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 🌙

JOHN MAHAMA’S PROPHETIC WORDS ARE HUNTING DOWN HIS NORTHERN TRAITORS

 JOHN MAHAMA’S PROPHETIC WORDS ARE HUNTING DOWN HIS NORTHERN TRAITORS 

 By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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 In his last address to the nation, John Dramani Mahama intimated that, posterity was going to be his best judge. Although this was said with an open heart, but it has become the prophetic saying that is crumbling all the towers of his traitors, especially his Northern brethren, who held him out for the crony capitalists to steal his mandate and to become the vampires of the state of Ghana today. 

 I am not being ethnocentric neither am I engaging in tribal politics, but just trying to address the issue of betrayal by the Northern brethren who played a key role in sucking the blood of Mahama and destroyed a legacy he was building. 

 Indeed, Ghana is 65 years, and out of these years, we have had 4 Republics with an accumulated years of about 46 years of democratic rule. Out of this 46, Dr Hila Liman of blessed memory, the first Northerner, had about 22 months in office even before the inception of this 4th Republic. The 4th Republic owed 26 years to Southern Presidents with Northerners being fortunate by a constitutional requirement to play the second man in the game. Until 2012, when Northerners truly had their own brother to man the affairs of this country for the four-year period provided by the 1992 constitution, we had always gladly played the second role. 

 Northerners by nature are hospitable and therefore, they can do anything to please a stranger at the expense of their own blood. This notwithstanding, for a Northern brother to accept to lead the charge against Mahama at the time he took the baton to make a case for generation of Northerners in politics, was seen as an act of total betrayal and outright mark of low self-esteem. 

 Our geographical location is naturally disadvantageous. With an unfavourable weather condition, our vast arable land is wasting away without the opportunity of having all year-round farming. With the few months available for farming, we prepare to harvest, and when there is a bumper harvest, due to poor road network and lack of ready market, the farmer is either short-changed by the Southern middlemen and women or he consumes what he can and leaves the rest to the mercy of the weather. 

 It is also true that the Northerner has had almost everything second in Ghana. We had education second to indigenes from the middle belt and third to indigenes of the coastal belt. We had national grid electricity for the first time in the 1980s without any deliberate industrialization policy to create jobs for our numerous active youth population. Even today, some Northerners are enslaved in their own country. They flee the vagaries of the weather and harsh local northern economy and run into the hands of some unscrupulous patrons in Southern Ghana who treat them like second class citizens. 

 Then came the grandson of Jakpa who paid his dues as a Member of Parliament (MP), Deputy Minister of State, Minister of State, Cabinet Minister, Vice President, and President of the Republic of Ghana. He did not engage in lopsided development geared for the benefit of only his fellow Northerners, but rather made the case and demonstrated that the Northerner, when given the chance could also become a first-class citizen and was capable of managing the affairs of Ghana just like all others before him. So, the coming of John Dramani Mahama was to break the mould and bondage that Northerners had hitherto been held all these years. 

 As President, John Mahama with all his imperfections just like his predecessors, tried all his best to be an honest leader and one who placed Ghana first before himself. His vision was clear, and his national development agenda was evenly distributed. Ironically, most of the issues that played against him were inherited as transferred responsibilities. Talk of the energy crisis (dumsor), corruption related cases like the “Woyomegate” and a host of others, were all inherited legacies. Nonetheless, a true leader takes full responsibility when placed in charge, that was why John Mahama took personal responsibility for solving the energy crisis (dumsor) that he inherited and promised to fix it and indeed fixed it without blaming his predecessors. 

 Just when we all thought H.E John Mahama was going to clear the path and blaze the trail for future generations of northern indigenes, some Northerners decided to take a contract to destroy this dream and legacy. Leading the charge was none other than Dr Mahmoud Bawumia and his wife, Samira Bawumia, who seized every opportunity to engage in attacking the person and integrity of John Mahama whilst failing to constructively criticize his government. Let it be known that nobody is saying that all Northerners must support the NDC or even blindly support John Mahama, but the personal attacks that were incessantly rained on him by some in the Northern cabal, could have at best be moderated and balanced. 

