Honouring the Dishonourable

On that fateful day in March 1957 when the (in)famous speech was made; when the Black man had apparently come of age in the twentieth century; when he was, by dint of Independence, going to show the whole world how capable he was in managing his own affairs, Nkrumah had a somewhat utopian vision for Ghana and Africa’s advancement.

However, the Ghana (and Africa) Nkrumah left behind is littered with events which ran contrary to his philosophy— a situation which has undermined his declaration on the state-managing prowess of the African. Nkrumah may have meant well to challenge the inferiority complex imposed on the black man — an obtrusion exemplified by the many Uncle Toms bedevilling the black race. Perhaps, Nkrumah was a bit gung-ho with his edict; those who call a spade by its right name will deign it right to forgo any pride and express their sadness concerning Nkrumah’s timeless pronouncement with Ghanaians and Africans doing nothing to underscore it.

The vociferous view that Ghana must honour its illustrious children to make her worth dying for has, forlornly, become the proverbial grandest good intention with no good deed. Instead the absolute display of ignoble impunity by Gabriel Barimah and Alfred Vanderpuije merits the heading of this piece while Martin Amidu who deserves the highest honour of the land is left in oblivion.

Amidu and the Looting Brigade

Tenacity, selflessness and the will to fight for what is right may only serve as understatements to describe Martin Amidu. Perhaps, in my three decades in this life, the people who have these qualities to pursue wrongdoing are only seen as the protagonists of fictitious tales and films.

Through Amidu, there has been an unequivocal portrayal of a brave man who is prepared to fight on no matter the concerted efforts at the heart of government to vilify and humiliate him. The various cases he had pursued, single-handedly and with his own resources, to bring to light classic cases of malfeasance, corruption and siphoning of state resources in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government deserve to hit the zenith of Hollywood film-making. If the name Woyome has come to connote corruption and its impeccable rendition by the Supreme Court of Ghana as “create, loot and share” it is all down to Amidu’s dogged determination to ride through the indignity from the NDC government to ensure that the “truth [always] stands”.

Do Ghanaians have to go on a placard-wielding demonstration to demand that Amidu be reinstated and honoured before the government does so? A good start will be Amidu’s reinstatement and vigorous public apologies to appease him, in the same manner that there were public actions and pronouncements to muddy his name. It is melancholic to note the posthumous blighting of the late Professor Mills’ memory for overseeing Amidu’s dismissal. Equally mortifying is the misconception on Wikipedia that Amidu was sacked for “misconduct” — indeed, Ghanaians give a whole new meaning to the word especially when Amidu was able to prove the malfeasance yet, he gets no plaudits; the glory has been reserved for two exceptionally noble characters in the persons of Gabriel Barimah and Alfred Vanderpuije.

Glorious Straw Men Blotting Ghana’s Conscience

Indeed, the apparent pompous outlook and profligacy of the NDC government are shown by most NDC kingpins and perhaps better displayed by Barimah and Vanderpuije. It is disheartening to realise that these two are allowed to run amok in Ghana as the power wielders when their sole achievements have been their tendency to show Ghana as a lawless country where government officials abuse power and look down on the people from whom they are theorised to derive their power.

Gabriel Barimah is on stage, clad in a white pair of trousers, a white shirt and armed with a white handkerchief mopping the beads of perspiration tickling down his shiny forehead. In a disgusting show of arrogance and belittlement of his audience with his gait and words, an obvious fed-up member of the audience responds to Barimah’s witless effusions with the onomatopoeic “tweaa”. Thanks to Barimah, a word which was dying in Ghana has now risen to prominence. Clearly, this man has risen to renown not because of any sterling deed but through his disrespect for Ghanaians.

Offered the chance to retract and apologise to show a few traits of the renaissance man, Barimah became even more obstinate with his behaviour only comparable to a bewildered bull about to face its nemesis-matador. His abject justification of his disgraceful attitude called the reluctant NDC government to action which claimed to have suspended a man who was still in office and still using all the facilities which came with the office of the District Chief Executive a couple of months after his purported dismissal.

As a further proof of the NDC government’s commitment to showing good sense, good behaviour and showing that those in power are really the servant of the people, Gabriel Barimah— despite all his irate behaviour and antagonism to Ghanaians— has been reinstated. His power has been augmented ten-fold for showing no remorse or repentance for his laudable acts. Clearly, those who bring calumny to the state are rewarded while those who fight to safeguard state resources, ensure fairness and justice are, left to rot outside the corridors of power. Talk about honouring the illustrious children to make the country worth dying for!

Then, the second chapter sees the grand entrance— with all the pomp and pageantry of our traditional rulers— of Alfred Oko Vanderpuije. He reminds one of the pompous and bullying Mr Bumble; only that in this case, he wields more power than the Mafioso with a tinge of extreme gangsterism. One man who proved more powerful than the late president Mills changing names of stadia and engaging in base and despicable acts. His omnipotence meant that even when president Mahama assumed office, this humane and exemplary gentleman was still maintained in power. The indomitable commando that is Alfred Vanderpuije graduated from name-changing of national monuments to playing the role of a self-styled bounty hunter charged with the apprehension of so-called make-believe journalists and horn-tooting “trotro" drivers.

The videos of Vanderpuije arresting a trotro driver, asking the police to handcuff him and holding tightly to the bewildered driver would be seen as assault in some other societies. Any Ghanaian who believes in the Rule of Law will be really ashamed of what was captured of the episode. Our conscience is blurred against such abuses and calls into serious doubt our chest-thumping act of claiming Ghana as the hope of Africa and as the shining example of democracy in Africa. If our claim to be a very civilised-cum-democratic country in Africa is taken seriously, then I would not like to know what transpires in totalitarian states where freedom is an expensive commodity.

In sum, the idea that black people are capable of managing their own affairs will make Nkrumah churn in his graves. Ghana needs to start showing that it believes in its own aphorisms: make Ghana worth dying for by employing the sort of poetic justice which would honour Amidu and people of his calibre while dealing decisively with social misfits like Barimah, Vanderpuije and their cohorts. Make Ghana worthy of self-sacrifice by punishing the shameless, bribe-taking security forces; and not a country which takes pleasure in tarnishing the image of her illustrious children. Thus, Ghana has to demonstrate not just grandest good intentions; those excellent intentions should be underpinned with good deeds. And this can commence with government booting Barimah and Vanderpuije out of office for starters.

