President Barack Obama praised Aremeyaw Anas, a Ghanaian journalist with a paper called the New Crusading Guide, who worked undercover for eight months, risking his life, to expose a child trafficking ring. The evidence he amassed led to the prosecution of traffickers accused of sending Ghanaian girls to Europe for prostitution.
On his first presidential trip to sub-Saharan Africa, President Obama boosted the Ghanaian investigative reporter profile. He went undercover to break stories about human trafficking, Obama cited the "courageous journalist" as an example of what democracies that respect a free press can produce.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas was named among this year’s CNN/Multichoice African Journalists of the Year Awards finalists for 2009. Anas was the only Ghanaian among 25 finalists from 12 countries.
Ghanaian Went Undercover to Expose Sex Trafficking from EbonyJet.com in association with the Africa Channel, with writer Toby Thompkins and the Africa Channel’s Bob Reid reporting from Ghana.
Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a reporter with an independent Ghanaian newspaper, had been one of 17 "Heroes Acting to End Modern-Day Slavery" named in the State Department's 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The U.S. government monitors human trafficking in 175 countries, including the United States, maintaining that it is a U.S. priority to end the "modern-day slavery" in which foreign workers are "held not just by brute force, but through exorbitant recruiting fees that can result in debt bondage," as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Anas was responsible for breaking two major trafficking rings in Accra, Ghana, within a year, according to a report last year on america.gov, produced by the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs.
One of his pieces was headlined "INSIDE THE CHINESE SEX MAFIA . . . How Trafficked Chinese Girls Are Sexually Exploited And Beaten In Ghana, Nigeria And Togo. They Are Sold for 6,000 dollars Each."
"He worked undercover for eight months, exposing the ring's methods of transportation and the identities of immigration officials who were accepting bribes in return for overlooking fake visas and passports," the america.gov story said.
"Anas made recordings of his interactions, which allowed him to collect evidence that could be used by the police to prosecute the traffickers who were sending girls to Europe for prostitution. As a result of his investigation, and his collaboration with law enforcement agencies, nongovernmental organizations and other journalists, 17 Nigerian trafficking victims were rescued.
"Following this success, Anas posed as a janitor in a brothel where he collected evidence of a second ring trafficking children for prostitution. His efforts guided police in planning and executing a raid to rescue minors prostituted in the brothel. His exemplary courage and innovation were instrumental in disrupting two rings that profited from human trafficking."
In his speech to the Ghanaian Parliament, Obama said:
"Time and again, Ghanaians have chosen constitutional rule over autocracy, and shown a democratic spirit that allows the energy of your people to break through.
We see that in leaders who accept defeat graciously, and victors who resist calls to wield power against the opposition. We see that spirit in courageous journalists like Anas Aremeyaw Anas, who risked his life to report the truth.
We see it in police like Patience Quaye, who helped prosecute the first human trafficker in Ghana. We see it in the young people who are speaking up against patronage and participating in the political process."
He said at another point, "No person wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the rule of brutality and bribery."
"This is too sweet to hear from the world’s most powerful man," Anas told Africa News on Sunday. "I never knew my investigative pieces are receiving his attention.
What an encouragement! He makes me proud but humbled too at the same time to continue serving mankind," Anas said.
Africa News said Anas, who is nicknamed "FBI," added: 'I have received about 14 international awards and still counting but listening to Obama mentioning my name in public to millions of people across the world is more than an award. I am so touched. I hope it would also serve as an encouragement to my other colleague journalists to continue with the good job they are doing.”
Anas was named the Ghanaian Journalists Association's 2006 Journalist of the Year. He investigated the Euro Foods Company, disguised as a cleaner whose duty was to help mix maggot-infested flour for baking biscuits for sale to the public.
His story on sex trafficking was a finalist for an award from Investigative Reporters and Editors in the United States.
This piece is dedicated to Anas Aremeyaw Anas and my former colleagues at the defunct Crusading Guide now New Crusading Guide especially the Editor Samuel Frimpong whose shouts have made me who I am today.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Open Letter to Ministers of Finance & Communications - Re: Registration of Mobile Phone Subscribers and Monitoring of Telecommunications
14th December 2009
The Honorable Minister
Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning
Accra
AND
The Honorable Minister
Ministry of Communications
Accra
Dear Sirs,
Re: Registration of Mobile Phone Subscribers and Monitoring of Telecommunications
I write to express concern and to pose questions on two matters, namely (i) the demand by ‘National Security’ that mobile phone operators (“Telecom Operators”) must ‘register’ the details of all subscribers, and (ii) portions of the 2010 Budget Statement about plans by the Government to “acquire telecommunications monitoring equipment.” My letter is addressed to you, because primarily, the concerns fall squarely within the purview of your respective ministries. But I make this an ‘open letter’ as the subject is one that the people of Ghana need to be aware of and so that we can all arrive at informed conclusions on the matter.
Before asking the question, I would crave your indulgence to refer to Article 18(2) of the Constitution, which guarantees the citizens’ right to privacy of “correspondence” and “communication” and which provides that this right can only be interfered with “in accordance with law” passed for specified purposes. The Article states expressly as follows:
“No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication except in accordance with law as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the protection of health or morals, for the prevention of disorder or crime or for the protection of the rights or freedoms of others.”
Registration:
I note that ‘National Security’ has been pushing, behind the scenes for a long time and recently in public, for the mandatory registration of the details of all mobile phone subscribers in Ghana. I am aware that they now want to set a deadline before 25th December 2009 for the mandatory registration of all new customers. This is to be followed (at a date that has not been specified yet) by the disconnection of any existing, unregistered customers.
Monitoring:
I note further that paragraph 621 of the Budget Statement announced a “special audit initiative to cover the telephony sector.” Paragraph 628 announced the establishment of a special Communications Service Tax (“CST” or “Talk Tax”) Unit and the commencement of “procurement process to acquire telecommunications monitoring equipment and software” ostensibly for the CST Unit to track payments. Paragraph 672 mentioned an increase in “monitoring activities” to “enhance compliance” with the CST. Finally, paragraph 864 mentioned, again, the need for “increased monitoring” of the CST to ensure compliance.
Questions:
Sirs, these would appear innocuous upon first reading. However, read together, the proposed registration and proposed monitoring throw up many questions that beg for answers. These questions are:
1. Is there any suggestion or evidence that Telecom Operators have been cheating on the “Talk Tax”, which will then require the implementation of the monitoring of communications to “enhance compliance”?
2. What are the legal bases for the demands by ‘National Security’ for ‘registration’, and therefore unrestricted access to citizens’ details, from Telecom Operators?
3. Is it the case:
a. That at present, the Police, ‘National Security’ and the Military have easy access to individual mobile phone details by simply writing letters to Telecom Operators, without any court orders;
b. That telecom traffic travels in two types of paths, the ‘voice path’ being that in which the actual conversation moves from one network to another, and the ‘signaling path’ being the means by which one network can communicate with the other about a pending call; and that text messages pass through the signaling path, which is the path that the government wants to monitor;
c. That the Government wants to compel Telecom Operators to send all their signaling through ‘black boxes’ owned by the Government, which would monitor all call traffic (i.e. the originating and destination numbers, the time and length of call) and report the data back to the Government in real time;
d. That if or when implemented, the Government will know who we are, who we call, and how often we call, at the time we are calling;
e. That although the Government may not be able to decipher the actual words of voice calls, it will be able to read every single SMS coming into and leaving networks, and know every website that a person visits on his/her phone or mobile internet device;
f. That however, by simply maneuvering the signaling channel messages, the Government will be able to interrupt, process, intercept, block and/or divert calls, so that the Government can then eavesdrop and know every single detail of happenings on the intercepted calls, without our knowledge and/or the involvement of any competent judicial authority in Ghana;
g. That the current proposed implementation will allow the Government, not only to know who is phoning whom, but also (i) from where to where (with accurate location placement), and (ii) whether a person is roaming and in which country and on which network; and
h. That by this means, it is possible to (i) change signaling so that although a specific call is made, all traces of it can be removed or disguised so that no one can trace its origin or destination, and (ii) create an SMS or call that never existed?
Conclusion:
Sirs, as I stated above, this letter is just to ask the questions and to elicit responses, if any. If or when you respond to the above, we will continue with this discussion.
Yours in the service of God and Ghana,
Kojo Anan
(kojoanan.blogspot.com, www.i-can-ghana.com)
cc. The Honorable Minister
Ministry of Information
Accra
The Parliamentary Majority Leader
Parliament House
Accra
The Parliamentary Minority Leader
Parliament House
Accra
The Director-General
National Communications Authority
Accra
(Guest)
The Honorable Minister
Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning
Accra
AND
The Honorable Minister
Ministry of Communications
Accra
Dear Sirs,
Re: Registration of Mobile Phone Subscribers and Monitoring of Telecommunications
I write to express concern and to pose questions on two matters, namely (i) the demand by ‘National Security’ that mobile phone operators (“Telecom Operators”) must ‘register’ the details of all subscribers, and (ii) portions of the 2010 Budget Statement about plans by the Government to “acquire telecommunications monitoring equipment.” My letter is addressed to you, because primarily, the concerns fall squarely within the purview of your respective ministries. But I make this an ‘open letter’ as the subject is one that the people of Ghana need to be aware of and so that we can all arrive at informed conclusions on the matter.
Before asking the question, I would crave your indulgence to refer to Article 18(2) of the Constitution, which guarantees the citizens’ right to privacy of “correspondence” and “communication” and which provides that this right can only be interfered with “in accordance with law” passed for specified purposes. The Article states expressly as follows:
“No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of his home, property, correspondence or communication except in accordance with law as may be necessary in a free and democratic society for public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the protection of health or morals, for the prevention of disorder or crime or for the protection of the rights or freedoms of others.”
Registration:
I note that ‘National Security’ has been pushing, behind the scenes for a long time and recently in public, for the mandatory registration of the details of all mobile phone subscribers in Ghana. I am aware that they now want to set a deadline before 25th December 2009 for the mandatory registration of all new customers. This is to be followed (at a date that has not been specified yet) by the disconnection of any existing, unregistered customers.
Monitoring:
I note further that paragraph 621 of the Budget Statement announced a “special audit initiative to cover the telephony sector.” Paragraph 628 announced the establishment of a special Communications Service Tax (“CST” or “Talk Tax”) Unit and the commencement of “procurement process to acquire telecommunications monitoring equipment and software” ostensibly for the CST Unit to track payments. Paragraph 672 mentioned an increase in “monitoring activities” to “enhance compliance” with the CST. Finally, paragraph 864 mentioned, again, the need for “increased monitoring” of the CST to ensure compliance.
Questions:
Sirs, these would appear innocuous upon first reading. However, read together, the proposed registration and proposed monitoring throw up many questions that beg for answers. These questions are:
1. Is there any suggestion or evidence that Telecom Operators have been cheating on the “Talk Tax”, which will then require the implementation of the monitoring of communications to “enhance compliance”?
2. What are the legal bases for the demands by ‘National Security’ for ‘registration’, and therefore unrestricted access to citizens’ details, from Telecom Operators?
3. Is it the case:
a. That at present, the Police, ‘National Security’ and the Military have easy access to individual mobile phone details by simply writing letters to Telecom Operators, without any court orders;
b. That telecom traffic travels in two types of paths, the ‘voice path’ being that in which the actual conversation moves from one network to another, and the ‘signaling path’ being the means by which one network can communicate with the other about a pending call; and that text messages pass through the signaling path, which is the path that the government wants to monitor;
c. That the Government wants to compel Telecom Operators to send all their signaling through ‘black boxes’ owned by the Government, which would monitor all call traffic (i.e. the originating and destination numbers, the time and length of call) and report the data back to the Government in real time;
d. That if or when implemented, the Government will know who we are, who we call, and how often we call, at the time we are calling;
e. That although the Government may not be able to decipher the actual words of voice calls, it will be able to read every single SMS coming into and leaving networks, and know every website that a person visits on his/her phone or mobile internet device;
f. That however, by simply maneuvering the signaling channel messages, the Government will be able to interrupt, process, intercept, block and/or divert calls, so that the Government can then eavesdrop and know every single detail of happenings on the intercepted calls, without our knowledge and/or the involvement of any competent judicial authority in Ghana;
g. That the current proposed implementation will allow the Government, not only to know who is phoning whom, but also (i) from where to where (with accurate location placement), and (ii) whether a person is roaming and in which country and on which network; and
h. That by this means, it is possible to (i) change signaling so that although a specific call is made, all traces of it can be removed or disguised so that no one can trace its origin or destination, and (ii) create an SMS or call that never existed?
Conclusion:
Sirs, as I stated above, this letter is just to ask the questions and to elicit responses, if any. If or when you respond to the above, we will continue with this discussion.
Yours in the service of God and Ghana,
Kojo Anan
(kojoanan.blogspot.com, www.i-can-ghana.com)
cc. The Honorable Minister
Ministry of Information
Accra
The Parliamentary Majority Leader
Parliament House
Accra
The Parliamentary Minority Leader
Parliament House
Accra
The Director-General
National Communications Authority
Accra
(Guest)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Is Atta-Mills surrounded by “Yes Men”?
The downfall of many presidents in this world has been their inability to separate loyalty from competence and surrounding themselves with sycophants and “yes men” who sing praises all the way to their banks.
Two questions come to mind here: are the president’s men so scared to criticize him or are they sycophantic “yes men”?
When Ghanaians voted for President Mills in December 2008, they had no doubt that he was poised to deliver a better Ghana but recent occurrences in the country have really turned all hopes into despair. I agree that the president has been in office for 11 months but like the old African saying goes,” you can tell a good game from its onset”. Within the eleven months, all we have seen is lot of management faux-pas and no policy direction for us to have some hope for the better Ghana promised.
Behind every successful president is a mentor or two plus blunt and efficient lieutenants who offer positive criticisms. Atta- Mills needs such people for his relentless pursuit to deliver a better Ghana. He needs the services of men/women who would be willing to tell him he's wrong. If he did, he would not be doing the things that are making him lose the support that propelled him into power.
You would have thought that as learned and politically experienced as Mills is, he would know when to listen and who to listen to. Being the third president in the fourth republic means that he has a wealth of resources to consult. For the first time in our history, a sitting president has two former presidents who are alive to offer the necessary inputs into nation building.
This in theory should have been happening but practically, well, it has not been working that that way because the NDC founder complains endlessly about the presidents refusal to heed to advice and for former president Kufour, I don’t think the president in his wisdom thinks he needs him because he is perceived by the present administration to have mismanaged the country so bad that he is the cause of all our current problems.
Besides these two, the president is surrounded by various advisors, his learned friends and associates mostly in academia, the council of state and above all his spouse to offer advice and direction.
The question is why does he make the elementary mistakes he keeps making with all the people around him?
My thinking is that, the president is either not listening or has scared those around him from offering constructive criticisms or those around him are just “yes men” who do not care if he succeeds as a president or the country moves forward.
I strongly believe the whole truth is that the castle has been taken by “Yes men” (or “yes-women”, for that matter) who are worthless to the presidency, period. The most competent and successful presidents are those who have men of integrity who aren’t afraid to advice them, even when it means telling them something they don’t want to hear but need to- even if it will cost them their jobs.
Think about it. What was the president thinking when he ordered his spokesperson to address a press conference to the effect that his appointees should open their doors for NDC foot- soldiers? The first question I ask is, who were those present at the meeting and how did the deliberations go. Did they ask the right questions but were ignored?
You do not need to be a rocket scientist- but if you were present at the said decision-making meeting and you cared about the presidency, here are a few questions you could have asked.
Mr. President, with all due respect, what happens to the over four million eligible voters who voted against you and the many others in the country? How will the directive be implemented? That is, do we set up a desk to register party members who come to see the appointees and ask them to show party cards etc?, Mr. President, don’t you think party functionaries will flood the offices and prevent your officials from carrying out their mandated duties for which they are paid? More importantly, Your Excellency, you promised to be a father for all so why only NDC functionaries now?
And above all what was Ayariga thinking churning that out irresponsibly? He should have asked the right questions or sugar-coated that nonsense at the very least.
I have really been wondering why some high-ranking persons in the NDC are complaining, is there a communication breakdown between the NDC as a party and the Mills Government, are there really greedy bastards in the party who are fighting the altruistic ones?, is the former president justified in his outbursts or the president has just surrounded himself with sycophantic “Yes Men” who are ready to tell him one-plus-one is equal to three.
There are people at the presidency who are quick to attack and insult anyone within or outside the party who dares offer constructive criticism of the Mills administration.
They claim there are channels for redress but if they did and access was easily available, I do not think that persons no less than the founder of the NDC, the Majority Leader in parliament and Dr. Spio Garbrah will resort to the media to address their issues. All of a sudden anyone who disagrees with the state of affairs becomes a villain and the “yes men” who have formed a brick wall around the president rain insults on them.
These are the people the president should be wary of. There are those hovering around the presidency who believe that they can transition overnight from being mere tramps yesterday into political celebrities on account of being praise poets and repositories of flattery. Mills must be very careful of these political vultures and sycophants masquerading as party fanatics and loyalists who would do anything and everything in their interest to win his support for personal enrichment.
As the seemingly wide- gap between the presidency and the NDC party widens, more vultures and sharks will be coming to the castle.
They will come from different forms: rejected politicians, false prophets, failed and successful business persons, professional bootlickers, and block-headed individuals among others who are playing the game of the stomach. All these people will pretend to love Mills; they will sing praise songs in chorus.
Some will shout on top of their voices and call every radio station and other media houses and boast how much they believe in him.
They will tell him how well and fast the better Ghana agenda is moving when they know word from Axim to Keta and from Paga to Accra is that the country is running too slow and the masses are suffering.
