Most Ghanaians often say that they are sick and tired of Ghana, while not a few admit that they are actually ashamed to be Ghanaians. However the truth is that they are proud Ghanaians who actually hate the Government for their gross ineptitude towards the affairs of our country Ghana.
Some actually describe the nation as a failed state but rather what we have is a failed government. There is a Chinese proverb that says “when a fish starts to rotten it starts from the head’ conversely what can one expect from a leadership that is politically and financially rotten?
Any sane and purposeful leader can make a desired change in nine months but half way through his first year not only are Ghanaians wondering what’s going on, their President Atta Mills is also waiting for someone to tell him what the heck is going on! He is like a pilot who is wondering why his plane has no auto pilot button.
According to Nicollo Machiavelli in his book ‘The Prince’ (If he reads, Atta should please spend an hour and half to read the book. It will do him good.) he said (and rightly so) that the major task of any ruler is to pick good advisers and once he has achieved this, the job of ruling the nation creditably is half achieved. Here our president has surrounded himself with a bunch of misfits and minions who are incapable of generating any idea or proffer any solution to move the nation forward.
A Communications director goes abroad and insults left, right and centre all in the name of helping the President come to power because he left his job at a bank.
What kind of advice can this man proffer? The same kindergarten boy has continually tainted our image both at home and abroad with his conflicting statements, action and inaction as regards the fight against drugs.
This brings us to another minister who in her desperate bid to be a minister condescended to be the one that does damage control for those whose stock in trade is to do everything their own way irrespective of the fact that it makes our country look bad.
She is so keen on rebranding hapless, homeless and hungry Ghanaians that she forgot that those that need to absorb the rebranding culture are her fellow ministers who go to radio stations with the intentions of beating up a journalist if speaks his mind about his work.
Also, the Deputy Chief of Staff who has turned the castle into a police station where imported posh cars only are seized from young men.
Though to be honest, I am utterly confused as to the effective way to get people who do not have access to potable water, electricity, health care, good roads, education and human dignity rebranded while those who under the guise of been professional politicians loot the country silly and sneer at the rebranding campaign claiming that the Minister is only looking for an avenue to feather her nest. Pray do tell what kind of advice she can proffer to President Atta ?
While our industries spend boardroom time mulling over why they should remain in Ghana instead of moving shop to South Africa.
No points for guessing the quality of advice President Atta will be receiving or has definitely received.
A minister of Health who sees his colleagues and other top government scurrying abroad to get a cure for a headache or to have a tooth extracted will definitely be the butt of jokes whenever he finds himself in the midst of other medical colleagues.
Perhaps he is doing his job and passing across the necessary pieces of advice to Atta and the President simply refuses to take any action, then I guess the honourable way out is for the minister to resign from the cabinet.
Jokes apart do we have ministers who handle and advice on transportation, roads, environment and labour? Our transport sector is spent, roads where available are decorated with potholes, fumes flaring from industries has destroyed our environment and health of citizens.
The economy is swimming dangerously down a precipice, and our or rather Atta’s economic advisers are obviously having such good time at Osu that they fail to see why people are complaining about the economy!
As far as they are concerned Ghanaians are a bunch of whiners and if they can just but stop whining for a second they will discover that the “Joshua Nyame” that is needed to revive our economy and put our nation on the path of rapid growth.
So while we wait for the ‘Joshua Nyame” to take effect and start work, can our economic egg heads whiling away at Accra look for another remedy in case Atta’s mighty power fails to produce the desired effect? I am not a pessimist but after nine months and the economy not showing any sign of recovery, I think its time to start shopping for other remedies.
The chief image maker cum spin doctor is a vibrant journalist with his caustic and incisive write ups on government action or inaction but now finds it more appropriate to leave more important issues behind and inform the nation that his benefactor has no intention to effect any change in his cabinet so the incompetent ministers should stop fretting!
He has now started writing promotional stories for his benefactor and even fights his internal fights for him, wonderful isn’t it.
Hungry Ghanaians can watch party Regional Chairmen and General Secretary in America on T.V having a good time at their expense-tax payers” we still love Ghana and Ghana will be great if only our Leaders will act like leaders and not like a combined team of armed robbers and terrorists out to destroy what they didn’t build.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Rot In The Methodist Church Ghana!
Agreed! Agreed!! This is a refrain often heard from the lips of delegates at the Methodist Synods and Conferences. These Synods/Conferences are organized yearly or biennial at chosen locations in the Methodist Connexion.
The refrain as I choose to call it has become a shibboleth among Synod/Conference members. It has also become a derisive word in Methodist circles signifying blind or sycophantic acquiescence to decisions - questionable or otherwise - taken at these Synods and Conferences.
These Synods/Conferences, according to the Methodist Constitution, meet to take stock of the activities, programmes among others of the past year and to plan the way forward for Church growth and development. It is at such Synods and Conferences that the bishop or the Presiding Bishop as the case may be gives his address on the state of the Church.
Last year’s Conference which was hosted by the Winneba Diocese incidentally happened to the last to be addressed by the outgoing Presiding Bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Robert Aboagye Mensah. He surprised many by his almost two-hour delivery. As expected the then Lay President in the person of Mr. James Abadoo Brew profusely congratulated him for his address describing it as a ‘Fidel Castro-like’ because of its lengthy nature. Predictably the whole conference also gave him a standing ovation. Applause! Applause!! Conference was happy. According to the speech delivered and in the estimation of conference the Methodist Church Ghana was moving forward in numbers, projects and developments. But is that the case on the ground?
Unfortunately, certain diocesan synods and even pronouncements from some bishops do not seem to agree with this assertion by the Presiding Bishop.Why they could not and did not even see it fit to question the truth or half-truths peddled by the outgoing Presiding Bishop may well epitomize the camaraderie and the blind allegiance that characterize the way things are done in the Methodist Church Ghana.
However, as God would have it there were some few diocesan bishops who tried to speak out and tell it ‘like it is’ at their respective synods. A perusal of past copies of the church’s publication The Methodist Times reveal that the bishop of Accra, Rt Rev. Abraham Tagoe on two occasions expressed grave concern about the stagnation in church’s growth and warned the hierarchy about doing business as usual. At a similar diocesan synod in Kumasi, the Rt Rev Nuh Ben Abubekr also had something similar to say about the church.
A concerned lay member, one Solomon Quaye-Lartey was also worried that ‘the church and all lack commitment.’ Apparently the church talks more than it acts. No wonder the Administrative Bishop in a sermon he once delivered at a thanksgiving service to round off an anniversary celebration of a church organization remarked that ‘the church needs practical leaders and not theorist.’
Meanwhile concerned church members have been asking themselves questions as to what the church has been up to these past five or six years. Call it the wasted years!
Their questions become legitimate when viewed against previous Methodist administrations manned by the late Rt Revds. C.F.C. Grant, Wallace Koomson, Adama Stephens and in recent past the surviving Most Rev Dr Samuel Asante Antwi. It was during these periods that structures were mapped out for proper administration of the church.
