Features
When Ghana turned into ancient village of Umuofia!
Umuofia is an ancient village located west of the city of Onitsha, a market town in the Anambra State in Southern Nigeria on the east bank of the Niger River.
In Chinua Achebe’s popular and widely read novel, “Things Fall Apart”, the village of Umuofia is a setting for the story and the community of characters. He decided to use events in Umuofia to illustrate his book. Achebe in his writings, suggested that many things that were true of Umuofia, were true throughout the villages of precolonial Nigeria. Umuofia can, therefore, be seen as a representative of the tribal societies that have not yet been altered by colonialism.
UMUOFIA AS REFERRED TO IN ‘THINGS FALL APART’ NOVEL
Within “Things Fall Apart”, this view of life in Umuofia as reflecting larger patterns is shared both by Okonkwo, the novel’s protagonist and the British Commissioner, who decides to use events in Umuofia to illustrate his book about the process of colonialism.
Indeed, the recent Watchnight church services across the country to usher in the year 2022, were graced with some funny and interesting developments from some of our pastors and prophets with doom prophecies and predictions about fellow humans, group of persons and the country at large in spite of the strong warning from the police hierarchy to them to refrain from the act or face the full rigours of the law. Some of these pastors defied the warning and made predictions of death of fellow humans without any proof whatsoever.
POLICE WARNING TO DOOM PROPHETS AND PASTORS
It is recalled that few days before the end of the year, the Ghana Police Service gave a strong warning to these so-called doom pastors, prophets and men of God that it would go after them, arrest and prosecute such offenders. That, according to the police hierarchy,was a move to stamp out that annual ritual during such period of the year when the country is in festive mood. The police indicated its resolve to deal with such waywardness that has become annual ritual of the end of year Watchnight church services and New Year resolutions.
A statement from the Ghana Police Service warned that under Ghanaian law, it was a crime for a person to publish or reproduce a statement, rumour or report which was likely to cause fear and alarm to the public to disturb the public peace whereas that person had no evidence to prove that the statement, rumour or report was true. It is also a crime for a person, by means of electronic communication service, to knowingly send a communication that is false or misleading and likely to prejudice the efficiency of life saving service or to endanger the safety of any person. The police emphasised that while they were not against such prophecies and had time and again acknowledged the public’s right to religion, freedom of worship and free speech, those rights were subjected to laws and those found flouting the law would be dealt with accordingly.
FLAGRANT DISREGARD OF POLICE WARNING
Strangely, some of these so-called doom pastors called the police warning a bluff and went ahead to make frivolous and deadly predictions and prophecies during their Watchnight church services and got away with it without being arrested.
The funnier prediction or prophecy came from that popular and controversial Ghanaian Prophet, Founder and Leader of the Prophetic Hill Chapel, Prophet Nigel Gaisie, who either for fear of being arrested or for some obvious reasons, used the village of Umuofia in the Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” novel to make his predictions and prophecies over what is bound to happen in Ghana this year. He likened Ghana to Umuofia and predicted the death of certain prominent personalities including a First Lady. Adopting an evasive style for his prophecies this year, Prophet Gaisie, aligned his prophecies with various countries geographically including a certain Umuofia and Uganda. Strikingly, there were similarities in his prophecies about Umuofia and Ghana.
PROPHET GAISIE’S DIRECT REFERENCE TO GHANA
Looking and evaluating critically the names of individuals, towns, institutions and activities of political parties, one can simply adduce that Prophet Gaisie, was directly referring to Ghana in his details about Umuofia. “I saw a heavy cloud of darkness covering the Head of State of Umuofia. Let’s take this prophecy very serious. I saw that his deputy is using ways to trigger his quick passing. I saw in the realm of the spirit that the shoe of a big man is being worn by the deputy. I saw in a nation of Umuofia that something that has happened there is about to re-occur,” he stated in one of his prophecies.
For the benefit of those who don’t know this controversial prophet, let me enlighten my readers and patrons with a brief background of Nigel Gaisie. This man, we are told, was born and raised in Ghana. He is one of the richest prophets in Ghana at the moment with a lot of properties, including mansions and plush vehicles. We are told that Prophet Gaisie is estimated to have a net worth of 10 billion dollars. He is married to a Ghanaian lady with two children. The behaviour of Prophet Gaisie in this instance can be regarded abuse of the law and must be condemned.
THE FEAR AND PANIC BEHAVIOUR OF OUR PASTORS AND PROPHETS
It is a fact that some of these so-called pastors with their own small churches are bent on causing fear and panic in this country through their actions and inactions. The way some of them are conducting themselves leaves much to be desired. Sometimes, it baffles to think of how they acquired their lincences to operate in this country. They use all kinds of occult and devilish means to dupe unsuspecting followers, promising them things they are not capable of doing.
