Fixing The Country: Open Letter To The President Of Ghana On Rejuvenation Of The Presidency (administration) -Part 14

Dear Mr President,

The integrity, dignity and sovereignty of this great nation for that matter the democracy is under attack by the acts of arrogance, senseless (capriciousness), an unthinkable by some of your appointee. So, I write to you to recommend the dismissal of some of your appointees who are causing problems for this Country.

Mr President your Administration is characterized of some overbearing (full of arrogant) Ministers some perceived corrupt officials personnel as in the latest report on Corrupts acts at the Presidency. Sir, as the saying goes, the buck stop with the President, hence you need to shine your eye for and act swift and brutal on acts of corruption as well as on the insensitive (unsympathetic etc) nature of some of your appointees.

Mr President your administration for that matter you (because the buck stop with the President) is failing to appreciate the cardinal dogma of the 1992 Constitution that is Probity, Accountability and Transparency (honesty, justice, fairness etc) and there is also a failure to understand that Section 1 of the Article 1 of the 1992 Constitution is very clear that sovereignty resides with the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in this Constitution and lastly a requirement that all parotic citizens must rise up and resist oppressive rule and defend Section 1 of the Article 1 of the 1992 Constitution. Hence I am resisted authoritarian and writing to you to do same by defending your Oath of Office.

Hence, Mr President you need to shine eyes otherwise this Country is sitting on a time bomb, to explode any time ‘T’ hence a potential national security risk is envisaged. Sir some of your appointees may throw this Country into National Security dilemma, an incitement or invitation of possible mass demo this at this time of hardship, it so likely to be type of Sri Lanka of course a democratic demo. Sir, countries or people are taking cue from others. So let us be very cautious. Sir I do not wish any bad thing for my dear country and so I pray that you take full charge of this Country and navigate us through the hard times occasioned by bad management since 1982, aggravated by COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine War. I pray that you will end your second term successfully and hand over to the next person who God will nominate, say a candidate from the NPP otherwise it seemed that you are rushing or over speeding to hand over to His Excellency Ex-President Mahama (good luck to him) and hence your breaking the eight mantra may be just a noise and so may not materialize. The following two Ministers must be sacked immediately (at once) for their overbearing acts.

The Minister of Communication and Digitalization (Hon Ursula)

Sir, even a JSS pupil can tell that if the Registration of the Sim Card is contingent (dependent) on the use of the Ghana Card then common sense (logic) will dictate that the NIA must complete the issuance of the Ghana Card to all Ghanaians especially Ghanaians who have attained over 18years, that is when people are not expecting their Ghana Card to be issued to them or when no a lot of persons queuing or waiting daily for their Ghana Cards, before a person or people-centered Administration can come out with a deadline. Per latest utterances have revealed that she a policy maker has failed to organize stakeholders engagement especially with NIA and the Communication Service Providers for her to appreciate the magnitude of the various complex situation and the parties to come out with suitable solutions or policy and maybe work on the suitable deadline with them. So, she must be sacked for acts of arrogance and heartless, otherwise she, a fine lady must be told in a very a clear language that sovereignty belong to the people and she is just a servant of the people and must be working to satisfy the wellbeing of the citizenry at all times so as to help you end your second term successfully and hand over power to the next person who God will nominate to take over from you. That is either His Excellency Vice President Dr Bawumia or Hon Mr Alan Kyeremantin (Alan Cash) from the NPP or Ex-President Mahama of the NDC.

The Minister for Finance

The Finance Minister, has woefully failed to ensure macroeconomic stability by making sure that the Agric Sector gets at least 10% out of the entire government expenditure as per the Maputo Declaration reached in 2003 by the AU and the then President Kofour’s 10 years National Rice Development Strategy from 2008 to 2018 for self-sufficiency in Rice Production. Sir, out of the entire government expenditure, the Agric sector was allocated a mere 0.71% in 2017, then 0.79% and 0.86% in 2018 and 2019 respectively and in 2020 and 2021 the allocations were 0.68% and 0.56% of the entire government expenditure respectively thus a decline from 0.71% in 2017 to 0.56% in 2021. The Finance Minister, as a good Christian ignored the warning in Proverb 27.23 that Agriculture is the only way to ensure National stability and food security, thereby gain benefits from wealth creation, local and foreign currency generation, generation of sustainable livelihood, with (sustainable employment) and development.

