Do we have to vote for NDC and NPP in 2012?

Previous presidential and parliamentary elections had always been a contest between the ruling National Democratic Congress and the opposition New Patriotic Party with minor parties such as Convention People’s Party and PNC playing the role of king makers. There is no doubt that the 2012 elections will be a contest between NDC and NPP and many in the country who are very passionate of NDC and NPP will go heaven and earth to defend them even to death whether or not they have access to water, electricity, jobs or not. However it is abundantly clear that these two major parties which have ruled Ghana for most of her 52 years of independence have woefully underperformed and have failed to deliver Ghanaians from the tentacles of poverty. In short these parties have shown beyond all reasonable doubt that they do not care about the plights of Ghanaians.

NDC ruled Ghana for 8 years and NPP has also done the same but did any of them help to make Ghana a developed country? Did any of them solve the unemployment and housing problems in Ghana? How about electricity, education and health? Look at the poor nature of roads in Ghana. Do we deserve that? Can Ghanaians recall anything extraordinary that the NDC did before it was replaced by the NPP in 2000? Or anything remarkable that the NPP did before it was replaced by the NDC in 2008? And since taking office more than one year ago has the NDC done anything tangible to alleviate the suffering of Ghanaians? Any person who has been to Europe, Asia or America can say for sure that both major parties have not done much for Ghanaians.

Look at the state of Ghana's manufacturing sector. What do we produce? Close to nothing. What do we do with the cocoa that we produce? Don't we export the raw beans for peanuts? How about the gold and the diamond and the many minerals we mine? Aren't they exported to Switzerland and Dubai before Ghanaians go there to buy the wedding rings and bracelets to sell to us? Computers, cars, mobile phones, fridges are made in Europe, Japan and the US and they are affordable there but Ghanaians cannot buy common chocolate even though the vital raw material which is cocoa is produced here. And the same is true about gold and diamond. We cannot buy products made from them even though they are mined right here.

Look around yourself and see if any of the goods you see are made in Ghana. I mean the mobile phones, computers, televisions, cars and all the flashy things that Ghanaians are crazing for. It is sad to note that almost all the raw materials needed to build these phones, cars, plasma TVs, camcoders, satellite dishes are obtained from Ghana and other African countries. Has the NDC or the NPP helped us to build any of these things? No.

The reason why we are unable to convert these rich natural resources into finish goods to benefit ourselves is the poor manner in which the NPP and NDC have managed our country. Don't forget it is government that must take the initiative, provide the necessary environment and policy direction and resources for a strong manufacturing sector to take root. Look at the policies of both major parties and see if they can even put Ghana on the level of Korea, Taiwan or Hong Kong in the next 20 years. Ghanaian business men and women are frequenting Dubai and China importing every good you can think of. Investigate to find out how the Chinese and the Koreans did it and whether any of the parties can help Ghana do the same. Didn't the NPP throw the NDC Vision 2020 Document that was supposed to make Ghana a middle income country into a dust bin? And do you think the NDC is going to implement Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy II (GPRS II) prepared by the NPP? This is the politics that has brought us no development but unemployment, poverty, hunger, misery and hopelessness and divisions.

So do they care, I mean NPP and NDC and do we have to vote them in 2012? Look at the state of Ghana's infrastructure: energy, roads, harbours, telecommunication, health, education, rail system, market and airport. What are the records of the two major parties on infrastructure? Have they been able to add anything to what Dr. Nkrumah built? Haven't they even neglected the few that Nkrumah built to decay? If you think I am not making any point just look at the state of our railway sector. Most of the tracks have been left to rot to the extent that there are no train services in many parts of the country which once relied on that vital means of transport. For decades that sector received no investments and no modernisation to the extent that it now takes about 10 hours to travel by train from Kumasi to Accra, a mere 200km. Compare that with a train service in Japan where it takes one hour to cover more than 270km. Despite having the advantage of being cost effective, cheap, reliable and business friendly 11 years of PNDC rule plus 8 years of NDC and another 8 years of NPP did not help the rail sector and our country except turning former poor soldiers and politicians into billionaires at the expense of our nation. After 52 years of independence and more than 28 years of (P)NDC and NPP rule our trains still run on engines that are 50 years old.

NDC and NPP have neglected Ghana's infrastructure needs for years, yet we have forgotten that no nation can develop without investing in infrastructure and technology. That is why Democratic Republic of Congo has every mineral you can think of yet it is one of the poorest in the world. That is why Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong have developed and that is why President Obama is talking about building US infrastructures because they are the engines that run the economy. You cannot export if you do not have harbours and airports to support it. You cannot attract tourists if you do not have airport, hotels, well developed roads and other infrastructures that support it. You cannot move goods from centres of production to centres of consumption if you do not have roads, rail lines and inland water infrastructures to deliver it. You cannot supply the industries with doctors, architects, bankers, lawyers, planners, engineers, teachers, nurses if you do not have the educational infrastructure to deliver it. And you cannot run an efficient and vibrant economy if you do not have the energy and telecommunication infrastructures in place.

Look at the state of Akosombo dam. Ghana is shut off anytime it refuses to rain yet we have had parties and their political leaders who have promised us so much yet have delivered so little. Ghana has been experiencing serious disruptions in the energy sector for years and no political party has seen any wisdom to solve it. As a result factories are folding up and are laying off workers and we are waiting for nature to help fill Akosombo Dam before we rectify the problem. Will these do nothing approaches to problem solving help our nation? What are we doing with the abundance of sunshine in the country? We have not taken advantage of it, have we? We have sunshine 365 days and we have not tap into solar energy which is cheap and more reliable than hydro.

