Category: Ghana

It was already evident towards the end of the Nkrumah government that the Ghanaian economy was struggling. The World Bank recommended a devaluation of the Cedi. If Nkrumah planned to, he never got the chance. He was overthrown in 1966. Busia was finally the one who got to order it in 1971. This 44% devaluing of the Cedi was his undoing. It was one of the reasons Kutu Acheampong gave for usurping the government of the 2nd Republic.

The Ghanaian economy continued its nosedive through the NRC and SMC eras. The blowback from Acheampong’s “Yentua” policy, droughts in the 1970s, drop in prices of our exports, the oil crisis, and Kalabule all helped to take the economy lower and inflation higher. The ever-expanding role of the government in the economy did not help.

By the time shots rang out in Accra on June 4, 1979, things were economically dire. Rawlings continued with the military habit of regulating the economy in his short reign of terror from June till September. Even worse, he saw the private sector as the enemy. The razing down of the Mokola market epitomizes this perfectly.

If the economic situation President Hilla Limann inherited when he took office on September 24, 1979, was nothing short of dire, it managed to get even worse over the next two years. Among other things, due to overvalued exchange rates and low prices we paid our farmers for cocoa, our share of the international cocoa trade was less than 20%. Farmers were smuggling their cocoa outside to sell. State enterprises continued to make losses. The few remaining businessmen who Rawlings had not chased out or killed found it impossible to make any money. Foreign investments, which had started dwindling since Acheampong’s Yentua policy, kept getting smaller. According to World Bank data, by 1981, Ghana received only $13.3 per capita in net development assistance compared to an average of $26.3 for all sub-Saharan countries. Inflation skyrocketed to 120%.

Would the Limann government have instituted much-needed changes?Well, we’ll never know because on December 31, 1981, shots rang out again. Enter Rawlings 2.0 in the blockbuster, “PNDC Cometh! Run for your Life”.

As he killed, tortured, and imprisoned to prevent another vainglorious military officer from taking his place and removing detractors, he also pushed an economic plan straight out of the Marxist playbook. He sought to rule through “Defence Councils” made up of those who bought into his populism – students, workers, soldiers, and the disgruntled. He forced traders and controlled prices. Not realizing it, he was expanding the government’s role in the economy and making the bad situation even worse.

Another issue he had to grapple with was the lack of support from Russia and the other eastern bloc nations that he had expected. You see, the world in those days was split between the superpowers – USSR and the USA. Those Third World leaders who espoused socialist philosophy looked to Russia and Eastern Europe for help. Those who believed in free-market economics looked to the west. A lot of developing countries straddled the middle. Rawlings came out like a Castro-Gaddafi wannabe. They were his idols. He hoped they would support Ghana’s recovery. Libya did what it could to help, but it was not enough. Russia could not because they were embroiled in their economic problems that would ultimately lead to the USSR’s implosion.

To make things worse, a brutal drought hit Ghana in 1982-83, leading to famine. Fires also erupted due to the drought. Into this cauldron of killings and brutality, economic ruin, drought, and famine returned one million Ghanaians expelled from Nigeria. A change in economic policy was needed, and in 1983, Rawlings and Kwesi Botchwey, with the help of the IMF and World Bank, made that change.

Unlike the government of Hilla Limann that he overthrew, Rawlings had the luxury of having the opportunity to change. Limann never got the chance to explore another way of getting Ghana ahead. As a matter of fact, Rawlings rid the country of the opportunity to change peacefully twice. The overthrow of the Liman government was the second time. The first time was in June of 1979. The country was preparing for elections when Rawlings burst onto the scene then. Ghana was already on her way to a peaceful change of direction when he ushered in those four months of terror. The PNDC under Rawlings was able to push much-needed Economic Recovery Programs (ERPs) through. The policies he instituted in 1983, including price hikes on goods and the selling of state corporations, were policies supported by the IMF and World Bank. So this led to the return of foreign investments and loans. It would only follow that Rawlings would try to polish up his act by reducing the acts of terror, allowing the return of a free press and free and fair elections. It was also self-serving on his part to get an Indemnity Clause inserted in the constitution of the 4th Republic and morph into a democratically elected first president of said Republic.

