Ex Gratia - My Letter To The President And People Of The Republic Of Ghana
October 05, 2010
“The public has been aware of the case in question since February 18th, 2009. Although the incident is indeed poignant, it has only elicited silence from our country’s leadership, and at its expense, arguments in justification of ‘ex-gratia and other leadership benefits intentionally inserted in our Constitution to seek the selfish interest of the architects of the Constitution, something unheard of in the history of contemporary democratic nation-states, have taken precedence. This is an opportunity for me to state categorically to the Ghanaian leadership of all circles and to all citizens of Ghana that our children are looked down upon, and, if this apathetic attitude does continue, the alternative will be to inform the international society and seek partial redress for our children and youth, and leave the remaining redress to the Almighty, the Maker of all things, to accomplish.” A. P. Gyimah, in his first communication to the President and People of his homeland Ghana, on the topic, “Raping Children and Teenage Girls: Mr. President and Fellow Ghanaians, What Should We Do To Stop It?”
Dear Mr. President of The Republic of Ghana and Fellow Ghanaians,
We are in a critical thinking era of our Ghanaian history. This is a period in our history when we have our freedom either to choose and do right things or follow the wrong path, build our nation or leave it to its fate, respect our laws or disregard them, unify ourselves or continue to engage ourselves antagonistically, make good use of commonsense or abuse commonsense, punish and punish very severely or forgive and forget forever and ever more, but I doubt if forgiveness is a solution to the arsonist, terrorist criminal behaviors.
Your Excellency, Respected Fellow indigenes, and foreign residents of my country Ghana, based on the tone of my May the 10th message, I know you have over expected this letter. The 100th Birth Day celebration of our First President the late Mr. Kwame Nkrumah, popularly known as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Nana Jerry John Rawlings’ June 4th activities across the nation (which he most likely conducted without a permit from my country’s police), the World Soccer event, His Excellency’s vacation and the international trips he made, I did not want to interfere with your schedule. I am sorry, sirs. The Kumasi military celebration of Nana Rawlings’ so-called June 4th and the general security atmosphere in the land have taken me to disarray.
The purpose of this letter is to present you with a forehand notice of the history of benefits/pensions of United States’ retired presidents and the current breakdown of such benefits. You will also find available world leaders’ salaries (as at 2000) as they particularly pertain to Asian countries. It is my hope that the pieces of information will be pertinent to our national needs, especially aiding you to make a cogent decision on ex gratia matter at stake.
Your Excellency and Fellow Ghanaians, and Foreign residents of Ghana, you may remember in my premier communication to you, I drew your attention to the reason why I was getting involved in helping to liberate our children – My experiences in the developed world. I requested we unite in the fight to liberate our children from oppressive environments. I thank you for not denying me the request. The fight to liberate our children continues unabated. Today, I beg you again to lend me your helping hands to address the issue of ex gratia for the sake of our children.
As you know, I am again writing from the New World, the country which gained her independence from the colonial masters as far back as 1776. It was not until in 1912 when a proposed consideration for retirement benefits for former Presidents was addressed to the Congress by a private businessman. Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist, proposed to offer $25,000 per annum. His proposal failed before U.S. Congress. Why should an individual be burdened with retirement benefits of their retired presidents? Prior to this period, U.S. Presidents were not accorded any retirement benefits upon their retirement. Though the Congress did not agree with Andrew Carnegie to make his offer come to pass, yet the Congress itself introduced legislation the same year to establish presidential benefits but it was not ratified into law.
Nonetheless, in 1955, President Harry Truman’s financial difficulties prompted Congress to consider retirement benefits for U.S. former Presidents. This determination was passed into legislation three years later, in 1958.
Mr. President, My Dear Ghanaian leaders, and the people of Ghana, we learn from the foregoing history that the Americans started paying retirement benefits to their ex-presidents 182 years after their independence from the British rule. The reason was simple - they were not economically well-off earlier to do so. Even in 1958, it was done on mere grounds of sympathy. The table below is a breakdown of U.S. former Presidents’ allowances from the Fiscal Year 2008 to date. The America has the strongest economy globally. Since 2001, sitting U.S. president’s annual salary is $400,000. This figure is not very high for the nation’s Chief Executive, given the country’s, near 400 million population, size, economic well-being, and salary structure of some government institutions.
