Building A War Chest With The Poor Man's Sweat

Watching the huge crowd of angry Ghanaians who took part in the 'Won Gbo'  and 'Ye Bre' demonstrations organised by the opposition New Patriotic Party, questions that  came to my mind were: 'If Ghanaians could hit the streets in such large numbers, what will they do with their thumbs come 2016?'  'Are Ghanaians short-sighted and easily forgetting as the President looked into our faces and told us some time ago?'

We are being fooled on daily basis yet all that we can do is demonstrate, criticise and complain to those who are building their war chest with our sweat.  After all, what else can we do? The NDC is stealing from the national coffers left, right and centre.  They have refused to listen to our complaints because they are interested in holding on to power rather than ruling the nation. To these reckless looters, they have the funny idea that no matter how abysmal they perform, they can win elections with money.  

They have refused to admit the fact that the human mind is dynamic. They don't care what the people who live in Accra and other big cities are saying because, after all,  when elections come knocking at the door, those who live in the villages and hamlets will surely vote for them if they are able to provide them with salt, enema, soap, koobi etc.   In fact, they know on election day if they put a ten Ghana Cedi note in a match box and give it to a villager who has suffered for four years, the guy will collect the money and vote for them to continue looting.  They tried it the other time and it worked to perfection.

Sadly, some of our chiefs, knowing full well that they  are not supposed to engage in active politics, open their soft spots for the NDC to trample upon because of money and promises of cars when the party wins power.  One promise that the NDC gave to our chiefs was immediately honoured when the party came to power—that is, the donation of luxurious cars to chiefs who clandestinely and subtly campaigned for them.  There was this chief in the Brong-Ahafo Region who went about in the night telling tenant farmers in his area that if they did not vote for John Mahama, they would be driven away from the area.   And these poor folks did vote for the NDC just to keep their heads above water.

President Mahama and his cohorts know very well that if care is not taken and they lose power, heads will roll. Indeed, they know very well that if nobody at all goes to jail, Woyome, their bankroller, will find himself behind the walls of the Nsawam Prisons, to be followed by those who used our monies to rear guinea fowls and later allowed the birds to fly to Burkina Faso for a holiday—the Asongtaaba people. Similar fate awaits the World Cup thieves, the MASLOC thieves, the National Service Scheme looters, the SADA criminals, the illegal wealth-grabbing ministers of state and their deputies, thenouveauriche MMDCEs,   etc.

President Mahama is a smart guy.  He knows that the Indemnity Clause in the Constitution safeguards him from prosecution even if he steals our money so he is grabbing whatever he can lay his hands on, thus encouraging his men and women to join the bandwagon.  The truth is that the President cannot rein in his men and women who are piling up money because he is deep in it and as such he has no moral right to punish anyone.  He was fingered for underhand dealings when he was commissioned by the late Professor Mills to negotiate for the purchase of the Presidential Jet. For more than two years since this evil was revealed by Citizen Vigilante Martin Amidu, the President has never denied the charges; neither has he ever spoken about the issue.

I have a humble advice from the bottom of my heart for Mr Mahama and his cohorts. They should learn from what happened to NDC ex-convicts like Sipa Yankey, Kwame Peprah, Ibrahim Adam, Tsatsu Tsikata and the late Victor Selormey. These gentlemen never dreamt that one day they would find themselves wearing prison uniforms and languishing in jail.  After all, their government was in power so they seized the opportunity to cheat the state.  Before they could blink an eye, a new Pharaoh came to Egypt and did not know Joseph and so they found themselves behind the walls of the Nsawam Medium Security Prison. Even when they die, as in the case of Victor Selormey, they will still have the tag of ex-convict hanging on their necks.

