Features
Jobless thousands in Sikaman-Part One
It is normally the desire of every human being, of sound mind, to work for the sake of his stomach and that of his dependants. It is also true that some indolent fatheads always want to be bellyful without desiring to work.
In any case, the good old Lord has since the beginning of time declared: “Не that does not want to work, let him not eat.”
Obviously, when the Lord made this declaration there was nothing like unemployment or retrenchment of workers, known in Sikaman jargon as redeployment.
In Sikaman today, like elsewhere, many people really want to work but it appears the work can be found only in heaven, not Sikaman.
Thousands of both the educated and uneducated grieve in their hearts for the lack of something small doing to earn them their daily bread and to buy clothes to cover their nakedness.
Indeed, many able-bodied persons aged over forty, highly educated and willing to work roam the streets, living on petty charities and the magnanimous hands of sympathisers.
The declaration of the Lord will have to be amended: “Blame not he who wants to work but has no work to do. The state must feed him.”
This is already being applied in some advanced countries, where the jobless enjoy unemployment benefits that cater for food, clothing, accommodation and incidental expenses. And the equivalent of money paid to a jobless man in the US for instance is about four times the salary of a Managing Director in Sikaman.
PROGRAMME
Understandably, however, the resources of Third World countries cannot accommodate such programmes for the unfortunate thousands who are jobless and destitute. And so be it in Sikaman.
Let’s come to the investments parents make to educate their wards. When parents are paying school fees, they don’t do so just for the sake of it. They pay school fees in the hope that the child would become educated, responsible and independent. And perhaps in a reciprocal gesture, the child would look after them in their old age.
But today, many parents do not reap the fruits of what they have sown. Their wards complete school and stay at home jobless, still depending on their ageing parents to feed them three solid times a day. The parents become tired feeding their well-educated but jobless children.
When they can’t continue feeding them any longer, they either resign or leave the children to their fate or they die to end it all. They can’t continue like that, feeding able- bodied wards who are old enough to have children. There is no one to feed at the cemetery, anyway, so why not rest there in peace?
Every school-going child also entertains a dream – a dream of becoming a responsible fellow in gainful employment after completing “college”. This dream lingers all through secondary school days.
When a child completes and his grades are terribly bad then he is in trouble. Because messengers are now Level holders, an ‘O’ Level dropout must start to discard the idea of becoming a lawyer or space engineer and start thinking about how to become a cobbler i.e. shoemaker or an apprentice to a tailor.
If he is brilliant enough to get to Sixth form, he is going to experience hell, unless he squeezes through academic net and enters university.
Otherwise, and because there is no job befitting his status, he’d have to do as a messenger, a post that is politely referred to as junior clerk. If that is also hard to come and he doesn’t want to be a ‘housewife,’ then he start making a living the hard way.
Indeed, many certificate holders are today seriously engaged selling dog chains, air refreshners, ice-kenkey, meat-pie and chamber pots. No kidding, dear reader, it is what is actually happening in the Kenkey Kingdom.
When the child, however, gets admission into university, he believes he is in paradise. Soon, he’d graduate with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and become a man.” Some even entertain the illusion of chauffeur- cars. And sure he passes his exams with excellence, earning him a Second Class Upper (Hons).
The graduation ceremony is superbly organised. The Head of State or his representative is ever-present to offer a very inspiring speech. Cameras flash around and coloured pictures are taken.
Meanwhile the graduates appear in their gowns known as acapompo in allusion to academic pomposity. Then they retire home and start trotting in readiness for national service. Of course one must serve his nation.
In fact, national service becomes a real breather for graduates who, otherwise, would have been unemployed straight from school. Doing the service at Karni JSS (Upper West) or with the Community Improvement Unit (CIU) at Kordiabe Junction, the serviceman can at least earn something to buy ‘supporter’ and ‘charlie-wote’ and drink beer once in a month.
Adjustment
It is when the national service period is grinding to a halt that the graduates begin having nightmares. They have terrifying dreams about IMF, structural adjustment, freeze on employment, increase in the price of kenkey, Saddam Hussein and others.
Some expect to be retained in their departments after national service but, more often than not, they are told: “You’ve been a hard worker, intelligent and respectful. We would have wanted to retain you. Unfortunately, however, we are allergic to retaining servicemen just like how some people are allergic to Chloroquine. So please pack your things and go away peacefully. Peace be with you and with us.”
