THE security agencies have a way of conducting their investigations and bringing charges against suspects. At the end of the day, the mission is deemed well accomplished if a solid case is established against the suspect, resulting in a conviction in a court of competent jurisdiction.
In certain crime situations, however, the fight does not end with just the conviction of criminals but by the extent to which leaders of criminal gangs and their accomplices are crippled in their criminal activities.
In syndicated crimes such as money laundering, smuggling, counterfeiting, drug dealing and many others, the police sometimes rush into jubilation even when a few people in the chain and who may not necessarily command any authority are put behind bars. This should not be, and the reason is very simple: Since the cult leaders are still free, it will not take long before fresh recruits are brought into the system to continue with the business of the criminal gang.
Drug trafficking is a major criminal menace confronting our country, just like many others along the West African coast. We are aware that the government, through the security agencies, has made clear its determination to clamp down on the crime and make the country a hostile place for drug traffickers and their foreign collaborators.
We all know that the drug business is a major one involving many people in a long chain — from the barons who could be likened, more or less, to the main wholesalers, through the sub-wholesalers, the bulk transporters, couriers, retailers to the final consumers.
From time to time, the arrest of suspected drug traffickers is given prominence in the media as part of the media’s contribution towards the fight against the canker. However, with the exception of a few cases, most of those arrests have been limited to couriers of very little quantities of cocaine, leaving the barons still lurking in the dark and pulling the strings.
Sometimes, in their excitement and zeal to be seen to be doing their work, the security agencies rush for media coverage when what may be seen as a major catch could only serve as a clue leading to the arrest of the real dons behind the chain.
In many instances, people with a few grammes of cocaine are arrested with a lot of fanfare when the big-time dealers still walk free because the security agencies have failed to conduct meticulous investigations into drug cases.
Very often, whether by design or mistake, they have jumped the gun, instead of following leads that will bring them closer to the real dons behind the business.
We cannot forget so soon how 76 parcels of cocaine vanished into thin air and the one retrieved mysteriously turned into kokonte, while the arrest of couriers with a few grammes who are only acting on behalf of the bigger guns are celebrated with fanfare. Even a limping man believed to be behind that haul managed to limp away to freedom after his arrest by the police.
A few years ago, a tailor who allegedly designed attires for drug couriers was arrested and his photograph splashed in the newspapers. In a serious security environment, the security agencies would not hasten to arrest that tailor or make public knowledge of it. Instead, they would mount a close surveillance on him and monitor all his customers for a period of time. Such customers may, in turn, lead the security apparatus to bigger people who are higher in the chain until, who knows, the main source of the drugs is traced and apprehended.
Elsewhere, there have been many instances when a little patience and good surveillance work have led to the arrest of drug barons. But here, these opportunities are sometimes bungled, either due to bad judgement or deliberately to cover up some people.
In one of the most recent of such cases, the security agencies were quick to arrest a clearing agent for clearing some containers in which substances suspected to be cocaine were found. We all know that clearing agents, as the name denotes, are not owners of shipments they clear from the ports. They are only agents for the importers for the purposes of going through the clearing procedure for a fee. They, like the port authorities and security agencies, could be outwitted by importers or criminals.
This does not necessarily mean that they cannot play other roles outside their legitimate clearing assignments on behalf of their clients. The issue is, until hard facts are established, it will be imprudent to come to hasty conclusions when a little bit of tact and intelligence work could establish criminality on their part or not and at the same time drag others into the net.
To arrest a clearing agent without carrying out a thorough investigation on the consignor or the consignee of the cargo or other persons in the business chain can let go a few others along the chain or be a deliberate way of overlooking serious factors in a criminal situations.
Perhaps our security agencies can learn a few lessons from their US counterparts in surveillance work. In November 2005, Mr Eric Amoateng, then a Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, forwarded seven boxes of pottery to the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York via London.
When the goods arrived at the Newark Liberty International Airport, it was detected that they contained 136 pounds of heroin, with a street value of US$6 million.
The US security waited for Amoateng himself to arrive in the US on November 12, 2005, in the company of Nii Okai Adjei, a friend, and move the goods to a self-storage facility on Staten Island. All that while, Amoateng and his friend were being monitored by security personnel.
Cameras were mounted at vantage points and Amoateng was picked up the following day when they went there to inspect the goods. They were finally arrested after they had retrieved the goods and were heading out. Amoateng’s case is now history.
The long and short of it is that on December 12, 2007, he was jailed 10 years for distributing a controlled narcotic drug.
It was revealing that the US agents were not in any haste. The cargo had arrived in the US a day earlier than Amoateng and any arrests could have signalled him to take cover. In other words, he was not given any hint that the US security was interested in the cargo. He might have been making mental calculations of what the US$6 million could do when he walked into the warehouse to inspect the goods.
We may not have the vast resources at the disposal of the US and other advanced societies, but I believe we have the men and the women capable of doing proper surveillance work if they are given the encouragement and training. Strangely enough, we are not able to exhibit the same level of patience that could lead us to the real people behind the drugs that find their way into the country for local distribution or re-export.
We shall not in any way overlook the efforts of the security agencies in their battle against drug traffickers. We are aware that the drug war, even in the most sophisticated environment, is not an easy one and every day the drug gangs are devising more sophisticated ways of outwitting the law. All the same, we can do better than we are doing now, if we can improve upon our monitoring and surveillance mechanisms.