It was during that period the Methodist Headquarters had a building befitting its name. It was during that period that the Donewell Insurance Company came into being. It was during that period the Methodist Church Ghana joined the Episcopal family – with all its faults. It was during that period the church revisited the Wesleyan revival of old at an unprecedented outreach programme at the nation’s Independence Square not to mention the evangelistic foray into the Volta Region. It was during that period that the Methodist Church established the Methodist University. On the contrary these past few years have not only witnessed a lull in evangelism across the connexion but also physical development and growth has also been stagnant. What a shame?
It must however be said that when the outgoing Presiding Bishop. Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah came onto the scene he made half-hearted attempts to continue with the evangelism drive and tried hard to harp on it. As it turned out the strings on his harp and lyre where discordant. Mere noise, no melody! He tried to do his own style of evangelism by embarking on trips abroad.
The trips brought little or no benefit to the church except to himself personally. A youth conference held in Brazil a couple of years ago is a case in point. Strangely, the youth director and some youth leaders who were to attend the programme were sidelined. It is said he went on the trip accompanied by the present General Director of the Board of Social Responsibility and Rural Development. It will be interesting to ask the Presiding Bishop what he learnt at the youth conference and whether the youth in the church are benefiting from it.One Evang. Jacob Ajavon has single-handedly opened a mission in Burkina Faso for the Methodist Church Ghana. Sad to say, support from the connexion has been abysmally poor. The story is no different at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains.
There have been times; I have been reliably informed that the Minister-in-charge of evangelism has to dip into his pocket to feed the missionary stationed there because money from the connexion was not forthcoming.
The money that was available was spent on the purchase and maintenance of luxury cars for the comfort of the bishops and the overseas travels of some bishops and the Presiding Bishop. Just in your spare time visit the synods and conferences and you will marvel at the display of 4x4 vehicles by the bishops and some superintendent ministers.
It makes you wonder whether priesthood in the Methodist Church Ghana is a call, a vocation, a profession or a business. Once upon a time a foreign delegate to one of the conferences in a conversation with a driver assigned to him expressed horror and disgust at the flashy cars being used by the clergy.
‘How could they do this in the midst of all this poverty around’? He wondered.Still on their free spending, the 15 or so bishops accompanied by their wives in clandestinely visited the state of Israel on a pleasure trip for about 12 days.
It was only one bishop - the then bishop of Tamale in the person of Rt Rev Ato Brown who declined to go on that trip. Either his good conscience told him not to go on that trip or the Diocese could not finance the trip. The trip from what I gathered cost about 45 million old cedis per couple. Do the mathematics and you tell me the cost to the church? Believe it or not the Presiding Bishop in his report and final address to conference last August did not have the guts to tell the conference about this trip. What was he trying to hide?
It is strange that in his report to the Winneba Conference he tried to encourage the church to enter into partnership with private enterprises to generate income for the church. Another reason was to warn the church off its dependency on harvests collections and the like considering the discouraging contribution to the Methodist Development Fund. But has something concretely been done in this regard? The answer is no!
It is important to note that on leaving office the immediate past presiding bishop left handing over notes and blue prints to Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah. The notes dealt with the construction of a Methodist Headquarters complex, the establishment of a Methodist Trust Bank.
These proposals, if I may call them, were all at advanced stages. What has happened to them? These things were spitefully left in locked drawers to gather dust. So how come in the twilight of his administration, Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah now sees the wisdom to invite private enterprises to partner the church.
Lest I forget I am told that recently the bishops, the Presiding Bishop included, visited Nairobi, Kenya, and saw at first hand how the churches there have entered into partnership with private enterprises and are doing wonders.
‘We can also do same here,’ he reportedly told his fellow bishops. Hypocrisy?Notably the church has acquired a near three billion old cedis new manse for the Presiding Bishop. The purchase was made after the first manse for the Presiding Bishop located at Asylum Down, Adabraka, was sold off to a business concern.
The furnishings and all reportedly cost over 800 million old cedis and were brought in from China, people say.
In spite of all these free spending, the Methodist Church Ghana for the past six years has been marking time and for inexplicable reasons church members have lost their voices and the clergy are having a field day.
Meanwhile church workers are getting poorer and being turned into mendicant paupers. Condition of service for church workers leaves much to be desired. The workers are afraid to join Unions for fear of losing favour with the church.
I suggest that the incoming administration headed by the Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante must stay focused and business-minded. He must say no to paternalism and the professional praise singers.
The holistic aspect of church work is something he need not lose sight of. The accounts are rusely having a field day and adding to their bank accounts because they know their bishops and ministers are equally guilty. ‘Scratch my back, whilst I scratch yours.’ That is the name of the game.
NB: Those trooping into the offices of the Daily Searchlight should stop because their pleas won’t stop me from exposing men of God like I do the corrupt politicians.
The refrain as I choose to call it has become a shibboleth among Synod/Conference members. It has also become a derisive word in Methodist circles signifying blind or sycophantic acquiescence to decisions - questionable or otherwise - taken at these Synods and Conferences.
These Synods/Conferences, according to the Methodist Constitution, meet to take stock of the activities, programmes among others of the past year and to plan the way forward for Church growth and development. It is at such Synods and Conferences that the bishop or the Presiding Bishop as the case may be gives his address on the state of the Church.
Last year’s Conference which was hosted by the Winneba Diocese incidentally happened to the last to be addressed by the outgoing Presiding Bishop, Most Rev. Dr. Robert Aboagye Mensah. He surprised many by his almost two-hour delivery. As expected the then Lay President in the person of Mr. James Abadoo Brew profusely congratulated him for his address describing it as a ‘Fidel Castro-like’ because of its lengthy nature. Predictably the whole conference also gave him a standing ovation. Applause! Applause!! Conference was happy. According to the speech delivered and in the estimation of conference the Methodist Church Ghana was moving forward in numbers, projects and developments. But is that the case on the ground?
Unfortunately, certain diocesan synods and even pronouncements from some bishops do not seem to agree with this assertion by the Presiding Bishop.Why they could not and did not even see it fit to question the truth or half-truths peddled by the outgoing Presiding Bishop may well epitomize the camaraderie and the blind allegiance that characterize the way things are done in the Methodist Church Ghana.
However, as God would have it there were some few diocesan bishops who tried to speak out and tell it ‘like it is’ at their respective synods. A perusal of past copies of the church’s publication The Methodist Times reveal that the bishop of Accra, Rt Rev. Abraham Tagoe on two occasions expressed grave concern about the stagnation in church’s growth and warned the hierarchy about doing business as usual. At a similar diocesan synod in Kumasi, the Rt Rev Nuh Ben Abubekr also had something similar to say about the church.
A concerned lay member, one Solomon Quaye-Lartey was also worried that ‘the church and all lack commitment.’ Apparently the church talks more than it acts. No wonder the Administrative Bishop in a sermon he once delivered at a thanksgiving service to round off an anniversary celebration of a church organization remarked that ‘the church needs practical leaders and not theorist.’
Meanwhile concerned church members have been asking themselves questions as to what the church has been up to these past five or six years. Call it the wasted years!
