After 48 years of self government, what next?
…….The black man is capable of
managing his own affairs…What the Europeans and American have used hundred
years to achieve the black man can use one generation to achieve... –Osagyefo
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah
Today marks the forty years of our
nationhood; a day we all cherish as a nation. Now is the time to look calmly at
ourselves and identify the mistakes that we have made as nation. Of course we
have in one way or the other made mistakes. Like what Confucius once said, “it
does not matter the number of times we fall but the number of times we rise when
we fall”. We cannot continue to fail the next generation. The fact that the
previous generation slept through the world of change like Rip Van Winkle does
not mean that we too must also fail posterity. India, Singapore, Taiwan, South
Korea and the rest of the Asian Tigers have been able to use less than two
generation to propel their economies from the quicksand of aid dependency to the
solid rock of economic independence. Today all over the world, talk is about
Asia as the centre of international commerce. It must interest us to note that
we all inherited the same economic condition after independence. The difference
is that whilst we in Ghana were blind in national politics to the importance of
education, our contemporaries in Asia were busily embarking on good
governance; whilst we as nation were only consuming finished products from
Europe and America they were learning to add value and manufacture their own.
If Ghana is poised to take its rightful place in God’s universe, then there things that we should
do that will grant us all safe passage into the city
of self actualization. Many years ago a great philosopher by the name John
Stuart Mills said when society requires to be rebuilt there is no use in
attempting to rebuild it on the old plan. The rebuilding of our nation cannot be
carried on the wheels of neo-colonialism, poor attitude toward work, corruption,
ethnic and tribal tensions and self-serving political rivalry. The solution to
our national problem is not beyond our reach but no thunderbolt from heaven will
blast away corruption and economic decline and increase our foreign exchange
reserves or drive per capita income to say $ 4000. God will not send marching armies of angels from heaven to lift us from
this present stage. We the people of Ghana must commit ourselves to the desired
change. National goal of economic prosperity and Ghana becoming the gateway of
West Africa will not roll on the wheels of inevitability. For less than forty
years Asian countries like Japan, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia
have been able to move their economies out of the clutches of aid dependency.
This piece will not be complete if I do not come out with the specific things
that we need to do as nation if we want to go forward.
First, we should love our nation. Ephraim Amu reminds us in the National Anthem
that Yen Ara Asaasi Yi. Most Ghanaians are unpatriotic. Take for instance our
attitude to national service. University graduates finish university and do not
even do their national service and leave for U.K and the U.S. This is even worse
with medical and pharmacy students. Politicians are also not insulated against
these unpatriotic behaviours. They divert funds meant for 'aid' development programmes
and stash them into their bank accounts. Corruption is still a national cancer
on our body politics. The N.P.P (alleged) zero tolerance for corruption is appearing to be
a cynical political catch phrase. We see many cases of corruption not investigated.
Individuals, companies and business are earning millions of cedis monthly and
yet they do not pay tax to the state. The tax burden in this country is
negatively skewed against some few people in the formal sector and the cocoa
farmers. Custom officers for the sake of their pockets will allow a tanker
loaded with petrol cross to Cote D’ Iviore or Burkina Faso where petrol sells
relatively higher than in Ghana. Contractors are doing shoddy work. People who
are not working for the state still have their names on the government payroll.
Nobody cares about anybody. We increase prices of goods and services with doing
any proper cost analysis. Those getting their snouts into the corridors of
power, do it with the
sole intention of profiting from misconduct of public office. If we do not
change, we as nation will be destroyed not by an external invasion but by
inevitable internal decay.
On Fridays government officials go and fill to the brim their vehicles and use
for their private errands. This always swells government expenditure. This
corrupt practice, like many others, has been institutionalised.
Out of patriotism and nationalism that people like Sergeant Odartey, Corporal Attiopoe and Sergeant Adjetty offered their lives that you and
I will have freedom. Out of generosity, nationalism and patriotism, that Kwame
Nkrumah, J. B Danquah, Ofori Atta, Arko Adjei, Obsetebi Lamptey and Akuffo Addo
stood and challenged the colonial masters in their bid for independence for you
and I.
