A PRESIDENTIAL TICKET WITHOUT AN ECONOMIST IS SUICIDAL FOR A POST COVID-19 REPUBLIC

A PRESIDENTIAL TICKET WITHOUT AN ECONOMIST IS SUICIDAL FOR A POST COVID-19 REPUBLIC

Iddi Muhayu-Deen’s folder

The economy, they say, is the cause, and every other thing is the effect. Throughout history, this statement has proven to be true in all jurisdictions. It was true yesterday, it is true today, and it shall remain true forever. So, get your economy right and every other thing will be right and the vice versa. It takes a strong economy to support the implementation of a Free SHS intervention. It takes a strong economy to support and sustain the restoration of teacher trainee and nursing trainee allowance.

It takes a strong economy to successfully exit an IMF programme and all its draconian conditionality. It takes a strong economy to support and sustain the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO). It takes a strong economy to support a government’s digitization agenda. And indeed, it takes a strong economy to sustain every sector of our national life including the Agric, Industry, Health, and Education sectors among others.

Fortunately, every person living in Ghana and abroad who has followed developments in the country, at least in the last decade or two, will attest to this undisputed Ghanaian reality. It certainly cannot be doubted that during the entire 8-year period of the Mills and Mahama NDC administration, none of the aforementioned interventions was possible. This is because, as the then President, H.E. John Mahama said one time in Parliament, the economy [Ghana] was down to the bone, and so, there was little to support government’s pro-poor policies and interventions.

And please, do not get it twisted. A strong economy is not achieved by chance or luck. It is not achieved by mere coincidence. It takes competent men with strong economic background and foresight at the helm of affairs to be able to achieve a strong economy. This was what the NDC lacked, and as we all know, it is exactly what the current NPP government and indeed the Bawumia-led Economic Management Team is providing. And it is the reason why this government has been able to implement almost all of its flagship campaign promises.

Another statement of fact is that the need to have competent economist(s) run this country at the highest level of governance has been made even more COMPELLING following the outbreak of Covid-19, which has had and continues to have huge debilitating impacts on the economies of countries across the globe. Even the world’s biggest economic superpowers like the United States, the Germanys and the Chinas are struggling to survive the ravaging impact of Covid.

Of course, the Ghanaian economy, just like every other economy in the world, has also been hit hard by Covid. There is however the indication that Covid will not be with us forever. But, the biggest concern of all countries is how to reorganize themselves to withstand the deadly impact of Covid now and in its aftermath. In other words, the biggest priority of all countries is how to fix their economies.

And likewise, here in Ghana, if we ever needed an economist to manage the affairs of this country, either as a President or Vice, then it is NOW. If we ever needed an economist to help in the socioeconomic reconstruction of our country, then it is NOW. In response to this, whereas the NPP is presenting a Presidential ticket involving a distinguished lawyer [H.E Nana Akufo-Addo] and a consummate economist of great international repute [H.E Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia] for election 2020, the alternative that we have in the NDC is a Presidential ticket involving a communications expert [H.E John Mahama] and an educationalist [Prof Jane Naana Opoku Agyemeng].

Clearly, it doesn’t take rocket science for one to know that the second option of a communicator and an educationist is not what we need at this very critical moment of our economic life. A challenged economy like ours [obviously, owing to Covid] certainly does not need a communications guru to salvage it. Equally, it does not need an educationist to salvage it, because education, itself, depends on the economy to survive. Of course, it does not also necessarily need a gender ticket.

In any case, political scientists and researchers have established that the two most critical expertise needed in the enterprise of governance is expertise in LAW and ECONOMY. A fine balance of the two is exactly what every country needs to chart on the path of progress and prosperity. It is thus one of the many reasons why the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia Presidential ticket rather than the alternative is the best for Ghana in 2020, and I hope and trust that the Ghanaian electorates, conscious of this fact, will do the needful on December 7, for the love of country.  

Assalamu alaikum

Iddi Muhayu-Deen

#ForGodAndCountry

2020 VOTER REGISTRATION: YOU CANNOT BE MORE UNPRINCIPLED AND INCONSISTENT THAN THE NDC

2020 VOTER REGISTRATION: YOU CANNOT BE MORE UNPRINCIPLED AND INCONSISTENT THAN THE NDC

Iddi Muhayu-Deen’s folder

In the matter of the ongoing voter registration exercise, it cannot be gainsaid that the NDC has yet again amply demonstrated their age-long inconsistency and lack of principles in many ways. The latest in such series is the party’s decision to go to court to challenge the Electoral Commission’s decision to register SHS students who have turned 18 and beyond in the ongoing voter registration.

