By Kofi Akordor
I havebeen trying hard to find the justification for or the wisdom which informed the recommendation that former Presidents, among other things, should be lavished with two houses, one in Accra and another at any place of their choice.
Any time I see the squalor and deprivations surrounding us, I wonder whether those who made that recommendation were part of this country and its people or they were some people from somewhere who were entirely oblivious of conditions in this country.
I am equally baffled that former President John Agyekum Kufuor, after seeing the final work of the Mary Chinery-Hesse Committee before it was made public, did not see anything wrong with the recommendations.
Some of us will not be surprised if former President Kufuor made a personal input into the Chinery-Hesse Report because of the religious fervor he has been demanding its implementation to the letter.
The ex gratia of the so-called Article 71 office holders became a very big issue soon after the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government of Professor John Evans Atta Mills came to power because of some of the outrageous recommendations contained in the Chinery-Hesse Report and which we were told was ratified by the then Parliament.
For a former President, the committee recommended that as part of the resettlement plan, he be given two houses, not ordinary ones, one in Accra and the other at a place of his choice. In addition, he should be given six fresh vehicles, one to be armoured, which should be replaced every four years.
Did we elect people who offered themselves for the presidency only for them to become a burden on us for their imperial lifestyles? Did they offer themselves because they thought they had a vision for this country, or they just want to improve their lot it even means collapsing the economy of this country?
The argument was bandied around that the resettlement plan was so designed so that our former presidents will live in dignity after retirement and, second, to ensure that while in office, they do not dip their hands into the national kitty for personal aggrandizement.
That is a hollow argument, anyway. Even though it is not a constitutional requirement, we do not expect someone who is squatting in somebody’s hall and chamber to be our president. Anyone with good ideas for this country should be able to show by personal success that he is capable of delivering in the wider national context.
Former President Kufuor proved it by using his personal house as presidential palace for the eight years that he was in office.We do not see how justifiable it will be to build two new mansions for each former President, because that is the only way to guarantee him/her a dignified retirement.
Very importantly, even in jurisdictions where there are tight controls to check graft among public office holders, officers including presidents do not go home wish such lavish entitlements. We are in Africa and we cannot pretend to be unaware of the fact that our anti-corruption laws have very marginal chances of success.
We cannot also run away from the fact that most of the politicians in this part of the world cannot claim to be making sacrifices since they are in the main, more desperately committed to their stomachs than the national interest. Any decision that seems to push these realities into the background will be unfair to the conscience of the people.
The Chinery-Hesse Committee defended its position by claiming the members toured various countries and studied retirement packages for other presidents before coming out with their recommendations. It did not mention the names of the countries visited nor make public the types of packages they had for their retired heads of state.
If their trips took them to African countries, then straightaway they have made a big mistake, since most African leaders do not leave office voluntarily, anyway, and if they are compelled to leave, they are very likely to make such outrageous demands, hiding behind such presidential committees as the one we also did here.
Just as we were beginning to forget the matter, hoping it is now history, the news of our two former presidents rejecting offers of houses made to them at the plush Trassaco Valley hit us with a bang. The two former leaders were not impressed with the offer.While former President Rawlings was not enthused because it was not a permanent abode, Mr Kufuor was not interested because, according to his spokesperson, he was not consulted and did not make any input into the acquisition and allocation.
Why should we get entangled in such a web which should not have been in the first place? Our former presidents, like all other public office holders and public servants, deserve good pension packages.
If those doing the calculations think the present monthly pension for former presidents is not adequate, they can enhance it and subject it to periodic reviews, as is done for other workers.
The issue of houses should be ruled out completely. That is where I agree with PresidentMills that houses should not feature in the retirement packages for former presidents. I, however, disagree with his recommendation that former presidents should be paid rent allowances for their accommodation. That is also a burden that the state cannot carry. Every president of the Republic should be able to retire and go to reside in his or her home.
The state can pay bulk cash on retirement and monthly pension as will be prescribed by the appropriate authorities. Beyond that, State Protocol should be able to cater for other needs, such as foreign travels, allocation of vehicles for personal and official use and all other services a former president deserves.
The agitation we are experiencing on the labour front these days is in part due to the lifestyles of politicians who seem to have stumbled upon some fortune overnight. Many workers are beginning to believe that the men and women who came begging them for their mandate to lead them are not telling them all the truth.
