EX GRATIA - MY LETTER
TO THE PRESIDENT AND PEOPLE OF THE REPUBLIC OF GHANA (SAVED IN BETTER FORMAT TO
FACILITATE PUBLICATION AND READING, PARTICULARLY GETTING THE DATA ACROSS).
October 05, 2010
?The
public has been aware of the case in question since February 18th,
2009. Although the incident is indeed poignant, it has only elicited silence
from our country?s leadership, and at its expense, arguments in justification
of ?ex-gratia and other leadership benefits intentionally inserted in our
Constitution to seek the selfish interest of the architects of the
Constitution, something unheard of in the history of contemporary democratic
nation-states, have taken precedence. This is an opportunity for me to state
categorically to the Ghanaian leadership of all circles and to all citizens of
Ghana that our children are looked down upon, and, if this apathetic attitude
does continue, the alternative will be to inform the international society and
seek partial redress for our children and youth, and leave the remaining
redress to the Almighty, the Maker of all things, to accomplish.?
A. P. Gyimah, in his first communication to the
President and People of his homeland Ghana, on the topic, ?Raping Children and Teenage
Girls: Mr. President and Fellow Ghanaians, What Should We Do To Stop It??
Dear Mr. President of The
Republic of Ghana and Fellow Ghanaians,
We are in a critical thinking era of our Ghanaian
history. This is a period in our history when we have our freedom either to
choose and do right things or follow the wrong path, build our nation or leave
it to its fate, respect our laws or disregard them, unify ourselves or continue
to engage ourselves antagonistically, make good use of common sense or abuse
common sense, punish and punish very severely or forgive and forget forever and
ever more, but I doubt if forgiveness is a solution to the arsonist, terrorist
criminal behaviors.? ?
Your Excellency,
Respected Fellow indigenes, and foreign residents of my country Ghana, based on
the tone of my May the 10th message, I know you have over expected
this letter. ?The 100th
Birth Day celebration of our First President the late Mr. Kwame
Nkrumah, popularly known as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Nana
Jerry John Rawlings? June 4th activities across the nation (which he
most likely conducted without a permit from my country?s police), the World
Soccer event, His Excellency?s vacation and the international trips he made, I
did not want to interfere with your schedule. I am sorry, sirs. The Kumasi
military celebration of Nana Rawlings? so-called June 4th and the
general security atmosphere in the land have taken me to disarray.
The purpose of this
letter is to present you with a forehand notice of the history of benefits/pensions
of United States? retired presidents and the current breakdown of such
benefits. You will also find available world leaders? salaries (as at 2000) as
they particularly pertain to Asian countries. It is my hope that the pieces of
information will be pertinent to our national needs, especially aiding you to
make a cogent decision on ex gratia matter at stake.
Your Excellency and Fellow
Ghanaians, and Foreign residents of Ghana, you may remember in my premier communication
to you, I drew your attention to the reason why I was getting involved in
helping to liberate our children ? My experiences in the developed world.? I requested we unite in the fight to liberate
our children from oppressive environments. I thank you for not denying me the
request. The fight to liberate our children continues unabated. Today, I beg
you again to lend me your helping hands to address the issue of ex gratia for
the sake of our children.?
As you know, I am again
writing from the New World, the country which gained her independence from the
colonial masters as far back as 1776. It was not until in 1912 when a proposed
consideration for retirement benefits for former Presidents was addressed to the
Congress by a private businessman.?
Andrew Carnegie, an industrialist, proposed to offer $25,000 per annum.
His proposal failed before U.S. Congress. Why should an individual be burdened
with retirement benefits of their retired presidents? Prior to this period,
U.S. Presidents were not accorded any retirement benefits upon their
retirement.? Though the Congress did not
agree with Andrew Carnegie to make his offer come to pass, yet the Congress
itself introduced legislation the same year to establish presidential benefits
but it was not ratified into law.
Nonetheless, in 1955,
President Harry Truman?s financial difficulties prompted Congress to consider
retirement benefits for U.S. former Presidents. This determination was passed
into legislation three years later, in 1958.??
Mr. President, My Dear
Ghanaian leaders, and the people of Ghana, we learn from the foregoing history
that the Americans started paying retirement benefits to their ex-presidents
182 years after their independence from the British rule. The reason was simple
- they were not economically well-off earlier to do so. Even in 1958, it was
done on mere grounds of sympathy. The table below is a breakdown of U.S. former
Presidents? allowances from the Fiscal Year 2008 to date. The America has the
strongest economy globally. Since 2001, sitting U.S. president?s annual salary
is $400,000. This figure is not very high for the nation?s Chief Executive,
given the country?s, near 400 million population,
size, economic well-being, and salary structure of some government
institutions.
