THE story of the sinful towns of Sodom and Gomorra is well documented in the Bible. The two towns could not produce a single righteous soul who could have saved them from destruction, so they had to be wiped away from the surface of the earth with fire.
Somehow, Sodom and Gomorra have refused to go and in some strange way the two towns have emerged from the ashes of old and metamorphosed into a single town. One can just imagine the strength of one town combining the evil forces of two previous cities.
This is our version of Sodom and Gomorra, a sprawling settlement without law or order, nestling on the banks of the River Odaw which drains into the Korle Lagoon in Accra, the nation’s capital city.
Like all great things, Sodom and Gomorra had its humble beginnings. It started as a rest camp for traders who travelled from the northern parts of the country and the forest belt to sell their farm produce, mostly yam, plantain and vegetables, at the Agbogbloshie and Makola markets.
These were people who, at most, spent a few days in the city selling their wares and then returned to where they came from. For temporary accommodation, therefore, they depended mainly on a few wooden structures that could easily be dismantled when it became necessary.
With time, these traders started to spend more days in Accra and, therefore, the accommodation structures began to take a more permanent outlook. Each articulated truck from the north brought not only foodstuffs but also new batches of settlers for a place that was gradually losing its temporary status and becoming an emerging township.
As would be expected, with the passage of time new alliances were made and cohabitation could not be avoided, just as marriage and the bearing of children.
Out of the rest camp sprouted a new neighbourhood sharing boundaries with the areas around Korle-Bu, Korle Wokon, Tudu, Adedenkpo and Swalaba. Other migrant workers and those doing odd jobs in the city centre found their way to the wooden shacks of Sodom and Gomorra for rest, recreation and procreation.
The new township was called Sodom and Gomorra. I do not know what informed the founders to choose that name. May be they considered themselves a forgotten or even rejected lot who had decided to join forces to make the best out of life, since in unity lies strength.
But the inhabitants of the new Sodom and Gomorra have several things in common with their Biblical forebears.
The city authorities were never alarmed by these developments. Apparently they thought when the time came it would only take a few hours to clear the squatters and create space for modern development.
How wrong they were!
Today, Sodom and Gomorra is not only a blot, dimming the beauty of the capital, but a heavy albatross hanging perilously around the neck of city planners. The settlement should have gone away long ago for the Korle Lagoon Restoration Project but nobody dared to move the inhabitants.
Sodom and Gomorra is not only a habitation for traders and workers and job seekers; it is now a breeding ground for all vices and criminals who will make the Biblical Sodom and Gomorra appear to be monasteries.
People who came in trickles many years ago as squatters are now demanding compensation or relocation. They even managed to pool resources to pay legal fees to battle city authorities in court over what they considered an attempt to evict them from their God-given home. That is where carelessness, irresponsibility, corruption and opportunistic politics have brought us.
The same apathy shown by city planners in the case of Sodom and Gomorra was exhibited in several parts of the city. Through that slums such as Agege, Ecomog and Abuja have sprung up, feeding the capital with filth and crime, with residents there also staking their own claim to their right of existence in Accra.
Accra has become a huge jungle of wooden and metal structures dotted with careless abandon at every available space. Our city roads and streets have become vibrant commercial centres and markets have sprung up everywhere.
Like the Korle Lagoon Restoration Project, many projects in Accra and other places have stalled as a result of the illegal activities of squatters.
Any attempt to bring sanity into the system is met with resistance from a new breed of human rights activists who have introduced a new phrase, “human face”, into their vocabulary.
But can we blame them? City authorities who must act to nip these activities in their embryonic stages sometimes tacitly turn a blind eye to developments, either because of personal gain or for fear of courting the wrath of superior officers.
Politicians have not helped matters. In fact, it can be argued that they have played more prominent roles in the lawlessness that has swallowed up the city. It seems the allure of office has blinded them to the importance of orderliness and the damage being done to this country by lawless squatters and street hawkers.
They are prepared to tolerate the breach of the law only if that will win them the votes of the people. You may then ask: What do they want political power for, if not for the betterment of society?
The bitter experience of Stanley Nii Adjiri-Blankson when he attempted, a few years ago, to decongest the city centre of street hawkers is a clear case for reference.
By now we should realise that a market is a market, while a street is a street. To allow the former to take over the latter is tantamount to lawlessness and Accra cannot run away from this disease.
The tendency to allow things to degenerate into chaos before acting has never solved our problems. Already we have raised the alarm bells about what is happening at the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange where a street market is gradually building up.
So far there is no sign that the city authorities are in control of affairs. Unfortunately, by the time they are jostled into consciousness, any attempt to take correctional measures would be too late.
We have witnessed the erection of structures on water courses, with devastating consequences even at the slightest drizzle. We have watched helplessly as traders take over the city streets, including our ceremonial routes.
Our railway lines have become unsafe because over the years the authorities of the Ghana Railway Company have allowed individuals to grab land close to the rails, contrary to laid down regulations. There are allegations that some of these squatters actually bought land from some officials of the GRC. If that is proved to be true, then it will be a manifestation of the depth to which we have sunk in flouting the laws of this country.
Sodom and Gomorra will continue to haunt us and serve as a reminder that we have a big job on hand to restore normalcy in our way of life.
Today, it will take more than just political will and legal authority to evict some of the squatters from their strongholds. This is because even with the law on our side, we will be too weak to fight, since at every turn we have to give our actions a human face.
blog:kofiakordor.blogspot.com
email:fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
OLD BRIDGES AND MANY RIVERS TO CROSS (PAGE 7)
The tranquil dawn of the people of Amoako, near Boamang in the Ashanti Region, was shattered by screams, moans and groans followed by the noise of a huge plunge into River Offin by two vehicles. One, a family of the infamous Mercedes Benz 207 bus, and the other, a KIA Pride taxi.
The inhabitants of the small town whose last few hours of early morning sleep was disrupted came out in their numbers to behold a spectacle of an event that, they, for years, suspected could not be avoided if things did not change. The bridge, constructed more than 70 years ago under the colonial administration, had given way, taking along on its last day, the lives of 17 precious lives including that of a year-old child and a pregnant woman, most of whom were on their way to mourn the lost of another relation.
