for the polls - and vote en masse for the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) candidate in the presidential election. Whatever the sins of individuals in that party might be, they pale into insignificance, compared to Kufour & Co.'s brutal and repeated gang-rape of Mother Ghana.

The important thing, from a protection-of-national-interest point of view, is that it is a party that believes in a united Ghana of equal tribes.

And above all, as he has demonstrated so clearly, time and time again, President Mills is a committed and dedicated Ghanaian patriot, as well as devoted nationalist, beholden to no one - be it former coup-makers breathing down his neck because he won't be their puppet; or tribal-supremacist tribal Chieftains seeking to lead the asset-stripping of Ghana by stealth; ditto cabals of super-wealthy Ghanaian stooges for neo-colonialism and imperialism, working hard day and night, to advance foreign interests here, at Mother Ghana's expense - none can manipulate him. And as others too have found out to their cost, he is very much his own man - and works and stands solely for a united Ghana, and the ordinary people of iur country.

Ghana needs a non-politician like him - someone thrust unto the national stage, but who never actually sought to lead Ghana. President Mills was chosen to lead our country, nonetheless, because Providence knew that a moment would come in our history, when such an honest and humble individual, would be needed to protect our oil and natural gas revenues, for the benefit of all the people of Ghana.

That is why swing-voters need to heed the call and do their patriotic duty for Mother Ghana in the December polls - by voting en masse for the NDC's presidential candidate: who, in an imperfect world, definitely is the lesser-of-two-evils choice to make: in the supreme national interest! A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

WILL THE WEIJA SUB-DISTRICT OF THE GA SOUTH DISTRICT ASSEMBLY'S ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DEPARTMENT ENFORCE ALL ITS BY-LAWS?

2012-01-08T03:24:00.000-08:00

When I finally found a place to rent in McCarthy Hill, alas, it turned out to be a quintessential Ghanaian middle-class domain - a street lined on each side by expensive homes, making up a typical dzi-wu-fia-asem neighbourhood.

Unfortunately, as is often the case in such places, this road to the environmental equivalent of hell on earth, paved with good intentions, and literally a stone's throw from Jayee University College, is totally bereft of any sense of community.

Indeed, it is an each-one-for-self-and-God-for-us-all oasis, of wealth-secured-behind-high-walls, which is actually turning out to be a tone-deaf irritant, whose unimaginable apathy really jars - which is why I spent most of last night awake, wondering how it came about, in this bastion of middle-class-correctness, that part of the back of my new home's fence-wall, ended up serving as the neighbourhood rubbish dump (and has apparently done for the nearly six or so years that the wealthy owners' have allowed their beautiful property to remain unoccupied).

Populated by very respectable and decent middle class people - the type that is so good they would rather keep to themselves: in order not to cause any offence to their neighbour - the area is a living example of the Ghanaian maxim, "When good people remain aloof from others, in the area they live, many untoward things are liable to happen there."

And the list of things going in the wrong direction in this oasis of wealth, is rather long. I have mentioned the back of my fence-wall serving as the local rubbish dump - where no one is ever seen actually dumping any rubbish, but rubbish nonetheless keeps piling up. It is apparently done surreptitiously deep into the night.

And to worsen matters, now there is even a smell of a decaying dead animal (a red-rag-to-a-bull sort of provocation to a strict-vegetarian like me!) of some kind, emanating from the piled-up rubbish - in an area served by a waste management company. Incredible.

Then there is the monstrosity of someone's household waste-water that suddenly emerges like underground spring water, from the buried pipe (through which it is supposed to be discharged into the main drainage system on our portion of the Accra-Cape Coast highway), flowing languidly bang past the front entrance of someone's gated-driveway, and is eroding that section of the untarred dirt road that leads to the houses at the end of the top part of the gradient of what is a sloping road.

On the opposite side of the part of the road, where that dreadful stream-of-shame flows, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has fenced off part of the back of the selfsame fence-wall - to protect a transformer serving our part of McCarthy Hill.

