By Kofi Akordor
On May 28, 1975, heads of state of 15 West African countries met in Lagos, the then federal capital of Nigeria, and appended their signatures to a historical document called the Treaty of Lagos. West African leaders who signed that document included Lt.Col Mathieu Kerekou of Benin, Sangoule Lamizana of Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, Houphoet Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire, General Gnansigbe Eyadema of Togo, Dauda Jawara of The Gambia, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea and Luis Cabral of Guinea Bissau.
The rest were William Tolbert of Liberia, Moussa Traore of Mali, Col Seyni Kountchie of Niger, General Murtala Muhammed of Nigeria, Leopold Senghor or Senegal, Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone, Ould Daddah of Mauritania, and General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong of Ghana. That treaty brought to life the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
ECOWAS was conceived as a sub-regional body with the mission to promote cooperation and integration in economic, social and cultural spheres, leading to the West African Economic Union through which total integration of the national economies of member states will be achieved. The ultimate objective is to improve the welfare and living standards of citizens of member states.
In a revised treaty signed in 1993, the sub-regional body set as its targets the extension of economic and political cooperation among member states, and the achievement of a common market and a single currency as the economic objectives, while politically, it aimed at providing for a West African Parliament, and economic and social council and an ECOWAS Court of Justice among other structures.
To concretise these agenda, several protocols were signed by member states, chief among them being the protocol on free movement of people, goods and services as a way of facilitating trade and social integration within the sub-region.
Even though these are lofty objectives on paper and notwithstanding the various protocols, sub-regional integration on the lines of the European Union as envisaged by the founding fathers remains a daunting task for ECOWAS leaders.
It must be put on record that the peace-keeping role of ECOWAS under the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, was very exemplary. However, trade among ECOWAS members remains abysmally low as most of the countries continue to rely on European and Asian countries for their external transactions.
It could be argued that most of the leaders have failed to exhibit the necessary goodwill and moral strength to implement the various protocols, especially the one on free movement of persons, goods and services across frontiers in the sub-region.
It is also true that many governments have failed to reduce the number of physical barriers in their countries, which serve as impediments on the path of traders who do business between countries. Corruption at the frontiers, perpetuated by border officials, coupled with unrealistic tariffs, has seriously undermined intra-regional trade and thus made it a better economic choice to import goods from the Asian market, particularly from China and Korea.
This apart, poor transportation infrastructure in the sub-region is a major obstacle impeding trade among West African countries. Unlike in Europe, where there are rail links between member countries of the European Union, facilitating easy and convenient movement of people and goods, ECOWAS countries rely mostly on roads to connect to each other.
Unfortunately, most of these roads are not of international standards to ferry goods and people conveniently and safely to their destinations.
I am particularly worried about the Accra-Aflao road, which links Ghana to neighbouring Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
The importance of this road in terms of revenue generation and social integration cannot be underestimated. Aflao is one major revenue-generating border point for Ghana in addition to Kotoka International Airport, the ports in Takoradi and Tema and the border point at Elubo.
Apart from that, all those travelling to the southern part of the Volta Region, as well as those travelling between Ghana and the republics of Togo, Benin and Nigeria, all ECOWAS member countries, must of necessity use the Aflao road and even cross the border at Aflao as the case may be.
However, the journey from Accra to Aflao can be very rough, tough and dangerous. From Accra to Dabala Junction is first-class even though it could still have been better if instead of a single-lane it were expanded into a dual-carriageway.
Civilisation comes to an end after Dabala Junction. It is not easy to find words to describe the portion of the road between Dabala Junction and Aflao. From that portion onwards, the road does not indicate that one was heading towards Lome, the capital of the Republic of Togo, or even further to Benin or Nigeria.
The contract to work on that portion, it is said, has been awarded to a Chinese firm. But apart from the presence of heavy equipment and piles of gravel, work is so painfully slow that many travellers wish the road remained untouched. Meanwhile, the numerous barriers mounted by various agencies including footsoldiers give the impression that this country is at war. This cannot promote free movement of goods and people and engender sub-regional integration.
Come to think of it. Aflao is, maybe, the only border town which opens straight into the capital of another sovereign country. That is an opportunity to make it a showpiece and tap to the fullest all the advantages the situation offers.
Elsewhere, Aflao would have been a glittering town with facilities to lure businessmen and women from Lome and beyond to come and spend their money there in a very legitimate way to swell up individual and national coffers. With our relatively more stable political environment, national security and better managed economy, a place like Aflao, sharing walls with Lome, could easily have been a conduit to take as much as we could from our neighbours. But to get to Aflao is a problem. It is a border town too far.
We do not know whose fault it is, whether ours or the Chinese contractors’. But whatever the problem is, the contract must be executed very fast so that our neighbours from Togo, Benin and Nigeria who want to do business with us and want to visit to be with their relations will drive safely in comfort and with all smiles.
We have placed the GATEWAY TO WEST AFRICA tag on ourselves whether justifiably or not. But once we have done that, we need to live up to expectation. The road to Aflao must be SMOOTH.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
ROUGH ROAD TO AFLAO (SEPT 28, 2010)
On May 28, 1975, heads of state of 15 West African countries met in Lagos, the then federal capital of Nigeria, and appended their signatures to a historical document called the Treaty of Lagos. West African leaders who signed that document included Lt.Col Mathieu Kerekou of Benin, Sangoule Lamizana of Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso, Houphoet Boigny of Cote d’Ivoire, General Gnansigbe Eyadema of Togo, Dauda Jawara of The Gambia, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea and Luis Cabral of Guinea Bissau.
The rest were William Tolbert of Liberia, Moussa Traore of Mali, Col Seyni Kountchie of Niger, General Murtala Muhammed of Nigeria, Leopold Senghor or Senegal, Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone, Ould Daddah of Mauritania, and General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong of Ghana. That treaty brought to life the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
ECOWAS was conceived as a sub-regional body with the mission to promote co-operation and integration in economic, social and cultural spheres, leading to the West African Economic Union through which total integration of the national economies of member states will be achieved. The ultimate objective is to improve the welfare and living standards of citizens of member states.
In a revised treaty signed in 1993, the sub-regional body set as its targets the extension of economic and political co-operation among member states, and the achievement of a common market and a single currency as the economic objectives, while politically, it aimed at providing for a West African Parliament, and economic and social council and an ECOWAS Court of Justice among other structures.
To concretise these agenda, several protocols were signed by member states, chief among them being the protocol on free movement of people, goods and services as a way of facilitating trade and social integration within the sub-region.
Even though these are lofty objectives on paper and notwithstanding the various protocols, sub-regional integration on the lines of the European Union as envisaged by the founding fathers remains a daunting task for ECOWAS leaders.
It must be put on record that the peace-keeping role of ECOWAS under the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, was very exemplary. However, trade among ECOWAS members remains abysmally low as most of the countries continue to rely on European and Asian countries for their external transactions.
It could be argued that most of the leaders have failed to exhibit the necessary goodwill and moral strength to implement the various protocols, especially the one on free movement of persons, goods and services across frontiers in the sub-region.
It is also true that many governments have failed to reduce the number of physical barriers in their countries, which serve as impediments on the path of traders who do business between countries. Corruption at the frontiers, perpetuated by border officials, coupled with unrealistic tariffs, has seriously undermined intra-regional trade and thus made it a better economic choice to import goods from the Asian market, particularly from China and Korea.
This apart, poor transportation infrastructure in the sub-region is a major obstacle impeding trade among West African countries. Unlike in Europe, where there are rail links between member countries of the European Union, facilitating easy and convenient movement of people and goods, ECOWAS countries rely mostly on roads to connect to each other.
Unfortunately, most of these roads are not of international standards to ferry goods and people conveniently and safely to their destinations.
I am, particularly, worried about the Accra-Aflao road, which links Ghana to neighbouring Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
The importance of this road in terms of revenue generation and social integration cannot be underestimated. Aflao is one major revenue-generating border point for Ghana in addition to Kotoka International Airport, the ports in Takoradi and Tema and the border point at Elubo.
Apart from that, all those travelling to the southern part of the Volta Region, as well as those travelling between Ghana and the republics of Togo, Benin and Nigeria, all ECOWAS member countries, must of necessity use the Aflao road and even cross the border at Aflao as the case may be.
However, the journey from Accra to Aflao can be very rough, tough and dangerous. From Accra to Dabala Junction is first-class even though it could still have been better if instead of a single-lane it were expanded into a dual-carriageway.
Civilisation comes to an end after Dabala Junction. It is not easy to find words to describe the portion of the road between Dabala Junction and Aflao. From that portion onwards, the road does not indicate that one was heading towards Lome, the capital of the Republic of Togo, or even further to Benin or Nigeria.