Yes! You heard it right. The NDC is telling us that it has become an offense for the EC to provide an opportunity for our brothers and sisters in the Senior High Schools to register in order to entitle them to exercise their constitutional right to vote come December 7. I am sure you must be shocked by this turn of events regarding the NDC’s stance. But it is what it is.

Only a few weeks ago, this same NDC was in the Supreme Court arguing strongly that the EC was seeking to deny eligible Ghanaians their constitutional right to vote in the December 2020 elections following the removal of the old voters ID card from the voter registration requirements. They claimed the EC, by this decision, was going to disenfranchise many eligible Ghanaians from registering and therefore sought the court’s intervention.

Yet, the same NDC which claimed it was defending people’s constitutional right to register and vote, is today, back in court arguing that the court should intervene and stop the EC from registering eligible Ghanaian voters in our Senior High Schools. How incredulous! So I ask, is the NDC in support of the right of eligible Ghanaians to register and vote, or they are against it? There is no middle ground.

Or maybe, just maybe, the NDC is telling us that per their “micro and macro understanding of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana [apologies to John Dumelo]”, the right to vote as enshrined in Article 42 of the Constitution, does not extend to students in Senior High Schools regardless of their age. Interestingly, the NDC finds nothing wrong with the EC going to prisons to register prisoners. The gods must certainly be crazy indeed. Well, I just hope free SHS has nothing to do with this manifest absurdity of our NDC friends.

And please, do not be deceived by the NDC’s argument that the registration centres at the Senior High Schools have not been gazetted hence their opposition. First of all, the EC was not creating any new centres from the centres that were gazetted. The current legal regime allows the EC to use mobile registration vans and accompanying devises to register eligible voters and assign them to the closest polling station. The Commission has in fact been using this mobile registration vans across the country since the exercise began on 30th June.

So, what the EC proposed to do on Friday (10th July) and Saturday (11th July), was to move these mobile registration vans and the accompanying devices to the Senior High Schools to register the final year students who have turned 18 and beyond. This is because per the current executive instrument on Covid-19 restrictions, the students cannot leave campus and go to town queuing to register. Meanwhile, these eligible students have a constitutional right to register and vote, which right cannot be derogated under any circumstances.

Mind you, out of the about 700 Senior High Schools in the country, over 280 of them are already registration centres which were duly gazetted, hence will not be captured under this special arrangement. And this is what the NDC is kicking against? So, what at all is the alternative? The eligible students should be disenfranchised? Is this what the NDC wants? My dear SHS students, at least you now know those who care about you and those who do not, and I’m sure, you will be guided by that accordingly.

The decision is yours. Vote wisely on December 7 and be ruled, or be ruined forever.  

Assalamu alaikum

Iddi Muhayu-Deen

#ForGodAndCountry

ELECTION 2020: A CALL TO NATIONAL DUTY

ELECTION 2020: A CALL TO NATIONAL DUTY

Fellow Ghanaians, as we approach election 2020, where we shall have yet another opportunity to decide the destiny of this country, it is important that those who have voice are heard speaking. It is important that those who have ears are seen listening.

It is important that those who have eyes are seen watching. It is important that those who have pen are seen writing. It is important that everybody who has certain strength is seen using his strength to help our fellow countrymen and women make an informed decision come December 7.

This is what it means to be citizens and not spectators. You and I have lived the John Mahama-led NDC regime and have experienced how bitter and devastating it was. It was, without doubt, a regime of collapsing economy; a regime of acute energy crisis; a regime of joblessness and hopelessness; a regime of unbridled corruption and scandals.

Today, the same people, led by the same man, John Mahama, who destroyed everything Ghanaian, are asking us to give them yet another chance to rule this country. I am not sure we will be fair to our very own conscience and to our Motherland if we grant them audience. The John Mahama of yesterday is the same John Mahama of today. His appointment of a femane Running Mate does not change the narrative about him.

In any case, she was part of the John Mahama government that gave us this raw deal. She, in fact, played a leading role in the many excesses that characterized the erstwhile NDC government particularly in the education sector. We cannot be hoodwinked into making a wrong choice on December 7. We must expose Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang for who she really is. And more importantly, we must expose the NDC and in particular, Mr. John Mahama, for who he really is.

It is for this reason that, now more than ever, I am going to be speaking very loudly through a means I christen, *IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN’s FOLDER*, and I encourage you to also get talking because silence CANNOT be an option for a true citizen at a material time like this. Speak and speak out loudly, else, you will be governed by incompetence. This is a call to national duty, and we owe it to our Motherland to rise to the occasion.

Assalamu alaikum

Iddi Muhayu-Deen

#ForGodAndCountry