A piece of shoddy job

Last week, one of the dailies carried a story about the arrest of a Nigerian-registered vehicle carrying fake Ghanaian currency notes in GH¢20 denominations amounting to GH¢1.096.240.00. According to the report, the police, upon tip-off, trailed the vehicle until the driver went to park at a hotel at Ada and left for an unknown place. The story said after waiting overnight in vain for the return of the driver, the police drove the vehicle with registration number GH409-LND to the police headquarters in Accra while still looking for the driver. The question is, why were the police in haste to drive away the vehicle? The world is for those who have the patience to wait and in crime investigation you need a lot of patience and tact to achieve your objective. What happens if no one shows up to claim ownership of the vehicle? What happens if someone surfaces to report of the loss of his vehicle and deny knowledge of the fake currency, since it was allegedly found in the vehicle in his absence? It should be obvious that the police have bungled an otherwise useful operation because they have failed to exhibit one of the cardinal principles of a good predator – patience. If members of the anti-armed robbery squad of the Ghana Police Service knew they could not wait long enough to effect the arrest of the driver, why didn’t they arrest the suspect anywhere along the road from Aflao and Ada? Very often, the police are in haste to announce a successful operation when in fact the reverse is the case. In this particular case, the police could have withdrawn the physical presence at the hotel while patiently maintaining strict surveillance on the vehicle to see what happens next. It could take hours, days, weeks or even months but surely the driver or any other person will surface after mistakenly believing that the police have lost interest in the vehicle. Second, no lives were at risk so there was no need for haste in this case. Sometimes in their haste, the police only succeed in arresting the “Aplanke” and not the master. This has been seen in many drug cases where small couriers are paraded as big catches while the barons escape justice. Perhaps we need to cultivate the professional expertise of others who have the patience to wait until their prey surfaces. The arrest and prosecution of Eric Amoateng, a former Member of Parliament for Nkoranza North, is a case in point. Amoateng had earlier forwarded seven boxes of pottery to Newark Liberty International Airport from London which were found to contain 136 pounds of heroin with a street value of $6 million. The US security monitored Amoateng and his accomplice, one Nii Okai Adjei, when they arrived in that country, took delivery of the goods and sent them to a self-storage facility at Staten Island. The security officials did not rush. They waited until the following day, when Amoateng showed to collect the goods, before he was arrested. Amoateng was convicted on drug charges and jailed 10 years on December 15, 2007. About a year or so ago, the police claimed they had arrested a dressmaker who had been designing and sewing special dresses for drug couriers. What was to be gained in that arrest, if the police could not do a more meticulous work by arresting the customers of the dressmaker? As recent as April, this year, officials of the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) arrested a Moroccan woman, Fatima Elouardi, at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), with 2.7 kilogrammes of what was suspected to be cocaine. This woman is known to be working for Youssef Salloum which is no secret to the security agencies. But again they were very enthusiastic in arresting the agent and allowed the main man to escape arrest because of pure carelessness. Our security agencies had earlier been given intelligence information about the movement of the Moroccan woman and her cargo. They could have done a better job by monitoring her movement when she arrived at KIA and continue to do so until she clears her luggage and deliver it to her contractor before making an arrest. But as stated earlier, NACOB officials were overzealous and like in similar cases jumped the gun by arresting the courier and left the baron off the hook. Some of these blunders are so amateurish that some people are casting doubts on the integrity of some of our security agents. Events which preceded Fatima’s arrival and arrest at the KIA on April 5, 2012, clearly indicate that Salloum her accomplice was to meet her at the airport and possibly collect the luggage. So why should our security agents give Fatima that hint that she was being monitored? Is there anyone within the security apparatus who might have warned Salloum about the trap in wait for him? These are not just operational failures but smack of collaboration with the enemy by some unknown people within the set-up, more so, when it was revealed that Salloum had a narrow escape in another drug case a year or so earlier. As it is now, the country might have lost another opportunity to get to the bottom of the drug business which is spreading its tentacles on the west coast of the continent. In the same vein, the anti-armed robbery squad may have a long wait in their hands looking for the gang that had brought in fake currency to dilute our financial regime, something that could have been avoided with a more professional approach to duty. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

Are we losing the battle on the road?