It will be only wise for the president to stay alert and listen to dissenting views within the NDC and even from well meaning Ghanaians if he really wants to deliver a better Ghana.
By. Ouborr Kutando
(Guest)
Two questions come to mind here: are the president’s men so scared to criticize him or are they sycophantic “yes men”?
When Ghanaians voted for President Mills in December 2008, they had no doubt that he was poised to deliver a better Ghana but recent occurrences in the country have really turned all hopes into despair. I agree that the president has been in office for 11 months but like the old African saying goes,” you can tell a good game from its onset”. Within the eleven months, all we have seen is lot of management faux-pas and no policy direction for us to have some hope for the better Ghana promised.
Behind every successful president is a mentor or two plus blunt and efficient lieutenants who offer positive criticisms. Atta- Mills needs such people for his relentless pursuit to deliver a better Ghana. He needs the services of men/women who would be willing to tell him he's wrong. If he did, he would not be doing the things that are making him lose the support that propelled him into power.
You would have thought that as learned and politically experienced as Mills is, he would know when to listen and who to listen to. Being the third president in the fourth republic means that he has a wealth of resources to consult. For the first time in our history, a sitting president has two former presidents who are alive to offer the necessary inputs into nation building.
This in theory should have been happening but practically, well, it has not been working that that way because the NDC founder complains endlessly about the presidents refusal to heed to advice and for former president Kufour, I don’t think the president in his wisdom thinks he needs him because he is perceived by the present administration to have mismanaged the country so bad that he is the cause of all our current problems.
Besides these two, the president is surrounded by various advisors, his learned friends and associates mostly in academia, the council of state and above all his spouse to offer advice and direction.
The question is why does he make the elementary mistakes he keeps making with all the people around him?
My thinking is that, the president is either not listening or has scared those around him from offering constructive criticisms or those around him are just “yes men” who do not care if he succeeds as a president or the country moves forward.
I strongly believe the whole truth is that the castle has been taken by “Yes men” (or “yes-women”, for that matter) who are worthless to the presidency, period. The most competent and successful presidents are those who have men of integrity who aren’t afraid to advice them, even when it means telling them something they don’t want to hear but need to- even if it will cost them their jobs.
Think about it. What was the president thinking when he ordered his spokesperson to address a press conference to the effect that his appointees should open their doors for NDC foot- soldiers? The first question I ask is, who were those present at the meeting and how did the deliberations go. Did they ask the right questions but were ignored?
You do not need to be a rocket scientist- but if you were present at the said decision-making meeting and you cared about the presidency, here are a few questions you could have asked.
Mr. President, with all due respect, what happens to the over four million eligible voters who voted against you and the many others in the country? How will the directive be implemented? That is, do we set up a desk to register party members who come to see the appointees and ask them to show party cards etc?, Mr. President, don’t you think party functionaries will flood the offices and prevent your officials from carrying out their mandated duties for which they are paid? More importantly, Your Excellency, you promised to be a father for all so why only NDC functionaries now?
And above all what was Ayariga thinking churning that out irresponsibly? He should have asked the right questions or sugar-coated that nonsense at the very least.
I have really been wondering why some high-ranking persons in the NDC are complaining, is there a communication breakdown between the NDC as a party and the Mills Government, are there really greedy bastards in the party who are fighting the altruistic ones?, is the former president justified in his outbursts or the president has just surrounded himself with sycophantic “Yes Men” who are ready to tell him one-plus-one is equal to three.
There are people at the presidency who are quick to attack and insult anyone within or outside the party who dares offer constructive criticism of the Mills administration.
They claim there are channels for redress but if they did and access was easily available, I do not think that persons no less than the founder of the NDC, the Majority Leader in parliament and Dr. Spio Garbrah will resort to the media to address their issues. All of a sudden anyone who disagrees with the state of affairs becomes a villain and the “yes men” who have formed a brick wall around the president rain insults on them.
These are the people the president should be wary of. There are those hovering around the presidency who believe that they can transition overnight from being mere tramps yesterday into political celebrities on account of being praise poets and repositories of flattery. Mills must be very careful of these political vultures and sycophants masquerading as party fanatics and loyalists who would do anything and everything in their interest to win his support for personal enrichment.
As the seemingly wide- gap between the presidency and the NDC party widens, more vultures and sharks will be coming to the castle.
They will come from different forms: rejected politicians, false prophets, failed and successful business persons, professional bootlickers, and block-headed individuals among others who are playing the game of the stomach. All these people will pretend to love Mills; they will sing praise songs in chorus.
Some will shout on top of their voices and call every radio station and other media houses and boast how much they believe in him.
They will tell him how well and fast the better Ghana agenda is moving when they know word from Axim to Keta and from Paga to Accra is that the country is running too slow and the masses are suffering.
It will be only wise for the president to stay alert and listen to dissenting views within the NDC and even from well meaning Ghanaians if he really wants to deliver a better Ghana.
By. Ouborr Kutando
(Guest)
Monday, December 7, 2009
Obama Should Apologize To Africa (Part 2)
Concluding Part:
The significance of President Barack Obama's planned trip to Ghana should not be over-emphasized. As written by Mathew Kukah:
A more important question is, beyond the emotional and symbolic value, what difference will a Presidential visit make in the lives of ordinary people in the country?
Three American Presidents have visited Ghana as far as I can remember Bill Clinton, George Bush.
The main drivers and beneficiaries of Presidential visits are businessmen and women who, under the shadow of the President, seek to cut the best business deals, concessions, and monopolies they can get for their businesses.
For example am told that when President Carter visited Nigeria during his Presidency but it was not until over 20 years of his leaving office that they reaped the benefits of his tremendous work in fighting guinea worms around the world under the banner of his Jimmy Carter Foundation which is enjoyed by many here.
Ghana today is enjoying the benefits of the MIDA projects through George Bush and today Nigeria through Bill Clinton’s Foundation in the area of HIV/AIDS surpasses a 100 fold what his visit as President achieved. So, by themselves, Presidential visits are useful, but surely, they should not be the measure for a country's greatness or lack of.
Nigerians and Kenyans have gone to town to second guess Obama’s trip and come to the dubious conclusion that the visit is an indictment on their flawed elections. Fr Kukah asked: If elections were an issue for Obama, would he go out of his way to incur the wrath of his fellow countrymen by hugging or bowing to President Hugo Chavez or the King of Saudi Arabia as he did recently? While Chavez had amended the Constitution and secured an open ended tenure, Saudi Arabia's citizens have neither seen a ballot box or ballot paper in their lives. Is President Obama the world's electoral Pope who is going around rewarding and punishing election defaulters? Kukah concluded: It is the oil, stupid!
Yes, Ghana has just discovered oil. It therefore makes sense that the US, with its gargantuan appetite for oil ensures that it is not caught napping.
Kukah added: This visit is, in simple terms, in pursuit, defence and protection of the permanent interests of the United States of America which is the primary responsibility of any President. These interests, whether they are economic, geopolitical, strategic or even intangible, are varied and complex and only the US knows and defines them. America has shown that it will go to any length or overlook any international obligations or obstacles to achieve these interests.
I have written elsewhere that in choosing to visit Ghana ahead of his fatherland Kenya. "The official word is that we're celebrating democracy, but there are probably some ulterior motives," I continued, "It has not gone unnoticed that oil was discovered, and Ghana has 600 million barrels under it and offshore. And many Ghanaian leaders think the U.S. might like Ghana to serve as a kind of capital for Africom," the U.S. military command responsible for African operations.
Further Ghana sits on the eastern Atlantic Ocean, on the southern side of Africa's western hump. The tropical nation of low plains and plateaus is home to 23 million people. This places Ghana at a strategic location relative to Nigeria and other oil rich countries like Equatorial Guinea.
"Using Ghana as a hub would allow the U.S. to keep an eye on Nigeria and the whole Gulf of Guinea." The United States already keeps a very large embassy in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, is it a lie….somebody tell me.
West Africa is arguably the poorest and least stable area on earth. It is also afflicted by a number of transnational trafficking flows, attracted by and aggravating the special vulnerability of this region. On the other hand, the region is rich in Oil, Gold and other precious resources.
The United states are eager to be well-positioned in the on-going scramble for these resources amidst threats from China, Russia and India challenging the dominance of the United States and Europe - West Africa’s traditional friends.
Moreover I warned that Africa should not expect too much from Obama. The reason being that those that understand the way things really work in the United States, a change of a person as president do not necessarily signal a change in policy and direction unlike Ghana.
In the United States, the president is less a leader than a manager of policies formulated by corporate elite interests. Thus there is stability of the political system, regardless of who is president. US presidents come and go, but the interests remain constant.
Let me be clear. I am not downplaying the significance Obama’s visit to Ghana as the first African-American president of the almighty US of A which caught my favorite minister turned into a photographer. However, I believe that this visit is for President Obama to use Ghana as a platform to address Africa by laying down where he wishes to take the US.
President Obama is ultimately interested in expanding America’s interests, America's commitment to seeking collaborators around the world in the search for global peace and an end to world terrorism.
Yes, as Kukah also pointed out:
Obama will politely but firmly speak directly to the leaders of Africa, calling for an end to corruption and the need for an equitable distribution and allocation of the continent's resources. He will call for an end to violence and the need for Africans to hold their leaders accountable and responsible. These may be nice sound bites. The real challenge is that as he may realize, Africans have heard all this before. What they are yet to see is a clear signal from the US and the international community that they are truly committed to helping Africa. For, to do this, they must be ready to expose their multinational corporations and other corporate crooks, the sponsors of strife and violence in Africa in the course of the exploitation of mineral resources and the need to energise and support civil society groups.
But please Africans, don’t look up to an Obama as a saviour of the continent!
The significance of President Barack Obama's planned trip to Ghana should not be over-emphasized. As written by Mathew Kukah:
A more important question is, beyond the emotional and symbolic value, what difference will a Presidential visit make in the lives of ordinary people in the country?
Three American Presidents have visited Ghana as far as I can remember Bill Clinton, George Bush.
The main drivers and beneficiaries of Presidential visits are businessmen and women who, under the shadow of the President, seek to cut the best business deals, concessions, and monopolies they can get for their businesses.
For example am told that when President Carter visited Nigeria during his Presidency but it was not until over 20 years of his leaving office that they reaped the benefits of his tremendous work in fighting guinea worms around the world under the banner of his Jimmy Carter Foundation which is enjoyed by many here.
Ghana today is enjoying the benefits of the MIDA projects through George Bush and today Nigeria through Bill Clinton’s Foundation in the area of HIV/AIDS surpasses a 100 fold what his visit as President achieved. So, by themselves, Presidential visits are useful, but surely, they should not be the measure for a country's greatness or lack of.
Nigerians and Kenyans have gone to town to second guess Obama’s trip and come to the dubious conclusion that the visit is an indictment on their flawed elections. Fr Kukah asked: If elections were an issue for Obama, would he go out of his way to incur the wrath of his fellow countrymen by hugging or bowing to President Hugo Chavez or the King of Saudi Arabia as he did recently? While Chavez had amended the Constitution and secured an open ended tenure, Saudi Arabia's citizens have neither seen a ballot box or ballot paper in their lives. Is President Obama the world's electoral Pope who is going around rewarding and punishing election defaulters? Kukah concluded: It is the oil, stupid!
Yes, Ghana has just discovered oil. It therefore makes sense that the US, with its gargantuan appetite for oil ensures that it is not caught napping.
Kukah added: This visit is, in simple terms, in pursuit, defence and protection of the permanent interests of the United States of America which is the primary responsibility of any President. These interests, whether they are economic, geopolitical, strategic or even intangible, are varied and complex and only the US knows and defines them. America has shown that it will go to any length or overlook any international obligations or obstacles to achieve these interests.
I have written elsewhere that in choosing to visit Ghana ahead of his fatherland Kenya. "The official word is that we're celebrating democracy, but there are probably some ulterior motives," I continued, "It has not gone unnoticed that oil was discovered, and Ghana has 600 million barrels under it and offshore. And many Ghanaian leaders think the U.S. might like Ghana to serve as a kind of capital for Africom," the U.S. military command responsible for African operations.
Further Ghana sits on the eastern Atlantic Ocean, on the southern side of Africa's western hump. The tropical nation of low plains and plateaus is home to 23 million people. This places Ghana at a strategic location relative to Nigeria and other oil rich countries like Equatorial Guinea.
"Using Ghana as a hub would allow the U.S. to keep an eye on Nigeria and the whole Gulf of Guinea." The United States already keeps a very large embassy in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, is it a lie….somebody tell me.
West Africa is arguably the poorest and least stable area on earth. It is also afflicted by a number of transnational trafficking flows, attracted by and aggravating the special vulnerability of this region. On the other hand, the region is rich in Oil, Gold and other precious resources.
The United states are eager to be well-positioned in the on-going scramble for these resources amidst threats from China, Russia and India challenging the dominance of the United States and Europe - West Africa’s traditional friends.
Moreover I warned that Africa should not expect too much from Obama. The reason being that those that understand the way things really work in the United States, a change of a person as president do not necessarily signal a change in policy and direction unlike Ghana.
In the United States, the president is less a leader than a manager of policies formulated by corporate elite interests. Thus there is stability of the political system, regardless of who is president. US presidents come and go, but the interests remain constant.
Let me be clear. I am not downplaying the significance Obama’s visit to Ghana as the first African-American president of the almighty US of A which caught my favorite minister turned into a photographer. However, I believe that this visit is for President Obama to use Ghana as a platform to address Africa by laying down where he wishes to take the US.
President Obama is ultimately interested in expanding America’s interests, America's commitment to seeking collaborators around the world in the search for global peace and an end to world terrorism.
Yes, as Kukah also pointed out:
Obama will politely but firmly speak directly to the leaders of Africa, calling for an end to corruption and the need for an equitable distribution and allocation of the continent's resources. He will call for an end to violence and the need for Africans to hold their leaders accountable and responsible. These may be nice sound bites. The real challenge is that as he may realize, Africans have heard all this before. What they are yet to see is a clear signal from the US and the international community that they are truly committed to helping Africa. For, to do this, they must be ready to expose their multinational corporations and other corporate crooks, the sponsors of strife and violence in Africa in the course of the exploitation of mineral resources and the need to energise and support civil society groups.
But please Africans, don’t look up to an Obama as a saviour of the continent!
Obama should apologize to Africa (Part 1)
This is a continuation of my feature which appeared on this website on 31st October, 2009 titled “The Anti-African Racist Insults Obama Got Away With In Ghana”. I enjoyed the bashing from all of you and I know we are sharing opinions. Enjoy reading.
Obama apologized to Europe during his trip to France in April 2009. He was apologetic to the Arab world in his speech in Cairo, Egypt. But during his trip to Ghana he opined that Africans are responsible for their multifarious problems and said: “It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these (Africa’s) problems on others”. Obama did not have the courage to admit and take full responsibility for the role of America in the undoing of the continent.
When Obama traveled to Europe in April 2009, in a speech in France he said, “In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive... So I've come to Europe this week to renew our partnership, one in which America listens and learns from our friends and allies...So let me say this as clearly as I can: America is changing”.
Obama sounded apologetic to the Arab world when he traveled to Egypt. He said: “We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world — tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate...More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim—majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations...I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect”.
But when Obama traveled to Ghana in July 11, 2009, he said: “It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these (Africa’s) problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants”.
Obama did not have the courage to admit and take full responsibility for the role of America in the undoing of the continent.
Some American States like Virginia have apologized to Black Americans for the slave trade because undoubtedly the slave trade benefited America and was promoted by the United States government. For a long period of time Washington D.C. actually served as the chief port through which slaves were imported.
The Southern region of the United States paid for slaves to be brought over. The Southern plantation owners were supplied with their money from Northern industrialists who knew exactly how the South was growing cotton at so cheap a price. For at least 80 years of its existence the U.S. government condoned and allowed the slavery to flourish.
Yes Obama said, “Africa's future is up to Africans”, But at the root of the current crisis in Africa is surely the Slave trade, Colonialism, neo-colonialism, American imperialism, trade imbalances, the support for corruption and exploitation of Africa by American multi-national companies.
As Obama himself admitted: “I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story”.
Obama said in Cairo: “each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions”, but America and the West has not allowed African democracy to evolve on its own.
But in so many ways and in so many times, they have interfered in Africa’s development – by sponsoring coups especially the one against Dr. Kwame Nkrumah which I know off and there may be many across the African continent.
Barack Obama said in Ghana: “for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources”, but what he failed to add was the role of western and American companies in fuelling these conflicts.
Obama is right when he said: “development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans”.
However, let us not forget that at the root of Africa’s predicament are the tri-partite combination of Bad leadership, Rich Countries exploitation of Africa and the imposition of wrong policies by international Institutions.
Doing a little research work, I came across Malawi which is a case in point. Not quite long ago a New York Times article describes how Malawi went from food aid recipient to regional food provider in just two years after re-introducing fertilizer subsidies for its low-income farmers. The move contravened years of policy guidance from the World Bank and IMF, which warn against such distortions of the “free market.”
In other words, by violating what its wealthy benefactors in Europe and North America say, Malawi achieved success.
Unfortunately for Ghana, the British and American imposition has produced semi-literate leaders that went against better counsel and imposed world Bank/IMF prescribed Structural Adjustment Programme that ruined our economy.
Obama has come and gone, the speech is classic and the rhetoric is exceptional. But the best way to test whether he would be different from other American presidents is to explore the question of African strategic interests, or, alternatively, American strategic interests in Africa, and examine the ways in which and the degree to which Obama's pursuit of American policy is consistent with or diverges from that of his predecessor.
For example: Africom was established during George W. Bush's regime, will the Barack Hussein Obama's regime continue with Africom? What about the interest of American oil companies in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, the Niger Delta and even ours? Will an Obama regime move against their interest vis-à-vis African environmental, economic and political interest?
