Clouds Gather In Ghana

And Thunderous Storms Seem Not Far Way, Unless Politicians In NDC And NPP Change Their Ways Sooner, Or Get Changed. This Is Not A Prophesy of Doom But Of Hope.

By Otchere Darko

*[This writer is just one of hundreds, and possibly thousands of Ghanaians who use the name “Otchere Darko”, either on its own, or in combination with other names. Some users spell this same name as “Okyere Darko”, while other users conjoin it with the help of a hyphen to become one single compound name, “Otchere-Darko” or “Okyere-Darko”, depending on which spelling-mode they choose. This writer, who has officially used this ‘simple name’ from his school days to this very day, attended the School of Administration of University of Ghana where he finally left in September 1977...... the year students embarked on the UNIGOV demonstration. He has never before or after September 1977 been a student of the Ghana Law School. Up to the end of 1981, he worked as a senior public servant in and for one of the mainstream Ministries in Ghana. He is not currently working for the Danquah Institute; and has also never worked for that institute. He is not a member of NPP or any other party currently registered in Ghana. *May readers please take note of this clarification and stop blaming, and sometimes even insulting another person for something that does not concern him.]

Politicians in Ghana, as it is in many African countries, have all become selfish, greedy, corrupt, deceptive, hypocritical and repugnant. The most annoying thing about them, however, is the tendency for all of them to claim to be “good”, “caring”, “incorrupt”, “people-minded”, “selfless” and “dedicated”....... while claiming that their rivals are opposite of all the good things they say about themselves and their parties. During the NPP era, the NDC accused that party of all the political vices I have listed in this paragraph; [and of other worse things too]. After the change of government in January 2009, the new government of John Evans Atta-Mills and his NDC-backed papers did not waste a blink of the eye to beat their drums once more to show how corrupt and bad the last government they replaced was. The NDC and its agents were not far from wrong, many Ghanaians did agree. However, before the NDC’s finger-pointing accusations died down, NPP and its papers returned the drumming of corruption and other vices against Mills’ current government. NDC’s own foot-soldiers joined the finger-pointing accusations against the Mills’ administration. A few of the NDC top-brass politicians, including the Rawlingses, joined the foot-soldiers to condemn Mills, who is otherwise called “Asomdwoehene”....... [“King of Peace”; {to help non-Ghanaian readers who may not understand this Akan ‘crown title’}]. Angry and frustrated NDC foot-soldiers went further by taking the law into their hands to chasing their inefficient and corrupt leaders out of their offices. While those attacks by angry NDC foot-soldiers did often seem to be “lawless” and an affront to democracy, they showed one major difference between NDC and it main rival, the NPP...... which is that: with NDC, many of its members muster the courage to attack their own leaders when they are still in office and are failing to live up to the expectation of party members; while with NPP, the “big ears” of the elephant only get exposed by some of its members when [and only when] that animal is “dead”. *It is only students of Political Science who can debate and reach a conclusion as to whether it is NDC or NPP that contributes more towards effective democracy in Ghana’s new multi-party political dispensation. *For me and other political lay men like me, the answer to this theoretical question is of little value. What concerns us is how our anger and frustration will change into hope and satisfaction....... before they drive us like waves being tossed by roaring tornadoes, or by seismic rigours beneath the ocean floor that turn calms into angry tsunamis to kill, maim and destroy. *Events that have taken place within the last eight months in North Africa and across the Middle-East tell volumes of stories about what happens when people get angry and frustrated. *The more recent flames of ‘burning London’ and other cities in England, horrible and appalling though they were, made their contributions to the general picture of what happens when people get angry, frustrated and fed up with things and life around them. Change alone prevents!

The “Mills’ mansion-gift” story that has dominated the media since 15th August 2011 has changed faces and phases from that first day the story broke out, to this day. First, there was the allegation that Mills owned a fast moving mansion that is under construction near and behind his old house. Then, there followed a confirmation statement reportedly given by the Communications Director at the President Office, claiming that President Mills was indeed the owner of the said mansion, except that it was given to him as “a token of appreciation” by an Accra property developer, one Mr Botwe, who is alleged to be an old friend of the President. Not long after this confirmation [or denial] statement by Mr Koku Anyidoho, another statement came from the same Director of Communication to explain that the said “mansion gift” was no longer a gift; and that the President would pay back the developer on completion. Later, one Regina Botwe who is said to work for “Regimanual”, the company of Mr Botwe, added her voice to the denial, claiming that the said house was not a gift, but was put up at the request of the President for security staff who guarded him at his house and that the [occupancy] “arrangement is going to be [on] a rental [basis]… and in fact it is for Regimanuel.” The story about this mansion has changed from one that said it was “built by Mills”; to one that said it was “a gift to Mills”; and then it developed later to one that said it was “to be paid for by Mills for the use of his Security Staff”; and, finally, it changed to one that said it is to be “let out to the President for use by his Security staff”. It seems to me that these various explanations are too numerous and too ‘winding’ to sound ‘true’. Like portions of food that have been prepared by different cooks working at different times and under different levels of pressure, the end-product of the official and unofficial explanations fails to whet the appetite. PUT SIMPLY, THE EXPLANATIONS GIVEN ARE UNBELIEVALE. *This saga has tainted Mills reputation forever and strengthened the case levelled against him by some members of his own party. It has also added fuel to the anger building, not only in NDC among NDC youth and foot-soldiers, but among the Ghanaian political grass-root generally, irrespective of party affiliation. *A FEELING OF HUNGER AND ANGER TURNS “DOGS” AGAINST THEIR MASTERS AND THEIR MASTERS’ BABIES. THEIR BARKING, TOGETHER WITH THE EXPOSURE OF THEIR ANGRY TEETH, TELLS A STORY OF WHAT CAN FOLLOW.

Source: Otchere Darko; [Personal Political Views].