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Ghana Black Stars new coach Serbian Goran Stevanovic
Serbian Goran Stevanovic has been appointed coach of the 2010 World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana Black Stars. The 44-year-old would be unveiled to the Press on Wednesday January 12, 2011
Coach Goran Stevanovic replacing his fellow citizen Milovan Rajevac who led Ghana to the quarter-final at the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Below is a full profile of the new coach:
FULL NAME: Goran ‘Plavi’ Stevanovic
Date of birth: 27 November 1966 (1966-11-27) (age 44)
The Ghanaian enlightenment campaign is evolving. Ghanaian elites, for some time asleep, are fast getting involved in the enlightenment movement from their diverse stations in life. As the movement gathers steam, backed by the Ghanaian mass media, one area of the Ghanaian traditional life that has come under the enlightenment flashlight is the implications of the dead on the living.
It is a tough area that borders on traditional cosmology. The aim of the enlightenment thinkers is to debunk the misinterpretation of traditional cosmology, especially in the southern parts of Ghana, where millions of dollars are spent on the dead while the majority languish in poverty.
While the traditional funeral is a ceremony for celebrating, consecrating, or remembering the life of a deceased person, in today’s Ghana the simplicity of the celebration has been turned upside down and it has become a showbiz event.
The essence of a traditional Ghanaian funeral combines a complex set of beliefs and practices to remember the dead. It includes the entombment itself and various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in the dead’s honour. This has given way to bling.
One of the criticisms against excessive spending on funerals is that it leaves some families debt-ridden and poorer as they try to out-bling others. Another is that the spending takes place within an atmosphere of poverty where proper eating, good sanitation, suitable and more schools, water, rigorous healthcare systems, and generally more durable socio-economic infrastructure are desperately needed.
For instance, a proper modern toilet facility anywhere in Ghana could be built with GH¢ 7,500 (around US$6,919). The amount is the minimum cost of a funeral for an ordinary Ghanaian (Yes, I know this amount is too much to build a toilet but let’s put it that way as per helping the living to live better and still have a simple funeral ceremony at the same time).
Charles Palmer-Buckle, the Archbishop of Accra Catholic Diocese, has thundered that too much money is spent on the dead and funerals that ‘deprive descendants of the deceased the badly needed resources they need…a funeral for an ordinary Ghanaian now costs a minimum of GH¢ 7,500 (around US$6,919)…it is ridiculous to spend such an amount to “celebrate” a deceased person, who left behind a number of children who are yet to find their feet in life.’
Parallels can be drawn between Palmer-Buckle’s deliberations about Ghanaians’ wasteful expenditure on the dead and Pericles’ ‘Funeral Oration’. As Thucydides, the Greek thinker, recorded in book two of his ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’, it was established Athenian practice in the late 5th century to hold a public funeral in honour of the dead in war.
With the remains of the dead left out for three days in a tent and offerings made for the dead, a funeral procession was held and burial undertaken. The last part of the funeral ceremony was a speech delivered by a prominent Athenian citizen. Pericles was picked to give the oration. In the ‘Funeral Oration’, as inscribed by Thucydides, Pericles did praise the dead, but intentionally gave much more praise to Athens’ achievements – which was ‘designed to stir the spirits of a state still at war’.
There is no war in Ghana, but there is a war to be fought on the socio-economic front against poverty and certain erroneous cultural believes that inhibit progress. And that needs Ghanaians to refine the cultural inhibitions that hinder their progress so they can be free to live a better life. Yes, the dead should be praised, as African tradition dictates, but Palmer-Buckle moves beyond that, and proclaims that though the dead should be honoured, the living, too, should be fully taken care of.
Palmer-Buckle takes a look at the abysmal poverty of most Ghanaians and pronounces that the original traditions of funeral ceremonies have now become a competing theatre of ostentation to the detriment of the living. Palmer-Buckle, therefore, punches the ‘lavish spending on funerals’ as ‘an invention of the present generation and never a part of the cherished Ghanaian traditions’.
At issue isn’t the dead itself, or any trouble with traditional cosmology, but how the escalating expenditure on the dead today, against 100 years ago, negatively impacts on the growing population. Most Ghanaians live below the poverty line (around US$1 a day, according to the UN). There is no dilemma between the physical and the metaphysical. The battle of the enlightenment thinkers, as Palmer-Buckle echoes, is to re-wire Ghanaians to go back to their traditional roots where funeral ceremonies were simple, non-ostentatious, and very traditional.
Ghanaians appear entrapped in the brazenness of the funerals, making the funeral business glitzy. One of the leading funeral services proprietors in Ghana, if not the number one, is my junior brother. He is called Kweku Akosah and his funeral business is called Owners Funeral Services. Though based in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city, over the years Owners Funeral Services, driven by the sheer obsession with the dead and funerals, has grown so much that it has branches in most parts of Ghana.
Akosah employs over 100 people – wailers and criers, dancers, praise-singers, decorators of the dead, coffin makers, musicians, tailors and seamstresses, promoters, food makers, and servers. As Akosah’s funeral business becomes increasingly sophisticated, he finances certain funerals against the backdrops of agreements of sharing profits with the deceased families. Akosah is on the verge of building a state-of-the-art mortuary in Kumasi.
Such highlights are cast against the unrelenting poverty of Ghanaians. Palmer-Buckle’s funeral oration is ‘designed to stir the spirits’ of the living Ghanaian by making the case that part of the huge sums of money spent on the dead could be appropriated for the living so as to make life comfortable.
Still, Palmer-Buckle and the enlightenment stance is a difficult position because it is misunderstood by many Ghanaian traditionalists as impinging on the sacred area of Ghanaians’ cosmology. But at issue isn’t the cosmology, but the living in terms of better food, shelter, education, water, sanitation, health, roads, and the other comforts of life.
Palmer-Buckle bravely looks more at the living than the dead, and how the living should live better before he/she dies. ‘Instead of spending hugely on the dead, Ghanaians must rather establish an endowment fund in memory of the deceased, which would be used to sponsor education of their relatives to realise their full potential…children would largely remember their great grandfather in whose memory a fund was established to sponsor their education as against their relatives on who much money was spent to bury them and left behind debts.’