The contract to work on that portion, it is said, has been awarded to a Chinese firm. But apart from the presence of heavy equipment and piles of gravel, work is so painfully slow that many travellers wish the road remained untouched. Meanwhile, the numerous barriers mounted by various agencies including footsoldiers give the impression that this country is at war. This cannot promote free movement of goods and people and engender sub-regional integration.
Come to think of it. Aflao is, maybe, the only border town which opens straight into the capital of another sovereign country. That is an opportunity to make it a showpiece and tap to the fullest all the advantages the situation offers.
Elsewhere, Aflao would have been a glittering town with facilities to lure businessmen and women from Lome and beyond to come and spend their money there in a very legitimate way to swell up individual and national coffers. With our relatively more stable political environment, national security and better managed economy, a place like Aflao, sharing walls with Lome, could easily have been a conduit to take as much as we could from our neighbours. But to get to Aflao is a problem. It is a border town too far.
We do not know whose fault it is, whether ours or the Chinese contractors’. But whatever the problem is, the contract must be executed very fast so that our neighbours from Togo, Benin and Nigeria who want to do business with us and want to visit to be with their relations will drive safely in comfort and with all smiles.
We have placed the GATEWAY TO WEST AFRICA tag on ourselves whether justifiably or not. But once we have done that, we need to live up to expectation. The road to Aflao must be SMOOTH.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
The rest were William Tolbert of Liberia, Moussa Traore of Mali, Col Seyni Kountchie of Niger, General Murtala Muhammed of Nigeria, Leopold Senghor or Senegal, Siaka Stevens of Sierra Leone, Ould Daddah of Mauritania, and General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong of Ghana. That treaty brought to life the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
ECOWAS was conceived as a sub-regional body with the mission to promote co-operation and integration in economic, social and cultural spheres, leading to the West African Economic Union through which total integration of the national economies of member states will be achieved. The ultimate objective is to improve the welfare and living standards of citizens of member states.
In a revised treaty signed in 1993, the sub-regional body set as its targets the extension of economic and political co-operation among member states, and the achievement of a common market and a single currency as the economic objectives, while politically, it aimed at providing for a West African Parliament, and economic and social council and an ECOWAS Court of Justice among other structures.
To concretise these agenda, several protocols were signed by member states, chief among them being the protocol on free movement of people, goods and services as a way of facilitating trade and social integration within the sub-region.
Even though these are lofty objectives on paper and notwithstanding the various protocols, sub-regional integration on the lines of the European Union as envisaged by the founding fathers remains a daunting task for ECOWAS leaders.
It must be put on record that the peace-keeping role of ECOWAS under the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), in both Liberia and Sierra Leone, was very exemplary. However, trade among ECOWAS members remains abysmally low as most of the countries continue to rely on European and Asian countries for their external transactions.
It could be argued that most of the leaders have failed to exhibit the necessary goodwill and moral strength to implement the various protocols, especially the one on free movement of persons, goods and services across frontiers in the sub-region.
It is also true that many governments have failed to reduce the number of physical barriers in their countries, which serve as impediments on the path of traders who do business between countries. Corruption at the frontiers, perpetuated by border officials, coupled with unrealistic tariffs, has seriously undermined intra-regional trade and thus made it a better economic choice to import goods from the Asian market, particularly from China and Korea.
This apart, poor transportation infrastructure in the sub-region is a major obstacle impeding trade among West African countries. Unlike in Europe, where there are rail links between member countries of the European Union, facilitating easy and convenient movement of people and goods, ECOWAS countries rely mostly on roads to connect to each other.
Unfortunately, most of these roads are not of international standards to ferry goods and people conveniently and safely to their destinations.
I am, particularly, worried about the Accra-Aflao road, which links Ghana to neighbouring Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
The importance of this road in terms of revenue generation and social integration cannot be underestimated. Aflao is one major revenue-generating border point for Ghana in addition to Kotoka International Airport, the ports in Takoradi and Tema and the border point at Elubo.
Apart from that, all those travelling to the southern part of the Volta Region, as well as those travelling between Ghana and the republics of Togo, Benin and Nigeria, all ECOWAS member countries, must of necessity use the Aflao road and even cross the border at Aflao as the case may be.
However, the journey from Accra to Aflao can be very rough, tough and dangerous. From Accra to Dabala Junction is first-class even though it could still have been better if instead of a single-lane it were expanded into a dual-carriageway.
Civilisation comes to an end after Dabala Junction. It is not easy to find words to describe the portion of the road between Dabala Junction and Aflao. From that portion onwards, the road does not indicate that one was heading towards Lome, the capital of the Republic of Togo, or even further to Benin or Nigeria.
The contract to work on that portion, it is said, has been awarded to a Chinese firm. But apart from the presence of heavy equipment and piles of gravel, work is so painfully slow that many travellers wish the road remained untouched. Meanwhile, the numerous barriers mounted by various agencies including footsoldiers give the impression that this country is at war. This cannot promote free movement of goods and people and engender sub-regional integration.
Come to think of it. Aflao is, maybe, the only border town which opens straight into the capital of another sovereign country. That is an opportunity to make it a showpiece and tap to the fullest all the advantages the situation offers.
Elsewhere, Aflao would have been a glittering town with facilities to lure businessmen and women from Lome and beyond to come and spend their money there in a very legitimate way to swell up individual and national coffers. With our relatively more stable political environment, national security and better managed economy, a place like Aflao, sharing walls with Lome, could easily have been a conduit to take as much as we could from our neighbours. But to get to Aflao is a problem. It is a border town too far.
We do not know whose fault it is, whether ours or the Chinese contractors’. But whatever the problem is, the contract must be executed very fast so that our neighbours from Togo, Benin and Nigeria who want to do business with us and want to visit to be with their relations will drive safely in comfort and with all smiles.
We have placed the GATEWAY TO WEST AFRICA tag on ourselves whether justifiably or not. But once we have done that, we need to live up to expectation. The road to Aflao must be SMOOTH.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
HANNAH MUST NOT DIE IN VAIN (SEPT 21, 2010)
EVERY human activity thrives in an atmosphere of peace and security which is why our governments give premium to security issues and spend a chunk of national revenue in maintaining security.
Issues bordering on national security are also accorded strict confidentiality in order not to jeopardise the security of the state and the people.
Foreign direct investment is also attracted to destinations where the security of the investor and the investment is guaranteed. Ghana is touted to be doing well because of the stable and secure environment that we have enjoyed for more than two decades now.
However, certain signals in recent times indicate that miscreants in our midst are also determined to damage this hard-won reputation. Although statistics indicate that the police are on top of their job forcing crime rates down, sections of the public still live in a state of fear.
Criminal gangs, especially armed robbers, have decided to cause insecurity and fear among residents in the cities and sometimes on the country’s highways. The police, backed by the military, have intensified their patrols in the neighbourhoods and on the highways to take the fight to armed robbers.
Sometimes the lull in criminal activities provides the incentive for residents to go about their duties without let or hindrance. But when the robbers strike, it sends shivers down the spines of residents, giving the impression that we are losing the war against hardened criminals, especially armed robbers.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that our security agencies are doing their best to control criminal activities and that in the few cases that armed robbers have managed to run away, it cannot be blamed on the want of trying by the security agencies.
We know that the armed robbers can run and hit certain targets but they cannot hide. Our security agencies are noted for their professionalism and, indeed, they have won awards in international circles, particularly during peacekeeping operations across the globe.
The DAILY GRAPHIC can assure the public that the police are on top of their job to control crime but again members of the public are also encouraged to assist the security agencies in crime combat.
Crime combat is a shared responsibility, for which reason it is not enough for the members of the public to complain about the inaction of the police; rather they should assist the police to achieve the objective of fighting crime.
In some instances, where members of the public have sent distress calls to the police and offered correct descriptions of their areas, the police have responded swiftly — a case in point being that of the forex bureau operator who was attacked by armed robbers last week.
While we call on the government to give more support to the police to fight crime, we also urge the police administration to continue with its internal disciplinary mechanisms to bring to book the personnel who drag the name of the service into disrepute.
The feeling among the members of the public that armed robbery is on the increase may not be the situation on the ground but it behoves the police administration to do more to allay the fears of the public so that they can carry out their daily endeavours without fear.
Issues bordering on national security are also accorded strict confidentiality in order not to jeopardise the security of the state and the people.
Foreign direct investment is also attracted to destinations where the security of the investor and the investment is guaranteed. Ghana is touted to be doing well because of the stable and secure environment that we have enjoyed for more than two decades now.
