HANNAH!.....ADDRESS YOU BY YOUR “TITLE” INDEED!

About 16years ago, in primary four I recall my class teacher citing two scenarios; to do with “demanding” respect and “commanding” respect. Then, I could not draw any real life experiences to suit those two contexts, but my conclusion then was, to “demand” respect only smacks of gross inferiority. I am moved to write this piece, after a long break, thanks to the recent Metro TV discussion that almost exploded, due to Hannah Bissiw, the Deputy Minister for Works and Housing’s demand to be addressed with “H”onourable (with an emphatic “H”). As I ponder over the transcripts of the discussion, I am amazed at how relevant my childhood class lessons have become to our modern democracy.
Back in the days, we used to joke about the fact that less performing secondary schools always the title “GREAT” before their names (I am not responsible for anyone’s examples), while the likes of Pojoss, Presec, Gey Hey etc, choose to run around flatly with their basic names. All these are beginning to make sense to me now. For the benefit of those that I am losing by my twirling, Hannah Bissiw demanded for Kweku Kwarteng to address her with her titles during a debate on Metro TV, else she would not allow him to make his submission.
I do not totally disagree with Hannah, on her claim, especially considering the fact that apart from twisting Kwaku’s arm to address her by “her” title, she would probably not command that anywhere else.
After the appointments of Ministers by the NDC administration in March 2009, Hannah Bissiw stood out clearly as one of the square pegs, struggling to be fitted in a round hole. Then again, I thought to myself, considering what Major Courage Quashigah did at the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health, it would be woefully immature and irresponsible to conclude that a Veterinary Doctor would not be suited for the second-in-command at the Works and Housing Ministry. We have seen it before in the country, and on a scene like this, where the sector minister is himself a civil engineer, it was not out of place to make Hannah Bissiw his deputy.
Then comes the discharge of duties, from evicting of Ministers of the past administration from Government bungalows, from description of the Ohene-Ntow “fried rice factory”, her conclusion of $20 million needed to curb flooding in Accra, allocating herself a Land-cruiser at the Ministry, Ghc 850,000 for renovating seven Ministerial bungalows and her involvement in the award of $10billion contract to a firm in South Korea to construct 200,000 affordable houses for Ghanaians.
To tone down a previously perceived abrasive piece, Hannah does not come anywhere to being called “H”onourable. In plain language, I have explained the basic steps needed to arrest flooding in Accra, without resorting to huge government budgets. Secondly, Ghc 850, 000 spent on seven houses works out as Ghc 121, 500(c 1.21billion) per house; and this was for renovation ONLY! Thirdly, sitting unconcerned, while $10billion is awarded to a Korean company to build affordable housing only shows insensitivity towards the plight of Ghanaians. From simple mathematics, each unit will cost $50,000 (Ghc 75,000) or c750milllion and yet these are called AFFORDABLE!?! The biggest secret is, Ghana’s nominal GDP per capita stands at $900.
Considering an ideal scenario, that the average family of four will take 15years interest free to purchase one “Affordable” house if they decide to go without food and drink, as well as keep their children out of school for all 15years.
For all the reasons in the world, this Minister, who has wholly or partly been involved in this broad daylight robbery of Ghanaians, gross insensitivity and disregard for the plight of poor Ghanaians, still insists that she be addressed with the title, “H”onourable; in the words of my Rastafarian friends...”NOT I”. In my dictionary, any minister with no regard for the fact that our country is a poor country, and hence does not approach manning his/her sector with prudent, budget less-dependent alternative solutions does not merit the title “H”onourable.
In the case of Hannah, from her Rambo showdown in calling for the arrest of a driver in the full glare of the public’s eye, and also overturn a Taxi, who would address her with “honourable”?
For the greater part of my life, the only Prime Minister of Great Britain that I knew was Tony Blair. As I write now, I am still struggling to recall the titles that came with his name. What I conclude is, there is a silent “Honourable” that goes with calling H.E President Mills, “Mills” which Hannah Bissiw obviously admits to have clearly lost in the eyes of concerned Ghanaians, so no doubt she craves for the superficial “Honourable” which means nothing.