While they are being told every day that there is not much to go round, a lot of the young politicians have developed bloated cheeks in a matter of months. Sometimes it is not easy to hide newly acquired wealth. That is why some of the professionals have become very aggressive in their demands.
The last thing we should do to aggravate the situation is turn what is considered a sacrificial job into a business empire for people. We need to treat our past leaders fair and square, but that should make them like albatrosses hanging on our necks.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Blackmail
By Kofi Akordor
Imagine the frustration of a young medical officer who, after a hard day’s work, got home only to realise that he could not unwind watching his favourite television programme because electricity was off. Technicians of the energy company are at war with their employees over service conditions and have, therefore, withdrawn their services.
What about the mother who could not prepare the evening meal for the family because the taps would not flow simply because the water company workers were at loggerheads with their managers over better service conditions and would not work.
I once made a wrong calculation and paid dearly for it. I was to attend an interview and misjudged the flow of traffic. Before I could realise it, I was hard up with time and desperately started to flag every taxi passing with the intention to pick ‘dropping’. As it were, all taxis seemed to have different missions that morning and, therefore, ignored my signals. In the end, I lost the opportunity.
We all suffer anytime electricity power goes off, for the sake of those so-called maintenance schedules, load-shedding or because the transformer had suffered a mishap because of lightning or through the activities of thieves.
We know what happens when the tap does not flow for a day or two for whatever reason. Programmes are thrown out of gear and even at the workplace we lack concentration because our minds are on where to get the precious water for household use.
The stench from the toilets at home, the office and other public places keeps reminding us that a very important resource — water — is missing in our lives.
Until we are confronted with such deprivations, nobody bothers to give a split-second thought to workers of the power company or that of water.
As for taxi drivers, we only remember them as illiterate rogues who will not wash in the morning before jumping behind the steering wheel for the day’s work. Wait until you are suddenly taken sick in the night; then you will realize that taxi drivers are gods.
Such is life that no matter how small or insignificant others are, we are inter-dependent and the collapse of one unit, whether deliberate or by accident, disorganises our personal, official, commercial and industrial activities.
We do not spare a moment to think about the policeman (after all the police only take bribes) until a thief or an armed robber raids our homes or a careless driver rams into our vehicle. Then we are on all fours seeking police intervention. Can we imagine the chaos at our traffic intersections where our traffic lights never work without the presence of the police? That is why we should not trivialise the importance of anyone in society.
No matter how hard we may try, we still fall sick or fall victim to accidents. That is why doctors will continue to play a big role in our daily lives. It will, therefore, be suicidal for anybody to underestimate the importance of medical officers. In fact, even the services of the village medicine man are greatly revered and his opinions on health matters are taken with all seriousness.
Ours is a very dirty environment, especially Accra, Kumasi and other big towns, and, coupled with poor nutrition and bad lifestyles, we are always at the mercy of various diseases. So doctors, whether we like it or not, will be our regular companions.
I do not think I will be wrong if I venture to say that the majority of Ghanaians value and appreciate the work of doctors and other health workers and would wish that they get everything they demand. Anytime I visit the hospital and see the condition under which health workers operate, I know that even though it is their choice, they are making a lot of sacrifices that must be appreciated and fully rewarded.
Doctors, like all other workers, have every right to agitate for better service conditions and I believe members of the public will support their cause, knowing the role they are playing in our survival as individuals and as a nation. But, as stated earlier, in all scheme of things, we should not forget that we are in an interdependent world and no matter how we value ourselves, we should not ignore the roles others play in our lives.
Many considerations might have gone into drafting the labour laws of the country which outlawed strikes by certain categories of workers, including doctors and other health workers. Unfortunately, doctors have ignored this law and not even the pleas of President John Evans Atta Mills will turn their hearts.
Whether it takes a few days, weeks, months or even years, they will get their money one day. But lives lost are gone forever, even though, as Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), declared, whether they the doctors worked or not, people would die anyway.
The doctors’ strike will eventually fall on the laps of some politicians who may want to make capital gain out of it, forgetting that the phenomenon has been with us for years.
In the past, strikes (call them industrial battles) were fought for two main reasons. First, to press home demands for better service conditions and two to settle political scores with the government in power.
Remember the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies (ARPB) and its battles against the Acheampong dictatorship. That umbrella body for various professionals, including doctors and lawyers, made it difficult for Acheampong to go ahead with his UNIGOV doctrine which was a form of a one-party state.
