Ghana is an Ass!

My initial reaction was that of scorn to the news that both Wereko-Brobby chief executive officer of the defunct Ghana@50 secretariat and Kwadwo Mpiani had been freed by a high court in Accra on the grounds the case against them was unconstitutional. My face hanged in my palms and wondered if we are a serious people in this country. It is only a mad person who, in his madness, will say these guys, who obviously spent the state resources in a more reckless manner, should go home, eat dinner and have sex with either their wives or concubines.

I’m not a lawyer but I’m not sure how on earth could a so-called high court tell Ghanaians especially the ordinary persons who pay taxes through a pinched skin that these plunderers must go home because there is no case against them. I can imagine the champagne sitting right on their tables. Shit!


Wereko-Brobby obviously spent reckless amount of money during that useless celebration which provided him the opportunity to loot from the state coffers. Was he not the man who promised fleets of toilets around every single highway and was unable to provide? Did the court ask where the money went? Obviously not, so why this silly judgment?

Did those wig wearing chaps sitting there at the high courts with their silly heads ever thought about what happened to the proceeds from the sale of the houses at the AU village? That clearly is not important to them because they’ll take ‘nokofio’ from those plunderers. It is their stock in trade, most of them. That is a fact!

The judiciary is corrupt, we hear about that all the time. Surely the man should be smiling wherever he maybe, having succeeded in outsmarting a rather lazy Attorney General and her deputy who have failed to build up any credible case against those corrupt in the system. Mills must sit the woman down and pump some sense into her over-greasy hair. The poor tax payer is losing millions to these plunderers.

Her per diem is a life saving grace for most people in this country and must therefore sit up or gets her ass kicked by those spineless ‘foot-soldiers.’ I wonder why those irritants have not demonstrated against her as they have done to others.


Back to my issue with these plunderers. Somebody like that Kwadwo Mpiani should not even be allowed to go home and browse his wife’s ‘gadgets. What the hell!
This chap literally turned the castle into money save and dished the monies out the way and manner he liked. He was the most powerful chap in the country, apart from the president. He respected his own fart more than even the sitting vice president.

He told sitting MPs who questioned him about how much this poor country was spending to celebrate that foolish celebration to go and build their own house before asking him any question. He was the man, the Bokassa of Ghanaian politics, the Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada, the giver of fresh breath and spender of our money.

He spewed foolish things from his ugly head (mine is not nice but better than his). He is now going home to enjoy his booty. It saddens my heart. He supervised massive thievery against the people of this country. Only God knows how much he has in his accounts.

I’m sad that monies that ought to have gone into education, provision of portable water and security are now sitting silently in the accounts of plunderers while majority of Ghanaians wallow in pain and misery.

God help us!

The log is still in your ‘sexy’ eyes, John.

Personally, I can count the number of times former President John Kufour has made any public statement since leaving office. He has pretty much kept to himself, except one or two instances where press statements had been issued in his name by Frank Agyekum, his aide. He is most of the time out of the country, something he loves to do even when in office. He competed fairly with former Nigerian President Obasanjo on presidential trips. No wonder they are friends.

But, like I said, he has spoken very little unlike colleague Jerry Rawlings. And anytime he speaks he’s been well measured in his statements. Apart from, and ridiculously so, his refusal to accept a number of vehicles given to him by the government as part of his ex-gratia. He could have gone to hell if I were in the shoes of the learned professor. But I’m not. I’m just a lonely journalist working hard to ensure at the end of the day I earn my daily bread. It appears the man often referred to as gentle giant has stepped on the political ‘balls’ of the learned Professor’s led administration, accusing it of corruption. And this has not been taken lightly, I must say.

Mr. Kufour, on Saturday 7th August, 2010 at a party’s function where once defeated presidential candidate Nana Akufo-Addo was re-elected, said the learned professor has sat down and allowed corruption to flourish. He said “ccorruption is becoming incarnate. We see corruption everywhere.” I don’t know but politicians behave rather foolishly and strangely anytime they see malnourished, jobless and unkempt party supporters. As if to excite them to escape from their own incompetence, they say silly things to keep their (supporters) minds from examining their jobless status. JAK was motivated by that and he said things which have ignited this whole pointless finger pointing game.

His comments did not go down well with ruling government who quickly, and unsurprisingly, launched a stinging attack on Mr. Kufour reminding him of those multi-million dollar pre-paid meter contracts his then struggling son back in the United States, and that of the famous hotel ‘waaaawaaa’ owned by another son soon after he became president. According to Deputy Minister for Information Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, the former president should be the last person to speak on the issue of corruption because he stings more than anyone.