 To set the agenda of the Northerner pulling his own fellow Northerner down well executed, they built an elaborate architecture with Dr Bawumia at the helm of affairs coordinating with the likes of Manasseh Azure Awuni fuelling and shaping the propaganda with a so-called nationalist agenda. This was an attempt to get people to actually believe their cooked-up story that Mahama was indeed not even supposed to lead the country to begin with, and even enlisted Mahama’s own cousin, Hon Otiko Djaba and Samuel Abu Jinapor, as representatives of Mahama’s own people from his homeland (Gonjaland), who perhaps knew him far better than all, for everyone to believe that all that they said about him (John Mahama) was the gospel truth. 

 To help expand the base of the Northern cabal were people like Mustapha Hameed who could fake tears on live TV just to kill a brother. Then came Bugri Naabu with support from other Northerners. They started the chorus and added numbers to their base of members of the anti-Mahama Northern cabal. In the morning, if Bawumia wasn’t describing John Mahama as incompetent, his wife Samira will call him a useless President. In the afternoon Abu Jinapor would call Mahama a thief and a corrupt leader, Madam Otiko Djaba would refer to him as a wicked demon with a hard heart. In the evening if Manasseh was not cooking-up bribery stories to amplify his regime change agenda then, Bugri Naabu was corroborating fake bribery allegations with Mustapha Hameed shedding his tears to craftily beautify their theatrical drama stage play. Mahama was eventually pulled down by his own fellow Northerners! 

 The NPP eventually won in 2016, Nana Akufo-Addo became President, Dr. Bawumia’s bragging was somehow vindicated, and all these Northern traitors were settled with juicy appointments and contracts as a reward for treachery and perhaps good work done. Now, that the hour for them to show up for work came then Karma turned up as the examiner. Mahama’s last words as president started to haunt and hunt them down. The first casualty was NPP Northern Regional Chairman Bugri Naabu when he was finally voted out in 2018 after all his antics failed. He has since left politics and in perpetual coma. 

 Manasseh was hit directly at his chest with a bullet from his trusted friend (Nana Akufo-Addo), whom he thought was the Angel in waiting. As of now, Manasseh still moves in Ghana like an apprehensive chameleon which doesn’t want to break the ground. He looks above his shoulders every other minute to be sure he was not being followed or trailed to be killed like the fate that befell Ahmed Suale. Madam Otiko Djaba was jostled out of politics even before Nana Addo’s first presidential term ended. Today, she’s just as ordinary as any NPP foot soldier in my own Laribanga city without her NPP cap on. 

 The final stone landed on Dr Bawumia’s head, and that was a heavy one. In the beginning, he tried to dodge responsibility when he realized that the centre couldn’t hold for him. In the middle he tried to equalize and play yet another game while in power, but before he could reorient himself towards that, the suffering masses started to remind him about his numerous juicy promises and the beautiful rhetorical jocular grammar he often blurted out during his numerous public lectures and pollical platform speeches. The last straw that broke Dr Bawumia’s back was when the economy started to stumble and crumble like a pack of cards with him at the helm as the leader of the Economic Management Team. Just when he thought that his dream of becoming the next President was getting solidified, Mahama’s prophetic words triggered Karma to bite Dr Bawumia. His own words captured on numerous recorded audio and video clips when played back at him don’t even need to have any words inserted or edited because his own words have crucified him and perhaps curtailed his presidential ambitions. 