The graduate comes to realise that academic qualification is not all there is to life. But he must not lose hope at this crucial stage in his life. He must start writing applications. He approaches his mummy: “I want to buy seven official envelops, seven official papers and stamps. I must apply to all the companies in Sikaman. At least three of them will click, and I can choose the best of the three. “Yes, he must start begging for a job, irrespective of his qualifications.
In colonial times, writing application for a job was altogether a laborious venture bordering on the use of highfalutin language and linguistic gymnastics. And the jobs were available for qualified personnel.
Today, we write in simple language and as simply as that, there are no jobs. Perhaps applicants of today will have to write something similar to what a Pitman shorthand college graduate wrote some three decades ago.
“I wish to apply for employment in your highly- esteemed company. … My achievements in the realm of Pitmanization have been noised hither and yon, and I am accordingly indelibly impressed with your restrained solicitation in the publications for a stenographical secretarial amanuensis.
“Fortunately, I am at the present a member of the regimentation of unemployed and am therefore at liberty to consolidate my interests with your own at a moment’s notification.
“Both by educational attainment and experiential service, I am pre-eminently qualified to render you superlative performances in the acknowledged artistry of abbreviated communication. I remain, your humble servant… signed”
Dear reader, the discussion continues next week.
*This article was first published on May 4, 1991*
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority wishes to clarify the proper legal procedure for change of ownership or registration of vehicles where the seller or importer cannot be located.
The DVLA is established as a statutory authority responsible for maintaining an accurate register of vehicles and their registered owners. The Authority does not determine disputes relating to ownership of property and for that matter vehicle. Vehicle registration reflects lawful ownership but does not create it. Consequently, where the registered owner has not executed the necessary transfer documentation, or where the importer named in customs documentation has not completed lawful registration, the DVLA cannot unilaterally alter its records without legal authority.
Under the Sale of Goods Act, there is an implied condition in every contract of sale that the seller has the right to sell the goods and will pass good title to the buyer. The seller is legally bound to convey lawful ownership and ensure that the buyer enjoys quiet possession. Where a seller fails in this duty, the remedy lies against that seller. The law further provides, through the doctrine of nemo dat quod non habet, that a person cannot transfer better title than he possesses.
Accordingly, where a purchaser is unable to trace the person from whom a vehicle was acquired, the appropriate course of action is to institute proceedings against that seller seeking a declaration of ownership or a vesting order. If the seller cannot be located after reasonable efforts, the court may grant substituted service, including publication. Upon consideration of evidence of purchase, payment, possession, and due diligence in attempting to locate the seller, the court may grant the necessary orders declaring the purchaser to be the lawful owner.
Once such an order is issued, the DVLA will give full effect to it in accordance with the law. In some instances, the Authority may be joined as a second defendant solely for the purpose of implementing the court’s final determination.
Most often however, people who are unable to locate the person from whom they purchase the vehicle rather initiate proceedings against only DVLA. This procedure is not advisable in the sense that anytime somebody comes afterwards to challenge the order of court, the person will surely succeed.
Members of the public are advised to exercise due diligence before purchasing any vehicle. Prospective buyers should ensure that the seller has proper title, that registration documents are authentic and complete, and that all statutory requirements have been satisfied. Taking these precautions will prevent future disputes and safeguard purchasers’ legal rights.
The DVLA remains committed to upholding the law, maintaining the integrity of the national vehicle register, and ensuring that all changes of ownership are effected in accordance with due process.
I have often been saddened by the condition of Sikaman musicians. Of course, some are not musicians. They are jokers who think anybody who can sing a hymn is a musician. And why wouldn’t they think so when people think that every man wearing a rasta hair is a reggae musician?
Well, these days, almost everybody is dreaming of becoming a musician, even some ministers and parliamentarians. And it is never too late for them to begin learning the solfas and composing songs like “If You Do Good You Do For Yourself,” after all, life begins at 60 these days. If you die three years later, that’s your luck.
For the jobless, becoming a musical star is an everyday dream. They think when you are a music maker, you automatically break alliance with poverty. They are often mistaken.
I know people who claim they are musicians but are always fasting not because they are devout moslems or are on a hunger strike, but because even one square meal a day is a perpetual wahala. And the only drink they can afford is the poor man’s holy whisky which has a thousand names including ‘Nyame Bekyere’.
Even most of the popular musicians we see in town claiming they are foreign-based stars are more of hustlers than musicians. When they tell you they are going on tour abroad, it is a careful way of saying they are going overseas to scrub the whiteman’s toilet or pick tomato or apples to save their neck from musical poverty.
