President Mills Cannot See The Problem

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

As far back as July 2009 I wrote a piece on the Quality Grain Rice saga, which triggered a $22million loss to the Government of Ghana.  I wrote that piece under a series which I themed “A Guide to Corruption”.  The link to the article is here.  http://www.modernghana.com/news/230489/1/a-guide-to-corruption-in-ghana.html

When Mr. Atta Mills was made Vice President and put in charge of the economic management team, he inherited the Quality Grain Rice project. He later testified to a court presided over by Justice D. K. Afreh in April 2003, that “ …. throughout my four years as vice president, there was no project which occupied more of my time than this Quality Grain Project”.

There were many red flags all over the case at the time and they were all ignored.  The government failed to join in several suits against Ms. Cotton.  They (Government) did not accept the FBI’s (who finally prosecuted and jailed Ms. Cotton in the USA) invitation to sue Ms. Cotton.  Prof. Mills said the reason for inaction was because the Government “had a “trump” card” – a deed of indemnity and a floating charge on assets.

The Hydra-Headed Woyome, Caveat Emptor

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

We are going through a Governance litmus test.  At the end of 2012 Ghana will have transitioned its fledgling democracy to a nation state where the rule of law has finally become a true pillar for fighting corruption; and politicians will finally realize that we will change our Government when we are dissatisfied with economic progress and governance.

Woyome has made history and the NDC Government will remember him not for the word “gargantuan” in the media but the impact he will have on our democracy from the ghc518million gifted to him.

Ghana Ain’t Working Folks!

By Frank Yaw Ohemeng,

It is a slowly dawning fact that Ghana ain’t working and the very fabric of the nation is in tatters. The Police are politically-controlled, unsanitary conditions abound everywhere, street lamps are without bulbs, traffic lights are out, roads are pot-holed and every road junction is a bottleneck. Taking a short trip through the nation’s capital is an arduous task that could take you the best part of two hours. The country is polarised along political and tribal lines and the President is doing nothing to help matters. Every time he has had the opportunity to bring the nation together, he has woefully failed. The Police have become an automaton controlled by the political classes. It is baffling that the Ghana Police would be willing to arrest an NPP sympathiser who said unflattering things about the President but do not see the need to apply the same laws to people allied to the President who say worse things against opposition politicians.

The NDC Is Not NDC Without It’s Core Values: Probity And Accountability

By Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo, JAPAN

With the NDC delegates conference in Sunyani over and the endorsement of  Attah Mills peace is supposed to return to the party and all factions are supposed to join hands, close ranks and work together in unity. However it is easier said than done and it looks like it is not going to be easy to mend fences.  The refusal of Nana Konadu to concede defeat, congratulate the winner, raise his hand, give a concession speech and pledge support to Mills for the 2012 campaign is something that is going to hurt the NDC as 2012 approaches. Nana Konadu should have been graceful in defeat and Mills humble in victory.

The NDC At The Crossroads: Unattractive And Just Another Political Party Without Rawlings

By Ben Ofosu-Appiah, Tokyo, JAPAN

With the NDC delegates conference in Sunyani over and the endorsement of  Attah Mills peace is supposed to return to the party and all factions are supposed to join hands, close ranks and work together in unity. However it is easier said than done and it looks like it is not going to be easy to mend fences.  The refusal of Nana Konadu to concede defeat, congratulate the winner, raise his hand, give a concession speech and pledge support to Mills for the 2012 campaign is something that is going to hurt the NDC as 2012 approaches. Nana Konadu should have been graceful in defeat and Mills humble in victory.

90 Million Cedis and 90 Votes

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

The first salvo in the “Fonkar-Game” games left a wonderful ring tone with President Mill’s laugh in a history-making recording.  After the Government denied that they even had 90 million cedis to run a competitive campaign, the country exhaled a big sigh of relief and carried on with our bigger challenges.

But what was the Nana Konadu challenge really about?

A few said “Women power”, some said a “Rawlings hegemony” and for Fonkar itself, was it really a serious challenge against a Government they actually believed had lost its way after the 2008 elections?  Was this actually a political in-fight or did the Rawlings’ believe they would win this?  Many sources claim Rawlings would not do this unless he knew he had a more than a 50% chance of electing his wife.

NDC’s Akrasi Sarpong – the NACOB Boss Should Give us a Break!

By Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang, Hull. UK.

In one of my recent write-ups, I made a genuine call to policy makers to fashion out a policy that could overhaul the current educational system so that emphasis could be placed on the teaching of “traditional/natural wisdom” but many a Ghanaian especially those in the current mediocre Mills’ administration took offence to that suggestion. However, I strongly believe that I hit the nail right on its head because if Ghana’s educational system had churned out products like Kobby Acheampong, Kweetey, Ablakwa, Pratt, Baba Jamal, Agyenim Boateng, Tony Aidoo, Bissiw and Benyiwa Doe, then of course as a country we need to go back to the basics if we are serious about developing our human resource capacity.

Anas Aremeyaw Anas: COMPROMISED!

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

When I turned off the radio and TV set at 7pm tonight, I sat down with the stark realization that my icon of investigation and “magic” was not all that.  Really!  Anas Aremeyaw Anas and Tiger Eye, Limited have taken money from Government to go undercover to report on corruption at the Customs, Excise and Prevention.  Until now, Anas’ sleuthing was “magic” in Ghana.  The first question always after an Anas report, “how does he do it?”.

At least on this one report we understand the financial support.

On Fuel Hikes and Petro-Economics

By Sydney Casely-Hayford, Sydney@bizghana.com

The Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) debt is a shifting target.  Without it’s interest element, the current principal debt is estimated at Ghc1.5billion.  This figure includes balances due to Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Barclays Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and other TOR notes raised on the commercial markets.  According to the Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Dufuor, the balance due to GCB alone as at December 31, 2010 is approximately Ghc640million.

January 2011: Half – time for the Professor’s Presidency

By Prof. T. P. Manus Ulzen, tulzen@yahoo.com

The Mills administration is at about the half –way mark of its mandate. Yes, mandate is the word. With a margin that sent the Bush – Gore election to the Supreme Court in Florida, Ghana showed the world that we at least understood democratic elections. However, the nuances of democratic governance seem to have escaped us over the last two years.