Category Opinion

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• June 27, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

Coming out of the hotels

When it comes to what subjects I write on in my column, it is often as the spirit moves me, always with the understanding that I am not the type of person to write on Ian Smith and Rhodesia on the day that three former heads of state are executed in Ghana.

Sometimes I do choose to wait out the noise on some subjects and then get onto it when I can see a different path from what had been trodden bare.

Four Mondays ago, I sent this message to the Editor of the Graphic: “I’m unable to write a column this week. All my instincts are to write about the brouhaha that has started about SSNIT and the hotels.

Since I chair the SSNIT Board, I feel inhibited, not because I have nothing to say but because I am not clear in my mind about the rules and conventions on going public with Board matters.

But then, I also don’t really want to write about any other subject and give the impression I am running away from the subject that is dominating discussions. So, I am afraid I am not offering a column this week.”

I have now gone for three weeks without offering any script for the column, and I am thinking that my continuing silence might be interpreted as disrespect or guilt of whatever I am being accused of.

Plus, last Friday, I went to the launch of a book, written by one of my favourite people and I really want to write about the book, and I can hardly launch myself back into the column without addressing the subject matter that took me off in the first place. So, here goes.

When the Board I chair was inaugurated in August 2021, the Director-General I met often said that SSNIT was like the Black Stars in the sentiments of Ghanaians, all 34 million of us have a view on it and with SSNIT, he thought the widespread interest was legitimate because even if you don’t contribute to the scheme yourself, your uncle, or niece or friend does and their tomorrows are at stake. We both agreed that pension funds are sacred.

Front page

My constant refrain with my Board of Trustees is we should have at the back of our minds that every step we take and every decision we make, could end up on the front page of the Daily Graphic and we should be comfortable with the ensuing headline. I would then add my own personal credo that I had brought with me to the Board.

We met lots of outstanding matters that had been unresolved for years. I announced at every opportunity that I was not prepared to kick any problem down the road for the next set of people to resolve.

We would take decisions and try to resolve issues that come up. Maybe we would make some mistakes and if that is shown up, I would take responsibility, but I would not be paralysed into inaction by the fear of displeasing some people.

I did not imagine that my theories would be played out so graphically and tested in real time so soon. I am afraid I have not followed, as keenly as I should have, the discussions that have been going on since the Honourable Member for North Tongu started his campaign against what he has variously described as the SSNIT Board and management’s disregard for due process, abuse of power, corruption, lack of transparency, deception, procurement breaches etc. etc. etc.

From what I can work out, there are a number of issues that are being raised about the decision to divest a 60 per cent stake in the shares of the six hotels owned by SSNIT: an ideological resistance to the idea of divesting shares in the hotels to a strategic investor, especially since some of the hotels are said to be profitable; the process through which the preferred bidder, Rock City Limited, was chosen, was corrupt; the owner of Rock City, Bryan Acheampong, is a Minister of State and should therefore not be able to bid for a state asset.

There are other side issues that come up depending on who is talking and the person’s individual idiosyncrasies. I will not try to lay out the arguments here for the need to divest shares in the ownership of the hotels, I will simply say that I was persuaded by the decision that the SSNIT Board had taken back in 2018 and I determined to make it a reality.

I am able to say with the utmost certainty that the process that led to the selection of Rock City as the Preferred Bidder was clean, above board and met every rule and regulation and can withstand every scrutiny.

Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa claims to have God and Ghana on the side of his campaign, and I would hope all of God’s Angels and Ghana’s investigative agencies, temporal and spiritual, would examine the process and tell the world if they find any irregularity or trace of corrupt practice. Indeed, if they should find any evidence of corruption, I will assume and accept responsibility and expect to be prosecuted.

Political colouration

I accept that this being an election year, everything takes on a political colouration and Bryan Acheampong being the owner of Rock City is obviously the main reason the decibel level of the discussions has gone so high.

By all means, let us have a discussion about a company belonging to a Minister of State winning an open, competitive bid, no matter how fairly; but surely that is a different argument from whether SSNIT can, or is allowed to find private sector investment for its hotels and any of its other wholly or majority-owned investments.

Quite a number of things baffle me, but I will mention two: the suggestion that this was some secret thing being done that has been discovered and the sordid details are being exposed by a Member of Parliament and secondly, the suggestion that the President of the Republic, and by extension, the government took the decision and was in some way, in charge of the divestiture process of the shares in the hotels owned by SSNIT.

If you want to do something in secret, it would be very strange to announce your intentions with advertisements in the Daily Graphic, the Ghanaian Times and the Economist. And yet, that is exactly what SSNIT did when its Board of Trustees took the decision to seek a strategic investor to take a 60 per cent stake in the six hotels it owns.

The advertisements were followed by various public statements by SSNIT executives at various stages, once the process got going. Indeed, the last two times that SSNIT appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, the subject of trying to find a strategic investor in the hotels came up and SSNIT was urged to hurry with the process and conclude what it was doing.

Strategic investor

So, one can safely say that some people in Parliament, at the very least, the members of the Public Accounts Committee were aware that SSNIT was seeking to divest 60 per cent of its stake in the hotels and the members did not sound like they thought it was such a terrible idea, nor that something untoward was going on.

Suddenly, Ghanaians are being urged to think and believe that getting a strategic investor to take a stake in the hotels amounts to a sordid crime. I am at a total loss to understand how the President and the government got into this.

Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa appears to know something I don’t. The Board of Trustees certainly did not go to get permission or even inform the President of the Republic or any Minister about the decision to seek a strategic investor to take a stake in the hotels.

The Board did not need such permission, was not obliged to inform the government and did not do so. I have seen no evidence in the records of past Boards going to the government or the President to get permission to make an investment decision.

The Board did not involve the President, nor the Minister, nor the government in the process. The Act that governs SSNIT makes no such provision and I had thought it was in everyone’s interest that the pension fund is kept away from government interference.

Obviously, a demonstration is more sexy when it ends at Jubilee House, but I assure the Honourable Member for North Tongu he was out by a long shot.

By Elizabeth Ohene

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• June 24, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

Of Religion, Opiates, Sanitisers; ‘Goro’ Boys, Delegates, Pilgrims and ‘Martyrs’

The world’s leading news networks carried a few days ago a story saying that the death toll from this year’s Hajj had exceeded 1,000, with more than half of the victims being unregistered worshippers who performed the pilgrimage in extreme heat in Saudi Arabia.

According to the reports, new deaths reported days ago included 58 from Egypt, according to an Arab diplomat who provided a breakdown showing that of 658 Egyptians who died, 630 were unregistered pilgrims.

About 10 countries have reported 1,081 deaths during the pilgrimage, one of the five pillars of Islam which all Muslims with the means must complete, at least, once.

The Hajj, whose timing is determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, fell again this year during the oven-like Saudi summer, with the national meteorological centre reporting a high of 51.8C (125F) this week at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Rising temperatures, rising poverty 

A Saudi study published last month said temperatures in the area were rising by 0.4C each decade. And, we are told that each year, tens of thousands of pilgrims try to join the Hajj through irregular channels as they cannot afford the often costly official permits.

Saudi authorities reported clearing hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca this month, but it appears many still participated in the main rites which began last Friday. This group was more vulnerable, because without official permits, they could not access air-conditioned spaces provided for the 1.8 million authorised pilgrims to cool down.

“People were tired after being chased by security forces before Arafat day. They were exhausted,” one Arab diplomat said on Thursday about Saturday’s day-long outdoor prayers that marked the climax of the Hajj.

The diplomat said the main cause of death among Egyptian pilgrims was the heat, which triggered complications related to high blood pressure and other problems. The report added that Egyptian officials were visiting hospitals to obtain information, and help Egyptian pilgrims receive medical care.

Intriguingly, there are large numbers of Egyptian citizens who are not registered in Hajj databases, which requires double the effort and a longer time to search for missing persons and find their relatives.

In the welter of confusion, Egypt’s President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has ordered that a crisis management team headed by the Prime Minister follow up on the deaths of the country’s pilgrims.

Sisi stressed “the need for immediate coordination with the Saudi authorities to facilitate receiving the bodies of the deceased and streamline the process.

