SABOTAGE WITHIN? President Mahama must look Inside His Own Den for Enemies

President John Dramani Mahama

By Ekow Mensah

The GYEEDA report and its handling so far tells the whole story. President John Dramani Mahama is in very big trouble but the trouble makers are in his own backyard.

Yes, it is true that some elements of the opposition have embarked upon a campaign of lies, slander and vilification against the President but that is not the whole story.

The deeds of the misguided elements in the opposition would have come to nothing if Presidential staffers, ministers and other Government functionaries were doing their work and were committed to the defence of the very government which has turned some of them into big men and women.

How come that the GYEEDA report has come to symbolise corruption in the Mahama administration, when indeed the real import of the report deals with institutional lapses dating back to 2006?

Who can explain how the draft of the committee’s report has come to be accepted as the final report presented to the President and is being discussed as such?

Why was the President drawn directly into this controversy by the presentation of a report of a Ministerial enquiry to him for action?

These are interesting questions to which answers will reveal that the President has thrust himself into a den of starving lions ready to devour his flesh for their satisfaction and to his pain.

First, the opposition had no role in the setting up of the committee, its work and the presentation of its final report to the President.

If the report or its draft has been leaked to the media, no one can hold the opposition responsible. The leakers must necessarily come from either the ministry or the Flagstaff House.

In trying to phantom what the motives of the leaker(s) may be, it is important to go right back to the early days of the Mills administration.

This is the period in which high and low ranking members of the NDC sought to discredit the National Youth Employment Programme as part of a grand design to facilitate a takeover of the business of Zoomlion. They screamed to the high heavens that Zoomlion had been created by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a tube for siphoning resources from the state.

These loud noise makers had so soon forgotten the Eddie Annan case, in which NPP die hards had used the same strategy to cripple the waste management business of an NDC sympathiser and ended up plunging the country into huge judgement debts.

The clamour to kill Zoomlion left in its wake the impression that many of the modules of the NYEP were riddled with massive corruption and this continued to feed the agitation leading to the setting up of the Committee of Enquiry by Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, Minister for Youth and Sports.

Interestingly, the draft of the GYEEDA report which is the subject of wild discussions states inter alia “GYEEDA did not start with an instrument of inception when the programme commenced in 2006. Cabinet discussed and gave approval for the commencement of the programme after identifying sources of funding such as the District Assemblies Common Fund, the Road Fund, the National Health Insurance Fund and the Communication Service Tax. Hence the refrain generally held that NYEP commenced only with a “Cabinet Fiat”. The failure of cabinet in 2006 to ensure that NYEP took off within the framework of a rigorous legal cover taking into account the expansive nature of its programes was without foresight. This is the case particularly, as new structures such as the District Employment Task Force (DETA force) and the National Employment Task force (NET force) were introduced into the existing Public Sector institutional framework.

“The laws setting up these sources of funding, for instance, the District Assemblies Common Fund Act, 1994 (Act 455) were not amended to cater for the financial needs of the programme. The man power to manage the programme was not recruited through the regular public sector recruitment processes. Therefore, NYEP staff did not have appointment letters. In addition, SPS were not competitively recruited. These among several other factors did not set the right foundation for a smooth take off of an otherwise laudable initiative with a very strong business case?

The GYEEDA committee was emphatic that “the greatest problem” it encountered was absence of a workable framework which would ensure transparency, accountability and probity and it said so very clearly.

 It wrote “The greatest problem faced by GYEEDA is the absence of an appropriate governance framework. This evidently, contributed to other system failures. GYEEDA lacks a legal basis and accordingly did not have a board of directors for the needed oversight and direction. This is the situation of GYEEDA even though at the inception stage of the programme, the need for an oversight body to provide strategic direction was identified, a governing board was never appointed. As was the case, various ministers of MOYS, the National Co-ordinator of NYEP and the Chief Director of MOYS were those responsible for providing leadership.

The committee observed with great dissatisfaction, the general lack of commitment on the part of leadership of NYEP to protect the public purse particularly related to ensuring value for money. GYEEDA lacks adequate operational and administrative manuals resulting in limited or non-adherence to relevant rules, regulations and procedures prevailing in the public service such as employment of staff without recourse to Public Service procedure.”

