Irony of Kuffour's Five Years in Office ...

........ and The Litany of Failures- Part I A compilation of readers' responses.

I write in response to Mr. Musah Sidibe Abdul Rahman's article under the above caption. After reading the article, I thought about writing a rejoinder, but decided to glance through what other readers thought of it. After I finished, I realized readers reactions were mixed, and thought it interesting to share with those who did not have the time to read other readers opinions. Mr. Musah Sidibe Abdul Rahman, a student of Brock University, Canada has gain popularity these days as a de facto spokesperson for the NDC. All his previous articles confirm this fact. The above article, his recent one, has generated the most responses from ghanaweb readers. The following are what readers said of his article. NOTE – Everything is quoted VERBATIM.

• What else should we accept from a writer like Abdul-Rahman? Kufour government is not made of a group of saints. Its made of human beings like you and me.When ex-Prez Rawlings was sleeping with Diplomat's 'wives', where were you? Much as we should not condone corruption, I get irritated when those who never saw anything wrong when NDC was in power and kept mute and even took part in 'stealing' state money, today picks their pens and write trash and paste on Ghanaweb site, a site which encourages only damaging things about a government its owner has never liked.

Be objective and fair minded whenever you pick your pen to write FOR this government is 100% better than NDC.You sit in USA and write things you have no evidence in support of.

• Infantile argument peppered with atrocious spelling.

• What a crap this article is. I've never in my life read such a sad tale of misinformation.

This government is arguably the most democratic, fair-minded, tolerant and development-oriented government Ghana has ever seen under this prevailing difficult world economic circumstances.

How could someone write such a falsehood about this government if the person was not an NDC sympathiser and was not sent to Ontario,Canada under false pretences. Because your so-called scholarship, which you did not deserve in the first place, was stopped when the NDC was kicked out, that is why you had the effrontery to write these lies about this government.

Ghanaians have wised up over the last 20 years and they have definitely not forgotten the wasted years they had to endure under the PNDC/NDC government, therefore I can assure you that they are not going to listen to sycophants, liars, selfish, cowards, boot-lickers and fascist like you.

• This article is full of TYPO!!...Please in your comming version do well to EDIT your article before letting it to be posted on the web for the public to read!!

• Abdul-Rahman, the idea of you concluding that the government in power, which is just a year into its 2nd term would go down in shame tells most of us that you are biased! Objectivity is needed, not blind partisanship.

• Abdul-Rahman, please stop deceiving some of our people with your unproven allegations and pure lies. Some of us are fed up with poeple like you who have nothing good to offer Ghana except unproven allegations and blatant lies. I am not an NPP man but I can assure you that no President will leave office based on unproven allegations and blatant lies and the President of Ghana will not leave office under such circumstances.

Our current President is far better in every respect than the former President who had no management skill but was able to steer the affairs of Ghana for 20 good years because of the tolerance attitude of Ghanaians. If you have nothing good to offer Ghana, then please better concentrate on what ever you are doing in Canada. We are fed up with your RUBBISH.

• Where were you during Ghana's 'GOLDEN ERA'?(1979-2000)I guess you were still a Dim-Witt as you are now.Thank God under Kuffour,even imbecilles like you can opine.Why can't we criticise fairly?Five yrs of nothing good...

• in every govrnment there must be a mistake but we should always think of the good things that government is doing.IN JESUS government there was one who was thieve yet jesus was able to achieve his goal.kuffour government has the done the best and he needs a lot of recommendation.shameful opposition.be objective and realistic.how can you compare rawlings government with kuffours one.inspite of everything you can not compare the government of devil to JESUS.THE NURSING TRAINING IN FOMENA IN ASHANTI WAS LEFT IN A YEARS AGO BUT NOW IT HAS BEEN COMPLETED BY THE EFFORT OF THE THIS GOVERNMENT.WHWN IWAS COMING TO LONDON TWO YEARS AGO THE DOLLAR RATE WAS $8000 AND IS STILL WITHIN THAT RANGE UNLIKE THE RAWLINGS TIME. EBENEZER. LONDON

• i just wander who the Rahman is and i hope to blieve that u are simply ignorant about all what u are talking!