In a situation that mimic problem facing the entire African region, the Finnish president on a visit to Nigeria in March 2009 asked, “Nigerian people have so much sun and wind, why don’t they use it for the generation of light for cooking and every other thing”? She queried, and added that “we do it in Finland for our renewable energy”. Source: www.dailytrust.com, 12 March 2009. The sad story is that Finland and most of the nations in Europe are locked up for most of the year by cold winter but take advantage of the short summer to convert the little sunshine they receive into solar energy while here in Ghana we have sunshine most of the year but do nothing with it. Dwindling rainfall has limited the ability of Akosombo dam to produce the needed energy to support the economy. It is another indication of the useless institutions that we have and lip service paid by the various political parties and their leaders to Ghana's development.

There is entropy of organised traffic disorder and inefficient transport management system, poor public transport service in Accra, Kumasi, Tema, Koforidua and many major cities in the country. Road transport in the country is dominated by rickety trotro and accident prone taxis and buses. Many travellers travelling in our cities have to endure huge delays due to traffic congestion. In the evening between 5pm and 8pm travellers from Accra to Teshie-Nungua spend not less than three hours in traffic in a journey that should take them less than one hour and in the morning suffer the same fate. Those going from Accra-Circle to Achimota and Ofanko, and Accra-Circle to Legon and Adenta undergo similar traumatic experience. But the NDC and NPP governments that have ruled Ghana for most of her 52 years existence as an independent nation have done very little to ease the situation despite persistence protest by the people. The NDC and NPP and their so called policy makers have refused to solve the traffic problems in the country because they drive in and around the country in four wheel drives assisted by dispatch riders and sirens and therefore do not experience the difficulties that ordinary Ghanaians go through daily.

Look at the state of the agricultural sector. How many of our farmers have their own tractors and farming equipments to produce beyond the level of subsistence? Virtually all the important equipments needed to make the agric sector viable and productive have to be imported and how many of our farmers have their own resources to buy even the basic machinery to expand their farms? Today after 52 years of independence our farmers still depend on nature for water for their economic activities despite the availability of irrigation technology and what has the NDC and NPP done so far to help them? Aren't they still using cutlasses and hoes to plant and harvest their crops, technology our forefathers used before they were enslaved and colonised? Aren't they still relying on nature to plant their crops in this 21st Century? Aren't we still importing rice from India and China after nearly 53 years of self governance? We cannot even feed ourselves after 17 years of NDC and NPP rule. Where are the food sufficiency policies of the two major parties then? What are the many directors at the ministry of Agriculture who enjoy fat salaries and bonuses doing? Although we are in the 21st Century yet our farming practices indicate that we have still not moved beyond the 19th century. Fishermen are always faced with the constant shortage of premix fuel despite the pledge by both parties to help them. This is the more reason why we continue to hunger even though rich soils abound in Ghana.

It is common to hear Ghanaians say that 'Malaysians got their palm fruit seed from Ghana'. Well Malaysians use the oil they get from the palm fruit as fuel for a number of engines including cars, something they accomplished through research and we what do we use the oil for? It is sad to say that Malaysia got independence about the same time as Ghana but they have made great strides economically, while we have been marking time courtesy NDC and NPP. While the rest of the world is moving forward scientifically and technologically we are still marking time because of corruption, poor leadership, poor governance, and bogus agricultural and economic policies, politicisation of every national issue, tribalism, ethnicity and military incursions into our social, economic and political life.

If Agriculture which provides us about 35% of our GDP is bad, then can our educational sector upon which the development of the nation rest be any better? Aren't the NDC and NPP toying and playing politics with our secondary school system. The SSS (now SHS) was a three year programme when it first started. When the NPP replaced the NDC in 2001 they changed it to four years and now the NDC is considering reversing it to three years. Who are they fooling? Is it not Ghanaians, our economy and the future well-being of students who are going through these ill conceived education policies of NDC and NPP?

Is the entire educational system anything to be proud of? Just look at the world ranking of Universities and see where the first university falls. Of the about 9,760 Accredited universities in the World, Ghana's prominent universities including University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology only managed to place 5,702 and 6,703 positions respectively in the World University Ranking. Even in Africa, our own backyard they only managed to secure 43rd and 63rd positions respectively. (Source: topuniversities.com/2008) Can we afford to develop the nation with ill-prepared graduates not to mention the millions of illiterates and semi-literates who roam around the cities and countryside?

Dr. Ave Kludze, a Ghanaian born top NASA Scientist in a rebuke of our leaders and our education system said in an interview with the CNN "no empire has ever achieved greatness without technology and the earlier the leaders realise this the better". He later told BBC that, "But where African schools have a problem, is that they focus heavily on theory, whereas [universities in the west] focus on the practical - solving real world problems.” Source: bbc.co.uk, Thursady, 12 February 2009.

It is abundantly clear that our education system is not producing the architects, engineers, planners, bankers, lawyers, doctors, teachers, social workers, nurses and the scientists that we need in the 21st Century. That is why every major architectural and engineering activity in Ghana is undertaken by foreigners and foreign companies especially from USA, Japan, China, India and the European Union.