MINISTRY’S FIRE OUTBREAK IS GHANA’S BLESSING

On the evening of October 21, I was told on the phone of the sudden fire outburst at the 10-storey block of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As would be the initial reaction of every empathetic human, I was more interested in whether there were any human casualties involved. There weren’t, blessing number one already penned down. I could go to bed, with no worries, to catch up with the news the day after.
The caption of this article is not intended to be misleading, or make this piece unwarrantedly eye-catching. I do not intend to drop any puns or pen an iffy piece. So for the sake of folks like me, who hate so much to read, I would keep it simple. I AM EXTREMELY HAPPY THAT OUR MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS BUILDING WAS BURNT DOWN. This statement would come as a shock, to the prejudiced and untrained mind. This is one of the most controversial statements ever put out; but to the discerning mind, well, there could be a bit more reason to this.
About 4 months ago, I wrote a letter to the Mayor of Accra, with a controversial caption, “Accra can never be decongested” (still on my blogspot). In one paragraph, I stated emphatically, our need to relocate some or all of our ministries out of the vicinities of the central business district of Accra. In what I termed “Infrastructural decentralization”, I wasted my time to explain the fact that businesses shine off the locations of such buildings due to the lack of a proper and comprehensive address system, which leads to excessive cramming up of space within its vicinities and excessive one-way traffic flow at rush hour periods. In the place of these buildings, multi-storey residential rental flats would be put up, as is done in any country where there are planners, to balance out rush hour traffic inflow with outflow.
I admit this alone does not warrant my use of “Extremely happy”; I get it, but wait till I make my point. Dealing with fire damaged buildings is part of how I earn my living, and I can say with no equivocation that, the photographs that I have seen of the remnants of the building and the reports put out in the media have nothing in common. This is clearly one of the lightest cases of fire damage that anyone could imagine in his life. The entire concrete frame looks perfectly in place to me, and what was destroyed, is mainly the cladding. This is clearly, another plus, not because the cladding only is destroyed; but the fact is, from my view of the cladding on the unaffected storeys, the building ought to have been re-cladded ages ago to befit the status of a public structure to match Accra up with a modern African Capital City. The cladding looks awful, with broken pieces here and there.
If any of our leaders can hear my voice, please this is the time to relocate the first ministry and equally make some money for our country’s coffers. As a professional, I can confirm that in a modern Architectural setting, the building has not lost much value, because the cladding and partitions which were destroyed are worthless anyway. Its value is the frame, and the land it sits on, so “quick”, it can still be traded for a lot of cash that can put up a similar, more modern structure at a different location. I know residential developers will be keen on it.
Aside my jargon and all, I like to bring our attention to the generosity of this fire outburst to us as a country, which we cannot complain about, but only show gratitude to our Heavenly Father for. I am full of smiles as I type this. This fire is a true test of Ghana’s leadership, both past and present.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a strategic and an extremely important ministry. It has been manned by some of our most “gallant” politicians, including Nana Akuffo-Addo and for the past 8 months or so, by the one time deputy commander-in-chief hopeful, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni. With all the noisy campaigns, flirty promises, the time for the simplest litmus test is up.
Ghanaians are patiently waiting for the result of the document archiving skills of all the men who have handled this ministry to date. At less than half the age and with less than 10% the experience of these politicians, the 1st thing I would do would be to create a back-up disk to store all relevant documents to the ministry. This is not my “smart” idea, this is just what anyone who has come across the big English word, “TOMORROW” does. This is takes a matter of hours to weeks, a scanner, a couple of National Service personnel and a leader with a foresight to get done. This is the reason why I do not take kindly to those who will turn their eyes to the previous administration for not properly archiving information, because their failures are not to be dwelt upon, but rather mended swiftly.
Seriously, if it does come out that we have lost a single document because of this fire; some men will really lose a great amount of respect from me. (Not that it matters to them)
A lot of readers will find it astonishing that, of all the points that I made, I have not cited the late response of the fire-service to the scene. Well, it’s only because I do not really fancy stating obvious facts. The facts have been laid bare, that the least said about it, the better. As promised, I will not talk about it.
As we all retreat to our closets, and share time with our maker (not go to Pastors for pray-for-me), we should all make it a point to thank the Most High God, that he grants us opportunities like this, to really appreciate what manner of leadership we are imposing on ourselves because of our inability to divorce ourselves from tribal bigotry, baseless arguments and a haste to swallow political pledges hook, line and sinker, without putting our thoughts to test. May God grant us more opportunities like this.

LEAVE ZITA ALONE!!!

All through out the media, in the last couple of weeks, one minister has come under fierce and acidic lambasting by different sections of the media and individuals. To some extents, some people have come to her defence, but on a broader stage, Mrs. Zita Okaikoi has had far less compliments than criticisms in recent times. For most of her critics, it is her lack of maintaining a solid presence in the media; but for her NDC cohorts, it is her inability to carefully articulate Government’s plans in its divulgence to the general public when she chooses to or better still, a rather lackadaisical attitude towards disseminating information to us.

In Zita’s defence, what information is there to disseminate? Should she conjure facts from the galaxies? The truth of the matter is, it is only in our country, where this will be a concern, because our politics has become 99% talk with 1% action. Portraying Zita in the limelight as an incompetent minister is woefully out of place, unfounded and I personally abhor it with unflinching vehemence! This silly dogma is poisoning our politics too much, and the earlier we shed it on both sides of the political divide, the better for all of us. The people of Ghana have eyes to see what the Government is doing; we have ears to hear and a brain to discern. Zita is there to inform us of anything that might be new or different from what we are seeing or getting, but in all these instances, what we see is what we are getting. From my personal observation of Zita, describing her as “incompetent” goes a long way to describe who we are as a country, which in effect defines who we will always get as our leaders; empty-heads, blabbing endlessly, deliberately throwing dust into people’s eye, shouting off the top of the dome with despicable nonsense and backing it with some kiddie antics, (aka action).

Those are who we call competent right? Let’s face it, if there is nothing for Zita to tell Ghanaians, she won’t make things up! Her silence means there’s nothing going on, which is the truth. Replace her with someone else who will constantly feed you with new developments, when indeed there’s nothing going on. That is probably what we enjoy.

Maybe we have turned into a nation of propaganda, being towed along with our toying politicians so rigorously that nothing matters to us, more than noise, which is exactly all I have heard Ghanaian politicians make, since I started following politics. Maybe we do not know who an “incompetent” minister is. For the sake of fairness, I will not speak too harshly of our incumbent Government but rather balance it out with the fact that the incompetence is spread both sides of the political pitch.

In 2001, two ministries were amalgamated; Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City. A minister was put in charge of it, for six years, huge budgets were allocated to it. Eight years on from that, we have News of the Slums of Sodom & Gomorrah now at its flourishing peak (in the Capital City), excessive congestion in the capital, poor planning of Accra, Paga crocodile pond in the most deplorable state in its lifetime. If fate had not been kind to us, the worst culprit in handling the ministry could have ended up being President of our country. This is not incompetence, is it? Because what we can see mean nothing to us, as what we hear. The issues that affect our daily lives do not matter more than the words we hear.

We have had ministers of foreign affairs since time immemorial, yet anyone could make up any name with a random date of birth and acquire an authentic passport. There are ministers of interior, defence, national security and whatnots, yet alleged murderers are pulled up from under the beds of deputy ministers, who are still serving our country.

We have a Highways minister who thinks that it is Government’s responsibility to allocate funds towards repairing shoddy construction work done by PRIVATE contractors. He carries his shoulder high, and travels 15,000miles to make such an assertion with confidence

We have an Attorney General who has only succeeded in making fun of herself five times by misinterpreting the very law that she was educated to practise. We had railway ministers who can buy train carriages on credit, put the country in a state of servicing the debts perpetually, while the trains are stored in a warehouse, awaiting a track and a signal system to be built. This same railway minister’s tenure, witnessed a head-on crash of trains in Ghana; one of the rarest occurrences in Ghana, much unlikelier than a pregnant man in a country where rail transport use is less than 5%.

