Features
A dilemma called Ghana (Final Part)
The Independence Arch
So, in the evening of July 24, 2012, John Dramani Mahama was sworn in as President of Ghana to complete the term of Prof. Atta Mills according to constitutional provisions. This was barely five months until Election 2012.
John Mahama was declared elected president by the Electoral Commission in that election, but Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP would have none of it and marched to the Supreme Court to contest the results. Governance almost stalled for the next eight months till the Supreme Court ruled John Mahama as duly elected.
In my estimation, Akufo-Addo lost the election and, I believe, he and his party knew it. The recourse to the Court was a needless waste of time even if some of us got educated on some legal jargon and expressions.
To me, these were just ego trips to court public sympathy for the bruises inflicted by their electoral loss, nothing more.
After his victory in 2012, John Mahama embarked on a massive infrastructure development in health facilities, the energy sector, schools, roads, the airport, housing, markets and others as if to compensate for the eight lost months of litigation at the Supreme Court. But the opposition did not let up. Mahama’s administration was accused of corruption by the opposition.
Issues like the purchase of an aircraft from Brazil, GYEDA and a gift of a Ford vehicle to the President were played in the media space as acts of corruption. There was this laughable one of a flock of Guinea fowls flying from farms in the North across our frontier into Burkina Faso. One thing I know from people close to Mahama was that he caused rumours of corruption against his appointees investigated. Indeed, an appointee was imprisoned as a result.
One positive act of Mahama’s administration was the setting up of the Heritage Fund in which millions of dollars from a percentage of the oil sector was deposited for the future. Teacher education was increased with the withdrawal of trainee allowances and replaced with a students loan regime to enable more teachers to be trained. This was met with opposition from the NPP which promised to reverse it if they regained power.
Our Presidents come to office with certain personal traits. Unlike President Atta Mills, who was a stickler for punctuality, John Mahama hardly is on time for any public event. Nana Addo is also noted for being very punctual with his time. Noted for his reliance on his fan base, President Rawlings would rather be late so as to receive adulation from his fans. President Kufuor was respected in this regard.
Election 2016 was quite as toxic as the previous ones before it. Accusations and counter accusations of corruption were thrown into the fray from every angle imaginable. Nana Addo had mouthwatering promises the electorate were hardput to ignore. He would reduce the cost of buying fuel. One village, one dam. A million dollars for each constituency each year. Free Senior High School education and many more.
Any dispassionate observer of the political scene was clear in their minds that it would take more than his massive development agenda to retain John Mahama as President. Of course, Mahama campaigned on this record of achievement.Truth be told, Mahama did everything but appeal to the grassroots. He seemed to keep a distance from the ordinary people.
As it turned out, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was elected president and was sworn in on January 7, 2017. Almost every project initiated by the Mahama administration that was yet to be completed was abandoned. What came to be known as E-Block Senior High School buildings were left to rot. An affordable housing project at Saglemi was left to deteriorate.
In order to be seen to fulfill his campaign promises, Akufo-Addo began to implement the Free SHS programme, very much against advice from stakeholders and professionals to go gradually with its implementation.
Dugouts were presented as dams, many existing businesses were touted as his one district one factory project, but not even one constituency saw the million dollars. Fuel prices rather kept rising at the pumps to the chagrin of his own supporters. Comparisons started as to whether Mahama was a better leader.
Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia became the poster boy of the government, touting the administration’s economic management. The very statements he made about government economic policy while he was in opposition stared him in the face at every turn.
Teacher trainee allowances were restored, but admissions were drastically curtailed as were nursing trainees. SHS and basic school timetables were so jumbled up that guardians did not know when their wards would be in or out of school.
Nana Addo appointed the highest number of Ministers in the country’s political history. Issues of massive corrupt practices surfaced against his administration as well. Family, friends and cronies became beneficiaries of political patronage.
Then COVID 19 was upon the world. Purported to have originated in China, the virus took the world by storm, infecting millions on a killing spree. As at the beginning of this week, Ghana has recorded only 1,462 deaths with only 34 active cases. It must be admitted that Ghana under Akufo-Addo managed the pandemic better than many other nations of the world. However, COVID and the war in Ukraine have become the excuses government spokespersons give for the economic dilemma the country is in today.
