By Isaac Ato MENSAH
Accra – 30 January, 2019
POTROG will deliver his State of the Nation’s address (SON’s address) to Ghana’s parliament soon – time for action.
No; not time for action as in speech writing, but time to show he is serious.
‘I will build one factory in each district….I will give each constituency one million dollars….I will establish a Zongo Development Fund…..I will build Day secondary schools in each district…..Try me also…..’
The above quotes are mine – my own paraphrase of what POTROG said.
Politics is for those who are ready; those who can punch and take punches, and take responsibility for their actions.
If you want to deny that you threw a punch, you cannot win this game.
With POTROG Abraham Lincoln’s aphorism is fulfilled ‘Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to know the real character of a man, give him power’.
If ‘All the president’s men’ are afraid to tell him what his problem is, then let me do so.
Some of us have seen and heard enough from where we sit under the neem tree.
First, you famously stated to your appointees early in January 2017: ‘If you want to make money, go to the private sector’.
Then you added to close your first quarter that you had delayed in delivering action because even though ‘I am in a hurry….I need to appoint persons with integrity’.
Never mind if the quote is not exact, the paraphrase is.
The people, we are the parliament, not the jombolijo dancers jumping around in that House.
It is us you will be addressing in the SON’s address.
First, slash down your 110 or 111 ministers to 36; an earlier article published on this blog gave suggestions.
You have been granted the six new regions even though an earlier article on this blog said that based on the Eisenhower Decision Making Model, it is ‘not urgent not important’.
In debating your SON’s address in which you will no doubt mention legislation on the six new regions, the Jombolijo House will play political football with “six new regional ministers and six new deputy regional ministers”…..you get the drift.
A way out for the recommended approximately 80 ministers ( 111 minus 36) you will disengage, is to let them vie for positions such as Regional Minister, District Chief Executive and Director of the six regions.
All these jobs are high paying respectable positions from the tax payer; they will not lose face and they must not necessarily hail from those places to qualify for the jobs.
However, if once you were afraid of these ministers because they financed your campaign, simply tell them that, they will now have to join the queue at the Jubilee House again – I almost said Jombolijo House – to prove why they can do the vacant jobs.
Come on bro, are they doing anything worthwhile now?
From the time they are sacked to their reappointment, almost half of the 80 will be earning money as parliamentarians.
The other half should learn to play Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow game; they will be laid off for just three months, according to the ideal world of the game, during which time they will have monies to go round lobbying for those jobs anyway.
Second – sanitation, sanitation sanitation!
Nothing more to add; read what is written in several pieces on this blog.
There is much more to be said but we shall stop here.
Just fix these at once! Do something important and concrete.
For the rest, the strategy and stratagem, you will be required to pay our consultancy fees.
But be warned before you hire us; WE TAKE OUR WORDS SERIOUSLY.
‘Indeed, I am in a hurry.’
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