Ghana: gracious fury

So instantly Ghanaians get up to query the granting of ex gratia rewards (outlined in Encarta as “given voluntarily: given as a present, favor, or gesture of goodwill, somewhat than as a result of it’s due) to their undeserving politicians.

I wrote about this problem in my late column within the Every day Dispatch when incumbent President Kufuor’s retirement program was introduced.

That was over twelve years in the past.

In my ebook “Africa: that can be superb”, I wrote: “It’s the unhappy obligation of the author to chronicle the evils of his society.” Even when this stays a thankless process, it should proceed to be achieved.

Africa will definitely not be within the current gloomy situations if an increasing number of of us learn and attempt to undertake what our writers say / counsel.

Not solely that, we should always cease treating those that rule us as demigods who should be worshiped always. It’s not needed for us to crawl to those that ASKED to be allowed to SERVE us.

An individual who makes some extent of asking important questions would have questioned the cost of thanks cash to our culprits.

For what precisely ought to we in Africa be grateful to our false leaders?

Within the aforementioned article, “Ghana: The Daring to Loot”, I wrote: “Ghanaians who thought their lengthy December 2007 polls that ruined their vacation season have been complicated their New 12 months’s festivities , exacerbated ethnic tensions of their nation, polarized their bodily politics and ended within the books of data, as a result of the presidential elections determined by the narrowest attainable margin, have been the worst factor they may think about, have been quickly to be sorely disillusioned.

They have been baffled sufficient when it emerged that, sooner or later earlier than the handover to the brand new authorities on January 7, 2009, a mind-boggling and super-extravagant presidential and parliamentary retirement plan had been authorized by the outgoing parliament. The bundle was so extreme in its generosity that it left Ghanaians completely flabby (a tool of amazement and overflow).

Ghanaians have lengthy been used to callous politicians taking excellent care of their stomachs whereas urging unusual folks to tighten their belts and make sacrifices for the sake of the nation. However the sheer scale of the brand new bundle merely took folks’s breath away – actually and metaphorically. So as to put issues in context, it’s essential to run statistics.

Ghana is a small nation with a inhabitants of round 23 million folks and a land mass of 238,500 km2. A paltry GDP of $ 10.7 billion provides the nation a meager GNP of round $ 478. Ghana has a excessive illiteracy price and the toddler mortality price can also be very excessive. Based on all of the indices identified to statisticians, Ghana is a poor nation. Many Ghanaians wrestle to get only one meal a day, and many individuals nonetheless stay in excruciating poverty. Many villages, particularly within the north of the nation, depend on NGOs for his or her schooling and well being care.

The paradox is that Ghana is a nation immensely blessed with pure sources (gold, manganese, bauxite, diamonds and, now, oil, amongst others), however many Ghanaians are very poor, even by Africa’s low requirements. Nonetheless, the poverty of numerous residents didn’t stop Ghanaian MPs (230 of them) from taking out a automobile mortgage from the state. This didn’t stop the President of the Republic from crisscrossing town in a pricey cavalcade of 4-wheel jeep. This didn’t stop ministers and different political brokers from taking free homes, free vehicles, free gas and different emoluments from the state! And so they stroll round shamelessly telling scandalous lies that they’re “servants of the folks”!

A debt of some US $ 7 billion has blatantly worsened the nation’s financial woes. This led the previous authorities to undertake the Closely Indebted and Poor International locations (HIPC) initiatives of the IMF and the World Financial institution. The HIPC Initiative was one in all a protracted sequence of acronyms that the Breton Wooden twin establishments imposed on poor nations as a way to enable Western multinationals to proceed to violate their sources.

Ghanaians who thought their December 2007 polls, which had ruined their vacation season, have been complicated their New 12 months’s festivities, exacerbating ethnic tensions of their nation, polarizing their bodily politics and ending up on the registers, just like the Ghanaians. presidential elections determined it by the narrowest of margins attainable, was the worst factor they may think about, they’d quickly be sorely disillusioned.

Based on his apostles, the HIPC initiative would enable, amongst different issues, the acceding nations to acquire aid from their insufferable debt. The leaders of poor nations have been pressured to swallow their pleasure and proclaimed their nation HEAVY INDEBIT AND POOR! Ghana was amongst them, and the person who introduced his nation to the HIPC membership was former President John Kufuor. And it’s the identical president who, by retiring after his two phrases of workplace, was to get pleasure from a windfall that will enable him to stay like an Arab sovereign.

The Ghanaians weren’t amused. On calls to their many radio stations, they looked for and stumble on probably the most disagreeable adjectives to explain the unreasonable actions of their elected leaders. And the explanations should be comprehensible.

In a rustic that depends on DONOR SUPPORT for greater than half of its price range, the outgoing president was to obtain a lump sum of $ 400,000. No, we’re not speaking concerning the regular president’s pension which is assured within the structure – it’s ex gratia (outlined in Encarta as “given voluntarily: given as a present, favor or gesture of goodwill, somewhat than as a result of it’s due) worth.

Clearly, which means a grateful nation provides the present to its outgoing president. There’s nothing inherently unsuitable with a nation giving a present to its primary citizen upon leaving excessive workplace. However once we begin speaking concerning the outrageous present of 1,000,000 {dollars}, sure, 1,000,000 {dollars} to put a basis, we hit the higher limits of callous greed. If money items have been the one issues bestowed on the ex-president, that will have been scandalous sufficient in itself, however they have been definitely a distress in comparison with the opposite suggestions of the Chinery-Hesse committee.

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February 19, 2021

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