I refuse to believe that our country is doomed to an inevitable decline, yet in all my life, I have rarely witnessed a year when our country has survived without going around begging. No! That is not incompetence of our leaders, it is fate! Right? When it concerns the things that directly affect us, we defend the men in charge endlessly. Yes, our government is not responsible for solving all our problems, but unfortunately in the case of our dear country, our government is our problem. A task to count the number of incompetent ministers we have had in our life time is less onerous than trying to fish out one who is competent. On the fingers of one hand, you can count all competent ministers we have had in our country.

We still have massive traffic congestions, we rarely sustain inflation as a single digit, our roads are horrible, our capital city floods year in year out with no hope of it seizing, our healthcare system is so sub-standard our politicians seek medical attention abroad, children still study under trees, there is armed robbery, alleged corrupt officials still go about unpunished and in most cases, they are even honoured, people pay bribes to get into the organisation responsible for checking bribery; in short, nothing simply works in our country. I do not believe all these are the doing of the Hon. Mrs.Okaikoi.

Countries grow on investing in massively in infrastructure, education, science, technology, agriculture and most importantly its citizens. Not much of this has to do with mere words, nor paying its politicians daily per diems more than the (annual) per capita income of the citizens of the country, so for the love of God, please leave Mrs.Okaikoi alone.

HONOURABLE MINISTER AND MAYORS.....WHY COLOMBIA?

I am writing this rejoinder with regards to the recent visit of Honourable Joe Gidisu, and the Mayors’ to Colombia to understudy a modern public transport system known as ‘BRT’. This is not wholly in direct response to the original intent of the Colombian trip, but more to some rather amateurish utterances from the honourable minister of Roads and Highways, with regard to shoddy construction work done by contractors in the Highway sector of our country.

To paraphrase the honourable minister; “Bad roads constructed previously which needs to be maintained or repaired have not only affected our road construction plan for the year but has also affected our expenditure”.-Joe Gidisu. I am not sure of the Honourable minister’s professional background, but I can confidently say that he hasn’t a clue about contemporary engineering and the Laws of public works contracts, else he would not travel over 15,000 miles to make such an unprofessional statement. Pardon me, if I am wrong, but if the Honourable minister understands how the procedures of road constructions ought to be, then he is deliberately throwing dust into the public’s eye by such a statement otherwise, he simply doesn’t get it!.

I would not waste much time with equivocation, but let us all get this once and for all, ‘’A CONTRACTOR CANNOT DO A SHODDY JOB ON A GOVERNMENT PROJECT UNLESS PERMITTED-PERIOD”. I understand this statement has suddenly raised eyebrows among a lot of readers, but that is a fundamental fact of engineering and its laws of public contracts that many Ghanaian professionals especially inexperienced ministers have left in the books after taking their degrees away. I sometimes wonder if black men, especially Ghanaians just love to pile up accolades for themselves and simply turn around and approach their professions with trial and error.

I do say a CONTRACTOR CANNOT DO A SHODDY JOB, and I mean it. For the sake of readers of varying professional background, I will break this all down for our appreciation. A fundamental, but extremely important part of any public contract award is the contractor’s professional indemnity cover. This is a certificate that any contractor bidding for a government project MUST obtain from their chosen insurers. It could be Vanguard assurance, GLICO or wherever. This document should state clearly that the project is covered for the entire design life of the Road or building contract including compensations to be paid for disruption of traffic during road repairs to the state etc. I say design life, because as my colleagues in the Highway sector will agree with me, every road has its design life, beyond which all indemnity cover can seize and maintenance work has to be done before indemnity cover is renewed.

Now that this is clear with all construction and non-construction professionals, kindly go back and re assess the statement made by the whole honourable minister with respect to the state of road construction and other public works in our country. I bet the representatives from Colombia will just bow their heads and giggle, and in their own closets, they will just laugh out loud till their lungs sore.”Which serious government pays for shoddy work by contractors, and puts future construction on hold because of it?” This is extremely laughable. Honourable Joe Gidisu did not have to travel all the way to disclose this to expose the non-functionality of our book long engineers and project managers and worse of all, his own ignorance.

I would like us all to keep this for the records, and for our future, that serious governments do not, and are not supposed to repair roads that are constructed by private contractors. Rather, Joe Gidisu and his men should revisit all road contracts, and inspect the contracts to see who is responsible for indemnifying all those contracts, which by default is the contractor and get them back to repair them. In inspecting those contracts, if he comes across something like NO indemnity certificate was provided, yet the contracts were awarded to the contractors; then we need to invite some people from the previous administration to answer serious questions. If Joe Gidisu has already revisited all contracts, kindly let Ghanaians know that all the contractors were working with no professional indemnity cover, and hence government will have to absorb all costs resulting from poor work; but all future construction will not face similar problems. That is how pro-active, forward thinking men approach leadership. They uproot problems, once and for all.

This knowledge of contractual agreements is so rudimentary; I wonder who can get it wrong and for an unlikely scenario that Ghana’s government awards contracts to private contractors without insurance cover, then why am I even wasting my time writing this. Our leaders, both past and present are simply useless in that sense (I don’t want to believe that). No one does that, anywhere on this globe (except them and the likes of them). This is applicable to public school buildings, public housing etc. whose roofs get ripped off, and communities quickly turn to government to quickly come to re-roof. Put all the indemnity task on contractors like how all serious governments do, and see if they will continue to connive with engineers to do shoddy work.

I would like to sign off with a word of advice, for Hon. Joe Gidisu and Hon. Alfred Vanderpuije, whom I seem to be trailing each day. “I do not do this because for the fun of it, but things must be done right, for the benefit of future generations; and the earlier we put things in their right order, the better. We cannot simply prune existing problems, and mask it with numerous trips to look like we are solving them. Problems MUST be solved” The trip to Colombia was completely and utterly useless, apart from obviously the juicy per-diem that came with it. You can just not implement a government controlled “BRT” in a country like Ghana. We have a different culture; we know how our people treat everything that is Government controlled. Let us not even start thinking of it, because it will definitely fail, in Ghana. It will be infiltrated with politics, so much so that party functionaries will be slashing throats to get a seat on the board of directors, when they have no plan or any knowledge for its success. Just don’t waste your time even doing it. It will hardly make one pesewa profit.