In Archbishop Palmer-Buckle’s ‘Funeral Oration’ Ghanaian enlightenment thinkers are wrestling with certain inhibitions within the Ghanaian/African culture that is hampering their progress. And that will need more fearless thinking than they have thought of. And that may need some remarkable tinkering with certain aspects of Ghanaians’ traditional cosmology.
Mugabe hijacks Big Brother craze for political gain
Zimbabwe’s representative in Africa’s Big Brother reality TV show landed in second place, but took home a prize bigger than the official jackpot, a date from President Robert Mugabe’s family. Reports from Harare say the Zimbabwean loser was whisked away to State House to meet Mugabe immidiately he landed.
Uti Nwachukwu from Nigeria won the official 200,000-dollar prize from the show. The Big Brother reality show locks up contestants from around the continent in a house.
Munyaradzi Chidzonga just lost out to Uti received a 300,000-dollar cheque from President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday, $100, 000 more than the winner.
Mugabe, who probably did not watch the show, also declared the voting as ‘not free and fair’. Really?
Teachers and nurses are on strike every other week in Zimbabwe so one wonders whether this is not a misplaced priority.
Naomi Campbell’s Blood Diamon Tantrum
Naomi Campbell and Charles Taylor, the former Liberian Tyrant
During an interview with ABC news, Naomi Campbell was asked if the large diamond she had on was a Blood Diamond. Ms. Campbell, as expected, attacked the camera, slapping it out of the hands of the cameraman.
Naomi Campbell, the model
Even though Naomi is well known for her violent temper than her modeling talents, this time I guess she was right. Coincidentally, Ms. Campbell and Mia Farrow were in Africa raising money for relief in Haiti . On this, I’m on the side of Naomi, at least for once.
Charles Taylor, the former tyrant of Liberia is being investigated for genocide.
Naomi has been in African news for a while. When are we going to find out if she really got the diamond from Mr. Taylor?
Who is Ghana’s Janet jackson? in skill and in looks? Even a child on the streets at Adum, Kumasi, will tell you its Akosua Agyepong.
Akosua Agyepong was born in Accra. She is a half Ashanti and half Akyem. She started her education at Harrow International School and later attended Holy Child Secondary in Cape Coast.
Akosua started composing songs as a child indicating that, music was an inborn passion for her. She was subsequently discovered by legendary Nana Kwame Ampadu and subsequently came out with her first album ‘Frema’ which was released on January 1, 1990. The ‘Frema’ album had songs like ‘Me ye Obaa’, ‘Born again’, ‘Anan tuo’, ‘San be hwe wo mba’ among others.
Her second album was entitled ‘Esiwa’ had the hit song like ‘Kokokoo’. Her third was with music group NAKOREX which was made up of herself, Nat Brew and Rex Omar. She later turned into doing gospel music.
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Akosua is married to Rev Daniel Asamoah-Larbi. She is a mother of six (can’t believe that!), . She also an entrepreneur and owns a restaurant, ‘Ye Kum Kom’ at Rawlings Park in Accra Central.
WWJD (What will Jesus Do?) A Nigerian student is rewarded for his honesty
Durojaiye Adeyemi Job, a 30-year-old level 100 Higher National Diploma (HND) engineering student of The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, found a whooping N9.3 billion in his Savings Account domiciled at the institution’s First Bank plc branch.
But rather than touch the money, in a rare display of honesty, he alerted the bank’s authority, won himself a scholarship, and was hosted to a reception at the Lagos headquarters of his church, Mountain of Fire and Miracles by the Overseer Dr. D.k. Olukoya,
Adeyemi explains exactly how the error happened.. “It all happened on Friday August 13, 2010. I was going back home for the weekend and decided to cash N2, 000 from my acct, out of the N3, 000 that I had there. I inserted my ATM card, the machine dispensed N2, 000. I re-entered my password to check my balance and saw a balance of N9.3 billion! I was surprised. To verify what I saw there, I had to re-insert the ATM card to withdraw N20, 000. An amount which was more than what I had there. To my utmost surprised, the machine dispensed the money. That shows that the money is real. I printed out the receipt and went home because the bank had already closed then. I kept the N20, 000 with me and on Monday Morning, I went to see the bank manager and narrated the whole story to her and returned the N20, 000.
First Bank explains error: It was a computer malfunctioning that enabled Mr. Adeyemi’s ATM Card access funds in one of the Bank’s internal accounts. This glitch was rectified within a few minutes. During that period, Mr Adeyemi was able to withdraw N20, 000 which is the maximum amount with-drawable for a single transaction. We all know that computers do malfunction. Stories of this nature abound globally. However First Bank has a very robust security measure in place that ensures security of our customer’s data and their funds.
The General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, MFM, Dr. Daniel Olukoya, has presented a brand new Toyota Corolla car, an undisclosed amount of money and a certificate of honesty to the Polytechnic student, Durojaye Adeyemi for his honesty
Nigerian student rewarded for his honesty
Dr. D.K. Olukoya said the church decided to reward him to show people that intergrity and honest still pay. He noted that Adeyemi’s action has portrayed him as a good ambassador of the church’s emphasis on holiness.
Until recently, Africa has not been strategically attractive to the U.S. This is partly because U.S. interests in Africa had not been clearly defined and it had no bureaucratic structure to manage those almost nonexistent interests. For a long time, the strategic thinking has been that the U.S. has “no compelling interests in Africa” and “do not want anybody else to have any, either.” However, whenever a non-Western nation or idea made its way into Africa, the U.S. got very nervous. This is what happened from the 1960-1990, when the Soviet Union tried to spread its communist ideology to Africa. Today, many think the U.S. is very nervous of Chinese economic penetration into Africa. America’s concern is that the Chinese are trying to control the continent’s natural resources and gain influence over it. The U.S. is also worried that radical Islamism is a dangerous idea that could germinate in poorly and badly governed states of Africa. Africom is being sold as an answer to these threats. Until the enunciation of Africom, the continent had been haphazardly divided into three U.S. commands—European, Central and Pacific. In order to understand this state of affairs we need first to understand the basis of U.S. foreign policy towards Africa.
