Why does the government delight in creating problems for itself?

Thursday, June 28, 2012

The controversy surrounding the creation of 45 new constituencies by the Electoral Commission is troubling. So also is the anger that the government’s creation and hasty inauguration of 46 new districts and choice of their capital towns.

While the EC’s action may be justified with precedent and supported with evidence of population figures and the need to make the electoral process less cumbersome, the manner in which the government approached the case of the new districts and their capital towns is not.

Otherwise, will there be any need for security personnel to be mobilized to guard against any physical acts of the aggrieved people in protest? Or, would the government have created unnecessary enmity for itself with this issue?

Why is the government running away?

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

I have been told that before the 1979 general elections, all the Presidential Candidates were subjected to intensive interviewing on Ghana TV for them to tell Ghanaians why they should be voted for. Information has it that in one of those interviews, the late Kwame Nyanteh (an Independent Presidential Candidate) was quizzed about his economic policies, especially the rationale behind his “One-Pound One Pound” slogan.

Apparently, Kwame Nyanteh had told Ghanaians that if he won the elections, he would re-introduce the British Pound Sterling to replace the country’s Cedi. Unimpressed by the persistent questioning and the strident demand for further clarification, he lost his cool and told the host: “You are a goat!”

What exactly is Akufo-Addo’s success story?

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

In responding to a news report on Ghanaweb yesterday that President Mills would return to the country on June 25 after a successful medical check-up in the United States, one Kwakyi said:

“I will prefer Mills to Akuffo-Addo any day! Mills is not the best of presidents Ghana has had, indeed not as effective as any in the past. But better than this man who wants to throw Ghana into chaos. Akuffo-Addo? No!”

No “con” politics will save the Rawlingses

Monday, June 25, 2012

Once again, Kofi Adams, the ventriloquist for the Rawlingses, is out to foul our air with the announcement that the Rawlingses are likely to form a new political party. The sweetness of the pudding is in the eating. Let them bring it on!

We are told that speaking on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem today, Adams—while not being emphatic about the formation of a new party based on the principles and ideologies of the Rawlingses—told show host (Adakabre Frimpong Manso) that: “Don’t be surprised if a new party is formed with the intention of salvaging an existing party.” (Myjoyonline, June 25, 2012).

We won’t even wait for anything from the Rawlingses themselves before reacting to this announcement. They may come out to deny it but behave clandestinely to pursue that mission. We know them all too well for this kind of con politics.

No one needs to gag Rawlings; he will choke on his own vomit

Friday, June 22, 2012

Former President Rawlings is out again, baring his teeth and threatening to retaliate against anybody in the NDC (both the party and the government) who insults him. But rather curiously, nothing has come from him to let us know whether he will stop bad-mouthing others. When people slander him, it is bad; but when he insults others, it is good. Do you see the self-righteousness that is his problem?

As disclosed by his spokesman (Kofi Adams) at a press conference two days ago, indications are clear that the Rawlingses are chafing and boiling mad at being disrespected—or rather challenged and undermined by the very people who had deferred to them when they were in power but have now found enough bravado as their opponents. And they won’t tolerate anything of the sort. They can’t take it anymore. It seems the balloon is about to burst into ugly fragments.

Do the Rawlingses think that they will continue to insult others and avoid being paid back in their own coin? Or that they have any antidote against the negative backlash of their belligerent politicking? I can only imagine what will happen to them if they go out of their way to exchange insults with their opponents or do anything worse than that.

Election 2012 and the danger ahead (Part II)

Friday, June 22, 2012

Added to these negative tendencies on the part of the NPP is the problem that the NDC (both as a political party and the government) has already created to worsen the situation. The nasty intra-party wrangling that has torn the party into seemingly irreconcilable pro-Rawlings and pro-Mills factions has negatively affected governance, which indicates that the incumbent isn’t as advantageously poised as he had been at Election 2008.

Rawlings’ strident bad-mouthing of the government and his persistent divisive moves have raised tension within the ranks of the NDC to a frightening level.

From the anger that is displayed here-and-there by the rival factions within the NDC, it must be clear to all by now that these rival NDC elements pose a grave threat to national peace and security.

Election 2012 and the danger ahead (Part I)

Friday, June 22, 2012

Even before the electioneering campaigns for Election 2012 intensify, there is every cause to be alarmed at the danger looming over our country. Everything points to one grave conclusion: that our country risks being blown apart by electoral violence.

I am no prophet of doom, but I can infer from the high degree of intolerance, impatience, and unforgiving spiritedness currently dominating national politics that we are heading toward disaster at Election 2012. Only an overly dishonest person will doubt my claim.

Two obvious sides likely to be the cause of this disaster are our main political camps—the NDC and the NPP—fully backed by their plethora of electoral agenda and mass of mostly uninformed functionaries who are more prone to use their hearts (emotions) instead of their heads (reason) to determine the ebb and flow of partisan politics. Sporadic clashes between the camps of these political rivals will soon emerge.

Unfortunately, in an electoral violence, such characters end up being victims of their own recklessness while the political leaders instigating them adroitly escape harm to continue living their lives in comfort.

