http://www.dailyguideghana.com GHANA’S LATEST AND LEADING NEWS NEWSPAPER, PROVIDING DAILY NEWS COVERAGE OF GHANA Wed, 11 May 2011 10:56:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=11813 http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=11813#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 12:16:28 +0000 Nicholas
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Ex-President John Kufuor
Today, 10th May, 2011 marks exactly three years and two days since President John Agyekum Kufuor, while on a trip to the United Kingdom, secured a grant of £42.5million from the British Government to kick-start the free national anti-natal care for every expectant mother in all our state health facilities.
Again, last Sunday, 8th May 2011 was ‘Mothers Day’ just as it was on 11th May, 2008 when the announcement to institute the programme was actually made. This therefore became the most single innovative way of acknowledging the mothers of Ghana by any leader we have ever had, since the days of Adam.
Now, when the NDC wanted political power in 2008, they intentionally criminalized everything that Kufuor government was doing at the time. They accused the NPP of turning Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital into a slum where women went to deliver and, for lack of money to pay bills, were compelled to smuggle their babies out of the facility.
At the time, some experts came out to advice the Government to take a look at our population growth so that it did not out-pace our economic advancement. And as usual, Kwesi Pratt rubbished that advice by the experts, with an explanation that the State had absolutely no right to interfere with how many children an individual could have. He said it is rather the responsibility of the State to put measures in place to cater for people who go about engaging in sex as a recreation, and churning out babies on ‘conveyer belts’.
What the likes of Kwesi Pratt forget to appreciate is that proper management of a nation’s population growth is inextricably linked to improved standard of living and general well-being of its people. For example, Norway, in 1957, had a population of five million people which was the same as Ghana’s population at the time of independence. Now, after 53 years, the population of Norway is still five million while that of Ghana has sky-rocketed to nearly 25 million!!!
So, let’s say, if both Ghana and Norway were developing at the same rate, economically, citizens of Norway will certainly be enjoying much better standard of living than Ghanaians. And by the kind courtesy of leadership greed, selfishness and visionlessness, Ghanaians have rather retrogressed economically whilst our population is growing out-of-control.
Today, the lying and property looting social-democrats are in power and instead of delivering on their delusional campaign promises to enable Ghanaians to enjoy the ‘heavenly’ living standards promised us, they have rather chosen to travel abroad to deliver their ‘social-democratic babies’ while ordinary women of Ghana are perishing in their thousands, through child-birth under the current ‘better Ghana agenda’.
Don’t these current NDC government appointees know that they are seen as fools by the foreigners, when they abandon their core duty of coming up with solutions to the problems of those who have queued in the sun to vote for them, to perish like house-flies while they (appointees), are falling over one another for space on aircraft to go and deliver babies abroad?
Now, during the 8-year rule of the NPP, President Kufuor undertook a number of foreign trips with the sole purpose of selling Ghana, and also to woo investors. The results of these trips are very much visible for all to see if we are to put away our dogmatic political lenses and give credit where credit is due. These good works were going to be continued by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo but Ghanaians decided otherwise.
One of these trips was the ‘Business Call to Action’ confab in London, in May 2008. At a meeting held with the British prime minister during the confab, President Kufuor announced the British government’s £42.5m support to augment our efforts of implementing the fee-free pregnancy care for all women in all state health institutions. And since reducing maternal mortality is one of the millennium development goals, that donation by the British government was, certainly, welcome news.
The health and general well-being of women are pivotal in the socio-economic advancement of every nation. Hence, the saying by Dr. Kwegyir-Aggrey that: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation”.
This particular product of president Kufuor’s travel was announced on Wednesday, 7th May 2008. Incidentally, the proceeding Sunday, 11th May 2008, happened to be Mother’s Day. Therefore, President Kufuor certainly could not have given mothers of our dear nation a more befitting present.
This novelty in our nation’s maternal health delivery, swiftly crucified the obnoxious ‘cash and carry’ system that sent many of our nation’s expectant mothers, prematurely, into the other world.
However, some developments following the successful kick-off of the fee-free pregnancy care programme on 1st July 2008, has got me thinking and I would urge the NDC administration to take steps to address the situation.
Averagely, one thousand babies were being delivered, monthly, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, which works out to 250 deliveries per week (Citi FM breakfast news, 11/7/8). In that same Citi FM report, a young expectant woman whose view was sought on the fee-free natal care actually said that some of them have gotten “pregnant without knowing the men responsible” for their “pregnancies, and therefore this intervention by the government” was indeed “a welcome relief”.
There have also been pictures of over-crowded maternity wards of our state health facilities on our television screens in recent times, which are largely due to the increased number of expectant mothers accessing the service. According to official statistics from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, there were 280 deliveries within the first week of the implementation of the programme on 1st July, 2008. That was in excess of 30 deliveries over the previous figure of 250 a week. And I believe current figures may be well over that of two and a half years ago.
This situation of maternity departments of our state medical facilities coming under pressure, following the institution of the fee-free natal care, is being reported throughout the country, pointing to the fact that more women are accessing this facility. Most of these pregnancies which are putting pressure on our health facilities are being carried by girls who are children themselves!!!
The state, therefore, must consider the establishment of Citizens Advisory Centers, manned by seasoned counselors and psychologist, where any citizen, particularly the teenagers, could go and seek professional counseling in various areas when they are in distress.
These citizens’ advisory centers must have a single, free nation-wide, and a three or four digit telephone helpline which can be reached easily, unlike the current numerous police and other essential service emergency mobile phone numbers which are often out of coverage area.
Again, the state must consider establishing community libraries and youth centers where teenagers, during vacations, can either go and study or engage themselves in recreational activities in order to keep them from vices, particularly, early sexual relationships with its attendant pregnancies which tend to disrupt their academic progress.
And here, I would like to urge NGO’s, financial institutions and philanthropists to assist in expanding, upgrading and equipping our nation’s maternity outfits to enable them to cope with the current surge in patronage on the existing facilities.
Parents must also learn to play their part in the shaping up of the character of their children, by way of having regular and open dialogue with them. And when this is done, these children will in turn, develop trust in them (the parents). Therefore, the situation where children turn to their peers for ‘advice’ due to rather un-approachable nature of their parents shall be a thing of the past since a harmonious home, naturally, breeds happy and well-mannered children.
Managers of the Health Insurance Authority must also, as a matter of urgency, adopt a habit of extreme parsimony which is number one on their Hippocratic-oath to Ghanaians and re-focus on core duties of their constitutionally mandated responsibilities. They must exercise a great sense of moderation with their affinity for wastage on multi-billion dollar rented accommodations and fuel-guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUV’s).
Finally, I would urge all teenagers of our beloved country, Ghana, particularly the girls: please be focused in pursuit of your natural talents, believe in yourselves, love and preserve your bodies, understand that sex isn’t a recreation but a pro-creation activity and always be mindful of the fact that impossibility is God-given but inability is man-made.
Consequently, with zeal, determination and positive attitude, you shall grow up to become good and successful citizens but not ‘baby making machines’ for irresponsible men and boys, so that Ghana will rise through your positive contributions.
E-mail: [email protected]
By Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
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The way the clouds gathered prior to the rainfall, so would the sun shine afterwards. As such, just as we commented on the grey areas before the Kukrudu parliamentary primaries, so shall we extol the successes too, Kwaku Ananse stories from doomsday prophets notwithstanding.
If you would recall, there were uncountable incidents which marred the 2007 parliamentary primaries. I needn’t recount them here because I know they are still vivid in your memory.
It is therefore refreshing that the party responded to the cry of its grassroots and expanded the Electoral College. Despite whisperings from its detractors, the Osono should be proud of its achievement because it has chalked another milestone in the political history of this nation and the world at large.
If the saying, ‘coming events cast their shadows’ is to be believed, then one can say without any fear of contradiction that the peaceful and orderly nature of the exercise is a sign of victory for Kukrudians in the upcoming 2012 polls. Yes, there were a few hiccups. But no one can deny that it was a huge success. Apart from a few disturbances, the conduct of the exercise was generally peaceful, courteous and decorous. It is indeed a feather in the cap of the Kukrudu family.
Abusuapanin, it is my pleasure to inform you that all but one of my predictions came true. In the Dome-Kwabenya Constituency for instance, I predicted a resounding victory for Adjoa Safo Kantanka and it came to pass. Her victory was a reward for dedication, hard work and loyalty to the party. I recall clearly how she did not recoil into her shell when she lost to Hon. Mike Ocquaye, aka Papa Ajasco, in 2007; but rather supported him, morally and financially, to retain the seat. It was therefore understandable that the delegates have now reposed their trust in her.
That however is not to say Mike Ocquaye Jnr, her main contender, isn’t dedicated and loyal to the party. Not at all! I think his is a case of contesting for the wrong position at the wrong time. His defeat is clearly a manifestation of the fact that my compatriots abhor even a semblance of monarchical governance in the country’s politics. Father goes, son comes? Tofiakwa!
In the Adenta Constituency, where we witnessed a heated contest, Frances Asiam’s victory over Yaw Buabeng Asamoah was a pleasant shock to many. She was my bet and I’m very glad she won. I preferred the Iron Lady, as she is affectionately called, to Yaw because I believed and still believe that she is a better match for the Akatamansonians.
Another notable result was Hon. Maxwell Kofi Juma’s loss to Hon. Patricia Appiagyei in the Asokwa Constituency. I wasn’t surprised at all because I knew Hon. Juma’s foul mouth was going to be his nemesis. Without a doubt, his infamous ‘bottom power’ statement was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. His loss supports the argument that bad breath breeds hatred and humiliation.
The Ahafo Ano South Constituency is the only place I got it wrong. I tipped the man who propounded the mouse-pepper theory but he lost miserably. The theory tells us that Mother Mouse once took her children to her enemy’s pepper farm and told them to eat as much pepper as they could.
After some time, the children told their mother that the pepper wasn’t sweet so they should move to another farm. The mother admonished them to discard that thought and eat more of the pepper, because the main purpose of eating the pepper was not to enjoy but destroy. “So my children, eat and destroy the pepper farm because we are destroyers,” she bellowed. Her children heeded her advice and destroyed the farm.
The story teaches us to be wary of our opponents and enemies because they will go to the extreme to see our downfall. Maybe, just maybe, the proponent of the theory himself, Hon. Kwaku Balado Manu, lost because he failed to act when his opponent was destroying his ‘pepper farm’.
Hon. Balado’s loss was one of the few that hit me very hard. It hit me so hard that I still want to believe it was only a bad dream. But hey, wishes are not horses, are they? Anyway, he will be missed by the next House because his contributions are very phenomenal. Sad, isn’t it?
One thing I’ve learnt from the results of the Osono parliamentary primaries is that being very visible in the media circles doesn’t necessarily mean popularity among the delegates.
It is therefore imperative that prospective parliamentary aspirants would take a leaf from the book of those who lost and serve the party in their various constituencies as they should.
They should know that talking on radio is good, but it does not guarantee popularity among the grassroots.
I expected to hear some muted protests in one or two constituencies, so I’m not surprised it is happening. But those aggrieved should remember the consequences of in-fighting in the 2008 presidential polls and advice themselves accordingly.
If I were one of them, the rot we are witnessing in governance today would be enough motivation for me to forgive my compatriots who have wronged me. I once again remind all Kukrudians that, ‘The fly that fails to heed good counsel follows the corpse into the grave.’
Abusuapanin, if Kukrudians heed this wise counsel and patch up their differences, I see no reason why they should not start singing R Kelly’s hit tune ‘Sign of a victory’. I’ve already started and all they have to do is unite and join me to sing in anticipation of the majestic coronation of our new president on January 7, 2013. Sing along if you believe in the prophecy:
‘I can see the colours of the rainbow
I can feel the sun on my face
I see the light at the end of the tunnel
I can feel heaven in display
That is the sign of a victory …….’
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African Union
-Shameless NATO destroys Africa’s Libya
– Why not present ceasefire bid to UN?
For President Muammar Ghaddafi’s Libya to be subjected to incessant air bombings from NATO air planes over a two months’ stretch is something that continues to baffle the minds of all right thinking people.
Why, it must be asked, why this senseless war in Libya? Why should planes of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which consists of Americans and Europeans Soldiers) continue to rattle over Libyan skies, shooting cruise missiles and bombs to kill President Gaddafi’s soldiers and to raze down some apartments of his house, instantly killing one of his sons and three grandchildren? Why?
And one cannot simply understand why all African Union members, led by their heads of state, continue to look on silently for this mayhem to be visited on their member state Libya, by white people of other continents!
Doesn’t Libya belong to the African Union which presupposes a more compact relationship bordering on consanguinity or blood-kinship such that an affront against one African member state is against all African states which should warrant their immediate response? The days of the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) are over, a period when African States AGREED TO FRATERNISE quite lightly on periodic get-together basis, when talking and talking for closer relationship was the major leitmotif.
It was an organizational period preparing African states to, in future, form a more cohesive union in which each state saw herself to be in family ties with the others, not remaining indifferent to the woes of one another, but reacting appropriately to offer immediate help or relief or peace to the other. This is how the present name, AFRICAN UNION must be seen to connote- a more compact sisterly affinity in which love for, and assistance to one another should be practicalised.
MEANING OF AFRICAN UNION
But this is not what we see now with the so-called AFRICAN UNION. It appears most states consider the UNION to be mere UNITY which envisages a temporary relationship without any deep commitment for the welfare or safety of each other. If this is so, then it’s most unfortunate.
If indeed we have consigned ourselves to an AFRICA UNION construction which is very close to AFRICAN UNITED STATES, then African Presidents must wake up to uphold the ideals of the UNION and stop sleeping over the war being waged on Libya by NATO forces for no justifiable reasons. The basis of the war is childish. Some opposition elements in Libya say that they don’t want Gaddafi and his government to continue to ‘misrule’ Libya, so they must resign and be off the governance scene. They demonstrate.
And that’s permissible in a democratic state. But when the demonstration is: (a) being held every day to cause disturbance of the peace in the locality (b) waxing into violence when missiles (stones, cudgels, cutlasses etc) are hurled against the police who are using teargas to disperse the demonstrators, has the government no mandate or authority to defend itself or to put down the disturbing riots? Will the British, American, Italian or French government sit down unconcerned when some elements (ostensibly trained or organized to cause violence to overthrow that Administration) begin to act to endanger the peace in that country?
Won’t it defend itself by clamping down on such violence? Then why is it that when President Gaddafi rose up to fight the criminal violence against his state, the Europeans and Americans considered it unheard-of, and immediately thought it as their bounden duty to go to Libya to protect the innocent civilians whom Gaddafi “was killing through air attacks”? Are the whites political and military ‘protectors’ of revolting blacks? Who made them so?
