Dear Country-Folks,
I was in a panicky mood a week ago but I feel much better now. I didn’t plan on being a one-term President. The plan was to create a lasting legacy during my second term. My tsunami defeat put all those grand plans of mine on ice.
Talking of legacy, I don’t mean infrastructure legacy. A president’s name is tagged to infrastructure only for as long as the paint on it is still fresh. Give the infrastructure an additional floor, a new design, a few extras and a new President has bragging rights. The Akans say ” Pieto bɛtoo danta” literally “the underpant came to meet the loin cloth”. In other words, every new thing merely replaces an older thing (in this case older infrastructure).
The legacies that I would really have liked to have put in place are the Kofi Diawuo types: NHIS, LEAP, MetroMass, School Feeding, NYEP (re-named GYEEDA), etc. Those I attempted in this vein were nothing to write home about, SADA being the most egregious among many.
So having lamented my electoral defeat for a week, I felt I had to use the remaining three weeks of my term to establish a legacy.
In the past week, I am sure you may have heard of some appointments I have made at the CHRAJ, the NCCE, and at the Auditor General’s. Barring any hitches, the Right to Information (RTI) Bill will also be passed. Half a legacy is better than no legacy at all, even for a one-termer like myself.
Some people have already started crying foul over these appointments, and to a lesser extent over the RTI. Well, to such people, I would say “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. They forget that I still wield Executive Powers. The same Executive Powers that I used to bring in the GITMO 3 and to release the MONTIE 3 can still be used to good effect. I might bring in a few more GITMOs, grant some more remissions of jail sentences, reduce unemployment by bringing a few thousands on to the government payroll, grant government scholarships to a few more thousands, make a few more high-level appointments, increase the salaries of those on government payroll, and sign a few more lucrative contracts. All of these I might do just by the stroke of my pen under Executive powers and all would be perfectly backed by the law, according to my legal and constitutional Advisors.
So Dear Country-Folk, until January 7, 2017, you haven’t heard the last of me as I go about establishing my legacy, even if a scorched earth one.
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