Table 1. GSA Allowances for Former Presidents, FY2008 Enacted
Allowances Widows Carter Bush Clinton
Pension $0 $191,000 $191,000 $201,000
Staff Salaries 0 96,000 96,000 96,000
Staff Benefits 0 2,000 64,000 65,000
Travel 0 2,000 56,000 50,000
Rental Payments 0 102,000 175,000 516,000
Telephone 0 10,000 17,000 79,000
Postage 12,000 15,000 13,000 15,000
Other Services 0 83,000 76,000 65,000
Printing 0 5,000 14,000 14,000
Supplies 0 5,000 15,000 26,000
Equipment 0 7,000 69,000 35,000
Total $12,000 $518,000 $786,000 $1,162,000
Source: Data provided by the Office of the Budget, General Services Administration, on January 24, 2008
It will also interest you to note that since he became Governor of the State of California in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger has donated his yearly salary of $206,500 to the State. The State of New Jersey former Governor Jon Corzine took home only $1 per year of his $175,000 annual salary, the rest was donated to the State, because of the State’s financial problems. The State of Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen does not take home his yearly salary of $85,000. He donates it to the State. In the State of Arizona, Republican leaders claimed that the governor’s salary of $95,000 would reduce the quality of candidates running for office, so they worked on a bill to raise the governor salary to $112,500, but it was criticized by the then Governor Janet Napolitano of the Democratic Party. The Governor seriously fought against Governor salary increase. Similar circumstance occurs in the State of Illinois. The Governor is against Governor salary increase in his state. As for the State of Maine, the Governor makes $70,000 a year, and this very unattractive salary has not been increased for the past 20 years. Because of human beings insatiability, I personally think that the governors have been very generous indeed to their respective states.
Also, the Mayor of the city from where I am writing to you receives no salary and benefits; he volunteers his time for the job. He is not a man of substance either, just a career barber. The city houses 12,000 people. Furthermore, because of the current recession, California State Employees Salaries was cut by 15 percent – Furlough reduction in pay, from February 2009 to June 2010 and was renewed in August. The nearby State of Nevada has Furloughs too. As I understand it, the U.S. government has also instituted Furloughs.
As a former student in economics at the University of Hong Kong, I have learned and experienced the characteristics of some Asian countries’ economic development. Interestingly and meaningfully to help gauge our own development, it was imperative to do research on the subject of ex-gratia in Asian countries and draw your attention to it. The salaries of Asian leaders (tabulated in this letter for the benefit of the general public) are to highlight on the factors of determining salaries for our leaders. Here, National Chief Executives, Cabinet Members and Parliamentarians are the key. The better the economy, the better the salary; otherwise pay higher to avoid fraud or do both. The better the pay, the harder they work. Higher salaries are proportional or linked to the economy. But these factors do not necessarily eliminate leadership corruption, because we human beings are insatiable.
As a citizen of Ghana (based on our customs, traditions, but not by the British-adopted Constitution), which legitimately qualifies me to civilly, meaningfully, and respectfully contribute my quota to our on-going national development efforts without the use of force and/or intimidation, I am not writing to seek appropriate figures for the ex-gratia but to humbly call for its total elimination from our system. Over copying may be a crime against our children and the future generation. It is important that we recognize the relevance of building our economy now and leave ex-gratia to take its own natural course at the appropriate time. I think that we are unable to pay ex-gratia to any legitimate former President of our country at this time, unfortunately. The sole reason is the poor economic situation we live at this time. Our country has been lacking behind in developing activities. We must now attempt to organize ourselves to build our nation. We were deprived of our rights by the colonial master(s), the so-called military, foreign resident(s), and our civilian leaders, but we cannot and must not allow ourselves to be deceived again and anymore. We have resources not to waste, misspend, overspend, or misappropriate. The meager amount of resources available need to be spent very wisely. We are confronted with several difficulties, but these difficulties are not beyond our control and commonsense. Systematic planning can achieve the goal through unity and selfless purpose, devotional community and national activities directed to fulfillment of educational, health, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, and basic needs.