The Tithing Controversy

The principle of cheerful giving and its tributary of prosperity preaching seem to have outshone and overtaken salvation—the underlying raison d’etre of Christ’s first coming and the very bedrock of Christianity—salvation! The ever-potent rhetorical thought of the pointlessness of wealth amassing to the detriment of salvation appears to be have been muffled into painful oblivion. The distorted view about tithing bandied about by modern churches is understatedly lamentable. Evidence of sophistry in tithing and seed-sowing offerings has not just reached epic proportions, but has relegated Christ’s mission to the background. Joshua’s plan—tithes—formulated to ensure fairness in ancient Israel has become the cash cow and a subtle ploy of modern charlatans. Basing its authority on Biblical verses, the piece seeks to shed a much-needed light on the topic while seeking to impede the deceits of those “clergy” of whose calling God is oblivious. Underlying Reasons for Tithes Tithes were invented as a solution to assist the Levites who were left out of the “inheritance”—the inheritance being the lands Joshua was dividing among the twelve tribes of Israel. The scriptural basis for tithing appears in Deuteronomy 14:22-29 and the oft cited and clichéd Malachi 3:8-10. In Deuteronomy 14:22-29, it becomes apparent that one’s produce from the field must be tithed and the producer and his family must eat that tithe. The instruction does not give the slightest hint of tithes being the church’s right. Therefore, the Bible’s enjoining that tithes be taken to and eaten in the House of God may be suggested to be symbolic—accentuating one of the dominant themes permeating the Bible. In tithes, the fear of the Lord is cited just as baptism means being born again and the Holy Communion, eating Christ’s flesh and drinking His blood. Consequently, the searing falsehood that puts monetary value on tithes becomes poignantly disconcerting. Despite the indispensability of money in contemporary economics and way of life, the truth is that tithes have nothing to do with money! This is evident in verses 24-26 of Deuteronomy 14 where if one cannot carry their tithe because of distance, they are required to exchange it for money, which should in turn be traded for whatever one desires. Crucially, those who claim there was no money in those days have their answer! However, the desire for pompous lifestyles—as opposed to humble living—has brought about a grand disregard of the scriptures, where so-called pastors lift and cling onto Biblical verses they can falsify facilely to fool many gullible a Christian. Believing that we perish for lack of knowledge (Hosea, 4:6), this article aims to subjugate modern confidence tricksters who exploit the Bible to perpetuate their lavish lifestyles. Levites and Tithes: Veritas vos Liberabit Thus, the Latin phrase prefixed to this section with its anglicised rendition of “The truth shall set you free” informs both the scriptural meaning and a common-sense approach in demystifying tithes. Nowhere in the Bible is it written that tithes are to fund the administration of churches nor the remuneration of the clergy; fattening the latter who appease the needy congregants with the utopian “sugarcandy mountains” reminiscent of the timeless Animal Farm. Tithes were not completely earmarked for the Levites; the Israelites were not to forsake them when enjoying their tithes. The same request not to forsake the Levites was extended to include strangers, orphans and widows. Being a specific means to helping the have-nots, a full inquiry is required to establish why the modern, non-Jew clergy should even ask for tithes with the abundant evidence in the Bible (ibidem and Joshua, 18:7). Modern churches’ unbridled claim to tithes—a birthright of Levites—demands first, the identification of a Levite and the quest to corroborate if the contemporary clergy belongs to that special tribe. Therein lies the greatest disgraceful scam ever devised by humans to outwit their credulous peers! Let the scriptures be cited on how Jesus’ death makes every pastor a Levite and hence Jews of everyone! The Bible is unequivocal on why the Levites should be helped with part of tithes: they have no inheritance/land and not because they do God’s work (see Deuteronomy, 14: 27, 29). The agricultural economy at the time meant that the Levites could not survive without help from fellow Israelites because they had no lands. Since the reason for helping the Levites was not because of the “priesthood of God [being] their inheritance” (ibidem), it beggars belief that modern educated, working pastors demand tithes. And how morally charming the whole phenomenon becomes when a rich pastor fleeces the poor congregants by employing the mistranslated text in Malachi that says those non-tithe-paying people are cursed. Common-sense Theorising about Tithes Tithing is one of the symbolic ways of showing the fear of God—a theme that pervades the entire Bible (Proverbs 9:10; 1:7 and Psalm 111:10). It is patently obvious that the present-day clergy cannot lay claim to being the helpless Levites who, even imbued with the zeal to farm, had no land on which to work. The legitimate question is on whether or not tithes should be paid. The modern pastor is not a Levite and the agricultural economy being almost non-existent coupled with the fact that modern pastors are educated and have the ability to take employment mean that they do not deserve tithes. The Bible posits that at the end of every three years, tithes kept in the storehouse be brought out to feed the Levites (they are redundant now), strangers, orphans and widows. Are there churches following this very humane dictate of the scriptures? In the negative response to this rhetorical question, tithes should be paid directly to the needy in society and to charitable organisations rather than entrusting them to a few sordid people whose selfishness and personal welfare take over any godly considerations. Moreover, in the twenty-first century where tax-collecting governments bill citizens over ten per cent to build roads, schools, hospitals and for supporting welfare funds, no unregulated organisation (including churches) should collect tithes from its members. The average twenty per cent tax each citizen pays is clearly more than the ten the Bible requests. And if tithing means a tenth, what happens when a farmer has nine sheep and not ten? Concluding Comments In summary, the philosophy of coercing people to give and the threat of curses for not paying tithes are quite un-Christian. The Bible is littered with giving from the heart but not grudgingly. Christ Himself made a fitting example of the widow’s mite. The shocking tale of Ananias and Sapphira’s perfidy and its outcome in Acts Chapter 5 is an excellent example why nobody should be forced to give to God. Moreover, if Christian means of Christ, then Christians’ actions must bear a semblance to Christ’s. His excruciating metaphor—camel going through the eye of the needle and the rich entering God’s Kingdom—must not be lost on anyone; for, it underpins humility against opulence, which has become a byword of the modern clergy. In fulfilling the scriptures, He sat on a donkey and not a flying horse. Hence, the sophistry-filled rationales supporting so-called Men of God driving about in flashy cars, acquiring private jets and expending immorally huge sums of money on their birthdays must be rejected flatly. The point is not that blessed people should not help the church financially. But it must be remembered that a penny from the heart is more of a blessing than a cargo of gold given begrudgingly. Using one’s resources to help the needy in society must be encouraged as tithing. The despondent penchant of the modern clergy to “cite scripture for their purpose” (with apologies to Shakespeare) is disturbing. Since ignorance is not strength in God, woe unto those whose witless grasp of the subject of tithes is tantamount to mass deception. Thomas Dickens.

Skulduggery on Professor Mills' Death

The premature and startling death of Professor Mills in 2012 cannot be ignored until the truth is out. I had to hold my fire on the eve of the first anniversary of the tragedy since the topic was hammered to such a crescendo that my opinion would have been drowned in the countless monotonous effusions on the issue. My innate conviction is that the former president was murdered! This controvertible point does not even acknowledge the incessant rumour-mongering that greeted the Professor’s cessation. The argument borders on the bungling public-relations faux-pas which were highlighted in trying to adduce various reasons for the Professor’s demise. This piece is not conspiratorial; the raison-d’etre of this article only relies on logical-cum-critical inquiry into Professor Mills’ bereavement—a demise which to all intents and purposes was orchestrated – just like the palace coups of yesteryears—for the sake of maintaining the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in power with the hitherto confirmed rumour that the peace-seeking gentleman was planning to resign from Ghana’s presidency. It is an open secret that the late president had a few health concerns and notwithstanding the worn-out metaphors on the abruptness of that preordained blow; Professor Mills’ death was indeed unexpected! In the perplexity following the announcement of his death, Ghanaians were informed that “a massive stroke” was what sent the Professor to his early grave. This reason was then followed by elaborations of how he lifted his hands up into the sky and proclaimed: “Oh God, into your hands do I lay my soul!” The massive-stroke invention would have washed until its embellishment of hand-lifting and loud-voice purported prayer triggered a few critical questions to be posed. For clarity, a stroke is a cerebrovascular accident which results in the rapid loss of brain function culminating in the inability to move one or more limbs, incapability to understand or formulate speech (see Donnan et al, 2008) and so on. These rudimentary details about stroke makes Dr Cadman-Mills’ story (the Professor’s brother who confirmed the hand-raising and the prayer story) sound highly unbelievable and at best a piece of concocted tale told in the Ananse style especially when the stroke suspected to have killed Professor Mills was so severe as to warrant the adjective “massive”. Unless, the Professor was such an archetypal superhuman who defied the symptoms and effects of stroke! That brings into sharp focus the “massive” nature of the stroke which made it imperative for blood to ooze from his nostrils and his earlobes. This, according to the fictitious stories, led to his instantaneous death in another breadth. And yet, this same massive stroke brought to the fore the messenger of death before the Professor who was permitted to make one last speech of committing his soul into the hands of God. I learn that blood oozing from nostrils and ears is symptomatic of poisoning despite ascribing it to cancer—one of the diseases believed to have bedevilled the Professor. Moreover, the unconfirmed reports of the late president dying at the Castle before being rushed to the 37 Military Hospital, the much ado with ambulances; his being rushed to a maternity ward notwithstanding the Military Hospital being equipped with a presidential suite; the non-existence of a hospital record and being shoved from pillar to post all leave much to be desired. Though these rumours may be denied vehemently; the truth shall stand either for posterity or at the “judgement seat of Christ”. As the above thought was being contemplated, Seth Ofori, the late president’s former Press Secretary let slip the truth on Joy FM’s “Newsfile” programme of 28th July 2012. On that programme, Mr Ofori who was arrayed in mourning attire bashfully confirmed that, four days before the Professor’s death; NDC gurus were jostling for the vice-presidential position! It is capital to recall that President Mahama was the vice-president and that the clamouring for that position can only be suggested to affirm the fact that vice-president Mahama was going to be promoted. The aforementioned struggle for power represents the most consummate epitome of villainy with respect to the late president’s death. The whole Ghana and the world had to imbibe the cacophonous “The president is healthier and will hand over in 2017”! In the course of these ostensible deceits, the poor Professor became the unfortunate puppet of some young, overambitious men who suddenly discovered that sycophancy is an indispensable key to unlock every door of opportunity. Thus, against sound medical advice, the poor man was forced to expose his impaired vocal cords; coerced to undertake a heart-tearing trot among other ridiculous machinations. For a learned man of doubtless integrity and incorruptible character to be cuffed and buffeted this way by a bunch of power-hungry criminal-politicians is depressing indeed! Professor Mills has been dead for over a year—may he rest in peace—and we are yet to fathom what caused his demise. All that we know are a collection of lies whose inconsistencies expose them as such. In civilised societies, accidental deaths are subject to autopsies. Compare that with the Ghanaian situation where a whole sitting president dies under very dubious circumstances and nothing is done—even a dead sheep will be treated with dignity! In their frenzy to obscure the truth, the late president has been ennobled by the very people who had a hand in his murder by naming almost every monument in Ghana after him and blasphemously claiming he has replaced the Christ on God’s right-hand side! Until the truth is revealed, some of us will not relent in our efforts to seek justice for a dead man. Why would NDC gurus be fighting over the vice-presidential slot four days before Professor Mills’ death? Was he given a “slow poison” whose potent effects could be felt on the fourth day? Or were those butting for the vice-presidential position soothsayers with the inimitable penchant to foretell Professor Mills’ death? The whole event must incite pity and fear: pity for Professor Mills and fear lest his plight should befall another president! The fact is that the late president was murdered and only bootlicking buffoons may be fooled with spin-doctoring and its attendant conflicting cock and bull tales.