In the eyes of some, the economic improvements he ushered in should make up for all the human rights abuses perpetrated under his watch. They argue further that only Rawling’s force of will and the power of the gun allowed him to push through those policies. And that no civilian government would have been able to achieve that without the people rioting.

In other words, Exitus acta probat!

Now that is an argument I refuse to agree with. In the first place, we never got the chance to find out. Ghana has been through economic upheavals since 1992, and we have not needed bloodshed to solve those problems. We have had disagreements over election results that have been settled amicably through the courts. We are capable of peaceful change but were denied that opportunity by coup plotters like Rawlings, Acheampong, and the rest who always felt they were the only ones with the answers.

Could Ghana have had this economic recovery without all the bloodshed? Was all that loss of life necessary? Or was the blood that was spilled the prerequisite for the improvements? A necessary offering? Did Ghana then enjoy an economic recovery steeped in the blood of others? Much like blood diamonds from Liberia back then, did we, thanks to Rawlings, enjoy a ‘blood’ economic recovery? I believe we did, and in the process, we also sacrificed the belief and desire to uphold and protect human rights.

On Wednesday, President Trump delivered a speech to the Heads of States leaders of Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa at the UN.
This statement he made earned and still earns him a lot of derision on social media:
“Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.”
You see, there is no African nation named Nambia and everyone wondered if he meant Namibia, Zambia or Gambia.
Yet with everything Trump, within the web of lies, half-truths and exaggerations, there often lurks a hint of reality on which his deck of cards is mounted.
The clue to all this is found in the first paragraph of his speech. He said:
“Africa has tremendous business potential. I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. I congratulate you. They’re spending a lot of money. But it does — it has a tremendous business potential…”
So Trump has a lot of friends who go to Africa to make lots of money.
They go to this continent racked with disease, poverty and war to make a lot of money.
So where do they go to make this money? Well, you won’t believe it but they go to…Nambia!

I can already see the looks of incredulity as you read this and the question, “Where is this Nambia, Nana Dadzie?”
Well, Nambia is not a place per se. It is an institution. Nambia is an institution that allows a continent to be exploited to an unimaginable degree.
In urban parlance “nam” can stand for “a nothing” and one of the meanings of “bia” is weakling.
“Nambia” – “a weak nothing!”
Doesn’t the continent often comes across as a weak nothing?
Yet it’s not the whole continent that is a Nambia per se.
You see, the continent of Africa is blessed with resources. Like crazy amounts of gold, diamonds, oil, uranium, land and human capital.
The institution of Nambia is that which allows only allows a few access to these riches.
In the era of early European exploration and colonialism, they traded in everything, even humans! As the Indigines languished, they amassed sick wealth.
The whole continent was sucked into a giant Nambia.
The whole continent was a weak nothing!

These days, you see Nambias in Lagos, Accra, Abidjan, Nairobi, Lome, Luanda or even Johannesburg.
The men and women who populate them are Nigerian, Ghanaian, Ivorian, Kenyan or even Angolan. They wear thousand dollar suits from Saville Row and Rolex watches bought in New York. They ride in Mercedes AMGs over potholed streets that are lined by hungry children begging for a morsel yet these men and women do not see them through their tinted windows. They live in million-dollar homes far-removed form the crumbling hospitals and dilapidated schools their poor constituents have to use.
You see, these are the men and women with power and access to all the resources the continent have.
These are the men and women Trump’s friends go to see when they go to make money. These are the men and women who cavort with the North Americans, Europeans, Japanese and especially the Chinese who want to reap the riches of the continent. These power brokers sell these foreigners access to Nambia and together, they get to enjoy this paradise. To assuage their guilt, they throw the masses a bone, a like a health center, every now and then.
In this rarefied air, the masses who are afflicted with disease, racked with hunger and killed in wars don’t get to play. They hear their nations are rich but they never see it. They hear of this place called Nambia and bid their time. if they ever make it there, they take as much as they can, propagating the cycle.
These men and women may have all the trappings of wealth but due to their greed, they are weak nothings!