However, certain signals in recent times indicate that miscreants in our midst are also determined to damage this hard-won reputation. Although statistics indicate that the police are on top of their job forcing crime rates down, sections of the public still live in a state of fear.
Criminal gangs, especially armed robbers, have decided to cause insecurity and fear among residents in the cities and sometimes on the country’s highways. The police, backed by the military, have intensified their patrols in the neighbourhoods and on the highways to take the fight to armed robbers.
Sometimes the lull in criminal activities provides the incentive for residents to go about their duties without let or hindrance. But when the robbers strike, it sends shivers down the spines of residents, giving the impression that we are losing the war against hardened criminals, especially armed robbers.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks that our security agencies are doing their best to control criminal activities and that in the few cases that armed robbers have managed to run away, it cannot be blamed on the want of trying by the security agencies.
We know that the armed robbers can run and hit certain targets but they cannot hide. Our security agencies are noted for their professionalism and, indeed, they have won awards in international circles, particularly during peacekeeping operations across the globe.
The DAILY GRAPHIC can assure the public that the police are on top of their job to control crime but again members of the public are also encouraged to assist the security agencies in crime combat.
Crime combat is a shared responsibility, for which reason it is not enough for the members of the public to complain about the inaction of the police; rather they should assist the police to achieve the objective of fighting crime.
In some instances, where members of the public have sent distress calls to the police and offered correct descriptions of their areas, the police have responded swiftly — a case in point being that of the forex bureau operator who was attacked by armed robbers last week.
While we call on the government to give more support to the police to fight crime, we also urge the police administration to continue with its internal disciplinary mechanisms to bring to book the personnel who drag the name of the service into disrepute.
The feeling among the members of the public that armed robbery is on the increase may not be the situation on the ground but it behoves the police administration to do more to allay the fears of the public so that they can carry out their daily endeavours without fear.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
WE DID NOT ELECT TALKERS (SEPT 14, 2010)
Think of it. The minister is in the television studios very early in the morning either defending or condemning wild allegations or rumours published in papers that are not found on the newstands. It is as if the minister was awake all night planning how to execute this assignment, which he and others hold dear to their hearts.
Indeed by dawn, even before he gets out of the washroom for the full brief on the matter, he had already started talking on phone to radio presenters.
Joining him/her on the panel will be a Member of Parliament, an executive officer or simply an activist from the opposition party and together with the host for day, they will spend at least two hours talking on matters that have no bearing on the development and progress of this nation.
Very often, they overindulge themselves and drift into mudslinging, accusations, counteraccusations, name-calling and insults to their persons and others. Most of the newspapers they pick their subjects from do not circulate even a hundred copies per edition. Some are not even known and, but for these commentators, would never make any impact on the political landscape.
This is how some of our ministers start their day and move to the next stage. From the television studios, they join other commentators in a radio station and continue with the same discussions, varying the topics as the discussions drag on. During these discussions, tempers are lost, adrenaline flows to abnormal levels leading to inflammatory statements, unsubstantiated allegations, insults and, sometimes, physical confrontations. Very soon, fanatical supporters amass at the gates of the radio station ready to exact instant justice on the person attacking their party or dear leader.
Our minister may leave the radio station but his talking assignment may not be over. While driving to the office or attending a meeting somewhere, he will still be receiving calls from radio presenters and political commentators to explain some of the things he said on TV and radio earlier in the day or to respond to a statement made by a party or government official.
By the time the day is over, this minister had not been able to sit down for even an hour to think of our national problems that come within the purview of his ministry. This is the normal working day routine of most of our ministers.
Some of them may argue that they are doing this to explain government policies or respond to queries from members of the public. If that were so, there would be very little complaining. Even granted that that is the case, ministers cannot spend all their time hopping from one studio to another, whether television or radio, explaining or defending government policies when there are a lot of serious problems that need to be addressed.
The presidency itself has not been saved from this talking syndrome. Most of the time, the presidency is saddled with assignments that could be easily handled at the regional or even district levels. For instance, is there no better way of handling some of these funeral announcements that take a substantial part of the President’s time. Should people come to the Castle to announce the death of every chief or public servant to the President? Definitely, we cannot ignore our national heroes and even in death, they need to be recognised but we need to end somewhere if we are not to reduce the Castle to a funeral home when there are serious challenges facing this country.
Certainly, it is imperative that government functionaries keep Ghanaians informed about government policies and where necessary, interpret these policies to the understanding of all. Beyond that, they have no business indulging in excessive talking on issues that have nothing to do with governance and the progress of this nation. A lot of the things could be left for party officials and activists who have more time to engage in those wasteful arguments.
Parties in opposition cannot escape blame for the manner they over-politicise certain issues, diverting attention from more serious national issues in the process. It is normal for the opposition to go for the jugular when the opportunity offers itself because that is part of the game of democracy. Like a boxer, if you do not hammer on the bloody spot of an opponent, how do you win a fight? So any slip by a party, especially a party in government, as would be expected, will draw blood and serve as an attraction for a party waiting in the shadows to take over.
My worry is that we more often dwell too much on the politics of issues and ignore the substance. Take the recent statement made by Dr Kwabena Adjei, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for example. I suspect that in his sober moments and in the quietness of his bedroom, Dr Adjei will admit that he allowed his frustrations to take the better part of him. His frustrations may be legitimate more, especially when it is becoming increasingly clear that people suspected of looting our national vaults do not only use the law as escape valves but also go further to mock and taunt the rest of us with impunity in the name of political solidarity.
Those in opposition, especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the party in waiting and the party that benefits most from any slip by the ruling NDC, have every right to condemn Dr Adjei’s statement and even try to exploit it to political advantage. And even if there are any constitutional provisions that would enable them to seek legal remedies in court, it is their right to do so.
But should our entire world be centred one unfortunate statement? Do we care about the fate of our children as school reopens and whose parents will be struggling to get not only admission but hostels for their children in the tertiary institutions? Do we care about those junior high school leavers, who, through no fault of theirs, will miss out on admission to senior high schools because the state could not provide the facilities?
Do we worry that Accra, our capital city, has become a huge slum because we do not have good roads to many of the suburbs? Do we feel comfortable that even ordinary traffic lights do not work in our capital city? Do we worry that after more than 50 years of independence, we, as a nation, have failed to utilise the vast potential of our rivers for transportation, irrigation, fishing, tourism and watch helplessly while huge volumes of water from River Volta and other rivers drain wastefully into the sea, as we continue to rely on other countries, including a Sahelian country such as Burkina Faso, for agricultural produce?
By all means, careless talk and irresponsible behaviour must be condemned. By all means, let us keep talking to engage our minds. But when talking, we should concentrate on serious matters. Jumping from one radio or television station to another talking will not solve our problems.
When people, against all the frustrations associated with voting in our country wake up early in the morning and endure the scorching sun to exercise their franchise, they do so with the resolve to elect people they believe are capable of improving their living standards. And when a party in power loses an election, it is a clear indication that the majority of the people want a change for a better leadership.
It is, therefore, unnecessary for ministers and other government functionaries to come back on a daily basis to tell them what previous governments did or did not do. If people vote for a change, you are not serving their interests if all that you can do is to come to them recounting on a regular basis, the mistakes of the past without taking steps to effect the necessary changes for the better.
It is important that both the government and those in the minority stay focused and reduce the verbal assaults. Seriously speaking, our country, considering its enormous resources and its physical and population sizes, should not be where it is now. To make things better should be the collective objective of all and demands more hardwork and less talk.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Indeed by dawn, even before he gets out of the washroom for the full brief on the matter, he had already started talking on phone to radio presenters.
Joining him/her on the panel will be a Member of Parliament, an executive officer or simply an activist from the opposition party and together with the host for day, they will spend at least two hours talking on matters that have no bearing on the development and progress of this nation.
Very often, they overindulge themselves and drift into mudslinging, accusations, counteraccusations, name-calling and insults to their persons and others. Most of the newspapers they pick their subjects from do not circulate even a hundred copies per edition. Some are not even known and, but for these commentators, would never make any impact on the political landscape.
This is how some of our ministers start their day and move to the next stage. From the television studios, they join other commentators in a radio station and continue with the same discussions, varying the topics as the discussions drag on. During these discussions, tempers are lost, adrenaline flows to abnormal levels leading to inflammatory statements, unsubstantiated allegations, insults and, sometimes, physical confrontations. Very soon, fanatical supporters amass at the gates of the radio station ready to exact instant justice on the person attacking their party or dear leader.
Our minister may leave the radio station but his talking assignment may not be over. While driving to the office or attending a meeting somewhere, he will still be receiving calls from radio presenters and political commentators to explain some of the things he said on TV and radio earlier in the day or to respond to a statement made by a party or government official.