The figures are staggering and continue to increase, thus making road travel one of the most dangerous enterprises in the country. In the first quarter of this year alone, 3,591 accident cases have been reported out of which 3,464 were injured and 565 lives lost. Who knows, the figures could be higher since not all cases are reported to the police and not all accident victims die on the spot or soon after the accident. These days when schools reopen, parents are on tenterhooks until they hear about the safe arrival of their children in school; the same way when schools vacate, parents only heave a sigh of relief after their children have arrived home safely. Parents who have the resources and can afford it prefer to send their children to and from school since that gives them a bigger guarantee of safety. Similarly, husbands whose wives are traders and have to travel long distances to buy or sell will tell you the mental turmoil they go through until they see their loved ones again. Such is the unpredictability of road transportation in the country these days that seeing off a relation or friend embarking on a journey may seem like bidding the person a final farewell. And it happens very often. Why should this be the case? We have come a long way as a nation to have been able to surmount certain challenges including road accidents. Our roads are not the best but the number of accidents recorded on some of the best roads in the country including the Accra-Tema Motorway and the George Bush Expressway are pointers to the fact that it is time we confront the real issues. We can sum up our national calamity in four words — Carelessness, Negligence, Irresponsibility and Corruption. There are state institutions charged collectively to ensure safety on our roads. One way or another, these institutions have failed us. Our problems start at the ports, when vehicles that could be best described as metal carcasses, through some dubious means are given clearance and allowed into the country. From there, the pattern is followed until these vehicles finally find themselves on our roads. We have also ignored certain fundamental issues about road safety for selfish gain. For instance, certain vehicles are designed purposely for carrying goods or cargo. These vehicles enter the country without passenger seats but somehow, they are sent to Suame Magazine and similar workshops where fabricated seats are installed in them. They are given the final blessing by the licensing authority to carry passengers and the consequences are obvious when an accident occurs. This brings into question how effective and efficient the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) is in delivering its mandate of ensuring that only roadworthy vehicles are licensed to ply the roads, and perform the tasks they have been designed for. The DVLA is also to ensure that those who sit behind the wheels as drivers are trained, qualified and literate enough to read and understand road signs. Curiously enough, not all vehicles are roadworthy. Without even subjecting these vehicles to any technical test, one would realise by casual observation that some vehicles are death traps and should not have been allowed on the roads, let alone carry human beings. It is also common knowledge that there are many drivers who cannot read or write, have not undergone any formal training in driving, and do not possess valid driver’s licence are also driving on the roads. Some also have the licences but were not examined by the issuing authority. Is it any wonder that majority of accidents involve commercial drivers who drive more of their legs and hands without necessarily using their heads? The next in the chain is the Motor Traffic and Transport Unit (MTTU) of the Ghana Police Service which also has a great responsibility to ensure road safety in the country. The MTTU may be described as the enforcement wing in the road safety chain They are to take over from where the DVLA’s mandate ends and even check the omissions and commissions of the DVLA. The MTTU must ensure that vehicles plying the country’s roads meet acceptable standards and have certificates to that effect issued by the DVLA. Even in situations where a vehicle owner possesses a valid roadworthiness certificate from the DVLA, the MTTU has the power to act appropriately if in its estimation and judgement that vehicle is not fit to carry passengers or be on the road. The MTTU is also by statute to ensure that drivers have valid driving licences issued by the DVLA and observe all the motor traffic regulations. These include driving with caution, driving within the acceptable speed limits, not driving under the influence of alcohol or any prohibited drug and taking cognisance of other motorists and pedestrians. The big question is: ‘Have personnel of the MTTU been able to deliver their mandate to the letter?’ Before we attempt to answer that, we must first admit that the Ghana Police Service in general and the MTTU in particular have their human and logistic challenges. The MTTU has inadequate human resource and lack the tools for effective policing of the roads. They lack vehicles and other accoutrements of their trade such as radar guns to check speeding, breathalysers to check alcohol levels of drivers suspected to be driving under the influence, tow trucks to remove broken-down vehicles from the roads and ambulances to convey accident victims to the nearest medical facility. We are aware that the police have had to rely on donors for basic items such as flashlights and reflective jackets for their work. These are serious challenges which place limitations on their performance and reduce their efficiency. Notwithstanding these challenges, there is a general consensus that the MTTU could still have done better than they are doing now. We are talking about inadequate human resource, so why should MTTU personnel, sometimes numbering about 10, congregate at one place just to check ‘papers’ of drivers? Despite these checks, there are still many people driving without driving licences or using expired ones. People still drive rickety vehicles