So laugh at Trump all you want. He was right. His friends go to Africa to try and make lots of money. They spend a lot of money doing that but only few of the Indigines benefit from that.
The place they do that is called Nambia and unlike the rest of the continent, its health system is increasingly self-sufficient and those who populate it are far-removed from the misery of life on a continent that is poor in the midst of riches.

In 1993, Sudan was in the throes of a second civil war and famine racked the south. The UN and other relief organizations had set up camps and feeding centers to try and alleviate the plight of the South Sudanese.

It’s into this misery that the South African photojournalist, Kevin Carter, flew in March of 1993. He wanted to capture images of the crisis. One day, after photographing all day in a camp and feeding center in the village of Ayod, he headed out into the surrounding bush to take his mind off the misery. He hadn’t gone very far when he saw an emaciated, little girl on the ground ahead of him. It was apparent she was attempting to crawl to the feeding center.
He had been advised not to touch the refugees for fear of contracting whatever disease they carried so all he could do was take out his camera and take pictures. Suddenly, a vulture landed right behind the child.
For 20 harrowing minutes, Carter watched as the vulture stalked the girl. As he took pictures, he hoped the vulture would fly away but it didn’t. Finally, he managed to shoo the vulture away, smoke a cigarette and leave.
Carter later sold the image of the vulture stalking the little child to the New York Times. The Times published it on 26 March 1993 as a “metaphor of Africa’s despair”. In 1994, Carter was awarded the Pulitzer prize for that image.
Two months after winning the prize, he committed suicide. He was haunted by questions of why he didn’t help the child. Even though he didn’t help the child, she made it to the feeding center and died 14 years later from malaria.

I have been thinking of that image of the child and the vulture a lot since the issue of the proposed towing levy in Ghana came up. It may sound a bit far-fetched that I would see a link but there is an underlying theme in all of this that weaves around the issues of hopelessness, scavenging and greed.

The issue of a towing levy in Ghana came up because of a problem. The problem is that drivers often abandon their broken-down vehicles on the sides of our already narrow and unlit roads. These become dangerous obstacles at night and have led to many vehicle accidents and deaths.
Most of these vehicles are not really road-worthy to start with, but people drive them anyway. They have to because in a country where jobs are scarce and prospects are hopeless due to corruption, greed, avarice and bad governance, one has to make a living one way or the other. So people drive these jalopies, eking out a living transporting goods and passengers till they break down, at which point most drivers just walk away.
Enter a man who believes he can fix the problem. He would tow away all these deserted jalopies away for a fee that would be paid through a levy that all Ghanaian vehicle owners would pay.

Now let’s compare this scenario to Sudan in 1993.
The country had a problem. Whereas the Ghanaian problem is that of abandoned vehicles on roadsides that lead to deaths, theirs was a famine that also led to deaths.
The Ghanaian is forced by corruption, avarice and bad governance to drive these death traps so as to eke out a living. The Sudanese was starving because of war.
While the Ghanaian had to drive these jalopies to a destination (the feeding center) in order to make money to feed themselves and their families, the Sudanese had to make it to a literal feeding center to get food.
Sometimes, the mode of transportation broke down and one could not reach the “feeding center”. For the Ghanaian it was that road-unworthy truck, for the Sudanese, the human body.
In both scenarios, leaving the “bodies” on the streets led to deaths. In Sudan through disease, in Ghana through accidents.
When the breakdown occurred and the mode of transport was abandoned, that is when they would appear.
The Scavengers.
In Sudan, it was the vultures. In Ghana, well!