As for President Mahama, he should look back and see what happened to General A.A. Afrifa.  In 1969 when the Constitution was written by the government he led, the good old General inserted an Indemnity Clause in it.  For the two years that Professor Busia ruled this country, nobody touched him.  General Acheampong was in control of this country for nearly seven years but he did not touch Afrifa, even though Afrifa criticised him so much that his proposed Union Government was thrown to the dogs in a referendum. Similarly, for the two years that Dr Hilla Limann ruled the country, General Afrifa walked freely in this country.  In 1979 when Rawlings seized power, he threw the Indemnity Clause to the dogs, seized Afrifa from his Krobo village where he had retired to farm, tied him to a pole and shot him like a common criminal.  Sadly, when the soldiers pointed their guns at Afrifa, the Indemnity Clause was nowhere to rescue him.  We did not hear any charges brought against this fine Royal Military Academy Sandhurst-trained General. Not a gun was heard nor a farewell shot fired, as the body of the former Head of State was taken away to be buried at the Nsawam Prison cemetery.

Who knows, maybe one day as we trudge along, a certain crazy guy will come storming like Norman Schwarzkopf, the American four-star general who led the Gulf War, and the pendulum will start swinging left.  I am not praying for the worst to happen but the truth is that what happened yesterday can happen tomorrow.  If a mere intention to change the constitution of Burkina Faso by Compaoré could lead to an uprising which pushed him from power, one cannot tell what will happen in Ghana tomorrow.  When people are pushed to the wall, there is no alternative but to fight back. That is only natural.

It has been nearly six years since the NDC took over power from the NPP but not a single former minister of ex-President Kufuor has been jailed, even though ex-President Rawlings said before the 2008 elections that the government then should expand the Nsawam Prisons because more ministers of the Kufuor administration would find themselves behind bars.  This tells you that the Kufuor administration did not countenance corruption.  If you think they were corrupt, catch them if you can.

In the face of all the naked thievery of our collective money, I sometimes pity those who have the funny feeling that nothing will happen to them when they leave office.  If a legal brain like Tsatsu Tsikata, who hired another fine legal brain in the person of Professor P.V.O Dankwa to defend him in a court of competent jurisdiction, could be jailed, I wonder what will happen to the MMDCEs who are on a stealing spree, when the NDC leaves office.  I shudder to broach this subject. For now, they can continue to steal but one day when nemesis comes knocking at their door, they should remember what this Earth Angel is saying.

STATE OF THE NATION
Sometimes I have a soft spot for the President because it seems to me that he is not being told the truth by his handlers as far as the state of the nation is concerned.  His speechwriters gather information from all the districts and compile them and give it to him to read to Ghanaians as the state of the nation.  Projects which are not even at the lintel level are labelled as completed and the President also tells the people the same lies.  That is why he has been doing cut and paste.  Has our President ever heard the State of the Union Address of the US delivered by former President George Walker Bush?

A State of the Nation Address is not about promises which begin with 'I shall do', 'I have directed', 'I will fix', etc. As a president in a democratic dispensation, if you go to the chamber of parliament to deliver a state of the nation address, the citizens will want to know what you have done and whether the state of the nation as at the time you are delivering the address is strong or weak.  If a president goes to the chamber of parliament and repeats what he told the citizenry the previous year, such a president will be dancing naked and opens himself to public ridicule. This was exactly what our President did.

The President told us in his State of the Nation Address in 2013 that by the end of 2014, 'dumsor' would be a thing of the past and we clapped for him only to face a worsened 'dumsor in 2014.  Throughout 2014, anytime the President set a date that   'dumsor' would end, the VRA came out with a new date. The President was able to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians until the situation reached this unbearable level. Today, listen to Mr Big Stuff:  '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.'

And the man thinks we believed what he told us.   Akai!!!  Aah!   Wanna learn how to smoke cigar?  I recommend Casa Torano for you. It is mild enough for beginners and has a complex flavour for the beginner.  In fact, it is enjoyable all the way down to the last two inches of the cigar.  Get ready and join me to puff Casa Torano.

Eric Bawah