Judgement Debts and Contracts: Are some Ghanaians capable of managing State Affairs?

By Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK

At independence, many Ghanaians and Africans as a whole, if not black people across the globe were very hopeful that, a new African capable of managing their own affairs was on the horizon to transform the lives of millions from colonial oppression and want into freedom and prosperity. This self confidence was immaculately evident in the independence declaration speech of Kwame Nkrumah on 6 March 1957 and I quote from the relevant section of the speech. “From now on, we must change our attitudes and our minds. We must realise that from now on we are no longer a colonial but free and independent people. ….that new African is ready to fight his own battles and show that after all, the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations that we are prepared to lay our own foundation. Our own African identity, create our own African personality and identity. It’s the only way that we can show the world that we are ready for own battles”.
Sadly, not long after the euphoria had dissipated, the new sense of the self confident Ghanaian capable of managing the affairs of the state imploded into thin air and up to today, Ghanaian and other African leaders have shown that they are not only incapable of managing their own affairs but also miserably mismanaged the affairs of nations and states since independence. This article was necessitated by recent development in Ghana, especially but not exclusively, a statement attributed to the Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing regarding Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) and the failed STX housing project made me pose this question. Are some Ghanaian leaders incapable of managing Ghana’s affairs prudently, particularly when it comes to negotiations and management of agreement and contracts? I do not intend to answer the question but provide a review of some relevant matters that would enable readers to make their own judgement and provide answers to the question.
The Deputy Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing is reported to have said that GREDA cannot take over the failed STX deal, as is being speculated in the media because the embattled STX housing company whose boardroom wrangling has stalled the government’s flagship affordable housing project, still has a contract with the government of Ghana. Therefore any company that has interest in that bid must first broker a deal with STX (see Ghanaweb.com January 26, “GREDA cannot take over STX Project – Deputy Minister). Really, I thought that was ended on 6 March 1957?
I felt a sharp pain in my stomach spin after reading such a ridiculous statement from a deputy minister. The minister had the audacity to ask a Ghanaian Association to negotiate with a foreign company before they build houses in their own country. Where on earth would this happen and who caused that? My second reaction was, Wrong, Wrong, Wrong and No, No and No. NEVER. First, this mess was created by government officials who through negligence or incompetence or both failed to carry out due diligence to ensure that STX was capable of delivering their part of the contract. Second, he was wrong because in every contract or agreement, there are clauses for sanctions and terms and conditions for the abrogation of contract if any of the parties defaulted or breached the contract. The agreement contract can contain Key Performance Indicators and Milestones to be delivered through measurable outputs and outcomes such as, after twelve months of the agreement coming into force, output X must be delivered resulting in outcome Y. If after the twelve months X and Y have not been delivered, the defaulting party (in this case STX) must explain why. The other party to the agreement (Ghana) can resort to applying sanctions against STX if the explanation is not reasonable and acceptable. This can include penalty charges, renegotiation of the contract or total termination for failure to meet the terms and conditions of the agreement without good reason/s.
From all we know about the STX housing project, Ghana government has done its best to assist STX resolve their board room wrangling amicably but to no avail. Under such circumstances, Ghana has every right to initiate a process to terminate the contract with STX by exercising its rights under the terms and conditions of the agreement in order to avoid any breaches which could result in a claim against Ghana by STX in the future. Thereafter GREDA and Ghana government can negotiate to enter into a new agreement for GREDA to undertake the same housing project that STX has failed to deliver. So what is the minister talking about and in whose interest is the minister acting, Ghana or STX?
The Deputy Minister’s statement also drew my attention back to the huge Judgement Debts Ghana has been paying to companies and individuals, including the infamous “Woyome”. These payments are a heavy burden on Ghana’s scarce resources. They are also a drain and waste on the economy and could be crimes against the people of Ghana. Every government has the right for whatever reason/s to abrogate agreements and contracts that they are unhappy with. Some are even done purely for ideological reasons but most are on financial grounds. Whatever the reasons may be, most if not all termination of contracts may involve payment of compensation by one party to the other either through negotiation, arbitration or by court judgements and Ghana is no exception.
The contemporary challenges Ghana faces with the management of national contracts is that, it some appears Ghanaian leaders, past and present are unable, incapable or unwilling to negotiate meticulous and prudent agreements as well as fail to manage the contracts efficiently and in so doing cause the state to lose catastrophic huge sums of money in judgement debt payments. According to media reports, the NDC government alone has paid over $600 million in judgement debts in the last three years. Who knows how much was paid by the first NDC government and the NPP administration under the Fourth Republic? Despite the glaring waste by the state, unfavourable and bad agreements continue to be negotiated and signed by the present government. An example of such bad agreement is the recent $3 billion Chinese loan agreement. The terms and conditions of the agreement as reported by the Minority in Parliament, if accurate, are diabolical and even inimical to the state or another “gargantuan crime”.
If the principal amount and the interests amounted to $4.6 billion, why should Ghana commit about $7 billion in crude oil supplies to China as repayment? What is the difference of $2.4 billion meant for? The other contention in the agreement is the $85 per barrel price at which Ghana agreed to peg the crude oil to China when the world market price of crude oil has never fallen below $100 since 2009. What is the potential for oil falling below $85per barrel? What stopped the Ghanaian negotiators to peg the price at prevailing world market prices or a small percentage below the going world market price? What stopped them from inserting a clause with the option for Ghana to review the price every five years in accordance with world market prices? Instead of the negotiators spreading the risk to Ghana, they offered concessions.
