Cough, cough, cough; sneeze, sneeze. Friends, sorry; I’m recovering from a flu and still feel pretty groggy. I intended to rest a little bit, but for me to come out at this point means wahala dey. Hmmm, matter dey paa.
A very good friend of mine has just been fired from his job as a cook. I went to his boss to plead on his behalf, but it didn’t work. William, my friend was told to chop some cooked meat into much smaller chunks. His boss was expecting some very important visitors, and wanted them to be served with meat and drinks.
It was time for William to serve the visitors with the chopped meat, but he failed; he had eaten it! His boss felt embarrassed and decided to sack him. William did not know that “to chop” means “to cut” he was misled by the wrong usage of “chop” by many people in his community. For example, restaurant or eating bar was referred to as chopbar. And this is what caused William his job.
Reminiscing this unfortunate incident, I dredged up some unpleasant memories from the past, and I’m not going to flinch from talking about them. Not too long ago, about 500 supporters of yaanom and their fiendish pressure wings – groups who have always displayed intolerance, incitement and even outright partiality, staged a tacky demonstration in Kumasi dubbed BAAMU YAADA, a Hausa phrase which means we will not agree. Hehehehehe, most of the supporters were bused from other regions of the country.
The problem of these kooks was that the EC must do validation, purported to be a recommendation of the panel set up to look into claims by yaanom over the voter register. Interestingly, there is nowhere in the Crabbe report where validation was recommended.
I think they are being unreasonably pesky. Their claims have always been that the voter register is bloated with minors, foreigners, and dead people. But will the validation machine be able to detect these category of voters? Hell, no! It is impossible for the biometric machine to determine whether someone is a minor or a foreigner. So, you see, this noise about validation is neither here nor there. It would be a waste of time and resources.
But as these envious snits in their insatiable quest for power are bent on raising the political temperature of our peaceful nation, God is not sleeping or slumbering, the economy has started showing strong signs of recovery after some temporary economic challenges partly due to the massive infrastructure development embarked upon by our sensational president.
As I have mentioned quite a number of times, infrastructure development is the most essential need of a nation, but could give some shocks to the economy of a state if done on a massive scale; a trajectory even leaders of developed nations dread to tread.
African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that deficient infrastructure reduces Sub-Saharan Africa’s output by about 40 percent, and believes that, to attain middle-income levels, Africa must double its investment in infrastructure. African nations at present invest about 2-3 percent of GDP in infrastructure. By contrast, China invests about 9 percent of its GDP in infrastructure projects. According to Stephen Hayes, infrastructure is probably the single most important need for Africa to develop. Stephen is the president of the Corporate Council on Africa, a group that promotes US-Africa ties.
I want to reiterate that it is because of the shocks massive infrastructure gives to an economy, former President Kufour abandoned almost all the major infrastructure projects he started within his eight years in office: Achimota – Ofankor Road, Suhum – Anyinam – Kumasi Road, Sofoline Interchange, Bui Dam, etc., it would have exposed him big time!
Now that the foundation of a major economic takeoff has been laid, the good people of Ghana should get ready for an outpouring of an unrivalled economic fortune. My president, your president and our president, H.E. John Dramani Mahama will be in full trundle if God gives him the grace to remain in office for his second term. In a bid to make the citizenry feel money in their pockets, the Livelihood and Income Earning Development Programme is going to be initiated, and Ghana is going to be as sweet as honey. I’m very optimistic that come November 7, lovers of JM would have the gift they most dearly wanted. Victory.
Wait a minute, I have some fila – matter come. Chai, have you heard the news buzzing around? Thirteen executives of yaanom from Ablekuma West have resigned because of a disagreement over the constituency’s voters’ register for a parliamentary primary election held few days ago.
Hear the leader of the disgruntled executives: “We have all resigned! The NEC and Opana has taken a decision. They say if you don’t like it, you can leave the party. We have left the party for Opana and his girl!’
Tsoo, what kind of wahala be this? While some are being suspended others are resigning. A bird whispered into my ears that more party faithful are warming up for a massive resignation spree in other constituencies in the coming months on similar grounds. And I don’t know how many would be left before November 7: this is the state of the Elephant family led by Opana, aka, Onokwa. If he cannot manage a group, how can he manage a whole nation.
People of Ghana make na shine your eyes oo, ayoo. For Opana to become president, walahi-talahi, BAAMU YAADA.