FORMER USA, ITALIAN ATTACKS
Did the votes in the United Nations Security Council mandate the USA, Britain, Italy and France to quickly invade Libya to ostensibly protect the “unarmed civilian revolters”? When did it become justifiable for unapprehended and fighting revolters (openly seeking to overthrow a government) to be protected by the white men? Where is the cited case history morally justifying such protection?
There is absolutely no justification for American, Italian and French forces to, in the name of NATO, send military aircraft to bomb buildings in Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazzi etc, and to indiscriminately kill Libyans, thus causing further bloodshed. Why did the votes not mandate African countries to intervene diplomatically, and if possible, militarily?
Fact is that Libya has been a victim of these four nations- USA, Italy, Britain and France- for over two centuries, all because of their yearning to exploit her oil wealth, coal and gas. In 1804, the United States invaded Libya, with the view to fighting an ongoing piracy, just it is as being carried on presently at the coast of Somalia in Africa. This turned out to be a medium through which the wealth of Libya was to be exploited.
In 1911, Italy invaded Libya on the pretentious reason of fighting Turkey which had earlier on declared war on the Sanussi Muslim sect formed in Libya and had considered it to be unIslamic.
The Sanussi sect withstood Italy for 20 years until in 1931 when its leader al-Mukhtar was executed, and that enabled Italy to gain full control over Libya. However, Idris who was also a Sanussi Muslim emerged later, and having helped the British and the French in World War II, invited these two allies to Libya who divided that nation into British and French zones.
Nevertheless, in 1949, the UN declared independence to Libya under Idris who later was sworn in as King. Contrary to expectations, Gaddafi, then a colonel in the army, overthrew King Idris on September 1, 1969 and revolutionized the nation, bringing rapid transformation and development in the country on socialist lines. Gaddafi’s “Green Book” he wrote which brought the “popular participation” concept, quick revolution in agricultural and oil production, soon made Libya a nation with the highest per capita income of over $4000 per year in Africa, thus making her the wealthiest nation on the continent.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Whilst at home, Gaddafi has been hailed as the most popular and best leader, who has made several workers rich and comfortable (this is confirmed by Ghanaians returnees from Libya), his relations with Arab countries and the Europeans and Americans have gone sour day by day. His interactions with Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Saudi Arabi have not gone well; especially his opposition to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates for not helping him to resist “the pressures and manouevres of transnational corporation” of the USA and Europe which are making oil prices go higher and higher, has not been taken kindly.
Therefore, one can see why the Arabs initiated in the UN the idea of “military protection of Libyan civilians” which has invited NATO to wage air war against Gaddafi. And one wonders whether Gaddafi will find it comfortable to remain in the Arab League again, whilst his military strength appears to have been betrayed and undercut by fellow Arabs.
Of course, the question of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya etc indulging in ‘absolute bilateralism’ still remains an important issue to be mooted, a situation in which these aforementioned countries consider themselves as real Africans belonging to the AU and real Arabs belonging to the Arab League of the Middle East! Will Gaddafi want to be in the Arab Circle again, if the current war is over and he remains the President?
In 1986, Gaddafi was subjected to US economic embargo (January) and on April 14 the same year, American war planes invaded Libya and bombed Tripoli, the capital city, and Benghazzi, killing hundreds of people for nothing, except that Gaddafi was to be killed. It is therefore not amazing that under the pretext of saving Libyan civilians, NATO war planes have bombed Gaddafi’s premises, the second attempt killing his relations. African Presidents should quickly meet over this, and issue a strong resolution backing Gaddafi, and calling for cessation of the ongoing war.
The resolution should be presented to the Security Council and the UN General Assembly. And diplomatic discussions should be held with Russia and China to use their “veto powers” to stop the war to enable African nations to bring peace to Libya. African Presidents, rise up to save your own pal, Gaddafi, and your sisterly nation, Libya! Rise up!
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
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NPP Flag
It is a joy and pride to belong to a group or organization whose daily conduct internally and externally exudes public trust and confidence in all its ramifications. It is more gratifying when that organization happens to be a political party like the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
There is therefore no wonder that even in opposition, the members and sympathizers of the NPP feel more respected and attract more respect and confidence publicly, than the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). Members of the NPP confidently wear their paraphernalia publicly than the ruling NDC. They speak about their membership of the party with their chests out, while members of the party in power shy away from identifying themselves with their own party.
It is not for nothing that our elders name their off-springs after very prominent and respectable members of their families. In this case, prominent not as in wealth, but in life well lived in a manner that society cherishes and upholds. The NPP has shown to the world that when it talks about democracy, it means it in all its facets. In 1992, when the PNDC metamorphosed into the NDC with all the state apparatus at its disposal, the NPP accepted the Constitution drawn by the ruling government, with all its weaknesses, as the document for the fourth republic.
The reason behind the acceptance of the document, the Indemnity Clause which was smuggled into it notwithstanding, was the fact that it was better for this nation to be governed by an imperfect constitution than to be ruled by a murderous dictator surrounded by spineless, unprincipled intellectuals whose crave for political power had been made possible by an equally unsuccessful military officer whose only way out to escape poverty was to abort a constitutional dispensation mid- way its tenure.
The pseudo-socialists who had used subterfuge, plain murder, intimidation and blackmail to govern this country needed to be shown the exit from dictatorial rule, courtesy Allotey Jacobs, alias educated fisherman, to a more civilized and respectable form of governance.
It was very clear that the processes before, during and after the December 1992 presidential elections were criminally tailored to meet the aspirations of the ruling PNDC, which had taken away the P to form the NDC.
After the elections, it became blatantly clear that the PNDC had rigged the elections in favour of the NDC. The leadership of the NPP, in spite of the tension in the country, put their intellectual prowess into play by recording all the kululuu which took place in that particular election. The leader of that exercise was no less a person than the current presidential candidate of the NPP. The outcome was a book titled the ‘Stolen Verdict’.
This happened on a continent where election results have generated endless internecine wars. Yes, it also happened in a country where guinea fowls have created wars leading to the death of over 3000 citizens of this country.
The world was amazed at the level of tolerance of the NPP and its belief that even if the elections had been stolen, it was better to stay in opposition and bid your time than to plunge the entire nation into chaos. So on and on, the NPP patiently waited on the good people of this country. While waiting, it also mended its ways.
It took a critical look at its structures, identified the weaknesses in them and strengthened them where necessary. Its constitution went through amendments as and when it became necessary, refined its message and strategies until it won power in the year 2000. What the NPP did with the power entrusted to it by the good people of Ghana is very well known to not only Ghanaians, but the world at large.
When the party lost power in 2008, it did not relent, and as typical of it, gathered its intellectuals– ladies and gentlemen- to critically analyse the cause or causes of the defeat and find solutions to them.
The outcome of that intellectual exercise was the theme ‘Reflect, Rebuild and Recapture’. The reflection certainly took into account what the party might have done wrong when in power as well as the shortfalls of the government. It also looked at its grassroots structures and how representative they were as far as internal democratic principles were concerned.
Having identified some weaknesses in them, some of the structures were strengthened through the rebuilding process. This led to the introduction of the electoral area coordinators, in addition to the polling station executives at the grassroots levels. The number of constituency office holders also went up with the introduction of certain positions, which hitherto did not exist.
The same went for the regional office positions as well as the national office positions. In all these, elections took place throughout the 230 constituencies and the 10 regions. Finally, the national elections were conducted at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi to elect our national officers.
The increased number of contestants in all these elections did not attract major bickering, which have the potential to break any political party apart.
When the major decision of the over 100,000 delegates to elect the flag-bearer of the party arrived, many were the cynics who believed that was going to be the end of the NPP, but once again, members of the party showed to the world that internal democracy had come to stay in the NPP and that it was paving the way for others the world over to learn from them.
By 6pm of that faithful day, the winner of that election had emerged and all the aspirants, except one resident in Kumasi, had congratulated the winner and gathered around him at a public place to hear him speak.
The world was once again astounded by that singular feat by a political party in opposition in Africa. They came from all walks of life to witness it in order to give testimony to the outside world.
To crown it all, last Saturday, the 30th of April 2011, saw another feat of the NPP when almost another 100,000 delegates gracefully, decently, responsibly, with commitment and dedication to boot, travelled from their villages and hamlets, some of us from our cocoase villages to our district capitals, to show the broadened horizoned people that even in our cocoase nkurasi lives, and despite the Kumasi thing in us, we know how to choose our leaders in a very peaceful manner. Once again, a feat unsurpassed in the annals of democratic practices anywhere on the African continent.
Why will I not be proud that I am a member of the NPP? A party which does not trust its birth to any individual founder, but has collective ownership by its members, and has the propensity to behave according to its collective dictates rather than bending to the whims and caprices of a so-called deified founder.
Political history has taught all of us that any political party not built on political philosophies or ideologies, but on the beliefs of individuals who are made constitutional founders of such parties, die naturally with the death of the founder.
Oh yes, when the founder dies, the struggle by interest groups and individuals laying claim as heir apparent, engenders the demise of such political parties. With NPP, tofiakwa, all of us have stakes in the party.
While we pat ourselves on the back, it is important also that we bring to the fore some of the weaknesses in the system, no matter how minimal. There seems to be a conflict in the party’s constitution which tends to unfairly favour incumbent Members of Parliament who contest other aspirants during parliamentary primaries.
A sitting Member of Parliament, per our constitution, is an ex-officio member of the constituency executives without a voting right. However, when it comes to parliamentary primaries, which even involves bigger participants, the sitting MP is given a voting right to the detriment of the other aspirants.
In the year 2008, some sitting MPs won by just a vote, which generated legal tussles in some cases. At Asanti Bekwai, this led to the independent candidate standing against the incumbent. It has happened again, in some constituencies this time around.
I think it is not fair to offer any aspirant a vote lead in any contest. It is either all the aspirants are given the opportunity to vote or none of them votes. This, if well considered, would further enhance our democratic credentials as it were.
As for me, my mahogany bitters has been my companion since last Saturday. What about you? NPP all the way, let me ‘cut’ some aaaa and go to sleep while those who are launching and re-launching their campaigns against their traitors and enemies go ahead.
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BATTLE READY! Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings
The vituperation and curses being hurled at Mrs. Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings for daring to exercise her democratic right to challenge Professor Mills to be the flag-bearer of the NDC for the 2012 presidential election in Ghana is quite strange. It is as if the lady has committed such a huge crime and it is as if this is the first time in the history of the world that this is taking place.
As has been said for the umpteenth time, there is no law in this country that disqualifies any Ghanaian of sound mind to present himself/herself for any election, as long as he/she meets all the requirements surrounding that election.
In the United States of America, the late Senator Kennedy challenged the then sitting President, Jimmy Carter, during the primaries of the Democratic Party for the 1980 presidential election, albeit unsuccessfully.
The filth that is suddenly being thrown at Mrs. Rawlings, who was until recently one of the leading lights and an unchallenged icon of the NDC, says more about that organisation than about the lady.
True to character, but to the amazement of independent observers, all the persons who were widely known to be her close friends are one by one abandoning her…. ET Mensah, Shirley Ayittey, Fiifi Kwetey, Betty Mould, Segbefia, Asiedu Nketiah, etc. etc are showing the kind of unprincipled persons that they are. This is particularly interesting against the background of the fact that all of these people, without exception, owe their small positions thanks to the insistence of the Rawlings duo that they be hired by the Mills machine.
And now…. Obaa Konadu has become the most hated person in Ghana. That is very disturbing, isn’t it, if we want to have leaders who can muster some principles no matter the cost? By their deeds, these people have sent the most horrible signal to the young men and women of this country who need to be inspired by our current leaders.
A number of lessons lend themselves to the whole of Ghana, though.
1. The episode should reveal to all and sundry that in the NDC, the only qualification that matters above anything else is the level of sycophancy that one can demonstrate to the man in power. In their vocabulary, the only thing that
counts most is one’s ability to master the art of opportunism. Loyalty and principles count for absolutely nothing.
2. The NDC is not interested in quality because if quality was the yard stick for the presidency of this country, Professor Mills would most certainly be one of the most unqualified persons for the job. As we have all known, he has raised incompetence to new heights in this country. The President has simply not been
trained to bear a responsibility as onerous as being the Head of State of a sophisticated country such as ours.
He is obviously so confused and this is shown by everything that he does and says, ranging from the outlandish promises that he made during the campaign trail, to very vulgar contents of his campaign
messages, especially in the Central Region, where he shamelessly sought to pitch one ethnic group against the other, to his reaction to the Anas video at the Tema Port, to the verdict regarding the trial of the Ya Na murder suspects. One
may even add to the list of maladroit actions and pronouncements what he said and did about the Ivorian crisis and his strenuous attempt to fuse State and Church in a secular country such as ours.
At any given opportunity, President Mills has reinforced the general feeling and impression about him being a very weak, inarticulate, and ill-prepared leader. Nana Konadu has said it aloud what every discerning Ghanaian knows and for this she needs to be commended instead
of the wave of condemnation that is being heaped at her.
3. Contrary to the NDC protestations, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is doing this country the greatest service that any true citizen can do for Ghana. Her bold decision to rid us of the persistent embarrassment called Mills should gladden
the hearts of all patriotic Ghanaians, because if she succeeds to get rid of Mills from their list, and even fails to win the presidential election, she would have helped to spare the country the constant headache that we all suffer any time we see our pastor president or hear him pronounce himself on any
national or international event.
4. By her decision, the lady is telling the men of the NDC, and indeed the whole of Ghana, that we still have some Yaa Asantewaas in modern day Ghana. No wonder
one of her children was named after that legendary queen mother of Edweso. The men of the NDC are clearly only interested in the little moneys and little power that the president has made available to them.
They must be ashamed. By that bold decision, Mrs. Rawlings can be sure that her name in the history of contemporary Ghana is fully guaranteed. She must resist any form of pressure to stand down because not only will that be a total betrayal of those who admire
her courage, but she will miss a golden opportunity to have her name fully engraved in the history of this country.
As a foot note, I am sure she has now understood what the concept of sycophancy means in the Ghanaian context.
It is a very sad phenomenon that was started by the CPP blokes and which has assumed frightening proportions under the NDC regime in this country. Only God knows when we can cure it, if ever we shall. Secondly, I am sure she knows that if the NDC congress distorts the rules to her disadvantage, she can always break away from that bogus party and stand as an Independent. She is on course to making history, this lady. I wish her
well.
Obaa Mo!
