The Pharisees of Ghana politics are at it again

Monday, January 30, 2012

I am in the mood to poke an expensive fun at those in the NPP who are hopping about condemning President Mills and wringing their hands in desperation that Election 2012 is taking too long to dawn for them to kick him out of office and inject their Akufo-Addo therein. 

They already have a tall list of what they see as President Mills' failures, which they are brandishing about all over the place to cause disaffection for him.

I call them the Pharisees of Ghana politics, and by their fruit will we know them. I have no doubt in my mind that the Pharisees are not restricted to the religious world of the Christian Bible alone. They are everywhere, including Ghana, where they are noticeable in national politics too.

Certainly, Nkrumah won’t reject the Chinese in Africa

Monday, January 30, 2012

In responding to news reports that the Chinese government has constructed and handed over a 200 million-dollar building to house the African Union in Addis Ababa, an Akwasi A. Afrifa Akoto has said that Ghana’s former President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah would have rejected the “gift” to Africa. He sought to imply that the gift was a “bribe.” His opinions on the circumstances surrounding the gift may carry some moral weight but his conclusion is unguarded.

I disagree completely with him. Nkrumah would certainly welcome the Chinese and work with them to the extent that such a collaborative effort could help counteract the negative impact of the West on Africa.

The UN Secretary-General Must Tread Cautiously in Africa (Part II)

Monday, January 30, 2012

We insist that the UN has more questions to answer than its Secretary-General will admit. When he poked African leaders to be soft on gay/lesbian/queer issues, Ban Ki-Moon was looking for dung where no cow grazed. 

He has no moral justification to pontificate. His own UN is guilty of wrongdoing and failing to function impartially. Here is the second aspect of its shortcomings.

The UN Secretary-General Must Tread Cautiously in Africa (Part I)

Monday, January 30, 2012

The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, is reported to have urged African leaders to respect gay rights, saying that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity “prompted governments to treat people as second class citizens or even criminals” (BBC News, January 29, 2012). He made the appeal in his opening address at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

Homosexual acts are illegal in most African countries, including key Western allies such as Uganda, Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, Ghana, and Botswana. Both the United States and the United Kingdom recently warned they would use foreign aid to push for homosexuality to be decriminalized on the socially conservative continent, as the BBC put it.

By taking up this issue at this summit, Ban Ki-Moon has waded into a controversy that will definitely pit him and the organization he heads against African countries that detest homosexuality. It means he is on a collision course and shouldn’t be surprised at the outcome.

President Mills is not Ghana’s problem

Friday, January 27, 2012

There seems to be a calculated attempt by some people to cause mischief, which will not help us solve our national problems. We must be bold enough to take on such people.

The ratcheting up of open condemnation and outright verbal attacks on President Mills by his political opponents has reached alarming proportions. All these opponents seem to think that he is a stumbling block to Ghana’s development and must be kicked out of office at the 2012 elections. I disagree with them.

If President Mills must resign because of corruption…

Friday, January 27, 2012

Over the past few days, opponents of the NDC grouped under the banner of the NPP seem to have rediscovered themselves and are doing what they know best—intensifying their condemnation of President Mills for mere political capital. 

They seem to believe that the more noise they make against him, the better chances are that they will be marketing their party and improving the chances of its Presidential Candidate (Akufo-Addo) for Election 2012. I pity them.

Are Nkrumah’s children in politics failing him? (Part II)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Then, Sekou shifted political grounds again, rushing to align with the NPP and vowing to do all he can to ensure an electoral victory for Akufo-Addo. The NPP is his new-found home now. In this flitting from one political family to the other, he has thrown caution to the wind.

Are Nkrumah’s children in politics failing him? (Part I)

Thursday, January 12, 2012

The political career of Samia Yaaba Nkrumah and Dr. Sekou Nkrumah is in crisis. And that is even an understatement. Indeed, their political career is a flop. Their fate provides useful lessons in political miscalculation.

While Samia’s experiences portray her as a victim of unfortunate circumstances, that of Sekou certainly establishes him as a political neophyte who wants to soar without knowing that he hasn’t yet developed his political wings! Or even if he has those wings, he doesn’t seem to know how to fly. He is flapping those wings unnecessarily and losing his feathers. He has virtually become an ostrich in Ghanaian politics.

Are these two children of the Great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah—the most renowned African leader, freedom fighter, and political thinker—failing him? Or are they caught up in a political whirlwind they didn‘t prepare for?  

Is Nigeria our sub-regional superpower or a laughing stock?

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Right in front of our eyes, Nigeria is slipping into chaos, threatened by agitations and plain terrorist acts that endanger life and property. 

There seems to be too many fault lines that are now cracking open to reveal a frightening truth—that after many years of mismanagement and maladministration, the country is at the brink of doom, fueled by an oil boom that has turned out to be the prime-mover for this doom.

