Haven’t we had enough of the ‘WE WILL’ speeches?

President John Mills on Thursday afternoon delivered his state of the nation addressing, asking Ghanaians to see the country in a mighty nation worthy of spotting opportunities from afar. He said it was time for Ghanaians to think big, positive and be confident. Again, he said as a country we can’t hold ourselves up as a small nation and continue to let opportunities slip by our hands.

Listening to the president’s speech, I felt he was, as usual, wordy but empty on substance. His ability to deliver has never been in question, though his opponents are often on the lookout for slips. Thankfully the president did not give them that, and most of them were very much let down. What were they thinking in the first place-that he is not articulate?

As an independent minded person and a Ghanaian citizen who is very much concerned about the direction of this country, I think the president’s speech did not carry significant development that had been executed through. Rather, it was laced with ‘WE WILL’ or ‘WE’RE ABOUT TO type of speech, which has become very much part of the country’s political leadership- which has no clear vision good enough to uplift Ghanaians from the doldrums of abject poverty.

Next month Ghana will be 54 years as a so-called independent country and there is nothing to show for it, apart from soaring unemployment and increasing shortage of water supply. As for energy the least said about it the better. I wanted to hear the president talked about on-going measures put in place to reduce unemployment, give meaning to the drop in inflation and reduce the scale of opulence in government.

Our ruling elites have developed a penchant for raking empty. Some see the coffers as their haven of loot, grabbing anything they see with their eyes or even stumble on. Nothing seems to be working in this country, as we approach 54 years of a so-called self rule.

The direction of the country is very much hinged on baseless political party manifestos. Be it NDC or NPP who gets into power, the policy or direction at which they want to take Ghana (even if there is any) is purely based on their own manifestos full of ideas they care less to implement. No wonder we are still struggling as an independent country. we have become beggars to such an extent that even countries in the Far East who crawled out of colonialism with us are firmly walking on their legs, leaving us to sit at the same place-without even crawling any further. We have become a wasted nation.

“Madam Speaker, I have had occasion to state that too much has passed us by as a nation and we need to move as fast as we can; of course at calculated speed.

“Past failures seem to have created a mentality that has restricted national ambition. It is time for this country to think big and think positive. “

The president’s call for us to be confident and positive thinkers is in the right direction but sometimes the question I ask myself is whether he and his team believe in the things they say. it is nice to be confident and think positively but how does that manifest in mine getting constant supply of water, power supply? Been confident and thinking positively surely are brilliant but will do bring an end to the soaring unemployment?

Today in my office for example, the power went off in the morning and came back after 4pm. It is almost like a daily ritual. We expect the president to be telling us work done so far to eliminate that mess. No country determined to develop thrive on an unreliable power supply, that will be suicidal. We expect the president(s) to focus on the job instead of often telling us things we already know.

Ghanaians are self-confident but that confidence can easily erode in an environment that is very much embedded with massive inefficiency, with state corporations like the water and energy supply sectors performing below point one. Managers of the country’s power supply come across as primitive persons who don’t know we are in the 21st century and things ought to change.

We want the president to resolve such problem not to be telling us inflation figures that end up reflecting in the pockets of his own people and not the larger populace. What is the essence of single digit inflation to a civil servant who is collecting less than $300 a month after serving his country for decades?
Such a civil servant a speech laced with ‘WE WILL’ is bound to further depress him.

State of the Nation Address

President John Mills delivers his state of the nation address, the third time since assuming office in 2009, and expectations are that he’ll be genuine with his approach-telling Ghanaians things are not as rosy as he wants us all to believe.

A political ritual started by former President John Kufour, Mills has kept the tradition, offering Ghanaians an insight, or supposed insight, of current state of affairs at the country. At his first address to the nation, he touched on governance, private sector development and agriculture, among others.
President Mills said he’ll move “beyond rhetoric and execute a programme to rehabilitate existing irrigation schemes to ensure their efficient utilization.” He made the statement with respect to how the government plans to boost agriculture production in the country.

“The Government will address simultaneously the issues of food availability, access to food, response to crises situations and malnutrition. The Government will invest adequately to maintain the production level of those crops for which we have surplus production and put in measures to increase significantly the production level of those crops for which we have deficit production.”

The said ‘rhetoric certainly applies to every facet of the plans he put forward to Ghanaians. It includes how to tackle soaring unemployment, create jobs (certainly not the one point six million ghost jobs), corruption, education and health. Then there is also security.