An illustration of how bad the situation is was captured in a news report by Ghanaian Times headlined:

"Water Shortage: Experts Coming From S. Africa" which reported that "Experts from Ballest-Nedam, the Dutch company that installed the control panel at the intake pump station of the Weija Headworks are expected in Ghana on Thursday morning from South Africa to help repair the machine. This follows the inability of local experts to get the damaged electronic equipment fixed for the pump to function again. Mr Stanley Martey, Communication Manager of Aqua Viters Rand Limited, disclosing this to the ‘Times’ yesterday said AVRL was in touch with other experts in London and Holland for support in getting the engine to operate”, Source: Ghanaian Times, 09-Feb-2010.

Another news item reads: "Straight-talking Charles Kofi Wayo has poured scorn on engineers working at the gutted Tema Oil Refinery, asking if they qualify to even be called engineers when they cannot manufacture common bolts and have to wait for three months for foreign expertise to fix the minutest of problems. "If you have engineers there why is it that one small bolt you have to wait for a white man two, three months. You can’t even make your own bolts…You can’t even tool anything down there, even gasket - common gasket when it blows, you shut down the RFCC and stuff like that so where are the engineers? Where are the engineers? Source: www.myjoyonline.com, Thursday, 21 January 2010.

The simple truth is that our students are not able to invent neither do our experts able to repair even broken machines and experts have to be brought from elsewhere. We cannot blame our universities for failing to produce high quality graduates and experts because they have mounting resource problems. The Universities lack well trained lecturers. They lack modern facilities such as state of the art libraries, laboratory simulation facilities, studios, computers, projectors, internet facilities, constant energy supply and books. They lack them because we the NPP and NDC governments have failed to invest and build them; we cannot build them because the curricula have not prepared our students to build them. As a result we have to import the equipments and books from countries that have done their home work well and have invested heavily in education notably in science and technology.

In many of our universities, Polytechnics and secondary schools lecturers/teachers are still teaching students the same way the 19th century academic institutions taught forgetting that we are in the 21st century. The same notes given a final year student four years ago are still being given to first year students with no addition or subtraction. Lecturers cannot write books for students because they do not have the resources to carry out research that form the basis of any academic material.

Whereas students in advanced countries get their hands on books immediately they are released those in Ghana have to wait 4 years or even more to get the same books. What is more the academic facilities including libraries are in a state too appalling to describe. Not a single of our universities can boast of a million volumes of books in their libraries. Even the few text books that they have are so old that information contained in them are useless. Very few books have been published by Ghanaians. Due to this most students have to rely on the notes that lecturers give them. In Kwame Nkrumah University of Science Technology as it is in many of our higher institutions of learning students do not have access to proper accommodation, food and shelter. Room which once housed one student at KNUST officially houses four students and that is when a student is lucky to have his name shortlisted by the authorities.

This is state of our universities and the little I say about our Polytechnics and secondary schools the better.

And who do we blame other than NDC and NPP governments that have received billions of dollars in loans, grants and taxes and yet cannot invest some of it to develop and transform it into our education sector. Nothing get discussed in the country without NPP and NDC die-hards injecting politics into it and Ghana has paid a huge price as a result of that. Our higher institutions found themselves in this bad situation because for decades the NDC and NPP have been talking left while walking right playing politics with anything that matter to the nation.

The streets of Accra, Kumasi and other major cities in the country are swarmed with children selling ice water, bread, chewing gums and anything that can be hawked. Children head potters are visible every where in Kumasi, Accra, Tema and Koforidua, a clear manifestation of the misery and hopelessness that the NDC and NPP have brought to Ghanaians. These are the children who are supposed to be in the classroom and be trained as future leaders but have to abandon the classroom and scavenge for food because the NPP and NDC do not care about them.

When they drive in their expensive tax-payers' Land Cruisers do the NPP and NDC MPs, ministers, Vice Presidents, the Presidents and their advisors see the children who live, sell, and are taught by the street in Accra, Kumasi, Tema, Takoradi and Koforidua?

Do you know why NDC and NPP keep toying with Ghana's education? Because they want to keep the people in darkness so no one will rise up to challenge their corrupt and useless administrations. Ask the President or his vice or their ministers where their children are schooling now and you will understand why they don't give a damn about SHS, Poly or University education. Their children are schooling in expensive universities in Europe and North America. And as to how they pay for those expensive fees your guess will be as good as mine.

When their children finish their education overseas they stay there and work. They only return to Ghana when there are big contracts where they would make millions of dollars for staying away and doing nothing for the nation, and what do the poor Ghanaians who could not travel to study outside and had to pass through God knows what get? Nothing - no contract, no retirement packages, just poverty.

Our research institutions have achieved very little because they are underfunded and the researchers do not have the expertise and the facilities to carry out any meaningful research. A case in point is Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) located at New Tafo in the Eastern Region. Despite decades of its existence we still export raw cocoa beans for peanuts. No value has been added to the cocoa. CRIG has not been able to come up with other ways in which to use the beans to benefit Ghanaians despite the mounting evidence that the beans have several potential uses.