The Finance Minister, has also ignored three basics or fundamentals of economics theories firstly, what to produce with limited or scarce resources or funds (herein recommended the production of rice, maize, poultry by providing enough expenditure or budget for the transformation and modernization of Agriculture especially for massive production of rice which Ghana has comparative advantage in the sub-region etc) in order to change the Goggisburg economy to generate both adequate local and foreign currency and save foreign currency (self-sufficiency) to settle debts and for sustainable development.

Sir it is reported that some agro-industries in the Central Region including the very soon obsolete Komenda sugar Factory are without raw material. Sir, as in one of my earlier submissions, the Komenda sugar Factory was not based on proper or good appraisal so it was wrongly sited, I am ready to school anyone on this from a report from the NLC and NRC and competent researchers including Embrapa Sugar Consultant from Sao Paulo Brazil to both President Kofour in 2008 and President Mills in 2009 and Cargill International report to the late President Mills in April 2010 and the reason why the PNDC halted production in 1982.

Sir do not waste time or drag your feet So, Sir take immediate sales of or action on the Sugar Factory for it to become like the USW4250milion loan Osagyefo Barge (Scrap) So sell it now between US$10million and US$12Miollion to any readily investor to use it for treating or processing both imported raw sugar and the limited raw Sugar cane from within 40km radius to give only 30% of the factory capacity due no adequate land and the sugarcane yield there is below 45mteric tonnes per hectare. Secondly When/How to produce (under irrigation with good seeds or right time of planting if rainfed, cultural or agronomic practices like land preparation, weed control application of fertilizer, hence availability fertilizer at good price, provision or availability of Agric infrastructure like roads, warehousing etc, use of Agric mechanization with tractors, transplanters or seed drillers, power tillers, combine harvesters). Lastly, where/who and for who to produce (massive rice production in the Volta Region which has the highest yield of 6 metric tonnes per hectare, Eastern Region with 4.5 metric tonnes per hectare and in the north especially the Fumbesi valley, Nasia etc and for local consumption and with time export

The Finance Minister, seems to exhibit modern arrogance of continual progress or he was overly confident in what future days hold especially with his e-levy and thus disregarded the caution in Proverb verse 27.1 in the Bible that do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth" and he also failed to understand that we have a Hung Parliament and the possible reaction of the citizenry to a regressive tax, hence participatory governance through stakeholder engagements. So, it was very reckless or foolhardy for the rush in abolishing the Road Toll just to win support from a segment of the Country especially Drivers for the e-levy just two months for the consideration and the approval of the budget by the Hung Parliament. He is therefore liable for the down grading of this Country, the low return to the E-levy etc. He failed to say God willing’ or 'If the Lord wills, tomorrow we will do this, that and the other or herein say God willing’ E-levy may yield good results before we consider abolishing the road Toll at the right time or take action to modernize improve on the road Toll System by efficient digitization.' Because you really don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. It's all in God's hands. You don't even know if you're going to exist the following day.

Mr President, I agree 100% with His Excellency Ex-President Mahama, that the Finance Minister should be sacked. But His Excellency Ex-President Mahama has been both a VP and President and therefore should know better on the status of the VP as per the Ghanaian 1992 Constitution which is clear that the Vice President does not have executive power he is just a figure Head or a Standby person to take over from the President. So the alleged Economic Management Committee if it exist is just a tea party it can give an order to Finance Minister or the Finance Minister is not compelled by any provision or required to take an input from the Standby VP. So, I do not agree with Ex-President Mahama’s suggestion for the replacement of the very brilliant His Excellency VP Dr Bawumia, who is doing a very good job with the digitization and digitalization agenda and even gave us an advance warning that it was not reasonable to tax MoMo transaction. So, the Finance Minister should have listened to the advice of the VP on the e-levy or made it as low as 0.5% or 1% as earlier on recommended by the Minority Leader in Parliament for the acceptance by the public and increase the threshold yearly or simple exclude MoMo transaction from the tax handle.

