How are you this morning? I am OK; Did you sleep well? It was OK; Did your friends enjoy your birthday party? They said it was OK; Was the food at the party nice? It was OK;
How was my performance? Oh, OK.
OK has become the standard stock answer to every question or personal inquiry in today�s Ghana. It reflects the modern Ghanaian�s descent into CASUALNESS, LAZINESS, SENSE OF ENTITLEMENT, LACK OF COMMITMENT, TAKING EVERYTHING FOR GRANTED and �I DON�T CARISM� (you have to be old to remember this one).
If GOOGLE GHANA ever decides to produce a thesaurus for English and the local languages of its Ghana portal, I will be happy to earn a fat fee so I can deliver a massive tome that simply put OK 10000 times to mean absolutely everything, whether in HAUSA, GA, TWI or EWE.
The one and only time you can sense a meaning and intent behind Ok, is when it is exaggerated and stretched, as in �How did your exams go? �OKAAAY, but��.�. This is the cover up answer, not wanting to admit to failure, knowing full well that �aanko yie� ( you bombed) but hoping that everyone would have forgotten about it all by the time the actual results come out.
Our country Ghana is drowning in a cesspool of poverty in an ever thickening richness of the oil wealth from the JUBILEE fields. At a time when our collective wealth and individual well beings should be moving up finally from MASLOW�S BASIC NEEDS up towards the SELF ACTUALISATION apex, we find ourselves getting tied up so tightly in knots that even Harry HOUDINI will be very challenged to untie the twisted knots of Gargantuan indebtedness before we drown and beach on the sands of the Western region as has befallen the poor whales caught up in the seas of Ghana�s oil wealth.
In less than five years, the Government of the national Democratic Congress (NDC) has managed to quadruple the national debt of Ghana. In just nine months of this year, the Government has added nearly GHS 8.9 Billion new debt to the GH$ 8.6 billion profligate and wasteful excess of the 2012 expenditure from Consolidated Fund. Indeed but for the sleight of hand shifting of the goalposts, involving the changes in the basis for calculation, Ghana would probably be back in HIPC land again.
Kufuor�s bold decision to go HIPC after the last mess left by an NDC Government, jump started Ghana�s economic recovery without the benefit of oil revenues. HIPC enabled the �Capitalist� Kufuor to introduce the most wide ranging Social Engineering ( Socialist) programmes since those of our Founding Father whose benevolence we continue to enjoy with yet another public holiday ( which we are too happy �to observe as such�). Now things have become so bad that even the HIPC and the other few amenities that interim President Doe-Adjaho�s Honourables used to enjoy have been taken away (No need for Kutu Acheampong's resurrection here).
And where should we the people of Ghana be looking for salvation? Naturally, from the people he entrusted the �Great Elephant, to with the responsibility to win the 2008 elections and continue with his good deeds. Well, they failed to do so. Instead of learning the lessons from my Brother Arthur Kennedy�s account, Kufuor�s successors conspired to humiliate Arthur K. They arrogantly decided that they knew what they were about and would prove so in 2012.
Now we are told that the NPP won a moral victory at the Supreme Court. I know we Ghanaians are putting down our deposits to go to heaven, but I can assure you that not one of us is eager to go to heaven before our appointed three score and ten years or even more. We do not need moral victories, we need electoral victories declared by Dr Afari-Gyan and if need be affirmed by a successful Petition. WELL, IN CASE ANYONE HAS FORGOTTEN, THE NPP FAILED ON BOTH COUNTS.
So we go back from Dr Bawumia�s "Okaaay, But" meaningless moral victory to retrace the excuses of those in whose hands the NPP and the millions of Ghanaians placed their faith and hopes. Instead of admitting that they have failed abysmally and need to make way for fresh leadership, they are playing the �IT IS EVERYBODY'S FAULT BUT OUR OWN SONG� like an old 878 rpm gramophone record in which the needle has gotten stuck in one of the grooves.
The �Okaaay, But� litany started with seemingly gracious concession by the Candidate himself. �I DISAGREE WITH IT, BUT I ACCEPT IT�. In our anxiety to be rid of 8 months of high tension, we only took in the ACCEPT IT bit and drowned him with praises. It did not take long for the import of the first bit, �NO WE DO NOT ACCEPT IT," to start to emerge. The ventriloquist to the Candidate started the ball rolling by accusing the Judges of having accepted things under the table, albeit in very elegant indirect language. THE JUDGEMENT WAS CORRUPT DID NOT MEAN THAT THE JUDGES WERE CORRUPT.
The cue had been given. Surely there must have been someone who passed the loot under the table to the Judges. Nobody else but the King who has inherited the title and kingdom created more than 300 years ago by his name sake aided by my great grandpa, Okomfo Anokye. That this dastardly poisonous tale was spread by the most rabidly pro-Petition FM station was not surprising. In the end, the failed leaders had to extricate themselves from being tarnished with the same coal tar of shame by quickly issuing a statement to denounce the act and re pledge their allegiance to Osei Tutu Ababio.
The next to suffer from the �EVERYONE�S FAULT BUT OUR OWN" crusade was and continues to be Afari-Gyan and the Electoral Commission of Ghana. Despite the clear and unambiguous construct of the Ghana Constitution, the failed leaders of the NPP are throwing dust into our eyes by asking for the impossible. �AFARI-GYAN MUST RESIGN�; ELECTORAL REFORMS MUST BE CARRIED OUTSIDE OF THE EC�; THE COUNCIL OF STATE MUST WORK WITH IPAC TO APPOINT CHAIR OF EC�
In the above, they even managed to rope in the Nobel laureate De Klerk, without explaining to him that our Electoral Commission is totally independent and that not even the Catch all powers of the President can tell them what to do (mot officially anyway) once he has appointed them. Here I fault my uncle K$ for getting into fray of this deceit of the people, for why did he not reject Afari-Gyan's declaration of his victory in 2001 and 2004 (when Jake tried to usurp Dr Afari-Gyan) nor ask IPAC and the Council of State when he appointed four members of the Commission in his time.
This evening, yet another �dust in the eyes� event will be held when a supposedly intellectual discourse on the Supreme Court Verdict will be used to perpetuate the myth of �ITS NOT OUR FAULT� Teflon failure to accept responsibility by those who failed the NPP and the people of Ghana. We do not also need THANK YOU from those who have 2x snatched DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY and trying to create another opportunity to accentuate and extend their failed tenures to send us into yet another defeat.
We are tired of STOLEN VERDICTS, WRITTEN OR VIA CERTIFIED TRUE COPIES. We don�t want to hear about moral victories. So the reality for all NPP members is this: MORAL VICTORIES MAY BE OK, BUT THEY DO NOT DELIVER THE POWER TO MAKE OUR COUNTRY GREAT AND STRONG. THIS IS THE TIME FOR CHANGE. THIS IS THE TIME TO TURF OUT THOSE WHO HAVE FAILED BOTH THE NPP AND THE NATION.
As we enjoy the holiday, we need to manifest Kwame Nkrumah�s bold wish and prove IN DEEDS that �THE BLACK MAN IS CAPABLE OF RUNNING OUR OWN AFFAIRS� That proof will continue to elude us from the current rulers and the twice failed alternatives.
Source: Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby - [email protected]
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