enveloped in thick smoke that impairs the vision of others but the police are unable to do anything about it. There more unregistered vehicles on the roads now even though there are regulations that are supposed to check those things but these are being ignored by the police. Motor riders do not wear crash helmets and ride past police personnel with impunity. The presence of the police does not evoke any fear in motorists because they know what to do to escape legal sanction. It is, therefore, not strange that our roads have become killing fields and on daily basis, lives are being lost and people being maimed through arbitrariness, carelessness, drunkenness, disrespect and irresponsible behaviour. Lawlessness has become a national canker which has turned this country into a jungle and nowhere is it exhibited more than on the roads. The carnage may not end soon and sermonising in the form of public education campaigns will fetch very little unless we take the bull by the horns and make the laws on road safety work. The MTTU must be well-resourced in terms of human capacity and logistics. The personnel must be disciplined, dedicated, committed and alive to their responsibilities. They must be made to realise that they are not only checking papers for its sake but they are in effect protecting life and property. Road safety, it is agreed, is a shared responsibility, therefore, individuals also have their role to play towards this end. However, the DVLA and the MTTU have a greater responsibility to keep and maintain the safety of road travel. If the DVLA, at the point of registering vehicles and issuing roadworthy certificates and driving licences will be meticulous and the MTTU will enforce the law without other considerations, that battle would be more than won. In short, if we can get rid of the four cankers — Carelessness, Negligence, Irresponsibility and Corruption — from the system we will realise that travelling by road can be not only fun but also exciting. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

One by one they go

ON April 26, 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC) sitting in The Hague in The Netherlands announced its verdict in the case in which former Liberian President Mr Charles Taylor was being tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr Taylor was found guilty on 11 charges, including terrorism, rape, murder, sexual slavery, pillage and conscripting and enlisting children under 15 into the armed forces. There were those who applauded the verdict, which they said was to serve as a lesson to other dictators who might want to go the Mr Taylor. There were many others, especially in Africa, who saw the whole trial and verdict as an affront to the independence of the continent and a betrayal of a compatriot. Nobody could hold brief for Mr Taylor for what he was accused of doing. The issue is about the morality of those who accused him and sponsored his trial in The Hague. In August 2003, under a peace deal brokered under the auspices of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the then President Taylor offered to step down and seek asylum in Nigeria if that would bring peace to a country that had suffered more than 14 years of violent conflict. Based on this agreement, Mr Taylor exited the Executive Mansion in Monrovia and went into exile in Nigeria. His exit also fulfilled the expectations of Liberians in particular and ECOWAS as a whole when peaceful elections were held in 2006 and a new government under Mrs Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was formed. What amounted to a betrayal and playing subservience to foreign powers occurred in the same year when Mr Taylor was arrested by the Nigerian authorities on orders from President Olusegun Obasanjo and handed over to the UN War Crimes Prosecutor in Sierra Leone. The trial took more than five years and the verdict was given on April 26, 2012. Judgement will be given on May 30, 2012, but already prosecutors are asking for a sentence of 80 years for Mr Taylor. Without trying to exonerate Mr Taylor from any of the charges, there are many who believe that he is a victim of circumstances or going the way other leaders who lost favour with the United States after their services had become redundant. Remember that in 1985 Taylor managed to escape from a US prison and there were doubts as to how he could have succeeded in that and leave American soil without official assistance. There were strong suspicions that agents within the US Administration might have played a critical role in that escape to prepare Taylor for the rebellion against President Samuel Doe who had become an object to be dispensed with. Those who know the story of Manuel Antonio Noriega of Panama will tell you that he was, for many years, a collaborator of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US. The US used him extensively to channel funds and weapons to the US-Contra rebels who were fighting the Sandinista Movement in Nicaragua. Relations between Noriega and his American allies turned sour when he threatened to abrogate the Panama Canal Treaty which allowed American soldiers to be stationed in Panama and defend the waterway. Incidentally, Noriega himself claimed that his refusal to provide military assistance for the Nicaraguans as demanded by Lt Col Oliver North of the US Marine Corps provided the ground for his ouster. In 1989, US troops invaded Panama and captured Noriega, flew him to the US and charged him with drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering. In January 1991, the US and its allies launched ‘Operation Desert Storm’ to smoke out Iraqi soldiers who had invaded Kuwait. Iraq had invaded Kuwait which Saddam had claimed was part of Iraqi territory and that invasion had not come as a surprise to the US and its allies. There were reports that the US gave its tacit agreement to that invasion so long as the operation was carried out swiftly without any serious damage to Kuwaiti oil installations and so long as the oil supply lines were kept intact. Later event proved that it was apparently a trap and Saddam