By Kwasi Yeboah,
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Ghana Police Service logo
Perception is a very dangerous weapon that can derail the truth and facts about the realities of life.
The Police institution as a whole carries a lot of baggage which prevent people from finding favor with them since it is consistently undermined by certain corrupt and dangerous elements whose alliance with the institution is to use it as a consulting body to siphon money from innocent people.
A case in point is the Police Buffalo Unit of the Ashanti Region Police Service whose quality of service dignifies honesty, humility, objectivity, reformation and fundamental fairness. As lethal as they are, they still have in them what it takes to be identified as men of honour.
The Buffalo Unit is part of the Ashanti Regional Police Force with special assignment to protect life and property. The leadership of this unit, DSP Rev Nana Adane-Ameyaw and his deputy, DSP James Owusu, demonstrate exemplary qualities of service to the citizenry and humanity in general.
They are the special ones whose methodology of service injects sanity into the Police Service and creates room for certain concerned people like me to believe that the future can be good. Although the whole setup is not perfect, with little rough edges, it still has the potential to be the best in terms of job execution.
The Commander of the Buffalo Unit and his deputy are not just good policemen but men of God. They are real ministers of the faith whose persona reflects what they preach. They use the fundamental principles of right and wrong as basis of their work ethics and truth is the key in their judgment, notwithstanding one’s status.
In the arena of the commander’s domain, it pays to speak the truth, seek genuine remorse and you will find favor with them, depending on the magnitude of the offence. On the contrary, to attempt to perpetuate lies and display hardiness will attract the roughness and physical power of the unit.
At the Buffalo Unit, truth and objectivity is the key. Whether, you are the victor or loser in a case, you will learn to respect and admire their judgment which lingers on rules of engagement – the law, ethics and fundamental fairness. In the end, it is nothing but the truth which most of us abhor since we are structured to using the law enforcement agency to intimidate and advance our own personal aggrandisement.
In addition to its special mandate to protect life and property, they perform one special function which deserves one’s recognition and admiration, reform people.
They take time to explain the nature of the offence and it effects. Consequently, all participants in the case are schooled- the complainants, defendants and sympathizers. Their services define civility, yet they are rigid in their pursuit for the truth which is an indelible mark of excellence.
The issue which took me to the Buffalo Unit was simple and yet complex in nature: My ward spent three days in cells before a bail could be granted and I was convinced by him that she (my ward) deserved to be there (although, it was a holiday, the need to reform her was the key here).
One thing that beats my imagination is the composition of the leadership team of the Buffalo Unit. Whether by design or accident, both the Commanding Officer and his deputy are men of God.
I mean, Ministers of the faith who practice what they preach on the pulpit. At first, I sensed an element of contradiction with the roles of the Commanding Officer, first as a Police Officer and secondly as a Reverend of the Apostolic Church, vis-à-vis my perception about the normal policeman in today’s Ghana. Little did I know that in God’s own way, everything is possible.
They use wisdom in the word, conflict resolution management process and the law to reform people who otherwise have landed in jail to be fed by the government which is phenomenal. Kudos to the leadership of the Police Service, Paul Tawiah Quaye, for his drive, ingenuity and creativity in establishing a functioning department which is respected by the community.
The whole Buffalo Unit is not perfect, like all other institutions. Notwithstanding the fact that they have very shrewd and energetic leadership, they still have among them few sharks who behave like the normal policeman.
It is just obvious from my observation that some of the junior staff need a real talk to compliment the efforts made so far in making the unit one of the most remarkable setups within the police institution in the Ashanti Region.
It is therefore the responsibility of the Commanding Officer to continue to ensure that the character of the overall unit represent the true character of his leadership. I know that it is not going to be easy but with God on his side and prayers, he can succeed.
Currently, the government has embarked on a decent pay structure for the Police Service that elevates them to a high level in our society.
What reason do some of our men in uniform have to perpetuate their evil crime of exploitation? Many people in the service use the institution as a consulting place to amass wealth. Whether it is a myth or reality, people believe that most cases do not travel the usual length because our men in uniform do collect monies from both the complainant and the defendant.
In certain locations, the police structure refuses to be a service institution; you have to pay money as a complainant to have your case attended to and the frustration thereon sometimes makes you feel like abandoning the case. However, I am glad that the Buffalo Unit exists to create a difference.
Our dear nation called Ghana is in crisis. Greed, vindictiveness and selfishness have assumed a new dimension in our socio-economic life.
The attributes of goodness and sacrifice have no relevance any longer in our institution and it is all about ‘each one for himself, God for us all’. Naturally, it is always exciting to identify one good story worthy of praise and emulation to write about.
A case in point is the Buffalo Unit of the Ashanti Police Force whose exceptional leadership style creates hope that one day we shall have a transformed police institution ready to be of service to our dear nation and its citizenry. God save our dear nation called Ghana.
Email:VA [email protected]
By Eric Edusei
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I have keenly observed the sorrows of the Ghanaian teacher since this animal called Single Spine Salary Structure(SSSS) reared its ‘mugu yaro’ head on the shores of our beautiful country.
For me, the most important groups of professionals in any society are teachers, farmers and doctors. With only these three groups, any nation that is seriously bent on making advancement in any sphere of human endeavour can easily do so.
Unfortunately, greedy, incompetent, liars, indecent and brainless pseudo-socialists have held the nation to ransom by always descending heavily on knowledgeable people who seek to make useful contributions towards our nation’s advancement with their highly caustic mouths.Intellegent voices have therefore decided to keep silent while plain-faced vagabonds with destructive mentality akin only to that of Haiti’s renegade criminal organization called ‘The Tonton Makut’ are having a field-day.
Now, before an individual can appreciate what he/she has to do with his/her life in future, it has to take the efforts of a teacher to teach and direct him/her at the foundation stage. I remember my primary school days at ‘Maame Esaaba’ Memorial Primary at ‘Memmpe Asem’ near Sekondi, where some of our teachers were trekking for hours to school.Relatively,I am certainly not a wealthy person but I recently met one of the masters who taught me in secondary school and I was extremely sad.
I would not say he is a pauper but considering the fact that this person who probably had his university degree in the early 70’s and has certainly imparted so much knowledge to millions of students who must be occupying various important positions in our society today, was still struggling to board a ‘trotro’ to his one-room rented accommodation somewhere in Kasoa was rather pathetic.
He is currently retired, and according to what he told me, his many years of clutching to sticks of chalk and duster did not bring him and his nuclear family any meaningful livelihood. Indeed, tragedies of both active and retired teachers actually abound but this is an example I can personally attest to.
In the case of farmers, they provide for the survival of the human race by way of ensuring there is food on our table. This food is then consumed and our bodies’ nutritional requirements are provided to enable us to accumulate the necessary energies to undertake our various daily activities. Doctors take care of our ailments and make sure we do not perish from preventable deaths.
But rather sadly, the Mills administration seems to be embarking on a deliberate mission to relegate to the background enormous contributions of these above named professionals while their appointees are going about hounding for multi-million dollar properties.
On the issue of teachers in particular, the Mills administration has treated them with contempt. I remember Madam Pretty Betty, affectionately called “madam how dare they”, now the education minister, saying at a press conference that “mistakes” surrounding the teachers’ SSSS implementation were as a result of undue “pressure” brought to bear on her ministry by the teachers. And if we were operating in a civilized enviroment, that very pronouncement should have instantly resulted in her instant dismissal.
And my reason is simple: a person who has been put in-charge of a ministry to steer its affairs in the right way, and at all times, so that sanity prevails to enable set targets to be met irrespective of any external pressures, rather unashamedly, proclaiming in front of television cameras that she made those mistakes so that teachers would go through that stress simply on a flimsy account that pressure was brought on her!!!
Effectively, she was simply telling the president who appointed her to head the education ministry, and by extension the whole Ghanaian populace, that if she was a medical doctor and you go to her with an advanced stage of appendicitis (inflamed appendix), she can still go ahead and rather remove your brain instead of your appendix if you are able to bring pressure to bear on her to do so. These are the kind of people currently managing the affairs of our dear nation. Any wonder why our nation’s institutions are in complete disarray.
In spite of their total incompetence, these government appointees have access to every good thing under the sun. The juvenile-delinquents amongst them, by the benevolence of political office, are today able to kidnap people’s daughters and force them into marriage and take them on nuptial-flights to far-away ‘Obama-land’ while the suffering teacher’s badly crushed ‘single-salary-spine’ has been left to rot.
And with the Coalition of Concerned Teachers in the Eastern Region rejecting the 15% salary increase for the month of March, 2011 describing it as “an insult to their dignity (Daily Guide, 20/4/11, pg.6), it is clearly evident that this current lesion afflicting the spine of Ghanaian teachers can never be surgically removed by these incompetent and greedy government appointees who are rather pre-occupied with their new-found love of ‘property-grabbingship’.Attempts to even voice their grievances are met with armored-vehicles and hails of bullet from the ‘zombie’ fraternity.
In medical Radiology, some of the most common spinal problem patients normally report to our department with are spondylosis, kyphosis, lordiosis, scoliosis and all kinds of fractures as a result of road traffic accidents (RTA).
Spondylosis is an abnormal growth anywhere along the spinal column which tends to exert pressure on the nerves emanating from the spinal-cord. This condition normally results in pains in parts of the body being served by these pressured nerves. So for example; a patient will go to a doctor with pains in the arms and fingers but an X-ray of the neck will be requested. And this is because the nerves controlling the arms actually emerge from the spinal-cord at points in the cervical spine which is found in the neck.
Kyphosis, lordiosis and scoliosis are all types of what we normally refer to in the Akan language as ‘akyakya’ or ‘efu’ (hunch).Kyphosis is when the curvature is at the back, lordiosis is when the curvature is at the front and scoliosis is when the curvature is at either the left or right side of the thorax. Road traffic accidents (RTA) can also cause various degrees of fractures to the spine.
The ‘single-salary-spine’ of the Ghanaian teacher has suffered a debilitating blow by the Mills administration and because those who have been tasked to diagnose the extent of damage in order for a remedy to be found, have their attention rather focused on property-grabbing. As such, I would like to advise the teachers to take their destiny into their own hands by seeking solutions to their problems.
Now, orthopedic surgeons are medical doctors who have specialized in handling conditions affecting the skeletal system. I would therefore advise the gallant teachers of our nation whose enormous, vital and selfless contributions to our nation’s development have been completely relegated to the background, to consider paying a visit to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to engage the services of an orthopedic surgeon.
I would therefore advise them to walk away from useless ‘Kweku Ananse’ promises of these incompetent and greedy government officials, and seek the intervention of an appropriate surgical specialist since such a move will bring about proper diagnoses of the extent of damage done to their ‘SINGLE-SALARY-SPINES’ by the Mills administration so that the appropriate remedy can be administered.
E-mail: [email protected]
By Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
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Ghana Cedis
Well, my compatriots, let anyone, including citizen the dog born, swear that our money is not going into congress mansions and filling congresspeople’s cheeks. Congresspeople are eating well, well, and building huge, huge mansions with our money. Otherwise where is all the money (na sika no wo he)?
They cannot be said to have gone into the small, small projects being sod-cut or commissioned all over the place as if something big is happening. They always say classrooms and not schools; because small is many and big is few.
Never in the entire history of the motherland has so much money accrued to government chest. Gold price is at record high. Cocoa price is highest ever. I just saw CEPS has already exceeded its first quarter target. Utility prices are at their peak. Fuel prices are the highest ever. Toll and other levies have never been this high. On top of everything else, we are exporting oil.
So why are we not seeing big development at a scale never seen before instead of the small, small projects? It is because the money is going into mansions and filling cheeks. A mosquito is now able to lay eggs of cement blocks to build two mansions in two years. Small and small standard seven boys and girls are building mansions.
They put small money into doing small things in the rural areas to deceive rural dwellers to vote for them in 2012. I think those whose job as politicians to stop the deceit should start now because the deception could stick.
Just think, the money used to construct that beautiful road from Pantang through Peduase Presidential Lodgeto Mamfe by the Kufuor administration could probably have built one thousand rural schools. But Kufuor built both that road and one thousand and over schools.
There was no oil money then, cocoa and gold prices were not that high, and tolls were a thousandth of their current level.
The oil money has gone with the STX wind, with the crumbs towards congress mansions and cheek stuffing.
My proposal for addressing the development issue is first to property audit. EOCO or CHRAJ, whoever cares, must publish an announcement in the newspapers and on radio asking anyone who suspects a mansion built by a congressperson within the last two years to provide details.
EOCO could even begin by asking for volunteers. We would see how many congresspeople will raise their hands to be counted as auditees.
If none of this happens, we will be stuck with a big government that does little, little things and expects to be applauded for that. If we allow it to be stuck in the heads of our compatriots that a better Ghana means small, small community projects, then the motherland is doomed to be underdeveloped.
A central government builds the big roads, trunk roads, arterial roads; roads that link regional capitals and district capitals to regional capitals.
Revenue generated from such projects is then channeled into building the feeder roads. Even these are done strategically. Cocoa and foodstuffs must be carted. This ensures that food prices are kept down and that enough revenue is generated for the smaller projects.
No nation has ever completely built enough schools. Even those with shrinking populations never stop building schools because of shifting population concentrations. So you can never finish building schools before constructing the big roads.
My compatriots, if you heard them, now they say they are doing rural development. So everyone should be stuck in their village. No Nsawam bypass, no Nkawkaw bypass, no Aflao road. If it’s going to cost more to transport goods and services from the ports and harbours which are all located in the southern part of the motherland, they congresspeople couldn’t be bothered.
I thought rural development was community development. It is small development which should be propelled by the big development. No big development, no small development.
The big money will continue to go to mansions, and cheeks and policy fairs. They promised to cut down workshops and seminars and conferences and fairs to save money. Just watch. There are now big, big policy fairs which can never put food on your table nor money into your pockets.
All you who can read and will read this, please go and tell your compatriots and my compatriots in the rural areas that the liars and cheats are at it again. All the money which should come into their pockets are being used to build mansions or stuff cheeks.
When they come to commission a borehole or classroom, or KVIP or cut sod for whatever, they should ask them where all the gold and cocoa and oil money has gone that they are giving them those small, small district level projects. They should ask them where they are getting all the money for building mansions and filling their cheeks from.
By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh
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Kwame Nkrumah
Last Wednesday, April 27, 2011 marked the 39th anniversary of the death of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, a man with dazzling political charisma that made people instinctively hail him, a man with ever-flowing sagacity, dynamism, broadmindedness and flawless vision who initiated and actively pioneered the movement for Africa’s continental union government by which much of the world knew and revered him as Africa’s primus Polilticusis-Africa’s number one politician!
