Is Any Politician Listening?
“I like the noise of democracy”
James Buchanan
INWARD LOOKING? This is an expression any Ghanaian qua-Ghanaian will shudder to use, remembering how Victor Owusu was never pardoned by a whole region. In the Ghanaian Parliament in 1970, Dr. Agama accused the Busia “Akan” Government of sidelining Ewes in government jobs.
Victor Owusu, MP responded that as an Ewe, Dr. Agama cannot accuse anybody of being “inward-looking” … and blah-blah-blah (the aim here is not to resurrect the ethnic imbroglio but rather to recall history.
Lovable Elizabeth Ohene, the veteran journalist of BBC acclaim (a sweet voice on Focus on Africa), uses the expression against the Ghanaian Society (An Inward-Looking Society): “My fears were confirmed or heightened when Mikhail Gorbachev died and the response to the news in Ghana was dead silence”.
And what did Aunty Elizabeth think had led to this? “Our young people have on their minds SIM card registration, corruption in high places, the new iPhone released by Apple, and the latest music by whoever is the hottest star”.
Yes, it is true that at a time of brinkmanship (Western countries including the US, Britain versus the Communist Soviet Union), it was Mikhail Gorbachev who helped to end the Cold War.
By 1990, the whole world was sitting on thorns. The Soviet ideology and way of life were captured in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) novel in which Winston Smith, a low-ranking member gets frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party with “Big Brother watching” even when Winston was in the toilet.
Winston would be confused with the slogan: “War is peace, freedom is slavery; weakness is strength.” Even though Gorbachev was popular in the “free world”, he was not a darling of the “communist conglomerate” that blamed him for breaking Soviet power, His response to his abusers was: “Remember, I am the one who gave you the right to shout”.
Fifteen (15) independent countries emerged in 1992: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Gorbachev’s “new thinking” to tune up the back-sliding soviet economy led to the introduction of “perestroika” (restructuring) and “glasnost (openness) as a dual-plank of his reform policy.
Note that the Berlin Wall (Iron Curtain) had been broken, and German unity (Deutsche Einheit) had been forged in October 1990. Gorbachev died on August 30 this year at the age of 91.
Cameron Duodu, the respected journalist, would have filled the gap if his pen was as sharp now on international affairs as it was years ago.
But why would we not be inward-looking? Look at what is happening now: 15 cedis exchanged for 1 dollar! Koko, kenkey, and toasted plantain (Kofi Brokeman) are no longer food for the mmoborowa (down-trodden).
Who will listen to Dr. Nyaho Tamakloe? Who will listen to Dr. Amoako-Baah? To be labeled anti-Akufo Addo, when we had all (against the odds) propped him up.
Theodore Roosevelt said, “Speak softly but carry a big stick”. When a prison warden, a poker player, offered Harry Truman a buck, the President placed it on his table in the Oval Office, with the inscription: “The buck stops here” it is the President who takes responsibility for all actions or inactions of government.
Hans Andersen tells a tale of a Spanish King being deceived by fabric weavers of having woven an excellent piece of fabric many years ago, the King was deceived into accepting that it was beautiful, even though he could not see it.
A negro rose up and said: “Sire, to me, it matters not whose son I am, therefore, I tell you, you are riding without clothes!”
Enimil Ashon writes in “What IMF Cannot (Will Not) Give Us”: “…every President of Ghana can build a comfortable home after four years … the emoluments of our President and other Article 71 holders including Council of State Members, Speakers of Parliament and Members of Parliament are obscene, relative to the earnings of all other public servants of Ghana… Akufo Addo needs a think-tank.
Ghana is so blessed with high-performing economists and thinkers that our inability to bring them together to save our Cedi and bring down inflation is actually one of the wonders of the world…”
On President Akufo-Addo’s tour of the Eastern Region, a woman is overheard saying: “Wonom se oman yi mu aye den, hwe cars ahodoo a ereko”. John Magafull, the late President of Tanzania, canceled the Independence Day celebration and reduced the number of delegates attending the Commonwealth summit in Malta from 50 to 4 officials.
Kwame Sefa Kayi keeps trumpeting: “Why can’t we accept that whether it was Russia-Ukraine war, COVID…our economic crisis is also due to our actions or lifestyle and these have led us to IMF”.
If someone bought dollars at 5 cedis to a dollar some time ago, he would have had 100 dollars for 500 cedis, a person buying the dollar now at 15 cedis with the same 500 cedis would get just about 30 dollars.
And this is what leaves Prof. Gyampoh with the question of whether to be patriotic or go the way of officials of the government who collect dollars from the Bank of Ghana and return with a surplus and exchange at the Black market.
What do we mean by being citizens, not spectators a la bill Clinton or shall we be disgraced one-by-one when we criticize Akufo-Addo; or labeled as villagers and witches and wizards for our criticism?
In Britain, Liz Truss, who had vowed at Parliament to be a “fighter, not a quitter,” resigned as Prime Minister after being in office for 45 days; she had sacked the (Ghanaian-born) Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwesi Kwarteng, after 37 days in office, handing over to Jeremy Hunt; Suella Braverman resigned as Home Secretary giving way to Grant Shapps, and per the Public Duty costs allowance is entitled to an allowance of £115,000 in a year, beside £84,144 a year as she remains MP for South West Norfolk.
Today, the first British Indian, Rishi Sunak (42), has been endorsed as Prime Minister of Great Britain, after a shuffle. Please don’t mention “reshuffle” or “down-sizing of Cabinet” if you want to remain an NPP man. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu died too early. He would carry a small notebook and record anything you suggest-including the “nonsensical”. J.J. Rawlings, an arch-enemy, cried on Kwadwo Baah’s death.
We are not jealous or envious of those enjoying the wealth of the land, we cannot be prophets of doom; we are not villagers or witches and wizards. We sacrificed to put Akufo Addo where he is…
There will be a good time to discuss the action of the eighty NPP MPs who have called for the resignation of Ken Ofori-Attah, the “excellent” finance minister, and another, their own kith and kin or be given a sack by the President.
Checks and balances at play. Do not be tempted to label them “the Rebel-80”.
Their unprecedented action should send a signal to NPP, the NDC, and the nation at large that they are politicians who listen to the people they represent, and take action as the people want… Do not worry about the fact that Ken Ofori Atta may only be a “sacrificial lamb”, that is the way of politics: you will see what a “new face” at the Ministry of Finance will do against the galloping inflation…