The ARPB also played a significant role in the return to civilian rule by the Supreme Military Council under General F.W.K. Akufo. Today, thanks to multi-party democracy, it will not be easy for any union or professional body to do political battle with a government, since membership of all bodies cuts across political parties.
So even though some political parties may want to capitalise on the genuine grievances of workers, at the end of the day, individual members of the same group will begin to advise themselves if they suspect an infiltration for diabolical purposes.
Medical doctors are part of us. They are our fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, friends and old school mates. Therefore, whatever affects them affects all of us. Their joy is our joy, just as their sorrow is our sorrow.
We would, therefore, wish that having registered their protest at the slow pace of their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure and other matters, they will respect public sentiment and go back to work while the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and other relevant bodies dialogue with the GMA to thrash out all contentious issues.
Some of us do not know anything about single or any other spine. But even from afar, we can picture a mathematically complex assignment which will require a lot of patience and meticulous calculation. I do not think those who are already on the SSSS are fully satisfied with their lot and so it will be for a long time until things stabilise when the concept is mastered.
Doctors may hold the trump card today because we are all sick people and we are always at the risk of suffering from one form of health hazard or another. So we shall continue to beg the doctors to go back to work. But beyond their genuine grievances and appropriate demands, for them to continue to ignore our pleas could only amount to blackmailing a whole nation.
Dr Winful has boasted that no law or power will compel them to go back to work until they exact their pound of flesh. That is true. But there is one law that no one can run away from. That is Cause and Effect or the Law of Karma. You may call it the Universal Law and that one is a judgement that comes over us by our own doing. In simple terms, it says do unto others what you want others to do to you. I do not think our doctors would want to see their parents, relations and friends suffer undue pain and die eventually.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor,blogspot.com
Imagine the frustration of a young medical officer who, after a hard day’s work, got home only to realise that he could not unwind watching his favourite television programme because electricity was off. Technicians of the energy company are at war with their employees over service conditions and have, therefore, withdrawn their services.
What about the mother who could not prepare the evening meal for the family because the taps would not flow simply because the water company workers were at loggerheads with their managers over better service conditions and would not work.
I once made a wrong calculation and paid dearly for it. I was to attend an interview and misjudged the flow of traffic. Before I could realise it, I was hard up with time and desperately started to flag every taxi passing with the intention to pick ‘dropping’. As it were, all taxis seemed to have different missions that morning and, therefore, ignored my signals. In the end, I lost the opportunity.
We all suffer anytime electricity power goes off, for the sake of those so-called maintenance schedules, load-shedding or because the transformer had suffered a mishap because of lightning or through the activities of thieves.
We know what happens when the tap does not flow for a day or two for whatever reason. Programmes are thrown out of gear and even at the workplace we lack concentration because our minds are on where to get the precious water for household use.
The stench from the toilets at home, the office and other public places keeps reminding us that a very important resource — water — is missing in our lives.
Until we are confronted with such deprivations, nobody bothers to give a split-second thought to workers of the power company or that of water.
As for taxi drivers, we only remember them as illiterate rogues who will not wash in the morning before jumping behind the steering wheel for the day’s work. Wait until you are suddenly taken sick in the night; then you will realize that taxi drivers are gods.
Such is life that no matter how small or insignificant others are, we are inter-dependent and the collapse of one unit, whether deliberate or by accident, disorganises our personal, official, commercial and industrial activities.
We do not spare a moment to think about the policeman (after all the police only take bribes) until a thief or an armed robber raids our homes or a careless driver rams into our vehicle. Then we are on all fours seeking police intervention. Can we imagine the chaos at our traffic intersections where our traffic lights never work without the presence of the police? That is why we should not trivialise the importance of anyone in society.
No matter how hard we may try, we still fall sick or fall victim to accidents. That is why doctors will continue to play a big role in our daily lives. It will, therefore, be suicidal for anybody to underestimate the importance of medical officers. In fact, even the services of the village medicine man are greatly revered and his opinions on health matters are taken with all seriousness.
Ours is a very dirty environment, especially Accra, Kumasi and other big towns, and, coupled with poor nutrition and bad lifestyles, we are always at the mercy of various diseases. So doctors, whether we like it or not, will be our regular companions.