Their questions become legitimate when viewed against previous Methodist administrations manned by the late Rt Revds. C.F.C. Grant, Wallace Koomson, Adama Stephens and in recent past the surviving Most Rev Dr Samuel Asante Antwi. It was during these periods that structures were mapped out for proper administration of the church.
It was during that period the Methodist Headquarters had a building befitting its name. It was during that period that the Donewell Insurance Company came into being. It was during that period the Methodist Church Ghana joined the Episcopal family – with all its faults. It was during that period the church revisited the Wesleyan revival of old at an unprecedented outreach programme at the nation’s Independence Square not to mention the evangelistic foray into the Volta Region. It was during that period that the Methodist Church established the Methodist University. On the contrary these past few years have not only witnessed a lull in evangelism across the connexion but also physical development and growth has also been stagnant. What a shame?
It must however be said that when the outgoing Presiding Bishop. Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah came onto the scene he made half-hearted attempts to continue with the evangelism drive and tried hard to harp on it. As it turned out the strings on his harp and lyre where discordant. Mere noise, no melody! He tried to do his own style of evangelism by embarking on trips abroad.
The trips brought little or no benefit to the church except to himself personally. A youth conference held in Brazil a couple of years ago is a case in point. Strangely, the youth director and some youth leaders who were to attend the programme were sidelined. It is said he went on the trip accompanied by the present General Director of the Board of Social Responsibility and Rural Development. It will be interesting to ask the Presiding Bishop what he learnt at the youth conference and whether the youth in the church are benefiting from it.One Evang. Jacob Ajavon has single-handedly opened a mission in Burkina Faso for the Methodist Church Ghana. Sad to say, support from the connexion has been abysmally poor. The story is no different at Donkorkrom in the Afram Plains.
There have been times; I have been reliably informed that the Minister-in-charge of evangelism has to dip into his pocket to feed the missionary stationed there because money from the connexion was not forthcoming.
The money that was available was spent on the purchase and maintenance of luxury cars for the comfort of the bishops and the overseas travels of some bishops and the Presiding Bishop. Just in your spare time visit the synods and conferences and you will marvel at the display of 4x4 vehicles by the bishops and some superintendent ministers.
It makes you wonder whether priesthood in the Methodist Church Ghana is a call, a vocation, a profession or a business. Once upon a time a foreign delegate to one of the conferences in a conversation with a driver assigned to him expressed horror and disgust at the flashy cars being used by the clergy.
‘How could they do this in the midst of all this poverty around’? He wondered.Still on their free spending, the 15 or so bishops accompanied by their wives in clandestinely visited the state of Israel on a pleasure trip for about 12 days.
It was only one bishop - the then bishop of Tamale in the person of Rt Rev Ato Brown who declined to go on that trip. Either his good conscience told him not to go on that trip or the Diocese could not finance the trip. The trip from what I gathered cost about 45 million old cedis per couple. Do the mathematics and you tell me the cost to the church? Believe it or not the Presiding Bishop in his report and final address to conference last August did not have the guts to tell the conference about this trip. What was he trying to hide?
It is strange that in his report to the Winneba Conference he tried to encourage the church to enter into partnership with private enterprises to generate income for the church. Another reason was to warn the church off its dependency on harvests collections and the like considering the discouraging contribution to the Methodist Development Fund. But has something concretely been done in this regard? The answer is no!
It is important to note that on leaving office the immediate past presiding bishop left handing over notes and blue prints to Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah. The notes dealt with the construction of a Methodist Headquarters complex, the establishment of a Methodist Trust Bank.
These proposals, if I may call them, were all at advanced stages. What has happened to them? These things were spitefully left in locked drawers to gather dust. So how come in the twilight of his administration, Most Rev Dr Aboagye Mensah now sees the wisdom to invite private enterprises to partner the church.
Lest I forget I am told that recently the bishops, the Presiding Bishop included, visited Nairobi, Kenya, and saw at first hand how the churches there have entered into partnership with private enterprises and are doing wonders.
‘We can also do same here,’ he reportedly told his fellow bishops. Hypocrisy?Notably the church has acquired a near three billion old cedis new manse for the Presiding Bishop. The purchase was made after the first manse for the Presiding Bishop located at Asylum Down, Adabraka, was sold off to a business concern.
The furnishings and all reportedly cost over 800 million old cedis and were brought in from China, people say.
In spite of all these free spending, the Methodist Church Ghana for the past six years has been marking time and for inexplicable reasons church members have lost their voices and the clergy are having a field day.
Meanwhile church workers are getting poorer and being turned into mendicant paupers. Condition of service for church workers leaves much to be desired. The workers are afraid to join Unions for fear of losing favour with the church.
I suggest that the incoming administration headed by the Most Rev Prof Emmanuel Asante must stay focused and business-minded. He must say no to paternalism and the professional praise singers.
The holistic aspect of church work is something he need not lose sight of. The accounts are rusely having a field day and adding to their bank accounts because they know their bishops and ministers are equally guilty. ‘Scratch my back, whilst I scratch yours.’ That is the name of the game.
NB: Those trooping into the offices of the Daily Searchlight should stop because their pleas won’t stop me from exposing men of God like I do the corrupt politicians.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Knowing Sufficient To Be Afraid
I am not a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), but one of my friends called me during one of the midnight usual free night calls.
He sounded scared, and he had good reasons to be so. He had just seen the very gory pictures from the violence that broke out at the Kokomba Market one Tuesday afternoon and he was panicking. I could understand his panic.
It is not everyday that people are butchered in broad daylight on the streets of Accra in the presence of the police. In fact, it is an unheard off for people to loose their lives right in front of the police, yet it took place that Tuesday.Strangely, as he cautioned that the NDC government should be careful, I wondered why he directed that question at me. After all, I am not the NDC government, and indeed he knows that I am a rather hard critic of the NDC in government, so why address his concerns to me? Apparently, it appears he might have seen enough to be afraid of.
At this point in time, all of us should know enough to be afraid of, to justify know we are not living in happy times. We live in times where the police can stand back and watch as senior politicians are beaten and manhandled and lesser humans butchered! These are not ordinary times. We should know enough to be afraid of!
I hear two of my colleagues from the Daily Guide were threatened, are we going back to the dark days? Somebody tell me.
Recently, a Regional Police Commander in our country was politically victimized by an idiot who, excuse my language, if it had not been for politics, would never have aspired to where the Police Commander has reached in his chosen career. When that matter first came up, few people realized the significance, but the police themselves realized the true significance. The message was drummed home to them that it would be suicidal, career-wise, to take on any member of the political status quo.
This is why the atrocities at Akwatia and Agbobloshie happened. The police were too scared to intervene, brutally speaking, because to intervene may lead to political repercussions for the careers of the interfering officers.
The violence at Agbobloshie should make all of us to pause for a moment and reflect if this is the path we intend to tread. It should also give us reason to ponder, as to what is going wrong in our country.Before election 2008, a number of people, led by Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr, constantly told the people of Ghana that there were at least three hundred potential flashpoints in our country waiting to boil up into full-scale violence. Since Pratt and co assisted the NDC to come to power, however, they have brought the noise about the flashpoints to a close.
