SAVANNAH REGIONAL NDC COMMUNICATION BUREAU ENDORSES THE CANDIDATURE OF MALIK BASINTALE FOR THE POSITION OF DEPUTY NATIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER

 The Savannah Regional NDC Communication Bureau has endorsed the candidature of Malik Basintale for the position of the Deputy National Communication Officer of the party. A statement signed by all 7 constituency communication officers and issued by the regional communication officer, Mr RA Jalil and his Deputy, Mr Abu Hassan Mahama. on 20th November, outlined very cogent reasons for their endorsement. Before his decision to run for the run for a national officer, he served diligently first, as a Deputy Communication Officer for the then Northern Region and moved to the newly created Savannah as a substantive Communication Officer in 2019. Find below the press release issued by the communication bureau:

Press Release 

For immediate Release 

20-11-2022 

*NDC- SAVANNAH REGIONAL COMMUNICATION BUREAU THANK MALIK BASINTALE FOR HIS REMARKABLE SERVICE TO THE PARTY AND ENDORSE HIM FOR THE DEPUTY NATIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICER PORTFOLIO.*

In a unanimous decision taken from the branches to the regional communication front of the party in the Savannah region, we have resolved to reward our immediate past regional Communication Officer,  Malik Basintale by endorsing him openly for the position of the deputy national communication officer portfolio.

I, R.A Jalil, Regional Communication Officer, my Deputy Abu Hassan Mahama and the entire  constituency communication officers across the region arrived at this decision due to the hardwork, progressive performance and relentless efforts Comrade Basintale put up in ensuring the success of the communication machinery in the Savannah region and beyond.

We have taken notice of some co- contender(s) of his, spreading fake news about he being rejected at the regional level and for that matter his decision to contest at the national level.

We find this unfortunate and wish to advise such characters to focus on sharing their policies and explaining what they have done to deserve their positions instead of attacking other persons by way of their campaign message.

Comrade Malik Basintale has gone through the mill and has performed creditably well from his days as the deputy communication officer for the Northern region and subsequently the substantive Communication officer for the Savannah Region.

His outstanding communication, Interpersonal, respectful and dynamic leadership skills have brought him this far and as a region we believe he will make a great Deputy National  Communication Officer to the indefatigable Lawyer Sammy Gyamfi.

His fearless, bold and decisive nature leaves us with no doubt that he will make the party proud in that position and having worked closely with Lawyer Sammy Gyamfi already, we believe he will make a good deputy towards ensuring a balanced communication front.

We wish him well as he tours the nation and may the spirits of Ndewura-Jakpa continue to guide him through the power of the almighty.

God be with you our proud boss Basintale.

*Signed:*

1. *R.A Jalil* 

*Regional Communication Officer.*

*0240998279*

2. *Abu Mahama Hassan*

*Dep. Regional Comm. Officer*

*0242313653*

3. *Yahaya Mumuni*

*Damongo Communication Officer*

*0241279158*

4. *Alidu Abdul-Aziz*

*Yapei/Kusawgu Comm Officer*

*0249989408*

5. *Dramani Bashiru Amantana*

*Bole/Bamboi Comm. Officer*

*0240300046*

6. *Sidik Jabaru John*

*Daboya/Mankarigu Comm. Officer*

*0245246410*

7. *Issah Iddrisu*

*Salaga North Comm. Officer*

*0242686810*

8. *Ebaltey John*

*Sawla-Tuna-Kalba Comm. Officer*

*0240122435*

9. *Yussif Muftawu Hairat*

*Salaga South Sec./ Act. Comm. Officer 0246514036* 

WORLD VISION EU LEAN PROJECT SUPPORTS LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT BOARDS (LMBs) TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 12TH ANNUAL PRE-HARVEST AGRIBUSINESS CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

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Bunyanso Farms Limited, a private sector player in the World Vision EU LEAN project, participated in the Pre-harvest Agribusiness and exhibition conference held in the Alhaji Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale, from 25th-27th October, 2022. The conference among others sought to transform agriculture in Northern Ghana and provide long term market development opportunities for less privileged farmers within the project zone (ie West Gonja Municipal and Kassena- Nankana West District). 

The Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN), is a 4-year project funded by the European Union, with an overall objective of ensuring the conservation of the biodiversity; of building climate resilience; to improve livelihoods of small-scale farmers and to ultimately reduce emissions from land-use changes across Ghana. As part of the architecture to execute this project, three projects landscapes have been earmarked across Ghana with three lead organizations to serve as the special purpose vehicles in the execution. The following are the three project landscapes and their respective lead organizations:

1. High Forest Zone which covers the Western North Region is led by Rainforest Alliance as the lead organization. 

2. Guinea and Sudan Savannah Ecological Zones covers Savannah region and Upper East region with World Vision Ghana as the lead organizations, and

3. Forest-Savannah transition zone, which covers Ashanti and Bono East regions and is being led by Tropenbos Ghana and Ecocare Ghana. 

The World Vision EU LEAN project, sponsored the participation of Bunyanso Farms Limited, the West Gonja Landscape Management Board and the Kassena- Nankana West Landscape Management Board in this year’s pre-harvest conference, as part of its core objective to improve livelihoods of small-scale farmers. The three days pre-harvest conference offered participants including Bunyanso Farms Limited, a private sector player, a platform to participate in the conference and exhibition of their products. The theme of the conference was, “connecting the unconnected; the farmer-the market and the buyer.” 

The pre-harvest conference was initiated under the Phase 1 of the USAID’s ADVANCE project in 2011 as a market linkage activity for farmers and buyers. This year’s conference at the Alhaji Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium, offered smallholder farmers and other actors across the agricultural market, to among others build their capacity, networking and building business relationships among farmer-based organizations, and offered an expanded market base to exhibit and market their products. This annual pre-harvest event has grown over the years to become a leading market linkage platform in Ghana and has indeed, achieved its overall objective of creating markets and linking farmers to buyers. Agrihouse Foundation is the executing agency with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, USAID and Northern Development Authority as partners. 

The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Bunyanso Farms Limited, who also doubles as the General Secretary of West Gonja Landscapes Management Board of World Vision EU LEAN project, Mr Sumani Iddrisu, led 17 participants from the Guinea and Sudan Savannah Ecological Zone, thus—Savannah Region and Upper East Region, to this year’s conference and exhibition. Two (2) of the participants were from Kassena - Nankana West Landscape Management Board while fifteen (15) from the West Gonja Landscape Management Board and Bunyanso Farms beneficiaries of the project. Among the products exhibited by these participants included: Shea butter processors, beekeeping, cashew, Soyabean, chilly pepper, Onions and sheanuts farmers exhibitors, . The World Vision EU LEAN project has pledged to sponsor Bunyanso Farms Limited to participate in the annual pre-harvest conference up to 2024. 

There have been enormous impact that the participants have testified to. Among which are:

1. As smallholder farmers and value chain actors, the capacity building sessions and practical field demonstrations, have impacted enormously on the skills set, new production techniques to improve farm yields, value-addition on products and new technologies for future exploitation.

2. The pre-harvest conference also created a bigger platform for participants to also exhibit and market their farm produce, sign business deals and build networks that will engineer sustainable development within the value chain.

3. The farmer-to-farmer apprenticeship program offered participants an opportunity to have an interface with experts on the field and to learn about the use of farm equipment and machinery, the use of which will improve on their productivity and expand their market base. 

The 3-days event was programmed as follows:

Day 1: Opening ceremony and commodity breakout sessions. This saw various speakers and actors speaking on various topics and others allied activities.  

Day 2: Capacity building sessions and farmer-to-farmer apprenticeship with program. This also saw the exhibition of various products, also farmer-buyer matchmaking sessions, apprenticeship sessions among others.

Day 3: Call to action and closing ceremony. This session created a platform for panel discussions among key players like Yara Ghana, GIZ MOAP NW/REACH and other traditional and political actors within the Tamale Metropolis. This sessions also aggregated all topics discussed and sets out a learning curve and a road map for stakeholders and players within the sector to get the unconnected to connected. 

The 17 Participants who represented the West Gonja Landscape Management Board, the Kassena- Nankana West Management Board and Bunyanso Farms Limited were given certificates of participation at the end of the third day.

JOYCE BAWAH MOGTARI: A “SINGBUNWURCHE” IN A BARRISTER’S WIG.

 By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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The name Joyce Bawah Mogbori, sparks different rays of personalities to different people from different backgrounds. To those in the Maritime industry, she’s an experienced and an all-round solicitor, who can mediate in maritime transport cases both locally and internationally. To the Ghana Shippers’ Council, she was the best Solicitor Secretary the council ever had. To her colleagues who were called to the Bar in 2000, she’s a fearless Barrister. To her political compatriots, she’s the aide to Former President Mahama, a versatile and effective communicator; but to us in Gonjaland, she’s our “Wandiga”, our “Lanka” and our Sungbunwurche in future if the crown falls on her head and she decides to wear it. 

Born into one of the gates (Singbun) from the Kpembe traditional area, the once KPMG consultant traces her lineage right to Kpembewura Shirifi Abudu Lanyor who fathered Yagbonwura Abudu Bawah Doshie, the paternal grandfather of Joyce Bawah Mogtari. 

Yagbonwura Bawah Doshie, a great King of Gonja, who lived up to 110 years (1900–2010), was the father of Hon. John Ewuntomah Bawah. The late John Ewuntomah Bawah (HIS EXCELLENCY), the father of Joyce B. Mogtari, was an Ambassador before his demise. He was one (1) out of the eleven (11) male children of Yagbonwura Bawah Doshie. 