However, scavengers like vultures are not always bad. They are part of Nature’s plan. Theirs is to remove the remains of the “vehicles”. This way, they do not cause disease in the Sudan or accidents in Ghana.
The problem arises when the scavengers stalk the living like in the Kevin Carter photo or the Jospong Group plotting to scavenge the wallets of Ghanaians, even those not “crawling towards feeding centers”.
It is such situations that if a Kevin Carter does not appear or a public outcry does not ensue, the scavengers stalk and finally pounce on their helpless prey, draining them of any life they may have had.
That is why it is incumbent on all Ghanaians to stay vigilant and voice their opposition to this towing levy. It is nothing more than a scavenger preying on the living. Ghanaians as a people need to fight the avarice, greed and bad governance that enable these scavengers to thrive and prey on the living. Like a war that brings about a famine, these vices are ravaging our society and making us seem like carcasses to vultures and hyenas.

Even if victory is apparent, the public should never fall asleep then a vulture is known to be very patient and has amazing situational awareness. It does not hunt but seizes the resources available to it. In a country racked by corruption, avarice, greed and bad governance, the vulture welcomes each day with wings wide open, facing the morning sun. It knows that each day brings new prey then the bodies will forever lie along the roadsides that stay narrow, dark and unlit.

Recently, I drove from Accra to Elmina. I took my camera and a 300mm lens with me. My plan was to capture portraits of Ghanaian traders who carried their wares atop their heads.
There was no shortage of them. We set off from East Legon. By the time we hit Weija, I had over 20 headshots already. Had it not been for the rain, I could easily have filled my 8 gb card with images by the time we got to Kasoa (I shoot in RAW).

A large section of the Ghanaian economy is carried around on the heads of traders, keeping it mobile and accessible to many.
Another observation is how many Ghanaians are involved in trading. That sector alone must employ close to 60% of all able-bodied Ghanaians. There is also a great number of children who work as traders.
The whole of this trading economy seems to be situated along our roads. Traveling through the country enables one to sense the level of economic activity in the country.
With the large number of Ghanaians stuck trading, are the other sectors of the economy neglected? Are too many people chasing just a small section of the pie?
Isn’t it the case then that foreigners who emigrate to our country, like the Chinese, Indians and Arabs find all the other sectors untapped and are able to exploit them unhindered?
Why is trading the main economic activity in our land?
Can it be due to how expensive credit is in Ghana? With high interest rates and short lending times, any one who borrows money in Ghana is under pressure to turn the principal over as quickly as possible in order to be able to make payments to the lender. No other sector allows this as much trading. Foreign businessmen often have access to cheaper loans with longer lending times. They are thus able to invest in other sectors of the economy where time is kinder.
Can this also be due to an inherent Ghanaian inability to delay gratification? We know what we want and we want it now. There is no patience for the long-term. It is even seen in how we drive. Trading is the sector that corresponds more to this impatience.
Then is an educational system that honors “What you know” more than “What you can do”. This onus on “What you know” breeds a populace that does not make things. Those sectors that cater to those who make things is starved.
Instead we all trade with a distinctive portion carrying their wares atop their heads in a bid to get them everywhere – our own version of mobile trading.
The head contains the brain, the most important organ in the human body. Harnessing it allows one to do the most with life. Not harnessing it dooms one to a life stuck in just a small section of what is possible in this life, like the Ghanaian economy. It is almost metaphorical.
Is it any wonder an educator once claimed that “the head is used for carrying”?
This inability to “make things” that feed our needs is a glaring sign of a lack of creativity. An almost pathologic inability to innovate. This brings me to a story the great Warren Buffet once told.
Warren Buffet did an interview in 2008 in the aftermath of the financial crash with Charlie Rose of PBS.
Rose asked him, why in spite of so many seemingly smart people, the crash occurred.
Buffet attributed it to the 3 “I”s.
The Initiators, Imitators and Idiots.
A business cycle or idea is started by the Initiators.
The Imitators see a chance to make money and jump on board.
Lastly come the Idiots who never bother to really learn the ropes well and end up messing everything up.
So let’s take Ghana into consideration. The nation abounds with Imitators and Idiots. Where are the Initiators? Without them, we’ll forever go round in circles.
So maybe one day, we’ll set that load of merchandise down and instead use what in in that head to think up ways to diversify Ghana’s economy into other sectors.
Until then, we’ll carry our economy around.