KULUNGUGU BOMB
Dr. Nkrumah was allegedly killed by skin cancer, an ailment which eventuated from the Kulungugu bomb blast in 1963 which was aimed at his total death or instant extinction from the world, so that in the expectation of his enemies, the illuminating glories and achievements he was amassing for himself in Ghana, Africa and the world, might halt immediately. But this did not happen.
The expected death of him never occurred, thanks to his military bodyguard, Captain Buckman, who upon nasally sensing the scent of an-about-to blast bomb from a bouquet of flowers which a seven-year-old girl was about to present to President Nkrumah, quickly wrestled him down to the ground to avoid the about four feet high execution range of the bomb.
The ground-falling spell of Nkrumah drew his instinct of self-defence, and thus, he halfway raised his legs up a bit for an advantage to be on his feet again, when the blast went off, killing all those who were standing up around Nkrumah and the young ‘flower’ girl.
The sprawled-down Nkrumah and Captain Buckman, plus those who were standing several feet away from the scene, did not die, even though some of them sustained injuries. Several people died, but Dr. Nkrumah had some scrapes and injuries on the legs which he raised up a bit during the wrestle melee.
He was taken to the nearest clinic, then to Tamale hospital and later flown to Accra where his special doctors attended to him. He was healed though, but since some poisonous fragments of the bomb had delved into the skin of his legs, they kept harassing him on and off until some local herbal medicine was allegedly applied to ward them off at intervals.
Unfortunately, when Dr. Nkrumah was travelling to Hanoi, Vietnam, three years after, only a little quantity of the herbal medicine that would last him for the visitation period was taken along, and when the coup of February 24, 1966 happened, he could not come back to Ghana to continue with his herbal treatment, hence the poisonous bomb fragments in the legs began to hold sway over the body, defying all medical treatment in Guinea and Romania.
BUSIA’S REFUSAL
When in 1970-71 Dr. K. A. Busia was the then Prime Minister, heading the government of Ghana, a Guinean delegation was sent by the President of Guinea, Sekou Toure, to plead for the return of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to Ghana to continue with his efficacious herbal treatment, since the disease of cancer had defied all medical treatment, and Dr. Nkrumah was dying.
Dr. Busia refused that request. In the late 1971, another emissary from Guinea came to Dr. K.A Busia to reconsider his position, but that plea was also rejected. Busia was a well-known Christian who often attended church services, and his refusal and hardheartedness in respect of the need to allow Nkrumah to return home for herbal treatment exacted harsh criticisms from the CPP and many other people.
Busia’s recalcitrance undoubtedly drew the anger of the Nkrumaist soldiers in the army, and Colonel I.K. Acheampong was thereby compelled to overthrow Busia’s government on February 13, 1972, thus paving the way for the return of the ailing Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was then domiciled in Sekou Toure’s Guinea as a co-President.
Efforts by Col. I. K. Acheampong (later General Acheampong) to see to the return of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah were not favourably responded to, since Nkrumah’s sickness had reached a fatal point, and Sekou Toure, acting as a good brother, had decided that in the event of Nkrumah’s death, his (Nkrumah’s) corpse would be embalmed to last some years and buried in Guinea.
Dr. Francis Nkrumah, then a lecturer in Legon and later known as Professor Francis Nkrumah, the first son of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who then shuffled between Ghana and Guinea on account of his father’s sickness, was also of the view that at that stage of his father’s sickness he, as a medical doctor, would not recommend the return of his father to Ghana, for his conditions were deathly.
And therefore, within three months of Nkrumaist, I.K. Acheampong’s reign as a head of state, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, sadly and pitiably died, not on the home soil of his own Ghana, but in the foreign land of Guinea to the joy and happiness of his hate-filled, malevolent, rancorous and shamefully envenomed enemies in Ghana. That red-letter day was April 27, 1972- a Thursday!
The news of his death immediately cut to the quick the rank and file of CPP members, and lots of people visibly mourned and shed tears; for, as we say in Fante, ‘the great oak tree had been devastatingly uprooted down’ (“Odum kese no etutu ahwe fa mu”).
Yes, the great oak tree of Ghana and Africa had prematurely been uprooted, the oak tree, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, had had his life span cut short on this earth, cut short by his enemies, who from the time he left the UGCC to form his own party (the CPP) in 1949 had sought to kill him through series of bomb blasts at CPP rallies, and through close-range shots at Flagstaff house which deflected.
It is to be remembered that within the UGCC, which had been formed by no other person than Paa Grant, a great, wealthy merchant and businessman who was resident at Takordi, and who was, by a twist of fortune, the uncle of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, UGCC lawyer-members were largely managing political affairs, through their own legal perspectives, but not with the necessary political know-how.
Dr. Nkrumah was the only trained politician in UGCC, having already reached the heights of his Political Science upbringing with a doctorate degree.
His Positive Action objective meant to be a conduit for a quick achievement of political freedom in the then Gold Coast, was misunderstood and disliked by the UGCC lawyers of Danquah, Akufo Addo, Obetsebi Lamptey etc. And that brought about disparities and quarrels and the final exit of Dr. Nkrumah to form his own party, the CPP which he successfully led until the 1966 coup.
What is to be noted here is that during his political exile in Guinea, Dr. Nkrumah wrote more than six books, thus putting to shame the Danquah-Busia followers who paraded some funny whimsicalities that Dr. Busia was a Professor and more learned than Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
But if you compare the over 18 books which Dr. Kwame Nkrumah wrote, with the less than seven books which Dr. Busia wrote, you can draw your own conclusion as to who was more intellectual. Of course, in the academic world, the evaluation of one’s intellectuality is the ability to write books and articles which inform and educate people.
And remember, Dr. Nkrumah also wrote series of articles in his own newspaper ‘The Evening News’ and other newspapers, thus through his writing and publishing showmanship, Nkrumah remains an intellectual giant of all ages, an academic superman and a true “primus politicusis” of the African continent.
Therefore, it still remains a mystery why Busia, an intellectual, should choose to show a damnable cathartic cruelty to his fellow intellectual Nkrumah, who was sick and therefore yearned to go back to his native land to receive healing. Was Busia still afraid of Kwame Nkrumah? That’s a thousand-dollar question!
When Nkrumah died on April 27, 1972, I was still a professional teacher, who upon hearing the sad news, shut myself in my room, expressing my utmost grief in writing a poem (an ode), which went into 38 verses within three days (Friday evening to Sunday morning).
The poem was written in Miltonic style, with Shakespearean cultural flourishes; and when later I was employed as a Research Writer at Ghanaian Times, in 1974-1976, I used to recite it at the Ghana Arts Council and people were moved to tears! Unfortunately, the bulk of the poetry is missing, but I hope to publish what remains, so to vividly present Africa’s unique personage,
Dr. Nkrumah, to future generations in order that they can know who Nkrumah truly was! died at the age of 63, not yet an old man, but a person at the fringes of his middle age who still had the guts to bring his African unification idea to fruition. Kwame, Goodbye.
DA YIE, SLEEP WELL, WO DJOGBAA, SHEEIDE SAAFI, NA DEENWIE,… DAABUOO!
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
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This column has been running for about fourteen years now. On many occasions, I have had soul-searching exercise whether I should rest or retire the column. Long ago, I came to the conclusion that I was just wasting my time keeping this column going. I have reduced my attendance of public lectures.
I attend with much hope and return sorrow. On numerous times, I had come to the conclusion that Africa’s case and for that matter Ghana’s case is hopeless. I have predicted in this column several times that in about fifty years, the only Africans living in this world will be those living outside the African continent.
Our leaders would have slaughtered all of us by their corrupt, incompetent, greedy, glutinous, selfish and foolish behavior. In the process, when they wake up to find that there is nobody to serve them, they would then turn their guns on themselves in Jim Jones manner of suicide killing.
There will then be complete peace on the African continent. The white man will then take over the continent to re-green it all over again. The citizens are contributing factor to this hopeless situation. They are not doing anything to hold their leaders accountable.
It has been proven over and over again that no nation can develop, grow and achieve greatness in the midst of corruption no matter what minute it is. Since independence, the Castle and for that matter the seat of government has constituted the epicenter of the corruption industry.
The stories we hear and witness everyday coming from the seat of power since independence indicate a hopeless situation of black skin “greedy bastards” selling the nation to white face “greedy bastards”.
Factions are formed within governments, phantom companies are formed and foreign “partners” are sought to move the wealth of the nation out. Succeeding governments develop new ways and perfect old ways to hide their loot.
There is unwritten agreement between the outgoing government and the incoming government to behave like the four mythical monkeys: speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, be at peace with one another. The politicians exchange insults in public and romance themselves in private. The poor innocent citizens suffer and few greedy bastards benefit. The progress of the country is retarded. Indeed, it took a call from the Editor around 6pm on Thursday to force me to put this piece down. I had taken the decision that I had written my last piece and that it was time for me to retire to my holy village to cultivate vegetables for personal sustenance.
Currently we have found a new love among the Chinese who in turn have found a new love with our oil and gas. Work which should be done by civil servants has been farmed out to politicians who are fighting each other as to who should be entitled to the jewel in the King’s Crown. I came across an article sent to me by Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI, a respectable think tank organization. The article was written by one Japheth Joshua Omojuwa and entitled “The beggar’s bowl: how Africans become beggars”.
Dear readers, I wish to share the article with you. Please read on.
If the title of this piece suggests to you it’s a fiction, I’d advise you to dispel that suggestion before you continue reading.
The beggar, his bowl and his poverty is only a unit paradigmatic representation of what you know, see and are indeed a part of.
That we are unconscious of it or that we do not admit it will not change the truth. The truth that has defined the destinies of several generations and will indeed affect that for which we can say has not been – the unborn generation.
If you live in Africa, then you must have seen a beggar at least once (I know there are beggars elsewhere but my piece is of Africa, by Africa and for Africa). An average beggar is represented by his physically apparent wretchedness, his begging bowl (some even go around in polythene bags these days) and possibly his assistants.
I have two distinct classes of beggars depending on those I’ll offer my money and those who will never get to have a dime from me.
Those beggars that go around with able-bodied subordinates don’t stand a chance with my money, simply because the man pushing the cart would be better off doing a credible job rather than being an accessory to begging. In this case, he is not even the beggar; he is an assistant beggar, though without any excuse whatsoever to beg.
Some would even argue that no one has a reason to beg, considering the lives of John Foppe, Cobhams Asuquo, Stevie Wonder and the likes. If you frown at a man who has decided to live his life begging, what would you say or do about a people whose lives are collectively lived as a race of beggars? If you think it is impossible for that to be possible, then you have not met Africa.
Africa governments do one or two of two things when faced with any challenge with respect to money; they borrow and/or run after aid from the West. This pot of aid has fetched Africa over $500 billion by figures deduced before this decade. That we have depended on foreign aid is not as much the issue as the fact that such aids eventually find their way back to the source countries.
It is simple enough. With the money from aid, our kleptomaniac inept rulers service mind boggling account figures in foreign banks.
We end up buying more foreign exchange than necessary because our economies are virtually moribund, as such we must import almost all the supplies of our livelihood. When we export as in cocoa and petroleum, we end up on the beaten side because for every barrel of petroleum we export, we import tons of petroleum products.
Ours remain a primary economy. An economy that depends on primary commodities cannot compete well in international trade because it is only logical for the buying country to gain as much as they can from the finished products of the primary products they imported in the first place.
If the United States pays $50 or so for every barrel of petroleum they get from us, they refine the petroleum and get some other products which we could term secondary: dishwasher parts, tool boxes, shoe polish, motorcycle helmet, caulking, petroleum jelly, transparent tape, CD player, faucet washers, antiseptics, clothesline, curtains, food preservatives, basketballs and some 6000 other products
So then, you see why the West can always afford to drop a few dollars into Africa’s begging bowl.
The same analysis goes for cocoa, gold, diamond and other major African exports. The truth is, if Africa concentrates on trade, she will be rich enough to lift her over 36 million people that are expected to fall into poverty by 2015.
Join that to the current figures and what you get is this: Africa will fail woefully at achieving the Millennium Development Goals except there’s a change in policy and economic strategy.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) forecasts a GDP of 5.4% growth for sub-Saharan Africa up to 2015. The poverty alleviation effect of this growth is expected to reduce African poverty rates from about 50% to 47%.
This looks like an improvement but it isn’t when weighed against Africa’s growing population rate.
The population growth outpaces the GDP growth hence more Africans will indeed be living in poverty by 2015. This is so because population growth eventually dilutes the marginal economic growth. It is like a father who used to earn $100 while he had two kids. This means that along with his wife, they share an average of $25 per head.
By the time his earnings are increased to $120, he already brought two more kids to the world. His income does actually increase but the per head effect is that each person gets $20, which is $5 short of their previous condition.
With African nations borrowing billions of dollars and getting even more in aid, they have financed the death of their citizens through endless wars and strife.
Do not mind that the lender not only gets to have interests, he also gets to have his money back as the weapons of war are the merchandise of the lender. Africa though isn’t as shackled by war as it is by a restricted economy.
The reason seats of African governments remain the object of guerilla and ethnic wars lies in the central nature of most African governments. Africans may be politically free but in practice Africans are not free.
Property rights are virtually non-existent and this means entrepreneurial acts are curtailed from inception. Karol Boudreaux writes “Decentralizing decision making about how and when to use property gives individuals greater scope to engage in creative entrepreneurial behavior.”
When would-be entrepreneurs eventually go through the proverbial needle hole of property rights, they are faced with a region that consistently ranks lowest in the world in terms of the ease of Doing Business.
A look at the 2008 and 2009 figures show African countries positioned at the foot of 181 ranked countries, the highest ranked African country in 2009 placed 35th (South Africa).
Talking about the beggar, no man gains financial independence or any sort of independence for that matter, by begging. As long as you beg, your fortunes remain limited. In fact, that one has chosen to beg means one does not value ones potentialities to create value and earn unlimited wealth.
There is hope for this continent. This lies in its people’s willingness to see themselves better than they currently do.
We must remove the beggar’s dirty garb and put on the honourable act of wealth creation through vast economic productivity. Governments and their apologists cannot make wealth; they only know how to collect money through taxes, aid and borrowings.
The next thing they know to do after that is to waste such funds on their personal whims and white elephant projects. A beggar, no matter how full his bowl is, can never claim freedom until he makes his wealth through productive means. You cannot claim to be free from me when each time you find yourself in trouble, you come running to me for some aid. Africa must seek the path of economic liberty and prosperity. The future lies in trade.