Ghanaians went to the polls on December 7, 2020, to elect a new government. John Mahama was once again the flagbearer of the NDC. His record was pitted against Nana Addo’s. For the first time since 1992 Ghana’s Electoral Commission could not make up their minds on the true figures to announce for the presidential poll. Eventually, they announced Nana Addo as winner though the NDC almost won more seats in Parliament.
Methinks this was why John Mahama also headed for the Supreme Court. My information has been that there were people close to Mahama who worked against him. Their beef was that John had lost touch with the base of the Party. He was running the campaign like a celebrity superstar, they said. So they botched the setting up of a credible collation centre. My astrological predictions for Election 2020 was published in this column on December 4, 2020. Another concern for these people, which has been expressed by many media friends is what they describe as Mahama’s rabid desire to keep Mr. Stan Dogbe as his closest confidant. My information is that Mahama is aware of this concern but seems unwilling to do anything about it.
Many journalists feel that Stan denied them access to Mahama. Many big shots in the Party are worried about this and fear the Stan Dogbe factor could affect the electoral fortunes of the former President.
Now, my take: Ghana is not in a dilemma; Ghana is the dilemma.
Nothing seems to be working in the land. Food prices have hit the roof. The dollar is difficult for our currency to match. Government refused to heed advice to go to the IMF. It refused to even review the Free SHS programme. A tin of mackerel is fed a soup for a dozen students.
Today, Ghana is with the IMF. We are ready to review the Free SHS programme. If this country were not a dilemma, why do we elect people who are impervious to sound advice? Why do we elect people who listen only to themselves? Over 80 members of Parliament demand the President should expel the Minister of Finance, but get ignored.
By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia
Writer’s email address: akofa45@yahoo.com
SIKAMAN is gradually becoming a health-conscious nation because piles is now a national disease. Some natives claim that piles, alias kooko, has gone on strike and has attacked different parts of their bodies — buttocks, forehead, inner ear, inner nose, lips, and hair. Now they do not know where next it would attack, and soon a petition would be sent to Parliament to declare piles a national tragedy.
It is interesting when you consider the way people assume that even common malaria is caused by kooko. Well, the medical authorities have come out to say that piles is a disease of only the last end of the alimentary canal. It has a name. Go and check the name in your biology textbook, or ask the nearest herbalist.
The health consciousness of the average Sikaman native is not limited to kooko, though. People are becoming very much aware of their pot-bellies. They can’t be carrying it all their lives, taking into consideration that half the time, it is laden with gallons of beer.
Even Kwame Alomele is gradually trying to unload the burden that precedes him. “I no longer have the stamina to carry a pot. I am now health-inclined and want to be a slim-macho, doing a sport. I am applying to be a member of a golf club and hope to do wonders with the tiny ball. Fact is I want to be up-and-doing like Gordon Avernogbor, the Grandmaster of GBC fame.”
The media have helped to carry this health idea far. Ghana Television does weekly health programmes, and the FM stations have various programmes and tit-bits on health. Radio Gold is on a Diabetes Month health beat, and patients are made to acquire some knowledge about what they may be suffering from and how they can manage their conditions.
In the print media, the Weekly Spectator has singlehandedly launched a powerful health crusade, and the sky is the limit. In fact, the Spectator has been hailed in medical circles as one of the papers that have zealously carried the health mantle aloft in recent times. The Mirror also runs a health column with my good friend Dr. Anyah in the chair.
Tune in to any of the FM stations and you’re likely to hear a health tit-bit that can be useful to you. You’ll hear something like, “if you eat too much yorke gari, you’ll develop coccidiosis, which is a fowl disease. So check the level of gari and beware of zorzor.”
COCKROACH DIET
Well, healthy living in general has to do with healthy eating. At least, that is what the nutritionists say. And the cockroach has been the most qualified nutritionist in the world. The reason is that the common cockroach is so health-conscious that it eats only a balanced diet — anything from rotten fruit to human excreta. It doesn’t reject food.
The experts say fruits and vegetables, which are alkaline in nature, are good for the human body. There is some truth in this. The silver-back bear, perhaps the most powerful animal in the world, is a vegetarian. It can uproot a tree almost effortlessly, and the power in its arms is attributed to its vegetarian diet.
Anyhow, man cannot continue eating fruits and vegetables perpetually as the main diet. The stomach would get bored, the tongue will revolt, and the human body will subconsciously start crying for banku and okro soup plus giant crabs.
Ideally, a balanced diet — carbohydrates, protein, fats and oils, vitamins and minerals — in their correct quantities are enough to ensure healthy living. It means that you can’t fare well when you eat bread in the morning, bread in the afternoon, and kenkey and shito for supper. There would be a traffic jam in your intestines. And believe me, the traffic lights will also go off.
The killer menu is maintained for three days, and you’ll have what is termed as “treasonable constipation,” a sin against your body. No purgative can save you unless rice and okro soup. That combination is the best purgative in town. In 1983, it used to be one of the famous diets in Legon when famine besieged Sikaman. Students had to abandon lectures and stay close to the WC. Anything can happen. You can’t trust your own stomach.
Exercise also begets health, and brisk walking is the golden rule. I have a friend who is a positive thinker, and he told me walking is no problem to him. He once walked from Osu Christianborg to Circle to Abeka and back to Christiansburg.
No ice-water. No one gave him an award, but I congratulated him. Not that the guy is broke and can’t fix himself up in a trotro or taxi. Walking is his hobby. And his health is always excellent, his appetite ever-ready — no need for bitters. As for his sex life, your guess is as good as mine. He can deliver more than AK-47.
Exercise is good, but it must not wear you down. Do not over-exert. What about sex? Research has shown that excessive indulgence in sex is harmful to the central nervous system because it drains the body of its vitality.
Sex is basically for reproduction, but Ghanaman thinks quite differently. Some experts say twice a week or less is just what the body can cope with. Others say abstain and live long.
But what is the body’s most formidable adversary? It is WORRY. Worry has killed many more people than the Second World War did. About 90% of the population are chronic worriers. People are so addicted to worrying that even when there is nothing to worry about, they worry that there is nothing to worry about.
Worry causes hypertension and its attendant complications of heart disease, stroke, renal failure, and mental illness. The question is, how can man stop worrying? There is a formula by which you can stop worrying.
Make a date with Sikaman Palava in the coming weeks and get your formula for longevity, your life without worry.
This article was first published on Saturday, August 16, 1997.
Christmas has been celebrated ever since I became aware of events as a child and I believe it will continue to be celebrated till thy kingdom come.
The month immediately after Christmas is the month of January and is usually associated with harmattan and its related health challenges like catarrh etc.
Except this year that even on the January 2, there was rainfall in some parts of the country. This is very strange indeed and I pray that the false prophets do not take advantage of it to come up with all kinds of fear mongering predictions.
Growing up, one of the issues that parents and people in general talk about is how long January is and how difficult it is to successfully manage things economically in catering for the needs of the family.
It therefore requires prudent planning to ensure that one is not found wanting in having enough money in the pocket, to cater for the needs of the family after the Christmas holidays.
ln January, a lot of issues crop up. This is the month that students will be returning to school after the holidays and so you can imagine the financial burden it places on parents whose children are in secondary and tertiary institutions.
Money has to be found to provide for provisions at all cost. These days the Free SHS has lessened the burden of parents a bit but if a parent has children, in the tertiary level, then the issue of hostel accommodation comes in and it is not easy to handle.
After managing to see the children off to school, then comes the issue of how to manage to the end of the month when money will be made available to you, as a salaried worker.
Those who ran their own businesses usually do not face such challenge but are also affected in a way because the people who should be buying stuff are not financially sound to patronise goods and services being offered.
In January, I honestly believe that most adults, if they had the power to wish for anything, would wish that they were children. I believe that even for those who are not hypertensive, their blood pressure, if measured and compared to those of previous months, will show a sharp rise each morning in January.
Generally rise in blood pressure is caused by stress apart from the other causes that cones from the food intake and lack of exercise. They say a healthy workforce results in a healthy economy; reason why we pay special attention to the health needs of our leaders.
The cost of the absence of say the President or the Minister for Finance to the state due to illness is huge and likewise the aggregate cost of workers who provide the requisite services for the economy to run smoothly
The whole issue has to do with the low salary levels for most civil and public workers in the country.
One former President once said we pretend to pay them and they also pretend to work. Salaries are not being paid based on living wage and so salaries people receive are not enough to properly take care of their needs and this is what mostly account for this perennial phenomenon which I term as the January Headache. This question of the chicken and the egg, which comes first, as far as salaries are concerned, must be urgently addressed.
The issue of hire purchase, could be one way of addressing this January Headache and government can liaise with supermarkets and other business establishments to take advantage of the Ghana Card, to provide this service to ease the burden of workers especially those who are parents each January. God bless.
NB: KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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