Dear Editor,

The announcement that commercial transport fares will increase by 8 per cent from September 26 deserves more than a passing mention because transportation is not a luxury for the ordinary Ghanaian; it is a daily necessity.

For workers, students, traders and other commuters who depend on commercial vehicles every day, another increase means another adjustment to already stretched household budgets. Even a seemingly small increase becomes significant when multiplied across several journeys every week.

What concerns me most is the need for transparency around how the new fares will affect different routes and how passengers will be protected from arbitrary charges. Earlier this month, transport unions said no fare adjustment had been approved and warned drivers against unilateral increases while consultations were ongoing.

Now that an eight per cent increase has been announced, passengers deserve clear information and enforcement. The public should know the approved fares for their respective routes, and drivers who charge beyond the authorised rates should be held accountable.

I therefore urge the Ministry of Transport and the relevant transport unions to communicate the new fares clearly and ensure that the implementation does not become an opportunity for exploitation. The commuter must not be treated as an afterthought in the transport-fare conversation

From

Nana Yaw Frimpong

Sowutuom 

The root causes: It is never just one reason

My years of counselling at CPAC show me abandonment is rarely an act of malice. It is the tragic endpoint of seven overwhelming distresses:

Psychology

1. Severe maternal mental illness —The hidden emergency

a) Clinical Postpartum Depression (PPD): This is far beyond “baby blues.” It is a severe mood disorder that can appear weeks to months after birth. Due to a massive drop in hormones, extreme sleep deprivation, and emotional exhaustion, the mother feels deep sadness, worthlessness, and complete emotional numbness towards her baby. Picture: A new mother sits by her bed all day, staring blankly. Her baby cries for hours, but she cannot lift her hands to carry the baby. She whispers, “This baby would be better off without me.” She does not hate the baby; she feels she has completely failed as a mother.

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b) Peripartum Psychosis (Postpartum Psychosis): This is a psychiatric emergency. Rare but extremely dangerous, appearing suddenly within the first 2-3 weeks after delivery. The mother completely loses touch with reality. She hears commanding voices telling her to abandon the baby, or believes the baby is possessed by an evil spirit or is a “spirit child” who will bring a curse. Picture: A mother genuinely believes she heard a voice saying, “Leave this child at the crossroads at midnight or your family will die.” She abandons the baby not out of hatred, but because her broken mind believes she is obeying a higher spiritual order to save her family.

c) Pre-existing untreated Schizophrenia: This is a chronic, severe mental disorder that existed before the pregnancy. The stress of pregnancy and labour shatters her fragile coping. She suffers from paranoid delusions — believing people want to poison her and the baby — flat affect (zero facial expression), and grossly disorganised thinking, making it impossible to plan how to feed or clean a baby. Picture: A young woman whose family called her illness “spiritual attack” instead of taking her for medication wanders away after delivery, completely forgetting she even gave birth, leaving the infant behind.

2. Extreme socio-economic deprivation: For many girls in some parts of Ghana such as Kasoa, Madina, or Bekwai, poverty is not a statistic; it is a daily panic. No money for antenatal care, no money for hospital delivery, no money for baby diapers or formula. When a mother cannot feed herself, the thought of feeding another mouth feels impossible. Some mothers say, “I left her where someone richer would find her, because I could not watch her starve to death in my hands.” It is a distorted act of survival.

Geographic Reference

3. Intense societal stigma and shame: In Ghana, pregnancy outside marriage, teenage pregnancy, or pregnancy from rape can bring extreme family rejection. The girl is called “spoilt,” beaten, banned from church, or sacked from school. The fear of bringing shame to the family name is heavier than the fear of police. So she hides the pregnancy for 9 months, delivers alone, and abandons in secret to protect her family’s “honour.”