Another plausible question the negotiators should have asked and answered was, Ghana’s hedging of crude oil imports. At what price was this done and if it was higher than $85 per barrel offered to China, why? I understand that twenty years is a long time and new forms and sources of energy could be discovered within that period that may lead to drastic fall in crude oil prices but that reality is less likely and in my opinion, Ghanaian negotiators let Ghana down.
It is also reported that Ghana’s crude oil is being collateralised to defray the loan and interests for a period of twenty years. This clause is senseless, possibly illegal and only to the advantage of China. The Petroleum Revenue Management Act states that petroleum revenues cannot be collateralised for more than 10 years yet the loan agreement provides that China can lift oil from Ghana for up to twenty years. Is the Executive aware of this law and not bound by the law?
Why this time period when the value of the oil should not be determined in years but calculated in monetary terms according the quantity and price of oil exports to China? If in ten years time Ghana had exported enough crude oil to China to cover the total cost of the loan and interests, will Ghana continue to export crude oil to China for the another ten years at $85 per barrel not withstanding world market prices at that time and irrespective of the fact that the loan would have been paid off? In reality that is what the agreement means. Is Ghana China’s Father Christmas? After all, Ghana has oil that China desperately needs and Ghana also urgently requires China’s dollars for very important infrastructure development, so the negotiators were not empty handed beggars asking for scraps from the Chinese dinner table. Ghana is strong to negotiate with China as a sovereign state and not as a junior province.
When I read such reports, I ask myself whether those who negotiated the agreement were either simply incompetent or just did not care about Ghana. Are they unpatriotic or just selfish as far as they personally or their party benefited from the agreement? Such clauses do not make sense to me and wondered who in their rational mind would subject their country to such unfavourable terms with very damaging financial consequences for the nation and potential disputes that could also lead to judgement debt payments? For example, if Ghana is able to repay the loan in fifteen years and wants to stop exporting oil to China at $85 per barrel, China could have the right to sue Ghana for breach of contract under the terms of this loan agreement, unless it is made watertight that such exports should be no more than the value of the loan plus interest or whichever comes first. All states negotiate agreements with the sole objective of securing and protecting their interests but it appears Ghanaian leaders negotiate to give away and betray the country’s interests
Sometimes, I question the justification for me to hold myself in high esteem and be proud to be from Ghana when Ghanaian leaders are incapable of negotiating good agreements and manage contracts effectively. I also wonder if the nation has the calibre of people to do such negotiations and mange contracts successfully. Despite my apprehension, there is no doubt in my mind that, Ghana boats of qualified men and women at home and abroad who are more than able and capable of doing excellent job when it comes to negotiations and management of resources at any level. All over the world, Ghanaians have and are excelling at every human endeavour and even within the narrow confines of the two main political parties (NDC and NPP), there is abundance of talents, skills, expertise, knowledge and experience to execute contracts efficiently and expeditiously. Greed and selfishness (call it corruption) is what is killing mother Ghana.
To reduce the huge sums lost to the state through judgement debts and the negative impact on socio-economic development (since they can never be eliminated completely), there is the urgent need for Ghanaians to work together to harness the best brains and experience for each job. That will require NDC and NPP to put aside their political and ideological differences and collaborate in the interest of Ghana. I am not suggestion a coalition government as I dislike any government of marriage of convenience such as the current UK government. What I am suggesting is for the two main parties who are most likely to rule Ghana in turns for the foreseeable future to tap into the expertise, skills, knowledge and experience of their members no matter which one is in government. President Obama appointed a Republican as Defence Minister (a very sensitive position to be held by someone from the other aisle of the political divide). Here in the UK, the Prime Minister appointed a former Labour Cabinet member to lead a review of state pensions. If Obama could appoint a Defence Minister from a party with some Christian fundamentalists who hate him and his policies more than they love Jesus, why can’t NDC and NPP collaborate when they only disagree with each other but not hate one another, let alone more than Jesus?
That is the sort of collaboration that should exist between the government of the day and the opposition parties. For example, involvement of other parties in agreement negotiations should not be considered as the government not having quality ministers or personnel to conduct and lead government business. On the contrary, it will minimise the risk of future governments unilaterally abrogating agreements and contracts entered into by the immediate past governments and therefore avoid claims against the state and judgement debts. In fact, collaboration should not be restricted to only politicians but the larger Ghanaian society as a whole. Government should be able call on professionals and experts from the private sector as well as academics in times of need for national assignments, if conflict of interests can be avoided. In very complicated court cases such as the Ya-Na murder trial, the state could have secured the services of experienced prosecuting attorney from private law firms in Ghana to prosecute the case.
Unless Ghanaian leaders begin to take advantage of the all the human resource capacity within and outside the country for the benefit of the people, the state would continue to be plagued by and suffer from damaging and debilitating consequences of inefficiency, incompetent and mediocre when it comes to agreement and contract negotiations and management. Ghana has the people, knowledge, expertise, skills and experience in abundance and they should not be wasted through round pegs in square holes. For example, someone commented on Ghanaweb.com on the resignation of the first Attorney General and Minister for Justice that she was appointed with the main objective of prosecuting former NPP officials for alleged malpractices. If that was true, I beg to say that, it was the wrong move because her background was in International Law suitable for her previous role at the Commonwealth Secretariat and not Criminal Law, especially, when the AG is required occasionally to prosecute cases in person at courts. No doubt the outcome spoke millions. No disrespect to her knowledge, expertise and abilities but it is undeniable that she failed Ghana as AG and Minster for Justice. Ghana deserves better in the management of her abundant human and natural resources. Your Honour, I rest my case.

By Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK

NPP Politicians Can Help

Yaw Asare Adu-Otu

Woodbridge, VA USA

Thursday, January 26, 2012

In a cool-headed atmosphere, it should not be difficult for Ghanaians to unravel the basic NPP-induced contradiction associated with the on-going brouhaha about judgment debt a court awarded Mr. Alfred Woyome and his Waterville business.
It is inconceivable that a competent court would award a substantive amount of judgment debt to plaintiff without careful examination of the relevant contract document(s). Yet, in the disputed case of the State V. Woyome, it appears no such document exists. At least, former Pres. J. A. Kufuor has denied existence of a contract between his erstwhile administration and Woyome.
Meanwhile Kufuor supports failure or refusal by former minister of finance in his administration, Yaw Osafo Maafo, to testify publicly what he knows about the Woyome contract. In this instance, Ghanaians cannot be sure if Kufuor is being truthful with them. Therefore, the situation leaves one the option to question the game NPP politicians seem to be playing in an election year.
However, it is surprising that personnel of the media houses in Ghana have not pushed to look through the court documents of the Woyome case in search of the relevant contract document(s). Are court documents not available to the press in Ghana upon demand?
One would have thought that the attention-seeking officials of so-called “think tanks” would have sought to look at the Woyome contract document for the sake of researching a significant story that continues to occupy the public space in Ghana.
Thus far, the excessive attention pressure groups and fringe political actors continue to pay to the Woyome issue has left room for speculation and mischief on the public airwaves. In this regard, it is fair to call on NPP politicians to come up front with the truth about the Woyome contract saga. It is time for Yaw Osafo Maafo to speak out and stop protecting J. A. Kufuor.

Contact: [email protected]
twutter.com@Yaw Adu-Otu 
[email protected]

This month marks the third anniversary of the assumption of office of President John Evans Attah Mills and his NDC government. Exactly eleven months from now, Ghana will embark another political journey to decide the future direction of the country: another Presidential and Parliamentary election slated for December 2012. This means that President Mills is in the last quarter of his four-year mandate.