What will be successful will be for you to incorporate bus-routes in the existing road infrastructure invite and assist private Ghanaians to run an organised transport system to a government specified standard, in terms of quality of service, reliability etc. Make it explicit in all terms that orperators who fall short of the quality standards will have their license withdrawn. There are Ghanaians, who run businesses successfully, the industrious Ghanaians. Just give them the springboard, set your standards right and stay back and watch them; you will just be amazed with the results. Only a private “BRT” can stand the test of time, and you all know this so why?

IS GHANA CURSED WITH BAD LEADERSHIP?

Today like all days, discerning Ghanaians have woken to tussle with the bane of poor leadership and bad judgement which has gradually found its place in our Government institutions. We are once again having to answer tougher questions than, “Why do we give politicians 4x4s to feel comfortable on our degrading and unmotorable road surfaces instead of fixing them for all Ghanaians to use comfortably?” “Why do we announce the need to salvage our failing textile industries, and on the next day, announce awarding a national contract to a Chinese firm to supply textile materials?

I believe sincerely that, the real question to be asked now is, “Why do we bother wasting money on elections when we are almost always electing the same people, with the same mindset and the same approach to governance.”

I hate to be the one to point this out, but Politics in Ghana now has become a fantasy for wide-eyed individuals, who without a political tag on them, cannot command an iota of respect even from a passing fly; talk less of succeeding in this globally competitive world. I will say it, with no equivocation that indeed, from all experiences of ex-honourables not finding jobs or being able to succeed after the voting out of their party, politics in Ghana attracts mostly no other people than inferior people, struggling to meet their daily wants, scared of facing life boldly and wanting a shortcut to riches. So where lies the surprise, when such people assume office, and make decisions that even a toddler would think twice about? I say all these making an exception for some current and ex-politicians like Dr.Kwesi Botchway, Dr. Mahammoud Bawumiah, Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum, Mr.Yaw Osafo Marfo, Dr. Kwabena Darko and some others who undoubtedly succeed with or without the political tag in this globally competitive environment.

I have not out of the blues decided to vent my spleen on Ghanaian Politicians for nothing. This morning’s news about our awarding school uniform contracts to a Chinese firm has woefully tickled my veins., I have no choice now than to spew some ether on whoever is behind these skirmishes. While I tried to make point clearer earlier, a few wide-eyed, ill informed mates tried to justify it with the fact that Ex-President Kufour’s team bypassed Ghanaian jewellers to award the contracts of the Kufour controversial awards to overseas jewellers; Kufour’s team bypassed Ghanaian textile manufacturers to award Ghana at 50 cloths contract to a Chinese firm. Since when did bad judgement become a comparison between NPP and NDC? Since when did party politics replace common sense? And if there’s anything worth considering, isn’t such ill judgement by the ex-NPP administration, among a lot more other reasons why Ghanaians rejected them in 2008?

Let’s now put party politics aside, (temporarily) and resort to the use of a rather unusual asset-Common sense.

Could there be one more important reason why Government would consider supply free-school uniforms to rural children other than to salvage our ailing local textile industries, create employment and boost revenues for tailors and dressmakers? I was thinking of boosting school enrolment, but let’s face it; Kofi Kyintoh will not abandon a day of his crab hunting to attend school because school uniforms are free. Neither will the lack of a uniform deter Akora Badu from taking his daughter to school, because he wants to see her become a teacher. Koo Amaning, the drunkard now sees no reason why he should chase his kids to go to school; after all, he is not even paying for the school uniform. I do not know what survey was conducted to conclude that low enrolment in basic schools was due to the lack of school uniforms. I would not even believe it is. But considering an ideal scenario, let us just say that is the reason why rural kids are not in school. Why not legislation passed, that insists they go to school irrespective of whatever clothes they have on, even if they are bare chest? Or make the choice of school clothes a bit liberal? What about focusing on creating rural jobs so that parents can afford their school uniforms for their wards without waiting in queues for their supplies?

NPP were kind enough to put us uphill on the slope down to communism, by introducing school feeding programme, and aluta continua, NDC have come in to make the slope steeper and more slippery. This unleashes the true intention of politicians: Yet as they exist, they will never make you self-sufficient, so that you can also have mouth to speak, or a brain to discern or a thumb to vote on policies. They love having to be the source of your daily bread, your kid’s school uniforms, their lunch and very soon we will all witness the launching of the home dinner programme, where every household will pick their dinner from the government menu and Assemblymen will be given the title of ladle holders. They will never make incentives available to local farmers so they can compete, not for entrepreneurs so they can compete with foreign businesses. The truth of the matter is that Governance in Ghana is hoax, all open your eyes up. You are on your own! Do not bother to even vote, because even if you are given a public sector appointment after your party assumes power, it is your initiation into a clique to destroy the country further with laziness, apathy and greed. You don’t love Ghana by making noise for politicians all day unending! You don’t love yourself either, because sooner or later, without politics, you will be like a zero before a whole number! You can never compete in the real world, and you will be amazed the number of issues that have overtaken you in the real world.

Governance, especially of a place like Ghana demands and deserves the honour of a decent level of social responsibility towards rural and poorer Ghanaians. Oh yes. But that is far from buying their children uniforms or dishing out their lunches. Most are rural dwellers; they need to be put on the right level so they can afford to take care of themselves and their families. They need good roads to transport their farm produce to bigger towns to sell not 4x4 for their MPs to get to them. They need vocational assistance, so they can acquire 21^st century skills. Their families in Juapong, Akosombo etc. need government spending on their textile industries so their remittances to them can be upped.

In august conclusion, if supply of school uniforms contracts is not to be awarded Ghanaian textile companies, then there’s absolutely no reason to do it at all. It is reminiscent of bad judgement, poor leadership, insensitivity, inferiority, pseudo-communism and as always the diabolic act of piling up unwarranted debts for the same children who appear to have been done a favour. It will make our economy worse off, and it will not make Ghanaians any better. Whoever even considers doing that is wicked, if not demon-possessed. If Ghanaian companies are quoting higher prices, the contract can wait until a better deal is struck between government and the industries period. Stand up and reject this. If it is not for Ghanaians, it is not worth it.