The president is in his third year and the views out there are that ‘people no dey see top.” Forget the insincere rumblings from the opposition NPP (they are just waiting in the wings to continue from where their looting ended) and their everyday cries of ‘enkoyie.’ The average Ghanaian is struggling to hold on to a job. Even those lucky to be employed the salary at the end of the month is absolutely nothing to talk about.

The state of the nation at this time is that at almost 54 years of age the ordinary Ghanaian continues to lose hope in the country of his birth, because he cannot find any decent opportunity to better himself. At the state of the nation today our education system is in crisis, with students at the tertiary levels struggling to fit into lecture rooms.

We are still struggling with the exact figure for our population size: 24million, 25million? That is still shrouded in mystery.

The state of the nation is that people have no access to water, even in the capital-Accra. Power outages have become very normal. It is a blessing to have uninterrupted power supply for a whole week, at 54 years. We have enough sunshine but not thinking through how to tap into it.

The state of the nation is that our economic paradigm is still unclear, though we are told Rome was never built in a day. So, must we wait for 300 years to develop?
The state of the nation is that inflation figures for the NDC are different from that of the NPP. Despite their silly argument
The state of the nation is that there is no policy plan that all the political parties are following to put the country on a sound footing. The state of the nation is that corruption is rifled.

The state of the nation is that if you are in opposition you think right but in government? Your thinking leads right into your stomach.
That is the state of the nation.

Rogue police behind looting, says Egyptian national

Plain clothe Policemen are suspected to be behind on-going looting in major cities in Egypt, according to Germany based Egyptian journalist, Hebatallah Ismail. She said report coming through to her from relatives speak of massive scale of looting, with people vandalizing shops, government buildings and banks. “We are now busy with the robberies,” she said.

The country has come under the global spotlight following days of protests by Egyptians opposed to the regime of current dictator Hosni Mubarak. The protestors are calling for reforms, jobs and the departure of the dictator from office following three decades in office. Speaking for the first time after the outbreak of violence, Hosni Mubarak dismissed the entire cabinet but refused to stand down, a situation which further angered demonstrators to stay up the streets despite existing curfew. Mubarak’s silent on his departure obviously means people continue to stay up in the street, says Hebatallah, adding:” Mubarak is stubborn.”

Residents are reported to have taken upon themselves the duty to protect themselves because of the absence of security. Al Jazeera reports that young men armed with machetes and other dangerous weapons have mounted roadblocks in order to prevent suspicious characters from having their way. In Suez for example, scores of young people are busy gathering around to protect their properties. The CNN however says residents are blaming Mubarak for the latest wave of looting.

“Some residents told CNN they worry that the chaos is President Hosni Mubarak's strategy -- that all the crime could turn people against the protesters, and build favor for the government security forces to restore order.”

West Africa seems likely to be hit by Jasmine’s smell

As protestors in Egypt continue to push out dictator Hosni Mubarak out of office after three decades in office, anti dictator activists in West Africa are keeping their fingers under lock to see if the dose of the Jasmine will surely spread across their region. Days of protests have left the rest of the world to watch in awe, as people still are in shock if the events are real or fiction. But as night fell and the skies continue to be darkened, protestors also became more emboldened and expressed their determination to continue the demonstrating till Hosni Mubarak is flashed out.

And as Egypt becomes the second country in North Africa to face unrest immediately after Tunisia-the architect of what has become known as the Jasmine Revolution- people are now singling out dictatorial regimes in the continent. The list certainly runs tall: Zimbabwe, Gabon, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Morocco, Swaziland, Central African Republic, Uganda, Sudan, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Togo etc. The list surely is tall but the jasmine must be spread on regional basis. Whilst North Africa obviously becomes the birth of such a revolution, people are now looking further across sub of the Sahara to West Africa for a spread of the jasmine. Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Togo surely come to mind.

Though Togo appears to be heading to a somewhat reform, it is all cosmetic. Both Burkina Faso and Cameroon need the jasmine flavor more than anyone other regimes in the sub-region. Cote D’Ivoire’s case is pretty much different, though I’m confident it sure will not that as well. But the two French speaking countries have had dictatorial regimes that are impervious to change and free speech, clamping down heavily on dissent. Corruption, human rights abuses and massive unemployment are very deeply nailed into the hearts of the millions of citizens in these countries who live on less than a dollar a day.

The increasing levels of poverty very much contrast the affluent and gluttonous lifestyles of the leadership of the autocratic regimes. Cameroon dictatorial leader Paul Biya has refused to listen to wisdom to reform, as he continues to use his position to plunder the resources in his country. A day’s makeover of his wife is ten times the live savings of a Cameroonian who has served in the civil service for many than three decades of his life. The same could be said about Burkina Faso, where Blaise Compoare has spent decades in office plundering the resources of his country at the expense of the already oppressed. The two dictators are obviously perfect target for the revolution.

