Ghana is bleeding from the nose daily, while politicians continue to pillage her and even think Ghanaians have a ‘weak mind’.
One wonders where they get their monies from.
“Back off Mr. Journalist, this isn’t your business,” I was told.
Really, whose is it then?
The work of a journalist seems taboo to corridors of power. He’s often branded perfidious and an enemy to the oligarchs (the rich few who wields power). Cocooned in their ill-gotten wealth they wish tomorrow never comes and there’s never a power-shift, oblivious to the fact that the sun shines but not every day.
Well it’s my duty to hold the executive, the judiciary and the legislature accountable. That they stay the course as trustees and remain answerable to the people. I’m the fourth estate of the realm and I’m duty-bound to serve as a watchdog.
Didn’t you know that my pen is mightier than the ‘Sharp Teeth Babies’?
If you still don’t understand why I’m here and what I’m here for. Mission is single and simple. It’s to inform, educate and entertain the people.
What are you angst about?
I’m worried about the spectacle— politicians (government officials) carrying bundles of money displayed in public and doled out to prospective voters as though they’re magicians. The frequency and the urgency at which this monetisation thing is being executed amid the nerve that goes with it gives me shivers every day.
So if you think that’s okay then don’t waste my precious time. Can’t or don’t you see how bad the economy is—-bleeding profusely by the day?
Tell me, how does it sit with you to see politicians dole out wads of monies almost every day, especially during electioneering period to people in the streets? How much is the salary of a cabinet minister, or a minister of state or a legislator/parliamentarian?
By the way my checks revealed their monthly salaries are in the region of GHc 8,000 to 10,000 (approximately US$ 5,000).
What’s the market value of a 2016 Range Rover/Land Rover Sport, the V6/V8 debuts? The price range is between $64, 950 to $111,350. And please do me a favour find out from the estate developers: What’s an estimated value of a three and four-bedroom house?
You know what, never mind all the hustles. Just save yourself the time and energy to find out the locations of these plush homes fitted with Jacuzzis, saunas and mega swimming pools. But find out how many of them have their children or wards in schools, colleges and universities here in Ghana and abroad. And you may find out many of the so and so they’re sponsoring outside either for studies, business or otherwise.
Again, find out how many of them own petrol/gas filling stations across the country: How many of them have swine, poultry, and fish, citrus and cattle farms? How did they also acquire these assets—assets like outboard motors, articulated or semi-trucks, fuel tankers, and lands from Axim to Zabzugutatale? Furthermore, find out how they acquired the yachts and the pontoons, the pubs and the bars, the timber and the mining concessions?
Finally, find out if they’d declared all these assets to the state.
I bet you’d like this too: Do you know why inflation is jumping like kids on trampoline? Have you asked the Member of Parliament (MP) in your constituency why your area lacks portable water, proper sanitation and stable power and not the flip-flop power? Find out why ‘Dumsor’ is still with us even though a minister had to resign over its stubborn existence.
How come teachers, judges and nurses are agitating for salary increments?
I thought I was done with the laundry list but not yet.
Find out why NHIS is in comatose? Why you cannot afford to put food on the kitchen table as required? Find out what’s wrong with our politicians? I beseech you to find out why they are looting our country and plundering her into darkness.
Do yourself a great service. Rather than asking me to back off from what I’m professionally trained to do: Stop being a panhandler, stop being a bootlicker, stop being a fair-weather friend, because you’re part of the reason politicians continue to be who they are. Are they magicians or Father Christmas/Santa? They’ve to be one, if indeed they owe all that.
But why must Ghana bleed?
Ghana is endowed with minerals such as gold, manganese, bauxite, diamond etc. In April 2011 the country lifted its first crude oil of 992,259 barrels representing $112million from the Jubilee Fields at Cape Three Point in the western region. She’s now known globally as an oil-producing nation.
Besides, Ghana has cocoa, timber, and cashew and she exports other agricultural products. Nonetheless, it’s found herself in a big economic cesspool over the last five or eight years. She’d had to run to the IMF and other Bretton wood institutions to borrow (amid the sorrow) to survive the economic turbulence yet she’s still wobbling down the turf.
The country’s inflation has stayed in double-digits since this administration took the reins of power. Yes, we’ve seen infrastructural development like roads, hospitals and schools and the recently-commissioned beautiful Kwame Nkrumah Interchange in Circle, Accra. Yet the average Ghanaian is feeling the pinch. The average is hurting inside. It’s like pulling a hair with a tweezer from the nose. Yikes!
Now, need I remind you of what President Mahama said eight years ago when he served as the vice president in the Mills-administration, 2008?
“If you vote for someone because of schools, hospitals, roads and interchanges, you have a weak mind because it is government’s responsibility,” Mr. Mahama said.
A ‘Weak Mind,’ you know what that means right?
On line Oxford Dictionary defines a weak mind or weak-minded person as one lacking determination, emotional strength or intellectual capacity. Merriam-Webster Learner’s dictionary defines a weak-minded person as one having or showing a lack of mental firmness. Also, the phrase a weak mind has synonyms such as foolish, simple, feeble-minded, witless, mindless, brainless, stupid and idiotic.
At the time (during the ‘08 campaign season) Mr. Mahama even ridiculed the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) for providing social amenities and other viable infrastructural development. And this is what he said: “For the NPP to tell us they have constructed roads, hospitals, schools and other projects is an exercise in mediocrity. Every government does these.”
Wasn’t he (the Prez.) right about that? Yes perhaps, he was.
If so, why the pomp and the hype about the projects his administration has executed? Why did the president put his foot into his own mouth? I thought the NDC already knew that it’s every government’s responsibility to provide its people such projects. So why all the Dubai this and Dubai that?
Don’t the people of Ghana deserve better after all the wanton loots and opulence displayed by these oligarchs?
The Ghana Revenue Authority
Indeed there has to be a way to stop or minimize this canker.
A lecturer at the Central University of Ghana, Kobina Feyinka says, perhaps the Ghana Authority Revenue (GRA) and the Registrar General’s Department could be of help in solving the problem. He said the authority which is the government of Ghana agency is responsible for overall oversight of the entire taxation agency in Ghana.
GRA was established in 2009 as a merger of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS), Value Added Tax Service (VATS\ and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) Secretariat.
He said it won’t be easy to eradicate this from the system. “This will be a daunting exercise but we need to start from somewhere. I know with modicum effort it can be done, the leakage is too much. So let’s first push the agenda and see if they will buy into it,’ he suggested.
Meanwhile, I’m compelled by popular request to serve readers on modernghana.com and ghanawe.com websites on Friday November 18, my September 12 article titled: ‘Was it Mother of all Lectures?’ It was a lecture delivered by the NPP vice presidential candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, ‘The State of Ghana’s Economy—A Foundation of Concrete or Straw?
I urged members of the ruling NDC to come out to challenge Dr. Bawumia’s claims that Ghana’s economy was in shambles but nobody after two months of that profound public lecture has taken the bait.
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