East Asia 

Pakistan and Indonesia also confirmed more deaths on Thursday. Out of about 150,000 pilgrims, Pakistan had so far recorded 58 deaths, a diplomat said. “I think given the number of people, given the weather, this is just natural,” the diplomat said. This was a diplomat speaking. Over 50 deaths was normal – all because such deaths was considered martyrdom – dying for one’s faith, without even knowing which side of your anatomy you would be landing on beyond the grave…

Indonesia, which had about 240,000 pilgrims, reported its death toll to be 183. Last year, its Religious Affairs Ministry said, they recorded 313 deaths.

Deaths have also been confirmed by Malaysia, India, Jordan, Iran, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan and Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region. In many cases, authorities have not specified the cause.

Frenzied relatives

Friends and relatives have been searching for missing pilgrims, scouting hospitals and pleading online for news, fearing the worst.

Two diplomats said last week that Saudi authorities had begun the burial process for dead pilgrims, cleaning the bodies and putting them in white burial cloth and taking them to be interred.

“The burial is done by the Saudi authorities. They have their own system so we just follow that,” said one diplomat, who said his country was working to notify loved ones as best it could. We haven’t had or heard any in the case of Ghana.

Another diplomat, apparently used to the ritual of burying dead bodies as a state duty, said it would be impossible to notify many families ahead of time, especially in Egypt, which accounts for so many of the dead.

Religious graveyard

Saudi Arabia has not provided information on deaths, though it reported more than 2,700 cases of “heat exhaustion” on Sunday alone. Last year, various countries reported more than 300 deaths during the Hajj, mostly Indonesians.

The timing of the hajj moves back about 11 days each year in the Gregorian calendar, meaning that next year it will take place earlier in June, potentially in cooler conditions.

A 2019 study by the journal Geophysical Research Letters said because of the climate crisis, heat stress for Hajj pilgrims would exceed the “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052 and 2079 to 2086, “with increasing frequency and intensity as the century progresses”.

That is interesting, with the Saudi authorities and neighbouring Egypt being saddled with the onerous responsibility of playing host to funerals, without families being in attendance. The carnage, however, goes on.

Hajj preparations

In Ghana, preparations for the pilgrimage have been taken over by the politicians. They have hijacked it from the Muslim clerics and traditional bodies that arrange the event.

The hijack started from Jerry Rawlings and succeeding political parties found capital in that. It has been the same for traditional durbars – with the pouring of libation being now considered part of the ritual of our state protocol chiefs.

But there are also those who make capital from it by organising flights and related hospitalities. One eye on the money and another on the opportunity for gain. So, at a time, we had multiple organising bodies that had to be unified for political purposes as the political animal also inserted political names into a protocol list.

So far, so good

So far, so good, if all that culminates in socio-economic wellbeing, law and order, and enhanced moral rectitude that touches public and community life. Unfortunately, it is a NO.

But what should be worrying the host nation and countries like Egypt is why those nations whose citizens stridently break the law to be part of the sacred event are the very countries that have their sons and daughters breaking laws to enter greener Europe and oily Saudi. Each time I have had opportunity to scan the big networks, I visit websites to check the pulse of the migrant landscape.

More and more people dying have not been deterrent enough for the poor and wretched who nonetheless finds money to trek through the Savannah or Sahel’ or the Congo through Mozambique to the Americas and Europe. His pals in travel are packs of bread and gallons of water.

Goro Boys and Boats

The world is full of Goro Boys. From our lorry parks and markets like Abossey Okai and Katamanto or Kejetia to Asafo, they know where every item is sold, except that they don’t know how to find the money to buy and sell those fast-moving items. What they intriguingly haven’t got is the courage of competing or living out their personal dream responsibly and independently.

These boats and their owners that pop up, and trucks that ferry migrants across the space, knowing they do not have licenses or that they are not seaworthy…not much difference between them and bandits. Yet, they all are religious

They are like a certain shellfish species that uses some other shell covers, besides their own. Call them party delegates for bookmen or ushers in churches or deaconesses who only know how to get people dress well, without ensuring that her house and kids are in order.

But that’s how some of our politicians behave: they won’t chase out the boat owners who commit acts of ferrying these pilgrims through dense forests or snake and bandits infested terrains, in offering services that they know are criminal.

It is holy activity burying dead pilgrims. It is holy activity performing the rituals and claiming they died as martyrs just like the animals called HAMAS and other extremist dunces are doing in parts of the Middle East into Africa south of the Sahara. Worse still, that thinking is akin to ignoring the woes and plight of vulnerable citizens and pretending to love them, while we sleep over the relevant and vibrant policies that would be relieving them from the pressures that push them to sell family property and decide to go through silly risks to South America, Italy, Spain or Haiti.

I am glad Christians here in Ghana or Togo or Nigeria do not make noise over forced trips to Bethlehem or Galilee. In terms of sheer numbers, that would be mouthful for the politician. Thank God, we know that beyond the rituals in religion, there is a deep yearning of the heart and soul and spirit that overshadows the Alleluia and Allah Akbar. That day cannot be a crowd thing. It is an individual search.

by Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• June 17, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 7 minutes Read

Speaker and Parliament must engage NPP, NDC impartially for a credible ‘24

Every election calendar in Africa throws out ugly noises and a cacophony of conversations suggesting a governing political party would be rigging elections. After the military interregnums that hit Africa north, east and west, the noise pervades the regional and continental space. In the Maghreb economies, it has been either the conservative Muslims chocking the fundamentalists and liberal opposition or the elite in business and military and Muslim clericin Sudan and Chad perpetuating themselves in power under religious titles that never saw World War One or Two and the Congo and Angolan Wars in which Kojo T was caught and didn’t want the Military High Command of Ghana to discipline him. In Nigeria, it had been the military generals recycling themselves in military uniform, but also in civilian garb. So we would be having the Col Dimkas and Major Adekunles and Odumewgwu Ojukwus as well as Yakubu Gowon, rogue IBB and the Sanni Abatchas etc pervading the space like fungi – even when the citizens are crying for democratic rule. What is intriguing is that when the citizens needed them to fight marauding herders and gangs or goons in barbarian Nigerian communities, the military found it challenging sanitising the situation. It couldn’t deal with extremism scourges in the same manner we have a challenge here in Ghana fighting Fulani herders who bastardise farmlands to satisfy their appetite of forcefully generating grazing lands anywhere they go – even if it were the highways of Sheikh IC Quaye’s Alajo community. The saint among them – he still is – General Olusegun Obasanjo. He is West Africa’s major sanitiser and example in leadership. That’s why God has preserved his life and the others are struggling with their health statuses. Na God dey punish them. Civilian goons Sometimes, between the rogue civilian Head of State and the military in West Africa, it is challenging which of them means well for his nation or his cronies and girlies. Or put a finger on the levels of corruption and whether they have a plan and commitment to fight it systemically. What we cannot deny is that in Nigeria, the military generals steal in fatter wads the foreign currency. In that, the others are saints… As for the majority of our leaders in Africa, particularly in the last 30 years, they do not appear to have learnt their lessons in political history and why good governance is important in joining the rest of the world to develop, and not stagnate. Without citing regimes and giving any dog a bad name, I can only refer generally to Ghana and cry out aloud why we haven’t grown in elections management together and the suspicion heightens every fresh elections. It was healthy suspicion in 1992 and Justice George Kingsley-Nyinah rightly resigned, after cooked figures were thrown at him to ape before the GBC cameras. I believe 1996 was better except that the NDC stole some and ceded some to the too happy opposition for small mercies… It was emphatic in 200 and 2004, but still okay in 2008, except that in2012 when we should have been enhancing the space, the animal and virus called backslider infected our system and we crawled back and – like a hog – jumped back into our hog skins. Thank you, Supreme Court But if we fooled in 2012 and returned to our earlier pig meal, the Supreme Court, in allowing the 2012 presidential declaration to be upheld, also strove in the name of God and country to sanitise the electoral space, cracking the whip on a sleeping Parliament to bring it back to civilisation. By those tweaked structures and elections management framework, the EC was now ripped of its wider powers under Jerry Rawlings and the NDC as well as the Constitution. Now it was truly accountable to Parliament and the good people of Ghana, with the whip still in the hands of the Judiciary, instead of the EC and the force of incumbency as we saw in the ruling on the 2020 Election Petition. If Alban Bagbin is keen, like any true Ghanaian patriotic and impartial high profile leader of the Legislature, in seeing us back on track in terms of the elections management space initiated by the Supreme Court, it is the reason why he has proposed an engagement that brings together key stakeholders in killing this bird that won’t allow us to sleep each election calendar. Bagbin’s epistle  The trending story last week was that Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has initiated an engagement with key state institutions to work with them to create the right and just environment for free, fair, peaceful and credible elections on December 7, 2024. This, the Speaker believes, will inspire confidence in the process and faith in Ghana’s democratic institutions. The all-powerful EC and feuding political parties would no longer be allowed to do it alone. Major forces will be brought on board to be part of the process to prevent the noisy birds from the two political parties chirping in nuisance on our rooftops, even when there is no cause for an alarm. Bagbin cites institutions such as the Electoral Commission, National Media Commission, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice and the National Commission for Civic Education. The others are the President, Council of State, National Security Council, flag bearers and national executive of political parties, the security services, particularly the police, the clergy and notable civil society leaders, will also be actively involved.

The Speaker’s reason in giving meaning to the Supreme Court ruling in the 2012 Election Petition was based on looming signals of mistrust and suspicion that may brew disruptions, if these state institutions went to bed and allowed the two political stakeholders alone to do what they will never do right, without a whip behind their backs

Putting Ghana First

Ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections, we are selling to the outside wold an image that portrays instability. Even the truth out there is that we have a strong and vibrant media whose monitoring and collation of election results come very close to that of the EC, there will be political parties and their communication heads lying about the real situation.

Indeed, in their quest for political power, they forget that adding to policy is more honourable and decent than griping over trifles. Yet, these are the people who are appointed heads of Ministries and State-owned Enterprises or Ambassadors and local government chiefs.

From nagging issues about restraining non-Ghanaians from interfering with our democratic processes through taking part in voter registration exercises, through chasing National ID Cards and under-aged voting, the NDC as a political part has not impressed anybody as advocating development of policy. This was evidenced during the registration at the tome COVID-19 was hitting us as a nation and communities and when we must be fearing transmission of the disease across borders. Interest was also not showed officially by the PNC, CPP and NDC, for instance, when the National Digitisation Programme was ongoing. Together with some acquiescing media networks, all some of their leaders did was run down the exercise. This is despite the fact that, getting involved would ensure that their supporters benefitted in several ways. But, as we love to do in this part of the world, democracy must always mean mischief and dribbling the other person instead of engaging and evolving systems that ultimately secure us the gains that all civilised communities benefit from, including enhanced livelihoods, social stability and social protection. Bring on the game, Bagbin So, I, Abena Baawuah, support Speaker Alban Bagbin; indeed, in several respects, he is like Uncle Peter Ala Adjetey. He (Peter) was fair-minded. I recall that when my grandfather wanted to use force to buy a house which was on land he sold the Alhaji, because the Alhaji was complying with the Aliens Compliance Order, he consulted Peter to get the deal through. Peter said not yet. That is Russian for No. The order didn’t mean in law that they must sell off all landed property. Yes, the political parties cannot decide when we wake and sleep; the law does. But we can get them to do the right thing, if sages like Alban make a statement, without initiating an engagement soonest. Ghana must not be allowed to go to the dogs, including loony writers like me. By Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• June 11, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

Facebook garbage that tramps have been feeding on us

In the last few weeks, I have been fooling on Facebook just for content for my column. In fact, I should have said I had been joining boy and girl tramps and their female Naija counterparts either ‘flirting’ or talking cross border business and e-trade.

My Facebook friends and clients have mostly been lottery boys and girls using addresses of the state lottery giant and those claiming to be bitcoin experts. I have encountered over 100 animals, seeking to be friends and business partners, while, I must admit, I have found doctors and nurses from Australia and UK, who I think may be genuine folk seeking genuine friendship in understanding the world better.

It appeared that just before I had completed one bout of chat, on streamed a flurry of other applications or friend requests. I had to give in because I wanted a topic for the week, beyond the trending Tro-Tro Ambulance absurdity, the Jakpa recordings or the Black Stars victory over Mali…Hope this victory doesn’t get into their wooden heads…

While I have straightaway loathed the impunity and criminality that have assailed my genuine interest in Facebook dalliance, I have also been intrigued by the level of mischief our Ghanaian girls and women are engaged in over romantic relationship. More strikingly, I have been almost ‘caught’ in games intended by these girls for nokofioo. These are aimed at fleecing Facebook friends for money to buy or repair phones. It is also about access to cash etc to set up small businesses or engagements over possible opportunities just to migrate to Accra to do menial work and build some capital to move on or marry and settle down.

Cases

I have seen too many girls, claiming to have competed SHS and are on the verge of competing their apprenticeship programmes, who say they want money sent to them by MoMo to help them construct containers to house their saloons and buy a couple of dryers. Too many of those claiming to come from Sunyani or Kumasi, though they won’t say the neighbourhood or the rural community they hail from.

There are very few from the Western Region, presumably because galamsey is enough attraction and satisfies the appetites of such girls seeking for quick cash from boys willing to die in pits to find cash for silly girls after each trip into the dreaded pits.

Again, there is quite a number from the Central Region, without them indicating Efutu or Awutu and Agona and Senya. Strangely, I didn’t have any from Kasoa, essentially because Kasoa is a hotspot for more of the Yahoo and Facebook thing that doesn’t need patrons from Accra or Kumasi.

Indeed, within is the market and turf that breeds prostitution, occultism and criminality that we need to contain before politicians find space among these animals to con us all and retain this animal called a Constitution constructed by threatened political animals afraid to exit power.

After 30 years, intriguingly, those fighting against the Constitution have stopped fighting against it and are latching onto its grey areas to fleece us. But my gripe is not about the political animal we can cage with our thumbs, but the social tramps that we excrete from our baby-bags and veins of the testicles.

Volta Region

Among my friends, again, were beautiful girls from the Volta Region, who promote lottery, lawful or illegal, with so many lottery companies assailing the sanctity of our social and economic space. I find it strange in the face of all these intrusions that take away our monies and the mind of our next generations, without giving us revenues that promote development.

All of these SHS graduates, they have been chasing me on my address contrived as a male with an innocent chocolate face and mulatto [coloured] name.

My scare is the presence as well of big booty girls a few of which have KUST tags but some of whom couldn’t tell courses they did so I could help them with jobs in Accra. It is all a potpourri of deception in a turf captured by a horde of criminal breed, when its creators meant well in a world bubbling with knowledge we can take opportunity of to broaden our horizons.

More deception

More intriguing is the ploy used mostly by these girls to plunge you into a pool of pornography that is allowable by the Facebook contrivers. That, I think is absolute twaddle and bulls-it. Another irony in all that is the saga of these girls finding money to do their hair and dressing exquisitely to paint a picture of comfort, when that beggar claims she needs help or – for our Naija friends and cousins – capable of turning one into a knight and Queen of Sheba only if you joined the Bitcoin Fraternity.

It is worse noting that voodoo practitioners or juju-men and women fly their promos on the space, ostensibly targeting you by your CV or your image and expression. Showing wads of dollars and other foreign currencies, the target is puny you and I – while he laughs inside when you fall sheepishly into his trap. The other day, in my anger, I had to shout into a cousin’s face that I didn’t spend decades in the classroom to be conned by ignoramuses of her type…Well, the curse is still on….Her prayer is that I drop dead any day now.

The beef was over a one-roomed family property she and other siblings of her thought we as endowed cousins would cede to them as vulnerable mobrowas. I had to tell them, if they had respect for decency, they would have acted more responsibly. She didn’t like my choice of words, so rather decided to explode. Well, she’s still exploding – despite threats to her health and my insistence to hold on to the property till she went to court. That reminds me of the toad that wanted to flex like cow at stream just to sip water and head on to the next grazing site…

But regrading this Facebook voodoo promos, I thought it was an all-male space, until I began to encounter Naija girls sitting on thrones with fire in their eyes as if in the mood of performing some clairvoyance rituals. Two called for my telephone numbers. I sent fake ones.

When they returned chatting, I had to blame the network, even though they rammed into some animal who himself was one of the breed. I noticed that because, according to them, the fella at the other end began raining insults at them, claiming in protest that he was a bigger criminal and Yahoo Boy they cannot con. Well, we ended the relationship.

Stranded in all that were cases laced with humour, including a chat with one teenage girl, claiming to be living in Kumasi in the Western Region. When I asked her if we could meet at the Cultural Centre, she blushed, asking me: “eno 3nso wo he fa?” [where is that?] Evidently, she lied in claiming that she hailed from Kumasi. .

Good, bad, ugly

Let’s face it, aside these excesses that I love to refer to as excretions, I have met long-lost friends from elementary through tertiary schools and workplaces to other areas of life. I have also met bad boys and girls who have moved on from being bad boys in school to entrepreneurs who are supporting friends and charities.

I have, through Facebook, heard announcements on the demise of friends and enemies. I have met Hannah Tetteh, a very good friend and advocate of regional integration. But have also met Sir Sam Jonah, the man who risked his life and position to support press freedom in Ghana.

Similarly, I have made quality friends in the development community, including doctors from stable communities risking their lives to work with the WHO in Afghanistan. That is the essence of digital communication and artificial intelligence.

When our flagbearers promote digitalisation and its importance as an ingredient in job creation and improvement in human lives and livelihoods, that argument should also be extended to cover and imply monitoring of the voter transfer exercise – without hoodlums sleeping at the precincts or offices of the EC.

Value of youth

Youth is no period for fooling, neither is midlife, for those who believe being single parent in Africa or Ghana, for that matter, means living under a curse. Life is about building a legacy within that you can share to those without. Artificial intelligence or things like the internet are ingredients and tools for self-development, not revelry and criminality and fraud.

I don’t know which parent would love to see his boy or girl caught in this smudge that I have listed in this column. Grandchildren or children are assets in old age. Parents have an obligation to help shape them to become responsible citizens or they become – of we abandon them – thorns that would prick us weeping into our graves.

What we cannot afford is a mix of loony politicians and ignorant boys and girls who cannot safely choose for us MPs and Presidents on our socio-political space. This is Ghana, not Haiti.

By Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• June 6, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

Directive to SSNIT to engage Labour, social partners Akufo-Addo’s best communication stroke in recent times  

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is noted for pooh-poohing critical national conversations in spiting Mahama. Well, the ripples of the 2012 Election Petition is still with us. The NDC stole the verdict and partied when the NPP griped, calling Jake and Dan Botwe and co fools, courtesy of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan’s Ananse arithmetic.

That reminds me of JA Kufour and President Jerry John Rawlings. Sometimes, out of the blue, Jerry Rawlings would take a jibe at JAK. You try to find out what may have triggered that uppercut, and you realised that the jitters may have developed over the JEA Mills defeat in 2000 that gave JJR sleepless nights.

Well, Rawlings would be extending that act of discourtesy to ‘That Man’.  It took time before JJR would be displacing that on John Mahama after the death and burial of JEA Mills. Let’s just say it is an occupational hazard or symptom of King Solomon’s ‘reckless wives’ manifesting today in Accra, Ghana, West Africa and Africa.

LBGTQ+ and Illegal mining

Interestingly, the President has been known and accepted to have remained incommunicado during the conversation of the controversial LGBTQ+. He either engaged in doublespeak or was purely evasive.

At diplomatic levels, on political platforms and before traditional and religious leaders, he was evasive. It was only in one instance that he tactfully referenced on traditional African values to make his point. He wouldn’t, after that, explain anything – though his Legislature had settled on the matter.

But the experts say he did not by that break any constitutional laws or violate any principles of political integrity by not signing the bill into law.

I believe it was the same posture over the illegal mining controversy in which the Minister was left alone or marooned in explaining efforts to reclaim, restore, reform space and realign the laws to replace illegality with inclusivity.

What changed?

But we may ask what changed and the President decided after all that SSNIT money is workers’ money and that the Ghana Trades Union Congress GTUC could – together with state and non-state partners in the insurance sector engage in finding a solution to the impasse in which a the Kwahu-based Rock City Hotel is cited for expressing interest in a state-owned insurance entity and asset that is massive and fluid and profitable.

This is how one of the online portals put the story: President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has tasked the Minister for Employment and Labour Relations to liaise with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) to bring finality to all outstanding pension issues in the next three (3) months.

Addressing the 2019 May Day Celebration on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, at the Black Star Square, President Akufo-Addo noted that the critical contribution of labour to the production process, economic growth and sustained development requires that the dignity of labour is maintained throughout retirement.

“We will build a robust economy and a prosperous society, when we put in place a sustainable pension scheme for all workers. For far too many of our people, the end of their lives is marked by poverty. Too many people either have no pensions at all or have inadequate pensions to match the needs of old age,” the President said.

In the informal sectors of the economy, President Akufo-Addo lamented that “most people work, without any thought to pension coverage, and when they no longer have the strength to work, their lives become miserable.”

With about about 90% of workers operating in the informal sector, the President indicated that attention must be focused on extending access to that sector in compliance with the National Pension law. Well, I don’t know how long and how often we would be making that point, without living it.

Tomato Traders 

How important social protection is for an emerging economy like Ghana is reflected in the saga of ordinary tomato traders in an engagement with the Burkina Faso administration some 12 years ago, mooting the idea of producers and traders running a scheme in an accord in which  the Ghana Embassy in Ouagadougou played key role.

As I do this piece, I know SSNIT has been engaging the national association in reactivating its Informal Sector Scheme together with other Market Association actors in strengthening its financial base to cover the over 75 per cent underserviced sector. That certainly is a move forward, if it can be activated from farm gate through Markets to neighbourhood table top actors.

Again, how important it is to ordinary citizens and particularly informal economy actors is manifest in the GTUC itself attempting a solution by linking Market Associations with financial and insurance agencies as a step to reducing informality, but also enhancing the social protection space.

According to the President, too, cocoa producers are being targeted in an effort to establish a Cocoa Farmers Pension Scheme.

State’s hand in every pie 

What has been worrying out typical West African governments is the saga of lack of capacity and inability to structure our revenue mobilisation sectors to deliver. Worse is that government most of the time more quick at putting its hands into every pie that it forgets that a pie takes effort and resources to bake.

In addressing holistically that deficit and offering an abiding remedy, I believe the President Akufo-Addo acted wisely in referring, first and foremost, the matter to Government’s social partners, employers and enterprise owners to comply with existing pension regulations and support their staff to contribute to pension schemes.

“We should all spread the news about the importance of pensions and the structures in place to ensure transparent and effective management of pension funds,” he added.

And am glad he admitted that we have to begin doing things differently when he urged the Ministry of Finance to arrange for the payment of GH¢200million and a bond of GH¢700 million [government has borrowed from SSNIT] towards settling of the arrears owed to SSNIT. This, he said, will leave arrears of GH¢800 million which will be included in next year’s budget.

Social Partnership Council

Reiterating government’s determination to consolidate further its relations with the social partners, in the post IMF era, President Akufo-Addo noted that a landmark social partnership agreement with Organised Labour represented by the Trades Union Congress, the Ghana Employers’ Association, has been signed.

This, he explained, is to provide a medium for building a sense of cohesion, trust, self-management, frank and open discussions to champion the course of development towards realising the vision of a Ghana Beyond Aid.

Blustering Okudzeto  

North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has criticised President Akufo-Addo’s approach to addressing the opposition to the controversial sale of four hotels by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to Rock City Hotels Limited, owned by Agriculture Minister, Bryan Acheampong. He must be politically correct, though he must admit that the referencing of the matter to the GTUC should settle the matter.

Although organised labour is represented by four members on the 12-member board of SSNIT, President Akufo-Addo has asked the Labour and Employment Minister to engage them again on their concerns regarding the transaction.

Organised Labour had petitioned the president to halt the sale of the hotels to the minister cum Member of Parliament.

According to Ablakwa, the president’s directive to the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Ignatius Baffour Awuah to engage with labour leaders is unnecessary. He argues that the president is avoiding his responsibility and pretending he lacks the authority to resolve this issue with a single directive.

But this is not about directive. It is engagement in arriving at a consensus that generates policy in providing an abiding framework and solution to the headache of gnawing informality confronting the nation and its development agenda.