Since the seat of the Gonja Kingdom was moved to Damongo, Yagbonwura Bawah Doshie was the second to have come from the Kpembe gate. Having waited for 16 years on the throne of Kpembe, the son of Ayishetu Naa Iddisah Dasana, ascended Yagbon in 1999, a year before his granddaughter, Joyce Bawah Mogtari Esq. was called to the Bar. He ruled the Gonja Kingdom for 11 years and passed to glory in his 110th year, 2010. 

So, when you see Joyce Bawah Mogtari Esq. speak that impeccable English on TV or on other platforms without blinking, be reminded that, she equally dances with two tails of a horse when Royals from the Gonja Kingdom are called. She’s a royal without scars; a royal with untainted appellation; she’s indeed a royal from a powerful gate in the Kpembe Tradtional Area (ie Singbun). 

If a child of this 21st Century came from such a background and with such support systems, she may just ride high above everyone else with an unusual pride. Yes, a granddaughter of a Singbunwura who was only warming up to take the throne of Kpembe in 1983 should be proud and walk with her chest out. A daughter of an Ambassador during the early years of the 4th Republic could have decided not to roll her sleeves, to get stressed in the lecture rooms of the International Maritime Institute in Malta, in order to win the best student award. She could just decide to call for services from the palace maids or from the political aides. After all, why stress when the next meal was a call away. 

Either of “Wandiga” or “Lanka, is her appellation. So, Joyce Bawah Mogtari is not just one of the beautiful women you find keeping herself in a gym, or a smiley Fellow of the USA—International Visitor Leadership Program, or a versatile expert for the admiralty court, or a cheerful philanthropist, she’s “Singbunwurche” in waiting; a queen mother who has a reserved seat in any palace in the Gonja Kingdom. 

Before the Barrister’s wig could fit her head in the year 2000, a royal crown was already in its rightful place. Before Wesley Girls Secondary could claim her as an old student, her identity was already carved from the almighty Kpembe. A great granddaughter of Kpembewura Abudu Lonyor, a granddaughter of Yagbonwura Bawah Doshie, a great great granddaughter of Naa Iddisah Dasana of Gmantambo Palace in Bimbila, Joyce Bawah Mogtari will always throw two tails of a lion while dancing, to signify royalty from all angles. 

When next you see Joyce Bawah Mogtari in her Barrister’s wig, just know that there is an invincible crown on her head on which the wig rests. Whenever you see her in her simple track suits on the hills of Aburi on weekends, see not only the track suits, but be reminded that she’s in an invincible royal regalia. When next you watch her speak with humility, don’t take that to mean the voice of a weak commoner, she’s a royal who could roar, but for her personality and her upbringing.

THE KNEELING AND BEGGING JOHN MAHAMA NEVER GOT FROM MR. KEN THOMPSON

 By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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I had mixed feelings when I watched a 61 year old Chartered Accountant, and the CEO of Dalex Finance and Leasing Company Ltd. Mr Kenneth Kwamina Thompson knelt in a live TV program to beg the President of Ghana, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, to fulfill his part of the bargain within the confines of the social contract he signed with the people of Ghana in 2021, January 7. After watching the Investment expert knelt on Umaru Sanda Amadu’s Face 2 Face program on Citi TV, I didn’t know whether to be angry, sad or disappointed. Although, at a point, I felt this gesture of Mr Ken Thompson was symbolic of a failed President, who has breached his part of the agreement with the people of Ghana, I still had a feeling that it equally demonstrates how weak our senior citizens have been rendered by the Nana Addo’s regime. 

What Thomas Hobbes and John Locke contemplated to be the desired outcome of their proposed social contract theory is not the case in Ghana today. What I learnt about this contract is a hypothetical agreement between the society (the people) and the state (the government), such that the former give up some of their powers and liberties to the latter to enforce agreed rules and to provide public goods in the process. 

Unfortunately, in our current situation in Ghana, the citizens as part of their bargain, act benevolently to pay their taxes, give power to the government, give up their liberties, remain calm and hopeful in a hopeless situation, while President Akufo-Addo on his side of the bargain remains egoists and solipsistic, garnished with some bloated sense of entitlement. How do you expect a stable social and political context with  this kind of arrangement? 

I can now feel why Akufo-Addo remains unshaken when he decided to unleash his cruelty in what he called “the banking sector clean up.” Indeed, I can now understand why Nana Addo has that sense of entitlement and can curse taxpayers for doing nothing wrong but demanding their fair share of the National cake. I can understand the reasons for the show of arrogance by the President and his family members who have hijacked the government machinery and captured the state. All these can happen because, the people who are supposed to speak true to power do not only lack the balls to do so, but feel obliged to keep pampering the President to sleep. 

All these people, who today are seen begging the President, are helplessly watching the Minister of Finance, the cousin of the President, with advice from his own company, Data Bank, engages in reckless borrowing, which has ultimately landed us into this economic ditch.  All these people who are now kneeling before the President, with some murmuring instead of shouting, I dare ask, will they have done same or did they do same under a Mahama government? Is Nana Addo a King Pharoah incarnate or he’s the President who begged us for our votes? 

President John Mahama did not get this low with his posturing and deliverables yet, he was attacked, disoriented, hounded and without a space for him to even let out his vision. In the midst of delivering one of the most ambitious infrastructure program, Mahama was called names, he was in fact, called out without hesitation and sometimes without any reasonable grounds. 

If there must be anybody kneeling and begging or apologizing, it has to be President Akufo-Addo and not citizens. The kneeling should obviously not come from senior citizens like Mr Ken Thompson, a 61 year old man. He should muster courage like KKD, like Mr Kwame Mpianim, like Nyaho Tamakloe, to call out the President otherwise, he should just go back to his shelves and leave us to suffer in solitude. I believe his company, Dalex Finance is equally suffering in this economic mess we find ourselves now. I don’t want to believe he doesn’t want his company to sink further hence, this kneeling and begging instead of shouting and taunting. Or he’s heeding the “money doesn’t like noise” call made by the President in his address delivered on Sunday, 30th October, 2022?  

What we, the young ones expect from Mr Thompson is not kneeling and begging the President but by joining us to demonstrate on the streets against this misrule. He should join us as one of the middle class as some did in 2014/15/16. He should be bold to join us cry real hard and call out the President. What is our crime as citizens? Even some tyrants are magnanimous and compassionate with their people, not to talk of a President who begged us to vote for him to come and change Ghana in 18 months. 

If there is anytime for Mr Ken Thompson to man up and stop begging the President in live TV programs, that time is now and not later. I watched him recalled how poverty befell Ghana in the 1970s and that he’s seen same about to befall Ghana under Akufo-Addo. Well, in the 1970s when it happened, the MEN then didn’t kneel to beg those Presidents, they instead took power from them by whatever means possible. President Akufo-Addo cannot be treated like a spoilt chap who cries over his spilt ice cream, he has to be treated like a failed President. The time is now or we all perish later.

I come in peace.

H.E JOHN MAHAMA NEEDED THE 3 SEATS LOST IN SAVANNAH REGION TO BE PRESIDENT IN 2020.

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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When H.E John Mahama lost in 2016, most of us were pained, disappointed and saw it as unfair…little did we know that his lost was a blessing in disguise. Although, some of us still maintained that the 2020 election was stolen by the NPP, the current happenings in Ghana show how blessed John Mahama was for that stolen verdict. They would have hanged the hollow economy on his head and crucify him for no wrong done. Even with this, I Still think that H.E John Mahama needed to win the election, maybe things would have been better. 

The Parliamentary results of 2020 is a clear testament that John Mahama and the NDC indeed, won the elections. For a party to move from 106 seats in 2016 to over 140 in 2020 is not a child’s play. 

The above revealed that the cheating wasn’t done with only padding and manipulating nominal presidential figures in the strong room, but largely done with the Parliamentary seats. The mistake of having to announce that the NDC had won 140 seats without waiting for same to be declared and concluded gave the NPP the opportunity to reset the system, used their parallel forces to maim innocent Ghanaians in the process of snatching seats like Techima South, Ayawaso Central, Essikado-Ketan and others to make up the current numbers they have in Parliament. 

Given the dynamics in Savannah region and the North at large, the NPP would not dare pull a gun in a constituency like Daboya-Mankarigu in an attempt to snatch the seat like they did in Techima South. So, if the NDC had won the Daboya-Mankarigu seat, no matter how small the margin will be, it was going to be sealed and nothing could have been done by the NPP. Same applies to Damongo and Salaga North. Except in a case where the NDC itself was ready to give the seats to the NPP like we indeed did. Be minded that in 2020, the issues in the strong room was no more about aggregate figures but number of seats. Any wonder, Jean Mensah waited until the issue of number of seats won by Nana Addo to get him a Parliamentary majority was settled before she hurried out with her different shades of contradictory results? 

If the 2020 elections did not teach all the NDC stakeholders in Savannah region including H.E John Mahama a lesson, it taught us that, the Parliamentary seats are as important as the Presidential outcome. To all NDC members in Savannah region: former appointees, regional executives, constituency and branch executives, financiers, council of elders, committee members, ordinary foot soldiers, if you want to show real-undiluted-love for H.E John Mahama and the NDC, let that love reflect in your quests and actions aimed at winning your seat for the NDC. You can offload all your investments to the party up there, if it doesn’t reflect in you winning your seat,  you may be able to recoup your investments after winning power, but you would have lost your political hold, weight and relevance in the Savannah region and your constituency in particular. Note: Everybody’s weight in politics largely lies in his/her branch, constituency and region. 