It would have been worthwhile to take stock of the performance of the President and his government towards the very end of his term of office but we are compelled to take issue now with the way the country is being run and the dangerous portends that are showing up in the country. The first major issue is the culture of political insults and threats that have dominated the political atmosphere in Ghana since the President took office in January 2009. The airwaves and print media in Ghana are saturated with political opponents throwing dirty diatribes at each other which have poisoned the peaceful atmosphere Ghanaians are used to. President Mills himself has expressed concern on a number of occasions about this state of affairs. It is sad to note that members of his party and government are leading this dangerous trading of insults and threats but despite his expression of concern, he has done absolutely nothing about them. His official spokespersons and top officials insult and threaten their opponents with impunity and he says and does nothing. Over the past two months the nation has been engulfed in a serious controversy over an obvious illegal payment of state funds to someone known to be a top financier of the ruling NDC party. Circumstances surrounding this payment are so bizarre that they call for the President to publicly come clean on where he stands on the issue, what he knows and does not know. And he has said and done nothing.

Of even more serious concern for the stability of the nation is the issue of the development and encouragement of “mob rule” and violence from his own party members. There have been constant agitations from his party members to dismiss public officials that they have issues with. And each time that these roaming mobs have attacked public officials and demanded their resignations or firing, the President has succumbed to those pressures. These are very dangerous trends for the stability of the nation.

And just last week a group from his party led by one of his Ministers marched to Parliament threatening opposition members. And after agitating for the firing of the Attorney General of his government which the President sadly succumbed to once again, another group from his party is demanding that all public officials in the Attorney Generals Department who are known to relate anyone belonging opposition political parties should be fired. If the President stays true to his form, he will surely succumb to this threat as well.

We wish therefore to advise President Attah Mills that he was elected as President and Father of the whole nation called Ghana and not only for members of his party. And he needs to refrain from constantly giving in to the dangerous demands from his party folks on retributive justice. Ghana has come a long way. We should not descend into chaos and mob rule…again and ever!!

Source:Ghanaian News Canad 

From: Kwaku A. Danso [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 10:17 AM
To: Abeeku Brew-Hammond (Prof); Tony Aidoo (Dr.); Mustapha Ahmed (Hon.Dr); Sherry Ayittey (Hon)
Cc: ‘[email protected]’
Subject: Electricity Privatization in Ghana
Let me change the re-title and take this opportunity to address this to the Chairman of the Energy Commission, Dr. Abeeku Brew-Hammond and copy Dr. Tony Aidoo (Presidential Adviser), Dr. Mustapha Ahmed, Deputy Housing Minister and Hon. Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology.

Electricity and water issues are directly related to Housing and Hon. Mustapha should be interested.
Dr. Tony Aidoo is Adviser to the President and a very vocal person, and he should be concerned about this also.
Electricity affects any Scientific Research and any dialogue on Technology, and hence Hon. Sherry Ayittey should be interested.

Doc Abeeku,
I hope you have gotten over the pain of being stood-up and not being picked up at the airport by Ben Dedjoe in New York and hence condemning the whole Ghanaian population in the Diaspora.
Can you tell us government policy on this and why electricity distribution should not be privatized in Ghana and ECG has or should have a monopoly when in fact they are bleeding money so much and cannot as much as collect their own debt due to them, as reported recently by Anas.

Can you all Honorable men and woman let us hear you views on this issue. Every single day is a suffering for some of us who invested so heavily most of our life and career savings in Ghana and are unable to get reliable delivery of electricity and water.
Folks, our nation is simply on the edge. The taxpayer under ECG can guarantee electricity for only the major industries and some of them are not even paying the monthly bills, or shall we say the ECG has no muscle to collect or cut them off! And we the ordinary people have to suffer for this?
I just got off the phone with somebody in Ghana over a long debate convincing me to purchase a small generator for at least two of the four Flats for rent and some additional split AC units to the central units air conditioners we have. In most Western nations such as the US, as much as glorify the big mega corporations, the facts show that small businesses employ more than the major corporations. Except for the major corporations, most investment in Ghana simply cannot make sense if one has to use 50% of annual revenue to find alternate source of a standby electricity when government has charged us a minimum 45% and all imported and shipped materials to build the property and even customers are prepared to pay electricity bills and even any requested money to purchase transformers to stabilize the current and voltage. This issue has been going in since the 2004 time when VRA and hence ECG and GRIDCO complained about water level at the dam. Today that is not the excuse anymore. It is totally unacceptable for the poor delivery of electricity! The government must do something about this and do it now!!

