Press Statement By Charles Ayuune Akurugu At A News Conference To Mark The Beginning Of A Movement To Totally Overhaul The Public Sector In Ghana

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press, thanks for honouring my invitation to witness the birth of a public interest nongovernmental organization--Progressive Public Servants for the Total Overhaul of the Public Sector (PPSTOPS).

Today is a great day in the history of this country and Africa. As I told the American Embassy the other day in an open letter in response to their refusal to grant me a transit visa to enable me travel for a conference in another country, there is a new and a rising African ready and destined to succeed without leaving the shores of Africa. Ready to steer his own affairs as once said by a great son of this land and not be deceived. When I look at the face of my lovely kids each day, the question that keeps coming to mind is what future am I bequeathing them? And I think each and every one of us must ask ourselves that question. Before I got married and brought forth children I had told myself that never should my child suffer like I did. But today, I am getting afraid that I cannot keep that promise because of the system we are creating for ourselves. I see a future in which one day our children will bite each other for no reason of theirs. I do not know about you, but I see a bleak future for Ghana if things do not change. Ghana is now full of deceit, manipulation and trivialities. Nothing is working and nothing has worked before and will never work if we do not do something drastic.

Before I go into further details, let me state that this movement we are witnessing today has nothing to do with the usual NDC and NPP politics that is bringing this country to its knees. Several prominent Ghanaians have said this and I believed them and have thoughtfully concluded that neither NDC nor NPP can do anything for this country if the public servant remains who he is today. The public sector is intrinsically sick because the permanent public servant and most experienced has little or no say in what happens in the running of the country and this needs to be changed. This movement is about that change and not the usual NDC and NPP politics. Like every other Ghanaian, I vote for one party or the other during elections. However, at this time, I think the bigger party is Ghana and not NPP or NDC. I believe that, if the public sector is allowed to work at even just one tenth of its capacity, there will be more visible changes in the lives of people. I have said it before and I repeat it here again. The permanent public servant of Ghana is the course of the ills in Ghana today not because he/she is the architect or brain behind the ills but keeps mute when the wrongs are being done. This is changing with this movement.

Since I started this struggle to see some reforms in the Local Government Service, I have never been the same. I have learnt a lot and I have come to the conclusive conclusion that something must be done in the public sector. I have learnt at first hand that hypocrisy, sycophancy, and hero-worshipping are pervasive and incapacitating in the public sector. I have learnt at firsthand what intimidation and threats of taking ones food from his mouth can turn a human being into. I have learnt at first-hand how fear of losing one’s privileged position can reduce a human being into. I have learnt at first-hand how ironical our situation as a country is – autocratic institutions in a democratic country. I have learnt at first hand also that people in high positions also intentionally use these tactics for their selfish interest. All this I knew anyway but the extent of it never dawn on me.. This is the more reason why I am here today. I had a call from my auntie the other day when she saw one of my open letters and she was full of fear for me. But I want to tell her this. Truth do not have to be afraid of fear.

As said by one Kenyan Professor, in Africa, good men are vilified whiles thieves are celebrated and Ghana is no exception. I am fully aware and to demonstrate this to you, I will mention to you just a few names Hon. Martin Amidu, Rockson Bukari (Former DCE of Bolgatanga Municipal), Mahmud Khalid (Former Upper West Regional Minister), George Danyare (DCE of Kasena/Nankana District who earned the accolade “Kopiina” literally meaning “it is tight”) etc. The list is long both known and unknown to me. I am not saying these men are angels but putting all together I have come to the conclusion that they were for the bigger party called Ghana. I am not an angel either. And Auntie, the job you are afraid I will loose, I do not want it anymore if things do not change because I have to steal to even survive and I do not want to be a thieve anymore. Do not get me wrong here, I am not against you if you use your hands to collect sugar and you lick the pieces that stick to your palms. Our culture is replete with proverbs that support this. It is the one described by Justice Appau as “Create, Loot and Share” that I am against. And trust me, it has happened before, it is happening now and will happen if we do not overhaul the public sector. No wonder the Finance Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana are still struggling to get the cedi and the economy back in shape. I am not an Economist but common sense should tell me that if you do not sweat for your money and contribute virtually nothing to the productivity of the country and yet you are the one having the money, we will always be in the quagmire we find ourselves now.

