A Not-So-Beloved NDC Ghana

Hypocrisy is the mother of incompetence in Ghana. Hypocrites tend not to practice what they preach, and most often than not, they try to cover their invidious acts by accepting mediocrity in their dealings with others. Thus, allowing their incompetence to flourish which subsequently encourages corruptions and breeds other social ills. Unfortunately, this is what has characterized the P/NDC governments in the history of this country and more especially the present NDC (National Democratic Congress) government under John Dramani Mahama.

Many Ghanaians are frustrated with this bunch of mediocrities in government and have grown to become very much disillusioned with the NDC government to better their lot, and barring any mischief from the EC (Electoral Commission) and other state institutions, this December election, therefore, becomes consequential for Ghanaians bottom line. In a 2-part series of articles I’ll attempt to articulate why P/NDC governments are bad for Ghana but rather NPP administration is good for Ghana.

Almost 3 years ago in an article entitled "After The So-Called Supreme Court Ruling" published on both ghanaweb.com and modernghana.com on February 22, 2014; it was ominously observed that another 8 years of NDC government would not move Ghana anywhere significantly, in terms of deepening our democratic governance, civic responsibility, social and economic developments. It was hesitantly predicted that Ghana would be where it was or even worse after 8 years just as their previous P/NDC government's 19 years in power. These observation and prediction were made not because of someone's whimsical desires to score political points or for that matter anyone eagerness to see the country fail but these predictions were made based on Ghanaians' experience with this entity called P/NDC and, most importantly, the nature of people who constitute it. Even that being said, one was desperately hoping against all hope and wished that this self-fulfilling prophecy wouldn't come to pass and thus would be proven wrong for the sake of our beloved Ghana. But with less than a year of their term left in office, sadly, the predictions would come to pass, and are going to come true. What a waste!!

What are the Ghanaians’ experiences with the P/NDC entity?

This entity forced their way into power through a military coup d’état in 1981 under PNDC (Provisional National Defense Council) led by Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings and thus between December 1981 to December 1992 i.e. for 11 solid years Ghanaians were subjected to a brutal military dictatorship where their basic Human Rights were abused: freedom of speech and association were curtailed; private assets and intellectual properties were seized; innocent civilians including student activists were jailed or killed on trumped-up charges without recourse to justice; dissenters were either silenced with imprisonment, torture or chased out of the country; market women, business executives were lined up in public squares and humiliatingly whipped by rogue military elements for simply doing business; private companies and enterprises were either collapsed or confiscated; political activities as well as parties were forbidden and banned, and only the courageous ones - who were truly brave enough - dared to breach at their own peril; senior members of the judiciary and a retired army officer were assassinated; there were famine and starvation in 1983 followed by serious food shortages in the subsequent years.

Not to mention their precursor regime of AFRC military junta in 1979 led by Jerry John Rawlings, yet again through another coup d’état, that visited untold brutality on Ghanaians including extra-judicial killings culminating in the lining up and killing, by firing squad, of 3 former heads of state and 6 retired senior military personnel on flimsy excuses/charges that could only be adjudicated in kangaroo courts.

Fast forward to the years between January 1993 to December 2000 and then January 2008 to present under NDC, Ghanaians have also been subjected to: deliberate deception; unscrupulous behaviour; sabotaging propaganda; devastating severe 'man-made' energy crises that have collapsed many industries and small businesses; arrogance; lies upon lies; unfulfilled and broken promises upon promises; corruption; impunity; intimidation; economic hardship; greediness; selfishness; approval of Chinese sponsored environmental degradation; social apathy; weakening institutions and intellectual dishonesty.

So in all, under P/NDC regimes, majority of Ghanaians have suffered: a deplorable record of unnecessary violence and oppression; political and religious persecutions; a string of broken and unfulfillable promises; dishonesty; hypocrisy; incompetence and mediocrity, particularly, with this present NDC government which appears to be bereft of any policy ideas and thus resorting to poaching other people's ideas they've hitherto pooh poohed, discounted and criticized.

There is nothing wrong in poaching ideas from somewhere for the betterment of the people but the problem with this lot is that they incompetently and haphazardly implement these programmes for political expediency such that they end up messing them up e.g. the single spine pay structure, SADA (a programme designed to bring fast improvement in the 3 northern regions), the free SHS education for all etc etc. Even those credible programmes that they inherited like NHIS (the National Health Insurance Scheme that was an envy of the world especially in U.S. before A.C.A (Affordable Care Act) a.k.a. Obamacare), NYEP (a smart youth employment programme corrupted to GYEEDA), and Mass Metro system have all been run down with incompetence and corruption.

What is it with the nature of the people who constitute the P/NDC entity that they seem to curse anything that they touch?