By the time the day is over, this minister had not been able to sit down for even an hour to think of our national problems that come within the purview of his ministry. This is the normal working day routine of most of our ministers.
Some of them may argue that they are doing this to explain government policies or respond to queries from members of the public. If that were so, there would be very little complaining. Even granted that that is the case, ministers cannot spend all their time hopping from one studio to another, whether television or radio, explaining or defending government policies when there are a lot of serious problems that need to be addressed.
The presidency itself has not been saved from this talking syndrome. Most of the time, the presidency is saddled with assignments that could be easily handled at the regional or even district levels. For instance, is there no better way of handling some of these funeral announcements that take a substantial part of the President’s time. Should people come to the Castle to announce the death of every chief or public servant to the President? Definitely, we cannot ignore our national heroes and even in death, they need to be recognised but we need to end somewhere if we are not to reduce the Castle to a funeral home when there are serious challenges facing this country.
Certainly, it is imperative that government functionaries keep Ghanaians informed about government policies and where necessary, interpret these policies to the understanding of all. Beyond that, they have no business indulging in excessive talking on issues that have nothing to do with governance and the progress of this nation. A lot of the things could be left for party officials and activists who have more time to engage in those wasteful arguments.
Parties in opposition cannot escape blame for the manner they over-politicise certain issues, diverting attention from more serious national issues in the process. It is normal for the opposition to go for the jugular when the opportunity offers itself because that is part of the game of democracy. Like a boxer, if you do not hammer on the bloody spot of an opponent, how do you win a fight? So any slip by a party, especially a party in government, as would be expected, will draw blood and serve as an attraction for a party waiting in the shadows to take over.
My worry is that we more often dwell too much on the politics of issues and ignore the substance. Take the recent statement made by Dr Kwabena Adjei, the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for example. I suspect that in his sober moments and in the quietness of his bedroom, Dr Adjei will admit that he allowed his frustrations to take the better part of him. His frustrations may be legitimate more, especially when it is becoming increasingly clear that people suspected of looting our national vaults do not only use the law as escape valves but also go further to mock and taunt the rest of us with impunity in the name of political solidarity.
Those in opposition, especially the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as the party in waiting and the party that benefits most from any slip by the ruling NDC, have every right to condemn Dr Adjei’s statement and even try to exploit it to political advantage. And even if there are any constitutional provisions that would enable them to seek legal remedies in court, it is their right to do so.
But should our entire world be centred one unfortunate statement? Do we care about the fate of our children as school reopens and whose parents will be struggling to get not only admission but hostels for their children in the tertiary institutions? Do we care about those junior high school leavers, who, through no fault of theirs, will miss out on admission to senior high schools because the state could not provide the facilities?
Do we worry that Accra, our capital city, has become a huge slum because we do not have good roads to many of the suburbs? Do we feel comfortable that even ordinary traffic lights do not work in our capital city? Do we worry that after more than 50 years of independence, we, as a nation, have failed to utilise the vast potential of our rivers for transportation, irrigation, fishing, tourism and watch helplessly while huge volumes of water from River Volta and other rivers drain wastefully into the sea, as we continue to rely on other countries, including a Sahelian country such as Burkina Faso, for agricultural produce?
By all means, careless talk and irresponsible behaviour must be condemned. By all means, let us keep talking to engage our minds. But when talking, we should concentrate on serious matters. Jumping from one radio or television station to another talking will not solve our problems.
When people, against all the frustrations associated with voting in our country wake up early in the morning and endure the scorching sun to exercise their franchise, they do so with the resolve to elect people they believe are capable of improving their living standards. And when a party in power loses an election, it is a clear indication that the majority of the people want a change for a better leadership.
It is, therefore, unnecessary for ministers and other government functionaries to come back on a daily basis to tell them what previous governments did or did not do. If people vote for a change, you are not serving their interests if all that you can do is to come to them recounting on a regular basis, the mistakes of the past without taking steps to effect the necessary changes for the better.
It is important that both the government and those in the minority stay focused and reduce the verbal assaults. Seriously speaking, our country, considering its enormous resources and its physical and population sizes, should not be where it is now. To make things better should be the collective objective of all and demands more hardwork and less talk.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
WORLD OF DECEPTION (SEPT 7, 2010)
The mention of Hollywood instantly conjures images of glamour, wealth, fashion and fame. The name was conceived initially as an outdoor advert campaign for a suburban housing scheme called ‘Hollywoodland’.
Today, Hollywood has grown over the years to become the hub of the world movie industry and a symbol of the might of the entertainment industry world-wide. Hollywood has over the years changed the world of many, raised them from poverty and obscurity to wealth and stardom. Some have gone beyond the borders of entertainment to become great political leaders.
Former US President Ronald Reagan, Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, the 13th President of the Philippines and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the current Governor of California, are names that readily come to mind when talking about some of those who employed their popularity in the movie industry to create a whole new world in politics for themselves.
As can be seen, movies do not only offer entertainment to millions of people globally, they also generate enough money to make millionaires out of people and push many into affluence and influence. But the most powerful tool of movies is the message they generate among viewers. That is why many film directors and producers would tell you that they were influenced in their productions more by the message rather than the financial returns.
So while the film stars are mostly motivated more by the monetary returns and the glamour to star in films, producers and directors have other things in mind when they set out to produce films. It is, therefore, not surprising that some movies receive condemnation or even face ban in some countries, not for poor technical production but for the message.
Many people cannot forget so soon the harsh things that were said about Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ , which he released in 2004. Many associated him with anti-Semitism for the content of that film.
Can anyone imagine the social consequences and religious upheaval that would erupt should any film producer venture to turn Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses into a movie?
That is a clear indication that movies are not only about entertainment and money; they are also about ideas, messages, beliefs, principles, religion and many other things that the human race stands for.
The United States of America (USA) has become a major attraction to many from other countries mainly because of the glamorous image that country conjures among people, especially those from the poor developing countries.
To many, the US is a land of the brave, a world of glamour, a world of freedom and a place where everything is possible and rosy and where there is no sorrow. These images have been captured mostly in movies. Long ago, in what were described as western movies or cowboy films, the white Americans were portrayed as very brave and intelligent people who always defeated the Red Indians who were painted as barbaric and uncivilised. The truth was never told that those Red Indians who originally occupied most of the US were actually victims of systematic annihilation by the European settlers. Today the Red Indians are virtually extinct and those who participated in that heinous crime are the apostles of freedom and democracy in modern America.
In modern times, the US and other countries have used the powerful lenses of movies and mediums of mass of communication to win psychological wars against others. Almost all the war films that were made after the Second World War portrayed the US army as an invincible fighting force that won all battles. They are always the liberators who came to save the world from evil forces.
All the wars fought by the US after the Second World War — in Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Somalia and lately Iraq and Afghanistan — were lost but the world was made to believe through the media controlled by the US and other western media sources that things were the other way round.
Other countries like China, India and Japan have followed suit to market themselves in a very big way through movies and other forms of mass media. One thing about movies is that they generally offer viewers entertainment while conveying a message in a very subtle way.
In the conventional forms of mass communication, there is a clear distinction between what is plain news and what is propaganda, advertising, public relations or indoctrination. That is why Americans never portray anything negative about themselves even in movies. That is also why after the Second World War, the Americans never made a film to illustrate how they dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two Japanese cities, during which hundreds of thousands of Japanese were literally roasted alive.
Similarly, the Chinese marketed their martial arts effectively in their movies. Those who could remember Bruce Lee and other Chinese movie stars in the seventies and eighties would understand what I am talking about.
The Indians have developed a huge movie industry which has been labelled Bollywood, and rivals that of Hollywood. The objective, apart from making money, is to counter the negative impressions created by the western media about India and other Third World countries. That is why Indian movies will not show the India countryside with its extreme poverty and squalor. They only emphasise what is good about them.
In Africa, like in many other things, we were late to arrive movie-wise. And when we did, what are we doing? To confirm to the rest of the world that all the negative things they heard about us are true. That we are still crude and primitive. That we are still indulging in human sacrifice for wealth and power. That we still believe in occultism and demons to manage our affairs.
One would have thought that, having joined the rest of the world in big-time movie production, we would use the opportunity to erase the negative perceptions about Africans in particular and the Black race in general. But look at African movies. The plots and storylines are the same and the end of the films can always be predicted.
We do not even make conscious effort to use movies to market the tourism potentials of our countries. I wonder whether Americans and Europeans will relish our movies as we do with theirs. Unfortunately, our children are being exposed to these films that are being released on daily basis.
