After days of embarrassing revelations of questionable expenditure by members of the British House of Commons, the Speaker, Michael Martin, has tendered in his resignation.
Mr Martin came under severe criticism for being an obstacle to reforms of the expenses system. His resignation came after a group of MPs set in motion an agenda to oust him through a no-confidence motion, a situation that could have made him the first Speaker in 300 years to suffer such a fate.
Members of the British public were shocked to hear how their representatives in the House of Commons went into extravagant and sometimes frivolous expenditures on anything, from buildings to lawn mowers, which imposed on the taxpayer unnecessary financial burden.
Public response was quite straightforward — outrage — at what they considered to be irresponsible behaviour on the part of men and women who pledged to serve their interests when they were campaigning for office.
Over there, people did not run into the embracing arms of political parties or the media for support and sympathy. In fact, it was the media which raised the alarm and the parties were the first to denounce those acts of indiscretion.
The leader of the Conservative Party, Mr David Cameron, for instance, did not hesitate to demand that those members of his party who were found to have indulged in those acts to make refunds or face sanctions.
Since the changeover from the Kufuor to the Mills administration, we have had and continue to have several cases of public officers being asked to render one form of account or another for their past stewardship.
There were several cases of some officials of the previous government going home with vehicles which officially did not belong to them. Some have been accused of paying ridiculously low prices for their official vehicles, some of which do not even qualify to be sold. There were also cases of previous occupants of government bungalows having looted the places or abandoned them in a manner that could not be described as the best.
It is true that in their attempt to retrieve state vehicles or regain custody of official bungalows, some agents of the new administration made some false moves which should not be overlooked.
But by and large, the issues revolve around individuals and not political parties or the previous government as a body. It is, therefore, important that Ghanaians begin to see things the same way as the British public so that individual public officials do not cover their own excesses by evoking the sympathy of the previous administration or any political party.
Suddenly, certain words are being bandied about in a manner that does not contribute to the public good. It is now fashionable for some public officers to be screaming hoarse for ill-treatment after, in their own estimation, making so much sacrifice to serve the nation.
Public service in any form entails some amount of sacrifice, but at what cost to the state? Shall we ask whether it is fair for a minister of state who, with all the niceties and privileges attached to his position, evoke this sacrificial theory simply because he had been asked to return a vehicle belonging to the state? Or is it a sign of ingratitude to question the propriety of a government official who, after buying a state property very cheaply, resells it for huge profit?
Shall we say that argument also holds for a former head of state who will decide to go home with a fleet of customised state vehicles because he had been given the opportunity to serve the nation in that prestigious capacity? Is that why people do not see anything wrong with a high office holder such as the Speaker of Parliament stripping bare his official bungalow because he had served the nation in that capacity?
We may ask further, why are the so-called sacrifices made to warrant such rewards from the state when others making even bigger sacrifices are ignored? Is it because they forfeited their salaries and other entitlements while in office?
Is it because the positions were imposed on them because they were the only persons capable of acting in that capacity? In short, one may want to know what were the sufferings, pains and other deprivations they had to endure for serving in their respective positions.
Can we think of the sacrifices of other public servants that continue to sustain the progress and development of this nation? Think about the sacrifices of teachers who mould raw brains into sophisticated human resources with very little remuneration.
What about the men and officers of the Police Service who work around the clock to provide us with security, sometimes at the risk of their own lives. What of hospital workers whose complaints of poor service conditions have become a permanent feature on the labour front?
Should they also commandeer all hospital equipment and vehicles when proceeding on retirement? So why should those who obviously made gains while in their privileged positions hold the nation to ransom because they have to account for their stewardship?
Closely related to this is the complaint of witch-hunting. It is as if all our political and public office holders are angels so any attempt to check malfeasance amounts to witch-hunting. Politics has become a lucrative enterprise and only a few can claim becoming worse off after assuming political office.
Take the number of friends and relatives who accompany nominees to the vetting sessions. Look at the agitation, manoeuvres and intense lobbying associated with the quest for ministerial and other appointments. So why should some sound as if they were led to the altar like the meek lamb and sacrificed so that the rest of us shall be saved?
Our democracy cannot grow if our public office holders are not held accountable for their actions. Victimisation cannot be ruled out in some cases, we agree, but it is better to treat cases on their individual merits than putting everything into one basket and labelling it political vindictiveness or witch-hunting.
Since the vehicle-snatching episode gained media attention, the names of some prominent personalities in the previous administration have not surfaced anywhere. That tells a story. It means individuals should be answerable for their actions.
It also means that some people have conducted themselves very well and left public office with their dignity intact. Those who failed to meet those standards should not try to court public sympathy with claims of harassment or witch-hunting.
Everywhere, from Britain to Australia, the citizenry are becoming more and more critical of the conduct of their political leaders, especially where the use of public funds is concerned. We cannot claim indifference to this new wind of public awareness, more so, when our economy cannot absorb frivolous spending and extravagance in high places.
As for sacrifice, no one claims to be doing it better than the millions of Ghanaians whose take-home pay cannot afford them even a single decent meal a day and whose children cannot afford the luxury of a good classroom for their studies. Those who have had more than enough should tone down their noises, otherwise it will become obvious that their claim to serve was to exploit those who voted them into office.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
TEMA IS DECAYING SLOWLY (MAY 19, 2009)
TEMA is the crystallisation of one of the dreams of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the nation’s First President, to transform a small fishing village into one of the busiest industrial and port cities on the continent.
To set in motion this ambitious project, the state acquired large tracts of land mostly from the chiefs and people of Nungua Traditional Area, which were to be developed into industrial, commercial and residential estates.
The new Tema Township was, therefore, demarcated into well-planned residential communities with their unique features and facilities such as schools, markets, police stations, recreational and shopping facilities, essentially with the objective of making the city neat, beautiful and accessible.
With the completion of Tema Harbour in 1962 and the Volta Dam at Akosombo becoming operational in 1963, Tema started to take shape, giving hope to a newly-independent African nation that was determined to make its mark on the international scene.
Major industrial establishments, including the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO), which came as a package with the construction of the dam, started to spring up.
To facilitate movement between the emerging industrial and port city of Tema and the national capital of Accra, our first President thought of an expressway which became the Accra-Tema Motorway, a project that was vehemently resisted by some politicians at the time, because they thought it was more of grandiose than a necessity in nature.
Tema, with its well-developed roads, industrial, commercial and residential estates, became the pride of the nation. It became the destination of young school leavers who sought a living at the sprawling main harbour, the adjoining fishing harbour and the numerous factories the city could boast of.
Those were the days Tema was vibrating with activity throughout the day and night, with big buses of the various companies ferrying their workers to and from work on their shifts.
You could see the buses belonging to VALCO, Tema Shipyard and Drydock Corporation, Ghana Textiles and Printing (GTP), Ghana Textiles Manufacturing Company (GTMC), Tema Steel Works, Sanyo Electronics, Akasanoma Electronics, Tema Food Complex Company (TFCC) and of course the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and many others on the streets of Tema moving in all directions for 24 hours.
These were vibrant companies that provided thousands of Ghanaian workers and their dependents with livelihood. Ghana was really heading towards industrialisation. Forty-seven years after coming into existence, Tema should have matured by now and blossomed into a major industrial centre comparable to similar cities in other parts of the world. But that was not to be. Decay set in and Tema started to lose its glory.
The textile industry collapsed, thanks to an overzealous implementation of a trade liberalisation policy and with that, the collapse of GTP, GTMC and the rest.
A cruel divestiture policy witnessed the state losing interest in many of its major enterprises including the Ghana Steel Works, the Tema Food Complex Corporation, the Tema Shipyard and Drydock Corporation and the Tema Cold Stores Company.
Some of these companies have collapsed entirely, while others are struggling for survival in private hands.
You do not need to enter Tema before coming face-to-face with its decay and past glory. When coming from the direction of Nungua, using the beach road, one could sense the gloom of Tema. The road does not give any indication that one was entering the nation’s biggest industrial and seaport city. I doubt if the situation will be the same in other major port cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Rotterdam or Hamburg, to name a few.
No matter how poor we claim to be as a country that beach road leading to the harbour should have been developed into a dual-carriageway, well-asphalted, to give meaning to our boast that we are the gate-way to the West Africa sub-region.
Driving on that stretch of road in the night can be a nightmare and there had been reports of armed robberies and car snatches on several occasions. Incidentally, along this road is the multi-million dollar Cocobod warehouse complex, which is to serve as a transit point for cocoa brought from the hinterland before shipment to foreign lands.
The Accra-Tema Motorway, which was not only criticised but condemned in the past, has remained the main artery linking the port city to Accra and any mishap on that route, such as accident, means Accra is cut off from its junior sister.
Tema looks like an orphaned city even though two state institutions — the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and the Tema Municipal Authority (TMA) — are competing for the revenues it can bring into their coffers.
The TDC sells Tema lands, while the TMA collects the market tolls and property rates and others. Some officials of the two state institutions are far better off than Tema itself. While the two institutions know where to make their monies, none could worry about its state of roads and other infrastructure.
For its strategic national importance and for its small size, Tema roads are some of the worst in the country and constitute a big blot on our values as a nation. How come that a city that brings so much to the country in terms of revenue, a city where most of our exports and imports are channeled through be so neglected. Those who do not know may visit Tema one of these days, especially after a heavy downpour.
It is an undeniable fact that TDC lands had benefited some of its officials more than the city and the original landowners of Nungua Traditional Area. That was why the Nungua people started to agitate for the return of their lands when they realised that those at TDC were only interested in selling the lands for personal profit instead of the projects they were originally acquired for.
Dr Nkrumah, according to reports, felt nostalgic about Tema, while in exile in Conakry, in the Republic of Guinea after his overthrow, because he could see a dream fading away. Tema had never reached its full bloom before the gloom set in.
Tema has become a fragmented city with most of its settlements or communities having nothing in common with one another. There are no road networks connecting these settlements. Take communities 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. They are supposed to be part of Tema.
However, residents of these communities have to force their way onto the motorway through unapproved routes or use the circuitous beach road before reaching Tema city centre. A road over the Sakumo Lagoon to link main Tema and the Sakumono area and another linking Community 11 to the Klagon and the Sakumono areas have remained on the drawing board.
Could it be that Tema’s problems are partly because there is no clear definition of the roles of the TDC and TMA? Then one must go, and TDC, having finished selling the lands has exhausted its stay. Be as it may, the Tema story cannot be isolated from the decay that has engulfed this nation of ours. It is our wish that the change will reflect in the fortunes of our once proud port city of Tema, which is lying right on the Greenwich Meridian. Remember the once famous Meridian Hotel?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
To set in motion this ambitious project, the state acquired large tracts of land mostly from the chiefs and people of Nungua Traditional Area, which were to be developed into industrial, commercial and residential estates.
The new Tema Township was, therefore, demarcated into well-planned residential communities with their unique features and facilities such as schools, markets, police stations, recreational and shopping facilities, essentially with the objective of making the city neat, beautiful and accessible.
With the completion of Tema Harbour in 1962 and the Volta Dam at Akosombo becoming operational in 1963, Tema started to take shape, giving hope to a newly-independent African nation that was determined to make its mark on the international scene.
Major industrial establishments, including the Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO), which came as a package with the construction of the dam, started to spring up.
To facilitate movement between the emerging industrial and port city of Tema and the national capital of Accra, our first President thought of an expressway which became the Accra-Tema Motorway, a project that was vehemently resisted by some politicians at the time, because they thought it was more of grandiose than a necessity in nature.
Tema, with its well-developed roads, industrial, commercial and residential estates, became the pride of the nation. It became the destination of young school leavers who sought a living at the sprawling main harbour, the adjoining fishing harbour and the numerous factories the city could boast of.
Those were the days Tema was vibrating with activity throughout the day and night, with big buses of the various companies ferrying their workers to and from work on their shifts.
You could see the buses belonging to VALCO, Tema Shipyard and Drydock Corporation, Ghana Textiles and Printing (GTP), Ghana Textiles Manufacturing Company (GTMC), Tema Steel Works, Sanyo Electronics, Akasanoma Electronics, Tema Food Complex Company (TFCC) and of course the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority and many others on the streets of Tema moving in all directions for 24 hours.
These were vibrant companies that provided thousands of Ghanaian workers and their dependents with livelihood. Ghana was really heading towards industrialisation. Forty-seven years after coming into existence, Tema should have matured by now and blossomed into a major industrial centre comparable to similar cities in other parts of the world. But that was not to be. Decay set in and Tema started to lose its glory.
The textile industry collapsed, thanks to an overzealous implementation of a trade liberalisation policy and with that, the collapse of GTP, GTMC and the rest.
A cruel divestiture policy witnessed the state losing interest in many of its major enterprises including the Ghana Steel Works, the Tema Food Complex Corporation, the Tema Shipyard and Drydock Corporation and the Tema Cold Stores Company.
Some of these companies have collapsed entirely, while others are struggling for survival in private hands.
You do not need to enter Tema before coming face-to-face with its decay and past glory. When coming from the direction of Nungua, using the beach road, one could sense the gloom of Tema. The road does not give any indication that one was entering the nation’s biggest industrial and seaport city. I doubt if the situation will be the same in other major port cities like Manchester, Liverpool, Rotterdam or Hamburg, to name a few.
No matter how poor we claim to be as a country that beach road leading to the harbour should have been developed into a dual-carriageway, well-asphalted, to give meaning to our boast that we are the gate-way to the West Africa sub-region.
Driving on that stretch of road in the night can be a nightmare and there had been reports of armed robberies and car snatches on several occasions. Incidentally, along this road is the multi-million dollar Cocobod warehouse complex, which is to serve as a transit point for cocoa brought from the hinterland before shipment to foreign lands.
The Accra-Tema Motorway, which was not only criticised but condemned in the past, has remained the main artery linking the port city to Accra and any mishap on that route, such as accident, means Accra is cut off from its junior sister.
Tema looks like an orphaned city even though two state institutions — the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) and the Tema Municipal Authority (TMA) — are competing for the revenues it can bring into their coffers.
The TDC sells Tema lands, while the TMA collects the market tolls and property rates and others. Some officials of the two state institutions are far better off than Tema itself. While the two institutions know where to make their monies, none could worry about its state of roads and other infrastructure.
For its strategic national importance and for its small size, Tema roads are some of the worst in the country and constitute a big blot on our values as a nation. How come that a city that brings so much to the country in terms of revenue, a city where most of our exports and imports are channeled through be so neglected. Those who do not know may visit Tema one of these days, especially after a heavy downpour.
It is an undeniable fact that TDC lands had benefited some of its officials more than the city and the original landowners of Nungua Traditional Area. That was why the Nungua people started to agitate for the return of their lands when they realised that those at TDC were only interested in selling the lands for personal profit instead of the projects they were originally acquired for.
Dr Nkrumah, according to reports, felt nostalgic about Tema, while in exile in Conakry, in the Republic of Guinea after his overthrow, because he could see a dream fading away. Tema had never reached its full bloom before the gloom set in.
Tema has become a fragmented city with most of its settlements or communities having nothing in common with one another. There are no road networks connecting these settlements. Take communities 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20. They are supposed to be part of Tema.
However, residents of these communities have to force their way onto the motorway through unapproved routes or use the circuitous beach road before reaching Tema city centre. A road over the Sakumo Lagoon to link main Tema and the Sakumono area and another linking Community 11 to the Klagon and the Sakumono areas have remained on the drawing board.
Could it be that Tema’s problems are partly because there is no clear definition of the roles of the TDC and TMA? Then one must go, and TDC, having finished selling the lands has exhausted its stay. Be as it may, the Tema story cannot be isolated from the decay that has engulfed this nation of ours. It is our wish that the change will reflect in the fortunes of our once proud port city of Tema, which is lying right on the Greenwich Meridian. Remember the once famous Meridian Hotel?
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
WEEP NOT, UNCLE NYANTAKYI (MAY 12, 2009)
I tried stepping into the shoes of Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), to experience the turmoil that was going through his mind as he could see the league he presides over losing steam and collapsing before his eyes.
Mr Nyantakyi could not hold back his anguish, embarrassment and disappointment at the Ghanaian attitude of rejecting the local league as against the total embrace of the European, especially the English football league, system.
The reasons are many. One of them, according to Mr Nyantakyi, is the local media factor which he sees as a major culprit in this national scandal. He thinks the local media’s excessive focus on the European leagues has contributed immensely in diverting attention from the local league. That may be partly true, since the media only mirror what society is.
We do not expect the media to act differently in a country where nothing local is of any value, while everything foreign is adored and revered. What Mr Nyantakyi sees as virtual rejection of the local league by Ghanaians goes beyond that. It is a total rejection of ourselves. At the core of that misfortune is what is called inferiority complex – a complex that has gripped us with embarrassing and devastating consequences without our realising it.
Mr Nyantakyi should try to find out what respect a league will have or what attraction it will hold when it parades clubs with foreign names. Take our league table and you will be wondering whether you are seeing a local league table or a foreign one.
Why should we take pride in having names like Chelsea and Arsenal on our league table when the average Englishman will not spare a second to think about any of our football clubs? This is where mental slavery has brought us. We have lost interest in our local names and we think we can gain acceptance when we make mockery of ourselves by imitating foreign titles.
We are already aware of how obsessed we are with foreign foods, clothing, names, accents and mannerisms, music, in fact everything foreign. But this latest craze of naming local clubs after foreign teams has propelled us to a higher plane of subservience.
Apart from these psychological barriers to development, our football clubs are not organised on professional lines. Our local teams are treated like private properties without any accountability.
Which of the clubs can point at an edifice and call it as its office and club house, where supporters can meet and take serious decisions? Show me a club that can point at a well-built training ground, let alone a stadium. Show me a shop where one can walk in confidently to purchase souvenir items of even Asante Kotoko or Hearts of Oak, the two top clubs in the country.
In Europe, the clubs we admire so much are institutions that are managed professionally and whose support base is solid. Their managers are given the free hand to operate and take the glory when there is success or the shame and dismissal when it is the other way round. Here, things are done at the whims and caprices of a few individuals. Club expenses are paid from the pockets of individuals whose words are commands.
Another problem is the type of places we call stadiums. If you immediately switch to a local station to watch a local league match after watching a European league match, you will be wondering whether we belong to this same planet. A bushy pitch with a wire fence at best and as would be expected, a few scattered spectators. Where is the attraction?
Our league itself is not competitive and most results are predictable. The FA members are mostly club owners and so conflict of interest and manipulations are unnecessarily rampant, to throw matches this way or that way.
Several things were done in the past to ensure that it was either Kotoko or Hearts of Oak that should win the league. The other clubs are, therefore, mere participants to make the numbers. With that competitive edge taken out of the league, the smaller clubs find it difficult to invest in the game, while the big ones do not overstretch themselves to elevate their game.
Television coverage of matches here is appalling. With one or two cameras swinging from left to right, viewers are given very little to be excited about.
In the past, we took everything for granted because there was no room for choice. Technology has caught up with us and given us the freedom to choose. It has also exposed our inadequacies and limitations.
I do not have a problem with those who get glued to the TV sets to watch foreign matches. The world is a global village and we must enjoy to good things that phenomenon offers. I am, however, worried about the fanaticism which is emerging in our support for these foreign clubs.
I do not think the English, the French, the Italians or the Germans will recognise our support for their idol clubs. Those commentators who make those loud noises on the radio stations should know that nobody in London, Manchester or Liverpool is interested in them. If there should be any interest, it will be disdain and scorn for a people who cannot dream big about themselves.
It is, therefore, important that we keep reminding ourselves that no matter how hoarse we shout cheering Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United, the only league we have is our own and the earlier we accept this fact and approach the organisation with a professional touch, the better.
Mr Nyantakyi’s lamentations will not change things unless we adopt pragmatic measures to improve upon the quality of our league. The FA must begin to realise that its obsession with foreign, white-skinned coaches has its serious psychological effects on the local league. It keeps telling Ghanaians that they are not up to the standard. Consequently, they will take solace in the foreign leagues.
The FA must inject discipline into the league and make it more competitive so that until the last match is played, predicting the league winner will remain a difficult task. All the clubs must be given equal opportunities to participate and progress in the league. That also means the standard of officiating must improve significantly.
Adopting foreign names only reminds us of our colonial past and reduces our dignity as a sovereign people who should cherish what belongs to us. It is now a common sight to see the jerseys of some foreign clubs with the names of their popular players embossed on them being sold on the streets of Accra and other towns. I have even seen other souvenir items, including boxes of tissue paper in the colours of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and others being sold here.
In a way, it shows that we are also very global. But seriously speaking, over-indulgence in these things does not create any positive image for us but rather makes it obvious that, after all, we have accepted our fate us inferior specimens of the human race.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Mr Nyantakyi could not hold back his anguish, embarrassment and disappointment at the Ghanaian attitude of rejecting the local league as against the total embrace of the European, especially the English football league, system.
The reasons are many. One of them, according to Mr Nyantakyi, is the local media factor which he sees as a major culprit in this national scandal. He thinks the local media’s excessive focus on the European leagues has contributed immensely in diverting attention from the local league. That may be partly true, since the media only mirror what society is.
We do not expect the media to act differently in a country where nothing local is of any value, while everything foreign is adored and revered. What Mr Nyantakyi sees as virtual rejection of the local league by Ghanaians goes beyond that. It is a total rejection of ourselves. At the core of that misfortune is what is called inferiority complex – a complex that has gripped us with embarrassing and devastating consequences without our realising it.
Mr Nyantakyi should try to find out what respect a league will have or what attraction it will hold when it parades clubs with foreign names. Take our league table and you will be wondering whether you are seeing a local league table or a foreign one.
Why should we take pride in having names like Chelsea and Arsenal on our league table when the average Englishman will not spare a second to think about any of our football clubs? This is where mental slavery has brought us. We have lost interest in our local names and we think we can gain acceptance when we make mockery of ourselves by imitating foreign titles.
We are already aware of how obsessed we are with foreign foods, clothing, names, accents and mannerisms, music, in fact everything foreign. But this latest craze of naming local clubs after foreign teams has propelled us to a higher plane of subservience.
Apart from these psychological barriers to development, our football clubs are not organised on professional lines. Our local teams are treated like private properties without any accountability.
Which of the clubs can point at an edifice and call it as its office and club house, where supporters can meet and take serious decisions? Show me a club that can point at a well-built training ground, let alone a stadium. Show me a shop where one can walk in confidently to purchase souvenir items of even Asante Kotoko or Hearts of Oak, the two top clubs in the country.
In Europe, the clubs we admire so much are institutions that are managed professionally and whose support base is solid. Their managers are given the free hand to operate and take the glory when there is success or the shame and dismissal when it is the other way round. Here, things are done at the whims and caprices of a few individuals. Club expenses are paid from the pockets of individuals whose words are commands.
Another problem is the type of places we call stadiums. If you immediately switch to a local station to watch a local league match after watching a European league match, you will be wondering whether we belong to this same planet. A bushy pitch with a wire fence at best and as would be expected, a few scattered spectators. Where is the attraction?
Our league itself is not competitive and most results are predictable. The FA members are mostly club owners and so conflict of interest and manipulations are unnecessarily rampant, to throw matches this way or that way.
Several things were done in the past to ensure that it was either Kotoko or Hearts of Oak that should win the league. The other clubs are, therefore, mere participants to make the numbers. With that competitive edge taken out of the league, the smaller clubs find it difficult to invest in the game, while the big ones do not overstretch themselves to elevate their game.
Television coverage of matches here is appalling. With one or two cameras swinging from left to right, viewers are given very little to be excited about.
In the past, we took everything for granted because there was no room for choice. Technology has caught up with us and given us the freedom to choose. It has also exposed our inadequacies and limitations.
I do not have a problem with those who get glued to the TV sets to watch foreign matches. The world is a global village and we must enjoy to good things that phenomenon offers. I am, however, worried about the fanaticism which is emerging in our support for these foreign clubs.
I do not think the English, the French, the Italians or the Germans will recognise our support for their idol clubs. Those commentators who make those loud noises on the radio stations should know that nobody in London, Manchester or Liverpool is interested in them. If there should be any interest, it will be disdain and scorn for a people who cannot dream big about themselves.
It is, therefore, important that we keep reminding ourselves that no matter how hoarse we shout cheering Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United, the only league we have is our own and the earlier we accept this fact and approach the organisation with a professional touch, the better.
Mr Nyantakyi’s lamentations will not change things unless we adopt pragmatic measures to improve upon the quality of our league. The FA must begin to realise that its obsession with foreign, white-skinned coaches has its serious psychological effects on the local league. It keeps telling Ghanaians that they are not up to the standard. Consequently, they will take solace in the foreign leagues.
The FA must inject discipline into the league and make it more competitive so that until the last match is played, predicting the league winner will remain a difficult task. All the clubs must be given equal opportunities to participate and progress in the league. That also means the standard of officiating must improve significantly.
Adopting foreign names only reminds us of our colonial past and reduces our dignity as a sovereign people who should cherish what belongs to us. It is now a common sight to see the jerseys of some foreign clubs with the names of their popular players embossed on them being sold on the streets of Accra and other towns. I have even seen other souvenir items, including boxes of tissue paper in the colours of Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and others being sold here.
In a way, it shows that we are also very global. But seriously speaking, over-indulgence in these things does not create any positive image for us but rather makes it obvious that, after all, we have accepted our fate us inferior specimens of the human race.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
IS CEPS A VICTIM OF STATE CONSPIRACY? (MAY 5, 2009)
GOVERNMENTS have a way of dismantling or suffocating to extinction state institutions. This becomes easier if the interest of some members of the government run parallel to that of the state and the general public whose interest governments are under mandate to serve.
Like coup makers, they lie low waiting for the least excuse in the form of agitation or protests, then they spring to action, putting their diabolical and self-serving plans into practice.
Under the pretext of breathing better managerial competence into these institutions, certain policy initiatives are implemented, which ultimately, in almost all cases, bring these institutions to their knees and prepare the ground for their collapse.
Every remedial move, once it was conceived on honest and sincere grounds, adds to the woes of the institutions, leading to their sad demise.
From the ashes or debris of these state institutions will sprout a huge fortune to serve the appetite of a few politicians and their cohorts in business, while the nation and, Ghanaians, for that matter, become the losers. In frantic desperation, we resort to foreign intervention to restore what should not have collapsed in the first place, if our allegiance were to the nation and the majority of the people.
Many state institutions have gone down the drain, not because the country lacks managerial competence or dedicated people, but simply because the decisions and actions of some people, who, while exercising state authority, prefer to owe allegiance rather to themselves, instead of the state which clothed them in the authority they choose to exercise capriciously.
Upon reflection, it is possible to realise that Ghana Airways, the national carrier, would not have been transformed into the ghost that is haunting us now, if politicians had insulated it against governmental interference and allowed it to operate on strictly business lines.
In pretending to salvage it, Ghana Airways was only hastened to its premature death, only to create a fertile ground for some unscrupulous individuals with connections in high places to team up with their type from foreign lands to harvest what they had never sown.
Ghana Airways should have been alive today, not only feeding the national kitty, but proudly flying our national flag in the skies to foreign places. A few people have made gains, but the nation has lost.
There are many other state institutions that have gone the way of Ghana Airways. Ghana Telecom, now Vodafone, is a clear example. Why should Ghana go to Malaysia for managerial competence to manage our only national telecommunication network?
Gradually, the excuse went on until now, when we are only playing host to our own company. It is an undeniable fact that behind the collapse of every state institution or enterprise, there are the invisible hands of some people who were chosen or elected in the first place to ensure that not only they survive but also thrive.
The modus operandi had always been the same. Starve them of vital resources; load the managerial team with dubious and incompetent persons whose only qualifications are loyalty and connections and leave the rest for time to provide.
One important and strategic state institution that is gradually being sapped of its energies is the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS). CEPS is not suffering alone as an institution, but also the nation, Ghana, which it serves as a major revenue collection agency and the thousands of highly trained professional Ghanaians in its employment. Apart from collecting revenue, CEPS also provides the country with security, collects statistics and facilitates trade.
While this is happening, some politicians, for whatever reason, have turned their eyes and ears elsewhere, seeing and hearing nothing.
In 2000, the Government of Ghana decided to pursue an initiative designed to make major progress in trade facilitation and launched the Ghana Gateway Project with the intention of making Ghana the gateway to West Africa. This initiative necessitated the signing of agreements with two destination inspection companies (DICs) to do verification, classification and valuation duties, among others, on behalf of the government in 2000. They were also to manage risk profile (red, green, yellow channels) and issue final classification and valuation reports (FCVRs). These companies were increased to four in 2002. The agreements give room for CEPS takeover at the expiry of the agreements of the DICs when CEPS might have built sufficient capacity for destination inspection duties.
To facilitate this takeover, the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Trade and Industry, with support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), commissioned the drawing of a project plan for the takeover of customs classification and valuation functions by CEPS under the Customs Clearance Component of the Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE).
The project plan, which was presented to the government in January 2008, made several recommendations which included the ultimate takeover of the core functions of classification and valuation by CEPS after December 31, 2008, when the contract of the DICs would have expired.
Further to that, all in preparing the ground for CEPS to resume its core functions, the Ministry of Finance and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) signed a contract with Bankswitch, IT consultants, to provide CEPS with electronic submission of all documents and a valuation database. There is to be a transition period through December, 2008, during which the Bankswitch system will be implemented.
It was envisaged that by December 2008, there would be a centrally located classification and valuation unit fully equipped and manned by CEPS. The new IT system, which has been accepted by CEPS, has several advantages. It will provide greater transparency in the entry process than is currently the case; all documents will be retained in the system for seven years, making post-entry audit much easier and the system will record all changes to entry documents, thus discouraging fraud.
Over the years, CEPS has kept to its schedule of preparing its staff, who under the agreement, were to be trained by the DICs and had met all requirements to assume full responsibility for destination on January 1, 2009. The Commissioner of CEPS himself, Mr Emmanuel Doku, stated this point clearly in October, when he announced during the inauguration of the Classification and Valuation Complex in Accra that CEPS was more than prepared to face the challenges when the time came. In short, a lot of investments and sacrifices had been made over the years to get this important national assignment going.
It, therefore, came as a big surprise, when the previous administration started some manoeuvres to keep CEPS in limbo for another long eight years. This culminated in the signing of an agreement with a new company, Ghana Customs Inspection Company Limited (GCICL) on Sunday, December 28, 2008. Incidentally, apart from being a non-working day, that was the day, the attention of most Ghanaians was focused on the final stages of the 2008 presidential election.
To add to the intrigue, the parent company of GCICL is Ghana Link Network Services Limited, a destination inspection company which ceased to operate, and which, while in operation, ran into trouble with CEPS over the alleged fraudulent use of final classification and valuation reports (FCVRs), which cost the nation revenue loss running into billions of cedis. That matter is yet to be fully settled before the signing of the new controversial agreement that gives the company bigger room to operate.
Unfortunately, the posture of some top officials at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, including the new minister, is not encouraging. There is some murmuring that after all these efforts and investments, CEPS still lacks the human and material capacity and capability to perform its core functions.
It is too early yet to risk drawing certain conclusions about conflict of interest raging in the minds of people in high places. But it will be a better option for the minister to be making a case for a state institution such as CEPS, in which the state has invested so much, rather than to be leaning towards the side of a private company, which, at best, will drain the nation of its vital revenue.
There are more battles ahead, and the choice, to some of us, if offered the opportunity, will be between the state and a few others. We will rather be in the trench on the side of the state and, for that matter, the majority of Ghanaians. We have lost a lot of state enterprises to satisfy the greed of a few, but CEPS, as a statutory body with a lot of strategic importance, must not be allowed to suffer a similar fate, just to make a few individuals, including those who proffer to be working in the national interest rich.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Like coup makers, they lie low waiting for the least excuse in the form of agitation or protests, then they spring to action, putting their diabolical and self-serving plans into practice.
Under the pretext of breathing better managerial competence into these institutions, certain policy initiatives are implemented, which ultimately, in almost all cases, bring these institutions to their knees and prepare the ground for their collapse.
Every remedial move, once it was conceived on honest and sincere grounds, adds to the woes of the institutions, leading to their sad demise.
From the ashes or debris of these state institutions will sprout a huge fortune to serve the appetite of a few politicians and their cohorts in business, while the nation and, Ghanaians, for that matter, become the losers. In frantic desperation, we resort to foreign intervention to restore what should not have collapsed in the first place, if our allegiance were to the nation and the majority of the people.
Many state institutions have gone down the drain, not because the country lacks managerial competence or dedicated people, but simply because the decisions and actions of some people, who, while exercising state authority, prefer to owe allegiance rather to themselves, instead of the state which clothed them in the authority they choose to exercise capriciously.
Upon reflection, it is possible to realise that Ghana Airways, the national carrier, would not have been transformed into the ghost that is haunting us now, if politicians had insulated it against governmental interference and allowed it to operate on strictly business lines.
In pretending to salvage it, Ghana Airways was only hastened to its premature death, only to create a fertile ground for some unscrupulous individuals with connections in high places to team up with their type from foreign lands to harvest what they had never sown.
Ghana Airways should have been alive today, not only feeding the national kitty, but proudly flying our national flag in the skies to foreign places. A few people have made gains, but the nation has lost.
There are many other state institutions that have gone the way of Ghana Airways. Ghana Telecom, now Vodafone, is a clear example. Why should Ghana go to Malaysia for managerial competence to manage our only national telecommunication network?
Gradually, the excuse went on until now, when we are only playing host to our own company. It is an undeniable fact that behind the collapse of every state institution or enterprise, there are the invisible hands of some people who were chosen or elected in the first place to ensure that not only they survive but also thrive.
The modus operandi had always been the same. Starve them of vital resources; load the managerial team with dubious and incompetent persons whose only qualifications are loyalty and connections and leave the rest for time to provide.
One important and strategic state institution that is gradually being sapped of its energies is the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS). CEPS is not suffering alone as an institution, but also the nation, Ghana, which it serves as a major revenue collection agency and the thousands of highly trained professional Ghanaians in its employment. Apart from collecting revenue, CEPS also provides the country with security, collects statistics and facilitates trade.
While this is happening, some politicians, for whatever reason, have turned their eyes and ears elsewhere, seeing and hearing nothing.
In 2000, the Government of Ghana decided to pursue an initiative designed to make major progress in trade facilitation and launched the Ghana Gateway Project with the intention of making Ghana the gateway to West Africa. This initiative necessitated the signing of agreements with two destination inspection companies (DICs) to do verification, classification and valuation duties, among others, on behalf of the government in 2000. They were also to manage risk profile (red, green, yellow channels) and issue final classification and valuation reports (FCVRs). These companies were increased to four in 2002. The agreements give room for CEPS takeover at the expiry of the agreements of the DICs when CEPS might have built sufficient capacity for destination inspection duties.
To facilitate this takeover, the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Trade and Industry, with support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), commissioned the drawing of a project plan for the takeover of customs classification and valuation functions by CEPS under the Customs Clearance Component of the Trade and Investment Programme for a Competitive Export Economy (TIPCEE).
The project plan, which was presented to the government in January 2008, made several recommendations which included the ultimate takeover of the core functions of classification and valuation by CEPS after December 31, 2008, when the contract of the DICs would have expired.
Further to that, all in preparing the ground for CEPS to resume its core functions, the Ministry of Finance and the Revenue Agencies Governing Board (RAGB) signed a contract with Bankswitch, IT consultants, to provide CEPS with electronic submission of all documents and a valuation database. There is to be a transition period through December, 2008, during which the Bankswitch system will be implemented.
It was envisaged that by December 2008, there would be a centrally located classification and valuation unit fully equipped and manned by CEPS. The new IT system, which has been accepted by CEPS, has several advantages. It will provide greater transparency in the entry process than is currently the case; all documents will be retained in the system for seven years, making post-entry audit much easier and the system will record all changes to entry documents, thus discouraging fraud.
Over the years, CEPS has kept to its schedule of preparing its staff, who under the agreement, were to be trained by the DICs and had met all requirements to assume full responsibility for destination on January 1, 2009. The Commissioner of CEPS himself, Mr Emmanuel Doku, stated this point clearly in October, when he announced during the inauguration of the Classification and Valuation Complex in Accra that CEPS was more than prepared to face the challenges when the time came. In short, a lot of investments and sacrifices had been made over the years to get this important national assignment going.
It, therefore, came as a big surprise, when the previous administration started some manoeuvres to keep CEPS in limbo for another long eight years. This culminated in the signing of an agreement with a new company, Ghana Customs Inspection Company Limited (GCICL) on Sunday, December 28, 2008. Incidentally, apart from being a non-working day, that was the day, the attention of most Ghanaians was focused on the final stages of the 2008 presidential election.
To add to the intrigue, the parent company of GCICL is Ghana Link Network Services Limited, a destination inspection company which ceased to operate, and which, while in operation, ran into trouble with CEPS over the alleged fraudulent use of final classification and valuation reports (FCVRs), which cost the nation revenue loss running into billions of cedis. That matter is yet to be fully settled before the signing of the new controversial agreement that gives the company bigger room to operate.
Unfortunately, the posture of some top officials at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, including the new minister, is not encouraging. There is some murmuring that after all these efforts and investments, CEPS still lacks the human and material capacity and capability to perform its core functions.
It is too early yet to risk drawing certain conclusions about conflict of interest raging in the minds of people in high places. But it will be a better option for the minister to be making a case for a state institution such as CEPS, in which the state has invested so much, rather than to be leaning towards the side of a private company, which, at best, will drain the nation of its vital revenue.
There are more battles ahead, and the choice, to some of us, if offered the opportunity, will be between the state and a few others. We will rather be in the trench on the side of the state and, for that matter, the majority of Ghanaians. We have lost a lot of state enterprises to satisfy the greed of a few, but CEPS, as a statutory body with a lot of strategic importance, must not be allowed to suffer a similar fate, just to make a few individuals, including those who proffer to be working in the national interest rich.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
BREAKING AWAY FROM AN EVIL PAST (APRIL 28, 2009)
WE have a bad past that we must acknowledge — a past of political victimisation, political vindictiveness and intolerance; a past of political stigmatisation, a past that had rendered our political terrain unstable over the years and which made it difficult to promote national cohesion, progress and development.
Since the violent overthrow of the First Republic under Dr Kwame Nkrumah on February 24, 1966 and the stigmatisation of his regime which followed, successive governments have consistently pursued a cynical agenda of not giving credit to their predecessors.
The military government which succeeded the Convention People’s Party government of Dr Nkrumah bestowed on itself the acclaim, Liberators. So the National Liberation Council (NLC) did not see anything good about the Nkrumah regime, not even the solid foundation it laid in the various sectors of national development, including education, agriculture and industry.
The short-lived regime of the Progress Party (PP) under Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia which sprouted from the ashes of the NLC could not find any kind words for its predecessors, not even the NLC which made it easy for the PP to gain political power.
When General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong emerged on the scene with his Redeemers on January 13, 1972, it was like nothing good ever happened in this country until their arrival. General Acheampong, then a Colonel, was on record to have justified the coup that even the few amenities the military was enjoying were denied them by the Busia regime.
General Acheampong’s own National Redemption Council (NRC) matured and transformed itself into the Supreme Military Council (SMC) as a way of sidelining junior officers from the realm of things. When Gen. Acheampong was overthrown in a palace coup in 1978, to be replaced by SMC II, he was described by his colleagues in SMC I as a dictator who was running a one-man show.
Incidentally, both General Acheampong, who led SMC I, and General F.W.K. Akufo, who led SMC II, and their other colleagues on the council were cut down by bullets of the firing squad at the Teshie Shooting Range during the infamous house cleaning era under the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) led by Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings.
Dr Hilla Limann’s People’s National Party (PNP) which assumed political power in September 1979 had hardly planted its feet in the ground when its mandate was rudely and cruelly terminated on December 31, 1981 to herald the ’Revolution which ended all revolutions’— the 31st December Revolution.
After that, it took 11 long years before constitutional rule was restored on January 7, 1993, spearheaded by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), an offshoot of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
Throughout these periods of political turbulence which saw numerous change-overs, there was one thing which remained constant. None of the governments was modest enough to acknowledge the achievements of its predecessors.
Since most of the changes came as a result of military coups, it was always characteristic of the new administration to justify its intervention by condemning everything about the previous government.
The cumulative effect of that phenomenon was that the nation never built upon its past achievements. Successive governments never continued where others left off, with each new government starting something new which was hardly ever completed.
Kwame Nkrumah’s educational policy which was the envy of many countries and which set Ghana on a cracking pace ahead of its contemporaries; his agricultural programmes which attracted the Malaysians to come and understudy our agricultural system and to return home with oil palm seedlings from our nurseries; the ambitious industrialisation policy of that regime which saw Ghana at par with South Korea, India and other emerging industrial nations in the 1960s were all abandoned.
More than 45 years after Nkrumah’s overthrow, Ghana has started talking about going nuclear in power generation when the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission was set up in the 1960s by Dr Nkrumah to manage the Kwabenya Atomic Reactor which had, as part of its objective, the generation of energy for the country’s industrial growth.
General Acheampong’s ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ which attracted the youth of the day to participate in the building of the Dawhenya Irrigation Project in the 1970s could have been sustained instead of being abandoned after his overthrow.
His regime also saw the introduction of the low-cost housing concept which witnessed the construction of modest housing units in various regional and district capitals to cater for public servants serving in those communities. That concept was abandoned and the best other governments could do was to sell this housing units to the highest bidders.
Several other development projects under different regimes went the same way and the nation was the loser.
With the restoration of civil, democratic rule in 1993, many Ghanaians thought our politicians would break away from that negative past but it seems that enlightenment has not reached us yet.
We have witnessed two major changes of government since the 1992 Constitution was promulgated. The first was in 2001 when the NDC lost power and handed over to the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The second was a few months ago when the NPP was also swept out of office and had to hand over to the NDC.
Interestingly, when the NPP came to power, they hardly saw anything good in the previous administration. Everything had to be created anew. It was like the economy had collapsed, the educational system was not working, food production had gone down, unemployment was high and poverty was everywhere. Even the educational system had to be changed, at least in name and number of years. So we were back to square one.
We are a few months into a new administration and we have started hearing the same old words. Nothing was good under the NPP administration. Their best was nothing but the worst this country had ever witnessed. The good and the bad are likely to be put into one basket and thrown away on some filthy refuse dump.
Gullible as we are, those on the side of the new government see members of the previous government as corrupt and useless, while those on the side of the previous government see members of the new government as opportunists who have come to reap where they have not sown.
Consensus building and the spirit of building upon our successes, while making corrections where there is genuine evidence of mistakes or failure, are lost in the name-calling which follows every regime change.
Apart from everything else, the fear of the unknown has contributed largely to the animalistic instinct with which some politicians push their determination to remain in power.
Apart from stigmatisation, there is also the fear of victimisation or political persecution which has become part of our politics.
The danger inherent in this phenomenon is that there is mistrust and suspicion between the key players in the old and the new regimes. It also makes continuity in terms of policies and programmes difficult, since the new regime will prefer starting something new, which will not give any remote credit to the old.
On the part of the old, they will be lurking in the corners ready to jump up with shouts of victory as soon as the new regime tries to build upon something they (the old regime) had initiated.
So do we now realise why we are begging from countries like Malaysia which came to learn from us some 50 years ago?
The greatest danger to us as a nation with this kind of attitude is that corrupt elements in previous governments can escape punishment or attract sympathy from supporters, claiming political persecution when their nefarious activities are brought to public notice.
That is why we must break away from this evil past. Those who do well must be congratulated and recognised, while those who abused public office should be exposed and dealt with appropriately.
President John Evans Atta Mills has been repeating at almost every opportunity that he was not going to embark upon any political vendetta nor would he be in a rush to go after officials of the previous regime just to satisfy the demands of his party supporters.
He, nonetheless, gave assurance that he would not shield any public official, whether in the previous or his administration, who would fall foul of the law.
Members of the previous regime should also be honourable enough to admit that as human beings they are not perfect and, therefore, could have made mistakes. They must also admit that not all of them operated above board and, therefore, they should not apply the group interest to defend those who, clearly, did not satisfy the dictates of their public offices. Pretending to be angels when they are not near saints will not help the fortunes of this nation.
President Mills has also declared publicly on several occasions that he will continue with every project initiated by the previous regime and build upon every good thing bequeathed to his administration by the Kufuor administration.
Of course, there will be need for the correction of genuine mistakes which should be expected in any human institution.
These are fine and noble pledges that President Mills should be encouraged to fulfil. We cannot live and progress with bitterness in our hearts. We cannot live in fear and anxiety as a people who want to move forward and we cannot make the necessary sacrifices if we are not sure whether our good works will be recognised and appreciated or added to the malfeasance of others who have failed the nation and condemned.
The distinction must be drawn and proper things done in the interest of this country.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Since the violent overthrow of the First Republic under Dr Kwame Nkrumah on February 24, 1966 and the stigmatisation of his regime which followed, successive governments have consistently pursued a cynical agenda of not giving credit to their predecessors.
The military government which succeeded the Convention People’s Party government of Dr Nkrumah bestowed on itself the acclaim, Liberators. So the National Liberation Council (NLC) did not see anything good about the Nkrumah regime, not even the solid foundation it laid in the various sectors of national development, including education, agriculture and industry.
The short-lived regime of the Progress Party (PP) under Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia which sprouted from the ashes of the NLC could not find any kind words for its predecessors, not even the NLC which made it easy for the PP to gain political power.
When General Ignatius Kutu Acheampong emerged on the scene with his Redeemers on January 13, 1972, it was like nothing good ever happened in this country until their arrival. General Acheampong, then a Colonel, was on record to have justified the coup that even the few amenities the military was enjoying were denied them by the Busia regime.
General Acheampong’s own National Redemption Council (NRC) matured and transformed itself into the Supreme Military Council (SMC) as a way of sidelining junior officers from the realm of things. When Gen. Acheampong was overthrown in a palace coup in 1978, to be replaced by SMC II, he was described by his colleagues in SMC I as a dictator who was running a one-man show.
Incidentally, both General Acheampong, who led SMC I, and General F.W.K. Akufo, who led SMC II, and their other colleagues on the council were cut down by bullets of the firing squad at the Teshie Shooting Range during the infamous house cleaning era under the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) led by Flt. Lt. J. J. Rawlings.
Dr Hilla Limann’s People’s National Party (PNP) which assumed political power in September 1979 had hardly planted its feet in the ground when its mandate was rudely and cruelly terminated on December 31, 1981 to herald the ’Revolution which ended all revolutions’— the 31st December Revolution.
After that, it took 11 long years before constitutional rule was restored on January 7, 1993, spearheaded by the National Democratic Congress (NDC), an offshoot of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).
Throughout these periods of political turbulence which saw numerous change-overs, there was one thing which remained constant. None of the governments was modest enough to acknowledge the achievements of its predecessors.
Since most of the changes came as a result of military coups, it was always characteristic of the new administration to justify its intervention by condemning everything about the previous government.
The cumulative effect of that phenomenon was that the nation never built upon its past achievements. Successive governments never continued where others left off, with each new government starting something new which was hardly ever completed.
Kwame Nkrumah’s educational policy which was the envy of many countries and which set Ghana on a cracking pace ahead of its contemporaries; his agricultural programmes which attracted the Malaysians to come and understudy our agricultural system and to return home with oil palm seedlings from our nurseries; the ambitious industrialisation policy of that regime which saw Ghana at par with South Korea, India and other emerging industrial nations in the 1960s were all abandoned.
More than 45 years after Nkrumah’s overthrow, Ghana has started talking about going nuclear in power generation when the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission was set up in the 1960s by Dr Nkrumah to manage the Kwabenya Atomic Reactor which had, as part of its objective, the generation of energy for the country’s industrial growth.
General Acheampong’s ‘Operation Feed Yourself’ which attracted the youth of the day to participate in the building of the Dawhenya Irrigation Project in the 1970s could have been sustained instead of being abandoned after his overthrow.
His regime also saw the introduction of the low-cost housing concept which witnessed the construction of modest housing units in various regional and district capitals to cater for public servants serving in those communities. That concept was abandoned and the best other governments could do was to sell this housing units to the highest bidders.
Several other development projects under different regimes went the same way and the nation was the loser.
With the restoration of civil, democratic rule in 1993, many Ghanaians thought our politicians would break away from that negative past but it seems that enlightenment has not reached us yet.
We have witnessed two major changes of government since the 1992 Constitution was promulgated. The first was in 2001 when the NDC lost power and handed over to the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The second was a few months ago when the NPP was also swept out of office and had to hand over to the NDC.
Interestingly, when the NPP came to power, they hardly saw anything good in the previous administration. Everything had to be created anew. It was like the economy had collapsed, the educational system was not working, food production had gone down, unemployment was high and poverty was everywhere. Even the educational system had to be changed, at least in name and number of years. So we were back to square one.
We are a few months into a new administration and we have started hearing the same old words. Nothing was good under the NPP administration. Their best was nothing but the worst this country had ever witnessed. The good and the bad are likely to be put into one basket and thrown away on some filthy refuse dump.
Gullible as we are, those on the side of the new government see members of the previous government as corrupt and useless, while those on the side of the previous government see members of the new government as opportunists who have come to reap where they have not sown.
Consensus building and the spirit of building upon our successes, while making corrections where there is genuine evidence of mistakes or failure, are lost in the name-calling which follows every regime change.
Apart from everything else, the fear of the unknown has contributed largely to the animalistic instinct with which some politicians push their determination to remain in power.
Apart from stigmatisation, there is also the fear of victimisation or political persecution which has become part of our politics.
The danger inherent in this phenomenon is that there is mistrust and suspicion between the key players in the old and the new regimes. It also makes continuity in terms of policies and programmes difficult, since the new regime will prefer starting something new, which will not give any remote credit to the old.
On the part of the old, they will be lurking in the corners ready to jump up with shouts of victory as soon as the new regime tries to build upon something they (the old regime) had initiated.
So do we now realise why we are begging from countries like Malaysia which came to learn from us some 50 years ago?
The greatest danger to us as a nation with this kind of attitude is that corrupt elements in previous governments can escape punishment or attract sympathy from supporters, claiming political persecution when their nefarious activities are brought to public notice.
That is why we must break away from this evil past. Those who do well must be congratulated and recognised, while those who abused public office should be exposed and dealt with appropriately.
President John Evans Atta Mills has been repeating at almost every opportunity that he was not going to embark upon any political vendetta nor would he be in a rush to go after officials of the previous regime just to satisfy the demands of his party supporters.
He, nonetheless, gave assurance that he would not shield any public official, whether in the previous or his administration, who would fall foul of the law.
Members of the previous regime should also be honourable enough to admit that as human beings they are not perfect and, therefore, could have made mistakes. They must also admit that not all of them operated above board and, therefore, they should not apply the group interest to defend those who, clearly, did not satisfy the dictates of their public offices. Pretending to be angels when they are not near saints will not help the fortunes of this nation.
President Mills has also declared publicly on several occasions that he will continue with every project initiated by the previous regime and build upon every good thing bequeathed to his administration by the Kufuor administration.
Of course, there will be need for the correction of genuine mistakes which should be expected in any human institution.
These are fine and noble pledges that President Mills should be encouraged to fulfil. We cannot live and progress with bitterness in our hearts. We cannot live in fear and anxiety as a people who want to move forward and we cannot make the necessary sacrifices if we are not sure whether our good works will be recognised and appreciated or added to the malfeasance of others who have failed the nation and condemned.
The distinction must be drawn and proper things done in the interest of this country.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A NATION OF BEGGARS (APRIL 21, 2009)
AS if their silent prayers have been answered, the vehicles come to a halt on the command of the 'RED' traffic light. Then from the pavements, they troop in different colours, charging on their preys. Some being pushed in wheelchairs, some with walking sticks and being led by guides, while others, fully 'intact', make a direct approach.
There are others who sit on the pavement waving, like we used to do when a big man from the city was being driven by. They all share a common trade — begging.
In fairness to the visually impaired, it could be argued that some of them got afflicted at an old age, when they could not undergo any training in the schools for the blind.
There are other cases where you could hardly tell what their problems are. Some, apart from a slight limp, are more than fit and are far better than many other Ghanaians who are struggling daily through productive ventures to make a living.
Apart from our own people, there are these brothers and sisters from some Sahelian countries whose beliefs do not allow them to work but to beg. These adult men sit under the comfort of shady trees and order their wives and children into the scorching sun to beg. They are not only an eyesore and a nuisance, but their sight constantly reminds us of our primitive state as Africans who cannot live independent lives.
A new breed of beggars has also emerged on the scene. These are young and unemployed men who have taken advantage of a national calamity — non functioning traffic lights — to do business. Having declared themselves as volunteers, these unofficial traffic wardens, using tree branches and dirty garments as their tool, beg motorists for financial support as they conduct their business.
The police administration has on numerous occasions made public pronouncements declaring these young men persona non grata at the traffic intersections. But it seems we have been overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation so much that these unofficial traffic wardens have been integrated into our national youth employment programme, with the burden of paying them being borne by motorists.
The begging spree can substantially be reduced if we make a conscious national effort to get rid of it. Those in wheelchairs can do a lot of things for themselves. They can take post strategically near any kenkey, yor ke gari seller or any other food vendor and sell just sachet water, which can fetch them some modest income on daily basis.
I know with a good lobby, most newspaper publishers will willingly encourage the physically challenged to sell their products to the reading public for an honourable living.
Some manufacturers are already trying to take beggars or the physically challenged off the streets and redefine their destinies by encouraging them to be traders instead of beggars.
As for the unofficial traffic wardens, they will become redundant and look elsewhere for a living if only the authorities will work hard and save us from this huge national disgrace of seeing these, sometimes bare-chested boys directing traffic at major intersections in our national capital, 52 years after political independence.
These interventions can only succeed if begging itself is discredited and not given a national blessing as it appears to be the case for now.
These are but individuals though, who have every right to exercise their freedom of choice, which includes what they want to do for a living, provided no law has been breached. But with all types of hybrid beggars around, can we say that there is any law against begging?
The biggest beggars are, however, found in the seats of power. From the presidency to the lowest level of state authority, men and women entrusted with the destiny of this nation do not fail to beg at the least opportunity.
Any foreign visitor to the Castle to pay his/her courtesies to the head of state will not depart without tonnes of requests in his/her briefcase. And we beg for anything. From medical syringes for our starved and ill-equipped hospitals and clinics to furniture for our dilapidated classrooms. We do not know where to end.
We did not even think of our pride as a sovereign nation, when we went to beg India, another Third World country, to come and build a Presidential Palace for us. And we seem to be so proud of such a national disgrace that we think we deserve national honours for the misadventure.
Some of us have always been against using a slave outpost as our seat of government. More so, when we pride our country as the first Black nation to gain independence from British colonialism. I am, therefore, in total agreement with any project to relocate the seat of government.
But that, for the sake of our national pride, should have been done from our national resources, which many Ghanaians believe we are capable of if only we are determined to look within for solutions to most of our problems.
Even the design of the palace should have emanated from our local architects who will incorporate into it, concepts that would represent our national unity in diversity. Construction could have been done using local materials and labour. Then we can proudly call it our presidential palace.
Indeed 48 years ago, local materials, labour and technology were employed to put up one of the most magnificent edifices in Africa — the State House at Osu. Who says we cannot do even better today, if we want to? Instead, we have allowed a foreign architectural design to dominate an important part of our national history at a time we were celebrating half a century of our sovereignty and nationhood.
That is where our national calamity lies. We have virtually lost our independence and national dignity. We have given up hope for survival without foreign intervention in one form or another. Otherwise why will our political leaders not spare us a moment without pleading with a foreign visitor for assistance to acquire the basest of things?
