Posted:Daily Guide |Wednesday, 14 April 2010
By Charles Takyi-Boadu
Ras Mubarak
Deputy Information Minister Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa has incurred the displeasure of a leading youth activist of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mohammed Abdulai Mubarak aka Ras Mubarak.
Mubarak, a known Rawlings apologist, has now channeled his energies from complaining about President Mills’ apparent non-performance to Ablakwa for supposedly threatening to expose him (Mubarak).
The NDC youth activist told DAILY GUIDE that “after accusing me of being bitter about the Youth Congress, which of course didn’t hold, they have shifted gears to something completely nonsensical.”
Over the weekend, Okudzeto-Ablakwa was reported to have made certain comments on an Accra-based radio station, Radio Gold in which he allegedly described Mubarak as selfish, thereby attributing his incessant criticism of the Mills Administration to his inability to secure a scholarship to do his LLM at the Strathclyde University in the United Kingdom.
The comments by the deputy Minister have angered Ras Mubarak, who described Okudzeto-Ablatwa’s comments as “hopelessly naive”.
“What the junior minister doesn't understand is that, if someone were a teacher, a nurse or a driver, and the cost of living went up, that teacher or nurse wants something to change. If someone worked hard, and got their hands dirty and government reached deeper into their pay pocket, that person would want change.
If people can't get commodities like gas, stable electricity, they want something to change.”
He indicated that “if government cuts spending on higher education, and freezes scholarship indefinitely, I want something to change”, asking rhetorically, “Is that what he calls selfish interest?"
Ras Mubarak rather put the cap of selfishness on the deputy Minister, indicating that Okudzeto joined NDC from New Patriotic Party (NPP) because of what he wanted to gain.
“This is a lad who quit the NPP because he claims the party denied him opportunities,” he noted, emphasizing that “Ablakwa didn't stay to fight against the system that blunted opportunities for people like him.”
Instead, he noted, Ablakwa did not only jump ship but abandoned the NPP and came to join the NDC and therefore wondered who between the two of them could be more guided by selfish interest.
For this reason, Ras Mubarak said “Ablakwa needs some education on logic” since “you join a cause because you believe it can best advance a particular interest or ideology you subscribe to. People go on strike because the issues affect them or their friends and family.”
“This is common sense. This is someone who is so bereft of ideas he can't answer a straight question. My question is; how much has government spent on higher education? How many graduate jobs has government created since it assumed office?” he asked rhetorically.
He also denied claims by Presidential Aide Nii Lantey Vanderpuiye on Citi FM that he saw him (Mubarak) in Kumasi trying to mobilize some youth to protest against the government, describing it as “big fat lie”.
Mubarak said he only got back into the country from Amsterdam on Monday, April 5, 2010 and could not have been in Kumasi at the time Nii Lantey claimed he was mobilizing the so-called youth, stressing that he has not been to Kumasi since January this year and has not attended any gathering involving NDC members in months.
Instead of addressing the several concerns he has raised, including the issue of “government being slow in spite of the fact that even the Finance Minister thinks there's got to be a sense of urgency; government has abdicated spending on higher education and as a matter of fact has mothballed spending in critical areas.
Government hasn't taken the issue of public sector salaries seriously - and this is one of the major reasons for corruption in the public sector”.
Mubarak noted that Ablakwa and some syndicated journalists he described as “attack dogs” have resorted to politics of personal attacks.
Over the last couple of months, Mubarak has had cause to raise issues about cuts in public sector budget at a time the economy needs an injection of capital, and the NDC’s alienation of public support because the likes of Ablakwa cannot even articulate government's successes and policies but turn to International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to exacerbate the country’s problems.
He believes that Ghana’s dependency on IMF and the World Bank support is a major strategic vulnerability since these institutions create the agenda in which the world's poor must live.
He wondered why and how a nation like Ghana would circumscribe its future to these institutions, stressing that “I voted for a break from the past. I voted for opportunities.
A nation like Ghana should not leave its future in the hands of the IMF and the World Bank as we have done over and over again.”
The NDC youth activist noted that “the challenges we face give us a great moment of opportunity to help Ghanaians, and if Professor Mills is unable to rise up to the challenge, someone might have to step in and save the party.”