Have you visited Korle Bu or Komfo Anokye or any of our hospitals lately? Didn't you see patients lying on the floor even though they are sick and are suppose to be receiving care? If Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye hospitals are crying for resources then you can imagine the situation at Donkokrom. And where is the NDC and NPP that you want to die for or support so blindly? Where in Ghana are mosquitoes not widespread? Are we not still dying from mosquito bites and other minor and preventable diseases? Despite NDC and NPP pledges, our hospitals are without the basic essentials needed to run a hospital not to mention the advanced technologies that save millions of lives in Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Europe, Japan and America. And NDC and NPP what are they doing? According to peacefmonline "888 out of every 100,000 pregnant women in Ghana who visit the hospital, end up dying. Another expert, whose statistics were even more frightening said, out of every 1,000 pregnant women about 451 die". Source: peacefmonline.com, Thursday, 23 July 2009.

How about the state of the housing infrastructure? A visit to any village or town gives the same picture of poor housing and poor quality of public service. People are living in mud/thatched houses with bamboo/raffia leafs as roofing sheet with no electricity, potable water and clinics. They live in a subsistence environment without social security, health insurance and are condemned to poverty, desperation and hopelessness. Those living in urban areas are without jobs, without mortgage, and face high utility bills with poor public services. They face constant barrage of water and energy disruptions everyday. In every region the situation is not different. Go to Nima, Agbogloshie, New Town, James Town, Sodom & Gomorrah and see the kind of living conditions and environment in which fellow Ghanaians are living in this 21st Century. People are living in squalid conditions not even fit for animals yet we have NDC and NPP always promising to build us castles, swimming pools and what have you.

The problems of waste management in the cities and the associated health effect on the people need no telling. Accra and Kumasi Metropolitan authorities and other city authorities are struggling with waste management issues due to lack of vehicles, waste treatment plants and inadequate personnel capacity. Sewerage in the country is almost non-existent, with only a portion of Accra, Tema, Kumasi and few regional capitals enjoying piped sewerage services. There is no centralized wastewater treatment system in most of the cities and households and commercial premises generally have no onsite flush latrines. Within Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tema and most of the cities and towns solid waste is unhygienically burned, disposed; and indiscriminate dumping of waste is creating health problems. There are few cities and towns with reliable piped water supply. Many residence of Accra do not have access to good drinking water and many households have to resort to extreme measures to be able to cope. In short the infrastructures to deliver water to the people do not exist courtesy NPP and NDC.

Majority of the people in Teshie and Nungua have no access to toilet facilities and have to use the coast as places of convenience and even in those places where there are few toilet facilities you could hardly stand the stench. Please you can verify this by going to where Dutch Hotel is situated at Nungua and witness how people troop to the coast in the morning to attend nature's call. On the other hand the NDC and NPP MPs, ministers, vice president, the president, their cronies and families live in total luxury with mansions, sport utility vehicles, bodyguards, fat salaries, fat bonuses, house servants and they have all the resources of the state at their disposal. When they leave office they propose special emolument packages for themselves yet they claim to be serving the poor. How can it be?

I can continue all day but it is a fact that both the NDC and NPP are bunches of hungry politicians with no concrete economic and social agenda to move Ghana beyond the level of importing used computers, used cars, used televisions, used underwear and any used thing you can think of. What are all these telling you about Ghana, the NPP, and the NDC? Do we have any option not to vote for them in 2012? Why should Ghanaians continue to die and suffer for such people who only think about their stomach? These leaders and their parties always play on the ignorance of the people promising them heaven but failing to even provide them earth. Until we have leaders who have vision like Dr. Nkrumah and are committed to industrialise Ghana beyond agro raw material production and export, Ghana will continue to be classified as a developing and poor country and even though we will continue to vote we will continue to wallow in abject poverty as we have always done.

I want to urge every Ghanaian to seek education and knowledge which I believe will help us to question our leaders and demand accountability from them. I also want to challenge the various TV and radio stations to devote money and resources to embark on documentaries on what it really means to live in poverty in Ghana under the NPP and NDC, documentaries and programmes that will show Ghanaians the living conditions of the people in rural areas and expose the lies of the NDC and NPP. And to the parasitic NDC and NPP I say 52 years is enough for us to see real development in the country.

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Ghanaians Should Call for Ex-gratia to be scrapped

By Lord Aikins Adusei

When Kuffour left office he requested for six cars, two houses, a luxury holiday package, a lifelong health package and security among other things. Rawlings is alleged to have retired with thirteen cars and a mansion at Ridge. He also has his own mansion at Adigyina a suburb of Accra. And there are allegations that he owns a mansion at Akosombo. Rawlings has not come out to deny or confirm these allegations. The argument was that in order to prevent our leaders from becoming corrupt they must be given a luxury package so as to prevent them from being corrupted. While this argument is sound and makes a lot of sense I still believe that the present economic and social conditions in Ghana, the high levels of poverty in the country, the many corruption scandals involving ex-presidents and their ministers and the fat salaries, bonuses and per diems that they receive while in government warrant that we stop paying ex-gratia to them.

The fact is that for the number of years that they serve as presidents, ministers and MPs these people do not pay taxes, do not pay rent, electricity, transportation, healthcare, clothing and security. On top of all these they enjoy a very handsome pay with huge bonuses and per diems. All these in the name of serving Ghana, but very few people will dispute that farmers, masons, teachers, lawyers, carpenters, nurses and the kenkey sellers who have to endure mosquito bites selling kenkey at Circle, Dansoman, Achimota, Asafo Market, Adum and in deed in many other places around the country, all serve our dear country, pay taxes and yet do not enjoy any of the benefits the former presidents and their ministers enjoy while and after they leave office. These poor tax payers never get one-tenth of the emoluments enjoyed by these pay-no-taxes and care free leaders.