CHASING THE RECALCITRANT PASTORS AND PROPHETS
The Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, which regulates the activities of these churches must be up to the task of monitoring the activities of these mushroom churches which are playing on the ignorance of the people and feeding fat on them by using sugar-coated religious messages to outwit their followers. Much as this country agrees to freedom of worship and association as enshrined in our 1992 Constitution, we must also make sure that churches whose activities and actions tend to undermine national security thereby creating fear and panic among the citizenry are proscribed.
This is the time for the Ghana Police Service under the able leadership of the energetic, young and hardworking Inspector-General of Police, Dr. George Akuffo Dampare, to move into action, arrest and prosecute these doom and selfish pastors, prophets and other so-called men of God who are bent on causing fear and panic in our dear nation.
This year must be full of action and nothing should stop us from moving the country to greater heights.
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By Charles Neequaye
In late 2025 and early 2026, Ghana witnessed a cruel paradox. From Tumu in the Upper West Region to Akomadan in Ashanti Region and Ziope in the Volta Region, farmers harvested abundance only to watch it rot.
This food glut occurred where thousands of bags of maize, rice, tomatoes, crates of eggs and other foodstuffs remain unsold, even as consumers especially in the urban areas complained bitterly about soaring food prices. In Ghana today, success in farming has become a punishment.
Here is the hard truth: Ghana’s food crisis is no longer about how much we produce; it is about how poorly we protect, move, price, and value what we produce. Until we build and fix storage, market rules, processing capacity, and import discipline, bumper harvests will keep bankrupting farmers while cities keep paying too much.
Over the last decade, national policies have celebrated production. Initiatives like “Planting for Food and Jobs” (PFJ) and “Nkoko Nkitinkiti” expanded acreage, inputs, and output. By most metrics, farmers delivered.
Yet the food system beyond the farm gate (storage, transport, processing, pricing, and trade protection) was left to chance.
The result is a broken chain. A maize farmer in the Upper West sells a 100kg bag for about GH¢200, down from GH¢500 the previous year, a 60% collapse.
In Accra, maize products barely reflect this drop. Poultry farmers offload eggs at GH¢40 per crate, while consumers still pay GH¢75. Somewhere between farm and market, value is extracted, distorted, and hoarded.
Reports across food markets show that the greatest margins sit not with producers, but with intermediaries also known as “middlemen”. High transport costs, multiple informal levies, weak farmer bargaining power, and opaque pricing allow middlemen to buy at giveaway prices and sell at premiums. This has led to farmers being financially crippled, unable to recover input costs or reinvest for the next season. Young investors are also discouraged from agriculture due to the little to no profits or negative margins.
Consumers remain trapped in high-price markets despite national food surpluses. Ghana has mastered the art of growing food, but failed at the science of managing it.
Import dependence is also another factor undermining local success. While imports can stabilize prices during shortages, Ghana’s current trade posture actively undermines local producers. The appreciation of the cedi in 2025–2026 made imported rice, poultry, onions, and tomato paste cheaper just as local harvests peaked.
Tomato farmers in Akomadan and Ziope watched their produce decay as markets preferred longer-shelf-life varieties from Burkina Faso or imported paste. Poultry farmers struggle against frozen chicken imports. This is not competition; it is policy neglect.
The impact of these actions will be felt when local farmers lose market confidence and reduce future production, where Ghana exports jobs and value while importing food insecurity and end up sacrificing its long-term food sovereignty for short-term price optics. True food security comes from stable local prices and resilient producers, not volatile imports that collapse domestic systems.
Some argue that imports are necessary to protect the urban poor and keep inflation low. This is partially true but dangerously incomplete. Cheap imports may ease prices today, but they destroy the producer base that feeds the nation tomorrow. Without seasonal import controls, border discipline, and anti-smuggling enforcement, Ghana is locking itself into perpetual dependence and rural poverty.
A protection package Ghana can implement
If abundance is to become prosperity, Ghana must pivot from a production-only mindset to full value-chain protection:
1. Guaranteed minimum price + strategic buffer buying (MoFA/NAFCO/GGC): During peak harvest, the state and credible private aggregators should buy key staples at a floor price based on transparent quality grades. The rule should be clear: when prices fall below a threshold, the buffer buyer steps in; quickly, transparently, and with audit trails.
2. Storage and cold-chain as national infrastructure, not an afterthought (MoTI, MoFA, Assemblies, private sector): Every major producing corridor should have community aggregation centres, warehouse capacity with grading and weighing, cold rooms for perishables including solar-backed cold storage where feasible.