We are asking for legislation to allow private industry participation in the distribution of electricity in Ghana and will appreciate your comments, Dr. Abeeku, Dr. Tony Aidoo, Hon. Sherry Ayittey, and Hon. Dr. Ahmed.

Thank you.

Kwaku A. Danso, M. Eng, PhD (Email: [email protected])

Amadora-Portugal—Ghana, like other African states, should break free from the medieval psychopathic traits, a culture of arrogance which tramped on the rights of the individual, says a public advocate, Kwaku Boatin.

Governors during that period, ruled with impunity and arrogance, under a tradition which was characterized by a pattern of disregard for, or violations of the rights of others, Kwaku Boatin told a meeting of “Friends”, an African cultural group here.

“They treated humans beings worse than animals, who out of ignorance, believed that humans were second-rated to their adorable pets that they treasured and jealously protected , inferior to their pleasurable horses that they passionately admire, and lesser in IQ to donkeys that they admire for their strength and obedience.

“21st century which has carried in its trail a high-flying human evolutions and successes gained through blood sacrifices, sweat and toil, of our fore-fathers, who fought wars in defense of freedom and liberty, should press humanity on, to evolve in Africa, a different culture with a high moral code of ethics, empathy and affection– free of deception”.

2-‘Attorney-Generals’:

Referring to highly publicized public demand for Ghana government’s explanation leading to the dismissal /resignation of 2 Ghana’s ‘Attorney-Generals’ within a split of time, he says withholding information is seen in the modern times —21st century– as one of the evils of sociopathic demeanor.

“Ghana government’s behavior, wrapped in expulsion/resignation of country’s 2 ‘Attorney-Generals’ shows clearly that, there is something absolutely wrong with the political system; that political administration has broken down; the public has a right to know what’s going on”.

The ex-Attorney General, Betty Mould allegedly stained in the highly agitated “Woyome-gate”, was quickly appointed Minister of Education, before her resignation, while her successor, Mr. Martin Amidu, was dismissed by the government.

Parliament should come to the public assistance to enact laws to make such practices, like with-holding vital information from the public as one of 1st degree felonies, punishable by imprisonment or fine to protect public interest and right to know.

More.

Amnesty from prosecution?

Touching on Ghana’s constitution, he describe as outrageous, the transitional provisions hidden in the constitution, which grants amnesty– immunity from prosecution– to members of the erstwhile AFRC/PNDC.

He said the provision should be expunged from the constitution, perhaps in a referendum as required by law, to enable all those who suffered during those periods or those who think that their rights were violated during those crazy periods, to resort to court action to restore their dignity.

Kwaku Boatin says the Ghanaian public should not forget so soon, all those who lost their lives, or were maimed during those turbulent times, suggesting that 3 sitting High Court Judges, including Mrs. Justice Koranteng –Addo, who painfully lost their lives, discharging their duties, be remembered by instituting public lectures, in their memory.

“I feel that special monuments should be erected in their memory for their sacrifices to the country—while remembering the other Heads of States, and wing commanders too, who sadly lost their lives”.

The corpses of 3 High Court Judges:

This was in the period of July, 1982—Press reports on the incident said: The corpses of 3 High Court judges and the Personnel director of then GIHOC, Major Acquah were found near Akuse on the Accra plains on July 4.

It named the Judges, as Mrs. Justice Cecilia Koranteng-Addow, (aged 46), Mr Justice K.A. Agyepong (56) and Mr. Justice F. P. Sarkodee (53), had been abducted on various pretexts from their homes on June 30 by 4 armed men. The 4 victims were buried in Accra, on July 7, which the then PNDC declared a national day of mourning.

Reuters reporting on the incident said: “there are no early indications of when and where Major Acquah (GIHOC) was kidnapped. Reuters described the corpses as “bullet-ridden and partially burnt”.

