Monday, 27 February 2017

NDC NEVER SOLVED DUMSOR BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE


NDC NEVER SOLVED DUMSOR BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE


Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes...


With the preponderance of evidence and undisputed reality, the Ghanaian people are increasingly coming to the realization that the NDC lied to us about the state of our debilitating energy crisis in the runup to the December polls. They lied to us when they said they had resolved the dumsor crisis. They lied to us when they said we wouldn't experience dumsor again, at least, not in the foreseeable future because they had found a permanent solution to this agelong crisis. They lied to us when they said dumsor was over.


They lied, lied and lied to us, and as if they haven't hurt our feelings enough, they continue to lie to us even in the face of the undisputed reality on the ground. So I ask, when would these people stop lying to us? They lied to us when they were in government, we decided to send them to opposition and they are still lying to us even in opposition. How I wish we could follow them to opposition and still vote against them in order to completely retire them from politics. They have absolutely no business in our body politics.

I don't know about you, but I never believed them when they said they had resolved dumsor. You know why? No one resolves a crisis with an emergency solution. You don't resolve dumsor with emergency power plants. Emergency is emergency and anything emergency is tentative and temporal, except if my dictionary is deceiving me in respect of the meaning of emergency. Or maybe, words have different meanings in the NDC's lexicon.


Even with the NDC's solution, if I tell you how much it is costing you and I (the poor taxpayers), you would not only get angry but also, crazy. Maybe I should just simplify it so that my grandma in Volta north can also appreciate. For every emergency power plant the NDC bought (including the infamous Ameris and Karpowers), multiply the cost of that plant by 4, and you would get how much the Ghanaian taxpayer was robbed. The cost of each power plant procured by the NDC was inflated by some 500%, making same the most expensive in the World, experts say.


Some experts in the industry also contend that, even if those plants were made of gold, they wouldn't cost that much. The most annoying thing is that we do not even have fuel to power these plants. They also left behind a broken economy. Like a friend of mine said, you don't solve a transportation problem by buying a vehicle you cannot fuel. No wonder we are back to square one. After this monumental disservice to country, the NDC also left behind a whopping US$2.4 billion debt in the energy sector alone, an amount that is even bigger than the net worth of a number of African countries.


And what are they saying now? The NDC now tells us to blame the Nana Addo government for the current energy conundrum. They say, we should blame a government that is yet to rollout any policy in the energy sector. They say, we should blame a government that is yet to present its first budget, where critical policy directions in the energy sector would be announced.


In other words, the NDC is essentially telling us to blame a government that is yet to be fully constituted for a crisis we have been through for four years. They are telling us to blame a government that is less than two months old in office, for not resolving a crisis that they (the NDC) couldn’t resolve in four years. Even my younger sister in Primary 6 would laugh at this bunkum and balderdash. Not even the marines would accept this onaapo story.


Before I conclude, I have one request to make of the Energy Minister, in whom, I have so much confidence because of his manifest competency. If he doesn’t want Ghanaians to be angry with him and the NPP government, then he shouldn’t give any timelines of ending dumsor in view of the enormity of the challenge confronting us. He should remember that the first fool, they say, is not a fool but the second and the third. I salute Hon. Kwabena Donkor. The Energy Minister should just tell Ghanaians what the reality is and we would adjust and live with it. Disappointment is the last thing the Ghanaian people would tolerate under these circumstances.


Fortunately, he [Hon. Boakye Agyarko] speaks so eloquently and impeccably. I therefore expect him to find suitable words to resist the temptations to provide such ‘headline answers’ even when the likes of Shamima Muslim, Richard Sky, Kwame Sefa Kayi, Gyifa Bampo, Bernard Avle and Evans Mensah push him to the wall. Journalist would always want to elicit certain specific responses from politicians, from which, they can make their headline and sensational stories. Maybe I am talking too much. Maybe not; but let me end it here. Like they always say, a word to the wise, is enough. The thoughts of a citizen not a spectator. 
 

