Features
Free SHS “wins” presidential election
Wonders, they say, shall never end. With just two days to the national elections, free-SHS is now the talk of many communities across the country. Interestingly, many of the rural communities seem to be salivating the flavour “oozing” from the national kitchen of free-SHS.
So free-SHS, free-SHS, free-SHS is now on the lips of many parents and beneficiaries of President Akufo-Addo’s poverty alleviating and human resource-incubation national policy. Indeed, for some parents, free-SHS is now the tooth brush with which they seem to be brushing their teeth each morning to remind themselves and their beneficiary children of voting age, the urgency to vote for free-SHS, come Monday, December 7, 2020.
A clear example of the wonder-name, free-SHS? Yes. Just last Monday, 30 November, a “trotro” driver in Elmina in the Central Region asked a passenger to quickly get off from his vehicle just because in a political conversation in the vehicle, the passenger said: “Akufo-Addo has done nothing for Ghana.” Readers, the response in the “trotro” was very quick and surprising!!!
The “trotro” driver parked his vehicle, which was moving from Edina Essaman to the Elmina Fish Market, stood up while holding the steering wheel and asked the passenger: “Have you paid school fees before? Do you know how difficult it is to look for money to pay school fees? Do you even have a child in any SHS? Do you know the value of Akufo-Addo’s free-SHS to some of us who could not continue our education because of poverty in our homes?”
The “trotro” driver says, he has three of his children enjoying the fruits of free-SHS and for him, if President Akufo-Addo is even using all the nation’s money to fund free-SHS, he will vote for him to remain in power. Indeed, the “trotro” driver was not alone in shouting at the passenger.
An elderly woman of about 65-years, who claimed to be an NDC sympathizer, urged the “trotro” driver to exercise patience, contending that some of her own grandchildren are also enjoying free-SHS and that she will also vote for President Akufo-Addo to continue the policy. She, however, said in respect of the parliamentary election, she will vote her NDC parliamentary candidate, stressing that “the free-SHS policy has removed the fee-paying burden on the shoulders of many parents in the country.”
The elderly woman then appealed to the “trotro” driver to tolerate the young man, assuring that free-SHS will win the presidential election for Akufo-Addo. According to the woman, she knows some party supporters of the NDC, PPP, CPP and GUM who have confided in her that because of free-SHS, they will surely vote for Akufo Addo to retain him in power.
“This is because their children, nephews, nieces, sisters and brothers are enjoying Akufo-Addo’s free-SHS, thus, removing the fee-paying burden on them,” the elderly woman said, adding that even though President Mahama has promised to continue the policy, “it is better to be enjoying what we have now under Akufo-Addo.”
The driver then resumed his seat. As he powered off to the Elmina Fish Market, the young man kept mute in the vehicle while some of the fish mongers chatted above their voices, claiming that they now know the value of education because some of their children who are beneficiaries of free-SHS are exhibiting “polished tendencies” to their surprise when they returned home from school.
In the 2012 campaign season, however, many fish mongers along the coastal belt of Elmina gained notoriety for claiming that they preferred ‘hweaseambo’ to free-SHS. ‘Hweaseambo’ is a pan or container usually used by fish mongers to carry fish from canoes to sell in the fish market.
During the 2012 campaign season, while the NPP was preaching it’s free-SHS policy along the coastal belt, the NDC was allegedly distributing thousands and thousands of ‘hweaseambo’ freely to the fish mongers to influence them to vote for the party.
In the process, some of the fisher folks composed a song titled: “Yepe hweaseambo, yennpe free education,” meaning “we prefer hweaseambo to free education.” And this became a common song among many of the fish mongers.
Surprisingly, the tables are turning and the chickens seem to be coming home to roost. The contention is that the ‘hweaseambo’ will be arriving very soon for free distribution but they will be there effectively be competing with the free-SHS policy which now firmly rooted in the minds and souls of many parents and beneficiaries.
Now, in each of the 16 regions of the republic of Ghana, we have what they call, Association of Free-SHS Students. They have their national leaders and regional coordinators. And interestingly, members of the association are canvassing for votes across the country so that free-SHS wins, particularly, the presidential election, come Monday, December 7.
Many parents of beneficiaries of free-SHS are also said to be vigorously campaigning for the retention of President Akufo-Addo in power, so that they will continue to harvest the hanging fruits of the policy.
What some election watchers also say, however, is that for the presidential election, free-SHS will win the race for Akufo-Addo, contending what will be left to be decided is the parliamentary election.
Readers, we have barely two days to go to the polls, so let’s cross our fingers and wait to see whether or not, the free-SHS policy will particularly win the presidential race for President Akufo-Addo.
Meanwhile, readers are encouraged by this column to go out and exercise their constitutional mandate in peace, come Monday, December 7.
By G. Frank Asmah
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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