Nana Jerry John Rawlings took power upon himself for 19 years, colonizing and brutalizing Ghanaians, claiming that, that was the only way to build the economy, and yet our country is worse off than the period he seized power. South Korea was led by a similar soldier, and he was able to develop it in 15 years. The Republic of China on Taiwan (R.O.C.), otherwise known as Formosa was led to development by a soldier/warrior too, and the nation took less than a reasonable period of time to develop.
I can understand and share with Nana Jerry John Rawlings the pain and suffering of his failure to develop father Ghana. He wasted our resources for nothing, only to join communist dictatorial countries. In the end, he did not send his children to communist countries to have higher education but to the West, where he claims to detest so much indeed. Now he notices that the West has the best for manpower training. Therefore, Nana Rawlings has deceived Ghanaians, particularly his disciples he sent to the East for tyrannical training. This is a deviation from probity he preaches. Therefore, he is accountable for his deception.
He continues to deceive us that his “social democracy” is the best. He stole 16 vehicles for his personal use at the time he left office as so-called president of my country. Mr. John Agyekum Kuffour could retrieve only 10 vehicles simply to give room for Nana Rawlings to fraudulently import four more sophisticated and luxury vehicles. Does our grandfather Nana Jerry John Rawlings understand what ‘social democracy’ is about? Based on the foregoing, what does our grandfather Nana Jerry John Rawlings mean by his, so-called June 4th and December 31st uprising and revolution respectively to himself and his worshipers? Nana Rawlings, do you now understand the meaning of executing my country’s legitimate leaders? Nana, I hope you can clarify yourself that those periods were neither for hunger strike nor for robbing Ghanaians at gun point. I believe Nana Jerry John Rawlings will agree with me that he executed my legitimate leaders to solve his personal financial difficulties and to better his family’s economy. I say this not only because he was in debt (food he bought to eat from street vendors – Yoko Gari) before his so-called uprising, but after the execution, his so-called AFRC government gave only one vehicle to each of the widows of those executed irrespective of the number of vehicles each victim genuinely acquired. Nana Jerry John Rawlings’ behavior in property acquisition is not only a crime but a grave ethic violation in Ghana and in his own country – Scotland. Nana Rawlings accused President Dr. Hilla Limann of importing 504 Pegeout cars to Parliamentarians. Each parliamentarian had only one vehicle, though.
The original language of the Bible says that, we must not commit murder. The English translation came out with, “Thou shall not kill”. The two statements are not the same, according interpreters of Christian faith. The difference is clear and peace officers are trained to understand the difference before they embark on their duties in the community. Justifiable homicide is not a sin. It is lawful killing, according to the original Bible. Murder, however, is unlawful killing. That is, unjustifiable killing. At this point, I am boldly informing Nana Jerry John Rawlings that he did not kill my country’s leaders in 1979. He murdered my nation’s leaders in 1979 for his personal selfish interest. Peace officers may kill when it is necessary to do so to protect themselves and the public. Otherwise, they have murdered. Murder is a capital crime subject to prosecution. Murder is a sinful act. Reconciliation does not and cannot solve crimes of murder.
It is perhaps Nana Rawlings’ looting of the Castle that also angered the former Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes to take home State property when he left office. Nana Rawlings’ criminal background and ethic violation is a bad teaching to Ghanaians and a disgrace to himself and his fatherland – Scotland. When Mr. Sekyi-Hughes took the items away, Ghanaians used the word “stolen” to describe his action, but when Nana Rawlings stole the cars, Ghanaians used the phrase “took away” to describe his nefarious action. Ghana does not belong to Nana Rawlings. Nana Rawlings happened to be born in Ghana only. Mr. Sekyi-Hughes, however, is a member of the natural owners of Ghana. We have to be careful about how we treat our genuine citizens. We must seize mistreating our own legitimate citizens. It does not make sense worshipping foreign faiths against worshipping our own gods ordained to us by the Almighty for a variety of reasons.
