There is every reason for concerns about the pressure of the need for the Ghanaian housing situation to be urgently addressed. Every effort by anybody to arrest the situation is a welcome thing and more so by the popularly democratic elected president of Ghana. Of course this is one of the reasons why the president was elected by the masses of Ghana. However, the recent effort by the sitting government to solve this problem has received reactions from almost every quarter of the Ghanaian socio-eco-political constituents. Everything possible has been employed to kick against this seemingly noble venture, but why? To the common mind, one could not just imagine why anybody in his/her normal sense should be stopping the sitting government of Ghana from not embarking on this venture that is being vendor as the solution to the housing problems of Ghana. THE REALITITES OF STX-GOG SAGA What is practically unfolding itself in Ghana today by all concerned is exposing the anomalies of the STX-GOG hosing project deal as well as preparing the premises for exploiting the situation by making political capital out of it. This does not even exclude the sitting government. Based on all arguments from all quarters, particularly the NPP faction in Ghana whose eight years of government exhibited identical lack of consideration for accountability in the employment of the resources of the people of Ghana, is this call for the termination of the STX deal the best for option Ghana? Well, if the interest of Ghana is to stand as the most paramount concerns of every one of us and we are convinced that we are all equally responsible for any negative outcome in the long run, then the answer is yes! IS THE SITTING PRESIDENT OF GHANA ON TOP OF THE GAME IN THE STX SAGA? In deed it is a relief to learn that the bill to parliament on this issue has been recalled by the president for review. This position in itself is a clear indication that the sitting government did not do its home work properly before embarking on the project in the first place. It is also an indication that the president is not on top of the game or even far from a project of this magnitude that will have everything to do with his legacy as a president of Ghana at this point in time. Based on what we are experiencing, it is becoming obvious that the president is just a novice as any one of us, as far as the STX project is concern. The president is just being informed like anyone of us about what is happening while the real job is an exclusive business of some few, who are not directly responsible to the Ghanaian electorate. HOW INFORMED ARE GHANAIANS ON STX? The most obvious picture about this STX contract is the element of inconsistency and a clear lack of transparency surrounding the project that is making it look like some doggy deal being imposed on the people of Ghana by some faceless interest that are actually not accountable to Ghanaians but to their pay masters by their selfish agendas. In all this, certain fundamental facts are missing and most of our socio-eco-political commentators are struggling to unearth these things but for their personal circumstances, the real truth is yet to be told. Who will be blaming our current Ghanaian political activists, as victims of the realities of today’s Ghanaian political bankrupted state, for not being able to unearth the truth? Predominant among most Ghanaian political commentators on this STX concerns is the consensus that unless Ghana commit itself to external debt, no houses in Ghana can be build by the Ghanaian government for Ghanaians. For or against, one thing that all these activists share in common is that the destiny of the Ghanaian can never be of any good to him/her unless he/she is subjected to external debt of slaver. Kwasi Pratt Jnr. Kwaku Baku, Tony Adu, Raymond Archer, do all concur. HAVE YOU HOWEVER CONSIDERED THE FOLLOWING CONCERNS ABOUT THE STX-GOG DEAL? In our effort to expose the truth, we shall embark on asking some questions for you to make your own conclusions; 1. Going by the Minister of Works and Housing, Albert Abongo recently to the Ghanaian media that the government will construct 100,000 housing units over the next eight years through public-private partnerships as part of its efforts to meet rising housing demand in the country, is this STX-GoG deal of 200,000 houses across Ghana not the private-public partnership in question? 2. The issue before us here is about housing for Ghanaians and how best the Government of Ghana can rise up to the challenge of addressing the concerns about meeting up with the housing needs of Ghanaians. Does this not means the Ghanaian government resorting to STX which is a Korean Company as the best way to address our housing needs a clear expression of total lost of confidence on local builders? Does this as well not indicates that the privatization of the State Housing Corporation and other government ventures have failed as what is coming out of all this is our own government having more confidence in external builders as an alternative to our local builders? 