Why the stealing of public funds will continue…

Monday, October 28, 2013

My good friends, the daily news reports about the theft of public funds are troubling. Within the past few months, we have been bombarded with such news reports to such an extent as to wonder whether there is any hope for this country at all in the management of its finances.

The problem is all the more frightening for other reasons: the economy is weakening because of low productivity and mismanagement, not to speak of ineffectual official policies, programmes, and measures. Generating revenue internally is an uphill task; borrowing money from outside sources has become a huge albatross threatening the country’s GDP and economic viability.

Brigadier-General Nunoo-Mensah and the “hot kitchen” (Part II)

Monday, October 21, 2013

Being a pillar of the government, the figure cut by Nunoo-Mensah has created misleading impressions and provoked public anger against him for nothing. After all, he has no more power to change anything in the country than I have. Being the National Security Advisor doesn’t empower him to do what the President or his Vice or even (Regional) Ministers or CEOs of the Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies can do. He is at the beck and call of the appointing authority and doesn’t wield the power that he can use to effect any change.

That is why his utterances need not be over-extended to cover the government or to suggest that his viewpoints on this score reflect the thinking of President Mahama. He spoke as an individual and is prepared for the consequences as such.

As he has already indicated in his interview with the BBC, he “owes nobody any apology for comments that have angered Ghanaian workers and some political groupings.” He is adamant, explaining, however that he is not against workers’ going on strike but that they shouldn’t expect to be paid for the period that their strike action covers. This is another important issue to be addressed, not dismissed.

Brigadier-General Nunoo-Mensah and the “hot kitchen” (Part I)

Monday, October 21, 2013

It is rare for Ghanaian soldiers to be well-fated as has happened to Brigadier-General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah, National Security Advisor, and former President Jerry John Rawlings. Placed in the circumstances that have shaped and shaved their military and civilian lives all these years, they come across as really plucky beneficiaries of Lady Luck’s magnanimity.

Jerry Rawlings’ journey into the limelight is known and I won’t belabour it. Brigadier-General Nunoo-Mensah’s is mired in inexplicable circumstances. We remember him as a member of the Acheampong-led Supreme Military Council that metamorphosed into SMC II after Acheampong’s overthrow in a palace coup masterminded by his own henchmen, including Joshua Hamidu and Nunoo-Mensah.

When Rawlings and his AFRC stormed the corridors of power, Brig-Gen. Nunoo-Mensah found favour and was “grafted” a member only to resign later under murky circumstances. He resurfaced in the camp of Rawlings’ political opponents and became the National Security Advisor under ex-President Kufuor. It didn’t take long for him to turn coat, which benefited him when ex-President Mills rehabilitated him as the National Security Coordinator to be retained by President Mahama as such. Which other military officer has been so lucky to serve across varied political divides of this sort?