What exactly is wrong with President Mills?

Monday, June 18, 2012

For all that he may be to political observers, President Mills is definitely uncharismatic and lacks the drive to act decisively—and with authority too—as expected; but his approach to governance has to be viewed on its own terms and judged as such. Being self-effacing and reluctant to use the enormous powers at his disposal, his approach comes across as a painful novelty.

Ghanaians are used to the looming presence and “strongman” mentality of former heads of state (probably, excluding Kufuor) and will definitely regard Mills’ leadership style as awkward. That’s why he has become an easy picking for his opponents.

To worsen his circumstances, his health has become a major concern. The rumours about his health condition have not let down all these years. They have added to all the negative impressions that his opponents have about him and compounded the credibility problem weighing him down as the country moves toward Election 2012.

Is the government already overstretching the security services?

Thursday, June 14, 2012

As we move toward Election 2012, much exists to portend danger. The conflicts erupting all over the country and the government’s over-reliance on the security services make me wonder how the situation will be like if politically motivated conflicts take the centre-stage to worsen the national security situation.

The approach toward handling these conflicts gives much cause for concern. These isolated conflicts have already strained the nerves of our police and military service. I haven’t heard any of them complain, but I am reading a deeper meaning into their deployment all over the place to suggest that if we don’t handle things properly, they will be exhausted long before the real need for them arises.

Certainly, I see them as dancing themselves lame before the actual dancing begins (thanks to Chinua Achebe).

The things that will hurt President Mills at Election 2012

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

The Progressive People’s Party leader, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, has chided President Mills for not showing good leadership by reacting to national events, especially the negative ones now erupting to threaten social cohesion. And he is right.

How can a President seeking re-election make himself so invisible in national affairs, especially when social/ethnic/religious strifes are tearing apart many communities all over the country?

What sort of weird leadership style is this one? If he doesn’t leave any lasting positive impact on the citizens’ minds before his first term in office expires, why should they re-elect him?

Why has it taken Kennedy Agyapong so long?

Friday, June 8, 2012

After running around, spending so much money to support the activities of the NPP, and deceiving himself that he is in the thick of affairs, the Assin North NPP MP (Kennedy Ohene Agyapong) has now realized that he is in a bottomless pit. He is not in any reckoning, after all. He is wailing and gnashing his teeth, complaining bitterly that the “NPP is not worth dying for; they abandoned me.”

Why has it taken him so long to recognize this fact?

Being downgraded from a strongman to a cry baby, he is pitiable. Here he goes in his interview with the Adom FM: “... even the people I call my friends in the party, people I fed and took care of have also abandoned me in difficult times” (Ghanaweb, June 8, 2012).

He also said the comments [that are the cause of his arrest and prosecution] were in defence and support of the party, but that he had been hanged out to dry by the same party he has supported and financed.

Such self-conceited adult crybabies make Ghana politics intriguing, especially if we consider the quick rebuttal from the NPP leadership that the party had supported Kennedy Agyapong all along.

After “killing” the NDC, Rawlings turns to extinguish June 4 too

Monday, June 4, 2012

Gradually but steadily, the virus biting former President Rawlings has succeeded in inflicting irreparable damage on his political career.

It is amazing (or confounding?) how fast he is dimming his own light and refusing all sound counsel to stay afloat. By persistently destroying the foundation of his own political edifice, he shouldn’t hope to avoid going under when the building eventually collapses. Rawlings is doing overtime, burning himself out, and will sooner than later become a good riddance.

If the NDC is in the ditch, where are the Rawlingses?

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Whether by his own design or through an accident of Fate, former President Rawlings is really ill-at-ease—and with his wife in tow, he is suffering the pang!

We are told that he spoke “in a characteristic passionate manner” at the 33rd anniversary celebration of the June 4 Uprising in Aflao, Volta Region, saying that “the NDC has run itself into a ditch and cannot beat their opponents NPP in the upcoming elections if the ideals of the June 4 uprisings have been abandoned” (Myjoyonline, June 3, 2012).

Two questions immediately emerge: The NDC has run itself into a ditch, leaving the Rawlingses unscathed? How did that happen? One might ask further: Being the blind leading a blind party, can the party alone fall into the ditch without them?

Woyome and the BNI factor: Let’s not blame the messenger…

Tuesday, June 1, 2012

Public anger at the Woyome scandal won’t abate soon. For various reasons, much blame has already been heaped on President Mills and his appointees (especially Betty Mould-Iddrissu, former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice and Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance) for their part in the scandal.

President Mills is accused of lacking enough clout and his appointees for facilitating the fraud. Revelations by Martin Amidu point to more worrisome developments. Ghanaians are concerned at such fraudulent practices veiled as judgement debts; and these are genuine concerns that will definitely translate into political decision making at Election 2012.

At a broader level, we seem to be missing a poignant aspect of the episode. One wonders how such fraudulent practices can be carried out with such paralyzing impunity without being detected and prevented by the country’s intelligence and security apparatuses.