Basis for Understanding U.S. foreign policy towards Africa
U.S. foreign policy towards Africa has been variously referred to as either “benign neglect” or “manifest destiny.” In other words, these postures have defined or driven U.S. relations with Africa. Despite changes of U.S. administrations since 1960, when most African countries started gaining independence, the substance has always remained the same. Only the styles of various administrations have changed. As we shall see later, when given a choice between supporting the liberation struggles of the African people or bolstering its NATO allies, the U.S. easily chose the latter. On the other hand, it has sent Peace Corps volunteers to remote villages to assist in improving agricultural production while at the same time erecting trade barriers against products of these local farmers. It is this principle of “manifest destiny” that seems to be embodied in Africom’s objectives and stated mission.
Africom’s Stated mission
Prevent conflict by promoting stability regionally and eventually ‘prevail over extremism’ by never letting its seeds germinate in Africa.
Address underdevelopment and poverty, which are making Africa a fertile ground for breeding terrorists.
“…view the people, the nations and the continent of Africa from the same perspective that they view themselves.”
Build the capacity of African nations through training and equipping African militaries, conducting training and medical missions.
Undertake any necessary military action in Africa, despite its non-kinetic nature such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.
Why the U.S. really wants to set up Africom
Despite the above stated objectives, there are many reasons why the U.S. wants to set up Africom. First, the U.S. has become increasingly dependent on Africa for its oil needs. Africa is currently the largest supplier of U.S. crude oil, with Nigeria being the fifth largest source. Instability, such as that in the Niger Delta, could significantly reduce this supply. The U.S. National Intelligence Council has projected that African imports will account for 25% of total U.S. imports by 2015. This oil will primarily come from Angola, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Nigeria. Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, has now overtaken Saudi Arabia as the third largest oil exporter to the U.S. The importance of the African oil source can be gleaned from the fact that in 2006, the U.S. imported 22% of its crude oil from Africa compared to 15% in 2004. President Bush appeared to have African oil supplies in mind during his 2006 State of the Union Address, when he announced his intention “to replace more than 75% of (U.S.) oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.” Continuing unrest in the Middle East has increased the urgency for the U.S. to build a security alliance with Africa in order to achieve this goal.
Second, Africa is an unstable region with badly governed states that can only manage their affairs, particularly security-related, with outside assistance. Since September 11, 2001, U.S. foreign policy has heavily focused on preventing and combating global terrorist threats. The events of 9/11 changed the way the U.S. views and relates to the rest of the world. Likewise, the foreign policies of Western powers have increasingly been militarised to secure and defend Western interests. Terrorism has been identified as one of the biggest threats to these interests. Africom is expected to stop terrorists being bred in Africa’s weak, failing and failed states from attacking these interests.
It is widely held in the West that failing and failed states in Africa create opportunities for terrorists to exploit. Among the targets of these terrorists are Western interests such as oil sources and supply routes. Improvement of African security would inevitably promote U.S. national interests by making it less likely that the continent could be a source of terrorism against the United States.
Third, one of the critical challenges facing Africa and the UN is training, equipping and sustaining troops in peace missions. African armies need training in peacekeeping. It is proposed that through Africom, African troops will be trained and aided to keep the peace in African conflict zones. This should come in handy when it is considered that all African Union-led peacekeeping operations deployed so far have encountered monumental problem
Jerry Rawlings being sworn in as the President of the 4th Republic of Ghana
I present the results of a survey that was conducted from February 22, 2010 to March 21, 2010. The purpose of the survey was to collate the views of Ghanaians everywhere on the 4th Republican Constitution. Survey respondents participated voluntarily by accessing a link that was placed on www. Ghanaweb.com and other chat rooms known to and accessible to me (e.g., Okyeame@gogglegroups.com, glu-ghana-leadership-forum@googlegroups, elephant-patriots@googlegroups.com). In addition to accessibility, these sites were chosen because they are patronized by a good cross section of the population who frequently express views and debate on the Constitution. Therefore, survey respondents were not randomly chosen. However, given that the purpose of the survey was to collate views on the Constitution, I wanted respondents who had read the Constitution or were knowledgeable on the workings of the Constitution.
The survey consisted of 53 questions. Questions 1 to 5 asked some background questions about the respondents’ access to and knowledge of the Constitution while questions 51 to 53 asked demographic questions. Question 6 asked participants to rate the effectiveness of 20 Constitutional organs. Questions 7 to 15 asked questions about the executive; questions 16 to 26 asked questions pertaining to the legislature; and questions 27 to 34 addressed the judiciary. In addition, I asked questions about the district assemblies (question 34), death penalty (question 36), political parties (questions 37 to 40), CHRAJ (questions 41 to 45), transitional provisions (questions 46 and 47), chieftaincy (question 48), and general elections (questions 49 and 50). The appendix to this executive summary shows the questions asked, frequency distribution of the responses, and the number of participants who answered and skipped each question.
Demographic Profile of Respondents and Access to Constitution
One thousand two hundred and twenty six (1,226) participants responded to the survey. About 80% of the respondents were between the ages of 31 to 60 and most (95%) of the respondents were males. Approximately 37% of the respondents self-reported that they own a copy of the 1992 Constitution and only about 18.6% had read all chapters of the Constitution. Surprisingly, about 28.5% of the respondents had not read some of the chapters or parts of the 1992 Constitution and 18.1% indicated that they did not understand the contents of the Constitution. Only 7% felt they were extremely knowledgeable about the Constitution. About 25% of those who do not read their personal copies of the Constitution, access the Constitution through online sources such as Ghanaweb while about 17.1% borrow their friends’ copies. These responses suggest that the 4th republican Constitution is not available to, accessible to, read by and understood by many Ghanaians. Government should consider making it part of the curriculum at the secondary and tertiary levels.