Student Loans: the Plight of Students and Guarantors

The Ghana Students Loan Trust was established in December 2005 to replace the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Students Loan Scheme under the Trustee Incorporation Act 106 of 1962 to provide financial resource for the sound management of the Trust and for the benefits of students and to promote national ideals as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. But my grouse against the scheme emanates from the fact that the transfer of responsibility from SSNIT to the Students Loan Trust Fund has only been the change of name with the same obnoxious terms and conditions which incarcerate both would-be graduates and their long-suffering guarantors, especially if the beneficiary’s parents are not SSNIT contributors—which is the situation of many Ghanaian parents.

The various efforts to set up a loan scheme for students started in 1971 but were abandoned the following year due to the change of government. The scheme was then modified and reintroduced in 1975 but failed as a result of high rates of defaults until the visionary aptitude of Dr Rawlings (Rawlings’ detractors will certainly not be contented with my use of his official title of “doctor” and his being a visionary leader) reinstated it under a Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Law 276 in January 1988. The fact is I do not mince words to castigate Dr Rawlings but I have also chosen not to be blind to the good he brought to bear upon Ghana unlike those who perceive his every action as devilish. Every student who has had the privilege of university education with the aid of a SSNIT Student Loan should be grateful to the then Chairman Rawlings and his PNDC government.

The purpose of the Student Loan Scheme was to supplement students’ private resources of parental support for food, lodging, transportation costs and other expenses. But no one has really tasked the government on the other similarly momentous issues on the loan apart from its primary aim of helping students secure power (education) and the hoax of brighter futures—one could spend years studying and still remain jobless which is why I think the much-advertised brighter future is only a high-flying deception. The crucial concerns are in the areas of the loan processing, the exorbitant interest rate which can best and benignantly be described as extortionate and the unwary gagging of guarantors who literally sign their lives away in their bid to assist the proverbial “brilliant but needy student”. I am of the view that student finance and funding ought to be properly reviewed, made humane for the men and women who will one day serve or lead Ghana and also made to reflect the much talked-about globalisation.

Ghana has proved to her citizens, Africa and the whole world on how she intends to distinguish herself in the present century. Ghana’s examples of wanting to be the shining black star of sub-Saharan Africa are: the oil find (ironically thanks to Tsatsu Tsikata) and the expectations greater than those of Pip, the West African Gas Pipeline, rumours about electronic voting and an audacious venture at quasi-social housing commencing with the much-maligned and rightly vilified STX Housing agreement whose future is as bleak as the Ghanaian student in his final year. The plethora of arguments against this contract calls for an un-bigoted reconsideration but everything in Ghana is regrettably seen through the unbridled political lenses of the NPP and the NDC.

Politics in Ghana is well structured in a way that exceedingly ham-fisted people are either elected or chosen to lead a gullibly vulnerable people with the shortest of memories. Politicians are effectively selling Ghana with their undisguised mortgaging of our country and her resources—oil, cocoa, gold, etc. They are visibly doing this by taking loans from China and signing housing deals with communist countries whose conditionalities are plagiarised from the devil’s own book of lending ethics! I heard the NDC propaganda theorist in the stature of Mr Allotey Jacobs (what a name!) animatedly proclaiming how Professor Atta-Mills was bringing a total of $13 billion from China as if that money were a Christmas gift. The experts claim that Ghana needs $1.2 billion to fix her ceaseless water problems. Will it therefore not be the right thing for a social democratic government in the calibre of the NDC to fix our water predicament before undertaking such an imprudent housing deal? The inevitable actuality of the housing deal being a huge drain on an already unfortunate water crisis should the STX Housing deal be rectified and finally signed does not seem to have dawned on the Mills-led NDC government.

Sometimes certain declarations are like stating the obvious but if the apparent is overlooked, I would then like to reiterate it to the discomfiture of those who take the decisions that affect all of us. Ghana ought to note that her future, her ambitious resolve to be a middle-income country all depend on her human resource—to wit, her citizens. These people must be motivated and incentivised to inculcate in them patriotism, the willingness to sacrifice and contribute their quota to the development of their motherland. At this point, some level-headed person is thinking what happened to the desire to ask what one can do for their country and not what their country can do for them as advocated by J F Kennedy. Well you are right; but that was said in the US in the 60s and not in Ghana. Make no mistake: only a handful of people in the world today have nationalism imbued in them for them to want to ask this very imperative question.

The criterion for qualification for a student loan is students enrolled and pursuing approved courses in tertiary institutions in Ghana. Until 2002 when the Government of Ghana included students from the emerging and ever-increasing private universities, the loans were meant for students in public universities and polytechnics. The application process, apart from pursuing a so-called approved course (I am yet to learn of an unapproved course), entails an applicant finding three guarantors to sign or thumbprint. If anybody has taken the trouble to look at the interest rate charged on student loans, they would have been misled into reading a fallacious statement to the effect that the “Government of Ghana pays the remaining portion of the interest on the loan which is the difference between the average Treasury Bill rate for the year and the student’s portion”—whatever that means. But in the same text, one will notice a paradoxical statement: that “the indebtedness of each borrower shall be the principal loan and the student’s portion of the interest on the loan”.