He said the former president, while in office, had his private “residence renovated under suspicious circumstances.” The benefactor for the renovation of the house was said to be a farmer based in the Ashanti Region. It however turned out that the said farmer was a cook at the residence of the former president who, unable to cope with life, was drafted into his home to prepare late afternoon ‘ebunu-ebunu’ so the ‘oldman’ could get something to eat when he returns from work.

“We wish to also remind President Kufuor that it is his own associates and former working colleagues like Mr. Kwame Pianim and Hon. P.C. Appiah Ofori who have publicly lamented and condemned the nasty levels and quantum of corruption which he President Kufuor presided over when he was President,” Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa said in his statement.

Again, the statement made reference to the allegation leveled against Mr. Kufour by former NPP party chairman Haruna Esseku, who insisted that the castle, then under Kufour, had become a reservoir where ten percent kickbacks collected from contractors(both qualified and unqualified) are sent to, to the detriment of the party’s own coffers.

“It is significant to stress that despite the fact that President Mills is centuries apart from President Kufuor’s sordid corruption record which even the opposition including Mr. Kwame Pianim and several others concede to, President Mills has not awarded himself at state expense.”

The young minister who has a rather stinging tongue and good for such exercise said the former president’s unsavory remarks about how free expression has ‘stalled’ under the professor’s watch is nothing but petty. Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa reminded a man who could be his grandfather of how vindictively added more judges to the Supreme Court so that Tsatsu Tsikata would be sent from the comfort of his bed and family.

It’s rather sad that in the 21st Century you have the leadership of a country (both past and present) using their energies to throw mud at each other while the population wallow in abject poverty. The number of jobless youths is still on the rise, Accra, the capital, is in a messy state and provisions of quality social amenities still a distance dream to many. Rather than focus on these and other issues and resolved them, our politicians are foolishly busy telling us whose anus stinks and whose doesn’t.

Desperate power seekers or genuine contenders to change lives?

I have been sitting on the edge of a wobbling political seat, carefully watching and reading the happenings in the opposition New Patriotic Party. The party goes to the polls on Saturday 7th August, 2010 to elect a new flagbearer to lead them in the 2012 elections. The voting will take place in all the 230 constituencies across the country. It will be the first time in the history of Ghana that a political party elects a leader in such a way.

There are five candidates in the contest but only two are the main contenders: Alan Kyeremateng and Nana Akufo-ADDO. Two years ago when the two met, Nana won ahead of Alan though he was unable to secure the needed 50+1 percent to get ahead.
He had to rely on the benevolence of Alan’s refusal to contest to make him party leader. Nana Addo lost in the main elections. But he is back again but not alone. He is being checkmate by Alan and this time around, the former Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States is determined to push the deal till the end.

Obviously the lead contender in the race, he has enjoyed enormous support from senior party members and that of the national executives, the latter which has landed some of them in trouble. The main accuser Jake Obetsebi Lamptey, the party’s chairman and friend to Nana, is said to be working behind the scenes to rig the elections. He is an expert in rigging, his opponents claim. The man has however dismissed such accusation as ‘nonsense.’

Senior party elders met to broker peace in a meeting and despite a purported positive outcome, one of the contenders and former heart surgeon Professor Frimpong Boateng said all was not well. He said the rigging machine is still in place. He is contesting the elections eventhough his chances are more than slim. He is not in the race at all! He is however joined the rest to make silly promises of freebies, though he knows it’s more of a political talk than reality. It is the mantra of corrupt African politicians.

I have heard Nana Addo speak about how he intends to ‘liberate’ the ‘suffering’ Ghanaians from the clutches of Atta Mill’s government. Mills is killing Ghanaians with his style of leadership, he has been ranting on campaign platforms. He has spoken extensively about freebies, how he intends making Ghana a haven etc.

Alan has also been saying the same things he said which cost him the slot; cash for the people, jobs for the people. The last time he was given the position as a trader minister and asked to handle those senseless presidential initiatives, he messed them up. He was unable to handle that small project but believes he can manage Ghana. What silly! The two are not articulating any meaningful and right thinking ideas about how to change the fortunes of the country and arrest the mass thievery and economic mess.

All I have heard them say amount to nothing but petty lies: Pure political lies and deceit, which are the stock in trade of Ghanaian politicians. Also, the two or rather supporters of the two have been trading insults against each other. For example those in the Alan camp say Nana Addo is too old and should not be voted for.