The people of Amoako, who are straddled between Afrancho and Boamang, amidst the wailing for the carnage that had caused such a human loss, could not hide their anguish. This time, they felt it was not just a matter of lost of lives through a motor accident, which is a regular feature on our roads, but a clear result of human error, wrong judgement and careless irresponsibility.
The local people, who, though could not pride themselves in any engineering degrees from any college of science and technology, had complained on several occasions that the bridge had seen better days and needed to be put out of commission. Apart from being narrow, the bridge was constructed around 1938, when vehicles, if they existed at all, could be a rare phenomenon on our roads and, therefore, could hardly pose any danger to it.
Things have changed over the years and according to the inhabitants, their pleas to successive governments have fallen on deaf ears. They were unanimous. The politicians have failed them. That was why they were very bitter and they did not hide their anguish. Some even mentioned their present Member of Parliament at the peak of their distress, apparently because in the heat of the electioneering he might have promised them a new and stronger bridge.
The Amoako disaster was very unfortunate and another sad reminder of our lack of maintenance culture and that philosophy of waiting for disaster to struck before we begin to react in a desperate manner.
The bridge over River Offin at Amoako was a small one and yet the magnitude of the human loss when it collapsed was big. Can we, therefore, pause for a moment to picture how things would be like, if the Adomi Bridge that spans the River Volta should give way and go down with its load of vehicles and human beings?
The Adomi Bridge is not just a bridge over water. It is a very important bridge that strategically links the Volta Region to the rest of the country and in effect a big portion of the eastern part of the country to the rest.
Any mishap at Adomi could severely affect our links with our eastern neighbours; namely Togo, Benin and Nigeria. That means that the sub-regional integration we have been struggling hard to achieve will further be endangered.
So why should we allow Adomi Bridge, which was opened in 1956 by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, then Head of Government Business, to support his greater dream of unitary Ghana to collapse because of some few simple decisions?
According to some experts, one of the supporting steel beams has collapsed, while two others have developed serious cracks, resulting in a depression on a section of the bridge. This is surely a recipe for disaster of monstrous proportions.
Interestingly, according to residents, the problem was first detected by fishermen who made several reports to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA). The suspicions of the fishermen were confirmed two weeks ago, when engineers of the GHA came to do an inspection. Before you ask, allow me to ask; is there no inspection unit at the GHA? So what would have been our fate as a nation, if those fishermen were not curious enough to report their fears to the authorities?
There may be other bridges in the country sharing the same fate as the Adomi Bridge. We may not be lucky to have people fishing around them to feed us with their observations. In that case are we going to suffer the experience of Amoako on River Offin?
As we still ponder over that question, there is an overhead bridge on the Accra-Tema Motorway that was originally used to cart cattle to the slaughter house. That bridge has now been battered by several vehicles that carry loads above the stipulated height rendering it a serious liability to motorists. The driver of the last vehicle to go under that will make the sign of the cross, but not the next one. I hope we are not waiting for that.
A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. We still have several historical artefacts around wearing the garb of bridges but which nobody could tell the last time they had any maintenance.
Those who perished at Amoako on River Offin were not lucky. The thousands of motorists who use the Adomi Bridge on regular basis have some alert fishermen to thank, for saving them from an imminent danger. But how long shall we continue to be saved by fishermen, when there is a whole state institution to do a job that they have been paid to do?
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
The inhabitants of the small town whose last few hours of early morning sleep was disrupted came out in their numbers to behold a spectacle of an event that, they, for years, suspected could not be avoided if things did not change. The bridge, constructed more than 70 years ago under the colonial administration, had given way, taking along on its last day, the lives of 17 precious lives including that of a year-old child and a pregnant woman, most of whom were on their way to mourn the lost of another relation.
The people of Amoako, who are straddled between Afrancho and Boamang, amidst the wailing for the carnage that had caused such a human loss, could not hide their anguish. This time, they felt it was not just a matter of lost of lives through a motor accident, which is a regular feature on our roads, but a clear result of human error, wrong judgement and careless irresponsibility.
The local people, who, though could not pride themselves in any engineering degrees from any college of science and technology, had complained on several occasions that the bridge had seen better days and needed to be put out of commission. Apart from being narrow, the bridge was constructed around 1938, when vehicles, if they existed at all, could be a rare phenomenon on our roads and, therefore, could hardly pose any danger to it.
Things have changed over the years and according to the inhabitants, their pleas to successive governments have fallen on deaf ears. They were unanimous. The politicians have failed them. That was why they were very bitter and they did not hide their anguish. Some even mentioned their present Member of Parliament at the peak of their distress, apparently because in the heat of the electioneering he might have promised them a new and stronger bridge.
The Amoako disaster was very unfortunate and another sad reminder of our lack of maintenance culture and that philosophy of waiting for disaster to struck before we begin to react in a desperate manner.
The bridge over River Offin at Amoako was a small one and yet the magnitude of the human loss when it collapsed was big. Can we, therefore, pause for a moment to picture how things would be like, if the Adomi Bridge that spans the River Volta should give way and go down with its load of vehicles and human beings?
The Adomi Bridge is not just a bridge over water. It is a very important bridge that strategically links the Volta Region to the rest of the country and in effect a big portion of the eastern part of the country to the rest.
Any mishap at Adomi could severely affect our links with our eastern neighbours; namely Togo, Benin and Nigeria. That means that the sub-regional integration we have been struggling hard to achieve will further be endangered.
So why should we allow Adomi Bridge, which was opened in 1956 by Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, then Head of Government Business, to support his greater dream of unitary Ghana to collapse because of some few simple decisions?
According to some experts, one of the supporting steel beams has collapsed, while two others have developed serious cracks, resulting in a depression on a section of the bridge. This is surely a recipe for disaster of monstrous proportions.
Interestingly, according to residents, the problem was first detected by fishermen who made several reports to the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA). The suspicions of the fishermen were confirmed two weeks ago, when engineers of the GHA came to do an inspection. Before you ask, allow me to ask; is there no inspection unit at the GHA? So what would have been our fate as a nation, if those fishermen were not curious enough to report their fears to the authorities?
