Mr. President, Why Force The Ordinary Ghanaian To Swallow Chloroquine While You And Your Cohorts Swallow Chocolate?

During the reception of the Diplomatic Corps at the Peduase Lodge on Wednesday February 05, 2014, President John Dramani Mahama had this to say; “We are taking some tough decisions, we are swallowing some bitter medicine and strengthening the fundamentals, to ensure a better and brighter economic future for our people.” When I heard the President say this to the diplomats last year, I took him by his word and thought he was going to be as good as his words but no such luck.

My word! I simply have to eat my words. Over a year after the President made this statement, I have come to the realization that he meant something different. And should you seek my opinion, I would not shudder to say that the President actually intended to say that; “We (the President and his cabinet ministers) are taking some draconian decisions, we are swallowing ‘chocolate medicine’ and weakening the fundamentals, to ensure a bitter and gloomy economic future for our people.” Don’t get me wrong.

I am not suggesting that the President and his cabinet ministers are criminally minded neither are they treacherously minded. But their actions and inactions suggest that they might be treacherously minded if not criminally minded. You want to know why I say so? Then I would suggest you waste more time reading the baloney in the paragraphs below. Oh?

Did I just use the President’s favourite word- baloney? Whether I use the President’s favourite word or not really doesn’t matter to you as a reader. That is my business. But please spare me some few seconds to ascertain something from you my dear reader. Did the President say he is no longer a dead goat but a living goat? And did you take his profession of faith that he is now a living goat seriously? If you did, I want to tell you here and now that it was a profession of treachery by the President and not a profession of faith, revise your notes dear reader.

Oh! Sorry I am digressing. What did I say I was going to tell you? Yes! I now remember. I was about telling you why I think the President and his cabinet ministers are treacherous in whatever they tell the good people of Ghana when the “baloney” and “dead goat/living goat” stuff came to mind. Without wasting your precious time any longer, I would concentrate on the substance of the write-up; which is to expose the treachery in the President’s actions and inactions. Some of these actions and inactions of the President include but not limited to the overspending by the flagstaff house in 2014, the questionable unprecedented increase in the emoluments of Article 71 office holders, and the gradual scrapping of the fuel subsidy.

Before I would proceed to discuss these things that make me think the President and his cronies are swallowing chocolate while forcing the ordinary citizen to swallow chloroquine, I would love to make it clear that the swallowing of chocolate by governments did not start with President John Mahama’s government neither will it end with his government. But this particular government under President John Mahama is actually gobbling up the chocolate while forcing the ordinary Ghanaian to also gobble up chloroquine. You now understand why I lose sleep over the attitude of the present government towards the good people of Ghana? You are not convinced? Wait a minute so that I would explain further.

When you have a President who says “Government itself is exercising stricter financial discipline and Public Sector institutions are being encouraged to make the necessary adjustments that will result in improving the well-being of our people across this nation” but goes ahead to overspend the budget allocation to his office by over hundred (100%) then you don’t expect the people of Ghana to take the President seriously when he tells them more tidings.

As at September 2014, the Presidency had spent GH¢76 million, far in excess of the GH¢30,929,343 approved by Parliament for the year 2014. So this was the kind of “stricter financial discipline” that “government itself is exercising” that the President was talking about when he was addressing the Diplomatic Corps on February 5, 2014? And did I hear the Deputy Minister of Finance- Hon. Cassiel Ato Forson defending the asinine spending by the Office of the President when the issue was raised in Parliament by Hon. Alex Afenyo-Markins, during the consideration of the 2015 budget allocation for the Office of Government Machinery?

Did he actually say that “…though there was overspending at the Office of the President, the total budgetary allocation of GH¢326.8 million for the Office of Government Machinery was not exceeded” as his defense for the crass spending by the Office of the President? Did what the Deputy Minister say make sense to you? If it did make sense to you, I need some edification here.

Until then, I would say that the Deputy Minister should have said what he said to the marines. When you have a President who claims to be building a “Better Ghana” and putting people first but goes ahead to keep scrapping many subsidies such as fuel and fertilizer (at least fertilizer subsidies for the three Northern Regions) then we have to start watching the President and the NDC government closely. I believe that we cannot continue to enjoy subsidies forever but the timing of the scrapping of these subsidies coupled with the fact that as a nation, we have nothing to show for the scrapping of these subsidies is what irks me and many other benign Ghanaians. The timing for the scrapping of these subsidies is completely out of place. Do not ask me why. You know what time it is my dear reader.