I LOVE NPP BUT AFAG IS A JOKE

Tuesday 4^th August, 2009 marked the laying of another milestone towards our quest for a more perfect democracy. It marked the day when Ghanaians, especially the youth, undertook a previously improbable journey towards ensuring that their destinies are written by them, not for them. Men and women, not necessarily of all tribes and political backgrounds gathered together, and with one voice, they expressed how the worsening economic situation in Ghana is taking it toll on their individual lives.

Do I commend an effort to express disgust through civil protests? YES I do. Do I also accept the need for a government of the day to be kept on its toes by a strong opposition? Certainly. Do I agree that any reputable organisation in our dear country has a solemn obligation to stand up for what is right, especially when it affects the masses?. Why not?

Yet in all these, I reject with vehemence the demonstration by AFAG on two levels. One being the lack of credible alternatives on offer to the Government, with regards to all the concerns they raised: And two, is the shadows of doubt that linger around the true intentions of AFAG. Is it for the goodwill of Ghanaians, or is it for expediency sake?

We have seen before in Ghana, when a group of young Ghanaians stood up, masquerading in the name of CJA only for Ghanaians to wake up to find out one day that they were just on their own quests to seek their parochial interests by demonising their opponents. CJA never really had the plight of poor Ghanaians at heart, but were just a hastily formed click of self-seekers who had no alternatives to Government policies, but were bent on pursuing expediency. Not surprising, most of the leading members, were quickly absorbed into the NDC government and on that day, all they campaigned for was zipped away. I would have loved to see Okudzeto Ablakwa, Omane Boamah, Fiifi Kwetey etc. being firsthand advocates of publishing monthly expenditure or outgoings of their respective ministries at least online, standing up against Mahama Ayariga and Alban Bagbin purchasing state property, just as they stood in the way of ex Hon. Jake Obetsebi Lamptey. Rather, all these former accountability advocates have shrunk into their rabbit holes and for most of them, we will hear from them again in 2012, when the start crawling out (that is if they are not too fat then, to come out through their exits).

It is really sad for people like me, who would have loved join a legitimate group to fight for justice, accountability and human rights, but unfortunately, still with my love for liberal democracy, rule of law and all the core ideals of the New Patriotic Party, AFAG is not really a thing for me. It would have been more interesting if it did not have any political undertones. It would have been more attractive to some of us it never had Pro NPP young men as leaders, but rather, invited all young people across party boundaries. A lot could have been achieved for our dear country in that case. Unfortunately, AFAG has already lost its credibility to the treacherous lies and masquerading of CJA, and it will be extremely difficult to gain it back.

AFAG has not been very different from CJA, in the sense that they are only complaining without offering alternatives. The Government claims to have raised the price of fuel in order to service debts already owed, on our journey towards reducing our budget deficit and obviously, having more to spend in the future on job creation. Excellent thought to reduce budget deficit, by working hard to pay off as much debts as possible through cutting government expenditure, full cost recovery at tertiary education level, removal of petrol subsidies etc. but are these the only ways to do that? I don’t know! But that was what I was expecting AFAG to spend time finding answers to.

Young people in Ghana, if we continue to play politics with everything, for the sake of propelling our images politically, we will not do mother Ghana any good. We will only end up selling ourselves lies, just like the leading members of CJA who campaigned vigorously for accountability, yet spent $1000s of our tax money weeks after assuming power on air fare, only to once again come back to Ghanaians to feed us with lies. We will be like them, that say it is wrong for a government official to buy a state bungalow even after following due process, yet it right to buy 5 state tractors if you follow due process.

This is time for young people to get a bit more serious and channel their energies into much more productive ventures. As I write now, 100s of 1000s of hectares of Ghanaian farmlands are being sold to young Europeans and South Americans for the cultivation of Sugarcane for producing industrial chemicals and biofuels. This should mean more to young Ghanaians than merely jumping off on to the streets, clad in red and making noise on radio stations without any alternative plans for our dear country being self sufficient. Our debts have to be paid, yes. NDC is right in saying that. We will have to endure pain and sacrifice during the time while our budget deficit is being reduced. No doubt.

Even if IMF asked government to freeze public sector jobs, did we need IMF to tell us that? Why can we not just be truthful to our conscience for one second? We all know the apathy, inefficiency and laziness in the public sector of Ghana. The only way to do solve a problem is to arrest the situation, subject it to proper scrutiny and put reforms in place, and in this case, the freeze is 100% necessary. But a freeze in the public sector does not imply a freeze on the intellect of young graduates! It does not in any way dampen business acumen; it rather calls for young people to start thinking of; instead of wearing out their shoe soles, dropping CVs; start calling for CVs.

No one should get me wrong, but for any pressure group to gain credibility after the monkey antics of the CJA last year, it would have to cut across party lines. This is why I advise the youth in NPP(Young Elephants) to arrange talks with the Youth wing of NDC(YAN) and discuss issues that affect Ghanaians of all creed, the ways to ensure accountability on a sustainable basis like monthly publishing of ministries expenditure; job creation, like incentives for young entrepreneurs and youth who have interest in agriculture like myself: and together with one voice, that coalition can take to the street in their numbers and present their case to government.

Wake up, young Ghanaians. Fight for what is right, not only when your party is in opposition, but when it is in Government as well. Join the campaign to empower young people with job creation abilities; stand up against selling our country to enterprising non-government dependent foreigners and let us make us non-government dependent as well. That is true patriotism that is true wisdom.

ACCRA WILL FLOOD AGAIN NEXT YEAR!

Growing up in Ghana, perennial floods have become a thing we simply have to marry up with for convenience; though in recent times, its intensity has reduced in the capital, smaller communities outside Accra have joined the trend of facing up to this non-forgiving plague.

As a country, we are gradually beginning to accept flooding as only solvable by a huge government budget, that will either compromise some other developmental project, or leave a hefty mortgage debt for our children to grow up to pay or as the tradition goes, for our children to beef it up more for their children to pay.

Sometimes I wonder why Dr.Nkrumah spent money building KNUST, when as a country we cannot utilise fundamental engineering principles to solve the problem of flooding without thinking of huge budgets. Every year when the whistle is blown for the contention with floods to commence, it quickly registers as an opportune moment to start awarding contracts. In fact, natural disasters have become the spring board for wide-mouthed contractors to attaining their lifetime ambition of robbing the country of its tax cedis. Does now surprise anyone that Hon. Joe Gidisu had already awarded contracts to contractors immediately after floods?