 All the juicy NPP election campaign promises have either not been fulfilled or when partially implemented did not yield desired results. Talk about 1V-1D, $1m per constituency every year, 1 Ghanaian 1 bank account, single digit inflation, a stable Cedi, all these election promises have come to naught. Bawumia’s attempt to navigate and transform himself into an overnight lover of IT got overwhelmed by his own words when played back at him and the economic crisis Ghana has found itself in. He has been caught in the web so much so that there is no loop to escape responsibility for the economic mess. Perhaps, he needs to remember when John Mahama reminded him of what it takes to be President. 

Dr Bawunia is missing, and when found, he complained of a toothache that makes it difficult for him to deliver any public lecture on the depreciation of the cedi or on the economic quagmire Ghana has found itself. The last time we heard of him, we were told he was kidnapped by the dollar but when he gets any temporary relief, he goes loitering around internet cafes instead of the forex bureaus.

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF GHANA CANNOT BE SOLVED BY DR BAWUMIA’S LECTURES

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF GHANA CANNOT BE SOLVED BY DR BAWUMIA’S LECTURES.

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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The style of leadership, whether in politics or in our traditional set up, is by choice but the outcomes that translate into deliverables for the consumption of the ordinary taxpayers would most likely reflect the inputs of the leader and not his style of leadership. The final judgment is always with the followers and not a story to be told by the leader. 

The less than a decade of Nkrumah’s Presidency set a tone, gave a direction and a destination for Ghana. The success stories of Nkrumah’s short stay were never told by him in lecture series. If lecture series told Nkrumah’s stories to the world then, they were done by people who never met him alive or never were Ghanaians to start with.   

From 1945 when Japan disappeared from the scene after conquering Singapore ans brutalizing it’s citizens, it went into rebuilding in silence. Japan appeared in about two decades with tight lips but their mastery of industrial production of textiles, petrochemicals, electronic goods among others, announced their position in the world stage and not noise. 

When Singapore was chased out of the Federation of Malaysia in 1965 without a signpost of destination, Lee Kuan Yew chose not to organize talk shops but went into serious business of building a country without a head and limbs. In his own words, Lee described Sinpaore as at 1965 as a heart without a body and an island without a hinterland. Today, Singapore is a first world economy which was built in silence. When he died, lectures were organized to celebrate the hero in Lee Kuan Yew for such a bold step in going it alone and building Singapore from nothing. 

Talkers are hardly the best of managers of serious countries. Where there is serious business in governance, even citizens hardly get time to talk, because they would spend almost all the time to work for their working country. So, when you see leaders like Dr Bawumia talking more than the suffering masses, it implies there is less work but more talking just to balance the equation. 

The people of Ghana were scammed into believing that the lectures Dr Bawunia organized when he was desperate for power in 2016, could easily be translated into economic liberation. At a point, I was getting disappointed in the so called intellectuals and most critical voices in academia who never questioned most of the pronouncements of Dr Bawunia especially those that related to economic modules, economic principles and policies. He was allowed to get away with many untruths, unrelated and uncoordinated suggestions. 

So, if this 2nd November lecture won’t be a platform for the Ghanaian to ask real questions but one of the same lectures the Vice President organized while in opposition then, some of us would do the work of the media who are paid to report as they are told.

In opposition, the economic babies that were regularly and consistently whipped by Dr Bawunia were borrowing and taxation. So, as a taxpayer, if this 2nd November lecture won’t spare a paragraph to address these twin-evils (borrowing and taxation), I have no reason to take my Vice President serious. 

Dr Bawunia in 2015 was very categorical about borrowing. He said we didn’t need to borrow to build this country. I disagreed with him as an economics student then. I was wondering from which hymn book he was drawing his chorus from, because it is practically impossible for a developing country like Ghana to propose to reduce taxes, borrow less at the same time engage in any meaningful economic transformation. 