The second thing must do is that we must lift ourselves by our own bootstraps.
For more than four decades we have relied and depended on foreign 'aid'
to survive. Now we have reached our menopause stage. In biological terms when a
woman reaches her menopause it is believed that the woman has set her house and
things in order. If we set our priorities we can raise the needed capital here
we need here. Let me tell you this: India has reduced its number of 'aod' donors
and has succeeded in throwing off foreign aid dependency syndrome. We do
not have to go to the Bretton woods institutions for loans to develop our
countries. Our population of twenty million should not be a liability but an
asset, as educated people.
Ghana’s heavy reliance on foreign aid makes implementing development plans more
vulnerable to factors outside our control. Maybe instead of parliament debating
to approve loan agreement it must rather use their precious time to debate on
how we can practically empower the people so that we can raise income here.
Thirdly, we must see ourselves as one people of one destiny. Ghana belongs to us
all. An Akan says that if a false prophet prophesise the doom of a town, he also
is part of the town. Another great historian and writer by the name Arnold
Toynbee said that some twenty-seven civilisations have risen upon the face of
the earth. Almost all of them have descended into the junk heaps of destruction.
The decline and fall of these civilisations, according to Toynbee, was not
caused by external invasions but rather internal decay. If we fail to live
together as one people, a feature historian will say that a great nation called
Ghana died because it lacked the soul and the commitment to live together. Like
a colour every tribe is important on God’s mosaic.
The fourth thing that we must strengthen our educational system and move it from
the present state of theory oriented to practical oriented. The Educational
Reform Programme set to do this has not done much. There is a still a high blood
pressure of creeds and anaemia of deeds. We have more in our head than we do not
translate it with the hand. People are finishing junior secondary school and
they cannot even write their names and not even to construct a simple sentence.
The government policy on education is noble but does it yield the desired
results?
The growing gap between university research findings and that of industries is a
still a worry. Project works, thesis and research findings that people have
spent time and money to prepare gather dust at the universities. If we want to
succeed in our national goal then never should we allow intellectual properties
goes untapped. Can a developing nation afford this luxury! We cannot!! And
Never!!!
In the words Prof John Evans Atta Mills of the National Democratic Congress:
there must be a proper symbiotic relationship between the gown and town. That
this universities and polytechnics must feed the industries with intellectual
properties. Government must set up a special commission to oversee this project.
At the 2004 TRADE AND TECHNOLOGY FAIR at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science
and Technology one could see good inventions students and lecturers has made. If
fund is invested into these inventions and later sold to the industries it will
do us a good. Most of the technologies that we are enjoying today are people’s
project work. If these ideas had come from Ghana I am sorry say to that we would
have not allow it to come to reality. Let me use this opportunity to thank the
KNUST for inventing the fufu pounding machine.
At the first National Forum On Harnessing Research Science And Technology For
Sustainable Development participants issued communiqué concerning how we can use
technology to solve the development needs of the country. Among these were:
1. There is an urgent need to define a national vision of science and technology
for Ghana which should embody the applications of science as the driving force
for national development process.
2. There should be a strong commitment at the highest level of political
leadership to research, science and technology as an important factor in the
realization of the national vision.
3. A Presidential Commission on Science and Technology should be set up to help
realize and sustain the national vision for research, science and technology.
4. There is the need to create a cultural environment that will be receptive to
the application of science in everyday life by ensuring that the informal
education strategies, including adult literacy classes cover the fundamentals of
science.
5. Research institutions and universities should establish science parks and
technology incubators in partnerships with industry;
6. Efforts should be made identify existing institutions to be upgraded with
state-of-the-art equipment in order to establish them as Centre of Excellence
that will facilitate cutting edge research in science and technology.
7. There is an urgent need to establish a comprehensive database of local
researchers, scientist, technologist and other experts together with their areas
of expertise and on-going research projects.
The nation must recognize and celebrate achievements in research, science and
technology by instituting appropriate national awards.