Table
1. GSA Allowances for Former Presidents,
FY2008 Enacted
|
Allowances |
Widows |
Carter |
Bush |
Clinton |
|
Pension |
$0 |
$191,000 |
$191,000 |
$201,000 |
|
Staff Salaries |
0 |
96,000 |
96,000 |
96,000 |
|
Staff Benefits |
0 |
2,000 |
64,000 |
65,000
|
|
Travel |
0 |
2,000 |
56,000 |
50,000 |
|
Rental Payments |
0 |
102,000 |
175,000 |
516,000 |
|
Telephone |
0 |
10,000 |
17,000 |
79,000 |
|
Postage |
12,000 |
15,000 |
13,000 |
15,000 |
|
Other Services |
0 |
83,000 |
76,000 |
65,000 |
|
Printing |
0 |
5,000 |
14,000 |
14,000 |
|
Supplies |
0 |
5,000 |
15,000 |
26,000 |
|
Equipment |
0 |
7,000 |
69,000 |
35,000 |
|
Total |
$12,000 |
$518,000
|
$786,000 |
$1,162,000 |
Source: Data
provided by the Office of the Budget, General Services Administration, on
January 24, 2008
It will also interest you to note that since he became Governor of
the State of California in 2003, Arnold Schwarzenegger has donated his yearly
salary of $206,500 to the State. The State of New Jersey former Governor Jon Corzine took home only $1 per year of his $175,000 annual
salary, the rest was donated to the State, because of the State?s financial
problems. The State of Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen
does not take home his yearly salary of $85,000. He donates it to the State. ?In the State of Arizona, Republican leaders
claimed that the governor?s salary of $95,000 would reduce the quality of
candidates running for office, so they worked on a bill to raise the governor
salary to $112,500, but it was criticized by the then Governor Janet Napolitano
of the Democratic Party. The Governor seriously fought against Governor salary increase. Similar circumstance occurs in the State of
Illinois. The Governor is against Governor salary
increase in his state. As for the State of Maine, the Governor makes $70,000 a
year, and this very unattractive salary has not been increased for the past 20
years. Because of human beings insatiability, I personally think that the
governors have been very generous indeed to their respective states.
Also, the Mayor of the city from where I am writing to you receives no
salary and benefits; he volunteers his time for the job. He is not a man of
substance either, just a career barber. The city
houses 12,000 people. Furthermore, because of the current recession, California
State Employees Salaries was cut by 15 percent ? Furlough reduction in pay, from
February 2009 to June 2010 and was renewed in August. The nearby State of
Nevada has Furloughs too. As I understand it, the U.S. government has also
instituted Furloughs.
As a former student in
economics at the University of Hong Kong, I have learned and experienced the characteristics
of some Asian countries? economic development. Interestingly and meaningfully
to help gauge our own development, it was imperative to do research on the
subject of ex-gratia in Asian countries and draw your attention to it. The
salaries of Asian leaders (tabulated in this letter for the benefit of the
general public) are to highlight on the factors of determining salaries for our
leaders.? Here, National Chief
Executives, Cabinet Members and Parliamentarians are the key. The better the
economy, the better the salary; otherwise pay higher to avoid fraud or do both.
The better the pay, the harder they work. Higher salaries are proportional or
linked to the economy. But these factors do not necessarily eliminate
leadership corruption, because we human beings are insatiable.
As a citizen of Ghana
(based on our customs, traditions, but not by the British-adopted
Constitution), which legitimately qualifies me to civilly, meaningfully, and
respectfully contribute my quota to our on-going national development efforts
without the use of force and/or intimidation, I am not writing to seek
appropriate figures for the ex-gratia but to humbly call for its total
elimination from our system. Over copying may be a crime against our children
and the future generation. It is important that we recognize the relevance of
building our economy now and leave ex-gratia to take its own natural course at
the appropriate time. I think that we are unable to pay ex-gratia to any
legitimate former President of our country at this time, unfortunately. The
sole reason is the poor economic situation we live at this time. Our country
has been lacking behind in developing activities. We must now attempt to
organize ourselves to build our nation. We were deprived of our rights by the
colonial master(s), the so-called military, foreign resident(s), and our
civilian leaders, but we cannot and must not allow ourselves to be deceived
again and anymore. We have resources not to waste, misspend, overspend, or
misappropriate. The meager amount of resources available need
to be spent very wisely.? We are
confronted with several difficulties, but these difficulties are not beyond our
control and commonsense. Systematic planning can achieve the goal through unity
and selfless purpose, devotional community and national activities directed to
fulfillment of educational, health, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing,
and basic needs.