Does it surprise anyone that Dr.Hannah Bisiw (Deputy Works and Housing Minister) announced that government had allocated $25million to combat flooding in some parts of Accra. Yes, $25 million. For people who do not appreciate this budget, it is equivalent to a 6-classroom unit in all 230 constituencies of Ghana or 1 New Regional Hospital in all 10 regions. But these funds are just on top of what Hon. Joe Gidisu is demanding as payment to contractors for their interim solutions or remediation work that was done.

As I have always tried to do, for government officials who do not necessarily appreciate the use of simple but holistic solutions for complex challenges, I will try here now, to tell all of Hon. Joe Gidisu, Hon. Albert Abongo and Dr. Hannah Bissiw how to put a permanent end to flooding anywhere in Ghana, without as always, looking around for Government money to spend. I do this in owing to my belief that this country belongs to all of us, and with our little contributions here and there, we can all help lift the image of our country up.

This proposal will cost Ghanaian Taxpayers $0.000 for the 2009-2010 financial year, in fact it will surprisingly even put money in the pockets of some Ghanaian artisans, while solving two pertinent problems; flooding and water shortage. ‘’For the sake of readers, construction of new culverts will help mitigate the problem, but it will NOT ensure efficient aqua management to address water shortages, it will cost our country too much and is never EVER enough if there are no efficient means to direct stormwater flow into them’’

Before I even outline this, Joe Gidisu, Albert Abongo and Hannah Bissiw; by the end of this week, send a bill to parliament to BAN all future construction of open concrete drainage channels...like NOW! I just could not bring myself to terms with the fact that this drainage option costs way more than laying buried PVC drain pipes yet that is most often our choice for drainage. It was recently that I came to understand why we do not employ the use of buried PVCs and readers; you will be surprised at the reason.

When one employs the use of buried PVC pipes, there is the need for a civil engineer to design and supervise how to grade the slopes of the area so that run-off is all directed into it. It does not behave the least like our conventional ‘gutters’ which would more or less ‘prostitutes’ all flowing liquid within its vicinity. For crying out loud, KNUST passes out an average of 150 new civil engineers each year ; this design is so fundamental, a 2^ND year civil engineering can do. I am not here to give an engineering lecture, so I will go straight to the point. Open concrete ‘gutters’ have an extraordinarily high tendency to trap rubbish when uncontrolled, and choke up as compared to properly designed buried PVCs interspersed with catchpit manholes. They breed mosquitoes, cause malaria; they are an eyesore and are the least efficient but most expensive surface drainage option. Their only advantage is they are good for lazy minds that do not want to spend time assessing a drainage data, and just want to put something in for the sake of it! Ban open drainage channels (‘gutters’) NOW!

While that ban is on, let us make it obligatory for each building to have a rainwater downpipe linked to a proper roof gutter system.(This should be compulsory on ALL buildings) This does not cost much, but surprisingly, it will save us more than 50% of whatever we propose to spend on controlling flooding in the future. For the sake of non-technical readers; when it rains, let us consider 40% as dropping on our roofs and 60% as dropping directly on hard ground. When one has a rainwater downpipe linked to a roof gutter the chaos of the 40% running off the roof to join the 60% which already puts open drains and culverts at its mercy is arrested.

Once this arrest of 40% of all rain water falling in Accra is made, homeowners have two choices, if you have an underground tank or a well in your house, you can direct the rainwater downpipe into it but if you are as wasteful as most of us are, that water can be channelled into the nearest storm water sewer or ‘gutter’; the most important thing is that that 40% of water falling on roofs is kept under control. We just should not allow it to run off on to the supposed ‘waterways’; which is another lazy engineering option for curbing water flow.

We do not need technical minds to assess what the implications are ,if as a country, we are all able to keep 40% of rainwater under control. This is a 1^st step, once again without considering using $3.5million or $25million but rather adopting simple engineering and management practises. This is not just hypothetical, it is what every country which is serious about curbing the flood menace while at the same time ensuring safer aqua management practises does. There are a lot more that go with these steps, but these are very fundamental, they have to be right before we start talking about spending huge monies on construction; either for the goodwill of Ghanaians or for greasing the palms of wide-mouthed contractors.

Once these are right, the Honourables can contact me for phase two of this comprehensive scheme, which deals with paving and is free of charge to mother Ghana or as usual, they can dismiss everything I have proposed!

"The best way to eat the elephant standing in your path is to cut it up into little pieces."
-- African Proverb

ACCRA CAN NEVER BE DECONGESTED.....

In this way!!

Dear Mr.Vanderpuije,

You may not know me, just as I didn’t you until your nomination as Mayor of Accra. Though I do not share in your party’s ideologies and dislike its approach to governance, I am one of the few people who supported your appointment as Mayor of Accra for two reasons. One being the dark mythical thought of us Ghanaians having to unfoundedly reject every Ghanaian appointee from outside Ghana, yet enjoy licking the honey that the remittances and investments of diasporan Ghanaians bring. The second is my curiosity revealed that you are an Adventist, bearing in mind the level of self-discipline, honesty and time consciousness of TRUE Adventists.

The first I heard your voice was on your interview on Joy fm’s super morning show and sadly, this is what I thought of you after that; ‘A man approaching his duty with guns blazing, yet has no idea which angle to fire his shots.’

I am sorry to put this damper on what started seemingly as a praise hymn, but as is the thought shared by many young Ghanaians today, we stand by our country always and with Government, only when it deserves it. Patriotism is the name for that.

Your approach to decongesting the capital city is best described as appalling, lacking creativity and bound for failure at conception! It is beginning to be unbearably agonising when we keep on having the same people, doing the same thing, with the same approach, time and again...yet expecting a different result. Yet, unlike many people who do not side with you politically, I refuse to critique without offering a counter solution.

You have undoubtedly achieved a lot in your specialty; I congratulate you for that, but kindly pay heed to these words of advice.