Why should the poor kenkey seller after footing all the bills for the president and his ministers while they are in office should continue to shoulder them when they leave office after all these benefits? What do the ex-presidents spend the salaries and bonuses and per diems that they receive on when they do not pay for anything? How can’t they save it to cater for themselves when they leave office? It is common sense to save or invest your money if all your needs are taken care of by the state while you are receiving income and not paying taxes. The ex-presidents and their ministers ought to save the money they receive as salaries, bonuses, per diems for their own upkeep when they are no more in government. If they fail to save these huge salaries, bonuses and per diems to take care of themselves when they leave office, should the poor carpenters and cocoa farmers continue to pay for their lack of common sense and poor judgement to save towards retirement?

To ask the poor Ghanaian farmers who have no access to electricity, toilet facilities and whose children attend classes under trees to continue to shoulder the burden of Rawlings, Kuffour and their ministers is not only a crime against the people of Ghana but it is also a sin against humanity. How can Rawlings and Kuffour and their ministers including the MPs justify the six and thirteen cars they want or took away when the ordinary Ghanaian cannot afford a cup of rice?

The argument that these so called leaders would steal from us if we do not give them proper emoluments does not hold water in the people’s court. If Kuffour deserves six cars and two houses after serving just eight years as president then what about the teacher at Forifori near Donkokrom who has taught for twenty-five years and yet will retire with money that cannot buy a bag of cement? Are those teachers not Ghanaians too? What makes Rawlings, Kuffour and their ministers so special? Is it because they lied their way into power, sold national assets and accounted to no one?

I still demand to know why Rawlings, Kuffour, their ministers and the MPs deserve millions of cedis after just four years in office while nurses have to walk to work everyday under the Ghanaian scotching heat. Is this what Rawlings call justice and is this what Kuffour and his ministers call development?

And who says they do not steal from the people after years of receiving fat tax-free salaries and bonuses? Ghanaians are beginning to come to terms with the monumental corruption that took place under Rawlings regime and we will not be surprised if in future similar allegations are made against Kuffour or his ministers. The Mabey and Johnson corruption scandal which took place under the nose of Rawlings is just the tip of an iceberg. Ghanaians have still not digested fully the true horrors of the scandal. These corrupt ministers accepted bribes from the company they were obliged by law to supervise, and then allowed this corrupt company to over price the cost of the poor bridges that they built and then asked the kenkey sellers and the cocoa farmers to pay for the high cost. On top of this they are paid ex-gratia because they were former ministers, does this make sense? Where on earth other than Ghana can this be done by people who preach equality, accountability, probity and justice?

In 2007 Scancem a Norwegian cement company admitted in court that its officials paid Rawlings, P. V. Obeng and their associates a sum close to four million US dollars. When Rawlings was confronted with the allegations his only childish response was that he could not hire lawyers to sue the paper that broke the news even though he had friends who could afford to buy him armoured plated Jaguars and Land Cruisers. Ghanaians were paying close to one hundred thousand old Ghana cedis for a bag of cement because Rawlings and his cronies were paid close to four million US dollars by that corrupt Norwegian cement firm that had monopoly in cement production in Ghana. Through the monopoly which it bought from Rawlings and P.V. Obeng the company was able to fix prices at will hence the near doubling of cement prices under Rawlings regime. These corrupt people who masquerade as leaders of Ghana were paid four million dollars; on top of it we pay millions of cedis to them as ex-gratia every year. Why do we have to commit this crime against ourselves? I mean paying these corrupt people ex-gratia on top of what they have received as bribes and have looted from us is a crime that we do not need to commit against ourselves.

Many supporters of Kuffour were pissed off when Mo Ibrahim decided not to award the five million dollars good governance award to Kuffour. But how could anyone in his right mind give five million dollars to a person who has sold valuable national assets for peanut and whose government is tainted with bribery and corruption allegations? The award is about good governance and Kuffour’s administration has no clean record when it comes to fighting bribery and corruption at least Kwame Pianim did not see him or his ministers rejecting brown envelopes did he? Have Ghanaians forgotten so soon about Dr. Richard Anane who used state resources to finance his infidelity and yet was protected by Kuffour? It would have been the mistake for the decade if Kuffour had been awarded the Mo Ibrahim award.

Is Ebenezer Sekyi Hughes former speaker of Parliament not alleged to have carried soft furniture and other stuffs that belong to the state to his house when he was leaving office?

Let us all ask ourselves who now owns the companies that were sold at cheap prices by these leaders and where did the proceeds go? I am talking about Ghana Telecom; I am talking about GIHOC and those Ghanaian assets built by Nkrumah and sold at auction prices by these leaders even though they were supposed to manage them on behalf of the people? Have Ghanaians forgotten the Hotel Kuffour Saga? Have Ghanaians forgotten the Nsawam Food Cannery that was sold to the Rawlingses at no cost? And who are behind the companies that are often given big government contracts? Is it not these same leaders who milked the state while in office and who did not pay taxes on their incomes? Why do we have to pamper them after they had amassed wealth, mismanaged state resources at the expense of the people? Why do we have to treat them as kings when in our rural folks continue to live in houses built with mud and roofed with raffia leaves?