We have had enough of the small fries. We need to go in for the big catches now if we are to win public confidence and trust and debunk those unwritten perceptions that some of the big fishes are operating within the protective arms of big people in high places, in which case we are only blowing hot air in our avowed claim to be fighting the drug menace.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
THIS IS NO FAMILY AFFAIR (OCT 19, 2010)
WE have talked extensively about indiscipline, which has permeated every facet of our national life and is steadily eating away the fabric of society. Indiscipline has been a subject of discussion on radio and television and dominated newspaper publications while many pastors have used their pulpits to draw attention to this national canker.
In spite of the sermonisations and protestations, the country is still engulfed in lawlessness and acts of indiscipline are becoming a normal part of our national life. The indiscipline on our roads is now phenomenal and it has been sadly accepted that for every road, there is an unofficial one purposely for the use of commercial drivers, who use the shoulders of our roads as speed lanes to show their personal aggrandisement.
The daily carnage witnessed on our roads speaks volumes of the type of drivers we have in the country – drivers who use more of their legs and hands and very little of their heads when behind their steering wheels.
Politicians and their hirelings who describe themselves as political and social analysts and commentators have turned the studios of radio and television stations into gutters, into which they all descend without any sense of shame to smear themselves with filth in the name of democracy and one of its fruits – freedom of expression.
Students are prepared to go to battle against school authorities who dare to enforce the Ghana Education Service ban on the use of cellular phones on school campuses.
Indiscipline has matured and now knows no bounds. It has extended its tentacles to the building sector, where people build anywhere anyhow without regard to laid-down regulations. Accra, the capital city, is virtually a floating city after the slightest rain because flood waters have no drains to follow and so discharge themselves into the streets and homes.
Even religious leaders, who in the past inspired the rest of us by offering good counsel, have strayed into worldly things and are now virtually on the same level as others when it comes to breaching the law or exhibiting undisciplined behaviour.
One way or another, either as individuals or groups, we have all shown one strain of indiscipline or another. Since we are human beings and harbour the weakness to occasionally stray off course in our endeavours, a few infractions here and there could be tolerated, but it becomes dangerous for society if state institutions that have been mandated to maintain law and order become instruments of indiscipline, thuggery and lawlessness.
On Friday, June 4 and Saturday, June 5, 2010, there were some nasty incidents which were widely reported in the media. It began on Friday, June 4, 2010 when some soldiers from the Fourth Garrison went on rampage and brutalised more than a dozen policemen at various duty posts in the Kumasi metropolis, leaving three of them unconscious.
In that incident, it was alleged that a man riding an unregistered motorbike and without a helmet was stopped and questioned by two policemen on duty. The rider, according to the story, later identified himself as a soldier. We all know that it is an offence to ride an unregistered motorbike and equally an offence to ride a motorbike without a helmet. The law does not grant any concession on account of who the rider is.
The police said in the course of the interrogation, the rider got annoyed and sped off but before issuing a threat that he was going to bring more of his colleagues to assault the policemen. True to his threat, a military vehicle packed with soldiers drove to the duty post of the policemen at Cedar Crescent Traffic Intersection and attacked the policemen, tearing their uniform in the violent orgy.
From there, like sharks that have smelled blood, the soldiers went on rampage and attacked any policeman on sight. The victims included Inspector Jacob Gyekye, Lance Corporal Opoku Agyeman Prempeh and Constable Hannah Serwah, who were on duty at the Bekwai Roundabout.
On the same day, another policeman, Lance Corporal C.K. Mensah, stationed at Nkawie, was assaulted by some military men at Sofoline while he was driving to his station. The carnage continued when another group of military men attacked policemen at the Suame Police Station and vandalised their radio equipment and other property.
By now they were in top flight, enjoying the game so they proceeded to the Suame office of the Ghana Water Company Limited and attempted to attack policemen on duty at the barrier nearby, but the policemen who saw blood in the eyes of the soldiers fled for their life.
The adrenaline was still flowing, so on the following day, Saturday, June 5, 2010, the soldiers continued the attack on some Motor Traffic and Transport Unit officials on duty at Sofoline, this time using hammers, and left their victims unconscious after the brutalities. The victims were later conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for treatment.
Before that weekend’s two days of madness in June, on May 20, 2010, a group of soldiers had attacked MTTU officials at Suame for arresting their driver who was driving without a valid driver’s licence and log book. Then on May 22, 2010, a soldier went berserk when he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously at Asokwa, another suburb of Kumasi.
What had gone into the heads of those soldiers who decided to operate outside the law and administer their own brand of justice to police officers who were only performing their lawful duties? The June incidents in Kumasi were widely reported and brought to the notice of all those who matter in the military hierarchy and the political apparatus. They include Lt General Henry Smith, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Interior and Brigadier-General Chris Ocran, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Northern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The impression they gave the Ghanaian public was that this was a small misunderstanding between family members and, therefore, the Military High Command and the Police Administration could meet to resolve the matter amicably. Is that how we treat those who breach the laws of this country?
Even on the battlefield, under the Geneva Convention, enemy combatants have rights and soldiers who are deemed to have breached international protocols are punished, how much more those who, without any provocation, go on the rampage and attack the police for going about their legitimate duty? Should such soldiers be welcomed with warm embraces back to the barracks bytheir superior officers? What happens if other professionals or organised groups begin to resist the arrest of their members in such a crude manner?
Since that Kumasi incident was treated as a family affair, it happened again. On Friday, October 8, 2010, a police corporal, David Dzokoto, stationed in Ho, allegedly came under physical attack from some soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment, who were returning from a military exercise in a convoy of vehicles.