They claim his age should be good enough grounds to disqualify him because he might possibly die in office and waste everybody’s time. Perhaps tired of such silly accusation, the man has been, once again, compelled to make a public statement in defence of his age bashing: “Every argument that is made about things which have really nothing to do with the quality of political leadership, you can find an example. There have been extremely successful old political leaders and there have been extremely successful young political leaders.”

Ironically his main contender Alan Kyeremateng who is favoured to be the youngest is way out of the forty bracket. There are rumours he’s in his early 60s while others say he’s in his late 50s. But the truth however is that he is out of the 40s.

Personally, I find this whole age thing very foolish and silly. We have had leaders from both generations who have either been wise or foolish. Jerry Rawlings was in his early 30s when he assumed power. He got all the accolades but became very stupid at his older age. J.A. Kufour was more than 50 when he became president. He failed to use his brains on over many decisions, making his opponents see him as an idiot. There are many examples of such leaders.

Winston Churchill was in his 60s when he became the premier of the United Kingdom. He is regarded as the best leaders the UK has ever had. Tony Blair who became the youngest leader in the United Kingdom foolishly committed his country to a senseless war. A lot more young UK soldiers had died prematurely because of his foolish obsession to a war he knew his country was not going to win. He was young but stupid and thick headed!

The truth is this age argument does not put forward on the table for the economically marginalized in this country.

Then there is also this longevity argument being pushed forward by those from Akufo-Addo’s camp. His supporters say he has been in the party long enough and therefore deserves to be given the slot. That is a funny suggestion. When did one’s longevity in a party become a panacea for leadership? It is a silly argument I pray they don’t repeat.

Nana should throw himself into the woods, fight for the minds and hearts of the delegates. This desperate attempt about being the oldest will not bring him anything but fuel the existing perception that leadership is an entitlement and as such, he deserves to have it without a fight. He must go out there and fight for whatever he thinks is his.

As for the other candidates I say whoever advised them to enter the race has done them a great disservice. They have thrown their money-or part of the stolen state cash-away. It will be better they don’t even waste their time putting monitors around the constituencies. The results will not be too pleasing at all.

Political power is transient, Mr. Mayor!

I’m still not sure if any of our politicians have learnt any lessons about being in power. They are so much intoxicated with it such that the positions they occupy almost make them tin-gods. Or better still impervious to logical reasoning. I’m not old enough but I have been lucky enough to witness how miserable those arrogant officials of former President Limann became.Especially those who thought being in political office means they could literally piss on the ordinary Ghanaian.

It took a dawn broadcast by a certain Jerry Rawlings on New Year’s Eve to bring them to reality. Soon those powers on which they so much hanged on and issued ridiculous instructions were gone. Scared and pissing in their pants at the slightest noise for fear they might be arrested, they sought refugee from the very people they had so much overlooked and disrespected.

That coup was totally unwarranted but that’s another subject well left to the dustbin of political history. Then Jerry Rawlings had almost two decades in power and some of his ministers began behaving like tin gods. They lost the plot. Blinded by fake allegiance and fan-fool respect most of his officials-including senior party members- almost saw themselves as gods who could do no wrong.

Their egos were larger than themselves. They carried with them the pride of arrogance were never afraid to show them off. No single advice worthy of consideration ever went into their skulls. They were simply impervious to any logical reasoning. After all they have the power and can even decide whether or not people should breathe, granted they had been given the chance.

But what did we see when they lost the elections? Most of them became extremely miserable. I personally remember one of them who was then a district chief executive somewhere in the Ashanti Region. He was a close friend’s uncle. This man respected his dog more than those around him.

He could speak and embarrass them in the presence of visitors. His decisions were final even when he was clearly out of order. Nobody could overrule him. He became a wretched and I’m not sure he’s been able to recover, at least from the last time I met him a year ago. I could not believe the same man huffing and puffing is the same person with his hands behind him speaking with such an angelic tone.
Clearly his symbol of arrogance has been taken away from him.

Then you come to the era of John Kufour and, I must be blunt, the greatest level of arrogance was exhibited. Even ordinary party flies with no constituency had the effrontery to look Ghanaians in the eye and talk back at them panache. They were LORDS OF THE RINGS and wouldn’t listen to anyone. They had no time for any logical reasoning. It means nothing to them.

Only theirs matter because they controlled state power. They were simply arrogant and not ready to entertain any thoughts. I still remember an encounter one of them had with a custom officer around the airport. ‘I’ll make sure you are sacked from here. Do you know who I am? He quipped with such air of arrogance. His party was kicked out but the custom officer is still around and has moved up in rank.

Some current officials in the Mills administration are walking on the same rope and decisions they take are final. One typical person is the Mayor of Accra Alfred Vanderpujie who believes his words are final and no matter of pleas could make him change his mind. A case in point is new rates he has directed members of the Advertising Association of Ghana to pay if they want to continue with their outdoor advertisements.

The new rate, which the association says represents eight times more than what they used to pay, will drive most of them out of business. Despite their pleas for Mr. Vanderpujie to have a rethink of the rates, he has on the other hand maintained his stance.

He is the lord of Accra and his words are final. His refusal to change his mind has since compelled members of the association to seek the intervention of parliament.
“We are presenting a petition with the support of the AGI to draw the attention to the anomalies in the procedures and processes which the AMA adopted in fixing the rates and the fact that they ignored all our concerns were thrown to the dogs,” says Francis Dadzie, a member of the association.

Mr. Vanderpujie’s ‘Lords of Lords’ attitude is more felt when he decided to replace a technical team responsible for determining the rates for outdoor advertising with a private firm for the next eight years. Rumours are that he has shares in the company. I’m yet to ascertain that but there in Ghana rumours have some iota of truth in them, so I’ll like to go by that.

Vanderpujie certainly has a job to do but he must understand that he’s dealing with people who have feelings and any decision take could have an effect on them and their relations. It is clear his stubbornness is borne out of the fact that he controls power, thanks to political victory which is but transient.

I personally don’t know him but I happened to have bumped into him during the periods of the elections and he was pretty much measured in his speeches with most of the people who had converged around the party’s headquarters. He literally had his two hands behind him anytime he wanted to speak to anybody around.
These are surely interesting times!

The World Cup, the Madiba's and tragedy

Finally the tournament i hear, and South Africa, the host, goes into the game, this afternoon against Mexico, hoping to win the game. The excitement has long been bubbling for months and got more to its fever pitch days before the first ball is kicked. More than ninety thousand partisan supporters with their vuvuzelas are expected to pack the stadium, and give the Bafana-Bafana the needed boost. It is first time in Africa and almost everyone including the Mandela's were looking forward to the game. However the death of a thirteen year old great granddaughter moments after the concert in the Soweto appear to have shattered their joys. The thirteen year old girl who is said to have celebrated her birthday two days ago, was driving home from the concert venue when the tragedy occurred. News report at the moments are mixed as to whether or not Nelson Mandela will be attending the opening ceremony. He is largely credited for bringing the tournament to the one time aparthied South Africa and his presence, according to most South Africans, will inspire the team to victory. But with the tragedy now sitting right at the centre of their home, it will be hard for the man to leave the family behind and celebrate with the football fans. The Mandela is a global brand and inasmuch as his iconic status brought the tournament to South Africa, the latest tragedy adds to the family's biography. 'Ke na Ko but certainly not in this moment of tragedy!

oil still creates doubts

Ghana has found oil, that is often the sermon politicians tell their friends in the International community. They are quick to say the revenue from the oil will change everything in Ghana; good roads, education, jobs and appreciable incomes. Unfortunately not many people are falling for that. After all gold, cocoa, timber and other natural resources have done extremely little to change the country's fortunes. People are still poor. Obuasi, the hub of gold mining in Ghana is in a gory state; residents are living in abject poverty. Enchi, one of the most endowed cocoa growing communities is living without any decent electricity, buildings, decent water and roads. Health facilities are completely crap. The only health health facility is more than seven kilometres away from most of the people and was built by the presbyterian church. They run the hospital with no funds coming from government. It's a pity but that is the truth. So not many people are swallowing this whole talk of oil boom and economic prospects. Lessons have well being learnt by the average Ghana and the thing you don't do is to allow the politicians to convince you when it comes to matters like natural resources. At the moment the country's percentage is less than five percent, so where is that economic empowerment going to come from? There is no proper oil regulation to define the boundaries about the drilling and how the expectations among ordinary people will be managed. The BBC has been on the road with the programme, Africa Kicks, where they look at different aspects of life in countries they are visiting.The team was in Takoradi on Tuesday afternoon to discuss this so-called black gold. After an hour of crossed debate from all the guests it became clear that not many people are looking forward with clean teeth about the oil changing anything. It's going to be the same old story, according to one of the guest, a dreadlocked beauty who spoke with loads of Jamaican slang in his lines. Others like her also cited the wanton corruption in the system and how much politicians love to talk but do nothing. It was an unfortunate spectacle but the gospel truth, even from me, is that the oil discovery will change nothing. Ghana will be as corrupt and inefficient as it has been for more than forty years. That is my verdict.

