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It was an innocuous remark or statement which was not meant to generate any controversy. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was on a familiar terrain doing what he knows best. It was a friendly advice to the publishers of a friendly newspaper called 'The Thunder' which had just made its debut in Kumasi. “Name and shame mediocrity and incompetence, praise and encourage the upholders of integrity, political morality, selfless patriotism and competence”, Nana told the gathering. Good advice, admitted the self appointed “executioner” of the speaker.

Jealousy Go Shame:
But no, to Alfred Donkor Odzidzator, the Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party in the December, 2008 Elections, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has committed an act of blasphemy. Alfred Donkor Odzidzator then elected himself as the arrowhead of all those who feel uncomfortable with the prospect of Nana once more clinching the flagbearership of the NPP to administer the coup de grace by doing everything within his power to bring Nana down. Alfred Donkor Odzidzator wants to outshine, outpace and outsmart Nana Yaw Amankwaa of New York, the self-anointed hyper critic of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Nana Yaw Amankwaa, the pseudo-politician masquerading as a dye in the wool NPP activitist, but in actual fact, a mole has been doing all he can to destroy the hard-earned reputation of Akufo-Addo.

Perhaps, Alfred Donkor Odzidzator hopes, by his strong hatred for Nana, to reposition himself at the forefront of those NDC serial writers who are poised to become some of the most powerful and influential members in Mills government today. After all, a serial invocator of some strong deities in Ghana has alleged that 80million Cedis was shared out among his fellow serial callers.

Gold-Fish Has no Hiding Place:
A colleague first drew my attention to the write up. After reading the entire piece, my initial reaction was to banish it into the dustbin of history. What was the purpose of such write-up? Why did he have to drag Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's name into his mischievous write-up in the first place? Is Nana the only person in a political party to have made a similar political statement on such an occasion? Is Nana the NPP or leader of the party? What happens to the principles of collective responsibility in governance? Why make Nana the main target of attack for the so-called failures of the NPP?

Why I was debating within myself as to why Nana should be the focus of such unwarranted attacks, the answer as if I was in a trance, quickly came to me. Goldfish has no hiding place!

Have they just woken up from their long drinking spree?

The obviously confused Alfred Donkor Odzidzator goaded on by his mentors and masters asked rhetorically whether it was just lack of appreciation on the part of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the very serious financial challenges facing our country and indeed the entire world. Has he as well as those who sent him just woken up from their deep slumber or just landed from outer space to realize that the world including major nations like the USA, Britain and the rest were facing financial challenges? When did they realize this? If they have just regained control of their reasoning faculties, they must regard themselves as the most inept, clueless and visionless leaders that unfortunately have been foisted on this dear nation of ours.

Instead of publicly acknowledging their deficiency and lack of expertise as to how to bring succour to the teeming unsmiling faces of Ghanaians, the contraption called the NDC has, according to Dr Ekow Spio Gabrah deliberately decided to whip us with scorpions in line with Rehoboam's vision, by putting aside the Team A and use Team B to actualize their evil agenda of further impoverishing the average Ghanaian. They are romancing with agents of darkness to further drive us down to the lowest rung of economic abyss.

Odzidzator's Lack of appreciation: If people like Alfred Donkor Odzidzator do not know, a little bit of education would do. He and his sponsors must appreciate the fact that the World Economic Recession did not just start with the inception of the Mills Administration. It had started midway into the second term of Kufuor's administration and the NPP government had put in place measures to cushion its negative effects. When they were told at that time to show understanding and maturity, they did not. They hit the town with their 'Wahala' and 'Yewuoo' demonstrations by castigating Kufuor's administration with glee, pretending that we were in the best of times and that the Kufuor regime was insensitive to the plight of the ordinary Ghanaian.

But now that they are in the saddle of affairs, the reality of the seemingly unending hopeless situation has dawn on them and they are asking for understanding and patience. Patience for what? Have they forgotten the fact that if you stay too long in the river, the currents will sweep you away?

Retreating According to Plan: - This brings to mind, the behavior of British troops in the face of attacks from enemies during the Second World War. An era of invincibility had been built around the British troops. The War opened the eyes of the African to the realization that the white man was human and fallible and indeed made mistakes. When the battle went against them, their officers ordered them to fall back and when questioned, the whites would reply, they were retreating” according to plan”. This is the same attitude, your party, the NDC has adopted by asking oppressed and hardworking Ghanaians to be patient with you.

