The King Is Naked

Herbert Krapa

hkrapa@gmail.com

Monday, January 25, 2010

On the occasion of our professor president’s one year anniversary, one that the he described himself as team B @ 1’, president Mills met with senior media practitioners, and answered, or attempted answers to questions on quite a number of topics, ranging among others from corruption, healthcare, education to security with the matter of corruption taking centre stage in the discussion. Two issues, the famous or rather infamous Muntaka ‘khebab/pampers’ saga and the matter of assets declaration significantly accelerated the obvious prominence that the matter of corruption took both in that discussion and in the media analysis of it thereafter.

The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International (TI), has since expressed worry over the statements that president Mills made in clear defense of Muntaka’s attitude. According to the GII, “the president’s remarks on the Muntaka saga smacks of endorsement or in support of Alhaji Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, former Sports Minister and NDC MP for Asawase.”

I reached out curiously for my copy of the NDC manifesto whilst writing this piece, and a bold statement on page 24 of it, that “an NDC government will not make excuses for corrupt ministers, officials and office holders generally”, left me wondering for a couple of minutes whether the president, given the statements he made in defense of Muntaka, does or does not consider himself part of the NDC government. In that encounter, Matilda Asante of Joy FM, referenced portions of the NDC manifesto to support her argument that the president’s handling of the Muntaka saga was inconsistent with their manifesto promise, but the president found her position strange and wondered where she was coming from. Kwame Sefa Kayi of Peace FM had a forth and back with the president on this same matter and in the end, president Mills made it known first time to the world, including the Queen of England, that new meanings have been given words such as forgery, corruption, misrepresentation and indiscretion, and that those changes have to be effected in all English dictionaries yet to be printed. Maryann Acolatse, Metro TV, reiterated the positions of Matilda and Kwame, but the president will simply not budge. In the end, Kwesi Pratt Jnr, a confidant of the president, put it to him that his position and handling of the Muntaka saga was grossly insufficient to say the least and woefully inconsistent with his promise to crack the whip on corrupt officials. This time, the president will nod, a subtle nod that will imply the president’s acceptance of Kwesi’s position that his attitude in government regarding the matter of corruption is in clear breach of the promise he made to the Ghanaian people.

Then comes the matter of assets declaration, which is supposed to be a mandatory constitutional provision and so, cannot stricto senso be left to the funny discretion or indiscretion of anyone. Shortly after assuming office, president Mills on February 23, 2009 as part of his pledge to fight corruption, issued a directive to his appointees to declare their assets seven days after being appointed. By December last year, 10 months after the president’s directive, as many as only 37 public officials out of the over 200 had declared their assets. And so this matter came up at the forum, which I’m sure even Steve Wonder saw coming. In a response to whether all his ministers have declared their assets, the president said “well I have declared my assets and my ministers are here so ask them if they also have”, to mean he takes full responsibility for his actions only, and cannot waste his time checking whether his ministers have obeyed his directive in fulfillment of a constitutional provision, because his ministers are to the best of his knowledge, responsible, independent minded adults who should know what is right and thus be able to do as such without his influence or authority. Incredible!

The president should know by now, if he has heard public sentiments and commentary lately, that the Ghanaian people are expecting him to act beyond the rhetoric. The president’s promise to fight corruption is likely to remain a promise under his watch if he does not take the approach of backing his words with works. The president in all his pronouncements since whenever, gives the impression that he is committed to the fight against corruption, but has always found himself wanting anytime he is faced with an opportunity to demonstrate this self-said commitment. The president should be reminded, in case he has forgotten, that he has the power to appoint and disappoint. The president had options in this matter. He could have published the names of the officials who have flouted the law by not declaring their assets on time and subsequently sanctioned them, in the name of transparency and accountability as tools for fighting corruption, but he did not. He could have removed them from office because they have contravened the constitution and gone against his own directive, but he did not. Rather, he decided to leave it for yet another time as a matter of discretion. The horror is that even a day’s delay in declaration of assets is enough time for public officials to acquire illegal assets.

The president’s answers to and actions against corruption allegations under his watch is a discouragement to the fight against corruption and he is sending, in my humble opinion worrying and hopeless signals to those involved in this fight. His ministers are unafraid to indulge in corrupt practices, because the president has made corruption refreshing rather than unprofitable, which is a complete departure from his campaign pledge to be transparent and accountable to the Ghanaian people.

Charity they say begins at home and if the president can be this careless and sluggish with his own ministers, then how can we sleep with our eyes closed, knowing what control the president has over the nation’s assets? Last weekend, the beautiful city of Tamale played host to the NDC. It was supposed to be a delegates congress to elect national executives of the party and possibly amend some parts of the party’s constitution, but as usual ex-president Rawlings’ comments at this function took off all of the kings clothes and left him stark naked. Per Mr. Rawlings’ comments, the King is presiding over a dying party, which party he has vowed to salvage from the King. Mr. Rawlings says that the drunkard King, whom he took a lot of time and pain to rehabilitate, is now looking better. Mr. Rawlings says that there is pain in the country because of the actions or inactions of the King. He thinks that the thinking of the King that he is being chased by a ghost is simply an absurdity because the only ghosts chasing the King is his own conscience and rightly so because of the Kings own wicked ways, which in the end, according to Mr. Rawlings would create a chaotic situation.

Chaos! Is Mr. Rawlings privy to some information that we are not? Did anyone see the sudden energy that Mr. Rawlings accumulated immediately the results were declared? This is what I think: Mr. Rawlings would raise a candidate to contest the sitting president as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2012 general elections. As part of our democratic rights, we will sit back and wait to see if the King can get his grooves on and convince his founder and the rest of us that he is capable of running the kingdom.

The ex-president is right; there is pain in the country. Last week, the children of the late Yaa Naa Yakubu Andani II sent a petition to the president, asking him to make good to them his promise to institute an investigation that will lead to the arrest and prosecution of the killers of their late father in six months. They reminded the president that it’s been 13 months already and they have not heard anything. They confessed that they voted for the NDC because of that promise. I heard them on radio and I could feel the pain in their voice. But I can assure my brothers and sisters that they are not alone in this painful ordeal. The many people of our land who must suddenly face the hardships being imposed on them are part of this struggle. The cab driver, who has to visit every fuel station within his locality in search for fuel to work with, knows better the pain he goes through than what the propaganda secretary of the NDC sits on radio to say. The trader, who wakes to the market in the morning, only to find her store or shed demolished beyond recognition, knows better what she feels. The trained teacher, whose allowances have been slashed drastically, in the name of cutting profligate expenditure, and contrary to the promise that “Atta Mills is a teacher like you and so will not sit and watch you suffer”, knows what he feels. The many Ghanaian people, who were promised the heavens by word of mouth and via the NDC manifesto, know what they feel.

President Mills’ lack of control on his government and his inability to deliver the better Ghana that he promised the Ghanaian people begs one question and I will ask it: Mr. President, why have the job if the only point is keeping the job and not doing it. My observation is that, by the end of president Mills’ four year term in office, a comprehensive compilation of failed NDC promises will be bulkier than the 97 page manifesto that won them power. My guess and expectation on the voting pattern in the year 2012 is as good as yours.