Features
Asantehene hits nail right on the head …coups should remind African leaders to manage their economies better
A coup d’etat or simply a coup is an illegal and overt attempt by the military or other government elites to unseat the incumbent leader by force while a self-coup is when a leader, having come to power through legal means tries to perpetuate himself or stay in power through illegal means.
Simply put, it is a sudden violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group.
Factors that necessitate such sudden take-overs either by military or civil society in a country include bad and poor leadership, economic hardships, lack of effective governance, bribery and corruption among leaders and other appointees, amassing wealth at the expense of the citizens, selfishness, nepotism, graft, dishonesty among other bad deeds by government in power.
MILITARY UPRISINGS
In recent times, West Africa has been rocked by military uprisings. Within the past three years, soldiers have overthrown the presidents of Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Guinea (September 2021) and Burkina Faso (January and September 2022).
That take-over in oil rich Gabon is the latest in a string of coups that have taken place in recent years. Before the Gabonese coup, Niger President Mohammed Bazoum who was elected two years ago in the first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence in 1960, was ousted on July 26, 2023 by his own presidential guard.
Currently Niger is facing severe sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for the refusal of the coup leaders to reinstate the ousted President Bazoum.
The ECOWAS block has imposed financial sanctions on the coup leaders and the country, freezing all commercial and financial transactions between member states and Niger, one of the world’s poorest Sahelian nations.
ASANTEHENE’S WISE COUNSELLING
I do not intend to delve deep into the various coups that have rocked the African continent within the past three years because that issue is already in the public domain since it has been fully publicised and exhausted by both the traditional and social media outlets.
My major concern is the powerful speech delivered by one of Ghana’s eminent traditional rulers, the Asantehene Osei Tutu II, King of the Ashanti Kingdom, who tried to dissect some of the reasons behind these military take-overs in Africa and professed solutions to these problems so as to restore sanity on the continent.
Speaking at the St Andrews Africa Summit in Scotland during his recent State visit to that country, the Ashanti monarch highlighted the increasing occurrence of coups across the African continent as a wake-up call for African leaders to effectively manage their economies better.
He noted that, better economic management could break the cycle of poverty and unemployment, providing hope for the youth to stay and contribute to the continent’s development instead of seeking opportunities abroad.
Hear the eminent Ashanti king who is noted for his frank and powerful speeches targeted at economic development, especially in his own country, Ghana; “We have to do better in managing our economies to break the cycle of poverty and unemployment and give hope to our able youth to remain and work for the continent instead of seeking the least opportunity to escape for greener pastures elsewhere”.
INCESSANT COUPS IN AFRICA
“No African leader can sleep happy so far as there is an African boy willing to make the perilous journey of modern- day migration,” he emphasised. Speaking at the backdrop of recent coups in several African countries including Gabon, Mali, Guinea, Chad and Niger and firmly condemning coups and rejecting them as viable solutions to Africa’s issues, the Asantehene urged African leaders to reflect on these events as indicators that something is amiss in the democratic experiment.
He said these events prompt a critical evaluation of the democratic structures and constitutional arrangements within African state, reinforcing the need for effective reforms and governance.
“I do not think it signals rejection of democracy as a system of governance but rather it brings into question the structures we have built in our democratic system, and that, I will suggest reinforces the questions we have been raising about the constitutional arrangement of the democratic state,” he said.
INTROSPECTION BY AFRICAN LEADERS
Indeed, the Asantehene OtumfuorOsei Tutu II, has hit the nail right on the head, and that should prick the conscience of leaders on the African continent to take introspection about how they are managing their respective countries devoid of economic hardships by their peoples, corruption, graft and other negative factors that are encouraging military take-overs in order to restore sanity and transparency in their jurisdictions.
It is a fact that when some of these leaders are seeking the mandates of the people to govern their countries, they will come ‘like a sheep in a wolf’s clothing’.
They behave like hypocrites who try to appear better than they are. After riding on the back of their people to the leadership positions, they then turn their backs on them and treat them likeanimals.
Nepotism and cronyism become their watchwords, trying to favor relatives, friends or associates, especially giving them j obs and other financial favors. These are some of the challenges among African leaders that often open the doors for military take-overs.