It is pretty lucid that the powers that be must be told that changing the name and the administrator (I learnt it is now liaised with the Ghana Education Trust Fund) of the Student Loan Scheme without seeking to address the countless inconveniences and outmoded conditions is tantamount to clothing a chimpanzee in a three-piece suit and expecting it to deliver a speech! There is nothing in a name here unless extremely humane and significant changes are applied to reflect the Ghanaian student’s situation. Amendments are required in the areas of interest rates charged on these loans, the unnecessary heavy-handed hounding of guarantors and the haunting of unwaged students to reimburse their loans—students who may certainly complete their studies and scrounge around for non-existent jobs. What justice does the government think of when it starts charging interest on monies students expended to help prepare them for a job market which is plagued by the incurably cancerous whom-you-know syndrome? And when these ultimate graduates have no jobs after four years of studies and so no means of earning a living, how are they expected to set aside a disposable income to repay a national debt?

Nonetheless, it must be reiterated that the current predicament of the guarantor of a student loan in Ghana is deplorable. Guarantors are retched by a culture which coerces them to do what is beyond them; and they are further intimidated and bullied by the Government of Ghana if graduates are unable to settle their loans. Take this scenario for example: a poor “koko” seller whose ward happens to be one of the numerous “brilliant but needy students” makes the required grades to pursue further studies at the university. Our noble woman then goes to see three men who qualify as guarantors to help our brilliant protagonist to pursue further studies to become a lawyer, a doctor, etc, in order to recompense his mother in future. Do any of us—knowing the obnoxious terms and conditions of student loans—advise these honourable men not to help?

Therein lies the dilemma of the guarantor! Even if these guarantors are aware of the hazards of guaranteeing such a loan, our societal accepted constitution will not allow this. Anybody, who looks at the conditions and decides not to endorse a student loan as a matter of principle may have been prudent; but, in the tenets of Ghanaian custom, such a person may have carved a niche for him/herself as the most callous and inconsiderate fool to have roamed this earth. Thus, to gain the general approbation of society these government-workers are implicitly coerced into signing their lives and pensions away—but that is only the beginning of their calamitous and outrageous woes! Sometimes, the reluctance with which they sign is evident in the trembling of their hands, the quivering of their lips and the contortions of their countenances. These scandalous afflictions are only cut short if by the good hand of Providence, some graduates into whose hands they lay their pensions and lives find jobs which are lucrative enough to empower them to pay off their loans. Or if these graduates join the long train of the incessant mass exodus to Europe and the US in search of pastures green enough to make sense of the grass possessing that most sought-after colour on the other side.

In effect, guarantors thus become the inescapable victims of government insensitivity, the towering unemployment situation in Ghana and its knock-on effects of defaulted loans. This means that a student’s inability—I will not say reluctance when it is clear they do not have the means to furnish their loans—to adhere to the somewhat draconian terms and conditions imposed by the Government of Ghana subjects a guarantor to the most atrocious persecution anyone can fathom with the highest stretch of the imagination. The bullying, as we are all aware of, takes the form of the forfeiture of pension/retirement benefits until such a time when a loan is settled. The only crime committed by guarantors is by working to build and contributing to the welfare of a country which rewards them with tremendous impertinence. Their problem is that they decided to be nationalistic and followed the culture of their community by going the extra mile of helping Ghana’s workforce by signing loans for students who will replace them on retirement.

The repercussions of the horrendous terms and conditions of student loans have the propensity to breed corruption among graduates who find jobs, in their precipitation to diminish their ever-augmenting student loan debt by adopting the shortest route of bribery. It also contributes to human capital flight or brain drain; with those who are unfortunate to find gainful employment in Ghana. Without any fear of contradiction, I can say that a graduate who completes their studies with a 2000 Ghanaian cedis debt already hanging on their neck with possibly no chance of finding a job in Ghana is highly likely to join the bandwagon of planes and ships—lawfully or criminally— bound for the US or Europe in search of the eldorado of greener pastures.

I recently chanced upon an incredible but depressing tale of a graduate who was arraigned before court for not settling his SSNIT student loan in full. This action was necessitated by the deceased’s relatives trying to retrieve and usurp the dead man’s pension entitlement—the crucial moment of wanting to benefit from the death of a forgotten relation who had little sympathy while alive. It was at this juncture that it dawned on the expectant and anxious family members who had already budgeted superfluously for the deceased’s pension that the money will be released upon the settlement of an outstanding student loan which stood at 1,678.19 Ghanaian cedis.

This pathetic non-fiction was the quandary of a graduate who refused to be lured by the great enticement of seeking white-collar jobs and greener pastures in Europe and the US. On the flip side, a course mate of his who had recently returned from Europe and was exuding the pomp and pageantry (flashy trainers, an expensive watch, a nicely-cut buggy jeans with blings a la Snoop Dogg) of a been-to was in town. Throwing his weight about in a clear unsolicited exhibition of his newly-acquired affluence, his mate proclaimed to him with some gusto that he had settled his student loan with just £700! This did not seem a lot until the conversion into cedis confirmed it was more than twice the 6 million old cedis he borrowed. What an easy way of enticing people to become economic migrants even at the peril of their lives and disinclination to become illegal migrants!

In the West, student loans are charitably flexible. The UK charges 4.4 percent on student loans and it is 4.5 percent in the US whereas in Ghana, the interest charged is ludicrously set at 12 percent! The US and the UK are developed countries with a behemoth job market which absorbs their graduates. The even-handedness with which student loans are administered in the West removes the stigma of debt from graduates as they have to be working and earning certain salaries before commencing repayments. In the UK, my research shows that a graduate has to earn £288 per week, £1250 per month or £15000 annually before deductions are made for student loan repayments. Of course I do know these are advanced countries but Zimbabwe charges just 5.06 percent on student loans.

The UK is now asking for highly-skilled migrants so it is unambiguous the West desires the crème de la crème of Ghana’s workforce. The days of factory work, warehouse work, apple-picking or tomato-picking which were reserved for migrants from Africa are over—the Poles, Romanians, Bulgarians, Hungarians and their counterparts from Eastern Europe have been drafted in to do these jobs. Our politicians should walk the talk and forget their frenzied and ne’er-do-well promises on electoral campaign platforms. The slogan should be jobs, jobs and jobs! Forget IMF and World Bank loans whose ruthless conditionalities forbid the employment of people in the public sector—thank you Professor Atta-Mills for being thoughtful and benevolent!

The Student Loan Scheme has unfortunately been prioritised as a money-making endeavour by government. The copious private universities are doing their fair share in the mass production of jobless graduates who inexplicably contract more debts to pursue Master’s degrees with no job experience. My take on this is: if government were to make it its policy not to charge any interest until a graduate was employed, it would be cajoled into creating jobs for these graduates without having to involve guarantors with cut-throat conditions. And whoever assumed that education in Ghana is subsidised must think again. What with borrowing 600 cedis and paying back 1,754 cedis in five years! One will not be exaggerating to state that the Government of Ghana is unquestionably making money at the expense of unemployed graduates and sitting on pensioners’ monies for the non payment of student loans.

It must be noted that I am not in any way proposing that government should dole out these monies and never expect them to be reimbursed. But I am requesting that opportunities should be made available to these graduates so that they can work and start paying off their loans. After all, student loans in the US and Europe are not free. It is about time the Government of Ghana reviewed the Student Loan Scheme and cut out the need for guarantors. Students and graduates who are undoubtedly the future leaders of Ghana should be treated with some respect and not like some common lowly scoundrels who may disappear with Ghana’s money which is why the need for guarantors to serve as scapegoats arises.

Dr Aidoo's Demonic Glossolalia, Rev Skosana HIV-Positive Christ

Dr Anthony Aidoo, the Vice Chancellor of the Ideological Institute of Political Incorrectness and Acute Uncouthness, has thrown the whole of Ghana into another furore mounting his foul-mouthed behaviour onto another notch. Unlike in the past when his ill-mannered conduct has touched just the New Patriotic Party and hence garnering the support of the National Democratic Congress and its henchmen, this time; he has pulled off the reprehensible blunder of taking on Christendom, a group with which Professor Mills, his superior, wants to be associated—the raison d'être of Prophet T B Joshua being employed full time at the Castle much to the exasperation of Dr Rawlings.