The soldiers did not deny the allegation and justified their action by saying the police corporal was drunk and was behaving irresponsibly. Come to think of it! Remember the Asokwa incident which took place on May 22, 2010? A soldier went berserk because he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously. Surely Corporal Dzokoto had not done himself and the Ghana Police Service any good by his irresponsible behaviour, that is if we are to take the word of the soldiers.
However, the soldiers must be told in clear terms that by their action, they have behaved more irresponsibly. They could have proved otherwise and shown the way by apprehending Corporal Dzokoto or reporting his conduct to his superior officers and wait for the reaction of the Police Command for future reference.
By taking the law into their own hands, they have either exhibited ignorance of the law or proved to be above the laws of the land. In both cases, they have not endeared themselves to members of the public, especially those who still see soldiers as a bunch of people who know nothing beyond exhibiting brute force.
Some of us know more than that. We know that in the military, especially among the officer corps, are some of the finest, most disciplined and well-trained persons not only in the military sense, but academically and intellectually such that the country can boast of them. That is why it would be a disservice to the institution if the authorities continue to gloss over such acts of misconduct on the part of a few soldiers. We need not wait for a violent confrontation between soldiers and the police before we come to terms with realities.
Infractions such as the ones exhibited by soldiers in Kumasi and the latest in Ho, should not be treated as family affairs that must come under arbitration from the family head. The law is quite explicit and there is no room for concessions. As soon as you condone one act, you create a situation where similar acts become justified. Under normal circumstances, members of the military, like their counterparts in the police, must be seen to be the most faithful adherents of the laws of the country, since they could at anytime be called upon to defend the country and its laws.
The Kumasi incidents and similar ones were cases of blatant disregard for the law. They amounted to treating the police with contempt and subjecting them to public ridicule. Very often, the police look the other way, when men in uniform breach the law, especially traffic offences, in apparent recognition of soldiers as counterparts. It is only fair that the soldiers reciprocate this goodwill and identify with the police in the maintenance of law and order in the country.
The Ghana Armed Forces have a reputation which must be guarded jealously. It is an institution made up of disciplined officers and men who have served with distinction in different parts of the world. This is an image that must be built upon and not undermined by acts of lawlessness.
We have come a long way from those revolutionary days, and we do not need to descend back into the jungle of old, where might was always seen as right.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
In spite of the sermonisations and protestations, the country is still engulfed in lawlessness and acts of indiscipline are becoming a normal part of our national life. The indiscipline on our roads is now phenomenal and it has been sadly accepted that for every road, there is an unofficial one purposely for the use of commercial drivers, who use the shoulders of our roads as speed lanes to show their personal aggrandisement.
The daily carnage witnessed on our roads speaks volumes of the type of drivers we have in the country – drivers who use more of their legs and hands and very little of their heads when behind their steering wheels.
Politicians and their hirelings who describe themselves as political and social analysts and commentators have turned the studios of radio and television stations into gutters, into which they all descend without any sense of shame to smear themselves with filth in the name of democracy and one of its fruits – freedom of expression.
Students are prepared to go to battle against school authorities who dare to enforce the Ghana Education Service ban on the use of cellular phones on school campuses.
Indiscipline has matured and now knows no bounds. It has extended its tentacles to the building sector, where people build anywhere anyhow without regard to laid-down regulations. Accra, the capital city, is virtually a floating city after the slightest rain because flood waters have no drains to follow and so discharge themselves into the streets and homes.
Even religious leaders, who in the past inspired the rest of us by offering good counsel, have strayed into worldly things and are now virtually on the same level as others when it comes to breaching the law or exhibiting undisciplined behaviour.
One way or another, either as individuals or groups, we have all shown one strain of indiscipline or another. Since we are human beings and harbour the weakness to occasionally stray off course in our endeavours, a few infractions here and there could be tolerated, but it becomes dangerous for society if state institutions that have been mandated to maintain law and order become instruments of indiscipline, thuggery and lawlessness.
On Friday, June 4 and Saturday, June 5, 2010, there were some nasty incidents which were widely reported in the media. It began on Friday, June 4, 2010 when some soldiers from the Fourth Garrison went on rampage and brutalised more than a dozen policemen at various duty posts in the Kumasi metropolis, leaving three of them unconscious.
In that incident, it was alleged that a man riding an unregistered motorbike and without a helmet was stopped and questioned by two policemen on duty. The rider, according to the story, later identified himself as a soldier. We all know that it is an offence to ride an unregistered motorbike and equally an offence to ride a motorbike without a helmet. The law does not grant any concession on account of who the rider is.
The police said in the course of the interrogation, the rider got annoyed and sped off but before issuing a threat that he was going to bring more of his colleagues to assault the policemen. True to his threat, a military vehicle packed with soldiers drove to the duty post of the policemen at Cedar Crescent Traffic Intersection and attacked the policemen, tearing their uniform in the violent orgy.
From there, like sharks that have smelled blood, the soldiers went on rampage and attacked any policeman on sight. The victims included Inspector Jacob Gyekye, Lance Corporal Opoku Agyeman Prempeh and Constable Hannah Serwah, who were on duty at the Bekwai Roundabout.
On the same day, another policeman, Lance Corporal C.K. Mensah, stationed at Nkawie, was assaulted by some military men at Sofoline while he was driving to his station. The carnage continued when another group of military men attacked policemen at the Suame Police Station and vandalised their radio equipment and other property.
