Features
If I were a President
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
When Moses was a shepherd, all he needed was the direction to which he pointed his staff and his sheep obeyed the command. But when God asked him to lead His people, the Israelites, out of Egypt, Moses began to have issues with his own kind. This seems to suggest that it is easier to lead sheep than fellow humans. But leading your kind is both an art and a science.
I imagine being introduced as His Excellency Dr. Akofa Kwame Segbefia, President of the Republic of Ghana. Then I ask myself what is excellent about my being president? No answer. But would I want to be president of this country? This is a question I have had to deal with from friends, my students and many others.
Because I totally agree with Prof P.L.O. Lumumba when he said the African electorate’s affinity for electing people with no ideas is amazing, I have never seen myself being up for the presidency. All I can do is wish.
Writing to criticise or critique a leader or public office holders is a daunting task, given the volatile African political climate. As a writer, I am minded to understand what I am likely to put my Editor through with each sentence I write, especially since this is a State owned newspaper. So far, my Editor has not reported being taken on for my writings. Though encouraged by this, I try not to press my luck to any insane heights.
But on Social Media, I write what is on my mind without any care in the world as no one will be held responsible for what I write. However, as a professional, I try not to cause slander or defamation. In all of these it is healthy to speak truth to power, no matter how unpalatable it might be.
Now, first thing I will do as President is to empower all statutory institutions to do as their mandates allow without let or hindrance. CHRAJ, NCCE, EC, the Judiciary, OSP, the security services and the media, especially the state owned ones. All these institutions must be as “fiercely independent” as the Kenyan judiciary is noted for.
When these institutions are really independent, Mr. President can relax and run affairs. When corrupt officials are exposed, all the president has to do is the easiest job of acting on recommendations of the independent bodies and cannot be blamed for nepotism, favouritism or cronyism. This way, round pegs will always find their way into round holes.
As President, I will call for a review of provisions in the constitution that give me too much powers. This is to ease unnecessary headaches on the president once these independent bodies can handle many of those provisions. The Council of State must be constituted only by our traditional rulers who, by custom, are custodians of our traditions. They ruled us before the European foray into our lives. Each Regional House of Chiefs must elect one of their members to serve on the Council.
The Civil Service must be made more professional such that the Head of the Civil Service reports only to Parliament. The Civil Service Council must have the free hand to recruit the right caibre of staff to various positions. Each head of department must sign a performance contract with the Council. Sanctions must be applied on anyone found to have performed below expectation.
No one identified with a political party will be appointed to head any State-owned enterprises, unless the qualifications required for the job cannot be found among the apolitical group. A president can make things simple and uncomplicated for himself and the nation by allowing the system to work.
On Sunday, October 30, 2022, I watched and listened to President Akufo-Addo deliver his latest “Fellow Ghanaians” but I did not hear him save for one sentence. This was his admission that the country was in crisis. I was sorely disappointed overall.
Just a week or so earlier, over 80 Members of Parliament from his own party called on him to sack the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta. Though news filtered in that he had met with the group and told them Ken would go after the IMF negotiations and the 2023 Budget, he should have addressed the issue to the nation. He did not. To him, it was a non issue.
Nowhere in our national life has public opprobrium to a government been so heightened, yet Mr President ignores the people. Assuming, touchwood, Ofori Atta is incapacitated today, will the IMF negotiations come to a halt? Kwasi Kwarteng was sacked in the middle of Finance Ministers meeting and replaced. What is it about Ofori Atta that Ghana can burn if he has to go?
That Nana Addo tells his Cabinet that Ofori Atta be left alone because his Databank financed his campaign is very revealing. So, Ken Ofori Atta was put at that Ministry to recoup the money his Bank prosecuted his electioneering with, not so? Astute politicians are mindful of what they say, but not my President. He simply cares less.
Meanwhile, Ofori Atta himself has been quoted as saying he is the best person to handle our economy. I want to believe he has been misquoted because the question he must answer is: where was he when the cedi began its free-fall? Which Ministry was he in charge of all this while? To run the economy down and turn around to say you are the best to fix it is the ultimate insult to the sensibilities of the people. This insult must stop.
One of the issues that will not leave the front burner is the size of our government. Too many ministers, too many deputies and CEOs and too many hangers-on, but the president chose not to address them. Instead, Mr President decided to only repeat the 30 per cent reduction he ordered long ago in the remuneration of his appointees as if it is a new directive. I expected Mr. President to tell us how much was saved to the State since this directive.
Another issue he refused to address is the fifty-plus vehicular convoy he moves in at a time that fuel prices have breached the roof. Mr President does not care. Again, he rather decided to go on a tangent unrelated to what the mood of the country is at this moment. Money does not like noise!! What has this got to do with the despondency in the land? What has this got to do with the hunger we are facing?
Personally, I feel sad when the President’s party communicators publicly defend him yet are quick to admit the nation’s dire situation to friends in private. Are they afraid of a reprisal or backlash from the hawks in their camp? Is the Party interest above the national interest?
And the reference to our neighbouring countries, who, clearly, are managing the global crunch better, is nauseating. Do we all not remember our president, when he was on the campaign trail, saying if he were the then president, he would apologise to the people for the exchange rate of the cedi? I thought his October 30 address was the forum for him to render that apology with the fall of the cedi breaking the sound barrier. But he would not
President Addo would rather blame the economic situation on speculators . It seems our leaders do not yet know that speculation is the pivot on which commerce thrives. Only those who are in denial will blame speculators for the performance of our currency.
Today, even drivers’ mates, ordinary market folks and children are talking about the issues that affect them. No more do they talk about personalities. This is a pointer to our politicians that there is a greater awareness among the people.
I am sorely embarrassed by my people booing the Vice President at the Hogbe Za at Anloga, but our leaders must admit that they have brought this upon themselves.
Writer’s email address:
akofa45@yahoo.com
By Dr Akofa K. Segbefia
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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