The stereotyped idea of the supremacy of everything White has infiltrated the African movie industry so much that only half-castes or those who have bleached their bodies are given lead roles in movies. The producers, who want to go modern, do it in a very extreme way by running riot with pornography and profanity. After all they are copying their masters in Europe and America. What they do not even know is that, having realised the havoc these films have caused their children, many of them are enforcing their censorship regulations to the letter.
Now, it is not easy to show pornographic films on any free-on-air television network in the US and in many European countries. We here see this as a kind of bonanza because these films are pushed onto the African market where there is virtually no control.
We are living in a world of deception. Where others saw danger and are making a hasty and desperate retreat, we are galloping to that direction, thinking we are part of the modern world. Those who try to defend those rotten and appalling pornographic movies on our local market are in a different world.
If we accept the fact that slavery and colonialism have debased us, distorted our history and damaged our psyche as a people, movies offer us a great opportunity to tell our story. Movies are not just for entertainment. They give us the opportunity to showcase our values which were deliberately smeared or totally ignored. It is an opportunity to de-emphasise the negative stereotypes and let the world know our strengths and values which make us a unique people. It is an opportunity for us to emerge from the shadows of others and let our light shine.
These are some of the reasons why our governments must stand up now before we fail in the movie industry like we have already done in many other spheres. So far, we have already succeeded in making a laughing stock of ourselves through the type of movies we have produced and continue to produce on the continent and what we have on the Ghanaian market are no exception. If we want to make any impact, then we do not need to follow the negative footsteps of those who took the lead but chart a path that would radiate light where there was darkness in our life as a people.
Branding Ghana has become a topical issue to the extent that a whole new bureaucracy has been created financed with the tax-payer’s money to promote a new and sustainable image for the country. We cannot do that if all we can do in local movies is to tell the world that we are cannibals, blood-sucking vampires and primitive people still walking half-naked in the jungle.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Today, Hollywood has grown over the years to become the hub of the world movie industry and a symbol of the might of the entertainment industry world-wide. Hollywood has over the years changed the world of many, raised them from poverty and obscurity to wealth and stardom. Some have gone beyond the borders of entertainment to become great political leaders.
Former US President Ronald Reagan, Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada, the 13th President of the Philippines and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the current Governor of California, are names that readily come to mind when talking about some of those who employed their popularity in the movie industry to create a whole new world in politics for themselves.
As can be seen, movies do not only offer entertainment to millions of people globally, they also generate enough money to make millionaires out of people and push many into affluence and influence. But the most powerful tool of movies is the message they generate among viewers. That is why many film directors and producers would tell you that they were influenced in their productions more by the message rather than the financial returns.
So while the film stars are mostly motivated more by the monetary returns and the glamour to star in films, producers and directors have other things in mind when they set out to produce films. It is, therefore, not surprising that some movies receive condemnation or even face ban in some countries, not for poor technical production but for the message.
Many people cannot forget so soon the harsh things that were said about Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ , which he released in 2004. Many associated him with anti-Semitism for the content of that film.
Can anyone imagine the social consequences and religious upheaval that would erupt should any film producer venture to turn Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses into a movie?
That is a clear indication that movies are not only about entertainment and money; they are also about ideas, messages, beliefs, principles, religion and many other things that the human race stands for.
The United States of America (USA) has become a major attraction to many from other countries mainly because of the glamorous image that country conjures among people, especially those from the poor developing countries.
To many, the US is a land of the brave, a world of glamour, a world of freedom and a place where everything is possible and rosy and where there is no sorrow. These images have been captured mostly in movies. Long ago, in what were described as western movies or cowboy films, the white Americans were portrayed as very brave and intelligent people who always defeated the Red Indians who were painted as barbaric and uncivilised. The truth was never told that those Red Indians who originally occupied most of the US were actually victims of systematic annihilation by the European settlers. Today the Red Indians are virtually extinct and those who participated in that heinous crime are the apostles of freedom and democracy in modern America.
In modern times, the US and other countries have used the powerful lenses of movies and mediums of mass of communication to win psychological wars against others. Almost all the war films that were made after the Second World War portrayed the US army as an invincible fighting force that won all battles. They are always the liberators who came to save the world from evil forces.
All the wars fought by the US after the Second World War — in Korea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Somalia and lately Iraq and Afghanistan — were lost but the world was made to believe through the media controlled by the US and other western media sources that things were the other way round.
Other countries like China, India and Japan have followed suit to market themselves in a very big way through movies and other forms of mass media. One thing about movies is that they generally offer viewers entertainment while conveying a message in a very subtle way.
In the conventional forms of mass communication, there is a clear distinction between what is plain news and what is propaganda, advertising, public relations or indoctrination. That is why Americans never portray anything negative about themselves even in movies. That is also why after the Second World War, the Americans never made a film to illustrate how they dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two Japanese cities, during which hundreds of thousands of Japanese were literally roasted alive.
Similarly, the Chinese marketed their martial arts effectively in their movies. Those who could remember Bruce Lee and other Chinese movie stars in the seventies and eighties would understand what I am talking about.
The Indians have developed a huge movie industry which has been labelled Bollywood, and rivals that of Hollywood. The objective, apart from making money, is to counter the negative impressions created by the western media about India and other Third World countries. That is why Indian movies will not show the India countryside with its extreme poverty and squalor. They only emphasise what is good about them.
In Africa, like in many other things, we were late to arrive movie-wise. And when we did, what are we doing? To confirm to the rest of the world that all the negative things they heard about us are true. That we are still crude and primitive. That we are still indulging in human sacrifice for wealth and power. That we still believe in occultism and demons to manage our affairs.
One would have thought that, having joined the rest of the world in big-time movie production, we would use the opportunity to erase the negative perceptions about Africans in particular and the Black race in general. But look at African movies. The plots and storylines are the same and the end of the films can always be predicted.
We do not even make conscious effort to use movies to market the tourism potentials of our countries. I wonder whether Americans and Europeans will relish our movies as we do with theirs. Unfortunately, our children are being exposed to these films that are being released on daily basis.
The stereotyped idea of the supremacy of everything White has infiltrated the African movie industry so much that only half-castes or those who have bleached their bodies are given lead roles in movies. The producers, who want to go modern, do it in a very extreme way by running riot with pornography and profanity. After all they are copying their masters in Europe and America. What they do not even know is that, having realised the havoc these films have caused their children, many of them are enforcing their censorship regulations to the letter.
Now, it is not easy to show pornographic films on any free-on-air television network in the US and in many European countries. We here see this as a kind of bonanza because these films are pushed onto the African market where there is virtually no control.
We are living in a world of deception. Where others saw danger and are making a hasty and desperate retreat, we are galloping to that direction, thinking we are part of the modern world. Those who try to defend those rotten and appalling pornographic movies on our local market are in a different world.
If we accept the fact that slavery and colonialism have debased us, distorted our history and damaged our psyche as a people, movies offer us a great opportunity to tell our story. Movies are not just for entertainment. They give us the opportunity to showcase our values which were deliberately smeared or totally ignored. It is an opportunity to de-emphasise the negative stereotypes and let the world know our strengths and values which make us a unique people. It is an opportunity for us to emerge from the shadows of others and let our light shine.
These are some of the reasons why our governments must stand up now before we fail in the movie industry like we have already done in many other spheres. So far, we have already succeeded in making a laughing stock of ourselves through the type of movies we have produced and continue to produce on the continent and what we have on the Ghanaian market are no exception. If we want to make any impact, then we do not need to follow the negative footsteps of those who took the lead but chart a path that would radiate light where there was darkness in our life as a people.
Branding Ghana has become a topical issue to the extent that a whole new bureaucracy has been created financed with the tax-payer’s money to promote a new and sustainable image for the country. We cannot do that if all we can do in local movies is to tell the world that we are cannibals, blood-sucking vampires and primitive people still walking half-naked in the jungle.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
PAINFUL REALITIES (AUGUST 31, 2010)
Every morning I have to do some mental calculations to determine which route to take for the trip to my office in central Accra. From where I reside at Sakumono, I have at least four alternatives and it should only be a matter of determining which would be the most convenient and the one that would bring me to central Accra in less than an hour for a distance that could not be more than 30 kilometres.
You may think that choosing one out of four and possibly more alternatives may be a simple thing to do. Unfortunately, the decision is a very difficult and mind-racking one.
If I decide to use the Nungua-Teshie route, I am likely to hit a traffic jam at the Nungua barrier. This will drag on through the Nungua and Teshie townships. At Teshie, more often than not, everything comes to a standstill because of the numerous arteries that feed into the main road with their load of vehicles. On a very busy day, which is the norm and not the exception, a motorist could spend more than one hour in traffic at Teshie alone.