Finally, now that we have seen that we cannot control the tide of our
professionals leaving the country we must find how we can harness the brain
drain syndrome. It is like HIV/AIDS. The message of abstinence is falling on
deaf ears. So now we have shifted from abstinence to the use of condoms. We have
to identify the group of professionals that we are haemorrhaging and the
countries that they go to when they leave Ghana. Once it is identified,
government can provide special funds to the tertiary institutions to train
quantum of students to be trained for export. Once they finish we can export
them and the state can take 40% of their salaries like what is done to our
military personal when they go for peace-keeping operation. Philippines and Cuba
are earning millions of dollars each year through this scheme.
As I conclude this let me share something from the great book. One night in the
Bible, a great man came to Jesus and wanted to find out how he could get eternal
life. Jesus did not look a Nicodemus and say the isolated approach of what do
and what not to do. He realized that if a man can still he would kill. If a man
can kill he would lie. Jesus did not tell Nicodemus you must stop drinking
liquor if you are doing so excessively. He did not say that Nicodemus you must
not commit adultery. Instead, he said something altogether different Nicodemus
you must be born again. In a sense your whole structure should be changed. If
Jesus were to address us at this period of nationhood celebration he would have
echoed the same words Ghana you must be born again.
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with
the fierce urgency of now. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life
often leaves us sometime bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The
“tide in the affairs of men” does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry
desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and
rushes on. There is an invisible book that faithfully records our vigilance or
neglect. The good thing is that it is not too late for us. At forty-seven we can
start over with new attitude towards building the nation. The paraphrase words
of former U.S President John Fitzgerald Kennedy still remains us strong that: we
should not ask what Ghana can for us but what we can do for Ghana, at this
period of nationhood celebration must be born again. It must start from you and
me. We must change for the better and make this nation the true black star that
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah dreamt about.
God bless our homeland and make it great and strong.
Appiah Kusi Adomako is a freelance
writer and student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
He also works with an NGO called –LEADERS OF TOMORROW FOUNDATION as an
administrator. He can be contacted on: Leaders of Tomorrow Foundation, P.O.
BOX. KS 13640. Kumasi-Ghana, West Africa. Tel 027-740-2467
www.interconection.org/lotfound
The view expressed by the author about neo-colonial, hopelessly incorrigible,
'Ghana', as an optimal societal framework for reform and/or a crash programme of
bootstrap 'aid'-free development, do not reflect those of SoACT, but it is
recognised that they are honestly held and sincerely supported.
Dossier Of Corruption
Police, CEPS and utility companies top corruption list.
Just as President Kufuor was celebrating his election victory last Thursday, the
Ghana leader was given a bitter look into the country’s corruption record
indicating that there is much work to be done in his next four years in power.
Key institutions for the enhancement of democracy like the police, the
judiciary, political parties and the tax system in Ghana have been rated as the
most corrupt according to a new global opinion poll released to coincide with
the first UN International Anti- Corruption Day.
The survey, by the independent Berlin-based Transparency International (TI),
found that the Ghana Police topped the league of corrupt institutions in the
country, as an astonishing 90 per cent of Ghanaians believe that the
law-enforcing agency has failed in its bid to shirk itself of this awful image.
Closely tailing the Ghana Police is Customs with 86 per cent as reports of
rampant bribery at the country’s ports and harbours seemed to have formed this
view in the minds of Ghanaian.
Poor services proffered by public utility companies at exorbitant prices
catapulted it to the third position. Nearly four out of every five Ghanaians
think this sector is filled with dishonesty.
Worryingly, three major institutions that provide the backbone to Ghana’s
fledgling democracy tied at fourth. The judiciary, which administers justice,
the tax system that is expected to charge fairly and the political parties who
are the major players in democratic system, are viewed by 74 per cent of
Ghanaians as crooked.
Similarly, the educational system, which is expected to mould the future leaders
of the country, looks not to be serving its purpose according to the TI report.
Frequent examination question paper leaks, falsification of exam results, news
of bribery at university and secondary school admissions have led 70 per cent of
Ghanaians to believe this.
