The incompetence of President Mahama ....

.....will surely send us back to the State of Nature and Golgotha.

Its business is unique. Like the West African Examination Council, the Nefarious Destructive Cancer led by President John Dramani Mahama is chartered to process nearly 25 million Ghanaians through the numerous policies, pronouncement, fatwa, public institutions and corporations in the country. The NDC Government enjoys an overall monopoly in determining how Ghanaians should live, no doubt about that.

To be fair, all Ghanaians willing and unwilling were forewarned of their ordeal through the manifesto of the NDC, but like the stiff-necked and stubborn Israelites who forsook the warm relationship they had with God Almighty and rooted for other gods, Ghanaians, goaded on by the cantankerous Afari Djan and the Electoral Commission, rooted for the NDC and that spelt doom for the nation. The policies being implemented have become obsolete. But it is equally true that the Ghanaian society is changing very fast and that the administration of the country has become elephantine for John Mahama and his NDC.

Our national cult is the cult of the Government in power slicing a bigger portion of the national cake for itself and its cronies. In this wise, President John Mahama and his cronies wield absolute power over the entire people of the country which could be comparable to the edicts of Justice Atubuga and the three Justices of the Supreme Court who voted consistently for one side at the 2012 Election Petition Tribunal. Their verdict has become the reference point of all judgments on election petitions. Everybody has to abide by the Atubuga judgment.

The almighty draconian edicts of John Mahama and his Public Utilities and Regulatory Board have hijacked all meaningful policies in the country. It has not given our youth, workers, professionals and policy makers the gut, the initiative and attitude to apply their knowledge for any meaningful discourse. Their policies are mediocre prescription for the difficult and dangerous terrain in mother Ghana.

Like the judgment of Atubuga and his men and women at the Supreme Court, those of the Nefarious Destructive Cancer are not comprehensive enough to allow for development of the Ghanaian. But then, the all-round human development of the citizenry is not a major worry to President Mahama and the NDC. Their prescription is a mere recipe for violence, confusion, destruction and gradual seeping of “steroids” into the pores of Ghanaians in order to make them withstand the dangerous and difficulties they are made to go through, But for how long?

The most single important event in the Nefarious Destructive Cancer’s agenda is the Cabinet Meetings of the Mahama’s administration. This is a god playing session of fat cats of the government to decide the fate of ordinary Ghanaians in terms of how to make life difficult for the masses. In fact, the policies of the Mahama’s administration have by implication become the verdict of death. A good recommendation by a member of the fat cats or any top member from an opposition party is a veritable one way ticket to the class of parasites and can be equated with potential success. The rest of us are scavengers and are worse than human faeces, dead wood and debris for the rest of the country to feed fat on.

Yes, and that includes you and I. We are both hungry and angry. We are frustrated and bitter. It appears we had missed the road of life.

The fate of millions of Ghanaians are decided by these fat cats who have grown fat and sleek, preying on the hardship imposed on the masses. In an immoral manner, these wicked and dangerous fat cats have looted the suffering masses and arrogantly display the loot before the very people they have stolen from.

These fat cats who sometime ago were paupers, have overnight mutated to become stingingly rich could now stand before the very Ghanaians they have skinned to become affluent to boast of their prosperity. They even have the guts to tell us to the face that it is criminal for any of us to aspire to be like them.

See the puffy cheeks of Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa and his “the Lord is my barber’s head”. See the thick neck and disgorging stomach of Elvis Afriyie Ankra. Just take a look at the ‘medusa’ head of Hon. Acquainas and Ebo Barton Oduro. Just take a look at their long convoys!

What about their security men who accompany them on their jolly rides as they traverse the length and breadth of the country. Have you bothered to check the shady and tainted glasses these dangerous men wear when they accompany their masters on their rendezvous and escapades? If they wear dark glasses in both day and night, then you will understand the fears that possess their masters. These fat cats and their cronies have transformed Ghanaians into armed robbers through their nefarious policies. Thus, the entire terrain has become robber-infested for them. What happens in such a situation? The country will soon become too hot, too dangerous and too uncomfortable for the oppressors.

I get sad because there has not been any economic progress since the Nefarious Destructive Cancer regained power at the centre nearly seven years ago. The economy has been in doldrums and cost of living has gone up astronomically beyond the reach of ordinary man. It is only the fat cats, the hydras, the hyenas, the rabid dogs, the wolves, the sharks and the vultures who are feeding fat on our emaciated bodies that are enjoying. Late President Mills and current President Mahama promised to take us to the Brave New World where everything including even food moves freely to you when you are not hungry. They have rather taken us to the State of Nature where life was nasty, brutish and short.

Fuel prices have gone up more than 5,000 percent since the NDC regained power at the centre. Electricity and water prices have shot up by over 2000 times. Customs and Port charges have also gone by more than 2,500 percent. DVLA has also increased its charges by over 2,000 percent.

Just imagine that during Kufuor’s time when the price of crude oil went up to as high as $147.00 per drum at the world market, we bought a gallon of the commodity at GHc5.50 per gallon. Now, a drum of the commodity hovers around $80.00 and Ghanaians have to cough over GHC15.00 before they can get a gallon of the commodity. What kind of suffering is this?