By now they were in top flight, enjoying the game so they proceeded to the Suame office of the Ghana Water Company Limited and attempted to attack policemen on duty at the barrier nearby, but the policemen who saw blood in the eyes of the soldiers fled for their life.
The adrenaline was still flowing, so on the following day, Saturday, June 5, 2010, the soldiers continued the attack on some Motor Traffic and Transport Unit officials on duty at Sofoline, this time using hammers, and left their victims unconscious after the brutalities. The victims were later conveyed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital for treatment.
Before that weekend’s two days of madness in June, on May 20, 2010, a group of soldiers had attacked MTTU officials at Suame for arresting their driver who was driving without a valid driver’s licence and log book. Then on May 22, 2010, a soldier went berserk when he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously at Asokwa, another suburb of Kumasi.
What had gone into the heads of those soldiers who decided to operate outside the law and administer their own brand of justice to police officers who were only performing their lawful duties? The June incidents in Kumasi were widely reported and brought to the notice of all those who matter in the military hierarchy and the political apparatus. They include Lt General Henry Smith, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Interior and Brigadier-General Chris Ocran, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Northern Command of the Ghana Armed Forces.
The impression they gave the Ghanaian public was that this was a small misunderstanding between family members and, therefore, the Military High Command and the Police Administration could meet to resolve the matter amicably. Is that how we treat those who breach the laws of this country?
Even on the battlefield, under the Geneva Convention, enemy combatants have rights and soldiers who are deemed to have breached international protocols are punished, how much more those who, without any provocation, go on the rampage and attack the police for going about their legitimate duty? Should such soldiers be welcomed with warm embraces back to the barracks bytheir superior officers? What happens if other professionals or organised groups begin to resist the arrest of their members in such a crude manner?
Since that Kumasi incident was treated as a family affair, it happened again. On Friday, October 8, 2010, a police corporal, David Dzokoto, stationed in Ho, allegedly came under physical attack from some soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment, who were returning from a military exercise in a convoy of vehicles.
The soldiers did not deny the allegation and justified their action by saying the police corporal was drunk and was behaving irresponsibly. Come to think of it! Remember the Asokwa incident which took place on May 22, 2010? A soldier went berserk because he was cautioned for driving carelessly and dangerously. Surely Corporal Dzokoto had not done himself and the Ghana Police Service any good by his irresponsible behaviour, that is if we are to take the word of the soldiers.
However, the soldiers must be told in clear terms that by their action, they have behaved more irresponsibly. They could have proved otherwise and shown the way by apprehending Corporal Dzokoto or reporting his conduct to his superior officers and wait for the reaction of the Police Command for future reference.
By taking the law into their own hands, they have either exhibited ignorance of the law or proved to be above the laws of the land. In both cases, they have not endeared themselves to members of the public, especially those who still see soldiers as a bunch of people who know nothing beyond exhibiting brute force.
Some of us know more than that. We know that in the military, especially among the officer corps, are some of the finest, most disciplined and well-trained persons not only in the military sense, but academically and intellectually such that the country can boast of them. That is why it would be a disservice to the institution if the authorities continue to gloss over such acts of misconduct on the part of a few soldiers. We need not wait for a violent confrontation between soldiers and the police before we come to terms with realities.
Infractions such as the ones exhibited by soldiers in Kumasi and the latest in Ho, should not be treated as family affairs that must come under arbitration from the family head. The law is quite explicit and there is no room for concessions. As soon as you condone one act, you create a situation where similar acts become justified. Under normal circumstances, members of the military, like their counterparts in the police, must be seen to be the most faithful adherents of the laws of the country, since they could at anytime be called upon to defend the country and its laws.
The Kumasi incidents and similar ones were cases of blatant disregard for the law. They amounted to treating the police with contempt and subjecting them to public ridicule. Very often, the police look the other way, when men in uniform breach the law, especially traffic offences, in apparent recognition of soldiers as counterparts. It is only fair that the soldiers reciprocate this goodwill and identify with the police in the maintenance of law and order in the country.
The Ghana Armed Forces have a reputation which must be guarded jealously. It is an institution made up of disciplined officers and men who have served with distinction in different parts of the world. This is an image that must be built upon and not undermined by acts of lawlessness.
We have come a long way from those revolutionary days, and we do not need to descend back into the jungle of old, where might was always seen as right.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
BAGRE CANALS AND FATE OF TOMATO FARMERS (OCT 12, 2010)
THE name Bagre does not sound pleasant to the ears of many of our brothers and sisters in the northern part of the country, and for good reasons. Anytime the spill gates of the dam bearing that name are opened in Burkina Faso, our northern neighbour, the excess water finds its level on the farms and in the homes of people in the three northern regions.
This year, as in previous years, a few souls have been lost, some homes destroyed and many food crops destroyed as a result of the opening of the Bagre Dam. Since this has become an annual affair, people have started raising questions on why, instead of waiting for the floods to come and swallow us and our crops on a yearly basis, we can’t exploit the possibility of transforming a seemingly natural calamity into a fortune by harnessing the excess water from the dam for productive use in the agricultural sector.
For a country that relies, in the main, on rain-fed agricultural production, it does not make sense seeing this large volume of water going waste and causing destruction in the process when its venom could be subdued and its energy utilised for productive use to the advantage of the people who otherwise have been victims of its devastating effects.
It was, therefore, welcoming news when Dr Charles Jebuni, a technical adviser to the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), broke the news that the body purposely established to spearhead accelerated development of the north had decided to construct canals and reservoirs to collect and store the excess water for irrigation purposes.