Meanwhile in Egypt, a protester tweeted to the BBC the following soon after Mubarak finished a midnight broadcast: "We want a resignation speech from Mubarak, nothing else will satisfy us." His broadcast was the first after he pig headedly turned a blind eye and ear to the voices on the streets. It was his first speech since protestors took to the streets in almost a week, leading to the destruction of properties and scores of casualties. Events in Egypt are still shocking especially when one considers the brutish nature of Mubarak’s regime that had been sustained by an equally brutish security force. The protest comes on the heels of a similar one in Tunisia which led to the collapse of the twenty three year old regime of dictator, Ben Ali. Protestors in that country stood to the grounds despite the brutish nature of the regime.

They took the fight to them and at the end of the day, the same security regime turned around in support of the people. The peoples defiant is what is providing an incentive to ordinary Egyptians who now feel embolden to take the fight to a regime that had not only deprived them of jobs but sealed their lips to free expression.


There are countless numbers of activists locked behind bars without trial, as Mubarak, who has the backing of the US, appears to be grooming his son,Gamal, to take over. Obviously overwhelmed by the momentum from the protestors the government shut down communication links, hoping to prevent people from spreading the message of the protest around, via social network. That did not deter protestors to stay up in the streets despite the imposition of curfew.

The embattled dictator is hanging on the support of the US government to hold on to power. It is however clear that support is because of Egypt’s recognition of Israel as an existing state, a position which is in avariance with other Arab countries in the Middle East. However, the US government is appears unwilling to have his back this time around: “Surely, there will be difficult days to come, but the United States will continue to stand up for the rights of the Egyptian people and work with their government in pursuit of a future that is more just, more free and more hopeful," Mr. Obama said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron has also backed calls for reform: "I think what we need is reform in Egypt. We support reform and progress in the greater strengthening of their democracy and civil rights and the rule of law.

"Clearly there are grievances that people have and they need to be met and matched. "I don't think it's in anyone's interest that people are being killed on the streets of Egypt as we speak, and so I hope the violence will cease.

"But clearly, when you have people who have grievances and problems that want them responded to, it's in all our interests that these countries have stronger rule of law, stronger rights, stronger democracy."

Asokwa MP kofi Jumah is a sick joke

First was his sexist comment that a fellow party member had been bedded before getting a position as a mayor. His desperate rationalization of the comment didn’t do much to repair the damage caused to the reputation of the woman and himself. The leaking mouth politician known for his loud but short on substance submissions to issues, Asokwa MP Kofi Jumah has often provided bloggers and critics ammunitions to expose his contradictions. On Wednesday (26th January, 2011) he joined a demonstration organised by the pro opposition group Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) on the streets of Accra to raise concerns about rising economic difficulties in the country. Jumah was one of other MPs reported to have joined the demonstration at point.

He however stole the show following his symbolic portrayal of the economic conditions facing Ghanaians. He claimed the demonstrators were looking for a Tawiah-a person who comes after twins- to convey their message of hardship so he passes it on to Atta-incidentally the name of the President John Mills.

“I hear there is somebody called Tawiah and I am looking for that Tawiah because I hear that he can reach Atta, even if Atta is asleep, he can wake Atta up so that he can tell Atta my story. “ Every Atta I hear has a Tawiah. So I am looking for Tawiah and when I walked down the street of Accra I saw so many people also looking for Tawiah,” he told Joy Fm’s Fiifi Koomson.

Jumah said Ghanaians are suffering-including him-and therefore wanted Tawiah to convey the message to Atta that his promises are not being felt.: “First of all he promised me that my life is going to be better but what I see is the reverse the direct opposite of what he promised. “I went to buy rice they told me the price of rice has gone up. So I say well if I can't buy rice at least let me drink water, the price of water has gone up. I got so angry and frustrated and said let me drink beer, the price of beer has gone up. Then when I went home the electricity price has gone up.”

Kofi’s claim that he can’t buy beer let alone sachet water gives him away as a hypocrite and a pathological liar. Why? This was the same man few weeks ago had lampooned his own party, the NPP, for what he said was the pittance party officials had leveled as the filing fees for prospective applicants wanting to contest seats as MPs. The party had proposed an amount of GH¢16,000 being payment for anyone wanting to contest a seat on the party’s ticket. He however accused the party officials of not being serious enough with the said about especially if they want to win power in 2012.