At the same time, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Police Intelligence Unit and the National Security apparatus, instead of concentrating on their core functions, among which is keeping an eye on potential trouble spots, have rather concentrated on useless ventures like hounding former government officials, seizing vehicles and toilets. In the process the core functions of these agencies have been left to lapse.
The Kokomba Market is veritable hotbed of agitation of all kinds, and off necessity, the security and spy agencies should have kept an eye on it.
Still on the police, I come to one Madam Rose Bio-Atinga, the woman in charge of policing in the Greater Accra region. When Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye was appointed as the Inspector General of Police, one of his first decisions was to appoint her to head the capital.
But since coming to Accra, I have come to observe her with great concern. This woman is worse than a man in her level of disrespect for democratic principles. Let me cite two instances why I think she is heartless and a person who has scant respect for democratic principles. First, it was this woman who had reasons to frustrate a peaceful demonstration by the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) of which am a sympathizer.
The second is what happened at Kokomba Market. According to our commander, the slaughter did not happen at a police station, yet there were enough evidence to show that the killing happened opposite a police station in the capital city of Accra in broad daylight with the police looking on.
Worse, it has been established that the Regional Commander was informed, ahead of the event, that violence was possible at the place where it happened, but she drove away the people who came to make the report at her office. Clearly, this woman is not suited for modern policing, and probably she ought to be rested or re-oriented on what modern policing is all about.The third point I want to raise is the issue of security in general. I have heard some people saying that the Kokomba slaughter should not be politicized. They are right. It would be unseemly to try to score political advantage with the killing of people. Interestingly, the people making this noise are the same people who made so much political capital out of the death of the Ya Na and Alhaji Issah Mobilla.But the worse is yet to come. Providing adequate security is a policy issue. I supported Dr. Ndoum during the elections but he never provided a policy on policing or may be I did not see it and so was the party in power.
Nana Addo, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) candidate and a proud Akyem like myself, promised to put 50, 000 police officers on our streets. However, the ruling NDC government is rather implementing a policy of non-recruitment.
In a few words, the people managing our security today have defective policy direction and should be changed. In the meantime, the few police officers we have are being terrorized to be afraid of independent thought and initiative. In the process, instead of acting on emergencies, they look over their shoulders.
We should be afraid indeed!
He sounded scared, and he had good reasons to be so. He had just seen the very gory pictures from the violence that broke out at the Kokomba Market one Tuesday afternoon and he was panicking. I could understand his panic.
It is not everyday that people are butchered in broad daylight on the streets of Accra in the presence of the police. In fact, it is an unheard off for people to loose their lives right in front of the police, yet it took place that Tuesday.Strangely, as he cautioned that the NDC government should be careful, I wondered why he directed that question at me. After all, I am not the NDC government, and indeed he knows that I am a rather hard critic of the NDC in government, so why address his concerns to me? Apparently, it appears he might have seen enough to be afraid of.
At this point in time, all of us should know enough to be afraid of, to justify know we are not living in happy times. We live in times where the police can stand back and watch as senior politicians are beaten and manhandled and lesser humans butchered! These are not ordinary times. We should know enough to be afraid of!
I hear two of my colleagues from the Daily Guide were threatened, are we going back to the dark days? Somebody tell me.
Recently, a Regional Police Commander in our country was politically victimized by an idiot who, excuse my language, if it had not been for politics, would never have aspired to where the Police Commander has reached in his chosen career. When that matter first came up, few people realized the significance, but the police themselves realized the true significance. The message was drummed home to them that it would be suicidal, career-wise, to take on any member of the political status quo.
This is why the atrocities at Akwatia and Agbobloshie happened. The police were too scared to intervene, brutally speaking, because to intervene may lead to political repercussions for the careers of the interfering officers.
The violence at Agbobloshie should make all of us to pause for a moment and reflect if this is the path we intend to tread. It should also give us reason to ponder, as to what is going wrong in our country.Before election 2008, a number of people, led by Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr, constantly told the people of Ghana that there were at least three hundred potential flashpoints in our country waiting to boil up into full-scale violence. Since Pratt and co assisted the NDC to come to power, however, they have brought the noise about the flashpoints to a close.
At the same time, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), the Police Intelligence Unit and the National Security apparatus, instead of concentrating on their core functions, among which is keeping an eye on potential trouble spots, have rather concentrated on useless ventures like hounding former government officials, seizing vehicles and toilets. In the process the core functions of these agencies have been left to lapse.
The Kokomba Market is veritable hotbed of agitation of all kinds, and off necessity, the security and spy agencies should have kept an eye on it.
Still on the police, I come to one Madam Rose Bio-Atinga, the woman in charge of policing in the Greater Accra region. When Mr. Paul Tawiah Quaye was appointed as the Inspector General of Police, one of his first decisions was to appoint her to head the capital.
But since coming to Accra, I have come to observe her with great concern. This woman is worse than a man in her level of disrespect for democratic principles. Let me cite two instances why I think she is heartless and a person who has scant respect for democratic principles. First, it was this woman who had reasons to frustrate a peaceful demonstration by the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) of which am a sympathizer.
The second is what happened at Kokomba Market. According to our commander, the slaughter did not happen at a police station, yet there were enough evidence to show that the killing happened opposite a police station in the capital city of Accra in broad daylight with the police looking on.
Worse, it has been established that the Regional Commander was informed, ahead of the event, that violence was possible at the place where it happened, but she drove away the people who came to make the report at her office. Clearly, this woman is not suited for modern policing, and probably she ought to be rested or re-oriented on what modern policing is all about.The third point I want to raise is the issue of security in general. I have heard some people saying that the Kokomba slaughter should not be politicized. They are right. It would be unseemly to try to score political advantage with the killing of people. Interestingly, the people making this noise are the same people who made so much political capital out of the death of the Ya Na and Alhaji Issah Mobilla.But the worse is yet to come. Providing adequate security is a policy issue. I supported Dr. Ndoum during the elections but he never provided a policy on policing or may be I did not see it and so was the party in power.
Nana Addo, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) candidate and a proud Akyem like myself, promised to put 50, 000 police officers on our streets. However, the ruling NDC government is rather implementing a policy of non-recruitment.
In a few words, the people managing our security today have defective policy direction and should be changed. In the meantime, the few police officers we have are being terrorized to be afraid of independent thought and initiative. In the process, instead of acting on emergencies, they look over their shoulders.
We should be afraid indeed!
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
RE: Raymond Archer's Rejoinder
There is no argument about the journalistic stature of Mr. Raymond Archer. Unequivocally, he has acquitted himself so creditably that he deserves the respect of everyone. This respect we shall accord him come what may but, we shall also do well to expose self-aggrandizing motives. We say this with regards to a recent rejoinder submitted by the esteemed journalist, Mr. Raymond Archer, in respect to an earlier contribution by one Mr. Prince Prah (see Raymond Archer rejoinder, of www.ghanaweb.com of 04/09/2009).