fell for it. While the restoration of the sovereignty of Kuwait might have been the proclaimed motive for the US-led invasion of Iraq, the US and its allies had other reasons. Between 1980 and 1988, the US and its European allies had equipped the Iraqi armed forces with modern and sophisticated weaponry to confront Iran, which itself was a US ally until the collapse of Shah Pahlavi. The Iran-Iraq War came to an inconclusive end in 1988, with the Iraqi military still bristling with modern and sophisticated weapons provided by the US, France and Britain and which had to be dismantled, lest they were turned on US allies, including Israel. The faulty move by Saddam to invade Kuwait offered that opportunity. President George Bush was in haste and could not cause enough damage to the Iraqi armed forces before withdrawing American troops from ‘Operation Desert Storm’. In March 2003, the US and its allies found another excuse to visit Iraq again. That time without a UN mandate, the US launched another attack on Iraq with support from its traditional, with the claim that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction which must be destroyed to save humanity from a megalomaniac. On December 30, 2006, Saddam was executed by hanging after being convicted of charges relating to the 1982 killing of 148 Iraqi Shites. The US was silent on the much-touted weapons of mass destruction because there were none. More than five years after the death of Saddam, Iraq cannot be described as a peaceful place. Meanwhile, the US campaign in Iraq had claimed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives, maiming millions and displacing others from their homes. I started by questioning the morality of those sitting in judgement over Mr Taylor. In 1945, the US dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Japanese are still living with the scars of those atrocities. All the military campaigns launched by the US and its allies since the Second World War (WWII) have caused the death of hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and children. From the jungles of Nicaragua, El Salvador and Grenada to the deserts of Iraq and Iran and the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, US troops have left in their trail death, destruction, desolation and despair, all in the name of fighting communism, defending democracy or removing dictators. If Mr Taylor and very soon Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire are to pay for crimes against humanity, what about those who have presided over the death of a countless number of people across the globe in their ambition to conquer and annex the resources of other countries? What about the perpetrators of the war in Iraq, which Pope John Paul II, before his death, had described as senseless and unjustified? What about those who triggered the war in Afghanistan, whose objectives could not be clearly defined, apart from bringing death and destruction on a daily basis to the people? Who answers for the cowardly act of dropping atomic bombs on civilians in Japan when the war itself was grinding to its logical conclusion? If the ICC is there to serve as a bulwark against high-handedness, excessive use of force and arbitrariness, then it must open its doors to receive all and discriminate against none. Whatever its intentions on paper, the ICC in its present philosophy could be described as nothing but another surrogate tool by the US and its allies to extend their authority over others and be answerable to none. We saw it lately in the invasion and destruction of Libya which has been dismembered, disorganised and sent many years backwards at the expense of the national interest of a few countries. Such arbitrariness is what the ICC must stand up against. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

Let's save TOR

Ghana is not as bad as Somalia, where, for over two decades, there has not been any functional government since the last President, General Siad Barre, fled the country in 1991. The country, like many other African countries, has suffered the trauma of post-independence political upheavals in the form of military coups and declaration of one-party states. However, it would be argued with some appreciable legitimacy that Ghana has done far better than most other countries especially those of the West African sub-region, having survived these upheavals without any serious damage to its internal stability. Thankfully the country has not experienced any external aggression either. Comparatively, Ghana has remained relatively stable, even under military regimes, and its national equilibrium has not seriously been undermined to result in violent confrontations in proportions registered in most of its neighbours. Immediately, one could recollect with sad feelings civil conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and lately Cote d’Ivoire whose wounds in diplomacy and political engagement are still trying to heal. The ripples of the Biafran War of 1967-70, which threatened the unity of Nigeria, arguably the sub-regional superpower, can still be felt as ethnic and religious differences continue to determine the political path of Nigeria. Apart from isolated and sometimes primitive voices of ethnocentrism, Ghana has largely remained intact as one country with a common destiny, thanks to a policy which underpinned the philosophy of the first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, at independence of building a strong, united country through the harmonisation of the human and material resources of a nation which was the first Black nation south of the Sahara to gain political independence. Ghana maintained the pace, when in 1992, the citizens voted to return to multiparty democratic rule by approving the 1992 Constitution with overwhelming vote. The transition was not without hiccups as accusations of vote rigging dominated the 1992 parliamentary and presidential elections which ushered the country onto a democratic path and which has since remained a beacon for others on the continent. Apart from maintaining its sanctity and national cohesion