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

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(CJ, Wisconsin University)

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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)

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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 🌙

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!