In the said rejoinder, Mr. Raymond Archer talks extensively about Mr. Prah's purported loathing towards him and his newspaper and some baseless claims of attack on his person. Regarding the so-called personal attacks, we would leave it to the good people of Ghana and discerning readers to judge for themselves. Anybody who follows events in Ghana and reads the tabloids from an unprejudiced perspective will only acquiesce with Mr. Prah. That gentleman only presented factual information on some of the goings-on in Ghana. The Enquirer hurriedly published a story which sought to portray Mr. Ace Ankomah as an impostor without crosschecking its facts. This is what Mr. Prah talked about and he gave a few examples regarding Mr. Raymond Archer's journalism. We believe all that Mr. Raymond Archer had to do was to defend himself against the allegations.
What we find quite ridiculous is Mr. Archer expresses intention of using the ghanaweb.com medium to eulogize himself and quite pompously, to blow his own horn unlike Kwaku Sakyi-Addo who allows Larry King to blow it for him. We find that self-aggrandizement a bit unfortunate as the prestigious journalist used the medium to tell us all that he has achieved in order to promote himself. We will briefly expatiate on the disingenuous effort of Mr. Raymond Archer to contemptuously brush Mr. Prah and almost everyone he does not fancy aside and show us how big he has become in the Ghanaian journalism circles.
We shall end up writing volumes of things were we to contend ourselves with exposing the entire flaw in the rejoinder. We would like Mr. Archer to calmly accept his blunder and learn to correct it. We should also put on record that this is not very straightforward especially when you have built an enviable reputation of being the Best Investigative Journalist in Ghana, the first African journalist to win the  prestigious (Mr. Archer's adjective) Global Gold Medal for Excellence in journalism, the Natalie Prize for Africa and the Co-winner for the Best West African Journalist.
We do not mean to say , dear reader, that Mr. Archer is egotistical but we feel he should have dealt with the issues raised by Mr. Prah rather than reiterating to us what we know already --namely all his credentials and laurels.
As prolific a journalist as he is, he faulted himself for, most of the things he wrote had no bearing on the allegations raised by Mr. Prah. Mr. Archer could have done himself justice by dealing with the issues and sparing us another mention of his awards.
Mr. Archer, a supposedly believer in democracy, tries to suppress its most important tenet, to wit, freedom of speech. He finishes his rejoinder by admonishing ghanaweb.com against mischief makers, who will use the medium to tarnish the images of others through libelous articles. This we feel-- is a disreputable suggestion.
Some journalists are disgusting with very nauseous writings but we do not ask governments to suppress their newspapers. Therefore, we find it very uncanny on the part of Mr. Raymond Archer to talk about accreditation on ghanaweb.com and concern himself with the integrity of news content on the website.
Well, maybe it appears the great man wants all of us to go to the School of Journalism or Communication before we can send our write-ups.We are happy that the ghanaweb.com management is no poodle of anyone. We know that most of us are not accredited and Mr. Archer seems to suggest that our contributions should be binned. If he should succeed, ghanaweb.com, like the newspapers, will become a monopoly of the few elite journalists.
Thank God ghanaweb.com will not take any such ill advice; it will not pursue the same gullibility of some journalists who are always ready to report news and tarnish the images of others with the speed of light but slack when they have to retract malicious stories. Mr. Archer may only be human; however, retracting nasty stories and maybe offering an apology to the person involved is also not superhuman!This is the responds from
Thomas Dickens, somebody I have never met before in my life and am wondering it’s a pen name since most people do that.
In the said rejoinder, Mr. Raymond Archer talks extensively about Mr. Prah's purported loathing towards him and his newspaper and some baseless claims of attack on his person. Regarding the so-called personal attacks, we would leave it to the good people of Ghana and discerning readers to judge for themselves. Anybody who follows events in Ghana and reads the tabloids from an unprejudiced perspective will only acquiesce with Mr. Prah. That gentleman only presented factual information on some of the goings-on in Ghana. The Enquirer hurriedly published a story which sought to portray Mr. Ace Ankomah as an impostor without crosschecking its facts. This is what Mr. Prah talked about and he gave a few examples regarding Mr. Raymond Archer's journalism. We believe all that Mr. Raymond Archer had to do was to defend himself against the allegations.
What we find quite ridiculous is Mr. Archer expresses intention of using the ghanaweb.com medium to eulogize himself and quite pompously, to blow his own horn unlike Kwaku Sakyi-Addo who allows Larry King to blow it for him. We find that self-aggrandizement a bit unfortunate as the prestigious journalist used the medium to tell us all that he has achieved in order to promote himself. We will briefly expatiate on the disingenuous effort of Mr. Raymond Archer to contemptuously brush Mr. Prah and almost everyone he does not fancy aside and show us how big he has become in the Ghanaian journalism circles.
We shall end up writing volumes of things were we to contend ourselves with exposing the entire flaw in the rejoinder. We would like Mr. Archer to calmly accept his blunder and learn to correct it. We should also put on record that this is not very straightforward especially when you have built an enviable reputation of being the Best Investigative Journalist in Ghana, the first African journalist to win the  prestigious (Mr. Archer's adjective) Global Gold Medal for Excellence in journalism, the Natalie Prize for Africa and the Co-winner for the Best West African Journalist.
We do not mean to say , dear reader, that Mr. Archer is egotistical but we feel he should have dealt with the issues raised by Mr. Prah rather than reiterating to us what we know already --namely all his credentials and laurels.
As prolific a journalist as he is, he faulted himself for, most of the things he wrote had no bearing on the allegations raised by Mr. Prah. Mr. Archer could have done himself justice by dealing with the issues and sparing us another mention of his awards.
Mr. Archer, a supposedly believer in democracy, tries to suppress its most important tenet, to wit, freedom of speech. He finishes his rejoinder by admonishing ghanaweb.com against mischief makers, who will use the medium to tarnish the images of others through libelous articles. This we feel-- is a disreputable suggestion.
Some journalists are disgusting with very nauseous writings but we do not ask governments to suppress their newspapers. Therefore, we find it very uncanny on the part of Mr. Raymond Archer to talk about accreditation on ghanaweb.com and concern himself with the integrity of news content on the website.
Well, maybe it appears the great man wants all of us to go to the School of Journalism or Communication before we can send our write-ups.We are happy that the ghanaweb.com management is no poodle of anyone. We know that most of us are not accredited and Mr. Archer seems to suggest that our contributions should be binned. If he should succeed, ghanaweb.com, like the newspapers, will become a monopoly of the few elite journalists.
Thank God ghanaweb.com will not take any such ill advice; it will not pursue the same gullibility of some journalists who are always ready to report news and tarnish the images of others with the speed of light but slack when they have to retract malicious stories. Mr. Archer may only be human; however, retracting nasty stories and maybe offering an apology to the person involved is also not superhuman!This is the responds from
Thomas Dickens, somebody I have never met before in my life and am wondering it’s a pen name since most people do that.
Raymond Archer Rejoinder
I have read with shock, a report emanating from one Prince Prah published on Ghanaweb.com which launches blistering attacks on my person and The Enquirer newspaper.
Most times I do not respond to people like Mr. Prah because from the tone of his story published on this website, it is obvious that he does not like me, neither does he like my newspaper, but I bear him no grudge for that because that is the beauty of democracy.