Is it not disheartening and shameful that in 2020, while regions like the Upper East and the Upper West Regions were able to put their houses together to redeem their image by improving on the number of seats, actors in Savannah Region were seriously fighting to lose more seats to the NPP? 

Check this out! In 2016 in the Upper East Region, H.E John Mahama and the NDC had 60.3% with 12 seats, while Nana Addo and the NPP had 3 seats with 35%. Fast forward in 2020, with hard work and unity, the NDC stakeholders in the Upper East Region, snatched 2 seats back to make it 14 seats as against 1 seat for the NPP. Also, in Upper West, the NDC dwindled  from 10 seats to zero for the NPP in 2012 to 6 seats against 5 for the NPP in 2016. They managed to put their house together and redeemed their image by increasing their seats from 6 to 8 with the NPP declining from 5 to 3. A whopping 67.42% for John Mahama while Nana Addo went home with just 29.89%. 

Painfully, at this same time these two upper regions were fighting hard to increase John Mahama’s chances in 2020, his own backyard key stakeholders were engaged in opened fighting and jostling each other for non-existent space. While doing so, some of them for whatever reason, created loops for the NPP to maximize their gains. This resulted in H.E John Mahama losing 3 seats in Savannah to the NPP out of 7 seats; lost in his mother’s home constituency, Damongo and lost the aggregate votes in the Daboya-Mankarigu Constituency after losing the seat. The painful part is that, it was under John Mahama that the Daboya-Mankarigu Constituency was created; he gave Daboya a public senior high school (ie the E-block); he started a road project linking Daboya to Busunu; he built both the Tachali and the Mognori bridges to link the North Gonja District to the West Gonja District. We sat on all these achievements and still went and lost not only that seat, but the aggregate Presidential votes. Isn’t that shameful? 

History will always remember President Rawlings for leaving three major legacies for Ghana and the NDC:

1.He stopped the sporadic coup d’etats in Ghana after the 1979 uprising.

2. He ushered Ghana into the most stable 4th Republic 

3. He left a United Volta Region as a stronghold for the NDC forever. 

Ask yourself, what legacy do you as a stakeholder in Savannah Region want John Mahama to leave beyond the infrastructure developments? 

I remember vividly in 2016 when Joy FM got some misinformation that the NDC had lost Sawla-Tuna-Kalba constituency, they started the twisting and historical analysis of the constituency. They tried to tell the story of how it was one constituency with the current Bole-Bamboi and how related Sawla-Tuna-Kalba was with Bole-Bamboi. They did so to spite at John Mahama and make him look worthless in his own backyard. After the 2020 elections, Nana Addo came to Damongo and at the instance of the Yagbonwura, he thanked all Gonjas for giving him 3 seats and particularly the Damongo seat, the traditional capital of the Gonja Kingdom. What this means is that, no matter how small we are, the strength of John Mahama in his own Savannah Region should matter to all those who claim to love John Mahama. 

Do your mathematics and see if the NDC and John Mahama can ever win the Manhyia seat, where the Manhyia palace resides or Abuakwa South or North seats where Akyem Abuakwa is. Do you think Okyeman will step on the grave of Nana Adeline Yeboakua Ofori Atta, Akufo-Addo’s Mother, and disgrace her like we did to Mame Nniba in Busunu? Think about it, this isn’t tribal politics but common sense. 

Well, they say in politics nothing happen by chance, whatever happened was designed to happen. Isn’t it curious that today, while Okyehene is insulting all Ghanaians for criticizing President Akufo-Addo, some of our chiefs choose to either become Electoral Commissioners and declaring the NPP winners, some becoming pollsters and predicting unbelievable results for the NPP against their son, John Mahama, while others have opened their palaces and adopting children from other kingdoms while throwing their own and the bath away? Do you blame the chiefs and opinion leaders in Gonjaland for this? Absolutely no, because, the NDC political class and key stakeholders refused to give leadership, direction and sense of purpose and to use that to whip all others in line. Although, by default, we and our chiefs are expected to support our own, but politics has been diluted to exhude and assume a different character, so that one has to stage-craft everything. 

Look at the NPP in Savannah today. Although, they are not any better, but when there is a problem in the region, Garba Kpangriwura Adam Zakaria, the member of council of state, a respected chief and a well collected politician, will step in as first aid to call for calm. And I don’t think there is anybody in the NPP in the region who doesn’t respect and will not listen to him. Is there anything like that in the NDC in Savannah region. We seem not to have leadership, and even if we do, we don’t seem to respect them and the party structures seem not to be responsive to their intervention. The ongoing free fall in Salaga South, which is silent though, but it serves as a threat to the seat. So, when the NPP Abu Jinapor says that Savannah Region will be the battle ground for the NDC and NPP in 2024, and that they will win majority seats, I don’t see that as either bragging or scare-crowing, they mean business and they know how to execute same. 

The time for the NDC in the region to wake up is now. No need for complacency, no need for empty boxing, no need for struggling for relevance even before we win 2024, all what we need is unity and the commitment to deliver Savannah for John Mahama in 2024. Let John Mahama leave a living legacy of an NDC stronghold in Savannah Region. Anything less than this, is like a story of a warrior who returns from war without his gun. 

I come in peace.

A HUMBLE CALL ON DR. ABU SAKARA TO REFLEX OVER

 By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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22/10/2022

I have been longing to sketch a call of a sort that will tickle the conscience of Dr Abu Sakara Foster to reflect over his posture and opened political commentary that suggest a silent antagonism between he and his brother, President John Mahama. I think after watching his show, “The Key Points” on TV 3 this morning, I am inclined to come forward with this call this way. 

Dr. Abu Sakara is one of Ghana’s finest academic, politician and above all, a career technocrat in Agriculture, who has seen and perhaps experienced all the stages of life at 64. Perhaps, one thing that the internet might not capture is the fact that he’s a pure Gonja royal from both the Kpembe traditional area (maternal) and the Bole traditional area (paternal).

In Kpembe, Dr. Abu Sakara is partly from Kanyase where his mother’s father takes his appellation from and maternally from Sungbun. In fact, his mother share same parents with the late Hajia Fati Jawula, former Ambassador to Denmark under John Mahama’s administration. The late Yagbonwura Doshie from the Sungbun gate is a maternal grandfather of Dr. Abu Sakara. This is what makes him a pure royal from Kpembe. His father, S.S Sakara was from Kakulase in Mankuma, a pure traditional community in the Bole traditional area where Gonjas lay their Kings (Yagbonwuras) to rest. Coincidentally, John Mahama is a grandson of Gbenfuwura Adama. So, when you see the fine academic making cogent arguments, just know that he’s doing so partly as a Gonja royal. 

Dr. Sakara, you made this comment when addressing students in UDS in November, 18, 2015, when you called out Martin Amidu at a time he was at usual height of his agenda to pull John Mahama and Northerners down. “I urge all of you to avoid stereotyping; you should never stereotype because it is the basis of prejudice that will later be applied to you and that is why I was saddened to hear the statement that has been made to suggest that because of some reasons, there will never be another northern president in the next thirty years. I think that is the most unfortunate statement.” In fact, I was proud to be associated with you as a tribesman, although, that pride is being watered down by the day, with your posture and public commentary in recent times.

In 2008, what inspired most of us from the Gonja Kingdom to get active in politics was the fact that, on that panel for the Vice Presidential debate, you sounded brilliant and convincing just like your brother, President John Dramani Mahama. Luck shined on us again in 2012 when both of you were up again as Presidential candidates on same platform. A Gonja couldn’t be any proud at the time, seeing two Presidential aspirants coming from their stock at that crucial period in our political history. It indeed played back the memories of the days of J.A Braimah from the far Eastern bloc of Gonja and E.A Mahama from the Western bloc, staging a fine political opposition in Ghana’s first republic. 

In fact, most of us were expecting you to be a principal part of the John Mahama’s administration, especially in the Agric sub-sector, not just a minister but, even as a policy advisor. It didn’t happen anyway, but in politics, we know the bulk of the work is mostly done behind the scenes. So, I, particularly thought you were doing something behind the scenes for your brother, John Mahama’s government to succeed. In the end your critical commentary and conversations about his regime, and the fact that many people saw you as one of the agents of regime change was quite disturbing. Well, anything was possible in 2016, because the NPP succeeded in brainwashing, indoctrinating and cajoling many fine stakeholders and critical voices to believe that John Mahama was indeed the devil himself. 

Doc., I had cause one time to comment on your post on Facebook when you took on John Mahama on an issue. I don’t think we as youngsters from the Gonja Kingdom are asking much from you. We are not asking you to change your party like what Edward Mahama did for the sake of Dr Bawumia; we are not asking you to run after John Mahama without your conscience simply because he’s a Gonja brother; neither are we asking you to float about with outright lies and falsehoods like what Prof Martey did to support Akufo-Addo in 2016. What we the younger ones from the Kingdom are asking you to do is to also behave just like Prof Stephen Adei and his ilk. How they played an ostensible middle class and a senior citizen role in support of Akufo-Addo. Although, we all know they were conspicuously biased and most part utterly unreasonable. At worse, just don’t openly dangle your body to suggest you are shifting your weight away from John Mahama, your brother. 

I watched you danced gleefully to the Damba tune on that day, 12th February, 2019, at the instance of President Akufo-Addo, at the Flag Staff House, when he, the President, signed the LI, creating the Savannah Region. Prior to that, we all saw your active involvement in the creation of the region and the unwavering support you gave to the government at the time. That was commendable, but I want to know, after 3 years of its creation, are you so proud of the Savannah region beyond it’s name and administrative structures? Don’t you think you should be leading the charge to call Akufo-Addo out for creating an election winning vehicle other than a development platform out of Gonjaland? Is lamentation in low tone and periodic grumbling enough to get what we deserve? 