Dr Jebuni does not need to offer reasons for such a bold and pragmatic initiative, since the benefits of the venture, if carried out to the full, are clear on the wall.
First, the perennial flooding will become a thing of the past or at least it will be reduced considerably. Second, as indicated by Dr Jebuni, the Bagre Dam water will enhance irrigation farming in the affected areas, mostly in the Upper East and Upper West regions
Some of us have always held the view that excessive reliance on the weather for agricultural production is not the best for a country so abundantly endowed with water resources for domestic, commercial, agricultural and industrial use. It is very sad seeing vast tracts of land in the Afram and Accra plains, all drained by the Volta Lake lying waste, while the country continues to rely on imported rice and other food items.
Elsewhere, nations have gone to war or are feuding seriously over limited water resources. Just a few months ago, countries in the Nile Basin met to draft a new law to replace the colonial one supervised by Great Britain which gave Egypt greater control over the waters of the River Nile.
Thankfully, we have escaped that tragedy, at least for now. Unfortunately, we have not been able to harness the water resources of our rivers for serious agricultural production. We still rely heavily on the rains for farming, with its serious side effects.
Burkina Faso has shown the way by undertaking serious irrigation farming which has turned that Sahelian country into a huge exporter of fruits and vegetables. What are we doing here? I know the Ministry of Agriculture has in its books plans to go into extensive irrigation farming. But, for now, we are waiting for the day that this will happen and until then, we are still at the mercy of the weather.
We hope that when the SADA initiative becomes a reality, it will open the way for more of such projects in other parts of the country.
And that brings us to other major obstacles which are undermining agricultural production and consequently impoverishing farmers in the country.
Apart from the poor road network in most of our food-growing areas, the problems of poor storage and preservation of farm produce have conspired to make our farmers poor, notwithstanding the efforts and resources they put into farming.
A few weeks ago, tomato farmers all over the country, especially those around Ada and the southern parts of the Volta Region, raised their voices in anguish, crying for market for their produce. Out of frustration, some of them left baskets of tomatoes by the roadside to rot. It is as if we do not know that after planting, there is bound to be a period of harvesting for which we should prepare accordingly.
Every year, tomatoes, oranges, mangoes and other farm produce go waste during the harvest season, while hard foreign exchange is spent importing fruit juices and tomato puree of questionable quality into the country, at the expense of local production. We cannot continue to treat our farmers with such disdain.
We cannot continue to make noise about our dedication to developing agriculture to attain self-sufficiency in food production and create jobs for the rural youth if we cannot store and preserve what we produce against the rainy day and as a means of adding value to local production.
So what happens if SADA should succeed in its objective of harnessing water from the Bagre Dam for irrigation farming and there is a bumper harvest? Are we going to watch the efforts and investments of the farmers rot away? Or are we going to pursue a more aggressive policy of creating facilities for storing and preserving what we produce, just as other countries whose goods have flooded our markets do?
We do not need complex factories and canneries for food preservation. A few cottage processing plants here and there will do the trick and even though individual initiatives are necessary, an official position or the government’s policy in this matter will greatly meet the farmers halfway and give impetus to local production in the long run.
The Americans say: “We eat what we can, and CAN what we CAN’T.” It is the food which other countries cannot consume locally that find its way onto our markets as canned products. What is going to be our marching song as we launch ourselves onto the ambitious path of attaining a middle-income status by the year 2015?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
This year, as in previous years, a few souls have been lost, some homes destroyed and many food crops destroyed as a result of the opening of the Bagre Dam. Since this has become an annual affair, people have started raising questions on why, instead of waiting for the floods to come and swallow us and our crops on a yearly basis, we can’t exploit the possibility of transforming a seemingly natural calamity into a fortune by harnessing the excess water from the dam for productive use in the agricultural sector.
For a country that relies, in the main, on rain-fed agricultural production, it does not make sense seeing this large volume of water going waste and causing destruction in the process when its venom could be subdued and its energy utilised for productive use to the advantage of the people who otherwise have been victims of its devastating effects.
It was, therefore, welcoming news when Dr Charles Jebuni, a technical adviser to the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA), broke the news that the body purposely established to spearhead accelerated development of the north had decided to construct canals and reservoirs to collect and store the excess water for irrigation purposes.
Dr Jebuni does not need to offer reasons for such a bold and pragmatic initiative, since the benefits of the venture, if carried out to the full, are clear on the wall.
First, the perennial flooding will become a thing of the past or at least it will be reduced considerably. Second, as indicated by Dr Jebuni, the Bagre Dam water will enhance irrigation farming in the affected areas, mostly in the Upper East and Upper West regions
Some of us have always held the view that excessive reliance on the weather for agricultural production is not the best for a country so abundantly endowed with water resources for domestic, commercial, agricultural and industrial use. It is very sad seeing vast tracts of land in the Afram and Accra plains, all drained by the Volta Lake lying waste, while the country continues to rely on imported rice and other food items.
Elsewhere, nations have gone to war or are feuding seriously over limited water resources. Just a few months ago, countries in the Nile Basin met to draft a new law to replace the colonial one supervised by Great Britain which gave Egypt greater control over the waters of the River Nile.
Thankfully, we have escaped that tragedy, at least for now. Unfortunately, we have not been able to harness the water resources of our rivers for serious agricultural production. We still rely heavily on the rains for farming, with its serious side effects.
Burkina Faso has shown the way by undertaking serious irrigation farming which has turned that Sahelian country into a huge exporter of fruits and vegetables. What are we doing here? I know the Ministry of Agriculture has in its books plans to go into extensive irrigation farming. But, for now, we are waiting for the day that this will happen and until then, we are still at the mercy of the weather.