Another conclusion I have come to about our current system is that we have as a country equated indiscipline to democracy and rule of law. And so even the state sponsors indiscipline instead of censoring it. I will give you examples. I think that it is a state sponsored indiscipline if a Minister or a District Chief Executive or a government appointee for that matter gets sacked because party executives feel that that appointee is not manipulating the laws to favour them. I think that it is state sponsored indiscipline to build speed rams everywhere on our roads to protect indiscipline drivers and indiscipline pedestrians and their animals forgetting that a Ghanaian including that indiscipline person might just fall ill and need just ten or 15 minutes to be saved and we have collectively denied that person the right to live because we made him/her stay on the road for a little longer. Has somebody thought about the economic cost of those speed rams on our roads? The little I know is that the momentum needed to get a vehicle to reach your desired cruising speed requires more fuel than when you are cruising at that desired speed. And I am not even surprised at all, we don’t value time as a people but very quick to quote that “Time is Money” when it just suits us. As I have said somewhere before, we are always quick to take decisions and the easiest decisions are what we fall for as a country. What are our plenty state institutions that are supposed to ensure discipline on the road doing? There are many of such state sponsored indiscipline and I will at a point in time catalogue them for all of us to see. I must say at this point that I do not expect everybody to agree with me on all the issues I have raised here and I know some will be controversial to some people here and those who will read or listen later.

In my over 12 years of public service, I have learnt that there is debilitating greed in the public sector. I have learnt how the public sector has become what it is today. Victimisation and intimidation has cowed the public servant into diffidence and submissiveness. You will not be sacked but you will be denied your duties for which you were employed because after all those benefiting from such a system do not care about Ghana. You will be called names and even when you are transferred before you get there, you are already a suspect in the eyes of the receiving organisation. You have very experienced and able public servants and yet they are limited in contributing to the public discourse because of a certain myth in the public system today. The sickness of the public service is crippling and I have seen it all. But for one reason or the other nobody seem to care. The other day I was listening to one pharmacist who is a CPP women organiser or so talk about the public servant, I wept. Don’t we feel insulted and belittled about some of these talks? It is time to rise up for Ghana, my dear public servant. The fear, the timidity, the hypocrisy, the sycophancy, the hero worshipping that has been forcefully forced down our throats must come to an end now. We can only be silent when the good things are done. I have already heard that some people have already misconstrued my engagement with the Head of Service of the Local Government Service to be disrespect. I want to tell them that respect is earned. I am disappointing them by telling them that they are misinformed. I am for them all and anyone who stands in the way of this movement to see Ghana, the black star of Africa, work again will be crushed. I can assure you this. CLOGSAG and the Head of Service of the Local Government service are the first victims of this movement. This movement will ensure that the widespread indiscipline in this country is turned into a resource for nation building in a sub project called “Indiscipline as Revenue Source for Nation-building”

Fellow Ghanaians I want to announce to you the birth of a public interest nongovernmental organisation called Progressive Public Servant for the Total Overhaul of the Public Sector (PPSTOPS) and as I asked of Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum in one of my write-ups, if he accepts and I know he will, the slogan will be Ghana must work again! So PPSTOPS, Ghana Must Work Again. This organisation is going to make the work of traitors of Ghana very difficult. It is going to give a voice to the voiceless public servant. It is a movement that cannot be stopped and cannot be tamed. You will not believe it, but the revelation I have gotten is that it is going to be like a tsunami. All you need to do is to be part of it. While Anas and co are dealing with the symptoms of the sickness of the public sector, this movement will be treating the main sickness by forcefully asking for the needed reforms. I am therefore calling on all likeminded Ghanaians to join me in this cause. It is huge and herculean, I will not deceive you, but I am convinced we can win. Martin Amidu, Afenyo Markins (I was disappointed in you but on a second thought, you are just a victim of circumstances and I am convinced you have learnt your lessons) and likeminded lawyers for the downtrodden, this movement needs your services.

For the rest of the Ghanaian public who share in this course and have the same concerns like me, don’t sit on the fence. Please get involved in any way you can. Very soon, we will roll out the full modalities of this movement and Ghana will not be the same again.

CLOGSAG as you can see this is a noble course and I can raise the money to do it. But for your betrayal, redeem your image and be part of history making by paying that GH₵500,000.00 cedis I am demanding from you into the account now for me to use it to better serve mother Ghana. You have lost it, no more tricks.

Any media house that has anything I have sent to them can feel free to publish it now. Joyfm, Citifm, Kweku Baako Jnr and Kwesi Pratt Jnr I hope you received some documents from me some time ago. Please publish them now if you think they are news worthy. This will tell people how far I have come.

Good morning to you all. I will now take a few questions from you if you have any.