Whether it can cope with the pressure and remain on its feet is anybody’s guess. The immediate conclusion is that despite all the potential that the country has to be the West African regional super power, it is turning out to be a laughing stock and a classic example of a failed state.   

A doomsday awaiting President Mills? Be the Judge (Part III)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

CONCLUSION:

The responses to the issues raised about President Mills in my article can’t be dismissed as a mere potshot. They are clearly the upshot of pent-up feelings, regardless of any deeper political meaning that anybody may want to read into them. They reflect what is doing the rounds and have dire implications; they need serious scrutiny to help us comprehend the future direction of Ghana politics under President Mills.

A doomsday awaiting President Mills? Be the Judge (Part II)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Apart from the obvious negative and positive responses to the questions raised in my article, the comments expressed by readers also showed other leanings.

3. TITLES GIVEN TO THE COMMENTS

All the responses had specific titles that had a bearing on the actual comments themselves as passed. Peculiarly, the tone of these titles didn’t diverge in any way from that of the contents of the comments. A negative title corresponded with a negative comment and vice versa.

A doomsday awaiting President Mills? Be the Judge (Part I)

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

In response to an article (“How will you remember President Mills?”) that I wrote, and which was published by the online media on Friday, January 6, 2012, many readers spontaneously made random comments that I thought shouldn’t go unnoticed. 

I. therefore, set out to do a qualitative analysis of those random comments to throw more light on the public perception of President Mills, especially as we approach the major electioneering campaign season for Election 2012.

Mine is not an opinion poll nor is it intended to be viewed as anything empirical. It is just an attempt to assess President Mills’ estimation in the eyes of those who “respond” to anything said or written about him.

South Africa’s ANC teaches NDC lessons in party building

Monday, January 9, 2012

It might not be for nothing that the South African government invited former President Jerry Rawlings and the government of Ghana to participate in activities marking the centenary of the African National Congress (ANC). Whether he was invited in his private capacity or not, Rawlings will definitely be representing the interests of the country as its former President whose party is in power. Both the ANC and the NDC are the products of “positive defiance” against the status quo, and Rawlings’ participation is in place.

One may not want to question the rationale behind the separate invitation to the Government of Ghana to participate in the celebration too. After all, such an event couldn’t be genuinely completed without the involvement of Ghana in it. The records reveal how much Ghana contributed to the liberation struggle in South Africa and the other countries under oppressive colonial rule in the 1960s (Namibia, Mozambique, etc.) in the reign of the Great Osagyefo Dr. Nkrumah.

How will you remember President Mills?

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Regardless of the close-shave victory with which President Mills entered office, he is still in his element, distinguishing himself as the most tolerant President we’ve so far had. 

Despite the open bad-mouthing and pointed affront to his authority and personality, he has refused to use the vast powers at his disposal to prove where naked power lies (contrary to what some of his predecessors did to provide the template by which Ghanaians construct the office of the Head of State). You know what I am alluding to here.

In Ghana politics, hard words toughen skins

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

It is common knowledge that Ghanaian politics is heavily infested with insults, especially following the proliferation of the mass media and prevalence of the somehow unfettered exercise of the freedom of expression engendered by our 4^th Republican constitutional democracy. I am guilty of it; you are guilty of it; everybody else is probably guilty of it too.

Do you remember how an opponent of President Mills once labeled him as a “chamber pot”? If you do, then, take it as the microcosm of the widespread fetid politics of insults going on. Worse insults are known to have been hurled at others just because they dare indulge in national politics.

When fetish priests know in advance the winner of the 2012 elections…

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Indeed, politics has seeped so deep into our national fabric that fetish priests can now predict the outcome of the 2012 elections, clearly eleven months before they are held. One may think that the spiritual powers of such fetish priests are limitless.

Oh, how I wish these fetish priests and their counterparts in other religions claiming to be God’s Messengers can use their spiritual powers to provide the cure for the general malaise that is destroying Ghanaians and the country! 

Can any of them give us the incontrovertible clue to help us arrest the murderers of the Ya-Naa and all others as well as those behind the missing 77 parcels of cocaine under the Kufuor government? Or any of the major problems that our governments over the years have failed to solve? We are itching for answers.

Does President Mills have advisors at all?

Sunday, January 1, 2012

More often than not, some government functionaries and NDC fanatics have glibly said that President Mills will win the 2012 elections. Some have been impudent enough to say that he will do so “hands-down.”

Whenever I hear any open declaration to that effect, I shudder. Considering many glaring instances that don’t redound to the President’s image (and his government’s performance) so far, I wonder what justifies that sort of overly optimistic stance and the motivation for the accompanying public utterances.