Source : Osabute Kwaku

By Kofi Akosah-Sarpong

The year 2011 ended with remarkable improvement in Africans’ discussion of their culture in relation to their progress. As the on-going enlightenment movement deepens, Africans are increasing discussing the enabling and the inhibiting aspects of their culture in relation to their advancement.
Roman Catholic Pope Benedict XVI dropped in and enjoined Africans to tackle the inhibitions within their culture that have been disturbing them. In Sierra Leone, Dr. John Leigh, a prominent politician and diplomat with the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), in a major boost to the enlightenment movement, resigned from the SLPP, part of the reason being some party big-wigs involved in absurd juju-marabou ceremonies.
While some of the culture issues were atrocious, some frightening, some disturbing, and some instructive, in Ghana, where much of the African culture-progress discussions are most prominent, 2011 ended with big laughter when a Mallam (a Muslim spiritualist otherwise called marabou or Alpha-man in other parts of West Africa) threatened to “kill” some Members of Parliament for failing to honour their assurances to pay him after allegedly helping them spiritually to win the 2008 parliamentary elections.
As the Ghanaian mass media get into the forefront of the enlightenment crusade, there are searchlights into the activities of the much-feared juju-marabou spiritualists and their dark operations. “Mallam Threatens to Kill 8 MPs,” reports the Accra-based Daily Guide. Mallam Katanka had told the Kumasi-based Ash FM station that he has given the eight defaulting MPs “two-week to honour their part of the agreement or he would strike them dead.”
Mallam Katanka, described as spiritually “dreadful,” reveals the problems these juju-marabou spiritualists pose to Africa’s progress. They do not talk about freedoms, the rule of law, human rights, social justice and any of the democratic tenets. For the juju-marabou spiritualists, to hell with character, merits, issues, policies, and programmes as the bases for electing candidates to parliament for Africa’s greater progress. They allegedly use their spiritual grafts to charm Ghanaians to send all shades of people to parliament.
For broader appeal of such stories, as part of the enlightenment campaigns, some websites also carried the Mallam Katanka’s giggling story. One is the fact that the responses show how the enlightenment movement is spreading. Two, is Ghanaians poked sarcastic fun at Mallam Katanka’s disturbing thinking.

It was all laughs at the comments accompanying Mallam Katanka’s spiritual terrorizations. Samples: “CAN YOU PLEASE KILL ALL MPs IN GHANA. NOT JUST the 8 MPs. THEY’RE ENTIRELY USELESS AND WASTE OF SPACE.”
“Ghanaians will go to the polls very soon, therefore this liar is just advertising himself so that people will go to him for help.” Liar!
“IS KILLING THE ONLY WAY TO DEMAND DEBT? JUJUMAN”
“Why did he not go to parliament himself? If he can make people win elections, then he can even become President! Fake spiritualist! Nobody should mind him. His claims are false and he is fake!”
“How many people did he kill to perform those rituals? He needs to be arrested and investigated.”
“President Mills has failed the country, so if you kill the 8 MPs add the President to make it 8 MPs+ 1 president=9 dead.”
“Our country is sick with all these crazy fetish priests and Mallams. Ah! It makes me wonder! Oh! So what’s going on in our country? Our beloved country is in dire need of help; it needs great healers and real men of God. God’s people need a revival and a saviour!”
“These are fruitless threats! Even God can`t kill! The MP`s should take it easy because nothing can happen to them. Juju is for primitive and uneducated people. We live in the 21st.Century! Juju has no power!”
“Go to hell Mallam with your stupidities.”
“Mr. Mallam, please kill all Ghanaian women if you have that powers. I strongly believe that those MPs are females, so please kill them all and don’t spare them.”
Despite the mockeries, Mallam Katanka isn’t laughing. The Mallam Katanka intends to teach the MPs some deadly spiritual lessons. Mallam Katanka said he shouldn’t be “accused” as “being wicked when the said MPs die.” In pandering to the public sphere, Mallam Katanka plays into the superstitious public and send anxiety to the eight gullible MPs, who are stuck in such irrational believes, to honour their promises. How backward can things get in Africa’s progress when MPs supposed to radiate light get entangled in an irrational, dark-minded juju-marabou man. Where is Ghana’s/Africa’s progress going?

