No You Have Not, Dr Kwabena Dufour

Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Finance Minister and Ecomonic Planning

In his hot air and vacuous and meaningless budget statement to the nation last week, the Honorable Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, true to form, cited a well-rehearsed litany of what he claimed his Government has been able achieve in the course of what many serious observers have described as the lost years in our difficult task of freeing the people of Ghana from the debilitating pangs of poverty that have gripped a whole swathe of the population of Ghana. 

Rhetorically, Kwabena Dufour enumerated a whole lot of issues and answered himself with a pompous “Yes, We have! ” to the amusement and irritation f the citizens of Ghana.

Not comfortable with being left behind in this self-praise game, the jokers joined the bandwagon in unison. 'Yes we have!' has now become part of the NDC-speak. They move from one radio station to the other to pierce our ear drums with the bogey.

But why should we allow these professional liars to get away with their crime? The real people of Ghana know for a fact that contrary to what these characters say and believe, the real story out there is that the past three years have been a national disaster. Despite the so-called economic stabilisation, we can hardly afford a thing. The cost of every basic necessity of life is getting increasingly hardly affordable. From rent to matches, from tooth paste to tooth brush, from kenkey to gari, from sachet water to toilet roll, from cement to iron rods… the cost of every single item is escalating to a point where we have all been forced to throw up our arms in despair. Parents are barely able to pay their wards' school fees, we are barely able to feed our kids and were are barely able to honour our very basic obligations.

Let the NDC apologists sit back and reflect on the following.

*They came promising to cut down on public expenditure by cutting down on official travel. Look at the number of Government officials who travel out of this country every single day. Look at the amount of money that went to their so-called congress in Sunyani, and look at the amount of money that our ministers have had to spend for simple primary elections at the constituency level. Did anyone see the scandalous profligacy that went into Hanna Bisiw's campaign in her constituency? Did Mills ask her where she got all that money for that documentary on GTV from? Has Mills paused for a minute to ask why all those hangars on joined John Mahama to that Commonwealth Summit in Australia? What on earth did that large delegation go to Perth for? And those who went to New York with him, what was their mission statement?

*John Mills promised to clean the city of Accra of filth in his first hundred days in office. Has he passed through the Nima Highway lately? Has anyone of them visited any of our markets lately? Is that what we were promised in the run-up to election 2008? Look at the cheek of it when Ofosu Ampofo boasted only recently that he would embark on a clean up campaign to make Ghana clean for the Christmas? Is that meant to be a tease or a policy? Before the NPP left office, there was a well-laid-out plan to bring back the regime of sanitary inspectors who, like in the good old days, would do daily inspections of neighbourhoods to ensure that we live in clean and healthy environment. What happened to that policy?

*Mills promised to introduce a one time premium for the National Health Insurance Scheme. Where is it? And as someone poignantly asked Dufour, why has he not introduced a one time premium for his insurance company, if it was such a brilliant idea? Now we are being told that the one-time premium will be introduced in 2012? Where is the outcome of their so-called actuarial study that they have talked about for close to four years? For once, why can't these people have the decency to tell us the truth and nothing but the truth? All the experts in this country have pointed to the bankruptcy that is inherent in this bogus piece of propaganda and yet Mills is not honest and decent enough to admit that he was misinformed before signing on to that silly idea. Because of the dishonesty that has characterized the discussions relating to this seminal social policy that was introduced by the Kufour Administration, we are witnessing its collapse right in front of us. Only time will tell what Mills' legacy in this particular regard will be.

*With pomp and pageantry, the mayor of Accra swore to remove all street hawkers within a month. Well for his information, the streets are humming with those same boys and girls because they have no other jobs to occupy themselves with. Did he consult with Ajiri Blankson before embarking on that ill-conceived adventure? Those boys and girls, at least a whole chunk of them, are trading in that scorching sun not out of choice but out of the necessity to keep body and soul together. If Mills had created the fanciful jobs that he promised them, those kids would not have been hanging around the streets, sometimes against a lot of risks to their lives. We are still waiting to see the 1.6 million jobs that Ablakwah has created. Without the appropriate evidence, he should shut up forever and ever. So please tell Dufour that you have not delivered that promise as well.

*Dufour could not have forgotten that his mentor promised our women that he was going to appoint all of them into responsible positions. Now he does not even have the courtesy to acknowledge the presence of our female Chief Justice, as if to confirm the widely held view that he is blind. What is the percentage of women in his incompetent Cabinet? How many females has he appointed to high office in three years? How many of the few women he found in office has he not sacked?  So Dufour should know that they have not.