Is the Ghanaian economy sick? Odzidzator states, “if Nana wants to find out why our economy is sick, he shouldn't look further than the eight years of the NPP administration of which he was the defacto number two man when he spent most of the time following Kufuor round the world instead of staying at home to manage the economy and create opportunities for all Ghanaians”.

In addressing Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the defacto number two man, I will not dwell so much on it since it is already an open secret that a Goldfish has no hiding place. But on the issue of Nana and Kufuor travelling around the world, I have this much to say. As Foreign Minister, why should Nana stay at home? Was he the Minister for Finance and Economic planning? Didn't we have a competent person to take charge of that portfolio? We did and everybody including their Founder and top NDC members testified to the competence, economic and business acumen of the then sector Minister. This was part of the tribute they paid to the late Baah Wiredu during his funeral. When Ghana needed funding from the IMF, did the ruling NDC government not give credit to the NPP administration for the able and efficient manner the regime handled the economy? The records are there and if Alfred Donkor Odzidzator is lost in his reverie, he should ask his Minister for Finance and Economic Planning for records and facts. In Government every sector Minister has his own area of jurisdiction. Straying into another person's area of jurisdiction is likely to rock the boat as is happening between the President's Spokesperson, Mahama Ayariga and the Communications Director, Koku Anyidohu.

Their travels brought lasting benefits to the country, without which the state of the economy would have degenerated to a level unprecedented in the history of the country. Without the efforts and personal ingenuity of Kufuor, Aliu Mahama, Nana and the entire NPP Administration, the feeding formula, which, prior to the inception of the NPP admin was 0:0:1 or 0:1:0, would have plummeted further to 0:0:1/2. The NPP administration brought it up to 0:1:1 or 1:0:1. But in the light of what we are seeing and experiencing now, I cannot say exactly where we are being led to.

HIPC Gains: It was the travels by Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo that culminated into the adoption of HIPC which yielded many lasting benefits for the country. Odzidzator and his cohorts should not overlook the fact that when NPP opted for HIPC, many were the hawks in the NDC who criticized it, but when the gains started accruing, they were among the first to clamour for them. This was one of the things Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo sought to portray in his address to the gathering at the launch of The Thunder which rather unfortunately, Alfred Donkor Odzidzator, either out of mischief or misunderstanding decided to throw dust into people's eyes and minds.

Kufuor and Nana's negotiation skills: Nana Akufo-Addo was not done yet. His accompanying Kufuor on his numerous trips led to the cancellation of most of Ghana's debts by her creditor countries. They also resulted in the signing and accessing of the Millennium Challenge Accounts. Do not forget the contributions of our donor countries into the NPP laudable programmes like the School Feeding Programme and the National Health Insurance Scheme. Yes, Nana did all this with a masterstroke.

And have we forgotten about Kufuor's trip to strike an oil deal with his Nigerian counterpart at the time the crude left by the departing NDC regime could only last less than two weeks. What about the cars ex – President Obasanjo of Nigeria donated to Ghana's Police Service? One must not overlook the fact this was one of the impeachment charges brought against Obasanjo by the Nigerian Legislature. Yes, those were the benefits such travels undertaken by the NPP brought to the country.

Oil? Kufuor and Nana stabilized system. Ex-President Kufuor and Nana Akufo-Addo travels brought about stabilization in the energy sector. Crude was in abundance during the NPP's regime, so much so that there was never a period that we experienced long queues as we are now having. It is the crude we imported during our time that TOR has been using since the inception of Mills' administration. This is a fact testified to by management of TOR. We never run down TOR with debts as alleged by Odzidzator and his NDC. Can Odzidzator and the numerous packs of rabid dogs in the NDC tell us the exact debt of TOR? President Mills, His vice John Mahama and others like Kwame Ametor have each been conjuring different figures from God knows where about the total indebtedness of TOR.

It was the prudent and pragmatic policies of the NPP led by ex-President Kufuor, Aliu Mahama, Nana Akufo-Addo and the rest that led to the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in the Western Region. At least, that was a vast difference between the NDC and the NPP on how we executed the mandate to scout for oil. Nana Addo and the NPP utilized the funds for its primary responsibility – the search for oil. We did not use the funds to prospect for salt as was done by the GNPC under the NDC regime.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Patriotic Ghanaians, which of the two parties, the NDC or the NPP should be charged with causing financial loss to Ghana through misapplication of funds? Continued    Source: Daniel Danquah Damptey

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