3. Now that suddenly there has sprung up overnight an offshoot of the mother Korean company in Ghana tagged “STX Ghana Limited” just to full fill the condition of seeing the deal through than a company in Ghana for a genuine intention of doing business before this uproar, is this not enough premises for the masses of Ghana to feel the unbearable stink the whole deal? 4. Since technically the STX Ghana come into existence just for the sole purpose of obtaining contract and the most likelihood that the real faces behind the STX masquerade are individuals within the sitting government with the STX Ghana Limited as a mere front to con Ghanaian, is this not obvious that the company will as well cease to exist should this project fail to see the light of the day? 5. On the subject matter itself, housing comprises of Social or Commercial housing. In the case of Social housing provision, the focus is more about need than the ability of the beneficiary, in this case Ghanaians. Since about 65% of the Ghanaian population live on far below $10US per day and almost every one of these people is homeless, should anyone take this bogus official position of 100,000 housing deficit figures as a joke or anything serious? 6. With the understanding that each house will be costing between $30,000- $40,000 over 30 years, by the Ghanaian standard this will automatically qualify for a Commercial Housing project. If this is going to be a private interest with the sole aim being driven by profit instinct, why should the Ghanaian tax payer be the one footing the bill as is being made clear in this case? 7. Who is actually going to be the owner of the 200,000 housing units to be built in Ghana; is it the STX or the Ghanaian government? 8. If it is going to be the STX as it is now being the case; either as STX Korea or STX Ghana LTD., how come the Ghana government is being the sovereign sole guarantor of the loan STX is obtaining from its lenders? 9. If, rather the housing unites belongs to the Ghanaian government and all that STX is doing is to serve as a construction firm for the Ghanaian government, does this not mean that the Ghanaian government should be the one to obtain its own loan and then contract STX to do the job of house building? 10. If it is a joint venture between the Ghanaian government and STX, then is it not obligatory on both parties to be the signatories to the collection of loans and equally liable in case of default in payment as a result of unforeseen circumstances? 11. If something goes wrong, like similar loans in the pasts Ghana obtained for capital projects that ended up unviable by changes in the prearranged circumstances to meet up with planned expectations, will STX be the one to bear the consequences or this will be added to the stock of debts the Ghanaian government owe to external interests? 12. It is very common these days to hear individuals in the current government of Ghana publically informing us Ghanaians that the money for the venture is something the STX borrowed or loaned from foreign investors to build houses in Ghana; is this not in the interest of Ghanaians to know who this benevolent lender is since our government is said to be the guarantor of the said loan? 13. If the $10 billion loan is coming from the Korean government as we are being made to believe by some of our government officials and spokes persons, is the loan to the Ghana government or to STX? 14. If the debtor to be is STX, why must the Ghanaian government put itself forward as the debtor on behalf of STX? Considering the fact of the reality of managing the loan, STX will be much more the manager of its business and its loan than it shall be of the Ghana government, how then vulnerable is the interest of the Ghanaian? 15. If STX is in Ghana to do business to make profit like any other businesses, why should the Ghanaian government in the name of the people and tax payers of Ghana allow itself to be roped so much into such a private debt? 16. If our current experience with Kosmos is anything to learn from; is it not good to know if the contract with STX is transferable or not? 17. Now that we are being told that the Ghana government on behalf of the people of Ghana is the guarantor of this loan being obtained by STX Korea or Ghana, and the fact that in the business world any company can go into liquidation and its asset put under administration, what will be the fate of the state of Ghana when it will have to be forced to deal with a third party other than STX just due to how much we allowed ourselves to be tied to the loan as its guarantor? 18. In the worst case scenario, such eventuality could result in a third party, in this case Ghana could be faced with an arch-enemy like Kosmos, who will be selling her interest in Ghana to another third party at 4,000% profit, what will be the fate of the poor people of Ghana? 19. In the quagmire of the STX-GoG saga, there is every indication that mortgaging the houses is the main intention of both the Ghanaian government’s share of the houses to the security ser vices and that of the STX share to the Ghanaian public; has the government indeed taken a second look at the long term consequences of this? 20. On the position that the STX is going to be selling its own share o the houses as mortgage to be paid instalmentaly by Ghanaians to STX, what happens to the poor Ghanaian when inflation set in as our currency is highly prone to fluctuations? Is the poor man going to be at the mercy of the Casino Bankers and their financiers fiddling with the rate of interest? Is our government going to be deciding the rate of repayment and its changes or is going to be by the volatile “market forces?” 21. How shall the interest of the poor Ghanaians be protected against the organized Korean firm whose sole objective is to make as much profit as possible from the Ghanaian? 