LESSON 1:

No individual has the right to stifle another’s effort to genuinely make a living. While Individuals in Cars deserve to get home early, retire to bed early enough to get up for work so their bills can be paid and their kids can stay in school, Hawkers have bills to pay as well and some have kids in school too.

LESSON 2:

Whenever your predecessor attempts a task and fails miserably, all it calls for is to adopt a new strategy, work with a fresh set of ideas and embrace a more tactical approach.

This approach is what I am going to try to articulate, and as the elders have always said; save it ‘in your knees’!

Accra has two major problems, both solvable and are what has given rise to Hawking and unwarranted traffic congestion. The first of these problems is lack of properly decentralized infrastructure(I include private amenities too). This seems a bit jargonised so I will break it down in simple terms.

When all men, women, boys and girls of Accra wake up, they all head in one direction. Not because they have nowhere else to go, but they have to go to the one place where everything else is and everyone else goes. Ministries, Offices, Entertainment and food, amusement, Hotels, relaxation, Worship and lately schools are all located within a 3km radius of the centre of Accra. Traders need to target customers on their way to and fro these locations, so is it surprising that they intercept them? Does it surprise you that there is an endless spring up of trading activities in the centre of the capital? Lesson learnt; you do not rush off to build Market places for traders when there is no one plying that route, how are they going to make any sale from there?

My advice is, engage these stakeholders in serious talk as you read this letter. The PWD, TUC, Ghana Post, Registrar General’s department, GREDA and the Government of Ghana.

Advise the Registrar General to put a hold on all new businesses registering say 5km Radius within the Central Business Area of the Capital. While that is on Hold, engage businesses in the Central Business Area in talks to start considering relocating, to other Areas of the Capital. This can only be effective if Government leads the way; by relocating the Ministries, and most Public Building to as far close to the oust skirts of Accra. Discuss this with Prof., he will be amazed at your ingenuity and maybe give you a medal for that. You do not need money for this, so do not start considering a budget for that. Engage private developers in a serious negotiation to convert some existing CBA buildings into Multi-storey rental flats in the centre on exchange terms. The interim result from this will be a similar rush hour morning traffic outflow from the CBA to the inflow. You will encounter the problem that businesses will be lost in competing when they move out of the CBA, but that is as a result of the second biggest problem that everyone takes for granted.

The capital has no comprehensive address system. With such a system, consisting of proper identification of streets and all properties, you are bound to be found wherever in Accra your business is hiding; by engaging the services of efficient advertisers. Once again, you do not need to start thinking about tax money, if I were you; I would start considering selling Street Names to raise money or launching the ‘Sponsor a Street’ programme. This has not yet made mention of how many new advertising jobs, print journals, business directories etc that will compulsorily have to be created because of this activity. Oh! And you can confidently place a ban on prolific disgusting signboard erections which makes the capital very unattractive.

How many more people will have to site Basic Schools by a major Highway, or create shopping malls on junctions of High Speed Highways, or monumental structures in the centre of the city before we realise we have lost control over planning .People are just competing to attract consumer attention by hook or crook whereas they could attract the same attention wherever they are sited if they are properly identified while creating relevant advertising jobs. As you have lived in the USA, you should know better that businesses there do not have to chase land beside the New Jersey Turnpike, to succeed in the world of commerce or small businesses have to cram in Times Square, to be able to attract one customer.

I will end by advising you of the countless secondary jobs that CAN be created by supervising the success of a proper property identification system (PIS). You can engage Ghana Post in talks to move off P.O.Boxes to proper PIS numbers with well defined postcodes. That means 2000+ new jobs created in mail sorters, mail handlers, mail distributers as well as private couriers. Young entrepreneurs can trade on the internet and work from home, trade online. The catering industrialists will not cram spaces in the CBD. They can reach anywhere in the capital with their services, delivery drivers will be employed, telephone usage will increase, telecom competition will be heightened, telecom profits will go up, they will reinvest, sales jobs will be created, there will be less usage of private transport, petrol usage will go down, banks can identify their customers to a fixed abode, credit referencing will be more credible, flow of credit will be enhanced, people’s dreams of starting businesses will be realised, unwarranted inflation of land prices around the CBD will be curbed.

I will discuss how that will improve security in terms of Police response time wise and strategy wise in terms of barricading certain outlet roads depending on where a crime is reported when I write to you again.

The ball is in your court, from this time on I will be following up on how things are going. I understand this option is a harder one so you might take the easier option of putting this piece in a paper shredder. That will be justified, after all I am only a quarter of a century old and as has been the case always, young people are good for nothing.

This should be enough evidence of that.

Thank you.

Boadi-Danquah (ebdanquah.blogspot.com)

eb00026@surrey.ac.uk

GHANA NEEDS SOME POWER SHARING

In recent years, the continent of Africa has quite often woken up to outdoor the birth of a new but rather serendipitous system of Government.

Being unsullied, morally justified and clearly bearing the torch of the last glimpse of hope; it is ironically born out of a brutal struggle, unwarranted abuse and worst of all, bloodshed. Maybe we can be fed with the tranquilizing dose, that ‘good things don’t come easy!’. Maybe not! Not when innocent blood is shed.

The power-sharing deal in Zimbabwe brokered by Ex south African president, Thabo Mbeki; that of Kenya by Mr. Kofi Annan have no doubt proven against all odds to have an ability to calm tensions, focus a country on a National agenda (not a party’s agenda) and foster a more sustainable era of peace and tranquillity.

Let us not be hasty to conclude that this does not come with its challenges. In Zimbabwe today, the MDC is perpetually accusing the Mugabe regime of lack of representation in critical matters and also by passing the terms of agreement to implement institutions that are otherwise outside his jurisdiction.

In Kenya, where the coalition superficially seems to be working, it has not translated into the lives of ordinary citizens. There is also a quest by supposedly wide-eyed critics who still believe that perpetrators of various degrees of atrocities ought to be brought to book.

But let us also not loose cognisance of the fact that all the key players involved in this system of Government never sought after it. It is a compromise they had to stick to. They never anticipitated having to entertain an opposition’s involvement in their governance, but unfortunately (for them) it was shoved down their throats. Not to make a big case out of nothing, ordinary Kenyans (like Ghanaians) still believe that their richness lies in the peaceful coexistence of all their 42 tribes, with a well balanced leadership; yet their politicians think otherwise. The thought here now is; will that not once again take us to another power sharing? Does that not rather prick our intellect, to institute a system where Governance (not legislature) truly represents the will of the people? Devoid of any imposition of leaders on people whatsoever at whatever level?