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Ex-President John Kufuor
Today, 10th May, 2011 marks exactly three years and two days since President John Agyekum Kufuor, while on a trip to the United Kingdom, secured a grant of £42.5million from the British Government to kick-start the free national anti-natal care for every expectant mother in all our state health facilities.
Again, last Sunday, 8th May 2011 was ‘Mothers Day’ just as it was on 11th May, 2008 when the announcement to institute the programme was actually made. This therefore became the most single innovative way of acknowledging the mothers of Ghana by any leader we have ever had, since the days of Adam.
Now, when the NDC wanted political power in 2008, they intentionally criminalized everything that Kufuor government was doing at the time. They accused the NPP of turning Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital into a slum where women went to deliver and, for lack of money to pay bills, were compelled to smuggle their babies out of the facility.
At the time, some experts came out to advice the Government to take a look at our population growth so that it did not out-pace our economic advancement. And as usual, Kwesi Pratt rubbished that advice by the experts, with an explanation that the State had absolutely no right to interfere with how many children an individual could have. He said it is rather the responsibility of the State to put measures in place to cater for people who go about engaging in sex as a recreation, and churning out babies on ‘conveyer belts’.
What the likes of Kwesi Pratt forget to appreciate is that proper management of a nation’s population growth is inextricably linked to improved standard of living and general well-being of its people. For example, Norway, in 1957, had a population of five million people which was the same as Ghana’s population at the time of independence. Now, after 53 years, the population of Norway is still five million while that of Ghana has sky-rocketed to nearly 25 million!!!
So, let’s say, if both Ghana and Norway were developing at the same rate, economically, citizens of Norway will certainly be enjoying much better standard of living than Ghanaians. And by the kind courtesy of leadership greed, selfishness and visionlessness, Ghanaians have rather retrogressed economically whilst our population is growing out-of-control.
Today, the lying and property looting social-democrats are in power and instead of delivering on their delusional campaign promises to enable Ghanaians to enjoy the ‘heavenly’ living standards promised us, they have rather chosen to travel abroad to deliver their ‘social-democratic babies’ while ordinary women of Ghana are perishing in their thousands, through child-birth under the current ‘better Ghana agenda’.
Don’t these current NDC government appointees know that they are seen as fools by the foreigners, when they abandon their core duty of coming up with solutions to the problems of those who have queued in the sun to vote for them, to perish like house-flies while they (appointees), are falling over one another for space on aircraft to go and deliver babies abroad?
Now, during the 8-year rule of the NPP, President Kufuor undertook a number of foreign trips with the sole purpose of selling Ghana, and also to woo investors. The results of these trips are very much visible for all to see if we are to put away our dogmatic political lenses and give credit where credit is due. These good works were going to be continued by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo but Ghanaians decided otherwise.
One of these trips was the ‘Business Call to Action’ confab in London, in May 2008. At a meeting held with the British prime minister during the confab, President Kufuor announced the British government’s £42.5m support to augment our efforts of implementing the fee-free pregnancy care for all women in all state health institutions. And since reducing maternal mortality is one of the millennium development goals, that donation by the British government was, certainly, welcome news.
The health and general well-being of women are pivotal in the socio-economic advancement of every nation. Hence, the saying by Dr. Kwegyir-Aggrey that: “If you educate a man, you educate an individual but if you educate a woman, you educate a nation”.
This particular product of president Kufuor’s travel was announced on Wednesday, 7th May 2008. Incidentally, the proceeding Sunday, 11th May 2008, happened to be Mother’s Day. Therefore, President Kufuor certainly could not have given mothers of our dear nation a more befitting present.
This novelty in our nation’s maternal health delivery, swiftly crucified the obnoxious ‘cash and carry’ system that sent many of our nation’s expectant mothers, prematurely, into the other world.
However, some developments following the successful kick-off of the fee-free pregnancy care programme on 1st July 2008, has got me thinking and I would urge the NDC administration to take steps to address the situation.
Averagely, one thousand babies were being delivered, monthly, at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, which works out to 250 deliveries per week (Citi FM breakfast news, 11/7/8). In that same Citi FM report, a young expectant woman whose view was sought on the fee-free natal care actually said that some of them have gotten “pregnant without knowing the men responsible” for their “pregnancies, and therefore this intervention by the government” was indeed “a welcome relief”.
There have also been pictures of over-crowded maternity wards of our state health facilities on our television screens in recent times, which are largely due to the increased number of expectant mothers accessing the service. According to official statistics from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, there were 280 deliveries within the first week of the implementation of the programme on 1st July, 2008. That was in excess of 30 deliveries over the previous figure of 250 a week. And I believe current figures may be well over that of two and a half years ago.
This situation of maternity departments of our state medical facilities coming under pressure, following the institution of the fee-free natal care, is being reported throughout the country, pointing to the fact that more women are accessing this facility. Most of these pregnancies which are putting pressure on our health facilities are being carried by girls who are children themselves!!!
The state, therefore, must consider the establishment of Citizens Advisory Centers, manned by seasoned counselors and psychologist, where any citizen, particularly the teenagers, could go and seek professional counseling in various areas when they are in distress.
These citizens’ advisory centers must have a single, free nation-wide, and a three or four digit telephone helpline which can be reached easily, unlike the current numerous police and other essential service emergency mobile phone numbers which are often out of coverage area.
Again, the state must consider establishing community libraries and youth centers where teenagers, during vacations, can either go and study or engage themselves in recreational activities in order to keep them from vices, particularly, early sexual relationships with its attendant pregnancies which tend to disrupt their academic progress.
And here, I would like to urge NGO’s, financial institutions and philanthropists to assist in expanding, upgrading and equipping our nation’s maternity outfits to enable them to cope with the current surge in patronage on the existing facilities.
Parents must also learn to play their part in the shaping up of the character of their children, by way of having regular and open dialogue with them. And when this is done, these children will in turn, develop trust in them (the parents). Therefore, the situation where children turn to their peers for ‘advice’ due to rather un-approachable nature of their parents shall be a thing of the past since a harmonious home, naturally, breeds happy and well-mannered children.
Managers of the Health Insurance Authority must also, as a matter of urgency, adopt a habit of extreme parsimony which is number one on their Hippocratic-oath to Ghanaians and re-focus on core duties of their constitutionally mandated responsibilities. They must exercise a great sense of moderation with their affinity for wastage on multi-billion dollar rented accommodations and fuel-guzzling sports utility vehicles (SUV’s).
Finally, I would urge all teenagers of our beloved country, Ghana, particularly the girls: please be focused in pursuit of your natural talents, believe in yourselves, love and preserve your bodies, understand that sex isn’t a recreation but a pro-creation activity and always be mindful of the fact that impossibility is God-given but inability is man-made.
Consequently, with zeal, determination and positive attitude, you shall grow up to become good and successful citizens but not ‘baby making machines’ for irresponsible men and boys, so that Ghana will rise through your positive contributions.
E-mail: [email protected]
By Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
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The way the clouds gathered prior to the rainfall, so would the sun shine afterwards. As such, just as we commented on the grey areas before the Kukrudu parliamentary primaries, so shall we extol the successes too, Kwaku Ananse stories from doomsday prophets notwithstanding.
If you would recall, there were uncountable incidents which marred the 2007 parliamentary primaries. I needn’t recount them here because I know they are still vivid in your memory.
It is therefore refreshing that the party responded to the cry of its grassroots and expanded the Electoral College. Despite whisperings from its detractors, the Osono should be proud of its achievement because it has chalked another milestone in the political history of this nation and the world at large.
If the saying, ‘coming events cast their shadows’ is to be believed, then one can say without any fear of contradiction that the peaceful and orderly nature of the exercise is a sign of victory for Kukrudians in the upcoming 2012 polls. Yes, there were a few hiccups. But no one can deny that it was a huge success. Apart from a few disturbances, the conduct of the exercise was generally peaceful, courteous and decorous. It is indeed a feather in the cap of the Kukrudu family.
Abusuapanin, it is my pleasure to inform you that all but one of my predictions came true. In the Dome-Kwabenya Constituency for instance, I predicted a resounding victory for Adjoa Safo Kantanka and it came to pass. Her victory was a reward for dedication, hard work and loyalty to the party. I recall clearly how she did not recoil into her shell when she lost to Hon. Mike Ocquaye, aka Papa Ajasco, in 2007; but rather supported him, morally and financially, to retain the seat. It was therefore understandable that the delegates have now reposed their trust in her.
That however is not to say Mike Ocquaye Jnr, her main contender, isn’t dedicated and loyal to the party. Not at all! I think his is a case of contesting for the wrong position at the wrong time. His defeat is clearly a manifestation of the fact that my compatriots abhor even a semblance of monarchical governance in the country’s politics. Father goes, son comes? Tofiakwa!
In the Adenta Constituency, where we witnessed a heated contest, Frances Asiam’s victory over Yaw Buabeng Asamoah was a pleasant shock to many. She was my bet and I’m very glad she won. I preferred the Iron Lady, as she is affectionately called, to Yaw because I believed and still believe that she is a better match for the Akatamansonians.
Another notable result was Hon. Maxwell Kofi Juma’s loss to Hon. Patricia Appiagyei in the Asokwa Constituency. I wasn’t surprised at all because I knew Hon. Juma’s foul mouth was going to be his nemesis. Without a doubt, his infamous ‘bottom power’ statement was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. His loss supports the argument that bad breath breeds hatred and humiliation.
The Ahafo Ano South Constituency is the only place I got it wrong. I tipped the man who propounded the mouse-pepper theory but he lost miserably. The theory tells us that Mother Mouse once took her children to her enemy’s pepper farm and told them to eat as much pepper as they could.
After some time, the children told their mother that the pepper wasn’t sweet so they should move to another farm. The mother admonished them to discard that thought and eat more of the pepper, because the main purpose of eating the pepper was not to enjoy but destroy. “So my children, eat and destroy the pepper farm because we are destroyers,” she bellowed. Her children heeded her advice and destroyed the farm.
The story teaches us to be wary of our opponents and enemies because they will go to the extreme to see our downfall. Maybe, just maybe, the proponent of the theory himself, Hon. Kwaku Balado Manu, lost because he failed to act when his opponent was destroying his ‘pepper farm’.
Hon. Balado’s loss was one of the few that hit me very hard. It hit me so hard that I still want to believe it was only a bad dream. But hey, wishes are not horses, are they? Anyway, he will be missed by the next House because his contributions are very phenomenal. Sad, isn’t it?
One thing I’ve learnt from the results of the Osono parliamentary primaries is that being very visible in the media circles doesn’t necessarily mean popularity among the delegates.
It is therefore imperative that prospective parliamentary aspirants would take a leaf from the book of those who lost and serve the party in their various constituencies as they should.
They should know that talking on radio is good, but it does not guarantee popularity among the grassroots.
I expected to hear some muted protests in one or two constituencies, so I’m not surprised it is happening. But those aggrieved should remember the consequences of in-fighting in the 2008 presidential polls and advice themselves accordingly.
If I were one of them, the rot we are witnessing in governance today would be enough motivation for me to forgive my compatriots who have wronged me. I once again remind all Kukrudians that, ‘The fly that fails to heed good counsel follows the corpse into the grave.’
Abusuapanin, if Kukrudians heed this wise counsel and patch up their differences, I see no reason why they should not start singing R Kelly’s hit tune ‘Sign of a victory’. I’ve already started and all they have to do is unite and join me to sing in anticipation of the majestic coronation of our new president on January 7, 2013. Sing along if you believe in the prophecy:
‘I can see the colours of the rainbow
I can feel the sun on my face
I see the light at the end of the tunnel
I can feel heaven in display
That is the sign of a victory …….’
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African Union
-Shameless NATO destroys Africa’s Libya
– Why not present ceasefire bid to UN?
For President Muammar Ghaddafi’s Libya to be subjected to incessant air bombings from NATO air planes over a two months’ stretch is something that continues to baffle the minds of all right thinking people.
Why, it must be asked, why this senseless war in Libya? Why should planes of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which consists of Americans and Europeans Soldiers) continue to rattle over Libyan skies, shooting cruise missiles and bombs to kill President Gaddafi’s soldiers and to raze down some apartments of his house, instantly killing one of his sons and three grandchildren? Why?
And one cannot simply understand why all African Union members, led by their heads of state, continue to look on silently for this mayhem to be visited on their member state Libya, by white people of other continents!
Doesn’t Libya belong to the African Union which presupposes a more compact relationship bordering on consanguinity or blood-kinship such that an affront against one African member state is against all African states which should warrant their immediate response? The days of the OAU (Organisation of African Unity) are over, a period when African States AGREED TO FRATERNISE quite lightly on periodic get-together basis, when talking and talking for closer relationship was the major leitmotif.
It was an organizational period preparing African states to, in future, form a more cohesive union in which each state saw herself to be in family ties with the others, not remaining indifferent to the woes of one another, but reacting appropriately to offer immediate help or relief or peace to the other. This is how the present name, AFRICAN UNION must be seen to connote- a more compact sisterly affinity in which love for, and assistance to one another should be practicalised.
MEANING OF AFRICAN UNION
But this is not what we see now with the so-called AFRICAN UNION. It appears most states consider the UNION to be mere UNITY which envisages a temporary relationship without any deep commitment for the welfare or safety of each other. If this is so, then it’s most unfortunate.
If indeed we have consigned ourselves to an AFRICA UNION construction which is very close to AFRICAN UNITED STATES, then African Presidents must wake up to uphold the ideals of the UNION and stop sleeping over the war being waged on Libya by NATO forces for no justifiable reasons. The basis of the war is childish. Some opposition elements in Libya say that they don’t want Gaddafi and his government to continue to ‘misrule’ Libya, so they must resign and be off the governance scene. They demonstrate.
And that’s permissible in a democratic state. But when the demonstration is: (a) being held every day to cause disturbance of the peace in the locality (b) waxing into violence when missiles (stones, cudgels, cutlasses etc) are hurled against the police who are using teargas to disperse the demonstrators, has the government no mandate or authority to defend itself or to put down the disturbing riots? Will the British, American, Italian or French government sit down unconcerned when some elements (ostensibly trained or organized to cause violence to overthrow that Administration) begin to act to endanger the peace in that country?
Won’t it defend itself by clamping down on such violence? Then why is it that when President Gaddafi rose up to fight the criminal violence against his state, the Europeans and Americans considered it unheard-of, and immediately thought it as their bounden duty to go to Libya to protect the innocent civilians whom Gaddafi “was killing through air attacks”? Are the whites political and military ‘protectors’ of revolting blacks? Who made them so?
