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Ghana-Seychelles relations: ‘Windfall’ for Ghanaian teachers?
‘Luck’ seems to be the ‘aroma’ clothing the persona of Ghana’s High Commissioner to the Republic of Seychelles, when he recently presented his letters of credence to the President of his host country in Victoria.
Just at the presentation of his letters of credence, Ghana’s new High Commissioner to Seychelles, Mr Charles Asuako Owiredu, ‘instantly’ opened ‘doors’ and ‘windows’ for some Ghanaian professional teachers to be legally employed in the Republic of Seychelles.
Reportedly, the Government of the Republic of Seychelles is urgently seeking to sign an agreement with the Government of Ghana to help shape the educational system of Seychelles.
The request for Ghanaian teachers was made by the President of Seychelles, Mr Wavel Ramkalawan, through the Ghana High Commissioner to the island country, Mr Owiredu.
Presenting his letters of credence to President Ramkalawan in Victoria, capital of Seychelles, the Seychelloi President reportedly said, “to enhance the standards of our educational system, we will plead with Ghana to allocate a sizeable number of Ghanaian professional teachers to our country.
“If the agreement is actualised, we strongly believe that the Ghanaian teachers will share their rich experiences with their counterparts in Seychelles, so as to help improve our educational system.”
Reportedly, High Commissioner Owiredu assured President Ramkalawan that he would confer with his home Government to ensure the realisation of his intent.
Dr Yaw Adutwum, Minister of Education is reported to have said in Accra that the Government of the United Kingdom has also expressed interest in engaging qualified professional Ghanaian teachers “to help build the education system in the United Kingdom.”
“With the actualisation of the ‘teaching’ agreement, it is the expectation that between 300 and 500 teachers will be exported from Ghana to Seychelles,” an elated teacher who is praying to be part of the first batch to leave the country for Seychelles has said.
According to him, “apart from being an avenue to broaden the teachers’ horizon internationally, my expectation is that, salary-wise, those who would be selected will be given a standardised and acceptable conditions of service to enable them to give of their best.”
Mr Cephas Inkoom, a pensioner, also says:”If similar agreements could be brokered by some of our missions abroad, it could go a long way in addressing our nation’s unemployment headaches.
“That way, we will not ‘encounter’ Unemployed Graduates Associations in our country.”
Experts say the first function of diplomacy involves representing a state’s interests and conducting negotiations or discussions designed to identify common interests as well as areas of disagreements between the parties, for the purpose of achieving the state’s goals and avoiding conflicts.
The second function of diplomacy involves the gathering of information and subsequent identification and evaluation of receiving state’s foreign policy goals.
According to the experts, the third major function of diplomacy is expansion of political, economic and cultural ties between two countries.
And the fourth function of diplomacy relates to using it as an enforcing vehicle to facilitate the observation of international laws.
Indeed, examining the functions of diplomacy, this column appreciates the diplomatic relations between Ghana and Seychelles and commends the efforts of President Ramkalawan and High Commissioner Owiredu in their readiness to strengthen the ties between the two countries.
Seychelles is described as an Island Republic, in the Western Indian Ocean, comprising about 115 islands, with lush tropical vegetation and beautiful beaches.
Its estimated population is 100,000, making it the smallest population of any sovereign African country.
English, French and Seychelloi are the official languages of Seychelles. It became independent and a member of the Commonwealth in 1976.
The main islands are located about 1,000 kilometres northeast of the northern tip of Madagascar and 1,800 kilometres east of Mombasa (Kenya).
The scenery of the islands is described as unbeatable beauty, exotic and tropical; and the beaches are said to be the best in the world.
Readers, let’s cross our fingers and await the outcome of the initial ‘inspiring’ diplomatic discussions between President Ramkalawan and High Commissioner Owiredu.
Contact email/ WhatsApp of the author:
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
By G. Frank Asmah
One of the issues we have been grappling with as a nation is corruption, and it has had such a devastating effect on our national development. I have been convinced that until morality becomes the foundation upon which our governance system is built, we can never go forward as a nation.
Our traditional practices, which have shaped our cultural beliefs, have always espoused values that have kept us along the straight and the narrow and have preserved our societies since ancient times.
These are values that frown on negative habits like stealing, cheating, greediness, selfishness, etc. Our grandparents have told us stories of societies where stealing was regarded as so shameful that offenders, when caught, have on a number of instances committed suicide.
In fact, my mother told me of a story where a man who was living in the same village as her mother (my grandmother), after having been caught stealing a neighbour’s cockerel, out of shame committed suicide on a mango tree. Those were the days that shameful acts were an abomination.
Tegare worship, a traditional spiritual worship during which the spirit possesses the Tegare Priest and begins to reveal secrets, was one of the means by which the society upheld African values in the days of my grandmother and the early childhood days of my mother.
Those were the days when the fear of being killed by Tegare prevented people from engaging in anti-social vices. These days, people sleeping with other people’s wives are not uncommon.
These wrongful behaviour was not countenanced at all by Tegare. One was likely going to lose his life on days that Tegare operates, and so unhealthy habits like coveting your neighbour’s wife was a taboo.
Stealing of other people’s farm produce, for instance, could mean certain death or incapacitation of the whole or part of the body in the full glare of everybody. People realised that there were consequences for wrongdoing, and this went a long way to motivate the society to adhere to right values.
Imagine a President being sworn into office and whoever administers the oath says, “Please say this after me: I, Mr. …., do solemnly swear by God, the spirits of my ancestors and the spirits ruling in Ghana, that should I engage in corrupt acts, may I and my family become crippled, may madness become entrenched in my family, may incurable sicknesses and diseases be my portion and that of my family, both immediate and extended.”
Can you imagine a situation where a few weeks afterwards the President goes to engage in corrupt acts and we hear of his sudden demise or incapacitation and confessing that he engaged in corrupt acts before passing or before the incapacitation—and the effect it will have on his successor? I believe we have to critically examine this option to curb corruption.
My grandmother gave me an eyewitness account of one such encounter where a woman died instantly after the Tegare Priest had revealed a wrong attitude she had displayed during the performance on one of the days scheduled for Tegare spirit manifestation.
According to her story, the Priest, after he had been possessed by the spirit, declared that for what the woman had done, he would not forgive her and that he would kill. Instantly, according to my grandmother, the lady fell down suddenly and she died—just like what happened to Ananias and his wife Sapphira in Acts Chapter 5.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
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