Since they left office Rawlings and Kuffour have been everywhere in the world, attending conferences, delivering long speeches and acting as if Ghanaians live in paradise. Both of them have been acting as if they are competing with each other for international assignments while Ghana remains poor, but I hope that the poor tomato farmers at Mampong Akrofonso, Bomeng, Oyoko and Effiduase in Ashanti region are not the very people footing the bills. Sometimes I find it difficult to comprehend how these so called leaders think they deserve better than Ghanaians and always want to take Ghanaians for fools.

Should our ex-presidents continue to be treated as if they are still in office? How can’t they use the enormous knowledge they acquire while in office to provide consultancy services and earn income for themselves instead on wasting it to tear down each other tear down Mills government and sowing the seed of hatred all over the country? Look at the number of hours, days and years that Rawlings has spent since he left office criticising first Kuffour and now Mills. Instead of using his reach knowledge in the annals of security to provide consultancy services to governments and institutions across Africa and around the world for fees Rawlings prefers to engage in politics of nowhere because Ghanaians will still pay for his bills in the name of ex-gratia. Rawlings and Kuffour won’t do anything that will bring them income because the poor kenkey sellers could be taxed and the proceeds used to provide for them and their families. Is it not absurd for the people who are poor and unable to support themselves to continue to fund the lifestyle of the rich and more able? I mean does it make economic sense for the poor gari seller at Aflao to pay Rawlings and Kuffour’s hospital and hotel bills when she cannot send her children to school?

Ex-President Clinton of United States makes tens of millions of dollars by speaking in forums, delivering speeches and many more. Tony Blair also makes a lot of money by doing the same. President Jimmy Carter of US is known the world over for his activism and receives financial support for that and hardly comments on political issues in America. But come to Ghana and everyday we have Rawlings telling Mills what he should do as president. Instead of establishing a consultancy firm where Mills’ government could go for consultation and pay a fee, Rawlings won’t do it because the poor Ghanaians are not fed up yet paying for his opulence lifestyle. It is absolutely inhumane for the poor to be asked to continue to support the rich in the way we have been doing for the last couple of years, and this is why I call on all true meaning Ghanaians to begin to question some of these practices which are of national importance. Ghana is not rich enough to waste money on these people who have sold our assets, milked our economy, awarded contracts to themselves and their cronies, accepted brown envelopes full of bribe money and accounted to no one. Nobody in Ghana can say Rawlings was not corrupt. He has been allowed to go with his loots because we wanted peace but I do not think we should pay another price in terms of ex-gratia to him and his corrupt ministers whose corrupt life is now in the public domain courtesy Britain’s Serious Fraud Office.

If we give so much to ex-presidents and ministers and MPs then how about the rural farmers who toil all their life and still die in poverty without social security and healthcare? How about the hundreds of thousands of children who are condemned to poverty and desperation and who are being raised in the street, taught in the street, lived in the street and protected by the street, abandoned by those who are now claiming ex-gratia for ignoring the plight of these unfortunate ones? For Christ’s sake these leaders do not deserve any ex-gratia, the money should better be spent to help the street children in Accra, Kumasi, Ho, Koforidua, Tema, Tamale, Sunyani and Takoradi who have no future or hope except selling ice water, sugar cane and bread. Are these children not Ghanaians too and don’t they deserve a better deal than they have been offered by these corrupt, self serving, visionless leaders?

What at all justifies such emoluments for these insatiable politicians? I mean what did Rawlings, Kuffour and their ministers do so remarkably to deserve the fat ex-gratia payments? Is it their 8 years of inaction and dithering? Is it the economic mismanagement that we have seen in the last 27 years under the NDC and NPP? Any Average Ghanaian can of course do what Kuffour and Rawlings spent 8 years and 19 years respectively doing for Ghana because after 27 years of their reign the railway sector is still collapsed, energy crisis is still with us, fishermen still find it difficult to get premix fuel, we still export cocoa beans for peanuts, our farmers still use cutlasses and hoes to farm and they still depend on nature to plant their crops with no access to tractors and irrigation facilities. The farmers lack storage facilities and are at the mercy of aid agencies. So on what basis are we paying the ex-gratia, is it a reward for the failures, mismanagement and corruption? Or is a reward for the misery, deprivation, hopelessness, hunger and abject poverty written everywhere in the country? Is it a reward for the poor state of our social and economic infrastructures: roads, bridges, energy, railway, harbours, telecommunication, health, education, harbour, market and airports? Or it is a reward for our export sector which still consists of agro raw material with little or no added value? Is it a reward for the unemployment problem that has been growing from bad to worse? Or is a reward for our rural areas which remain inaccessible during the rainy season? Or is a reward for the importation of used cars, used computers, used pants and braziers and anything used that characterised the administration of Kuffour and Rawlings? Officially in Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology as it is in the rest of our universities four first year university students sleep in rooms meant for a student and this is when students are lucky to have their names short listed by the authorities, so what are we paying ex-gratia to ex-ministers of education for when students are living and learning in 18^th century conditions? Who at all cannot mismanage an economy in this way?