In Obama’s speech in Ghana, did he comment on Barclays Bank establishing a tax haven in Ghana, warning against such vehicle being used for tax evasion and money laundering; in support of transparency and anti-corruption efforts, to expand cooperation in intelligence gathering and sharing and reigning in the vicarious liability of tax havens and offshore banks.
Did he talk about pushing the boundaries of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (passed by the US Congress before his tenure) to have the expanded power to bite both givers and takers of bribes – both American multi-national countries and kleptomaniac African leaders?
Did he talk about stopping and Withdrawing US Visa from corrupt African politicians; to stop them spending their looted funds in America; Stopping the marketplace for high stakes elite bribery?
To many, the Bush personality was a bit too crude and, in some respects, robust for the world to accept. Put some colour on him, with a sophisticated and intelligent personality, and now you have the same agenda for Africa, skilfully repackaged in an Obama. The agenda remains the same-imperialistic, exploitative, and, ultimately, deadly-but the general perception is different. It is seductive.
Obama apologized to Europe during his trip to France in April 2009. He was apologetic to the Arab world in his speech in Cairo, Egypt. But during his trip to Ghana he opined that Africans are responsible for their multifarious problems and said: “It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these (Africa’s) problems on others”. Obama did not have the courage to admit and take full responsibility for the role of America in the undoing of the continent.
When Obama traveled to Europe in April 2009, in a speech in France he said, “In America, there's a failure to appreciate Europe's leading role in the world. Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive... So I've come to Europe this week to renew our partnership, one in which America listens and learns from our friends and allies...So let me say this as clearly as I can: America is changing”.
Obama sounded apologetic to the Arab world when he traveled to Egypt. He said: “We meet at a time of great tension between the United States and Muslims around the world — tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate...More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim—majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations...I've come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect”.
But when Obama traveled to Ghana in July 11, 2009, he said: “It is easy to point fingers, and to pin the blame for these (Africa’s) problems on others. Yes, a colonial map that made little sense bred conflict, and the West has often approached Africa as a patron, rather than a partner. But the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatants”.
Obama did not have the courage to admit and take full responsibility for the role of America in the undoing of the continent.
Some American States like Virginia have apologized to Black Americans for the slave trade because undoubtedly the slave trade benefited America and was promoted by the United States government. For a long period of time Washington D.C. actually served as the chief port through which slaves were imported.
The Southern region of the United States paid for slaves to be brought over. The Southern plantation owners were supplied with their money from Northern industrialists who knew exactly how the South was growing cotton at so cheap a price. For at least 80 years of its existence the U.S. government condoned and allowed the slavery to flourish.
Yes Obama said, “Africa's future is up to Africans”, But at the root of the current crisis in Africa is surely the Slave trade, Colonialism, neo-colonialism, American imperialism, trade imbalances, the support for corruption and exploitation of Africa by American multi-national companies.
As Obama himself admitted: “I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family’s own story encompasses both the tragedies and triumphs of the larger African story”.
Obama said in Cairo: “each nation gives life to democracy in its own way, and in line with its own traditions”, but America and the West has not allowed African democracy to evolve on its own.
But in so many ways and in so many times, they have interfered in Africa’s development – by sponsoring coups especially the one against Dr. Kwame Nkrumah which I know off and there may be many across the African continent.
Barack Obama said in Ghana: “for far too many Africans, conflict is a part of life, as constant as the sun. There are wars over land and wars over resources”, but what he failed to add was the role of western and American companies in fuelling these conflicts.
Obama is right when he said: “development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential. And that is a responsibility that can only be met by Africans”.
However, let us not forget that at the root of Africa’s predicament are the tri-partite combination of Bad leadership, Rich Countries exploitation of Africa and the imposition of wrong policies by international Institutions.
Doing a little research work, I came across Malawi which is a case in point. Not quite long ago a New York Times article describes how Malawi went from food aid recipient to regional food provider in just two years after re-introducing fertilizer subsidies for its low-income farmers. The move contravened years of policy guidance from the World Bank and IMF, which warn against such distortions of the “free market.”
In other words, by violating what its wealthy benefactors in Europe and North America say, Malawi achieved success.
Unfortunately for Ghana, the British and American imposition has produced semi-literate leaders that went against better counsel and imposed world Bank/IMF prescribed Structural Adjustment Programme that ruined our economy.
Obama has come and gone, the speech is classic and the rhetoric is exceptional. But the best way to test whether he would be different from other American presidents is to explore the question of African strategic interests, or, alternatively, American strategic interests in Africa, and examine the ways in which and the degree to which Obama's pursuit of American policy is consistent with or diverges from that of his predecessor.
For example: Africom was established during George W. Bush's regime, will the Barack Hussein Obama's regime continue with Africom? What about the interest of American oil companies in Angola, Equatorial Guinea, the Niger Delta and even ours? Will an Obama regime move against their interest vis-à-vis African environmental, economic and political interest?
In Obama’s speech in Ghana, did he comment on Barclays Bank establishing a tax haven in Ghana, warning against such vehicle being used for tax evasion and money laundering; in support of transparency and anti-corruption efforts, to expand cooperation in intelligence gathering and sharing and reigning in the vicarious liability of tax havens and offshore banks.
Did he talk about pushing the boundaries of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (passed by the US Congress before his tenure) to have the expanded power to bite both givers and takers of bribes – both American multi-national countries and kleptomaniac African leaders?
Did he talk about stopping and Withdrawing US Visa from corrupt African politicians; to stop them spending their looted funds in America; Stopping the marketplace for high stakes elite bribery?
To many, the Bush personality was a bit too crude and, in some respects, robust for the world to accept. Put some colour on him, with a sophisticated and intelligent personality, and now you have the same agenda for Africa, skilfully repackaged in an Obama. The agenda remains the same-imperialistic, exploitative, and, ultimately, deadly-but the general perception is different. It is seductive.
Kojo Bonsu Now An Official Of Sports Ministry?
Mr. Kojo Bonsu, a self-styled football administrator who has harbored the dream of becoming the chairman of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) since Adam, last week, ‘impersonated’ himself as an official of the Sports Ministry in Ghana.
The embattled businessman and publisher of the Agoo magazine, who lied blatantly earlier this year that he was one of the financiers of the jet that took most of the Hearts and Kotoko women to the finals of the CHAN tournament in January when indeed it was a Military Task Order, on Friday, brought the name of Ghana into disrepute after he introduced himself as an official of the Sports Ministry to FIFA’s international relations officer, Jerome Champagne.
Like Muntaka who also introduced his ‘girl-friend’ as an official of the same ministry to the German Embassy in Ghana before acquiring a visa for her for them to jolly-ride to Germany, Kojo Bonsu had wanted to know how much Ghana would earn from participating in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Jerome Champagne, who was surprised because Kojo’s name was not on the official list of the persons accredited for the event quickly went to inform the team who were properly accredited that a certain Ghanaian has approached him and introduced himself as such and wanted to know certain things which was privy to members of the GFA.
Listening to the sector Minister, Mr. Rashid Pelpuo on Oman Fm on Monday I was very shocked as he kept beating about the bush.
On the misconduct of the NDC’s shadow FA President he said, “Yes it might be true, I went to the source (Jerome Champagne) of the information and the source confirmed it but I haven’t had the chance to speak to Kojo.”
“I did not send him to do that; I haven’t even delegated any assignments to him before so it came to me as a surprise when we were told at the table,” the Minister added.
According to the Minister, Kojo Bonsu was in South Africa after he was nominated by the government to represent the country.
Shockingly, the addition of chief agitator cum chief image maker of the Atta Mills government, Mr. Kwesi Pratt popularly called KP whose, 12-page newspaper has nothing about sports but rather writes about freeing ‘the Cuban 5’ was nominated. The question is who nominated him, is it the Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA) or Private Newspapers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG)?
Kwesi Pratt was on radio saying that he got only $500 for his stay in South Africa at the taxpayers’ expense and I dare him to give it out to the Osu Children Home like the promotional stories he has been running for his fellow Fanti and I will write a whole feature about his gesture and it will change my perception about him too.
Kojo Bonsu begun his diabolical move by distributing miniature flags in the colours of Ghana just to attract the attention of the media and FIFA executives before the draw, I hear.
In the early hours of the day, Kojo Bonsu is said to have approached FIFA’s international relations officer, Jerome Champagne and introduced himself as an official from Ghana’s sports ministry representing the government at the draw.
Kojo Bonsu went ahead to inform Jerome Champagne that government was spending almost $6 million to prepare the Black Stars for the World Cup tournament.
For this reason, Kojo Bonsu requested to know how much Ghana would earn for participating in the Football roll-over prize in South Africa and also asked of the Public Interest Committee (PIC) which he could not defend when he raised it after a document had been circulated by some faceless cowards.
Am reliable informed that the information about how much Ghana will get from the World Cup has been made available to the Minister when he attended the Team Seminar, this information is on the web that is FIFA’s site and every nursery kid who knows how the internet works can get it.
By his actions, is he suggesting that the Minister is incompetent like he is or may be when you are a cadre you have access and right to everything within the Mills government.
Am told that Jerome Champagne, who was disappointed by the actions of Kojo Bonsu, first told Randy Abbey and Kofi Nsiah about the shameful and childish acts of a so called football administrator.
Randy Abbey informed the FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi who also informed the Minister about it and the two men together with Fred Pappoe went straight to Jerome Champagne where he confirmed the nauseating questions he was asked by busy-body and a walk-about at the castle.
The Sports Minister, Mr. Rashid Pelpuo was shocked and dismayed that Kojo Bonsu could go to that extent of misrepresenting the country whilst he being the sports minister was present to represent the country and he has every reason to.
Kojo Bonsu, who is widely believed to be in close links with some officials of the ruling NDC government, is doing everything possible to oust the current leadership at the GFA and I can bet him he will never get the seat come 2011 like how the Kotoko seat eluded him.
To show his ineptitude, he run away from one of the radio stations which was championing his useless cause when the spokesperson of the FA confronted him there and that same night also took to his heels when he was scheduled to meet the FA President on Metro TV’s late night talk-show, Good Evening Ghana.
It is alleged that Mr. Kojo Bonsu could not even account for the performance monies given to Ghana when he was an agent for Adidas when the Black Stars got to the finals of the Nations Cup hosted in Senegal in 1992.
As for his sidekick who cannot I and repeat who cannot account for the numerous transfer monies of players by a premiership club when he was in charge and banned by a committee’s a report, should wash their dirty and stinky hands of our football and allow the GFA to work.
The embattled businessman and publisher of the Agoo magazine, who lied blatantly earlier this year that he was one of the financiers of the jet that took most of the Hearts and Kotoko women to the finals of the CHAN tournament in January when indeed it was a Military Task Order, on Friday, brought the name of Ghana into disrepute after he introduced himself as an official of the Sports Ministry to FIFA’s international relations officer, Jerome Champagne.
Like Muntaka who also introduced his ‘girl-friend’ as an official of the same ministry to the German Embassy in Ghana before acquiring a visa for her for them to jolly-ride to Germany, Kojo Bonsu had wanted to know how much Ghana would earn from participating in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Jerome Champagne, who was surprised because Kojo’s name was not on the official list of the persons accredited for the event quickly went to inform the team who were properly accredited that a certain Ghanaian has approached him and introduced himself as such and wanted to know certain things which was privy to members of the GFA.
Listening to the sector Minister, Mr. Rashid Pelpuo on Oman Fm on Monday I was very shocked as he kept beating about the bush.
On the misconduct of the NDC’s shadow FA President he said, “Yes it might be true, I went to the source (Jerome Champagne) of the information and the source confirmed it but I haven’t had the chance to speak to Kojo.”
“I did not send him to do that; I haven’t even delegated any assignments to him before so it came to me as a surprise when we were told at the table,” the Minister added.
According to the Minister, Kojo Bonsu was in South Africa after he was nominated by the government to represent the country.
Shockingly, the addition of chief agitator cum chief image maker of the Atta Mills government, Mr. Kwesi Pratt popularly called KP whose, 12-page newspaper has nothing about sports but rather writes about freeing ‘the Cuban 5’ was nominated. The question is who nominated him, is it the Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA) or Private Newspapers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG)?
Kwesi Pratt was on radio saying that he got only $500 for his stay in South Africa at the taxpayers’ expense and I dare him to give it out to the Osu Children Home like the promotional stories he has been running for his fellow Fanti and I will write a whole feature about his gesture and it will change my perception about him too.
Kojo Bonsu begun his diabolical move by distributing miniature flags in the colours of Ghana just to attract the attention of the media and FIFA executives before the draw, I hear.
In the early hours of the day, Kojo Bonsu is said to have approached FIFA’s international relations officer, Jerome Champagne and introduced himself as an official from Ghana’s sports ministry representing the government at the draw.
Kojo Bonsu went ahead to inform Jerome Champagne that government was spending almost $6 million to prepare the Black Stars for the World Cup tournament.
For this reason, Kojo Bonsu requested to know how much Ghana would earn for participating in the Football roll-over prize in South Africa and also asked of the Public Interest Committee (PIC) which he could not defend when he raised it after a document had been circulated by some faceless cowards.
Am reliable informed that the information about how much Ghana will get from the World Cup has been made available to the Minister when he attended the Team Seminar, this information is on the web that is FIFA’s site and every nursery kid who knows how the internet works can get it.
By his actions, is he suggesting that the Minister is incompetent like he is or may be when you are a cadre you have access and right to everything within the Mills government.
Am told that Jerome Champagne, who was disappointed by the actions of Kojo Bonsu, first told Randy Abbey and Kofi Nsiah about the shameful and childish acts of a so called football administrator.
Randy Abbey informed the FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi who also informed the Minister about it and the two men together with Fred Pappoe went straight to Jerome Champagne where he confirmed the nauseating questions he was asked by busy-body and a walk-about at the castle.
The Sports Minister, Mr. Rashid Pelpuo was shocked and dismayed that Kojo Bonsu could go to that extent of misrepresenting the country whilst he being the sports minister was present to represent the country and he has every reason to.
Kojo Bonsu, who is widely believed to be in close links with some officials of the ruling NDC government, is doing everything possible to oust the current leadership at the GFA and I can bet him he will never get the seat come 2011 like how the Kotoko seat eluded him.
To show his ineptitude, he run away from one of the radio stations which was championing his useless cause when the spokesperson of the FA confronted him there and that same night also took to his heels when he was scheduled to meet the FA President on Metro TV’s late night talk-show, Good Evening Ghana.
It is alleged that Mr. Kojo Bonsu could not even account for the performance monies given to Ghana when he was an agent for Adidas when the Black Stars got to the finals of the Nations Cup hosted in Senegal in 1992.
As for his sidekick who cannot I and repeat who cannot account for the numerous transfer monies of players by a premiership club when he was in charge and banned by a committee’s a report, should wash their dirty and stinky hands of our football and allow the GFA to work.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Letter To Kwesi Biney
Dear Kwesi Biney
I read your piece that appeared in the Daily Guide of 30th October, 2009 tiled, “Stop the Ethnocentric Hatred toward Kufuor,” which touched so many issues right in the middle of the head.
You concluded and I quote, “Or is it because the Ewes have still not forgiven the late Victor Owusu for what he is alleged to have said about Ewes?”
Along memory lane, let me inform you that my checks indicate that Victor Owusu did not just get up to describe the Ewes as inward-looking.
It was the late Dr. Agama who, thanks to Rawlings, started as Board Chairman of Bank of Ghana who later, like a chameleon, turned into Governor at the Bank of Ghana who initially described the PP Government as a tribal one.
It was in the heat of the debate that the late Victor Owusu described the Ewes as inward-looking. Please, try to procure a copy of the Hansard of that period may be from my mentor, Uncle Malik Baako in order to appreciate what occurred.
Am told that two of the principal characters in the 1972 coup were Agbo, then Commander of the Army at Tema and Selomey, who was in charge of the Recce Regiment in Accra.
And yet, a Brong like Major Kwame Baah who was from Dormaa –Ahenkro in the Brong-Ahafo region helped the Ewes - Agbo and Selomey plus Acheampong to oust Busia.
Thus your statement, “If Kufuor had been an Ewe, no matter how bad he might have been, the Ewes would have allied behind him.” In 1972, Agbo and Selomey would never have allied with a Brong like Major Kwame Baah to overthrow Gbedema.
Significantly, if Acheampong were to be an Ewe, the Ewes would have seen Union Government as smooth as silk. And yet, the late Acheampong received the greatest opposition to that fraudulent concept in Kumasi am told.
Also, am told that at one football match in Kumasi, an international one with red carpet for Acheampong, he was heavily booed at.
Be that as it may, the PNDC came in. All the juicy positions in the country went to Ewes. Diplomats by convention were supposed to serve at duty station for four years.
But then, for about fourteen years, Kofi Awonor, now Chairman of the Council of State was our envoy to Brazil and the United Nations. It was during this period that he managed to secure part of the Atomic Energy land at Kwabenya to put up his Japanese type house. Try and get his book, read it and you will find “YEBRO” work.
During the PNDC era, the PNDC had/held legislative and executive powers. At a point in time, the PNDC consisted of Rawlings, Kojo Tsikata, General Arnold Quainoo, Ebo Tawiah, Enin, Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama and late Madam Alhassan.
Note that Rawlings, Tsikata and Quainoo are Ewes and out of population of about 15 million, three Ewes from the Southern Park of the Volta Region wielded executive and legislative powers out of seven hand-picked rulers.
With regard to Koku Anyidoho who studied Drama and Theatre at Legon, his father was Northern Army Brigade Commander in Kumasi from about 1996 to 2000.
