manifesto - president novisi

Pal dear,


today I write to tell you that I’d take the following actions if i were elected the president of Ghana. Enjoy reading but most importantly, VOTE FOR ME:

1. first and foremost i’d be very populist in my leadership to the annoyance of all who have self-inflicted problems with dizzying understanding of the true meaning of populism!

2. i’d scream out loud and clear enough that as president i seek no popularity that is NOT backed by conscience no matter how visible my person goes public!

in that regard no one shall be allowed to use his/her public office position and public money to advertise through the media congratulatory messages to me or drink-up parties in my name and on my behalf! the case here is public money!

there shall be no billboards or statues announcing me on the scene after assumption of office! not even a privately funded one shall be entertained!

i shall be called simply by my name novisi without the need for any fantacy titles such as His Most Excellency or Sir of any knighthood of too special a group of people of what only God knows!

similarly all members of parliament shall be refered to by their names or by the constituency they represent. no more blindfolding titles of Honourble!

i shall deem it proper to visit the markets unannounced like any other person and feel free to move about when time and space allows!


3. i’d not blind my conscience with my membership of any association be it family (nuclear/extended), alumni, wee-smokers, wakye-eaters, pussy-cat lovers, Barcelona FC. fans or whatever. in other words, I’d be fair to all as much as humanly possible! my mum can only remain my biological mother, beyond that we are all individual human beings.

4. following from article (2) therefore, there shall be the conscious effort aimed with good precision at dealing a most deadly blow directly to the groins of all forms of discrimination! for example, rastamen who qualify for jobs must not be denied opportunities because of the hair they wear! neither should there be the need to state one’s religion or tribe on any form as a requirement for admissions into schools or employments or the nightclubs or the morgues.

5. very crucially I’d let it be known that I seek us all to appreciate clearly and to always remember that Ghana as a country like any other out there on this earth is an ‘artificial’ creation by men (and women). in other words, Ghana was not created by God. Ghana is manmade!

Thus we are just different people who have only chosen to come together as a country and so our differences should be celebrated as such. No man or woman is more human than another! no one is special; not the priest in the cathedral, not the thief on the street, not the representative of the gods in the shrine, not the drug-addict in the slam, not the president! hence the sovereignty of the individual would be respected with utmost regard under the constitution.

6. i’d let it be appreciated that there shall be no fetish about being patriotic! and that it should just be a natural course to serve humanity with each one of us playing his/her part! meaning that if we don’t encourage the promotion of any sense of supremacy of one tribe or race over another why should we come together as one people of a country and deem it appropriate to encourage citizens to regard our country as supreme to any other?

the absurdity therein must be made so clear for all to realize that our continuous existence on this earth is linked directly or indirectly with whatever sustainable measures are taken in other countries on this same earth! therefore if there’s a kid in Afghanistan who’s only getting opium instead of food we must care and if there’s a male child in the USA who’s only getting GM food to make him grow breast like a woman we owe it a duty as human beings to show concern! we must be worried indeed if the kids in Somalia are taking up guns and gunning down other human beings instead of having the opportunity to attend school to learn one plus one equal to two (1 + 1 = 2)!

7. corruption shall be fought head-on with great impact starting with the political leadership and made to trickle down to every nook and cranny! the fish, when it starts to rot starts from the head, not the tail. simple and that complex all combined!

8. i’d seek to let all understand that the secular nature of this ‘synthetic’ country called Ghana as defined by the constitution must be upheld with all sanctity and therefore no one religion shall be allowed to hijack state sponsored institutions and functions. there shall therefore be no room to tolerate any religious practice in government institutions by way of prayers or chants or dance! religion shall remain a private activity or mutually public as per consent of all (and the word is ‘all’ as in all) stakeholders like sexual intercourse! There shall be no rape!

9. i’d push for the legislation of a ceiling on the total number of ministers for any executive term! This number must not exceed 40. And also some ministries must be fixed so that no one can just change them or realign them depending on how severe his scrotum or breast may itch! any need to change must be determined in parliament by SECRETE BALLOT which could only be valid by the presence of two-thirds of all parliamentarians.

there would be no ‘fantacy’ ministers like minister for a region or a senior/junior minister or a minister for children and women! there would be no minister for adults and men! and there would be no minister without a suitcase or portmanteau; or no sorry, portfolio! no, no, no!

10. i’d seek to appeal to the consciences of the masses so that appropriate action is taken to legislate the abolishing of the chieftain system as an embodiment of authority. don’t worry over this pal, i already know it would be very controversial. but the bare facts must be faced:

i’d seek to let all appreciate the fact that the chieftain system is no unique one to Ghanaians or Africans for that matter and that all over the world human beings have had chiefs and queens as and when they so desired and that for our secular democratic establishment to thrive we must have no ‘pockets’ of authority placed in the hands of only a selected few by virtue of any so designated by man for man ‘special’ reproductive organs powered by so called royal blood!

