PROF.KWABENA FRIMPONG-BOATENG STANDS TALL

On the Journey through life, most patriotic countrymen are faced with contention with a daunting mental ordeal. One that stems from our innermost being, questioning the significance of our existence in this part of our world, but most importantly, questioning why of all the countries we were stood on the same pedestal with, we continue to shamelessly lag behind. Shamelessly, owing to the number of times as individuals, we like to mentally shred the truths regarding the state of our being behind some political mask or anchor our thoughts in the status quo, after all, “this is Ghana for you”. That is not “Ghana”, that is a consequence of a blatantly inconsiderable spate of elitism, shredding the very use common sense, and resorting to imaginations and fantasies. To most of these elite, it no longer matters how many individuals your eyes can see as hungry, so long as there is a “piece of paper” that says they are full. It doesn’t matter any longer how many able-bodied men you see on your streets unemployed, so long as you can produce some statistic to prove that they are okay.
Education and elitism have total been divorce from reality, so much so that many young Ghanaians now feel embarrassed of being identified as citing facts based on their encounter with ordinary everyday Ghanaians. We have statistical data to prove that our economy has grown, that is a FACT but also around the corner is another palpable indicator showing that most of our countrymen scrape by without the much needed basics that make life worth living: good water, food, electricity, health care and education. So if I may ask the elite, at what level does macro-economics or declining inflation begin to mean that young men and women will only be separated from a reasonable quality of life by their “will to work hard”?
What we seek is a new beginning. Learning to crawl before we walk after which we can run. Our development as a nation will never be measured by an 18 or 24-hole golf course or glittering skyscrapers; and if there is anything to write about, that will forever represent our shame. No one outside will respect a country with glittering edifices where children die of an eradicable disease like Malaria. No number of imported polished 4x4s can erase the shame that comes with the fact that the Ghanaian imports toothpicks and handkerchiefs too.
For once in my life, I used the occasion of the New Patriotic Party’s presidential primaries as a test of my common sense. I would forego all fore knowledge and prejudices, and subject myself to the use of the facts on the ground.
What I knew would glaringly stick out in each contestant’s campaign message will be their belief in Ghana. Behind those words, based on what I had observed about each candidate, I would make a common sense judgement about the veracity of such attestation. There I saw a man who defies the odds; at a time when our medical Doctors were put to no further use than cure of Malaria and Diarrhoea, he saw beyond that. He knew of the quality of brains and the enormous talent we had on our land. He knew that our medicine could reach and transcend the heights that western medical practise had gotten. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, during the tenure of the then President Rawlings, established the Korle-Bu Cardio-thoracic centre; preparing young Doctors to face up to a new paradigm of contemporary surgery that even as a scientist, I do not feel qualified enough to describe. Prof. Frimpong-Boateng did not tell me that he believes in the reach of our country’s dreams; I know he does.
Again I know of how many times we will hear of our need to be able to feed ourselves, and what complex reforms we need to be able to that. Through all of this, I never see one who gets us to boldly step up and think outside the box of what we are used to doing. Real change never comes by us doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Prof. Set up the Dedukpe Ostrich farm, not to feed the entire nation of Ghana, but to lead the way and show us that we are not eternally bound to the old ways of doing things. Once we start thinking outside the box, we unleash our power to discover new heights and work towards them. Prof never told me that he offers leadership in our Agricultural innovation, I know he does.
He also set up the machine tools factory in Tema, to lead the way in our crafts. Then again he also does not only relish success, he pushes for it and he realises it.
In this contest, one thing I know is that most young men and women would step up to speak out, market and defend a lot of non-existent theoretical hopes, not only based on their individual greed and what they expect in return; but also on their FEARS, the fear of feeling left out by the masses. But this fear is justifiable. It stems from the distorted opinion that there is something to be gained by following the masses, whereas Politics is supposed to be a strong force to lead others (not ourselves) towards a new hope.
This country cries for a new direction, a new hope, a new belief, a new way of approaching tasks and a new leadership. We cannot do the same thing over and over again, in the same manner, with the same people and expect different results. The country cries for selflessness, dedication, passion for success. We seek a paradigm shift off the old ways of doing things; one that leads us to base our judgement, not on what they told us, but what we can see for ourselves. We are better than this, we can hope for the best for our country, we deserve it.....let us stand for it without fear. Let us shirk the pressure and temptations that come with following the crowd. Professor Frimpong-Boateng stands tall, and that’s coming from ME.

WHEN DID THE WORD “AFFORDABLE” VANISH OUT OF THIS DEAL??

