Features
What a hardworking President! (Part 1)
When we look at the work style of the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in terms of his age and ability, it tells us that to be able to go far in any endeavour we need the grace of God to be upon us to advance to very high unparalleled levels that are extremely difficult to attain from the point of view of human physique and effort.
There are those who teased the President when he was the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, prior to the 2016 elections that he would never become President in this country. They humiliated him, attacked, and insulted him and bastardised all his attempts to remain focused and win the presidential elections.
After two unsuccessful attempts in 2008 and 2012, he did not call it quit even though he was advancing in age, decided to take some holidays elsewhere, reflect on his lifestyle, back and front, meditate on God, and then come back in full swing. To say the least, he is the most vilified person in Ghana politics today, but despite this, has embraced everyone into his fold.
THIRD ATTEMPT AND GOD’S PURPOSE
For the third attempt, he still chose Vice President Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia as his running mate because he strongly believed that God had a purpose for them and so it came as no surprise when in 2016, he emerged gargantuan victorious with the able support of Dr. Bawumia and the people of Ghana who voted for him.
ENORMOUS PROBLEMS
Since becoming President, he has not failed the nation but worked hard, claiming that he was in a hurry to quickly fix the problems facing the country. The enormous problems were lack of good roads, poor health facilities, lack of ambulance vehicles, difficulties in the educational system, abysmal performance of the agricultural sector, low productivity in mining, destruction of rivers which were a source of drinking water, high unemployment rate, looming banking crisis as well as a collapsing economy, among others.
The President of the Republic was not disturbed by these challenges but was rather encouraged to remain focused and see what he could do for the lovely people of this country. Within the first year of his administration, he reiterated that Senior High School, together with Technical and Vocational School, was going to be free so that parents could have the freedom to attend to other needs of their families.
There was one Nana Diasempa of a village in a remote area in the Bono Region. He was so passionate and kind-hearted that despite the numerous problems that faced him and his elders, he gave every assurance to his people and provided meaningful and practical leadership to them, ensuring that their crops became well cultivated while the rivers around were adequately protected to serve as a source of drinking water for his people. This leadership style, provided by Nana Diasempa, is comparable to that of the current President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Akufo-Addo for which reason Ghanaians should be proud of him.
FREE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
When Ghana’s President mentioned that we needed a free educational system, some people did not take him seriously. As if this was a joke, the free educational system was put in place by the Akufo-Addo administration in the light of mounting economic difficulties facing the country. Indeed, some members and supporters of his government even doubted whether the government would be able to carry through its promise but, to the glory of God, this was done.
How was the Akufo-Addo administration able to finance the huge debt that was brought about because of the Free SHS, Vocational and Technical School system? This was made possible by hard work and honesty. Instead of putting the money into their own pockets, the little funding available was spread over the educational system to the great relief of many parents. As a result, some village dwellers, who had no hope of making it to second cycle institutions, especially the elite schools, have found themselves there and are also enjoying from the limited resources of the nation.
HEALTH INSURANCE SCHEME
There has also been great improvement in the Health Insurance Scheme. People can now renew their health insurance subscription without seeking physical contact with health insurance officers. All that a person needs to do is to sit in the comfort of his/her home and use his/her phone or computer to renew their registration. The good news is that the number of subscribers has gone up tremendously, indicating that many more people are now benefitting from the Health Insurance Scheme.
Having spoken about using the phone or computer to renew a person’s health insurance registration brings in the issue of digitalisation, a move by the Akufo-Addo administration being spearheaded by Vice-President Dr. Bawumia with assistance from the Minister of Communication, Honourable Ursula Owusu-Ekuful. As a result of digitalisation, application for and renewal of passports have been made very easy and convenient for Ghanaians who need such services. Other services like registration for and renewal of driver’s licence have all been made easy. Again, the use of crypto currency instead of real cedi notes and coins is also coming in to modernise the Ghanaian economy. All these show that the economy is being transformed from its old stage to a modernised one.
In the area of peacekeeping, the government has ensured that our military who go on peacekeeping programmes are given better portions of what is paid to them by the United Nations. This has made our soldiers very happy and are more committed to peacekeeping than was the case in the past. Again, new barracks for the military have been built for our soldiers who need decent accommodation to be able to perform their official functions very well. At Burma Camp, Accra, for instance, new accommodation for some of the soldiers has been built while other places in the country have also enjoyed similar facilities for the welfare of our soldiers.
Apart from the President’s achievements in the educational and health sectors, it is also clear that he has done very well in the areas of digitalisation as well as peacekeeping for personnel of the military. Our soldiers are very happy with him because he has been honest enough to pay them higher figures in terms of dollars compared with what was previously given them.
There are other important achievements that the Akufo-Addo administration has been able to attain. These include his role in African intra-regional trade, programmes in the agricultural sector, healthcare delivery and the establishment of a commodity exchange to support the agricultural sector, thereby helping to boost up growth in this sector. These and other achievements are to be discussed for all and sundry to know the good works which the Akufo-Addo administration has undertaken and is still undertaking for this country.
Many African countries would wish that President Akufo-Addo was their leader, seeing that he would have worked hard and catapulted them from misery to happiness. For this reason, people in Ghana should pay attention to his achievements as has been discussed here and continue to give him the support he needs to make the country a lovely and pleasant place for all Ghanaians and other people who are staying in Ghana.
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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