A message to Koku Anyidoho.

I've had a lot on my hand and mind these days. Hence, the luxury of time and to some extent a 'fertile mindset' to produce opinion pieces and articles pertaining to matters of national discourse has entirely eluded me. However, even when restricted by the most demanding and inescapable schedules and circumstances, my pen cannot be left idle upon listening to Koku Anyidoho(Deputy Gen. Sec, NDC) and Bernard Mornah(Nat.Chair, PNC) on disgraced pro NDC radio station- Muntie Fm yesterday(August 19, 2016.)

Firstly, claims by Koku Anyidoho to the effect that no Ghanaian; whether a private businessman, civil servant or royal could have bought and owned a Hummer Vehicle during the reign of Kuffour as president(2001-2008) and as such any Ghanaian who owned a Hammer Vehicle during that period was either a COCAINE DEALER or a beneficiary of the drug trade. Yes, we have people like Anyidoho and the entire NDC believing that no Ghanaian should be able to own a Hummer Vehicle. But l ask, in any thriving country, why can't successful businessmen afford Hummer Vehicles when the 2016 brands of latest Hummer Vehicles are hovering around 32,000 US dollars? No wonder the NDC as a party abhors entrepreneurship and intimidates successful private businessmen anytime they are in power. From the inhumane treatment meted to Appiah Menkah and his "Apino Soap" franchise, the illegal confiscation of his assets, arrests and intimidation attests to the NDC's abhorrence for entrepreneurship. The late Mr. Ofori Yeboah, a Ghanaian who had studied electronics in the Netherlands and worked with global electronics giant Philips returned to Ghana in the 70's to set up a huge electronics company at Kotobaabi in Accra. His Ofori Electronics franchise employed hundreds of Ghanaians and made the best television, hi-fi equipment and transistor radios for the Ghanaian and entire sub-Saharan African market. Not only was his Ofori Electronics company confiscated but Mr Ofori was arrested by the P/NDC regime, jailed without a proper trial and returned from prison a broke !!!

Kwabena Darko of the renowned Darko Farms, Mr. Appenteng of Panbros Salt Industry, Dr. Kwame Safo Adu, a mogul in the pharmaceutical industry back then, Mr. B. A Mensah (father of Mr. Herbert Amponsah Mensah- ex CEO of Asante Kotoko FC) and a host of Ghanaian businessmen had their lifetime businesses destroyed by Rawlings and his P/NDC surrogates. Painfully, these businessmen were not targeted for refusing to pay taxes or any bad industrial practice. Contrary, the mere fact that one came from a certain part of the country, spoke a certain language or belonged to a specific tribe was a reason good enough to make him and his business the subject of a political witch-hunt.

In the end, most Ghanaian businessmen fled or relocated their businesses to the Ivory Coast, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Koku Anyidoho should and must be told that in any thriving economy, you don't need to be a deputy minister of education before setting up fuel stations, suddenly cruising in range rovers and V-8 vehicles. He should tell us how previously bald headed malnourished student politicians who now find themselves in the corridors of power as deputy ministers can suddenly be owning fuel stations in Accra and across Ghana, mansions in London and afford weekly flights to attend lectures in London for their postgraduate studies. Are they also cocaine dealers or part of the syndicate Rawlings described as 'greedy bastards' now swimming in 'ill gotten wealth' as asserted by the NDC's own Murtala Mohammed?

Governments who implement prudent economic measures can only boast about the success and bask on the glory of its citizens who can afford building moderate houses, own vehicles and earn decent living for their families. It is only a clueless and an incompetent government, knowing very well how poorly it has mismanaged the economy and rendered its masses unemployed with throat-cutting IMF policies that shouts in utter disbelief at the mere acquisition of vehicles and properties by the very masses it claims to be changing and transforming their lives. Mark Zuckerberg now worth 44.26 billion US dollars was only nineteen when he launched Facebook with his Harvard course and room mates. Facebook is now worth billions of dollars and used by 1.6 billion people monthly as well as employing 13,598 people globally. Provided Ghanaians are provided with the best of business environment and their "start-ups" nurtchered and supported to reach the might of Facebook, You-Tube or Alibaba, why can't they be as rich as Zuckerberg and own Hummer Vehicles ? How can Ghanaians own Hummer Vehicles when our system easily allows illiterate Chinese migrants to cross our boarders and enrich themselves on 'galamsey' while the unemployed graduate trying to register his tiny business would have to spend over 9 months at the offices of the Registrar Generals Department ? How can we buy homes and own cars when our own system is killing businesses with cut-throat taxes, insane electricity tariffs and profligate use of state resources to brand buses and rare Akonfem that flew to Burkina and never returned? How can we live a descent life when unemployed graduates are still being fed by their parents and NDC foolsoldiers and rented media bootlickers are on government payroll?

The mere fact that Koku Anyidoho and the NDC believes no Ghanaian should be able to buy Hummer Vehicles sums up the level Of shallow-mindedness, small-thinking, lack of vision and the inability to think and dream big in the NDC. Afterall, these are people who said National Health Insurance wasn't feasible, Free SHS wasn't practicable, Ghana,wasn't going to last for 2 weeks under Kuffour because there had left no money in January 2001 and even ridiculed Kuffour and Ghana's discovery of oil at the cape three points, labeling the discovered oil as 'adwe ngo'(palm kernel oil.) Yet we have these same people using Ghana's oil billions to enrich themselves. Hypocrisy, naked thievery, shallow-mindedness, small-thinking,and refusal to dream big, that's the stock in trade of Koku Anyidoho and the NDC.

I may have to attend to Bernard Mornah at some appropriate time. May God bless our homeland Ghana and give our voters the discernment to reject shallow-thinking politicians.

MICHAEL KWADWO NKETIAH,

Writer and Activist.

{politicalnketia@gmail.com}