Assalamu alaikum


Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry

NDC NEVER SOLVED DUMSOR BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE



NDC NEVER SOLVED DUMSOR BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE


Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes...


With the preponderance of evidence and undisputed reality, the Ghanaian people are increasingly coming to the realization that the NDC lied to us about the state of our debilitating energy crisis in the runup to the December polls. They lied to us when they said they had resolved the dumsor crisis. They lied to us when they said we wouldn't experience dumsor again, at least, not in the foreseeable future because they had found a permanent solution to this agelong crisis. They lied to us when they said dumsor was over.


They lied, lied and lied to us, and as if they haven't hurt our feelings enough, they continue to lie to us even in the face of the undisputed reality on the ground. So I ask, when would these people stop lying to us? They lied to us when they were in government, we decided to send them to opposition and they are still lying to us even in opposition. How I wish we could follow them to opposition and still vote against them in order to completely retire them from politics. They have absolutely no business in our body politics.

I don't know about you, but I never believed them when they said they had resolved dumsor. You know why? No one resolves a crisis with an emergency solution. You don't resolve dumsor with emergency power plants. Emergency is emergency and anything emergency is tentative and temporal, except if my dictionary is deceiving me in respect of the meaning of emergency. Or maybe, words have different meanings in the NDC's lexicon.


Even with the NDC's solution, if I tell you how much it is costing you and I (the poor taxpayers), you would not only get angry but also, crazy. Maybe I should just simplify it so that my grandma in Volta north can also appreciate. For every emergency power plant the NDC bought (including the infamous Ameris and Karpowers), multiply the cost of that plant by 4, and you would get how much the Ghanaian taxpayer was robbed. The cost of each power plant procured by the NDC was inflated by some 500%, making same the most expensive in the World, experts say.


Some experts in the industry also contend that, even if those plants were made of gold, they wouldn't cost that much. The most annoying thing is that we do not even have fuel to power these plants. They also left behind a broken economy. Like a friend of mine said, you don't solve a transportation problem by buying a vehicle you cannot fuel. No wonder we are back to square one. After this monumental disservice to country, the NDC also left behind a whopping US$2.4 billion debt in the energy sector alone, an amount that is even bigger than the net worth of a number of African countries.


And what are they saying now? The NDC now tells us to blame the Nana Addo government for the current energy conundrum. They say, we should blame a government that is yet to rollout any policy in the energy sector. They say, we should blame a government that is yet to present its first budget, where critical policy directions in the energy sector would be announced.


In other words, the NDC is essentially telling us to blame a government that is yet to be fully constituted for a crisis we have been through for four years. They are telling us to blame a government that is less than two months old in office, for not resolving a crisis that they (the NDC) couldn’t resolve in four years. Even my younger sister in Primary 6 would laugh at this bunkum and balderdash. Not even the marines would accept this onaapo story.


Before I conclude, I have one request to make of the Energy Minister, in whom, I have so much confidence because of his manifest competency. If he doesn’t want Ghanaians to be angry with him and the NPP government, then he shouldn’t give any timelines of ending dumsor in view of the enormity of the challenge confronting us. He should remember that the first fool, they say, is not a fool but the second and the third. I salute Hon. Kwabena Donkor. The Energy Minister should just tell Ghanaians what the reality is and we would adjust and live with it. Disappointment is the last thing the Ghanaian people would tolerate under these circumstances.


Fortunately, he [Hon. Boakye Agyarko] speaks so eloquently and impeccably. I therefore expect him to find suitable words to resist the temptations to provide such ‘headline answers’ even when the likes of Shamima Muslim, Richard Sky, Kwame Sefa Kayi, Gyifa Bampo, Bernard Avle and Evans Mensah push him to the wall. Journalist would always want to elicit certain specific responses from politicians, from which, they can make their headline and sensational stories. Maybe I am talking too much. Maybe not; but let me end it here. Like they always say, a word to the wise, is enough. The thoughts of a citizen not a spectator. 
 

Assalamu alaikum


Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry


Thursday, 23 February 2017

MY TAKE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION'S ADDRESS


 
MY TAKE ON THE STATE OF THE NATION'S ADDRESS

Iddi Muhayu-Deen writes...