Perhaps infected by the virus-of-apathy, endemic in the neighbourhood, it also neglects to have the small area it has fenced off, weeded regularly. Only heaven knows what is harbouring in the overgrown area behind the chain-link fence the ECG has put up. And it doesn't bear thinking, what would transpire, if the stream-of-shame, were to flood the area, which the sodden transformer is located in.

So I have had enough. And starting from this Monday, I am springing into action - and will probably end up being referred to, by all my very nice and respectable new neighbours, as: "Saa akorkura tuu-know-yi". But I can live with that - as long as the people from the Weija sub-district of the Ga South District Assembly's Environmental Department can put an end to the outrage that confront's one daily here.

A last example, dear reader: I am all for the live-and-let-live philosophy of peaceful co-existence between neighbours. However, kiosk-owners, whom the uncharitable would probably describe as, veritable squatters-who- shouldn't-be-here-in-the-first-place, who behave unreasonably (littering the place with discarded empty sachet-water plastic waste and discarded black polythene bags - that are carried all over the place when the wind blows), by burning man-made stuff, which gives off acrid-smelling smoke that most probably is carcinogenic, really are the limit.

So, to maintain my sanity, and working through officials of the Weija sub-district of the Ga South District Assembly's Environmental Department, I intend to badger (on a one-step-removed basis!) those decent people in the neighbourhood, who keep to themselves, behind their high fence-walls - until the makings of a pro-active community that takes pride in its public spaces and makes an effort to ensure they are always kept clean, hopefully takes root.

The question is: Will the Weija sub-district of the Ga South District Assembly's Environmental Department, ensure that its environmental by-laws are obeyed by all and sundry, in this typical Ghanaian middle class neighbourhood?

One certainly hopes so - and for their own good, they had better enforce all their sodden by-laws, in this particular instance: for the common good of all who live in this confounded dzi-wu-fia-asem neighbourhood of extremely nice folk who are loathe to upset others, and therefore mostly keep to themselves. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, which actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

MEMBERS OF GHANA'S MEDIA MAFIA MUST REDEEM THEMSELVES - BY BEING MORE HONEST THIS NEW ELECTION YEAR!

2012-01-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

Apparently, a number of journalists and politicians in Ghana, have vowed to find a way to kill off my ghanapolitics google blog.

They are labouring under an illusion - and they will fail: just as that shameless spoiler-website, www.ghanapolitic.net has failed miserably to stop traffic from flowing to my wwwghanapolitics.blogspot.com google blog.

Their plans don't surprise me in the slightest. For exactly the same reasons, I am unable to publish my "Thoughts of a native" blog on www.ghanaweb.com - because some politicians did not like that blog's harsh criticisms of some individuals in the communications team of the present administration, anymore than their political opponents' did its harsh criticism of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., who used to rule Ghana, once upon a time. But it is Ghanaweb's loss, not mine - and in any case Ghanaweb isn't Google.

It is a sad fact that Ghana is a nation in which there is a dearth of professionals, prepared, on principle, to refuse to be part of anything detrimental to the well-being of our nation, in their work, and which also impacts negatively on the quality of life of ordinary people. That is why this is such a corrupt society - and individuals of integrity so few and far between.

The most egregious example of the unprincipled Ghanaian professional - actively working on behalf of the high net worth individuals engaged in round-the-clock elite-rip-off activities harmful to the national interest, which also impact negatively on the quality of life of ordinary people - must be the hacks-without-conscience who litter the media landscape in our homeland Ghana.

If only they would understand that in the digital world of the internet-dominant times we live in, Ghanaian journalists on the wrong side of history, in as far as guarding the national interest, working to ensure the protection of the freedoms of ordinary people and the sustenance of Ghanaian democracy are concerned, are easily and quickly identified, by the very nature of their work.

They may think they are frightfully clever at hiding their perfidy from ordinary people in Ghana - but the world constantly judges them through very clear lenses, alas.

And it is clear that instead of being watchdogs for the whole of Ghanaian society, they have elected to be the well-compensated guard-dogs, of the oligarchs, who perversely have turned Ghanaian democracy into a plutocracy - in their quest to ensure that their net worth rises to stratospheric heights: at lightening speed.

