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

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I come in peace.

A HUMBLE CALL ON DR. ABU SAKARA TO REFLEX OVER

 By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

22/10/2022

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

8/10/20222

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

0244198031

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

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

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

1. Regulation—using policy and legislation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(CJ, Wisconsin University)

0244198031

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By Issifu Seidu Kudus Gbeadese 

(Youth Imam from Laribanga)

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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!