Features
Celebrating Ghana’s 65th Independence Anniversary for what achievement?
The nation Ghana, celebrated its 65th independence anniversary after freeing itself from British colonial administration in 1957. This year’s celebration took place in the Central Regional capital, Cape Coast, on Sunday, March 6, 2022, under the theme, “Working together, bouncing back together”. The usual euphoria, ecstasy and funfair that were associated with past celebrations were in vogue.
It was delightful to watch a match past of combined team from the security services and school children drawn from the Cape Coast Municipality. The Head of State, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, took the salute. In attendance were the Vice President, Alhaji Mahamadu Bawumia and his wife Samira, Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo, wife of the President and other dignitaries including the Prime Minister of Barbados who was the Special Guest of Honour.
TRIBUTE TO THE ‘BIG SIX’
The achievement chalked so far by the country would not have been possible without paying tribute to the efforts of the Founding Fathers of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), popularly referred to as “The Big Six”. They were, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Edward Akufo-Addo, Joseph Boakye Danquah, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey and William Ofori-Atta, all of blessed memory.
History tells us that in August 1947, these great men laid the foundation for the Gold Coast’s struggle for independence of which Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah became the first Prime Minister of Ghana. In his maiden speech, Dr. Nkrumah said, “At long last, the battle has ended, and thus, Ghana your beloved country is free forever.” He did not end there but went further to state that, “Our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of Africa”.
Dr. Nkrumah later became Ghana’s first elected president, having won on the ticket of the Convention People’s Party (CPP). Nkrumah’s tenure as president was short-lived and was overthrown in a coup led by Col. Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka on February 24, 1966.
FOURTH REPUBLICAN ERA
In 1992, Ghana ushered in the Fourth Republican era with Jerry John Rawlings being elected president on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC). It was during his reign that the 1992 Constitution of Ghana was drafted by some eminent citizens of the land. Since then, Ghanaians have continued to live under a democratic rule. After Rawlings, President John Agyekum Kufuor of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over from 2001 to January 6, 2009. The NDC assumed power again under the leadership of Prof. John Evans Atta Mills from 2009 until his demise on July 24, 2012. His vice, John Dramani Mahama, assumed the presidency and completed the term of his boss. In 2013, President Mahama assisted the NDC to retain power. He served his term until January 6, 2017, when he handed over to a newly elected President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo who rode on the ticket of the NPP to power. Currently, the NPP continues to govern the country after Nana Akufo-Addo being re-elected in 2020 general election.
VIEWS OF GHANAIANS ON THE CURRENT STATE OF THE ECONOMY
This brief history I have painted, tells us where we came from and where we are at the moment. Indeed, the country has made remarkable strides as far the democratic journey is concerned. However, we need to ask ourselves whether as Ghanaians, we are comfortable with the cost of living and, indeed, our living standards as we celebrate our 65th independence anniversary.
Sampling the views of Ghanaians about the current state of affairs as connected to the living standard of the people, one can conclude that times are very hard and people just cannot make ends meet. The general view is that the economy continues to go down and that nothing is working properly. To most Ghanaians, there is nothing to celebrate as far as the 65th independence anniversary is concerned because people are not in the right frame of mind. They allude that the general strike by workers of various public institutions, speaks volume of how the country has gone down the drain. Some allude that the country is suffering and currently is at the ‘intensive care unit of the hospital’.
WORLD BANK COUNTRY DIRECTOR’S ASSESMENT OF GHANA’S ECONOMY
In the words of the Country Director of the World Bank, “Ghana’s economic situation is very serious. Ghana faces a tough time to restore macro-economic sustainability. International rating agencies downgrade Ghana’s creditworthiness. Government struggling to pass key legislation in Parliament”.
Mr. Pierre Larporte, Director of World Bank for Ghana, who recently addressed an anniversary public lecture organised by OneGhana Movement on March 7, 2022, asked the government to be transparent with the citizens. “At the World Bank, we have not hidden the fact when we have held discussions with government officials and even Head of State that, even Ghana faces a very tough road ahead to restore macro sustainability. Yes, COVID-19 has not helped. But even before COVID-19, there were signs that the situation was getting a little bit challenging. So, the key thing is to be transparent with the people. Yes, the figures speak for themselves, but not everybody is educated as we are. Not everyone understands what the numbers mean, so it is important to talk about it like we are doing. More important is for us to find solutions to the problem,” the Country Director said
SUGGESTIONS FROM KWESI BOTCHWEY
On the other hand, a former Finance Minister, Prof. Kwesi Botchwey, has proposed some solutions to deal with the downward trend of the country’s economy and restore the confidence reposed in it over the years. According to him with the pace the country was going, it would not be able to move the bulk of its poor out of poverty in another generation. His suggestion was that the country needed to build consensus around the reforms that were necessary to resolve the nation’s creditworthiness.
To him, the real problem with our public finances was structural and would require a thorough review of all sources of pressure in the budget including every flagship programme and its sustainability and impact, all options must be on the table. We must not for instance, transition temporary spending incurred during the pandemic into public spending, when we are already struggling to collect revenues.
These are suggestions the government may have to consider irrespective of political party affiliation. We are in the boat together, and we can sink together when the situation demands. Therefore, it is important to welcome divergent and concrete suggestions and views from people with rich economic backgrounds to salvage the economy from total collapse.
INVESTORS’ POSITIONS ON CAPITAL MARKETS
Meanwhile on the international capital markets, we are being told that investors have signalled uncertainty about economic outlook and prospects of Ghana. Key rating agencies such as Moody’s Investor Services and Fitch Ratings we are told had all downgraded Ghana’s creditworthiness.
The on-going Russian-Ukraine terrible incident with serious ramifications in countries worldwide has aggravated the already hard conditions in Ghana affecting the generality of Ghanaians. Almost everything in Ghana, staple food items, water and even salt have seen an astronomical increase in price levels. As for the increases in fuel prices, there is nothing good to write about because almost every week, the prices are increased.
GHANAIANS NEED GOVERNMENT’S SUPPORT
Ghanaians are, indeed, suffering and are finding it difficult to make ends meet as goods and services are not affordable.For now, it is important for the government to find ways of mitigating the hardship of the suffering masses in the midst of the economic challenges, otherwise the celebration of the country’s 65th independence anniversary stands to be meaningless to the people.
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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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