By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.
Nobody can accuse Dr. Tony Aidoo of being a constructive thinker when it comes to advising his boss on national development policy initiatives. And this is why it comes as perfectly in character when the Head of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Unit at the Presidency calls for the summary abandonment of projects initiated by the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) in favor of the dogged pursuit of propaganda projects promised by the Mills-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the lead-up to Election 2008 (See “Tony Aidoo Justifies Need to Abandon NPP Projects” Modernghana.com 2/6/11).
The problem with this kind of cynically regressive thinking is that it presupposes that such vital projects as the Asokore-Mampong housing initiative/scheme entailed easily expendable taxpayer fund, merely because they were initiated by the main ideological opponents of the ruling National Democratic Congress.
What is interesting is that this is not the first time that taxpayers’ money is being callously allowed to, literally, go down the drain, simply because somebody in government does not like the personality and/or ideology of the person and/or political party that initiated the same. Needless to say, Ghanaians witnessed this lackluster policy approach in the wake of the overthrow of President Nkrumah and his Convention People’s Party (CPP), when the Busia-led Progress Party (PP), irony of ironies, decided that pursuing these taxpayer-funded projects would be tantamount to doing an about-turn by recognizing some of the redeeming features of the CPP, which was apt to be grossly misunderstood by a largely illiterate and unsophisticated electorate which had been misled into believing that there existed nothing either redeeming or worthwhile about the erstwhile Convention People’s Party. By so doing, the country ended up losing millions of dollars’ worth of development projects from which Ghana has yet to recover.
Interestingly, like Dr. Tony Aidoo, the Busia government also cynically claimed that most of the projects initiated by the CPP were “ill-conceived” and thus ought to be promptly abandoned. Nearly a generation later, Ghanaians would attempt to pick up the proverbial broken pieces of whatever remained of these callously and unwisely abandoned projects, only to discover, belatedly, that most of the imported hardware and other raw materials had been allowed to decay beyond repair.
In the case of the Asokore-Mampong housing scheme/project, the public is being unwisely told that it is better to allow the squatters who have swamped the site have a bonanza because pursuing such a salutary and constructive venture would imply the NDC’s having to renege on other electioneering-campaign promises. In sum, if one may poignantly ask: What makes it so difficult for Dr. Aidoo to fathom an even more responsible and public resource-saving policy approach, whereby Tarkwa-Atta’s government could register the double-gain of proving to the Ghanaian electorate at large that beyond petty ideological squabbles, the people of Asokore-Mampong, who are largely land- and food-farmers, are equally deserving of ready access to decent and affordable housing, just like the fishermen of Cape Coast and Elmina?
It is also not clear precisely what he means when the NDC’s presidential policy monitor asserts that: “Sadly, the resources earmarked to fulfill[ing] our electoral promises are the [same] ones we are using to complete haphazardly-thought of [out?] projects that were not properly designed.”
I mean, is Dr. Aidoo, for instance, implying that the Ghanaian citizens of Asokore-Mampong are not deserving of ready access to decent and affordable housing, because they are not responsible and legitimate taxpayers? And also, just exactly what does the former University of Cape Coast sociologist mean when he describes the Asokore-Mampong housing scheme as one that was both “haphazardly” thought out and designed?
Indeed, one is almost tempted to sympathize with Dr. Tony Aidoo, when the presidential head policy monitor observes that his “suggestion” is also based on criticisms by the opposition NPP that the Mills administration lacks creativity to initiate its own projects.” But here again, does such infantile assertion also imply that the NDC is shortly poised to abandon the Kufuor-hatched National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for a Cash-and-Carry medical regime?
Come on, Tony “The Canine” Aidoo, think “big” like a statesman, rather than a ballot box-obsessed political con-artist.
*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is also a Governing Board Member of the Accra-based Danquah Institute (DI) and author of “The Obama Serenades” (Lulu.com, 2011). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net.
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