Cut The Skin-Pain, Mr. Nukpenu

Who is talking free lunch here, but those who claim to be social democrats and yet shamelessly pursued a Darwinian healthcare policy of cash-and-carry payment regime, that left the poor and destitute to die of very common and curable diseases like malaria and cholera? We know they in the jitters because if President Addo DankwaAkufo-Addo’s “One District, One Factory” industrial policy agenda succeeds resonantly, the key operatives of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) would be kissing their chances at ruling the country goodbye for the foreseeable future.

Which is why robber-barons and kleptocrats like Mr. Anthony Nukpenu would characterize the Chinese government’s decision to support the Akufo-Addo industrial policy with loans and grants totaling $ 15 billion as a scam (See “15 Billion Chinese Loan a Scam – NDC Organizer” Adomonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 6/26/17). You see, the last time that the erstwhile Mahama regime attempted to scam the Chinese of the loan facility of some $ 3 billion, Beijing told the Bole-Bamboi petty chieftain to take a hike. Rather than present their prospective creditors with a viable proposal of what the National Democratic Congress’ operatives intended to use such humongous monetary capital for, the astute Chinese leaders felt scandalized to have former President Mahama and his kitty-holder, or Finance Minister, Mr. Seth Terkper, scratching their dandruff-infested scalps and blowing hot air. It was in the lead-up to Election 2016, and the Chinese had already witnessed the Mahama posse blindly and recklessly dip their warty fingers into our national cookie jar in a bid to scamming and bribing their way through Election 2012.

We must also highlight the fact that the $ 15 billion is not going to be disbursed blindly and thoughtlessly as the NDC’s “Create, Loot and Share” corporatists seem to be thinking (my profound apologies to Justice Jones Dotse). You see, the National Democratic Congress’ apparatchiks are freeloaders and “tar-beetle”-wearing socialist poseurs, whereas their property-owning neoliberal democrats of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) fully appreciate the value of the proverbial Protestant Ethic and thus firmly believe in wealth creation and acquisition through the old tried-and-tested method of sweat and toil.

The Chinese have already made it clear that they will only fund, and actually help, first-hand, to undertake projects and factories that are environmentally friendly and socio-culturally organic and tangibly backed by feasible and clearly delineated blueprint proposals. And this is precisely what the “One District, One Factory” Secretariat was established to do. This is also what real infrastructural and seminal industrial development is about, not such cheap political point-scoring potshot projects as pouring hot bitumen on unpaved lateritic tracks and the mounting of makeshift wooden poles and uninsulated electrical wires with naked bulbs that are only intended to provide the most rudimentary supply of energy until a week or two past the upcoming election. We witnessed this in Talensi, in the Upper-East Region.And also, posting bold sign boards on empty lands and calling them university colleges!

Needless to say, practiced reprobates like Mr. Nukpenu, who have made corruption and public-till robbery into an enviable art and lifestyle have absolutely no credibility or moral authority to lecture the Akufo-Addo Administration on how to create public wealth by fighting corruption and official theft. By all means, let the Greater-Accra Region’s Organizer of the main opposition National Democratic Congress speak his mind on matters of historical heft like the Memorandum-of-Understanding ratified between Vice-President MahamuduBawumia and his Chinese opposite number. It is his inalienable constitutional right to do so.

However, this impudent political pest needs to fully appreciate the fact that at the end of the day, it is the dreams, desires and aspirations of those ordinary Ghanaian citizens who offered their sacred electoral mandate to Messrs. Akufo-Addo and Bawumia whose criticism and admonishment matter the most.

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