Not satisfied with the atrocities they’ve committed against their countrymen and women, these “apostles of apostasy” are bent on inflicting more pains on us. They have now levied a tax on Television Sets. And just imagine! GHC36.00 per annum!! Some football players in bigger clubs earn as low as GHC80.00. And they have to part with GHC3.00. How callous could our oppressors be?

What about the cost of education. It has gone up beyond the reach of parents. High Schools are charging as much as GhC1, 800 per tern. Yet our rulers claim they love us. ? You see, these fat cats want our children to lead a life of celibacy. Their action is tantamount to committing genocide against the youth of the country. What kind of country are we living in?

Mortuary fees have also gone up. Those of graves and tombs have also not been left out. And because of their obnoxious policies, mice are feeding fat on dead bodies. Pre matured babies are dying in incubators because of power outages. They have imposed taxes on anything that have a name. Very soon marriage proposals will attract taxes and the moment you open your mouth to say “I love you” you will be asked to cough millions of Ghana Cedis for the use of these fat cats and their cronies.

Yet, we see them riding in luxurious vehicles and long convoys, oblivious of the suffering of the masses. Every time they tell us to tighten our belts a little while they drown themselves deep in alcohol and women. They blame everything on the escalating rise of the dollar. But what pragmatic steps or policy have they put in place to check the trend. They have refused to listen to all advice on how to make things ‘tick’ in the country. Their mantra is “Yentie obiara”. (We will not listen to anybody).

Have you forgotten what one Primary One pupil told the late President when he went round to schools on “My First Day at School”? When the President asked the pupil what he would like to become in future, the little kid looked the President right in the face and said “I want to be an armed robber when I grow up”. Distasteful, you might say, but the boy was speaking the truth.

That will be the likely scenario if these wicked, clueless, visionless, diabolical and callous fat cats do not put a break to their nefarious attempts to subject Ghanaians to a state of servitude. It is to this end that I appeal to all Ghanaians, irrespective of political and religious affiliation, sex, tribe, profession to organize a well co-ordinated strike action throughout the entire country. This is akin to what Mahama boys like Okudzeto Ablakwa and Fiifi Kwetey refer to as “positive defiance”.

What do we have to show for all these years of obnoxious, ungodly, unprincipled and nefarious policies these fat cats and he goats have put us through? Nothing, but our kwashiorkor and emaciated hungry looking stomachs and faces!

Isn’t it time Ghanaians took the bull by the horns and tell our oppressors that “enough is enough. We no go sit down make dem cheat us efiriday?”

I remember in the Seventies during one of the May Day Celebrations, (or was it Independence)? while Issifu Ali, the then Secretary General of the Trade Union Congress was reading his address, pandemonium broke out after workers descended on him. They first pelted him with eggs and small stones and later rushed on him. He took refuge in one of the Information Services’ Vans. The workers rushed to the vans. The drivers and some staff of the Information Services Department brought him out of the vehicle to face the wrath of the masses. If they had not done that the aggrieved workers would have vandalized the vehicle. The workers dealt with him until he was rescued by a detachment of policemen.

The only one option open to Ghanaians if we want to leave a brighter legacy for our children is to put down our tools and stop going to work until Government reverses the ever increases in utilities. Negotiation will never work with the nefarious Destructive Cancer. This Government has never kept its own part of a bargain in all the agreements it has held or signed with stake holders. It has lost all credibility and should be booted out. The only language it understands is force.

I therefore urge all workers under the aegis of the Trade Union Congress, Industrial and Commercial Union, the Professional Bodies Association including Doctors, Teachers, Pharmacists, Lawyers Bankers and various workers union to plan a sit down strike, not only for a day for as long as will take government to reverse the numerous increases it has announced within the past two months.

If they are not sure on what to do, let them consult Adams Oshiomole, the Progressive Governor of Edo State in Nigeria for a recipe on how to make government eat humble pie. He successfully “coerced” the Obasanjo Government to reverse the numerous increases on fuel prices. Frank Kokori, former General Secretary of PENGASSAN (Petroleum and Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria) if he is alive will offer free consultancy services to them. He battled the late Sanni Abacha’s draconian regime to a standstill until he was removed and incarcerated in prison.

I appeal to Members of Parliament not to sit on the fence but to put pressure on Government to reverse the recent increases in public utilities. They should not think that it is El-dorado for them. If they sit on the fence, they might be consumed in the ‘conflagration’ that might ensue. That will eventually put paid to the numerous allowances and ex gratia paid to members.

Marie Antoinette, the liberal and concerned Queen of France, on seeing the poor and hungry masses demanding bread, in a fit of charity, “Let them have cake”. She had a heart of Gold. But can we say the same thing about danger boy, President John Dramani Mahama, who is riding a bicycle without brakes down the slopes. It is akin to Okoe Vanderpuye with his bulldozers pulling down houses.

According to Segun Gbadegesin, “if only a few make it while a super majority suffers in silence, it is a short step to anarchy and chaos. If and when the country is led down the path, no army can stop the people’s resistance”.

To forestall any such eventuality, the law making body should use its teeth to bite when and where it is necessary. As things stand now, Ghanaians could smell Mahama everywhere. And as we all know, the name Mahama is not synonymous with any virtue. It stands for incompetence, visionless, tears and the shortest and direct route to way to Golgotha and Armageddon.

I shall return.

Daniel Danquah Damptey (damptey_daniel@yahoo.com) 0243715297