[ 2012-09-12 ]

Cee Eye Whatever, Madam Speaker
President John Mahama gave a speech to the people;
it was meant to be a policy statement. The NPP
said it was just paragraphs of platitudes. I
found some sense in some of the things he said,
and the way to a Better Ghana. Daily Graphic did
a six-page verbatim pull-out on 5 th September.
My favorite portion goes thus, 'Contractors who
have done their projects will be duly paid without
any further delay and I have instructed the
Minister of Finance to provide Cabinet with a
detailed presentation of any arrears owed to
contractors this month and to indicate the steps
being taken to effect payments forthwith'.

I kindly request of the President that when this
is done and payments have been made, can he kindly
ask the Minister of Finance to publish the names
of the contractors, how much they were owed and
how much paid? I have a particular interest,
because some big contractors owe me money for
services rendered and I keep hearing that as soon
as Government pays them, they in turn will pay me.
With one of them, it is nearly 14 months. This
is my personal and selfish request, Sir.

This man bit off the lips of three girls and
defiled them with his fingers; we arrested and
jailed him for 30 years. Another three men were
caught on suspicion of serial killings. Kofi
Gyedin was hacked on the head by Akwasi Acheampong
for flirting with his girlfriend when he went to
collect his laundry from her (Acheampong's
girlfriend's) at 9pm. Sulemana Mustapha, a
phys-ed tutor at Techiman Senior High School,
impregnated a third-year student of the school. I
wondered whether all this was part of Jerry John's
conditional fixes before he appeared at the NDC
congress last week, but the IGP claims the crime
rate is down by 1% even though communal violence
is on the increase.

Then someone leaked Yaw Boateng Gyan's latest
security rapping to the public. The National
Organiser of the NDC, claiming he could arrange
secret apprenticeship training with Gbevlo
Lartey's National Security Agency and top it with
payments from the Ministry of Finance, was caught
in a storm after a secret tape of his instructions
to a select group of macho men was made public.
He admitted to the tape but claims it was only
politics. It had nothing to do with the December
elections even though General Mosquito charged the
NPP
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=249769
party with doctoring the tape for political
espionage. After all, Yaw Gyan was only
explaining how he could corrupt National Security
and process payments from the Ministry of Finance
without due process. Finance Minister Kwabena
Duffuor was furious.
http://www.adomonline.com/index.php/news/headlines/17795
Could he afford another charge like this after he
managed to swerve the Woyome saga? We do not know
who leaked the tape. General Mosquito says it is
an NPP mole, similarly doctored as the one with
Kofi Adams and Gabby Asare Darko. And National
Security Coordinator Gbevlo Lartey's
http://politics.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201209/93380.php
response to the security insinuations was just
that, a response. As far as the public knows, Yaw
Gyan is still safely walking the streets of Ghana.
http://edition.myjoyonline.com/pages/news/201209/93438.php

But the real danger lurks in the shape of a young
man touted as a member of the NDC communications
team. Mr. Felix Kwakye takes up a lot of airtime
http://newsblog.peacefmonline.com/pages/news/201209/133998.php
speaking for the NDC. In this case, he supports
General Mosquito in the NPP doctoring theory and
goes further that, to breach National Security and
use Government finances to pay party loyalists and
plot mayhem in a national election is of no
consequence. Why lose sleep over this triviality?
I don't know this man's background, but I will
question his values. We are developing a dangerous
group of future politicians.

With this entire goings-on, the Constitutional
Instrument (CI) 73 grew into 77 and finally 78
during the extended sitting of Parliament. CI73
was riddled with mistakes (over a hundred) and the
majority in Parliament finally pulled it back with
one day to mature and substituted it with CI77.
The NPP minority flexed some muscle and walked out
of Parliament. For a moment my heart stopped.
The last spate of walkouts brought unnecessary
toil to Ghanaians.

Following the trail of this CI, Madam Speaker of
Parliament Justice Bamford Addo, in exasperation,
blew MPs off with a 'whatever' ala my teenage
nieces when she noted that 77 also had loads of
mistakes. Finally, we have CI78 from the Assembly
Press. After weeks of trying to get rid of this
'District Four Five' saga, the TUC, GII, CDD, some
churches and especially the minority in Parliament
are wondering where to turn.

First, I should ask the NPP where from the
holier-than-thou posture? We are going round in
circles on this CI. Someone pulled another CI46
to illustrate the differences between the two.
Opposition stance is made indefensible because
previous governments of either party take a
politically advantageous end result, rather than
ensure the law is followed to the letter or at
least corrected to avoid future controversy. A
private members bill is still 'being considered'
by Parliament when we need one like yesterday. So
long as it is not in the interest of Government
they will not table a bill. If the EC made a
mistake eight years ago, should we repeat it just
so the political parties can record a 1-1 draw?
They forget their job is to safeguard the
interests of the people of Ghana?

The Constitution Review Commission is yet to
discuss and implement the people's recommendations
for change, and especially on decentralization and
elections at the district level. With so much at
stake and with so many issues to address, wouldn't
it make sense to manage a step-by-step process to
a holistic end?

The argument in the mainstream media from the NPP
side is that the timing of 'District Four Five' is
bad. And I think it is true. Considering that
the EC has to ensure a very accurate electoral
register, monitor elections in all the new
districts, not forgetting that they also have to
hold new elections in the previous districts,
place new names on the ballot and print all ballot
papers in time for the elections, it seems a tall
order. Political parties must also put time aside
to go through their processes of selection and
voting as well as allow time for candidates to
campaign. Any half decent project manager will
tell you he will have too many constraints. It is
best to re-plan, re-think and defer to a more
manageable date.

Besides, where will these 45 new MPs sit? I
suppose it does not matter that much, because our
Parliamentarians hardly show up for work in the
House anyway.

From the NDC side, they claim it will ensure
constituents are not disenfranchised. I can
understand that line of argument, but it presumes
that there are persons who are currently not
represented at constituent level. This is clearly
not the case. Every Ghanaian is today represented
in Parliament. It is not the quantity of our
governance; it is the quality of the
representation we have to accept.

The decision has to be whether we are managing at
the district level financially, with adequate
infrastructure in place to produce economically
viable units at that level. Can't we tell that
the urban drift is because there is no work at the
district and town level? That there is inadequate
employment and spending to attract and retain the
youth, keep them employed and occupied with a
future, if they choose to stay in the towns and
villages?

We have urban drift. Accra, Kumasi, Koforidua and
Takoradi are choked with poor sanitation, reckless
housing, terrible water supply and temperamental
electricity delivery. Why on Ghana earth do we
want to create more districts we cannot manage and
finance? Why create the administrative and
economic nightmares? We don't even have enough
human resource to manage the existing districts
yet another 45. There is a better way to do this
and it is not by crossing political swords.

The NDC make the point that this is a decision by
both sides, and the NPP say they are not against
the new districts. So what do the people of Ghana
want? And I have stayed away from the legal
wrangling.

Ghana, Aha a ye de papa. A lius valde week
advenio . Another great week to come!

Source - Daily Guide

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