1. the faceless Gizel u guys paraded in ghana just to cause mayhem in the country turns out to be some nonsense thing you guys did to the most very intellegence of ghanaians and ghanaians wld not forgive u for allowing this woman to step her stinking mouth in this useless holtel issue just to Fool u NDC propagandist and yet u are still talking foolishly as u have not learnt any lesson from the Gizell case and yet u are sterming out with another frame up story which on it's own self is not true to send this to parliament to discus on the floor of parliamne which if it comes on si one of the most useless parliament we have ever had in the country and even the 92 loopsided parliament wldn't have come closer to this one and i bleive with the help of the majority, this NONSENSE wld not have it;s way to the parliament hse for any delibration.

• So far it has been Gizelle, Hotel Kuffuor, Haruna Essekou and Drug MP. On the other side the economy is now growing stabilized, interest rate going down, foreign reserves rising and just last outdooring of 400 tractors for farmers.

The Gizelle woefully failed, Hotel Kuffour was acquired by a private individual with a bank loan. The record of which is there for all to see. The much talk about Essekou's allegation has turn out to be in favor of the NPP since, it has shown how the zero tolerance is working so much so that government ministers, for the fear of being accused of taking kickbacks, are awarding contracts to contractors from the opposition parties. Unlike NDC times where all businesses apart from those owned by NDC members were targeted and driven out including market women and those who ever dared to challenge madam.

Sorry Mr Abdul-Rahman but Ghanaians are not stupid as you thought, we can reason for ourselves no matter the lies and the unsubstantiated allegations. I wish there could be one proof that Anane ever siphoned any money from government accounts or President Kuffour had anything to do with Gizzele. As for Essekou's case all you should do now is to bow your head in shame and apologize to the president because Essekou never linked him to any of things you have accused him of.

For me, I have no respect for any NDC member or supporter. Their leaders killed our judges, and past head of states and army generals for no reason. They humiliated our women in public, destroy our businesses, confisticated our assets for no apparent reasons including the fifty cedi notes and used our resources to buy pick-ups for their party activities. Even during the democratic rule they still kept the commandos. Just to remind you that the commandos were not staying in the army barracks but rather in confisticated houses among the civilian population with their armory. Ghana is still paying loans collected by the 31st WM run by madam the list can go on forever. These leaders are still walking without even an apology to Ghanaians for the atrocities they committed.

On the balance of evidence NPP would be considered as angels compared to NDC. Even kids can see the hollowness in the argument put up by the writer. NDC could not buy a single tractor for our hard working farmers in 8+12 years they misruled the country instead they bought over 500 pickups for party activities.

You have no point Mr. writter. You cannot convince a single person who voted for the NPP to change his or her mind rather people are getting angry with these silly allegations and turning to the NPP.

In the end I will give something to ponder about. Excerpts from the 2001 budget:

As you are aware Mr. Speaker, the situation we inherited was a fragile economy, which manifests itself in excessive domestic and external debt, high inflation, weak currency, excess liquidity in the system and high unemployment. Mr. Speaker, according to the Central Bank, at the beginning of the fourth quarter of year 2000, the Central Government account with Bank of Ghana showed an overdrawn position of 3.0 billion and by the end of December 2000, the overdrawn position was about 900 billion. We must fight inflation at all fronts.

• Hey!! Guys,could you come out of your hypocrisy and tell this Rahman guy the gospel truth?

Do you people have any sense of shame? How on earth could someone write an article and address an international audience in such a haphazard manner? I know the avalanche of insults I'll receive for writing this piece. Yea! Let anyone dare!!

Rahman's thesis epitomises the gravity of our language problem.If my former Headmaster, I.K. Gyasi reads this piece, he will definitely cry for the head of Rahman. Hey!! Arise the youth of Ghana.We are the envy of most countries in the international community. This kind of English could not have produced the Annans, Alloteys and the Ibn Chambases just to mention but a few proud sons and daughters we boast of today.