*JEA Mills has, through his boot lickers and himself at the UNGA, told the whole world that he has removed schools under trees from the face of our territory. When you ask them to show those schools they run for cover. At least Kufour made sure to show his HIPC schools by marking them as HIPC initiatives. Where are Mills's newly-constructed schools replacing the so-called schools under trees? We do not see them. Where are they?

*Mills promised to erase what he recklessly called vindictiveness said to have been a hallmark of the part of the Kufour Administration. Well, even his own party members admit that this man is the most vindictive president we have ever had. Systematically, he has embarked on a holy war to “punish” a region because he wants to dismantle the so-called Ashanti project. Anyone who cares to know will admit that the Ashanti region has been carefully singled out for punishment because the majority of people from that region do not see anything good in the NDC to vote for it. It is that simple. But one should also know for a fact that the Ashanti region contributes enormously to this country's well being. They have the gold, cocoa, food stuffs, human resources, and are very patriotic. So why should they be punished for exercising their right of choice for which they have been fully vindicated by the way, against the background of all the mess we are going through? In spite of the cosmetic jobs for lackeys like Dufour and the few Ashanti appointees, any discerning Ghanaian knows that the Ashanti region is having a rough time under this administration. And so I say to Dufour: No you have not done it! If he wants a confirmation, he should call JJ Rawlings and/or his wife.

*I have taken the trouble to visit some of the tourist centres in Ghana because from my several visits to places like Kenya and Seychelles and Zanzibar, I have learnt that it is a source of national income almost unparalleled.  It is such a disaster. Only last week, I went to the Aburi Botanical Garden in anticipation that I would be able to relax calmly. I am not sure any of our nouveaux riches of ministers do even understand what is meant by relaxation. They would rather go round chop bars to display their ill-gotten wealth with the purchase of all kinds of pieces of goat heads and 'nyamayama'. In three short years, the Aburi Garden has become almost a “bola”.

That Minister in charge of Tourism should go there for just a few minutes and I am sure after that she will go and submit her resignation letter to President Do Little, i.e. if she has any conscience. Aburi, once one of our jewels, is now like a plague to be avoided.

*I shudder to recall the promises that candidate Mills made in respect of transparent and accountable governance. Is Dufour living in this same country or he is operating from Mars? Well if he is here with us then he should open his ears and his big eyes wider. There are all kinds of publications pointing at some of the most exquisite mansions that have ever been constructed in the Republic of Ghana, and the fingers are all pointing in one direction.

Put mildly some of his colleagues have overnight become billionaires in this poor country, not through any noble qualities like the virtues that propelled the likes of the Boakyes, the JK Siaws, the Appiah-Menkahs, the Esther Ocloos, the BA Mensahs into neat wealth,  but through naked stealing of our resources. Call it kleptomania if you so wish. They are all stealing left right and centre and displaying their wealth in the most conspicuous and vulgar manner and yet, your so-described Prof, aka Asomdweehene, sees no wrong and hears no wrong. The system keeps getting murkier and murkier. The latest toli in town is that everybody is now an oil merchant in the NDC. That is not what we were promised, was, it? We were not warned that we were going to be ruled by a bunch of rogues and crooks. Therefore Dr. Dufour should revisit his notes. We have not been well served. Indeed we have been conned by a con-man.

*For the first time in our history, the educational system is conspicuously failing. When Kufour introduced the four-year duration for the SSS, it was the result of a well-researched and debated effort. Under very dubious circumstances, all in the name of some political expediency, John Mahama convened that bogus gathering to a so-called brainstorming session to examine whether to change from four years to three years. I their characteristic fashion of putting faits accomplis to the nation they used that fraudulent exercise to tell a whole nation that we had decided to move back to three years. Yes, that was a typical Mills chicanery. He has even succeeded in causing immeasurable harm to our children. As a result of this uncaring behaviour on the part of a people who call themselves a social democratic government, we have schools scoring zero.

*It is sad to examine the performance of this useless government without recalling the very irresponsible manner in which they discussed the sad incident of the tragic death of the Dagbon Overlord. Where are the killers, Mr President? Where are the killers, Mr Minister of Finance? Where are the killers, Ablakwah Okudzeto? Where are the killers of the Ya Na, Baba Jamal, the Jackal? The simple answer is that we still have not found them.

*The list of unfulfilled promises is very long and daunting. We can go on and on and on and draw the same blank on all of them. The verdict is out.

*And now the verdict. You guys ain't done nothing to deserve even a day at the end of your mandate. The very good people of this country know the evil you have done them. And they tell you clearly and loudly, Kwabena Dufour that “NO YOU HAVE NOT!”

By Kwasi Yeboah