Then Brigadier Anyidoho actively participated in NDC campaigning at that point in time in the Northern sector of the country. Indeed Brigadier Anyidoho stood on several political platforms with Rawlings and Atta Mills.
When Kufuor won, I am reliably informed that Brigadier Anyidoho wished to be the Army Commander but that was not to be hence his son’s dis-taste for Kufuor I can guess so.
I was listening to Oman fm and the host of the show, Fiifi Boafo asked what Koku did when Kufuor visited the castle when the President of Ivory Coast was in Ghana…hmmm!
During the campaign for political office last year, bastard Rawlings and no apologizes because I see no reason why he called some noble men around our President as ‘greedy bastards’ went to Peki and declared that the NPP government had sacked all military personnel from the Volta Region in the Ghana Armed Forces.
The Public Relations Unit of the Ghana Armed Forces headed by my good friend Col Nibo came out with a statement that indeed for officer crops and the men in the Air Force, Army and Navy, the people from the Volta Region exceeded any other region.
It was this in-balance in the Forces recruitment that Col Damoah from the Brong Ahafo Region tried to cure and I won’t go into it because I have received a lot of bashing and various death-threatening messages and calls.
Are we principled at all, the NPP did it some time ago and so it should continue when we are building a better Ghana? Should this system continue like that?
NPP is to Gbevlo Lartey and NDC is to Col Damoah in the Ghana Armed Forces, many Okaines are popping out like maggots and they will hurt the NDC like how the NPP suffered.
Today, the National Security headed by Gbevlo Lartey who was a victim of the NPP has another Ewe as his deputy, 5 of the DG appointments in the Ghana Armed Forces have gone to Ewes, the police have its Director of Operations as an Ewe and faceless coward Yaw Donkor of the BNI, an Ewe has another Ewe as his deputy.
Information has it that Akans recruited into the NSC and the BNI have either been fired or forced to retire voluntarily.
I wish to continue but I will want to end here now and may be write back later.
Cheers!
I read your piece that appeared in the Daily Guide of 30th October, 2009 tiled, “Stop the Ethnocentric Hatred toward Kufuor,” which touched so many issues right in the middle of the head.
You concluded and I quote, “Or is it because the Ewes have still not forgiven the late Victor Owusu for what he is alleged to have said about Ewes?”
Along memory lane, let me inform you that my checks indicate that Victor Owusu did not just get up to describe the Ewes as inward-looking.
It was the late Dr. Agama who, thanks to Rawlings, started as Board Chairman of Bank of Ghana who later, like a chameleon, turned into Governor at the Bank of Ghana who initially described the PP Government as a tribal one.
It was in the heat of the debate that the late Victor Owusu described the Ewes as inward-looking. Please, try to procure a copy of the Hansard of that period may be from my mentor, Uncle Malik Baako in order to appreciate what occurred.
Am told that two of the principal characters in the 1972 coup were Agbo, then Commander of the Army at Tema and Selomey, who was in charge of the Recce Regiment in Accra.
And yet, a Brong like Major Kwame Baah who was from Dormaa –Ahenkro in the Brong-Ahafo region helped the Ewes - Agbo and Selomey plus Acheampong to oust Busia.
Thus your statement, “If Kufuor had been an Ewe, no matter how bad he might have been, the Ewes would have allied behind him.” In 1972, Agbo and Selomey would never have allied with a Brong like Major Kwame Baah to overthrow Gbedema.
Significantly, if Acheampong were to be an Ewe, the Ewes would have seen Union Government as smooth as silk. And yet, the late Acheampong received the greatest opposition to that fraudulent concept in Kumasi am told.
Also, am told that at one football match in Kumasi, an international one with red carpet for Acheampong, he was heavily booed at.
Be that as it may, the PNDC came in. All the juicy positions in the country went to Ewes. Diplomats by convention were supposed to serve at duty station for four years.
But then, for about fourteen years, Kofi Awonor, now Chairman of the Council of State was our envoy to Brazil and the United Nations. It was during this period that he managed to secure part of the Atomic Energy land at Kwabenya to put up his Japanese type house. Try and get his book, read it and you will find “YEBRO” work.
During the PNDC era, the PNDC had/held legislative and executive powers. At a point in time, the PNDC consisted of Rawlings, Kojo Tsikata, General Arnold Quainoo, Ebo Tawiah, Enin, Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama and late Madam Alhassan.
Note that Rawlings, Tsikata and Quainoo are Ewes and out of population of about 15 million, three Ewes from the Southern Park of the Volta Region wielded executive and legislative powers out of seven hand-picked rulers.
With regard to Koku Anyidoho who studied Drama and Theatre at Legon, his father was Northern Army Brigade Commander in Kumasi from about 1996 to 2000.
Then Brigadier Anyidoho actively participated in NDC campaigning at that point in time in the Northern sector of the country. Indeed Brigadier Anyidoho stood on several political platforms with Rawlings and Atta Mills.
When Kufuor won, I am reliably informed that Brigadier Anyidoho wished to be the Army Commander but that was not to be hence his son’s dis-taste for Kufuor I can guess so.
I was listening to Oman fm and the host of the show, Fiifi Boafo asked what Koku did when Kufuor visited the castle when the President of Ivory Coast was in Ghana…hmmm!
During the campaign for political office last year, bastard Rawlings and no apologizes because I see no reason why he called some noble men around our President as ‘greedy bastards’ went to Peki and declared that the NPP government had sacked all military personnel from the Volta Region in the Ghana Armed Forces.
The Public Relations Unit of the Ghana Armed Forces headed by my good friend Col Nibo came out with a statement that indeed for officer crops and the men in the Air Force, Army and Navy, the people from the Volta Region exceeded any other region.
It was this in-balance in the Forces recruitment that Col Damoah from the Brong Ahafo Region tried to cure and I won’t go into it because I have received a lot of bashing and various death-threatening messages and calls.
Are we principled at all, the NPP did it some time ago and so it should continue when we are building a better Ghana? Should this system continue like that?
NPP is to Gbevlo Lartey and NDC is to Col Damoah in the Ghana Armed Forces, many Okaines are popping out like maggots and they will hurt the NDC like how the NPP suffered.
Today, the National Security headed by Gbevlo Lartey who was a victim of the NPP has another Ewe as his deputy, 5 of the DG appointments in the Ghana Armed Forces have gone to Ewes, the police have its Director of Operations as an Ewe and faceless coward Yaw Donkor of the BNI, an Ewe has another Ewe as his deputy.
Information has it that Akans recruited into the NSC and the BNI have either been fired or forced to retire voluntarily.
I wish to continue but I will want to end here now and may be write back later.
Cheers!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
President Mills, Should We Shut Up?
President John Evans Atta Mills is reported to have said at Donkorkrom at Afram Plains in the Eastern region some weeks ago that his political opponents who had destroyed the nation over the past eight years should shut up and allow him to repair the economy; I saw it in the Daily Democrat and the Ghanaian Chronicle.
For a man who has built his entire political career on his so-called love for peace and tolerance, I am surprised at the comments coming out of our President. It seems to me that he has started down the long and slippery road that many a leader has trod on, that of making unnecessary and controversial public pronouncements.
The words of a President are supposed to be worth something, and I do not think that the President should indulge in fruitless inanities. Indeed, he knows or he should know that nothing in the world would make his opponents to shut up, particularly since he is messing up so fabulously.
So, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, we are not going to shut up, not today, and not tomorrow.
Fortunately or unfortunately, in making his call for all of us to shut up so that he alone can be the King Kong of Ghana, President Atta Mills also made other comments which to me are nasty indeed. For instance, he told the bemused people of Donkorkrom that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has destroyed the economy of Ghana in eight years and he was busy repairing the damage.
Sometimes, when some people speak, one begins to wonder whether they have the ability to remember their own history. Between 1997 to January 2001, President Atta Mills was the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana. In that period, he presided over an economy that could best be described as collapsed. So bad was the economy that a few months after the NPP took over from him we were forced to declare this nation as poor and highly indebted in order to benefit from favorable debt write-offs.
Why did he campaign anyway, did he and his party not say that our economy was in a mess? Or may be because it was time for campaigning he spoke freely like the way many of his ministers did within the period.
I want to borrow the words of the man I believed could have done well for this country and not Mills, Nana Akufo Addo who said “if you say the Economy is Broke, Fix It”
Buoyed with that fillip, the NPP, in eight years, built an economy that became the toast of the world. Indeed, the size of the GDP quadrupled, and so did our revenue mobilization targets. The statistics, in as far as the economy was concerned, are amazing to say the least.
Indeed, Professor Atta Mills has a daunting task meeting a quarter of the achievements of the NPP in as far as managing the economy is concerned, and it would be sad for him to go about saying that the economy he inherited is a destroyed one that needs to be fixed.
I am praying that he does not destroy the economy, and I personally have very little hope that he is going to be able to pull any miracles. He lacks the ability and he lacks the personnel to wreak any miracles. If it wasn’t so sad, I would have said that our President has a very good sense of humor. According to him there was no money in the coffers of Ghana when he took over. Ha ha ha!
Nothing could be further from the truth. This year, it has been budgeted that Ghana would spend over twenty billion dollars on various programs, and every single pesewa has been accounted for and the budget line identified. That was why he and his men were able to blow 1.6 billion old Ghana cedis on tea, the huge amount spent on painting the castle, the money spent on just welcoming the US President who was here for less than 24 hours, an expenditure which was not budgeted for, but which came to pass. So Mills should stop insulting our intelligence about there being no money to spend!
It seems that Mills is also a person who likes passing the buck. In his Manifesto for a Better Ghana, he set out six clear objectives that he expected to deliver within a hundred days. When the hundred days came to pass without even one of the objectives being met, we were told that that was because the government was still too young.
Eleven months have come to pass yet his government is still leisurely about. Now Mills has started telling the people that he won a mandate of four years and people should stop pushing him to deliver.
For me, he is seeking an excuse and he is passing the buck. The fact of the matter is that in eleven months, there should have been clear achievements under his belt. The fact that there is none to speak off should be a worrying indicator to him and to the rest of the country.
In any case, why should he go to Donkorkrom to ask them what the NPP did for them? What is he, John Evans Atta Mills, President of Ghana, going to do for the people of Donkorkrom? That is what the people of Donkorkrom expected from him, and not a litany of complaints against an old government.
In any case, why is our President such a liar? Why does he keep on saying that he is going to be a President for all and not only his cronies? The fact of the matter is that since he assumed office, many competent people have been kicked out of sensitive public and civil positions to be replaced by his friends, associates and cronies, and there seems to be no sign that this phenomenon is about to end.
Mills did not come to power because of us. He came to power because of his friends, associates and cronies and family members that founder Efo Rawlings calls greedy bastards and he should stop fooling himself that he came for the masses of us.
As for justifying our confidence in him, I can assure him that he has his work cut out for him, and so far, the signs are not encouraging. And in the face of such poor signals, I do not think that it would be wise to call upon us to shut up, because we won’t.
Atta do something before you die because the dullness is too much.
For a man who has built his entire political career on his so-called love for peace and tolerance, I am surprised at the comments coming out of our President. It seems to me that he has started down the long and slippery road that many a leader has trod on, that of making unnecessary and controversial public pronouncements.
The words of a President are supposed to be worth something, and I do not think that the President should indulge in fruitless inanities. Indeed, he knows or he should know that nothing in the world would make his opponents to shut up, particularly since he is messing up so fabulously.
So, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, we are not going to shut up, not today, and not tomorrow.
Fortunately or unfortunately, in making his call for all of us to shut up so that he alone can be the King Kong of Ghana, President Atta Mills also made other comments which to me are nasty indeed. For instance, he told the bemused people of Donkorkrom that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has destroyed the economy of Ghana in eight years and he was busy repairing the damage.
Sometimes, when some people speak, one begins to wonder whether they have the ability to remember their own history. Between 1997 to January 2001, President Atta Mills was the Vice President of the Republic of Ghana. In that period, he presided over an economy that could best be described as collapsed. So bad was the economy that a few months after the NPP took over from him we were forced to declare this nation as poor and highly indebted in order to benefit from favorable debt write-offs.
Why did he campaign anyway, did he and his party not say that our economy was in a mess? Or may be because it was time for campaigning he spoke freely like the way many of his ministers did within the period.
I want to borrow the words of the man I believed could have done well for this country and not Mills, Nana Akufo Addo who said “if you say the Economy is Broke, Fix It”
Buoyed with that fillip, the NPP, in eight years, built an economy that became the toast of the world. Indeed, the size of the GDP quadrupled, and so did our revenue mobilization targets. The statistics, in as far as the economy was concerned, are amazing to say the least.
Indeed, Professor Atta Mills has a daunting task meeting a quarter of the achievements of the NPP in as far as managing the economy is concerned, and it would be sad for him to go about saying that the economy he inherited is a destroyed one that needs to be fixed.
I am praying that he does not destroy the economy, and I personally have very little hope that he is going to be able to pull any miracles. He lacks the ability and he lacks the personnel to wreak any miracles. If it wasn’t so sad, I would have said that our President has a very good sense of humor. According to him there was no money in the coffers of Ghana when he took over. Ha ha ha!
Nothing could be further from the truth. This year, it has been budgeted that Ghana would spend over twenty billion dollars on various programs, and every single pesewa has been accounted for and the budget line identified. That was why he and his men were able to blow 1.6 billion old Ghana cedis on tea, the huge amount spent on painting the castle, the money spent on just welcoming the US President who was here for less than 24 hours, an expenditure which was not budgeted for, but which came to pass. So Mills should stop insulting our intelligence about there being no money to spend!
It seems that Mills is also a person who likes passing the buck. In his Manifesto for a Better Ghana, he set out six clear objectives that he expected to deliver within a hundred days. When the hundred days came to pass without even one of the objectives being met, we were told that that was because the government was still too young.
Eleven months have come to pass yet his government is still leisurely about. Now Mills has started telling the people that he won a mandate of four years and people should stop pushing him to deliver.
For me, he is seeking an excuse and he is passing the buck. The fact of the matter is that in eleven months, there should have been clear achievements under his belt. The fact that there is none to speak off should be a worrying indicator to him and to the rest of the country.
In any case, why should he go to Donkorkrom to ask them what the NPP did for them? What is he, John Evans Atta Mills, President of Ghana, going to do for the people of Donkorkrom? That is what the people of Donkorkrom expected from him, and not a litany of complaints against an old government.
In any case, why is our President such a liar? Why does he keep on saying that he is going to be a President for all and not only his cronies? The fact of the matter is that since he assumed office, many competent people have been kicked out of sensitive public and civil positions to be replaced by his friends, associates and cronies, and there seems to be no sign that this phenomenon is about to end.
Mills did not come to power because of us. He came to power because of his friends, associates and cronies and family members that founder Efo Rawlings calls greedy bastards and he should stop fooling himself that he came for the masses of us.
As for justifying our confidence in him, I can assure him that he has his work cut out for him, and so far, the signs are not encouraging. And in the face of such poor signals, I do not think that it would be wise to call upon us to shut up, because we won’t.
Atta do something before you die because the dullness is too much.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Re: Mills In Massive Abuse Of Office
RE: Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne’s Rejoinder
I write in response to a rejoinder captioned “Re: Mills In Massive Abuse Of Office” written by one Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne formerly the Features Editor of the Ghana Palaver.
Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne rather than addressing the issues raised by myself and published in the Daily Searchlight went to town and focused his absolute attention and time going in circles.
I want to state categorically that I called Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne when I heard the information for his side and did not go to town like many of his likes in the NDC stable would have done.
Again, he never denied using the names of President Mills and Mr. Ato Ahowi as his referees and further told me that “I will add Jesus if I get the chance”.
Again, he told me that referees are on curriculum vitae to attest to one’s competence and character and also asked for a copy of the newspaper to be brought to him personally by myself when the story is out the following day.
I also want to state categorically clear that there has being nothing like Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Direction of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) since its inception. Perhaps the creation of the above is an attempt to create job for the boys.
Significantly, he has never denied this and I want to ask him whether the position he is enjoying now with his so called thirty years of professional practice in communications was advertised in any media be it electronic or print or at least any of the national dallies, I mean the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times.
I did not expect the advert to be placed in the “eight-page political newsletter”? I work for as he claimed but was it ever advertised for many qualified persons like himself to apply?I want to know from Ametor how many people applied for the job and how many were short listed for interviewed and how many actually had the privilege of being interview?
If only you are interviewed by a so called strong team of five (5) top Management officials of the Authority for a considerable length of time and acquitted and discharged, won’t you walk away with a job in hand?
When the famous pissing In and Out mantra came out as a fallout of the Ahowi and Spio feud, social commentators from his party went on air to state categorically that he (Ametor) as a member of the Spio campaign and others have been accordingly rewarded by President Mills, has he ever challenged this.
It is obvious that Ametor have benefited from his closeness with the presidency therefore he should stop moving from radio station to radio station screaming and disturbing our ears.
“What must really be of concern to all well meaning Ghanaians is the fact that a top official of an organization who must uphold the integrity and reputation of the institution he or she serves would stoop so low as to be such a willing tool in the hands of an unscrupulous Journalist whose only desire is to impugn the hard won reputations of others either because of envy or hatred or both”, interesting I say. When did the above occur to Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne?
I can sense it occurred to him only when he got a job at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and with Professor Mills as President.
As for his description of the paper I work on as an eight-page political newsletter of no merit and consequence, devoted to mischief making and political blackmailing, I want to refer him to the paper he worked on before landing his current job.
Were they trying to blackmail a well-known Chief when the Kofi Boakye tape came up and what about the supposed state of emergence President Kufuor wanted to impose when he met their own, General Odotei and the late General Ayiku who got up from the grave for that meeting only.