Don’t you think it is about time you came out boldly to lead the charge for us to follow? It will be justified even if you come out boldly to support John Mahama now as things stand. After all, he was accused of packing his government with his kinsmen, which has become the pivot of this government instead. Who doesn’t know that John Mahama is the savior in waiting? I still see you once in a while, try to lump John Mahama and Akufo-Addo together as though they were one and same. Are you fair to your brother, John Mahama?

President John Mahama is your brother and he’s seeking a second coming. You are likely not to run in the next election, given that you are now leading the National Interest Movement, which is more of a movement than a political party. You are an Nkrumaist just like John Mahama. You and your brother share almost everything in common. What he expects from you in these trying times is to amplify your voice in support of his dream to come and change the very structure of the economy you envisaged. Alternatively, we expect you to stand with the masses in genuinely criticizing the current regime and seeking for a regime change just like it were in 2016.

Interestingly, one of the central point of your call over this period is constitutional amendments or a total change of the 1992 constitution. On top of John Mahama’s agenda in his second coming is to amend or change the constitution as you are currently fighting for. Don’t you think this is the moment for you to come under one shelve as brothers to work out something workable for this country? Is there something you are not telling us? 

I saw how uncomfortable you were in your body language when Lawyer Martin Kpebu went bold and raw on President Akufo-Addo on that show today. Your submission thereof sounded more of a lecture than calling out on Akufo-Addo which I think you should be doing by now. At the most part, you were engaged in blame-sharing and attempting to water down the fact that the current problem is the government’s  creation than a structural defect. You were lamenting other than criticizing. You were generalizing other than narrowing your arguments to the government. In fact, you almost fell for the exogenous factors arguments being advanced by the NPP in the wake of this economic mess we find ourselves. 

Ironically, under John Mahama, when not too close like this economic mess happened, you all watched or participated in making everything looked like it was a government problem. In fact, they made it like a John Mahama creation and not structural defects. At the time, exogenous factors were never part of any economic module. How come today, you want to justify the current self-inflicted economic hardships with an existing structural defects? The youth are watching and we are gradually picking out those who stand by us in these trying times and those who stand against us. There is no middle line in these times of tyrannical maneuvers engaged in by Akufo-Addo. Anybody who attempt to stand in the middle is against us, and that must be sounded clear and straight. 

I am not attempting to regularize or justify tribal politics, but if others did it and it’s become a fresh but acceptable convention, I think you coming home to support John Mahama cannot be described in same parenthesis and make it sound like a novel. You have to come home and support your brother. The ancestors of Gonjaland and the soul of Ndewura Jakpa will be proud to see a Gonja pulled another from a ditch and not to further his woes in that ditch. 

I grew up knowing Gonjas are bold and brave but today, you allowed Lawyer Martin Kpebu to steal the Gonja out of you on that show. You saw nothing wrong with the government and especially Akufo-Addo and Dr Bawumia’s style of leadership. At a point you attempted to posit that even if we changed the NPP, nothing was going to change. By extension, you don’t think John Mahama will be any alternative to Akufo-Addo and Bawumia. Was that a fair position to hand to your brother, John Mahama? 

It is time for Gonjas to accept one of their own before others will take us serious. It is becoming too heavy to bear the tag that Gonjas don’t like their own. We don’t have to show our hate against ourselves outside. We can pull the daggers in our chambers, but support each other in public. Please, come home, Dr. Abu Sakara Foster.

A HUMBLE WELCOME TO DR. BAWUMIA AS HE CAMPAIGNS IN GONJALAND.

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

8/10/20222

Good day to you, Your Excellency, Dr. Mahmoud Bawumia and your team. I wish to welcome you to Gonjaland as you craftily design a campaign in a veil of an official visit. 

Your Excellency, this message is but a reminder and largely a rehash of your FAILED PROMISES and empty sod-cutting ceremonies you and President Akufo-Addo conducted in Gonjaland (Savannah Region) since you took over the reigns of government in January 2017.

Your Excellency, I know how tough it is for you in these hard times as Ghanaians are wallowing in real economic hardships. I genuinely empathize with you, given the case that you have run down the economy with your unrealistic policies, recklessness and conspicuous incompetence, coupled with the fact that the Alan camp is using that as a scorecard to foil your Presidential ambition. In times like this, one should expect and appreciate your current posture. So, it is understood that you want to prove a point and to be seen working. Your lamentations in Northern Region is a clear testament of how frustrated you are in these times.

Mr. Vice President, I want to remind you and President Akufo-Addo of the outstanding arrears of promises and projects in Savannah Region you either cut sod for or openly promised of their timely execution amidst loud applause from our people. 

Right before the skins of the King of Gonjaland, Yagbonwura Tuntumba Boresa 1, in 2018, you, Dr Bawumia, promised that the Damongo water project was going to start that same year with a seeming unequivocal disclosure that your government had secured the funding for it. 

Following closely to this, your boss himself, President Akufo-Addo, upon a visit to the Jakpa Palace somewhere 2019, disclosed that some $49m had been secured from the UK Export Finance and Deutsche Bank AG, for the purposes of constructing a water supply system for Damongo and its environs. He ended by promising that a month after his visit, contractors will start work on 10 mechanized boreholes as a stop-gap measure while we wait for the main water project. As I write this, not even a single hand-pump borehole has been drilled to that effect. Even the existing boreholes are begging for maintenance. 

As a way of giving the people of Damongo some false hopes in order to get their votes in 2020, President Akufo-Addo who was ably supported by Hon Abu Jinapor, came to cut sod for the supposed commencement of works on the Damongo Water Project on 29th July, 2020. This program was staged at the Damongo Town Park and not the project site as it is the standard practice. And they did so without any contractor on site and no machinery to showcase as a commitment. We were told the project will take 24 months to be complete—it’s been well over 26 months without a single pipe on the ground to show for the President’s pledge. As for the subsequent fake promises made by Hon. Samuel Jinapor and his Bible quotations to back his deceit, we have lost count. 

Mr. Vice President, as a way of reminder, exactly two months after the sod-cutting for the Damongo Water project, precisely on the 24th September 2020, you came to stage another deceit of a sod-cutting for the commencement of work on the so called Savannah Regional House of Chiefs Office Complex. As I write this message, not even a single block has been laid for the said project. While cutting the sod, you indicated that your government within three years of being in office, had initiated 785 projects for Savannah Region alone and had at the time completed 630 of them. Was that supposed to be a joke or you people as usual added 12 unit KVIPs as monumental projects? 

Another disturbing deceit was staged at the 45th Gonjaland Youth Congress in Bole, specifically on the 6th of April, 2021. Mr Vice President, you looked in the faces of the chiefs and people of Gonjaland and solemnly promised that the Daboya bridge project was going to commence in August 2021. Could that be the reason you dodged the annual Gonjaland Youth Congress in Daboya, this year, 2022?

Mr Vice President, I should believe that the MP for Daboya/Mankarigu Constituency who also doubles as the Deputy Minister of Health and the DCE for the North Gonja District, will be part of your entourage to the Jakpa Palace as you campaign. I wish they will be able to tell you the truth, but in case they would not, may I beg to speak on their behalf and on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Wasipe? 

The road linking Busunu to Daboya has been partly wiped off by heavy rains and flooding from the Tachali river. In case you don’t know or forgotten, that road project was started by HE John Dramani Mahama. Your government abandoned it for almost 6 years now, leaving the people to suffer in its current state. The livelihoods of thousands of our people especially women, within that enclave have been cut at the throat without any hope in sight. 

Again, on the 3rd of February 2020, President Akufo-Addo at an event in Kpalbe, promised the good people of the East and North-East Gonja that the 138km Tamale-Salaga-Mankango road was going to be completed in 18 months beginning February 2020. If I can still remember my 2/4 maths well, it’s been 32 months now and there is no show. In fact, that road is still one of the worse roads during rainy days. Still, at the same event in Kpalbe, the President promised the people of North-East Gonja the following:

1. A District Hospital at Kpalbe in the North-East District.

2. A Senior High Scool in the North-East District.

3. A small town water project in the same District.  

Indeed, after 32 months since these specific promises were made, nothing is there to show for same. 

Note that, in the midst of these deceptions, most projects that H.E John Mahama initiated have either been abandoned or executed in a slow pace. Take note of the following projects: The 60 bed Salaga Hospital; the teacher training college in Bole; the Busunu-Daboya road project; the E-block at KPalbe in the North-East District; the Mpaha-Debre road and a host of others, have either been abandoned outright or been executed sluggishly. 

The final choking reality I wish to convey to you, Your Excellency, is the fact that the $10m Buipe Sheanut Factory with about 40,000 capacity, which was built by HE John Dramani Mahama, to add value to our Sheanuts and to give sustainable jobs to our youth, has been grounded for more than two years today without hope of revival. The irony is that, this happened at the same time that your government is trumpeting yet another directionless slogan of 1D1F. Could it be deliberate to deny the youth of Gonjaland and the North at large decent but sustainable jobs while at the same time denying our mothers who painfully pick these sheanuts, their livelihoods? 

So, Your Excellency, keep these valuable reminders in mind while you engage in your Flag bearer race campaigns. Maybe God will touch your heart to at least show some concern, although we know you are engrossed in your campaign than in governance. 

Try and visit the Vatican City of the Gonja Kingdom, Laribanga, where your masters reside before you leave. 😆. You are most welcome sir.