I do not think I will be wrong if I venture to say that the majority of Ghanaians value and appreciate the work of doctors and other health workers and would wish that they get everything they demand. Anytime I visit the hospital and see the condition under which health workers operate, I know that even though it is their choice, they are making a lot of sacrifices that must be appreciated and fully rewarded.
Doctors, like all other workers, have every right to agitate for better service conditions and I believe members of the public will support their cause, knowing the role they are playing in our survival as individuals and as a nation. But, as stated earlier, in all scheme of things, we should not forget that we are in an interdependent world and no matter how we value ourselves, we should not ignore the roles others play in our lives.
Many considerations might have gone into drafting the labour laws of the country which outlawed strikes by certain categories of workers, including doctors and other health workers. Unfortunately, doctors have ignored this law and not even the pleas of President John Evans Atta Mills will turn their hearts.
Whether it takes a few days, weeks, months or even years, they will get their money one day. But lives lost are gone forever, even though, as Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), declared, whether they the doctors worked or not, people would die anyway.
The doctors’ strike will eventually fall on the laps of some politicians who may want to make capital gain out of it, forgetting that the phenomenon has been with us for years.
In the past, strikes (call them industrial battles) were fought for two main reasons. First, to press home demands for better service conditions and two to settle political scores with the government in power.
Remember the Association of Recognised Professional Bodies (ARPB) and its battles against the Acheampong dictatorship. That umbrella body for various professionals, including doctors and lawyers, made it difficult for Acheampong to go ahead with his UNIGOV doctrine which was a form of a one-party state.
The ARPB also played a significant role in the return to civilian rule by the Supreme Military Council under General F.W.K. Akufo. Today, thanks to multi-party democracy, it will not be easy for any union or professional body to do political battle with a government, since membership of all bodies cuts across political parties.
So even though some political parties may want to capitalise on the genuine grievances of workers, at the end of the day, individual members of the same group will begin to advise themselves if they suspect an infiltration for diabolical purposes.
Medical doctors are part of us. They are our fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, friends and old school mates. Therefore, whatever affects them affects all of us. Their joy is our joy, just as their sorrow is our sorrow.
We would, therefore, wish that having registered their protest at the slow pace of their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure and other matters, they will respect public sentiment and go back to work while the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and other relevant bodies dialogue with the GMA to thrash out all contentious issues.
Some of us do not know anything about single or any other spine. But even from afar, we can picture a mathematically complex assignment which will require a lot of patience and meticulous calculation. I do not think those who are already on the SSSS are fully satisfied with their lot and so it will be for a long time until things stabilise when the concept is mastered.
Doctors may hold the trump card today because we are all sick people and we are always at the risk of suffering from one form of health hazard or another. So we shall continue to beg the doctors to go back to work. But beyond their genuine grievances and appropriate demands, for them to continue to ignore our pleas could only amount to blackmailing a whole nation.
Dr Winful has boasted that no law or power will compel them to go back to work until they exact their pound of flesh. That is true. But there is one law that no one can run away from. That is Cause and Effect or the Law of Karma. You may call it the Universal Law and that one is a judgement that comes over us by our own doing. In simple terms, it says do unto others what you want others to do to you. I do not think our doctors would want to see their parents, relations and friends suffer undue pain and die eventually.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor,blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Koliko Street
Read by LHA
By Kofi Akordor
THE middle-aged woman chose a strategic place on the dusty road serving as a street in a developing part of the town and pitched a makeshift structure to start her business of frying yam, cocoyam and plantain. The locals call it ‘Koliko’.
It did not take long before members of the community identified her as one of those who satisfied their food needs from the afternoon till late evening. Her shrill voice advertising her business would cut through the din of the area at periodic intervals.
Auntie Dede and her spot became important and permanent features on the landscape of the area. With time, it became normal for residents trying to describe the location of their houses to friends and relatives to use Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot as reference point. It was a matter of telling them to look out for Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot and then follow other directions.
Of course those who may be unlucky to follow that direction on a day Auntie Dede was not at post would have themselves to blame. Local tro-tro and taxi drivers could not fail to notice new developments. ?????Passengers would be asked whether they are going to Auntie Koliko, as the place became known, and so the street which now has lights and has been tarred.
So the endeavours of a middle-aged woman to raise money to fend for herself and her family has given a community a name and without any naming ceremony, that street gained permanent place on the map of the city as Koliko Street.
Today, there are many streets, junctions and landmarks in Accra, the capital city, and other major towns in the country that acquired their names in the same pattern as Koliko Street. It just takes somebody’s fancy and then a street, a community or even a whole town is named after a person, a drinking or eating spot.
