Men Of Straw

Anytime I am reminded of politics in the soon-to-be Buhariland, one name comes up before any other. It is the name of a certain former senator called Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe. It's such a fresh name because he described himself as a man of 'timber and calibre.'

His comments are also a constant reminder of the congress hopeless election propaganda lie that they have the men to run the motherland Inc for common profit. Now, you know they are not the producers of promised common profit but drainers of the treasury into their private pockets.

We know congresspeople actually mean they have men of straw. Look everywhere around you and challenge my assertion. Can you, even after searching over the next one month, not one week, not a couple of days, not today, not now? Can you take one whole month and come back to provide evidence that congresspeople are not men of straw?

They better had talked women. Not that they will be better off that way because their two women attorneys general and their one woman CHRAJ and their one NCCE, the million dollar frontal dorsal, and information Zita have not embarrassed, thieved or abysmally underperformed.

Congress has never had timber and calibre stuff; and will never have, because the group doesn't encourage what will produce that. Congress is oblivious of the formula that enables an appointer to appoint performers. All congress knows, and practices, is thieving in public office.

We have been told from Parliament and other sources about things congresspeople put on CVs. We know how, often, congress official documents presented to Parliament are full of mistakes. We know how in dealing with international organisations such as International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and AfDB, congress has woefully fouled up figures. We know how we don't know our actual census totals and how congress measures, throwing accuracy to the dogs, inflation and unemployment to suit their thieving ways.

I can imagine the CV of the ɔsono classmate of mine presented to Parliament in 2001. He had taught that not easy subject chemistry in four out of the five English-speaking littoral states of West Africa, namely: the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the motherland and Nigerland.

Congresspeople are fiercely anti-institution. They will do anything to subvert an institution. If elections form a pillar of democratic institutions, they will always ensure they destabilise that democracy either by staging coup d'etats or by rigging elections. Of the whole bunch, only one, the one only known as Martin Amidu, has emerged, from their two coup d'etats, one failed putsch and stolen elections, as a believer in institutions.

The rest of them, from their presidents who feigned anti-corruption to their DHPs, they have all corrupted our institutions. NHIS, CHRAJ, School Feeding, MMT, capitation grant, all institutionalised programmes have been destroyed by their anti-institutional thieving machinations. Thus, if Obama or anyone else thinks we need strong institutions to develop, they can forget. For as long as congresspeople can steal elections and lead, the motherland is doomed to personality over institution governance.

Institutions can be built successfully if majority of those charged in instituting them believe in structure, order and fairness. There are far fewer among the congresspeople confraternity (in fact, among them only Martin Amidu has ably expressly demonstrated guts of it), who believe in institutions and the need to build them. Each as man of straw, the other congresspersons' interest is in tearing down institutions. As individuals, each exploits institutional structures to his/her selfish advantage.

Anytime congresspeople are in power, or want to get to power, they set up devices of institution dismantling schemes which illegitimately get them power or as enablers of abuse of power. If they would consider making an institution work at all, it will have to be the repressive state apparatuses. And if it has to be a state ideological apparatus, it will have to be subjected to negative use.

See their paperweight scribe, with no moral muscle, blown into nation wrecking by evil winds. See him screaming no new electoral register in his election stealing ways. I hope no PPP man or woman, or PNC man or woman and no NPP man or woman would idly sit by to allow him to bear that election armed robbery weapon to election 2016.

Less analytical and less forward looking, congress is quick to rip institutions and their programmes apart at the seams, at the least opportunity, for selfish gains. If this weren't so, all the Kufuor progressive pro-poor and development moves could not have been sacrificed to satisfy the greed of individual congresspeople. Check congress private pockets for signs of men of straw in all the missing transfers from the consolidated fund to GETFUND, DACF, NHIS, Capitation and school feeding grants. They know it for a fact.

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh