Politics of acrimony

When Ghanaians went to the polls in a referendum on April 29, 1992 to endorse the 1992 Constitution, they did so as an affirmation of their confidence in multi-party democracy. Earlier attempts at constitutional ruled suffered premature ends when men in uniform and their civilian collaborators conspired to overthrow these governments in the name of serving the national interest. I shudder to talk about the First Republic because at the time of the February 24, 1966 coup, the country was a one-party state and the President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah was a Life President. Whether there was any constitutional means of effecting a change is, therefore, subject to debate. The case was quite different in 1972 and 1981 when the constitutional governments of Dr K. A. Busia and Dr Hilla Limann were overthrown through military coups in that order. It was obvious that the long spells of military and military/civilian dictatorship did not serve the interest of the country. The result of the 1992 referendum was, therefore, an endorsement of multi-party rule and a decision by the people to embrace democracy, which opens the doors to freedom of expression, exchange of divergent ideas and most important of all, the power to choose from qualified candidates who offer themselves for election as leaders of our country. The road of the latest democratic journey continued, after the referendum, with the lifting of the ban on political activities which were outlawed after the December 31, 1981 coup on May 18, 1992. The first presidential and parliamentary elections in November and December of that year were not without drama and confusion. The book, The Stolen Verdict, was a compilation of by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), events and incidents which it claimed culminated in its defeat. After that, the country continued with its resolve to pursue democracy even though every election came under a heavy cloud of suspicion. One would have expected that the more we advance in this journey and learn from our mistakes, the less the burden of democratic practice. Even though electoral reforms are bringing improvement in the electoral process, our political atmosphere is getting more and more polluted by the day. Again, apart from individual freedoms and liberties which the constitution guarantees every citizen, we are missing some of the beautiful things of democracy. Many of us thought multi-party democracy was an opportunity to shift through the lot and come to a national consensus on things that are good for all of us and pursue them with national vigour and commitment for full attainment. Our economy is still in a primitive state relying mainly on the export of raw materials. We still export the bulk of our cocoa in the raw beans state. That is not only a reduction in revenue; it means we are missing out in the many uses of cocoa beans. It also means our industry cannot expand beyond the cultivation of the crop which opens very limited employment opportunities to our citizens. We are still exporting manganese in the ore form which fetches very little revenue on the market and offers very little employment to highly trained and skilled professionals. Ghana is richly endowed with bauxite which is the main ingredient in any integrated aluminium industry. We already have a smelter and large quantities of salt and oil and gas for energy. Unfortunately, we are not able to exploit this tremendous opportunity to become a rich industrialised nation. We are rather exporting bauxite ore, while VALCO cannot produce at full capacity because it relies on imported raw materials. As a nation, we cannot boast of a first-class network of roads linking our towns and cities to open up the country for business and industry. The roads in our national capital, Accra are under stress and movement within the city for business has become a nightmare. Our railway system left for us by the colonial masters is in shambles; a system that could have fetched us millions in foreign exchange by exploiting the misfortune of our landlocked neighbours up north. These and other problems we thought would rather have engaged our attention as we take advantage of the blessings of democracy to pursue them with oneness of purpose. Instead, we are drifting from our real problems and are polarised on partisan lines. Dr Tony Aidoo was right when he questioned whether Ghanaians were not disappointed that they had chosen democracy as the path to development. Today, our ears are deafened in a cacophony of appeals for a peaceful election. Why should an election of Members of Parliament and a president to lead this country to progress become a battle cry such that everybody should be on his/her knees begging for peace? Who are we begging? Are they the same Ghanaians who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of democracy? We cannot pretend but realise that we have turned our politics from a mission to serve into an opportunity to loot. That ambition has become so pronounced that we have lost our focus as a nation and are ready to tear each other apart. Ghana is very well-endowed beyond explanation and all we need are good leadership, good guidance and direction and a united and discerning population to move on. Our blind ambition to take all the credit for everything good while blaming all others is not good for our national psyche. We must be able to realise that those who did the preparation of the ground, those who did the planting and those who did the harvesting all combined collectively to ensure a national objective or goal. Our greatness lies in our acceptance of our weaknesses and appreciating the efforts of others in nation-building. Our politics should not be that of enemies or foes. It should be that of a different set of people pursuing a national development agenda in a particular way which will produce the same results. If our politicians want the best for us; if their quest for office is to use their talents and skills to develop this country, then they should spare us the acrimony, the vilifications and intolerance. Let it not be said that because of the activities of a few selfish and disgruntled politicians, Ghanaians have regretted opting for democracy. The international community is doing everything to support us in our democratic efforts. Let us not fail ourselves. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

A roof over our heads

I believe there are strong reasons why the government at one time took a decision to reallocate government bungalows in certain parts of Accra and other cities and towns for redevelopment. From where I stand, I can hazard a guess of one or two reasons. Those bungalows were constructed during the colonial era and white masters wanted to distance themselves as far as possible from the black servants. So these properties were sited on large acreages of land with what was described as ‘boys quarters’ quite a distance from the main bungalow. The state could afford such luxury because the beneficiaries were few and land was not under pressure. Today, those who qualify to be housed by the state, technically speaking, are legion but resources limited. Looking critically at things today, it does not make sense to house a single family at state expense on a parcel of land that could conveniently house more than 10 families. It also became clear that the maintenance of these colonial mansions have become a heavy burden on the national budget. Apart from the politician occupants who manage to get things done their own way, most of these bungalows have been virtually abandoned without any facelift. The Accra Redevelopment Project might have been conceived on sound reasoning but opened itself to abuse when it came to implementation. In the first place, if the issue was about making economic use of available land, the same plot which had a single bungalow could have been redeveloped to accommdate more families. If the issue is about the state downloading the burden of housing some category of workers, the position must be made clear so that public servants will be clear in their minds that their accommodation is not the business of the state. If the idea is to give the central part of Accra, the capital city where most of these bungalows are situated, there must be guidelines on how those houses in prime areas are to be re-allocated. The guidelines should spell out those companies or individuals who qualify to acquire these houses. The least to qualify are senior public servants, political office holders and their agents who have direct control of the allocation process. In the absence of publicly debated modalities, it is not surprising that the exercise has run into difficulties sometimes with embarrassing consequences. Take the case of the High Court judge who woke up one morning to see intruders demanding he vacates the official bungalow allocated to him a few weeks earlier because the property had been sold to them as far back as 2007. Strangely, this was not known to the authorities at the Judicial Service who went ahead to do the allocation. Even if there should be a change of policy so far as accommodating senior civil servants are concerned, one group of people who should be spared are judges. By the peculiar nature of their work, judges deserve maximu protection from the state. To subject judges to accommodation problems means making an already difficult and stressful work extraordinarily difficult. There are many individuals and corporate institutions that would be more than willing to accommodate a judge but that would be at a great cost to the dispensation of justice. It is not for nothing that even the social life of judges are restricted to ensure that they do not become too familiar with certain people so as to influence their decisions. Rather than evicting judges and other judicial staff from their bungalows, it would be more prudent to pull down those colonial buildings on vast expanses of land and build more apartments to accommodate more judges who are being employed in the expanding judicial system. Judges, like medical doctors, by necessity must be as close to their duty points as possible. This is not a luxury but a reality that must not be subjected to any debate. It is not too late to go back and make amends where it is clearly established that there has been an official mistake. Our judges must have roofs over their heads. They must live in secure environment insulated from criminal gangs that could exploit their vulnerability for criminal gains. fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com

The motorway craters

THE vehicle ahead kept zigzagging in a manner which kept me wondering what might have influenced the driver to indulge in those dangerous antics so early in the morning. Then it came my turn and I realised rather too late that the driver was not joking but only responding to the nature of the road which was putting his driving skills to severe test. Many motorists are familiar with the potholes that dot most of our roads. In the dry season, they stare at you in open defiance, while in the rainy season they become ponds or mini lakes. The Accra-Tema Motorway, one of the legacies of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the Founder of the nation, is of a peculiar design and built. It is perhaps the only road in the country built of concrete and iron rods. Any crack on it, therefore, goes beyond an ordinary pothole and could be best described as a crater. The jugged edges of the craters are obvious, sometimes with exposed rods, and any careless manoeuvring which lands a vehicle in any of the craters could spell doom. Many vehicles have suffered accidents either trying to avoid those craters or landing in them at high speed. The Motorway, which in the past was the pride the nation and about the safest road in the country, has become one of the most dangerous, recording accidents on a daily basis. Efforts to seal these craters bear very little fruit, as the materials used are not compatible with the hard concrete. Using bitumen to seal those craters does not offer the necessary result. The Motorway is like a worn-out floor carpet which does not make driving a pleasant experience. Apart from that, there are no inner and outer markings to guide motorists, especially in the night, so it is not strange that every now and then serious accidents occur, with loss of human lives. The Motorway aside, it is time we seriously considered giving some of the roads in the national capital a facelift. The road from La which runs through the capital to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle is not something some of us feel proud about. The same could be said of the road from the Castle Junction through the Beach Road, along which could be found the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, the Labadi Beach Hotel, the First Infantry Brigade Headquarters, the Military Academy and Training School (MATS), the Armed Forces Command and Staff College and the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping and Training Centre. Work on the stretch between Teshie and MATS is too slow for comfort. These are very important national institutions that must not be left enveloped in dust or splashed in mud. The report we had last week about the portion of the road between Nsawam and Suhum on the Accra-Kumasi highway was not a pleasant one. The road linking Accra, the national capital, to Kumasi, our second largest city, should be given every priority it deserves. As it is, we may have to take the advice of a Burkinabe truck driver who got caught in the heavy traffic jam on the above stretch last Friday which obstructed movement for hours. Suleiman Iddrisu, 38, who spent hours in the jam, remarked, “If we are serious as a country at boosting economic activities and business, the government needs to give priority to the early execution of this important road.” fokofi@yahoo.co.uk kofiakordor.blogspot.com