Does he remember the story of somebody selling off our entire official Gold Reserves reported by the paper he formerly worked for and the reward somebody whose last official employment was selling of Christian literature landed a job as a Deputy Minister of Finance for championing that falsehood?
I can cite many examples but I won’t draw that newspaper into the mud because it is also playing its part in our young democracy.
As I stated in my text to you on Saturday after our short talk, I want to state here again that I don’t hate or envy you but I will do my work diligently and if that constitutes envy or hate than it is up to you.
May God bless us all as we continue to discharge our duties for God and Country
I write in response to a rejoinder captioned “Re: Mills In Massive Abuse Of Office” written by one Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne formerly the Features Editor of the Ghana Palaver.
Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne rather than addressing the issues raised by myself and published in the Daily Searchlight went to town and focused his absolute attention and time going in circles.
I want to state categorically that I called Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne when I heard the information for his side and did not go to town like many of his likes in the NDC stable would have done.
Again, he never denied using the names of President Mills and Mr. Ato Ahowi as his referees and further told me that “I will add Jesus if I get the chance”.
Again, he told me that referees are on curriculum vitae to attest to one’s competence and character and also asked for a copy of the newspaper to be brought to him personally by myself when the story is out the following day.
I also want to state categorically clear that there has being nothing like Deputy Director of Corporate Affairs and Strategic Direction of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) since its inception. Perhaps the creation of the above is an attempt to create job for the boys.
Significantly, he has never denied this and I want to ask him whether the position he is enjoying now with his so called thirty years of professional practice in communications was advertised in any media be it electronic or print or at least any of the national dallies, I mean the Daily Graphic and the Ghanaian Times.
I did not expect the advert to be placed in the “eight-page political newsletter”? I work for as he claimed but was it ever advertised for many qualified persons like himself to apply?I want to know from Ametor how many people applied for the job and how many were short listed for interviewed and how many actually had the privilege of being interview?
If only you are interviewed by a so called strong team of five (5) top Management officials of the Authority for a considerable length of time and acquitted and discharged, won’t you walk away with a job in hand?
When the famous pissing In and Out mantra came out as a fallout of the Ahowi and Spio feud, social commentators from his party went on air to state categorically that he (Ametor) as a member of the Spio campaign and others have been accordingly rewarded by President Mills, has he ever challenged this.
It is obvious that Ametor have benefited from his closeness with the presidency therefore he should stop moving from radio station to radio station screaming and disturbing our ears.
“What must really be of concern to all well meaning Ghanaians is the fact that a top official of an organization who must uphold the integrity and reputation of the institution he or she serves would stoop so low as to be such a willing tool in the hands of an unscrupulous Journalist whose only desire is to impugn the hard won reputations of others either because of envy or hatred or both”, interesting I say. When did the above occur to Mr. Eric Ametor- Ouarmyne?
I can sense it occurred to him only when he got a job at the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and with Professor Mills as President.
As for his description of the paper I work on as an eight-page political newsletter of no merit and consequence, devoted to mischief making and political blackmailing, I want to refer him to the paper he worked on before landing his current job.
Were they trying to blackmail a well-known Chief when the Kofi Boakye tape came up and what about the supposed state of emergence President Kufuor wanted to impose when he met their own, General Odotei and the late General Ayiku who got up from the grave for that meeting only.
Does he remember the story of somebody selling off our entire official Gold Reserves reported by the paper he formerly worked for and the reward somebody whose last official employment was selling of Christian literature landed a job as a Deputy Minister of Finance for championing that falsehood?
I can cite many examples but I won’t draw that newspaper into the mud because it is also playing its part in our young democracy.
As I stated in my text to you on Saturday after our short talk, I want to state here again that I don’t hate or envy you but I will do my work diligently and if that constitutes envy or hate than it is up to you.
May God bless us all as we continue to discharge our duties for God and Country
Don’t Be A Coward Kobby Fiabge
Taking a cue from his cocoon boss Ayibgenii Koku Anyidohu, the editor of the Ghanaian Lens newspaper, Kobby Fiabge, another Ayibgenii last week embarked upon a joint attack against released Col Damoah and myself.
Surprisingly, Kobby Fiabge could not muster the courage to face me when I called him on phone just like what his boss did recently when he threatened an activist of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on another radio station and quickly beat a hasty retreat the following day on another sister radio station. Kobby can go to town on Col Damoah wherever and whenever he wants but to decide to include me into it is something I won’t take kindly.
Again, it is funny how the desperate would just clutch at straws, after writing all the rot in his paper and sweating to defend the indefensible, he posted his article on this very forum but under a different name…Nana Biakoye (the true patriot)...funny paaaa!!!
This is Prince Prah writing, I am not a coward like Kobby and his darling boss Koku, who until recently could not even buy a bottle of Fanta and yessssss….cocoa on sale by hawkers.
They should go and ask their semi god, Raymond Archer, who claims he edits the most powerful investigative paper in Ghana today about how he went through hell on this very forum and the way he had to lie through his teeth.
Kindly tell Raymond Archer that am still waiting for the results of the Ace Ankomah imposter investigations being carried out by the outfit of another coward in the person of faceless Yaw Donkor, the director of the BNI.
Kobby is bitter because I wrote about his darling Koku’s daddy. I still stand by what I wrote and for him to say that the released soldier writes and I use my -by line as the author got me laughing side-splittingly.
If you have any evidence that the released soldier writes and I put my by-line under it, I urge you to provide the evidence if you have any and don’t keep your readers waiting…why, a Kyeiwaa in the making...ouch may be it might help you get some money since Col Damoah sells nowadays.If you want to engage me in your usual style of “I SAY YOU SAID SO” and YOU MUST PROVE IT YOURSELF”, then you are wrong because am too grown for that childish game.
Facts are facts and I want to repeat what I wrote about that glutton of a General in my first piece. “What about the man who is noted for stealing food items such as tubers of yams and fowls and also fighting with Other Ranks for food become a Major General”, Kobby and Koku can go and burn the sea if they want.If you talk of thieves, Koku’s glutton father is one and should be arrested immediately and brought to book.
I get sick anytime I hear Koku call others thieves without mentioning the name of his father… you see, he was fed with the stolen food items so you don’t expect him to complain.Coward Koku could not put forward his name when he was writing the Uncle JB column for the Ghanaian Lens newspaper when he was the so called sports editor, he calls onto a radio station to issue threats then beats a hasty retreat the following day, ha ha ha ha !!!I won’t drink locally brewed gin (apio) before going on radio stations or smoke wee…..hmmm!
I read in The Patriot newspaper that you are an alleged serial rapist…wow…!!! Not just a rapist but with an adjective too, it continued that you are a homosexual and a paedophile and that all your secrets are in the open.
Again the paper claims you are hooked on to hard drugs that dazed you and makes you write nonsense about people you cannot compare your self with….are these allegations true? Kobby, can I conclude that you were not dazed and it was the reason why you couldn’t master courage to face me…sorry boss and I pray is not true and if it is true, you get off it quickly because I don’t want to loose a friend like you though we haven’t met before.
The late Peter Tosh has a song and a line which goes like this, “if you live in a glass house don’t throw stones” and you of all people call somebody an immoral character…funny, besides Col Damoah was not sacked and if I may ask what happened to your police career…I don’t want to go there.
Koku and Lt. Col Attachie are good friends and work at the same place and you can get some education through your boss Koku from the chief thief at the castle (Attachie) about how I came into contact with him.You should ask Koku to find out from the thief at the castle the where about of a certain S-350-Benz vehicle with registration number GR 2742 Z and the GH¢1000 and the tape I have in my possession.
I still have the text messages he sent me and one thing that stands out is once a thief always a thief and his nefarious activities together with his friends namely Alex Segbefia and Carl Wilson was blown by the National Security Council as per the minutes of their Friday 28 August and 28 September 2009 meetings a copy I have.
On Lt. General Smith I still stand by what I said. He is a decorated Minister of Defence just as the Associate Professor President John Evans Atta Mills who is a decorated President while those running the show are at the background.Why is that the National Security Coordinator has to communicate everyday with Lt. Gen. Smith while Maj. Gen Blay follows sheepishly because he needs the rank of Lieutenant General suspecting that when Maj. Gen Carl Moddy returns from Liberia, he will be pushed out.
Hear Gen Smith speak when I called him onetime over an issue within his backyard. “You have painted the picture of what is happening in the Armed Forces to the whole world…I have been minister for all this while and you have never called me so why now,” he yelled and he has been running away from me ever since but can he hide is the question Lt. General Smith should ask himself.
Very soon the mother and father of all kokofu promotions and appointments are about to be announced and everything was done at Blue Gate and the Castle without his in-puts and that of the Service Commanders, imposition, yes imposition.On Major General Adinkrah, Kobby can again get some education from the Army Secretary, Col. P.K. Senchim, as to whether J.N. Adinkrah has discussed anything about promotions and appointments with him ever since he became Army Commander, this goes for all the other Services.
I dare Col. P.K. Senchim to tell Kobby to make it public whether he has never placed any call on behalf of his former boss and church elder, General Odotei, for his girlfriends to be taken even when they have failed medicals at the 37 Military Hospital.Why is the husband of the School-mistress trying very hard to get an Ayibgenii as the next Army Secretary and is it not also true that Brigadier General Owusu Ababio is penciled for Congo?
Let me sound a note of caution to the parliamentary caucus who meet at Airforce Officers’ Mess that they should be bold to come out and face me because threats and calls won’t help and to make their work easy for them; I pass in front of Burma Camp every day both to and from work.
I have spoken to Col Doamah’s lawyer and very soon a meeting would be scheduled for me to meet him in his lawyer’s chambers and when the opportune time comes, I will invite Kobby to just take one shot. As Joe Lartey always say over to you………
NB: Sorry to my cherished readers that am no more writing interesting features like “Ghana’s Cult of Corruption” and the likes but please bare with me because it won’t happen again.
Surprisingly, Kobby Fiabge could not muster the courage to face me when I called him on phone just like what his boss did recently when he threatened an activist of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) on another radio station and quickly beat a hasty retreat the following day on another sister radio station. Kobby can go to town on Col Damoah wherever and whenever he wants but to decide to include me into it is something I won’t take kindly.
Again, it is funny how the desperate would just clutch at straws, after writing all the rot in his paper and sweating to defend the indefensible, he posted his article on this very forum but under a different name…Nana Biakoye (the true patriot)...funny paaaa!!!
This is Prince Prah writing, I am not a coward like Kobby and his darling boss Koku, who until recently could not even buy a bottle of Fanta and yessssss….cocoa on sale by hawkers.
They should go and ask their semi god, Raymond Archer, who claims he edits the most powerful investigative paper in Ghana today about how he went through hell on this very forum and the way he had to lie through his teeth.
Kindly tell Raymond Archer that am still waiting for the results of the Ace Ankomah imposter investigations being carried out by the outfit of another coward in the person of faceless Yaw Donkor, the director of the BNI.
Kobby is bitter because I wrote about his darling Koku’s daddy. I still stand by what I wrote and for him to say that the released soldier writes and I use my -by line as the author got me laughing side-splittingly.
If you have any evidence that the released soldier writes and I put my by-line under it, I urge you to provide the evidence if you have any and don’t keep your readers waiting…why, a Kyeiwaa in the making...ouch may be it might help you get some money since Col Damoah sells nowadays.If you want to engage me in your usual style of “I SAY YOU SAID SO” and YOU MUST PROVE IT YOURSELF”, then you are wrong because am too grown for that childish game.
Facts are facts and I want to repeat what I wrote about that glutton of a General in my first piece. “What about the man who is noted for stealing food items such as tubers of yams and fowls and also fighting with Other Ranks for food become a Major General”, Kobby and Koku can go and burn the sea if they want.If you talk of thieves, Koku’s glutton father is one and should be arrested immediately and brought to book.
I get sick anytime I hear Koku call others thieves without mentioning the name of his father… you see, he was fed with the stolen food items so you don’t expect him to complain.Coward Koku could not put forward his name when he was writing the Uncle JB column for the Ghanaian Lens newspaper when he was the so called sports editor, he calls onto a radio station to issue threats then beats a hasty retreat the following day, ha ha ha ha !!!I won’t drink locally brewed gin (apio) before going on radio stations or smoke wee…..hmmm!
I read in The Patriot newspaper that you are an alleged serial rapist…wow…!!! Not just a rapist but with an adjective too, it continued that you are a homosexual and a paedophile and that all your secrets are in the open.
Again the paper claims you are hooked on to hard drugs that dazed you and makes you write nonsense about people you cannot compare your self with….are these allegations true? Kobby, can I conclude that you were not dazed and it was the reason why you couldn’t master courage to face me…sorry boss and I pray is not true and if it is true, you get off it quickly because I don’t want to loose a friend like you though we haven’t met before.
The late Peter Tosh has a song and a line which goes like this, “if you live in a glass house don’t throw stones” and you of all people call somebody an immoral character…funny, besides Col Damoah was not sacked and if I may ask what happened to your police career…I don’t want to go there.
Koku and Lt. Col Attachie are good friends and work at the same place and you can get some education through your boss Koku from the chief thief at the castle (Attachie) about how I came into contact with him.You should ask Koku to find out from the thief at the castle the where about of a certain S-350-Benz vehicle with registration number GR 2742 Z and the GH¢1000 and the tape I have in my possession.
I still have the text messages he sent me and one thing that stands out is once a thief always a thief and his nefarious activities together with his friends namely Alex Segbefia and Carl Wilson was blown by the National Security Council as per the minutes of their Friday 28 August and 28 September 2009 meetings a copy I have.
On Lt. General Smith I still stand by what I said. He is a decorated Minister of Defence just as the Associate Professor President John Evans Atta Mills who is a decorated President while those running the show are at the background.Why is that the National Security Coordinator has to communicate everyday with Lt. Gen. Smith while Maj. Gen Blay follows sheepishly because he needs the rank of Lieutenant General suspecting that when Maj. Gen Carl Moddy returns from Liberia, he will be pushed out.
Hear Gen Smith speak when I called him onetime over an issue within his backyard. “You have painted the picture of what is happening in the Armed Forces to the whole world…I have been minister for all this while and you have never called me so why now,” he yelled and he has been running away from me ever since but can he hide is the question Lt. General Smith should ask himself.
Very soon the mother and father of all kokofu promotions and appointments are about to be announced and everything was done at Blue Gate and the Castle without his in-puts and that of the Service Commanders, imposition, yes imposition.On Major General Adinkrah, Kobby can again get some education from the Army Secretary, Col. P.K. Senchim, as to whether J.N. Adinkrah has discussed anything about promotions and appointments with him ever since he became Army Commander, this goes for all the other Services.
I dare Col. P.K. Senchim to tell Kobby to make it public whether he has never placed any call on behalf of his former boss and church elder, General Odotei, for his girlfriends to be taken even when they have failed medicals at the 37 Military Hospital.Why is the husband of the School-mistress trying very hard to get an Ayibgenii as the next Army Secretary and is it not also true that Brigadier General Owusu Ababio is penciled for Congo?
Let me sound a note of caution to the parliamentary caucus who meet at Airforce Officers’ Mess that they should be bold to come out and face me because threats and calls won’t help and to make their work easy for them; I pass in front of Burma Camp every day both to and from work.
I have spoken to Col Doamah’s lawyer and very soon a meeting would be scheduled for me to meet him in his lawyer’s chambers and when the opportune time comes, I will invite Kobby to just take one shot. As Joe Lartey always say over to you………
NB: Sorry to my cherished readers that am no more writing interesting features like “Ghana’s Cult of Corruption” and the likes but please bare with me because it won’t happen again.
Smith Nonesense (Part 1)
I have tried and don’t want to write about how the military has been politicized under Defence Minister, General Smith and his sidekicks and his role in the release of Col Damoah but he and his puddles keep providing me the opportunity and I will take a swipe at them for once.
I get sick anytime I hear Lt General Smith, in his usual rantings say the media should not politicize the military, the fact is that the military is already politicized and this is not the fault of the media.
How did he become a Lieutenant General, what about the man noted for stealing food items such as tubers of yams and fowls and also fighting over food with Other Ranks become a Major General, I mean Koku’s father. Were they not promoted kokufully by Jerry Rawlings?Does he remember what Gen Akafia’s girlfriend who is still in the service did to him in 2000 and how he virtually turned into a taxi driver picking up ‘somebody’ from lectures at the Ghana Law School and dropping the person at Police Hospital, he should remember if he has forgotten so soon.
He is a decorated Minister of Defence but those in control of the Armed Forces are the hawks in the P/NDC gravitating around ex-president Rawlings, Lt. Col. A.K Gbevlo-Lartey, General Arnold Quainoo and glutton Anyidohu.Ever since he assumed office there has been every indication that he would continue with the tradition of chasing down his ‘enemies’ real and imagined, for retribution.A typical case is that of Colonel Kwadwo Damoah, former Director, Manpower/Personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces, who has been discharged after he was told that his services would no longer be needed.
For all intents and purposes, the Army, under the political direction of the NDC government and General Smith was intent on releasing him from the Ghana Armed Forces, true to reports over several weeks that plans were afoot to get rid of him from the army.Interestingly, the exit of the nation’s most popular soldier currently has nothing to do with the bogus Board of Enquiry (BOI) that was specifically set up a few months ago ostensibly to nail him over the recruitment procedures into the Armed Forces which saw Col Musah being rewarded as our Defence Adviser to London for the dirty work he did and he could not hide his happiness when I called him the day I heard the news.Instead, the Military Command said it had decided to sacrifice him because the media had written stories about him which embarrassed the military!What is the Military Command doing to the soldiers who unleashed terror on the people of Oda and those who allowed drivers and mates to kiss dead bodies…is that one embarrassing or not?I pity Col Nibo a lot because whilst his colleagues are looking for promotion he is happy at one office when even his subordinates have moved on to better things and he says communicating with the media is an offence, he should tell that to the thief at the castle who calls panelist on radio stations to tone down their criticisms because the tortoise government of Associate Professor John Mills is young.
