President John Dramani Mahama has decided to join the Serial Callers Association of his party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Given an opportunity to address Ghanaians living in Zambia on his recent trip, he decided to go over the deep end about the sale of state lands to private individuals.
Mr. Mahama, who wished to be sold his official state bungalow when he was leaving office the last time round, claimed that he had set up a committee to investigate state lands, forgetting that he himself at one time wanted to benefit from the same thing.
“We’ve set up a committee. They’ve presented their report. We’ve cancelled several leases that had not been processed… these were public lands, that were just distributed and looted, I mean people were just carving it of cheap, lands, ehm, people buying lands, government land at hundred and fifty thousand, and turn round and sell that same plot of land for two million dollars, and these are lands in prime areas, and if you look at the value of how much they are given and how much people buy them and turn around and resell them it doesn’t make sense at all, and so we’ve got a committee,” he said.
Mr. Mahama, still speaking like a serial caller, claimed that his so-called committee have mapped out lands not only in Accra but across the nation.
“They’ve mapped out not only in Accra but all the regions what the status of public lands are. In some places the people have even finished building and are even living in the houses. If you say you are going to pull down these houses and take the land back, and so in those cases where they have processed title we are asking them to pay the true value of the land. They sold land at 140,000.00 in Airport Residential Area, or so, but those that were in the process at the time we came, we halted that process, and we are taking those lands back. But when we take those lands back, it means that we must find a proper way of making sure that another group does not come and start selling them again. So I want to bring something to parliament, about divestiture of public property. If you want to sell public property you need the approval of the representatives of the people so any public land processing will not be processed at the Lands Commission unless it is ratified in parliament. This will stop the rampant sale of public assets,” he said.
The fact, however, first, the policy to sell lands or state assets began under Rawlings, if not earlier and has carried on through the succeeding governments. Many adult Ghanaians will remember the case of Nsawam Cannery and Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, where the then First Lady managed to have a prime government property sold to her organization. During part of the time when this happened, Mr. Mahama was a deputy minister but never complained.
Interestingly, when Mr. Mahama was elected out of office the last time, he requested that the Vice Presidential mansion, which is also on state land be sold to him, exposing him as a hypocrite.
Mr. Mahama in his comments also seem to forget that like his government, all previous governments are legitimate, and their contracts are binding and that such contracts cannot just be torn up on a whim.
Again, with his committee, Mr. Mahama has forgotten that the auditing of public systems belong to a particular constitutional body, and it is not the Presidency.
Land and most significant is the issue of accountability. Who is negotiating for the new prices, arriving at final prices and is dealing with the people to whom the government will decide to sell the lands, and how does the Ghanaian ensure transparency and accountability?