Now it's indubitably clear that the P/NDC people are in government only for themselves and families and not for the people of Ghana. They simply don't care and use the government to amass wealth, fame and prestige. They are seen by most meaningful Ghanaians as hypocrites, greedy, free riders/loaders and dishonest. They call themselves social democrats but happen to be the most unbridled incompetent capitalists engaging in crony corrupt capitalism in the history of Ghana. For instance, they presided over the privatization of most state companies and enterprises by selling them to themselves and cronies and ended up bankrupting and running them down, leaving behind debts, joblessness with huge significant youth unemployment.

The present NDC government touts its "free and quality education for all" public schools but the leadership sends their children and dependents to private and international schools instead of sending them to their so-called "free and quality education" public schools. Perhaps they take their cue from their predecessors in the PNDC government who abolished the Sixth Form educational system in Ghana and introduced the JSS/SSS system but rather than sending their kids to this new system to set an example, they dispatched them abroad (outside the country) on government scholarships to do the very same Sixth Form education they had just abolished.

The previous P/NDC government spent a good 19 years (out of 50 years of Ghana's independence) in office without realizing that the seat of government had, embarrassingly, been situated in a colonial fortress - Osu Castle (where our fellow Africans were kept as slaves in bondage before being shipped abroad) - for more than half a century of our independence from the British colonial empire but when a group of brilliant thinkers, in power, from the opposite side of the political spectrum sought to correct this anomaly in office by building a national edifice for the seat of government to mark/commemorate our golden jubilee, the NDC surrogates, in opposition, ridiculed this project as a waste of money, and stupidly promised to turn this national edifice, when completed, into a poultry farm. Lo and behold, when in office they unashamedly renamed this national edifice and used it anyway as a seat of government. Unbelievable! Then there was this episode (during these same 19 years of P/NDC administration) of GNPC - a state institution headed by a political appointee, Tsatsu Tsikata - squandering precious millions of dollars under the pretext of exploring crude oil on our coastal shores, and in the end no crude oil was discovered, causing financial loss to the state.

Curiously, it emerged later that the money was diverted into a dubious rice cultivation which failed abysmally. It's important to note here that when in office it took just less than 8 years of this brilliant thinkers from the opposite side of the political spectrum to employ the services of outside contractors to explore and discover (and start production of) crude oil on the same coastal shores. Crude oil production has been going on in commercial quantities for the last 8 years under the NDC leadership but for most Ghanaians (except for those in NDC government and perhaps the supporters) its economic impact is not being felt in their lives. And with this NDC government insistence on staying in power at all cost and by all means, it appears crude oil is going to be a curse for the nation just as it has been for most African countries.

Normally, the discovery and production of crude oil in commercial quantities should ideally be a joy and a relief to the bottom-line of any country's coffers but not with this NDC's Ghana. Instead the funds from this natural resource has been dubiously hedged against huge borrowing to service national debts that they keep on incurring and pilling up since they took office. The miserable thing is that these loans are not being invested properly and sensibly as they should but rather it has become a cash-cow for this NDC government and flagrantly mismanaged. Awash with tax-payers money they embark on spending spree aimed at electoral entrapment and deceit.

The NDC And Their Supporters:
To paraphrase the famous maxim of Abraham Lincoln about the intelligence of democratic people - "You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time".

The NDC and their supporters will seriously be deceiving themselves to think that they can fool all Ghanaians all the time with propaganda and outright lies. There could still be enough gullible followers (idiots) who'll again vote for NDC party in this December election and the NDC can continue to fool these sycophantic supporters all the time by offering them even more preposterous promises. The NDC government still thinks it could use the democratic process - by allowing free elections - while rigging the electoral system and the legal system around it to perpetuate itself and remain in power, even if it lost the election.

This could be a fatal miscalculation on their part this time around. Majority of Ghanaians are very tired of their misrule, deception and frankly fed up with the economic havoc that they've wreaked on the nation through their incompetence and mediocrity. They go around touting their so-called achievements which make no sense to average Ghanaians who see their social and economic lives worsening everyday. Their behaviour fits into a quote from Shakespeare "Henry V" - "The empty vessel makes the greatest sound".

They lie with abundance and when caught with their pants down, pathetically, they still double down. They've turned themselves into 'human insult machines' and their lack of regret is really worrying and indeed very troubling. Luckily, most Ghanaians have seen through their so-called achievements as noise-making and blowing of hot-air and therefore consider them as much ado about nothing.

Fortunately, not all Ghanaians are as gullible as these NDC supporters and enablers; they won't allow themselves to be taken for fools all the time. The NDC and their supporters are setting themselves up for failure and a wholesale defeat with eventual consequences if they think they can continue to underrate the intelligence of all Ghanaians all the time.

To be cont’d.
"Facts Are Sacred But Opinions Are Free"

A Not-So-Beloved NDC Ghana – Part 1

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