FORMER USA, ITALIAN ATTACKS
Did the votes in the United Nations Security Council mandate the USA, Britain, Italy and France to quickly invade Libya to ostensibly protect the “unarmed civilian revolters”? When did it become justifiable for unapprehended and fighting revolters (openly seeking to overthrow a government) to be protected by the white men? Where is the cited case history morally justifying such protection?
There is absolutely no justification for American, Italian and French forces to, in the name of NATO, send military aircraft to bomb buildings in Tripoli, Misurata, Benghazzi etc, and to indiscriminately kill Libyans, thus causing further bloodshed. Why did the votes not mandate African countries to intervene diplomatically, and if possible, militarily?
Fact is that Libya has been a victim of these four nations- USA, Italy, Britain and France- for over two centuries, all because of their yearning to exploit her oil wealth, coal and gas. In 1804, the United States invaded Libya, with the view to fighting an ongoing piracy, just it is as being carried on presently at the coast of Somalia in Africa. This turned out to be a medium through which the wealth of Libya was to be exploited.
In 1911, Italy invaded Libya on the pretentious reason of fighting Turkey which had earlier on declared war on the Sanussi Muslim sect formed in Libya and had considered it to be unIslamic.
The Sanussi sect withstood Italy for 20 years until in 1931 when its leader al-Mukhtar was executed, and that enabled Italy to gain full control over Libya. However, Idris who was also a Sanussi Muslim emerged later, and having helped the British and the French in World War II, invited these two allies to Libya who divided that nation into British and French zones.
Nevertheless, in 1949, the UN declared independence to Libya under Idris who later was sworn in as King. Contrary to expectations, Gaddafi, then a colonel in the army, overthrew King Idris on September 1, 1969 and revolutionized the nation, bringing rapid transformation and development in the country on socialist lines. Gaddafi’s “Green Book” he wrote which brought the “popular participation” concept, quick revolution in agricultural and oil production, soon made Libya a nation with the highest per capita income of over $4000 per year in Africa, thus making her the wealthiest nation on the continent.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Whilst at home, Gaddafi has been hailed as the most popular and best leader, who has made several workers rich and comfortable (this is confirmed by Ghanaians returnees from Libya), his relations with Arab countries and the Europeans and Americans have gone sour day by day. His interactions with Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Saudi Arabi have not gone well; especially his opposition to Saudi Arabia and the Emirates for not helping him to resist “the pressures and manouevres of transnational corporation” of the USA and Europe which are making oil prices go higher and higher, has not been taken kindly.
Therefore, one can see why the Arabs initiated in the UN the idea of “military protection of Libyan civilians” which has invited NATO to wage air war against Gaddafi. And one wonders whether Gaddafi will find it comfortable to remain in the Arab League again, whilst his military strength appears to have been betrayed and undercut by fellow Arabs.
Of course, the question of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya etc indulging in ‘absolute bilateralism’ still remains an important issue to be mooted, a situation in which these aforementioned countries consider themselves as real Africans belonging to the AU and real Arabs belonging to the Arab League of the Middle East! Will Gaddafi want to be in the Arab Circle again, if the current war is over and he remains the President?
In 1986, Gaddafi was subjected to US economic embargo (January) and on April 14 the same year, American war planes invaded Libya and bombed Tripoli, the capital city, and Benghazzi, killing hundreds of people for nothing, except that Gaddafi was to be killed. It is therefore not amazing that under the pretext of saving Libyan civilians, NATO war planes have bombed Gaddafi’s premises, the second attempt killing his relations. African Presidents should quickly meet over this, and issue a strong resolution backing Gaddafi, and calling for cessation of the ongoing war.
The resolution should be presented to the Security Council and the UN General Assembly. And diplomatic discussions should be held with Russia and China to use their “veto powers” to stop the war to enable African nations to bring peace to Libya. African Presidents, rise up to save your own pal, Gaddafi, and your sisterly nation, Libya! Rise up!
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
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NPP Flag
It is a joy and pride to belong to a group or organization whose daily conduct internally and externally exudes public trust and confidence in all its ramifications. It is more gratifying when that organization happens to be a political party like the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
There is therefore no wonder that even in opposition, the members and sympathizers of the NPP feel more respected and attract more respect and confidence publicly, than the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC). Members of the NPP confidently wear their paraphernalia publicly than the ruling NDC. They speak about their membership of the party with their chests out, while members of the party in power shy away from identifying themselves with their own party.
It is not for nothing that our elders name their off-springs after very prominent and respectable members of their families. In this case, prominent not as in wealth, but in life well lived in a manner that society cherishes and upholds. The NPP has shown to the world that when it talks about democracy, it means it in all its facets. In 1992, when the PNDC metamorphosed into the NDC with all the state apparatus at its disposal, the NPP accepted the Constitution drawn by the ruling government, with all its weaknesses, as the document for the fourth republic.
The reason behind the acceptance of the document, the Indemnity Clause which was smuggled into it notwithstanding, was the fact that it was better for this nation to be governed by an imperfect constitution than to be ruled by a murderous dictator surrounded by spineless, unprincipled intellectuals whose crave for political power had been made possible by an equally unsuccessful military officer whose only way out to escape poverty was to abort a constitutional dispensation mid- way its tenure.
The pseudo-socialists who had used subterfuge, plain murder, intimidation and blackmail to govern this country needed to be shown the exit from dictatorial rule, courtesy Allotey Jacobs, alias educated fisherman, to a more civilized and respectable form of governance.
It was very clear that the processes before, during and after the December 1992 presidential elections were criminally tailored to meet the aspirations of the ruling PNDC, which had taken away the P to form the NDC.
After the elections, it became blatantly clear that the PNDC had rigged the elections in favour of the NDC. The leadership of the NPP, in spite of the tension in the country, put their intellectual prowess into play by recording all the kululuu which took place in that particular election. The leader of that exercise was no less a person than the current presidential candidate of the NPP. The outcome was a book titled the ‘Stolen Verdict’.
This happened on a continent where election results have generated endless internecine wars. Yes, it also happened in a country where guinea fowls have created wars leading to the death of over 3000 citizens of this country.
The world was amazed at the level of tolerance of the NPP and its belief that even if the elections had been stolen, it was better to stay in opposition and bid your time than to plunge the entire nation into chaos. So on and on, the NPP patiently waited on the good people of this country. While waiting, it also mended its ways.
It took a critical look at its structures, identified the weaknesses in them and strengthened them where necessary. Its constitution went through amendments as and when it became necessary, refined its message and strategies until it won power in the year 2000. What the NPP did with the power entrusted to it by the good people of Ghana is very well known to not only Ghanaians, but the world at large.
When the party lost power in 2008, it did not relent, and as typical of it, gathered its intellectuals– ladies and gentlemen- to critically analyse the cause or causes of the defeat and find solutions to them.
The outcome of that intellectual exercise was the theme ‘Reflect, Rebuild and Recapture’. The reflection certainly took into account what the party might have done wrong when in power as well as the shortfalls of the government. It also looked at its grassroots structures and how representative they were as far as internal democratic principles were concerned.
Having identified some weaknesses in them, some of the structures were strengthened through the rebuilding process. This led to the introduction of the electoral area coordinators, in addition to the polling station executives at the grassroots levels. The number of constituency office holders also went up with the introduction of certain positions, which hitherto did not exist.
The same went for the regional office positions as well as the national office positions. In all these, elections took place throughout the 230 constituencies and the 10 regions. Finally, the national elections were conducted at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi to elect our national officers.
The increased number of contestants in all these elections did not attract major bickering, which have the potential to break any political party apart.
When the major decision of the over 100,000 delegates to elect the flag-bearer of the party arrived, many were the cynics who believed that was going to be the end of the NPP, but once again, members of the party showed to the world that internal democracy had come to stay in the NPP and that it was paving the way for others the world over to learn from them.
By 6pm of that faithful day, the winner of that election had emerged and all the aspirants, except one resident in Kumasi, had congratulated the winner and gathered around him at a public place to hear him speak.
The world was once again astounded by that singular feat by a political party in opposition in Africa. They came from all walks of life to witness it in order to give testimony to the outside world.
To crown it all, last Saturday, the 30th of April 2011, saw another feat of the NPP when almost another 100,000 delegates gracefully, decently, responsibly, with commitment and dedication to boot, travelled from their villages and hamlets, some of us from our cocoase villages to our district capitals, to show the broadened horizoned people that even in our cocoase nkurasi lives, and despite the Kumasi thing in us, we know how to choose our leaders in a very peaceful manner. Once again, a feat unsurpassed in the annals of democratic practices anywhere on the African continent.
Why will I not be proud that I am a member of the NPP? A party which does not trust its birth to any individual founder, but has collective ownership by its members, and has the propensity to behave according to its collective dictates rather than bending to the whims and caprices of a so-called deified founder.
Political history has taught all of us that any political party not built on political philosophies or ideologies, but on the beliefs of individuals who are made constitutional founders of such parties, die naturally with the death of the founder.
Oh yes, when the founder dies, the struggle by interest groups and individuals laying claim as heir apparent, engenders the demise of such political parties. With NPP, tofiakwa, all of us have stakes in the party.
While we pat ourselves on the back, it is important also that we bring to the fore some of the weaknesses in the system, no matter how minimal. There seems to be a conflict in the party’s constitution which tends to unfairly favour incumbent Members of Parliament who contest other aspirants during parliamentary primaries.
A sitting Member of Parliament, per our constitution, is an ex-officio member of the constituency executives without a voting right. However, when it comes to parliamentary primaries, which even involves bigger participants, the sitting MP is given a voting right to the detriment of the other aspirants.
In the year 2008, some sitting MPs won by just a vote, which generated legal tussles in some cases. At Asanti Bekwai, this led to the independent candidate standing against the incumbent. It has happened again, in some constituencies this time around.
I think it is not fair to offer any aspirant a vote lead in any contest. It is either all the aspirants are given the opportunity to vote or none of them votes. This, if well considered, would further enhance our democratic credentials as it were.
As for me, my mahogany bitters has been my companion since last Saturday. What about you? NPP all the way, let me ‘cut’ some aaaa and go to sleep while those who are launching and re-launching their campaigns against their traitors and enemies go ahead.
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BATTLE READY! Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings
The vituperation and curses being hurled at Mrs. Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings for daring to exercise her democratic right to challenge Professor Mills to be the flag-bearer of the NDC for the 2012 presidential election in Ghana is quite strange. It is as if the lady has committed such a huge crime and it is as if this is the first time in the history of the world that this is taking place.
As has been said for the umpteenth time, there is no law in this country that disqualifies any Ghanaian of sound mind to present himself/herself for any election, as long as he/she meets all the requirements surrounding that election.
In the United States of America, the late Senator Kennedy challenged the then sitting President, Jimmy Carter, during the primaries of the Democratic Party for the 1980 presidential election, albeit unsuccessfully.
The filth that is suddenly being thrown at Mrs. Rawlings, who was until recently one of the leading lights and an unchallenged icon of the NDC, says more about that organisation than about the lady.
True to character, but to the amazement of independent observers, all the persons who were widely known to be her close friends are one by one abandoning her…. ET Mensah, Shirley Ayittey, Fiifi Kwetey, Betty Mould, Segbefia, Asiedu Nketiah, etc. etc are showing the kind of unprincipled persons that they are. This is particularly interesting against the background of the fact that all of these people, without exception, owe their small positions thanks to the insistence of the Rawlings duo that they be hired by the Mills machine.
And now…. Obaa Konadu has become the most hated person in Ghana. That is very disturbing, isn’t it, if we want to have leaders who can muster some principles no matter the cost? By their deeds, these people have sent the most horrible signal to the young men and women of this country who need to be inspired by our current leaders.
A number of lessons lend themselves to the whole of Ghana, though.
1. The episode should reveal to all and sundry that in the NDC, the only qualification that matters above anything else is the level of sycophancy that one can demonstrate to the man in power. In their vocabulary, the only thing that
counts most is one’s ability to master the art of opportunism. Loyalty and principles count for absolutely nothing.
2. The NDC is not interested in quality because if quality was the yard stick for the presidency of this country, Professor Mills would most certainly be one of the most unqualified persons for the job. As we have all known, he has raised incompetence to new heights in this country. The President has simply not been
trained to bear a responsibility as onerous as being the Head of State of a sophisticated country such as ours.
He is obviously so confused and this is shown by everything that he does and says, ranging from the outlandish promises that he made during the campaign trail, to very vulgar contents of his campaign
messages, especially in the Central Region, where he shamelessly sought to pitch one ethnic group against the other, to his reaction to the Anas video at the Tema Port, to the verdict regarding the trial of the Ya Na murder suspects. One
may even add to the list of maladroit actions and pronouncements what he said and did about the Ivorian crisis and his strenuous attempt to fuse State and Church in a secular country such as ours.
At any given opportunity, President Mills has reinforced the general feeling and impression about him being a very weak, inarticulate, and ill-prepared leader. Nana Konadu has said it aloud what every discerning Ghanaian knows and for this she needs to be commended instead
of the wave of condemnation that is being heaped at her.
3. Contrary to the NDC protestations, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings is doing this country the greatest service that any true citizen can do for Ghana. Her bold decision to rid us of the persistent embarrassment called Mills should gladden
the hearts of all patriotic Ghanaians, because if she succeeds to get rid of Mills from their list, and even fails to win the presidential election, she would have helped to spare the country the constant headache that we all suffer any time we see our pastor president or hear him pronounce himself on any
national or international event.
4. By her decision, the lady is telling the men of the NDC, and indeed the whole of Ghana, that we still have some Yaa Asantewaas in modern day Ghana. No wonder
one of her children was named after that legendary queen mother of Edweso. The men of the NDC are clearly only interested in the little moneys and little power that the president has made available to them.
They must be ashamed. By that bold decision, Mrs. Rawlings can be sure that her name in the history of contemporary Ghana is fully guaranteed. She must resist any form of pressure to stand down because not only will that be a total betrayal of those who admire
her courage, but she will miss a golden opportunity to have her name fully engraved in the history of this country.
As a foot note, I am sure she has now understood what the concept of sycophancy means in the Ghanaian context.
It is a very sad phenomenon that was started by the CPP blokes and which has assumed frightening proportions under the NDC regime in this country. Only God knows when we can cure it, if ever we shall. Secondly, I am sure she knows that if the NDC congress distorts the rules to her disadvantage, she can always break away from that bogus party and stand as an Independent. She is on course to making history, this lady. I wish her
well.
Obaa Mo!
By Kwasi Yeboah,
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Ghana Police Service logo
Perception is a very dangerous weapon that can derail the truth and facts about the realities of life.