Altenatively, anything close to the continuous existence of the chieftain system must be guided by the following options:

a) any kind of chief or king or odikro or asafoatse shall only exist as a ‘place-holder’ of a ceremonial position. thus no chief/king shall have any executive power! absolutely none!
b) any such chief or paramount chief as allowed by 8(a) shall be elected by open, free and fair democratic elections. This is to ensure participation by all and the people may choose to carry their chief in a palanquin or make him walk barefoot! no problem at all!
c) as the constitution stipulates already, there shall be no kingdom in Ghana and hence no king or super king!

11. There shall be uninhibited freedom of speech. anyone and everyone shall have the right to say or write or sing or signal whatever by way of communication through whatever media be it classroom teaching black/white boards with chalk or charcoal or by email. the enjoyment of this right shall NOT be subject to any pre-condition.

in like manner everyone else, apart from political public office holders shall reserve the right to challenge, if offended, anything said by anyone in the law courts and punitive measures therein sought shall not equal those for criminal offenses. hence everyone shall be responsible for anything he or she says or writes!

in that regard, the president shall course appropriate action by legislation to institute a national day of insults directed at leadership as a whole and the president in particular specially to HAMMER HOME the point of allowing freedom of expression of the word verbally or by written text or whatever!

this day shall NOT be a holiday and it shall pass only as a special marking of liberation of the word in spirit and form in addition to the everyday opportunity to express oneself at will that shall exist anyway!

political leadership and for that matter anybody occupying a position of trust shall not enjoy the right to sue for any offense to him/her by any such expression of words as speech or text or song pertaining to his work in anyway while in office or out of office due to privileges made available by the taxpayer and for the oaths taken to serve the people knowing that actions and inactions of leadership impact on the lives of all citizens however remotely. this therefore shall be an accepted hazard of the job by law!

it must be noted that this exercise seeks to rubbish the claim by some religious warnings like the bible which admonishes that the tongue should not be used anyhow or else it can kill. we must understand that we cannot hold the tongue responsible for any wrong done by any other part of our bodies.

for example, if your tongue screams “kill” and you go ahead to kill someone with your hand, why should we blame the tongue for the killing instead of the hand that killed. in like manner one cannot and should not be held responsible for murder committed by his/her mother just because they are related by blood.

all private media houses shall have (not given but just have) automatically the right to direct their own broadcasts as they deem fit under the constitution.

there shall be no state direction of editorial policy whatsoever! to ensure the erasing of any such semblance the constitution shall be amended appropriately to take away the power of the president to appoint two persons to the National Media Commission. that provision is absolutely useless and foolish indeed.

all state media houses however shall be guided by clear regulations to ensure political and other social balances in their broadcast!

*for the avoidance of any doubt the exercise of this freedom of expression by way of words shall be recognized as only a fundamental expression and shall NOT include all other forms of human expression such as throwing one’s hand to hit another woman’s bottom. It shall NOT cover physical actions like movement of body parts. period! in other words a child may play with the mother’s breast but definitely not the fathers scrotum! (the mother and breast here refer to leadership and whatever issues one may have against it while ‘the father and the scrotum’ is represented here by private person and any falsehood against him/her)! hence so responsibility for issues raised against private persons on the part of he/she who is communicating whatever issue shall not be in doubt.

12. i shall seek to abolish the school feeding programme and rather ensure that parents have opportunities to earn handsome and beautiful incomes to take care of their kids. if schools should engage in feeding children then parents shall pay for the service directly to ensure that there is accountability from the schools and that the foot served is proper so that parents shall be encouraged to inspect the food served!

13. i’d realign the national youth employment programme under the national service scheme with proper resourcing of the national service scheme to come up with old and innovative ways of making sure the youth are not allowed to waste away!

everyone must be involved in doing something meaningful for development. and in that regard, I’d course it to be properly communicated by my own self without a special assistance or a speaking-person for me that that is what the economy is about and not abstract and sometimes twisted figures of inflation or gdp or indices generated out of balloon bellies. the economy is all about the little that everyone does. simple as that!

14. there shall be no ex-gratia! every government employee shall have proper salary and placement on the pension scheme! i’d institute moves to ensure that aside needed privileges, political office holders do not earn as income anything that does not fit into the general economic situation so that what the political office holder earns would not be too different by a measure of not more than double from what the teacher in Asawase earns! i repeat; there shall be no ex-gratia!

upon my completion of service to you i shall be the one who would thank you dearly for the opportunity granted to have the honour of serving you! it shall not be the other way round! and Jesus died on the cross but not in vain!

15. i shall pursue with vigor and alacrity the unification of Africa at least economically in an effort to seek economic independence for the African continent! and in that regard, there must be a conscious effort to raise the stakes so very high in order to do away with any traits of the likes of idi Amin Dada, Mobuto Sese Seko, Empireror Bokassa Charles Tailor, Samuel Doe, Eyadema, Abacha, etc, etc, etc!




epilogue:
i shall take other step as appropriate to ensure the people whose tax and in whose name i seek aid as need get their monies worth!

should i be elected president by you pal, this definitely shall be the covenant i shall sign with you and proceed to execute and i shall judge my performance by same principles herein.

meanwhile, in private life (before and hopefully after i become president) i shall reserve the private right as a human being to judge the performance of others who get elected into office to hold in trust the collective purse and other resources of the populace.