Ahead of the 2024 General Elections, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and its flag bearer, Mr. John Mahama, in a desperate search for a slogan to carry them through, discovered the ’24-Hour Economy’ Policy.
Mr. Mahama must have heard of the idea on some media platform without really giving it much thought, and decided to make a statement with the idea. Without researching or giving it much thought as to how he can materialize it. Once said, though, he was stuck with it. And when the pressure came on him to explain what he meant by a ’24-Hour Economy’ he set up a committee, and forgot about it.
By then, of course, it had spurn off hundreds of billboards and commercials.
But with the 24-Hour Economy Slogan under pressure, he and his party had to find a less troublesome slogan, and thus was born ‘resetting’. According to him, he was going to ‘reset’ Ghana. Like a stopwatch, I guess.
Once again, just like with the ’24-Hour Economy’ thing, Mr. Mahama was unclear about exactly what he meant by ‘reset’. But he said it, and as is usual and expected, his people picked it up and run with it with a vengeance!
Well, by ‘reset’, some of us believed that he meant that he was going to do things differently from the way things has been done thus far in this country.
But if that is our expectation, then it seems that we are doomed to disappointment. Because, thus far, it is all too clear that Mr. Mahama has the same value as that of all his predecessors, at least in the Fourth Republic.
You see, since year 2000, when the government changed from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and every change of government since then, the heads of the various security organizations have been changed, for reasons that can only be said to be political. In some instances, people who are much younger than the compulsory retiring age of sixty have been forced to proceed on retirement because of this.
A recent example is what is happening to Dr. George Akufo-Dampare.
Now, Dampare is not a man I admire much. Unlike the many, I think that he preferred image and form over substance and quality when it comes to the Ghana Police Service. He preferred showmanship as against knowledge development and ability with principle in with regard to that institution, and I have no doubt that at some point in the future, that would blow up in our face.
But the fact that I do not find Dampare’s performance as anything to write home about, does not translate to any great admiration for the decision to change him.
You see, Ghana would truly be ‘reset’, if we can work to de-politicize certain institutions and personnel in Ghana. People like judges, police officers, electoral officers, and others in such positions, who are supposed to be civil and public servants, should be shielded from partisanship.
A day has to come in Ghana, when one President would say that he is perfectly comfortable working with the personnel chosen by his predecessor, that he believes in the competence and ability of the personnel handed over to him. He should have that level of self-confidence.
I have heard some people suggesting that such decisions are necessary in the so-called ‘security’ organizations. Well, first, I do not see the need, because it is highly doubtful that any new IGP would be more loyal to the current president, than the previous IGP. The fact, bare and brutal, is that both Dampare, and Mr. Yohuno, who is taking over from him, have worked well and comfortably in the Ghana Police Service under all governments since 1991, without any noticeable change in the quality of their output, apart from the grim fact that all the performance have been uniformly not noteworthy.
The point I am making, is that in this instance, Mr. Mahama is exactly the equal and of the same value as Mr. Kufuor, Mr. Atta Mills (may his soul rest in peace), and Mr. Akufo-Addo. They all did exactly what Mr. Mahama is doing today, changing the heads of organizations to fill the positions with party factotums or people he believes to be loyal to him, but who are indeed only loyal to themselves.
By so doing, he will politicize the system like all his predecessors before him, then, just like all of them, turn round, at some future date, to instruct them to be professional and avoid partisan pressure.
The value is indeed the same!
(PERISCOPE DEPTH of 17th March, 2025).