I must have been a best investigative journalist in Ghana, I might be the first African journalist ever to win the prestigious Global Gold Medal for Excellence in journalism, I might be the winner of the Natalie Prize for Africa, I could be Co-Winner for Best West African Journalist but the truth still remains that I am only human. That is why I will still accommodate lies and uninformed write ups such as the one written by Prince Prah.
I am sure if I walked to Labadi Beach in Accra and did the unthinkable by walking over the sea, Mr. Prah will still condemn me and say its because I don’t know how to swim.
First and foremost, I have never condemned Mr. Ben Ephson as stated by Mr.Prah. On the contrary, he and I remain good friends. I visit Mar Ben Ephson from time to time. It is up to Mr. Prah- the truth machine to substantiate his claim. He may choose not to do so, I will still not bear him any grudge because he is not worth any pursuit.
Secondly, the issue of Mr. Ace Ankomah is very simple. I understand that the story was actually written without a byline yet Mr. Prah pinpointed me for the slaughter and not the Editor of The Enquirer.
But let me explain the story properly: Our sources at the BNI had alerted one of our reporters about the conduct of a man who had visited their headquarters claiming to be lawyer Ace Ankomah and wanting to be granted access to a suspect who was in the custody of the bureau.
He was denied access on the basis the was a procedure for gaining access to a suspect and it had not been followed by the so-called Ace Ankomah.Interestingly, not long after he refused access, the “original” Ace Ankomah was one of the first lawyers to comment on the arrest of the said suspect on joy fm.
The BNI said when the suspect was asked to give the name (s) of his lawyer (s), he did not include the name “Ace Ankomah”.The Enquirer basically run a story in which it reported that an "imposter" lawyer calling himself Ace Ankomah had gone to the bureau to flex his muscles. As we speak, the BNI has begun investigations regarding the matter.
Mr. Ace Ankomah has also denied that he visited the BNI on that particular day in respect of the suspect. The BNI’s investigations might include hours of video footage of visitors to its premises on that day.
Whilst we await the results of the BNI investigations, Mr. Ace Ankomah exercised his constitutional right to a rejoinder which Enquirer published unedited in our last edition.The next line will depend on the findings of the BNI.
Mr. Ace Ankomah in his interactions with me stated that he could not wait for the findings of the BNI since he was getting calls from his law students as well as his colleagues. In this circumstance, It would have been most unfair for The Enquirer to deny Mr. Ace Ankomah his constitutional right to rejoinder.Mr. Ankomah and I have had very friendly discussions on this matter and Mr. Prah's claim is a blatant lie.
On the matter of Prof.. Mike Oquaye, I wish to state that the matter is in court and The Enquirer stands by its publication which is backed by an Auditor Generals report. Unfortunately, the court has ruled that we discontinue any further publication on the matter until the case is determined.
This is not the first time The Enquirer has been sued but it is instructive to know that in spite of our hard hitting stories we have never lost any case in court. We are ready for Prof. Mike Oquaye and anyone else who wishes to go to court on our investigative stories.
On the issue of Ms. Sheila Sackey, The Enquirer has never been wrong, neither have we been proven wrong nor I will leave it at that. That issue is coming up again and I entreat Mr. Prah to take some notes.
On the issue of calling me a mercenary journalist, I guess I will leave it to the people of Ghana. I refer to Mr. Prince Prah to ask Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor-and I am referring to a meeting held between myself, himself and a third party in his house in 2007. He is my best testimony of my integrity.
The Enquirer still remains the most powerful investigative newspaper in Ghana not because of mercenary journalism but because of integrity. If Mr. Prah's government had listened to us years ago, most of their Ministers and functionaries would not be going through what they are going though today. All these events were foretold by us long ago.
NB: I would however suggest to the management of Ghanaweb.com that in view of the fact that many people rely on your website for accurate information, you may have to reconsider receiving and publishing news content from non accredited and sometimes mischief makers. I read a similar article on this website on Mr. Kojo Bonsu and felt it was so libelous and very unfair to him. This new development is very much uncharacteristic of the website.
We all love this website and must be concerned about the integrity of news content. This is only a suggestion God Bless us all including Mr. Prince Prah.
Raymond Archer,
Most times I do not respond to people like Mr. Prah because from the tone of his story published on this website, it is obvious that he does not like me, neither does he like my newspaper, but I bear him no grudge for that because that is the beauty of democracy.
I must have been a best investigative journalist in Ghana, I might be the first African journalist ever to win the prestigious Global Gold Medal for Excellence in journalism, I might be the winner of the Natalie Prize for Africa, I could be Co-Winner for Best West African Journalist but the truth still remains that I am only human. That is why I will still accommodate lies and uninformed write ups such as the one written by Prince Prah.
I am sure if I walked to Labadi Beach in Accra and did the unthinkable by walking over the sea, Mr. Prah will still condemn me and say its because I don’t know how to swim.
First and foremost, I have never condemned Mr. Ben Ephson as stated by Mr.Prah. On the contrary, he and I remain good friends. I visit Mar Ben Ephson from time to time. It is up to Mr. Prah- the truth machine to substantiate his claim. He may choose not to do so, I will still not bear him any grudge because he is not worth any pursuit.
Secondly, the issue of Mr. Ace Ankomah is very simple. I understand that the story was actually written without a byline yet Mr. Prah pinpointed me for the slaughter and not the Editor of The Enquirer.
But let me explain the story properly: Our sources at the BNI had alerted one of our reporters about the conduct of a man who had visited their headquarters claiming to be lawyer Ace Ankomah and wanting to be granted access to a suspect who was in the custody of the bureau.
He was denied access on the basis the was a procedure for gaining access to a suspect and it had not been followed by the so-called Ace Ankomah.Interestingly, not long after he refused access, the “original” Ace Ankomah was one of the first lawyers to comment on the arrest of the said suspect on joy fm.
The BNI said when the suspect was asked to give the name (s) of his lawyer (s), he did not include the name “Ace Ankomah”.The Enquirer basically run a story in which it reported that an "imposter" lawyer calling himself Ace Ankomah had gone to the bureau to flex his muscles. As we speak, the BNI has begun investigations regarding the matter.
Mr. Ace Ankomah has also denied that he visited the BNI on that particular day in respect of the suspect. The BNI’s investigations might include hours of video footage of visitors to its premises on that day.
Whilst we await the results of the BNI investigations, Mr. Ace Ankomah exercised his constitutional right to a rejoinder which Enquirer published unedited in our last edition.The next line will depend on the findings of the BNI.
Mr. Ace Ankomah in his interactions with me stated that he could not wait for the findings of the BNI since he was getting calls from his law students as well as his colleagues. In this circumstance, It would have been most unfair for The Enquirer to deny Mr. Ace Ankomah his constitutional right to rejoinder.Mr. Ankomah and I have had very friendly discussions on this matter and Mr. Prah's claim is a blatant lie.
On the matter of Prof.. Mike Oquaye, I wish to state that the matter is in court and The Enquirer stands by its publication which is backed by an Auditor Generals report. Unfortunately, the court has ruled that we discontinue any further publication on the matter until the case is determined.