where others have faulted, Ghana is a country well-endowed in natural resources both material and human. For years, it remained the world’s largest producer of cocoa beans. It may not be holding that position now, but it is still a major player in the cocoa production sector. Ghana has abundant mineral resources including Gold, Diamond, Bauxite and Manganese. It has abundant water resources for power generation and for industrial and domestic consumption. Ghana’s resources seem to be limitless. In December, 2010 it joined the league of oil producers. So, with its reputation as a major political force on the continent, its stock of natural resources and the relatively peace and stability it has enjoyed on a continent generally associated with rifts, conflicts and natural disasters such as drought and floods, one would expect Ghana to be far from where it is today. Incidentally, no one can tell where the problem lies, but it is abundantly clear that the cracking pace the country set after independence has slackened significantly and it appears we are finding it difficult to maintain the facilities that gave us a head start soon after independence. Ghana, sad to note, has not been able to capitalise on its relative peace and stability to develop its national resources and institutions to escape poverty and emerge from underdevelopment. Rather, most of the facilities and institutions put in place under the First Republic have either been sold out, abandoned or allowed to deteriorate. One of such facilities which succinctly epitomises that culture of retrogression is the Tema Oil Refinery, or TOR for short. This is a facility which came on line in 1960 as a private company solely owned by ANIC Societa per Azioni and AGIP Societa per Azioni, both of Italy, and was known as the Ghanaian Italian Petroleum Company (GHAIP). In 1977, the company changed ownership when the Government of Ghana became the sole shareholder. This was followed by a change of name from GHAIP to TOR in 1991. On paper, TOR has a capacity to refine 6,138 tonnes of crude daily. In reality, TOR’s performance has not been the best over the years for several reasons. One of them, and quite obvious, was the case of overage equipment and facilities. Almost every government has had an excuse to offer for TOR’s inability to deliver its mandate of refining crude and selling refined petroleum products for the domestic market but the right things have not been done to bring the required improvements. Two, governments will not allow TOR to deliver its core functions with as little interference as possible. So while governments want to have a major stake in the operations of this strategic installation, most of them in the main, have done nothing to solve the problems of obsolete equipment and inadequate funding. When the country went into commercial production of crude in 2010, there were expectations that TOR will undergo a massive rehabilitation to position it properly to play the expected crucial role in the country’s emerging oil and gas industry. It appears TOR’s problems are yet from over. The expectation of Ghanaians that with the commercial production of crude, the end has come for fuel shortages and hopefully high prices of the commodity at the pumping stations, fizzled out when according to technical reports, TOR’s facilities are not conditioned to refine the high-grade crude from the Jubilee Fields christened ‘Sweet Light’. Other technical opinions have since rubbished this claim. TOR, it was said, could only refine our ‘Sweet Light’ crude after undergoing retrofitting which may require an investment in the region of $1 billion. Apart from technical problems, TOR has been having serious liquidity overhangs arising from debt incurred as a result of government subsidy on petroleum products. Thankfully, the government has announced that it has paid all debts TOR owed the Ghana Commercial Bank amounting to GH¢1 billion as far back as December, 2010. If that were the case, why are we being told that TOR could not establish Letters of Credit in respect of crude imports to supply the refinery? TOR is still not healthy enough to play its strategic role in building Ghana’s economy and as a major player in the oil and gas industry. The question is: “What is happening to TOR?” The workers alleged on May Day that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had failed to deliver on its promise to recapitalise TOR with $200 million. They also complained of inaction and ineptitude on the part of the board and management. They also alleged that the company was losing a good number of technical experts who were migrating to the Middle East, where their services are in high demand. Whatever the case, TOR should not suffer the fate of other equally strategic institutions, facilities and installations this country possessed in the 1960s when it set itself a target of proving that the African and for that matter the Black person is capable of managing his own affairs. If there is any facility that must not suffer official neglect or strangulation at a time we are making a lot of noise of oil and gas, it is TOR. We cannot become like Nigeria, which produces abundant oil, but has to rely on fuel imports to oil its massive industry and for the domestic consumption of its huge population. Some of us were even expecting that this country should have more than one refinery by now, having started on a good note at independence. If in the past, we thought one was more than enough, there should be a new awakening and rethinking. This country cannot continue to rely on one refinery if there is any vision to transform this country into an African Tiger on the international stage. Whatever obstacles are holding down TOR should be removed as early as possible. Our governments should also begin to look beyond TOR and open the field for more refineries to satisfy not only the domestic market but the sub-region where there is a promise of a bonanza if we play our cards well. We have lost our national shipping line, our national airline and many others. We do not have control over our telecommunications industry. TOR should not go the way of Ghana Airways, the Black Star Shipping Line, Tema Food Complex, Ghana Film Industry Corporation and many others. If we cannot build another oil refinery immediately, let us protect the only one we have now. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