Effectiveness of Constitutional Organs
The 4th Republican Constitution created several organs and charged them with specific responsibilities. How well have these organs discharged those responsibilities? To address this question, I asked the respondents to evaluate the effectiveness of 20 Constitutional organs on an 11 point scale where a score of 1 indicates “minimum effectiveness,” a score of 6 indicates “moderate effectiveness” while a score of 11 indicates maximum effectiveness. The mean (standard deviation) effectiveness rating for each of the 20 organs is tabulated in Table 1. Table also reports a raw ranking of the Constitutional organs as well as a statistical ranking. The statistical rankings are based on means that are statistically significant (i.e., I rank an organ as more effective than another only if the mean between the two organs cannot be satisfactory explained by chance. Technically, these are paired t-tests with significance level fixed at .05).
Respondents indicate that the Electoral Commission has been the most effective organ, with a mean effectiveness rating of 7.56. The Ghana Armed Force, Presidency and the Media are tied for second place, even though their mean effectiveness rating is less than 6 (moderate effectiveness). Parliament is considered least effective of the 3 branches of government at a mean score of 4.34. The Political Parties are ranked as third, ahead of CHRAJ and the National Security Council. The least effective organs are the Council of State, District Chief Executives, and the National Development and Planning Commission, who score below 4 on the effectiveness scale.
Overall, other than the Electoral Commission, it is clear that respondents think that these Constitutional organs have not been very effective in discharging their constitutional obligations.
John Schram, Senior fellow with the Queen’s Centre for International Relations, Former Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Liberia from 1994 to 1998.
Early one December morning in 1965, a few months after my arrival in Ghana, I was jolted out of a tropical sleep by a pile of Daily Graphic newspapers whumping onto the concrete floor of my small room.
“What are those for, Atinga?” I called out groggily to Atinga Naga, the residence cleaner, as he stood at the door, several more such loads balanced in his arms.
“You’ll see!”
And indeed I did. Within minutes came an eruption of shouts, rubber flip-flopped footsteps, and slamming screen doors — unusual noises amid the staid gentlemanliness of Legon Hall, my University of Ghana residence. I leaped up and joined the swarm now flying from bathroom to bathroom, where we found our worst fears realized: the country, in its ninth year of independence, had run out of toilet paper. The new Ghana on which I had staked my future was in crisis.
Not many weeks later, in the dark early morning of February 24, 1966, we heard the sound of distant guns and knew instantly there had been a coup d’état. The campus — and the capital, Accra — erupted as cheering crowds danced in euphoric and spontaneous celebration.
The sudden dearth of toilet paper was far from the only warning sign. Many of my new university friends had claimed for some time that Kwame Nkrumah, the nation’s first president, had lost his way. At the end of October, Nkrumah had hosted a summit of the Organization of African Unity, founded in 1963 in the wake of a continent-wide flood of successful independence movements. He saw the Accra meeting as his chance to win support for his vision of a united Africa, and to show what his brand of socialism had wrought in Ghana’s own eight years of freedom. To him, all Africa was embarked on an irreversible wave toward political and economic independence. And he and Ghana should lead the way.
As it turned out, he was disappointed. Armed with his engaging smile, Nkrumah took centre stage at the oau summit, but soon found that most of the continent’s new leaders shared the British and American suspicion of his obsession with a united continent, and distrusted his motives for and commitment to “scientific socialism.” Only thirteen of thirty-six African heads of state actually came to Accra, and the conference ended with neither continental commitment nor popular enthusiasm at home.
In the Legon Hall residence, the excitement of the event was quickly forgotten. International journalists billeted with us had eaten up our entire year’s allotment of rice and meat. As a result, we suffered an unpopular Yam Festival, consisting of two meals a day of yam: boiled, fried, roasted, and mashed. No rice, no meat. Just yam.
More seriously, disenchanted Legonites accused Nkrumah of fixating on grandiose infrastructure projects: the new seaport and planned city at Tema were a waste of hard-won cocoa earnings; likewise the vast hydroelectric dam, the man-made Volta Lake and its aluminum smelter, the new airport, and the four-lane highway connecting Accra to the port at Tema. Most vociferously, they condemned Job 600, the huge luxury-lodging project designed to impress upon visiting oau leaders the suitability of Accra as the future capital of the United States of Africa.
For a small-town boy from Ontario, this was confusing stuff. I was reminded daily that the African independence wave had moved with proud visibility and relative order to sever the colonial bonds with Britain or France. But I could sense that for new African countries like Ghana there was a hidden cost: Ghanaians, like so many other Africans, were becoming irreconcilably divided between the traditional elites who had expected to take over from the colonialists, and the popular “masses” who had in fact led the struggle, and whom Nkrumah represented. I was surrounded at the university by both the disaffected and the Nkrumah loyalists. Within days of my arrival, three hall mates, suspecting that I might be an American cia plant, had climbed over my balcony, intent on converting me into a solid Nkrumahist.
Their altruism was buttressed by a growing horde of professors from Eastern Europe, Fabian socialists from the London School of Economics, American communists, and hopeful African-American academics, all of whom wanted to help build in now-independent Africa the socialist utopia denied them at home. None of them seemed overly concerned by the increasing security presence, arrests (Ghana had some 1,200 political prisoners in 1965), or disingenuous propaganda issuing forth from the leader’s ubiquitous Convention People’s Party media. To the contrary, Nkrumah’s message sounded to them quite credible: if Ghana and its African neighbours were to be truly independent, they had to outwit the neo-colonialists, control the market, produce centralized five-year economic plans, and borrow however much it took to manufacture anything and everything then being imported from the former colonial powers. If this meant collectivized farming and tight bureaucratic control of prices, wages, imports, foreign travel, and currency — or a few years in James Fort Prison for members of the country’s traditional elite — so be it. The end, the Nkrumahists believed, really did justify the means.