The Police institution as a whole carries a lot of baggage which prevent people from finding favor with them since it is consistently undermined by certain corrupt and dangerous elements whose alliance with the institution is to use it as a consulting body to siphon money from innocent people.
A case in point is the Police Buffalo Unit of the Ashanti Region Police Service whose quality of service dignifies honesty, humility, objectivity, reformation and fundamental fairness. As lethal as they are, they still have in them what it takes to be identified as men of honour.
The Buffalo Unit is part of the Ashanti Regional Police Force with special assignment to protect life and property. The leadership of this unit, DSP Rev Nana Adane-Ameyaw and his deputy, DSP James Owusu, demonstrate exemplary qualities of service to the citizenry and humanity in general.
They are the special ones whose methodology of service injects sanity into the Police Service and creates room for certain concerned people like me to believe that the future can be good. Although the whole setup is not perfect, with little rough edges, it still has the potential to be the best in terms of job execution.
The Commander of the Buffalo Unit and his deputy are not just good policemen but men of God. They are real ministers of the faith whose persona reflects what they preach. They use the fundamental principles of right and wrong as basis of their work ethics and truth is the key in their judgment, notwithstanding one’s status.
In the arena of the commander’s domain, it pays to speak the truth, seek genuine remorse and you will find favor with them, depending on the magnitude of the offence. On the contrary, to attempt to perpetuate lies and display hardiness will attract the roughness and physical power of the unit.
At the Buffalo Unit, truth and objectivity is the key. Whether, you are the victor or loser in a case, you will learn to respect and admire their judgment which lingers on rules of engagement – the law, ethics and fundamental fairness. In the end, it is nothing but the truth which most of us abhor since we are structured to using the law enforcement agency to intimidate and advance our own personal aggrandisement.
In addition to its special mandate to protect life and property, they perform one special function which deserves one’s recognition and admiration, reform people.
They take time to explain the nature of the offence and it effects. Consequently, all participants in the case are schooled- the complainants, defendants and sympathizers. Their services define civility, yet they are rigid in their pursuit for the truth which is an indelible mark of excellence.
The issue which took me to the Buffalo Unit was simple and yet complex in nature: My ward spent three days in cells before a bail could be granted and I was convinced by him that she (my ward) deserved to be there (although, it was a holiday, the need to reform her was the key here).
One thing that beats my imagination is the composition of the leadership team of the Buffalo Unit. Whether by design or accident, both the Commanding Officer and his deputy are men of God.
I mean, Ministers of the faith who practice what they preach on the pulpit. At first, I sensed an element of contradiction with the roles of the Commanding Officer, first as a Police Officer and secondly as a Reverend of the Apostolic Church, vis-à-vis my perception about the normal policeman in today’s Ghana. Little did I know that in God’s own way, everything is possible.
They use wisdom in the word, conflict resolution management process and the law to reform people who otherwise have landed in jail to be fed by the government which is phenomenal. Kudos to the leadership of the Police Service, Paul Tawiah Quaye, for his drive, ingenuity and creativity in establishing a functioning department which is respected by the community.
The whole Buffalo Unit is not perfect, like all other institutions. Notwithstanding the fact that they have very shrewd and energetic leadership, they still have among them few sharks who behave like the normal policeman.
It is just obvious from my observation that some of the junior staff need a real talk to compliment the efforts made so far in making the unit one of the most remarkable setups within the police institution in the Ashanti Region.
It is therefore the responsibility of the Commanding Officer to continue to ensure that the character of the overall unit represent the true character of his leadership. I know that it is not going to be easy but with God on his side and prayers, he can succeed.
Currently, the government has embarked on a decent pay structure for the Police Service that elevates them to a high level in our society.
What reason do some of our men in uniform have to perpetuate their evil crime of exploitation? Many people in the service use the institution as a consulting place to amass wealth. Whether it is a myth or reality, people believe that most cases do not travel the usual length because our men in uniform do collect monies from both the complainant and the defendant.
In certain locations, the police structure refuses to be a service institution; you have to pay money as a complainant to have your case attended to and the frustration thereon sometimes makes you feel like abandoning the case. However, I am glad that the Buffalo Unit exists to create a difference.
Our dear nation called Ghana is in crisis. Greed, vindictiveness and selfishness have assumed a new dimension in our socio-economic life.
The attributes of goodness and sacrifice have no relevance any longer in our institution and it is all about ‘each one for himself, God for us all’. Naturally, it is always exciting to identify one good story worthy of praise and emulation to write about.
A case in point is the Buffalo Unit of the Ashanti Police Force whose exceptional leadership style creates hope that one day we shall have a transformed police institution ready to be of service to our dear nation and its citizenry. God save our dear nation called Ghana.
Email:VA [email protected]
By Eric Edusei
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I have keenly observed the sorrows of the Ghanaian teacher since this animal called Single Spine Salary Structure(SSSS) reared its ‘mugu yaro’ head on the shores of our beautiful country.
For me, the most important groups of professionals in any society are teachers, farmers and doctors. With only these three groups, any nation that is seriously bent on making advancement in any sphere of human endeavour can easily do so.
Unfortunately, greedy, incompetent, liars, indecent and brainless pseudo-socialists have held the nation to ransom by always descending heavily on knowledgeable people who seek to make useful contributions towards our nation’s advancement with their highly caustic mouths.Intellegent voices have therefore decided to keep silent while plain-faced vagabonds with destructive mentality akin only to that of Haiti’s renegade criminal organization called ‘The Tonton Makut’ are having a field-day.
Now, before an individual can appreciate what he/she has to do with his/her life in future, it has to take the efforts of a teacher to teach and direct him/her at the foundation stage. I remember my primary school days at ‘Maame Esaaba’ Memorial Primary at ‘Memmpe Asem’ near Sekondi, where some of our teachers were trekking for hours to school.Relatively,I am certainly not a wealthy person but I recently met one of the masters who taught me in secondary school and I was extremely sad.
I would not say he is a pauper but considering the fact that this person who probably had his university degree in the early 70’s and has certainly imparted so much knowledge to millions of students who must be occupying various important positions in our society today, was still struggling to board a ‘trotro’ to his one-room rented accommodation somewhere in Kasoa was rather pathetic.
He is currently retired, and according to what he told me, his many years of clutching to sticks of chalk and duster did not bring him and his nuclear family any meaningful livelihood. Indeed, tragedies of both active and retired teachers actually abound but this is an example I can personally attest to.
In the case of farmers, they provide for the survival of the human race by way of ensuring there is food on our table. This food is then consumed and our bodies’ nutritional requirements are provided to enable us to accumulate the necessary energies to undertake our various daily activities. Doctors take care of our ailments and make sure we do not perish from preventable deaths.
But rather sadly, the Mills administration seems to be embarking on a deliberate mission to relegate to the background enormous contributions of these above named professionals while their appointees are going about hounding for multi-million dollar properties.
On the issue of teachers in particular, the Mills administration has treated them with contempt. I remember Madam Pretty Betty, affectionately called “madam how dare they”, now the education minister, saying at a press conference that “mistakes” surrounding the teachers’ SSSS implementation were as a result of undue “pressure” brought to bear on her ministry by the teachers. And if we were operating in a civilized enviroment, that very pronouncement should have instantly resulted in her instant dismissal.
And my reason is simple: a person who has been put in-charge of a ministry to steer its affairs in the right way, and at all times, so that sanity prevails to enable set targets to be met irrespective of any external pressures, rather unashamedly, proclaiming in front of television cameras that she made those mistakes so that teachers would go through that stress simply on a flimsy account that pressure was brought on her!!!
Effectively, she was simply telling the president who appointed her to head the education ministry, and by extension the whole Ghanaian populace, that if she was a medical doctor and you go to her with an advanced stage of appendicitis (inflamed appendix), she can still go ahead and rather remove your brain instead of your appendix if you are able to bring pressure to bear on her to do so. These are the kind of people currently managing the affairs of our dear nation. Any wonder why our nation’s institutions are in complete disarray.
In spite of their total incompetence, these government appointees have access to every good thing under the sun. The juvenile-delinquents amongst them, by the benevolence of political office, are today able to kidnap people’s daughters and force them into marriage and take them on nuptial-flights to far-away ‘Obama-land’ while the suffering teacher’s badly crushed ‘single-salary-spine’ has been left to rot.
And with the Coalition of Concerned Teachers in the Eastern Region rejecting the 15% salary increase for the month of March, 2011 describing it as “an insult to their dignity (Daily Guide, 20/4/11, pg.6), it is clearly evident that this current lesion afflicting the spine of Ghanaian teachers can never be surgically removed by these incompetent and greedy government appointees who are rather pre-occupied with their new-found love of ‘property-grabbingship’.Attempts to even voice their grievances are met with armored-vehicles and hails of bullet from the ‘zombie’ fraternity.
In medical Radiology, some of the most common spinal problem patients normally report to our department with are spondylosis, kyphosis, lordiosis, scoliosis and all kinds of fractures as a result of road traffic accidents (RTA).
Spondylosis is an abnormal growth anywhere along the spinal column which tends to exert pressure on the nerves emanating from the spinal-cord. This condition normally results in pains in parts of the body being served by these pressured nerves. So for example; a patient will go to a doctor with pains in the arms and fingers but an X-ray of the neck will be requested. And this is because the nerves controlling the arms actually emerge from the spinal-cord at points in the cervical spine which is found in the neck.
Kyphosis, lordiosis and scoliosis are all types of what we normally refer to in the Akan language as ‘akyakya’ or ‘efu’ (hunch).Kyphosis is when the curvature is at the back, lordiosis is when the curvature is at the front and scoliosis is when the curvature is at either the left or right side of the thorax. Road traffic accidents (RTA) can also cause various degrees of fractures to the spine.
The ‘single-salary-spine’ of the Ghanaian teacher has suffered a debilitating blow by the Mills administration and because those who have been tasked to diagnose the extent of damage in order for a remedy to be found, have their attention rather focused on property-grabbing. As such, I would like to advise the teachers to take their destiny into their own hands by seeking solutions to their problems.
Now, orthopedic surgeons are medical doctors who have specialized in handling conditions affecting the skeletal system. I would therefore advise the gallant teachers of our nation whose enormous, vital and selfless contributions to our nation’s development have been completely relegated to the background, to consider paying a visit to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to engage the services of an orthopedic surgeon.
I would therefore advise them to walk away from useless ‘Kweku Ananse’ promises of these incompetent and greedy government officials, and seek the intervention of an appropriate surgical specialist since such a move will bring about proper diagnoses of the extent of damage done to their ‘SINGLE-SALARY-SPINES’ by the Mills administration so that the appropriate remedy can be administered.
E-mail: [email protected]
By Justice Abeeku Newton-Offei
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Ghana Cedis
Well, my compatriots, let anyone, including citizen the dog born, swear that our money is not going into congress mansions and filling congresspeople’s cheeks. Congresspeople are eating well, well, and building huge, huge mansions with our money. Otherwise where is all the money (na sika no wo he)?
They cannot be said to have gone into the small, small projects being sod-cut or commissioned all over the place as if something big is happening. They always say classrooms and not schools; because small is many and big is few.
Never in the entire history of the motherland has so much money accrued to government chest. Gold price is at record high. Cocoa price is highest ever. I just saw CEPS has already exceeded its first quarter target. Utility prices are at their peak. Fuel prices are the highest ever. Toll and other levies have never been this high. On top of everything else, we are exporting oil.
So why are we not seeing big development at a scale never seen before instead of the small, small projects? It is because the money is going into mansions and filling cheeks. A mosquito is now able to lay eggs of cement blocks to build two mansions in two years. Small and small standard seven boys and girls are building mansions.
They put small money into doing small things in the rural areas to deceive rural dwellers to vote for them in 2012. I think those whose job as politicians to stop the deceit should start now because the deception could stick.
Just think, the money used to construct that beautiful road from Pantang through Peduase Presidential Lodgeto Mamfe by the Kufuor administration could probably have built one thousand rural schools. But Kufuor built both that road and one thousand and over schools.
There was no oil money then, cocoa and gold prices were not that high, and tolls were a thousandth of their current level.
The oil money has gone with the STX wind, with the crumbs towards congress mansions and cheek stuffing.
My proposal for addressing the development issue is first to property audit. EOCO or CHRAJ, whoever cares, must publish an announcement in the newspapers and on radio asking anyone who suspects a mansion built by a congressperson within the last two years to provide details.
EOCO could even begin by asking for volunteers. We would see how many congresspeople will raise their hands to be counted as auditees.
If none of this happens, we will be stuck with a big government that does little, little things and expects to be applauded for that. If we allow it to be stuck in the heads of our compatriots that a better Ghana means small, small community projects, then the motherland is doomed to be underdeveloped.
A central government builds the big roads, trunk roads, arterial roads; roads that link regional capitals and district capitals to regional capitals.
Revenue generated from such projects is then channeled into building the feeder roads. Even these are done strategically. Cocoa and foodstuffs must be carted. This ensures that food prices are kept down and that enough revenue is generated for the smaller projects.
No nation has ever completely built enough schools. Even those with shrinking populations never stop building schools because of shifting population concentrations. So you can never finish building schools before constructing the big roads.
My compatriots, if you heard them, now they say they are doing rural development. So everyone should be stuck in their village. No Nsawam bypass, no Nkawkaw bypass, no Aflao road. If it’s going to cost more to transport goods and services from the ports and harbours which are all located in the southern part of the motherland, they congresspeople couldn’t be bothered.
I thought rural development was community development. It is small development which should be propelled by the big development. No big development, no small development.
The big money will continue to go to mansions, and cheeks and policy fairs. They promised to cut down workshops and seminars and conferences and fairs to save money. Just watch. There are now big, big policy fairs which can never put food on your table nor money into your pockets.
All you who can read and will read this, please go and tell your compatriots and my compatriots in the rural areas that the liars and cheats are at it again. All the money which should come into their pockets are being used to build mansions or stuff cheeks.
When they come to commission a borehole or classroom, or KVIP or cut sod for whatever, they should ask them where all the gold and cocoa and oil money has gone that they are giving them those small, small district level projects. They should ask them where they are getting all the money for building mansions and filling their cheeks from.
By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh
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Kwame Nkrumah
Last Wednesday, April 27, 2011 marked the 39th anniversary of the death of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana, a man with dazzling political charisma that made people instinctively hail him, a man with ever-flowing sagacity, dynamism, broadmindedness and flawless vision who initiated and actively pioneered the movement for Africa’s continental union government by which much of the world knew and revered him as Africa’s primus Polilticusis-Africa’s number one politician!