By the time I clear what may be the last traffic hurdle at the La Palm Beach Hotel, and head towards Osu, I might have spent more than two hours crawling along with other motorists. On a lucky day, I may reach the offices of the Graphic Communications Group Limited in two-and-a-half to three hours after setting off at Sakumono very tired.
Another alternative is to use the Spintex Road. This is a road which started more or less like a private road serving a few factories operating in that area. The road derives its name from one of those factories, Spintex, a textile factory that has since been renamed Printex.
This road is now one of the busiest in the city, carrying heavy vehicular traffic from the numerous industrial, commercial and residential communities that have sprung along it, all the way to Nungua, Tema, and Ashaiman and beyond.
Even though its status as a factory road has changed many years ago to an important link between the eastern part of Accra and the city centre, Spintex has not seen any serious structural change. Efforts to improve the road have largely been cosmetic. That is why traffic on this narrow and pothole-filled road can be painfully slow. It is also on the Spintex Road that one could experience some of the worst forms of undisciplined behaviour on the part of commercial drivers who operate as if the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service does not exist.
On a normal day, traffic can crawl so slow that by the time you make the journey from Sakumono to central Accra, a trader travelling from Ho to Accra, a distance of 156 kilometres might have finished doing his/her business in the city and is on his/her way back to Ho.
The Mills Administration has embraced the problem and trying to do something about it. But my fears are that, at the slow pace work is going on, we may not have a different Spintex Road before we enter the next millennium.
If I choose to avoid the nightmare on the first two routes, then the next thing to do is to hit the Motorway via the Abattoir. Before you reach the Abattoir, you have to cross an improvised bridge constructed many years ago, when the new residential estates were not in existence. The bridge, which is more or less a toll bridge for a self-appointed traffic warden, is so narrow that only one vehicle could cross at a time and because of the heavy build-up at both ends in the mornings, it sometimes takes almost 30 minutes to cross the bridge.
After the bridge, the motorist has to turn towards Tema and change direction at the overhead bridge linking Ashaiman and Tema to face Accra. The so-called Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange at the Accra end of the Motorway can present its own challenges; so again I am likely to reach the office very exhausted and disorganised.
A fourth alternative which is available for consideration is the beach road through Sakumono village to join the harbour road. I feel sad anytime I am on this road. This is the road that links Accra, the capital city, to Tema, Ghana’s number one port city.
The narrow pothole-strewn road is a daily miserable reminder of how poorly we have conducted our affairs of state over the years. Even if we do not have the money to construct roads elsewhere, the roads that bring all the industrial, commercial and domestic goods into the country and freight our exports to the outside world should not be left in that miserable state.
So as I stated earlier, none of the four alternatives offers any comfort so the only thing to do is to join the madness and pray that God will take care of the rest. Whatever the case, precious time will be lost, litres of excess fuel will be burnt and many workers will get to the office very late, tired and not in the right frame of mind to deliver according to their duties. The return journey is not any better, but that is the agony commuters in Accra endure on daily basis.
As schools prepare to re-open for a new academic year, parents are at the end of their tether trying to get the right schools for their children.
The fate of most of the children who are not sure whether they would be studying under trees, tents or in dilapidated buildings is in the balance. Those lucky to have gained admission to tertiary institutions are going round in search of residential accommodation that has become an expensive commodity in many of our tertiary institutions.
There are many other areas where we have faltered seriously. More than 50 years after independence, this cannot be fair to be said of a country that claims to be aiming at middle-income status by 2015. This is not a good commentary for a country which for many decades prided itself as the world’s leading producer of raw cocoa beans — a produce which has made other countries and foreign companies very rich. Is it not an irony of circumstances that there is no cocoa tree in Switzerland, yet, Nestle, a Swiss company, is one of the largest producers of chocolate and dairy products using cocoa purchased mostly from Ghana?
At one time, Obuasi was acclaimed one of the richest gold mines in the world. Obuasi’s gold is almost depleted but Obuasi as a town is in ruins without any sign of the gold wealth it harboured in the bowels of its soil. Where have our gold resources gone to? What about the revenue from the other minerals like diamond, manganese and bauxite which we have been exporting all these years? Obviously the greater part of these natural resources has gone to make other sovereign nations better off than our own.
We have stripped our land bare of its forest cover in exchange for money that has not benefited the people in any significant manner.
Ours is not a Somalia, where since General Siad Barre fled to his death in 1991, had had no government. We have not experienced anything close to what happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Cote d’Ivoire, but it seems we have not made capital gain out of our political stability and democratic credentials which we continue to dangle before the international community.
These and many others are serious challenges that need to be addressed on daily basis. Our democracy, instead of galvanising us into action, unfortunately has created a situation whereby governments come and go without achieving much because of lack of consensus on a national development agenda.
Our democracy has made us so partisan that persons called upon to account for their stewardship in public office become instant heroes just by raising a party tune.
Our democracy, instead of directing our energies into productive ventures, has instead become a kind of spillway that has flooded our environment with insults, acrimony and ethnocentric sentiments.
We have become so politically divided that we prefer to turn the country into a cauldron of bitter emotions over a careless statement from a reckless politician instead of focusing on our national deprivations.
A new culture that has emerged and gradually eating deep into our political fabric is that phenomenon whereby a party in power is coerced and blackmailed into pandering to the dictates of groups calling themselves foot soldiers while at the same time trying to steer the ship of state.
Who says governments belong to political parties, and that a party in government must annex national assets for its members?
We are now pinning all our hopes on oil for all the things we failed to do in the past. The oil wealth, like others before it, will come and vanish without any appreciable level of development if we still have purposeless, visionless and corrupt politicians managing our affairs.
We may have very little to show for the oil wealth if we maintain the politics of winner-takes-all and segment the society into winners and losers or the government and the opposition.
Every day, we are confronted with some painful realities. These are realities that continue to remind us that we have a long way to go as a nation and, therefore, while savouring the freedoms that democracy has bestowed on us, we should do well to allow its fruits to reflect positively in our national life.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
You may think that choosing one out of four and possibly more alternatives may be a simple thing to do. Unfortunately, the decision is a very difficult and mind-racking one.
If I decide to use the Nungua-Teshie route, I am likely to hit a traffic jam at the Nungua barrier. This will drag on through the Nungua and Teshie townships. At Teshie, more often than not, everything comes to a standstill because of the numerous arteries that feed into the main road with their load of vehicles. On a very busy day, which is the norm and not the exception, a motorist could spend more than one hour in traffic at Teshie alone.
By the time I clear what may be the last traffic hurdle at the La Palm Beach Hotel, and head towards Osu, I might have spent more than two hours crawling along with other motorists. On a lucky day, I may reach the offices of the Graphic Communications Group Limited in two-and-a-half to three hours after setting off at Sakumono very tired.
Another alternative is to use the Spintex Road. This is a road which started more or less like a private road serving a few factories operating in that area. The road derives its name from one of those factories, Spintex, a textile factory that has since been renamed Printex.
This road is now one of the busiest in the city, carrying heavy vehicular traffic from the numerous industrial, commercial and residential communities that have sprung along it, all the way to Nungua, Tema, and Ashaiman and beyond.
Even though its status as a factory road has changed many years ago to an important link between the eastern part of Accra and the city centre, Spintex has not seen any serious structural change. Efforts to improve the road have largely been cosmetic. That is why traffic on this narrow and pothole-filled road can be painfully slow. It is also on the Spintex Road that one could experience some of the worst forms of undisciplined behaviour on the part of commercial drivers who operate as if the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service does not exist.
On a normal day, traffic can crawl so slow that by the time you make the journey from Sakumono to central Accra, a trader travelling from Ho to Accra, a distance of 156 kilometres might have finished doing his/her business in the city and is on his/her way back to Ho.
The Mills Administration has embraced the problem and trying to do something about it. But my fears are that, at the slow pace work is going on, we may not have a different Spintex Road before we enter the next millennium.
If I choose to avoid the nightmare on the first two routes, then the next thing to do is to hit the Motorway via the Abattoir. Before you reach the Abattoir, you have to cross an improvised bridge constructed many years ago, when the new residential estates were not in existence. The bridge, which is more or less a toll bridge for a self-appointed traffic warden, is so narrow that only one vehicle could cross at a time and because of the heavy build-up at both ends in the mornings, it sometimes takes almost 30 minutes to cross the bridge.
After the bridge, the motorist has to turn towards Tema and change direction at the overhead bridge linking Ashaiman and Tema to face Accra. The so-called Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange at the Accra end of the Motorway can present its own challenges; so again I am likely to reach the office very exhausted and disorganised.