Nana Jerry John
Rawlings took power upon himself for 19 years, colonizing and brutalizing
Ghanaians, claiming that, that was the only way to build the economy, and yet
our country is worse off than the period he seized power. South Korea was led
by a similar soldier, and he was able to develop it in 15 years.? The Republic of China on Taiwan (R.O.C.),
otherwise known as Formosa was led to development by a soldier/warrior too, and
the nation took less than a reasonable period of time to develop.
I can understand and
share with Nana Jerry John Rawlings the pain and suffering of his failure to
develop father Ghana. He wasted our resources for nothing, only to join
communist dictatorial countries. In the end, he did not send his children to
communist countries to have higher education but to the West, where he claims
to detest so much indeed.? Now he notices
that the West has the best for manpower training. Therefore, Nana Rawlings has
deceived Ghanaians, particularly his disciples he sent to the East for
tyrannical training.? This is a deviation
from probity he preaches. Therefore, he is accountable for his deception.
He continues to deceive
us that his ?social democracy? is the best. He stole 16 vehicles for his
personal use at the time he left office as so-called president of my country. Mr.
John Agyekum Kuffour could
retrieve only 10 vehicles simply to give room for Nana Rawlings to fraudulently
import four more sophisticated and luxury vehicles. Does our grandfather Nana
Jerry John Rawlings understand what ?social democracy? is about? Based on the
foregoing, what does our grandfather Nana Jerry John Rawlings mean by his,
so-called June 4th and December 31st uprising and
revolution respectively to himself and his worshipers? Nana Rawlings, do you
now understand the meaning of executing the my
country?s legitimate leaders? Nana, I hope you can clarify yourself that those
periods were neither for hunger strike nor for robbing Ghanaians at gun point.
I believe Nana Jerry John Rawlings will agree with me that he executed my
legitimate leaders to solve his personal financial difficulties and to better
his family?s economy. I say this not only because he was in debt (food he
bought to eat from street vendors ? Yoko Gari) before
his so-called uprising, but after the execution, his so-called AFRC government
gave only one vehicle to each of the widows of those executed irrespective of
the number of vehicles each victim genuinely acquired. Nana Jerry John
Rawlings? behavior in property acquisition is not only a crime but a grave
ethic violation in Ghana and in his own country ? Scotland. Nana Rawlings
accused President Dr. Hilla Limann for importing 504 Pegeout cars to
Parliamentarians. Each parliamentarian had only one vehicle, though.
The original language
of the Bible says that, we must not commit murder. The English translation came
out with, ?Thou shall not kill?. The two statements are not the same, according
interpreters of Christian faith. The difference is clear and peace officers are
trained to understand the difference before they embark on their duties in the
community. ?Justifiable homicide is not a
sin. It is lawful killing, according to the original Bible. Murder, however, is
unlawful killing. That is, unjustifiable killing. At this point, I am boldly
informing Nana Jerry John Rawlings that he did not kill my country?s leaders in
1979. He murdered my nation?s leaders in 1979 for his personal selfish
interest. Peace officers may kill when it is necessary to do so to protect
themselves and the public. Otherwise, they have murdered. Murder is a capital
crime subject to prosecution.? Murder is a
sinful act. Reconciliation does not and cannot solve crimes of murder.
It is perhaps Nana
Rawlings? looting of the Castle that also angered the former Speaker of
Parliament, Mr. Ebenezer Begyina Sekyi-Hughes
to take home State property when he left office. Nana Rawlings? criminal background
and ethic violation is a bad teaching to Ghanaians and a disgrace to himself
and his fatherland ? Scotland. When Mr. Sekyi-Hughes
took the items away, Ghanaians used the word ?stolen? to describe his action, but
when Nana Rawlings stole the cars, Ghanaians used the phrase ?took away? to
describe his nefarious action. Ghana does not belong to Nana Rawlings. Nana
Rawlings happened to be born in Ghana only. Mr. Sekyi-Hughes,
however, is a member of the natural owners of Ghana. We have to be careful about
how we treat our genuine citizens. We must seize mistreating our own legitimate
citizens. It does not make sense worshipping foreign faiths against worshipping
our own gods ordained to us by the Almighty for a variety of reasons.
If we have resources to
serve Nana Rawlings, then, I am afraid we must refund the Ivorian government
$60,000 donated to Ghana to help rebuild our foreign ministry building that was
intentionally burnt by the terrorist(s)
because the world knows who caused the arsons. It will be a shame on Ghanaians
to accept the donation and still have money to pay ex gratia to the undesirable(s).