We hope that when the SADA initiative becomes a reality, it will open the way for more of such projects in other parts of the country.
And that brings us to other major obstacles which are undermining agricultural production and consequently impoverishing farmers in the country.
Apart from the poor road network in most of our food-growing areas, the problems of poor storage and preservation of farm produce have conspired to make our farmers poor, notwithstanding the efforts and resources they put into farming.
A few weeks ago, tomato farmers all over the country, especially those around Ada and the southern parts of the Volta Region, raised their voices in anguish, crying for market for their produce. Out of frustration, some of them left baskets of tomatoes by the roadside to rot. It is as if we do not know that after planting, there is bound to be a period of harvesting for which we should prepare accordingly.
Every year, tomatoes, oranges, mangoes and other farm produce go waste during the harvest season, while hard foreign exchange is spent importing fruit juices and tomato puree of questionable quality into the country, at the expense of local production. We cannot continue to treat our farmers with such disdain.
We cannot continue to make noise about our dedication to developing agriculture to attain self-sufficiency in food production and create jobs for the rural youth if we cannot store and preserve what we produce against the rainy day and as a means of adding value to local production.
So what happens if SADA should succeed in its objective of harnessing water from the Bagre Dam for irrigation farming and there is a bumper harvest? Are we going to watch the efforts and investments of the farmers rot away? Or are we going to pursue a more aggressive policy of creating facilities for storing and preserving what we produce, just as other countries whose goods have flooded our markets do?
We do not need complex factories and canneries for food preservation. A few cottage processing plants here and there will do the trick and even though individual initiatives are necessary, an official position or the government’s policy in this matter will greatly meet the farmers halfway and give impetus to local production in the long run.
The Americans say: “We eat what we can, and CAN what we CAN’T.” It is the food which other countries cannot consume locally that find its way onto our markets as canned products. What is going to be our marching song as we launch ourselves onto the ambitious path of attaining a middle-income status by the year 2015?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
ECHOES OF AN UNFORGETTABE PAST (OCT 5, 2010)
IT was a very humiliating experience for another person to come from his country to claim that he has ‘discovered’ you and your land and everything on it, which you inherited from your great, great, great grandfathers who lived there for centuries. That was how the European adventurers started the colonialisation process.
They came in search of adventure, land, gold or whatever and saw a complete civilisation strange to theirs and concluded that they had made a discovery. They set about to form governments and imposed themselves on the people who otherwise should have been their hosts. They renamed everything – our beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers and towns — they named these places after their imperial kings and queens or other fancy places in their home countries, and finally stripped us of our indigenous names, replacing them with what they claimed are holy names.
Strangely, our examiners continue to bombard us with such silly questions as: “Who discovered the source of River Niger?” and you are considered an unintelligent failure if you could not mention Mungo Park, a Scott who came to West Africa and rode on the back of the local people who led him through the jungle to make his ‘discoveries’.
But nothing can be more damaging, dehumanising and painful to a people than to see their own being carted away in cargo ships to foreign lands to work on plantations, not for wages but as slaves. All records on these unfortunate souls were obliterated to the extent that they had to be given names of either their slave masters, the plantations on which they were working or just after any object that their masters fancied.
This preceded the colonialisation process and by the time it was ended, members of the Black race had lost self-confidence, self-esteem, independent reasoning and the will to break new grounds. Ever since, they have become subservient, timid and always looking up to others for direction even in simple matters within their capability.
There is something called inferiority complex or slave mentality. This has soaked deep into their psyche so much that there is that fear that they will fail in anything they do unless there is the magic hand or direction of the slave master to guide them.
The question is, why should I inflict upon myself the painful memories of a past that should not have been in the first place? In the past two weeks or so, there has been a resurgence of the recurrent debate as to whether the Ghana Football Association should engage the services of an expatriate coach or a local one to replace Milovan Rajevac, the Serbian who has exited for greener pastures in Saudi Arabia.
One could appreciate the need for a healthy national debate on matters such as looking for a coach for the Black Stars, the national football team, because of the passion the nation has for the sport and we cannot but look for the best. However, some of us are getting repulsive about some of the arguments being made by some people by way of opting for a foreign coach. Some of us would not have worried ourselves too much if the debate had been about the best for our national team wherever it would come from but for that cynical conclusion that the Ghanaian is not capable of managing his own affairs, come what may.
The usual refrain that we are not yet there is reaching an amazing crescendo that is piercing our ears. One person who surprised me with that type of argument which can only come from people who have low esteem of themselves or better still inferior minds is Dogo Moro, a former player of Asante Kotoko and the Black Stars some of us grew up to admire as one of the players who advertised newly-independent Ghana’s brand of football in the international circuit.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, Moro, now 75, said he was of the conviction that the local coaches “were not ripe for now to handle the Stars”.
“In my view the Stars have now carved a niche for themselves in world football and I expect the GFA to build a consensus with stakeholders to ensure that the next coach to be chosen matches up to the team’s pedigree”, Moro said, according to the GNA report.
In fairness to the old footballer, his observation that the Stars have ascended to a level that needs a coach to match their pedigree is very relevant. It is true we cannot afford to go backwards. However, I felt a bit sad when Moro was reported as saying that “local coaches lack the mental strength and technical capacity needed to meet the dynamism and tactical discipline of modern football internationally and that they needed sometime to understudy the coaching scene to catch up with the current trend”.