If we have resources to serve Nana Rawlings, then, I am afraid we must refund the Ivorian government $60,000 donated to Ghana to help rebuild our foreign ministry building that was intentionally burnt by the terrorist(s) because the world knows who caused the arsons. It will be a shame on Ghanaians to accept the donation and still have money to pay ex gratia to the undesirable(s). Nobody should be afraid of dictator Nana Jerry John Rawlings. His conducts in father Ghana are illegal. Nana Jerry John Rawlings intentionally inserted ex gratia clause into the Constitution for his own selfish interest. Nana Jerry John Rawlings is not the father of ‘democracy’ as some speculate, but the father of ‘lawlessness’ and ‘disrespect for the law’, in Ghana. He is also not the founder of National Democratic Congress (NDC) party. A political party cannot be founded by one person but a group of people who legitimately belong to the country where the party is formed and democratically operated, not suppressed.
The West did not support Nana Rawlings with the same opportunities they provided to the “Asian Tigers”, commonly known as “The Four Sister Nations”, (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) who were good listeners and obedient to the international laws, at least, in the eyes of the Americans; though the argument is that the Americans had great interest in the region. It is an important factor to reckon with to make a fair assessment, however. In fact, Singapore and Hong Kong are the good works of the British, whilst Taiwan and South Korea owe their development allegiance to the Americans and their own hard working people, including, particularly students who returned home from the developed world.
Under Nana Rawlings’ ‘despotic and uncivilized reign of terror’, students could not return home because they would have been killed. Frankly speaking, some students had to flee for their lives. An illustration here is the now Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy. He was a student leader who spoke his mind and was chased out of the country by Governor Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, the self-imposed Scottish Governor appointed to Ghana. Major Boakye-Djan’s biological brother, a student at the University of Ghana, who spoke his mind, was executed. Nana Rawlings misunderstood the importance of factoring in ‘education’ in national development, to an extent that, higher institutions were arbitrarily closed down sporadically to suppress the growth of knowledge and power in the system. Hence, Nana Rawlings restrained technological development in Ghana.
Thus, his ambition was to acquire power for life. He forgot that God is always the king. Among those ‘A Level’ graduates who were affected, as a result of his unconstitutionally intermittent closures of our universities, is this writer. Eventually, God opened the way for this author to study in the University of Hong Kong. It was there that he got privilege to have guidance of Professor Chu, then, head of the Department of Statistics, as one of his instructors. Professor Chu had been professor in that university since 1954 (and was an old man with tremendous teaching and learning, and life experiences to share with students). He prescribed a book on sociology written by the late prime minister of The Republic of Ghana, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, to his students, to complete an assignment, and when this writer located the book in the university’s library, he said to himself, “The power of gun will always end, but the power of knowledge will live forever.” Dr. K.A. Busia died 14 years prior. He perhaps never thought that his book would reach the Far East universities’ libraries.
Though, Nana Jerry John Rawlings’ ‘power of gun’ has now ended; yet the author’s knowledge will never end. Knowledge is power. The media reported that Nana Jerry John Rawlings was homeless/or in a hideout in Sogakope, his mother’s “adopted” hometown in Ghana since the 1800s. Whether it is true or not, he has no profession to fall back upon for his livelihood. The gun was, bought for him by the people for the sole protection of the people. This he misused against the people, is now retrieved from him by those people for good to end his gun power which he applied against the people. However, this writer’s knowledge can never be snatched away from him by anyone. He will possess it for forever. Dr. Kobina Arthur Kennedy will possess his knowledge always. All others’ will hold on to their knowledge for good. We acquired our knowledge through the help of our family members and, most importantly, the good and respected people of our fatherland Ghana and beyond. We are indebted to our people. The impact of our knowledge will help people and our nation, not kill Ghanaians. This author wished he could argue for ex-gratia to benefit the greedy and selfish Nana Jerry John Rawlings (a resident of the author’s fatherland), a man the author loves so much indeed. But he has no tangible factors to support such an endeavor, so he closes that chapter, and asks for a complete closure of ex-gratia.
