Anim-Appau Writes : Jubilee House ‘Down!’

Commentators and sponsors at the ‘Jubilee House Stadium’ got furious and disappointed when Head Coach Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko threw in the towel after suffering a 2:0 defeat before the end of the first half.

This was deduced from a statement made by one of the commentators present at the ‘2024 World Cup’ finals held at the Jubilee House stadium.

The qualifying teams for the coveted trophy were Governance and the NPP Government.

With Akufo-Addo as Captain in the goal post, the NPP government featured players like Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, Alan Cash, Ken Ofori-Atta, Afriyie Akoto and a host of others.

Meanwhile, the starting line-up of Governance included Corruption, Insecurity, One District One Factory, Fuel Price and others.

Insecurity got the first goal for Governance before Fuel Price added the second.

According to the spectators, Dr. Bawumia got tired at the 30th minute of the game but wasn’t substituted by Coach Gabriel Asare Otchere-Darko.

Matters worsened when Alan Cash was sent off by referee Alban Bagbin for brutally fouling Corruption who was dribbling its way to get a third goal for governance.

Planting for Food and Jobs was substituted along the way for Agenda 111 to exhibit its prowess but all to no avail.

One thing that sent shivers down the spine of many was when Hawa Koomson refused to be brought on looking at how things were going on the field.

Many were also bewildered with players line Ken Agyapong, Ayorkor Botchwey, Kan Dapaa and Ambrose Dery all on the bench with the likes of Adwoa Safo and others not even getting a jersey.

Afriyie Akoto’s substitution for Asenso Boakye to many was a poor decision from the bench.

Take a listen of the full commentary as captured from one of the commentators from Accra-based Ahotor FM.

Oh waow! What a masterpiece? Yes, to me it’s a masterpiece and I don’t know how you see it but this is the first time I have personally seen something like this.

Ok, so, that to some is something for the flip side and would only laugh it off irrespective of the characters involved and the message it portrays. To others it’s cheap propaganda, and there also exist those who see it as a true representation of the realities confronting the state at the moment.

What I see in that 9-minute comical but factual commentary is someone who finds no better means to communicate what he feels about the performance of the government than presenting it in the style he is duly acquainted with. Even though I do not know the person, it is obvious he is a sports journalist who loves running sports commentary.

Broadcasters speak to the conscience of government and citizens with their platforms; musicians compose songs, whilst writers codify their feelings of affairs of the state all in an attempt to help make things better. That is the reason the likes of broadcasters and musicians like Captain Smart, Johnnie Hughes, Afia Pokuaa, Okatakyie Afrifa, Lucky Mensah, A-Plus, Barima Sydney as well as other uncountable number of journos try to prune the status quo with their respective platforms. And like I said earlier, irrespective of the facts one presents in a piece of criticism, he/she is either tagged a propagandist, party man, opposition, enemy of the presidency (not enemy of the state) or a hero depending on the position of the consumer of the piece.

Aside from the ingenuity identified in the audio, one thing that triggered my writing of this piece is the unprecedented events that are characterising this particular government.

I know many would argue that the quarters from where the said audio emerged is a pro NDC radio station and therefore makes it not a news or anything enthralling as I am seeing it.

But I recall about a week or so ago when Saddick ‘the Sports Obama’ Adams on his sports show had to rant about the high cost of living and how unbearable things have become, abandoning his entire show to talk about the economy. This is where things have gotten to.

Lawyer Martin Kpebu on TV3’s The Key Points Saturday, October 29, 2022, said he now understands Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah’s question of how mothers are able to feed their children with the high cost of food after finding out the cost of certain products on the market himself.

“When the Rev Sam Korankye Ankrah asked “how would mothers buy milk to feed their kids?” I didn’t understand when he was saying it, now I understand. Nido, milk from ₵45 to ₵60. How? Alfred and look at this, let’s come to the middle class. Lots of our fellow citizens have mortgages denominated in dollars. So if at the beginning of the year your debt was $50,000 and 50×6.4, how much are we getting? Now it has more than doubled. If your debt was $50,000 at the beginning of the year multiplied by 6 times 4 you’d see that your debt would be ₵320,000. Now, that same debt $50, 000 multiplied by 14, let’s just say 14 … that’s ₵700,000(Alfred). Ah Oyiwa, have you seen it?. I mean people of Ghana how can we sit down and let this happen to us? No, the cost must go . The man who brought us all this big trouble, President Akufo-Addo, Finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta, Adu Boahen who have all made millions, they have all become triple millionaires, quadruple millionaires and everything, they should go. Lets have fresh blood, let’s have fresh ideas. So please come join the Ku me Pr3ko demonstration on Saturday 5th Nov, 7am [at the Obra Spot],” Martin Kpebu analysed to Alfred Ocansey Saturday.

