Features
Why NDC directive failed in Parliament
Mr. Fiifi Kwetey
Quite recently, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) issued a directive to its Members of Parliament (MPs) not to approve the nomination of ministers presented to parliament as a way of preventing the ruling government from carrying out its mandate of ensuring that the country achieves growth for the entire country.
The ministers were appointed to replace those who had resigned to explore their presidential ambitions for the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Some of the ministers were Hon. K.T. Hammond, who has now replaced Hon. Alan Kyerematen, and Hon. Bryan Acheampong, who has also replaced Hon. Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto.
DIVISIONS
The directive from the NDC was disobeyed, and this has brought tension within the party. The tension has also brought about some divisions within the NDC.
Why are all these things happening within the NDC?
Relationships, politics, religion and social aspects of Ghana’s environment make for interesting observations. Ghana is an interesting and peaceful country.
DEMOCRATIC NATION
It is a democratic nation, with the 1992 Constitution as the supreme law of the country. It has other laws, such as the various acts or legislation, rules, regulations, and others. There are what we refer to as existing laws, common laws and customary laws.
There is also a multiplicity of political parties engaged in their own activities.
Ghana is a secular state. There is one dominant religion. The leading religions are Islam, Christianity, and traditional.
HETEROGENEOUS SOCIETY
It is a country with a heterogeneous society. Ghana is a country in which numerous population groups have specific and distinct values and understandings. In a heterogeneous society many sets of shared meanings make up the society.
That notwithstanding, Ghanaians live peacefully, happily, and are lovely, but with challenges such as unemployment, social infrastructure, etc.
INTERMARRIAGE
They intermarry among themselves. For instance, a Chamba man is married to a Busanga, Kokomba or Wala woman, or an Ewe man is married to an Asante woman, or vice versa.
Ghana is both a politically and culturally oriented nation. We love and respect our cultures, traditions, and customs.
Though not from the same tribe or family, many of the citizens know themselves and are very close to one another. This is so because they are either school mates, classmates, workmates or religious colleagues, etc.
NEIGHBOURLINESS
When we take the Nima community for instance, where the majority of the inhabitants are Muslims, you will be amazed to see many Christians living in the homes of Muslims as tenants and doing everything together. It also happens in other communities. This is how Ghanaians relate to and live with one another. Muslims attend social programmes such as weddings, funerals and birthdays of their fellow Christians and vice versa.
RELATIONSHIP
In the politics of the country, many blood relatives belong to opposing political parties and live or relate well.
The current Minister of Lands and Natural Resources and a Member of Parliament for Damango, Hon. Abu Jinapor is a Cabinet Minister in the NPP government of Nana Akufo-Addo and is a direct and younger brother to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Yapei Kusawgu and the ranking member of Energy, Hon. John Jinapor. They have the same parents. Abu follows John directly, like how number two follows number one in that order.
Also, the current NDC Member of Parliament for Adentan, Hon. Mohammed Adamu Ramadan, is the direct brother of the Second Lady, Hajia Samira Bawumia, whose husband is the Vice President of the Republic. Both Samira and her husband are leading members of the NPP. The other brother of Samira is Abu Ramadan, who is also a member of the NPP after defecting from the People’s National Convention (PNC).
Other examples are the Yankahs: Kojo and Kwasi, the Osafo Maafos, Baba Kamara and Boniface Abubakar Siddiq, etc. They are either NPP or NDC. These people are together and relate happily.
We also know of some NPP members who are related to other members of the NDC. We are together, and we do everything together to promote our common interests. Our different political affiliations have never and will never divide us. This is how life must be. We all cannot support or belong to one organisation or grouping; we must scatter and bring happiness, joy, and assistance home.
Our loyalty is to our faith, followed by our united country, family, and any other consideration.
The current Speaker of our 8th Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Bagbin, is a founding member of the NDC but has been a political father to some people within the NPP. He was a classmate of the Interior Minister Hon. Ambrose Dery both at the faculty and at the Law School. His other classmate was Hajia Alima Mahama, a former Minister under Nana Akufo-Addo who is now an envoy to the United States.
Also find out the relationship between Hon. K.T. Hammond (NPP) and Hon. Dr. Kwabena Donkor (NDC), the late Sir John and General Mosquito of the NDC. They were very good friends until the former’s demise.
REPULSIVE FIAT
It was, therefore, disgusting when the National Democratic Congress issued a fiat asking its members in Parliament to reject the appointees of the President. It will never happen because of the numerous examples assigned. That was why the NDC directive failed.
For example, will John Jinapor ever vote against Abu’s nomination or vice versa? Relationships should be a priority before any other political consideration.
Politics should not have any place to create disaffection or division among us Ghanaians. We are all people with a common destiny.
Email address/WhatsApp number of author:
Pradmat201@gmail.com (0553318911)
By Dr. Kofi Amponsah-Bediako
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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