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4. Paternal abandonment — The Man Who Ran Away: Behind almost every abandoned baby is a man who vanished. He says, “It is not mine,” or “Abort it,” and switches off his phone. The mother is left utterly isolated — no emotional, financial, or social support. She is criminalised alone, but the abandonment started with him. Psychological research shows paternal denial is one of the strongest predictors of maternal panic and newborn abandonment. 

5. Substance abuse disorders: Alcohol, tramadol, and other drug addiction impair the brain’s executive functioning — the ability to plan, judge consequences, and process emotions. A mother struggling with addiction may give birth in a highly intoxicated or withdrawal state, unable to comprehend the needs of the newborn, leading to neglect and eventual abandonment.

6. The spirit child cultural phenomenon and superstition: In some remote pockets of Northern Ghana and even in few parts of Central and Ashanti regions, public health research shows babies born with congenital deformities, severe disabilities, or whose mothers die in childbirth are branded as “spirit children” or cursed. In extreme instances, families, under cultural pressure, mandate that such babies be exposed or abandoned at shrines or bushes. This is not mental illness, but a harmful cultural belief system that still kills.

The invisible wounds

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On the baby: Risk of death from hypothermia, sepsis, and infection. Survivors suffer Anaclitic Depression and Failure to Thrive due to lack of touch. As adults, they battle Reactive Attachment Disorder, chronic mistrust, and identity crisis — “Why did my mother leave me in a dustbin?”

Babies & Toddlers

On the mother: Lifelong hidden grief, intense guilt, chronic PTSD, depression, and elevated suicide risk. A prison cell does not heal this.

On the nation: Overburdened orphanages like Osu Children’s Home, draining health budgets, and overworked Social Welfare officers.

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Cassava leaf consumption was just not part of traditional Ghanaian culture, and as Dr. Kwaku Owona Hwesofour Asante, a Research Scientist at the CSIR-Crops Research Institute (CRI), has noted, the hurdle to adopting this resource is cultural rather than environmental or economic.

The crop has only been viewed through the lens of its starchy root for many centuries. In the meantime, our West African neighbours’ cuisine has traditionally featured cassava leaves.

Ghana’s eating and cooking customs need to change. These leaves have an astounding crude protein content of 17 percent to 38 percent on a dry weight basis. Even more impressively, they provide more than 10 of the essential amino acids required by the human body for tissue growth and health maintenance.

According to Dr. Asante’s striking and indisputable comparison, eating correctly prepared cassava leaves is biologically similar to eating fish or eggs for protein

Ignoring a free, plentiful, environmentally friendly alternative is a luxury we can no longer afford in a nation where the typical household’s cost of animal and fish proteins is rising. The private sector has a strong business argument that goes beyond public health.

These days, agriculture has to adjust to resource scarcity and climate change. A cyclical agro-economy is defined by the use of cassava leaves. A farmer can practically double their yield without purchasing an additional metre of land, using more water, or clearing more forests by harvesting the leaf canopy in addition to the underground root.

Although there are naturally occurring cyanogenic chemicals in raw cassava leaves, this issue has previously been resolved by science. The toxicity is completely neutralised by pounding and boiling the leaves for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, making them completely safe.

Aggressive private enterprise is made possible by his predictable processing pathway. It is simple to commercialise processed leaves as nutrient-dense cattle feed concentrates, dry protein powders for dietary supplements, or frozen culinary greens.

An Appeal for Legislative Action By demonstrating the science and charting the financial advantages, researchers at the CSIR-CRI have done the tough lifting. They have already briefed important decision-makers. The government’s leadership now has complete control over the situation.

The Spectator feels that the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection (MGCSP) need to take action in order to transform this overlooked treasure into a national asset.

Consumption of cassava leaf should be purposefully incorporated into national food initiatives like the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP). The government can simultaneously enhance children nutrition and provide rural farmers with new sources of income by establishing an institutional market for the leaves.

We can no longer afford to let literally tons of premium protein to spoil in our crops. It is time to look above the ground, see the green gold that is looking back at us, and fully use Ghana’s cassava canopy.