FERTILE GROUND FOR COUPS
The advice given by the Ashanti King to African leaders is indeed, timely because the continent has recently become a fertile ground for coups. The rapid manner in which these coups are happening, suggests that the leaders must sit up because their peoples are just tired of misrule.
This is a wakeup call for us in Ghana and our leaders must be seen to be righting the wrongs because those factors that normally encourage uprising are starring us in the face.
The corruption, economic hardships, nepotism, cronyism, graft, selfishness among other negative factors, are deeply rooted and entrenched in our society. We always say that Ghana is a peaceful country and that nothing untoward will happen to this country.
Yes, we do not want any uprising in this country since it is inimical to our progress. That is why our leaders must work tirelessly and assiduously to meet the people’s expectations in order to entrench the democratic principles in our country.
A WORD TO OUR TRADITIONAL LEADERS
The Asantehene has laid bare the negative factors that bring about coups in Africa and that should serve as an eye-opener to all leaders on the continent.
If other traditional leaders in Ghana should emulate this shining example by the Asantehene and be frank to speak their minds on issues on the global front and our local setting that will inure to Ghana’s development and progress, it will not be long to see our dear country treading the path of progress and success.
They have a wealth of knowledge and wisdom that can transform our dear nation. Coup is not the best option to adopt and follow in Africa because it can only lead to economic destruction and retard progress and therefore, our leaders must take note of that and put in place the best practices of governance to carry their peoples along.
African leaders need to sit up and do the needful and not to expose themselves to the international community for mockery.
Contact email/WhatsApp of author
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By Charles Neequaye
Features
Tears of Ghanaman, home and abroad
The typical native of Sikaman is by nature a hospitable creature, a social animal with a big heart, a soul full of the milk of earthly goodness, and a spirit too loving for its own comfort.
Ghanaman hosts a foreign pal and he spends a fortune to make him very happy and comfortable-good food, clean booze, excellent accommodation and a woman for the night.
Sometimes the pal leaves without saying a “thank you but Ghanaman is not offended. He’d host another idiot even more splendidly. His nature is warm, his spirit benevolent. That is the typical Ghanaian and no wonder that many African-Americans say, “If you haven’t visited Ghana. Then you’ve not come to Africa.
You can even enter the country without a passport and a visa and you’ll be welcomed with a pot of palm wine.
If Ghanaman wants to go abroad, especially to an European country or the United States, it is often after an ordeal.
He has to doze in a queue at dawn at the embassy for days and if he is lucky to get through to being interviewed, he is confronted by someone who claims he or she has the power of discerning truth from lie.
In short Ghanaman must undergo a lie-detector test and has to answer questions that are either nonsensical or have no relevance to the trip at hand. When Joseph Kwame Korkorti wanted a visa to an European country, the attache studied Korkorti’s nose for a while and pronounced judgment.
“The way I see you, you won’t return to Ghana if I allow you to go. Korkorti nearly dislocated her jaw; Kwasiasem akwaakwa. In any case what had Korkorti’s nose got to do with the trip?
If Ghanaman, after several attempts, manages to get the visa and lands in the whiteman’s land, he is seen as another monkey uptown, a new arrival of a degenerate ape coming to invade civilized society. He is sneered at, mocked at and avoided like a plague. Some landlords abroad will not hire their rooms to blacks because they feel their presence in itself is bad business.
When a Sikaman publisher landed overseas and was riding in a public bus, an urchin who had the impudence and notoriety of a dead cockroach told his colleagues he was sure the black man had a tail which he was hiding in his pair of trousers. He didn’t end there. He said he was in fact going to pull out the tail for everyone to see.
True to his word he went and put his hand into the backside of the bewildered publisher, intent on grabbing his imaginary tail and pulling it out. It took a lot of patience on the part of the publisher to avert murder. He practically pinned the white miscreant on the floor by the neck and only let go when others intervene. Next time too…
The way we treat our foreign guests in comparison with the way they treat us is polar contrasting-two disparate extremes, one totally incomparable to the other. They hound us for immigration papers, deport us for overstaying and skinheads either target homes to perpetrate mayhem or attack black immigrants to gratify their racial madness
When these same people come here we accept them even more hospitably than our own kin. They enter without visas, overstay, impregnate our women and run away.
About half of foreigners in this country do not have valid resident permits and was not a bother until recently when fire was put under the buttocks of the Immigration Service
In fact, until recently I never knew Sikaman had an Immigration Service. The problem is that although their staff look resplendent in their green outfit, you never really see them anywhere. You’d think they are hidden from the public eye.
The first time I saw a group of them walking somewhere, I nearly mistook them for some sixth-form going to the library. Their ladies are pretty though.
So after all, Sikaman has an Immigration Service which I hear is now alert 24 hours a day tracking down illegal aliens and making sure they bound the exit via Kotoka International. A pat on their shoulder.
I am glad the Interior Ministry has also realised that the country has been too slack about who goes out or comes into Sikaman.
Now the Ministry has warned foreigners not to take the country’s commitment to its obligations under the various conditions as a sign of weakness or a source for the abuse of her hospitality.
“Ghana will not tolerate any such abuse,” Nii Okaija Adamafio, the Interior Minister said, baring his teeth and twitching his little moustache. He was inaugurating the Ghana Refugee and Immigration Service Boards.
He said some foreigners come in as tourists, investors, consultants, skilled workers or refugees. Others come as ‘charlatans, adventurers or plain criminals. “
Yes, there are many criminals among them. Our courts have tried a good number of them for fraud and misconduct.
It is time we welcome only those who would come and invest or tour and go back peacefully and not those whose criminal intentions are well-hidden but get exposed in due course of time.
This article was first published on Saturday March 14, 1998
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Features
Decisions have consequences
In this world, it is always important to recognise that every action or decision taken, has consequences.
It can result in something good or bad, depending on the quality of the decision, that is, the factors that were taken into account in the decision making.
The problem with a bad decision is that, in some instances, there is no opportunity to correct the result even though you have regretted the decision, which resulted in the unpleasant outcome.
This is what a friend of mine refers to as having regretted an unregretable regret. After church last Sunday, I was watching a programme on TV and a young lady was sharing with the host, how a bad decision she took, had affected her life immensely and adversely.
She narrated how she met a Caucasian and she got married to him. The white man arranged for her to join him after the marriage and processes were initiated for her to join her husband in UK. It took a while for the requisite documentation to be procured and during this period, she took a decision that has haunted her till date.
According to her narration, she met a man, a Ghanaian, who she started dating, even though she was a married woman.
After a while her documents were ready and so she left to join her husband abroad without breaking off the unholy relationship with the man from Ghana.
After she got to UK, this man from Ghana, kept pressuring her to leave the white man and return to him in Ghana. The white man at some point became a bit suspicious and asked about who she has been talking on the phone with for long spells, and she lied to him that it was her cousin.
Then comes the shocker. After the man from Ghana had sweet talked her continuously for a while, she decided to leave her husband and return to Ghana after only three weeks abroad.
She said, she asked the guy to swear to her that he would take care of both her and her mother and the guy swore to take good care of her and her mother as well as rent a 3-bedroom flat for her. She then took the decision to leave her husband and return to Ghana.
She told her mum that she was returning to Ghana to marry the guy in Ghana. According to her, her mother vigorously disagreed with her decision and wept.
She further added that her mum told her brother and they told her that they were going to tell her husband about her intentions.
According to her, she threatened that if they called her husband to inform him, then she would commit suicide, an idea given to her by the boyfriend in Ghana.
Her mum and brother afraid of what she might do, agreed not to tell her husband. She then told her husband that she was returning to Ghana to attend her Grandmother’s funeral.
The husband could not understand why she wanted to go back to Ghana after only three weeks stay so she had to lie that in their tradition, grandchildren are required to be present when the grandmother dies and is to be buried.
She returned to Ghana; the flat turns into a chamber and hall accommodation, the promise to take care of her mother does not materialise and generally she ends up furnishing the accommodation herself. All the promises given her by her boyfriend, turned out to be just mere words.
A phone the husband gave her, she left behind in UK out of guilty conscience knowing she was never coming back to UK.
Through that phone and social media, the husband found out about his boyfriend and that was the end of her marriage.
Meanwhile, things have gone awry here in Ghana and she had regretted and at a point in her narration, was trying desperately to hold back tears. Decisions indeed have consequences.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
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