By Herbert Krapa (hkrapa@gmail.com)
The last month of last year saw President Mills declare the coming year as his ‘action year’. “2011 is the year in which Ghanaians will see the physical manifestations of the ‘Better Ghana’ agenda. It will be the year when Ghanaians will see the government making judicious use of the country’s resources, especially in the area of infrastructural development, to have meaning in the lives of the citizenry. Actual construction will start taking place all over the country.” That was President Mills on Thursday, 2nd December, 2010.
The next day, the president’s Director of Communications, Koku Anyidoho, took time on radio to do his job. He painted to the admiration of all, a clearer picture of the action year. Koku said “there will be construction of more major roads, massive construction in the housing industry, more classroom blocks, construction of railway lines, the start of the Brong Ahafo and Volta universities and the rehabilitation of Tema and Takoradi ports, amongst others.” He said “the action year will provide massive job opportunities for the citizenry and the government will not be distracted by the NPP’s doubt about its ability to deliver.” Very characteristic of him, Koku added that “you will see for yourselves that President Atta Mills is not a man of cheap political talk; he is a man of his words.”
Three days into the year, Mills took his first action. The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) announced a 30 per cent increment in fuel prices. The public reacted strongly. Industries were hit. Kwesi Pratt Jnr., Committee for Joint Action (CJA) leading member said he could not believe it. He said the NDC government had reneged on its promise to reduce fuel prices and the Ghanaian people would not have any of that because it is not justifiable. He called it a reckless policy and said “if this reckless policy is not abandoned, the NDC must begin to say good-bye to power.” Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) president, Nana Owusu Afari said “industries may be forced to lay off workers while others could fold up.” And so it became obvious, three days into the action year that Atta Mills is indeed a man of expensive political talk. With citizens losing their jobs and industries folding up, Koku was perfectly right: Mills does not talk cheap. And that was just the beginning.
On 27th January, that year, the president cut the sod for the commencement of the now infamous STX project. The propaganda was massive. Members of the police service were bused to parliament to witness the approval of a Supplier’s Credit Agreement between the Government of Ghana and STX Engineering and Construction Limited for an amount of 1.5billion dollars for the construction of 30,000 units of houses for our security agencies. The NDC said once this project is executed, the NPP must say good bye to power. Sadly, the good bye is to the 30,000 units of houses because twelve months down the line, not a single block has been laid in the name of the project. In the course of the action year, however, huge sums of taxpayer’s money went globetrotting among others to now find a financier for the project. Our sovereign guarantee issued for the project has so far been to Nigeria, the United States and Britain. The propaganda continued as we were told later that the government had secured funding from a consortium of banks led by Standard Chartered and at another time, Barclays Bank International. We were also told that the government led by the sector Minister, Alban Bagbin, was globetrotting for a technology for the project. The government was obviously confused and something was just not right. Later in the year, the STX Partners fell out with the Ghanaian partner. The Koreans have since sacked their Ghanaian partner and he has also done same. The case is in court and the settlement is in limbo and it will seem that the 30,000 houses will for the time being, be built in court.
But the fruitless STX sod was not the last to be cut in the action year. Later that year, the president embarked on a propaganda sod cutting and projects commissioning drive. He commissioned KVIP’s, boreholes, gutters and school dining halls. The argument will arise later that many of the projects were started and some even completed by the Kufuor administration. In effect, Mills commissioned already commissioned projects, and that for me was a lot of bravery. In the Greater Accra region, government appointees and communicators, who seemed to have been on the campaign trail throughout the term, told the Ghanaian people that the president commissioned over 1,000 projects in three days. That simply means he commissioned an average of 330 projects in a single day; 14 in an hour. In the process, the president also cut the sod for work to start on the Volta University of Health and Allied Sciences at Sokode in the Ho Municipality and the University of Energy and Natural Resources, in the Brong Ahafo region. We were told once again by our friend Koku Anyidoho, who else, that the action year universities would admit their first batch of students in September for the 2011/2012 academic year. On 9th February, Koku said on radio that “the president is engaging in this not to score cheap political points. As I speak to you, I know for a fact that there is money available…there is funds available for work to commence immediately. I can assure you that it’s going to take another two months before you see the first block coming up”. As I write this piece, in the month of December, I’m thinking it still hasn’t been two months since February.