Because of this cruel mentality, we have turned our country into a dumping ground for used items, which we receive here as donations. They include old computers that never work, old hospital furniture and equipment, books that have no relevance to our educational system, expired drugs that have lost their potency and many more, which all add up to debase our sovereignty and humanity.
Why should we ask for food aid from countries that have not seen the Sun or experienced any rainfall for months? Why should we seek financial support from countries that do not have half of the natural resources we are endowed with?
At first it was our colonial masters and superiors in Europe and America we turned to. Today, we do not feel ashamed begging Malaysia, India, Korea, Iran, Singapore, Brazil and Thailand and many other Third World countries we can best describe as classmates for assistance. What happened to us as a people? Can it be the same colonialism and slavery excuse?
It is a pitiful sight seeing long articulated trucks carting used bicycles, lorry tyres, fridges, television sets, cups, plates, fork and knives, car batteries, drinking glasses, plates, pants, brassieres, computers, towels, napkins, prams, bedsteads, mattresses and many more from the ports, heading for the markets in our cities, towns and villages.
This is a country where some honourable persons did not find anything wrong recommending that its ex-presidents should, among many other things, be given six brand new customised vehicles every four years for their comfort.
Strangely enough, having declared ourselves as very poor and helpless, we are never modest when it comes to spending on certain facilities for the comfort of a few public office holders. China, one of our benefactors, is a world power, take it or leave it. But for the sake of national pride and modesty, its Prime Minister does not drive in a Mercedes S-Class, or a 7-Series BMW car, at least not officially. The same applies to the Indians who built our presidential palace for us and to whom we are always sending our supplications for more favours. In that country, Tata vehicles dominate their roads, not because they cannot afford luxury vehicles from Europe or the US.
The Koreans are very proud of their KIA and Hyundai vehicles, while the Japanese have no business going in for American and European vehicles. Check the Japanese Ambassador here, whether he had ever driven in any vehicle apart from Japanese-made ones to any official function before. That is the sign of nationalism, a sense of patriotism and the utmost exhibition of pride in what they deem to be theirs. Compare these to the type of vehicles we buy for official use in this country.
Don't we realise that there is something awkward about us when in the midst of this begging orgy, we should be scrambling for armoured BMWs, Mercedes and American-made Ford wagons for personal use at the expense of the state? What are we trying to prove to the rest of the world?
We cannot live in isolation and we cannot pretend that we are so self-sufficient that we shall not need external support. However, the begging is becoming too much. It makes nonsense of our independence and sovereignty.
There are many things we can do ourselves, if only our leaders will make judicious use of our national resources. We can do more if we can challenge ourselves and show determination to attain certain national goals.
Our benefactors did not get where they are now by simply begging. It took them determined efforts to be where they are. Sometimes too, it will be good for our national pride if our leaders will look at the faces of the people they intend solicit assistance from.
This tendency of asking any foreigner to the country for favours and assistance is becoming embarrassing, at least to some of us. What are we there for, if we have to beg for everything, from sawdust to spacecraft for survival as a nation?
Chairman Mao Zedong, once told the Chinese, during the Cultural Revolution, that they had two things to prove. That they were backward and useless as proclaimed by Western propaganda, or that they were capable of taking their destiny into their own hands. They made a choice and the rest is history. We can choose to remain a beggar nation or a nation proud to stand on its own feet.
We can also choose to be frivolous when it comes to spending the little that we have.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
There are others who sit on the pavement waving, like we used to do when a big man from the city was being driven by. They all share a common trade — begging.
In fairness to the visually impaired, it could be argued that some of them got afflicted at an old age, when they could not undergo any training in the schools for the blind.
There are other cases where you could hardly tell what their problems are. Some, apart from a slight limp, are more than fit and are far better than many other Ghanaians who are struggling daily through productive ventures to make a living.
Apart from our own people, there are these brothers and sisters from some Sahelian countries whose beliefs do not allow them to work but to beg. These adult men sit under the comfort of shady trees and order their wives and children into the scorching sun to beg. They are not only an eyesore and a nuisance, but their sight constantly reminds us of our primitive state as Africans who cannot live independent lives.
A new breed of beggars has also emerged on the scene. These are young and unemployed men who have taken advantage of a national calamity — non functioning traffic lights — to do business. Having declared themselves as volunteers, these unofficial traffic wardens, using tree branches and dirty garments as their tool, beg motorists for financial support as they conduct their business.
The police administration has on numerous occasions made public pronouncements declaring these young men persona non grata at the traffic intersections. But it seems we have been overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation so much that these unofficial traffic wardens have been integrated into our national youth employment programme, with the burden of paying them being borne by motorists.
The begging spree can substantially be reduced if we make a conscious national effort to get rid of it. Those in wheelchairs can do a lot of things for themselves. They can take post strategically near any kenkey, yor ke gari seller or any other food vendor and sell just sachet water, which can fetch them some modest income on daily basis.
I know with a good lobby, most newspaper publishers will willingly encourage the physically challenged to sell their products to the reading public for an honourable living.
Some manufacturers are already trying to take beggars or the physically challenged off the streets and redefine their destinies by encouraging them to be traders instead of beggars.
As for the unofficial traffic wardens, they will become redundant and look elsewhere for a living if only the authorities will work hard and save us from this huge national disgrace of seeing these, sometimes bare-chested boys directing traffic at major intersections in our national capital, 52 years after political independence.
These interventions can only succeed if begging itself is discredited and not given a national blessing as it appears to be the case for now.
These are but individuals though, who have every right to exercise their freedom of choice, which includes what they want to do for a living, provided no law has been breached. But with all types of hybrid beggars around, can we say that there is any law against begging?
The biggest beggars are, however, found in the seats of power. From the presidency to the lowest level of state authority, men and women entrusted with the destiny of this nation do not fail to beg at the least opportunity.
Any foreign visitor to the Castle to pay his/her courtesies to the head of state will not depart without tonnes of requests in his/her briefcase. And we beg for anything. From medical syringes for our starved and ill-equipped hospitals and clinics to furniture for our dilapidated classrooms. We do not know where to end.
We did not even think of our pride as a sovereign nation, when we went to beg India, another Third World country, to come and build a Presidential Palace for us. And we seem to be so proud of such a national disgrace that we think we deserve national honours for the misadventure.
Some of us have always been against using a slave outpost as our seat of government. More so, when we pride our country as the first Black nation to gain independence from British colonialism. I am, therefore, in total agreement with any project to relocate the seat of government.
But that, for the sake of our national pride, should have been done from our national resources, which many Ghanaians believe we are capable of if only we are determined to look within for solutions to most of our problems.
Even the design of the palace should have emanated from our local architects who will incorporate into it, concepts that would represent our national unity in diversity. Construction could have been done using local materials and labour. Then we can proudly call it our presidential palace.
Indeed 48 years ago, local materials, labour and technology were employed to put up one of the most magnificent edifices in Africa — the State House at Osu. Who says we cannot do even better today, if we want to? Instead, we have allowed a foreign architectural design to dominate an important part of our national history at a time we were celebrating half a century of our sovereignty and nationhood.
That is where our national calamity lies. We have virtually lost our independence and national dignity. We have given up hope for survival without foreign intervention in one form or another. Otherwise why will our political leaders not spare us a moment without pleading with a foreign visitor for assistance to acquire the basest of things?
Because of this cruel mentality, we have turned our country into a dumping ground for used items, which we receive here as donations. They include old computers that never work, old hospital furniture and equipment, books that have no relevance to our educational system, expired drugs that have lost their potency and many more, which all add up to debase our sovereignty and humanity.
Why should we ask for food aid from countries that have not seen the Sun or experienced any rainfall for months? Why should we seek financial support from countries that do not have half of the natural resources we are endowed with?
At first it was our colonial masters and superiors in Europe and America we turned to. Today, we do not feel ashamed begging Malaysia, India, Korea, Iran, Singapore, Brazil and Thailand and many other Third World countries we can best describe as classmates for assistance. What happened to us as a people? Can it be the same colonialism and slavery excuse?
It is a pitiful sight seeing long articulated trucks carting used bicycles, lorry tyres, fridges, television sets, cups, plates, fork and knives, car batteries, drinking glasses, plates, pants, brassieres, computers, towels, napkins, prams, bedsteads, mattresses and many more from the ports, heading for the markets in our cities, towns and villages.
This is a country where some honourable persons did not find anything wrong recommending that its ex-presidents should, among many other things, be given six brand new customised vehicles every four years for their comfort.
Strangely enough, having declared ourselves as very poor and helpless, we are never modest when it comes to spending on certain facilities for the comfort of a few public office holders. China, one of our benefactors, is a world power, take it or leave it. But for the sake of national pride and modesty, its Prime Minister does not drive in a Mercedes S-Class, or a 7-Series BMW car, at least not officially. The same applies to the Indians who built our presidential palace for us and to whom we are always sending our supplications for more favours. In that country, Tata vehicles dominate their roads, not because they cannot afford luxury vehicles from Europe or the US.
The Koreans are very proud of their KIA and Hyundai vehicles, while the Japanese have no business going in for American and European vehicles. Check the Japanese Ambassador here, whether he had ever driven in any vehicle apart from Japanese-made ones to any official function before. That is the sign of nationalism, a sense of patriotism and the utmost exhibition of pride in what they deem to be theirs. Compare these to the type of vehicles we buy for official use in this country.