This is not the first time The Enquirer has been sued but it is instructive to know that in spite of our hard hitting stories we have never lost any case in court. We are ready for Prof. Mike Oquaye and anyone else who wishes to go to court on our investigative stories.
On the issue of Ms. Sheila Sackey, The Enquirer has never been wrong, neither have we been proven wrong nor I will leave it at that. That issue is coming up again and I entreat Mr. Prah to take some notes.
On the issue of calling me a mercenary journalist, I guess I will leave it to the people of Ghana. I refer to Mr. Prince Prah to ask Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor-and I am referring to a meeting held between myself, himself and a third party in his house in 2007. He is my best testimony of my integrity.
The Enquirer still remains the most powerful investigative newspaper in Ghana not because of mercenary journalism but because of integrity. If Mr. Prah's government had listened to us years ago, most of their Ministers and functionaries would not be going through what they are going though today. All these events were foretold by us long ago.
NB: I would however suggest to the management of Ghanaweb.com that in view of the fact that many people rely on your website for accurate information, you may have to reconsider receiving and publishing news content from non accredited and sometimes mischief makers. I read a similar article on this website on Mr. Kojo Bonsu and felt it was so libelous and very unfair to him. This new development is very much uncharacteristic of the website.
We all love this website and must be concerned about the integrity of news content. This is only a suggestion God Bless us all including Mr. Prince Prah.
Raymond Archer,
Prince Prah&Raymond Archer
I am posting a story which I did concerning Raymond Archer which was published on Ghanaweb.com, the circumstances the story got there am still figuring it out.
On Monday morning I was informed by a friend that Mr. Archer has responded in a form of a rejoinder on Ghanaweb and I was shocked because he could have done that by just forwarding his rejoinder to my Boss, Ken Kuranchie, who he worked with at the Chronicle but I cannot dictate to him.
If he is in the hate business am not because I would not gain anything from that and I wish him well like a colleague and a brother.
I wanted to react but I was advised not to by a notable senior in our field so I kept mute.
I was again called on Tuesday about a responds to Archer’s rejoinder and am wondering who really did that, anyway am happy somebody took him on but not me.
Ace Ankomah To Sue Enquirer!
Do you remember this headline: ‘Ben Ephson is not a good journalist?’ This was the headline carried in the paper of the missionary of professionalism, Raymond Archer concerning his colleague, Ben Ephson. Ben’s 'crime' was for not talking to one side of a story his paper was investigating. But now the preacher and condemner himself has been found wanting for the same offence.
Ben in doing his work diligently placed a call and left a message on the phone since there was nobody to speak to but he was condemned and described as unprofessional.
Raymond Archer in his bid to tarnish the image of an Accra based lawyer and lecturer, Ace Ankomah, went ahead with a story without doing the basic principle required in journalism of cross-checking his information. According to Raymond’s newspaper, Mr. Ankomah upon hearing that the son of former NIB boss was arrested, showed up at the offices of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and claimed he was the lawyer for the suspect. The paper continued that when the suspect was asked to name his lawyers, Mr. Ankomah was not one of them and had to the leave the BNI offices, from where he drove straight to Joy Fm to scream to the high heavens.
Now, Mr. Ankomah is very unhappy with the story because according to him he has never visited any BNI offices and has threatened to sue the paper if it does not retract the story.
Speaking on Joy FM, Archer now claims that somebody showed up at BNI on the day of the arrest and said that he was Ace Ankomah and that he was counsel for the suspect.
He continued that ‘I would not say that my source has misled me, like I said somebody else had gone there to claim that he is counsel for the suspect and gave his name as Ace Ankomah, either way it has complications for the BNI and Mr. Ace Ankomah’.
Speaking to Mr. Ankomah yesterday he said he spoke to one of the many editors of the paper and was assured of a retraction but it seems they do not want to do it.
“So I will give them a little time. If the retraction does not happen, Archer will receive court papers,” he said. Asked whether it was true he agreed with Archer to go and cross-check with his sources before the retraction is done, he answered that Archer merely informed him that he would go back and cross-check with the BNI.
“He told me he was going to do that. I sent him a text to say that I could not wait for his verification before he takes steps to clear my name”.
‘By close of day today he would receive his papers and we shall meet in court for his so-called sources to make me out’, he said.
The Enquirer this year in its quest to tarnish the images of certain persons it had targeted for reasons best known to its pay-masters started by launching a blistering attack on one Sheila Sackey followed by Hon. Osei Ameyaw and Prof Mike Oquaye.
In the case of Shelia even though they were in possession of original correspondence the paper still went ahead and quoted wrong figures in the refurbishment of Australia House.
On Monday morning I was informed by a friend that Mr. Archer has responded in a form of a rejoinder on Ghanaweb and I was shocked because he could have done that by just forwarding his rejoinder to my Boss, Ken Kuranchie, who he worked with at the Chronicle but I cannot dictate to him.
If he is in the hate business am not because I would not gain anything from that and I wish him well like a colleague and a brother.
I wanted to react but I was advised not to by a notable senior in our field so I kept mute.
I was again called on Tuesday about a responds to Archer’s rejoinder and am wondering who really did that, anyway am happy somebody took him on but not me.
Ace Ankomah To Sue Enquirer!
Do you remember this headline: ‘Ben Ephson is not a good journalist?’ This was the headline carried in the paper of the missionary of professionalism, Raymond Archer concerning his colleague, Ben Ephson. Ben’s 'crime' was for not talking to one side of a story his paper was investigating. But now the preacher and condemner himself has been found wanting for the same offence.
Ben in doing his work diligently placed a call and left a message on the phone since there was nobody to speak to but he was condemned and described as unprofessional.
Raymond Archer in his bid to tarnish the image of an Accra based lawyer and lecturer, Ace Ankomah, went ahead with a story without doing the basic principle required in journalism of cross-checking his information. According to Raymond’s newspaper, Mr. Ankomah upon hearing that the son of former NIB boss was arrested, showed up at the offices of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and claimed he was the lawyer for the suspect. The paper continued that when the suspect was asked to name his lawyers, Mr. Ankomah was not one of them and had to the leave the BNI offices, from where he drove straight to Joy Fm to scream to the high heavens.
Now, Mr. Ankomah is very unhappy with the story because according to him he has never visited any BNI offices and has threatened to sue the paper if it does not retract the story.
Speaking on Joy FM, Archer now claims that somebody showed up at BNI on the day of the arrest and said that he was Ace Ankomah and that he was counsel for the suspect.
He continued that ‘I would not say that my source has misled me, like I said somebody else had gone there to claim that he is counsel for the suspect and gave his name as Ace Ankomah, either way it has complications for the BNI and Mr. Ace Ankomah’.
Speaking to Mr. Ankomah yesterday he said he spoke to one of the many editors of the paper and was assured of a retraction but it seems they do not want to do it.
“So I will give them a little time. If the retraction does not happen, Archer will receive court papers,” he said. Asked whether it was true he agreed with Archer to go and cross-check with his sources before the retraction is done, he answered that Archer merely informed him that he would go back and cross-check with the BNI.
“He told me he was going to do that. I sent him a text to say that I could not wait for his verification before he takes steps to clear my name”.