The action year also saw the purchase of the luxurious Embraer 190 Jet, and four others, something the NDC had criticised rather strongly in the past. Though the Embraer’s basic price is quoted on the market to be between 32million dollars and 40million dollars, the NDC government supposedly agreed to buy ours at a basic price of 55million dollars, and additionally made configurations including a 1million dollar first class entertainment package, to take the price eventually to 88 million dollars.
In Mills’ action year, there was total disarray in our educational sector and the nation recorded its worst BECE results ever. Pass rates suddenly dropped from 60 per cent and above under the NPP administration, to 46.9 per cent under Mills. The four year SHS programme introduced by the NPP was vindicated with the first batch of pupils producing the best results ever in the history of Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination. Sadly, the NDC has reversed the system to three years, for unnecessary political reasons. The government failed to expand the infrastructure in our Senior High Schools, and for the first time, schools have asked their students to bring along bags of cement, buckets of paint, etc to help in the construction of classroom blocks and accommodation facilities.
In the action year, our country witnessed massive gas shortages. For weeks, the entire country lacked essential supplies of gas. Gas stations were constantly choked with people in search for a few drops of the product in order to cook some food. Many passed several nights at these gas stations, mostly women, with the hope that good news will break the following morning. But it took weeks. It was eventually blamed on both the NPP and commercial drivers. A proposal was made by Stan Dogbe, aide to the president, for the gas to be mixed with chemicals that will make it impossible for it to be used as fuel in cars. I couldn’t believe it but I concluded it was just action talk in an action year, the NDC way. That action talk was beautifully summed by Deputy Information Minister, Baba Jamal, in his goat = cow = sheep theory that same year. In a tape recording that appeared on the media landscape, Baba was heard telling Information Service Department staff that "yours is to make the government look good whatever the circumstance. If the government buys sheep and gives it as a goat, you are free to say it is a cow. The sheep, if the colour is black, you are free to say it is a white colourful cow, you are free to say that." This underlined the extent to which propaganda and deception has become institutionalised in the Mills/Mahama government and to what height they are willing to take it.
That same year, the Ghana Medical Association declared a nationwide strike, and it became the longest recorded strike of doctors in the country’s history. It lasted for nearly three weeks. It was embarked upon because of the failure of the government and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to address legitimate concerns of the doctors pertaining to their migration unto the single spine salary structure. At the beginning of the strike, the president in a very needless confrontational mood ordered the doctors to return to work. As usual he blamed the problem on the NPP. This time, we did not leave his government with enough money to do the job. In the midst of it, NDC appointees and communicators one more time went to town. They called the doctors names: charlatans, terrorists, worse than armed robbers, murderers, vampires etc. and whilst at that the Health Minister himself, Joseph Yileh Chireh, was granted leave by the president for medical reasons. News had it later though, that, the supposedly sick minister was in his Wa West constituency busily campaigning.
The action continued that year when on 29th March, an Accra High Court discharged all 15 persons accused of killing the late Ya-Na Yakubu Andani II. The NDC in opposition had promised among others to find the killers of the late Dagbon overlord in 90 days. They said they had documentary evidence including video tapes to expose those who were behind the violence. But as usual, it was mere propaganda. To express their anger and dissatisfaction, Northern Regional Executives of the NDC in an unprecedented move, resigned from the party for two weeks. The party’s regional office in Tamale was later burnt to ashes and youth from Dagbon came over to Accra and demonstrated against the court ruling. They threatened the Chief Justice some of the action next time.
The president’s private life, so to say, was not left out of the action. A token mansion was built for him. Koku Anyidoho, who initially told us that it was a present from the estate developers was forced to beat a quick retreat. He claimed later that the president was actually paying for the structure. In an action year, the president is allowed to pay for a gift, and that leaves the people to decide what to believe. The country’s security apparatus was not spared the confusion in the action year. When the crisis between the people of Agogo and Fulani herdsmen escalated to national security proportions, the National Security Advisor and Coordinator had their crisis too. One said the Fulanis should be removed from Agogo and the other said no, and they disagreed in public. Sadly, these are the men who are in charge of our country’s security and any surprise that, for no apparent reason, our country’s security agencies are still on red alert on orders of the president? That order too came in the action year. Part II soon...