The world most biggest economy today is the United States. Most of the serious investments of the United States were and are still being funded by debt (borrowing). Today, the US debt to GDP is about 99.3% with about 37% of this debt owed to foreign countries. As at the end of 2020, the US owed Japan-Asia’s first miracle, a whopping $1.266 trillion while China owned about $ 1.07 trillion of US treasury holdings by end of 2020. The cumulative debt of the US as at the end of 2020 stood at about $26.70 trillion. In effect, the US borrows too and it’s in debt as well. The only difference is that, it’s debt is mostly self-financed by the relative investment and the economy can generate more economic activities to offset and sustain its debt. 

When President Mahama and the NDC borrowed, a decision which was bastardized by Dr Bawunia on his lecture platforms, he borrowed to invest in the critical sectors of the economy. Today, Atuabo gas plant (The Ghana Gas Company) alone is saving Ghana government about $500m annually. That project was financed by debt (borrowed cash from China). This is one of many such projects undertaken by Mahama and the NDC. So, debt or borrowing in itself isn’t a bad economic decision as Dr Bawunia made it to sound when Mahama ruled, but what the money is used for is what will make one to appreciate the decision to borrow a sensible  or senseless one. 

Under our talking Vice President as the chairman of the Economic Management Team, Ghana has borrowed to a choking point. Ghana’s public debt which was around GHC 120 billion under Mahama is now about GHC 350 billion under the watch of Dr Bawunia. Today, Dr Bawunia and his NPP borrow  to consume; they borrow to pay the ever increasing debts, they borrow to hire private jets for the President’s relaxation and comfort up skies and they borrow of cause to the fill the private banks of themselves. 

It is a fact that, Dr Bawunia and his NPP in just about 5 years, have borrowed more than all the governments right from Nkrumah to Mahama. And with all the borrowed cash, Ghanaians can hardly tie same to any serious capital investments. Economies which are managed by serious minds, capital investments are a derivative of borrowing and decent jobs are the outcomes of the expansion of the economy as a result. 

Shouldn’t Dr Bawunia be apologizing to Ghanaians by now instead of spending our taxes in paying the media to amplify his cooked propaganda? He promised to move Ghana from TAXATION TO PRODUCTION. What is Ghana producing after 5 years of him serving as the manager of our economy? Ironically, under Dr Bawunia,  obnoxious taxes like covid tax, “borla tax” and many others have been introduced and the threshold of existing taxes increased in insulting folds. The end product is that the purchasing power of the Ghanaian has reduced significantly…conversely, those in government have grown the taste for extravagance in multiple folds. 

The Energy Sector Levy was introduced by President Mahama in 2015 as a temporary tax to among others offset the energy sector debts owed by the government through the energy sector SOEs. This tax was yet again described by Dr Bawunia as a nuisance tax. A sunset clause which was inserted to make the tax a temporary one ( for 5 years), has been amended by Dr Bawunia and his NPP and annoyingly used same ESLA as a special purpose vehicle to borrow more money payable in 15 years. Who is thinking straight here, John Mahama or Dr Bawunia? 

Today, Ghanaians are having to pay more for petroleum products. From GHC 15 for a gallon under Mahama in 2016 to about GHC 30 under Bawunia and his NPP in just 5 years. One of the components that influences the build up of the price of petroleum products is exchange rate. Once Ghana is a net importer of the finished petroleum products, the exchange rate Mathematics will surely affect the pricing. The cedi which was selling at around GHC 3.9 for $1 in 2016 is now selling at GHC 6.2 for $1 in 2021. We were told that when the economy is not doing well, don’t listen to any lectures, just watch the screens of the forex market where the cedi and the dollar play the exchange rate game. By this analogy, is the economy doing well with the 6:1 cedi-dollar matrix in the forex market? 

Mr Vice President, I am a citizen and not a spectator. So, I wish to remind you that I need answers to the same questions you asked in the past and deliverables from the juicy promises you made to us, and not same embellished propaganda clothed in lectures. I need my pockets to tell me I am better under your leadership and not you to keep telling me the stories I don’t feel. 