That is why, for example, an arrogant and oh-so-very-ordinary hack, who apparently is said to think hosts a world-class evening current affairs televison programme, was recently confronted by a Swiss film-maker - who demanded that the telecasting of his intellectual property, without prior permission, ceased being telecast immediately. World class?

It is also the selfsame reason why so many media houses in our country are deliberately inserting the words "Ghana politics" into the opening sentences of their oft badly-written online content, no matter how inappropriate. Poor sods.

(Take those pretentious Kokomlemle-poseurs for example, dear reader - who have also joined the insert-the-words-ghana-politics-into-your-first-sentence-brigade for google search.

Those poor souls are so in love with the sound of their own voices - on what is said to be the leading radio station in Accra (which also doubles as a TV company, one gathers): and whose mostly-pedestrian programmes are said to be targeted at our capital's share of Ghana's clever educated urban elites.

If they only knew how absurd, irritating and flat those inanities - many puerile barbs unfairly aimed at the present regime - which they think are witticisms, were, perhaps they would cease inflicting them on their early morning audience.

And as s a wag I know said of them: "They are the world of radio broadcasting's equivalent of the overdressed and narcissistic dandy - forever admiring himself in the mirror, alas. Poor sods.)

It is typical of these provincial minds that they delude themselves into thinking that somehow they bestride the globe. What hubris.

For daring to be critical of the perfidious Kufuor & Co., and Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere, chairperson of the National Media Commission (NMC) - said to be their godfathers, incidentally - as we speak, there is apparently a scheme afoot, on the part of this mafia of shameless rogue-journalists cum allies-of-perfidious-politicians, to find a way to ensure that whenever the word "ghanapolitics" is googled, their media outlets' online content, rather than my ghanapolitics blog, show up in all the top spots, in the search results. Amazing.

For those Ghanaian journalists and politicians who are part of this disgraceful example, of the fruitless game-of-losers, otherwise known as muzzle-a-free-thinker-by-remote-control, let me make a smallish point.

Surprising though it might be to them, there actually is a critical worldwide audience out there, judging them on a daily basis - and it is a far bigger space than the public space they have apparently succeed in controlling in Ghana.

They may be masters of the universe here - but if truth be told, this is nothing more than a backwater, in the digital world's scheme of things.

Alas, they may be successful at manipulating public opinion in Ghana, for the wealthy crooks in our political world, whom they are beholden to - but doubtless, they will soon discover, that it is indeed a tad more difficult to muzzle Kofi Thompson's ghanapolitics google blog.

I am a mere simple soul, who is tenacious by nature - and never gives up: no matter what the odds are. Far cleverer people than they, have tried, and failed, in what they seek to do, I'll have them know.

With respect, my humble advice to them, is: Let them redeem themselves this Ghanaian election year - by, for once, being honest and principled professionals working (in altruistic fashion!) for Mother Ghana, Ghanaian democracy, and all the people of Ghana, without exception. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

IS THERE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO WILL DARE PUT FORWARD A RADICAL AGENDA?

2012-01-05T00:51:00.000-08:00

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."

- Winston Churchill

The success of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's mixed-economy model, proves that it is actually possible to avoid the classic economic ills, associated with capitalism and socialism, pointed out so succinctly above, in that quotation by Sir Winston Churchill.

Nearly 46 years after the overthrow of Nkrumah, today, it will require another visionary leader prepared to use Ghana's oil and natural gas revenues, if, and where necessary, to do the following - which the pragmatic Nkrumah would probably have done, were he alive:

(1) Use the power of the Ghanaian nation-state to ensure that our country ends its days as a plutocracy masquerading as a democracy - serving the interests of a powerful few, with greedy ambitions (to paraphrase Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah).

2) Empower our nation yet further, and unleash the creative energy of Ghanaian women, for nation-building, by initiating the processes that will lead to a constitutional amendment, which will reserve half of the total seats in Parliament for women.

(3) Make it compulsory for serving presidents to appoint cabinets, which have a membership that has an equal number of both sexes.

It simply does not make sense for an identifiable group of Ghanaians that is in the majority, population wise, not to have the opportunity to participate fully in the governing of our nation, and in other areas of our national life.