When they are back to Sikaman, they appear quite flamboyant with chains hanging all over them. They change the few dollars they have scraped, spread it around and promptly get broke. Then they can organise another ‘tour’. In between tours, they struggle to release an album and that levels them up a bit on the financial balance.
It all points to the fact that the life of the average musician isn’t quite organised. He has no calendar, no programme and no concentration on the job. He has to wash plates, become a waiter, janitor and toilet scrubber while finding time to make music. No musician succeeds in life that way.
One musician I’ll always respect, who thinks deeper than the ordinary Sikaman musicians is Carlos Sakyi. He is not like the Kokoase guitar musicians who see the world just in terms of bitters, a willing girlfriend, constant supply of kokonte and jot.
Carlos, often loved for his percussive overtones in gospel music, and once a gospel-rock star, has studied the life of Sikaman musicians and has evolved a blue-print for a great improvement in their lives work, finances and comfort.
In short, he has simulated a Motown-style environment for musicians and his formula is working with accuracy with the five musicians he has started with. The blue-print is what has brought MEGASTAR into being. It was launched on September 15, 1995 at the National Theatre.
When it got launched, many probably thought Carlos was “too know or was dreaming more than he should and won’t think about himself. Anyhow, the MEGASTAR is now an institution musicians can look up to, a big phenomenon with lots of promise for struggling musicians.
Music business in the developed world is not the way we regard it cheaply here. A musician is never distracted by how his finances go; his contracts are entered, his engagements made, his interviews arranged, his personal security guaranteed.
Music is his business and that is where his mind is and his attention focuses. Other aspects of his life are programmed for him by his managers. They hire who has to light his cigarettes, massage him, drive his car and the one who will say “Good Luck” when he sneezes.
A bodyguard whose face is exactly like that of the devil is hired to scare off muggers, psychopaths and criminals in general. Sometimes his girls are organised for him.
So the only thing the musician does apart from sleeping and snoring is to concentrate on making music, and true to it, no one can succeed in any venture when he is distracted.
This is how the Michael Jacksons, Lionel Richies, Dolly Patons and Whitney Houstons have made it with dollars packed and over-flowing. They aren’t any better than Sikaman musicians. The only difference is that they know how to organise their lives.
I managed to corner Carlos Sakyi and asked him to tell me how MEGASTAR was doing. He is the Managing Director of Megastar Limited, a music company that has a board of directors and a chairman. Carlos Sakyi shares the proprietorship with a partner. Carlos himself was one great musician who played for a band that beat Eddy Grant on the charts.
“Megastar is in fact a concept born out of the idea that the future security of the Ghanaian musician which has always been in jeopardy can now be guaranteed. Artistes spend too much of their time doing things on their own, chasing money and not concentrating on music. So their full potential is never realised. Some are in fact producing at quarter-rate. That is why they aren’t making much headway,” he told me.
“Megastar is now giving them the chance of the lives. We handle the interviews of Megastar artiste, their press releases, costume, engagements and everything they hitherto used to do themselves. We get them exposed on M-Net and we have contacted BB to get on their programmes. We handle their finances pay them salaries and bonuses, so they only have to concentrate on music
“Most importantly,” he continued, “we do not make all the decisions. Management always meet with the musicians to take the decisions that affect them.”
But who are the Megastar musicians? One is the great Amakye Dede, a star from birth delivered onto the earth with music on his lips; he is the man who feeds hungry ears with musical salad and harmonic sausages. He is the recipient of many national awards.
Next is Naana Frimpong, a latter-day Carlos-groomed songbird with the voice of an angel. She sings to kill. Her beauty has charmed her audience and they stare and stare at her.
The sensational and fantalising Tagoe Sisters are the next. The twin music machine is one that has produced the cream, arguably the very best, of gospel music all these years. I hear they are inseparable; not even their better-halves can keep them apart. Are they Siamese? They dance, and when on stage, they move the crowd.
Then comes Reverend Yawson who is a known songwriter. He is imbued with the Holy Spirit, speaks in tongues and of course sings in tongues. He is God’s representative on the group.
What about my good friend and super-heavyweight, Jewel Ackah? He is a star figure. His appearance is awe-inspiring, his voice golden. A great delight to be-hold when at his best in stage-craftsmanship, he has beaten his contemporaries to it both on land and on sea.
They are the pioneers of the Motown idea. They are all releasing new albums this year. Let’s see how it all goes.