Who is the one calling serial callers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and briefing them on issues affecting the military from Col Nibo’s office?The release of Damoah, a career soldier from the Armed Forces for no specified crime, was shocking and would completely undermine the morale fiber of the Army and completely cow his fellow officers and men.Another puddle in the person of Major General Adinkra, the Army Commander, who bowed to pressure from this misfit Minister, had to release him by stating that Damoah is not advantageously employable in his present rank, ridiculous.Who called S.M Adams, the Acting Military Secretary to draft the release letter when he was sick and on his bed? Who is also behind the text messages going round?
Take a look at his sidekicks in the person of one pound Dovlo, the incompetent and worse Director of Public Relations in the person of Col Nibo, the chief thief of imported cars, Lt Col Attachie and Col PK Senchim who helped his former boss, church elder Odotei undermined Gen JB Danquah but could not get the slot of CDS because our living God is not Ewe do not march the quality of Col Damoah who is not only a chartered Accountant but also a member of the Bar. With this background what is the basis of the claim that he is not employable…Hmmm!What is the old man, Col V Gamor who is past 60 years doing in the service?
Air Vice Marshal one pound Dolvo should come out and tell the whole nation his performance at his former post and his current one.With this Damoah is gone and the powers that be would be going after other officers in the army because of their perceived political affiliation, an unacceptable situation.
I get sick anytime I hear Lt General Smith, in his usual rantings say the media should not politicize the military, the fact is that the military is already politicized and this is not the fault of the media.
How did he become a Lieutenant General, what about the man noted for stealing food items such as tubers of yams and fowls and also fighting over food with Other Ranks become a Major General, I mean Koku’s father. Were they not promoted kokufully by Jerry Rawlings?Does he remember what Gen Akafia’s girlfriend who is still in the service did to him in 2000 and how he virtually turned into a taxi driver picking up ‘somebody’ from lectures at the Ghana Law School and dropping the person at Police Hospital, he should remember if he has forgotten so soon.
He is a decorated Minister of Defence but those in control of the Armed Forces are the hawks in the P/NDC gravitating around ex-president Rawlings, Lt. Col. A.K Gbevlo-Lartey, General Arnold Quainoo and glutton Anyidohu.Ever since he assumed office there has been every indication that he would continue with the tradition of chasing down his ‘enemies’ real and imagined, for retribution.A typical case is that of Colonel Kwadwo Damoah, former Director, Manpower/Personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces, who has been discharged after he was told that his services would no longer be needed.
For all intents and purposes, the Army, under the political direction of the NDC government and General Smith was intent on releasing him from the Ghana Armed Forces, true to reports over several weeks that plans were afoot to get rid of him from the army.Interestingly, the exit of the nation’s most popular soldier currently has nothing to do with the bogus Board of Enquiry (BOI) that was specifically set up a few months ago ostensibly to nail him over the recruitment procedures into the Armed Forces which saw Col Musah being rewarded as our Defence Adviser to London for the dirty work he did and he could not hide his happiness when I called him the day I heard the news.Instead, the Military Command said it had decided to sacrifice him because the media had written stories about him which embarrassed the military!What is the Military Command doing to the soldiers who unleashed terror on the people of Oda and those who allowed drivers and mates to kiss dead bodies…is that one embarrassing or not?I pity Col Nibo a lot because whilst his colleagues are looking for promotion he is happy at one office when even his subordinates have moved on to better things and he says communicating with the media is an offence, he should tell that to the thief at the castle who calls panelist on radio stations to tone down their criticisms because the tortoise government of Associate Professor John Mills is young.
Who is the one calling serial callers of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and briefing them on issues affecting the military from Col Nibo’s office?The release of Damoah, a career soldier from the Armed Forces for no specified crime, was shocking and would completely undermine the morale fiber of the Army and completely cow his fellow officers and men.Another puddle in the person of Major General Adinkra, the Army Commander, who bowed to pressure from this misfit Minister, had to release him by stating that Damoah is not advantageously employable in his present rank, ridiculous.Who called S.M Adams, the Acting Military Secretary to draft the release letter when he was sick and on his bed? Who is also behind the text messages going round?
Take a look at his sidekicks in the person of one pound Dovlo, the incompetent and worse Director of Public Relations in the person of Col Nibo, the chief thief of imported cars, Lt Col Attachie and Col PK Senchim who helped his former boss, church elder Odotei undermined Gen JB Danquah but could not get the slot of CDS because our living God is not Ewe do not march the quality of Col Damoah who is not only a chartered Accountant but also a member of the Bar. With this background what is the basis of the claim that he is not employable…Hmmm!What is the old man, Col V Gamor who is past 60 years doing in the service?
Air Vice Marshal one pound Dolvo should come out and tell the whole nation his performance at his former post and his current one.With this Damoah is gone and the powers that be would be going after other officers in the army because of their perceived political affiliation, an unacceptable situation.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The Fraud Called P.C. Appiah-Ofori
Sometimes, one despairs. It seems that because of personal ambition, there are people on the face of this earth who would do everything possible and conceivable to advance their own interests.
So there are experts and one in our society who would like the world to know that he is an expert in fighting corruption is the person am focusing on today.
Over the past few years, the very honourable Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori (my MP because my mum comes from Brakwa ) has been throwing his weight about all over the place, claiming that he is an apostle of anti-corruption.
Some say he was sponsored by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) through patronage, Appiah-Ofori was responsible for making himself out into a nuisance on all manner of issues, but the matter for which he is possibly going to go down into the record books, is his allegation that his colleague New Patriotic Party (NPP) members took five thousand dollar bribes to vote for the approval of the sale of seventy percent shares of GT to Vodafone.
Now, the conditions around which he made this claim are very interesting. Apparently, and according to him, he had heard on the grapevine, through Deputy Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho, who was then Deputy Minority Leader, that the NPP members took the bribes.
Upon hearing this rumors peddled by a leader with nothing better to do than to spend his time spreading scurrilous allegations, Appiah-Ofori quickly wrote a letter to then Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani demanding his share of the ‘loot’, and when he was denied because there were never any such payments, Appiah-Ofori went public with the accusations.
When he was confronted, he said that he had never said anything like that, but in another breathe, he has proof and that if he is challenged, he would bring out this so-called proof out.
My brothers and sisters, would any serious campaigner against corruption wait to be challenged before he brings out proof against corruption? No.
Again, he says the evidence will destroy his party and so he is keeping it close to his chest and I cite with Randy Abbey that if he has any evidence he should produce it and not think of his party because Ghana comes first.
Now, the members of the NDC are screaming to the high heavens because he has accused them of corruption.
According to him, Associate Professor John Evan Atta Mills is unfit to rule this nation because he told him that some of his ministers and people around him have gone to take bribes…again he Never presented any evidence.
Should Atta Mills just get up and call Ayariga, Koku or the Communications Minister and hand them over to the Police or the faceless Yaw Donkor’s BNI because PC Appiah -Ofori says so?
As we the Akyems would say, otwea! They (NDC) have created a monster called P.C. Appiah-Ofori, and now, they are going to have to deal with him!
I was not surprised when I saw a news item on myjoyonline with the caption “Ayariga schools PC Appiah Ofori on fighting corruption”.
Ha! But what can you expect of a man who says that his wife infected him with gonorrhea and lives with two married wives in one house?
These are some of the experts in our society and the claptrap they serve us sometimes!
So there are experts and one in our society who would like the world to know that he is an expert in fighting corruption is the person am focusing on today.
Over the past few years, the very honourable Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori (my MP because my mum comes from Brakwa ) has been throwing his weight about all over the place, claiming that he is an apostle of anti-corruption.
Some say he was sponsored by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) through patronage, Appiah-Ofori was responsible for making himself out into a nuisance on all manner of issues, but the matter for which he is possibly going to go down into the record books, is his allegation that his colleague New Patriotic Party (NPP) members took five thousand dollar bribes to vote for the approval of the sale of seventy percent shares of GT to Vodafone.
Now, the conditions around which he made this claim are very interesting. Apparently, and according to him, he had heard on the grapevine, through Deputy Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho, who was then Deputy Minority Leader, that the NPP members took the bribes.
Upon hearing this rumors peddled by a leader with nothing better to do than to spend his time spreading scurrilous allegations, Appiah-Ofori quickly wrote a letter to then Chief of Staff, Kwadwo Mpiani demanding his share of the ‘loot’, and when he was denied because there were never any such payments, Appiah-Ofori went public with the accusations.
When he was confronted, he said that he had never said anything like that, but in another breathe, he has proof and that if he is challenged, he would bring out this so-called proof out.
My brothers and sisters, would any serious campaigner against corruption wait to be challenged before he brings out proof against corruption? No.
Again, he says the evidence will destroy his party and so he is keeping it close to his chest and I cite with Randy Abbey that if he has any evidence he should produce it and not think of his party because Ghana comes first.
Now, the members of the NDC are screaming to the high heavens because he has accused them of corruption.
According to him, Associate Professor John Evan Atta Mills is unfit to rule this nation because he told him that some of his ministers and people around him have gone to take bribes…again he Never presented any evidence.
Should Atta Mills just get up and call Ayariga, Koku or the Communications Minister and hand them over to the Police or the faceless Yaw Donkor’s BNI because PC Appiah -Ofori says so?
As we the Akyems would say, otwea! They (NDC) have created a monster called P.C. Appiah-Ofori, and now, they are going to have to deal with him!
I was not surprised when I saw a news item on myjoyonline with the caption “Ayariga schools PC Appiah Ofori on fighting corruption”.
Ha! But what can you expect of a man who says that his wife infected him with gonorrhea and lives with two married wives in one house?
These are some of the experts in our society and the claptrap they serve us sometimes!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Anti-African Racist Insults Obama Got Away With In Ghana
President Barack Obama has by now firmly established a reputation (or, if you like, a notoriety) as someone who is smoothly agreeable and courteous, even excusatory, when he talks to America’s supposed “enemies” and friends but condescending, even insulting and downright rude, when he talks to his own friends and “family,” especially if those friends and family happen to be descended from his absent father’s bloodline.
Read Obama’s speeches to African Americans and compare them with speeches he gave to other groups in America, such as Jewish Americans, for instance. You will notice that speeches to Jewish Americans are usually remarkably polite and politic while speeches to African Americans are often deficient in refinement or grace and generally hallmarked by a repulsively pompous arrogance. His admirers call this “tough love” to family.
But nowhere does this dissociative presidential identity disorder become more apparent than in a comparison of Obama’s Cairo speech and his Accra speech.
In the Cairo speech, he was deep, engaging, admirably nuanced and above all, deferential. In the Accra speech, however, he came across as patronizing, impertinent, pedestrian, and avuncular in an offensive way.
To be fair, there is much to be admired and celebrated in Obama’s Ghana speech. Except for its bland and simplistic formulations, it was earnest, inspired and well-delivered. And, although the speech sounded and read more like a paternalistic rebuke to errant and obstinate children than an address to a sovereign nation’s parliament, I frankly have not the littlest sympathy for the clueless and inept African leaders Obama so thoroughly infantilized.
However, what we should not allow him to get away with was his studied and gratuitous racist dirty plow at Africans or, as he called us, “sub-Saharan” Africans. Now, what is this racist dirty plow? Well, it’s his revoltingly nauseating references to us as “tribes,” to conflicts in our continent as “ancient tribal conflicts,” and to incidences of ethnic discrimination as “tribalism.” Obama should know better than to be that objectionably ignorant.
Until relatively recently, am told by a friend, for instance, the Irish, Obama’s relatives on his mother’s side, were systematically discriminated against in employment opportunities in America and Britain by people who looked as lily white as they. Was that, too, “tribalism,” similar to the one you said your father allegedly suffered in Kenya, Mr. Obama? Oh, I forgot, that is called “anti-Irish racism,” even though the Irish belong to the same “race” as the people who discriminated against them. Ethnic discrimination is “tribalism” only when it happens in Africa, oops sorry, sub-Saharan Africa I mean.
It’s curious that it was a white-owned American newspaper by name the Politico that first called out Obama on this racist putdown of “sub-Saharan Africans.”
“While the presidents’ messages were broadly similar—touting democracy, deploring corruption, and calling for a new approach to development aid—-it’s hard to dispute that Obama gets away with criticism of Africa that other U.S. presidents could not,” the paper wrote.
For a contrast of contexts, the paper cited the example of Clinton’s travel to Africa in 1998, which was preceded by an impressive assemblage of a panel of scholars on Africa who briefed the press and the president about do’s and don’ts.
“Keep in mind that the word ‘tribal conflict’ is extremely insulting to Africans,” the Politico quoted a certain Marina Ottaway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to have told American reporters who would cover the presidential visit.
“Don't write about ‘century-old tribal conflicts in African countries’ because the conflicts that we talk about today usually go back 60, 70 years. The very definition of the ethnic groups that we know today is ethnic groups that were defined as such during the colonial period.”
The paper continued: “Yet, when Obama uttered the phrase ‘tribal conflicts’ at a press conference Friday as he discussed his planned trip to Africa, it went virtually unremarked upon. So, too did several references he made in his Ghana speech to battles among ‘tribes.’”
“Another president,” the paper concluded, “might have been accused of racism...but Obama avoided that simply by affirming the abilities of Africans.” Well, no! Affirming the abilities of Africans (whatever in the world that means) has not helped Obama to avoid the charge of racist denigration of Africans. If it was wrong for Clinton or any other past American president to deride Africans as “tribes” it can’t be right for Obama to do so simply because he is half African.
The truth is that in spite of what we might like to believe about Obama, he is culturally a white American and has, in spite of himself, internalized some of the prejudices that come with his cultural socialization.
So far, he has been getting away with his misguided “tough love” policy to a people who have had to contend with tough luck most of their lives. But it won’t be long before Africans and people of African descent everywhere start calling him out in large numbers and reminding him that perpetually showing tough love to people who, for historical reasons, need tender love isn’t bravery; it’s cowardice of the lowest kind.
I might be wrong anyway but your in-puts are welcomed!
Read Obama’s speeches to African Americans and compare them with speeches he gave to other groups in America, such as Jewish Americans, for instance. You will notice that speeches to Jewish Americans are usually remarkably polite and politic while speeches to African Americans are often deficient in refinement or grace and generally hallmarked by a repulsively pompous arrogance. His admirers call this “tough love” to family.
But nowhere does this dissociative presidential identity disorder become more apparent than in a comparison of Obama’s Cairo speech and his Accra speech.
In the Cairo speech, he was deep, engaging, admirably nuanced and above all, deferential. In the Accra speech, however, he came across as patronizing, impertinent, pedestrian, and avuncular in an offensive way.
To be fair, there is much to be admired and celebrated in Obama’s Ghana speech. Except for its bland and simplistic formulations, it was earnest, inspired and well-delivered. And, although the speech sounded and read more like a paternalistic rebuke to errant and obstinate children than an address to a sovereign nation’s parliament, I frankly have not the littlest sympathy for the clueless and inept African leaders Obama so thoroughly infantilized.
However, what we should not allow him to get away with was his studied and gratuitous racist dirty plow at Africans or, as he called us, “sub-Saharan” Africans. Now, what is this racist dirty plow? Well, it’s his revoltingly nauseating references to us as “tribes,” to conflicts in our continent as “ancient tribal conflicts,” and to incidences of ethnic discrimination as “tribalism.” Obama should know better than to be that objectionably ignorant.
Until relatively recently, am told by a friend, for instance, the Irish, Obama’s relatives on his mother’s side, were systematically discriminated against in employment opportunities in America and Britain by people who looked as lily white as they. Was that, too, “tribalism,” similar to the one you said your father allegedly suffered in Kenya, Mr. Obama? Oh, I forgot, that is called “anti-Irish racism,” even though the Irish belong to the same “race” as the people who discriminated against them. Ethnic discrimination is “tribalism” only when it happens in Africa, oops sorry, sub-Saharan Africa I mean.
It’s curious that it was a white-owned American newspaper by name the Politico that first called out Obama on this racist putdown of “sub-Saharan Africans.”
“While the presidents’ messages were broadly similar—touting democracy, deploring corruption, and calling for a new approach to development aid—-it’s hard to dispute that Obama gets away with criticism of Africa that other U.S. presidents could not,” the paper wrote.
For a contrast of contexts, the paper cited the example of Clinton’s travel to Africa in 1998, which was preceded by an impressive assemblage of a panel of scholars on Africa who briefed the press and the president about do’s and don’ts.
“Keep in mind that the word ‘tribal conflict’ is extremely insulting to Africans,” the Politico quoted a certain Marina Ottaway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to have told American reporters who would cover the presidential visit.
“Don't write about ‘century-old tribal conflicts in African countries’ because the conflicts that we talk about today usually go back 60, 70 years. The very definition of the ethnic groups that we know today is ethnic groups that were defined as such during the colonial period.”
The paper continued: “Yet, when Obama uttered the phrase ‘tribal conflicts’ at a press conference Friday as he discussed his planned trip to Africa, it went virtually unremarked upon. So, too did several references he made in his Ghana speech to battles among ‘tribes.’”
“Another president,” the paper concluded, “might have been accused of racism...but Obama avoided that simply by affirming the abilities of Africans.” Well, no! Affirming the abilities of Africans (whatever in the world that means) has not helped Obama to avoid the charge of racist denigration of Africans. If it was wrong for Clinton or any other past American president to deride Africans as “tribes” it can’t be right for Obama to do so simply because he is half African.
The truth is that in spite of what we might like to believe about Obama, he is culturally a white American and has, in spite of himself, internalized some of the prejudices that come with his cultural socialization.