JOHN MAHAMA’S PROPOSED POLICY ON ILLEGAL SMALL-SCALE MINING (GALAMSEY)

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

The year 2020 which closed the Akufo-Addo first term in office, actually ended with a huge disappointment from most Ghanaians who took the words of President Akufo-Addo serious when he promised to put his presidency on the line to fight the galamsey menace. Those who knew from the very beginning that the words of the President were as usual a charade meant to create a veil for his henchmen to instead engage in and profit from galamsey, only got vindicated. 

In the end, the stories that dominated the conversation around galamsey menace at the end of 2020 were: the missing 500 excavators; ministers of state and NPP party executives from National to constituency engaged in galamsey; presidential staffers caught on video tapes taking money (bribe) to clear the way for galamsey to thrive, among others. This came on the back of about GHC 3m of our taxes spent on purchasing drones with the supposed server and monitoring device installed at the office of the President to monitor our forest reserves and water bodies. Indeed, there was no political will from President Akufo-Addo, and if there was one, it was to promote the illegal mining by chasing out ordinary poor Ghanaians and taking over their mining sites. 

In the run up to the 2020 general elections, Former President Mahama went into the election with a blue-print, covering all sectors of the economy including a three-tier mechanism for the fight against galamsey, which was strategically designed to adopt a bottom-up approach in achieving the desired results.  These were on;

1. Regulation—using policy and legislation.

2. Job creation for the youth and involving mining communities in this process. 

3. Reclamation of lands and afforestation—clean mining activities. 

By regulation, President Mahama proposed in the People’s Manifesto, 2020, page 58, item 6.13.2.2, paragraph (i) to: establish a National Mining and Forestry Initiative to help tackle illegal logging and illegal mining (galamsey). Also, on page 59 of the People’s manifesto, specifically item 6.13.2.3 provides in paragraph (g) to: promote environmentally friendly small-scale and community mining operations. In paragraph (h) to: ensure that licensed small-scale mining companies operate strictly in accordance with improved operational procedures to minimize negative environmental impacts. Note that, President John Mahama in December 2015 caused for section 99 of the Minerals and Mining Act,  (Act 703) to be amended to attach punitive measures to illegal mining (galamsey) activities.  

On the issue of job creation, President Mahama’s people’s manifesto on item 6.13.2.3 with specific reference to paragraphs (b) and (d) provide respectively to;

(b) establish mini-processing plants in strategic mining locations to support and improve metallurgical recovery of mined ore, leading to increased revenue generation. This will ensure job creation through the value-chain. And paragraph (d) suggest; to promote legal and properly regulated and operated medium and small-scale mining to become attractive and well-paid business ventures, creating jobs for the youth.

The last of the three tier approach was to reclaim the lands and water bodies destroyed by the activities of small scale mining. On this, page 59, item (i) proposed to: “encourage chiefs in mining areas to take an interest in community mining processes to ensure that the environment is preserved, and local communities benefit from the revenue.” This bottom-up approach is effective to the extent that each stakeholder is given a responsibility to play insofar as the protection of the environment is concerned. 

Also, paragraph (m) on the page 59 of the 2020 manifesto, President Mahama proposed to review the structure of the Mineral Development Fund to ensure that mining

communities benefit from social responsibility practices. This will ensure the mining communities directly benefit from the proceeds of mining activities so as to ensure an all inclusive mechanism in the protection of the environment. This will motivate key stakeholders to get involved in clamping down all illegal mining activities since the proceeds of mining activities will ultimately benefit them. 

Suffice this to say that, President Mahama had and still has an all inclusive, bottom-up, practical strategy to tackle the galamsey menace while ensuring job creation and value-addition to our mineral resources. 

I was shocked to hear that a meeting was  organized today, 5th October, 2022, by President Akufo-Addo with the National House of Chiefs to create yet another opportunity to clear and absolve himself from blame while pushing responsibility on the chiefs and other stakeholders who have no social contract with the people of Ghana. As usual, he did so with alacrity and tact. 

Finally, I wish to state that the President has an ultimate responsibility to safeguard our environment. Also the President holds the mineral resources of Ghana in trust on our behalf. The 1992 constitution of Ghana in article 257(6) provides, “every mineral in its natural state in, under or upon any exclusive economic zone and any area covered by the territorial sea or continental shelf is the property of the Republic of Ghana and shall be vested in the President on behalf of, and in trust for the people of Ghana.” So, President Nana Akufo-Addo should for once accept responsibility for this mess created by his own hands and take measures to curb same. If not, he should give way for President Mahama who has the POLITICAL WILL to come and fix the mess.

MEMORIZING THE WAY TO THE BAR—THE FATE OF LLB STUDENTS IN GHANA

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(CJ, Wisconsin University)

0244198031

The saying that one can never know the depth of a well until s/he steps in with one leg, is, but relatively true. Just as I was about settling in, I had my first dose of what would have made me opt out of the LLB race. “To be a lawyer in Ghana is a privilege and not a right”…so said a lecturer who happens to be a lawyer himself. 

Decoding the essence of the above statement took me days until when I decided to flip through the Constitution, 1992, to be sure whether articles 37 and 38 were predicated on discretion or made mandatory on the part of the state and it’s parastatals. For the benefit of all, I wish to extract the two articles in order to situate the subsequent submissions in proper context. 

Article 37 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, under social objectives states, “the State SHALL endeavor to secure and protect a social order founded on the ideals and principles of freedom, equality, justice, probity and accountability as enshrined in Chapter 5 of this Constitution; and in particular, the State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that every citizen has equality of rights, obligations and opportunities before the law.” As part of the basic principles of making meaning out of legal constructions as it is in the constitution, we are tasked to employ the reasoning of the ordinary man on the streets, to start with. In this attempt, I am inclined to co-join the ordinary interpretation of article 37 with article 38. Article 38 under Educational Objectives says, “the State SHALL, provide educational facilities at all levels and in all the Regions of Ghana, and shall to the greatest extent feasible, make those facilities available to all citizens.”

To the extent that the 1992 Constitution in article 37 mandates the state to endeavor to direct its policies to ensure that every citizen has equality of rights and opportunities, and indeed, every citizen of Ghana has the right to education, I shudder to think that the foundation of the statement that “to be a lawyer in Ghana is a privilege and not a right”, is weak, unfair and pinned on convenience and caprice.

I am further inclined to believe that a system gets better and working only if the members within that system get periodic opportunity to assess, evaluate and critique it. To take the substance of the evaluation and criticisms and apply same to envelope the sentiments and ambitions of the people is just as good as crafting a good law. The Ghana legal system has been on the hot seat for sometime now. Judges have had their bite in respect of corruption and delivering unfair verdicts not grounded on law, lawyers have had theirs in same measure and the legal education and the systems around same have had to the take the chunk of the rots being discussed. 

In Ghana, everyone seem to know the problem but no one is ready to offer or implement the solution. If not, I don’t see why a lecturer, who’s a Lawyer anyway, would stand before Level 400 LLB students and confess that, the educational set up in Ghana is producing students who can only memorize and not students who are prepared to engage any critical thinking that Ghana need to develop. Just after the dot (.), the same lecturer is using same methods of memorize, pass and forget to lecture same students he expects to think critically. He worsens the case by threatening students never to read outside of his lecture notes and cases he gives. Who is to blame? Just a few days ago, I watched the Minister of Education of Ghana, lamenting how the educational system in Ghana is churning out students who can only memorize but cannot think critically. I lost complete hope after listening to him. Meanwhile, the same minister is supposed to lead in policy direction as far as education is concerned in Ghana. So, who’s suppose to offer and implement the solutions?

It was all joy when I was offered admission to read Law—this was a long dream come true. Like I always thought, I was going to be washed, cleaned and ushered into a new world of thinking where logic takes precedence over “street thinking.” Fast forward, my expectations are getting dashed by the day because it is business as usual. Perhaps, the best amongst us, LLB students across all faculties, is most likely to be the one who has the capacity to memorize names of cases, names of authors of books, dates when some Justices died in the 18th Century in Uk, and obviously not those who have the capacity to think through and fashion out solutions that the law has to proffer for the welfare of the Ghanaian society, as we are made to believe. 

If the Law is largely about Justice and Justice is somehow inflamed by fairness, then Ghana is yet to have “The Law”. Why should we have an unfair system attempt to trigger any conversation about fairness? The brain drain that is currently taking centre stage in the medical profession will soon hit the legal profession. 

As of June, 2021, there were 3,213 registered practicing lawyers in Ghana. Out of this number, just less than 15% are practicing in the entire 5 regions of the North. Not until some Northern young men and women started to agitate, Northern Ghana had no single Law faculty. Meanwhile, the obligation of the state as contained in article 38 of the 1992 constitution where educational facilities ought to be made available to all regions of Ghana, is mandatory and not optional. If the Maths is right, a little above 3,000 lawyers serving about 30m Ghanaians will imply that, one lawyer is to about 9,300 Ghanaians. Where are those judges and lawyers who quote and rest on the pillows of equity? Is this fair?

To be fair, I am not for mass production of Lawyers in principle, owing to the fact that, it will be very dangerous since crude and half-baked lawyers will find their way into the system and stain the enviable image of the legal profession. In any case, is the current “mafia system” any better? I certainly will go for a system which will set up a very transparent and effective screening mechanism which will get well trained and professional Lawyers into the system, while ensuring that those who are genuinely qualified and have the passion to practice are given the opportunity without their backgrounds used as a factor. 

I was told sometime ago that, to get a pass card to enter Makola to undertake the professional course, the content of which is not substantially different from that which we undertake at the various faculties, one’s background use to be a factor; whether you had a lawyer or a judge in your family or you have any closed ties with one. Maybe, that is why the cliche that to be a lawyer in Ghana is a privilege and not a right, suffices. 

