Did I mention a stolen goat?

The months of March and April have seen some of very interesting characteristics of President Mills’ administration and the NDC party’s take on it. Some very comical news items and some rather serious ones including a stolen goat, but I promise you I won’t mention a stolen goat in this whole treatise. The President is inching closely to his proverbial 100 days and we are all beginning to take stock of the achievements in the first 100 days of Professor Mills in office.

Let us look closely at the economy and see the direction it is going. The month of March saw inflation inch up to 20.53% from 20.43% in February. This is a 1.93% rise and an overall 2.53% since January. According to Ghana Statistical Services, inflation is high up to 22.83% in certain urban areas. This trend is worrying as it is beginning to have a bite on the cost of living, now that subsidies on food prices have been removed at the last budget. Perhaps, as someone remarked during a conversation, the government is aiming back at its 40.5% inflation target they reached in 2000 during their last administration. In fairness to the government, we can all point the finger of blame on the global economic downturn. But hang on, the G-20 Summit just ended in London with $1 trillion put on the table to boost the world’s economy. Article 5 of the communiqué read “The agreements we have reached today, to treble resources available to the IMF to $750 billion, to support a new SDR allocation of $250 billion, to support at least $100 billion of additional lending by the MDBs, to ensure $250 billion of support for trade finance, and to use the additional resources from agreed IMF gold sales for concessional finance for the poorest countries, constitute an additional $1.1 trillion programme of support to restore credit, growth and jobs in the world economy. Together with the measures we have each taken nationally, this constitutes a global plan for recovery on an unprecedented scale”. We do know that the World Bank has been given $500 billion to lend in support of third world economies. We do know that $500 million has been released to support Africa’s North-South corridor. Perhaps the government of Ghana should let us all know our level of interest in all this. Former President Kufuor was very instrumental in fighting Ghana’s corner in all global financial summits and was not ashamed to open our bad bank balance to the world. He attended G-8 and G-20 summits and secured multilateral debt reliefs for Ghana. The declaration of HIPC brought him taunts and jeers from home, praise from abroad and rewards to Ghanaians. Is it now a case of Ghana being too rich to fight for her share of all this new money to boost flagging economies or the NDC government is simply not interested? Perhaps the government’s priority is seizing cars, taking control of toilets and NPP bashing.

Paa Kwesi Nduom of CPP has suggested that the government should introduce a stimulus package similar to what is being done by the Obama administration in USA to boost up the economy. However the Finance Minister, Dr. Duffuor reckons we do not need it. According to him “the economy is not in crisis as compared to the countries that a developing stimulus package” he told The Times on Friday 3rd April 2009 that countries like USA are providing the package to distressed companies because the banking sector has collapsed. “In the case of Ghana, the financial sector is strong and bank credit to private sector is on the increase” he added. This leaves me in a very confused state. Is Ghana “broke” or not. According to the government in January Ghana was “broke” or to put it mildly, “the economy was challenged”. This led the NDC to lambast the last NPP administration for having collapsed the economy. What we are hearing now makes me worry as to what the true state of our economy is. Does this vindicate the NPP administration as far as the economy was concerned?

One of the areas that the NDC hit the NPP for six on during the campaign was the way the NPP awarded contracts. Even though the NPP boasted of introducing Procurement Act which made bidding more open and transparent, the NDC criticized them for awarding bids to foreign companies with no Ghanaian contents. The Vodafone take over of Ghana Telecom comes to mind and the NDC was going to reverse it. Ghana jobs for Ghanaian companies, they campaigned and won the elections. Now the NDC administration have not only reneged on their promise but they are going to lose for us the last Ghanaian content in the telecom business which is its name. The renegades are going to change the name from Ghana Telecom to Vodafone after Easter. What a shame! Again barely three months into the NDC administration, Ghana Irrigation Project, a project for land mapping study for 200 hectares of irrigable lands in Ghana, has been given to STUDI International, a Tunisian company for $1.4 million. No one from Ghana, none of the research institutes in our universities in Ghana could map out lands in Afram Plains or any where in Ghana. A Tunisian company to find out where in Ghana is good for irrigation. Hmm, Na Waa O!

We are still not sure what the government’s intention is when it comes to the NHIS. The President finds some fine waffling words to describe the scheme but three months into his administration, he is still waffling. The President should come out clearly an explain to us when we can make the one-time payment of premium to cover our NHIS for life. I am asking for this explanation in the wake of the denial of allegation that the NHIS is not safe in the hands of the NDC. Interestingly he chose to deny this at Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast rather than in Ghana. It is funny how NHIS becomes a foreign policy rather than a domestic one. Who is the government running away from? This is what happens when a government chooses to campaign on lies and deceit.

One of the cardinal sins of the NPP, according to NDC, is the NPP’s property owning democracy it introduced. The fact that the NPP government wanted people to own their own property meant they were corrupt. How inept! Hon Albert Abongo , the Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, has just come out to confirm that the last NPP administration’s 50,000 affordable housing units will be ready next year and they are going to be distributed to workers to buy. Well, well, well, the much maligned property owning democracy is going to benefit some 50,000 Ghanaian families. The house that Hackmann built is being distributed by Abongo. Well, so should it be. That is democracy but what gets my goat (did I mention goat?) is the fact that the NDC founder deems it fit to describe all NPP ministers as corrupt and must be prosecuted by Mills in the next 6 months. Why this venom and where is all this pent up hatred from? Does he see anything good in any other person than himself?

And from PV Obeng’s “enemy media” scandal, we now have Zita Okaikwei’s incredible u-turn on what would have been the biggest media censorship under Mills. By the order of Zita (Order PB73/126/02 dated 16th March 2009) all foreign correspondents from overseas media houses (e.g. BBC, CNN, Reuters etc.) were to report to the Ministry of Information and be accompanied by Information Service Department (ISD) officials to cover news in Ghana. On returning, they were to leave copies of transcripts for vetting at the ISD. Now under pressure from the leak of this order, Zita is fighting back for her reputation with the media by saying the order is suspended and has no place in democracy. So why was the order written and released in the first place, what was the intention of the drafters, and does suspension mean the same thing as abrogated? There are more questions here than answers.

The effect of such order would be that as the NDC youth are causing mayhem in Ghana over the nomination of DCEs and MCEs, any such coverage of the carnage being caused at Adenta, Tema, Shama, Akwatia, Kade, Bia, Nkwanta, Hohoe and many more places would have to be cleared with the ISD under Zita. By the way, this political mayhem, who in NDC is behind it? Is it a spontaneous rejection of any Mills or someone within the NDC is machinating this. In any case is a DCE and officer of the state or that of NDC?

Before I finish this piece, I want to ask this simple question: why did Rawlings inspect the Air force base in Accra? Is he the Commander-in-Chief or does he want to re-join the force? Was he sent by President Mills or it is just his personality as someone said on the radio the other day and so we should leave him to please himself. So you see did I mention a stolen goat?

Kwesi Atta-Krufi Hayford