So far, he has been getting away with his misguided “tough love” policy to a people who have had to contend with tough luck most of their lives. But it won’t be long before Africans and people of African descent everywhere start calling him out in large numbers and reminding him that perpetually showing tough love to people who, for historical reasons, need tender love isn’t bravery; it’s cowardice of the lowest kind.
I might be wrong anyway but your in-puts are welcomed!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
ANATOMY OF A GHANAIAN FOOTBALL FAN
A typical Ghanaian football fan is that person whose temperature rise the highest whenever the team he supports plays. You will find in his heart the emblem or badge of either Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid or even Manchester City tattooed deeply.
On a Matchday, everything in his life stops; or otherwise built around the 3pm kickoff that his team plays. The Church on a Sunday suffers if it dares extends into kickoff time;the prayers in the Mosque groans if any are sandwiched between a Live game yet he is the 1st to pray for his team's victory when opportuned.
He would rather skip a meal or two just to watch Chelsea play.
He dorns the Man U memorabilia up to his boxers. He wants to wear all Arsenal's 3 jerseys for every season...In his room the posters of Steven Gerrard has taken over the sacred place that his Religious piece hitherto were.
He blabs the loudest before kickoff; celeberates the most when his team wins...yet he is so meek and obscure whenever they lose.Like most in his category, he stumbled on Football because his space was crowded by zealots who bullied him into the unstructured football followership and in order to make it structured; they organize meetings like you have of Associations; they buy clothes and shoes to match and celebrate with huge fanfares similar of baby showers or house warmings.
He is that person that is very conclusive without antecedence; He looks more at face values to make judgements and he is quick to the hilt to defend his club to the point of death. The death though is not his...it is for his opponents whenever his team loses and he is very angered by that fact, hence he is willing to kill an opposing fan or two.
He believes the Black Stars has the right to win every match or competition without hardwork but prayers yet he is the first to condemn, discard or bin the team after just 1 match.
His wife and children have joined the bandwagon...afterall the more the merrier. And together they form a formidable team against their neighbour who dared support Barcelona.
Outrightly a case of 'if you can’t beat them...join them' therefore every social commentators devoid of football knowledge have also deemed it fit to delve into terrain they knew next to nothing about.
They write articles and even make predictions of outcomes of tournaments that is just 1 game old!!!. The average Ghanaian Football Fan could be suffering amidst so many socio-economic woes and together with the rise in blood pressure provided by matchday anxieties, he becomes a carrier bag for various forms of heart diseases that terminates young lives.
These fans listen only to information that concerns their teams positively but they are more in tune with negative information on their team's nearest rivals.
He knows better and has wrapped his football fanactism with extremism therefore subjecting his neighbourhood into torrential anti-social-behaviour.
Egos fledge and flare on matchdays...and after matches some consider temporary relocation or contemplate suicide instead of facing and admitting defeat of their teams. They are the Ghanaian Football fans...clearly visible @ viewing Centres near you.
On a Matchday, everything in his life stops; or otherwise built around the 3pm kickoff that his team plays. The Church on a Sunday suffers if it dares extends into kickoff time;the prayers in the Mosque groans if any are sandwiched between a Live game yet he is the 1st to pray for his team's victory when opportuned.
He would rather skip a meal or two just to watch Chelsea play.
He dorns the Man U memorabilia up to his boxers. He wants to wear all Arsenal's 3 jerseys for every season...In his room the posters of Steven Gerrard has taken over the sacred place that his Religious piece hitherto were.
He blabs the loudest before kickoff; celeberates the most when his team wins...yet he is so meek and obscure whenever they lose.Like most in his category, he stumbled on Football because his space was crowded by zealots who bullied him into the unstructured football followership and in order to make it structured; they organize meetings like you have of Associations; they buy clothes and shoes to match and celebrate with huge fanfares similar of baby showers or house warmings.
He is that person that is very conclusive without antecedence; He looks more at face values to make judgements and he is quick to the hilt to defend his club to the point of death. The death though is not his...it is for his opponents whenever his team loses and he is very angered by that fact, hence he is willing to kill an opposing fan or two.
He believes the Black Stars has the right to win every match or competition without hardwork but prayers yet he is the first to condemn, discard or bin the team after just 1 match.
His wife and children have joined the bandwagon...afterall the more the merrier. And together they form a formidable team against their neighbour who dared support Barcelona.
Outrightly a case of 'if you can’t beat them...join them' therefore every social commentators devoid of football knowledge have also deemed it fit to delve into terrain they knew next to nothing about.
They write articles and even make predictions of outcomes of tournaments that is just 1 game old!!!. The average Ghanaian Football Fan could be suffering amidst so many socio-economic woes and together with the rise in blood pressure provided by matchday anxieties, he becomes a carrier bag for various forms of heart diseases that terminates young lives.
These fans listen only to information that concerns their teams positively but they are more in tune with negative information on their team's nearest rivals.
He knows better and has wrapped his football fanactism with extremism therefore subjecting his neighbourhood into torrential anti-social-behaviour.
Egos fledge and flare on matchdays...and after matches some consider temporary relocation or contemplate suicide instead of facing and admitting defeat of their teams. They are the Ghanaian Football fans...clearly visible @ viewing Centres near you.
We Are All Guilty
Ghana is a nation bedeviled by plentiful problems. It is very common for Ghanaian masses to blameworthiness their leaders as the cause of the nation’s woes, little did they ponder to reflect on their contribution to the genesis of these problems.
I believe Ghana is not a poor nation; but is a nation poorly managed by its leaders and the ordinary citizens.
The greatest problem facing Ghana today is corruption that has became a deep-seated menace in the minds of Ghanaians; it has even become a way of life to most Ghanaians from top government officials, politicians down to the lowest ranking civil servant.
Most of the corruption by top government official is perpetrated with the collaboration of a junior cashier who raises a bogus cheque and receives a paltry amount from the loot; oblivious of the fact that by that collaboration, he has denied his child access to quality education or good health care for his family members and his community at large.
The masses are also the greatest collaborators of politicians in election rigging, snatching of ballot boxes and thuggery during political campaigns and elections.
A party delegate may be bribed to impose an incompetent candidate on the electorate or rigged an indolent legislator into office wittingly or unwittingly doing a great disservice to his community and his nation at large. Where elections are rigged the masses destroy and burn government buildings and properties in protest.
The masses are the ones that kill and destroy each others’ property during civil disturbances on trivial reasons. It doesn’t matter to them that they have lived in the same neighborhood for a long time; as far as there is a religious or ethnic difference between them, because they don’t seem to believe that they share the same humanity with one another.
Ghanaians generally do not like obeying rules and regulations; they perceive most laws as punitive. That is why most motorists will not wear seat belts while driving. They don’t view those laws as safety measures to safeguard their lives; but just something to make them uncomfortable.
The negative behaviors of our leaders are reflections of the general behaviour of our society; because the leaders have emerged from the larger Ghanaian society.
.
Our society teaches our children to respect only wealth and affluence; hence we don’t value honesty and transparency in our daily activities. Teachers and parents now even collaborate with students to cheat during examinations.
Having emerged from this type of background, do we then expect our leaders to behave differently from the larger Ghanaian society?
Ghanaian leaders have mismanaged the resources of the nation to the extent that the country cannot provide essential services like pipe borne water, electricity, education and effective health care delivery to its citizens.
The leaders continuously siphon money from the treasury because they know that their wealth and affluence determines the respect they earn from the society; it may even earn them chieftaincy titles from their communities or even an honorary degree from a university. They can sponsor their children’s education in expensive foreign schools, maintain their generators at home and afford to pay for their health care in foreign hospitals.
If truth must be told, Ghanaians are all guilty; both the leaders and the ordinary citizens, because they have all contributed to the genesis of these problems.
It is high time we realize that we have been doing great disservice to our nation. We should collectively change our attitudes and choose the path of progress instead of retardation.
I believe we can change the way our country is governed by collectively embracing honesty, hard work, patriotism, transparency and respect for rule of law as our values rather than respect for wealth and affluence.
I believe Ghana is not a poor nation; but is a nation poorly managed by its leaders and the ordinary citizens.
The greatest problem facing Ghana today is corruption that has became a deep-seated menace in the minds of Ghanaians; it has even become a way of life to most Ghanaians from top government officials, politicians down to the lowest ranking civil servant.
Most of the corruption by top government official is perpetrated with the collaboration of a junior cashier who raises a bogus cheque and receives a paltry amount from the loot; oblivious of the fact that by that collaboration, he has denied his child access to quality education or good health care for his family members and his community at large.
The masses are also the greatest collaborators of politicians in election rigging, snatching of ballot boxes and thuggery during political campaigns and elections.
A party delegate may be bribed to impose an incompetent candidate on the electorate or rigged an indolent legislator into office wittingly or unwittingly doing a great disservice to his community and his nation at large. Where elections are rigged the masses destroy and burn government buildings and properties in protest.
The masses are the ones that kill and destroy each others’ property during civil disturbances on trivial reasons. It doesn’t matter to them that they have lived in the same neighborhood for a long time; as far as there is a religious or ethnic difference between them, because they don’t seem to believe that they share the same humanity with one another.
Ghanaians generally do not like obeying rules and regulations; they perceive most laws as punitive. That is why most motorists will not wear seat belts while driving. They don’t view those laws as safety measures to safeguard their lives; but just something to make them uncomfortable.
The negative behaviors of our leaders are reflections of the general behaviour of our society; because the leaders have emerged from the larger Ghanaian society.
.
Our society teaches our children to respect only wealth and affluence; hence we don’t value honesty and transparency in our daily activities. Teachers and parents now even collaborate with students to cheat during examinations.
Having emerged from this type of background, do we then expect our leaders to behave differently from the larger Ghanaian society?
Ghanaian leaders have mismanaged the resources of the nation to the extent that the country cannot provide essential services like pipe borne water, electricity, education and effective health care delivery to its citizens.
The leaders continuously siphon money from the treasury because they know that their wealth and affluence determines the respect they earn from the society; it may even earn them chieftaincy titles from their communities or even an honorary degree from a university. They can sponsor their children’s education in expensive foreign schools, maintain their generators at home and afford to pay for their health care in foreign hospitals.
If truth must be told, Ghanaians are all guilty; both the leaders and the ordinary citizens, because they have all contributed to the genesis of these problems.
It is high time we realize that we have been doing great disservice to our nation. We should collectively change our attitudes and choose the path of progress instead of retardation.
I believe we can change the way our country is governed by collectively embracing honesty, hard work, patriotism, transparency and respect for rule of law as our values rather than respect for wealth and affluence.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Breaking News: “Chop & Quench Democratic Party Formed!”
I am pleased to publicize the formation of the first true mammoth party in the fifty-two years history of Ghana. The Chop and Quench Democratic Party is set to take the country by storm, and we are on the cliff of history. For far too long, we (Ghanaians) have been too divided and complacent. The CQDP is designed to overcome these twin malaises.
The CQDP is the fulfillment of our founders dream; a clarification of our national principles, and above all the ultimate perch in our gigantic journey to matured democracy. Every generation has its heroes, and this generation will make heroes out of every CQDP member.
First, what is our modus operandi? Well, our intention is to unite all rogues, criminals, charlatans, never do wells and political apparatchiks across the political gamut under one entity.
Increasingly, we the corrupt (sorry well meaning) politicians of this country have been pursuing varied interests. We have fought for elections on the pretense of helping the people, and killed ourselves in the process. In the spirit if uhuru, CQDP is declaring an end to that. Henceforth, “sit-tightism” is abolished. Every criminal does a two year term, chops and quenches, and hands it over to the next! The era of sharing the national cake is over; the age of owning it free and clear for two years is here!
You might ask, what is our platform? Well, if you are not too dumb to realize it our mission is to chop and quench. That is, to chop your money and quench your spirit! By “your” of course I mean the electorates who have decided to remain outside the big umbrella of our union. Our platform is to ensure total state secrecy in budgeting, contract awards and implementation. We pledge to ensure maximum inefficiency at every turn, and hope to depreciate the standard of living of you the readers. Your air will not be safe, your taps will not run and even they do, the water will be dirty. Your roads will be deathtraps, and your hospitals shall become glorified mortuaries. Your electrical supply shall be epileptic, and your energy supply will run thin.
While you are at it, our party is pleased to announce that part of our founding membership is all Pastors, Bishops and Imams in Ghana. We even managed to buy the support of the ecclesiastical, which will confirm that we are truly leaving nothing to whims. Our motto is simple: lawless, useless and reckless. We will be lawless in our conduct, useless in our thinking and reckless in our spending. We pledge full allegiance to these core principles regardless of whose ox is gored!
Okay you are still too dumb to realize what is going on? No wonder you are not a CQDP member. Our members are the smartest and brightest con men that any nation can put together. Filled to brim with veteran examination cheats, and certificate mill patrons we are men that respect brawn over brains, and madness over meditation. For your information, we subscribe to the notion that liberals are sinners and conservatives are hypocrites hence we have every use for both ideology! In our camp we have primed human killing machines i.e. political thugs, and accredited financial weapons of mass destruction i.e. Ghana must go custodians.
If that still does not impress you, consider this: we have a track record. Our record of accomplishment is seven squared years of regression, and human development destruction. We have infested a continent with a cancer for lazy thinking, and abhorrent greed. We feast in excesses and celebrate the Lilliputians amongst us. Nothing fazes us anymore, in fact we routinely defend lawbreakers at home and abroad. Our party leaders are so blind justice, only ex-cons qualify for national party offices and important positions of reckoning.
In the interest of national stability we are declaring a “national chop free day”. On this day, every man or woman in our nation is allowed to “chop”. If you find anything, eat it! Cable, go ahead and eat it! If it is mat, eat it! If you see oil, please eat. Money, eat it. Even live goat, enjoy yourself. You’d be lucky to find anything after another forty nine years of our rule.
However, we are fully dedicated to the philosophy of eating and drinking. Common, our potbellies is a testimony to the ostentation of our appetite. Can’t you see our women? Their rotunda shaped body, and bell like shape creates chaos on the floor of the capital market such that the national GDP deflates in their presence!
Central to every political strategy is an identity; our party symbol and colors. Our party symbol is a locust. We are dedicated to plundering, and nothing better symbolizes this movement than this forthcoming arthropod makes no bones about its intention, and neither do we. Our mission is to do the impossible, to intentionally bankrupt the nation and render her citizens impoverished. Half a trillion, and still counting, we are only getting better at it. Our party color is black, because only our dark minds can fathom these great accomplishments.
In as much as your likes just read and turn the pages, the fate of our party is forever sealed. An arrogant association of never-do-wells that will continue to bestride your horizon like a colossus, while you forever regret the citizenship that birth has credited you.
The CQDP is the fulfillment of our founders dream; a clarification of our national principles, and above all the ultimate perch in our gigantic journey to matured democracy. Every generation has its heroes, and this generation will make heroes out of every CQDP member.
First, what is our modus operandi? Well, our intention is to unite all rogues, criminals, charlatans, never do wells and political apparatchiks across the political gamut under one entity.
Increasingly, we the corrupt (sorry well meaning) politicians of this country have been pursuing varied interests. We have fought for elections on the pretense of helping the people, and killed ourselves in the process. In the spirit if uhuru, CQDP is declaring an end to that. Henceforth, “sit-tightism” is abolished. Every criminal does a two year term, chops and quenches, and hands it over to the next! The era of sharing the national cake is over; the age of owning it free and clear for two years is here!
You might ask, what is our platform? Well, if you are not too dumb to realize it our mission is to chop and quench. That is, to chop your money and quench your spirit! By “your” of course I mean the electorates who have decided to remain outside the big umbrella of our union. Our platform is to ensure total state secrecy in budgeting, contract awards and implementation. We pledge to ensure maximum inefficiency at every turn, and hope to depreciate the standard of living of you the readers. Your air will not be safe, your taps will not run and even they do, the water will be dirty. Your roads will be deathtraps, and your hospitals shall become glorified mortuaries. Your electrical supply shall be epileptic, and your energy supply will run thin.
While you are at it, our party is pleased to announce that part of our founding membership is all Pastors, Bishops and Imams in Ghana. We even managed to buy the support of the ecclesiastical, which will confirm that we are truly leaving nothing to whims. Our motto is simple: lawless, useless and reckless. We will be lawless in our conduct, useless in our thinking and reckless in our spending. We pledge full allegiance to these core principles regardless of whose ox is gored!
Okay you are still too dumb to realize what is going on? No wonder you are not a CQDP member. Our members are the smartest and brightest con men that any nation can put together. Filled to brim with veteran examination cheats, and certificate mill patrons we are men that respect brawn over brains, and madness over meditation. For your information, we subscribe to the notion that liberals are sinners and conservatives are hypocrites hence we have every use for both ideology! In our camp we have primed human killing machines i.e. political thugs, and accredited financial weapons of mass destruction i.e. Ghana must go custodians.
If that still does not impress you, consider this: we have a track record. Our record of accomplishment is seven squared years of regression, and human development destruction. We have infested a continent with a cancer for lazy thinking, and abhorrent greed. We feast in excesses and celebrate the Lilliputians amongst us. Nothing fazes us anymore, in fact we routinely defend lawbreakers at home and abroad. Our party leaders are so blind justice, only ex-cons qualify for national party offices and important positions of reckoning.
In the interest of national stability we are declaring a “national chop free day”. On this day, every man or woman in our nation is allowed to “chop”. If you find anything, eat it! Cable, go ahead and eat it! If it is mat, eat it! If you see oil, please eat. Money, eat it. Even live goat, enjoy yourself. You’d be lucky to find anything after another forty nine years of our rule.
