Mr. Mahama is Loving Vain Okro-Mouths and the Fur Dress!

If you read our essay, "When Vain Okro-Mouths Abandon Policy to Talk Fur Dress", on Ghanaweb the other day, you would have learned that we were a bit troubled by the ruckus created around the choice of Mr. Asiedu Nketia, the NDC General Secretary, to wear his wife's fur coat while on a few days "official trip" to Germany with Mr. Mahama, the President of Ghana. In that piece we argued that the "fur dress" had zero impact on the Peoples' welfare, compared to the use of public funds to support a political operative who did not report to Taxpayers.

This, notwithstanding the multitude of serious national crises, including these three:

1.Mounting deaths at hospital and clinics, damage to all manner of residential and industry appliances and equipment, loss of employment in all types of industries, and no end in sight because there is no fuel or electricity, even as over 80 power plants imported with the peoples' money way back in 2007 continue rotting at the VRA grounds, and the Osagyefo Barge, procured during the same time, sits resting in the rain, for God knows why.

2. Thousands of cholera cases in 6 Regions, from Accra to La-Dadekotopon, to Takoradi to Paga. as Korle Bu Hospital, KATH, and such other facilities cycle in-out of manageable crises

3. About 40% of Ghanaian children (about 300,000) aged between 4-5 don't attend Kindergartens (KG) due to lack of capacity; about 45% of KG, Primary School and JHS teachers are untrained; about 2,000 basic schools take place under trees and sheds; children must swim to get to school, a situation that recently resulted in the deaths of 3 3-year olds as they attempted to swim across the mighty River Densu, at New Asuoyaa in the Eastern Region, just to get to school1.

BUT, here we were, learned Ghanaians, Press and Ghanaweb pundits, descending into a cuckoo state of triviality about that petty "fur" coat, as some even attempted to analyze a mental state that may have simply reasoned it was not worth their $100 for on a coat they may never wear again!

If we were purposeful and serious about public policy that matter to people the way we indulge in 50-year-old-histories whose outcome have already been internationally determined, would we not still ask why and how Mr. Asiedu Nketia travelled with Mr. Mahama?

BUT, we heard some people holler, "Mr. Nketia is also the Chairman of the Bui Power Authority (BPA)"!

Our response is, why must some of us be so clueless? Should we be so partisan we can't appreciate the simple notion of "Conflict of Interest" that ought be avoided when the mission of the public is truly at the center of our "public" priorities?

Granted Mr. Mahama has the right to make that political appointment!

Does Mr. Mahama want to tell us he couldn't find another NDC member who could faithfully execute the work of Chairman of the BPA, other than the General Secretary? And if Mr. Mahama must have his man, can he and the Ministry of Finance tell the People how much Mr. Nketia is earning from work at the BPA, versus as General Secretary of the NDC party, and the time-split?

Maybe Mr. Mahama wants to tell us the BPA is not important enough even with the electricity crises, one Dumsor-to-another-Dumsor?

Maybe Mr. Mahama believes, as does one NDC "Okro-Mouth", Mr. Solomon Nkansah, that Bui is a "stupid project" that does not "inure to the benefit" of Ghana. Or, as Kofi Adams, the other NDC "Okro-Mouth", (National Organizer, they call him), will have us know, the "blame" for the power crises is squarely on President Kufuor because the NPP failed to continue "the program" laid by President (Indemnity Clause) Rawlings..."

Then from of the other side of the NDC mouth we heard the Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, tell us the government was using Bui power for peak, then off-peak power requirements, for emergency reasons.

What hogwash, Mr. Mahama!

Which is it?

Is BPA a facility the NDC would much rather tear down and replace, or is it now a Cash-Image Donkey that gives them power to fly all over the place, from Accra to Qatar, to Brazil, to Germany, in what look to us a discordant search for a savior with powers of "divine intervention" that do not exist in the first place.

So, how well could we doing with the payments to the Chinese, for Bui, Mr. Mahama?

And the Bui reclamation and Bui City projects?

But we digress!

We found this the other day.

While Mr. Nketia has been profiting from Bui in salaries and other payments we do not know about, a Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, the son of Mr. Mahama's Deputy, Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is sitting in the top dog chair at Bui, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Incidentally, the lad is the subject of a great many BPA worker complaints, some of it as odd as they come, complaints Chairman Nketia has reportedly ignored to date.

Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, as the Daily Guide reported, has quickly created a culture of silence and cronyism at Bui. Jabesh has thus far prevented workers from talking to Trades Union representatives. He has flatly denied promotions earned by qualified personnel because "there were no funds to pay them as senior staff officers." Further, the only water available for employees to drink at the "BPA Campus" come from "some rocks" on the BPA grounds.

For a Water Authority, is it not bizarre that no reliable, safe source of drinking water is available to employees? How does that safeguard or promote the health and safety of Bui employees?

And as if all that was not enough, Daily Guide informed us Jabesh has "installed CCTV cameras,,, (in)...vehicles and the Control Room and connected them to his personal wrist watch just to monitor (employees') activities..."