If Dr Bawunia wants a bigger platform to really engage Ghanaians then, he should be interested in speaking to the following topics:

1. How much Ghanaian Cedi does the businessman need to buy 1 US Dollar to import excavators under a Bawunia’s working economy?

2. What is the current debt to GDP and how much does each Ghanaian owes under Dr Bawunia’s working economy? 

3. How much is the gallon of petrol in a working economy under Dr Bawunia’s leadership? Does this have any trickling down effect on the ordinary sachet water seller? 

4. Appreciating the realities of the statement, “Ghana will be moved from Taxation to Production under a Bawunia leadership”. 

5. How the public sector worker salary takes him home with a paltry 4% increment in his base pay under a Bawunia leadership.

When my talking Vice President is done speaking to the above topics, he would have appreciated that talking and delivering lectures don’t solve economic problems, but deliberate policy and the political will to solve them did the magic for the Asian Tigers and the first world economies today. The Vice President should be humble enough to apologize to President Mahama and the Ghanaian taxpayers at large. Enough of the lectures! 

A CHRISTMAS HAMPER TO MANANSSEH AZURE AWUNI.

From Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(A loud Kamara from Laribanga)

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Dear Manansseh,

I come in peace, and I come as a brother  “rat” from the North. I wish to stand by my fellow “rat” like you in these trying times. I have your senior brother (name withheld) as a respected comrade, so I respect you and your entire family. 

Out of the blues of the stolen verdict (2020 elections), I decided to sink my energies into being my sole animating force in my own self-created cubicle where life is simply simple and a reflection of my beliefs. I decided to keep my thoughts to myself and never to allow my nerves and guts short-circuit my little brains. I have been in this world until I saw a piece you authored in which you expressed your opinions on the stolen verdict and matters arising out of the killing of unarmed civilians and other related matters. 

Manansseh, I read the beautifully-woven piece of yours in passing, because in my opinion, it was too late in a day after you glossed over all those happenings at the heat of the moment and went ahead to call on Mr John Mahama to sacrifice the will of the people for his personal image. What brought me out of my small cubicle isn’t about that opinion of yours, but the threats to your life and the adjoining issues. 

Before I open the box of worms, let me first say that I, Kudus Gbeadese, has forgiven you for that empty Ford Expedition bribe allegations you wrongly leveled against HE John Dramani Mahama, and more particularly for releasing such a story on the day Mr Mahama lost his mother. 

In 2019 when I took that decision to unfold your folded folder, I also swore never to forgive you for that singular act of breaking an already broken heart of John Mahama on that 15th June, 2016, when you deliberately aired that Ford Expedition story on that very day Mahama was to bury his mother. This was the reason I took it upon myself to unfold and review your folded folder. Surprisingly but expectedly, Mr Mahama’s own kinsmen from the Jakpa Kingdom did not only break his heart, but scoff at his identity as a Gonja, mocked and incredulously suffocated him to perpetual comma. With this, who am I to oblige you to be soft and be responsible once you are dealing with issues of a colleague Northerner (rat)? So you are forgiven, and I am equally sorry for expecting that much from a distant brethren from the Upper Region. Well, you may want to know, I am Kudus, a Kamara in Gonjaland and not a royal in the land. 

Now, back to the substance...I know your life as a journalist has been threatened God knows how much. I also know the hazards of your profession. Sir, do you ask yourself why you were singled out and threatened in this particular instance? Do you ask yourself as to why Ahmed Suale had to pay the ultimate price when Kweku Baako and others were part of the syndicate that masterminded No. 12? Do you see that they proudly used Ahmed Suale’s murder as a case to threaten you too? Just for you to know, the name Ahmed Suale sounds much like yours, just like Mahama or Bawumia, Hameed, Adongo or Haruna. Beware! 