Let’s start with some sequence.
Wednesday, 29th October 2008, Kofi Annan lCT Centre, Accra: Panel of questioners concerned about the widening income gap discrimination, especially to do with property ownership in our country. How could we get our lower classes to also own decent homes?
Answers: Government must intervene by making housing “AFFORDABLE”.
Tuesday, 3rd January, 2009. E.C Offices, Accra: Coincidentally, the candidate who expressed the gravest passion towards low income earners and promised to make housing “AFFORDABLE” by improving research into the use of local materials, etc is declared winner and President!(Joy for poor people)
12th September, 2009: Ghana signs Housing deal with South Korea, to provide 200,000 “affordable” units. What a relief to researchers at BRRI. Their years of research into clay pozzolans etc officially ends with big pause. Korea is to utilize their own precast elements, employ their own workers up to 70% of the workforce, and hopefully get some 30% cheap labour from Ghana.
12th September, 2009: Ghana agrees to provide land free of charge, and pay for 90,000 units in advance, to reassure South Korea STX of our commitment as a country to assist them financially to strengthen their financial position. (Read: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/12/123_56972.html) According to the Korea Times, STX were not doing too well at the time, but according to ghanabusiness news, they were in a healthy position. That would not be the 1st time we award contracts out of sympathy. Oh! Ghana! Paying upfront for something we hadn’t seen?
26th February, 2010: After Albert Abongo, who spearheaded the deal, is removed from office, panic sets in and a while after Deputy High commissioner of South Korea, calls on Hon. Alban Bagbin, to reassure himself that the deal struck with them still holds.
8th March 2010: Aide to the Vice President says that Project was being financed by the Government of South Korea. (Remember that initially, STX were doubtful about Ghana being able to honour its part of the contract, and so signed for upfront payment?, now their own Bank was pre-financing the project-(I will explain to you later) According to Abu Jinapor, EXIM bank of South Korea had always wanted to assist Ghana, but there were some bottlenecks with us going HIPC so they couldn’t help us. (GREAT!!, I believe that.)
Finally, 9th March 2010, Accra, Ghana: Project is no longer called “Affordable” Housing Deal, it is now called “Housing Deal”, the word affordable makes it a mouthful, so do the people who constitute the group demanding it. It is not going to start off as a project aimed at getting the Pupil Teacher at Akyem Asene L/A school afford a decent home in Akyem Asene, to discourage her from coming to seek non-existent greener pastures in Accra. It will not kick off with the urgency of giving the young Nurse in Damongo, a chance to consolidate her stay in her peaceful Rural Area, or attract others to go there. No, it begins with 300 “executive” houses in Tema for members of Parliament and Government officials. It will have an 18-hole golf course and a multi-purpose Sports centre. In addition with 5000 “PUBLIC” housing for those supposed to keep Politicians safe. The next phase will be specifically aimed at “Middle-income” earners, according to the Vice-President.
Moral of the Story: If you are a Public Sector official or low-income earner, who felt too excited about something that you could afford in the short to medium term, and are not resident in Accra, or considering moving there to contribute your quota to the congestion of Accra; then you might just want to consider pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. You could as well wait for phase 3, but do not hold your breath. It will be a very long time before real development is weaved around non-Accra dwellers. Sorry, but Politicians live in Accra plus the 70% Korean Workers will not be too keen to work there, and it would probably be too costly for them transporting their materials there.
Realities of the Story: The Government of South Korea is not putting in a Pesewa in this project as we believe. It is easy to convince a weak brain about this, but when doing business on a Global scale, appending your signature to a contract that cements your commitment to purchase everything that someone is building is not too different from giving them cash. Please forgive me if I am wrong, but, is that not what the accounting people call “receivables” or something under current assets?
On a brighter note: The estimates of the Korean Group are not through the roof as perceived to be, they are using their own precast manufacturers, and having to ship units from South Korea to Ghana. In addition, they will be employing mostly Korean artisans, whose pay levels are significantly higher than ours. STX, together with most Korean precast manufacturers have been hit hard by the global economic meltdown and need to be stimulated. I will be unfair to consider whatever excess costs we incur in choosing them to deliver what we could for ourselves as a rip-off, it is not! It is just “opportunity cost”, the price we will pay always for not cherishing our own, or believing that the white (sorry yellow) man has some Magic.
When did a deal to provide affordable housings, suddenly turn into “executive houses” for politicians and units aimed at the middle-class? When will the cement factory be set up in Ghana caught up in http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2009/12/14/south-korea-company-stx-group-to-establish-cement-factory-in-ghana/ as promised?
Let’s all debate as usual, no NPP/NDC, just Ghana.

I KNEW ABONGO AND HANNAH WOULD NOT LAST...........

