War At The Side Of Obama

"This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man"

-- William Shakespeare

They say a picture speaks better than a thousand words.
When a dignitary in the person of the president of the United States of America visits our shores, one would expect our foremost statesmen to display a great sense of dignity and decorum in his presence. Alas that can not be expected of His I-Have-Got-To-Hog-The-Limelight, Mr Rawlings. The recent visit of Mr Barack Obama to our shores has once again exposed the hyper grandeur and uber narcissistic attitude of this man in the body politic of Ghana. The first picture showing Mr & Mrs Rawlings on the far left of President Atta Mills. The man is not pleased with his position far away from President Barack Obama. So he decides to do, errh, . . . something about that .

Look at the second picture. Mr Rawlings comes and literally drags Mr Kuffour from the side of Mr Barack Obama so that he can bask in the glory of the moment. In Mr Kuffour's own words Mr Rawlings was not happy that he, Mr Kuffour, was trying to upstage him. The funniest part of the whole episode is the expression of president Atta Mills. Click on the picture and see him literally in titters over the behaviour of Mr Rawlings, trying very hard not to fall down laughing like a hyena! Finally Mr Kuffour, ever the gentleman, obliges. Mr Rawlings then comes to take the coveted place on the right hand of Mr Obama in the process leaving his wives miles away. Even the expression of Mrs Rawlings shows that she is not amused by the unacceptable behaviour of her husband on this occasion. I guess a word or two was exchanged between husband and wife over this incident at home.

See president Atta Mills trying to signal Mr Kuffour not to take the shameful behaviour to heart. Isn't it hilarious what Mr Rawlings will do to draw attention to his freaking self! Such petty squabbles are not expected from somebody has been our president for almost two decades. In my opinion, by this singular childish act Mr Rawlings has single-handedly demeaned himself in the face of Mr Barack Obama and those around him. Mr Rawlings has proven once again that Mr Kuffour is indeed a better man than he is.

It is hard, really hard, to put a good man down!

As Blessed As We Are

See how blessed we are!
We elected a President but we, as blessed as we are, have managed to twist the hands of fate to throw in a spare, the President’s Supervisor
With an ego bigger than Mt. Everest, he goes around the land acting the Assessor.

See how blessed we are!
We have chosen neither a King nor a Chief and yet we, as blessed as we are, have furnished a table for the President’s Supremo
With a hunger for power that reaches the starry gates, he parades around the hood as Generalissimo

See how blessed we are!
We elevated a 'Mempe Meho Asem' to become president and now we, as blessed as we are, have gotten the President’s Controller
With a penchant for issuing out threats, he prowls on the horizon as a fire-breathing Rottweiler

The Tragic Arbitrariness Of The Momentarily Crowned

Are the ever-increasing cases of arbitrariness in the Ghanaian society a sign of blissful incompetence on the part of the new kids on the block or are they an ominous telltale sign of the resurrection of a sadistic and barbaric dispensation? Is it a case of the leopard unable to change its spots or a rather pernicious manifestation of some deep-rooted monstrosity beginning to rear its ugly head? Whatever the case may be, Ghanaians cannot, should not and must not allow the shackles of lawlessness and duplicity to be re-imposed on them after the freedom from the brutal oppressions of the past . Whilst John Atta Mills continues to reiterate promises of decency, the rule of the law, justice and unity, hordes of NDC thugs from North to South, East to West are unleashing a campaign of savage terror on ordinary Ghanaians without even a whim of disapproval from the powers that be.
Gee, how absolute power corrupts! Now NDC thinks they are in charge so they can do as they please, brutalise who they choose to, when they choose to without any regard for due process and the constitutional rights of their targets. Such is the nauseating arbitrariness of the current regime in Ghana!
John Atta Mills promised to do things differently, alas we are witnessing a state of affairs akin to the what prevailed under a by gone era. Pal, how else would you explain the following occurrences:

• Members of the previous government being humiliated in broad-day light by being booted out of their personal vehicles and the vehicles subsequently driven to the seat of the government. Why do they have to drive the cars to the environs of the presidential offices? Doesn't Atta Mills have much more weightier national issues to deal with? Why are the cars not being driven to the police pools, for example? Where is the decency, the decorum, and due process? Another question is: why are they targeting vehicles and not immovable properties? It appears to me that the current government is manifesting a great deal of misplaced priorities. To them a car is the ultimate possession. NDC is not just in power, they are the power, so they they do as they please. What has been the response of the government? They simply said sorry, but the lawlessness continues unabated.
• The shameful interference in the recruitment drive of the Ghana armed forces. We are now being told that hundreds of young Ghanaian men and women already recruited before the election of John Atta Mills are to be sent packing because some people in the present regime are not happy with the population of certain ethnic groups amongst those recruited. They are eager to reconstitute an entirely new recruitment drive to achieve a preconceived tribal ratio which is acceptable to them. This is ethnic purging, if you ask me. What is the government response to this allegation? Silence.
• The unlawful attempt to retrench all the security details of the former government. Since when did it become a crime to be deployed as a an officer to guard government officials. What is the response of the John Atta Mills government? A shrug!
• The Offices of certain assemblies being invaded by thugs and hoodlums on the pretest that a new government is in power so the people in charge so leave immediately. Some people were beaten and robbed in the chaos that ensured. What does the government do to these thugs? Absolutely nothing.
• A number of Ghanaians being threatened to pack up and leave where they are residing by NDC thugs. Some have already been killed and others maimed. What does the government do or say? Nothing.

All the above and many others clearly point to the re-emergence of self-serving arbitrariness in the land.

If this is what Ghanaians voted for and are therefore keeping mum to this tragedy unfolding right before their eyes, then Ghanaians do not know that they do not know what they really want!

The Ominous Silhouette Of Another Wasted Opportunity

Without sounding hyperbolic, I believe that a smart resolution of the simmering discontent within Ghana's ruling party over the ministerial nominations is as much a challenge to John Atta Mills' government as is the diminishing capacity to unearth talented and resourceful Ghanaians capable of finding creative ways of funding the economic programme in the face of the current global lending freeze and the massive risk margins being charged by ruthless loan sharks prowling in the market.
A great deal of acumen in multi-partisanship aimed at discovering critical skills and expertise for public office, as demonstrated by Barack Obama, is one of the keys that John Atta Mills and his team could have resorted to to minimize the bumpiness on the road to our economic renaissance in this season of business unusual.
Alas, John Atta Mills has demonstrated that he is cut in the mold of the old school of cut and paste politics. He is blindly sticking to what has been done before without much success by the NDC: a stale, traditional and business-as-usual approach to national governance in spite of the dramatically changing environment we find ourselves in at the moment.

No boldness, no creativity, no freshness, no out-of-the-box attempt to go beyond the feeble lines drawn long ago in the sand by unimaginative and mediocre neanderthal politicians of our painful past.
For his total lack of imagination and visionary foresight, I clearly see an ominous silhouette of another wasted opportunity looming large in the horizon.
Ghanaians may as well prepare for a repeat wallow in the quagmire.

If Broke Fix It

I am finding it pretty difficult to get over the shenanigans of the present political dispensation in Ghana.
According to the transition team of the Atta Mills' administration, Ghana is broke.
Big deal!
As far as the macro-economic outlook and prospects for the economy to absorb further investments are concerned, Ghana's economic situation has never been better since the days of Kwame Nkrumah. I believe that the economy is in a good shape.
Even though Atta Mills and the NDC have won the elections and are therefore supposed to be governing, they are acting and behaving as if they are still the party in opposition.
The standard democratic principle is that the ruling party must be concerned with solution-finding, whereas the political opposition does its best to fault the policies and plans of the government! Heck no. They are still doing what they have been doing for the past 8 years.
More time is being wasted on spin, fault-finding and criticising the government that is no longer in power every day. If indeed Ghana is broke, where are the innovative responses to get the country back on track? Where is the urgency?
What people expect of the new administration is that leadership is provided and the cause of Ghana advanced. Instead we have paralysis of leadership and a total lack of urgency.
When is John Atta Mills ever going to really begin his responsibilities as the President of the Republic? He is behaving like a President in the last days of Office rather than one who has is just beginning.
The utter lack of dynamism, rigor and passion on the part of our new President is becoming a pain in the groin!

After "Antoa Nyamaa"ing Their Way Into Power, Now What?