Source: The Citizen Newspaper ([email protected])

(A GNA feature by Josephine Naeke)

Accra , Jan 26, GNA – There is this popular saying, especially by women that whatever men can do women can also do and even do it better. However, this popular adage is not being reflected in politics and especially in Ghana’s Parliament. Where are the women?
I was in a vehicle one day when I heard a man asking a woman sitting near the door next to him to let them swap seats for the simple reason that the woman had expressed fear that she might fall off the vehicle because the mate constantly opened it for passengers who were alighting.
After doing her this favour, the man made a remark: “Is it not you women who said whatever a man can do a woman can also do and even do it better, so why are you afraid to sit by the door.”
I told myself in-fact it is not everything men do that women can equally do but the women still do their best in many male dominated areas.
In any case it is not every woman that is afraid to sit by the door of a moving vehicle. Besides, many other men in the same circumstances would express the same fears. Men and women the world over compete for many things and in various endeavors but sometimes it is the male who dominate.
In any case,the cry for women to participate in politics and be part of the decision making process in government is something that gives cause for worry. Currently there are only 19 women Parliamentarians out of the 230 Members of Parliament in Ghana.
Provisional figures from the 2010 Ghana census indicates that Ghana’s population is now 24,223,431. This is made up of 12,421,770 females and 11,801,661 males. What are the women doing out there when they even outnumber their male counterparts in society, and why can’t they outnumber them in the House? Are they so much gripped with fear of the unknown – especially the fear of failing to make it to the house, the insults, have they relegated themselves to the kitchen alone as it has often been said to be the place for women?
In the family women are not allowed to take important decisions, and if the family is made up of women and men but men have the upper hand, what do you expect to see in politics – an affair for only men plus a few women of course!
This year is an election year but how many women have secured seats in the house?
God created man and saw that it was not good for a man to live and take decisions alone and so he also created woman as his companion. It is for this reason that women’s participation in the home and in politics is paramount.
A lot has been said time and again that women are their own enemies and it is about time the women prove the men wrong and vote for their fellows in the upcoming and other subsequent elections to champion the cause of all women.
At the last Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian meeting in Accra, the General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, left behind a thought-provoking question, as to the possibility of a party formed by only women. One wondered if the value would not be the same since they will still have to contest with their male counterparts.
A cursory look at Ghana’s parliament is a glaring picture of the deficiency of the female species in the house. It is a male-dominated house with a woman as the Speaker. The big question has always been: “What can be done to encourage women to participate in politics!” – when even the few who are inside are deciding to quit.
Some of the males have spent more than 10 years occupying seats in Parliament which raises the question as to whether they are the repository of all knowledge in their constituencies. Perhaps if a little space was created by these Methuselah MPs some women in their respective constituencies would gain an upper hand to get elected.
It is however ironic that at every political rally women are visibly seen actively singing and shouting party slogans and eagerly pushing their favorite male candidates forward to their own disadvantage.
Mrs Joyce Bamford Addo, Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament also expressed worry that women constituted only 19 per cent of the membership of Parliament in most countries. She said the threshold of 30 per cent advocated by the United Nations as a prelude to 50 per cent attainment to accelerate human development, therefore, continued to be an illusion for advocates of gender mainstreaming.
The Speaker believed the quota system would help women to enter the political arena, but how possible is this method?.
The Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians’ African Region was established in 1989 to promote an increase in the participation of women in politics and work towards gender mainstreaming in all programs of member countries. One would be interested in seeing how far this group has gone with getting women to occupy political positions in Africa.
Hopefully, it is not just a platform to exhibit our African designs and demonstrate how articulate we are in talking but all of which ends up getting nowhere. When it comes to women participation in politics, affirmative action in the form of quota system is said to have led to increase in women participation in Uganda, Rwanda and South Africa.
Looking at women participation in politics in Ghana, it is seen that during the Second Republic only 5 women showed up in Parliament in 1979. The number increased to 16 during the First Parliament of the Fourth Republic, and went up to 19 in the Second Parliament of the Fourth Republic inaugurated in January 1997, and reduced to 18 in the Third Parliament of the Fourth Republic in 2001.
There was an increase in women participation in the fourth Parliament of the Fourth Republic to 25 in 2005 and in 2009, the Fifth Parliament of the Fourth republic registered only 19 women out of a total of the 230 members of Parliament.
The forthcoming Parliamentary elections to usher in both men and women Parliamentarians to the house for the sixth Parliament of the Fourth Republic is again showing an undulating picture of the number of women to show up in the house.
Is the problem arising from the various political parties? Is it to do with cultural practices, or is it due to fear, incapability, or funding? The Convention People’s Party (CPP) have signed the African Union’s Declaration of 2010-2020 as the African Women’s Decade to support all measures to end the marginalization of women in society.
The National Democratic Congress fielded the only woman aspiring to become a Presidential candidate, and also has women on the National Executive Council.
Let us see how these parties translate their enthusiasm to get women into the political arena into the reality of getting them into Parliament and into government.
If globally the percentage of Women in Parliament had increased to 19 per cent from 16 per cent in 2005 and that of Women Ministers of State was still lower, averaging 16 per cent then there is more work to be done to reach parity. Are women themselves eager to take part in politics?To borrow the words of Hajia Mary Salifu Boforo, globally women remain sidelined from the structures of governance that determine political and legislative priorities.
When women’s participation reaches parity, the traditional men-centered politics characterized by authority, domination, and sometimes violence, would yield to politics that is characterized by love, caring, cooperation, sacrifice and honesty. We look forward to see that time.
Therefore, to women everywhere, your destiny is in your hands to embrace politics and the Affirmative Action bill still before the House, when passed, should enable women to implement it to the letter and let the world see an overhaul of dominance of women in governance and in Parliament.