I may not be as old and experienced as the Kwesi Pratt Jnrs and the Kweku Baakos, but the Akufo-Addo led administration is the worst any ordinary Ghanaian would have experienced with what I’ve observed for the past almost 22 years in perspective.
The stabilisation of prices in John Agyekum Kufuor’s time despite the global economic recession as well as the early moments of the John Mills administration which experienced the latter part of the downturn is enough evidence to tell between what constitutes the difference between doers and a rhetoric.

The Great Recession was a period of marked general decline, i.e. a recession, observed in national economies globally that occurred between 2007 and 2009. The scale and timing of the recession varied from country to country.

Meanwhile, the Akufo-Addo administration is bent on blaming their failures on the two external shocks, –COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine –whereas government revenue was all-time highest during the period in question. Whilst other economies were providing subventions for their citizens, Ghana government provided a paltry cooked rice and some 5kg bags with some provisions at some places to people. As for the “free” water and electricity, the least said about them the better because even as not everybody benefited from it, the entire nation has paid for it.

Rather than admitting that they have failed and call for opinions to help them out, the NPP government is bent on taking solace in an invasion whose victim –Ukraine –is not even complaining as much as Ghana is doing.

Many would have thought the call for the sacking or resignation of the Finance minister and his deputy would have awaken President Akufo-Addo’s senses to appreciate how worst things have become after calling earlier proponents for Ofori-Atta’s ousting unemployed and jealous.

But “intransigent Akufo-Addo” as described by Martin Kpebu still wants his cousin to remain in office until after completing the IMF negotiations and the 2023 budget preparation despite the fact that the Bretton Woods Institute deals with nations rather than individuals. The budget preparation comprises of a team as well so the President’s call for his extension in office still boggles the minds of many who are wondering where the NPP men they touted themselves as having currently are.

To the NPP loyalists who are bent on betraying the state at the expense of their party just like Akufo-Addo who thinks Ken Ofori-Atta performed wonderfully in the early stages of his leadership, don’t think Ghanaians have either forgotten or are oblivious of the fact that the IMF’s bailout in the erstwhile Mahama administration was still in force in 2017 when they took over. After the programme ended in 2017, the NPP government led by President Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the economic wizkid, went for an extension which placed the economy under the Fund for one extra year. The real problems of Ghana began in 2019 when the IMF finally exited the scene, exposing the truest incompetence of the Economic Management Team who cannot boast of any success chalked on their own for their six (6) years in office.

It has become public knowledge that the advice of the experts at the Ministry of Finance is nothing to Nana Yaw Ofori-Atta, the President’s cousin who is the Finance Minister but rather dwells on the counsel of managers from Databank and Enterprise Insurance where he is a shareholder at both.

I’ll conclude by saying that, Ghana is hot. Ghanaians are suffering. Things are hard. The increase in fuel prices is just too much. Inflation has become unbearable. The Cedi has depreciated beyond repairs. Nothing seems to be working in this country anymore except the a skyrocketing hardship.

Many are asking the entire government machinery to step down just as the coach threw in the towel in the above commentary because, from the look of things, it appears a single substitution –ousting of Ofori-Atta –cannot do any magic. Rather than that, President Akufo-Addo, just own up the problems, adopt a warlike posture and call for people around the table just as OccupyGhana told you because, with the look of things, the Minority’s file of the motion of censure amidst the Majority’s call for his sacking or resignation is a clear indication that almost the entire nation is complaining of Ken Ofori-Atta’s poor cooking skills as a chef. Yet the President wants him to cook the nation’s monumental dinner before exiting because he bought the ingredients. Meanwhile, where we will go and ease ourselves in case of a diarrhoea outbreak after consuming his meal is another topic for discussion.

The writer, Felix Anim-Appau, is a broadcast journalist with OnuaOnline. The views expressed in this piece are his personal opinions and do not reflect, in any form or shape, those of The Media General Group, where he works. Address: @platofintegrity on Twitter