This situation has become the naming culture in our cities and towns and the local authorities seem impotent in their attempts to ensure sanity in street-naming the country. In Accra in particular, the practice has become so pervasive that most streets, roads and communities have lost their official names.
For example, there was once a street in Accra called Cantonment Road. Somehow, some people with their strong taste and fascination for foreign things and names reasoned that since the activities on the Cantonment Road are similar to those of another street in London, it was only desirable that we name ours after the one in London. That was how Cantonment Road in Osu, became Oxford Street without ceremony.
It has been many years now since that unofficial name change but the city authorities have not made any efforts to clear the air. So, while on the map of Accra, there will be nothing as Oxford Street, on the ground, there is nothing as Cantonment Road.
In some jurisdictions, names of places, especially in cities and major towns do not just spring up. They are thought of and chosen carefully because names have their historical and national significance.
Many people will open their mouths wide and ask whether there is any place in Ghana called Kokoedzor. They will, however, tell you they know or have heard of a place in Accra called Mandela. The original name of Mandela is actually Kokoedzor and those who have land documents prepared for them with regard to that area will attest to this.
Today, many communities in the Accra and Tema metropolises have developed fanciful names that are quite different from their original names. They are too numerous to mention but a few are Middle East and Lebanon near Tema, where the early soldiers who returned from peace-keeping duties in the Middle East acquired plots of land for their housing projects.
We are all too familiar with Rawlings Park, the Boom Junction and HIPIC Junction which are not official names but have become more or less official names of those places. But should we continue giving names to places in our national capital and other major towns like this?
Our city authorities and other agencies such as the Department of Town and Country Planning have a responsibility to ensure that we do not leave the naming process in the hands of a few individuals and groups.
The world is shrinking fast and one of the advantages of this phenomenon, especially with the introduction of the GPRS is to make location identification easier. We will be cut off from this explosion of technological advancement if we continue to name our streets in a haphazard manner.
Auntie Dede only started to fry Koliko to earn a living but she has entered the history books as an ordinary woman who has given a street a name. Welcome to Koliko Street.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
By Kofi Akordor
THE middle-aged woman chose a strategic place on the dusty road serving as a street in a developing part of the town and pitched a makeshift structure to start her business of frying yam, cocoyam and plantain. The locals call it ‘Koliko’.
It did not take long before members of the community identified her as one of those who satisfied their food needs from the afternoon till late evening. Her shrill voice advertising her business would cut through the din of the area at periodic intervals.
Auntie Dede and her spot became important and permanent features on the landscape of the area. With time, it became normal for residents trying to describe the location of their houses to friends and relatives to use Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot as reference point. It was a matter of telling them to look out for Auntie Dede’s Koliko Spot and then follow other directions.
Of course those who may be unlucky to follow that direction on a day Auntie Dede was not at post would have themselves to blame. Local tro-tro and taxi drivers could not fail to notice new developments. ?????Passengers would be asked whether they are going to Auntie Koliko, as the place became known, and so the street which now has lights and has been tarred.
So the endeavours of a middle-aged woman to raise money to fend for herself and her family has given a community a name and without any naming ceremony, that street gained permanent place on the map of the city as Koliko Street.
Today, there are many streets, junctions and landmarks in Accra, the capital city, and other major towns in the country that acquired their names in the same pattern as Koliko Street. It just takes somebody’s fancy and then a street, a community or even a whole town is named after a person, a drinking or eating spot.
This situation has become the naming culture in our cities and towns and the local authorities seem impotent in their attempts to ensure sanity in street-naming the country. In Accra in particular, the practice has become so pervasive that most streets, roads and communities have lost their official names.
For example, there was once a street in Accra called Cantonment Road. Somehow, some people with their strong taste and fascination for foreign things and names reasoned that since the activities on the Cantonment Road are similar to those of another street in London, it was only desirable that we name ours after the one in London. That was how Cantonment Road in Osu, became Oxford Street without ceremony.
It has been many years now since that unofficial name change but the city authorities have not made any efforts to clear the air. So, while on the map of Accra, there will be nothing as Oxford Street, on the ground, there is nothing as Cantonment Road.
In some jurisdictions, names of places, especially in cities and major towns do not just spring up. They are thought of and chosen carefully because names have their historical and national significance.