Let's save education system

There is a general feeling that things are not well with our education sector. Some people are of the view that the problem started several years ago, when the Common Entrance Examination which selects candidates for the various secondary schools was abolished in the 1980s. That system had a lot of advantages. First, it guaranteed entry into the second cycle schools and ultimately, entry into the tertiary institutions. Second, it gave room for very little redundancy. In effect, it afforded every pupil an opportunity to find his or her own level in the academic system since those who could not ultimately make to the secondary schools or teacher training colleges either because of poor performance or inadequate financial resources still managed to fix themselves somehow in the vocational schools. The junior secondary school concept, which was introduced in the 1980s to replace the old system, we were told, was to be practical-based so that even at that level pupils who could not go further could fit into the system, employment-wise. The idea on paper was good, but in reality was poorly implemented. Some of the tools purchased for the workshops remained rusty in their boxes, while most of the workshops were never built. The new system also brought its problems which we are still grappling with. Top on the list is overcrowding. Because in the past admission into secondary was graduated over a period of five years, the schools were able to cope with the number of candidates applying for admission. Things changed when all the pupils began struggling for admission at the end of the junior secondary school level. Meanwhile no provision was made for such a huge number of prospective students vying for admission into the senior secondary schools. The problem has remained with us since and spread to the tertiary institutions. Apart from overcrowding and the pressure brought on the schools, other problems have been identified. They include poor and inadequate school infrastructure, paucity of learning materials and disgruntled human resource in the form of teachers who feel ill-motivated. Several governmental interventions aimed at solving the problems and restoring high standards of education seemed not to be working. An attempt by the Kufuor Administration as part of the solution was the extension of the senior secondary school to four years and the change of name to ‘senior high school’. That, of course, did not address the fundamental issues of inadequate classrooms, laboratories, dormitories, learning and teaching materials and the concerns of teachers such as accommodation, transportation and higher wages. The Mills Administration saw an escape valve here by restoring the three-year senior secondary regime with the justifiable argument that the number of years spent at that level is relatively secondary and what matters most is the facilities. Meanwhile our results are not encouraging and the pressure on the tertiary institutions is not decreasing. To escape this anomaly, the government has taken a decision to encourage private tertiary institutions, some of which have the accreditation to award degrees. That is where another danger lies. Very soon we will have hordes of people dangling university certificates in our faces but who actually do not pass for senior high school graduates. Some of the private universities are circumventing the regulations instituted by the National Council of Tertiary Education (NCTE) on the admission and standards of the universities. Early this year, the National Accreditation Board (NAB) had to step in to withdraw the admission of 695 students of the Central University College because they failed to meet the minimum admission requirements. Before we could recover from this scandal, the NAB again had to intervene to withdraw the admission of 1,465 students of the Methodist University College of Ghana for the same reasons. We do not know what to expect if the NAB should do a thorough audit of the admissions of the various private universities mushrooming all over the place. Some parents or students have themselves blame for not doing due diligence before accepting offers of admissions. But the onus lies on the schools to operate within the rules. There is this lame argument that some students who perform poorly at lower levels recover sufficiently enough to do better at higher levels. That is true, just as it is true that some people perform very well at lower levels but poorly at higher levels. But do we leave the field open without any measure of standards? Surely the world cannot be left open in that standard-less manner. Ours is a young country trying to come out of underdevelopment. We can only do so with a strong human resource base. That means standards must not be compromised for numbers. It is unfortunate that we are shifting focus from science and technology and putting emphasis on the liberal arts. Even our own once-revered Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, which as the name suggests is supposed to be our equivalent of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is rivaling other universities in the admission of candidates for the liberal arts and social sciences. India, Korea, Brazil, Pakistan, Iran and many others are on beat launching satellites and designing the latest models of automobiles. These things do not come by chance. It takes conscious national development agenda to make things happen. This is why the NCTE and NAB must not relent in their mandate and ensure that the breach of their regulations does not become the norm. Schools that have flagrantly flouted the law should be sanctioned severely before they flood the system with people who will come and worsen an already bad situation. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com