Instead of burying their heads in shame for failing the people they still have the audacity to ask the poor people to provide them with 17 and 6 cars and to finance their extravagant lifestyles. While they claim the nation is poor they want the poor teachers, nurses, technicians and fishermen to build mansions for them because they are special If any of the politicians believe they deserve ESBs he should ask the ordinary man on the street who may not know where the next meal might come from whether

The answer to the question that they will steal if we don't give them ESBs is that we need to establish strong institutions that will check corruption and imprison them if they attempt to do so. This is exactly what we need: institutions like Electoral Commission that will be fair, open-minded, and objective. Strong and independence police force that has allegiance to the state and not individuals and political parties. Strong and independent public prosecuting body and independent judiciary that adhere to the tenets of our laws. We can follow the examples of Botswana and Malawi by putting corrupt former presidents behind bars; give them and their ministers long jail terms to serve as deterrent to would be corrupt officials. Seize the assets they obtain by fraudulent and dishonest means and give them to the state. With that their children and friends will be careful not to touch state resources if they ever get into government.

I will like to rest my case here but the fact still remains that Rawlings, Kuffour, their ministers and the MPs do not deserve the ESBs that they have been receiving for years. Therefore the aspect of our constitution that makes it possible for ex-presidents, their minister and MPs to claim ex-gratia on our souls should be repealed. The ex-gratia was inserted into the constitution to make it possible for Rawlings and his ministers to continue to enjoy from our sweat even though they have not sowed. The whole ex-gratia and ESB or whatever must be scrapped. It does not serve the interest of Ghanaians. It only serves a few unscrupulous individuals who after milking the nation still want to make fools out of us. We are not dumb as they will want us to believe. We are human beings like them who also deserve to live in comfortable environment with houses, cars and means to take care of our families. Since they have failed to provide the conditions for us to live beyond less than two dollars a day they do not deserve to be given any payment or whatsoever whether small or large.

Political Corruption in Ghana: Who is Who?

When they were in opposition the National Democratic Congress [NDC] constantly accused the New Patriotic Party [NPP] of being corrupt and the accusation continued when President Mills government took office. Recently in Germany the founder of NDC in the person of Jerry John Rawlings is alleged to have called Kuffour a thieve in the presence of other African former heads of state. The NPP has been accused by the NDC for appropriating millions of dollars during the celebration of Ghana@50. The NPP has also been accused by its rival for making "profits" from the building of the Jubilee House built to house the presidency. The allegation has forced President Mills to delay moving into House.

The allegations against the NPP seem to go on by the day with P.C. Appiah Ofori a member of the NPP going public to accuse Members of Parliament belonging to the NPP. He accused them of receiving $5000 each during the sale of Ghana Telecom in which they were asked to vote to support the motion.

NDC also points out the loan secured by the son of former president Chief Kuffour could only have been granted due to his relationship with the father.

Again the NDC members say Dr. Richard Anane's corruption saga in which he was investigated and exonerated points to a deep seated corruption practices in the NPP.

NDC officials further stress that the investigation of Asamoah Boateng over award of contracts in his ministry is a clear manisfestation of what the NPP is best noted for. The arrest of former foreign minister Kwasi Osei-Adjei is another attestation of deep seated corruption in the former ruling party, NDC gurus claim.

Pointing to the 25,000 dollars registration fee paid by each of the 17 presidential candidates who contested for the flagbearership of the party as nothing more than looted public money, NDC officials say the $25,000 could only have come from illegal source and probably from the state coffers.

The NPP on the other hand has hit back and countered the NDC's accusations by pointing to the massive corruption scandals that marked the 11 years of PNDC and 8 years of NDC rule. They point to recent revelations that suggest the NDC transition team spent a whopping 3.61 billion cedis on tea and water within just two months after taking office. In I told you so style members of the NPP say NDC is only a reflection of an advanced cancer that cannot be cured. They point to recent media report that the NDC spent one million new Ghana cedis (about 10 billion old Ghana cedis) during President Obama's visit and questioned how the NDC could spend such amount in just under 24 hours.

The NPP spokespersons further point to a court ruling in Southwark Crown Court, London, United Kingdom in which a family company called Mabey & Johnson of UK admitted paying over four hundred and seventy thousand pounds in bribes to NDC officials in exchange for bridge contracts. It was revealed that the said corruption took place between 1994 and 1999 at a time when the current President of the Republic of Ghana President John Atta Mills was vice the president with Rawlings as president. They claim that the ruling is not only embarassing to the ruling government but also a dent on the image of Ghana as country. Kingpins of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government including Dr Sipa Yankey, Mr Kwame Peprah, Amadu Seidu and Dr Ato Quarshie were mentioned as having received bribes from the company.

The sum of money they received are as follows:
Ato Qarshie (former roads minister) £55,000
Amadu Seidu [former deputy roads minister £10,000
Edward Lord-Attivor (chairman inter-city transport corp) £10,000
Dr George Sepah-Yankey (health minister) £15,000

Boniface Sadique 40 thousand pounds

The NPP kinpins say the ruling proofs that the Fast Track High Court was right in jailing Dr Yankey and Mr Kwame Peprah who were convicted in the Quality Grain scandal, in which over $20million was paid to an American lady for the cultivation of rice at Aveyime in the Volta region. One NPP guru quoting from the Statesman said: "Former President Rawlings has always used the slightest opportunity to preach the virtues of instilling probity, accountability, integrity and ethics into Ghanaian politics. But this case of a British Company A little-known family who became one of the richest in Britain - accused of making excessive profits, by building what their critics call "bridges to nowhere", charged with corruptly influencing Ghanaian politicians and officials between 1994 and 1999 to gain bridge building contracts in Ghana, is a sudden twist of events". The NPP guru concludes that the case has destroyed the little political capital that the NDC had.