Many people will open their mouths wide and ask whether there is any place in Ghana called Kokoedzor. They will, however, tell you they know or have heard of a place in Accra called Mandela. The original name of Mandela is actually Kokoedzor and those who have land documents prepared for them with regard to that area will attest to this.
Today, many communities in the Accra and Tema metropolises have developed fanciful names that are quite different from their original names. They are too numerous to mention but a few are Middle East and Lebanon near Tema, where the early soldiers who returned from peace-keeping duties in the Middle East acquired plots of land for their housing projects.
We are all too familiar with Rawlings Park, the Boom Junction and HIPIC Junction which are not official names but have become more or less official names of those places. But should we continue giving names to places in our national capital and other major towns like this?
Our city authorities and other agencies such as the Department of Town and Country Planning have a responsibility to ensure that we do not leave the naming process in the hands of a few individuals and groups.
The world is shrinking fast and one of the advantages of this phenomenon, especially with the introduction of the GPRS is to make location identification easier. We will be cut off from this explosion of technological advancement if we continue to name our streets in a haphazard manner.
Auntie Dede only started to fry Koliko to earn a living but she has entered the history books as an ordinary woman who has given a street a name. Welcome to Koliko Street.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Big dreams
By Kofi Akordor
I HAVE been wondering whether God has not been generous enough to give our leaders that magic power for dreaming. I know that every person in the subconscious state is supposed to experience dreams even though a friend told me once that he does not dream while asleep.
Sometimes too we indulge ourselves in daydreaming in our conscious state. This is when our imagination takes into the realm of fantasy as we dream about the most beautiful or the best of things which under normal circumstances are far beyond our reach.
Of course there are a few people who go beyond daydreaming and put certain plans on the ground which finally transform ordinary dreams into a vision which sustains their ambition and propels them towards attaining their ambitions.
I am particularly talking about the type of dreams which challenge people and nations into the future and drive them towards greater heights. I believe this is the type of the dream which spurred the former Soviet Union to put the first human into outer space in the person of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a cosmonaut whose Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961.
The Soviet Union’s arch-Cold War rival, the United States of America, took up the challenge and decided to do what was beyond human capability at the time. In 1963, President John F. Kenney of the US challenged space scientists of his country to go higher and land man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
President Kennedy did not live to witness it, but true to his vision, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), beat the deadline, by putting the first human beings on the Moon when the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin, while the third astronaut, Michael Collins, orbited above.
Individuals, corporate institutions and nations which have made it big, flew on the wings of great men and women who dreamt big and transformed such into visions which led them on the path of success and fame.
The late Chairman Mao Zedong of China challenged his countrymen and women to choose between proving their critics, who claimed they are poor and primitive, right, or defy the odds and prove them wrong.
The Chinese chose the latter option and today, China has become the biggest economic attraction of the world to the amazement of the cynics. Other countries on other continents especially south-east Asia, where the group dubbed the Asian Tigers are doing marvelous things.Â
We all know the miracle stories of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India and even Vietnam, which just emerged from years of war. They have all left Africa alone to carry the tag of Third World because they are in a different world of their own.
Do we have such dreamers in our national leadership? Let me illustrate my disappointment with what happened on the Accra-Aflao road last Saturday. An institution, Central University, was holding its matriculation ceremony on the campus around Dahwenya and for almost the whole day every activity came to a virtual standstill.
Traffic on a road which is supposed to link two countries and beyond became so jammed amid utter confusion that movement in both directions was severely disrupted. Some chose to blame the school for the problem. But are we justified to come to that conclusion?
Apart from Central University, many prime residential, commercial and industrial establishments have sprung up along this major road without any corresponding elevation of the standard of the road. What happened last Saturday, happened the same time last year when the same university was holding its matriculation or graduation ceremony and it will happen again next year.
Traffic on that road will increase tremendously when people move into those residential buildings which include the affordable housing project initiated by the Kufuor government which has stalled. We are waiting the day when nobody could move to work, when we are all trapped in unnecessary traffic then we will begin panic measures which will only compound matters.
The Accra-Aflao road should by now be elevated to international standards. In other words, it should have been an expressway passing through no town. If that had been done, nobody will be wrongly accusing Central University for the calamity travellers went through last weekend and which we will be going through for many years to come.