Now that the elections are over and the newly-crowned champions are busy showing off their muscles all over the place, I want to blog about one of the most ugly aspect of the electoral campaigns. And that, has to do with the propensity with which some of our politicians were invoking the name of "antoa nyamaa" particularly in the Ashanti Region.
The whole barbaric practice of cursing one's political opponents, in my books, did reveal a lot about the state of mind of some of the politicians who having suffered for eight long years in the wilderness, were hellbent on ruling Ghana by any means, foul or otherwise.
Antoa, to them, was like the magic wand that unfailingly answers the abracadabra chants big time. During the campaigns, every time they didn't get their way, they pushed the panic button with thuggish abandon for this spiritual macho man, their angel of host, to come down and wreak havoc on their political enemies.
Supposing that no Ghanaian will dare stand in their way because of our collective terror of being pummeled instantaneously into the afterlife by antoa nyamaa, certain members of the ex-while opposition party made a continuous ritual of threatening people big-time with antoa.
And just like the 'kaakaamotobi' scare tactics used by adults during my childhood, the fear of this national (or is it an Ashanti ) kaakaamotobi seems to have terrified Ghanaians into voting massively for the scaremongers. Hehehe?
Having developed such an unparalleled appetite for calling upon antoa whilst in opposition, I wonder to what extent the believers will go to appease it(?), now that antoa has delivered the goods?
Atta Mills is a decent dude by Ghanaians, but the crowd around him is manifestly an uncool antoa-loving, juju-seeking, mallam-come and-club-this chap-for-me mob. You don't believe me? Read this and this.
I hope juju, antoa nyamaa, mallam(marabou) and other forms of witchcraft do not become national pastimes and sought-after means to attain political power in Ghana.

A Snoozing President, A Choatic Transition And A Nation in Need of Therapy!

There is a disturbing trend slowly evolving in the supposedly "better Ghana" under the watch, oops, the snooze of John Atta-Mills.
If the 'performance' of John Atta-Mills over the past week has any correlation with his oversung leadership credentials, then there is absolutely no hope for Ghana for the next four years.
How the chap has managed to self-induce himself into such a state of clinical comatose is beyond logic.
From the week-long demonstration he has thus far provided, it appears to me that, Atta-Mills is either clueless of what is expected of him and as a result he is incapable of dealing with the tragedy already brewing right under his nose or he is not really in charge of the affairs of state.
First. The disgraceful, highhanded, unwarranted and vexatious confiscation of vehicles from their rightful owners at the DVLA by a mufti-attired gang under the pretense that the vehicles belonged to the state.
How can a government, oops, a team that promised a clean, accountable, and respectful services to Ghanaians begin on such a shocking note of disservice.
Having bungled a simple exercise of verification of ownership of vehicles, the team in total humiliation had to return the ceased vehicles to the owners.
Why can't issues be resolved in an orderly manner? What happened to the rule by the law, or is the NDC now the law unto themselves?
Second. The Victor Smith mafia-like storming of the castle with another gang of mufti-attired hoodlums to supposedly stop members of the out-going government from looting state vehicles.
This turned out to be a complete alarmist faux pas. A really stupid action, if you ask me.
Why are these people behaving like they are taking over the country through a coup d'etat. There are procedures and rules of engagement that are supposed to be followed so that we don't appear as fools in the eyes of the world. But hey, these are not the type that follow the law!
How can they say that they are defending the interests of the state when their actions are against the jurisprudence of the state they purport to be defending.
This banana- republic mentality is so primitive!
Third. The senseless and fatal shooting of a Ghanaian-American tourist in Saltpond. An innocent human being killed like a dog. The executioners of this young man were of the very same mufti-attired brigade, who we are told 'mistook' the young man riding a motorbike for a common criminal and therefore decided to make him wet.
How can Ghana all of a sudden descend into such state of lawlessness and impunity at the very birth of the Atta-Mills presidency?
All these three guerrilla-style incidents are linked to the direct involvement of the 64 Battalion of the Ghana Armed Forces. Apparently, this unit is a remnant of the notorious commando structures which existed under Rawlings' brutal PNDC regime.
Now do you see where the real instructions are coming from?
The most savage actions reminiscent of the PNDC era are the reported takeover of the operation of toilets in Ashaiman by NDC functionaries, the dislodging of tenants perceived to be NPP by their NDC landlords as well as the daily beatings being meted out to NPP supporters by NDC members throughout the country.
Why is the president keeping mum whilst all these atrocities are taking place?
Now the one who cannot keep his mouth shut has started airing his displeasure whilst the snoozing one continues to snore in blissful disregard.
[They will not tolerate the poverty of inaction or perhaps the poverty of action is what he meant. ]

