Wednesday, June 3, 2009
I have continued to insist that the NPP still doesn't understand the kind of politics that its defeat at the 2008 elections has ushered into Ghana
The party is really persistent in shooting itself in the foot; and if reaction to what its defeated Presidential Candidate said at the recent press conference is anything to go by, then, it surely has an uphill task ahead of it in any bid to claw back public goodwill. I live to see how it will succeed in forcing the political stream to flow uphill.
News reports that former Ministers in the Kufuor government and some 200 NPP activists besieged the premises of the BNI yesterday to protest against the interrogation of Kwadwo Mpiani by the BNI have left very sour tastes in the mouths of responsible Ghanaian citizens.
Why shouldn't he be interrogated, and why should his interrogation bring about the kind of irresponsible behaviour that has been reported? What are they trying to pre-empt?
Who in Ghana doesn't know of all the allegations flying about concerning the recklessness in handling or dissipation of public funds as well as the eyebrow-raising manner in which public assets were being either destroyed (Ghana Airways, etc.) or acquired under the Kufuor government? Or similar allegations against public officials in previous governments, which made the Kufuor government prosecute and incarcerate some of them?
How did that government get to know that those people were culpable, in the first place? Was it not this same BNI that was used with the complete blessing of Mpiani to investigate the allegations?
The current public anger against anti-Ghana happenings (such as the looting of public property by former Speaker of Parliament) and the wide condemnation of the Chinery-Hesse Committee's recommendations on ex-gratia awards are too fresh to be parried away.
I strongly believe that there are many hidden instances of malfeasance by public office holders under Kufuor's government that can be exposed only through strenuous investigations. Today's events centering on Mpiani are just the tip of the iceberg and no one should try to misuse energy, doing what will create unnecessary bad blood.
The issue would have been different—and probably attracted my sympathy—had Kwadwo Mpiani been reported to be physically maltreated or in any other way seriously endangered while in the “hands” of the BNI. No one has reported anything of the sort.
Statements from the Deputy Ministers of Information made it clear that Mpiani was being taken through the due process of law (being questioned by a legally recognized national security and intelligence organization) and that his protracted presence at the BNI Headquarters was the result of the marathon questioning taking place.
Additionally, the Greater Accra Regional Police Commander, Rose Atinga, has given the firm assurance that the situation was not as “frightening” as the NPP functionaries would want the whole world to believe.
What else do these NPP functionaries need to know before they understand that their “idol” was being questioned as part of the processes put in motion by the Mills government to investigate every issue that needs to be investigated?
He is facing the music just as any other person who has questions to answer will. The music may be discordant in the ears of the NPP functionaries; but that is what is available now. They have no other option but to listen to it or pluck off their ears and plug the holes!!
Taking to the streets amounts to anti-democratic and unconstitutional behaviour. Useless!!
The action by these NPP functionaries is not only irresponsible and misguided but it also smacks of a hidden intention to raise dust so as to portray the situation in Ghana as not congenial enough for the US President, Barack Obama, to be in.
Thus, the grand agenda of creating disaffection for the NDC government would have been implemented. Then, they will turn to this very issue as fodder to use for their anti-NDC campaigns. What devilishness!!
But this senseless display of criminal solidarity will not wash with anybody, let alone deter the authorities from carrying out full-scale investigations into anything that is lined up to be probed.
I am one of those who fervently support such an investigation into the conduct of NPP functionaries like this Kwadwo Mpiani whose name was always on everybody's lips as controlling affairs in the erstwhile NPP government.
As the former Chief of Staff, he has a lot of questions to answer and nobody must be deluded into thinking that putting up this kind of mob behavior will intimidate the investigators.
After all, has Mpiani himself not said loudly in the open that he was fully prepared to face the government in case it decided that he should be prosecuted (or persecuted, as he put it himself)? So, what is behind this impetuous gathering of NPP functionaries to beat their chest and create unnecessary tension in the case of a man who himself knows what the sweetness of the pudding is?
Are these the apostles of democracy? If no investigation is done, how will we know whose hands are soiled with public funds (or clean) to be able to separate the goats from the sheep?
Today's proceedings are a matter-of-course and no one should think that this kind of public posturing will be countenanced. More of such invitations to the BNI will follow and all those now demonstrating solidarity with Mpiani will have a lot to spend their energies on. At best, I can describe them as people who have too much time and too little to do.
I want to remind these NPP elements that nation-building doesn't happen anyhow. It is premised on the ability of the people to right any wrong that has the potential to prevent them from realizing their aspirations.
ow many people in the United States or Britain have ever thought it fit to gather at the premises of the FBI or Scotland Yard to do what they are doing because a former office holder was being questioned on matters of national interest? With this mentality, how can the LAW bite and not only BARK in our case?
Kwadwo Mpiani has a lot of questions to answer and we want to see the process go through its normal course to its logical conclusion. If his hands are clean, he will have no cause to be where he shouldn't be.
On the other hand, if he is found culpable for either being the cause or for directly causing any financial loss to the state, he should be hauled before the courts and prosecuted. Then, the public will know that public office is not an extension of the individual's private domain and that it is not an occasion for wanton behavior and show of force for personal gains.
There was too much water passing under the bridge in the Kufuor administration. This is the time to probe issues and establish the extent to which public office holders were involved in the rot.
The kind of irresponsible behaviour that these NPP functionaries have resorted to will not contribute anything useful for national development. At best, it will only give credence to public perceptions that the NPP is afraid of its own shadow.
If Kwadwo Mpiani (and those to be interrogated later) have nothing to fear, they shouldn't hide; and nobody should try to dress them in white when indeed they are just waiting to be exposed as pitch black. The interrogations and investigations must pick up steam and be allowed to achieve the desired results.
For once, let us prove to the world that Ghana is ready to fight corruption in all its forms through calculated efforts, not a mere lip-service of the kind that has kept the country perpetually trapped in the quagmire of maladministration and under-development.
Those for whom the bell tolls must be allowed to respond to its clarion call. Kwadwo Mpiani must be allowed to do so now because it is his turn!! 
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