Dr Aidoo may not have been the only person to damn the art and act of “speaking in tongues”. But perhaps, the good doctor has become a despicable article of loathing because his reputation precedes him. It is a branded reality that Dr Aidoo, the undeniable king of loose talks, wild vituperations and severe bad manners, always calls into unspeakable probing, his standing as an academician and as a former minister of state to the chagrin of even his so-called associates. Glossolalia or speaking in tongues—if you like— has become an extremely contentious issue in Christianity. But Dr Aidoo’s description of tongues-speakers as lunatics and Lucifer-adorers has hit below the belt. Yet, we have also witnessed the uncanny situation of a group of men and women seen at night on various pitches mimicking sounds like the animal kingdom was in disarray: they were croaking, neighing, bleating, mooing, etc with all the fervour they could convene. Without impropriety and prejudice, we would want to believe that this group was exercising their vocal cords in accordance with the dictates of the Holy Spirit!

Nevertheless, as the whole of Ghana descends mercilessly upon Dr Aidoo—and justifiably so, we would like to draw further attention to one Reverend Xola Skosana from South Africa. What the dickens does this Reverend have to do with Dr Anthony Aidoo? Well, we can say on authority that if he were in Ghana, he would be hanged for making various libellous remarks about Jesus Christ, the Saviour. In the frenzy and grit to please HIV-AIDS activists, Reverend Skosana affirms—we cannot say upon which empirical evidence he made his pronouncement—that the Christ was HIV positive. Many hard-core Christians have described Reverend Skosana’s declaration as blasphemous. On the subject of so-called men of God behaving like the Antichrist, we will share a few thoughts later. But we believe that his utterance is likely to earn him a well-deserved summons before the World Council of Churches in the same way that Galileo faced the wrath of the Roman Inquisition.

From our research and surveys from various Christian groupings, we gather the courage to remark that glossolalia is indeed a very litigious matter in Christianity. We have spoken to the Mormons (some people call them the Morons), the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Catholics and the Pentecostals, and have found a lot of contradictory views on the topic of glossolalia. It is therefore obvious from our research and survey that if the good doctor had dressed his language with a few metaphors, there would have been no need for the acerbic discussions which have attended his rants to the effect that glossolaliasts are people either teetering on the brink of psychosis or are at worst, devil-worshippers. We do not condone his foul language but we mean to say that he could have expressed his differing opinions on the topic without condescending to diatribes and a blatant call of tongues-believers to a slanging match. The problem with Dr Anthony Aidoo, as we are all aware, is his incapacity to adhere to the simplest rule of political correctness. But in his usual gaffes, Dr Aidoo has incensed most Christians—especially the Pentecostals by trivialising their tongues-speaking feat, a notion which is almost the bedrock of their faith.

Glossolalia, which is the flowing vocalisation of speech-like syllables, has been thought of by a lot of people as meaningless but others believe it as a holy language. The Azusa Revival of 1906 and the subsequent growth of the Pentecostal Movement brought glossolalia into prominence. In the search for the likely causes of speaking in tongues, the first person to throw glossolalia into disrepute was one George Cutten in 1927 who claimed tongues-speakers were people with low mental abilities. Of course, his assertion was and is still widely debunked. Many scholars have suggested hypnosis as the cause of glossolalia whereas other experiments have demonstrated that it is a learned behaviour. For example, an experiment of 60 undergraduates in the US found that 20 percent succeeded in speaking in tongues after merely listening to a one-minute sample while 70 percent accomplished it after training. It is essentially on the third point of glossolalia being a learned behaviour that will be the core of our argument.

The issue of speaking in tongues has brought to the fore two main schools of thought. The first group believes that glossolalia is still in existence; that it ought to be a miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit, contending that it must be xenoglossia—that is speaking in tongues must be authentic and untaught. However, the second school of thought, normally known as Cessationists, maintains that all charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased in early Christian history; and therefore speaking in tongues as practised today is simply the utterances of futile syllables. To them, it is neither xenoglossia nor miraculous but rather a learned behaviour and possibly self-induced. They clarify their position further by saying that “tongues” in the New Testament is indeed xenoglossia—a miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit through which the speaker could communicate in languages not previously known.

We pause here to recount a story—we cannot confirm its veracity—of a European evangelist who went to Northern Ghana to preach the gospel. During the preaching, he realised to his mortification that anything he said threw his audience into guffaws. Of course he had an interpreter. This continued for about thirty minutes so he paused, prayed to the Almighty God and when he had finished, what proceeded left everyone in awe of the power of the omnipotent God: he was speaking the local language of the area! If this anecdote holds any water, it goes to support the claim that “tongues” should be a language or languages previously unknown by the speaker. In the nutshell, the belief that “tongues” should be a language that someone or a group of people are able to understand is very strong. However, it is not that clear-cut.

We could not possibly come to a logical conclusion on this subject without calling on the Holy Writ which chronicles the origin of this most divisive theme in Christendom. We are going to have to crave your indulgence, dear reader, to look at the scriptures we will quote. We would not like to turn this write-up into a sermon. Contrary to popular belief, the first hint of speaking in a different tongue is found in the Old Testament: Isaiah 28:11. However at this moment, and in line with what has dominated the debate on this subject, we will be drawing our conclusions and understanding from the books of Acts and the first book of Corinthians of the Holy Bible.

First, the Acts of the Apostles is the first book that talks extensively of the gift of tongues-speaking. The book of Acts 2:1-11 talks about the momentous events on the day of Pentecost which gave birth to glossolalia. From the biblical account, tongues of fire settled on the apostles who were then filled with the Holy Spirit and started speaking with different tongues. From the account, there were different people from different nations all living in Jerusalem. The wonderful aspect of the whole phenomenon was that these people came together as they could hear their own various languages being spoken by the apostles. The Bible makes it clear that those were languages not previously known. The same book clarifies in Acts 10:46 that some men who received the Holy Spirit spoke “with tongues magnifying God”. This same episode happens again in Acts 19:6 when John lays his hands on some disciples who also speak with tongues. But the events of Acts 10 and 19 do not talk about “tongues” which people could comprehend. In this respect then, “tongues” can be a living language or a strange one to magnify God.

Paul’s first letter to the church of Corinth is also inundated with various philosophical arguments concerning spiritual gifts, of which speaking with different tongues is mentioned. Prominent among the quotes are 1 Corinthians chapters 12 to 14. In chapter 14:39, Paul tells the church not to “forbid the speaking in tongues”. In chapter 14:9, Paul controversially intimates that “tongues” should be easily understood else it becomes pointless. In the aforesaid chapters, he also talks about the fact that tongues should be recognised and that there should be an interpreter to explain them. We can surmise that he was saying there has to be a rationale for glossolalia in the church. Most importantly, the rhetorical question of 1 Corinthians 14:6 should be considered by all manner of Christians: “… what good would I do you unless I spoke to you either with a revelation or with knowledge or with a prophecy or with a teaching?”

From the two books of the Bible we have read, the truth about speaking in tongues has never been this glaring unless we are being very thick or we just cannot make any proper deductions from the biblical texts. The first point is that glossolalia occurs when the Holy Spirit fills someone. From Acts, the language (or tongues) the possessed person speaks must be a language that is known but it can also be unknown as it is indeed an angelic language. The next point is that it does not have to be a learned behaviour as has become the wont of a lot of charismatic or Pentecostal Christians. Paul even downplays its importance in his letter to the Corinthians vis-à-vis the other spiritual gifts such as prophecy and healing.