His Excellency Ex-President Mahama has some experiences of sidelining of the VP in past Presidency, because as VP in the Mills era, he nearly resigned but thanks to our dear mother Her Excellency Lordina Mahama for getting him to stay put and not resigning as the VP when he was sidelined by some key elements (hawks) in the era of the then President Mills. Furthermore, his Presidency (administration) also sidelined his Deputy, the late His Excellency ex-VP Dr Amissah Arthur (an economic guru).

Sidelining of the VP, is a disease in our Political Dispensation. It started from the era of the late Papa J with his deputy, VP Ekow Arkaah. This is so due to the Constitution on a hybrid of the British and USA Constitution. As stated the Vice President is just on Standby role only, he has no executive power. Hence ex-President Mahama was sidelined in the Mills era that angered him so he attempted to resign but the sudden death of President Mills saw him assuming Executive Powers as the President. The Constitutional experts led by Dr SKB Asante who drafted the 1992 Constitution actually recommended a President and a Prime Minister sharing some elaborate authority (executive power) same as in India. The current Senior Minister Mr Osafo Marfo in your Administration has executive powers (delegated power) than the VP (Dr Bawumia). He sidelined the VP is envisaged because he sometimes organize meeting with Minister because he is the unconstitutional Prime Minister (Primus inter pares or first among equals. The VP is just like a Second-in-Command in an Infantry Battalion. Sir this a pen picture of the facts.

Electronic Levy means a lot because we can get revenue from Google, Facebook, and the financial institutions hence, the choice of the term E-levy and proclaimed to the public for a tax handle which seemed to be restricted to MoMo transaction levy was or is problematic, as stated the Minister should have termed it as MoMo transaction levy. So that MoMo transaction levy can easily be cancelled or repealed when faced with problems and we still retain the tax handle of E-levy against the other electronic financial sectors. Hence the Finance Minister Must go.

Mr President, another good reason that he must be sacked because, he was the same cabinet Minister who by his cabinet oath was required to defend policy model from the cabinet like the Free SHS, as rolled out but he rather provided ammunition to your detractors, when he said in public that he does not see why he can pay the school fees of his children who are also covered by the Free SHS policy. He forgot that we all pay VAT and the rich people pay more and may even have a child attending school.

Furthermore, he poorly crafted the very good mineral royalty into what he termed as Agyapa Royalties which gave room for Hon Martin Amidu to make unpalatable remarks about your person sir. Mr President, but the poor work by the Finance Minister, the very smart Minerals Royalty revenue portfolio will have helped to yield great revenue to the ailing economy as well as act as a policy that may help fulfill the provision of section 6 of Article 257 of the 1992 Constitution that all minerals are vested in the President of Ghana, on behalf, and in trust for the people of Ghana. Since it will create the window of opportunity for the citizenry to really own the minerals through purchase of some of the shares, hence a nationwide way of distributing the wealth from the minerals. Mr President, he must go now to give way to a new face who can rally support for the introduction of the Minerals Royalty, which is even the baby of His Excellency Ex-President Mahama and will receive his support with a new and humble Minister.

Mr President, this Minster failed to appreciate the state of affairs that could lead to the down grading of Ghana and had the audacity to dispute the poor grades of Ghana by International Analysis but later on agreed with their grading. This contributed to the loss of confidence by investors in his competence hence not ready to invest in Ghana. He should have advised the time to go the IMF and not you directing him to against his pride. Lastly. Mr President Good business analysis and foresight is part of wisdom and this is lacking Sir.

MAJOR MOHAMMED BOGOBIRI (RTD)