"The lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree says it will praise itself if no one else will”. Why do loud-mouthed people want to fault the President for extolling his enviable records? If they do have one, why don’t the equally bring it up?
Strangely enough, political traditions that overthrew a constitutionally elected government boast of returning the country to constitutional rule, as if to say that we were under an unconstitutional regime before their military insurrection overthrew the people’s government.
People who had served their mandatory two terms in office and had no chance, constitutionally, from getting another bite want us to carry them shoulder high for relinquishing power unwillingly. Are they not the very people that called for what they term "positive defiance?"
Some people rode to power on the altar of probity and accountability. In those days, they looked as tiny as the church mouse, with no furniture to boast of such that some of them had to contend with stolen airplane seats as living room furniture. These people left office with all their bony cheeks covered and looking plump and in a position to afford jacuzzis, bullet proof cars, including even the ostentation of educating their children abroad. They even allowed us to rot under cash and carry only to receive medical attention abroad. You doubt? Remember Gyamfi Paul? They cared less if the masses they claim to stand for could afford the cash and carry system or not.
People who saw freedom of expression and press freedom as a taboo, and thus cowed the press into submission with shit-bombs and wanton imprisonment of perceived okro-mouthed journalists. People who for 20 years could afford to let the criminal libel and seditious laws remain in the statute books for their ulterior motives. Today, they can freely hop from one radio and T.V station to the other to the other to churn out half truths. And yet they say President Kufuor should not "mark his own script"?
I can go on and on about these double standard people. It therefore does not cease to amaze me when these same hypocrites try to talk as if they are apostles of integrity. I can’t but wonder why they tend to have a problem with almost every initiative of the government, even in the face of the massive transformation in all spheres of national life.
Yes, there might be genuine initial implementation challenges with some of the policies and programmes introduced. However, if these steps or similar ones had been taken a bit earlier, at least during the almost two decade period of the fault finders, we would be telling a different story.
Let’s be candid with ourselves. For crying out loud, why fault a successful personality like President Kufuor for blowing his own trumpet if the people without shame in the above scenarios even attempt unsuccessfully to boast about their achievements?
We are talking about a President whose stewardship has seen the introduction of policies like the capitation grant which has drastically increased school enrollment. The school feeding programme ensures that pupils in the piloted schools get access to one square meal a day. There has been relative stability in the nation's currency which has also been successfully redenominated. Inflation and interest rates are low, and the country has been rated by the World Bank as the most attractive emerging market.
With the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), access to health care is no longer a privilege but an affordable right. The National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) has taken on board about 108,000 hitherto unemployed youth. Massive and numerous economically beneficial roads have been completed, with many still on-going. Affordable housing schemes have been introduced, and the construction of two modern stadia and upgrading of two existing ones are open secrets.
My friend, my countryman, "Mr. pull him down", if you were in the place of President Kufuor and his government, what would you have done different? You would have kept mute for your non-performing but fault-finding detractors to sweep all the gains you have made under the carpet? Stop kidding!!!
What is most pleasing to my eras and conscience is even his preparedness to leave office gracefully as is constitutionally enjoined, without seeing it as a freebie he is doing Ghanaians or as a favour he is doing us. This is a man with true respect for, and commitment to the rule of law.
Ah, master, he deserves every praise he showers on himself, if really he is doing so. Like the lizard that jumped from the high iroko tree, President Kufuor and the NPP will praise themselves if their detractors won’t. J.A. Kufuor, ride on showcase and extol your enviable legacies. Congratulations!!!.
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