In the wisdom of the former versatile defender, while the local coaches should be maintained as assistants, the GFA should strive to go in for “a competent expatriate coach to sustain the philosophy and vision of Ghana football”.
The logic of that argument is that our footballers have gone beyond the level our local coaches can manage. Yes, that is the slave mentality. We cannot do anything for ourselves, not even coach our national football team. Our salvation must always come from the white man. At best, we can only be assistants to the white-skinned coaches, until when? Moro’s sentiments might have received accommodation in the hearts of some Ghanaians, who like him, do not see anything good about themselves.
To them, it was good we were ‘discovered’ as a people. To them, it was good the Europeans came here and colonised us. It was even good that they inflicted human slavery on us and dehumanised us. So why not continue to rely on them more than 50 years after we regained our national sovereignty and restored honour to ourselves as independent and free people in everything we do.
Moro is old now, but I do not think he has become senile to forget events during his playing days. I do not think Moro has forgotten about one of his contemporaries called Charles Kumi Gyamfi, who, while even as a player, coached the Black Stars to victory in the African Cup in Accra as far back as 1963. Mr C.K. Gyamfi repeated the feat two years later, when he managed the Black Stars to victory in the African Cup in far away Tunis in 1965.
Where were Dogo Moro and those still consumed by inferiority complex like him, when Coach Osam Duodu, a son of the land, led the Black Stars to lift the African Cup for the third time before our own eyes in Accra? Where were they, when Coach C.K. Gyamfi, for the third time, led an ill-prepared Black Stars to capture the African Cup for the fourth time in Tripoli, Libya, in 1982?
For those who are still not convinced, do we remind them that when Ghana became the first African country to win the FIFA Under-20 World Cup last year, it took the hands and expertise of Sellas Tetteh, a full-blooded Ghanaian, to lead the team to that feat. So what are they talking about?
Let no-one make the mistake. Almost all the foreign coaches brought here rather benefited from the prowess of our players most of whom reached peak forms under local coaches. All those coaches, after their so-called successes in Ghana, virtually found themselves unemployed after leaving our shores because they had nothing to offer their new employers. The latest of them, Milovan Rajevac, whose departure has created another debate in the country, is a miserable man in Saudi Arabia because the team which was inspired by the exploits of the Black Stars to offer him a mouth-watering package is doing very badly in their local league.
There is no Michael Essien, Kwadwo Asamoah-Gyan or Sulley Muntari to do the trick for him. He belongs to that class of coaches who could hardly transform raw talents into refined materials that could conquer the world. Look at how they have lined up seeking the job. Let them get the nod and they would treat us like trash, even the ‘illiterate ones’, who must employ interpreters on the football field.
As a people, Blacks in general and Ghanaians in particular have for far too long lived in the shadows of others. This has reflected in our poor showing in almost every facet of human life. Blacks are behind every other human race, not because God has not endowed us with wisdom and qualities that would lift us from poverty, ignorance, disease and squalor. We simply do not want to use our talents because of the scars of slavery and colonialism, which have blighted our intellect and ingenuity.
We may be hopeless as some people, including our own compatriots, may want us to believe, but we can train our footballers to achieve international laurels, something our coaches have proved on countless occasions. In any case, somebody needs to explain to me: What is about football that only whitemen can teach it, when Ghanaians and Africans in general are producing doctors, engineers, mathematicians and other high-profile professionals to solve some of the most complex problems in the world? The Ghana Football Association (GFA), we are being always reminded, virtually operates outside the laws of this country. But in this case, where our national pride and dignity as a people are at stake, the GFA must for once, listen to us.
Down with mental slavery. Down with the inferiority complex. We prefer to fight our own battle and lose than have a foreigner come here to ride on our shoulders to undeserved glory just like Mungo Park, David Livingston, Henry Stanley and others did to our grandparents who carried them on their back while they were busy discovering them. We need to erase that age-old perception that the Black man is incapable of managing his own destiny. We need local coaches now!!!
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
They came in search of adventure, land, gold or whatever and saw a complete civilisation strange to theirs and concluded that they had made a discovery. They set about to form governments and imposed themselves on the people who otherwise should have been their hosts. They renamed everything – our beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers and towns — they named these places after their imperial kings and queens or other fancy places in their home countries, and finally stripped us of our indigenous names, replacing them with what they claimed are holy names.
Strangely, our examiners continue to bombard us with such silly questions as: “Who discovered the source of River Niger?” and you are considered an unintelligent failure if you could not mention Mungo Park, a Scott who came to West Africa and rode on the back of the local people who led him through the jungle to make his ‘discoveries’.
But nothing can be more damaging, dehumanising and painful to a people than to see their own being carted away in cargo ships to foreign lands to work on plantations, not for wages but as slaves. All records on these unfortunate souls were obliterated to the extent that they had to be given names of either their slave masters, the plantations on which they were working or just after any object that their masters fancied.
This preceded the colonialisation process and by the time it was ended, members of the Black race had lost self-confidence, self-esteem, independent reasoning and the will to break new grounds. Ever since, they have become subservient, timid and always looking up to others for direction even in simple matters within their capability.
There is something called inferiority complex or slave mentality. This has soaked deep into their psyche so much that there is that fear that they will fail in anything they do unless there is the magic hand or direction of the slave master to guide them.
The question is, why should I inflict upon myself the painful memories of a past that should not have been in the first place? In the past two weeks or so, there has been a resurgence of the recurrent debate as to whether the Ghana Football Association should engage the services of an expatriate coach or a local one to replace Milovan Rajevac, the Serbian who has exited for greener pastures in Saudi Arabia.