The committee did not hesitate in laying blame for the mess at GYEEDA at the door step of both the NPP and NDC administrations. It wrote; “The committee is of the view that various ministers including Hon. Kofi Adda, Hon. Boniface Abubakar Saddique , Hon. Nana Akomea, Hon. Mahammed Muntaka, Hon Rashid  Pelpou, Hon Akua Dansua, and Hon Clement Kofi Humado, the Chief Director  of  MOYS and NYEP/ GYEEDA  National  Co-ordinators were those in position to provide leadership to make sure  that the objective of this laudable programme were realised as efficiently as possible. It is clear however that the requisite level of influence, commitment and circumspection and or leadership required of persons entrusted with the management of public funds was not exercised at all times. Ghana must do all it can to sustain this programme for the sake of the youth ...”

The committee went ballistic when it described the incompetence of the Chief Financial officer of GYEEDA. It states “the current CFO (  Deputy National Co-ordinator, Finance), the most senior finance person has no track record as a competent head of finance, indeed, the CFO admits he lacks the training and experience to operate effectively as head of finance. Accordingly, he is not able to bring best practice influence to bear on GYEEDA in terms of demonstrating financial responsibility, transparency, accountability and ethical conduct in financial resource management .....”

Indeed, the President is not mentioned even once in the GYEEDA report and yet he is the one who takes all the flak. This is the case because of the tendency in his own administration to heap all the rubbish on him and take all credit away from him. Most Ministers are quick to take the credit for all the good that happens in their sectors but with the speed of lighting all negatives are heaped on President Mahama.

Perhaps, the President himself also ought to take some of the blame. Why did he receive the GYEEDA report when he did not set up the committee? If the Ministry of Youth and Sports which set up the committee had to report to the President it had to prepare its own conclusions on the report for the consideration of the President. It did not. It simple made the President the fall guy.

Unfortunately, the ministry just got hold of the report and handed it over to the President for him to sweat over it and face public ridicule and anger.

At the end of the day the Minister of Youth and Sports is looking very good and the President is looking very bad in the eyes of the public.

Having read through the report very carefully, it is also clear that the Mills administration initiated moves to cure the ills of the NYEP especially under leadership of Clement Kofi Humado.

It was in this period that consultants were engaged to develop an organisational structure for GYEEDA and also to draft a law regulating its operations.

In the heat to blame the President for every and anything, these far reaching measures are overlooked and the Presidential bashing continues unabated.

The problems with the appointment of Municipal and District Chief Executives, the agitations on the labour front, the unease on the campuses of the universities and some unreasonable economic measures which all plaque the Mahama administration are avoidable.

They have assumed huge dimensions because it appears that no clear center has emerged in Government and also because it is increasingly becoming an everybody for himself and God for us all affair.

President Mahama must sit up or his own people will finish him even before the opposition gets close.

For now, the problem is not the opposition but the President’s own people.

Editorial

SACK THEM NOW!

 President John Dramani Mahama should have realized by now that he needs to make drastic changes in his team if it is to become victorious.

 First, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hear the government s’ side in the unfolding debate about the state of the nation.

This is firmly illustrated by our front page lead story of today our which is a pointer to the weakness of Government’s communication.

The growing tendency of blaming everything that goes wrong  the President whiles ministers and other appointees desperately try to appropriate all that is good should bother the President.

Indeed, the growing public perception is that the Government has done little or nothing over the last seven months.

 This perception is fueled by the needless agitation over the appointment of Municipal and District Chief Executives, the financial squeeze in the public sector and the agitations on the labour front.

The President needs to know that perceptions are also realities in so far as they express public opinion.

The Insight urges the President to take urgent action to instill some discipline into his appointees.

It is time to sack those who have not made the mark.

Please sack them now!

AKOSUA AGYAPONG AT FREEDOM CENTRE

Akosua Agyepong

Akosua Agyepong has more than a sweet melodic voice. She is also beautiful and perhaps one of the most accomplished dancers on the Ghanaian musical scene.

Akosua has accepted an invitation to be a special guest at the Freedom centre’s Monday Grove “on September 2, 2012.

The event is to mark the 20^th anniversary of the establishment of “The Insight”.

It will be Akosua’s second appearance at the Freedom Centre and she will be in good company.

Sister Jessica, the reggae super star, the Poet have all accepted invitations to perform.

It is expected that other popular comedy stars and poets will feature on the programme.