As Mother Ghana turns 60, can we ask for a new Ghanaian? An angry and restless Ghanaian? Not the pseudo-humble and meek type but the confident and demanding species with an aggressive genotype? The type who gets angry at mediocrity, harvests that anger, like Kojo Anan Ankomah says, and uses it to build our nation? Whose creativity knows no bounds, is unfettered and roams like an angry and hungry lion in the Serengeti? Can we?
That restless, angry, demanding, aggressive yet creative Ghanaian will have a mantra. It will be that remixed verse from the famous 1997 “Think Different” Apple campaign:
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push Ghana forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change Ghana, are the ones who do.”
God, as you bless our homeland Ghana, please give us that Ghanaian too!

Dear Ghana, 5000 miles away, the echoes of the ongoing and heated debate about the plan of the government to implement free senior high school education reached my ears.
One would think that it is a great idea and would be welcomed by all. Besides, free education is written into the constitution. However, over the years, Ghanaians have grown rather cautious over the use of the word “free” and so a number of them are asking a rather poignant question:
“Can we afford it?”, and that question is resounding across the country.
Plans to dip into the country’s Heritage Fund, one of two funds created for posterity and funded with oil revenue, have been scrapped. Some analysts think it is going to be funded by a combination of government spending cuts and higher taxes. The only problem with the latter is that one of the present administration’s campaign promises was not to raise or institute new taxes. (Another was to institute free senior high school education).
Other analysts think the plan should be scrapped for now since higher taxes will not be good for the economy.
I say, find a way. Please find a way. If it means revamping the whole educational system, please find a way.

Many years ago, when I lived in Berlin, I went out bike-riding in the woods outside the city with a friend. Sometime in the late afternoon, we got hungry and decided to take a detour through some trees to get to a restaurant.
About 100 m into the trees, something caught our eyes. A little ahead we both stopped and looked back. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Behind a bush was a couple going hard at it in the late afternoon chill. I was about to burst out laughing when my friend put her finger over my lips, shutting me up. They were totally oblivious to our presence a few feet away and the cold. We got back on a bikes and rode away. When I was sure we were out of earshot, I stopped, got off my bike and burst out laughing. My friend looked at me quizzically and then drawing on a popular saying, she spun it into these words that I have never forgotten:
“Wo ein Wille ist, da ist immer ein Busch”.
Translated, it goes:
“Where there is a will, there is always a bush.”

So to my dear nation of Ghana, I say,
“If the will is there to give every child in Ghana the gift of education, you will find a bush.”
You will find that bush behind which you can achieve your aim, damn the cold, damn any nosy bike riders, damn whatever V8s those parliamentarians need, damn expensive celebrations, damn corrupt deals. Look at those ledgers and get creative. Look at the system – tweak it. Make it a national effort not a partisan push.
Yet no matter what you do, don’t give up on the idea of free education, then education is truly the great equalizer. I can vouch for that. Like the 19th century US congressman from Massachusetts and educational reformer, Horace Man, once said:
“Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”

Imagine 20-25 years down the line. Imagine that generation of kids looking up and asking:
“So what did you all do with all that money you borrowed and the revenue you got from oil, gold and cocoa?”
Imagine the answer being:
“See all those doctors, scientists, engineers, authors, artists, coders, executives, architects, geneticists, teachers, accountants, lawyers? That is what we used it for”.
Would that be so bad?
Remember, where there is a will, there is always a bush. Find it and get busy!

“Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.”
– Margaret Thatcher

Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, economist and banker, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and innovating the concept of microfinance and microcredit. By giving loans to the poor, he managed to help thousands break out of poverty. Soon after he started the bank in 1976 in Bangladesh, he made some important observations.
The first was that women who received loans used the money not only to generate income but to make the lives of their families healthier and better. As an example, some women bought chickens thus getting meat and eggs to feed the family. They generated income by selling the eggs and the chickens they raised. The men on the other hand, tended to use the loans for things that benefited only them – alcohol, gambling and personal luxuries.
He also noticed that women were more apt to repay their loans than the men. While the repayment rate for women was about 97%, the men repaid about 77% of the time.
Then was the observation that the woman in Bangladesh were an untapped pool of hard-working entrepreneurs who could turn the smallest opportunity into significant gains. The small loans seemed to really empower the women to reach for more.
These observations soon caused him to direct the bulk of his efforts towards women.

