This is one of those days when nothing special comes to mind as I look for a subject to write on.
I am not suffering from a writer’s block, that is, the inability to write anything, but the opposite, a surfeit of things to write about to my satisfaction, and that of my readers.
The reason this poses a problem is that all issues of the moment have been written on by me, or others more qualified than me, or been written on so frequently that repetition is water boarding torture. In all instances, I do not wish my readers to believe that I am imposing on them a boring repetitive singsong resembling a whining perpetual machine just to drive them crazy.
Three current issues
In my opinion, only three matters should be discussed here today; the spectre of ebola, the lurid tales of corruption in public organisations being uncovered almost daily, and tomorrow’s nationwide presidential primaries of the opposition New Patriotic Party. Believe it or not, I have written extensively on all three before in this column, hence my anxieties today on what exactly to settle on to share with my readers.
The only new thing we can say about ebola is that it has definitely arrived in both Europe and America, and is as expected, causing even more panic than it has in our part of the world, the epicenter of this dreadful disease.
For my part, the panic and the state of mental and physical unpreparedness in the advanced countries the disease has caused outside the shores of the Dark Continent should be an object lesson to all those who complain every single minute about everything happening in this country.
As our own President asserted at the United Nations General Assembly last month, ebola is not a problem whose reality and paramount danger to our sense of community is uniquely West African, but ultimately, a worldwide and global issue that requires more than just an uppity disapproval and consignment to the lands of darkness and little civilisation.
I had written sometime ago that the last ally we need in the fight against the ebola disease is generalised and individual panic, and I must repeat here that that still remains my stance as it reaches the parts of the world which have the capacity to provoke and promote a thousandfold, the panic that has seized us in these parts.
What we all need to learn is that in spite of the clear and present danger ebola poses to human life, we all must learn to be very calm, and resolute in our support of all those who have anything to do with controlling and eventually removing it from our lives.
Corruption in public life
Now to the lurid and spectacular revelations of corruption in aspects of public life which have gripped our attention of late.
In this country, we have had a despicable tradition of hauling appointees and public officers in previous governments before the law enforcement agencies and the courts for investigation, prosecution and imprisonment if need be, for acts of corruption committed in a period when the punishing public officials were in opposition, and the accused were in office.
This has led to loud and very public condemnation of such anti-corruption fights as politically-motivated, and therefore, irrelevant to the generally praiseworthy cause of removing or minimising corruption in public affairs in this country.
What this has done in the past, has been to portray the fight against corruption as ultimately an unwinnable battle waged by deeply insincere public officials looking for short-term political advantage to paint their adversaries as corrupt. But has this approach worked?
In the event, we have witnessed very public show trials, convictions and imprisonments of past government officials which attracted very controversial pardons at the eleventh hour, as the political prosecutors and persecutors exited office, because, in reality, nobody believed they emanated from a sincere desire to punish real acts of malfeasance, as much they were mere legal carnivals to humiliate and show the powerless where power lies.
The current revelations and prosecutions are very different, as they have targeted public officials and actions in situ, and are therefore more likely to proceed from a genuine desire by the President and his government to make corruption a risky venture at the most opportune time, when it is being committed, than when the perpetrators have suffered the ultimate punishment, that of being voted out of power, and locked out of access to public funds.
I can only, with like-minded citizens, urge and encourage the President to never flag nor waver in the unique and positive change he has introduced in the unending fight against corruption in public life. Depoliticising the fight against corruption is a worthwhile legacy he can bequeath to all of us with pride and satisfaction.
NPP primaries
Now to the NPP primaries tomorrow. I have written considerably on the opposition NPP in this column, and I can say there are many of my readers who get disappointed when I ‘stray’ into other subject areas, as if they expect me always to have something to say about the NPP every day. As has been known for some time now, it would be unlikely for Nana Akufo Addo to lose his fourth attempt to secure the approval of Ghanaians in the NPP to be elected as their presidential candidate for the 2016 poll.
Let me repeat what has become obvious since the inception of the Fourth Republic in January 1993. It is far easier for a former Vice President to ascend to the top post than for any other post holder in a previous government. Both the late President Atta Mills and the current President John Mahama were at one time or the other, Vice President.
It was very easy, for a party seeking power, to unite around a former willing and able Number Two as it sought the Number One position than the opposite. If unity is the key to eventual success in this quest, our friends in the NPP have a mighty struggle ahead. I wish them a peaceful and successful primaries tomorrow.