More so in a country where misogyny is rife amongst males of all social classes - which is why so many important men get away with sexual harassment and rape, incidentally. It is pernicious sexism to continue denying Ghanaian women an equal place at the high table in society, as it were.

(4) Change the constitution to make it compulsory for the president and all his appointees, as well as their spouses, to publicly publish their assets.

After all, Ghana is now an oil-producing nation. We must not end up as Nigeria has - with its ruling elites grabbing oil-blocs in oilfields like confetti. It is a moral imperative that this is done quickly.

Never again must we have a moral and political climate that enables sitting presidents to use legal-fronts to purloin part of our oil and natural gas deposits, through sleight-of-hand manoeuvring, with the connivance of foreign oil companies.

Let the E- O. Group be the last entity to acquire a stake in oilfields - off our shores or inland - without paying even a pesewa upfront, for such valuable and highly sought after assets.

(5) Provide every Ghanaian with the aptitude to study (up to tertiary level, if need be) with fee-free education - because that visionary leader will understand that a poor developing country with aspirations, cannot afford not to provide fee-free education for all its citizens.

(6) Ensure that no Ghanaian is without shelter - by making it an obligation for the Ghanaian nation-state to provide affordable rental accommodation for all those families or individuals that cannot afford to build or purchase their own homes. Ditto making the rental income, for those in the private sector who provide well-designed and well-built affordable rental accommodation for low-income families, tax free.

(7) Help spread the tax net, by making Ghana the nation with the lowest corporate tax rates in the world - and get Parliament to pass draconian laws making tax evasion a crime punishable by a mandatory prison sentence and a hefty fine.

(8) Encourage hard work by abolishing personal income tax. It is pernicious to tax hard-working people in the formal sector of the economy, whiles millions in the informal sector who earn far more, get away with virtually paying nothing.

(9) Make all types of farming tax-free businesses - to ensure food security and sustainable rural development, throughout Ghana.

(10) Create tax-free shops for personnel of the security services nationwide - as well as enable each of them to purchase one family car tax free, every five years.

(11) Guarantee 25 years of tax-free revenues for the 10 investors who are prepared to self-finance the building of railway lines to all 10 regional capitals in Ghana, on a build, operate and transfer basis.

(12) Initiate the processes leading to passage of legislation that ensures that oil companies, not the Ghanaian nation-state - and at the pain of having their agreements with Ghana automatically abrogated, if they fail to do so - pay for all the clean-up costs resulting from oil spillages; pay full compensation to all those affected by such spillages; and above all, pay fully to restore the natural environment, both offshore and on polluted coastal lands, to a pristine state again.

(13) Get London's Metropolitan Police to collaborate with the Ghana Police Service to re-investigate the murder of the Ya Naa - and bring all his murderers to book.

The question, is: which party's presidential candidate today, will have the moral courage, to have such a platform? As a wag I know, said to me, when I showed him my wish-list for presidential candidates, in the December 2012 election: "Kofi, this is wishful thinking - it won't happen, not in cynical Ghana. Period." More's the pity, say I, dear reader.

Hopefully, at least one candidate amongst those who will be in the December 2012 presidential race, will be bold and courageous to adopt some of the above, if not all of them. May Providence bless and protect our homeland Ghana, in this most crucial of election years.

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana, that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

NATIONAL MEDIA COMMISSION: LET US HEAR THE AUTHENTIC VOICES OF GHANAIANS ON OUR AIRWAVES NATIONWIDE!

2012-01-03T01:49:00.000-08:00

It is obvious that the vast majority of ordinary people in Ghana, believe in peaceful coexistence - between neighbour and fellow citizen: in all their day to day interactions.

Invariably, their main concerns are how families can put food on dining tables, pay for the education of the younger generation and be able to meet the cost of day to day living - including paying for unforeseen emergencies.

Yet, those authentic voices-of-reason-and-tolerance, Ghana's silent and peaceful majority, are seldom heard on the airwaves of radio and television stations across our country.