I was all for this, too. Ghana had paid for my Commonwealth Scholarship. Now, here, I had found everything a young man could want: Oxbridge on a tropical hill just beyond Accra; luxurious residence halls, gardens, courtyards, and fountains; an Institute of African Studies with a roster of remarkable international experts; all the Star beer one could drink; good friends; and lively dances under the palms to Ghana’s infectious highlife music. I was impressed, too, with the country’s free health care, and with its free post-secondary education, which my hard-working Ghanaian colleagues seemed to regard as a serious responsibility (not for them the nightclubs of Accra). Though a law school graduate from Toronto, I was no match for their broad classical educations, their debating skills, and the sheer elegance of their written and spoken English.
These Ghanaians were confident, assured, and welcoming. They were in at the start of the new Africa then, and they are very much part of a new Africa now. Today their names are quite recognizable: John Atta Mills, then a field hockey star and law student, now president of Ghana; Nana Akufo-Addo, in 1965 a dedicated Nkrumahist, now the converted free market presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party; Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, then a high-achieving student, now the internationally respected head of the Electoral Commission of Ghana; Kwesi Botchwey, then an undeniably smart man about campus, now a professor at Tufts, and, until he quit in frustration, the architect of Ghana’s eventual transition to liberal market policies.
They were a seemingly random group at the time, but their lives have come to reflect both the evolution of much of Africa over a half century of independence, and the changing relationship between Africa and Canada. They illustrate, too, what has happened to disappoint and then encourage in Ghana, neatly mirroring the good times and the bad across much of Africa. Their stories have been repeated in Botswana, Sierra Leone, Mali, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria. If they have now become the bedrock of Ghana, they are equally a portent of Africa’s future. Encouragingly, their lives prove the exception to the sense of drift and malevolent change that descended on all newly independent African countries in the decades following that initial burst of pride and hope.
The first frenzy of rejoicing at Nkrumah’s demise soon wore off. Ghana’s coffers were bare. Where Nkrumah was said to have wept upon hearing there was no money left to finish the Volta River project, we at the university cried as our hall residence tables were cleared of Milo, Ovaltine, and Maggi sauce. We were being forced to join the masses in losing the small luxuries most Ghanaians now saw as the stuff of life: Norwegian sardines, Argentine corned beef, American Uncle Ben’s rice.
I, too, found the new situation disconcerting. I had lost both the subject of my master’s thesis — the Convention People’s Party — and a good deal of my naïveté. I had come to Ghana expecting to be part of a new vision for an independent Africa. Then, overnight on February 24, 1966, the coup rendered Nkrumah and all that he stood for unmentionable.
I was far from the only Canadian who had arrived hoping to take part in Ghana’s bright future. During my first year there, a friend named John Bentum-Williams, recently returned with a degree from the University of Western Ontario, whisked me away for a holiday in a small northern town. Surrounded by Ghanaian friends and cooled by big, cheap bottles of beer, I thought myself a modern-day explorer. This happy delusion fell apart when I spotted, on the opposite side of the bar, another white face, a woman’s. For most of the night, we managed to avoid each other, but in the end pressure from Ghanaians baffled by such jealousy resulted in an introduction: she was Lynn Taylor and, like me, from London, Ontario. She was in Ghana for two years as part of an enthusiastic contingent of volunteer secondary school teachers fielded by Canadian University Students Overseas and the World University Service of Canada. Adventurous and committed young people like her were scattered in villages throughout Ghana and, for that matter, all over Africa.
The traffic between Africa and Canada during the 1960s — sponsored by governments, churches, service clubs, and universities — spoke of an infectious desire to be involved in the changes sweeping the continent. And it went both ways. Those bringing the best of African youth to Canada hoped to help train the next presidents, senior civil servants, doctors, lawyers, etymologists, and engineers of post-independence African nations. Some, like John Bentum-Williams, returned home to bolster the leadership pool. As the continent struggled, however, many other African elites began to stay abroad, the start of a problematic but ongoing bonanza for Canada. What persuaded growing numbers to leave their homes, friends, and families? How did Africa get from the heady days of independence to a continent that many in Canada perceive only as a place of despair? In the bad, as eventually in the good, Ghana showed the way.
After the coup, the military government initially set about putting the country on a democratic foundation, promoting the candidacy of Kofi Busia, a diminutive, scholarly sociology professor, representative of the right-of-centre elite, who had fled the country under Nkrumah’s rule. He was elected prime minister, and the Western world rejoiced. Canada quickly invited him to pay a state visit, which he did in November 1970. By this point, I had returned to Canada, and the first task of my first real job in what was then the Department of External Affairs was to hold Busia’s briefcase as he was rushed from Rideau Hall to the Office of the Prime Minister, from parliamentary question period to talks with top Canadian International Development Agency officials about more Canadian aid. Though continued Canadian funding for Ghana was certainly forthcoming, the trip was not entirely successful. Busia and his entourage looked askance at having to brave a cold winter rain to plant a commemorative tree in the gardens of Rideau Hall. They rushed away from Canada early to attend French president Charles de Gaulle’s funeral, as much impressed by the dreariness of Ottawa in November as by the generosity of Canadian hospitality and our support for African development.
Back home in Ghana, Busia didn’t last long. His promises of good government went unfulfilled, the economy continued to decline, and he acquired many of the habits that had been Nkrumah’s undoing. Ghanaians quickly grew disillusioned with his inability to put more money in their pockets, and suspicious of his apparent ties to the United States and Britain. They were incensed when he sharply devalued Ghana’s currency; they were irritated by his flashy motorcades and ostentatious security. For most Ghanaians, life in Busia’s “Western” democracy was no better than it had been during Nkrumah’s socialism.
