Why NDC Has No Business Pointing Fingers Over Sale of State Lands

I don’t have much confidence in the investigations being conducted by the Ministry of Lands and Forestry Resources into what Mr. John Peter Amewu allegedly claims to have been the reckless “kelewele-like” giveaway of state lands by members of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC). I have absolutely no confidence in the Amewu-ordered investigations because the terms of reference’s temporal cutoff point from 2013 to the present does not accurately reflect the wanton and predatory acquisition of state-owned lands by key operatives of the country’s two major parties and their cronies and associates (See “Lands Were Sold Like ‘Kelewele’ Under NDC – Lands Minister” MyJoyOnline.com / Modernghana.com 11/7/17).

We learn from reliable sources like Mr. Abdul-Malik KwekuBaako, the Editor-Publisher of the New Crusading Guide, and the current Deputy Information Minister, Mr. Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, that, in fact, equally reckless acquisition of state lands by government officials took place under the 8-year tenure of the John Agyekum-Kufuor-led government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). In sum, to be fair to all the parties and/or suspects involved in such fraudulent activities, the investigations need to cover the period spanning from December 31, 1981, when Chairman Jerry John Rawlings ousted the democratically elected Hilla “Babini” Limann-led government of the People’s National Party (PNP) into the present.

This is essentially because it was under the “revolutionary” tenure of Mr. Rawlings that the searing spotlight of probity, transparency and accountability, vis-à-vis the integrity of state-owned properties and coffers, became the public mantra. Scores of public officials would be executed by firing squad and handed long prison terms for allegedly stealing state-owned moneys and properties. Ironically, having comfortably entrenched itself in the seat of governance, with the barrel of the AK-47 rifle studiously trained at the noggins and pates of defenseless Ghanaian citizens, for the most part, the Rawlings Posse, both under the tandem regimes of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC), would make an enviable profession out of the wanton plundering of state-owned properties.

Today, Chairman Rawlings and a legion of his former minions in government and cronies reside in state-owned properties that they sold, literally, at giveaway prices to themselves. Already, a former Lands and Forestry Resources Minister under the tenure of President John Dramani Mahama, Mr. InusahFuseini, has retorted that under the tenure of the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party, state-owned lands were sold like candies or toffees. Paradoxically, in a recent panel discussion on a Multimedia television talking-heads program hosted by Mr. Samson Lardy Anyenini, Mr. Fuseini, who is also one of the three Tamale NDC-MPs, noted that he had lifted a moratorium placed by the Mahama government on some state lands on the Ghanaian littoral just before he transferred or was shuffled from the Lands and Forestry Resources Ministry to Roads and Highways, I believe.

But Mr. Fuseini would not take responsibility for any fraudulent activities that may have occurred over state-owned land acquisitions by politicians and public officials in the wake of his decision to lift the ban. Ultimately, about the only useful outcome of the investigations being conducted by Mr. Amewu would be if the latter is able to put a definitive halt to the acquisition of state-owned real-estate properties, as well as direly needed publicly owned landed properties. I would, however, be equally happy if the ongoing war on galamsey activities progresses without any lets or hindrances. The regreening of the land, as it were, could well become one of the signal legacies bequeathed Ghanaians by the Akufo-Addo Administration.

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