We have chosen English as our medium of instruction and communication,why can't we live by it? Go to non-English speaking countries and you'll see how eager they are, learning this "contemptible" language. Nobody denies anyone the right to express themselves! Nevertheless,people read a lot into what we write.I'll never take this writer serious on one note.He's just as corrupt and irresponsible as the government he's criticising.This is someone who could not correct his own grammatical/spelling errors.He also didn't see the need to "consult"[courtesies to MALLAM ISSA] anyone. He is either too careless, proud or could be a despot ruler who'd never think of his subject when speaking to them or making decisions that affect them.

Rahman can't tell me he didn't see a single mistake in his article before posting it.Yet, he took us for granted.Why do you pick on OFRI? You guys are vampires,scavengers,and irresponsible ! You're not different from the coup makers and dictators you so despise.

Let anyone who can't write standard English write in their mother tongue, or, hold your breath to cool your porridge. Your rights end at where my nose begins. That is the beauty of democracy!! Rights go with responsibilities! Rahman has the right to express himself the way he wants. Ofri has no right to comment,just because he talks about Language.The very tool which Rahman uses to get his message to his audience.How could you build a good house or make a farm when you use obselete and rusty tools? Am I talking to BABIES? Come on! Let's come out of our selfishness. We can't be held to ransome to satisfy your whims and caprices! Almost everyone who spoke against OFRI "slipped"[courtesy Mr.RAS]. What have we to show our parents after all these years of toil? Do you expect our children to read the kind of English some of you write? May Allah forbid!!! No! Not my children. I pray God in HIS own time weeds these characters out of the system!!!

I rest my case. I'm waiting for your comments, BUT, BE MINDFUL OF YOUR ENGLISH! Peace!!

• Thank you very much for doing a good job for the opposition parties in our brloved country. You have hit the nail right there. I hope somebody is litening and will take positive action. This is well overdue and I think the International bodies should start advicing Kufour. He needs to take a gentleman's decision if he thinks he's one. If not then the unfortunate should happen in our country for the first time. God knows what disaster he might be planning form now till he leaves office in 2008, if that chance is given to him. I hope Ghanaians start opening their parochial minds to better analysis and think properly to move the country forward. Or else our children and grandchildren will curse us in our graves.

• I think I will add my two cents to need the need for censorship and editorial policies on this page. Without even bringing to bear the intricacies and complexities of how to make it happen I think, we all definitely agree that some of the postings and writings don't belong here.

Don't get me wrong. This in no way some guerilla invention to gag some well-meaning folks from contributing to national discourse but, rather to set an enviable standard for those that wish to make their inking persuasion a matter of public consumption. Like most readers have already pointed out, this is a public domain and the contents here a consumed by readers and patrons from diverse background and nationalities. Typos are different from grammatical errors and appalling fundamental linguistic syntax. I would ask that individuals that are more talented, with superior writing skills if I may, should submit their names to the webmaster for consideration for such an editorial exercise. There is a whole lot we can do to help our not so privileged folks but I don't think we should chastise and ridicule them because they fall short of an expected mass communication threshold. We should rather encourage them and criticize them constructively when we can. Also, we shouldn't simply criticize but offer a lending hand to make things better. We can all help one way or the other! Together we can build folks!

• This is the worst government in the history of our beloved country. I don't know what they want to do for Ghana, only for the President to go around the world at the least invitation. What are the other minister's doing?

• PARLIAMENT THAT IS FULL OF NARCOTIC PEDDLERS. WHAT GOOD HAVE THEY DONE THIS NATION PLEASE TELL ME. I WAIT YOUR RESPONSE.

• Good article, keep it up!

• We wished for war and we now have it. God knew what was in store to chooce between KUFFOUR and MILLS.

But because Ghanaians wanted ghange,we chose the devils hand during the run-off. Let us eat our own cake that we baked . GOD WILL JUDGE US.