This event will be followed the next day, Tuesday, September, 2013 with a public lecture by Dr Tony Aidoo on “The Media and National Development”.

Honourable Mahama Ayariga, the Minister of Information will also open an exhibition at the Freedom centre to mark the occasion.

According to organizer persons who have contributed significantly to the development of “The Insight” will also be honoured at the events.

Those who have been invited to participated in the events include NII Lante Blankson, an award winning musician, Dr Yao Graham of the Third World Network and Professor Agyemang Badu Akosah.

Readers of “The Insight”, members of the Socialist Forum of Ghana, all Nkrumaists and the general public are cordially invited.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urges end to sanctions

President Hassan Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged the West to drop sanctions and treat Tehran with respect, during his inauguration speech to parliament.

MPs cheered as he said: "If you want an adequate response, you shouldn't speak the language of sanctions, you should speak the language of respect."

Mr Rouhani, 64, nominated a cabinet that included as foreign minister ex-UN envoy Mohammad Javad Zarif, a moderate.

The US said it would be a "willing partner" if Iran "engages seriously".

The White House said Iran should meet its international obligations and deal with international concern over its nuclear programme.

Mr Rouhani, a former nuclear negotiator who has worked as a diplomat for three decades, won a surprise victory in June's election.

He gained support from reformists by hinting at a more moderate stance than his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

'Yes' to moderation

In his speech, Mr Rouhani told parliament: "All of those who voted, whether they voted for me, someone else, or even if they didn't vote, all of them are Iranian citizens and have citizenship rights."

He said the people had voted "yes" to moderation and hope. He promised to advance women's rights and freedoms and to reduce the government's interference in people's lives.

He also said he would work to turn around the ailing economy, with inflation currently running at about 40%.

Most experts say the economy was grossly mismanaged under Mr Ahmadinejad.

But it was further crippled by sanctions, which stopped Iran from bringing in hard currency from its main export, oil.

Although Mr Rouhani is president, the final say on policy issues still resides with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

State news agency Irna reported that 11 foreign presidents were among those watching as Mr Rouhani took the oath of office in parliament, the Majlis.

Veep Amissah Arthur meets Iranian Speaker of Parl.

Among the foreign dignitaries attending was senior North Korean official Kim Yong-nam, who held talks with Mr Rouhani on Saturday.

Iran and North Korea have close ties and both face opposition to their nuclear programmes from the West.

Mr Rouhani used to be Iran's chief negotiator on nuclear issues and has held discussions in the past with former European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who is also in Tehran for the swearing-in.

Mr Solana said on his twitter feed that he had known Mr Rouhani since 2000, adding: "It's good to have channels open."

One of the leaders unable to attend was Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Saudi Arabia refused to allow a plane carrying Mr Bashir to enter its territory, forcing it turn back to Khartoum.

Has South Africa Changed? 

Nelson Mandela

By Ronnie Kasrils

The battle for the soul of the ANC, from 1991 to 1996, has been lost to corporate power and influence.

Struggle veterans are frequently asked: Was the sacrifice really worth it? While my answer is decidedly affirmative I must confess to grave misgivings too for I believe we should be doing far, far better. Twenty years into freedom, the more pernicious obstacles to our doing so cannot any longer be blamed on the apartheid legacy.

There have been impressive achievements since 1994 in building houses, churches, schools, roads and infrastructure; the delivery of water and provision of electricity to millions; free education and healthcare; increases in pensions and social grants; financial and banking stability; and a slow but steady increase in economic growth  up to the 2008 international meltdown, at any rate.

These gains, however, have been offset by a breakdown in service delivery, resulting in violent protests by poor and marginalised communities; gross inadequacies and inequities in the education and health sectors; the ferocious rise in unemployment; endemic police brutality and torture; unseemly power struggles within the ruling party that have grown far worse since the ousting of Thabo Mbeki in 2008; an alarming tendency to secrecy and authoritarianism in the government; meddling with the judiciary and threats to the media and freedom of expression. Even Nelson Mandela's privacy and dignity are violated for the sake of cheap photo opportunism by the ANC's beaming top echelon.