GNA

Credible information reaching me indicates that a certain man (name withheld) has had a lucky escape. The Woyomegate scandal nearly tarnished his hard won credibility and integrity. When that last cheque of GHC41 Million was fraudulent issued to Alfred Agbesi Woyome, that once cat-thief now turned a multi-million Cedi swindler, he hurtled to a bank (name withheld) intending to deposit it.  The expertise of the Banker instantaneously came into play. Even though Woyome owed the bank, they refused him depositing the cheque with them. He was told, “take your cheque elsewhere and once cashed, come back and pay off your debt” If the bank had accepted the cheque, the said person would have gone into his grave a tainted person without ever able to exonerate himself of complicity in Woyomegate crime. The quick reaction of the banker has saved the unmanned person from public castigation, pointing of accusatory finger and investigation into his conduct and or businesses.

Anyway, Woyome, the con artist, has started naming those that benefited from his scandal. He has so far mentioned Former President Rawlings as having received 500,000 Euros. He will surely come out with other names until he mentions how much President Mills received. Evidence so far divulged persuades me that President Mills has directly benefited from the fraud Woyome has inflicted on Ghana.

I can conclude by inferring from two statements made by President Mills that he, President Mills, intends to pervert the course of justice. Firstly, he claims unawareness of the payment of GHC58 Million to Woyome before it became public knowledge and topic of everyday discussion. Nevertheless, Betty Mould-Iddrisu is saying she made President Mills aware before effecting the payment. Secondly, President Mills says, “if the payment of the judgment debt was ordered by a court, then Alfred Agbesi Woyome, is entitled to the money”. He further directs the dubious Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate who is rather liable for incurring that judgment debt than why Woyome collected the money he was not due.

I really wonder if President Mills reasons logically. Has he such a short memory or has some sort of illness eaten away his legal retentive memory? His former daft Attorney General, a conniver and a politically incompetent entity, Betty Mould-Iddrisu, refused to challenge the dubious claim “Woyome the Swindler” made on Ghana. Instead of consulting former President Kuffour or Kwadwo Mpianim, the former NPP Chief of Staff, about Woyome’s claim, she simply said it was a bad case to defend. She never bothered to assemble any evidence that would counteract the false claims Woyome the Swindler was making on Ghana. By refusing to appear in court to defend Mother Ghana against the allegations by Woyome, the Presiding Judge awarded judgment in favour of the claimant. If Betty Mould-Iddrisu had been competent in her duties and not connived with President Mills and the entire NDC, she would have sought credible evidence and assistance from the NPP to challenge Woyome in court. In default of performing credibly or creditably, her bizarre action cost Ghana GHC58 Million.  Atta Mills had better live up to the wisdom, intelligence and legal astuteness Ghanaians expect of him as a President and a Law Professor than to mess around as a disgraced politician without moral ethics, intelligence and wisdom.

Everything indicates that President Mills was well aware of the payment of the money to Alfred Agbesi Woyome the Swindler before it became public knowledge. Why is he denying any knowledge of the payment? Anyway, while listening to the London-based Naspa Fm radio on Friday 27 January 2012, I heard a phone-in caller declare from Ghana his intentions to consult some named powerful deities in Ghana to perform ritual curse on both Woyome and his accomplices regarding the judgment debt payment of GHC58-92 Million. He said if indeed Woyome was to be found to have swindled Ghana/Ghanaians of that money, knowing very well that he had not personally signed any CAN 2008 contract with Ghana, then the deities must spiritually deal with him and all his accomplices. If this is the only way to get Woyome to refund the money he has stolen with the tacit support of some NDC functionaries, so be it.

President Mills though a walking dead, is also a complete liar!

Rockson Adofo