In all this, there is one thing which scares us. The Bible makes it clear that every sin is pardonable but sinning against the Holy Spirit is not forgivable. We wonder how many Christians have really pondered about this. God will forgive adultery, murder, idol-worshipping and all the other so-called deadly sins if offenders ask for forgiveness but there will be no reprieve for someone who sins against the Holy Spirit. Well, we would need Bible scholars to tell us which actions constitute sinning against the Holy Spirit; but in our own imagination, anybody who starts speaking some strange language at church purporting that it is coming from the Holy Spirit will only be lying against the Holy Spirit if the bewildering words they spit out are from their own thoughts! The question we are yet to find an answer to regards the plaudits which can initiate or terminate tongues-speaking: if the Holy Spirit intends to impart a message to the flock of God, can hand-clapping start or stop it? Yet, what we see in churches these days is a pastor explicitly encouraging the congregation to speak in tongues with the clap of his hands and the same clap stops the tongues-speakers.

We now turn the spotlight on Reverend Skosana. Christianity is being bastardised by a lot of factors: bad-mouthing, rampant and proven sexual molestation and immorality among the clergy, extortion of the congregation in the name of God by way of miracles and blasphemy. There are a lot of problems plaguing Christianity at this moment, which is why many are now turning away from the churches; Christianity is dwindling in numbers while atheism is on the ascendancy! The problem is that there is now nothing like unction by which the Lord God used to choose people to lead his flock. Now, it seems many leaders of the church look at the comforts of life they can gain by becoming clergymen and then call and anoint themselves. Reverend Skosana use of a very bad analogy to express the fact that God accepts all manner of persons makes us wonder if the Lord really called him. For like we see with the people He calls, the Lord empowers His anointed and teaches them what to say. We have our examples in Moses and Samuel. Is it any wonder that the Bible proclaims that judgement will start in the house of God?! Some self-appointed men of God will perform miracles and ask for money as if Christ ever set such an example for His followers to imitate.

It is sad that we are going to have to end this writing by talking about politicians. But could we possibly desist from doing so when the whole uproar was began by a man who is the epitome of all that is base and despicable? Dr Aidoo’s academic credentials have always been questioned. But his inclusion in the current NDC set-up with his ridiculous and redundant title of Policy Monitoring and Evaluation at the Castle shows the blinkered view—literally— of the Mills Administration. I have always thought the four virtues of wisdom, fortitude, justice and temperance will be the most important factors to consider in giving positions to people. It may sound harsh but this is the reason why we would question the visionary aptitude of Professor Mills and his “viziers”. Else how could they have advised the good professor to thrust Dr Anthony Aidoo into a responsible position? And oh yes we read politics into this condemnable utterance of Dr Aidoo! For, if Dr Aidoo were the architect of some heroic deeds, the NDC would be claiming the credit; so let them suffer the indignity. Messrs Ablakwa and Quashigah would have been trumpeting Professor Mills’ far-sighted prowess and how he foresaw the hidden diamond in Dr Aidoo which had to be unearthed and polished!

We are wondering if Egya Atta took the pains to verify why Dr Aidoo is one of the most loathed politicians in Ghana. Dr Aidoo has proved to be incorrigibly crude yet he occupies an enviable position in the higher echelons of the National Democratic Congress serving as the appraiser of ministers’ performances. Our politicians and a few media toadies have taken it upon themselves to divert attention from various pressing issues just as the Caesars used gladiatorial games to divert the populace’s awareness from hunger, mismanagement and diseases. We have all been guilty in writing about this but those who gave Dr Aidoo the power and charged him with reviewing the work of other ministers are those doing a great disservice to Mother Ghana. The tedious sermonising of a few dried men in Parliament and in politics, together with their we-care-about-our-bellies journalists who will justify the untenable are the brute barbarians bent upon a merciless destruction of Ghana, with Dr Aidoo infecting his NDC members like putrid fever.

Reverend Skosana is indeed a byword of those false prophets in the world today. They may perform miracles and sway a lot of blind Christians but the final word is God’s. Many Christians should not forget that it was not only the staff of Moses that transformed into a snake: the devil has got the power to duplicate what God does! For Dr Anthony Aidoo, it is striking what he does. This man has been given the filthy freedom of representing the NDC in official circles and insulting with careless abandon. Professor Mills, wanting us to believe him as a decent politician should at least surround himself with respectable people. Dr Aidoo is like a wild animal: he cannot act or be tamed; he will tear his master into pieces if he is angry. Such a person must be caged! The debate on glossolalia will never wane. Our research showed that the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Mormons and the Adventists all refuse it while the charismatic and Pentecostals hold it in the highest of regards. We would really appreciate the learned men of the Bible solving this problem and persuading all of us on this subject.

NDC's Rookies and Trivial Politics

Professor John Evan Atta Mills’ decision to introduce young bloods into the ministerial arrangements of his government soon after he was sworn into office as president was fittingly received with mixed feelings. Many lauded him for his thoughtfulness in becoming a pacesetter; many wondered (especially the die-hard NDC fanatics) why unfamiliar and apathetic rookies were picked above them. Many of us have been monitoring the performances, the comportments and overzealous attitudes employed by Messrs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Richard Quashigah, James Agyenim-Boateng and Miss Hannah Bissiw in dealing with national issues and wonder if they have ever taken the trouble to mull over their plights should another political party win the 2012 Elections. The politics of retaliation coupled with its culture of vindictive pursuit of perceived corrupt practices of people in power should tutor these rookies to tread cautiously in Ghana’s political minefield. And the way the NDC’s top hierarchy have dominated the airwaves with what can be humanely described as balderdash after the NPP Congress has become a cause for grave apprehension for well-meaning Ghanaians.

I have already been labelled as a New Patriotic Party advocate in an article I wrote and when another one appeared, I became a pure National Democratic Congress kingpin. Funny ridiculous! In my way of doing things, I will plead with people who cannot face up to the truth to stop reading as I do not want to be the source of somebody’s cardiac arrest. However, if anyone should read this article and decide to brand me with any unprintable and offensive lexicon known in the English Language, they are welcome to exercise their full, inalienable and undeniable freedom of speech. I would like to implore those who may appreciate the truth in this article not to wage any ethnocentric war of insult. It will not do anyone any good. Let people pour their venomous insults on me hiding behind fictitious names but the day of reckoning is not that far away—and I speak of 2012!

Once upon a time, the NPP found itself in power with so much goodwill of the people of Ghana that, they were deluded into thinking there was no dog chance the NDC would come back to power! As to whether the NPP’s hubris (hamartia) of entertaining such a thought proved fruitful is there for politicians, various opinion leaders and historians to apportion countless reasons why the NPP is now in opposition. We are in 2010 and various views have been duly expressed by both the pro- and anti-NPP concerning NPP’s demise in the 2008 General Elections. Many stalwart NPP apologists have been beside themselves with rage and compunction to have toiled only for the NDC to unjustly benefit from the fruits of their labour—they allude to the oil money. If the hand of the clock could be turned back, the NPP would be righting all the wrongs they did instead of pretending everything was right when indeed, it was quite obvious that there were internal wranglings, imposition of candidates on certain constituencies and turning a deaf ear to momentous whinges.

Fast forward and forget the flashback. We are in 2010 and the NDC is in power! The events leading up to the villainous “Swedru Declaration,” the bloodstained manifesto with its numerous voodoo interpretations and other fatal reasons which cost the NDC the 2000 Elections united with a vertiginous height of arrogance and the refusal by any stretch of the imagination that any political party at all can lose elections—flaws which booted the NDC out of power in 2000 have resurfaced in 2010. Ola Rotimi had better checked the Yoruba proverb that: “When the frog in front falls into a pit, the rest take caution”. For, the NPP became too comfortable in their perch in power that they were deafened by the same errors which caused the NDC Election 2000. One would have thought that the NDC government that won the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in 2008 would have first all of learnt from its false step prior to the year 2000 and its immediate predecessor’s downfall in Election 2008. One would be wrong since the status quo persists!