Of utmost concern is the increasing dysfunction of the state machinery, maladministration and incompetence at national, provincial and municipal levels because of the practice of appointing unqualified cronies to senior posts. Lack of leadership is starkly illustrated in such matters. Such scandals as the non delivery of textbooks to schools; the wasteful expenditure of more than R200-million on security at President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home and the manner in which the Gupta family, current favoured transnational corporate pals of our president, are making South Africa look like a banana republic.

Add this to the extravagant ministerial expenditure on luxury limousines and hotels, as well as the enormous graft linked to the manipulation of tenders and awarding of state contracts to cronies and cousins the list is depressing and endless. Crony capitalism and corruption as a way of life stare us in the face.

Most shameful and shocking of all, reflective of how far the ruling party and the government have lost their way, came on Bloody Thursday, August 16 2012, when the police massacred 34 striking miners at Marikana platinum mine, owned by London-based Lonmin.

Barbarity
It was the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 that prompted me to join the ANC. I found Marikana more distressing because it occurred in the democratic South Africa we had sacrificed for and which was meant to bring an end to such barbarity.

Our liberation struggle had reached a high point, but not its zenith, when we overcame apartheid rule. How much further along the revolutionary road could we have proceeded under the conditions we inherited? Our hopes were high that we could make the necessary advance given South Africa's modern industrial economy, its range of strategic mineral resources (not only gold and diamonds), the unprecedented upsurge of the masses and a working class and organised trade union movement with a rich tradition of struggle.

That optimism overlooked the resources and tenacity of a powerful international corporate capitalist system with the ability to seduce and corrupt on a grand scale. That was the time, from 1991 to 1996, that the battle for the soul of the ANC got under way and was lost to corporate power and influence.

We took an International Monetary Fund loan on the eve of our first democratic election and had already imperceptibly succumbed to the guile and subtle threats of the corporate world, which had been chipping away at revolutionary resolve for some years. That loan, with strings attached that precluded a radical economic agenda, was considered a necessary evil at the time, as were the concessions to keep negotiations on track and take delivery of the promised land for our people.

We walked into that in the misguided belief that there was no other option. Perhaps more inexcusable for us than that was losing faith in the ability of our own revolutionary masses to overcome, in united action, with correct theory and reliable leadership, all obstacles. With those masses, who were so fundamental to destroying apartheid, we would arguably have had the means and the resources to press home the huge advantages the revolution was gaining at the time.

Moving to control the heights of the economy would have placed us in a position to truly turn things around. To lose our nerve, go belly-up, was neither necessary nor inevitable. It required that the ANC did not stray from its noble principles and objectives and especially from its commitment to serve the people. This would have given it the hegemony it required not only over the entrenched capitalist class that ruled the economic roost but over emergent elitists, many of whom would seek wealth through black economic empowerment, corrupt practices and selling political influence.

Responsibilities and government portfolios
History will judge whether we lost a golden opportunity in making the concessions we did regarding economic control. I do not want to be self-serving here. I was as guilty as others in focusing on my own responsibilities and government portfolios and leaving the economic issues to the ANC experts.

Too often both the revolutionary soldier and the political activist leave economic affairs to the specialists. My greatest mistake is having neglected economic study. Would-be revolutionaries need to wake up every morning and exclaim: "It's the economy, stupid! Understand it."

At present, the impoverished masses do not see any other hope on the horizon than through the ruling party, though the ANC's ability to hold those allegiances is deteriorating. Most voters want socialist policies, not measures inclined to serve big business interests, privatisation and neoliberal economics.

This does not mean it is only up to the ANC, the South African Communist Party and trade ­union federation Cosatu to rescue the country from crises.

Civil society is an essential force for defending and developing democracy, as has been demonstrated by the Treatment Action Campaign on Aids, the Right2Know protests against the Protection of State Information Bill, Cosatu's resistance to e-tolling, the uprising of farmworkers and mineworkers for a living wage, and the consistent demands by striking workers and angry communities throughout the land, which show how pressure from the streets with good leadership and discipline can prevail.

Then there are the legal avenues and institutions such as the public protector's office and the Human Rights Commission, as well as the ultimate appeal to the Constitutional Court, to test, expose and challenge injustice and infringement of rights. Organised, carefully thought-out strategies and tactics at trade union, civic, community, faith-based, gender, student, youth, cultural, professional and grass-roots level non-violent, dignified, disciplined, militant action signpost what needs to be done and the way ahead.

