“I am inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa because all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really…. I hope that everyone is equal but people who have to deal with black employees find this not true…You should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”.
__Prof James Dewey Watson
Why do I feel so livid about the 1992 Republic Constitution? When Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings empanelled the Consultative Committee to give birth to the 1992 Republican Constitution, he touched on the raw nerves of many Ghanaian intellectuals by the skewed composition of the membership. There appears to be a general belief among certain section of the community that a constitution is a legal document which should be put together by educated intellectuals, with large membership drawn from lawyers. So when the composition of the Consultative Committee was made as if to spite the intellectual and educated community of the nation by the proportionately large inclusion of persons belonging to “unlettered associations”, some professionals bodies like the Ghana Bar Association boycotted the exercise and refused to send any representation to take part in the deliberations. What many people failed to realise is that a constitution is as much of a legal document as it is an economic treatise with serious financial implications. Again it would appear from the extremely enormous powers given to the Executive in the 1992 Republican Constitution proved that the evil arms of military dictatorship exemplified by the PNDC was smuggled and extended into what should have been a purely democratic dispensation.
Flt-Lt. Jerry John Rawlings used his military dictatorial powers to extend his brutal reign from the PNDC era to a civilian dictatorial powers by creating a state sponsored and state financed NDC political machinery by just dropping the “P” of the PNDC. Apart from the massive powers given to the Executive, as enshrined in the authority of the Presidency, the 1992 Republican Constitution contains so many provisions which make it possible for the operators of the Constitution, which consist of the educated elite in the society to engage in legal corruption. Indeed, the provisions make it possible for the honest who can easily be swayed by greed to become a criminal or the criminal existing in society to become a super criminal. Judging from the massive damage done to the nation by the educated elite, perhaps it is good that their participation in drafting the Constitution was limited otherwise greater damage might have been done by the inclusion of more diabolical provisions which could have made it possible for more legal corruption to be perpetrated. Already the provisions which permit legal corruption to be perpetrated are many. I can only afford to mention just a few in this article. But before I do that I would wish to draw the attention of President Nana Akufo Addo to a matter of critical importance to his constituency and future success
Both the electronic media and the print media reported the following statement among others to have been made by President Nana Akufo Addo: “Despite all the controversies surrounding the settlement of former President Mahama, his conduct had been a credit to our nation and we must all give thanks to the Lord for it”. I thought I did not hear or read correctly until I read the editorials of the DAILY GUIDE of both Wednesday, January 18, 2017 and Thursday, January 19, 2017. There is one cardinal mistake President Nana Akufo Addo is making during this twilight period of his administration. He should clearly demarcate the three arms of state craft confronting him, viz, governance, justice and propaganda. He should leave the propaganda to the NPP party machinery. He should as soon as possible create the position of independent prosecutor to deal with the corrupt in society so that he can concentrate on the huge dinosaur of governance which the good people of the country elected him to do. From the statement quoted above, President Nana Akufo Addo appears to have forgotten some critical factor in the victory of the NPP so soon. The sing song of the NPP was ‘’CHANGE”. It was the message of change in every aspect of national life which brought victory to the NPP and himself.
John Dramani Mahama NDC administration stood for everything irresponsible; be it social, legal, fiscal and economic. The corrupt and incompetent John Dramani Mahama NDC administration was evil and satanic to the core. It broke all the records in the perpetration of cronyism, nepotism, ethnocentrism, unprecedented corruption, gross incompetence, fiscal and economic tomfoolery. By the time the administration left office, Ghanaians have been saddled with an economy in intensive care fighting for survival, unprecedented gargantuan national debt, free falling national currency, massive inflation, destruction of private business, an ineffective and inefficient public service, hen-pecked docile sycophantic public servants, the looting of national resources, mind boggling unemployment and a society which had lost its moral values and sanity of direction.
To create the impression that John Dramani Mahama is a candidate for sainthood and role model for the youth because far from the prying eyes of the general public, he did not behave like Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia or reluctantly decided to give up state property he has misappropriated after being confronted with the anger of the public is an insult too many to your constituency which is broad and extensive at this time of the nation’s history. To heap encomium on the principal character who created the well-oiled looting machinery and supervised and witnessed this massive rot for the past four years is unacceptable. It sends wrong signal to the good people of this country that the lieutenants of John Dramani Mahama are equally clean and free from all wrong doings and that no attempt shall be made to investigate them with a fine tooth comb. Your praises of John Dramani Mahama unfortunately send wrong signals as to your ability and willingness to fight corruption and incompetence; the twin satanic evils which were sown on the eve of independence and giving new impetus under the corrupt and incompetent John Dramani Mahama NDC administration.
President Nana Akufo Addo, Ghanaians have only six months to judge you from your vision and utterances. You have six months to capitalise on your popularity and goodwill to sell your vision into action so that the good people of this country can buy into it. Please leave the propaganda to the NPP party machinery. Banish all your ministers from giving radio and TV interviews from the comfort of their bedrooms early mornings on matters of policy and practice of procedures. They should leave that to the PRO of their ministries. Above all, the Executive should refrain from making statements it cannot live with in the future and would live to regret it later. Concentrate all your efforts on governance and leave justice and propaganda to people who can deliver them successfully with little heat and more light. Above all listen to Martin Amidu and remember what William Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar:
“Here the street is narrow;
The throng that follows Caesar at the heels,
Of senators, of praetors, common suitors,
Will crowd a feeble man almost to death,
I’ll get me to a place more void, and there
Speak to great Caesar as he comes along”.
_ The Soothsayer in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
“Here will I stand till Caesar pass along,
And as a suitor will I give him this.
My heart laments that virtue cannot live
Out of the teeth of emulation.
If thou read this, O Caesar, thou mayest live;
If not, the fates with traitors do contrive”.
_Artemidorus in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
E-mail: macgyasi@gmail.com
By Kwame Gyasi