Dr. Nduom's Ten Plus One Points Agenda To Save The Nation (2)

'I will not pay bribes,
I will not seek bribes,
I will work with others to campaign against corruption,

I will speak out against corruption and report on abuse,

I will support candidates for public office who say no to corruption and demonstrate transparency, integrity and accountability'.

–Transparency International's Declaration against Corruption

Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom set the tone for his lecture titled: 'Solutions for Ghana: A Nation in Crisis' by stating that 'It is very important for me to link the contents of this lecture with what qualifies me to stand here and talk about some specific topics.  It is not about university degrees in economics and management. It is about the experience in life growing up in Elmina in an environment that was better than the situation there today - decent schools with caring teachers, youth societies that gave us life lessons, a cleaner environment where the gutters were cleaned every day and garbage collected and disposed regularly.  This means that we have gone backward in the quality of life - no generation should leave the world worse off than they met it and yet this is our reality.

'I am speaking today from the perspective of experiencing life in the USA, a nation built by immigrants just like us - in small towns and big cities working in my profession as a management consultant at the highest level, as a partner in the firm where personal integrity and ability to deliver results to the client was key. I speak today with the full weight of my experience as an assembly member, elected to serve my local community - Akotobinsin Electoral Area and then as Member of Parliament, minister of state and presidential candidate that required me to travel to all corners of this country to see how our people live, feel their fears and engage them by listening to their aspirations.

'I am an entrepreneur who directly employs about 3,000 people here in Ghana through the challenges and pitfalls of doing business here.  These together inform my perspective and help form my judgment. I wish to ask those of you who are asking if I am going to contest the 2016 elections to stop - this is not the time to be talking elections.  This is the time for nation-building.

'I want to dedicate this lecture to the proverbial 'ordinary Ghanaian', the trader in the market, the fisherman, the teacher, the mason, the carpenter and those I meet every day who ask me what to do to survive.  These are the ones who tell me, '…times are hard!' I want them to know that there are many like me who care.  We will do everything we can to make life better and living easier.'

The reference to Elmina by Dr. Nduom reminded me of my youthful days in my paternal village of Adansi Brofoyedru, a village located about 140 kilometres from Cape Coast which houses the great secondary school, Mfantsipim.

Adansi Brofoyedru, at that time, was a vibrant community with its own post office, two broad streets, two primary schools, one middle school which catered for all the surrounding villages, a decent water delivery system, a cocoa and coffee purchasing centre with COCOBOD district office.

The village boasted of UAC and UTC trading shops, a commercial market, which provided a meeting place for traders from other parts of the county. Night life was never boring. Concert parties like Jaguar Jokers, Nzimaa Trio, Axim Trio, Saltpond Trio, Armah's Guitar Band, Onyina's Guitar Band, among others, frequented the community to stage educative plays. Occasional, the community was blessed with a visit from personnel of the Ministry of Information with mobile cinema who showed evergreen films like Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Mensah Builds a House, Picky the Champion alongside advocacy and educative films.  One could buy the local newspapers from the next town, Obuasi Junction on the Cape Coast-Kumasi Highway, just two kilometres away.

From United Middle School, I had the audacity and impudence of a dying cockroach to select Mfantsipim as my first choice, Adisadel College as my second choice and St. Augustine's College as my third choice, all in Cape Coast when I sat for my common entrance examination. It would have been an exercise in futility, if not total madness in our present depressed disorder today.

At that time, everybody was considered equal before the law and merit ruled. Today, in line with the present currency, mediocrity, thievery, greedy bastards, babies with sharp teeth, old evil dwarfs and criminals have staged a state capture and mismanaged the country's economy and dragged the name of the nation through the mad.

The nation has earned international public opprobrium through illicit criminal activities like state camouflaged cocaine trafficking.

At that time, a village boy with illiterate parents who were farmers rubbed shoulders with privileged city boys with wealthy parents who were doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants and respected public servants and educationists.

It was a dream movement from the moonlights of the village to the city lights. We stood our ground through hard work and dedication and even managed to outmaneuver some of our more illustrious mates who spoke the Queen's English as a result of their education at the so-called international schools in the cities.

My fellow classmate of Adansi Brofoyedru Methodist Primary School, Kwaku Dua, former Chief Executive of Volta Lake Transport, well-wishers and I have managed to provide Adansi Brofoyedru Methodist Primary School with  a computer centre as our own small contribution to society.

After sixth form, when I gained admission into the University of Ghana, Legon, I traveled by road from Adansi Brofoyedru to Assin Fosu where I boarded the train to Accra. In Accra, I took trotro from the Accra central railway station to Achimota where School of Administration (now University of Ghana Business School) was then located. Today, the post office and the water delivery system in my village have disappeared under the ferocious might of erosion, the two famous streets have developed into oware-type potholes through half-hearted attempts by succeeding governments to coat them with one layer of coal tar. Today one has to travel to Obuasi, 22 kilometres away, to be able to get daily newspapers to buy. Night life and economic activities have disappeared into smoldering smoke. Today it would take the Ever Merciful Ever Compassionate grace of Allah for a pupil from Adansi Brofoyedru United Middle School (now United Junior High School) to gain admission into a secondary school in Cape Coast.

Today virtually all the railway lines in the country have disappeared either through the inimical attacks of galamsey operators or total criminal neglect of successive governments. Today the life of the average Ghanaian is worth nothing. If your God in His wisdom does not kill you, your own government in its stupidity will do it. The nation is unwittingly creating many youthful suicide bombers. During the recent lecture series organized by OccupyGhana, most of the audience consisted of what I will classify as 'young adults' thus expressed frustration.

The recent results from the Afro Barometer studies by CDD-Ghana should be an eye-opener for the greedy criminal minds that constitute the leadership of the nation. Today, most of the bankrupt leaders are beneficiaries of the largesse of the nation and the sweat of the down-trodden farmers and miners who created the wealth they so bountifully enjoyed. Today these people use the print and electronic media to propagate evil propaganda and attempt to distort history. Their glutinous greedy knows no bound.

Dr. Nduom offered concrete solutions to solving the man-made criminal activities by the leaders of the nation and persons put in entrusted positions who have pushed the nation back into the Stone Age since the onset of independence. The NDC administration has increased the nation's debt stock from GH¢9billion to GH¢70billion within a period of six years with no concrete development or growth statistics to show.

The John Dramani Mahama NDC administration has failed to meet the statutory budgetary allocations to the GETFund, NHIS, the District Assembly Common Fund and other statutory obligations to the nation's institutions.

Today there is cross-debt situation among the state institutions and other private organizations that do business with the government.  Owing to government's failure to meet its statutory obligations and debt burden to A, A cannot meet its debt burden to B and as such B is not in position to pay its debt to C and C has defaulted in its debt to D and D is also owing A, a situation that is unprecedented the country's history.

Dr. Nduom raised many pertinent and cogent issues related to the 10 broad areas which reflected on the deplorable state of the nation.

He attempted a criteria-condition-cause-effect-recommendation analysis. At the end of the day, by some miraculous design or unexplained circumstances, he escaped the usual vile and evil tongue lashing of the NDC babies with sharp teeth.

Patriotic and independent-minded technocrats who conduct disciplined analysis on the socio-economic ills of the nation are usually lambasted by these people.

All the time, the NDC babies with sharp teeth and foul and evil tongues have descended on the massagers rather than on the messages because their limited intellect does not allow them to see beyond a day's hard labour.

By Kwame Gyasi