Sir, are you sure your voice and opinions are stronger than that of Kwame A Plus? Who has exposed, attacked and insulted the NPP and President Akuffo-Addo than Kennedy Agyapong? Who has endangered and maimed the lives, dignity, integrity and reputations of Ghanaians than Kennedy Agyapong? Who dare call him a name closer to a “rat” you were called, let alone threaten to eliminate him to get Ghana working? What was your crime sir? What special opinion did you express in this case that Franklin Cudjoe or Kwame A Plus or Bola Ray or Bernad Avle didn’t express even in raw terms? 

Well, remember your identity, and like they say, you have to always watch your palm anytime you chew the palms of a monkey. I am not asking you to waive your objectivity and independence to save the faces of your Northern brethren, but you may just remember that the people you dine with when you were digging the graves of your Northern brethren are the very people who have their fingers clipped on to the trigger and waiting for the orders from the emperor so they can take your harmless life. Remember your beautiful wife and children my brother. Remember you can run to Krachi but you can never claim ownership of the land you may want to plant a corn. Home will forever remain home! 

In 2015 when I was writing my thesis, I took the pain to do so on SADA. I went specifically to look for what went wrong with the tree planting project that SADA undertook. I investigated the policy proposals, the thinking and the ultimate objective that went into that project, and the only problem I unveiled was the fact that the policy was not well communicated and stakeholder engagements with the beneficiaries was lacking. Aside this, about 80 to 85 percent of the trees survived as against the half-baked story that you told to the world that those trees were planted during the dry season, and that they all died in the process. My findings were corroborated by the report from UDS. Tell me whether the so called “meaningless dams” as constructed do not deserve an investigation and a comprehensive report from your folder. Life choices anyway.

Manansseh, I know with hindsight, you wish you never pulled down your brother, Roland Agambire. Mind you, you didn’t didn’t only pull down an upcoming entrepreneur from your own backyard, but you denied thousands of their daily bread and made several thousands jobless. Although you were doing your work as a Journalist to achieve results. And maybe you were probably promised by the current regime of better programs/projects  under their proposed Northern Development Authority, that will see an improvement of lives of the poor Northern farmers. Well, you were wrong with your thoughts and believes if there were any. 

Since it’s reconstitution and change of name from SADA to NDA, the only thing I’ve heard or read about it in and around 2019 was the story of the missing of about 700 tricycles and several hundreds of Motorbikes. I waited painfully to read a report from your folder, but I was disappointed. Up until today, the only action the government under your darling Nana Addo took was to fire the CEO, Alhaji Haroun Majeed, who rather reported the matter to the CID for the right action to be taken. Unfortunate anyway! In the process we heard names of other appointees who were implicated, but expected of this president, those people were rather protected and promoted. 

I have followed your extensive investigations into the activities of Zoomlion and its CEO, Joseph Siaw Agyapong. In fact, his story and case are practically worse than your own brother, Roland Agambiri, if we want to put both scenarios to same standards. To your amazement, your own friend and darling President, Akufo-Addo, praised him, urged and admonished him to call the bluff of haters and jealous bystanders like you (Manansseh). I wasn’t surprised anyway, because I didn’t expect anything better from President Akufo-Addo as far as the fight against corruption was concerned. 

Pity you my dear brother, because the swiftness and the dexterity with which you came attacking the person of Mr John Mahama anytime anything seemed to have gone wrong, that energy on you was lost in the last four years. Not even the goodwill, tolerance and openness of Mahama could get you to sleep over your hard opinions before unfolding them on your uncensored scripts. 

Today, you move from exile for doing your work, to a limited but unsafe dungeon where your opinions are constricted, censored but still dangerous to your very existence. Was it this you bargained for when you said if even a sheep was put on a ballot against Mahama in 2016, you were going to choose the sheep over Mahama? 

Maybe you should be told that to be a good leader is not to make juicy but unrealistic promises, neither is it to give freebies to taxpayers, it is to create a safe, just and equal systems for even the most socially excluded in society to be able to realize their dreams without systemic hindrances and discrimination. 

