Fellow citizens, don't run to your gun cabinets and start loading your guns or start arming your arrows with bows ready to shoot me to smithereens for insulting you but the truth though sour tasting must be told, we are really cowards and fools and that is why our Politicians keep feeding us with biles of crocodiles. We as citizens are viewed by our educated Politicians as "Kookoase illiterates" and bums who they can do anything they wish to without paying any price, if not, they would not have insulted us with a salary increase of more than 120% from GH3000 to GH7200 and the kicker of it is that, they made this increase retroactive from January 2009. How many of you have ever recieved salary increase of more than 100% and back dated for four years? The Politicians can do that because they think they can get away with it and knowing my fellow Ghanaians, they will get away with this day time robbery.
We have a saying in Akan that goes like this; "WABO WO ABRA WO SUU" to wit, "he has beaten you and prevented you from crying" and that is what our Politicians have done to us when they increased the salaries of the Members of Parliament and made it retroactive from January 2009. What an IMPUDENCE!! Believe me, the Politicians will have money to effect immediate payment but when it comes to the poor Teacher or Nurse, they will have to wait for a year or more to get their 5% increase in salary which is not back dated even one month but our pen armed robbers called Politicians have back dated their 120% salary increase for four years, OH!! MOTHER GHANA, what did we do to deserve these thieves?
Don't for a moment think that it is only our Parliamentarians who are going to enjoy this windfall. Our fourth Republican constitution is a dream for any Politician. Our constitution syipulates that, the President and his or her Executive branch salaries will be determined by the Legislature and the Legislature salary will be determined by the President through the appointment of a Special Commissioner. I hope by now you readers have realised the kind of fraud our constitution allows our Politicians to perpetrate on us willy-Nilly. This is what we call, "BENKUM DWARE NIFA NA NIFA ADWARE BENKUM" in Akan or simply, YOU TAKE CARE OF ME, AND I WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. What this means is that, if the Parliamentarians have not already increased the President and his Ministers salary, they will soon do so and will reward them handsomely to reflect what the Executive has done for them.
Ghana already spends 46% of its yearly revenue in salaries alone to government Employees and we are going to add more to it with the creation of 45 Districts and 45 constituencies which will not improve the lives of its citizens in anyway. There is no developed country on God green Earth that spends more than 10% of its revenue on salaries to government Employees. United States of America spends less than 2% of Federal budget on salaries to federal Employees. Germany, Britain, France, Swden, Switzerland spends less than 5% of its budget on salsries for government Employees and instead of Ghana cutting down on unecessary increase in government spending on salaries, we are going to add more people whose services will not improve the lives of Ghanaians.Why can't we learn from these developed countries and continue to do things as if we have no grey matter in our skulls?
Do we understand the enormity of this salary increase? 230 Lazy Ghanaians called MP's woke up this morning and they are $110,000 richer each. Even hitting the Ghana National Lottery Jackport does not pay that much.Where in the world can one receive salary increase of more than 120% and made effective almost four years ago?Now every MP is owed a salary arrears of Gh4200x48 that equals GH 201,600 and multiply that by 230 and that is GH 49,680,000 or close to $26 million owed to these MP's. Despite this new expense that we have saddled ourselves with, we are going to add 45 MP'S. Are we just plain fools or what? Can you imagine what 26 million dollars can do? This money can eliminate all schools under trees in Ghana or can build one modern Hospital or ten Clinicks in the rural areas to benefit our hardworking Farmers.
Do we really know what we are doing? Let me tell you what we have just done to ourselves. The salaries of our 230 MP'S before the increase from GH3000 to GH7200 was GH8,280,000 per year or about $4,000,000. Starting next year with our 275 members of Parliament and GH7200 salary per month for our part-time Workers called Members of Parliament most of them who even when Parliament is in session attend Parliament abot 30%,of the time, their salaries will increase to GH23,760,000 or $13 million in salaries alone, a whopping 9 million dollars increase. This is a 9 million dollars that could have been used to provide free education for about 18,000 Secondary school students per year. The NDC Politicians are telling us we don't have money to do that but we have money to give to them for doing nothing.
I am not naive to say the Parliamentarians don't deserve a salary increase but from GH3000 to GH4000 would have been more appropriate. If these Parliamentarisns think that is too low a salary they cannot live on, nobody is forcing them to take that job. Our Doctors who save lives are paid GH1400 and I don't think we need these MP's more than the Doctors.
Let me caution these Politicians that, one of these days, they are going to wake up and see the people uprisen that will make what happened in Libya and Egypt a childs play. I know these Politicians think Ghanaians are too meek and timid they will not or cannot do anything but when you step on the dog too many times, very soon it will bare its teeth and bite you. We have seen Politicians who have never worked a day in their lives until this administration came into power and these people who were either living in the the LIVING rooms of their parents or living in one bedrooms are now living in mansions and having bought or built Gas stations, schooling their sibblings abroad with their GH3000 salaries whilst the same people are telling us government cannot afford free education for the poor children of farmers, Civil servants, Fishermen Traders, Miners and other Joe Six Pack children, very soon, they will rise and take their pound of Flesh from these pen thieves called Politicians.
Justice Sarpong
Houston, Texas
(CARDINAL of TRUTH)
