The magic has begun... 110 Ministers!
As a writer, I sometimes ask God why I lack the wit and biting sarcasm that grace the writing style of Professor Kwesi Yankah. Last Wednesday evening I was wondering how, as a ‘Kwatriot’ in the ‘Mirror’ newspaper or an ‘Abonsam Fireman’ in the ‘Catholic Standard’, he would have described President Akufo-Addo’s record 110 Ministers, especially if he disapproved of it.
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But how can he now, seeing as his name features in the list of the last batch of appointees.
Not that he does not qualify. As a matter of fact, if there are any two persons who over-qualify for their particular ministerial portfolios it is he and Prof. Frimpong Boateng.
If you ask me, methinks Kwesi Yankah is a direct response to Professor Naana Opoku Agyemang, a woman whose appointment earned high approval rating for President Mahama; that is, until she went and signed the Montie 3 petition!
Remember the almost unprecedented public reaction to the last Presidential election results? Remember the euphoria that gave itself full expression at Nana Addo’s swearing-in at the Independence Square? The figures showed that it was the heaviest defeat any candidate ever suffered since the United Gold Coast Convention’s (UGCC’s) humiliating defeat in the 1951 Legislative Assembly elections.
At those polls held on February 8, 1951, Nkrumah's Convention People's Party won 34 of the 38 elected seats in the assembly, Nkrumah himself winning the Accra Central seat with 22,780 of the 23,122 votes cast. The UGCC fared terribly, winning only two seats.
Watching from afar, I heaved with emotion at the spectacle that was unfolding at the Independence Square. Did it have anything to do with the fact that it was Akufo-Addo’s third attempt? Or was it a direct statement to President Mahama that they preferred a corruption-free Ghana to a country flowing with milk and honey projects?
Even as I watched the millions burst with joy, however, fear also began to rise. For how long will this last? Never in my living memory had I seen a people rock with such expectancy.
It was like the days of the magicians. We, the little children, stood with bated breath as the likes of Professor Winkinson danced around the stage waving their wand. We believed in those magicians because true to their promise, we ate boiled eggs and waved the handkerchiefs they conjured out of their hats, to the shout of “obu”, as we responded “obuyaya”. Wide-eyed, faces taut with expectancy, we waited, ready to exhale with “wowww!”
Like a magic professor dancing around a corpse, Nana Addo is sitting on an almost impossible economy. Like children with so much confidence in the unfailing capabilities of the professors, Ghanaians have expressed a massive vote of confidence in our sitting President.
But they ask — and I have been asking — where will the money come from? Before the elections, the wand seemed to be Bawumia. But he is very quiet now.
If President Akufo-Addo releases his research outfit into the streets this week, they will not bring him exciting news. Not that the people have lost faith in him: no, it is that they are now not as absolutely sure in his promises as they were in December 2016/January 2017. He will still win an election if it were held today, but I doubt that the margin of victory would be the same. People may not vote against him, but like Volta Region in the 2016 elections, they may not vote at all.
For many people, the question is no longer where the money will come from: it is, “why so many ministers?” They are wondering why the country needs a whole Minister in charge of Public Procurement. Of course, like Adwoa Safo, most of the President’s latest batch of nominees are also MPs and, therefore, may not necessarily draw double salary, but the people ask: should every task require a Minister?
The question becomes even more critical in the light of utterances made by the NPP in the run-up to Election 2016. Criticising NDC for borrowing to the point where Ghana’s debt stock stood at GH¢112.4 billion as of September 2016 naturally means that there will be no, or very little, borrowing this time. Reducing taxes, and in some cases, abolishing them, means that revenues will be affected. Restoring nurses and teacher-trainee allowances, among other promises, have heavy financial implications.
I am a typical Ghanaian. As at this week, I am afraid. I am clutching at a thin thread of hope.
It may sound like a paradox but the truth of my matter is that in spite of my fears, I have hope. So I assure myself: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard; neither has it entered into the hearts of Ghanaians the picture of an African country where there is a factory in every district, and what people in every constituency can do with One Million Dollars a year!
I know how it feels, especially when it is not your party that is about to unfold this near-miracle, but I will plead with Ghanaians on behalf of President Akufo- Addo: let us give him support. If any group of people anywhere can do this, Ghanaians can.
I prophesy that if Nana Addo finds the money to do this, and he himself or his ministers don’t get bitten by the greed or corruption bug along the way, Ghana, as a country will be the magician that will wake the dead. It is possible in five years. Such is my confidence!