170 years before Muhammad Yunus won his Nobel Peace Prize, a woman named Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist missionary, must have known this too. That if you give women the smallest opportunity, they will build something great out of it. In a coastal town in the then Gold Coast (now Ghana), some 10,000 km from Bangladesh and 8000 km from her home in England, she started a school for young girls who most probably had no chance at ever receiving an education. She taught these girls housekeeping, religious education, writing and reading.
Mrs Wrigley would succumb to malaria a year later but in 1837, another missionary’s wife, Elizabeth Waldron, would take the girls under her care. Under her guidance, the brilliance of these girls would attract the attention of the Methodist Church. Using a core group of these girls being tutored in housekeeping, reading and writing, a secondary school was founded – Wesley Girls High School.
From these humble beginnings in 1836 has grown a secondary school for girls that occupies one of the premier spots in pre-university education in Ghana. A school that epitomizes what secondary education should be. A school that year after year occupies the top spot in most rankings. A school that over the years has produced women who have contributed immensely to Ghana’s slow but steady progress.
Wesley Girls High School! WeyGeyHey! Debu for us from Mfantsipim.

What is it about the female sex that allows them to make so much out of so little? What drives this wish to succeed and magnify? What is it about them that evokes such efforts to make the lives of those around them better even as they rise – their families, their friends and the community?
Maybe the answer lies in the time when humans were hunter-gatherers. The men hunted and the women stayed home and raised a family. If the men did not return , the women still had to raise those children. They developed a survival instinct that is unmatched. Or is it that extra X chromosome? Does it give them extra power? Or the ordeal of carrying a child for 9 months? Or is it the constant flux of progesterone ad estrogen waxing and waning? Maybe when God took that rib out of Adam, he took out the best rib!
Whatever the reason, the products of Wesley Girls, like the poor women of Bangladesh epitomize this amazing trait to the highest degree.
Mfantsipim and Wesley Girls have histories that started intertwining back in the 1880s. Not only have both schools supported each other but there exists a healthy rivalry between them too.

Being a product of Mfantsipim School, it is coded into my DNA to always take digs at anything and anyone Wesley Girls’. However, beneath all that wisecracking is a deep respect and admiration for the school and it’s products. I should know – I am married to one of them. My sister, cousin and several friends are products too.
They are smart and classy. They do not suffer fools at all. They are hard-wired with the ability to lead and are visionaries.To the world, they proffer an aloof and polished veneer which hides wonderful and caring hearts of gold. Their desire for independence and autonomy runs deep and this can often set them on a path of conflict, in a society as misogynistic as ours is.

So as they celebrate 180 years of educating girls, let’s all celebrate with them. Let’s celebrate the strength that allows a woman, in the words of the author Erick S. Gray, “…to make a baby out of a sperm, a home out of a house, a meal out of groceries, a heart out of a smile…”. Let’s celebrate perseverance, strength, family, love, wisdom, opportunity and the future.
Let’s celebrate the Woman.
Today let’s all Live Pure, Speak True, Right Wrong and Follow the King!