PS

Tweaking SSNIT to explore  

As for SSNIT, it is time they moved out of the comforts of their offices to turbulent environment and compete with Enterprise Trustees and others in strengthening their revenue base.

They cannot do it alone, without creating agencies and outlets and involving the framer and trader and Market Associations at accost to them. Creating assets and selling them off is not the best. It doesn’t tell a good story about CEOs in the public sector in Ghana.

But the buyer of the controversial assets, now hounded both by the Majority and Minority, must appreciate that it is in his interest to say No. On account of ABC and D, I as a conscientious citizen, decide to walk away from the deal for the sake of Ghana.

That is the only way to mute the Martin Kpebus and Okudzeto Ablakwasor Sammy Gyamfis and political fingerlings salivating on controversy to learn how to rattle English, instead of how to work for themselves to impact their families, neighbourhoods, communities and the nation.

Source: Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• May 20, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 7 minutes Read

We can’t pretend that galamsey would go away, if we don’t confront it

Those we have elected to manage the resources of the nation and harness them to deliver industrial transformation cannot come back to us to offer excuses for their inability to fight the scourge of illegal mining. Similarly, those who have been appointed as sector Ministers in departments that have been negatively impacted by the scourge of illegal mining cannot also tell us they have challenges delivering on their mandate.

Again, those traditional rulers in whose jurisdiction illegal mining is going on cannot in the name of Jerry Rawlings tell us we should push the blame to another person and persons or some other authority. Finally, we cannot absolve the police of complicity when they can organise operations into illegal mining areas and flush out, together with our Forestry Commission officials who know the environment, the goons who are looting and bastardising our collective heritage.

That is not to say that, collectively, we do not have a responsibility as media and other civil society actors that the animals in the illegal mining pits should persist in raping us and our God-given resources.

Mining in security zones

If illegal mining or galamsey is criminal in forests, waterbodies and on arable lands, including timber and coco-productions sites, it must also be criminal activity the scourge going on along our borders into neighbouring countries.

As anybody would appreciate, the operations of illegal miners along our borders as reported by the media certainly pose a security threat to the two countries, hence the need to scatter those involved in saving the state the risk of breeding extremists and insurgents.

But that, we are told, is what is exactly happening long the Ghana-Burkina Faso border up North, where there appears to be a gold belt linking Tongo and nearby communities in the Upper East Region.

As had been noted by the public, their operations pose a serious threat to the environment and the international boundary line between Ghana and Burkina Faso. While it may have taken too long bringing the matter out into the public domain, we are being told that the Ghana Boundary Commission and the Upper East Regional Security Council are beginning to take action to address the situation.

Speaking to the illegal miners on Tuesday, May 14, the Head of REGSEC and Upper East Regional Minister, Hafiz Bin Saleh, expressed concern about the potential exploitation of the situation by terrorists to fund their nefarious activities.

He urged the illegal miners to cease their activities immediately and vacate the area.

“There are insurgents there and there are terrorists who want to infiltrate our country and to be able to perpetrate what they are doing. They need finance so they engage in what you people are doing.

“So in order to save the people of this country, we want to stop issues of this nature so that people don’t have means of funding their nefarious activities.

“So please, it is for that reason that we are putting this measure in place to save this country and to save the people of this country. We are enjoying peace and we must appreciate the peace we are enjoying. We will not allow the interest of any individual or any group of persons to affect the peace does the country Ghana is enjoying,” he said.

Stupid excuses

Over here, in our part of the world, we hear people who  one of the illegal miners, Abille Fatawu, says he uses money from the galamsey activity to fund his education.

“I started this work when I was in SHS 1… when I vacate I come here and work. When I get small [money], I use it to also help in my education,” he told JoyNews.

He is currently at the tertiary level, and remains committed to this mining job as his source of fund.

“It is through this that I got money to get to where I am now.” But these are the excuses we make for acting criminal, including migrating to Kumasi, Takoradi or Accra, without arranging where you would be living. Then, we create slums and when the local government authorities flush us put, we threaten government with ‘against’ votes at the next polls.

Intriguingly, however, in that same community, we would find the Assemblyman, elders, chiefs of so and so community, Imams and church elders. Nobody restrains anybody; and folly rages, till we begin to pay the price in animals buying weapons to protect themselves from themselves and the police.

But I believe Commissioner-General of the Ghana Boundary Commission, Maj Gen Emmanuel Kotia, put the nail right on the head when he alerted the sleeping community that the activities of the illegal miners would continue to pose a serious threat to the international boundary line between Ghana and Burkina Faso, with security fallouts to both nations and the peace-loving people in the community who are not part of the madness called illegal mining or galamsey.

He lamented how some of the country’s boundary pillars had been destroyed, which could lead to territorial disagreements.

“Some of these activities lead to removal of international boundaries pillars. And for that matter, there was no clarity so far as the markings of the boundary is concerned and then because we have quite a sizable number of people coming from Burkina Faso to do a lot of illegal activities here, if we don’t take care whiles these boundary pillars are removed some of our territories can be taken or probably can be declared as part of Burkina Faso, because these markings are no visible on the ground.

“That is the reason why  we have decided to facilitate the construction of the patrol routes,” Maj Gen Kotia explained.

But patrol or no patrol, residents along the border know that galamsey and its cousins in crime, including smuggling and banditry, will infect the community sooner or later.

Illegal mining in Burkina Faso

Ghana used to have a Joint Trade Commission with Burkina Faso. Somehow, we allowed that organ to fade off, though we need each other because we are neighbours who trade and share several platforms, including the respective Chambers of Commerce,  to align regional trade issues.

For those who care to know, as far back as 2008, the Commission was alive in resolving issues of trade, including one in which a local market goon called Haruna Agesheka fleeced Burkinabe vegetable traders over a digitisation scam in which the Burkina Faso Mission in Accra, for respect to Ghana, allowed the case to die, though the reckless goon would be dead himself soonest in one act of intrigue or the other afflicting the cross border trade.

Sadly, since Burkina Faso decided to ban the cross border trade, not one Ghanaian politician or government official has bothered to find out why. If they are plotting that with Mali and Niger, you may bet we will be forced to import onions from the Netherlands because Bawku and Vea, or Pwalugu and Tono cannot give us the supply we need for three months.

The truth about formalising the galamsey terrain, however, is that Burkina Faso learnt the theories at a workshop from us and they are better running with implementation, when all we do here is to stick to the workshops and forums, without injecting into the turf some big boot.

Food security, secure ecology, vibrant cocoa and timber resources, efficient water supply, energy and tourism – all depend on how we frontally fight galamsey, without looking left or right.

By Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• May 13, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 7 minutes Read

Incentivising – not fighting – churches key to faster and complete devt

The dumbest way to lose power and annoy God as a leader is to disregard admonition from religious leaders and traditional rulers. Intriguingly, the political leader or such animal would be the first to appreciate that the Christian clergy and Muslim cleric deserve to have the ear of our political class. That is because Church, State, Cleric watch over and help mend the souls, hearts, minds and spirits of the citizen.

First, these people – our traditional rulers and religious leaders – have a certain constituency that trust them than voters and our loony delegates would trust the politician.

Second, our traditional rulers own the land on which we have our natural resources that we use frameworks, laws and policies to harness to create structures and infrastructures that help improve lives and livelihoods.

Finally, these our traditional and religious have far longer tenures than even the autocrat can manoeuvre through avarice, greed, intrigue and coercion.

That is why fighting a traditional ruler or a religious leader may be the craziest thing a politician would do or encourage his followers to do. It is dumb, crazy, unwise and, even,  stupid and counterproductive.

Kwame Nkrumah, Kutu Acheampong

Examples of leaders who fought traditional rulers and religious communities are Dr Kwame Nkrumah and Kutu Acheampong. No political heads of Ghana had been that inveterate and insensitive to advice than the two. There are those that cite Jerry Rawlings as being like the two. That cannot be true, if we know the level of spirituality that kept the controversial Provisional National Defence Council( PNDC) in power for that long…Forget claims that voodoo was rife…What we cannot ignore is that there was a spiritual Mummy behind Jerry Rawlings that ensured that he survived his divinely-approved transition tenure Thank God, encouraging numbers of politicians are now coming to the realisation that power belongs to God.

That is why I am enthused that, above all the Manifesto teasers that flagbearer Mahamudu Bawumia has dropped, his message on “incentivising churches” to be part of the national development agenda is an ace and clincher that triggers hope for Ghana. He says he is doing that in recognition of their contribution to the development of the country, if he is elected President.

Being an ardent student of our national development paradigm and role the churches have played over the years, the Vice President pointed out some interventions and contributions the church had made post independence to justify his pledge.

Fitting platform

That is why it is important for political leaders to be finding quality time to arrange exclusive meetings with religious heads, including the Catholic Bishops Conference, Christian Council of Ghana and the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches. It is in this regard that Dr Bawumia’s meeting with the clergy as part of his Bono regional tour was a deft move, just like he does wherever he goes.

At the gathering, the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party said: “If you look at the work the church has done, we should rather be paying them rather than them paying us. Unless you don’t understand the work the church has done”.

Dr Bawumia further explained that “if you look at the building, the way they’re trying to keep the society together, the universities, the hospitals, the schools, it’s just massive. Many churches have hundreds of schools so I don’t see and I will not have a situation where we’re taxing the churches. We rather want to give churches incentives to support what government is doing.”

The flagbearer likened the church to development partners, and proclaimed how his administration will draw them closer to the state.

“I want us to be partners in the way that development partners are with us. You are our domestic development partners and we’ll give you incentives to do more.”

Taxing churches?

Again, the dumbest argument a politician can make is to agitate for churches to pay tax. My singular argument against our tax system is our nagging inability to develop structures for formalising the massive – and still burgeoning – the informal economy.

With so many economic actors outside markets and floating or even moving in out of our markets at odd hours, some vigorous digitisation is not only the way to go, but also more PPPs in market infrastructure and farm gate transaction structures in targeting actors effectively these floating economic actors making good monies and paying virtually nothing in terms of tax.

I was excited by the conversation about the ILO Report that riled SSNIT for not having built over the years enough fiscal resilience to sustain its programmes. The simple truth is that the ILO Report is flawed because it didn’t take into account an ongoing programme by the SSNIT to move out to neighbourhoods and markets register economic actors under the new national digitisation programme.

But I believe the ILO Report may have been largely fed by unionist who are fighting government over the matured bonds benefits and similar schemes that may have been affected by the global financial dynamics created by COVID-19 and the still raging Russia-Ukraine conflict.

But I know as a researcher in the food policy sector that key actors on our markets and others in the cross border trade are being engaged by SSNIT in strengthening the social protection sector, but also helping those outside the SSNIT umbrella to join a family of social protection giants that truly deliver hope under the new SSNIT Informal Sector Scheme.

The good news is that the state entity is targeting associations that are accomplished in terms of achievement and civil society niche, including the Ghana National Tomato Traders and Transporters Association GNTTTA. As do this piece, I know that before the brouhaha and the subsequent press conference that SSNIT held, a team had toured markets across the Middle Belt. And these are in the dozens of thousands with Ghana Cards that facilitate enrolment onto the Scheme.

Such deep programmes touch the grounds and truly make impact in optimally reducing the size the informal economy in facilitating and accelerating revenue mobilisation and strengthening sector. Indirectly, too, that enhances delivery of the banking sector because it minuses risks in the banking sector to reach out to the underserved segments of the population.

I also know that some work is being done by the Royal Netherlands Embassy aimed at holistically developing the fruit and vegetable chain that ultimately includes social protection for the teeming actors on farm gates, neighbourhood markets and even those along the streets.

Strengthening Church-State partnership 

With our churches now in insurance, education and health as well as development of infrastructure, there is no way any responsible state and government and for that matter, politician, can afford to ignore their contribution. Most seminaries owned by churches are now teacher training facilities. It is the same with support they are giving in enrolling more SHS graduates into private universities owned by these array of denominations.

The volume of the contribution is not only reason to support them morally to deliver more, but also assist them with funding to expand their horizons into job creation, including trade and banking; or agribusiness and skills training.

If that is the message the flagbearer of the NPP or even the NDC is advocating, it is heathy political talk that must be translated into policy and down onto the grounds in implementation. As we would appreciate as a people, churches have massive resources and strong succession plans that make them resilient to risks that come with banking and funding as well as Reporting Systems that ensure competence, effective delivery of project goals and accountability.

Of equal importance to me is the fact that this vision chocks the crazy argument about taxing churches some of which we should be supporting and encouraging to run credit schemes under controlled systems in creating wealth and reducing poverty, aside the traditional programmes in providing relief to the poor.

By Abena Bawuaah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• May 8, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

Lessons from the East African floods: Are our local govt agencies ready?

Twisted scraps of metal, large splinters of wood and misplaced mattresses are all that remain of what were once people’s homes in communities across East Africa, particularly Kenya and Tanzania. 

 

Across the wider Nairobi County, hundreds of people have also seen their homes knocked down. The calamity has hit not only slums and poor neighbourhood, but also residential areas and affluent communities.  In addition, roads have been cut off, bridges collapsed and vehicles drowned together with passengers in one fell swoop.

 

The state had ordered – albeit too late – demolitions, asking survivors to leave their homes and move to higher ground in the wake of heavy rains and flooding, which had ravaged East Africa over numerous weeks.

 

Like British Colonies Ghana and Nigeria, slums make up majority of neighbourhoods in district business centres, with local government agencies that have the responsibility to tidy up during such emergencies looking on and complaining of lack of resources to tidy up.

 

People creating slums has never been a feature of Francophonie communities and business districts in Africa. With them, the law works; here, particularly among the Anglophones, all-knowing human rights activists will frustrate any processes to discourage migrant communities from slum engineering by demented grassroots democrats and their loony, empty communicator allies in the social and regular media.

 

Meanwhile, the Kenya government has admitted the demolitions are now necessary in order to prevent further deaths, after looking on while they bred up. It also belatedly pointed out that living within 40 metres of the banks of a river is illegal. Tell that to the animals encroaching along the banks of Lake Bosumtwi…

 

Authorities naturally gave people in earmarked areas 24 hours to evacuate – a deadline that expired last Friday evening. However, many residents told the media they were caught by surprise and that their homes were demolished before the cut-off point.

 

Those who witnessed the demolitions blamed the army, saying they were responsible. Well, the army, as usual, were yet to comment.

 

Results of blame game

 

But government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said: “These are the same people who are dying. These are people who are being affected by these floods.

 

“Sometimes when the water subsides then people go back to their buildings. So as a government we just have to be very clear and very categorical.”

 

The government says it is illegal and dangerous to build so close to a river. It has relocated just under 27,600 people forced from their homes by the floods in newly built camps.

It added that some 210 people across the country had died as a result of the floods, with a further 90 missing, according to the latest official estimates. Just this week, more than 50 people were killed when a tide of water swept through villages near the capital, Nairobi.

 

Torrential rains are forecast to continue throughout the month and 178 dams and water reservoirs pose a high risk of overflowing, the authorities have warned.

What’s more, President William Ruto has warned the nation it could be about to experience its first ever cyclone, with cyclone Hidaya gaining momentum along the Tanzanian coast on Friday.

 

In a televised address, the Kenyan President ordered for schools to be shut indefinitely.

In neighbouring Tanzania, government spokesman Mobhare Matinyi told the BBC and other global networks that the authorities were on standby and prepared to evacuate people living in coastal areas at risk from the cyclone, which could hit the biggest city, Dar es Salaam.

 

Worse yet to come

 

Other places likely to be affected by the impact of the cyclone include Mtwara, Lindi, Tanga, and Zanzibar.

 

The country’s meteorological agency, TMA, has said that the cyclone was expected to cause heavy rains and strong winds. Some close to 200 people have already died from flooding in the country. However, the government has not suspended transport between Dar es Salaam and the islands of Zanzibar.

 

“We want all people doing maritime activities and transporters to take caution, and follow advice from the meteorology agency so as to reduce risks,” said Mr Matinyi, after nutty informal sector canoe owners and passengers as well as buses and commuters applying experience above common sense decided to dribble the raging floods and fell victim to the watery grave.

 

Local politics

 

Again, the story is quite like what we see and hear in Ghana.

 

“If the government demolishes our houses, at least give us a solution. Tell us where to go. We don’t know where to go,” one desperate informal economy worker exploded.

When she descended into the business district, she didn’t ask any lawyer or politician for advice, nor plan where she would be living in comfort, instead of squatting. Now government must take the blame because it promised solving all social problems.

Tarzan President

The President of Kenya, reeling under political pressure, has asked universities to close down, together with schools in affect communities – before the political fallout becomes grinding.

He has also asked griping local government chiefs to dig deep into their budgets to release funds outside the emergency budgets to deal with the situation.

Back home in Ghana

Under John Dramani Mahama, when we had the tragic floods and fires in the business district of Accra, I was in a meeting with market unions in the tomato trade in the Central Business District. I usually stayed on as advocate till well over 7 pm when all other market actors had left to discuss raging points with them.

Strangely, I decided to leave at 3pm in the middle of the meeting only to reach home at Agape, Ablekuma, to hear that Accra was under Noah’s floods and Lot’s fire. It turned out that about the same number of persons would be dead and several others missing.

Worse, the blame game would start and conversations that were abandoned reignited just to mute the political heat, while policy implementers go back to bed and their girl and boyfriends, leaving the Odaw River silted and the stream still unable to enter the sae at the James Town end.

More annoyingly, we would be hearing the politician quote horrendous figures for only desilting while the issues that cause siltation would be ignored and holistically dealt with in preventing the tragedy that visits British African colonies because democracy has come to mean license, instead of law and order.

Campaign promises

I have been monitoring the campaign promises of all three flagbearers – from the Butterfly and Elephant to the Akatamanso. None has convincingly cited flooding and the worsening sanitation issue that breeds flooding or a generated a sleek plan that addresses illegal mining – after the Agyapa Deal was shot down.

Again, none has added to the conversation on latching onto the marijuana economy to add to the wave of industrialisation we anticipate. 24-hour economy and we end at that, without factoring the logistics that would go into maintaining security on the Kintampo-Tamale stretch where it is becoming normal to hear commuters robbed with rampancy – most of them women.

Since the government gave the green light for private sector to move into the industrial marijuana sector, no report has come to Parliament and no media outfit has followed up on such a vibrant business and job-creating conversation. But that is Ghana. Some animals are waiting for others to invest in the sector before they use politics to elbow them out.

Relooking our local govt structures

As the floods continue to threaten, the President of Kenya and his appointed local government chiefs continue to tango over resources that can barely match the depth of tragedy that has hit Kenya. Indeed, the snag here is that ‘contingency’ and ‘emergency’ are two different issues. It is therefore for the appointee and Executive to define the differences and draw the lines in surmounting what will evidently be a tall order in terms of finding a solution – with dire political consequences for Kenya’s incumbent administration, together with his Tanzanian counterpart.

But, let us also not forget that a government that benefits from the tragedy, should the current administration be thrown out just because it failed to survive the burden of surmounting the tragedy, the succeeding administration would be facing the same test. That is why in critical times, the national interest is considered by serious politicians first, before the party and crony, moneybag, goon thinking.

That, of course, grants no excuse for the local government to look on clear issues of recklessness from migrants and local squatters are ignored. But that is also aside the fact that local government chiefs have an obligation to be innovative in revenue mobilisation, but also ruthless in fighting those who desecrate the environment and degrade natural resources.

These are basic ingredients in fighting flooding holistically, while ensuring that people don’t create structures that are outside planning spaces to the jeopardy of the larger community and state.

PS:

That our local governments are still managed like the typical state institutions that we have had since the colonialist left our shoes is still worry, particularly when we have them on markets among informal economy actors, without them innovating formalisation structures. Their presence, too, cannot be seen on farm gates where intrigue – rather than contract – dictate prices of foodstuffs and livestock, and on highways where bandits have a field day, despite our MMDCEs’ position on the REGSEC as chair of security. 

By Abena Bawuaah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• May 6, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 8 minutes Read

In sync with Savannah NPP, NDC apparatchiki Dec 2024 peace plan

Six months into the crucial December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections, it is becoming imperative that the prayer and responsibility of every Ghanaian across the length and breadth of the country is peace and positive action that secures the nation for the next administration to carry out its mandate effectively.

We can look back at 2000, 2008, 2016 and forward into 2024 in appreciating that every eight years births turbulence that should inspire collective vigilance, instead of sporadic violence brewed and executed by political goons and mercenaries who have not conscience.

Especially when we are witnessing a culture of youth in the countryside thinking that they can fight and beat soldiers, policemen and national security operators, the imperative on the part of the religious and traditional leaders to be vocal needs to be highlighted.

Credit

Of course, we must credit them first, because but for them, Ghana would have long gone to the dogs and wolves propagating progress but conceiving pillage.

We must again commend our traditional rulers and religious leaders because they are more credible in thought and action than the typical and loony, greedy bastard politician.

But that credibility is also hinged on the fact that they have been veritable partners in national development, not only in terms of mending hearts and souls and spirits, but also augmenting infrastructure in health, education and social protection programmes.

I recall that in the heady days of the PNDC, before we saw wisdom in engaging with the global community after a kick in the teeth by unwilling USSR, it was the Christian Council and the Catholic Bishops Conference that were the nation and civil society’s voice of conscience into 1992, when Ghana and the Provisional National Defence Council administration was pressured to democratise or lose support in aid and grants from bilateral and multilateral sources.

Thank God, today, that credibility and influence have been sustained in minimising the poison of propaganda and wicked politics that breed corruption and bad, bad, irresponsible governance.

Turbulent North

If we also admit the North constitutes the nation’s bogey territory and flashpoint, it becomes refreshing to hear that a coalition of regional executives of the leading New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress in the Savannah are working together to prevent a repeat of the instances where supporters from both sides hoot at their presidential candidates whenever they attend public functions in the region.

The motivation for engineering that coalition was the incidence of presidential candidates of the two parties, Dr Mahamud Bawumia and John Mahama being humiliated by supporters of the NDC and the NPP when they attended social events in the region.

Media reports that I have seen and heard indicate that while supporters of the NPP hooted at Mr Mahama at the Yagbonwura’s outdooring and the funeral rites of the late Queen mother of Busunu, the NDC supporters also retaliated with Dr Bawumia at the Yagbonwura’s outdooring ceremony in Damongo.

So that there is a stop to the nonsense, the leaders of the two major political parties have initiated a gala competition to foster unity ahead of the December elections. An engagement to that effect is a consensus building programme that began last Friday night, April, 26 between the regional executives of the two political parties.

The move, among others, is to bring supporters of the NDC and the NPP to the table of peace and also show to the world that they are one people living as descendants of Ndewura Jakpa. The friendly competition, which is to be patronised by prominent sons and daughters of the region, is also aimed at creating a peaceful environment ahead of the celebration of the first Anniversary of Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale I, the 48th Annual Congress of Gonja Land Youth Association and the Guan Conference that is to be hosted in Damongo from April 25 to 28, 2024.

Speaking to the Savannah Regional NPP Chairman, Alhaji Iddrisu Sulemana on behalf of his counterpart from the NDC, Seidu Imoro told journalists that the two political parties have no option but to work in peace and whip their followers patriotically into line before the anniversary.

He also cautioned supporters against exhibiting any political malice or gangster activities during the activities and sustain that.

“I think the biggest gift the Nana Addo, Bawumia-led government gave to us is, no doubt, the creation of the Savannah Region. And if we cannot protect or develop ours like the others but to always engage in NPP, NDC tug of war at every political or public function to disgrace each other, then we don’t mean well for ourselves as a region, people and communities as well as the government,” Professor Kalamonia indicated.

He disclosed that saboteurs of the region are always working and monitoring to ignite tensions among the people.

“The saboteurs are always around and monitoring us but this around they will be ashamed and disappointed for not seeing the usual chaos at our functions.”

The peace football gala will be graced by the King of Gonja, Yagbonwura Bii-Kunuto Jewu Soale (I) his paramount Chiefs, and other dignitaries in and outside the region.

Captains from the two teams will be made Peace Ambassadors moving into the 2024 elections and beyond.

Emulating a shining example

This development is a credit to the elite in the North. It comes at a time the Inter-Party Committee IPAC and the leadership of the NDC are sabre-rattling over useless, needless propaganda about appointment to the office which both parties know emanates from the Executive until they agree to review the Constitution.

Annoyingly, both the NDC as a political party and the EC also know that the one to change the Constitution is not Abena Baawuah or Papavi Yaovi or Yao Yevu, but the political parties working through Parliament. Now, these are the distractions calculated at causing disruptions into the campaigns and then ultimately the December 7 presidential and parliamentary.

The lesson should excite youth in Bawku and its outlying communities as well as the fringes of Techiman to act civilly and sensibly, instead of stupidly and violently. More importantly, I believe it is the responsibility of the traditional communities in the northern regions to partner the police in ensuring stability of the communities, instead of leaning on the support of criminal youth gangs whose only assets are traits that breed extremism, in politically securing their skins.

Military-Police collabo for 2024

We have too many examples in youth and lowly-placed, tin soldier politicians daring the policeman and woman and the soldier in uniform these days that the Police and Ghana Armed Forces need to go into a secret pact to knock some sense into the heads of youth who take democracy for unfettered freedoms only, instead of law and order that respects the rights of others and the security of the state.

I am not talking of the February 1966 coup d’état that toppled Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the Convention People’s Party administration. Fiifi Kweteyhad notbeen born; nor had Sam Ablakwa Okudzeto and carbon copy of Sam Okudzeto original, who flew back to Ghana in the heat of one of the coups by Jerry Rawlings because he had nothing to hide.

Am referring to an abiding programme that neutralises the excesses of politicians and their lunatic fingerlings. That is critical in making Ghana a culturally law-abiding nation, with the politician himself sanitised and the bite of the law effectively restraining the political class. It appears that to be above the law, one has to be a party boy and girl or has connections with a party chief and larger political animal in any of the two political classes.

Between now and December 7, civil society has an obligation to ensure that all of us as stakeholders play to the rules of the game – chiefs, religious leaders, EC, security agencies and state actors acting Ghana and neutral, while we all respect the processes and look at the larger picture of picking a government that we think will truly represent us in the next four or eight years. If we go into the campaign and general elections thinking and acting like the regional executives of the two leading parties in the Savannah, that mission of peace after the elections is a done deal.

However, if the police believe breaking a few naughty heads as deterrent, restraining and in the national interest, why not, if such animals must be contained so that we can all go to bed and sleep in peace?

PS: So, Dadekotopon did run its parliamentary primaries, with the MCE winning to affirm my research. Waste of time and resources. But cash for delegates…That’s how the constituency and national wanted it, and that’s how they got it. “Heads, we win; tails we win.” Lost and won, as Shakespeare would put it.

By: Abena Baawuah

• goldcoastnewsline@gmail.com
• April 25, 2024
• 0 Comments
• 6 minutes Read

ECOWAS, Africa at crossroads: Which way forward?

The question of effective and accountable leadershipand governance systems needs to be seriously addressed to provide hope and better living conditions for the citizens of Africa.

We must educate and provide opportunities to prevent West African youths from falling into religious radicalisation, the looting caused by hardships, banditry and insurgencies being witnessed in the region.

At CALE, we strongly believe that peace and security are fundamental for Africa’s developmental efforts. Therefore, we must address the underlying chronic poor leadership, governance and structural weaknesses, which are the critical root causes of the continent’s slow development.

It must also be emphasised that national security is the bedrock of national development. Therefore, developing national consciousness and civic pride are the most effective ways to build grassroots civil defence against destabilising elements in local communities.

Secondly, the reasons for Africa’s inability, particularly in the West and Central subregions, to arrest these insecurity challenges are largely due to poverty, lack of development and poorly resourced armies in the fragmented nation states. Africa, beginning with the eight subregional economic communities, needs to move swiftly towards political and military integration.

It must return to Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s vision for a United State of Africa. Africa needs to implement effective and binding conflict resolution mechanisms and a mandatory APRM in place of the voluntary mechanism

Integration

Thirdly, Pan-African political integration and formation of a joint high command force would resolve the high military cost and difficulties involved in tackling the continuing local and cross border insurgencies and terrorist activities. These would allow unity of purpose and the pooling of resources together to effectively fight off the growing insecurity threats.

Importantly, political integration would also deter unconstitutional coup d’états as a “collective defence” operational mechanism, like that of the NATO Alliance, namely – “attack on one is an attack on all” can be realised.

This means an attack or insurrection in one country would trigger a military response from the joint high command forces leaving the “uprisers” no place to hide. Interestingly, a similar collective force called Anti Insurgency Force has been established by the breakaway Alliance of Sahel States to fight insurgencies and defend their territorial integrity.

Fourth, to survive and be relevant to the lives of citizens, ECOWAS, and the AU need bold leadership to drive further reforms and move member states towards pol

itical integration like the EU model.

Looking at the turbulent political history of West Africa and Africa as a whole, particularly considering the current geopolitical dynamics the prophetic message of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah for a United States of Africa remains an urgent necessity, if Africa is going to see lasting peace and wholesale durable development of greater benefit to the people.

Uniform vision

West Africa and the whole of Africa need a uniform vision and common voice on global platforms to be taken seriously, as a respected global player. It is interesting to note that the rest of the world refers and treats Africa as one country, but African leaders continue to cling to their colonially demarcated artificial ‘little’ enclaves in the name of national sovereignty, forgetting that our relevance lies in our collective unity as one people.

Fifth, a bold political union of Africa coupled with its strong and healthy relationship with China could radically change the global order. Together, they can push for a fairer and more balanced geopolitical architecture that would allow equitable and sustainable development of all human societies.

As outlined in Nkrumah’s manifesto for Africa, the AU Assembly in the collective interest and welfare of African people, should agree to put in motion a mechanism at the foreign minister’s level to harmonise the political systems and work out the modalities to actualise the needed politically united superstate of Africa. The Agenda 2063 vision should become the developmental blueprint for the envisaged African superstate.

In this direction, China’s political model offers a good example for the African superstate. Each African state could be the equivalent of the Chinese provincial and administrative regions as they represent different ethnic groupings in the country and each has a functioning local government.

The central government retains foreign policy, overall strategic development, and have national security powers. We should be working towards removing all restrictions on free movements on the continent by developing common African passport. Certain countries, e.g. Kenya, are already implementing this one Africa goal.

As part of this United Africa process, the Assembly should consider making the APRM mandatory for all member states. It should elect or appoint an APRM Body consisting of respected ex-African leaders, eminent scholars and practitioners from various disciplines, exemplary civil servants versed in public administration and successful entrepreneurs from member states to conduct country evaluation and audits on all the agreed developmental key indicators in the Agenda 2063 vision, as a baseline for planning.

The work of the APRM Body should be supportive and forward looking in its approach. It should devise working framework and protocols, which should be approved by the AU Assembly.

Its primary goal should be to find out effective policies, mechanisms and programmes that have produced tangible transformative progress in the different countries, which can be shared and scaled up across the continent.

The APRM should work with “national” (the to-be provinces) officials to devise technical support mechanisms to help each state improve and overcome identified challenges. Where necessary, a number of the existing states should be merged for greater administrative efficiency.

Conclusion

In the face of the many crises caused in part by the foreign-imposed divisive border and governance system that tear Africans apart, the continuing terror of terrorism, the wanton destruction of civil wars, the vice of poverty and hunger that follows these evils, the wasteful expenditure on internal border policing that restrict trading among ourselves and the shameless colonial and foreign exploitation, Africa is at a crossroads that radical decisions have to be taken – change course or continue business as usual?

We evoke the memories of our Pan-Africanist forefathers, freedom fighters and thinkers, in particular, President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the founding father of Ghana.

The latter, a tireless champion of the elusive Union of African States, in his speech at the founding of the OAU, in Addis Ababa, on May 24, 1963 said: “It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity. Divided we are weak; united Africa could become one of the greatest forces for good in the world. We must unite now or perish.”

Finally, we humbly ask all current African leaders, in particular ECOWAS and the African Union Commission, your Excellencies, which way forward please? We, the children of Africa deserve your unequivocal answers.

The writer is the Founder & Executive Director, Centre for African Leadership & Excellence (CALE).

By Dr Alex A. Appiah