Like so many other Africans, Ghanaians had become ensnared in the Cold War trap, pulled in opposite directions by the ideological proxy battles being waged across the continent by the Soviet Union and the United States. Newly independent nations like Ghana found themselves playing one side against the other to win more aid; imposing trade and business controls; and silencing opposition instead of developing a capacity for independent policy formulation and effective government. The heroes of freedom struggles across Africa eventually became all too proficient at this game, winning Soviet or Western military support and often-self-serving aid, but sacrificing much of the independence they had fought for. To maintain their hold on power, they exploited the pull of petty local nationalism and maintained an enveloping government media. And so Africa sank into an abyss of inflation, corruption, one-party states, dictatorships, conflict, and coups. When Busia was tossed out in another military putsch, in 1972, it was no surprise to my friends from the University of Ghana — or to me, in my new post as a junior officer with the Canadian High Commission in nearby Lagos, Nigeria.
As always with the military governments that drove out so many of Africa’s early leaders, the new Ghanaian regime only accelerated the state of decline. Much the same had happened in Nigeria. We had arrived in Lagos as a newly minted embassy family in 1971, with the country still reverberating from the bloody civil war that had pitted the central government and much of the country against a doughty but soon all-but-destroyed Biafra (Nigeria’s former Eastern Region). We drove frequently over the next few years from Lagos to Accra, relying on our two small children to win the hearts of the customs and police officers who manned the countless roadblocks and border crossings. Amid near-universal economic collapse, these petty officials were bent mainly on collecting a “dash” from defenceless travellers making their already unpleasant journey from Nigeria through Dahomey (now Benin), across Togo, and into Ghana. (press the button below for next page)
Fellow Ghanaians, permit me to use this opportunity to share some thoughts with you with regard to the remarkable achievements of His Excellency, the ‘Gentle Giant’, John Agyekum Kufuor under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration between 2001 and 2009.
In sharing this thought, I would urge my noble readers to consider among other things, the tenure of office vis-a-vis the population of Ghana, the available resources and the actual work done. In this way, you would agree with me as to why President Kufuor remains the most successful President of Ghana. In my subsequent articles, I will be examining the socio-economic and political impact of the policies and programmes executed in the key sectors of the Ghanaian ‘ecomini’ notably; education, health, transport, sports, energy, among others. Efforts will also be made to make a comparison between Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and J. A. Kufuor in terms of their achievements as leaders of Mother Ghana.
According to Martin Luther King Jr,
“the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy”.
To this, Gordon Brown, British prime minister adds; “leadership is tested not by what happens in the best of time but by what happens when things are difficult”. To say that President Kufuor has earned his place in the annals of African politics would be a very gross understatement.
Readers cannot forget so soon the gloomy state of the economy when the Kufuor-led NPP administration assumed the reigns of governance in 2001. The enthusiasm and excitement that greeted the new administration were similar to that of 6th March, 1957, all because to majority of Ghanaians, the era marked the end of culture of silence, tyranny, economic hardship, corruption, human rights abuses, mediocrity, lawlessness and police brutalities that characterised the 19 year dictatorial rule of Rawlings’ P/NDC administration. In fact, tribalism had been covertly and overtly been institutionalised in all public and private institutions. Ghanaians were therefore anxiously looking forward to seeing their “Moses” to free them from bondage. Cindy Thompson’s ‘Ewurade Kasa’ lyrics were on the lips of everybody. The rate of inflation was high, interest rate was high, the unemployment rate was high, social infrastructure was nothing to write home about, there was high incidence of social vices, there was general insecurity in the country, the cash and carry system was killing the poor, the educational system was in a mess, there were series of demonstrations (Kume Preko, Sie me Preko) and strike actions including those of bread sellers, officers of the prison service and the almighty ‘mmobrowa struggle’ which I was a leading member and a victim of the abuses. There was high incidence of corruption especially among public officials and last but not the least, the serial killings of women put fear among the women folk.
Ghana nurses go on Strike, a common language in the West African country
As B.R. Hayden posits; “the first proof of a man’s incapacity to achieve is his endeavouring to fix the stigma of failure on others”. However, as a man born to succeed, His Excellency, J. A. Kufuor did not see the state of our economy as a problem, but rather as a challenge to modify his approach for better things to come through the party’s campaign message of positive change. It is in the light of these that on assumption office, he moved quickly to bring to the fore credible programmes and policies with competent team to execute them.
The excellent work done by the Kufuor-led NPP administration is there for all those whose five senses, in addition to their common sense, are working to perfection, to see, hear, feel, taste, smell and judge objectively. Without much ado, I will just highlight some of the remarkable feats chalked by President Kufuor, which include among others, the construction and rehabilitation of five sports stadia, the Presidential Palace (Golden Jubilee House), the Accra-Tema commuter railway line, the Keta Sea Defence, the Bui Dam & Bui City Project, the Boankra Inland Port (under construction), major feeder and trunk roads (Accra-Kumasi-Aflao-Kasoa-Cape Coast, Aburi), several by-passes in Accra and Kumasi including the Asafo interchange, the restoration of Peduase Lodge, the drilling of several boreholes culminating in the solution to the perennial water problems in Cape Coast and Tamale, the expansion of the Aboadze Thermal Plant, the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence, state-of-the art wood village at Sokoban, Kumasi for Anloga carpenters, the accident centre at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), over 56 model secondary schools including science resource buses, the presidential special initiatives on cassava, oil palm etc, the affordable housing project, the cocoa processing plant in Kumasi, the West African Gas Pipe Line as well as the expansion of the road network from 39,000 km of accessible roads to 65,000 km.