We Have A Nerd In The Golden Jubilee House

Today, 7 January 2009, the presidency of the Republic of Ghana has changed hands, after a solemn and colourful ceremony, from J A Kuffour(JAK) to John Atta-Mills(JAM), the quiet, charisma-bypassed technocrat with a penchant for dogged inconspicuousness.
Unlike JJ Rawlings, who loved to have the headlights exclusively focused upon himself, John Atta-Mills by comparison likes to stay behind the scenes.
An almost avowed style of embellished silence coupled with a preference for invisibility defines this former Professor of law. A style that blends quintessentially Ghanaian humility with a streak of disguised discomfort for the limelight, JAM is first and foremost a nerd.
The average Ghanaians is used to the cowboy antics of JJ and JAK’s iffy “fa ma nyame” approach to dealing with difficult situations, however the uber-scholarly disposition of JAM has not been witnessed in Ghana’s realpolitik since the days of KA Busia, K Nkrumah, JB Danquah et al.
What are we to expect from The JAM presidency?
Is JAM a big-ideas person in the mould of K Nkrumah?
So far he has not manifested the characteristic traits of such a predisposition. Is he going to be a practitioner of classical social democratic ideology? I hope he does. However, in my opinion, he does not have the luxury of time and space to do so given the constraints of the Ghanaian economy and the unrealistic expectations of the masses.
Will he be able to bring about the socio-economic transformation of Ghana that he promised? A transformational leader he certainly is not, but if he is able to bring about some measure of positive change without destroying the foundations set by the outgoing administration I will be pleasantly surprised.
The restless wannabes in the NDC will try their damnedest to ride roughshod over everything JAK and the NPP stood for in the past eight years. Generalissimo is already waiting in the wings for the red carpet to be rolled out for him. Hopefully the true democrats within the JAM government will stand their ground from day one. The task ahead is to better the lot of Ghanaians and not the building of a platform to dramatise the hatred of JAK and the NPP.
To The Nerd-in-Chief Himself
The JAM presidency, I presume, will be characterised by a great deal of pragmatic equipoising. However as Ghanaians are not particularly known for tolerance for long-term economic policies, any attempt to employ long-tenured economic models, will be misconstrued as non-performance and the government may risk being voted out of office in the next election.
There is another lesson in the political history of Ghana that JAM needs to learn fast. And that is: every time a government had tried to implement an economic program that called for any measure of sacrifice on the part of the masses, they were voted out of office in the next election. We are allergic to all forms of sacrifice. The secret is that you must do the hard stuff whilst we enjoy the fruits of your labour with reckless abandon.
Mr president, don’t count on Ghanaians to tarry for you if you intend going for a long furlough on the mountain to workout the blueprints for our economic salvation.
We are simply a myopic and impatient bunch.
Whatever your plans, keep one thing in mind: the manna must start falling now!
Last lesson, JAM. Your tendency of overly relying on your NDC pals to take the initiative while you sneak out to cool off, as you did during the campaigns, could lead to a lapse of presidential oversight in your administration.
Hopefully you will stay at the helm of government now that you are the Head of state, Commander-in-Chief as well as Head of government.
In the final analysis, Ghanaians will be the arbiters of the JAM presidency in 2012.

I wish JAM, his government and Ghana the best of luck.
Bon Voyage Mr president!!!

Ghana 2008 Elections: The Expected Outcome?

If everything goes according to the plans of the Electoral Commission of Ghana, as expected, the whole world will be celebrating with all peace-loving Ghanaians another milestone in our democratic system by Wednesday, 10 December 2008.

With the heightened preparedness of the security apparatchik , the appeal by most of the political parties to their supporters to conduct themselves honourably coupled with the acute awareness of most Ghanaians of the need to the keep the peace, I really see no reason for alarm bells as far as the legitimacy and fairness of the 7 December elections is concerned.

On the scale of probabilities, I perceive that the ALPHA SCENARIO in my earlier blogpost is the most plausible outcome after the elections albeit with some variations because of the on-going global economic recession. This notwithstanding my qualms about the absence of a transformational leader in the midst of the contenders for the post of CEO of Ghana Inc. as posted here.


While it is statistically possible to compute the expected outcome of any future event at any time before the actual event itself, the situation of predicting the outcome of the presidential election in Ghana is severely compromised by the dearth of reliable data on the ground.Another problem has been the subjective manner in which some of the polling of the 2008 elections has been carried out. Read this, this and this and also this.


Whispers from the ground reaching my wide-opened ears are( Caution: this has nothing to do with my personal preference ) that the presidential candidate of the incumbent party will be given the nod by Ghanaians to rule after the elections.
Whilst it is not yet conclusive whether there will be a re-run, it is believed by guys I talk to here that, Nana Akuffo Addo and the NPP have a few percentage points ahead of Prof. Atta Mills and NDC in the final home stretch of the political game. True/False? Anyhow, that is what I am hearing!
Wishing Ghanaians, home and away, and the friends of Ghana a free, fair, peaceful and memorable elections on 7 December 2008!