Wavin’ an idiot flag.

The last time I checked the price for a miniature flag of Ghana, It was pegged around US$6 dollars. It was not even the original. it was one of those materials joined together and with the black stars stashed in the middle. It was not attractive. The last time I saw t something of that type was doing the African Cup of Nations held in Ghana in 2008. I was backing Cote D’Ivoire to lift the trophy.

They had been doing well, scoring many goals against their opponents, so I decided to give them my support. I bought one of those unattractive flags, tied them to my head. Little did I know I was heading out for defeat. They were beaten in their next game and even failed to grab the fourth spot. I threw the flag away, never to wave it again.

Then I got an assignment to do an article about the song ‘Wavin Flag’ by rapper K’Naan. The remix version of his song for coco cola said to be one of the songs for the World Cup is enjoying massive airplay in Ghana. I headed off to speak to people about the song and whether or not they were going to wave their flags in support of Ghana.

I wrote a personal piece about K’Naan and those who love the song were happy to read about his background. I’m not going to pretend to be the one who uncovered him. Information about him is on the internet however, I picked my line from comments he made on Aljazeera about Somali pirates and the response of the international community. I enjoyed that very article, though I can’t say it was my best.

There were loads of Ghanaians drawing inspiration from the song. They will wave the country’s flag when the first whistle of the tournament gets underway. Even in the face of defeat, they will still wave though they are confident the team can go far. I have my doubt. The current list of players in the team could be described simply as ‘sick list.’ Stephen Appiah, John Mensah, Michael Essien and others are not in good shape. Their health is not good. That is the truth most Ghanaians don’t want to face. They’ve resigned themselves to this crap about ‘ooh God will do it.’ They talk as if God is not there for everyone, including idiots who want to be political leaders.
And talking about political leaders I heard economist and New Patriotic Party stalwart Kwame Pianim say political office holding is more than just waving flag. Mr. Pianim, whose statement has been widely reported by the Ghanaian press, said at the programme organized by Professor Frimpong Boateng to launch his bid to contest the NPP leadership that any idiot can be a flag-bearer and that what Ghana needed was a leader. I could not agree more with him.

Who would want even an idiot as a relative let alone the leader of a country. There are those who even believe that Africa is underdeveloped simply because of the idiotic tendencies of the leadership. For example in such difficult economic times, Jacob Zuma, hiding behind culture, has grabbed for himself four wives and the ordinary South African taxpayer has been forced to pay the bills for all of them.
The expenses made on his many wives, according to reports, run into thousands of British pounds per month. What stupidity!

Then you have a country like Nigeria. It has massive oil but its citizens are poor. It takes an idiotic leadership to impoverish the people. Equatorial Guinea, Gabon etc all have the so-called black gold but their citizens are poor. No right thinking leader will stash the funds of his country in a foreign bank and allow his citizens to wallow in squalor. Can that be possible? But that is the story of Africa
You move to Ghana and you have gold, timber, cocoa and now oil. Great natural resources but poverty levels are high.

Every single day one hears a certain policy or another in the ‘pipeline.’ I have been following development issues in this country since I was a teenager and the word ‘pipeline’ has been used more than enough. I’m still hearing the same word repeated by every government in power.

Our leaders are more interested in grabbing properties including ex-gratia while the vast majority are left to dry their teeth in anger and despair. The story of gold mining town Obuasi is pitiable-despite the many gold dug from the place. The people are still struggling to keep their heads above the scale of poverty.

Which right thinking leader will allow such foolishness to take place under his watch? We are more than five decades since asking the British Queen and her people to leave and our story today has been nothing but crap. We can’t even feed ourselves and we say we are ‘independent’ nation with great leaders. Who are the leaders; those who part themselves at the back even while in office or those who desperately spoke up against people owning a single toilet only for them to leave with more than three?
Are they the leaders we are talking about? I beg to differ.

I’m not a big fan of Kwame Pianim but I want to believe he has his own issues. He speaks only when it suits him. I however salute him for his frank remarks. In any case the world has become so small so who would want a leader without any technological skills?

As for the flag everybody can wave even an idiot. What Ghana needs is a leader who thinks about the masses and not one who would go on property grabbing spree. A word to the wise is in the thumb.

Good day!