There may be other bridges in the country sharing the same fate as the Adomi Bridge. We may not be lucky to have people fishing around them to feed us with their observations. In that case are we going to suffer the experience of Amoako on River Offin?
As we still ponder over that question, there is an overhead bridge on the Accra-Tema Motorway that was originally used to cart cattle to the slaughter house. That bridge has now been battered by several vehicles that carry loads above the stipulated height rendering it a serious liability to motorists. The driver of the last vehicle to go under that will make the sign of the cross, but not the next one. I hope we are not waiting for that.
A stitch in time, they say, saves nine. We still have several historical artefacts around wearing the garb of bridges but which nobody could tell the last time they had any maintenance.
Those who perished at Amoako on River Offin were not lucky. The thousands of motorists who use the Adomi Bridge on regular basis have some alert fishermen to thank, for saving them from an imminent danger. But how long shall we continue to be saved by fishermen, when there is a whole state institution to do a job that they have been paid to do?
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
FROM G-8 PARTY WITH SMILES (GRAPHIC, JULY 15, 2008, PAGE 7)
SOUTH Korea is regarded as a Third World country — in the same category as Ghana. There is, however, a clear difference. While the former is described as a newly emerging economy, the latter is euphemistically called a developing country.
While South Korea has a development strategy which is propelling it into the developed country bracket, Ghana is perpetually banking its hopes on donor support and, therefore, can hardly deserve the developing tag placed on it. A country cannot sincerely be considered as developing when, in actual fact, things which make life better are not improving but rather deteriorating.
Our schools, for instance, cannot be said to be better today than they were in the immediate post-independence era. In those days, some of them boasted of empty classrooms and dormitories, unlike today when almost all of them are hard-pressed, with facilities such as classrooms and residential accommodation being overstretched to support the student population.
Road development has not matched the pace of human and vehicular growth. Food production has lagged behind consumption levels, forcing us to import food items from countries that have bigger populations to feed than Ghana’s 20 million people.
Basics like safety matches, razor blades, toilet rolls, shoes and other leatherwear which the country was manufacturing in the past are now being imported, mostly from other Third World countries, including South Korea, India, China, Taiwan and Malaysia.
In the meantime, South Korea has progressed steadily over the years to become a major producer and exporter of automobiles, electronic appliances and other consumables. Brand names like Daewoo, KIA and Hyundai have become common sights on our roads, while Samsung, Daewoo, LG and many others have become electronic companions which adorn many Ghanaian homes.
While South Korea is celebrating its arrival on the global electronics market, Ghana’s Akasanoma (GIHOC Electronics) and Sanyo factories which were assembling radio transistors and television sets locally are now extinct.
Our textile factories are distressed because of unfair competition from cheaper imports. Sad to relate, therefore, the bulk of our Golden Jubilee anniversary cloth and other textile products had to come from China, a Third World superpower.
South Korea, in comparative terms, is far richer than Ghana and by global standards cannot be described as a poor country. However, its citizens do not take pride in driving European models like BMW and Mercedes Benz when they can get worthy substitutes by Hyundai, KIA and Daewoo.
The spiralling oil prices are a global phenomenon and the South Korean approach to its solution can offer us food for thought. Charity, they say, begins at home and as a first step, the government of South Korea has decreed that all public vehicles should alternate on the roads to save fuel. In the long term, the government has decided to spend money purchasing only fuel-efficient hybrid models of vehicles.
Apart from fuel price increases passed onto the consumer, we are yet to be told how we are going to confront this global situation without necessarily subjecting the citizens to higher fuel prices. May be we are banking our hopes on the windfall of oil discovery and are, therefore, not in a hurry to institute any vehicle import policies to save private pockets and the national coffers.
In Ghana, moderation and modesty have never been operational words in official circles and the government itself takes the lead to import expensive, high fuel-consuming vehicles for use by top public officials.
Additionally, the fuel and maintenance bills of these government-owned vehicles are picked by taxpayers and, therefore, top policy makers are not in any urgent need to economise the use and application of these vehicles. That may also partially explain why there is hardly any human consideration when our governments are raising prices of petroleum products.
How can we claim to be poor and on a constant basis seeking foreign assistance in almost every area of national development and yet when it comes to importing vehicles for official use we hardly cut our coat according to the size of our cloth?
We are on the spending spree importing Toyota Landcruisers and Ford 4x4 wagons for our ministers and senior civil servants, while at the same time lamenting the lack of funds to build more classrooms for our children.
Incidentally, there are many public sector areas in dire need of vehicles, such as the hospitals, educational institutions and the Police Service, which are not available, while it is not strange to see two or more official vehicles parked in one person’s house.
The South Koreans do not have excuses for failures. That was why last week their President sacked three of his cabinet ministers in the wake of protests over US beef imports. They were the Agriculture, Health and Education ministers. For those who may not know, South Korea is almost like one of the states in the US and for the government to muster courage to take that harsh decision meant a lot.
Here, we do things differently. Goods of all types come into the country and no one cares whether the health of citizens are under threat or not. There are rumours of infiltration of genetically modified rice onto the local market and no one cares to conduct any thorough investigation, let alone take any preventive measures.
We do not care to protect local industries because we alone understand the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In short, we have embraced trade liberalisation without import rationalisation.
Ministers who could hardly point at any achievement during their tenure, including those who were dismissed while in office, could be lucky to be given national honours for being part of the team.
The case of those in the latter group is quite serious. It can be likened to students who were dismissed during the academic year for non-performance being invited later for recognition during the school’s speech and prize-giving day.
Under such circumstances, it is not strange that we are unable to achieve our national goals and continue to think that the problem should be laid on the doorstep of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, globalisation, debt burden, inadequate donor support or unfair trade practices.
We do not reward the productive sector of the national economy but rather spend more on the parasitic elements who are mostly political noise makers and praise singers parading as special assistants, advisors and communication managers.
