Features
Why Ghanaians need to be fed with the truth
Truth-telling is essential for authentic communication to occur and makes genuine interaction between people possible. The truth matters, both to us as individuals and to society as a whole. As individuals, being truthful means that we can grow and mature, learning from our mistakes. Honesty means to develop a practice of speaking the truth throughout life. It is said that a person who practices honesty in his or her life possesses strong moral character, since the person shows good behaviour, follows rules and regulations, maintains discipline, speaks the truth, and is always punctual.
MORAL OBLIGATION
Truthfulness is the foundation on which human relationships are built. Without truth, sustainable success will be impossible in human dealings. The moral obligation as recognised by common sense is that each and every one has to tell the truth always. Some of the benefits of being honest include establishing a closer friendship that will pave the way for greater intimacy, building trust and confidence, having quality friends, less stress, and improved wellness, among others.
The power of always telling the truth, which is more than just honesty, is that it yields a deeper understanding of oneself and elevates self-esteem. In short, the importance of being truthful and honest means not to lie, steal, cheat, or deceive in any way. When we are honest, we build strength of character that will allow us to be of great service to God and others. The Holy Bible says that when we are truthful and honest, we are blessed with peace of mind and self-respect and will be trusted by the Almighty God.
JOURNEY OF TRUTH AND HONESTY
I have decided to take my readers and patrons on this honest and truthful journey because of certain negative developments in our country where some of our political leaders and office holders have tried not to be economical with the truth even though they are aware that the factual aspects of things that are going on are not exactly what they are churning out to the people, and for that matter, Ghanaians who made them what they are today in the society.
BUNCH OF LIES
It is a fact that the people continue to be shortchanged of the truth and deceived by some of our leaders and office holders, who try as much as possible to hide the truths and facts from them and provide them with a bunch of lies. Ghanaians are now discerning, and they can decipher the truth from the lies.
When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo presented his State of the Nation Address to Parliament recently, he expressed optimism that the government was systematically fulfilling the terms of the staff level agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and expressed confidence that it would secure a deal by the end of March. With the successful process of the domestic debt exchange programme and support received from other creditors, the President was upbeat that Ghana would clinch the $3 billion bailout from the IMF to improve the country’s downward economic situation.
PRESIDENT’S STATEMENT ON IMF
Hear the President: “I am confident that with the cooperation we’re receiving from members of the Paris Club and the People’s Republic of China, which has sent a delegation from China’s Exim Bank to Accra over the weekend to meet with officials of the Ministry of Finance, we shall be able to go to the board of the Fund to finally conclude the agreement by the end of March.”
But according to the Minority Leader in Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, Ghana was not likely to clinch a deal with the IMF in March and would be lucky to get a deal in April. “Mr Speaker, our President said on authority that Ghana would get IMF Board approval by the end of this month (March). I don’t know who is briefing our President, but Ghana will not be able to get IMF Board approval by the end of this month because even the board documents are not prepared. We need to get China to give Ghana financing assurance and that they are ready to take a haircut, and China has not agreed,” said the Minority Leader.
MINORITY POSITION
The Minority Caucus was of the view that the March 31 deadline to secure the IMF Board’s approval for the loan facility would not be feasible, contrary to the claim by the government, because it has not been able to satisfy the financing assurances regarding the bailout, which include the board documents.
Indeed, many economic analysts, think tanks and international financial organisations have alluded to the viewpoint expressed by the Minority Caucus that meeting the March 31 deadline cannot be possible for Ghana to secure the economic bailout by the IMF. For instance, an international rating agency, Fitch Ratings, was of the view that the IMF’s support for Ghana, would likely depend on the government’s ability to show a path towards bringing the present value of the debt to 55 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
FACTORS TO ENCOURAGE IMF APPROVAL
Germany recently, through her envoy in Ghana, asked the Akufo-Addo-led administration to prune down the size of his government and cut down on waste in the system if, truly, the country needed a bailout from the IMF to revamp its shattered economy. It appears that President Akufo-Addo is adamant about following that advice from the German envoy and is rather criticising him for interfering in Ghana’s internal affairs.
Really, what is happening is that the present government’s appointees, especially those in charge of finance, are not briefing the President well about the true state of affairs of the economy but rather feeding him palpable lies and falsehoods about the IMF deal. They knew very well that it would not be possible for Ghana to secure the IMF facility by the end of March, yet they decided to include it in the President’s State of the Nations Address that was delivered to Parliament recently, only for the President to announce it to Ghanaians.
TRANSPARENT WITH THE PEOPLE
We need to remind ourselves that the country has reached a stage in its development where we have to be truthful and honest with ourselves since we need support from the international community to revamp the downward trend of the economy. The truth must be laid bare to Ghanaians about the true state of the economy so that they will understand what is going on and, if there is any sacrifice they have to make, they will do so willingly and wholeheartedly. Hiding the truth and not being honest with the people is indeed dangerous to the survival and progress of our dear nation.
Now that the President has indicated that the IMF facility would be ready by the end of March this year, Ghanaians are expecting that from the beginning of April, their lifestyles will definitely change because they believe that the economy will start improving gradually, but this is not the case. Even if the bailout is approved in March, as the President alluded, it will take some time before the economy starts bearing fruit. This is what we expect from the President’s appointees: to educate Ghanaians about how the IMF programme will work and not to feed the President with palpable lies to score cheap political points.
ADVICE TO OUR POLITICIANS
This article cannot end well without advising our politicians, especially those at the helm of affairs, to be transparent in their actions, mindful with their utterances, and also to be truthful, honest, and sincere to the people from whose backs they rode to the positions they are occupying. The entire Ghanaian population cannot occupy these limited positions, and, therefore, that is why they are there as representatives of their constituents, or the people. Let the truth and honesty lead our nation, Ghana. Period!
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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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