All this, we surmise, without due regard for employee privacy, and apparently, without consultation with employees. Yes, without written rules and procedures showing why the CCTV system was needed, where the cameras must be focused for all the "whys", and what roles and responsibilities all the employees, including Jabesh, have to ensure the surveillance system works as intended, that it promotes safety at the BPA campus, that the system stays tamper-proof, even from the CEO.

Suddenly, we are brought four-square to the case of the "Fur Dress"!

Clearly, if all your media personalities and pundits, including those on Ghanaweb are merely interested in that "Fur Dress", you must now be having a pretty good time operating absent-minded like you do not care/Won't Listen, if you were Mr. Mahama.

You must be very happy as you create and ignore all kinds of conflicts of interest and potential Bagbin Unpunished Thievery (BUT), even as you go about borrowing to make up for love you are losing at foreign embassies.

Why would you even care you will pay anything for shirking your duty when the cost is known by you to be ZERO now that the Peoples' attention is squarely organized at that infamous gaudy "Fur Dress"?

It does not make sense!

And so, as we continued chatting about Mr. Nketia's "Fur Dress", we neglected policy even as Mr. Nketia was in the BPA Boardroom with CEO Jabesh, watching Bui videos on their collectible spy watch.

If we may, what professional setting, does Mr. Nketia and CEO Jabesh know where the CEO is also the Security Officer and CCTV Surveillance Officer, who reports directly to him/her self?

And what can we expect next from Jabesh?

BPA Chief Dog Catcher?

Come on, Ghana!

ITEM: These ethical, quasi-legal, safety, and human relations fiascos at Bui are totally unbecoming of a professional corporation, precisely the type Ghana needs to ensure this important infrastructure is properly managed and maintained by people who love what they do, and by people who feel respected as the human beings and citizens of Ghana they are!

So, in the end, our tip of the hat goes to the Daily Guide for shining their "pen-light" on the situation at Bui, a situation that has little to do with that gaudy Nketia "fur dress".

To boot, we believe that we have fairly explored the policy linkages that could inspire a certain amount of reflection on the part of the body that calls themselves the Government of Ghana. This, of course, includes the omniscient Ministry of Finance that seems to be under every register that counts government money in Ghana.

So it goes, Ghana!

Source: 1www.adamchagani.com/education-in-ghana/ (Referencing "ARE, Childs Rights International and Star Ghana.

©Mr. Mahama is Loving Vain Okro-Mouths and the Fur Dress!

If you read our essay, "When Vain Okro-Mouths Abandon Policy to Talk Fur Dress", on Ghanaweb the other day, you would have learned that we were a bit troubled by the ruckus created around the choice of Mr. Asiedu Nketia, the NDC General Secretary, to wear his wife's fur coat while on a few days "official trip" to Germany with Mr. Mahama, the President of Ghana. In that piece we argued that the "fur dress" had zero impact on the Peoples' welfare, compared to the use of public funds to support a political operative who did not report to Taxpayers.

This, notwithstanding the multitude of serious national crises, including these three:

1.Mounting deaths at hospital and clinics, damage to all manner of residential and industry appliances and equipment, loss of employment in all types of industries, and no end in sight because there is no fuel or electricity, even as over 80 power plants imported with the peoples' money way back in 2007 continue rotting at the VRA grounds, and the Osagyefo Barge, procured during the same time, sits resting in the rain, for God knows why.

2. Thousands of cholera cases in 6 Regions, from Accra to La-Dadekotopon, to Takoradi to Paga. as Korle Bu Hospital, KATH, and such other facilities cycle in-out of manageable crises

3. About 40% of Ghanaian children (about 300,000) aged between 4-5 don't attend Kindergartens (KG) due to lack of capacity; about 45% of KG, Primary School and JHS teachers are untrained; about 2,000 basic schools take place under trees and sheds; children must swim to get to school, a situation that recently resulted in the deaths of 3 3-year olds as they attempted to swim across the mighty River Densu, at New Asuoyaa in the Eastern Region, just to get to school1.

BUT, here we were, learned Ghanaians, Press and Ghanaweb pundits, descending into a cuckoo state of triviality about that petty "fur" coat, as some even attempted to analyze a mental state that may have simply reasoned it was not worth their $100 for on a coat they may never wear again!

If we were purposeful and serious about public policy that matter to people the way we indulge in 50-year-old-histories whose outcome have already been internationally determined, would we not still ask why and how Mr. Asiedu Nketia travelled with Mr. Mahama?

BUT, we heard some people holler, "Mr. Nketia is also the Chairman of the Bui Power Authority (BPA)"!

Our response is, why must some of us be so clueless? Should we be so partisan we can't appreciate the simple notion of "Conflict of Interest" that ought be avoided when the mission of the public is truly at the center of our "public" priorities?

Granted Mr. Mahama has the right to make that political appointment!

Does Mr. Mahama want to tell us he couldn't find another NDC member who could faithfully execute the work of Chairman of the BPA, other than the General Secretary? And if Mr. Mahama must have his man, can he and the Ministry of Finance tell the People how much Mr. Nketia is earning from work at the BPA, versus as General Secretary of the NDC party, and the time-split?