Why should the salaries of doctors and other health workers be in arrears for over eight months while people whose role in national development can hardly be defined get enough to spend and spare with careless abandon?
We should ask ourselves: Why should people be ready to draw daggers just campaigning for Parliament if that place is only for law making? Why should people be prepared to pay hotel and transport bills for delegates and dole out pocket money to people who are only going to exercise their voting rights to pick a parliamentary or presidential candidate?
It was, therefore, not strange that selected African leaders returned from the meeting of the powerful and rich Group of Eight (G8) in Japan last week beaming with smiles and proud that they had dined, wined and taken group pictures with George Bush (US), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Stephen Harper (Canada), Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Yasuo Fukuda (Japan), Angela Merkel (Germany) and Gordon Brown (Britain).
They were the more excited because the G8 leaders had pledged to support development programmes in the rest of the world with US$50 billion, with African countries assured of US$25 billion between now and 2010.
Why should our leaders demean themselves by waiting in the corridors of conference centres for some selected persons to come and tell them something good when they had left behind in their respective countries abundant resources given to them freely by God?
The irony is that most of these advanced countries, if not all, are surviving on the resources of Third World countries, especially Africa, whose leaders have failed to think and act like their counterparts in South Korea, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Singapore and other emerging economies who shared a similar fate with us but have since decided to take their destiny into their own hands.
Our life between now and 2010 is not likely to change, just as it did not in the past, but that will not give us the least clue that there is something fundamentally wrong with our mentality and that those promises, pledges and platitudes which are not fulfilled, any way, will not solve our problems.
So it came to pass that even Malaysia, whose independence history we know very well, has expressed its commitment to provide Ghanaian students with opportunities for higher education in Malaysia (Daily Graphic, Wednesday, July 9, 2008) and we are excited.
Meanwhile, we are waiting for another G8 meeting to hear the next batch of promises from our benefactors after they have had their fill with good wine and caviar.
While South Korea has a development strategy which is propelling it into the developed country bracket, Ghana is perpetually banking its hopes on donor support and, therefore, can hardly deserve the developing tag placed on it. A country cannot sincerely be considered as developing when, in actual fact, things which make life better are not improving but rather deteriorating.
Our schools, for instance, cannot be said to be better today than they were in the immediate post-independence era. In those days, some of them boasted of empty classrooms and dormitories, unlike today when almost all of them are hard-pressed, with facilities such as classrooms and residential accommodation being overstretched to support the student population.
Road development has not matched the pace of human and vehicular growth. Food production has lagged behind consumption levels, forcing us to import food items from countries that have bigger populations to feed than Ghana’s 20 million people.
Basics like safety matches, razor blades, toilet rolls, shoes and other leatherwear which the country was manufacturing in the past are now being imported, mostly from other Third World countries, including South Korea, India, China, Taiwan and Malaysia.
In the meantime, South Korea has progressed steadily over the years to become a major producer and exporter of automobiles, electronic appliances and other consumables. Brand names like Daewoo, KIA and Hyundai have become common sights on our roads, while Samsung, Daewoo, LG and many others have become electronic companions which adorn many Ghanaian homes.
While South Korea is celebrating its arrival on the global electronics market, Ghana’s Akasanoma (GIHOC Electronics) and Sanyo factories which were assembling radio transistors and television sets locally are now extinct.
Our textile factories are distressed because of unfair competition from cheaper imports. Sad to relate, therefore, the bulk of our Golden Jubilee anniversary cloth and other textile products had to come from China, a Third World superpower.
South Korea, in comparative terms, is far richer than Ghana and by global standards cannot be described as a poor country. However, its citizens do not take pride in driving European models like BMW and Mercedes Benz when they can get worthy substitutes by Hyundai, KIA and Daewoo.
The spiralling oil prices are a global phenomenon and the South Korean approach to its solution can offer us food for thought. Charity, they say, begins at home and as a first step, the government of South Korea has decreed that all public vehicles should alternate on the roads to save fuel. In the long term, the government has decided to spend money purchasing only fuel-efficient hybrid models of vehicles.
Apart from fuel price increases passed onto the consumer, we are yet to be told how we are going to confront this global situation without necessarily subjecting the citizens to higher fuel prices. May be we are banking our hopes on the windfall of oil discovery and are, therefore, not in a hurry to institute any vehicle import policies to save private pockets and the national coffers.
In Ghana, moderation and modesty have never been operational words in official circles and the government itself takes the lead to import expensive, high fuel-consuming vehicles for use by top public officials.
Additionally, the fuel and maintenance bills of these government-owned vehicles are picked by taxpayers and, therefore, top policy makers are not in any urgent need to economise the use and application of these vehicles. That may also partially explain why there is hardly any human consideration when our governments are raising prices of petroleum products.
How can we claim to be poor and on a constant basis seeking foreign assistance in almost every area of national development and yet when it comes to importing vehicles for official use we hardly cut our coat according to the size of our cloth?
We are on the spending spree importing Toyota Landcruisers and Ford 4x4 wagons for our ministers and senior civil servants, while at the same time lamenting the lack of funds to build more classrooms for our children.
Incidentally, there are many public sector areas in dire need of vehicles, such as the hospitals, educational institutions and the Police Service, which are not available, while it is not strange to see two or more official vehicles parked in one person’s house.
The South Koreans do not have excuses for failures. That was why last week their President sacked three of his cabinet ministers in the wake of protests over US beef imports. They were the Agriculture, Health and Education ministers. For those who may not know, South Korea is almost like one of the states in the US and for the government to muster courage to take that harsh decision meant a lot.
Here, we do things differently. Goods of all types come into the country and no one cares whether the health of citizens are under threat or not. There are rumours of infiltration of genetically modified rice onto the local market and no one cares to conduct any thorough investigation, let alone take any preventive measures.
We do not care to protect local industries because we alone understand the rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). In short, we have embraced trade liberalisation without import rationalisation.
Ministers who could hardly point at any achievement during their tenure, including those who were dismissed while in office, could be lucky to be given national honours for being part of the team.
The case of those in the latter group is quite serious. It can be likened to students who were dismissed during the academic year for non-performance being invited later for recognition during the school’s speech and prize-giving day.