If the General Legal Council believe that the number of students being churned out by the about 13 law faculties across the country is way too much to be in the system, it can, as required by the General Legal Council Act, 1960 (Act 32), regulate the faculties and prescribe for them a required and reasonable number to admit. This issue of having to leave the faculties to admit more numbers just to make profit at the expense of the expectations and ambitions of many helpless students, is by any imagination, unfair and unjust. You do not allow huge numbers from the entry point only to frustrate same with some technicalities which are alleged to be borne out of mafia and convenient tactics at the termination point into the Ghana Law School.

I listened to one Chief Justice at one point in time where she openly declared that, it will never be under her tenure that legal education will be expanded. Her reasons were that, it will open the floodgates for the mass production of half-baked and unqualified lawyers into the system. I felt disappointed initially but was later consoled by the fact that I was still in Ghana where conventions mostly take precedence over established laws and written legislations. As a Chief Justice, it is easier to ensure a clean system is established to get more Lawyers trained than it is to get a system that frustrate innocent students in the name of getting refined Lawyers trained. 

I was just awoken to the news that the questions for the Law Entrance Exams scheduled for today, 23rd September, 2022, where the fate of about 2,654 is on a balance of an already imbalance scale of Justice, because, the exam questioned leaked and same had to be postponed. What is our fear when the system is faulty at all levels? Once you train us to memorize our way to the Bar, be ready to face us when we employ every means to be called to the Bar. When something is wrong with the system, stop gagging the people who suffer from the inadequacies of the system from speaking up. When all of us become timid and only nod and take notes as though we are a bunch of Kindergarten toddlers, we will get out there as lawyers who wouldn’t be able to recite the title of a simple case and can’t defend our own rights. Lawyers are supposed to be advocates of the law, and advocates are to speak for it when it is right and to equally speak against it when it is wrong. The General Legal Council should avert its mind to section 13 subsection 2 of Act 32 which clothes the council with the power to act. 

Expand Legal Education and ensure a proper regulation to avert a mass production of lawyers without capacity into the system. Otherwise, we shall always memorize our way to the BAR.

 GONJALAND NPP YOUNG POLITICAL ACTIVISTS ATTACKS ON JOHN MAHAMA & ITS RAMIFICATIONS ON THE IMAGE OF THE GONJA KINGDOM. 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

The greatness of the Gonja Kingdom over the ages, lies not in the population or the landmass, but on the collective identity, unity and respect for our culture and traditions. Growing up, we were told stories about how great the warriors led by Ndewura Jakpa were. The stories reflected their common identity and unity as reasons for their greatness and not their numbers. The conquests by these warriors led to the acquisition of the current vast land we boast of. So, if there is anything to celebrate and to hold as our guiding principle, then it should be the principle of our collective identity, trapped by unity and respect for our traditions, culture and customs. 

I must admit, that all of us as young, exuberant political activists in our commentary on political and traditional issues, have in one way or another slipped and went beyond the boundaries, but the magnitude and language used have been measured not to desecrate and dent the collective image and identity of the Kingdom. 

In the run up to the 2020 elections, I fell victim to this when in one of my numerous Facebook live episodes, I said certain things about and against the revered Buipewura Jinapor. Although the about 1 hour 23mins submission was mischievously cut down and compressed into some 1 min 15 seconds and targeted that portion without recourse to the context and the narrative in the full video. In a sober reflection coupled with counseling from respected personalities in the land, I went back to my Facebook wall to render an unqualified apology to the revered Chief and his family and subsequently followed up with a call to cement the apology. Given the opportunity today, I will do things differently to achieve the same results. 

It is on records that John Dramani Mahama has been the most vilified, attacked and demonized President in the 4th Republic if not the entire period after independence. And if these attacks and vilifications were quantified and serialized into first-come-first-serve bases, Gonjaland would have won the trophy as having led the attacks and in larger quantities. Like the adage holds…”if the fish pops out of the water and admits that the crocodile has one smelly eye, no land-based animal can challenge the fish”. That is what Gonjas shortened with a name “Ashe-Ebuto”. 

Since in his days as an MP, John Mahama was a candidate for attacks and vilifications from Bole and parts of Gonjaland. Meet any 10 young men under the shade in “Bole Junction”, 4 out of the 10 will tell you how “useless” John Mahama was and how he slept in his father’s house anytime he was in Bole. These attacks crystallized and translated into serious issues which were picked up by the NPP at the top, knowing and seeing the signs of a President in John Mahama. 

So, by 2007/08, the NPP started developing the strategy to run down Mahama by using his own countrymen. Today, I celebrate Mahama Haruna for one important decision he took as far as John Mahama was concerned. Yes, he was one of those who led the attacks in the case of the Almanjaro cocoa smuggling issue, but the young man respected his identity, came back to apologize and subsequently came to campaign for John Mahama. That is fundamental, holding all other adjoining issues constant. That is why I respect him for that singular decision. When Edward Mahama gave up his political ambition to support Bawumia, he did so on the same principle and not on political convenience or expediency. When Stephen Shaibu Nanyina, former Northern Regional Minister under Prof Mills, deserted his NDC and joined Bawunia, he did so to uphold his identity. So, what is wrong if Mahama Haruna did same based on the same principle? 

It is a fact, that the current  name Bole is enjoying in the world stage was fought for and achieved by John Mahama. It is also a fact that, the current respect and recognition that Gonjaland has in political circles was won by John Mahama. Yes, his father, EA Mahama and Jira J. A Braimah were the political light to Gonjaland in the 1st and 2nd  republics, the fact remains that, John Mahama put an ice on the cake with the current recognition and the political status of Gonjaland in the world of politics. 

On 16th March, 2022, the MP for Damongo Constituency, Hon Samuel Jinapor, presented a  statement in Parliament in which he eulogized E. A Mahama and Jira J.A Braimah. He did not eulogized them on the account of the physical infrastructure they built for Gonjaland but on the oasis of the image the carved for the Kingdom when the first roll was being called in the 1st and 2nd republics. In recent times, when you read or hear from young political activists from Gonjaland, the fundamental reasons for attacking President Mahama are mostly pinned on physical infrastructure and some other funny by flimsy reasons that are mostly unreasonably exaggerated. Funny enough, most of these guys turn to hail Akuffo-Addo for reasons of how he identifies with his people and not how much of physical infrastructure he is providing for them. 

The political history of Ghana’s 4th Republic should at least teach us a lesson. Rawlings, who’s the grandfather of this republic, had about 19 years of largely unfettered regime. 11 of these years were under a military dictatorship and the 8 years although, under democratic regime, but enjoyed some form of seamless, uninterrupted sessions. With the 19 years, Rawlings didn’t provide all the world class infrastructure or general development for the people of Volta Region. In fact, when he was given an award, he rather chose to establish the University for Development Studies in the North than the University for Health and Allied Sciences in Volta. His people in Volta didn’t vilify him but rather hailed and adored him for that singular decision. You would hardly find a true Ewe man attack the personality of Rawlings, not because they are stupid or that they don’t need or understand development, but they understand what identity mean to them hence, their unalloyed loyalty to Rawlings even in his grave. 

Again, President Kuffour had a continuous 8 years rule, he couldn’t provide all the development needs of the people of Ashanti and particularly Kumasi. In fact, it took John Mahama to build the biggest market in West Africa at Kejetia. While the Ashantes in Kumasi still remained loyal to President Kuffour and his NPP even with this monumental development of Mahama in the region, some of our people from Gonjaland and particularly from Bole were attacking John Mahama for not bringing the market to Bole, simply because Chairman Bugri Naabu came to use the Bole market to trigger those attacks. Irony of life? 

The Late President Mills didn’t have a secondary school in his hometown in Etuam but initiated the establishment of the University for Allied Sciences in Volta and the University for Natural Resources in Brong Ahafo. It took President Mahama to build the first Community Day Senior High School in Etuam in honor of the Late Prof. Mills. Prof Mills’ people didn’t vilify him and attacked his person because of this, but my people went after John Mahama for proving water for the people of Kyebi and not Damongo; they attacked him for establishing the University of Environment and Technology in the Eastern Region and not building the Teacher Training College in Bole. 

Interestingly and ironically, these same people are hailing Akuffo Addo for the creation of Savannah Region and in fact, using same to attack John Mahama and even used that as a campaign tool against him and the NDC in Damongo in particular. Why didn’t he create a Region in Kyebi, if that was so much a big thing for him? Not to say the creation of the region was bad in principle, but to want to use that to hail Akuffo-Addo and vilify Mahama, when the cheifs and people of Kyebi are not likely to praise Mahama for the water project and attack Akuffo-Addo in return, was much a worry to many of us. In fact, most traders in Kejetia still sit in those stores and rain insults and attacks on John Mahama. The same way some NPP people in Savannah Region will lead Akuffo-Addo to travel on the Fufulso-Sawla road to Damongo or Sawla to go and ask what President Mahama has done for the people of Gonjaland. What is President Mahama’s crime? Is it the case that Gonjas and for that matter Gonjalanders are wiser than the Ewes/Voltarians, Ashantes, Dagombas, Akyems, Bonos or Fantes? I don’t think so. 

Yes, I acknowledged that some Gonjalanders although, didn’t leave their political parties to join the NDC in the run up to the 2012 elections, but they silently supported and ultimately voted for President Mahama. It happened in the subsequent elections although very minimal, but that is commendable and I wish we increase our energies in 2024 when John Mahama leads the way back to the seat of Government. 