One could appreciate the need for a healthy national debate on matters such as looking for a coach for the Black Stars, the national football team, because of the passion the nation has for the sport and we cannot but look for the best. However, some of us are getting repulsive about some of the arguments being made by some people by way of opting for a foreign coach. Some of us would not have worried ourselves too much if the debate had been about the best for our national team wherever it would come from but for that cynical conclusion that the Ghanaian is not capable of managing his own affairs, come what may.
The usual refrain that we are not yet there is reaching an amazing crescendo that is piercing our ears. One person who surprised me with that type of argument which can only come from people who have low esteem of themselves or better still inferior minds is Dogo Moro, a former player of Asante Kotoko and the Black Stars some of us grew up to admire as one of the players who advertised newly-independent Ghana’s brand of football in the international circuit.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, Moro, now 75, said he was of the conviction that the local coaches “were not ripe for now to handle the Stars”.
“In my view the Stars have now carved a niche for themselves in world football and I expect the GFA to build a consensus with stakeholders to ensure that the next coach to be chosen matches up to the team’s pedigree”, Moro said, according to the GNA report.
In fairness to the old footballer, his observation that the Stars have ascended to a level that needs a coach to match their pedigree is very relevant. It is true we cannot afford to go backwards. However, I felt a bit sad when Moro was reported as saying that “local coaches lack the mental strength and technical capacity needed to meet the dynamism and tactical discipline of modern football internationally and that they needed sometime to understudy the coaching scene to catch up with the current trend”.
In the wisdom of the former versatile defender, while the local coaches should be maintained as assistants, the GFA should strive to go in for “a competent expatriate coach to sustain the philosophy and vision of Ghana football”.
The logic of that argument is that our footballers have gone beyond the level our local coaches can manage. Yes, that is the slave mentality. We cannot do anything for ourselves, not even coach our national football team. Our salvation must always come from the white man. At best, we can only be assistants to the white-skinned coaches, until when? Moro’s sentiments might have received accommodation in the hearts of some Ghanaians, who like him, do not see anything good about themselves.
To them, it was good we were ‘discovered’ as a people. To them, it was good the Europeans came here and colonised us. It was even good that they inflicted human slavery on us and dehumanised us. So why not continue to rely on them more than 50 years after we regained our national sovereignty and restored honour to ourselves as independent and free people in everything we do.
Moro is old now, but I do not think he has become senile to forget events during his playing days. I do not think Moro has forgotten about one of his contemporaries called Charles Kumi Gyamfi, who, while even as a player, coached the Black Stars to victory in the African Cup in Accra as far back as 1963. Mr C.K. Gyamfi repeated the feat two years later, when he managed the Black Stars to victory in the African Cup in far away Tunis in 1965.
Where were Dogo Moro and those still consumed by inferiority complex like him, when Coach Osam Duodu, a son of the land, led the Black Stars to lift the African Cup for the third time before our own eyes in Accra? Where were they, when Coach C.K. Gyamfi, for the third time, led an ill-prepared Black Stars to capture the African Cup for the fourth time in Tripoli, Libya, in 1982?
For those who are still not convinced, do we remind them that when Ghana became the first African country to win the FIFA Under-20 World Cup last year, it took the hands and expertise of Sellas Tetteh, a full-blooded Ghanaian, to lead the team to that feat. So what are they talking about?
Let no-one make the mistake. Almost all the foreign coaches brought here rather benefited from the prowess of our players most of whom reached peak forms under local coaches. All those coaches, after their so-called successes in Ghana, virtually found themselves unemployed after leaving our shores because they had nothing to offer their new employers. The latest of them, Milovan Rajevac, whose departure has created another debate in the country, is a miserable man in Saudi Arabia because the team which was inspired by the exploits of the Black Stars to offer him a mouth-watering package is doing very badly in their local league.
There is no Michael Essien, Kwadwo Asamoah-Gyan or Sulley Muntari to do the trick for him. He belongs to that class of coaches who could hardly transform raw talents into refined materials that could conquer the world. Look at how they have lined up seeking the job. Let them get the nod and they would treat us like trash, even the ‘illiterate ones’, who must employ interpreters on the football field.
As a people, Blacks in general and Ghanaians in particular have for far too long lived in the shadows of others. This has reflected in our poor showing in almost every facet of human life. Blacks are behind every other human race, not because God has not endowed us with wisdom and qualities that would lift us from poverty, ignorance, disease and squalor. We simply do not want to use our talents because of the scars of slavery and colonialism, which have blighted our intellect and ingenuity.
We may be hopeless as some people, including our own compatriots, may want us to believe, but we can train our footballers to achieve international laurels, something our coaches have proved on countless occasions. In any case, somebody needs to explain to me: What is about football that only whitemen can teach it, when Ghanaians and Africans in general are producing doctors, engineers, mathematicians and other high-profile professionals to solve some of the most complex problems in the world? The Ghana Football Association (GFA), we are being always reminded, virtually operates outside the laws of this country. But in this case, where our national pride and dignity as a people are at stake, the GFA must for once, listen to us.
Down with mental slavery. Down with the inferiority complex. We prefer to fight our own battle and lose than have a foreigner come here to ride on our shoulders to undeserved glory just like Mungo Park, David Livingston, Henry Stanley and others did to our grandparents who carried them on their back while they were busy discovering them. We need to erase that age-old perception that the Black man is incapable of managing his own destiny. We need local coaches now!!!
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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