Ghanaians, just like the citizens of other nations, have experienced and continue to experience what I call, the nuances of life; the good, the very good, the bad, the very bad and the ugly. Sometimes you get so overwhelmed with the negatives and think that nature hasn't been fair to you until something drastic happens in your life and turn around your fortunes. This is exactly the kind of experience Ghanaians have been through in our recent history. 

At the time all hopes and dreams were shuttered, came one man, whom I call a Messiah, with demonstrable commitment to transforming the Ghanaian life and restoring our hopes. His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo couldn't have come at a better time. And listening to him deliver his maiden state of the nation's address makes one convinced that the Ghanaian dream, is fast becoming a reality. I dare say that, all my life, I have never felt this proud as a Ghanaian.

I say without equivocation that, the President's presentation can be best described as a scholarly rendition of an international award winning masterpiece. He was superlatively outstanding. In effect, President Nana Addo did not only shake the very foundation of Parliament but also that of Ghana at large with a stimulating presentation that dazzled and got everybody thinking about our national cause. All we saw, as he delivered the state of the nation's address was hope, hope, hope, and of course, the spirit of national reconciliation. 

Like the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo is a great orator and one, you would want to spend your whole day listening. You would want to pay any amount just to listen to him. When Nana Addo delivers a speech, every single sentence he utters qualifies as headlines by all international editorial standards. 
This enviable trait of President Nana Addo, is a sharp departure from what we saw in one of the Presidents we had recently, who would, for instance, use some 4 to 5 hours to deliver say, a "boring" state of the nation's address and our journalists would still find it extremely difficult to identify a single headline from his speech, that would sell.

And what are the NDC people saying? 

Before that, let me remind you that the NDC is the political party, whose leading members and communicators have vowed that they would make sure Nana Addo fails as a President, so that Ghanaians would see them as a credible alternative. They say the President should have touched on everything, forgetting that longevity breeds boredom and monotony; forgetting that Ghanaians already know the state of the nation seeing how dry their pockets are, based on which, they kicked the NDC out of power. 

They say the President focused his attention on the economy, forgetting that the economy is the key to everything and that, every sector revolves around the economy; forgetting that the economy is the cause and every other thing is an effect. Finally, they say they are disappointed the President did not talk about the chieftaincy issues and conflict at Bimbilla. 

The truth of the matter is that, their disappointment has nothing to do with the fact that the President didn’t talk about this issue. Rather, their disappointment has everything to do with the fact that President Nana Addo has denied them an opportunity to diabolically twist his words if he had spoken about it for tribal incitements in order to gain undue political advantage. 

I’m sure you recall a similar thing these same NDC guys did to the NPP, when the party first won elections in the year 2000 with the dagbon issues. Is obvious the NPP has learnt a lot of lessons from that unfortunate episode. These our NDC friends are capable of doing anything and everything for power. Sadly, that is the kind of ugly politics we practice in this country. How shameful! Well, they can be disappointed for all I care. 

Just as the Interior Minister briefed Parliament, a day after the delivery of the state of the nation’s address, government is committed to bringing lasting truce to Bimbilla with effective and meticulous collaboration with the various Houses of Chiefs and the Security Agencies. So there is absolutely no cause for alarm.   

My fellow countrymen and women, you and I have every reason to be happy. We have every reason to celebrate what the Lord has done for us. We do not only have a President in H.E. Nana Addo, but also, a generational thinker and an inspiring leader. Good days lie ahead under his stewardship. The Ghanaian dream is sooner than later, becoming a reality and this gives me so much joy and exhilaration. I am proud of our President and I’m confident you are too. Long live President Nana Addo! Long live my Motherland. The thoughts of a proud citizen of Ghana NOT a spectator.