Within the last two weeks as I closed my world to myself, I became an ardent follower of Indian Yogi and Author, Jagadish Vasudev, publicly known as Sadhguru. In one of his inspirational tales was a story of an ambitious Cuckoos. The cuckoos has been on the tail of a mother cow who usually graze by a kapok tree. The ambitious cuckoos kept making one wish every other day...”when will I get the strong feathers to fly and settle on the last branch of the kapok?”...the wish of the cuckoos. Just before ambitious cuckoos could make another wish, mother cow whispered to him...”eat my dung anytime we go out to graze and very soon you (cuckoos) will be able to fly high above the kapok. 

Lo and behold, cuckoos could fly high and above the kapok after eating the dung for some days. One very funny day, after eating the cow dung, cuckoos flew up and settled on his favorite last branch where he could feel the sun and see the world better. There and then, an aimless but hungry hunter spotted cuckoos, took his gun, aimed and shot him down. Ambitious cuckoos became the next sumptuous meal of the aimless hunter and his hungry family. 

Lesson: even the wasted shit can you get you up and above your dreams, but it may not be able to maintain you there. 

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to my good brother Manansseh Azure Awuni. Stay safe and pray for a government that will protect your life and give you unlimited space to practice your journalism in peace and not in asylum. 

Shalom! Peace!

GHANA IN THE MIDDLE OF TWO PANDEMICS; COVID-19 & THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION OF GHANA.

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese
(Loud citizen from Laribanga)
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When the people revolt; when they rise up and engage in civil unrest and disorder, it is usually not because of hunger but mostly because of anger built over time out of injustice, suppression of human rights and freedoms. Most civil unrests across the globe were triggered out of sustained anger which usually get sparked by just a small unsolicited fire.

When the arbitrary use of executive power becomes the new normal, the voices that ordinarily shout the visible threats are not the threats to the survival of democracies, but the hearts that harbor the pain, anguish, sustained anger and arbitrariness from the Emperor.

The United States is gradually catching flames, and the anger is building up  across the world. The 8 mins 46 seconds reckless act of Derek Chauvin, a Police Officer for Minneapolis Police Department, has provoked the civil unrest in the United States. It didn’t take gunshots or bomb throwing to cause the riots, but just a reckless act of a single police officer.

George Floyd premeditated murder was supposed to be the 19th complaint against Derek Chauvin. Little did the Police Officer of 18 years of experience know that, kneeling on the neck and strangulating Floyd to death was going to result in him being charged for a third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. He thought it was going to added to his pile of complains, but his racist tendencies have sent him into an early maximum security prison in Oak Park Height State Prison, awaiting final judgment later in June. And that singular act is changing the political history of the United States once more.

Not the Police in riot gear and the use of force could stop the rioters from burning armored cars and tall buildings. Not the arrest of the over 4000 rioters could stop millions of both blacks and whites from pouring on to the streets. Not the order from Trump to Governors and Mayors to apply force and take over the streets could scare Chiara, the daughter of the Mayor of New York, from joining the protestors and chanting war songs. Just think beyond your power, because when the power of the masses is gathered around oppressed voices, it can get bloody and destructive.

Not even the fatal shootings from Louisville Metro Police and the Kentucky National Guard which resulted in  killing a black business man could stop the millions from kicking at police vans and throwing stones at police wielding guns. In fact, not even the police driving through the crowds could get them dispersed, it only escalated the disorder.

So, just the murder of a 46 year old George Floyd got the US trembling and boiling this much. Mostly, it takes one reckless decision of state actors to get a nation on its knees. This is what the Electoral Commission of Ghana and it’s commissioners are not learning from; they are not worried about the George Floyd and Derek Chauvin scenario in USA. And the government and its actors aren’t worried and learning either.