Salaries of world leaders compiled from the source below and presented in the table below by this author – A. P. Gyimah
Country President/Chief Executive (C.E.) Prime Minister Finance Minister Minister of Economy, Chief Cabinet Secretary Cabinet Members Secretaries Parliamentarians
Britain N/A $262,000 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Singapore N/A $1,000,000 (2001) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Singapore N/A $6,000,000 (After 2001) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Hong Kong $800,000(Chief Executive) N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Japan N/A $307,000 $415,000 $273,000 $282,750 N/A N/A N/A
Philippines $24,000 N/A N/A N/A N/A $9,000 N/A N/A
Thailand N/A $32,188 N/A N/A N/A $30,000 (around) N/A N/A
Taiwan A$178,752 A$121,446 N /A N/A N/A A$71,500 N/A N/A
Vietnam $1,650 $1,640 N/A N/A N/A $1,350 N/A N/A
Cambodia N/A $2,000 N/A N/A N/A A few hundred dollars a year N/A N/A
Indonesia N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Malaysia N/A $65,000 N/A N/A N/A $43,000 N/A N/A
New Zealand N/A $110,300 N/A N/A N/A $73,477 N/A $40,890
Source: Singapore Window, “Agence France Presse, August 18, 2002”, Singapore.
The bottom-line is Nana Rawlings could not make any positive accomplishments. Therefore, Nana Jerry John Rawlings proved to be a failure in ambition and life. Nana Jerry John Rawlings has already paid ex-gratia to himself without nation’s authorization. That is against his claimed practice of honesty and transparency. Our State needs money to cater for the poor Nana Jerry John Rawlings capitalizes his political ambition at all time. We have to reconstruct our recently collapsed architecture for a better future. It does not make sense to pay Nana Jerry John Rawlings ex gratia to reward him for killing our genuine leaders and needy citizens whom he forcibly led. Nana Rawlings has already chosen his son-in-law, his so-called friend Mr. Herbert Mensah; what more in life he is looking for? Benefits for the former U.S. Presidents do not cover their wives and children 16 years old and above.
If we critically examine Nana Jerry John Rawlings’ practices, it can be strongly said that, he has taken for granted father Ghana as his personal property. He has become a sole proprietor of Ghana, who is subservient to the laws of Ghana. He has made Ghanaians his animal husbandry, whereby he kills or sells any of his animals at his will. He destroys property of the farm at any time. He drives away anyone like his animals from the confinement area without cause any time he wants. He spends lavishly without accounting for his expenditure to his animal kingdom. He is above checks and balances in his self grabbed animal farm. He slaps and terminates his assistant overseer of the farm without cause. Thus, he has setup his own justice system against the wish of his animals. Today, I confide to Nana Rawlings that his animal husbandry is bound to collapse forever. Traditional citizens of the land have taken over and have turned it into human kingdom. Nana Jerry John Rawlings should get ready for accountability in the near future because sole proprietors are not immune to tax obligations. The countries which believe in capitalism develop on account of tax payment. Nana Rawlings is late in fulfilling his tax obligations/accountability.
As for Mr. John Agyekum Kufour, his son’s decision to purchase a hotel at a cost of $10,000,000 indicates and proves his family is credit worthy. We cannot help the rich but the poor. Let us concentrate to spend our limited resources on the development of our country so that, the cake is fairly distributed amongst everyone in the country – citizens and residents, more particularly the poor. Today Mr. John Agyekum Kufour’s failure to proceed on to prosecute the prosecutable is the main cause of the burning of our nation. The reconciliation was unnecessary. If his reconciliation was aimed at promoting peace at home and seeking international prestige, the current events in father Ghana have proven him wrong. No ex gratia for him, too. We need money to reconstruct our burnt architecture and for Mr. John Agyekum-Kufour’s own personal protection, too.