The report is apprehensive for the business sector, medical services; permit
services and parliament as they take the middle rung.
However, there are institutions that have the respect of Ghanaians according to
the TI report. The military maintains its long held dignity of somewhat free
from corruption as it finishes last on the 15-team league. Just two out of every
five Ghanaians think it is shady. The media, religious organisations and NGO’s
enjoy a good bill of health.
Government should be pleased to know that of the African countries surveyed,
Nigerians and Cameroonians were the most pessimistic and Ghanaians were the most
optimistic with one in four believing there would be a less corruption over
the next three years.
Anti-Corruption Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Convention
Against Corruption in Merida, Mexico, in December 2003. As of December 3, 2004,
the convention had 113 signatories (excluding Ghana) and 12 ratifications. The
treaty will enter into force when 30 countries have ratified it, according to
the United Nations.
The convention includes rules for preventing and criminalizing a wide range of
corrupt acts and provides for the recovery of illicitly acquired assets. It
provides for greater cooperation among countries in areas such as prevention,
investigation, asset recovery, and the prosecution of offenders.
Source: Ibrahim Sannie Daara, reporting
from the UK 14-12-2004 |
Winneba, 24-04-2005 :
While six hundred and fifty-two (652) out of the
12,225 public primary schools in the country have either one teacher or no
teachers, the Department of Basic Education of the University of Education (UEW),
which trains teachers for primary and junior secondary levels of education, is
not adequately resourced and equipped - said Ebenezer Boateng-Ennimful, the
Department's head, at a durbar to mark the annual celebration of the Basic
Education Students' Association of the UEW.
ANALYSIS
It is generally anticipated that the recent debt relief
granted to some African countries will go in long way to help these countries
including our beloved Ghana to overcome the development obstacles confronting
them. However, if corruption is not rooted out from the hearts, minds and acts
of our politicians, the anticipated benefits of debt relief will not be felt and
in some ten years time, we will be back to square one.
Corruption in Africa is not only endemic but is also
entrenched and must be addressed with vehemence to uproot this canker.
Corruption in society must be exposed and confronted in whatever form it
manifests, along the lines of the anti HIV/AIDS campaign. Corruption, by its
nature is a covert transaction which is difficult to measure in its scope and
extent. Definitions may vary, as do perceptions of what constitutes corruption
in a given context. This for instance could be the reason why succeeding
governments can accuse each other of being corrupt. It is either the both have
different perceptions of corruption or altogether there is a deadly corruption
virus which attacks once people are in office. Otherwise, how come all the
apostles integrity and anticorruption being accused of corruption themselves.
The accusers have now become the accused.
Several attempts have, however, been made to quantifying
this phenomenon and to increase awareness of the cost of corruption and the
degree to which it is prevalent in any given context or agency.
The most commonly employed mechanisms for creating
quantitative data on corruption are surveys and econometric analysis, or
estimates based thereon. Corruption in Africa has undermined economic
development and poverty reduction in numerous ways. This has reduced respect for
law, facilitated crime, and generated cynicism, which feeds the expectation that
extortion and bribery are inevitable and a part of our social and political
culture.
The International Monetary Fund says that corruption can
reduce a country's growth rate by up to 0.5 percent per year. A report by the
World Bank states that corruption generally adds up to 25 percent to the total
cost of large government contracts. In Ghana, I suspect that this could be
higher.
THE COST OF CORRUPTION TO AFRICA
The Transparency International's 2005 Corruption
Perception Index confirms the endemic nature of corruption in Africa. In a
survey of 156 countries, 15 out of the last 34 are from Africa with Chad as the
last.
Estimates of the cost of corruption in monetary terms are
useful to illustrate the seriousness of the case, but should be treated with
care, since corruption - as mentioned before - cannot be measured with utmost
certainty. Furthermore, the cost of corruption comprises not just of the sums of
money lost but also of retarded development and increased inequalities - which
are far more difficult to quantify.
