Features
GOOD LUCK, “AKUFO-ADDO GRADUATES!”
Ghanaian students have not been very lucky in recent years, have they?
I mean – they have been deprived of tuition in the past, because their leadership had decided students should go and cart cocoa from cocoa farms. At other times, massive political unrest on campuses had caused disruption of work on campuses.
So a smile played on my lips when President Akufo-Addo, in his 12th
address to the nation on Covid-19, emphasised referred twice to what he called the “Akufo-Addo graduates.”
The first mention occurred in this passage:
QUOTE:“ [The] SHS 3 students, also referred to by some as the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’, are the first group of beneficiaries of Government’s Free Senior High School policy,to sit the WASSCE exams. 1.2 million children, the highest such enrolment in our nation’s history, [are currently in senior high schools] because of this policy”. UNQUOTE.
The second reference to them appeared in this passage:
QUOTE: “I take this opportunity to assure all parents and guardians that [my] Government is determined to protect the lives of the eight hundred thousand (800,000) students, teachers and non-teaching staff, who will be returning to school from tomorrow. I will be the last person to put the lives of the ‘Akufo-Addo graduates’ at risk.” UNQUOTE
It is gratifying to find that the President identifies himself so closely with the welfare of our students, for as he acknowledged, the future development of the country will rest on their shoulders.
Just how important it is for the country to cherish its students is illustrated by the dialogue which officials of OccupyGhana (knowledgeable persons trained by educational institutions) have been carrying out with the Ghana health authorities on their management of the Covid-19 pandemic.
OccupyGhana held a “zoom meeting”with the “entire leadership” of the Government’s Covid-19 team in the evening of 19 June 2020.
And it says:“It was a very engaging meeting.”
The group had earlier expressed “scepticism about some of the death figures put out with regard to Covid-19 cases in the country.” There was cause for it to suspect that the death numbers issued by the GHS were “being massaged.” So OccupyGhana complained about this in a statement on June 15, 2020.
The GHS had issued a statement denying that there was any such “massaging” of death figures. A zoom meeting was subsequently convened by both parties, where the Service sought to clarify its position.
OccupyGhana says it “vehemently disagreed” with, and still “questions” the science behind the GHS’ claim [that] GHS was “verifying the ‘epidemiological condition’ of [those who had died] “from COVID-19.”
In the opinion of OccupyGhana,“this terminology caused “confusion”, since “the verification team in Accra was not doing any retesting or post mortems”. Simply put, there was “nothing to verify, outside a simple phone call to the people on the ground!”
OccupyGhana stated that it still considers “the excuse of a delay in releasing test results, due to the so-called “verification”, unacceptable and untenable and provides “grounds to OccupyGhana’s expressed suspicion. These delays erode public confidence in the GHS’ data.”
In fact, according to OccupyGhana, it was “entirely possible” that, had “the full information” been made available, “the President’s decision” [to ease the knock-down] and “public reaction” [to it] “would have been different.”
Other questions raised by OccupyGhana at the meeting included: Is it Government policy to head for ‘herd immunity’? Why are ambulances not responding to the several callers? Why is there so much delay in releasing test results? Why has contact tracing reduced? Why is there a shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)? [Is it not a fact] that the holding and treatment centres in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions (the two epicentres) are full?
On ‘herd immunity’, OccupyGhana was “assured that this was not the Government’s intention.”
With regard to Ambulance Response, the
GHS said “they did not consider this to be within their remit”. OccupyGhana expressed concern that the delays “could be due to not enough ambulances having been assigned for COVID-19 related use.” Again, OccupyGhana was assured at the meeting that its “concerns would be addressed.” OccupyGhana commented: “We will continue to monitor the situation”.
On the issue of delays in releasing test results, the GHS had earlier claimed that it took 48 hours for most results to be released. But OccupyGhana did not accept the accuracy of that statement. “As was shown at the meeting, currently, some results take as much as seven days. Sometimes it takes much longer to receive results.”
OccupyGhana explained: “We, therefore, raised further questions on whether the testing centres are optimised to perform? Are all the testing centres running, and if not, why? Do the testing centres have data entry issues?
“Do the sample collection facilities adequately fill the case forms that accompany all the samples? Is there a high number of mislabelling?
“Ultimately, the meeting conceded that there are indeed delays and assured us that a lot was being done to address that. For instance, a barcode labelling system, with electronic transmission of test results through the ‘SORMAS app’ has been introduced. We will continue to watch this space since reducing the delay in getting test results will reduce anxiety among those who have tested, and then dovetail into the discharge strategy, so that patients are discharged in good time to make room for others.”
On Reduced Contact Tracing, Occupy Ghana was informed that “Ghana is no longer doing the enhanced contact tracing that characterised the lock-down, and that the mass contact tracing team has been disbanded.”
OccupyGhana declared: “We disagree, strongly. At the end of the lock down on 19 April 2020, Ghana had 1,042 positive cases. Currently, we have a total of 13,717 positive cases of which 3,558 are active.
“We [therefore] find this new policy bizarre and counter-intuitive. We know enhanced tracing has financial implications, but it beggars belief that [it] would be discontinued, when the daily number of new positive cases is increasing. Early detection and treatment are critical to preventing severe and critical cases. We forcefully expressed these concerns and have been assured that they will be addressed. We will continue to advocate for and demand a return to enhanced tracing.”
With regard to Data Sanctity, OccupyGhana maintained that “we also pointed out, and … the Government COVID-19 team admitted, [that] several of the deaths then not included in the national total, had occurred some two to three weeks before the President recently further eased restrictions.
“To us, that meant that as at the time the President was taking that decision and announcing it, both he and Ghanaians had been denied the full complement of the data and the true picture. It is entirely possible that had the full information been made available, the President’s decision and public reaction would have been different.”
Delays eroded public confidence in the GHS’ data, OccupyGhana said. “e were assured that the problem had been resolved and that there would be more real-time updates.”
Long may such reasoned, objective discussions take place. We thank our stars that when such a terrible pandemic descended upon us, we had groups with the intellectual depth, both within and outside the public service, to agree to let the science do the talking.
Source: Ghanaian Times
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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