Just as the Americans set a target to reach the Moon within a decade and actually got there, can we seriously say that we have set ourselves as a nation any target to be somewhere in the next five, 10, 15, 20 or 50 years? For example, do we have any target to move beyond major producers of raw cocoa beans and become a major exporter of processed cocoa?
By now it should have been possible for someone working in Accra to close from work and pick an express train to Tamale, Bolgatanga or Wa and get to his/her destination in a matter of a few hours to spend the weekend with his/her family in those cities and return to Accra Sunday evening or Monday morning to resume work.
Even the old railways inherited from the colonial masters could not be maintained let alone new ones being added. Our road network is so bad that travelling in the country is a nightmare. The few good roads have become death traps because of careless and reckless driving.
We have failed to project into the future, our population growth and our educational needs. The result is what we are witnessing today when even BECE graduates cannot access admission to senior high schools.
We have not been able to draw up long-term programmes to facilitate the processing of our agricultural produce over the years. That is why the agriculture sector has not seen any progressive development all these years.
We can hardly point out with any boldness, any sector of national development that has seen progressive improvement over the years. Everything we do is on ad hoc basis which does not augur well for any meaningful development.
Journeying between Accra our capital city and Tema, the nation’s major port city, a distance of less than 30 kilometres, can on a very bad day, become nerve-wracking. We may have a thousand and one excuses, but others in our league at independence have proved that everything is possible if that missing link, the visionary leadership, is available.
We may be satisfied with and impressed by little mercies and indulge in self-praise at every opportunity for very little and insignificant things. We may spend the greater part of the time talking and insulting ourselves instead of thinking and acting. But the rest of the dynamic world will not be waiting for us and will, therefore, not be interested to hear that at 54 and in this 21st century, we still have our children studying under trees, when the world knows that we have more natural wealth than those we down on our knees begging them for assistance.
In the same way, they will not be enthused to hear that feeding a few schoolchildren or giving free school uniforms to a few children constitute a big national achievement. They have long passed those stages with serious-minded, focused and visionary leadership and judicious use of national resources.
What perhaps will interest them is the fact that we have an efficient and reliable transportation system to facilitate good business. They will be happy to hear that we have reliable and uninterrupted power and water supply system that can sustain their industries if they so decide to invest in the country.
They will be happy to hear that bottlenecks and redtapeism have been removed or reduced to the barest minimum in government working machinery to reduce the frustrations investors and even the local people go through in their daily transactions with public officials.
They will want to see a clean capital city where all traffic lights are working and filth and chaos that have engulfed us now are done away with.
They may even applaud us, if not necessarily pleased to hear that we have advanced from producers or raw materials to a giant industrial nation making good use of the abundant resources God has generously given to us.
It is time we also begin to dream big. It is time we transform those big dreams into real achievements to be part of the international world. It is time we stop making mockery of ourselves by getting excited at ordinary things we see as national achievements.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
I HAVE been wondering whether God has not been generous enough to give our leaders that magic power for dreaming. I know that every person in the subconscious state is supposed to experience dreams even though a friend told me once that he does not dream while asleep.
Sometimes too we indulge ourselves in daydreaming in our conscious state. This is when our imagination takes into the realm of fantasy as we dream about the most beautiful or the best of things which under normal circumstances are far beyond our reach.
Of course there are a few people who go beyond daydreaming and put certain plans on the ground which finally transform ordinary dreams into a vision which sustains their ambition and propels them towards attaining their ambitions.
I am particularly talking about the type of dreams which challenge people and nations into the future and drive them towards greater heights. I believe this is the type of the dream which spurred the former Soviet Union to put the first human into outer space in the person of Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, a cosmonaut whose Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on April 12, 1961.
The Soviet Union’s arch-Cold War rival, the United States of America, took up the challenge and decided to do what was beyond human capability at the time. In 1963, President John F. Kenney of the US challenged space scientists of his country to go higher and land man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
President Kennedy did not live to witness it, but true to his vision, the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), beat the deadline, by putting the first human beings on the Moon when the Apollo 11 landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969 with astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Buzz Aldrin, while the third astronaut, Michael Collins, orbited above.
Individuals, corporate institutions and nations which have made it big, flew on the wings of great men and women who dreamt big and transformed such into visions which led them on the path of success and fame.
The late Chairman Mao Zedong of China challenged his countrymen and women to choose between proving their critics, who claimed they are poor and primitive, right, or defy the odds and prove them wrong.