Under such circumstances, it is not strange that we are unable to achieve our national goals and continue to think that the problem should be laid on the doorstep of slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, globalisation, debt burden, inadequate donor support or unfair trade practices.
We do not reward the productive sector of the national economy but rather spend more on the parasitic elements who are mostly political noise makers and praise singers parading as special assistants, advisors and communication managers.
Why should the salaries of doctors and other health workers be in arrears for over eight months while people whose role in national development can hardly be defined get enough to spend and spare with careless abandon?
We should ask ourselves: Why should people be ready to draw daggers just campaigning for Parliament if that place is only for law making? Why should people be prepared to pay hotel and transport bills for delegates and dole out pocket money to people who are only going to exercise their voting rights to pick a parliamentary or presidential candidate?
It was, therefore, not strange that selected African leaders returned from the meeting of the powerful and rich Group of Eight (G8) in Japan last week beaming with smiles and proud that they had dined, wined and taken group pictures with George Bush (US), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Silvio Berlusconi (Italy), Stephen Harper (Canada), Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Yasuo Fukuda (Japan), Angela Merkel (Germany) and Gordon Brown (Britain).
They were the more excited because the G8 leaders had pledged to support development programmes in the rest of the world with US$50 billion, with African countries assured of US$25 billion between now and 2010.
Why should our leaders demean themselves by waiting in the corridors of conference centres for some selected persons to come and tell them something good when they had left behind in their respective countries abundant resources given to them freely by God?
The irony is that most of these advanced countries, if not all, are surviving on the resources of Third World countries, especially Africa, whose leaders have failed to think and act like their counterparts in South Korea, China, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Singapore and other emerging economies who shared a similar fate with us but have since decided to take their destiny into their own hands.
Our life between now and 2010 is not likely to change, just as it did not in the past, but that will not give us the least clue that there is something fundamentally wrong with our mentality and that those promises, pledges and platitudes which are not fulfilled, any way, will not solve our problems.
So it came to pass that even Malaysia, whose independence history we know very well, has expressed its commitment to provide Ghanaian students with opportunities for higher education in Malaysia (Daily Graphic, Wednesday, July 9, 2008) and we are excited.
Meanwhile, we are waiting for another G8 meeting to hear the next batch of promises from our benefactors after they have had their fill with good wine and caviar.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
A SEASON OF WILD PROMISES (PAGE 7)
My heart bleeds anytime I see these young boys and girls fighting for space in heavy traffic to draw attention to their wares. Occasionally a few get knocked down by vehicles and disabled or if less lucky, get consumed by death.
These are children of school age who are not in part-time business to support their poor parents but are actually in serious business as street traders and are almost living independent lives even before they attain adulthood.
When we hear of armed robberies, we all express our indignation at the perpetrators of those heinous crimes and wish them instant death. However, we are sometimes taken aback when we see photographs of these armed robbers published in the newspapers.
Most of them are our children who fall in the age range of between 17 and 25. These are boys and young men who should either be in the classrooms accumulating knowledge for future use or in the workshops preparing themselves as future masters in some profitable ventures.
Unfortunately, the life path of these youngsters have not been guided well by their parents and society in general, so instead of children growing full of hope and promise to build this country into a better place than they came to meet it, we have created cynical children who start life as street traders and gradually graduate into prostitutes and gangs of armed robbers who parade the streets, highways and dark alleys of our communities to wreck vengeance on us.
No society can be free of miscreants and deviants — armed robbers and prostitutes included — but good and responsible parentage and good and visionary political leadership could direct children in their critical formative years onto the path of responsible and useful adulthood.
Over the years, we have not been able to fashion out an effective youth policy that would shape the future of our children. The educational system which is the first step in this direction has not been all that helpful because it itself lacks any coherent and consistent direction.
We have changed the names of our schools several times without adding any qualitative improvement to their facilities to enable them to deliver what is expected of them.
The Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) does not seem to be working despite what the political praise singers will want us to believe because educational infrastructure is still woefully inadequate. Where there are classrooms, there are no teachers. Where there are teachers, the pupils have tree leaves as shades and the bare hard ground as their blackboards.
The Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme have been songs on the lips of many government officials. That is understandable. But have they brought any measurable improvement into the school system?
The large numbers of street hawkers in our cities and towns do not give credit to the educational system which is still alien to many of our schoolchildren.
Since the fall of the First Republic, this country has been experiencing serious leadership crisis and as we prepare for another baton change, the question on the lips of many is; “Are we going to be lucky with a visionary leader, or just another ruler?”
Successive governments have failed to give credit to others while trying to immortalise themselves. This has affected consensus building on national affairs. So we continue to dig foundations when we should be expanding existing infrastructure. Already the promises have started coming in torrents as if this nation can only survive on unfulfilled promises.
Each presidential aspirant has his fair share of promises to make and do so without any qualms because they know at the end of the day, many will not even remember them, and if some do, their concerns will be drowned in the cacophony of partisan praise-singer noise.
For now, we may continue to feed on freely available promises. The Zuarungu Meat Factory will restart operation within 100 days of Dr Paa Kwasi Nduom’s presidency. He has also promised to challenge the motorcade of the American President by relying on a locally-manufactured vehicle for his presidential rides.
The people of the Volta Region will wake up one day to see a giant public university in Ho, the regional capital. That is if they are able to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo to become the President of the Republic. It could also mean that if Nana Akufo-Addo becomes the President without the help of the Volta Region, the people may lose their university. That is how state resources have been turned into private resources to be dispensed with as determined by an individual.
Dr Edward Mahama has already made his promise and said among others that if it even requires that he walks to his presidential office to save scarce resources he will do so. Mr Dan Lartey’s laudable domestication policy is already well known.
Life without hope is not worth living and promises are like the oils which lubricate the wheels of politics. We can, therefore, not avoid them at this period.
Our interest is, whether they are serious or vain ones. We have had enough promises from politicians which should have turned this country into a paradise by now and it is time we began to hold them to their promises.