In fact, under the distinguished leadership of His Excellency, President J. A. Kufuor, good governance was at its peak. He tolerated all shades of opinion and continues to do so in the face of extreme provocation even as of now. He was constantly at the receiving end of insults and abuses from ‘Dr.’ Asemfoforo, an NDC paid serial caller and J. J. Rawlings, who at one time referred to the then sitting President as ‘Ataa Ayi’ – a notorious armed robber. Ghanaians witnessed the National Reconciliation, the reburial of three former heads of state namely; Okatakyie Afrifa, Gen. I.K. Acheampong and Gen. F.W.K Akufo and five senior military officers, who were executed in 1979 by J. J. Rawlings, the repeal of the criminal libel and seditious laws which had provided 10 years’ maximum imprisonment for reporting intended to injure the reputation of the state, the People’s Assembly concept which made it possible for Ghanaians to interact with the President and his Ministers on yearly basis, all-inclusive governance with the likes of Mallam Issah (PNC), Dr. Paa Nduom, Prof. Badu Akosah, Prof. Hagan – all CPP leading members, working under the NPP administration, the facilitation of the appointments of Dr. Ibn Chambas as the Secretary General of ECOWAS and Ekwow Spio-Garbrah as Chief Executive Officer of CTO, the creation of 60 additional districts and raising some of them to municipal & metropolitan status to facilitate local governance, the increase in the District Assembly Common Fund from 5% to 7.5%, plethora of FM Radio stations, regular media encounters with the President, broadcasting of news in the major local dialects on the Ghana Television (GTV), which hitherto had been in English and Akan, the passage of the Representation of the People Amendment act (ROPAA) into law to enfranchise Ghanaians in the diaspora, the expansion of mobile phone network across the length and breadth of the country, the creation of Public Sector Reform Ministry to develop a new and positive mindset for public sector workers, the creation of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs to empower women and improve their lot, the creation of the Ministry of Chieftaincy Affairs to tap the rich expertise of our noble traditional leaders, the National Identification Authority, the Disability Act, the improvement in the conditions of service of health personnel and lecturers, general discipline in the Ghana Armed Forces, the deconfiscation of assets of noble and hard working citizens seized by J.J. Rawlings, the removal of June 4 and the 31st December public holidays from the statute books, the transfer of members of the 64th Infantry Regiment to other units, the enforcement of Rule of Law culminating in the 3-day official visit of a sitting US President and the then Deputy PM of the UK, John Prescott.
My dear readers, it was not by accident that this noble son of Mother Ghana, His Excellency, President J. A. Kufuor featured regularly at all G-8 Summits. His excellent diplomatic relations with world leaders enabled Ghana not only to attract attention and investment worldwide, but also he was unanimously elected to chair both the African Union (AU) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Under his leadership, Ghana had the opportunity to assume the rotational presidency of the UN Security Council. President Kufuor also won several international awards including the Chatham House Prize Award in 2008 as a result of peace and economic growth which characterised his two terms in office. No wonder he was given a rousing welcome by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of England.
Again, President Kufuor took a leading role in mediating in regional conflicts including those in Liberia, La Cote D’Ivoire, Sudan, Guinea and Zimbabwe. Ghanaians should not lose sight of the fact that, Kufuor is not the only ex-President of the Republic of Ghana. There were others who unfortunately died in exile, some died miserably in Ghana and a particular dictator was mandated to ensure the eradication of mosquitoes in Africa. However, as a true democrat, he was even criticised by his own party members and sympathisers for not ‘hanging’ onto power before the Tain by-elections when the NPP’s Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo was leading in the 2008 Presidential elections. He is on record as the only President who left office in the peaceful manner in which he entered it. This is indeed a lasting legacy because all his predecessors were either overthrown by the military or metamorphosed themselves into civilian presidents.
Furthermore, a lot of people benefitted from the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) where the aged and other vulnerable people were paid monthly allowances of between 8 and 15 Ghana cedis. The micro finance loans were meant to help small and medium-scale businesses, the Export Development Fund (EDIF), the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which makes it possible for local producers to access the US market, as well as, the Ghana Poverty Reduction Programmes I & II were all aimed at improving the lot of Ghanaians.
The NPP under Kufuor managed the economy with dynamism, competence, commitment, integrity, ingenuity and innovation. It was in the light of these that the party was able to undertake pro-poor policies and programmes like the free basic education through the capitation grant, the school feeding programme where pupils from some selected public basic schools were given one hot meal a day, the National Health Insurance Scheme to replace the cash and carry system and make health care affordable, the release of 250 brand new buses to GPRTU, the metro mass transit, the Ghana International Airlines (all meant to improve the transportation system), the free maternal care to reduce child mortality, the Northern Development Fund with a US$25m seed fund to reduce the North-South poverty gap, free bus ride for school kids, construction of 14 fishing harbours in our fishing communities, the activities of the Zoom Lion Company Limited to rid our cities of filth, the creation of the Youth Fund with a $50m seed money and the National Youth Employment Programme, which rolled out seven programmes including community police, teaching assistance, health care, agric extension, etc to reduce the country’s high unemployment.
Between 2001 and 2008, the introduction of mass cocoa spraying exercise coupled with the persistent increase in the producer price of cocoa, subsidised fertilizer, prompt payment of bonuses and the importation of 1,331 brand new tractors went a long way in increasing the annual cocoa yield from 350 metric tonnes in 2000 to 750 metric tonnes in 2006 with an income of US$1bn to the economy. This feat alone moved Ghana from the 4th position to the 2nd position in terms of the world’s leading producers of the product. It must however, be noted that the new tractors exclude the 2000 tractors that Mahama Ayariga, Alban Bagbin, and the other greedy NDC members stole recently. The above-mentioned pragmatic policies and programmes, in addition to the plethora of financial institutions, quadrupled the size of the economy from US$3.9m to US$16.3m between the said period, thus ending the year with GDP growth rate of 7.3%. Whilst inflation was reduced from 40% in 2000 to 9.8% in 2006 (single digit) and later 18% in 2008, interest rate fell from 50% to 25% during the period under consideration. The daily minimum wage was increased from Gp 42 (4,200 cedis) in 2000 to 2.25 Ghana cedis (22,500 cedis) in 2008.
I hope fair-minded Ghanaians would admit the fact that, the relief with which the redenomination of the currency brought to us, especially the businessmen cannot be over-emphasised. All these went a long way in bringing down the unemployment rate in the country. No wonder, nutters like Koku Anyidoho and Fiifi Kwetey always babble that they were ‘successful’ bankers before they entered politics. The sensible manner in which President Kufuor handled the energy crisis, the May 9 stadium disaster, the resettlement of Liberian refugees, as well as the Ya Na’s death needs commendation.
