Features
Our dead fishing industry
As a vegetarian, do I have to bother if others do not get their meat and fish to eat? The answer simply is yes, I am bothered because being vegetarian is a choice which I have no right to impose on anyone; not even on my family. My son, however, chose vegetarianism along the way. And my youngest daughter too.
Ghanaians love their fish and consume over a million tonnes annually. Almost all of our coastal communities are into fishing as a source of livelihood. Indeed, statistics tell us that about 10 per cent of Ghana’s population is engaged in fishing. This means a little over three million Ghanaians are into fishing. But I think this figure needs a review downward since our inland water bodies are being degraded and throwing our fishers out of business. In fact, the only natural environment for fish to thrive in is water.
The Tema fishing harbour has all but died since the middle of last year. All fishing vessels, except a few tuna trawlers, have been grounded because the Ghana Maritime Authority has now woken up from its slumber to insist that these fishing vessels are primed to international standards before they go out to sea.
This edict has affected the operators financially in these hard times that they have virtually nothing to fix their vessels with. The institutional failure in our land is so nauseating that the ordinary man becomes a victim. Of course, standards must be maintained, no doubt, but why did the Maritime Authority wait all these years for these poor fisher folks to manage their businesses the way they knew only to be shackled when they least expected it?
Now, only those with connections in high places import frozen fish into the country. Today, trading in frozen fish is the only activity at the fishing harbour in Tema. One can only get some fresh fish from the artisanal canoe fishers, a negligible undertaking. Those on the value chain of fishing activities at the harbour are out of commission at this point in time.
The situation is not different at the landing beaches. At Jamestown in Accra, plastic waste constitutes the greater percentage of what the fishermen haul ashore from each expedition. And this adds to the cost of repairing their fishing gear.
We have a Fisheries Commission but I wonder if it has all the data on what fishery is all about. Research findings are gathering dust on shelves, because we do not yet have the culture of using research material to better our lot. Every available water body that has living microorganisms is a resource for aquatic life. Rivers, lagoons, lakes and ponds serve this purpose.
The Fisheries Commission should be the one spearheading the fight against the pollution of our water bodies by illegal mining operators, not the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. It is because once the rivers are polluted with toxic chemicals, aquatic life is lost, thus depriving the fishers of their source of livelihood and the communities their source of protein.
The Fisheries Commission seems to be unaware that the estuaries of our rivers have all been silted, thereby starving mangroves of nutrients and cover for the spawning of crustacians like crabs, prawns and shrimps. As a result, shrimpers have folded up their business.
Take the estuary of the Volta River, for example. The silting of this area has given rise to water hyacinth along the banks of the river right from Kpong in the Asuogyaman District all the way down to Sogakope and Ada in the South Tongu and Dangme East Districts respectively. The river used to discharge water into the Keta Lagoon by way of Galo and Savietula and, as a result, introduce new fish varieties into the lagoon. That has not happened in the last thirty-five years or so and nothing is being done to reverse this.
I spent 15 years living by the Keta Lagoon, first in Keta itself, Anyako and Anloga in1957.
At Anyako, my grand-aunt fried over a dozen species of fish for sale in Accra. One room was dedicated to baskets of assorted fish right from the floor to the ceiling. I didn’t need permission to help myself with any that caught my fancy, but I never took undue advantage.
Personally, I went fishing for sport. After all, there was more than enough in my home to choose from, but I loved the water and seeing fish live in its own environment had its own therapeutic attraction for, and effect on, me. Today, the Keta Lagoon cannot boast of even a quarter of a dozen species.
Oh, how I miss those fishing trips. I loved the hook-and-line fishing since my grandparents did not permit me to go with the professionals for fear I might impede their work, according to them, was my precocious disposition.
I was also fascinated with drag-line fishing. Two people would drag a twine 20 or 30 metres between them on the bed of shallow water. Others waded in behind the twine and, as the fish ducked flat under the twine and embedded in the sand, sunlight exposed their shiny bodies and were quickly picked up. Today, it is no fun trying to fish in this once life-sustaining environment.
The Volta River Authority (VRA) cannot be bothered by the silting of the Volta River. I sighted a letter written by Hon. Ken Dzirasah, a former Member of Parliament for South Tongu and Deputy Speaker to the VRA to address the issue and the effect on the economy of the area. Nothing seems to be done about this.
Lake Bosumtwi is also losing its fish stock. It seems the Ministry of Fisheries is only interested in revenue from licensing fishing companies operating in the oceanic maritime zones. What about inland fishing? Is the Ministry following the provisions in the Fisheries Act to the letter?
Meanwhile, fish constitutes the greatest source of Ghanaians’ protein needs, yet we have leaders over the years who have not taken the fishery sector seriously. Prized fishes are spawned and carried by the Benguela currents along the Gulf of Guinea all the way to the West and North Atlantic. Why we do not take advantage to maximize our harvest of these fishes beats my mind.
State intervention with the supply of what is known as pre-mixed fuel is even undermined by state officials who take bribes in the supply chain or divert the fuel to other areas.
The fight against pollution of our water bodies must be relentless and offenders severely punished. Not only do we need fish for consumption, we need water for our very existence as a people.
We must be worried when the very people whose duty it is to ensure our lives are assured are the ones alleged to be involved in mining activities that pollute the environment and water bodies. Only God knows what future we bequeath to our children and their children.
Post Script: I take this opportunity to wish my dear readers Merry Christmas and Happy 2023. I appreciate the mails you send.
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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