Whatever the case, we want a visionary leader who will see Ghana beyond his tenure. We need leaders who will not take decisions at the spur of the moment without considering their long-term effects. Government’s decision in reaction to soaring prices of food items on the world market may be beneficial in the short-term but detrimental to the nation in the long run.
We reasoned that the best solution to the food problem is to reduce import tax on rice and other food items brought into the country. We did not ask ourselves how we can utilise the abundant water resources available for irrigation farming.
Our immediate interest was to use an avoidable situation to enrich a few merchants who import rice and other cereals and make farmers in the United States of America (USA), Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil richer at the expense of our farmers.
We did not think of giving local farmers incentive packages that could encourage them to produce more. Instead of making it easier for them to compete favourably against foreign imports, we have rather made their work more difficult by encouraging cheaper imports.
We did not think of building more silos to store food during the season of abundance and release these onto the market in times of need. We never gave serious thought to the condition of roads in the rural works where the bulk of the foods we consume come from.
We want a leader who will boost agricultural production with emphasis on irrigation farming. We do not want a President whose ministers will be competing with traders on the import market. Such conflict of interest cannot lead the nation to progress.
We want a leader who will not beg at the least opportunity for foreign support, oblivious of the huge resources and talents already at his disposal.
We have come to admire begging as something honourable so much so that we never end any overseas trip without appealing to our hosts for one form of assistance or the other. When we play host, the subject matter is the same – begging.
We want a leader who will pick his working team not as a matter of political expediency or personal aggrandisement but with the national interest at the back of his mind. Ministerial appointments over the years have become gift parcels doled out to loyalists, friends and praise singers.
We have celebrated 50 years of independence with very little to show for it because over the years, we have worshipped our positions without bothering to leave any legacy for posterity.
Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to raise the police service strength to 50,000. That is good, but it will be better to remove those things which make otherwise innocent people turn into criminals. I am talking about idleness and joblessness. The streets are not the place for our children.
Something positive should be done to remove that multitude of boys and girls and young men and women from the streets and put them into something more productive. We do not want to see our children squatting on the floor doing their class work while politicians drive in expensive four-wheel vehicles on our traffic-jammed streets.
We have spent a lot of our national life talking. We want a leader who will be more active attending to our problems and not the one who will spend more time praising himself or condemning all others.
The traffic lights in our cities and towns most of the time have become museum pieces, giving unsolicited assignment to tree-branch-waving young men who are more of beggars than traffic wardens.
We need a positive change not as a slogan but as a reality. Our tourism potentials have still not been developed and there are opportunities in this sector for rural developoment, youth employment and revenue generation for the nation.
As we wait for more promises to come when the campaign gets hotter, our prayer is that our political leaders put this nation’s interest at the centre-stage in all their endeavours. They should not be carried away by the promise of the glow and glitter of public office and deliver wild promises they faithfully know they cannot deliver. This country deserves more than it has been given so far.
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
These are children of school age who are not in part-time business to support their poor parents but are actually in serious business as street traders and are almost living independent lives even before they attain adulthood.
When we hear of armed robberies, we all express our indignation at the perpetrators of those heinous crimes and wish them instant death. However, we are sometimes taken aback when we see photographs of these armed robbers published in the newspapers.
Most of them are our children who fall in the age range of between 17 and 25. These are boys and young men who should either be in the classrooms accumulating knowledge for future use or in the workshops preparing themselves as future masters in some profitable ventures.
Unfortunately, the life path of these youngsters have not been guided well by their parents and society in general, so instead of children growing full of hope and promise to build this country into a better place than they came to meet it, we have created cynical children who start life as street traders and gradually graduate into prostitutes and gangs of armed robbers who parade the streets, highways and dark alleys of our communities to wreck vengeance on us.
No society can be free of miscreants and deviants — armed robbers and prostitutes included — but good and responsible parentage and good and visionary political leadership could direct children in their critical formative years onto the path of responsible and useful adulthood.
Over the years, we have not been able to fashion out an effective youth policy that would shape the future of our children. The educational system which is the first step in this direction has not been all that helpful because it itself lacks any coherent and consistent direction.
We have changed the names of our schools several times without adding any qualitative improvement to their facilities to enable them to deliver what is expected of them.
The Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) does not seem to be working despite what the political praise singers will want us to believe because educational infrastructure is still woefully inadequate. Where there are classrooms, there are no teachers. Where there are teachers, the pupils have tree leaves as shades and the bare hard ground as their blackboards.
The Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme have been songs on the lips of many government officials. That is understandable. But have they brought any measurable improvement into the school system?
The large numbers of street hawkers in our cities and towns do not give credit to the educational system which is still alien to many of our schoolchildren.
Since the fall of the First Republic, this country has been experiencing serious leadership crisis and as we prepare for another baton change, the question on the lips of many is; “Are we going to be lucky with a visionary leader, or just another ruler?”
Successive governments have failed to give credit to others while trying to immortalise themselves. This has affected consensus building on national affairs. So we continue to dig foundations when we should be expanding existing infrastructure. Already the promises have started coming in torrents as if this nation can only survive on unfulfilled promises.
Each presidential aspirant has his fair share of promises to make and do so without any qualms because they know at the end of the day, many will not even remember them, and if some do, their concerns will be drowned in the cacophony of partisan praise-singer noise.
For now, we may continue to feed on freely available promises. The Zuarungu Meat Factory will restart operation within 100 days of Dr Paa Kwasi Nduom’s presidency. He has also promised to challenge the motorcade of the American President by relying on a locally-manufactured vehicle for his presidential rides.
The people of the Volta Region will wake up one day to see a giant public university in Ho, the regional capital. That is if they are able to vote for Nana Akufo-Addo to become the President of the Republic. It could also mean that if Nana Akufo-Addo becomes the President without the help of the Volta Region, the people may lose their university. That is how state resources have been turned into private resources to be dispensed with as determined by an individual.
Dr Edward Mahama has already made his promise and said among others that if it even requires that he walks to his presidential office to save scarce resources he will do so. Mr Dan Lartey’s laudable domestication policy is already well known.
Life without hope is not worth living and promises are like the oils which lubricate the wheels of politics. We can, therefore, not avoid them at this period.