3. Rules-based seasonal import controls (MoTI, Customs, enforcement agencies): Ghana should define import windows for selected commodities, set clear triggers and enforce controls during peak harvest periods.
4. Institutional procurement that guarantees demand (GES/School Feeding, Prisons Service, Hospitals, Security Services): Set district-level procurement targets and mandate institutions to source food locally, especially in harvest seasons. This creates predictable demand, supports farm prices and improves nutrition quality in public institutions.
5. Market transparency and farmer power (digital price dashboards + cooperatives + enforceable contracts): Farmers must have resources like real-time price information by region, standard grading and weights, contract farming frameworks with dispute mechanisms and strengthened cooperatives that negotiate transport, storage, and sales. These resources reduce dependence on exploitative intermediation. When farmers act individually, they are easy to squeeze. When they aggregate, they can bargain.
One more thing: stop treating value addition as a slogan. The promise of “One District One Factory” vision must move beyond political slogans and become the “One District One Processing Plant” reality for our perishable staples.
A bumper harvest should be a cause for national celebration, not financial death sentence to the farmer. Until Ghana fixes the space between the farm and the fork, abundance will remain a curse and the Ghanaian farmer will keep paying the price for feeding the nation.
By: Sophia Komasi
The Ghanaian community in Finland on Saturday, March 14, 2026, celebrated Ghana’s 69th independence anniversary in an impressive event in Helsinki, the capital city of Finland.
The event was organised by the Ghana Union Finland (GUF), an association of Ghanaian migrants in Finland. It was an occasion well attended by many people from the Ghanaian community in Finland, Finns and other nationalities.
The occasion was graced by the Special Guest, Her Excellency Abigail Naa Adzoko Kwashi, the Ambassador of Ghana to Norway with concurrent accreditation to Finland and Iceland.
In her speech, the Ambassador encouraged Ghanaians living in Finland to pursue unity, actively participate in, and support the Ghana Union Finland to build a stronger body better positioned to advocate for its interests and goals.
Also present at the event was the Honorary Consul of Ghana in Finland, Mrs Kati Kivisaari, who has replaced the retired Ms Ulla Alanko. Mrs Kivisaari urged Ghanaians in Finland to remain good ambassadors of Ghana in their lives in Finland.
The event saw the inauguration of new executive members of the Ghana Union Finland. The team was inducted by Elder Samuel Anini, Patron of the Ghana Union Finland.
Earlier, a “royal entry” was performed by leaders of the Asanteman Finland and Mfantseman Kuw and other personalities in their colourful kente attire adorned with ornaments, amidst traditional music and adowa dance to usher in the Ambassador.
Some personalities present at the event were Nana Ekuoba Gyasi Gyimah and other leaders of Asanteman Finland, Mfantseman Kuw Finland, as well as representatives of other Ghanaian ethnic groups.
It was a very colourful occasion with dance and other performances such as poetry recitals. The audience was also treated to tasty Ghanaian dishes such as jollof rice, fried yam, and soft drinks.
Unity and harmony
I see such events, especially the ones marking independence anniversaries, as ample display of unity and harmony in the Ghanaian migrant community as well as in the larger Ghana and Finland relations.
For me personally, whenever I think about Ghana’s Independence Day anniversary every 6th of March, my mind also goes to Finland’s own day on 6th of December. The two dates always give me such a special, positive feeling. As soon as one of the dates ends, I begin a countdown to the other (next) date.
Last year on December 6, 2025 when Finland celebrated its 108th independence anniversary and I participated in two events marking the celebration in Helsinki, I started looking forward to Ghana’s 69th anniversary this year. Now that Ghana’s anniversary is over, I am looking forward to Finland’s 109th anniversary on December 6, 2026. That’s the beauty of it all for me.
Ensuring integration
What I see in all this, especially for Ghanaian migrants in Finland, is the chance for members of the Ghanaian diaspora in Finland to integrate into the Finnish society through such celebrations that are marked by social activities, affiliations and ideas of inclusion.
Inclusion is key to integration, and the two ideas undoubtedly build a sense of belonging. As I previously wrote, Finland sees the role of migrant associations as bridge-builders for the integration and inclusion of migrants through participation in the decision making process and by acting as a representative voice, which is highly appreciated in Finland.
As I keep pointing out, Finland encourages migrants’ participation in the planning of issues concerning the migrants themselves, using such a strategy as one of the efficient ways to improve their inclusion. Thus, there is an enabling environment created within the Finnish cultural ecology that undoubtedly helps migrants to integrate into the host Finnish society. Thank you!
GHANA MATTERS COLUMN
With Dr Perpetual Crentsil
