Don't Jump The Gun, Mr. Obetsebi-Lamptey

By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Whether Mr. Abuga Pele, the former coordinator of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), currently indicted and facing trial on charges of "defrauding by false pretences and aiding and abetting crime" is being scapegoated by a scam-ridden Mahama administration or not is beside the point, and ought not, in any way, to become a headache for Mr. Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, the National Chairman of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), and his close associates and key operatives of the party (See "GYEEDA Rot: Gov't Mustn't Scapegoat Pele - Jake" Radioxyzonline.com / Ghanaweb.com 1/25/14).

What is important presently is for all Ghanaians, irrespective of ideological leanings or political party affiliation, to watch sedulously while the legal ramifications surrounding Mr. Pele and his associates deliberately unfold, and in particular where matters crest and get resolved. We have been too much aggravated by legal revolving-door games in the Woyome saga to allow ourselves to be taken for another pointless ride.

In other words, attempting to rope in other equally criminal instances of proven and/or justiciable cases of criminality, all at once, would be unwisely tantamount to swamping and immobilizing the Mahama government in its sworn determination to drastically stanching the high spate of raw theft and gross mismanagement of the people's money and other capital resources.

The ancient Akan sages have a saying that when one looks into a bottle with both eyes, one goes blind. Of course, one does not literally go blind; rather, one would not be able to see the contents of the bottle. That such indictments come in the immediate wake of Mr. Mahama Ayariga's public announcement that "President Mahama will not spare any big fishes found culpable in the whole GYEEDA rot" is to be lauded. This, however, is not in any way to suggest that all caution must be chucked to the wind, as it were. We must also commend Mr. Mahama for mustering up the courage to abrogate the patently unwholesome contractual compacts entered into with such irreparably maligned contractors of questionable conduct and competence as Rlg Communications, Asongtaba Cottage Industry & Exchange Program (ACI & EP), and the Better Ghana Management Services Limited of the Jospong Group.

The next "visionary" step, logically, will be for the President and his cabinet and managerial assistants to reconfigure more constructive ways for the government to create productive and innovative avenues of meaningful employment opportunities for our otherwise talented and diligent youths. It is also edifying to note that the Attorney-General's department is hot on the tracks of firms that may not have dealt candidly with the government and the people. It cannot be gainsaid that at least half of the socioeconomic problems of the country would be solved, if our resources -both human and natural - were put to responsible use. Needless to say, only a few countries with the size and small population of Ghana's can boast of possessing more abundant resources and talent.

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*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

Department of English

Nassau Community College of SUNY

Garden City, New York

Jan. 25, 2014

E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net

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