Our interest is, whether they are serious or vain ones. We have had enough promises from politicians which should have turned this country into a paradise by now and it is time we began to hold them to their promises.
Whatever the case, we want a visionary leader who will see Ghana beyond his tenure. We need leaders who will not take decisions at the spur of the moment without considering their long-term effects. Government’s decision in reaction to soaring prices of food items on the world market may be beneficial in the short-term but detrimental to the nation in the long run.
We reasoned that the best solution to the food problem is to reduce import tax on rice and other food items brought into the country. We did not ask ourselves how we can utilise the abundant water resources available for irrigation farming.
Our immediate interest was to use an avoidable situation to enrich a few merchants who import rice and other cereals and make farmers in the United States of America (USA), Thailand, Vietnam and Brazil richer at the expense of our farmers.
We did not think of giving local farmers incentive packages that could encourage them to produce more. Instead of making it easier for them to compete favourably against foreign imports, we have rather made their work more difficult by encouraging cheaper imports.
We did not think of building more silos to store food during the season of abundance and release these onto the market in times of need. We never gave serious thought to the condition of roads in the rural works where the bulk of the foods we consume come from.
We want a leader who will boost agricultural production with emphasis on irrigation farming. We do not want a President whose ministers will be competing with traders on the import market. Such conflict of interest cannot lead the nation to progress.
We want a leader who will not beg at the least opportunity for foreign support, oblivious of the huge resources and talents already at his disposal.
We have come to admire begging as something honourable so much so that we never end any overseas trip without appealing to our hosts for one form of assistance or the other. When we play host, the subject matter is the same – begging.
We want a leader who will pick his working team not as a matter of political expediency or personal aggrandisement but with the national interest at the back of his mind. Ministerial appointments over the years have become gift parcels doled out to loyalists, friends and praise singers.
We have celebrated 50 years of independence with very little to show for it because over the years, we have worshipped our positions without bothering to leave any legacy for posterity.
Nana Akufo-Addo has promised to raise the police service strength to 50,000. That is good, but it will be better to remove those things which make otherwise innocent people turn into criminals. I am talking about idleness and joblessness. The streets are not the place for our children.
Something positive should be done to remove that multitude of boys and girls and young men and women from the streets and put them into something more productive. We do not want to see our children squatting on the floor doing their class work while politicians drive in expensive four-wheel vehicles on our traffic-jammed streets.
We have spent a lot of our national life talking. We want a leader who will be more active attending to our problems and not the one who will spend more time praising himself or condemning all others.
The traffic lights in our cities and towns most of the time have become museum pieces, giving unsolicited assignment to tree-branch-waving young men who are more of beggars than traffic wardens.
We need a positive change not as a slogan but as a reality. Our tourism potentials have still not been developed and there are opportunities in this sector for rural developoment, youth employment and revenue generation for the nation.
As we wait for more promises to come when the campaign gets hotter, our prayer is that our political leaders put this nation’s interest at the centre-stage in all their endeavours. They should not be carried away by the promise of the glow and glitter of public office and deliver wild promises they faithfully know they cannot deliver. This country deserves more than it has been given so far.
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
ARE WE LOSING THE BATTLE AGAINST ARMED ROBBERS? (GRAPHIC 1ST JULY, 2008, PAGE 7)
Can you imagine that an unregistered vehicle was parked at the precincts of a bank without it raising any suspicion? That was why the armed robbers who attacked the Madina branch of the Ecobank in the early morning of Monday, June 23, 2008 succeeded in their operation.
They went away not only with the booty of GH¢60, 000, but two fully-loaded AK 47 assault rifles and left behind a young policeman who was only doing his lawful duty.
The daring manner and precision with which the robbers carried out the operation left no doubt that some, if not all of them had some training in weapon handling.
It is also likely that somebody within the Ecobank who had foreknowledge of the schedule of the bullion van could be an accomplice, unless it could be argued that a member of the gang was at the Ecobank head office where the bullion van began its journey to Madina.
Whatever the case, it is quite obvious that the nation has a tough battle ahead if the menace of armed robberies is to be brought under control.
From what started as isolated cases of armed robberies, the situation is gradually getting out of hand with the armed robbers getting more daring and using the most sophisticated weapons and tactics in their operations.
Now, hardly a day passes without armed robbery case(s) being reported in the country. No place can be described as safe. Whether at the workplace, on the streets and highways or in the home, one cannot rule out the danger of armed robbers. And they can strike at any time of the day.
It may be a fruitless assignment trying to determine what has brought about these armed robberies since that may not offer any solution. Suffice it to say that the way sophisticated weapons end up in the hands of dubious persons should be a matter of serious concern to all.
There are many who believe that service personnel are the source of most of the weapons that have found their way into the armouries of armed robbers in the country.
Some of these personnel who go on international peace-keeping operations return home with souvenir items including weapons which they are officially allowed for personal use.
Unfortunately, some of these weapons find their way into wrong hands for monetary reasons. There are isolated cases of serving personnel selling or hiring weapons from state armouries to armed robbers.
The civil wars in the neighbouring countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire and militant activities in the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria mean that there are a lot of weapons in the system which could be easily turned against innocent people by armed robbers.
During Ghana’s own revolutionary period between 1979 and 1992, various individuals operating in the national security network and militiamen had official weapons issued to them. Whether these weapons were properly accounted for after the country’s transition to civilian administration is a matter for serious debate. In short, there are many weapons in private hands which have no documentation and, therefore, in the event of their being used to commit any crime, such weapons cannot be traced to anyone.
Ghana’s relatively peaceful environment in the sub-region has made it attractive to many foreign nationals including some with dubious and criminal intentions. Our hope is the existence of a strong, efficient and effective Police Service to protect the citizenry against the activities of dubious characters. That is where our problem lies.
When making comparisons with the past, we are tempted to believe in what politicians always tell us; that our Police Service has improved in the performance of its duties. However, when compared with the rate and nature of crime in the country as of now, we may just have to admit that we have a long way to go.
