Features
The consequences of our leaders’ unfavourable statements
I don’t envy the position of President or Head of State, especially on the African continent, precisely my own beautiful country, Ghana. The position of a head of state or president is a revered one, because it comes with a lot of respect and accolades. A person entrusted with that position, must hold himself or herself in high esteem because, as the saying goes, you are either the number one gentleman or gentle woman of the land. That person is responsible to the day-to-day administration of his or her country and, therefore, he or she is held accountable and liable for what happens under his or her tenure.
THE PRESIDENCY
The presidency is a sacred and noble institution which is an important embodiment of a tangible or visible form of idea, quality and feeling. Therefore, persons associated with this noble institution, must be upright, selfless, passionate, endurance, perseverance, foresight, high-handedness, forward-looking among other positive attributes.
However, even though the position of head of state or president is juicy and comes with a lot of goodies and sometimes with some comfort and some form of enjoyment, in spite of the heavy schedule, I will be the last person to accept that leadership role in this country even if I am the most qualified person to take – up that position. Why am I saying so? The insult, acrimony, name calling, incrimination, bashing, character assassination, vilification among other negativities associated with leadership role, just put me off completely. I am a sort of person who will always want to be a simple and committed journalist, who is interested in using the power of the pen and for that matter, the computer, to right the wrongs in our dear country and put leadership on their toes. I will always say things as I see them and possibly suggest tangible solutions to emerging problems.
PERFORMANCE AS PRESIDENT
It is a fact and the gospel truth that if you are a president or a leader of a country and you are performing well to the satisfaction of your country men and women, you will be hailed and cherished by the people because of the confidence they have reposed in you as their leader. On the other hand, if you are president or head of state who performs abysmally, you will definitely incur the wrath of your people and they will criticise and insult you at the least opportunity. Even you will not find things smooth sailing with supporters from your own party. That is the time you will ‘smell pepper’, because you may think your own supporters have deserted you completely.
THE BEDROOMS OF PRESIDENTS
I cannot be in the bedroom of any president because that is not a place for me and I am not qualified to be there, but I can conveniently and confidently say that, non-performing heads of state or presidents go through hell in their bedrooms. The unsurmountable problems hanging on their necks become a major headache for them in the bedrooms and sometimes generate heated arguments between them and their spouses. In some rare cases, their spouses would have wished that they resign because of the insults and bashings from the people. The problems of the country are so pronounced that they would be having sleepless nights, always thinking about where solutions will come from so that they can have their peace.
THE PRESIDENT OF GHANA TODAY
The picture I have painted is just the situation in our dear country today in which the high cost of living among the people, with inflation constantly rocketing and the local currency, the cedi, depreciating in value against the major international currency, the dollar, as well as fuel increases, forcing transport fares to go up, thus depriving majority of the people their comfort, have been the major headache of the ruling government. Since the buck stops at the president, he is being accused, insulted, maligned and incriminated for supervising the weak economy. Currently, we have started negotiating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout of the serious crisis within our economy. Not even the explanation from the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, to the extent that the economic turmoil was as a result of COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated by the Russian-Ukraine war, was enough to convince the people to tone down their regular bashings on social and other media outlets.Even from the stronghold of his party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region, people are not sparing him the ordeal he is going through. He was reported to have been hooted at, during his recent tour of the Ashanti Region.
THE INCIDENT IN KWABRE EAST
In the Kwabre East Constituency in the Ashanti Region, the President was reported to have told the people that he was not perturbed by the threats from residents in the constituency over the state of poor roads. He said the threats by some of the constituents to vote for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2024 elections if the roads were not fixed, was much ado about nothing.
Apparently referring to a comments purported to have been made on one of the local FM radio stations in the constituency by an interviewer, that people had vowed not to vote for the NPP in 2024 if their roads were not fixed, the President said, “No problem, no problem, people make those kinds of threats to me, they don’t frighten me. Somebody votes for you, somebody supports you, it is because they want you to do things for them, so I understand that. There is no need for people to say if I do not do it, this or that. That is your own problem. Of course, I will fulfil my promises. But if it so happens that you decide to vote for the NDC, that is your problem, that is not mine. Nobody will hold your hand to thumbprint for any candidate, the most important thing that I understand is the responsibility and will deal with it”.
PRESIDENT’S UNFAVOURABLE COMMENTS
These comments by the President have incurred the displeasure of the people, especially the numerous supporters of the NPP, because they felt the president had looked down on them and betrayed the course of the party since he is in his last term in office. However, be that as it may, one can understand the reaction of the President because of numerous insults and bashings on him of late by most Ghanaians. He, therefore has to stretch his anger to the people in the Kwabre Constituency in the Ashanti Region.
It is most unfortunate that in reaction to the various insults on the President, the Okyehene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, should adopt an insulting posture that did not befit a chief of his calibre. Saying that those who are insulting President Akufo-Addo, are uncivilised villagers, witches and wizards who have no sense of appreciation, is also below the belt because what he has to know is that, people are insulting and criticising the president out of anger and severe hardship in the country and the person who has to take the blame is the President.
EMPTY CAMPAIGN PROMISES
You see, politicians and for that matter, those who want to take leadership roles in governance, do not learn their lessons and, therefore, keep repeating same mistakes of the past. As they crisscrossed the country in the wake of their campaigns to solicit votes from the people, some of them virtually went on their knees begging that they should be tried and tested because they had the capacity to turn this country into a state of “bread and honey”. They vowed to provide all the necessary basic infrastructural requirements when given the chance to govern, knowing very well that it was a difficult task to carry out because the resources to accomplish that were not available. They lied through their teeth to become president and when they were given the mandate to rule, they would perform miserably and then the problems start.
The people are now discerning and more experienced than most of our politicians and, therefore, cannot allow themselves to be fooled any longer. A time will come when nobody will even go to the polling station to vote people who will turn round to feed fat on them and make them look like stooges and undesirables.
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By Charles Neequage
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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