‘By close of day today he would receive his papers and we shall meet in court for his so-called sources to make me out’, he said.
The Enquirer this year in its quest to tarnish the images of certain persons it had targeted for reasons best known to its pay-masters started by launching a blistering attack on one Sheila Sackey followed by Hon. Osei Ameyaw and Prof Mike Oquaye.
In the case of Shelia even though they were in possession of original correspondence the paper still went ahead and quoted wrong figures in the refurbishment of Australia House.
Monday, September 7, 2009
A Tale Of Jokers!
The government has announced that the reduction in the years at the senior high school level, which it intended to revert to three years beginning this academic year, would take place from next year. By this announcement, junior high school leavers leaving school this year would enroll for a four year program instead of three. For many people including yours truly, the announcement came as a surprise; in the light of the fact that we had been led to believe that the children who were to enroll this year would be in school for three years.
The children, their parents and guardians had prepared themselves for a three year course, and for many of them, the announcement was a surprise. Indeed, a few weeks ago, a Deputy Director of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) had issued a press release ordering all heads of secondary schools to start preparing for three year programs. With this directive in mind, all the schools had been preparing for three year programs, and the late order coming from government and the Education Ministry is just going to create additional inconvenience.
That said I am getting increasingly worried about the conflicting signals we keep on getting from government. It points to a government that is confused and at sea and which really does not know what it is doing. Let me illustrate.
A few weeks ago, government announced that it had secured a consignment of crude oil from the government of Nigeria. The announcement also stated that the Nigerian government had also undertaken to start crude oil supplies to Ghana. That announcement came out in June. As we speak, the promised supplies have not arrived. Worse, the NDC government is now claiming that they cannot import crude oil for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) because there is a huge debt and letters of credit cannot be raised. I ask myself, did the President know of these facts before he went into negotiations with the President of Nigeria? And if he did, was the Nigerian President aware before he promised us the crude oil? Clearly, either we are being lied to presently, or we were lied to previously. The claims that we were about to receive crude oil in June cannot exist, side by side, with the claims that we are hearing today that TOR is in debt.
This is not a President and government that can be trusted. Do you remember when President Atta Mills told the people of Ghana that he would be ensuring regular television and radio shows to tell the people of Ghana how the nation was faring? It has been nearly six months since he made this announcement. Nothing has happened. It paints a picture of a President who is not sincere, who promises one thing and delivers something that is completely other. I can cite further examples. Remember the ‘I’ll Be The President For All’ statement? Since President John Evans Atta Mills said that he would be a President for all, there have been many other Ghanaians who have come to believe that President Atta Mills is not a ‘President for all’. They have felt the vindictive bite of his administration and his pure bile, and they have come to the realization that this government does not mean them well, at all! Going back to why I believe that this government is not serious, I do not think that the Atta Mills administration has behaved responsibly in the matter of increasing the number of years at the SSS level. Indeed all of us know that it is a manifesto promise of the NDC government to reduce the number of years students spend at the SHS level.
Nobody is quibbling about that. However, in implementing manifesto promises, one expects governments to be guided by reality. It is clear that the President of the Atta Mills government, his Cabinet as well as the Minister of Education gave very little thought to the actual implementation of the manifesto promise. For instance, it has now been established that the four year SHS system is a matter of law. Before announcing that it was going to reduce the number of years, the government should have looked at the feasibility of ensuring its passage as a law in parliament. Again, President Atta Mills, his government and Cabinet should have done a study of the possibility of implementing the three year SHS before coming out with the announcement. Even after coming out with the announcement, they should have started taking immediate steps towards ensuring the implementation of the project.
It is clear that the government just made the announcement, then went to sleep, waiting on providence to ensure that the policy met muster. They were just hoping on luck and providence, and nothing else. They did not give a thought about the one million and one simple little things that it was necessary to do to ensure that the policy was successful!Indeed, we are being ruled by a bunch of jokers!Anyway, I am glad that they have seen sense this time round, and that in the long term, hopefully, they would allow good sense to be their guide.
The children, their parents and guardians had prepared themselves for a three year course, and for many of them, the announcement was a surprise. Indeed, a few weeks ago, a Deputy Director of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) had issued a press release ordering all heads of secondary schools to start preparing for three year programs. With this directive in mind, all the schools had been preparing for three year programs, and the late order coming from government and the Education Ministry is just going to create additional inconvenience.
That said I am getting increasingly worried about the conflicting signals we keep on getting from government. It points to a government that is confused and at sea and which really does not know what it is doing. Let me illustrate.
A few weeks ago, government announced that it had secured a consignment of crude oil from the government of Nigeria. The announcement also stated that the Nigerian government had also undertaken to start crude oil supplies to Ghana. That announcement came out in June. As we speak, the promised supplies have not arrived. Worse, the NDC government is now claiming that they cannot import crude oil for the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) because there is a huge debt and letters of credit cannot be raised. I ask myself, did the President know of these facts before he went into negotiations with the President of Nigeria? And if he did, was the Nigerian President aware before he promised us the crude oil? Clearly, either we are being lied to presently, or we were lied to previously. The claims that we were about to receive crude oil in June cannot exist, side by side, with the claims that we are hearing today that TOR is in debt.
This is not a President and government that can be trusted. Do you remember when President Atta Mills told the people of Ghana that he would be ensuring regular television and radio shows to tell the people of Ghana how the nation was faring? It has been nearly six months since he made this announcement. Nothing has happened. It paints a picture of a President who is not sincere, who promises one thing and delivers something that is completely other. I can cite further examples. Remember the ‘I’ll Be The President For All’ statement? Since President John Evans Atta Mills said that he would be a President for all, there have been many other Ghanaians who have come to believe that President Atta Mills is not a ‘President for all’. They have felt the vindictive bite of his administration and his pure bile, and they have come to the realization that this government does not mean them well, at all! Going back to why I believe that this government is not serious, I do not think that the Atta Mills administration has behaved responsibly in the matter of increasing the number of years at the SSS level. Indeed all of us know that it is a manifesto promise of the NDC government to reduce the number of years students spend at the SHS level.
Nobody is quibbling about that. However, in implementing manifesto promises, one expects governments to be guided by reality. It is clear that the President of the Atta Mills government, his Cabinet as well as the Minister of Education gave very little thought to the actual implementation of the manifesto promise. For instance, it has now been established that the four year SHS system is a matter of law. Before announcing that it was going to reduce the number of years, the government should have looked at the feasibility of ensuring its passage as a law in parliament. Again, President Atta Mills, his government and Cabinet should have done a study of the possibility of implementing the three year SHS before coming out with the announcement. Even after coming out with the announcement, they should have started taking immediate steps towards ensuring the implementation of the project.
It is clear that the government just made the announcement, then went to sleep, waiting on providence to ensure that the policy met muster. They were just hoping on luck and providence, and nothing else. They did not give a thought about the one million and one simple little things that it was necessary to do to ensure that the policy was successful!Indeed, we are being ruled by a bunch of jokers!Anyway, I am glad that they have seen sense this time round, and that in the long term, hopefully, they would allow good sense to be their guide.