The other time, the Commandant of the Police Training School was almost hysterical when he was narrating the neglect of the training school. The commandant was even trying to blame individuals and companies for not doing enough to assist the school with logistics and equipment to enable it to give police officers the requisite training to combat crime in the country.
The Ghana Police Service is too sensitive and important a national institution to operate on charity. Surviving on the goodwill of individuals, organisations and companies may also compromise the effectiveness of the service, since one good turn deserves another. How will the police react if a philanthropist is caught in the web of the law? That is how far we have come in our lackadaisical approach to national matters.
We may be complaining about the lack of financial resources. But when we take a critical look at some public expenditure, we may conclude that we have lost our sense of national priority.
Our Police Service needs more patrol vehicles, modern communication equipment and more well-trained personnel to promote the necessary physical and psychological protection this country needs for its citizens.
It is a pity that our Police Service should be appealing to individuals and organisations for raincoats and flashlights when our government officials drive in some of the most expensive and sophisticated vehicles around.
The police can operate more effectively if they could move on fast motor-bikes, considering the poor nature of the roads in our cities. Second, each police officer should be equipped with communication gadgets that can link him to his command post. It would have been easier for the Madina get-away vehicle to be chased by a motor-bike than a vehicle in that Madina traffic.
Apart from the poor state of the Police Service, we need to take matters of national security seriously. There are many vehicles with foreign registration numbers or with no registration numbers on our streets. These vehicles operate both day and night and are, therefore, a threat to national security.
Our radio stations are doing well in communicating news on crime to the police. However, sometimes in their enthusiasm, the announcers talk too much and thereby confuse the very policemen and women they want to assist. As it is now, the crime wave, especially armed robbery, is on the ascendancy and it is time efforts were stepped up before the country is overwhelmed by crime.
kofiakordor.blogstpot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
They went away not only with the booty of GH¢60, 000, but two fully-loaded AK 47 assault rifles and left behind a young policeman who was only doing his lawful duty.
The daring manner and precision with which the robbers carried out the operation left no doubt that some, if not all of them had some training in weapon handling.
It is also likely that somebody within the Ecobank who had foreknowledge of the schedule of the bullion van could be an accomplice, unless it could be argued that a member of the gang was at the Ecobank head office where the bullion van began its journey to Madina.
Whatever the case, it is quite obvious that the nation has a tough battle ahead if the menace of armed robberies is to be brought under control.
From what started as isolated cases of armed robberies, the situation is gradually getting out of hand with the armed robbers getting more daring and using the most sophisticated weapons and tactics in their operations.
Now, hardly a day passes without armed robbery case(s) being reported in the country. No place can be described as safe. Whether at the workplace, on the streets and highways or in the home, one cannot rule out the danger of armed robbers. And they can strike at any time of the day.
It may be a fruitless assignment trying to determine what has brought about these armed robberies since that may not offer any solution. Suffice it to say that the way sophisticated weapons end up in the hands of dubious persons should be a matter of serious concern to all.
There are many who believe that service personnel are the source of most of the weapons that have found their way into the armouries of armed robbers in the country.
Some of these personnel who go on international peace-keeping operations return home with souvenir items including weapons which they are officially allowed for personal use.
Unfortunately, some of these weapons find their way into wrong hands for monetary reasons. There are isolated cases of serving personnel selling or hiring weapons from state armouries to armed robbers.
The civil wars in the neighbouring countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire and militant activities in the oil-rich Niger Delta of Nigeria mean that there are a lot of weapons in the system which could be easily turned against innocent people by armed robbers.
During Ghana’s own revolutionary period between 1979 and 1992, various individuals operating in the national security network and militiamen had official weapons issued to them. Whether these weapons were properly accounted for after the country’s transition to civilian administration is a matter for serious debate. In short, there are many weapons in private hands which have no documentation and, therefore, in the event of their being used to commit any crime, such weapons cannot be traced to anyone.
Ghana’s relatively peaceful environment in the sub-region has made it attractive to many foreign nationals including some with dubious and criminal intentions. Our hope is the existence of a strong, efficient and effective Police Service to protect the citizenry against the activities of dubious characters. That is where our problem lies.
When making comparisons with the past, we are tempted to believe in what politicians always tell us; that our Police Service has improved in the performance of its duties. However, when compared with the rate and nature of crime in the country as of now, we may just have to admit that we have a long way to go.
The other time, the Commandant of the Police Training School was almost hysterical when he was narrating the neglect of the training school. The commandant was even trying to blame individuals and companies for not doing enough to assist the school with logistics and equipment to enable it to give police officers the requisite training to combat crime in the country.
The Ghana Police Service is too sensitive and important a national institution to operate on charity. Surviving on the goodwill of individuals, organisations and companies may also compromise the effectiveness of the service, since one good turn deserves another. How will the police react if a philanthropist is caught in the web of the law? That is how far we have come in our lackadaisical approach to national matters.
We may be complaining about the lack of financial resources. But when we take a critical look at some public expenditure, we may conclude that we have lost our sense of national priority.
Our Police Service needs more patrol vehicles, modern communication equipment and more well-trained personnel to promote the necessary physical and psychological protection this country needs for its citizens.
It is a pity that our Police Service should be appealing to individuals and organisations for raincoats and flashlights when our government officials drive in some of the most expensive and sophisticated vehicles around.
The police can operate more effectively if they could move on fast motor-bikes, considering the poor nature of the roads in our cities. Second, each police officer should be equipped with communication gadgets that can link him to his command post. It would have been easier for the Madina get-away vehicle to be chased by a motor-bike than a vehicle in that Madina traffic.
Apart from the poor state of the Police Service, we need to take matters of national security seriously. There are many vehicles with foreign registration numbers or with no registration numbers on our streets. These vehicles operate both day and night and are, therefore, a threat to national security.
Our radio stations are doing well in communicating news on crime to the police. However, sometimes in their enthusiasm, the announcers talk too much and thereby confuse the very policemen and women they want to assist. As it is now, the crime wave, especially armed robbery, is on the ascendancy and it is time efforts were stepped up before the country is overwhelmed by crime.
kofiakordor.blogstpot.com
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
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