Features
Finance Minister’s approval and resultant confusion in NDC
The opposition National Democratic Party (NDC) is suspected to be in turmoil, as the majority of its supporters who voted for the party in the December 7, 2020 elections, are not happy with current developments and also the way some of the leaders, especially those in parliament are misconducting themselves. Also, not happy, are some executives and parliamentarians of the party. The MP for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzato Ablakwa, is reported to have resigned from the Parliamentary Appointment’s Committee and tended his resignation letter to the Speaker.
The supporters felt betrayed by most of their leaders at the helm of affairs in parliament who they alleged for either some personal or selfish motives are beginning to sell their rights and conscience to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus in parliament.
ELECTION PETITION
Coming from the backdrop of the recent presidential election petition at the Supreme Court of Ghana which saw the party losing the case to the NPP, the members who were already agitated by the verdict, felt they could rely on the leadership of the party with the speaker Hon Alban Sumani Kingsford Bagbin who happened to be a member of the party as their backbone to frustrate the NPP and indeed, the ruling government through strong opposition in parliament. However, that seemed not to be the case as the NDC leadership in parliament was rather playing the ostrich. The supporters have accused the leadership of party of playing into the hands of the NPP parliamentary caucus.
The genesis of the problem emanated from the NDC side of the Appointment’s Committee headed by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, who they alleged to be ‘rubber stamping’ all the presidential nominees for ministerial appointments who appeared before them without taking into consideration their incompetency, inconsistency in their deliveries and also failure to provide documents to support their deliveries when requested by the committee to produce them.
KEN OFORI-ATTA’S APPROVAL
The recent parliamentary approval by consensus of Mr Ken Ofori-Atta as the Minister for Finance, has generated upheavals in the party, added salt to injury and worsened the already volatile and agitated posture of the rank and file of the supporters and the party in general.
His approval followed a unanimous recommendation by the Appointment’s Committee of Parliament of which the NDC caucus was part of it. The committee, we are told, last Monday, March 29, 2021, presented its report to parliament as a whole which was endorsed by a voice vote.
The nominee who returned to Ghana for his vetting following his treatment in the United States of America (USA) for post COVID-19 health complications, faced an unprecedented two-day vetting before the Appointment’s Committee.
RESERVATIONS ABOUT MINISTER’S RESPONSES
It is recalled that during his recent vetting, several MPs from the minority side raised reservations over some of the responses by the minster-designate. The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, described the minister as having performed unsatisfactorily when he appeared before the committee. He insisted that Mr Ofori-Atta must furnished the committee with details on the recruitment of Mackenzie as revenue collector for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).
REMARKS BY MINORITY LEADER
Hear the minority leader; “Mr Speaker, I beg to second the approval of the President’s nominee (Ken Ofori-Atta) as minister designate for Finance and Mr Speaker in doing so, as you may recall, our side of the appointment’s committee requested for some of the information related to Ken Ofori-Atta as Minister of Finance, we have accordingly recommended that he should be approved by consensus. But, Mr Speaker, it does not mean we are satisfied with his performance as Finance Minister. He probably will go and bear the brunt of his mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy in the last four years, he will bear the brunt of his inability to reconcile his fiscal data. He bears the brunt for not providing enough details of how much the Bank of Ghana financed the government of Ghana in the 2020 period”.
“We will demand more information on this matter, because we are convinced that he is in breach of law, in breach of the Bank of Ghana Act, in breach of their fiscal responsibility Act and in breach of their Public Financial Management Act,” he said.
INTERROGATION OF HARUNA IDDRISU’S REMARKS
Indeed, the matters and issues arising from the Minority Leader’s remarks cannot be allowed to go without proper scrutiny. This is because, if all those breaches in the law are carefully examined by the committee, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta’s appointment could not have been approved by parliament since there were outstanding issues to be clarified by him. Where then lies the justification in his approval when documents the committee requested him to submit were not made available by the minister-designate.
To add salt to injury, the General Secretary of the NDC was heard saying that the decision to approve the nomination of Mr Ken Ofori-Atta as Finance Minister, was the collective decision of the party. That clearly shows that the leadership of the NDC caucus in parliament can be influenced at any time when it comes to decision making in the house. This, the members considered as most unfortunate.
To them, this current parliament is just behaving like the previous ones which compromised on proper scrutiny, check and balances and due regard to incompetency of nominees that appeared before them in the past and did wholesale appointments.
SAMMY GYAMFI’S ANGER
Reference can be made to the last vetting some weeks ago, which prompted the Communication Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, together with some party members to register their protests and displeasure on the decision taken by the NDC leadership in Parliament led by Haruna Iddrisu to approve some ministers-designate whose questions had earlier been raised about them by the NDC side of the committee.
These appointees included the current Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hawa Mavis Koomson and the Agriculture Minister, Dr Owusu Akoto Afriyie.
The alleged betrayal by the NDC leadership in parliament prompted the communication officer to issue a strong statement urging the rank and file of the party not to allow them to succeed in their parochial quest to destroy the party that has done so much for them. “The shame they have brought on the party will forever hang like an albatross around their necks,” says Sammy Gyamfi.
According to him they brazenly defied the leadership of the party and betrayed the collective good for their selfish interest.
APPOLOGY BY HARUNA IDDRISU
But in reaction to that statement from Sammy Gyamfi, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, appealed for forgiveness from the supporters and the grassroots of the NDC over their failure to reject some ministers-designate who appeared before the committee. He said the disappointment by some members of the party was justified and assured that the NDC side of the Appointment Committee would do well not to disappoint the party in the future.
Therefore, what has changed now in view of the assurance given by Hon. Haruna Iddrisu on behalf of other colleagues of his party not to betray the course of the party? Members, especially the grassroots are waiting with bated breath for explanation.
The question that needs an answer is, Is the major opposition party, the NDC, in turmoil?
BY CHARLES NEEQUAYE
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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