Features
Looking for economic assistance in the midst of bloated government?
The German Ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, recently hit the nail right on the head when he told the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo-led administration of Ghana to cut down its budget if the government wanted help from Germany to revamp its ailing economy.
Ghana, we are told, has been begging Germany within the last month to convince China to commit to a creditors meeting to agree on a debt relief package for the country. But the German Ambassador thinks differently. He told the Ghana Government to cut down its expenditure and the huge size of government if sincerely, it needs Germany to help convince China and the international community to agree to a debt relief package.
GERMAN AMBASSADOR’S OBSERVATION
Addressing a press conference in Accra recently, Mr Krull said, it was strange for Ghana to be crying to the international community for help but continues to operate a government bigger than that of Germany. Hear the Ambassador, “I only can compare with other countries like my own and I can just come to the conclusion that the number is much higher than in my country. So, that might bring me to the conclusion that maybe there’s room for improvement.
“ Well, of course, it depends very much on what kind of expenditures you are looking at…I am convinced this is true for if I look at the budget of the German Foreign Ministry of the German Government, I am convinced there are important tasks that can be cut without hurting economic development. I am convinced without going into details this is true for Ghana. There are certain expenditures that can be lowered substantially and make an important impact and it has to be part of the package”.
CUTTING DOWN EXPENDITURES
He made it plain that, “I mean I cannot go out to the international community and say I need help, but I am not willing to cut my own budget expenditures. I have to be careful not to cut the social expenditures that are, destroying lives and families. I have to be very careful not to take measures that might negatively impact economic growth. But, I believe there are many expenditures that can be looked at very carefully and can be lowered substantially”.
He was, however, apprehensive that the $3 billion bailout being sought from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would be in danger of not being approved, if China fails to agree to a debt relief package for Ghana.
DOWNSIZING OF MINISTERS
Ghana, as a matter of fact, finds itself in a dire situation at this juncture because the government has refused to heed to numerous calls and pieces of advice from the citizens, especially the economic think tanks to cut down expenditures and reduce the present large size of ministers and other political appointees to conserve the needed funds.
It is recalled that, President Akufo-Addo submitted to Parliament for approval, through the Speaker, Rt Hon. Alban Bagbin, a list of names for appointment as Ministers in his current administration in January 2021. The list included the names of 46 persons expected to fill the ministerial positions and support the president to fulfil his mandate in the next four years. Ahead of that official statement, the Head of Communications at the presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin, issued a communique indicating that the total number of ministers to be appointed by the President in his second term would not exceed 85. That was a sharp contrast with the 126 ministerial appointments that characterised his first term in office.
ADVICE TO THE PRESIDENT
A number of well-meaning and prominent personalities including the President of IMANI Africa, Mr Franklin Cudjoe, had said that the problem with the government was not only about performance of the ministers, but also included the size of government and the number of ministries operating in the country, hence merely changing ministers would not solve the problem. Some have alluded that taking into consideration the current poor state of the economy, a reduction in the size of government would save the country some GHc 6 billion expenditure. There are other schools of thought which say that there are too many ministries that could be collapsed to fit into other agencies under some of the ministries. Some were suggesting the reduction of the present size of 86 to at least 40 Ministers and the country will save cost and move forward in the right direction.
TECHNOCRATS AT VARIOUS MINISTRIES
It is interesting to note that even some of the ministries apart from the substantive ministers, also have Ministers of State with special responsibilities in addition, to more than one deputy ministers. What kind of arrangement is this and for what purpose is this arrangement serving? Besides all these appointments, there are technocrats in the persons of Chief Directors as well as Directors of Departments in these ministries. The presidency as well as the Vice President’s office is packed with some political appointees designated with strange titles one can think of and are being paid with the taxpayer’s money.
It is a fact that, we cannot hold on to this large size of government and expect the international community to support us in our quest to restore the micro economic challenges of the country. Some of these developed countries we are seeking assistance from do not have large size of government as ours even though they have sound economic variables. That is exactly what the German Ambassador alluded to when we approached his country for support to convince China and the other international community to reschedule our debt payments.
TACKLING OUR PROBLEMS FROM WITHIN
The numerous challenges we are confronted with as a country can be addressed starting from our doorstep by doing what is expected of us before looking outside for assistance, otherwise we will be a mockery and a laughing stock of the international community and be subjected to general mockery or ridicule.
Ghana has been a beacon of hope for Africa, representing the African continent at the highest level. Many African countries continue to look up to Ghana for their source of inspiration, even though we are confronted with major economic challenges and we should not do things that will erode the confidence bestowed on us by our colonial masters that had attracted international recognition and trust.
It was unfortunate that the President in his recent State of the Nation Address to Parliament, used the platform to launch an attack on the diplomatic community in Ghana for meddling in the affairs of the state, knowing very well that it was his government that called the shot. If we have remained silent over the economic problems and had not asked the diplomatic community to come to our aid by writing off some of our debts payment and also asking Germany to convince China to bail us out of our current predicament, how on earth would the German Ambassador have poked his nose or interfered in Ghana’s internal affairs? Indeed, our current economic downturn, is making us to open up to the international community at the least opportunity and, therefore, we should blame ourselves and nobody else.
WE NEED THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS
Let us remember that we cannot stay in isolation as far as our economic progress is concerned. We will need the services of other countries, especially the developed and more advanced ones to help us out of our economic difficulties. That is why we have to listen to tangible advice and counselling from diplomats appointed to represent their countries’ interests in Ghana.
The present precarious state of the economy today which the President himself has admitted in his State of the Nation Address to Parliament recently, presupposes that, the Akufo-Addo-led administration, should as a matter of principle, listen to the voice of the people and do what is right and just irrespective of political inclinations to resolve the present micro and macro-economic challenges of the country within the shortest possible time.
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By Charles Neequaye
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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