Each of those men claims that their friends helped them in their family’s economic lives. Though Nana Rawlings claims that his children’s education abroad is at the cost of his overgenerous friends and the four vehicles are the hard work of a friend or friends yet he has not identified the friend(s) to Ghanaians, even though he claims that he strongly believes in accountability, probity, and transparency. By the same token, Mr. John Agyekum-Kufour’s home was renovated with the finances of a claimed friend. If these men have great friends who financially attend to them in times of need, why should we poor Ghanaians be worried about their economic welfare? Why don’t we worry about as to how we can progress in life – seeking the basic necessities of life - food, shelter, and clothing?
Your Excellency, kindly use your position to be fair to unadulterated citizens of Ghana. I humbly request that you pay Mr. John Agyekum-Kufour, a former legitimate president of our country, how much we owe him in arrears, plus interest, as at the time a decision will be made on the subject-matter of ex-gratia. This is because I believe that Nana Jerry John Rawlings, a former dictator and violent foreign occupant of our father Ghana’s presidency, is paid ex-gratia to date. After that, please adopt the ‘due process’ to close the ex gratia payment chapter so that we may not reintroduced it any time soon.
To crown it all, we need to stop discussing ex-gratia in whatever forms and terms – monthly salaries, accommodation, office space, medical facilities, etc., etc., We instead must focus on development initiatives, for it is only attainment of development that the future can hold the best for payment or establishment of coherent fringe benefits to our dear past leaders, legitimate only. We may or may not live to see it done, but, the important thing is that, by the time we die, we would have established economic system and schemes for development of our children and the future generation. That will bring about peace and tranquility in Ghana. It will lead to brighten our children’s future. We must aim at making our children’s future in best shape. Mr. President, Fellow Ghanaians, Natives of father Ghana, and Foreign residents, I believe that the foregoing is what is worthwhile for Ghana at this time. Therefore, I politely bring to your attention at this point of time, for consideration. With determination and perseverance, and everyone’s non- violent, but civilized and polite co-operation, God will lead us to joy.
If we are making room for ex-gratia, I suggest and recommend the following people to be the sole beneficiaries: the wife of our late President Dr. Hilla Limann who was forced out of office, the late Mr. I.K. Acheampong’s son who is mentally incapacitated as a result of his father’s execution. He should be taken to a mental hospital for treatment, the wives of all those executed by the two wise men Nana Jerry John Rawlings and Major Boakye Djan, and retirement benefits paid to the children of the murdered judges and the retired Major. Furthermore, the grand children of all those executed by the AFRC should be sponsored to study abroad in any field they want. They are young now but the opportunity should be given to them when they become of age. This privilege must also be accorded to the late General Kotoka’s grand children. This initiative, however, is not a license to stop the murderers from standing trial one day, by God’s will.
They murdered the entire family members of Col. Eninful. Rawlings Park must be renamed The Eninfuls’ Children’ Park. In addition, as soon as a school of law is built in Kumasi, it should be named after Col. Eninful. He understood the poor, debtor, needy, hungry, and opened the door of free speech in his courtroom. He did not violate anyone’s personal liberty but guaranteed such liberties. A university hall should be named after Mrs. Eninful but such a hall must not be located in the Volta Region.
Thank you for your attention, co-operation, patience, and valued leadership of democratic governance. I love you all, though. You will hear from me again, and working with you for children, education, and public safety issues.
Yours sincerely,
Mr. A. P. Gyimah
cc:
1. Constitutional Review Committee, via His Excellency’s Office (a request)
2. Nana Jerry John Rawlings, via the Majority Leader of Parliament
3. Mr. John Agyekum-Kufour, via the Minority Leader of Parliament
4. Ghanaians and Friends of Ghana, via the Press.
PS: This letter was submitted to our legitimately-elected president and the media on October the 5th, 2010.