Nobody should be afraid of dictator Nana Jerry John Rawlings. His conducts in
father Ghana are illegal. Nana Jerry John Rawlings intentionally inserted ex
gratia clause into the Constitution for his own selfish interest. Nana Jerry
John Rawlings is not the father of ?democracy? as some speculate, but the
father of ?lawlessness? and ?disrespect for the law?, in Ghana. He is also not
the founder of National Democratic Congress (NDC) party. A political party
cannot be founded by one person but a group of people who legitimately belong
to the country where the party is formed and democratically operated, not
suppressed.
The West did not
support Nana Rawlings with the same opportunities they provided to the ?Asian
Tigers?, commonly known as ?The Four Sister Nations?, (Hong Kong, Singapore,
South Korea, and Taiwan) who were good listeners and obedient to the
international laws, at least, in the eyes of the Americans; though the argument
is that the Americans had great interest in the region. It is an important
factor to reckon with to make a fair assessment, however. In fact, Singapore
and Hong Kong are the good works of the British, whilst Taiwan and South Korea
owe their development allegiance to the Americans and their own hard working
people, including, particularly students who returned home from the developed
world.
Under Nana Rawlings?
?despotic and uncivilized reign of terror?, students could not return home
because they would have been killed. Frankly speaking, some students had to
flee for their lives. An illustration here is the now Dr. Kobina
Arthur Kennedy. He was a student leader who spoke his mind and was chased out
of the country by Governor Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings, the self-imposed
Scottish Governor appointed to Ghana. Major Boakye-Djan?s
biological brother, a student at the University of Ghana, who spoke his mind,
was executed. Nana Rawlings misunderstood the importance of factoring in ?education?
in national development, to an extent that, higher institutions were
arbitrarily closed down sporadically to suppress the growth of knowledge and
power in the system. Hence, Nana Rawlings restrained technological development
in Ghana.
Thus, his ambition was
to acquire power for life. ?He forgot
that God is always the king. Among those ?A Level? graduates who were affected,
as a result of his unconstitutionally intermittent closures of our
universities, is this writer. Eventually, God opened the way for this author to
study in the University of Hong Kong. It was there that he got privilege to
have guidance of Professor Chu, then, head of the Department of Statistics, as
one of his instructors. Professor Chu had been professor in that university
since 1954 (and was an old man with tremendous teaching and learning, and life
experiences to share with students). He prescribed a book on sociology written
by the late prime minister of The Republic of Ghana, Dr. Kofi Abrefa Busia, to his students, to
complete an assignment, and when this writer located the book in the
university?s library, he said to himself, ?The power of gun will always end,
but the power of knowledge will live forever.??
Dr. K.A. Busia died 14 years prior. He perhaps
never thought that his book would reach the Far East universities? libraries.
Though, Nana Jerry John
Rawlings? ?power of gun? has now ended; yet the author?s knowledge will never
end. Knowledge is power. The media reported that Nana Jerry John Rawlings was
homeless/or in a hideout in Sogakope, his mother?s
?adopted? hometown in Ghana since the 1800s. Whether it is true or not, he has
no profession to fall back upon for his livelihood. The gun was, bought for him
by the people for the sole protection of the people. This he misused against
the people, is now retrieved from him by those people for good to end his gun
power which he applied against the people. However, this writer?s knowledge can
never be snatched away from him by anyone. He will possess it for forever. ?Dr. Kobina Arthur
Kennedy will possess his knowledge always. All others? will hold on to their knowledge
for good. ?We acquired our knowledge
through the help of our family members and, most importantly, the good and
respected people of our fatherland Ghana and beyond. We are indebted to our
people. The impact of our knowledge will help people and our nation, not kill
Ghanaians. This author wished he could argue for ex-gratia to benefit the
greedy and selfish Nana Jerry John Rawlings (a resident of the author?s
fatherland), a man the author loves so much indeed. But he has no tangible
factors to support such an endeavor, so he closes that chapter, and asks for a
complete closure of ex-gratia.
Salaries of world
leaders compiled from the source below and presented in the table below by this
author ? A. P. Gyimah
|
Country |
President/Chief
|
Prime Minister |
Finance Minister |
Minister of Economy, |
Chief Cabinet
|
Cabinet Members |
Secretaries |
Parliamentarians |
|
Britain |
N/A |
$262,000 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Singapore |
N/A |
$1,000,000 (2001) |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Singapore |
N/A |
$6,000,000 (After
|
N/A
|
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Hong Kong |
$800,000(Chief
|
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Japan |
N/A |
$307,000 |
$415,000 |
$273,000 |
$282,750 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Philippines |
$24,000 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
$9,000 |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Thailand |
N/A |
$32,188 |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
$30,000 (around) |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Taiwan |
A$178,752 |
Columnist: Gyimah, A. P. |