Fellow compatriots, it is again on record, that the national senior football team, the Black Stars qualified for its first ever World Cup under the NPP administration. The international recognition given to Ghana and the money accrued from the Black Stars’ participation in the tourney had a positive impact on the economy.
The successful hosting of the African Cup of Nations (CAN 2008) which was described as the best since its inception, the bronze medal won by the Black Stars, the Ghana @ 50 and its ‘legacy’ projects like recreational parks, renovation of public buildings and historical monuments across all the 10 regions and their district capitals, as well as the successful hosting of the AU Summit is a feather in our cup.
I cannot continue highlighting these successes without mentioning the remarkable feat chalked by our noble party in the education sector. We all knew the state of our educational system when Jeremiah Rawlings-led NDC was at the helm of affairs. A New Education Reform was put in place in 2007 with special emphasis on Maths, Science, Vocational and ICT with the teacher as the pivot around which the reform would revolve. The computerisation of the SHS admissions to reduce corruption and hassle of parents, the Baah-Wiredu Laptop project meant to give one laptop to every school child, the upgrading of all the 38 Teacher Training Colleges into tertiary status, including my alma mater-Wesley College, the distance education programme to address the accommodation problem in the tertiary institutions, the Untrained Teacher Programme, the Access Course to Teacher Training Colleges for SHS graduates who could not do well in Maths and English, all meant not only to upgrade the knowledge of the teacher, but also to beef up the teacher population and subsequently helping to address the falling educational standards in the country.
Nor is this all, for, the proliferation of private universities from 4 to 16, the expansion of existing infrastructure in the public universities and other public tertiary institutions through the GETFund, the restructuring of the SSNIT Loan Scheme for students and more importantly, the Single Spine Salary Structure for public sector workers including our noble teachers and the new 3-tier pension scheme made the NPP a force to reckon with. The per capita income increased from US$300 to US$700 from 2000 to 2008.
My brothers and sisters, you would all agree with me that, the building of VALCO at Tema was one of the significant achievements of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. This is due to the significant number of employees that was employed by the company. But what happened afterwards, if I may ask? The company which was basically owned by the Americans had to be purchased by the Kufuor-led NPP administration at a cosmic sum of US$20m. Is this not a credit to the NPP under Kufuor?
The NPP under His Excellency, J. A. Kufuor, did its best to fight against corruption. For instance, a minister of state under his administration was charged for wilfully causing financial loss to the state and together with other members of the previous government, was sentenced to a prison term. Ghana was the first country in Africa to submit herself to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). It would also interest readers to note that for the first time in 50 years, Ghana under the leadership of Kufuor earned a respectable B+ rating on the international financial scene in 2006 and this indeed, facilitated the country’s successful bid to access over US$ 750m from the Eurobond market. The passage of the Public Procurement Act, Financial Administration Act, Internal Audit Agency Act, which made the agency exceed its revenue target every year, the Office of Accountability Act, the Whistle Blowers Act, the importation of new police uniforms and over 1000 police vehicles to combat crime, the Right to Information bill, the establishment of Fast Track Courts, the excellent handling of the MV Benjamin cocaine scandal where Kwabena ‘Tagor’ Amaning was jailed, the strengthening of state institutions like the SFO, CHRAJ, among others, were all geared towards the eradication of this social evil in the Ghanaian society.
Last but not the least, Ghana under Kufuor’s reign became the largest recipient of Millennium Challenge Account funds of US$547m to combat poverty in Ghana, by focusing on agricultural and rural development projects. The bilateral and multilateral debt cancellations as a result of Ghana joining the Heavily Indebted and Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and the World Bank’s lucrative job for His Excellency, J. A. Kufuor even before the 2008 general elections, and more importantly the oil find, would make President Kufuor peerless in the annals of Ghana’s history.
In conclusion, I would urge all right-minded Ghanaians to join me in saying a big thank you to His Excellency, John Agyekum Kufuor, for his sterling performance between January 2001 and January 2009. The man, who began his administration with HIPC and left Ghanaians with oil in commercial quantities, deserves better. Success, according to Arnold Glascow, is simple: do what is right, the right way, and at the right time. This, I strongly believe, was achieved by the New Patriotic Party under J. A. Kufuor and could only be disputed by all those who are blinded by political hatred. The fact that he awarded himself with an ‘expensive’ medal, his failure to appoint another competent person to man the Roads and Transport Ministry after the exit of Hon. Dr. Anane – a hard working minister though, the ex-gratia saga, the hotel Kufuor saga, the sale of Ghana Telecom which had a parliamentary approval, his inability to sanction Alhaji Moctar Bamba, if indeed there was an evidence of any dubious act, clearly show that, he is just a mortal fallible soul. As a human, President Kufuor has his own weaknesses but these should not override the notable role he played in moving Ghana forward. ‘Mpanin se, barima b3y33 bi na woama am3y3 ne nyinaa’. The hardship being handed to Ghanaians by Mills-led ‘greedy bastards’, team B or mediocre administration confirms Georges Duhamel’s statement that, “we do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory”.
God bless Ghana! God bless NPP! God bless Kufuor!
Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang (a.k.a. Paulucious) Hull, UK MEd in (Education) kpaulucious@yahoo.com 07944309859
“Vision, coupled with persistency, results in true success”
A report released by the The Payson Center for International Development, Tulane University will give you a sour taste as you munch your chocolate. The report critized the cocoa industry for the indiscriminate use of child labor in various stages of the supply chain. The Cote d’Ivoire was particularly slammed the for child labor. The report is titled “Oversight of Public and Private Initiatives to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Cocoa Sector in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana”
Please use the comment section to suggest how the West can assist in curbing this practice of child labor so that we can ensure all children of school-going age stay in school. One solution is to the let the food and drug administration (FDA) require chocolate labeling as we have for drugs. Chocolate manufacturers should be required to certify that the raw material the use is child-labor free as passing an inspection process similar to drugs go through. Products that do not pass this will have a black box warning about child labor in the product