It’s a bit awkward for me putting this piece out, but I guess after a while now I a bit confident to let my thoughts and observations out for all of us to deliberate on. What I have been doing in this stint of writing dormancy; developing a housing model that gets a roof over Ghanaian workers for less than Ghc 20 000 and still affords them the luxuries of spacious and comfortable living. It is done now and with time, I will ensure that my good countrymen benefit from my ideas and research to clear my mind of the thoughts that I have been busy for nothing.
I admit it will be even more awkward marrying my caption with, but trust me, you will understand as you carry on.
One and half years ago, three gentlemen were vying for the position of Commander-in-chief of our noble land; they were each posed with a question for their definitions of “affordable housing”. For the centre-right candidate, it was Ghc 20 000; to the centre-left candidate, “housing is affordable only when it relates fairly to the average income of the buyers” (not exactly those words). To me, both answers were the cleverest that could come from Nana Akuffo-Addo and then candidate Attah-Mills. Why?, because they represented the political ideologies of the respective parties with no pun.
Almost a year on after the debate, there was news in the media that Ghana had signed an “affordable housing” deal with a South Korean firm called STX, worth $10 billion (all our oil revenue for the next 10years). A deal spearheaded by the then Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing, Albert Abongo. $10 billion was to construct 200 000 affordable houses over a period of 5 years. I am not an expert in finance, but that would work out as $50 000 per unit; wait, we were to provide land for the first phase of the construction, and equally pre-finance first phase of the project? As rightly worked out by Imani Centre for Policy Research, Ghana was to pay South Korea STX, at least $60 000 per unit. As I write now, Ayensu estate and other mid-tier local developers can put a roof over your head for $30 000. These are the kinds of contracts that Dr. Craig Murray will describe as “EXTREMELY STUPID!”.
To add salt to injury, Mr.Abongo negotiated for a 30% employment quota for Ghanaians, on our own land! Yes, 30% of the employees have to be Ghanaians. I am waiting for Graig Murray’s description of that, for a country struggling to manage its own unemployment figures. This is in no way a write up to justify other “Extremely Stupid” contracts, but at least, to bring our minds to what we are getting ourselves into, before in five years’ time, another ex-British Diplomat comes to describe us with harsher synonyms of “Extremely Stupid”.
All these said, lead vocalist of the socialists’ forum, Mr. Kwasi Pratt, was hopping from here to there, throwing fists in the air, singing melodies of what a wonderful contract Ghanaians had signed and what impeccable leadership Ghanaians had. Sister Hannah, the then Deputy Minister was fighting for recognition of her titles, especially deserving now for being the Rock of Gibraltar, behind our ever successful Works and Housing Minister, Albert Abongo. Deep inside me, I knew President Mills was not privy to these contracts (I might get smacked for saying this, sincerely Kwame Pianim). I also knew that with time, the eyes of Ghanaians would be open wider to appreciate what went around them, so I was in no haste to put out a piece to condemn it, but rather chose to send enquiry upon enquiry to really understand what the body of this “fictitious” contract entailed. Lo and behold, there is nothing more to it than a contract to boost the economy of South Korea through job creation, while greasing the palms of one or two Ghanaians. With this, Ghanaians will be subjected to years of financial bondage with tax-payers having to make up the difference between the cost price and the selling price. It is obviously going to be sold below how much we are paying our partners, so someone will make up the difference! Taxpayers! Importers! Someone will have to pay.
I admit that one bad decision is not enough to condemn our honourables, but as they say lightening does not strike the same place twice. After all this, Hon. Sister Dr.Hannah Bissiw(MD) says we need $20million to curb flooding in Accra, Ghc 850,000 to refurbish 7 houses (because NPP spent more), banning car wash activities as an interim solution to our water problems. That is like lightening striking more than thrice in the same place in one year.
I have been an admirer of Hon.Dr Bissiw’s energetic approach to leadership, and would in no way condemn her as corrupt or towing a line that has never been towed before, but to turn into the mouthpiece of Water Suppliers in the event of water shortages is simply ludicrous! Last I checked, Ministers stand on the side of the public in such events and with the power vested in them, demand explanations, set timelines and push the suppliers to offer solutions, both interim and long term or face the necessary sanctions. But a Minister in reverse gear would come on air; explain which machines of the water supplier are not working well, how they are getting an Engineer in to town etc. and how they are considering banning Car Washing. Oh! That is for their P.R.O.
All I said, Prof. Mills has shown a great deal of commitment and maturity in getting rid of both Albert Abongo and Hannah Bissiw, and I congratulate him to that. I hope he gives an hour of basic ministerial lessons to the newly sworn in ministers. I equally wish Mr. Alban Bagbin, every success and I’m more confident that he will do better.

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?