Don't we realise that there is something awkward about us when in the midst of this begging orgy, we should be scrambling for armoured BMWs, Mercedes and American-made Ford wagons for personal use at the expense of the state? What are we trying to prove to the rest of the world?
We cannot live in isolation and we cannot pretend that we are so self-sufficient that we shall not need external support. However, the begging is becoming too much. It makes nonsense of our independence and sovereignty.
There are many things we can do ourselves, if only our leaders will make judicious use of our national resources. We can do more if we can challenge ourselves and show determination to attain certain national goals.
Our benefactors did not get where they are now by simply begging. It took them determined efforts to be where they are. Sometimes too, it will be good for our national pride if our leaders will look at the faces of the people they intend solicit assistance from.
This tendency of asking any foreigner to the country for favours and assistance is becoming embarrassing, at least to some of us. What are we there for, if we have to beg for everything, from sawdust to spacecraft for survival as a nation?
Chairman Mao Zedong, once told the Chinese, during the Cultural Revolution, that they had two things to prove. That they were backward and useless as proclaimed by Western propaganda, or that they were capable of taking their destiny into their own hands. They made a choice and the rest is history. We can choose to remain a beggar nation or a nation proud to stand on its own feet.
We can also choose to be frivolous when it comes to spending the little that we have.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
PUTTING NATION'S PRIORITIES RIGHT (APRIL 14, 2009)
It was sad, unbelievable, but real to see men and women sharing a common ward at a hospital, each battling for survival against various ailments. And the problem is whether that facility qualifies to be called so.
The place was overcrowded, the stench of medicines, laundry and various forms of excretions and toiletries was very repulsive and the groaning and moaning of patients very pathetic.
There were only a few on rusty beds with worn-out mattresses. The rest were put on stretchers mounted on wheels or left on the bare floor. But these are the lucky ones. In all cases, you will need a clean bed sheet and pillow cases from home or do with what is available. Others not so lucky have to be turned away to seek treatment elsewhere because the place is simply full.
The toilet facilities could themselves be potential sources of other infections, if you are compelled by circumstances to use them. Against all these odds, the hospital staff, at least most of them, could be seen doing their best to save their patients.
If the patient, and mind you, this is somebody whose condition may be very critical, is not followed by relatives who have stuffed their pockets with cash, then he/she is likely to be in trouble, since there will be a demand for cash or the need to take prescription for drugs or related items that the hospital cannot provide.
Dear reader, before your mind begins to drift towards a hospital in a God-forsaken rural community, let me tell you that this is the sight which meets you on daily basis at the Medical Emergency Ward of the 37 Military Hospital in the heart of Accra.
This is a place that has been touted as a centre of excellence in health delivery. You know any time we want to measure our performance, we do not look at those ahead of us, but those behind us and clap for ourselves.
The 37 Military Hospital is among the nation’s top public health institutions in terms of facilities and human expertise. It may rank third after Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, so if we are presented with such a situation at 37, as it is commonly referred to, can we guess the state of health delivery in the less endowed parts of our country? Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital itself has its own story to tell, especially if you are taken there in an emergency situation.
Sometimes, these stories sound remote in our ears until we are taken sick or have to take a relative in critical condition to the hospital. It is then that we realise that a lot of the talk by politicians that they are committed to efficient health delivery in the country is mere hot air they are blowing into our ears.
Ours may not be a rich nation but that cannot take away our capacity to paint our hospital wards and provide basic facilities that will soothe the pain of a sick person. How much does it take to provide water closets in our hospitals for our general use, if we can part with large sums of money running into billions of Ghana cedis to provide for the comfort of a few politicians and public servants?
If you drive around Accra, you will realise that most of the traffic lights have become symbols of national decay and negligence. These traffic intersections have become accident spots and have added to an already bad traffic situation in the city.
Why should it be so? Can this also be blamed on poverty or irresponsible behaviour on the part of some public officers? Most often, it is not easy where to place the blame for such lapses in our national life.
Recently, after a series of accidents, certain decisions were taken to enforce existing motor traffic regulations or the introduction of new elements to bring sanity onto the roads. We still see leaves and tree branches being used as signals on the roads.
Alcoholic beverages are still being sold at the lorry stations and vehicles with heavily-tinted windows are still common on the streets. We have done the talking but are inadequate when it comes to action.
Whoever ordered that the original design for the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange should be scaled down to cut cost has done a great disservice to this country. Whether we like it or not, we are going to spend a lot of money, far more than we should have spent in the first place, if we are to remove the mess at Tetteh-Quarshie.
Some of us may not have the technical brains of road engineers, but common sense told us that that roundabout in the middle of what is supposed to be an express way linking Accra and Tema could only create one thing – chaos – and it has succeeded in doing just that.
Against all good judgement, we have decided to construct a shopping mall where it is, and Ghanaians can go to hell with their protestations because the interest of one or two persons supersedes that of all other Ghanaians. In its present state, Tetteh-Quarshie is more than a jungle where only the fittest can survive.
We have treated poverty with too much dignity for far too long. We have gradually turned poverty into a kind of shield to cover incompetence, inefficiency, mediocrity and corruption to the detriment of our national growth and progress.
If we can go on a vehicle-buying spree to reward a few for national service, why can’t we get enough money to make our hospitals the true centres of health delivery instead of making them look like camps for prisoners of war?
Why can’t we make a few traffic lights to work to save us the agony of traffic jams and accidents? Why can’t we transform Tetteh-Quarshie into a masterpiece of engineering work we can be proud of? It is all about doing the first things first.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
The place was overcrowded, the stench of medicines, laundry and various forms of excretions and toiletries was very repulsive and the groaning and moaning of patients very pathetic.
There were only a few on rusty beds with worn-out mattresses. The rest were put on stretchers mounted on wheels or left on the bare floor. But these are the lucky ones. In all cases, you will need a clean bed sheet and pillow cases from home or do with what is available. Others not so lucky have to be turned away to seek treatment elsewhere because the place is simply full.
The toilet facilities could themselves be potential sources of other infections, if you are compelled by circumstances to use them. Against all these odds, the hospital staff, at least most of them, could be seen doing their best to save their patients.
If the patient, and mind you, this is somebody whose condition may be very critical, is not followed by relatives who have stuffed their pockets with cash, then he/she is likely to be in trouble, since there will be a demand for cash or the need to take prescription for drugs or related items that the hospital cannot provide.
Dear reader, before your mind begins to drift towards a hospital in a God-forsaken rural community, let me tell you that this is the sight which meets you on daily basis at the Medical Emergency Ward of the 37 Military Hospital in the heart of Accra.
This is a place that has been touted as a centre of excellence in health delivery. You know any time we want to measure our performance, we do not look at those ahead of us, but those behind us and clap for ourselves.
The 37 Military Hospital is among the nation’s top public health institutions in terms of facilities and human expertise. It may rank third after Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, so if we are presented with such a situation at 37, as it is commonly referred to, can we guess the state of health delivery in the less endowed parts of our country? Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital itself has its own story to tell, especially if you are taken there in an emergency situation.
Sometimes, these stories sound remote in our ears until we are taken sick or have to take a relative in critical condition to the hospital. It is then that we realise that a lot of the talk by politicians that they are committed to efficient health delivery in the country is mere hot air they are blowing into our ears.
Ours may not be a rich nation but that cannot take away our capacity to paint our hospital wards and provide basic facilities that will soothe the pain of a sick person. How much does it take to provide water closets in our hospitals for our general use, if we can part with large sums of money running into billions of Ghana cedis to provide for the comfort of a few politicians and public servants?
If you drive around Accra, you will realise that most of the traffic lights have become symbols of national decay and negligence. These traffic intersections have become accident spots and have added to an already bad traffic situation in the city.
Why should it be so? Can this also be blamed on poverty or irresponsible behaviour on the part of some public officers? Most often, it is not easy where to place the blame for such lapses in our national life.
Recently, after a series of accidents, certain decisions were taken to enforce existing motor traffic regulations or the introduction of new elements to bring sanity onto the roads. We still see leaves and tree branches being used as signals on the roads.
Alcoholic beverages are still being sold at the lorry stations and vehicles with heavily-tinted windows are still common on the streets. We have done the talking but are inadequate when it comes to action.
Whoever ordered that the original design for the Tetteh-Quarshie Interchange should be scaled down to cut cost has done a great disservice to this country. Whether we like it or not, we are going to spend a lot of money, far more than we should have spent in the first place, if we are to remove the mess at Tetteh-Quarshie.
Some of us may not have the technical brains of road engineers, but common sense told us that that roundabout in the middle of what is supposed to be an express way linking Accra and Tema could only create one thing – chaos – and it has succeeded in doing just that.
Against all good judgement, we have decided to construct a shopping mall where it is, and Ghanaians can go to hell with their protestations because the interest of one or two persons supersedes that of all other Ghanaians. In its present state, Tetteh-Quarshie is more than a jungle where only the fittest can survive.
We have treated poverty with too much dignity for far too long. We have gradually turned poverty into a kind of shield to cover incompetence, inefficiency, mediocrity and corruption to the detriment of our national growth and progress.
If we can go on a vehicle-buying spree to reward a few for national service, why can’t we get enough money to make our hospitals the true centres of health delivery instead of making them look like camps for prisoners of war?
Why can’t we make a few traffic lights to work to save us the agony of traffic jams and accidents? Why can’t we transform Tetteh-Quarshie into a masterpiece of engineering work we can be proud of? It is all about doing the first things first.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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