Kissi Agyebeng
Interesting times are here as the country inches towards the 2024 general election. It is a time Ghanaians expect our political leaders to tell them about policies they intend to implement if elected to lead the country.
We say interesting times are here because instead of telling Ghanaians what to expect in 2025, some of these aspirants are trying to live the John Mahama dictum of “little truth and little lies, we are mixing the two to convince the electorate.”
The lies, the propaganda and sweet promises have become the order of the day. We expect Ghanaians to tell us whether any of the presidential aspirants seeking to wrest power from the NPP has put on the table any practical alternatives.
As usual, it is the rhetoric and promises to build bridges where there are no rivers. That is why the relocation of AMERI to Kumasi and renaming has become an issue for the NDC, while making capital out of half-baked claims that there is some rot at the Scholarships Secretariat.
These naysayers are always clutching at the straw and they end up being swept off their feet. The 24-hour mantra being canvassed by John Mahama appears to have fallen into a ditch as the flagbearer and its leading members do not understand the concept copied from the 2017 action plan of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
Equally, the media blitz that greeted the launch of the Butterfly Movement and its leader’s Great Transformation Agenda is yet to resonate on the people.
Then enter Nana Kwame Bediako, also known as Freedom Jacob Caesar or Freedom, with all his claim to entrepreneurship.
His dream is to create a canal to redirect the sea to the Garden City. We think Ghanaians deserve better, hence it is important for the electorate who are very discerning not to exchange a promising future for a scary alternative.
What the opposition elements have mastered well is scandal mongering because they have realised that when it comes to the issues, they cannot match the visionary Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia. The strategy of the opposition, especially the NDC Minority, is to capitalise on so-called scandals by some government officials to paint the picture of a corruption-ridden Nana Akufo-Addo government.
It looks like with the support of some media outlets, civil society and members of academia, they are regularly coming out with very weak allegations. Strangely, these naysayers have found the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) a willing tool for the prosecution of that agenda.
The moment they engage in their so-called expose, they will quickly call on the OSP to investigate the matter. A case in point is the so-called scholarship scandal. The OSP is ready for their agenda and these opposition elements get media houses aligned to them to be the first to break the news that the OSP has commenced investigations.
Is there nothing fishy here? If the OSP began investigations into the scholarship scandals last July, why did he not tell the public? It is akin to the style of Lawyer Kissi Agyebeng to use the media to try suspected corrupt officials instead of the court. Kissi Agyebeng knows something that the rest of the people do not know.
The man who is a lawyer knows that his agenda can only thrive through trial by the media where the issues are put before the bar of public opinion, who would not base their judgment of the law, facts and the evidence.
We must be living in very dangerous times if this is the way a very sensitive and important institution is going to operate.
No doubt, so far, the OSP is yet to be credited with the successful prosecution of one case. The OSP must revise its strategies to achieve the objective for which it was set up. Now back to the so-called scholarship scandal. We think it is a storm in a tea cup or much ado about nothing.
We hear some commentators claim that the governing class has taken over scholarships meant for the needy in our society. What are the protocols or the terms and conditions under which the Scholarship Secretariat has operated so far? Do these protocols debar the Head of the Scholarship Secretariat from extending scholarships to children and relations of the political class?
We know that from time immemorial both the needy and the rich are offered support by the Secretariat because educating ones ward abroad does not come cheap. We should stop the hypocrisy and confront the challenges facing the Scholarship Secretariat so that it can serve us better.