Above all we must ensure that the economy is placed under strategic public control and made to work for the many, not the few. We look to the workers and the "born-frees" as the future torchbearers.

This is an edited extract from the introduction to the new edition of Armed and Dangerous: My Undercover Struggle Against Apartheid by Ronnie Kasrils, to be published this year by Jacana. He was deputy minister of defence from 1994 to 1999, minister of water affairs and forestry (1999 to 2004) and minister of intelligence (2004 to 2008)

The Mad Kenyan Woman Who Rattled the British

                Mekatilili Menza

By Fred Oluoch

Mekatilili wa Menza may have been in the freedom struggle scene for a short time, but her contribution in raising the African consciousness among the Giriama people of the Coastal Kenya was immense.

Mekatilili was one of the first women in Kenya to rise up against the British in 1913. Her bravery, oratorical power and charisma earned her a huge following and saw her mobilise the Giriama to take oaths and offer sacrifices to restore their sovereignty.

Initially, her concern was the breakdown of the Giriama culture amid British influence and she pushed for a return to the traditional Giriama governance system. By extension, it created resistance to the authority of the British and the appointed headmen, the latter whom she accused of betraying the Giriama for rewards.

Mekatilili was particularly against the issue of labour recruitment. At the time, the British were putting increasing economic pressure on the Giriama, through taxation, attempts to control trade in palm wine and ivory, and by the recruitment of young men to work on plantations and public works projects.

Mekatilili’s anguish was over the growing disintegration of the Giriama, so she called upon her people to save their sons and daughters from getting lost in the British ways.

While her rebellion lasted for only one year, from 1913 to 1914, it had considerable impact on the relations between the British and the locals.

The British won the war against the Giriama, who were forced into a stringent peace settlement.

But, in the long term, the British government removed land restrictions and lightened labour demands.

The Giriama achieved the main goals for which they had originally fought in the longer term, but the virtual withdrawal of the colonial administration from the Giriama hinterland may have contributed to its isolation and economic stagnation to date.

Born in the 1840s, Mekatilili was the only daughter in a poor family of five children. Historians attribute her strong feelings on the issue of labour to a personal tragedy, in that one of her brothers was captured in front of her eyes by Arab slave traders.

She married but was later widowed, which gave her more freedom to move around as a woman leader.

We are not to fear the Europeans, she thundered in many of her gatherings, which in most cases ended in taking of powerful oaths that effectively prevented all Giriama from co-operating with the colonial administration.

Colonial hut tax

Mekatilili opposed forced labour in British-owned rubber and sisal plantations, the colonial hut tax (forcing every family to give money to the British), land seizure evictions from the fertile Sabaki River Valley and restricted consumption of palm wine.

To attract the crowds to her meetings, she used to move from one village to another dancing Kifudu, a revered dance that was performed only during funeral ceremonies. The women would follow her, their men in tow.

Archival records show that Charles Hobley, who was the Coast provincial commissioner from 1912 to 1919, attributed most of the responsibility for Giriama resistance against colonial labour and taxation policies to an old blind rascal named Ngonyo who instigated a half-mad woman named Katilili to tour the country preaching active opposition to Government.

She was instrumental in the most important meeting held in Kaya Fungo, the ritual centre of the Giriama, in July and August 1913, where she led the discussions and complained about labour demands and the jurisdiction of the traditional elders being undermined.

She said the wages which headmen received gave the government the belief that they had a right to demand cheap labour.

But the British were not just sitting by. Mekatilili and a male leader of the Giriama resistance, Wanje wa Mwadorikola, were arrested in October 1913 and sentenced to five years detention.

The two were deported to the far west of Kenya, Mumias, but escaped a few months later and walked back home to continue with the resistance.

The British were mesmerised by how she could have walked such a distance through the forest infested with dangerous wild animals. She was again arrested, this time to be sent north to the Somalia border area. Again, she escaped.

Mekatilili was variously described by the British as a witch and a prophetess who gave additional force to the oath in spreading the gospel of violence.

But her powerful oaths were not to fight the colonialists, but to try to win back those Giriama who had transferred their loyalties to the British.

Despite her exploits, Mekatilili, who died in 1925 at the age of 70, was not recognised among Kenyan freedom fighters until October 20, 2010, the first Mashuja (Heroes) Day, when her statue was unveiled at Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi renamed Mekatilili wa Menza Garden in her honour.