Assalamu alaikum 

Iddi Muhayu-Deen 


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Tuesday, 21 February 2017

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE COMPOSITION OF THE CURRENT HAJJ BOARD IN RESPECT OF THE MEMBERSHIP OF MOHAMMED OSMAN ALIDU AND OTHER RELATED ISSUES



WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE COMPOSITION OF THE CURRENT HAJJ BOARD IN RESPECT OF THE MEMBERSHIP OF MOHAMMED OSMAN ALIDU AND OTHER RELATED ISSUES 

Quite regrettably, some members of the general public with close association with the NPP, have taken to social media, questioning the status of one of the members of the recently constituted National Hajj Board in the person of Mohammed Osman Alidu, popularly called Alhaji Manaf. Their contention is that, he is a member of the opposition NDC and therefore His Excellency President Nana Akufo-Addo shouldn’t have appointed him to serve on the National Hajj Board.

Ordinarily, this allegation should not be dignified nor responded to by anybody because it is very petty and ridiculous. Even assuming without admitting that, the said individual is indeed a sympathizer of the NDC, what is the big deal? Is he not a Ghanaian? Hasn't President Nana Addo promised to be a father for all? So what is wrong if the President decides to tap into the expertise of a citizen of this country in the administration of his mandate to the Ghanaian people? Are we now saying that, before any Ghanaian qualifies to work with the Akufo-Addo government, then he/she must necessarily belong to the NPP? Is that how we build a nation? 

In any case, facts are that, the gentleman in question, Mohammed Osman Alidu is NOT even a member of the NDC. The fact that he worked with the previous Hajj Board doesn't make him an NDC member. Indeed, he has been working with the National Hajj Secretariat since 2008 when NPP was in power under the Executive Secretaryship of Alhaji Osmanu Yunusah, otherwise referred to as Alhaji Oluman, as he is affectionately called. I guess that makes him [Mohammed Osman Alidu] an NPP member too. You see the poverty of the logic we are being confronted with? 

What we must all understand is that, Alhaji Osman Alidu is an official of the Saudi Embassy in Ghana, who is basically in charge of visa acquisition. It is very instructive to note that until the year 2008, the issue of visa acquisition was a nightmare for prospective hajj pilgrims at the Saudi Embassy. This was the reason why the Kufour government decided to bring on-board Mohammed Osman Alidu to work at the National Hajj Secretariat so that he would assist with the visa issues, which he did quite masterfully to the admiration of all. 

So when the NDC came to power in 2009, they decided to maintain him on the National Hajj Board, under the chairmanship of Alhaji Tanko, the current MP for Yagba Kubore. Someway somehow, when Hon. Tanko (the then Hajj Board Chairman) was officially launching his campaign, he invited all the members of the Board including Mr. Mohammed Osman Alidu to grace the occasion, just like, Hon. Alban Bagbin and Hon. Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu supporting each other at their respective campaign launch because of their close relationship and nobody had issues with that. 

It was at the launch of Hon. Tanko’s campaign that some pictures of him, together with Mr. Mohammed Osman Alidu and few others were taken, of course, with an NDC background for obvious reasons. Interestingly, these are the pictures that people are now circulating on social media platforms as proof that Mr. Mohammed Osman Alidu is an NDC member and calling on the President to reconsider his appointment. Well, I will leave you here, to make your own judgements. 

Finally, let me use this opportunity to state on record that contrary to media reports, the office of the National Chief Imam was adequately consulted before the National Hajj Board was constituted. As a matter of fact, the National Chief Imam nominated one Alhaji Mohammed Osman Yunusah to represent him on the National Hajj Board. So it cannot be true, allegations that, His Excellency President Nana Addo has sidelined the revered office of the National Chief Imam in this process. 

Indeed, for the first time in the history of this country, the National Chief Imam, Sheick Osman Shaributu jointly inaugurated the 2017 National Hajj Board with His Excellency President Nana Addo at the Jubilee House. How can a Chief Imam, whom we are being told, was completely sidelined in the formation of a committee, be the one ‘inaugurating’ the said committee? Obviously, this story can only be told the marines. The thoughts of a responsible citizen not a spectator.

Assalamu alaikum

Iddi Muhayu-Deen
#ForGodAndCountry

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