Is Ghana a treasure island?
Two things happened last Tuesday that I cannot stop myself from remarking on before moving to the main meal for today. I was surprised by this news paper’s front page story that 40 old and retired Members of Parliament (MPs) have taken the government of President Akufo-Addo to court demanding payment of their pension benefits under the 2009 Chinery-Hesse Report on Article 71 office-holders.
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Those who can remember will recall I came out very strongly against all aspects of that report in this very paper in late January 2009, but not under the aegis of the Abura Epistle.
My surprise came in two matters. Public service has not ceased to be a service, and unlike some Article 71 beneficiaries, MPs, ministers and our President are not compelled by us to serve us. They willingly offer themselves because they have something they wish to share with us as fellow Ghanaians.
Worse, some of the claimants in that case are now holding high offices of state similar to or higher than the previous positions they seek further compensation for.
You cannot in good conscience, claim retirement benefits from public office when you are holding down a public office. Such persons cannot be said to be retired, or superannuated from public service.
Secondly, notwithstanding the merits or otherwise of these claims, I think it is deeply troubling and amoral that such cases would be decided by public officials who themselves are Article 71 beneficiaries. We must, as a matter of national urgency, fashion a tribunal made up of non-beneficiaries of the largesse spelt out under Article 71 of our constitution, to sit and settle such problems. Ten million cedis is not chicken feed, and we are being preached to every day that we are broke. I know for a fact that no member of the various National Media Commissions we have had since 1993 have been paid their benefits under Article 71, though they are covered, but I have not heard them challenging this unpardonable oversight in our courts. Were they less public servants than our MPs and ministers?
Vetting
The second thing I noted, with satisfaction I must say, was the vetting of some deputy ministers last Tuesday. I particularly enjoyed the encounter of Mr Kwaku Kwarteng with the Appointments Committee. Being an active member of the Finance Committee of Parliament made for a spirited and knowledgeable exchange of views on our economic management. The Chairman of the committee, Deputy Speaker Joe Osei-Wusu, secured my respect when he disagreed with the notion of rigidity regarding statutory payments mandated by the constitution. Those earmarked and ring fenced monies do not belong to the executive, but rather to those targeted by express legislation.
Rather unhelpfully, our Parliament that very Tuesday evening, passed an amendment to create the so-called much-needed fiscal space for the executive to be able to fund its programmes. I am certain we will end up in the courts over the constitutionality of this new legislation, but I doff my hat to the Minority Leader and the nominee himself, for a process which enlightened, rather than obfuscate and confuse us in the workings of our own government. Needless to add, I disagreed with the nominee on some issues, but that is the price one has to pay for exercising to the full, one’s freedom to contribute on national matters in the past.
Delta forces
My main meal for today is the unfortunate and disgraceful incident that happened in Kumasi last Friday when members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) militia or vigilante, the Delta Forces, managed to physically remove a duly appointed regional security co-ordinator. It is deeply worrying when some seek to deflect this dangerous threat to constitutional order by claiming the position is unknown to our laws. In other words, any group of people can enter any government office and manhandle any person there in the “womafunu’’ [old fufu pestle] manner described by the ruling NPP Youth Organiser Sammy Awuku in years past.
What struck me about what happened in Kumasi is the simple fact that with this incident, we now have at least three of such publicly-recorded events carried out by vigilante groups allied to the ruling NPP in various parts of the country.
First we had the Invincible Forces manhandling a senior police officer at the Flagstaff House, then the same group, different members, at the scene of the tragic incident at the Kintampo Falls in which 19 Ghanaians perished.
That makes it three different regions in which such militias operate with no regard to law or human rights in a regime manned by a party which has touted its human rights credentials to the rooftops since 1947.
I need not add that the party and this country is being led by no less a person than the acclaimed champion of human rights in our courts and who was indeed the founder and chairman of the Ghana Human Rights advocacy group in this country.
Why does his own supporters do this to his reputation as an able advocate and the dignity that must necessarily be enjoyed by our President? It used to be some form of excuse when those roughed up and thrown out of their offices happened to be sympathisers of the previous government. The Kumasi incident involved a true NPP man, just as the Flagstaff House one concerned a police officer who began work there in the time of President Kufuor. Why?
Danger
Let me spell out the danger to this country in stark historical terms. The Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany in June 1934, involved the execution of over 3,000 Germans, several of whom were leaders and members of the paramilitary organisations, the SD, SA and the Gestapo, who helped bring Hitler to power a year previously and who were agitating to replace the official functionaries in the police and army, much to the growing chagrin and disquiet of these lawful organisations. Chancellor Hitler obliged the powerful German army by murdering his own colleagues like Major Ernst Roehm, and through bribery and intimidation, got the ailing President Paul Hindenburg to validate Hitler’s accession to supreme power in Germany when Hindenburg died shortly after. Hitler then assumed the title Fuhrer till the Third Reich crashed in war and destruction of Germany in 1945.
By then, Germany had secured eternal reputation as the country of the genocidal Holocaust and concentration camps.
In Ghana, the motive as far as I can see is the lure of official power and the corruption that goes with it, a classic Treasure Island scenario. There are no pirates in this country.