In all well established Democracies, Power sharing is the core of their establishment and its enormous contribution to the National Agenda is neither overlooked nor compromised in whatever case. In the US for instance, all states elect their own Governors, based on the same party lines as in a General election. In addition to that, there is the House of representative and the Senate making up the US Congress; who all come from different Political backgrounds, share in different political ideologies and yet come together to forge ahead a National agenda towards the realisation of ‘the American dream’.

While one may argue rightly that the US is a federation and hence such a system is very well justified, we stand a fair chance of losing thought of the fact that the founding fathers of the American democracy which has robustly stood the test of time could easily in those days have inserted in their constitution, a clause to permit the President to impose on each state who their Governor should be. I bet this would have been a big challenge if the model of the federal system of governance was born out of a sort of what is practised in Ghana today.

Permit me to buttress my argument with a more relevant system of Governance to ours, the UK local governance intergrated into the Weatminster ideology!. A typical example of how ‘disguised’ power sharing is firmly rooted in the build up to established democracies and prosperous countries for that matter; is that of a resident of Fremington in Devon. His local councillor is Rodney Cann (Independent) but the leader of his county council Councillor John Hart (Conservative), still bearing in mind that the Prime Minister of the Kingdom is Gordon Brown (Labour) and the newly elected speaker of the House of Commons is Jon Bercow (Conservative). The entire local government build up celebrates the diversity of political ideologies and exploits its riches for the benefit of ordinary people. If the UK is facing developmental issues because of such a system, then we probably have to consider wiping Ghana off the map of a developing world.

All throughout history, wise men have sought ways and means to tap into the diversity of Political ideologies to benefit ordinary people and to develop a country. That is why as a country, we should bow our head in shame for allowing our treasured human resource to wander about untapped all because of our ‘winner takes-all’ political system which benefits no one. I write with regret of how as a country we wasted 8years not fresh ingenuity by the man who spearheaded the implementation of the VAT scheme only to bring him back when his battery is almost flat and has physically ran out of steam(obviously). I know that if the NDC held control of a few assemblies for the past 8 years, most campaign promises would not have been hypothetical and before our eyes, we could have measured their achievements in their respective assemblies to make more informed electoral choices.

Yet as I write now, 2001 world finance minister of the year who is a full blooded Ghanaian is serving on a board that advises the Government of Liberia on prudent economic policies as well as the indefatigable young man, who approached the management of the central bank of Ghana with all guns blazing, is wandering somewhere in Canada, preparing young Canadians to take charge of their economic future.

A balanced system of governance quickly spring a thought up of disbursement of funds and implementing policies because of a perceived string of potential bottlenecks, but let there be no doubt that for a country with a National Agenda, there is no such danger at all. Issues that focus on economic growth, individual welfare, security, health , human rights, education etc flow down through to the local people with no hitch at all; even more efficiently is the manner in which issues that seek not more than the parochial interests of individuals are choked up by one bottleneck or the other along the line. More relevant to such a system is the thought that someone looks over your shoulder at any point in time, so you can only focus on what is right and keep selfish thoughts to yourself.

In all these established democracies and prosperous countries, NO citizen goes to the poll with the slightest anticipation of post-election violence or in some instances vote rigging; because after all in their elections there is always one winner, THE PEOPLE. Let us not be thrown adrift by the sudden unwarranted thought that countries like UK, USA, Canada or Australia are more intelligent than Africans. Definitely NOT! All they live off is the prognosis by their fore bearers and their swift action to institutionalise systems totally eliminates all agony that could come with the loss of an election; be it how people have to wait years for their good policies to be implemented or how inferior people cannot survive in a competitive world because their honey taps have ran dry.

Ghana’s elections in the past have been free (fair is arguable) but let us ignore how volatile the thought of hungry men could be. Let us not be deceived by the endless praise showered on us for our democracy, which in perspective is hanging by a thread. It only takes one man dissatisfied by the thought of wandering in the political wilderness for 8years (potentially) to call the shot. Our country is no better than Kenya nor Nigeria nor Zimbabwe nor anywhere else that has in the past exploded due to the thought of power drunk, self seekers!

Let us not wait for what happened in Kenya or Zimbabwe to take us by a sudden flight. Power sharing is not a compromise to be reached after properties are destroyed or innocent blood is shed; it is a wakeup call that lingers around our corners. We may have in the past let our children and youth down, but this will guarantee their future; that they can live in a country where election of leaders is the least threat to stability. We can make this investment and be rest assured, that its returns can be very little short of perfect. For the stability of our country, prioritising our National agenda and undoubtedly, peace of mind for generations to come; just as a young Canadian friend said, ‘who worries about who is elected Prime Minister? The job description is the same....carry on our National Agenda’.

World Bank MD offers recipe for Africa's redemption

World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says agriculture and infrastructural development are the pivot about which economic transforation for Africa can be realised.

Speaking in an exclusive interview to Joy FM's Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah at the World Economic Forum for Africa on how the continent can weather the current crisis, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said Africa must not see itself as a victim in the crisis.

The World Bank Managing Director maintained that Africa's economies must regard the global economic crisis as a challenge for growth.

She said the continent must focus on areas that provide the brightest opportunities for their economies.

“We should be looking into those areas that provide the most opportunity for investors both domestic as well as foreign,” Mrs Okonjo-Iweala stressed.

She said discussions at the forum portrayed an investor interest in a mix of commercial agriculture and adding value to agricultural produce.

Mrs Okonjo-Iweala added that the continent must also look at drawing its own programmes it wants the World Bank to support rather than signing up for programmes that have already been drawn out for them.

Hundreds of African business and political leaders including several heads of state are attending the programme to discuss a possible response to the global economic crisis.

The meeting dubbed the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town is expected to be dominated by the recession on the continent.

One of the key events on the program is the release of the African progress report which will offer solutions on how a united African leadership can address challenges to the continent's continuous development.