A fourth alternative which is available for consideration is the beach road through Sakumono village to join the harbour road. I feel sad anytime I am on this road. This is the road that links Accra, the capital city, to Tema, Ghana’s number one port city.
The narrow pothole-strewn road is a daily miserable reminder of how poorly we have conducted our affairs of state over the years. Even if we do not have the money to construct roads elsewhere, the roads that bring all the industrial, commercial and domestic goods into the country and freight our exports to the outside world should not be left in that miserable state.
So as I stated earlier, none of the four alternatives offers any comfort so the only thing to do is to join the madness and pray that God will take care of the rest. Whatever the case, precious time will be lost, litres of excess fuel will be burnt and many workers will get to the office very late, tired and not in the right frame of mind to deliver according to their duties. The return journey is not any better, but that is the agony commuters in Accra endure on daily basis.
As schools prepare to re-open for a new academic year, parents are at the end of their tether trying to get the right schools for their children.
The fate of most of the children who are not sure whether they would be studying under trees, tents or in dilapidated buildings is in the balance. Those lucky to have gained admission to tertiary institutions are going round in search of residential accommodation that has become an expensive commodity in many of our tertiary institutions.
There are many other areas where we have faltered seriously. More than 50 years after independence, this cannot be fair to be said of a country that claims to be aiming at middle-income status by 2015. This is not a good commentary for a country which for many decades prided itself as the world’s leading producer of raw cocoa beans — a produce which has made other countries and foreign companies very rich. Is it not an irony of circumstances that there is no cocoa tree in Switzerland, yet, Nestle, a Swiss company, is one of the largest producers of chocolate and dairy products using cocoa purchased mostly from Ghana?
At one time, Obuasi was acclaimed one of the richest gold mines in the world. Obuasi’s gold is almost depleted but Obuasi as a town is in ruins without any sign of the gold wealth it harboured in the bowels of its soil. Where have our gold resources gone to? What about the revenue from the other minerals like diamond, manganese and bauxite which we have been exporting all these years? Obviously the greater part of these natural resources has gone to make other sovereign nations better off than our own.
We have stripped our land bare of its forest cover in exchange for money that has not benefited the people in any significant manner.
Ours is not a Somalia, where since General Siad Barre fled to his death in 1991, had had no government. We have not experienced anything close to what happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Cote d’Ivoire, but it seems we have not made capital gain out of our political stability and democratic credentials which we continue to dangle before the international community.
These and many others are serious challenges that need to be addressed on daily basis. Our democracy, instead of galvanising us into action, unfortunately has created a situation whereby governments come and go without achieving much because of lack of consensus on a national development agenda.
Our democracy has made us so partisan that persons called upon to account for their stewardship in public office become instant heroes just by raising a party tune.
Our democracy, instead of directing our energies into productive ventures, has instead become a kind of spillway that has flooded our environment with insults, acrimony and ethnocentric sentiments.
We have become so politically divided that we prefer to turn the country into a cauldron of bitter emotions over a careless statement from a reckless politician instead of focusing on our national deprivations.
A new culture that has emerged and gradually eating deep into our political fabric is that phenomenon whereby a party in power is coerced and blackmailed into pandering to the dictates of groups calling themselves foot soldiers while at the same time trying to steer the ship of state.
Who says governments belong to political parties, and that a party in government must annex national assets for its members?
We are now pinning all our hopes on oil for all the things we failed to do in the past. The oil wealth, like others before it, will come and vanish without any appreciable level of development if we still have purposeless, visionless and corrupt politicians managing our affairs.
We may have very little to show for the oil wealth if we maintain the politics of winner-takes-all and segment the society into winners and losers or the government and the opposition.
Every day, we are confronted with some painful realities. These are realities that continue to remind us that we have a long way to go as a nation and, therefore, while savouring the freedoms that democracy has bestowed on us, we should do well to allow its fruits to reflect positively in our national life.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Painful realities
By Kofi Akordor
Every morning I have to do some mental calculations to determine which route to take for the trip to my office in central Accra. From where I reside at Sakumono, I have at least four alternatives and it should only be a matter of determining which would be the most convenient and the one that would bring me to central Accra in less than an hour for a distance that could not be more than 30 kilometres.
You may think that choosing one out of four and possibly more alternatives may be a simple thing to do. Unfortunately, the decision is a very difficult and mind-racking one.
If I decide to use the Nungua-Teshie route, I am likely to hit a traffic jam at the Nungua barrier. This will drag on through the Nungua and Teshie townships. At Teshie, more often than not, everything comes to a standstill because of the numerous arteries that feed into the main road with their load of vehicles. On a very busy day, which is the norm and not the exception, a motorist could spend more than one hour in traffic at Teshie alone.
By the time I clear what may be the last traffic hurdle at the La Palm Beach Hotel, and head towards Osu, I might have spent more than two hours crawling along with other motorists. On a lucky day, I may reach the offices of the Graphic Communications Group Limited in two-and-a-half to three hours after setting off at Sakumono very tired.
Another alternative is to use the Spintex Road. This is a road which started more or less like a private road serving a few factories operating in that area. The road derives its name from one of those factories, Spintex, a textile factory that has since been renamed Printex.
This road is now one of the busiest in the city, carrying heavy vehicular traffic from the numerous industrial, commercial and residential communities that have sprung along it, all the way to Nungua, Tema, and Ashaiman and beyond.
Even though its status as a factory road has changed many years ago to an important link between the eastern part of Accra and the city centre, Spintex has not seen any serious structural change. Efforts to improve the road have largely been cosmetic. That is why traffic on this narrow and pothole-filled road can be painfully slow. It is also on the Spintex Road that one could experience some of the worst forms of undisciplined behaviour on the part of commercial drivers who operate as if the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service does not exist.
On a normal day, traffic can crawl so slow that by the time you make the journey from Sakumono to central Accra, a trader travelling from Ho to Accra, a distance of 156 kilometres might have finished doing his/her business in the city and is on his/her way back to Ho.
The Mills Administration has embraced the problem and trying to do something about it. But my fears are that, at the slow pace work is going on, we may not have a different Spintex Road before we enter the next millennium.
If I choose to avoid the nightmare on the first two routes, then the next thing to do is to hit the Motorway via the Abattoir. Before you reach the Abattoir, you have to cross an improvised bridge constructed many years ago, when the new residential estates were not in existence. The bridge, which is more or less a toll bridge for a self-appointed traffic warden, is so narrow that only one vehicle could cross at a time and because of the heavy build-up at both ends in the mornings, it sometimes takes almost 30 minutes to cross the bridge.
After the bridge, the motorist has to turn towards Tema and change direction at the overhead bridge linking Ashaiman and Tema to face Accra. The so-called Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange at the Accra end of the Motorway can present its own challenges; so again I am likely to reach the office very exhausted and disorganised.
A fourth alternative which is available for consideration is the beach road through Sakumono village to join the harbour road. I feel sad anytime I am on this road. This is the road that links Accra, the capital city, to Tema, Ghana’s number one port city.
The narrow pothole-strewn road is a daily miserable reminder of how poorly we have conducted our affairs of state over the years. Even if we do not have the money to construct roads elsewhere, the roads that bring all the industrial, commercial and domestic goods into the country and freight our exports to the outside world should not be left in that miserable state.
So as I stated earlier, none of the four alternatives offers any comfort so the only thing to do is to join the madness and pray that God will take care of the rest. Whatever the case, precious time would be lost, litres of excess fuel would be burnt and many workers would get to the office very late, tired and not in the right frame of mind to deliver according to their duties. The return journey is not any better, but that is the agony commuters in Accra endure on daily basis.
As schools prepare to re-open for a new academic year, parents are at the end of their tether trying to get the right schools for their children.
The fate of most of the children who are not sure whether they would be studying under trees, tents or in dilapidated buildings is in the balance. Those lucky to have gained admission to tertiary institutions are going round in search of residential accommodation that has become an expensive commodity in many of our tertiary institutions.
There are many other areas where we have faltered seriously. More than 50 years after independence, this cannot be fair to be said of a country that claims to be aiming at middle-income status by 2015. This is not a good commentary for a country which for many decades prided itself as the world’s leading producer of raw cocoa beans — a produce which has made other countries and foreign companies very rich. Is it not an irony of circumstances that there is no cocoa tree in Switzerland, yet, Nestle, a Swiss company, is one of the largest producers of chocolate and dairy products using cocoa purchased mostly from Ghana?
At one time, Obuasi was acclaimed one of the richest gold mines in the world. Obuasi’s gold is almost depleted but Obuasi as a town is in ruins without any sign of the gold wealth it harboured in the bowels of its soil. Where have our gold resources gone to? What about the revenue from the other minerals like diamond, manganese and bauxite which we have been exporting all these years? Obviously the greater part of these natural resources has gone to make other sovereign nations better off than our own.
