Will prisoners save Atta-Mills from annihilation? (2)

On his inauguration day, Atta-Mills swore before the nation and the world that Ghanaians were going to experience a leadership that can be offered by only a man who has upon his shoulder, the mantle of peace, unity and equity.

Governance

When the ‘soldiers on foot’ of the NDC who feel fooled (fooled soldiers)by way of being left out of the spoils of political power took their destiny into their own hands and went on rampage ceasing KVIPs, beating up DCEs,MCEs, government appointees, while banishing others from their places of abode and threatening some with death, no other person but the ‘father-for-all president’, quickly issued a presidential ‘fatwa’ to the effect that doors of every government official must be widely opened to them.

Atta Mills promised to hit the ground running, heal wounds, eradicate corruption, violent crime and to be a father for all.

Now, hitting the ground running simply meant there wasn’t going to be any room for excuses and that problems were going to be tackled head-on. Yet, baseless excuses have taken the place of performance just to divert attention of Ghanaians and this has prompted their party’s founder, Rawlings, to describe them as “greedy bustards” steering our nation “in the wrong direction”.

Fighting corruption

Kufuor was castigated for asking for evidence before delving into corruption allegations made against his appointees. During media encounter on his first year in office, Atta-Mills asked Ghanaians to provide, not just any evidence, but “a credible evidence” when we make allegations against his appointees.

Stan Dogbe was ‘dashed’ ¢1.6billion of tax-payer’s money, celestial-palaces are being built overnight across the country and swords are being drawn over who gets the juiciest contracts. Dismissed flippant DCE’s who threaten to disclose the levels of stench of corruption within corridors of power are quickly silenced with counter exposures.

The Muntaka-gate scandal was given a clean bill of health with the culprit, erroneously, being praised as the first minister in our nation’s history to have willingly resigned his position.

Under the very nostrils of the self-acclaimed ‘Asomdwee Hene’ who claims to be highly allergic to profligate expenditure, contracts involving colossal monies are being dished out, without recourse to the procurement law, to party apparatchiks like how toffees are given out to kids on their first day at school.

Contract payments

Atta-Mills keeps complaining about his administration being ‘saddled’ with contract debts which are making it impossible for him to deliver on his lofty, but doom-to-failure campaign promises.

But did the 19-years of P (NDC) which Atta-Mills was vice president at a point; bequeath to Ghanaians a budget surplus with no outstanding contract debts?

The mantra of ‘schools under trees’ have become the chewing-stick of every NDC communicator and their legion of shameless apologists. They sound as if the phenomenon only surfaced during Kufuor’s administration and that absolutely nothing was done about it at the time.

But the irony is: by the time Mills-Mahama’s visionless administration comes to an end in 2012, these lying P (NDC) cabal would have been in power for 23-years out of our 53-years in existence as a nation.Yet, they have deliberately failed to tell the good people of this nation, how many of this ‘schools under trees’ phenomenon can be traced, directly, to their over 2-decades of incompetent and murderous reign.

TOR debt

It was the single most fortified concrete wall behind which the NDC hid their unsurpassed incompetence for close to 2-years into their reign. At a point in time, every misfortune of the NDC government was quickly blamed on the tor debt. The excuses actually got to the point where NDC men who could not satisfy their wives in bed started blaming it on the tor debt. Many figures, as regards the quantum, were bundied about by each NDC appointee.

This shameful display of utter irresponsibility and lies went on till the minority (NPP) came out with the true figure, after which Atta-Mills and all his ‘nkwan deewa’ apologists kept their lying lips sealed.

Fuel prices

Kufuor was described as an ‘apapam’ store operator because ex-pump prices were linked to price of crude on the international market. They said “if all that it takes to manage a nation is to simply increase price of fuel to make up for price differential on the international market, then even a class one pupil can govern”. They said if those “useless taxes on petroleum prices were removed”, a gallon of petrol could sell at GH¢2.00.

As such, when crude was at $147 a barrel, candidate Atta-Mills and CJA were constantly on the streets of Accra agitating for reduction in fuel prices. Today, at $90 a barrel of crude, the current tax-weary Ghanaian was given a dirty new-year-slap of ¢70,000.00 a gallon petrol price in first week of the “action year”.

Inspite of these astronomical fuel price increases, availability of products as cooking-gas and kerosene which is patronized by majority of the populace, has become just as rare as the urine of a bird. Taxi drivers, who were hoodwinked through ‘sweet-talk’ by the NDC, are currently spending endless days at filling stations just to lay their hands on a tot of gas.

The environment

We were promised, within a period of one-hundred days, of streets whose level cleanliness will supercede that of beautiful alpine nation of Switzerland. But as we speak; the streets of all our major cities and towns are decorated with mountainous piles of filth.

As a matter of fact, the central business district of our nation’s capital, which has been erroneously christened Millennium City, has become a complete no-go area for those who do not have the stomach to contain nauseatingly stinking sight of decaying garbage. For me, the current level of filth drowning the citizenry will be declared a state of emergency in any civilized society.

However, we find ourselves in a nation being governed by block-headed PhD holders who go about describing a cholera outbreak that claimed the lives of nearly 60 Ghanaians, with over 20,000 being infected, as a normal occurrence.

Now Egya Atta, with a chronicle of such malodorous failures under your sleeve under 3years of your clueless reign, would you please tell us whether this is the type of change you promised?

Even in his current budget statement, Atta-Mills has, once again, further hit the suffering masses of this nation with more tax increases. I guess very soon, we shall be paying taxes on even the air we breathe. Is this really a better Ghana or a 'bitter taxation Ghana? By all indications, Atta-Mills is really bent on strangulating all of us so that we'll not be alive to vote against him in 2012.But by the grace of God, we shall surely live to kick him very hard in the groin, at the polls.Insha Allah!!!

Personally, I will even term whatever Atta-Mills does, from now on, as a pure act of "nantsew yie"(good-bye) jokes, since he is already an ex-president because the man has been a total failure and will appropriately be comprehensively annihilated at the polls in 2012, whether he is able to deceive our nation’s prisoners with his characteristic delusional campaign promises or not!!!

Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei

E-mail: justnoff@yahoo.com