The overly-passionate (often feigned, incidentally) and mostly cynical voices that one hears daily, during current affairs discussion programmes on radio and television, often give one the rather false impression, that somehow, there is great tension in a nation that is also deeply divided. Luckily, that false picture doesn't actually reflect the reality on the ground.

The intolerant and often abusive submissions one hears daily, during current affairs discussion programmes on radio and television, come mostly from the opposing cabals of selfish active-self-seekers, amongst our educated urban elites.

Those cabals are made up of individuals who either are no longer in a position to milk the system - because their parties are no longer in power - or conversely, those who benefit from maintaining the status quo: because they belong to the ruling party.

That is why one seldom hears arguments based on principle and conviction, in such discussion programmes. It would appear that hypocrisy and cynicism, rule OK, on the airwaves, in Ghana.

So, although ultimately the verbose-hot-air that one often hears in such programmes are damaging to, and detrimental, for the nation they say they are so concerned about - and whose citizens' welfare they claim to seek - if truth be told, dear reader, those mostly-selfish individuals who benefit materially from the false impression that there is tension in a divided Ghana, clearly have an incentive to continue keeping that illusion alive.

Sadly, it does our country great harm, indeed. The outrage, is that it is simply a cynical propaganda tactic - literally designed to enable the divide-and-rule agenda of a few ruthless individuals, who seek to control the destiny of teeming millions in Nkrumah's Ghana, because they think they were born to rule others, to have traction nationwide.

It would appear, dear reader, that a ruthless mafia, made up of cynical politicians and mercenary journalists (the hacks-without-a-conscience!), has succeeded in hijacking access to the airwaves in Ghana.

And on a daily basis, they and their paid hirelings work energetically full time, either hopping from electronic media outlet to electronic media outlet, to participate in live programmes, or calling into radio and television stations during current affairs discussion programmes, to make contributions that help spread even wider, the miasma of negativity that is slowly enveloping our homeland Ghana - giving the unfortunate impression to the world that somehow we are a deeply divided people.

The question is: How did we come to such a sorry pass, that today, it is only those who gain materially from the system, or seek to milk the system someday when the party they support finally comes to power, who are mainly the ones with constant access to radio and television stations, and have now ended up literally taking over the airwaves in our country completely - to fight a no-holds-barred propaganda war, which they hope will ultimately enable their party to either continue holding on to power, or if they happen to be in the political wilderness, hope will return their party to power again, after the next presidential elections?

It would appear that there is a conspiracy between the media and the self-seeking empty-talking-heads, for whom political power is a personal wealth-creation tool. And it is for such base reasons, dear reader, that ordinary people and Mother Ghana are being held to ransom, alas. Imagine that.

It is such an intolerable situation for anyone who believes in democracy. Surely, the time has come for ordinary folk in our democracy to be allowed to speak freely, in the parliament-of-the-airwaves - and in what is an election year, is it not vital that institutions like the National Media Commission (NMC), act to ensure that ordinary people too can exercise their right to freedom of expression freely on the airwaves?

Radio and television stations ought to be compelled to do precisely what they were given licenses to operate for - provide a platform for a series of meaningful national conversations that educate and entertain their audience - as well as help move the Ghanaian nation-state forward.

With respect, they were not given licenses to become the propaganda outlets of political parties and politicians - and useful tools of same. They need to be reminded that they have an important role to play in entrenching democracy in our country.

It is time they engaged the general public in public spaces - seeking the opinions of ordinary people on farms in hamlets and villages - if need be; in towns and cities - even talking to them on pavements in urban areas; ditto markets and lorry stations nationwide, for example, in order to take the pulse of the nation from the people they chance upon during such on-location outside broadcast outreach programmes.

The question, dear reader, is, what exactly is the NMC doing about this unedifying situation? We must not allow the professional cynics and doom-sayers in our midst to continue to infect our nation with their poisonous negativity.

In this crucial election year, radio and television stations must be prevailed upon to enable the authentic voices of the masses in Ghana, to be continuously aired and heard nationwide.

That, not forever seeking yet more funding and extending their sodden influence in society, by stealth, is what ought to be the concerns of Ambassador Kabral Blay-Amihere's confounded NMC. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.

AN EMAIL TO STEVEN TUINISTRA

2012-01-02T04:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Steven. I do hope you are well - and happy.

I had a conversation with a leading politician from the north of Ghana, yesterday.

I mentioned the fact that you and your boss had designed what is the most modern shea butter factory in West Africa, to him. In both our view, it is a perfect SADA public private partnership project.

The government recently gave the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), some US$18 millions. SADA is a national development organisation charged with bridging the gap in wealth between the north of Ghana and the southern half of the country.

Would either you or your boss be interested in a turnkey project in the north of Ghana - to replicate your Togo project there?

If yes, I shall e-introduce you to a consultant, Dr. Baezie, who is the right-hand man of the politician I mentioned earlier - so you can liaise with him to set the ball rolling for collaborating with the relevant people and organisations. Interested?

As usual, let me state that I do this only for altruistic reasons - and want and expect nothing from either you or your boss.

My satisfaction and reward, will be to see something I played a small part in initiating, eventually creating jobs and wealth for people in a poor part of Ghana.

Best wishes,

Kofi.

MUST ALL PRESIDENTIAL & PARLIAMENTARY CANDIDATES FOR GHANA'S DECEMBER 2012 ELECTIONS SIGN A NON-VIOLENCE PLEDGE?

2012-01-01T01:40:00.000-08:00

Ghana's international reputation as a stable, peaceful and democratic African nation, widely regarded as a beacon of hope for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, is priceless - and must be jealously guarded, at all costs.

Well-meaning Ghanaians want this new year, 2012 - during which crucial elections are to be held in December - to be a happy and peaceful one. A peaceful outcome, for what we all hope will be free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections, this December, will further enhance our nation's standing, in the international community.

It is therefore vital that all those standing as candidates in the December presidential and parliamentary elections, put that bigger picture (Ghana's reputation as a peaceful and stable multi-party democracy), at the forefront of their thinking - when fashioning their campaign tactics and formulating what they hope will be winning-strategies.

Perhaps the time has come for all candidates in the December elections to sign individual pledges, promising the good people of Ghana, that they will commit their parties - and themselves, individually - to ensuring that this year's presidential and parliamentary elections, are devoid of violence: and are fraud-free too.

Alas, if we were to lose Ghana's international reputation as a haven of peace and stability in Africa, it will drive away scores of potential foreign tourists and investors - courageous enough, at a time of great economic uncertainty globally, to want to visit Nkrumah's Ghana or invest in our resource-rich country's future.

So, peaceful elections (in each one of the 21,004 or so polling stations nationwide), in December, are a must. We must show the world that we are indeed a truly civilised people, by making sure that all Ghana's political parties understand clearly, that Ghanaians expect them to ensure that all their followers, get the message - loud and clear - that the law courts are the only places where electoral disputes are resolved. No one need resort to violence because of disputed election results.

A violence-free poll in December, will, for example, further boost confidence levels, in Ghana, amongst overseas fund managers who concentrate on emerging markets.

And that is no small matter in a world reeling from yet another financial crisis arising largely from the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis - and saddled with an economic downturn in many nations; turmoil in markets across time zones and the beginnings of a new global credit crunch. Our financial services sector needs to attract such funds - if players in the sector are to continue growing.

Members of our political class must not fail Mother Ghana, at this critical juncture of our nation's history. After all, they are fond of frequently making the claim that they are in politics, simply because they want to better the lot of ordinary people - and make our nation prosperous, are they not?

Well, any prolonged violence during the December elections, which leads to widespread chaos, destruction of property and pointless deaths-of-innocents, will rather do the opposite - and only end up impoverishing the Ghanaian nation-state and its citizens, will it not, dear reader?

The good people of Ghana therefore demand politicians' signatures on those individual pledges, to ensure nationwide violence-free polls, and a free and fair electoral process - and they must do so as soon as it is practicable for the National Peace Council of Ghana - and other civil society organisations with similar objects - to organise ceremonies nationwide, for that purpose. A word to the wise...

Tel (Powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.