Let us now examine the rookies of the NDC. The four individuals mentioned in this piece have—because of their hubristic attitudes and pronouncements—incurred the wrath of majority of Ghanaians that we have all been inundated with various articles and comments as to why Miss Bissiw, Messrs Ablakwa, Agyenim-Boateng and Quashigah are not fit to hold public offices. Some of these comments may be borne out of malice but a good number may be out of a genuine disquiet looking at how these distinguished (the word is used ironically) individuals have been spewing out cheap talks due to the their drunkenness with propaganda and their resolve to belittle the intelligence of the Ghanaian electorate. These people may be young and untried but the fact that the entire NDC and its big shots have decided to engage in self-indulgent politics and to insult our integrity must be properly analysed. I believe the NDC was elected to come and better our lots and execute effectively the “A Better Ghana” agenda which our poor ears are accustomed to.

Ghanaians have been sitting on a lethal time bomb which was waiting to detonate until the recent NPP Congress which saw the overwhelming pledge reposed in Nana Akuffo-Addo. In less than an hour, the NDC unleashed Honourable Richard Quashigah to initiate his usual propaganda chatter for which he has gained notoriety. It will be essential to bring Mr Quashigah on Planet Earth that his party is no more in opposition; and that Ghanaians have voted for the NDC to rule for a four-year term and realise the paradisiacal promises of making Gold Coast a better Ghana. Mr Quashigah did not disappoint as he went on to trivialise the NPP’s non-violent Congress because ex-president Kufuor had pronounced Nana Akuffo-Addo the winner in NDC’s Ghana before the Electoral Commissioner’s formal announcement. This was notwithstanding the fact that all the other contestants had conceded defeat which in effect, made the EC’s declaration ceremonial and redundant. His conundrum was the NPP’s supposedly inability to “religiously follow the dictates of election rules”. I do not condone Mr Kufuor’s misdemeanour however, the EC was just going to state the obvious so this was not an issue to make the headlines.

The demoralising thing here is the NDC’s diversionary tactics of doing misinformation which normally befits a party in opposition. This would not have been that serious but the fact that they have also added an infantile but jovial attitude to running the country makes me wonder as to whether we should not have the celebrated Bob Okalla and his legion of joke-tellers as president and ministers of Ghana. The pro-NDC newspapers decided to insult the intelligence of Ghanaians by fabricating a story which the fictitious Ananse will be proud to recount to the effect that there were wild jubilations at the seat of government and NDC party headquarters when Nana Akuffo-Addo managed to scoop an overpowering 77.92 percent of the Delegates’ votes! Quite incredibly, the NDC claims they would have been very anxious had Mr Allan Kyerematen won the elections! Dear reader, is this not tantamount to proposing what tactics an opponent can use in a duel against you?! I thought we voted for serious-minded politicians to build Mother Ghana and not people ready to engage in primary school political theories. The NDC was divided prior to the NPP Congress on which candidate of Nana Akuffo-Addo or Mr Kyerematen they wanted Professor Mills (is it really going to be Professor Mills?) to confront in the 2012 General Elections. This aptly caps the humour in the so-called mass excitement at Akuffo-Addo’s election.

The NDC really respects their chronological way of doing things; they were effectively building their rebuttals of what transpired at the NPP Congress and their mockery of Ghanaians to a crescendo. I need a copy of the NDC manifesto for Election 2008 to see if they had added, as an afterthought: “We will ensure that former president Kufuor is extremely vilified should he ever dare castigate the NDC”. The NDC has been lying in wait for something to do when Mr Kufuor launched a scathing attack on the Mills Administration; accusing it of the mismanagement of the Economy, “incarnate” corruption and the threatened atmosphere of freedom with the relegation to the background of the Rule of Law by the hitherto legendary foot soldiers.

The swiftness with which the NDC turned on Mr Kufuor on his “sacrilegious” remarks only follows the chronological order which they pursue in dealing with their opponents. Another conscript honourable minister who has been used mischievously for saying things that the substantive Minister of Information would not normally summon the courage to utter was dispatched. Honourable Ablakwa, the usual scapegoat and suspect swung into action and with the same venomous comments he had once observed on ex-president Rawlings, he repeated the propaganda effectively peddled in 2008 that Kufuor had exploited state funds to renovate his private residence; that he had abused his position to buy a hotel for his son and presented other points to buttress his point on Kufuor’s so-called sordid corruption record. In all this, what saddened me was that the allegations had been cleared by the CHRAJ (Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice). Yet, it had been trumpeted repeatedly and given a semblance of truth. But what was more disheartening was Mr Ablakwa’s admonition to Mr Kufuor to desist from making unprovoked attacks on the Mills Administration. This was nicely captured in a Myjoyonline news headline of 09/08/2010 entitled “Ex-President Kufuor to watch his mouth”.

There are a few points I would permit myself to make here before I proceed. I should like to know if the indecorous reproach to ex-president Kufuor cannot be construed as an attempt to gag his freedom of speech which supports his (Mr Kufuor’s) claim of the threatened atmosphere of freedom. Then, we should also question Mr Ablakwa’s action of being uncouth to Mr Kufuor, an act which is un-Ghanaian towards a man who can father him. And we need to query the aggressive nature of the NDC towards Mr Kufuor if they kept mute over Mr Rawlings’ calling some of the NDC members as greedy bastards, adding he was not going to sit down for people to extend their corrupt practices. Mr Rawlings told the cadres in 2009 at Prempeh Assembly Hall to go to the castle and ask that man who only listens to Prophet T.B. Joshua when asked which people he was alluding to. Perhaps, Mr Rawlings was provoked and hence his rants were expected. Oh Ghana!

Nevertheless, when the rookies of NDC have finished setting the agenda did their gurus go to town! The scene opened with Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, NDC’s General Secretary affectionately known by his military accolade of General Mosquito. He blurted out a catalogue of his own views of the squalid realities of Kufuor’s Administration, enumerating instances of Kufuor’s excellent corruption record among other flamboyant accusations. His conclusion leaves an indelible impression on my memory when as the official mouthpiece of the NDC, he says: “We are waiting for President Kufuor to come back and we will deliver our next set of arsenals”. In the same vein, Honourable Enoch Teye Mensah joins in the whole caboodle. Like unwanted spare tyres used only when needed, NDC foot soldiers are called upon by Mr E T Mensah and charged with the admirable task of propagating Miss Gizele Yajzi’s confessions. I commiserate with these foot soldiers who are badly threatened and condemned when they seize toilets and lock up NHIS offices but are the first to be called upon to do the NDC’s dirty work!

I cannot possibly conclude this article by leaving out Honourable Hannah Bissiw. I do not know her personally but I believe she is a lady. Her abysmal performance on Peace FM’s Kokrokoo programme on 03/08/2010 painted the picture we normally see of village girls—I say this without impropriety. Apparently, she was not happy with Miss Ursula Owusu’s vivid portrayal of the NDC’s alleged distortion of facts, its insensitivity to the plight of the people of Swedru when economic activities were hampered by a collapsed bridge after a flood and rebuking them for taking undue credit of the throw-the-police-into-frenzy Single Spine Pay Policy. Kwami Sefa-Kayi had to intervene but the resolute Hannah Bissiw will not be deterred. Minus the piece of cloth usually tied at the waist of village girls, the little multi-coloured blouse, the chewing-stick and the irritating chewing-gum, Miss Bissiw was the very byword of these girls ready for a verbal brawl with sharpened lips as they say in Ghana via the politics of insult.