I am not in any way suggesting that all of us must leave all political parties and join the NDC as a party because of John Mahama, but once politics still remain a game, I believe we can play it with some moderation, caution and with some amount of good conscience. Everyone is born to a tribe or ethnic group first before he/she joins any association. So, you can choose an association at will but your tribe is handed you by default and by virtue of birth. In effect, identity is very material and fundamental to the existence and growth of every group. 

As young ones growing up in politics, we must learn good examples and grow with the mind that politics although a tool for development, but it will forever remain a game which we must play by its rules. If you were ever pushed by any political head to come attack or vilify John Mahama please, look at your palms well, and be mindful of  your political future. My MP, Hon Samuel Jinapor did it in the past and it partly paid off with his current position, but I do suspect that he would be regretting those act of attacks on President Mahama if ever he has a future political ambition, because that act will live to hunt him no matter how much he wants to dress them up. 

Remember that, he who goes to the market with empty hands cannot ask for a reduction in price. We must be ready to contribute to what we intend to benefit from. Gonjaland should give John Mahama and the NDC about 85% to 90% of the total votes in 2024 and we would have secured the right to ask for heaven from him. In short, benefit must be equal to responsibility. The 62% in 2020 with 4 seats out of 7 were an embarrassment, to be blunt. You can start comparing what Akuffo-Addo is doing in Kyebi to what Mahama did in Bole and Gonjaland as a whole when the chiefs and people of Kyebi cursed and practically banned John Mahama from their palace and their land, at the time ours welcomed Akuffo-Addo, eulogized him, enskinned him and gave him titles. Does that strike a flesh in you? Even a chieftaincy title given John Mahama in Bolewura’s Palace in 2020 was practically stripped off later; he was mocked in his own land where he is a royal and in the end, we went home with nothing but identity crisis. Who does that? 

Food for Thought! Upper East gave Mahama 14 seats out of 15; they took back 2 seats they lost in 2016. Upper West gave Mahama 8 seats out of 11; they took back 2 seats they lost in 2016. Savannah Region gave Mahama 4 seats out of 7; we lost 2 seats to Akuffo-Addo in 2020. Gonjaland must rise up and be counted in 2024 when Mahama goes back to the Flag Staff House, Insha Allah. Don’t mind the numbers but the commitment and sense of purpose. I beg the chiefs and very respectable personalities especially in the NPP from Gonjaland, to admonish these young patriots cut down on their needless attacks on John Mahama. Any such attacks on him is invariably, an attack and a dent on the identity of the Gonja Kingdom. 

May the souls of E.A Mahama and his wife, Mummy Nneba, both burried in Gonjaland, Rest In Peace. 

#JohnMahama2024

 JOHN MAHAMA: A SERVANT-LEADER AND NOT A RULER LIKE AKUFO-ADDO 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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Beyond the politics of everything, John Mahama is a great leader who served his people with integrity, honesty and selflessly. Reading from Kenneth Hartley Blanchard’s “Servant Leader”, I could see and feel President John Mahama in his profound quote…”Servant leadership is all about making the goals clear and then rolling your sleeves up and doing whatever it takes to help people win. In that situation, they don’t work for you, you work for them.”

This was a President who narrowed his leadership from his humble beginning into the reality of the Ghanaian situation. He served and not ruled with a sense of entitlement like Akuffo-Addo is doing now. We were told that Akuffo-Addo was raised from the castle; so he lived like a lad born into the royal family of the United Kingdom, and waiting to be crown a Prince. Without knowing, the ascension of President Akuffo-Addo to the Presidency of Ghana was like installing a King who was waiting as a Prince for decades. 

Any wonder, he has this sense of entitlement; a feeling that he was born to rule, just like how it was summarized by Daddy Lumba in the  campaign song for Nana Addo in 2008-thus “Nana is born to succeed; he was born to win”. So, when Ursula Owusu made the point that “Ye Gye Ya Mae”, she literally meant that the crown Prince had finally taken his crown and ready to rule with an iron fist. 

A servant-leader like John Mahama comes with a vision. A vision that will impact in unborn generations. That is why his industrialization vision propelled him to invest in building more energy plants with higher capacity to stand any future industrialization drive of Ghana. A vision, Nana Addo and his NPP have run down and trying as usual of them to cajole the Ghanaian that the “excess power” is needless. So, you ask yourself, if the 1D 1F were a reality, wouldn’t the so called excess capacity be a sound footing for an effective takeoff? 

Indeed, a servant-leader  takes responsibility for things he knows nothing about and things he didn’t even contemplate. He takes the blame and stay put in fixing the challenges ahead. At the height of the crippling energy crisis in 2014, President Mahama took responsibility for this revolving crisis which had been managed over the years without a one-off solution. 

Mind you, energy crisis (dumsor) hit Ghana in 1983, 1998 and 2006/07. Due to the fact that generation capacity of the existing power plants by 2014 went below the national peak power demand of 2200MW, we were visited by this revolving crisis. President John Mahama didn’t blame his predecessors (ie President Rawlings and President Kuffour) but took responsibility for this visiting crisis. He had this to say at the 2014 SONA…”In the past, what we have done has been to manage ourselves out of the situation. I do not intend to manage the situation as has been done in the past. I intend to fix it! I owe it to the Ghanaian people. I, John Dramani Mahama, will fix this energy challenge.” This is a servant-leader and not a ruler who cannot be blamed even for his own mess. Has Nana Addo ever taken responsibility for anything? In effect, Nana Addo is a ruler and not a leader! 

A servant-leader like John Mahama listens and respect opinions of the masses and not to assume the repository of knowledge and call the bluff of genuine dissent. When the issue of the bus branding hit the waves, President John Mahama was blamed and vilified for an administrative decision made by a subordinate. When Ghanaians cried, he listened by stepping in immediately with an enquiry. The said Minister resigned even before the findings of the investigation were made public. Monies were refunded and an apology rendered. Same as the issues about the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Can anybody show me one instance when Akuffo-Addo ever shook a flesh in admission that what has happened is wrong, and that he has heard our voices and ready to work to reverse it? Is it PDS he didn’t defend or it is the hiring of private jet he didn’t call the bluff of Ghanaians over. At a point, President Akuffo-Addo went as far as calling his critics names and making it sound like Ghanaians complain too much. He even went as far as attacking Civil Society Organizations for calling him out at a point. This is not a listening President, and of course not a President who can accommodate dissent and admit genuine concerns.  Even when majority of Ghanaians stood against his penchant of renting a private jet at the expense of the taxpayer and at a time we are told that there is no money to even on greater salaries of public sector workers by more than 4%, President Akufo-Addo will neither listen nor respect the concerns of the masses. 

If President Mahama were intolerant to a quarter of Akuffo-Addo’s, like the likes of Mananseh will be in jail by now; like Joy FM and Citi FM would be shut down, and like Kennedy Agyapong’s Oman and Net 2 TV and their presenters will be candidates for exile. Did you watch the body language of Akuffo-Adoo when he replied the Afloa Chief in that unfortunate interview with Peace FM? Did you watch his body language in the just past BBC interview? He feels like you can’t ask me that question. The level of President Mahama’s tolerance of his opponents and needless critics is partly to blame for his defeat in 2016. Who would have thought that after that shameless work of Manansseh on the so called Ford bribery scandal, which was aired on the day President Mahama’s mother passed on, he (Manansseh) could have the guts to walk freely to President Mahama’s office to sell his book to him? Can he walk to the Flad Staff house after the militia documentary? 

Indeed, a servant-leader build bridges and unite the people even in the midst of the storm. Here was a man whose legitimacy was questioned in a useless 8 months election petition. Nana Addo and his NPP then swore to smear his legitimacy, make the country ungovernable, attack his personality and do everything to create a demon out of him in the eye of the Ghanaian people. In the midst of this, President Mahama’s public speeches, his demeanor, his approach to issues, all point to the fact that he wanted to lead a United country irrespective of our political differences. 

Fast forward into the current regime, President Akuffo-Addo in most of his public speeches either mock the opposition, call them names and as usual, engage in pure divide-and-rule tactics. Imagine the President addressing young SHS students, and his admonishing to them is that, they should pass to shame his (Akuffo-Addo’s) critics. Not that they should learn, pass and become the light of the world and Ghana in particular. The least opportunity he gets, he divides the country either along political lines or ethnic lines. On some occasions, he tried to fuel religious sentiments in an already polarized religious atmosphere. Does is look like he’s a leader who mean well for Ghana? 

These are the leadership qualities President Mahama came to office with, and surely, his second coming won’t be different. If there will be a difference in his second coming, then it is to build what has been destroyed by Nana Addo and water down the polarized-divided-Ghana to create a united and accommodating nation for a prosperous future. President Mahama is an honest leader who can be trusted. Look forward for his second coming!

 

THE ECONOMIC REALITY AND DR BAWUMIA’S EXPECTED COOKED NARRATIVE TOMORROW, 7TH APRIL, 2022. 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Executive Secretary-Baskin Africa)

What is Dr Bawumia coming to tell us different from what we know already? The economy is not figures which can be conveniently manufactured to do propaganda, but what the many poor Ghanaians feel when they go to the market; when they go to buy fuel at the pumps; when they go to buy milk and sugar at the super markets. In its worse form, the few women who sell their produce in the markets struggle to just sell and feed themselves, yet the buyers can’t find money to buy. 

Even assuming economics were just only the figures (not cooked), Dr Bawumia cannot still dodge but to tell us how terrible the situation has become under him as the head of the Economic Management Team. Under Dr Bawumia, the uncooked but real  microeconomic indicators have this to show:

1. Debt to GDP is hovering around 80%—far above the sustainable threshold. Meanwhile the chunk that has been borrowed were not invested in the real sector but into consumption related expenditure. 