Another NPP activist also quoted from another paper saying: "The history of bribery among NDC officials is legendary. In 2002, the former Managing Director of Ghana Rubber Estates Limited (GREL), Mr. Etienne Arthur Marie Popeler told an Accra Fast Track Court that he gave monies to Dan Abodakpi, the former Minister of Trade and Industry, Sherry Ayittey, Treasurer of the 31st December Women’s Movement and Mr. Emmanuel A. Agbodo, (former Executive Secretary) of the Divesture Implementation Committee (DIC) under the previous NDC Administration to influence the divestiture of GREL". The 51-year old Belgian said he paid $1 million bribe to the 31st December Women’s Movement (31st DWM), an NGO run by Rawlings’ wife, for his French company SIPH to secure GREL. Sherry Ayitey is back under the Mills-administration as Minister for Environment and Science.

NPP officials also point to revelations in Nigeria and Ghanaian newspapers that the Governor of Rivers State of Nigeria Mr. Rotimi Amaechi paid $3.5 million to ex-President Rawlings which was used to bankroll NDC's 2008 election campaign that brought them victory.

NPP supporters and officials contend that the NDC especially Rawlings and Asiedu Nketia are like a pot calling the kettle black and point to recent information in public domain that Mahama Ayariga the spokesperson for President Mills has illegally acquired five tractors meant for poor Ghanaian farmers. NPP officials say Ayariga took five tractors meant for underprivileged farmers and paid for only one whose price was further reduced for him.

The NPP officials say the NDC top brass should shut their buccal cavity because they have no moral right to accuse its members of corruption. Members of NPP claim that NDC shady deals are everywhere for all Ghanaians to see and say the trial of Scancem officials in Norway in 2007 in which they revealed that they paid millions of dollars to Jerry Rawlings and his wife through Unibank account in Luxemburg and Barclays bank account in Geneva, Switzerland show the extent in which corruption has become part and parcel of NDC leadership.

Some NPP bigwigs claim corruption is really in the DNA of NDC and they point to the revealation by the former director of Biwater Company in the UK that he paid 7000 pounds per child per term for Rawlings' children who went to study in the UK.

NPP members have further accused Muntaka of using his office as a charity home for his family buying pampas, khebab and travelling around with his girl friend at the cost of the Ghanaian tax payer. They point to Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak as the living proof and the real embodiment of NDC corruption in the current Mills administration.

NPP diehards further point to the bribery and corruption scandal hit the Rawlings administration in 1995/96 when CHRAJ conducted investigations into allegations of corruption and illegal acquisition of assets made against four ministers of state and some senior government officials. The case involved Col E.M Osei-Owusu (Rtd), a former Minister of the Interior; P.V. Obeng, Presidential Staffer, Ibrahim Adam, Minister for Agriculture and two others from the Agriculture Ministry and Adjei Marfo, Chief executive officer of a state owned company. NPP continues that the adverse findings made by the Commission against three of the officials and the infamous white issued by the Rawlings administration to cover up the malfeasance can only happen within the NDC and nowhere else.

NPP says corruption allegation levelled at current Foreign Minister Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni is only a tip of a herculian problem and a practice which is so common in the NDC that no one in the party has the moral courage to speak against it. NPP says an audit report from the Auditor General's office implicating Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni in financial malfeasance and wrong-doing makes the NDC and the government of Fiifi Mills a laughing stock in the international community especially when it comes to negotiations in financial matters.

The party says a speech by the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka during the second anniversary lecture in memory of the late nationalist, Chief Michael Adekunle Ajasin in Akure, Ondo State, in which he said: "I challenge President Olusegun Obasanjo to use his anti-corruption crusade in repatriating our monies looted by the military regimes and the $5 million money given to President Rawlings who joined hands with General Abacha in embracing the culture of corruption which has tainted Nigeria as a nation" is not only an indictment on the persoanlity, integrity and everything Rawlings and the NDC stand for or have stood for but is also an indelible mark that can never be erased and will go down in history as one of the most bastardly and disgraceful act ever committed by a sitting head of state of the Republic of Ghana.
NPP says the sudden and unexplained sacking of Victor Smith by Rawlings using a text message can only be explained by money that Smith did not allow Rawlings to receive from a Nigerian financier. During the last Ghana election, Rawlings got upset because Victor Smith directed a Nigeria financier who wanted to give money to Rawlings for NDC campaigns, but Victor Smith told the Nigerian to give it to the Mills campaign team. This made Rawlings to fire Smith by text message, telling him to seek employment at the Mills campaign team.

NPP says the millions of cedis that were found in the bedroom of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice of NDC in the person of Dr. Obed Asamoah only point to "the help yourself" government that existed before the NPP took over in 2000.

And as if that all these were not enough Nana Ohene-Ntow, the General Secretary of the NPP in a hot exchange with Kofi Adams has called on Jerry Rawlings t(he founder and a key member of NDC), to come clean if he is not corrupt. Nana Ohene-Ntow told Adams who doubles as the spokesperson for Rawlings and NDC Deputy Youth Organiser, "he [Rawlings] should tell Ghanaians how he got money to build his mansion at Agyirigannon, how he financed his children's fees abroad, and those who provided him the 4 wheel drive vehicles.If he fails to provide the hard facts, he should desist from disturbing the peace of this country".

With no ending sight to accusations and counter accusations of corruption in Ghana it is only Ghanaians who can say which party is the most corrupt in Ghana. Have your say.

By Lord Aikins Adusei