The Chinese chose the latter option and today, China has become the biggest economic attraction of the world to the amazement of the cynics. Other countries on other continents especially south-east Asia, where the group dubbed the Asian Tigers are doing marvelous things.Â
We all know the miracle stories of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, India and even Vietnam, which just emerged from years of war. They have all left Africa alone to carry the tag of Third World because they are in a different world of their own.
Do we have such dreamers in our national leadership? Let me illustrate my disappointment with what happened on the Accra-Aflao road last Saturday. An institution, Central University, was holding its matriculation ceremony on the campus around Dahwenya and for almost the whole day every activity came to a virtual standstill.
Traffic on a road which is supposed to link two countries and beyond became so jammed amid utter confusion that movement in both directions was severely disrupted. Some chose to blame the school for the problem. But are we justified to come to that conclusion?
Apart from Central University, many prime residential, commercial and industrial establishments have sprung up along this major road without any corresponding elevation of the standard of the road. What happened last Saturday, happened the same time last year when the same university was holding its matriculation or graduation ceremony and it will happen again next year.
Traffic on that road will increase tremendously when people move into those residential buildings which include the affordable housing project initiated by the Kufuor government which has stalled. We are waiting the day when nobody could move to work, when we are all trapped in unnecessary traffic then we will begin panic measures which will only compound matters.
The Accra-Aflao road should by now be elevated to international standards. In other words, it should have been an expressway passing through no town. If that had been done, nobody will be wrongly accusing Central University for the calamity travellers went through last weekend and which we will be going through for many years to come.
Just as the Americans set a target to reach the Moon within a decade and actually got there, can we seriously say that we have set ourselves as a nation any target to be somewhere in the next five, 10, 15, 20 or 50 years? For example, do we have any target to move beyond major producers of raw cocoa beans and become a major exporter of processed cocoa?
By now it should have been possible for someone working in Accra to close from work and pick an express train to Tamale, Bolgatanga or Wa and get to his/her destination in a matter of a few hours to spend the weekend with his/her family in those cities and return to Accra Sunday evening or Monday morning to resume work.
Even the old railways inherited from the colonial masters could not be maintained let alone new ones being added. Our road network is so bad that travelling in the country is a nightmare. The few good roads have become death traps because of careless and reckless driving.
We have failed to project into the future, our population growth and our educational needs. The result is what we are witnessing today when even BECE graduates cannot access admission to senior high schools.
We have not been able to draw up long-term programmes to facilitate the processing of our agricultural produce over the years. That is why the agriculture sector has not seen any progressive development all these years.
We can hardly point out with any boldness, any sector of national development that has seen progressive improvement over the years. Everything we do is on ad hoc basis which does not augur well for any meaningful development.
Journeying between Accra our capital city and Tema, the nation’s major port city, a distance of less than 30 kilometres, can on a very bad day, become nerve-wracking. We may have a thousand and one excuses, but others in our league at independence have proved that everything is possible if that missing link, the visionary leadership, is available.
We may be satisfied with and impressed by little mercies and indulge in self-praise at every opportunity for very little and insignificant things. We may spend the greater part of the time talking and insulting ourselves instead of thinking and acting. But the rest of the dynamic world will not be waiting for us and will, therefore, not be interested to hear that at 54 and in this 21st century, we still have our children studying under trees, when the world knows that we have more natural wealth than those we down on our knees begging them for assistance.
In the same way, they will not be enthused to hear that feeding a few schoolchildren or giving free school uniforms to a few children constitute a big national achievement. They have long passed those stages with serious-minded, focused and visionary leadership and judicious use of national resources.
What perhaps will interest them is the fact that we have an efficient and reliable transportation system to facilitate good business. They will be happy to hear that we have reliable and uninterrupted power and water supply system that can sustain their industries if they so decide to invest in the country.
They will be happy to hear that bottlenecks and redtapeism have been removed or reduced to the barest minimum in government working machinery to reduce the frustrations investors and even the local people go through in their daily transactions with public officials.
They will want to see a clean capital city where all traffic lights are working and filth and chaos that have engulfed us now are done away with.
They may even applaud us, if not necessarily pleased to hear that we have advanced from producers or raw materials to a giant industrial nation making good use of the abundant resources God has generously given to us.
It is time we also begin to dream big. It is time we transform those big dreams into real achievements to be part of the international world. It is time we stop making mockery of ourselves by getting excited at ordinary things we see as national achievements.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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