“I understand why they cut off her head”

The year was 2013. That summer, we took a trip to France. My daughter was excited about visiting to the Louvre and Notre Dame. She also wanted to see Monet’s lilies. My son was just hyped about seeing new places.
Before the trip, I gave them a short synopsis of significant French history, dwelling on the 18th century – the Revolution, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI and the beheadings. I explained how the people went hungry while the nobility feasted and built palaces.
My daughter asked if Marie Antoinette really said, “Let them eat cake”.
I said it was probably not her words but that for most of the people, she was a symbol of why they were suffering.
We all fell in love with Paris. Each of us had a reason for the love affair. The Louvre, Notre Dame, the architecture, the shopping, the food, the art, the food, the romance…..did I mention the food?
And then was the visit to Le Château de Versailles.
Words cannot describe the opulence, the decadence, the raw smell of wealth and privilege.
My wife and daughter were just enthralled by the Queens’s Private Apartment. I just wondered how much it cost to build all that! My son wanted to play hide-and-seek!
Then we walked into the Hall of Mirrors. As we walked down this unbelievable space the royal family used for banquets, my daughter turned to me and said in her typically calm tone:
“I understand why they cut off her head”.
For minute I was taken aback. Then I smiled and said to her:
“You kinda get it, don’t you?”
She nodded.
This was a 10-year-old girl. Even at that age, she was exhibiting a sense of social justice.
It is astonishing then that some adults don’t have that or lose theirs.
I look back at the Ghanaian elections. I look at how convincingly Nana Addo shellacked John Mahama with over a million vote differential.
The reasons are pretty obvious. While the people struggled with rolling blackouts, high fuel prices, massive youth unemployment and rampant corruption, the ruling Unintelligent rolled around in their black V8s, blinded by hubris and ill-gotten wealth. The people may have been hungry but they were neither blind nor deaf. They certainly were not stupid and like the elephant (the symbol of the Nana Addo’s party – the NPP), they had a long memory.
Sure Mahama may have started massive infrastructure projects but did they really benefit the people or did they benefit his cronies who got those fat contracts?
So like my daughter, I sit back and say:
“I understand why they cut off the head of that corrupt government. I understand why Nana Addo won so convincingly. I understand why the people want change.”
Now being the season that it is, let us eat cake!

“Can we become a little more aggressive as a people?…..Can we demand a little bit more?”
– Ace Kojo Anan Ankomah

Once upon a time, the people of a certain nation were sailing to a new World called Prosperity-for-All. Their old lands had become uninhabitable.
To make sure they reached their destination, the people picked a group of men and women to sail and navigate the boat to it’s destination. The men and women in this group were called the Leaders.
Unfortunately, the boat they were traveling on was old and taking on water through several holes in the hull. The people realized that the clothes they had on were impervious to water and so they tore off pieces to plug the holes. They did that even though it was cold.
However, as soon as they did that, the Leaders pulled out these pieces of cloth being used as plugs to keep for themselves. They figured that they could patch the pieces together into shirts or trousers for themselves and their families. They figured that they were smarter.
So the boat kept taking on more water. As fast as the people tried to plug the holes, even faster did the Leaders pull them out. In the dead of the night when the people were sleeping, the Leaders made more holes in the boat’s hull. This caused the people to tear off more clothes to plug the holes, which the Leaders in turn pulled out for themselves.
So the people resorted to not only tearing up their clothes to plug these holes, but also use their cups, bowls and pans to scoop out the water that kept rising. They were tired, hungry and cold.
The leaders, on the other hand, seemed totally oblivious to the impending doom. They were warm, well-fed and happy.
One day, a little boy on the boat asked his dad, “Dad, why are the Leaders clothed while we are almost naked? Why do they look fat while we all are so skinny?”
His dad was silent. The other men who heard the question went silent too. A look crept into their eyes. Slowly a realization dawned on them. They looked at each other. Their nods were imperceptible.
That night, a group of men stayed up. They watched. They watched as one of the Leaders’ went through the boat pulling out the plugs. They watched how he poked new holes in the boat. In the glow of the moonlight, they saw his smirk and heard his laughter. From where they hid hungry, naked and cold, they watched feeling raped, violated and misled.
So you are probably going to ask me “What did they people do?”
If you are Ghanaian reading this, then those people on the boat did what you are doing now – NOTHING!
Yes, NOTHING!
The people went about their lives getting raped, shafted, violated and did nothing.
Even when the boat finally sank, the people were still using the clothes they barely had to plug holes while the Leaders had jumped off into a life boat they had somehow hidden from the people.
May those who have ears hear!