2. Inflation is hovering around 15.2%, the worse in more than a decade and half 

3. A budget deficit of about 15%, the worse in about two decades.

4. The dollar is selling at about GHC 8 to $1, with the cedi depreciating by about 20% in just a quarter. 

5. Unemployment is at its peak, compounding an already worse security situation in the country. 

6. Ghana is rated as one for the worse countries to do business—with a very hostile business environment to even indigenous entrepreneurs. 

7. The government has to borrow to even pay statutory funds like common fund and others because, just three line items (Interest payments, wages and salaries and amortization) have swallowed our tax revenue. Nothing is left for capital investments. 

As we speak, a gallon of petrol which was sold at GHC 15 in 2016 is now selling at about GHC 46. Most commodity prices have more than quadrupled in percentage and in real terms. The table is a microcosm of the Ghanaian economy and not what Dr Bawumia will come to tell us tomorrow, 7th April, 2022.

HOW UNFAIR CAN THE GHANAIAN EVER BE TO THE NDC MINORITY IN PARLIAMENT AND MAHAMA

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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“In abundance of the hearts, the mouth speaks.” The residues of this adage caught up with Mr Yaw Osafo Marfo, Mrs Usula Owusu and Hon Samuel Atta Akyea. All three at one point made it clear that, Ghana has landlords and some people are but tenants. Per this analogy, when the Landlords rule, the tenants are expected to observe and suffer in silence even if things are not going right. 

Mr Osafo Marfo unapologetically claimed that, people from non-resource region don’t deserve to rule or lead. He made this comment in athempt to justify why Nana Addo ought to lead and not John Mahama. Whatever his definition of natural resources were, some of us are still lost. On her part, Mrs Ursula Owusu was empathic that “they (ie the landlords) have taken their country from the tenants and they won’t make a mistake for the tenants to ever come back to power”. Hon Atta Akyea in attempt to exalt the Akyem Mafias over everyone else, intimated that, if the Akyems were taken out of Ghana’s history, the country will be left with no history. All three point to the fact that some people in Ghana are first class and deserve to always lord over others.

We all were witnesses when President John Mahama ruled in his 3 and half years. The Aglo for Jesus couched their monthly themes to suggest that what befell the nation was as a result of the person of the ruler then (ie John Mahama). Their monthly prayer wasn’t for the country but for God to install the real ruler of Ghana (ie Nana Addo). In fact, at the time, Mahama was declared the problem and not the system, not any external factors like we are made to believe today and not the behavior of the citizens as it is today. 

Today, when the Landlord rules, taxes are a means of mobilizing revenue to develop Ghana, even when the audio-visual of Dr Bawumia in the run up to the 2016 elections suggest differently. Under Mahama, taxes of whatever kind were “nuisance taxes”. Even those they described as such, like the energy sector levy, in power, Akuffo-Addo didn’t only maintain them, but either increased their thresholds and make them permanent levies or used them as special purpose vehicles to go for loans. In all these, the tax experts, the strategic political economists, the solid middle class, the uncompromising academia, are all either silent and nodding in fear or have compromised their principles by subtly supporting these regressive taxes. 

In the run up to the 2020 elections, the Akuffo-Addo’s administration were saved by the bell; yes, saved by covid. Covid saved the administration in two way: it first gave them the space to make expensive but untenable excuses, and secondly, created unfettered fiscal space for them to spend money and not to account for same. This is the main reason we have a huge deficit, the most expensive election ever in the history of the 4th Republic, and today, the economy has sunk to the lowest ebb. 

Just after the elections and a year on after covid hit Ghana, the 2021 budget was presented with loads of taxes and levies ostensibly meant to recover what was spent to spare economic growth and development. The free water and electricity that were handed a few poor in order to buy their votes and consciences was painfully taken by the introduction of a covid levy in 2021. As we speak, this levy has become a permanent part of our tax system as though covid is a running pandemic and it’s ravages are permanent. 

Just when we were getting settled, the 2022 budget was presented with additional taxes and levies. In fact, some discounts that were introduced in 2019, meant to cushion the Ghanaian taxpayer were equally withdrawn amidst opposition. The last killer was the smuggling of the E-levy into the tax regime. This was fast spotted by the NDC minority in Parliament and a strong case made against same. 

It should be on record that, but for the NDC minority in Parliament, the Ghanaian public would have been paying E-levy by now. If not because of the stern opposition of the NDC, the public wouldn’t even notice that there was such a levy in the budget, and they wouldn’t be offered the opportunity to listen to the reasons the government has for the introduction of the levy at their haphazardly organized town hall meetings. In fact, the public-opened commitment forced on the Finance Minister and his government came as a result of the fact that the NDC stood its ground in opposition to the E-levy. 

In all these, most of the people stood against the NDC minority in Parliament. Instead of supporting the  position of the NDC, they decided to either pitch camps with the government so they could get their cuts or they played the strong partisan card as their patrons will have them do. The NDC minority went as far as physically fighting in Parliament at the displeasure of the world, but for a just cause. They were called names; they were condemned by the so called neutrals whose voices resume their loudness only when it is the NDC and John Mahama are at the receiving end. 

It is worthy of note, that it took the NDC in Parliament to get the government to extract the E-levy from the 2022 budget in order that they will pass the budget and the appropriation bill, so that governance will not be rudely disrupted. What is more patriotic and sensitive than this? Give this opportunity to the NPP, and they will run governance to a halt without any apology. So, since November, it took the NDC to get the E-levy extracted and made a stand-alone tax policy for consideration. 

The NDC in Parliament didn’t hide it’s position about the E-levy. So what is their crime today after standing firm against the levy which has been forced down by Nana Addo and his NPP? How many vigils has the so called celebrities organized in support of the NDC position? How many demonstrations has the middle class organized to state their opposition and to aid and strengthen the NDC’s position? How many lectures has IMANI or IEA or Occupy Ghana organized to counter the  government’s position? They all watched the helpless NDC MPs and swept the lame explanations and the lies from the government and its allies under their armpits. 

Surprisingly, the same Ghanaian people watched on while the Akuffo Addo administration swore to use all means to pass the levy. They have used the courts, used the clergy, used “takashi” and all available tactics to cajole NDC MPs to be absent from Parliament to create room for them to smuggle the levy in. In all these, the NDC was fighting a lone battle. Anytime you hear a voice against the levy, it was a solo voice meant to vent individual anger, but won’t ever come supporting the NDC. At the time the minority stood strong, it needed the public support to wade through which never came. Many even accused them of playing a party card and for that matter, they won’t have nothing to do with them. 

When the courts were used to short the NDC by one member, everyone watched on. When the courts were used to frustrate Hon Atto Forson, people cheered Akuffo Addo on. In all these narratives, some people deliberately are turning the heat and responsibility on the minority. So, that when the E-levy come biting them, they will blame the NDC and not Akuffo Addo and his NPP for introducing the tax in the first place. Who will pay E-levy to Mahama and the NDC? Between the NDC who stood against the levy since November, 2021 and the NPP who are bent in forcing it on the throats of Ghanaians, who should be held responsible for the hardships the levy will come to compound? 

Assuming it were Mahama’s NDC in 2014 or 2015 who wickedly imposed such hardships to the poor even after the Late Amissah Arthur came earlier to argue that MoMo tax will be a disservice to the poor-imagine what this country would have turned into. The headlines from New Crusading Guide, the shrugging of shoulders by Kweku Baako in front of pile of documents on NewsFile; the theme for Aglo Jesus would have been “God save Ghana from the hands of the devil”; the sunday sermons and predictions from Pastor Otabil will become banner headlines of state- owned newspapers; the morning bashing and deliberate spinning from Citi FM and Joy FM and the correlated analysis from the tax experts and political economists will become the oil of the political atmosphere for the NPP. Occupy Ghana would have organized lectures and declare Red Fridays with dirges of Mahama as their daily hymn. Political scientist from the University of Ghana and KNUST would have released research findings to suggest how porous Mahama’s leadership was. 

Today, those who gave Dr Bawumia the platform to engage in his deceptive economic lectures are hiding with lofty appointments. As the cedi gets whipped by the dollar and as fuel prices hit the roofs, the same people are trying to soften the discourse by introducing some animal call “external factors”. Meanwhile, in the days of Mahama, same external factors were abound, but these people and institutions named above made everything looked and sounded like Mahama was the devil himself who reincarnated into a President of Ghana. 

Today, the country is worse of in terms of everything; talk about public debt and borrowing, talk about prices of goods and services, talk about inflation, talk about exchange rate depreciation, talk about budget deficit, talk about extreme hardships and escalating poverty. All these didn’t happen because of covid nor the one month old Russia-Ukraine war, but as a result of bad economic policies and leadership crisis. In the midst of these, and the fact that we know who caused our problems, some people are still looking for Mahama and the NDC to blame for Akuffo Addo and Dr Bawumia’s mess. If you ever go to the MoMo vendor in May, 2022 and the charges bite you in your pocket, please don’t look for NDC MPs who boycotted the passage of the E-levy, but look for Akuffo Addo and Bawumia, who first and foremost, thought about such a wicked tax policy at this time and glaringly forcing it through our throats even with the genuine opposition from the NDC and some Ghanaians. 

Those blaming the NDC, be told that you don’t pay your taxes to Mahama and the NDC so, spare us the hypocrisy and blame your pampered President Akuffo-Addo who flies Private jet at a time his Finance Minister has declared Ghana broke and want to tax us to a chocking end. Mahama is also a human being and a Ghanaian just like Akuffo-Addo. 

Ramadan Kareem 🌙