Maybe Mr. Mahama wants to tell us the BPA is not important enough even with the electricity crises, one Dumsor-to-another-Dumsor?

Maybe Mr. Mahama believes, as does one NDC "Okro-Mouth", Mr. Solomon Nkansah, that Bui is a "stupid project" that does not "inure to the benefit" of Ghana. Or, as Kofi Adams, the other NDC "Okro-Mouth", (National Organizer, they call him), will have us know, the "blame" for the power crises is squarely on President Kufuor because the NPP failed to continue "the program" laid by President (Indemnity Clause) Rawlings..."

Then from of the other side of the NDC mouth we heard the Power Minister, Dr Kwabena Donkor, tell us the government was using Bui power for peak, then off-peak power requirements, for emergency reasons.

What hogwash, Mr. Mahama!

Which is it?

Is BPA a facility the NDC would much rather tear down and replace, or is it now a Cash-Image Donkey that gives them power to fly all over the place, from Accra to Qatar, to Brazil, to Germany, in what look to us a discordant search for a savior with powers of "divine intervention" that do not exist in the first place.

So, how well could we doing with the payments to the Chinese, for Bui, Mr. Mahama?

And the Bui reclamation and Bui City projects?

But we digress!

We found this the other day.

While Mr. Nketia has been profiting from Bui in salaries and other payments we do not know about, a Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, the son of Mr. Mahama's Deputy, Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, is sitting in the top dog chair at Bui, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Incidentally, the lad is the subject of a great many BPA worker complaints, some of it as odd as they come, complaints Chairman Nketia has reportedly ignored to date.

Jabesh Amissah-Arthur, as the Daily Guide reported, has quickly created a culture of silence and cronyism at Bui. Jabesh has thus far prevented workers from talking to Trades Union representatives. He has flatly denied promotions earned by qualified personnel because "there were no funds to pay them as senior staff officers." Further, the only water available for employees to drink at the "BPA Campus" come from "some rocks" on the BPA grounds.

For a Water Authority, is it not bizarre that no reliable, safe source of drinking water is available to employees? How does that safeguard or promote the health and safety of Bui employees?

And as if all that was not enough, Daily Guide informed us Jabesh has "installed CCTV cameras,,, (in)...vehicles and the Control Room and connected them to his personal wrist watch just to monitor (employees') activities..."

All this, we surmise, without due regard for employee privacy, and apparently, without consultation with employees. Yes, without written rules and procedures showing why the CCTV system was needed, where the cameras must be focused for all the "whys", and what roles and responsibilities all the employees, including Jabesh, have to ensure the surveillance system works as intended, that it promotes safety at the BPA campus, that the system stays tamper-proof, even from the CEO.

Suddenly, we are brought four-square to the case of the "Fur Dress"!

Clearly, if all your media personalities and pundits, including those on Ghanaweb are merely interested in that "Fur Dress", you must now be having a pretty good time operating absent-minded like you do not care/Won't Listen, if you were Mr. Mahama.

You must be very happy as you create and ignore all kinds of conflicts of interest and potential Bagbin Unpunished Thievery (BUT), even as you go about borrowing to make up for love you are losing at foreign embassies.

Why would you even care you will pay anything for shirking your duty when the cost is known by you to be ZERO now that the Peoples' attention is squarely organized at that infamous gaudy "Fur Dress"?

It does not make sense!

And so, as we continued chatting about Mr. Nketia's "Fur Dress", we neglected policy even as Mr. Nketia was in the BPA Boardroom with CEO Jabesh, watching Bui videos on their collectible spy watch.

If we may, what professional setting, does Mr. Nketia and CEO Jabesh know where the CEO is also the Security Officer and CCTV Surveillance Officer, who reports directly to him/her self?

And what can we expect next from Jabesh?

BPA Chief Dog Catcher?

Come on, Ghana!

ITEM: These ethical, quasi-legal, safety, and human relations fiascos at Bui are totally unbecoming of a professional corporation, precisely the type Ghana needs to ensure this important infrastructure is properly managed and maintained by people who love what they do, and by people who feel respected as the human beings and citizens of Ghana they are!

So, in the end, our tip of the hat goes to the Daily Guide for shining their "pen-light" on the situation at Bui, a situation that has little to do with that gaudy Nketia "fur dress".

To boot, we believe that we have fairly explored the policy linkages that could inspire a certain amount of reflection on the part of the body that calls themselves the Government of Ghana. This, of course, includes the omniscient Ministry of Finance that seems to be under every register that counts government money in Ghana.

So it goes, Ghana!

Source: 1www.adamchagani.com/education-in-ghana/ (Referencing "ARE, Childs Rights International and Star Ghana.

©Prof. Lungu is Ghana-centered/Ghana-Proud. Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA. Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com. 20Feb15.

is Ghana-centered/Ghana-Proud. Prof Lungu is based in Washington DC, USA. Brought to you courtesy www.GhanaHero.com. 20Feb15.