Dear Nana, greetings to you and your team. I am still an undecided voter and have two broad questions for you as you seek our mandate to lead us. I may not have the opportunity to ask you my questions at any face-to-face platform. So I have decided to ask my questions through the media. You may choose to respond to the questions or ignore them, but my decision to vote for you or not will largely depend on your answers to my questions.
Nana, in your campaign ahead of the December 7 elections (and even in the 2008 elections) you have made a number of big promises. You have made several promises but those I call big promises are the ones that appear to me to be simply juicy vote-attracting promises. These include your famous One District, One Factory; One District (or did you even say one village) in the NorthOne Dam; and a few others.
I have no doubt that these big promises are noble and achievable. Yes, they are doable but only on condition that the massive corruption, wastage and the reckless looting of state resources are brought to an end. If corruption and the reckless looting are genuinely dealt with, there will be more than enough resources to support the delivery of these big and important promises.
And of course,you have promised to deal with corruption, the wastage and the looting of state resources in our governance, which are the root causes of all our problems. So it appears you know what has to be done to fulfil your big promises and get us to the promised land.
But Nana, I and others who may be thinking like me, need some further and better particulars from you on your big promises. In order words, we need some further explanations, information and clarifications from you to be convinced about the authenticity of your big promises and the genuineness of your promise to deal with corruption, which is what you will have to do to make it possible for you to deliver your big promises.
The reason why I need the additional information and clarification from you on your big promises, Nana, is that for about 7 out of the 8 years of the NPP government that ruled our nation from January 7, 2001, to January 6, 2009, you were a Cabinet Minister in that government. You first served as the Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Justice and later as Foreign Minister. At the same time, you were a Member of Parliament (MP). Your position as AG and MP meant that you were part of law making and at the same time, the government’s chief legal advisor and prosecutor.
As Attorney General, you had the power to probe and prosecute all cases of corruption and state looting that happened both in the NPP government and in the then previous NDC government. When you became the Foreign Minister, later on, you were still a member of Cabinet. So you may then have ceased having the awesome powers of an AG but having served as the first AG of that government and being a member of Cabinet you still wielded a lot of advisory powers, I suppose. I am saying all these as background to my questions, which are as follows:
1. Nana, undoubtedly there has been massive and terrible corruption in the current NDC government. But the fact is there was equally massive and terrible corruption in the NPP government under which you served as AG and later as Foreign Minister. In fact, you lost the 2008 elections to President Mills because many Ghanaians thought there was too much corruption in the NPP government.Â
So if you will indeed be good at or have the magic wand to deal with the canker of corruption when you are elected President, why didn’t you deal with the canker when you were AG, a Cabinet minister and MP during the NPP regime? Or you did? If you did, what were your specific efforts to dealing with corruption during the NPP regime and what were the results?
Well, you were not the President and, therefore,on some occasions you may have had your say without having your way on a number of anti-corruption efforts. That is true and in fact your people who know you better have been saying you are incorruptible. But now that you are promising to deal with the canker of corruption, I really need you to convince me with facts and evidence, Nana.
Please, can you give specific and concrete examples of your anti-corruption efforts during the NPP regime, which may not have succeeded because you were the President? In other words, did you initiate any specific anti-corruption efforts which were blocked by your colleagues or the then President and if so, can you give examples, Sir?
Nana, I am pressing you on the corruption matter because if corruption is dealt with, almost all our problems will be gone. Corruption remains the biggest challenge to our development and the current government has woefully failed in dealing with the canker. In fact, the current government has made corruption an attractive venture. You loot, and if you are caught you are simply made to refund and without interest!!
2. You are promising to establish a factory per district and a dam per district (or maybe even per village) in northern Ghana. These are great ideas that will help improve our situation a lot. As someone from Northern Ghana, the idea of the dams in my territory is of great interest to me because if fulfilled, it will transform that part of the country.
But, Nana, just like your free SHS promise,I am curious to know whether the factories and dams idea are new ideas or you have always wished they were done? If the latter is the case, then why were the factories and dams not built (or an attempt not made to build them) during the 8 years of the NPP government in which you were a senior minister?
Well, maybe they are your ideas and since you were not the President at the time, they could not be carried out. Can you confirm if this assumption is correct? In other words, did you push for these at Cabinet and had no support from your colleagues and Mr President?
Maybe I am not thinking far here because it could be that at the time of the NPP government, resources were limited to be able to build the factories and dams. But if so, Nana,do you think we have the resources do these now despite the gargantuan national debt and a broken economy that needs fixing? Or you will also be engaging in the same straightforward approach of the NDC to do what Manasseh Azure calls “borrow, build and bragâ€. These are my questions. Thank you for your kind attention, Nana.