It won’t take rocket science or gunshots to cause people to rise up and fight for their rights in Ghana, but a small spark like the 8mins 46 seconds recklessness of Derek Chauvin. Ghanaians have tolerated enough of the arrogance and vindictiveness of President Akuffo Addo. We have accommodated the belligerence and hard-headedness of Jean Mensah and Bossman Asare led EC. Enough of the temptations!

What kind of EC is it that doesn’t want to listen to the voices of reason? When the clouds were still settling, Jean Mensah told us that she doesn’t need a complete set of equipment and data collection. We were told they will only add up to the existing database. Not even IMANI Africa’s expose’ on the procurement irregularities could get Jean Mensah to back down on her unpopular decision to procure a complete system and compile a new voter’s register.

At a point we were told that the EC won’t use the NIA cards since the registration was still ongoing. Today, we are told that the EC is going ahead to use the NIA database as the primary proof of identification; a database which hasn’t been operationalized; a database which is incomplete; an identity card which cannot be used for any transaction as of now.  What happens to Jean Mensah’s own 1.2million Voter ID cards she issued in December 2019? Is the EC charged with the responsibility to register voters and conduct free and fair elections or to deliberately disenfranchised qualified voters from exercising their democratic rights?

At first we thought they wanted to just change the management system of the Biometric system so they could manipulate the final results, but the narrative keep changing. When they realize that the power of the people as it comes from the grassroots cannot easily be manipulated with the click of a button, they’ve decided to engage in disenfranchising eligible voters. Maybe that one will get desperate Nana Addo re-elected as a democratic dictator.

Voices of reason have spoken and still cautioning. When Lawyer Akoto Ampaw spoke against the compilation of the new voters register, he did so out of logical reasoning and not because he doesn’t love his party (the NPP). When Kweku Baako supported the position of Lawyer Ampaw, he did so because the refusal of the EC to dialogue at this critical moment is worrying and suspicious.

Mr Ibn Chambers has just joined the voices of reason to admonish the EC to involve and take the concerns of all stakeholders onboard. Much particular is the inclusion of all eligible voters in the register if it’s going to be compiled anyway. The National House of Chiefs has issued a strong caution to the EC not to make a mistake to disenfranchise any qualified Ghanaian. The Ghana Federation of Labour has joined the National House of Chiefs with a strongly-worded statement to the EC. Does Jean Mensah know it all than all these collection of bodies and voices?

IDEG, CODEO, CDD, IMANI, ASEPA, CARE-Ghana and many Civil Society Organizations have all kicked against this idea of compiling a new voter’s register. They all cited the timing, the Jean Mensah inability to convince them that the EC really need a new register, and a host of other reasons.

How can you use 40 days to register over 16.5 million Ghanaians by taking their fresh biodata onto a new untested system? How feasible is it to get the new register compiled in this June amidst covid-19 and it’s attendant risks, get it functional, test-run and the final register out before the December polls?

Worse of all are the commentaries from government functionaries; The likes of Dominic Nitiwul’s threat cannot stop the people from fighting for their rights when the time comes. Not even his soldiers with armored cars and bombs can stop the wave of civil unrest when they are borne out of genuine anger from the masses. As for Obiri Boahene, it’s a woman that will tap him at the back and that will be his nemesis.

What is it that the NPP/Nana Addo and the Jean Mensah led EC see that all the rest cannot? Well, IMANI captures it well; scratch my back, let me scratch yours arrangement. The EC wants to use procurement to siphon about GHC 150 from the state, while Nana Addo need a new register to rig the 2020 elections. So, to the duo (Nana Addo and Jean Mensah), the lives of Ghanaians don’t matter, once their individual interests are well served in this barter.

The Ghanaian in this scenario is left to choose between the two pandemics; the EC/govt and Covid-19. GHANA WON’T GO TO WAR, BUT WE WILL RESIST THE OPPRESSORS AND THEIR EVIL AGENDA. Remember that a caution to the EC is not a crime, but a patriotic duty.

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