Even if you disagree with me as regards the timing but one would have thought that scrapping these subsidies would have made available some funds to government for developmental projects hence reducing the rate at which government borrows. But what do we see? We rather see government borrowing more all in the name of sourcing funds to embark on developmental projects. Well, the President and his lieutenants call it “smart borrowing” so I might be very wrong in saying that the government is borrowing too much. But, please, bear with me because I might be very ignorant and not abreast of government’s smart borrowing strategies. I am using common sense only in my arguments and not “smart sense.” In the wake of the partial scrapping of the fuel subsidies which culminated in the high fuel prices we are witnessing, we are told by Mr. Moses Asaga (The Chief Executive of the National Petroleum Authority) to stop being “hypocritical.”

Mr. Asaga might be right in calling us hypocrites. Why? Because he does not pay for fuel neither does he pay for cost associated with boarding both public and private vehicles. So he doesn’t and would never understand why Ghanaians would complain when fuel prices go up. But we would get to know who is indeed a hypocrite at the right time Mr. Asaga! I would not hasten to say that Mr. Asaga is rather a whited sepulcher and not the good people of Ghana. It is a matter of time.

When you have a President who complains about the public sector wage bill eating into the total revenue of the country up to as high as over 70% but goes ahead to approve outrageous salaries and allowances for Article 71 office holders, then we have to lose sleep over the actions and inactions of the President and the NDC government. For me, the President’s approval of the arguably outrageous pay rise for Article 71 office holders was not as treacherous as the President’s decision to play the devil’s advocate after the approval when he asked parliament to take a second look at a pay rise which he approved as a President. As if increasing the salaries of the Article 71 office holders was not enough, the pay rise was backdated to take effect from 2009 instead of 2012 when the increase in salaries was actually implemented.

This saw Article 71 office holders bagging home ginormous sums of moneys. Acerbically, after the President and other Article 71 Office holders had taken their 3 years arrears for no work done, the President and the NDC government rolled out a draconian policy to pay new recruits of the public sector only 3 months as back pay irrespective of how long such new recruits have worked. So you see how the President and his cohorts are gobbling up chocolate while using arm-twisting strategies to get the good people of Ghana to swallow chloroquine?

But the question I would keep asking is: do we have to blame the President and the NDC government for these draconian policy decisions that throw the ordinary Ghanaian off balance making him /her unable to strike a balance between what he/she is actually going through and what the President and his lieutenants claim to be doing or have done to make his/her life better? I don’t know the answer you as a reader has in mind but my answer will always be a very big no.

I will continue to say that the irresponsible opposition parties that we have in Ghana are responsible for the government’s crass arrogance and cold-bloodedness. And I would continue to lay over 90% of the blame at the doorstep of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) which is the major opposition party in Ghana and also touts itself as government in the making. The NPP appears to be interested in frivolous matters instead of being interested in matters that have dreadful effects on the citizenry. What the NPP fail to appreciate is the fact that when they don’t say or do anything about what the NDC government does which affects the citizenry deleteriously, the NPP seem to be sending a message to the electorate that they are ok with what the government in power is doing.

I am not by this statement suggesting that the NPP should be hither and thither while spewing mumbo jumbo and doing frivolous things anytime the government coughs. I am insinuating that the NPP should talk and do things based on well researched findings and not based on bush telegraph. In saying and doing things based on research, the NPP would be in a better position to offer superior alternative policies to the electorate which would improve the chances of the NPP in the next elections.

So when I hear the NPP supporter claiming that the NDC government has failed the people of Ghana hence the electoral fortunes of the NPP are very bright in the 2016 elections, I always shrug it off by telling him or her that “that is the chink in your armor that might cause you in the 2016 election.” How does the NPP define the failure of the NDC government when the NPP has no elaborate alternative policies to the messy policies that the NDC government is implementing?

Until the NPP and the other opposition political parties learn to offer nonpareil alternative policies, we might all have to languish in the mess that NDC government has created a bit longer than we can all imagine as a nation. Thanks for taking your time to read this lengthy write-up. Till I lose some sleep over the actions and inactions of the President and his lieutenants, I would say that we would part company here and now.

Kpirko Wenceslaw
…..Signed……
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