Friday, May 27, 2011

BE BOLD for what, Nana Konadu?

When former first lady Nana Konadu finally outdoored her campaign to contest the sitting President, John Mills, for the ruling National Democratic Congress presidential ticket, the phrase ‘BE BOLD’ was printed on t-shirts that had her effigy. Her billboards also carry the same phrase. Hardly does anyone speak about her without mentioning the phrase, Be Bold, before the rest follows.

Her key reason for entering the campaign, as she and her faithfuls have been telling us, is that the president, John Mills, has underperformed and needs to be changed before the party heads into the ditch. She therefore promised to restore hope into the party faithfuls or footsoldiers, and the larger Ghanaian.

Again, the decisions to run also include the following; John Mills’ inability to deliver the party from the clutches of shame, the rampant corruption within government, the inability of close friends of the Rawlings’ to grab ministerial jobs, he has not jailed enough people from the other camp-NPP.

She told her own party people and Ghanaians that she represents the best hope to ensure unemployed persons get the needed jobs so they can be in a good position to settle down as married persons.

Nana has started off her campaign in earnest but all that has come from her camp are full of rubbish, unfortunately to say. Her campaign has not been able to say anything sensible to assure the ordinary Ghanaian especially those dwelling in the slums that she will change their fortune. The messages so far coming from her camp are nothing but full of insults.

Sadly to say the insults have been directly at the sitting president, who has even been leveled as not only impotent but blind and a ceremonial president. Kondau’s campaign manager and Member of Parliament for Lower Manya Krobo, Michael Teye Nyaunu, met their own supporters but failed to tell them anything tangible.

Rather, Mr. Nyaunu, who has consistently denigrated the president even before the 2008 elections, said among other things that President Mills is BLIND. He claimed the president or the man he referred to as the ceremonial president (because the main guys running the presidency are Ahwoi brothers) can’t sign letters brought before him and that work had to be done for him.

According to Mr. Nyaunu, who appears pissed because he did not get any ministerial position, reduced President Mills to the level of a sightless person who can’t distinguish between day and night. He said the president can’t even tell the colour of his own clothes, let alone recognise the colours of the country’s flag.

Most people were shocked by his comments. I was personally shocked when I listened to him on the radio. Despite the fact that his voice was captured on the tape, journalists still gave him the benefit of the doubt and called him to clarify the statements. He stood on his ground and insisted John Mills is blind.

True to the phrase from his benefactor, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, Mr. Nyaunu, in his boldness, repeated the same insults on the president. It was extremely distasteful to hear him speak in such idiotic terms. He sounded bold with his insults and listening to him, it was not difficult to tell this man has no decency to his own life nor his own children.

The so-called Be Bold campaign, in Nyaunu estimation, is about vilification. It has nothing to do with brining economic relief to the average Ghanaian. It is purely about insults and nothing else.

I honestly think that Ghanaians would prefer a seemingly sightless president to a pretentious presidential candidate who justified the shaving of the hair of a youngman man dating her daughter with BROKEN BOTTLES.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Yutong Bus contest

I am struggling to remember the last time I wrote something on this page. The last bit of the first quarter of the year did not go as well as I had envisaged. I lost my mother, something that still hurts me. Though I have been trying to encourage myself to stay strong, It has not been easy. But I’m trying.

Despite the pain, I have had to spend time watching the country’s political landscape especially with respect to the power struggle within the ruling National Democratic Congress. President Mills has not had it easy from the Rawlings’ and their praise singers. He has come under fierce criticisms. His style of government has come under bashing from Mr. Rawlings and his friends. One of the bashings was that he is supervising a rather corrupt and uninspiring government; something Mr. Rawlings claims is in avariance with the ‘principles of June 4.’ So what did Rawlings do?

He got his wife to pick forms so she can challenge the president at the party’s congress slated for July. Not only that, President Mills was also equated to a Yutong Bus driver who ought to be changed because he has spent the last two years driving on the wrong side of the road, according to a certain Teye Nyauno, a protégé of the Rawlings.

He has said all the bad things about the government, to the extent that party foot soldiers who labored for the party during the periods of elections have been relegated to the background.

He was the one who likened the president to a Yutong Bus driver who should be changed because he is taking passengers through the wrong route.

In response to his criticisms, Vice President John Mahama also alluded to the fact that past driver of the Yutong Bus, an apparent reference to Jerry Rawlings, was given coffee to keep him awake, eventhough most people were not happy with his driving style.

He further said they had to prep up the driver at many occasions until he finally took the passengers to the trip, before handing over the wheels to a completely new driver.

Kofi Adams, spokesperson of the Rawlings, said Ghanaians don’t have the time to be serving the driver with coffee throughout the journey, if he is indeed tired. He said the only solution is for the driver to be change to ensure passengers are not sent into the ditch.

But others are asking if the driver’s mate, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, is qualified to drive a Yutong bus with over 22 million passengers onboard.
Ghanaians will know the answer by the first week of July.