KULUNGUGU BOMB
Dr. Nkrumah was allegedly killed by skin cancer, an ailment which eventuated from the Kulungugu bomb blast in 1963 which was aimed at his total death or instant extinction from the world, so that in the expectation of his enemies, the illuminating glories and achievements he was amassing for himself in Ghana, Africa and the world, might halt immediately. But this did not happen.
The expected death of him never occurred, thanks to his military bodyguard, Captain Buckman, who upon nasally sensing the scent of an-about-to blast bomb from a bouquet of flowers which a seven-year-old girl was about to present to President Nkrumah, quickly wrestled him down to the ground to avoid the about four feet high execution range of the bomb.
The ground-falling spell of Nkrumah drew his instinct of self-defence, and thus, he halfway raised his legs up a bit for an advantage to be on his feet again, when the blast went off, killing all those who were standing up around Nkrumah and the young ‘flower’ girl.
The sprawled-down Nkrumah and Captain Buckman, plus those who were standing several feet away from the scene, did not die, even though some of them sustained injuries. Several people died, but Dr. Nkrumah had some scrapes and injuries on the legs which he raised up a bit during the wrestle melee.
He was taken to the nearest clinic, then to Tamale hospital and later flown to Accra where his special doctors attended to him. He was healed though, but since some poisonous fragments of the bomb had delved into the skin of his legs, they kept harassing him on and off until some local herbal medicine was allegedly applied to ward them off at intervals.
Unfortunately, when Dr. Nkrumah was travelling to Hanoi, Vietnam, three years after, only a little quantity of the herbal medicine that would last him for the visitation period was taken along, and when the coup of February 24, 1966 happened, he could not come back to Ghana to continue with his herbal treatment, hence the poisonous bomb fragments in the legs began to hold sway over the body, defying all medical treatment in Guinea and Romania.
BUSIA’S REFUSAL
When in 1970-71 Dr. K. A. Busia was the then Prime Minister, heading the government of Ghana, a Guinean delegation was sent by the President of Guinea, Sekou Toure, to plead for the return of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to Ghana to continue with his efficacious herbal treatment, since the disease of cancer had defied all medical treatment, and Dr. Nkrumah was dying.
Dr. Busia refused that request. In the late 1971, another emissary from Guinea came to Dr. K.A Busia to reconsider his position, but that plea was also rejected. Busia was a well-known Christian who often attended church services, and his refusal and hardheartedness in respect of the need to allow Nkrumah to return home for herbal treatment exacted harsh criticisms from the CPP and many other people.
Busia’s recalcitrance undoubtedly drew the anger of the Nkrumaist soldiers in the army, and Colonel I.K. Acheampong was thereby compelled to overthrow Busia’s government on February 13, 1972, thus paving the way for the return of the ailing Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who was then domiciled in Sekou Toure’s Guinea as a co-President.
Efforts by Col. I. K. Acheampong (later General Acheampong) to see to the return of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah were not favourably responded to, since Nkrumah’s sickness had reached a fatal point, and Sekou Toure, acting as a good brother, had decided that in the event of Nkrumah’s death, his (Nkrumah’s) corpse would be embalmed to last some years and buried in Guinea.
Dr. Francis Nkrumah, then a lecturer in Legon and later known as Professor Francis Nkrumah, the first son of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, who then shuffled between Ghana and Guinea on account of his father’s sickness, was also of the view that at that stage of his father’s sickness he, as a medical doctor, would not recommend the return of his father to Ghana, for his conditions were deathly.
And therefore, within three months of Nkrumaist, I.K. Acheampong’s reign as a head of state, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, sadly and pitiably died, not on the home soil of his own Ghana, but in the foreign land of Guinea to the joy and happiness of his hate-filled, malevolent, rancorous and shamefully envenomed enemies in Ghana. That red-letter day was April 27, 1972- a Thursday!
The news of his death immediately cut to the quick the rank and file of CPP members, and lots of people visibly mourned and shed tears; for, as we say in Fante, ‘the great oak tree had been devastatingly uprooted down’ (“Odum kese no etutu ahwe fa mu”).
Yes, the great oak tree of Ghana and Africa had prematurely been uprooted, the oak tree, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, had had his life span cut short on this earth, cut short by his enemies, who from the time he left the UGCC to form his own party (the CPP) in 1949 had sought to kill him through series of bomb blasts at CPP rallies, and through close-range shots at Flagstaff house which deflected.
It is to be remembered that within the UGCC, which had been formed by no other person than Paa Grant, a great, wealthy merchant and businessman who was resident at Takordi, and who was, by a twist of fortune, the uncle of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, UGCC lawyer-members were largely managing political affairs, through their own legal perspectives, but not with the necessary political know-how.
Dr. Nkrumah was the only trained politician in UGCC, having already reached the heights of his Political Science upbringing with a doctorate degree.
His Positive Action objective meant to be a conduit for a quick achievement of political freedom in the then Gold Coast, was misunderstood and disliked by the UGCC lawyers of Danquah, Akufo Addo, Obetsebi Lamptey etc. And that brought about disparities and quarrels and the final exit of Dr. Nkrumah to form his own party, the CPP which he successfully led until the 1966 coup.
What is to be noted here is that during his political exile in Guinea, Dr. Nkrumah wrote more than six books, thus putting to shame the Danquah-Busia followers who paraded some funny whimsicalities that Dr. Busia was a Professor and more learned than Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
But if you compare the over 18 books which Dr. Kwame Nkrumah wrote, with the less than seven books which Dr. Busia wrote, you can draw your own conclusion as to who was more intellectual. Of course, in the academic world, the evaluation of one’s intellectuality is the ability to write books and articles which inform and educate people.
And remember, Dr. Nkrumah also wrote series of articles in his own newspaper ‘The Evening News’ and other newspapers, thus through his writing and publishing showmanship, Nkrumah remains an intellectual giant of all ages, an academic superman and a true “primus politicusis” of the African continent.
Therefore, it still remains a mystery why Busia, an intellectual, should choose to show a damnable cathartic cruelty to his fellow intellectual Nkrumah, who was sick and therefore yearned to go back to his native land to receive healing. Was Busia still afraid of Kwame Nkrumah? That’s a thousand-dollar question!
When Nkrumah died on April 27, 1972, I was still a professional teacher, who upon hearing the sad news, shut myself in my room, expressing my utmost grief in writing a poem (an ode), which went into 38 verses within three days (Friday evening to Sunday morning).
The poem was written in Miltonic style, with Shakespearean cultural flourishes; and when later I was employed as a Research Writer at Ghanaian Times, in 1974-1976, I used to recite it at the Ghana Arts Council and people were moved to tears! Unfortunately, the bulk of the poetry is missing, but I hope to publish what remains, so to vividly present Africa’s unique personage,
Dr. Nkrumah, to future generations in order that they can know who Nkrumah truly was! died at the age of 63, not yet an old man, but a person at the fringes of his middle age who still had the guts to bring his African unification idea to fruition. Kwame, Goodbye.
DA YIE, SLEEP WELL, WO DJOGBAA, SHEEIDE SAAFI, NA DEENWIE,… DAABUOO!
By Apostle Kwamena Ahinful
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This column has been running for about fourteen years now. On many occasions, I have had soul-searching exercise whether I should rest or retire the column. Long ago, I came to the conclusion that I was just wasting my time keeping this column going. I have reduced my attendance of public lectures.
I attend with much hope and return sorrow. On numerous times, I had come to the conclusion that Africa’s case and for that matter Ghana’s case is hopeless. I have predicted in this column several times that in about fifty years, the only Africans living in this world will be those living outside the African continent.
Our leaders would have slaughtered all of us by their corrupt, incompetent, greedy, glutinous, selfish and foolish behavior. In the process, when they wake up to find that there is nobody to serve them, they would then turn their guns on themselves in Jim Jones manner of suicide killing.
There will then be complete peace on the African continent. The white man will then take over the continent to re-green it all over again. The citizens are contributing factor to this hopeless situation. They are not doing anything to hold their leaders accountable.
It has been proven over and over again that no nation can develop, grow and achieve greatness in the midst of corruption no matter what minute it is. Since independence, the Castle and for that matter the seat of government has constituted the epicenter of the corruption industry.
The stories we hear and witness everyday coming from the seat of power since independence indicate a hopeless situation of black skin “greedy bastards” selling the nation to white face “greedy bastards”.
Factions are formed within governments, phantom companies are formed and foreign “partners” are sought to move the wealth of the nation out. Succeeding governments develop new ways and perfect old ways to hide their loot.
There is unwritten agreement between the outgoing government and the incoming government to behave like the four mythical monkeys: speak no evil, see no evil, hear no evil, be at peace with one another. The politicians exchange insults in public and romance themselves in private. The poor innocent citizens suffer and few greedy bastards benefit. The progress of the country is retarded. Indeed, it took a call from the Editor around 6pm on Thursday to force me to put this piece down. I had taken the decision that I had written my last piece and that it was time for me to retire to my holy village to cultivate vegetables for personal sustenance.
Currently we have found a new love among the Chinese who in turn have found a new love with our oil and gas. Work which should be done by civil servants has been farmed out to politicians who are fighting each other as to who should be entitled to the jewel in the King’s Crown. I came across an article sent to me by Franklin Cudjoe of IMANI, a respectable think tank organization. The article was written by one Japheth Joshua Omojuwa and entitled “The beggar’s bowl: how Africans become beggars”.
Dear readers, I wish to share the article with you. Please read on.
If the title of this piece suggests to you it’s a fiction, I’d advise you to dispel that suggestion before you continue reading.
The beggar, his bowl and his poverty is only a unit paradigmatic representation of what you know, see and are indeed a part of.
That we are unconscious of it or that we do not admit it will not change the truth. The truth that has defined the destinies of several generations and will indeed affect that for which we can say has not been – the unborn generation.
If you live in Africa, then you must have seen a beggar at least once (I know there are beggars elsewhere but my piece is of Africa, by Africa and for Africa). An average beggar is represented by his physically apparent wretchedness, his begging bowl (some even go around in polythene bags these days) and possibly his assistants.
I have two distinct classes of beggars depending on those I’ll offer my money and those who will never get to have a dime from me.
Those beggars that go around with able-bodied subordinates don’t stand a chance with my money, simply because the man pushing the cart would be better off doing a credible job rather than being an accessory to begging. In this case, he is not even the beggar; he is an assistant beggar, though without any excuse whatsoever to beg.
Some would even argue that no one has a reason to beg, considering the lives of John Foppe, Cobhams Asuquo, Stevie Wonder and the likes. If you frown at a man who has decided to live his life begging, what would you say or do about a people whose lives are collectively lived as a race of beggars? If you think it is impossible for that to be possible, then you have not met Africa.
Africa governments do one or two of two things when faced with any challenge with respect to money; they borrow and/or run after aid from the West. This pot of aid has fetched Africa over $500 billion by figures deduced before this decade. That we have depended on foreign aid is not as much the issue as the fact that such aids eventually find their way back to the source countries.
It is simple enough. With the money from aid, our kleptomaniac inept rulers service mind boggling account figures in foreign banks.
We end up buying more foreign exchange than necessary because our economies are virtually moribund, as such we must import almost all the supplies of our livelihood. When we export as in cocoa and petroleum, we end up on the beaten side because for every barrel of petroleum we export, we import tons of petroleum products.
Ours remain a primary economy. An economy that depends on primary commodities cannot compete well in international trade because it is only logical for the buying country to gain as much as they can from the finished products of the primary products they imported in the first place.
If the United States pays $50 or so for every barrel of petroleum they get from us, they refine the petroleum and get some other products which we could term secondary: dishwasher parts, tool boxes, shoe polish, motorcycle helmet, caulking, petroleum jelly, transparent tape, CD player, faucet washers, antiseptics, clothesline, curtains, food preservatives, basketballs and some 6000 other products
So then, you see why the West can always afford to drop a few dollars into Africa’s begging bowl.
The same analysis goes for cocoa, gold, diamond and other major African exports. The truth is, if Africa concentrates on trade, she will be rich enough to lift her over 36 million people that are expected to fall into poverty by 2015.
Join that to the current figures and what you get is this: Africa will fail woefully at achieving the Millennium Development Goals except there’s a change in policy and economic strategy.
The IMF (International Monetary Fund) forecasts a GDP of 5.4% growth for sub-Saharan Africa up to 2015. The poverty alleviation effect of this growth is expected to reduce African poverty rates from about 50% to 47%.
This looks like an improvement but it isn’t when weighed against Africa’s growing population rate.
The population growth outpaces the GDP growth hence more Africans will indeed be living in poverty by 2015. This is so because population growth eventually dilutes the marginal economic growth. It is like a father who used to earn $100 while he had two kids. This means that along with his wife, they share an average of $25 per head.
By the time his earnings are increased to $120, he already brought two more kids to the world. His income does actually increase but the per head effect is that each person gets $20, which is $5 short of their previous condition.
With African nations borrowing billions of dollars and getting even more in aid, they have financed the death of their citizens through endless wars and strife.
Do not mind that the lender not only gets to have interests, he also gets to have his money back as the weapons of war are the merchandise of the lender. Africa though isn’t as shackled by war as it is by a restricted economy.
The reason seats of African governments remain the object of guerilla and ethnic wars lies in the central nature of most African governments. Africans may be politically free but in practice Africans are not free.
Property rights are virtually non-existent and this means entrepreneurial acts are curtailed from inception. Karol Boudreaux writes “Decentralizing decision making about how and when to use property gives individuals greater scope to engage in creative entrepreneurial behavior.”
When would-be entrepreneurs eventually go through the proverbial needle hole of property rights, they are faced with a region that consistently ranks lowest in the world in terms of the ease of Doing Business.
A look at the 2008 and 2009 figures show African countries positioned at the foot of 181 ranked countries, the highest ranked African country in 2009 placed 35th (South Africa).
Talking about the beggar, no man gains financial independence or any sort of independence for that matter, by begging. As long as you beg, your fortunes remain limited. In fact, that one has chosen to beg means one does not value ones potentialities to create value and earn unlimited wealth.
There is hope for this continent. This lies in its people’s willingness to see themselves better than they currently do.
We must remove the beggar’s dirty garb and put on the honourable act of wealth creation through vast economic productivity. Governments and their apologists cannot make wealth; they only know how to collect money through taxes, aid and borrowings.
The next thing they know to do after that is to waste such funds on their personal whims and white elephant projects. A beggar, no matter how full his bowl is, can never claim freedom until he makes his wealth through productive means. You cannot claim to be free from me when each time you find yourself in trouble, you come running to me for some aid. Africa must seek the path of economic liberty and prosperity. The future lies in trade.
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