However, we are fully dedicated to the philosophy of eating and drinking. Common, our potbellies is a testimony to the ostentation of our appetite. Can’t you see our women? Their rotunda shaped body, and bell like shape creates chaos on the floor of the capital market such that the national GDP deflates in their presence!
Central to every political strategy is an identity; our party symbol and colors. Our party symbol is a locust. We are dedicated to plundering, and nothing better symbolizes this movement than this forthcoming arthropod makes no bones about its intention, and neither do we. Our mission is to do the impossible, to intentionally bankrupt the nation and render her citizens impoverished. Half a trillion, and still counting, we are only getting better at it. Our party color is black, because only our dark minds can fathom these great accomplishments.
In as much as your likes just read and turn the pages, the fate of our party is forever sealed. An arrogant association of never-do-wells that will continue to bestride your horizon like a colossus, while you forever regret the citizenship that birth has credited you.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Police And Thief: The Ghanaian Identity Problem
Growing up in the 90s, a game was common. We played this game of Police and Thief. The bad guy of course was the thief. After much chasing and hiding, it was normal for the police to catch the thief or for the police to shoot and kill the thief. That was based on simple logic, the triumph of good over evil.
Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Ghana Police Service; rather it is Ghana as a state.
It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country.
The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government.
It goes further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people.
Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices.
These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things.
In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the root of Ghana's Identity Crisis.
Ghanaians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Ghana has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Ghana has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We import almost everything including tooth pick and cotton buds.
We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Ghana does not become the pride she was destined to be. Ghana has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves.
The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance.
Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power that is the cult.
Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived.
We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an entrance to the grave, my cousin who completed the Nursing Training last year is contemplating leaving the shores of Ghana.
Sadly water ways are not available for our folks in the Afram Plains, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps.
We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects.
We destroy faster (this am guilty because of the work I do) than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to say Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little.
Ghana is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. I say this because after winning power they forget their manifestoes and focus on different things.
Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean.
And that is exactly what is happening. Ghana has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air.
Life expectancy in Ghana is at a lowly 50 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems.
Given Ghana’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Ghana ought to be what Malaysia is to the Asia continent, or what India is or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation.
The Ghana's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief.
Yes, that is the crux of Ghana's identity problem.
Even as kids it was very clear to us that evil must be quashed. Looking back into history, I can not really say how it went wrong, but definitely something went wrong.
The police and thief game shows the picture of how the larger society ought to be. The police in this piece are not limited to the men and women of the Ghana Police Service; rather it is Ghana as a state.
It encompasses all the institutions of the state and their various agents. It does talk about the machinery of government with due reference to those saddled with the responsibility of governing the country. It is both the elected and public officials, both civil and military. It talks about the security and law enforcement agencies in the country.
The dictionary defines a State as: a country's government and those government-controlled institutions that are responsible for its internal administration and its relationships with other countries. Or: a country or nation with its own sovereign independent government.
It goes further to define a government as a political authority: a group of people who have the power to make and enforce laws for a country or area. The state is therefore viewed as the ruler; the state and its administration are viewed as the ruling political power. A government thus assumes the mandate given by the people.
Since every one can not be law unto him/herself, the citizens surrender their power to a government who then has the authority to rule on their behalf. The legitimacy of any government is derived from the people and that is why popular participation mostly through free and fair elections seems to be the best form of coming into power.
It is only justifiable that after giving up their power to the state to rule with their mandate, the people of any country or nation will expect certain duties and responsibilities on the part of the rulers in exchange for the rights and privileges the rulers gain from occupying public offices.
These include but are not limited to the security of lives and property, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure, employment opportunities, social services, enabling atmosphere for businesses to thrive among other things.
In fact I can summarize the responsibilities of any meaningful government to; developing, sustaining and even improving the human development of the people by utilizing the resources at the disposal of the government.
Like a day which gives way to the setting of the sun, the situation here has become blurred. It is no more Police and thief but has over the years become a case of the Police is the thief. And for me this is the root of Ghana's Identity Crisis.
Ghanaians are a very religious people, yet violence and crime rates are very high. Ghana has enormous body of water but there is scarcity of water for human consumption and commercial use. The country has a vast array of arable land but majority of her people are starving. Ghana has many educated people who have excelled in all endeavors of life but our basic problems at home have not been solved. We have many sources of generating and distributing electricity but we exist perpetually in semi darkness and are the largest importer of generators in Africa. We import almost everything including tooth pick and cotton buds.
We spend huge funds and lives to ensure peace keeping and enforcement in warring countries but we can not keep simple law and order at home.
The state and her institutions, the government and her organs, the people, have all connived to ensure that Ghana does not become the pride she was destined to be. Ghana has been wandering between obscurity and oblivion. We have no meaningful identity to present to the world or even ourselves.
The state has failed in its primary role of harnessing the resources of the country to the benefit of the generality of the citizenry. Rather corruption has become so endemic that it has been elevated to become the official language of governance.
Corruption has become the fuel which burns the governed but cooks the food for the elite club who has hijacked power that is the cult.
Various governments have been hypocritical in fighting corruption. They only fight it with their lips but oil its wheel with deeds. We have school buildings but the standard of education has nose-dived.
We have health professionals but our hospitals have become an entrance to the grave, my cousin who completed the Nursing Training last year is contemplating leaving the shores of Ghana.
Sadly water ways are not available for our folks in the Afram Plains, rail system is out of service and our roads are death traps.
We have more streets than homes in this country, more churches than Christians and more mosques than Moslems. We have more crises than solutions, more rogues than patriots and more contracts than projects.
We destroy faster (this am guilty because of the work I do) than we build and do not maintain at all. We have a government but we are been compared to say Somalia which has been without a functional government since 1991. We talk so much about development but achieve nothing or at best so little.
Ghana is the only country where political parties campaign during elections without a manifesto. I say this because after winning power they forget their manifestoes and focus on different things.
Obviously it means the government has no ideology. Any government with out an ideology is a car without a driver. It can stop at any time in transit. It may skid off the road; it may summersault and may even drive itself into an ocean.
And that is exactly what is happening. Ghana has been driving on the road of insecurity, driving into the ocean of dehumanization with reckless impunity. We have no safety valve to gauge the volume of air in our tube. Meaning we may burst at anytime due to excess pressure or may go flat due to inadequate air.
Life expectancy in Ghana is at a lowly 50 years in a millennium where technology, research and development have used science to demystify most health related problems.
Given Ghana’s resources, abundant talents and the size of this country both in terms of population and land mass, Ghana ought to be what Malaysia is to the Asia continent, or what India is or what Brazil has become for Latin America. Unfortunately we keep falling on the scales of development indices.
The police and thief of the days gone beyond has become the police is thief. The state has not stood on the side of justice, equity, peace and development. The act of governance has become the route to exploitation.
The Ghana's identity problem calls for serious concern. If the police is now the thief, who will the victims run to for help? If the state is the bandit who will the citizens run to for reprieve? The police is the thief.
Yes, that is the crux of Ghana's identity problem.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Ghana’s Cult Of Corruption
Virtually every Ghanaian knows and strongly believes that any day Ghana is able to make up its mind to end its obscene and ruinous romance with the stubborn monster called “Corruption”, this country will automatically witness the kind of prosperity no one had thought was possible in these parts. Just imagine the amount of public funds being stolen and squandered daily under various guises by too many public officers and their accomplices, and the great transformation that would happen to public infrastructure and the lives of the citizenry if this organized banditry can at least be reduced by fifty percent!
Now, is this monster divorceable? Of course, yes. But are there any signs that anyone in the corridors of power is interested in ending the strong grip it maintains on the very soul of the nation? That is the problem. It is sheer foolishness to expect any of them to willingly block the very hole from which great goodies also flow to him or her just because some other persons are also benefiting from there. No, you can neither fight corruption with soiled hands nor retain monopoly of it! It spreads like cancer. And the whole thing has now been horribly compounded by the emergence and empowerment of a very formidable class whose sustenance and longevity solely depend on its ability to continue sustaining the culture of corruption and bleeding the nation pale.
This problem began when public office gradually ceased to be a platform for rendering selfless service to the people and transformed into the easiest route to financial empowerment. And since then, several generations of public officers have passed through public office, looting the nation blind with utmost impunity, and retired into abundance and incredible plenty, without any fear of anyone ever prying into the clearly unearned wealth they flaunt with utmost abandon. Thus, an ever-swelling Cult of Looters has emerged, whose nuisance value and the ruinous culture they are perpetuating, are now the undisputed headaches of the nation. And since it is now almost impossible to find any former board chairman, minister, president (military of civilian) and several other categories of public officers who is not sitting on boundless accumulation of unearned wealth, it has also become impossible to persuade the current rulers to resist the temptation of surpassing their predecessors in the stealing contest – the only thing that qualifies them for the membership of the great Cult of Corruption.
Indeed, wealth has become everything and no one cares any more about leaving behind sterling legacies and a good name. And so, virtually no Ghanaian minister or say DCE, for instance, would find it ennobling to wake up every morning, after he had left office, to engage in honest labour to earn a living. That would automatically demean him, and present him as “inferior” to his colleagues; in fact, even his people may begin to call him a big fool for returning from the Government a “poor man.” And, so the desperation to retire into boundless wealth and comfort is the reason for the mindless stealing going on everywhere.
Who now will break this circle? Well, he must be a person with no inclination to steal! And who is that person – who does not want to retire into billions after public office? Is it the president, ministers, or even the chairpersons of bodies set up to battle the monster to the ground? That’s one question we need to answer sincerely, because, it is difficult to find any person among those ruling us today who is more interested in acquiring a good name than accumulating unearned riches. No doubt, the Cult of Corruption is an attractive assemblage of the nation’s political and economic elite, and the sole qualification for initiation into this elite cult is wealth, boundless wealth, stolen from the public treasury, and ownership of a couple of exquisite mansions in choice areas in Cantonments, East Legon, owing fats bank accounts outside and so on.
I doubt if the point being made here should in the least sound strange to anyone who has lived in Ghana.
How then can this monster be tamed? How can anyone make all the past public officers to give up all they had stolen and live normal lives with resources whose sources are explainable, in order to make those currently in office to resist the temptation to steal? Where would any one possibly start? And who would lead such a campaign? When will Ghana be made a functional state so that people would not need to go to great lengths to steal in order to provide for themselves the amenities and comforts they were failed to put in place for the entire citizenry when they were in power? With this dreadful cult in effective command at all our public institutions, how then can we possibly hope to have a free and fair election in this country? Because, having criminally accumulated so much money while in office, these fellows only enthrone themselves as formidable godfathers and kingmakers, and deploy the billions at their disposal to install and remove governments at will.
Many of them can single-handedly found and fund political parties without the slightest impact on their bottomless pockets. They also have all it takes to frustrate any attempt to pry into their slimy and hideous pasts.
The Cult of Corruption also has many quiet and more deadly members. These include “very successful and wise” fronts, errand boys (and girls), thugs whom the ‘Boss’ use (or had used) to prosecute their criminal accumulations, and, also, the countless mistresses, concubines and “state prostitutes” who take care of the leisure moments of the Boss.
These, too, in the process of time, acquire their own wealth and clout, and gradually rise in prominence to become “successful business moguls” or “party stalwarts.” Others get into government as Special Advisers, Commissioners, and Ministers. A nation is judged by the quality of persons leading it. On this score, Ghana has been most unlucky.
Now, with such a very formidable criminal elite controlling the politics and economy of the nation, with many of them even maintaining effective hotlines to the Presidency, how can anyone pretend to enthrone transparency in the governance of the country? How can corruption be rooted out? How can progress be recorded? Do the fellows ruling us even understand what it means to build a country? By the way, where would the person intending to root out corruption even start from? The sheer number, clout and destructive ability of members of this Cult of Corruption are simply too intimidating. Some have over the years even matured to become refined, patrician “elder statesmen” (and women) with vast “family business” empires, commanding enormous respect, but still doing enormous harm to the nation.
Yet the only day jobs anyone could remember they ever did were serving as ministers or ambassadors, army or police officers, special advisers, commissioners, permanent secretaries or just as a “director in the presidency.”
But should we give up? No! Never! No society should ever sit passively and watch the scums, scoundrels and dregs in its midst seize its tomorrow and murder it. That nation is doomed which has shameless thieves as its kings. Ask yourself today: What are the antecedents of my governor, lawmaker or councilor? Can a thief possibly succeed in rebuilding the very house he is busy plundering? It amounts to unqualified foolishness on the part of the majority to allow themselves to be perpetually enslaved by a criminally-minded minority? A time comes in the life of a nation when the people must rise with one voice and bellow a big NO! And that time is now!
Now, is this monster divorceable? Of course, yes. But are there any signs that anyone in the corridors of power is interested in ending the strong grip it maintains on the very soul of the nation? That is the problem. It is sheer foolishness to expect any of them to willingly block the very hole from which great goodies also flow to him or her just because some other persons are also benefiting from there. No, you can neither fight corruption with soiled hands nor retain monopoly of it! It spreads like cancer. And the whole thing has now been horribly compounded by the emergence and empowerment of a very formidable class whose sustenance and longevity solely depend on its ability to continue sustaining the culture of corruption and bleeding the nation pale.
This problem began when public office gradually ceased to be a platform for rendering selfless service to the people and transformed into the easiest route to financial empowerment. And since then, several generations of public officers have passed through public office, looting the nation blind with utmost impunity, and retired into abundance and incredible plenty, without any fear of anyone ever prying into the clearly unearned wealth they flaunt with utmost abandon. Thus, an ever-swelling Cult of Looters has emerged, whose nuisance value and the ruinous culture they are perpetuating, are now the undisputed headaches of the nation. And since it is now almost impossible to find any former board chairman, minister, president (military of civilian) and several other categories of public officers who is not sitting on boundless accumulation of unearned wealth, it has also become impossible to persuade the current rulers to resist the temptation of surpassing their predecessors in the stealing contest – the only thing that qualifies them for the membership of the great Cult of Corruption.
Indeed, wealth has become everything and no one cares any more about leaving behind sterling legacies and a good name. And so, virtually no Ghanaian minister or say DCE, for instance, would find it ennobling to wake up every morning, after he had left office, to engage in honest labour to earn a living. That would automatically demean him, and present him as “inferior” to his colleagues; in fact, even his people may begin to call him a big fool for returning from the Government a “poor man.” And, so the desperation to retire into boundless wealth and comfort is the reason for the mindless stealing going on everywhere.
Who now will break this circle? Well, he must be a person with no inclination to steal! And who is that person – who does not want to retire into billions after public office? Is it the president, ministers, or even the chairpersons of bodies set up to battle the monster to the ground? That’s one question we need to answer sincerely, because, it is difficult to find any person among those ruling us today who is more interested in acquiring a good name than accumulating unearned riches. No doubt, the Cult of Corruption is an attractive assemblage of the nation’s political and economic elite, and the sole qualification for initiation into this elite cult is wealth, boundless wealth, stolen from the public treasury, and ownership of a couple of exquisite mansions in choice areas in Cantonments, East Legon, owing fats bank accounts outside and so on.
I doubt if the point being made here should in the least sound strange to anyone who has lived in Ghana.
How then can this monster be tamed? How can anyone make all the past public officers to give up all they had stolen and live normal lives with resources whose sources are explainable, in order to make those currently in office to resist the temptation to steal? Where would any one possibly start? And who would lead such a campaign? When will Ghana be made a functional state so that people would not need to go to great lengths to steal in order to provide for themselves the amenities and comforts they were failed to put in place for the entire citizenry when they were in power? With this dreadful cult in effective command at all our public institutions, how then can we possibly hope to have a free and fair election in this country? Because, having criminally accumulated so much money while in office, these fellows only enthrone themselves as formidable godfathers and kingmakers, and deploy the billions at their disposal to install and remove governments at will.
Many of them can single-handedly found and fund political parties without the slightest impact on their bottomless pockets. They also have all it takes to frustrate any attempt to pry into their slimy and hideous pasts.
The Cult of Corruption also has many quiet and more deadly members. These include “very successful and wise” fronts, errand boys (and girls), thugs whom the ‘Boss’ use (or had used) to prosecute their criminal accumulations, and, also, the countless mistresses, concubines and “state prostitutes” who take care of the leisure moments of the Boss.
These, too, in the process of time, acquire their own wealth and clout, and gradually rise in prominence to become “successful business moguls” or “party stalwarts.” Others get into government as Special Advisers, Commissioners, and Ministers. A nation is judged by the quality of persons leading it. On this score, Ghana has been most unlucky.
Now, with such a very formidable criminal elite controlling the politics and economy of the nation, with many of them even maintaining effective hotlines to the Presidency, how can anyone pretend to enthrone transparency in the governance of the country? How can corruption be rooted out? How can progress be recorded? Do the fellows ruling us even understand what it means to build a country? By the way, where would the person intending to root out corruption even start from? The sheer number, clout and destructive ability of members of this Cult of Corruption are simply too intimidating. Some have over the years even matured to become refined, patrician “elder statesmen” (and women) with vast “family business” empires, commanding enormous respect, but still doing enormous harm to the nation.
Yet the only day jobs anyone could remember they ever did were serving as ministers or ambassadors, army or police officers, special advisers, commissioners, permanent secretaries or just as a “director in the presidency.”
But should we give up? No! Never! No society should ever sit passively and watch the scums, scoundrels and dregs in its midst seize its tomorrow and murder it. That nation is doomed which has shameless thieves as its kings. Ask yourself today: What are the antecedents of my governor, lawmaker or councilor? Can a thief possibly succeed in rebuilding the very house he is busy plundering? It amounts to unqualified foolishness on the part of the majority to allow themselves to be perpetually enslaved by a criminally-minded minority? A time comes in the life of a nation when the people must rise with one voice and bellow a big NO! And that time is now!