A report by the African Union, in Addis Ababa in September
2002, estimates that corruption costs African economies in excess of US
$148billion a year. This figure far exceeds the total aid the continent
receives. It includes both direct and indirect costs of corruption, i.e.
resources diverted by corrupt acts and those withheld because of corruption, It
represents 25% of Africa's GDP and to increase the cost of goods by as much as
20%. In 1996, it was estimated that up to US$ 30billon aid for Africa ended up
in foreign bank accounts, an amount equal to twice the annual GDP of Ghana,
Kenya and Uganda. Research findings by the African Development Bank also
indicate that corruption leads to a loss of approximately 50% of tax revenue,
which in some instances is a greater amount than a country's total foreign debt.
According to the bank, lower income households may spend an average 2-3% of
their income on bribes, while rich households spend an average of 0.9% of their
income.
These figures illustrates just how costly corruption is in
Africa as it diverts assets away from their intended use. While this result does
probably not come as a surprise, it may be worth pointing out that although some
African countries are perceived to be extremely corrupt, others, such as
Botswana, Tunisia, South Africa, Mauritius and Namibia do not fare badly in
international comparisons.
The New Statesman, an international publication devoted a
recent edition to Africa which contained some frightening analysis. Highly
corrupt societies in Asia, such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan, says the
New Statesman, have achieved high economic growth possibly because the corrupt
elite still keep their money in their country. It claims that some of these have
invested their ill-gotten wealth in infrastructure development such as
investment in a new local mobile phone networks, set up private hospitals, build
new tourist hotels and lodges. Corruption in Asia is most prevalent in the
service sector. Some leaders may take a cut in everything however things still
get done. It may cost 10% more but the service is delivere.
In Africa corrupt politicians may pilfer or steal public
funds. To make make matters worse, stolen public funds may be taken out of the
country and stashed away in foreign banks. Anti corruption officials in Kibaki's
regime discovered at least $1bn stashed outside the country by Moi and his
cronies before they were hounded out. The Economist estimates that there is
$20bn of Africa's money banked in Swiss bank accounts. Between 1970 and 1996
capital flight from 30 sub-Saharan countries totalled $187bn. London's banks
hold $6bn from Kenya and Nigeria alone. This amounts to robbing the country
twice. This practice sends the country backwards, stalls development, and
impoverishes the people. We know about Nigeria and the other African countries
but I wonder just how much of Ghanaian public funds are in the wrong bank
accounts in foreign banks. Is it a case of clever thieves? Or mabe when the frog
dies, we will one day see its actual length.
The African corrupt elite spend decades stealing billions.
They educate their children in the UK and other developed countries because
there are not enough good schools at home. They get medical treatment at the
almost £10,000 a night Cromwell Hospital in London and others, because our
hospitals " are like graveyards" (to quote a notable politician). They have
their babies in foreign hospitals; even have their clothes dry cleaned by
laundries in the West. One wonders, if they do not want to build us a hospital
(using our own money anyway), at leastwhy not set up dry cleaners which can
employ some five (5) people or thereabout.
Corruption and development cannot exist side by side. When
one grows, the other suffers. Like an octopus, corruption in Africa is proving
rather too strong to eradicate with its several heads. Like a stubborn goat,
corruption refuses to be led to the slaughter. It will not go quietly. We now
need decisive action, not slogans and mere rhetoric to be able to root out this
evil completely from our society.
Appiah Kusi Adomako 10-11-05
Modify or | index |
2005 action research |
if only | 'outsourcing'
| LSE view | World Bank
2005 |
methodology of neo-colonialism
Bush Appoints Bloodthirsty Psychopath
to head World Bank - painting 'aid' in its true colours is going to much easier with
the delightful Woolfowitz as its boss.
16-03-05
Update 08-07-05 :
We can be grateful, that the Asante king did not join prominent African beggars of
subversive 'aid', Kufour and his Nigerian counterpart, at the Tony et
cronies "G8 summit" show in Britain this week. Is this a good omen, or
was he just not invited - as is suggested by the mickey mouse
'broadband' internet connection still endured by K-Poly ?
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