22. How painful shall the situation be when one day the Ghanaian wake up to the reality that our current government that took Ghanaians into such obnoxious deal did not only gave the Korean mouth wetting concession of all types but also the guarantor of the loan for the deal? 23. How worse will the situation be if the Ghanaian should realize that in addition to all the benefits that Ghana government is making available to the STX Korean firm which no any other firm has ever enjoyed in the history of Ghana, there is also a legal backing enough to make the Ghanaian defenseless before the Koreans on the land of Ghana in ensuring that the monthly payment is unconditionally met at what ever cost? 24. In limiting our selves to the share of the Ghana government‘s allocation of the deal to the Ghanaian security services, who in turn will becoming owners of the houses after payment is completed, what happens to the Ghanaian public security personnel when he/she is out of job? 25. Going by the realities of our time, it is not uncommon for the IMF and the World Bank to make it mandatory to the Ghanaian government to lay off existing public servants of which the so called Ghanaian security forces are part of; what will happen to the monthly mortgage commitments of the public servants who have been laid off and his/her salary stopped? 26. If the Ghana government is going to go on with its commitment to STX despite lying off these public servants, how will our government sustain such commitment in a circumstances with its won income fallen? 27. It is not uncommon to hear academicians making the remark that every existing asset of the Ghanaian government is already tied down to one debt commitment or the other; with our oil prospective coming into reality, does the Ghanaian see the connection between the expected income of Ghana and the ploy to rope the nation and its people into an advance debt? 28. Are we not seeing a future in which subsequent governments will be pretending that they are the good guys to get the Ghanaians out of these mess by surrendering the oil field as a means of saving people from losing their homes? THE CONCERNS OF OUR NATIONAL SECURITY What make this particular case a serious concern is that it is an intentionally well calculated policy to trap the Ghanaian into a national debt that will make generations to come so helpless in their payment method and a commitment to foreign interest. A house is a basic need of life and so a right to every citizen of Ghana. It is beyond any word to explain the danger of putting the right of the Ghanaian by the Ghana government in the hand of the Korean. Well, there is no doubt that we desperately need houses for our teaming population but making political or financial capital out of the plight of our people by those that were entrusted with the sovereignty of the people is a grievous concern. We were all relieved when the bill last week was withdrawn from parliament for reconsideration. With basically nothing done to it as most of the concerns for the withdrawal actually did not take into account what we have highlighted above, we appeal to all well meaning Ghanaians to put their differences and sentiment aside to allow commonsense to reign. What is happening in Ghana today is a clear mockery of democracy in which self centred interest precedes the will of the people. We are now in a state of deceptions in which our public state is now being run as a private state. Cone business men like wolves parade themselves daily in our political corridors dangling financial carrots to our entrusted public servants. We are now being ask through our parliament to confirm a deal that will be legally be binding on us in the future, even after a change of governments. OUR SELF DENIAL IN THIS STATE OF BANKRUPTCY Our state of bankruptcy is also so severe that few lenders are willing to lend us money directly as a state. We are also showing a clear indication that we are ready to stoop so low just for a foreign loan as no company is even willing to come into our state for independent investment unless our government put her people at the mercy of such company. Thus, taxation is never enough to finance public project such as public housing and other things. So rather than employing government revenue to embark in building of house as public investment into its citizen and job creation, the state of Ghana can only resort to external borrowing and external employees as contractors to work for an unemployment ridden society of Ghana. In the developed European and the American nation, government resort to the local tax payer’s money to invest in local project by its own citizens thereby creating jobs in time of unemployment. Conclusion In conclusion, it is no doubt that every Ghanaian need a roof over his/her heads which make the issue an urgent one. It must however not be doubted that the modern con man play on the state of our vulnerable minds. We thus appeal to all progressives to stand up now to defend Ghana from these miscalculated intentions to enslave us by those we trusted with our mandate to serve us. We might wish it goes away but our action must be more than just ordinary wishes. If the proponents of the bill have withdrawn it for the first time, definitely they only presented it to us in the first place to test how wise we are. Their withdrawal as well should not be considered as cowardice but an understanding of the dangers in the deal. However, we must not push our luck too far before the selfish financial interest of some of the unrepentant criminals within the corridors of the reigning government becloud our common conscience. We must make it clear to them that this is not in the interest of the Ghanaian or Ghana, so it must be returned to the Koreans in Korea. God Bless our homeland Ghana and Long Live Ghana Kofi Ali Abdul Yekin Coordinator - Action Group of Africa (AGA) +044-7984445344 +233-243377829 www.aga4fed.com