We have stripped our land bare of its forest cover in exchange for money that has not benefited the people in any significant manner.
Ours is not a Somalia, where since General Siad Barre fled to his death in 1991, had had no government. We have not experienced anything close to what happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Cote d’Ivoire, but it seems we have not made capital gain out of our political stability and democratic credentials which we continue to dangle before the international community.
These and many others are serious challenges that need to be addressed on daily basis. Our democracy, instead of galvanising us into action, unfortunately has created a situation whereby governments come and go without achieving much because of lack of consensus on a national development agenda.
Our democracy has made us so partisan that persons called upon to account for their stewardship in public office become instant heroes just by raising a party tune.
Our democracy, instead of directing our energies into productive ventures, has instead become a kind of spillway that has flooded our environment with insults, acrimony and ethnocentric sentiments.
We have become so politically divided that we prefer to turn the country into a cauldron of bitter emotions over a careless statement from a reckless politician instead of focusing on our national deprivations.
A new culture that has emerged and gradually eating deep into our political fabric is that phenomenon whereby a party in power is coerced and blackmailed into pandering to the dictates of groups calling themselves foot soldiers while at the same time trying to steer the ship of state.
Who says governments belong to political parties, and that a party in government must annex national assets for its members?
We are now pinning all our hopes on oil for all the things we failed to do in the past. The oil wealth, like others before it, will come and vanish without any appreciable level of development if we still have purposeless, visionless and corrupt politicians managing our affairs.
We may have very little to show for the oil wealth if we maintain the politics of winner-takes-all and segment the society into winners and losers or the government and the opposition.
Every day, we are confronted with some painful realities. These are realities that continue to remind us that we have a long way to go as a nation and, therefore, while savouring the freedoms that democracy has bestowed on us, we should do well to allow its fruits to reflect positively in our national life.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Every morning I have to do some mental calculations to determine which route to take for the trip to my office in central Accra. From where I reside at Sakumono, I have at least four alternatives and it should only be a matter of determining which would be the most convenient and the one that would bring me to central Accra in less than an hour for a distance that could not be more than 30 kilometres.
You may think that choosing one out of four and possibly more alternatives may be a simple thing to do. Unfortunately, the decision is a very difficult and mind-racking one.
If I decide to use the Nungua-Teshie route, I am likely to hit a traffic jam at the Nungua barrier. This will drag on through the Nungua and Teshie townships. At Teshie, more often than not, everything comes to a standstill because of the numerous arteries that feed into the main road with their load of vehicles. On a very busy day, which is the norm and not the exception, a motorist could spend more than one hour in traffic at Teshie alone.
By the time I clear what may be the last traffic hurdle at the La Palm Beach Hotel, and head towards Osu, I might have spent more than two hours crawling along with other motorists. On a lucky day, I may reach the offices of the Graphic Communications Group Limited in two-and-a-half to three hours after setting off at Sakumono very tired.
Another alternative is to use the Spintex Road. This is a road which started more or less like a private road serving a few factories operating in that area. The road derives its name from one of those factories, Spintex, a textile factory that has since been renamed Printex.
This road is now one of the busiest in the city, carrying heavy vehicular traffic from the numerous industrial, commercial and residential communities that have sprung along it, all the way to Nungua, Tema, and Ashaiman and beyond.
Even though its status as a factory road has changed many years ago to an important link between the eastern part of Accra and the city centre, Spintex has not seen any serious structural change. Efforts to improve the road have largely been cosmetic. That is why traffic on this narrow and pothole-filled road can be painfully slow. It is also on the Spintex Road that one could experience some of the worst forms of undisciplined behaviour on the part of commercial drivers who operate as if the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service does not exist.
On a normal day, traffic can crawl so slow that by the time you make the journey from Sakumono to central Accra, a trader travelling from Ho to Accra, a distance of 156 kilometres might have finished doing his/her business in the city and is on his/her way back to Ho.
The Mills Administration has embraced the problem and trying to do something about it. But my fears are that, at the slow pace work is going on, we may not have a different Spintex Road before we enter the next millennium.
If I choose to avoid the nightmare on the first two routes, then the next thing to do is to hit the Motorway via the Abattoir. Before you reach the Abattoir, you have to cross an improvised bridge constructed many years ago, when the new residential estates were not in existence. The bridge, which is more or less a toll bridge for a self-appointed traffic warden, is so narrow that only one vehicle could cross at a time and because of the heavy build-up at both ends in the mornings, it sometimes takes almost 30 minutes to cross the bridge.
After the bridge, the motorist has to turn towards Tema and change direction at the overhead bridge linking Ashaiman and Tema to face Accra. The so-called Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange at the Accra end of the Motorway can present its own challenges; so again I am likely to reach the office very exhausted and disorganised.
A fourth alternative which is available for consideration is the beach road through Sakumono village to join the harbour road. I feel sad anytime I am on this road. This is the road that links Accra, the capital city, to Tema, Ghana’s number one port city.
The narrow pothole-strewn road is a daily miserable reminder of how poorly we have conducted our affairs of state over the years. Even if we do not have the money to construct roads elsewhere, the roads that bring all the industrial, commercial and domestic goods into the country and freight our exports to the outside world should not be left in that miserable state.
So as I stated earlier, none of the four alternatives offers any comfort so the only thing to do is to join the madness and pray that God will take care of the rest. Whatever the case, precious time would be lost, litres of excess fuel would be burnt and many workers would get to the office very late, tired and not in the right frame of mind to deliver according to their duties. The return journey is not any better, but that is the agony commuters in Accra endure on daily basis.
As schools prepare to re-open for a new academic year, parents are at the end of their tether trying to get the right schools for their children.
The fate of most of the children who are not sure whether they would be studying under trees, tents or in dilapidated buildings is in the balance. Those lucky to have gained admission to tertiary institutions are going round in search of residential accommodation that has become an expensive commodity in many of our tertiary institutions.
There are many other areas where we have faltered seriously. More than 50 years after independence, this cannot be fair to be said of a country that claims to be aiming at middle-income status by 2015. This is not a good commentary for a country which for many decades prided itself as the world’s leading producer of raw cocoa beans — a produce which has made other countries and foreign companies very rich. Is it not an irony of circumstances that there is no cocoa tree in Switzerland, yet, Nestle, a Swiss company, is one of the largest producers of chocolate and dairy products using cocoa purchased mostly from Ghana?
At one time, Obuasi was acclaimed one of the richest gold mines in the world. Obuasi’s gold is almost depleted but Obuasi as a town is in ruins without any sign of the gold wealth it harboured in the bowels of its soil. Where have our gold resources gone to? What about the revenue from the other minerals like diamond, manganese and bauxite which we have been exporting all these years? Obviously the greater part of these natural resources has gone to make other sovereign nations better off than our own.
We have stripped our land bare of its forest cover in exchange for money that has not benefited the people in any significant manner.
Ours is not a Somalia, where since General Siad Barre fled to his death in 1991, had had no government. We have not experienced anything close to what happened in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Cote d’Ivoire, but it seems we have not made capital gain out of our political stability and democratic credentials which we continue to dangle before the international community.
These and many others are serious challenges that need to be addressed on daily basis. Our democracy, instead of galvanising us into action, unfortunately has created a situation whereby governments come and go without achieving much because of lack of consensus on a national development agenda.
Our democracy has made us so partisan that persons called upon to account for their stewardship in public office become instant heroes just by raising a party tune.
Our democracy, instead of directing our energies into productive ventures, has instead become a kind of spillway that has flooded our environment with insults, acrimony and ethnocentric sentiments.
We have become so politically divided that we prefer to turn the country into a cauldron of bitter emotions over a careless statement from a reckless politician instead of focusing on our national deprivations.
A new culture that has emerged and gradually eating deep into our political fabric is that phenomenon whereby a party in power is coerced and blackmailed into pandering to the dictates of groups calling themselves foot soldiers while at the same time trying to steer the ship of state.
Who says governments belong to political parties, and that a party in government must annex national assets for its members?
We are now pinning all our hopes on oil for all the things we failed to do in the past. The oil wealth, like others before it, will come and vanish without any appreciable level of development if we still have purposeless, visionless and corrupt politicians managing our affairs.
We may have very little to show for the oil wealth if we maintain the politics of winner-takes-all and segment the society into winners and losers or the government and the opposition.
Every day, we are confronted with some painful realities. These are realities that continue to remind us that we have a long way to go as a nation and, therefore, while savouring the freedoms that democracy has bestowed on us, we should do well to allow its fruits to reflect positively in our national life.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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