The question one needs to ask in the first place is; how much does the sachet of water or beer cost? Obviously not more than GH¢ 4.00 if we are to put the two together and yet, Jumah is unable to afford that but can cough up GH¢16,000 as filing fee to contest a seat as an MP.

Isn’t it disappointing that a man who claims to be struggling to pay for sachet water and beer is asking is telling his party to up an amount for anyone interested in becoming an MP. He is simply a sick joke who needs to see a psychiatrist before doing further damaged to his political career very much motivated by property grabbing and loose talk.

Political hookers

Formation of so-called pressure groups is very much fashionable in Ghanaian politics. It does not matter which side of the fence you stand, so far as one is able to punch the weak areas of its opponents, its fine. And dirty tricks are allowed. It is unsurprising that political hookers from both the ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition New Patriotic Party are desperately setting up groups to go after each other.

There are more than five of such groups on both sides. The loudest of them all however is the pro-NPP group, Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG). Members of the group have desperately tried but without successful to distance the organisation from the NPP but not everyone is interested. The group has organised two demonstrations against the sitting government, the recent one taking place on Wednesday in the capital, Accra. The group’s anger was over the recent fuel increase announced by the government some weeks ago. , as well as difficult economic conditions in the country. The "Ahokyere" demonstration as the organisers put it was also to protest against the rising cost of living in the country.

In a swift response to AFAG’s demonstration, a pro government group in Kumasi took to the streets in praise and dancing. The said Movement for a Better Ghana “which demonstrated under the theme "Anigye" or happiness, called on the government to prosecute members of the former government suspected to have stolen state resources for their personal benefits. Their defense for the increasing economic difficulties (obviously not affecting them because of what they get from Osu) was as a result of a certain TOR which has become a convenient spot for both parties to point to, anytime people raise questions about the economic difficulties or the billions stolen from public funds.

Whilst it’s clear that living conditions in the country are no better than we are being told, it is important for us to question the rationale behind the formation of groups pretending to be raising the concerns of the marginalized. The answer is not difficult to find: Their intent is to prop up desperate politicians back to power or help them stay in it. It is surprising that members of AFAG just two years ago were up in arms with anyone who appeared to have criticized the then ruling government. Things, they told us, were extremely important and that John Kufour was doing well. His reign, again told us, brought economic prosperity to Ghanaians; inflation down, Ghana’s image has been bolstered etc.

Whilst things were rosy for them, John Mills and his boys, then in opposition, were on the streets singing on empty stomachs. Some of them made us aware they are struggling to find even a decent meal a day to feed on.

Two years down the line however, they are telling us things are much ‘Better’ than they were; inflation is down, Ghana’s image abroad is solid and more roads and schools will soon be built. Their points were no different from the then ruling government but they, together with the rest of us, rubbished them. So we joined and sent the elephant way out into the bush.

The umbrella is said to be up in the sky but the sun is still beating us, harshly.

Double Tongue President?

The crisis in neighboring Cote D’Ivoire is no doubt generating much debate in Ghana inasmuch as it doing elsewhere, thanks to the many reports emerging regarding the position of Ghana in respect of the use of military intervention to remove electoral fraud Laurent Gbagbo. Ecowas at its December 24th meeting in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, had proposed the possibility of using a military intervention to kick out Gbagbo from office. It was a unanimous vote, according to the report and Ghana, represented by President John Mill supported the idea.

By agreeing to the communiqué, Ghana was expected to commit troops should it become necessary that the action is taken. However, the president told journalists at press conference he was not ready to invade that country with troops. He came under barrage of criticisms with some accusing him of playing soft with Gbagbo. Prior to his comments, a newspaper in neighboring Burkina Faso had published a report accusing President Mills of tacitly pushing for Gbagbo to stay. Though his office denied the report, critics said his disapproval of any use of a military intervention to remove his ‘friend’ gave credence to the paper’s story.

As if that was not enough, President Mills is again reported to have said he supports an intervention to remove Gbagbo but will not contribute troops to that effect. Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga who disclosed the news to journalists after a day’s visit in Accra said the Ghanaian leader is ready to offer his support to ECOWAS but will not be ready to commit troops.

His latest revelation is causing a storm on social network facebook, with some calling him a DOUBLE TONGUE PRESIDENT. Is he or is he not supporting? And is the point in offering support but not committing troops? And is the oldman really on top of his security or somebody somewhere is pulling the strings? These are some of the few questions hanging on the minds of most people.