In conclusion, these are a few instances of the trivial politics and the act of the rookies we are witnessing in Ghana. I am asking politicians to learn the difference between propaganda when in opposition and working to realise campaign promises once in government. I believe that if a government performs very well and fulfils its promises while in power, electorates do not really need convincing. I would also like to remind these young politicians to remember that they are Ghanaians and should not discard our timeless traditions of displaying reverence towards the elderly. These politicians should ask what their fates will be should another political party replace the NDC in 2012 or 2016. Will Okudzeto love to go through the same plight of Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng? History is not just written to recount past events but as measures from which to learn lessons. Could Mr Ablakwa have said the same loutish stuffs when Mr Rawlings descended on Professor Mills and others calling them greedy bastards and corrupt? Why is he now showing his manliness towards Mr Kufuor? It is quite clear that the foot soldiers and former cadres would have asked for his blood or simply hounded him out of the deputy information ministerial position which has given him the audacity to insult Kufuor and others. Finally, these young men and women may have attended Dr Anthony Aidoo’s Ideological School of lose talks and acute foul language but can they face the consequences of utter disrespect and vituperations in future when they are out of power?

Legalising "Galamsey" in Ghana

It is both ignoble and depressing to note that one cannot comment on any issue—economical or environmental—without stepping on political toes. But how can one dissuade himself from talking politics when politicians only mount on stage and blurt out promises in the most negligent manner? The spate and upsurge of illegal mining, known in Ghanaian parlance as “Galamsey” is both distasteful and monstrously immoral. And to learn that it became an electoral pledge during the frenzy of the 2008 elections only confirms that the only thing politicians cannot do is to change sexes of humankind! For, promising to allow galamseying in Ghana, a country already suffering from the obnoxious effects of this canker, is tantamount to promising orderliness in an already chaotic hell.

The clandestine activities of galamsey bring in its wake economic, environmental, human, health and social problems to the society and the country as a whole. Looking at these problems and the overall costs of galamsey, it is quite incredible to see politicians adding it to their catalogue of electioneering promises on campaign platforms. This leads to the conclusion that politics is all about winning power at all costs; just promise anything that will bring power. If anything said on political platforms is meant to help politicians gain votes, then we are in trouble. For instance, if a politician goes to a community which has gained notoriety for anything criminal, all that he has to do is to promise to legalise it to win the votes of that community. By this analogy, a politician who goes to another community known for armed robbery only has to promise to make it legal!

Now, let us examine what really pushes people into the dangerous service of galamsey. Social injustice is the first reason that forces people into such a deadly venture. I am not going to develop this point as the fact that there exist a countless number of towns and villages with no employment at all. All the major companies look at the regional capitals and the capital city when they are setting up. As a result, jobs are concentrated in the capital cities so people in the hinterlands are meant to find in galamseying a gainful employer no matter how abhorrent this employer is. In addition to this social injustice is the problem of general genuine jobseekers. Look at the streets of the major cities of Ghana if you happen not to know the meaning of unemployment. Therefore, the scale of unemployment (for not everybody is ready to sell dog chains on the streets) pushes genuine job seekers into illegal mining.

However, mention must be made of the apparent accusations being levelled against mining companies in certain gold-rich communities like Obuasi, Prestea and Bogoso. Some galamseyers argue that their lands have been appropriated by mining companies and as they cannot farm, they must eat and hence, venturing into illegal mining: a case of a hungry man being an angry man. But some mining companies have taken upon themselves the policy of corporate social responsibility by which they are helping people go into agriculture as we see in the Western and Ashanti regions. This policy, as laudable as it is, has failed as more and more people are digging their own graves in collapsed tunnels. The simple rationale being that illegal miners do not see agricultural projects and ventures as a way of making money as farming in Ghana is unfortunately seen as an occupation for the poor.

Having looked at the causes of illegal mining, let us now look at some of the effects of this electioneering campaign assurance. The first point to consider is the human cost of galamseying. A lot of lives have been lost through illegal mining. As aforesaid, many people have been buried in the earth due to collapsed tunnels. These are tunnels normally dug using primitive methods and are normally, weakly supported by woods. Such tunnels which abound in mining communities can be defined as certain death but for the sake of living comfortably in this world, life is rendered worthless by the galamseyer as he may never return from “work”. In the Judgement Day when the sea gives up its dead so will the earth give up its buried illegal miners.

Furthermore, there is the health risk part of illegal mining to list. Basically, some of these illegal miners are illiterates. Consequently, they unknowingly use hazardous methods to process their gold. Mercury, the chemical used to process gold, is poisonous yet; these miners handle it as if it were some piece of cake. It is quite perturbing to see these miners inhaling the vapour of mercury from archaic boiling pots to purify their gold. The painful truth about mercury is that, like fire, it is a good servant to help purify gold, but it can be a bad master with lots of health problems. When discarded into streams, mercury builds up in fish consumed by locals. Mercury in humans can cause kidney problems, arthritis, loss of memory, miscarriages and psychotic reactions.

Moreover, one cannot turn a blind eye on the environmental vulnerability of illegal mining in the community and the country. Bulldozing the topsoil and trees, removing entire slopes, destroying streams and polluting groundwater are some of the environmental problems associated with illegal mining. We know that not every part of Ghana has access to potable water so what happens when these streams and rivers—which serve as drinking water in mining communities-- are polluted, when trees are haphazardly felled, when the land to be cultivated is devastated?

Briefly, we can talk about the economic hazards which outweigh the money these miners get. The trees felled will have to be replanted under very slow, expensive, time-consuming and tedious afforestation programmes. Illegal mining destroys tarred roads as some of the miners inadvertently dig their tunnels into road networks. These roads normally need millions or billions of cedis to repair. The cost cannot be estimated.

In July 2009, I went to the Western Region and I had the shock of my life! Obviously due to the immoral talks engendered by election fever, “legalised” galamsey was being practised in the full glare of Ghanaians. Galamsey (a Ghanaian lexical item for illegal mining) which used to be a covert operation was being practised in broad daylight! Some unpatriotic Ghanaians and their Chinese condoners were felling trees, removing the topsoil and digging with the most modern of digging equipments in search of gold. Taken aback, I tried to wake up from my nightmare! In all my life, I have seen illegal miners at work but with their primitive shovels and pickaxes, they could not cause much harm to the environment. There were Chinese men calling the shots with their conniving Ghanaian counterparts robbing Mother Ghana.

I do not say this because I have anything against the Chinese; I believe the world should be a one big continent with no boundaries. But can you imagine a Ghanaian replicating this same thing in China?—felling Chinese trees, digging up Chinese topsoil to get Chinese gold? Could someone tell me how many decades of imprisonment this Ghanaian is likely to get if by a stroke of good fortune, he escapes the gallows? I have read recently about Chinese men being arraigned before court for indulging in galamsey but the painful truth is that some very prominent politicians did promise Ghanaians the chance to excavate all over Ghana for our gold no matter the means they employ. And truth to tell, I do not see how a group of Chinese men could be destroying Ghana’s vegetation for gold if they were not authorised by some faceless politician!

I have been monitoring the progress of a lot of countries in Africa and the world. Ghana may not be rich but when one sits and considers the fact that anything which is buried into a Ghanaian soil germinates, we have nothing to do but to thank God with all our hearts. Maybe, we take this for granted because the grass is greener on the other side. But if the people of Chad, Niger, Mali, etc, had our kind of vegetation, they would perhaps have considered themselves in seventh heaven. The question we all ought to ask ourselves and our leaders is: are we ready, in our insensitive effusions, to turn Ghana into any of the aforementioned countries?

It is rather appalling that a thing or an action which exudes the propensity to obliterate Ghana to the detriment of future generations should be uttered on political campaign platforms and be given absolute approbation by followers of a political party with the goal of satisfying a few people in the short term. By human nature, we are all bound to look at our selfish interest first but, have we thought about what posterity will think of us or say when they come to realise that Ghana once had thousands of miles of forests, forest reserves and an uncountable water bodies but has become a desert because politicians promised to make it so.

Finally, illegal mining should be seen as a national problem and must be given the attention it deserves. Politicians should be brave to take bold decisions to save the country for future generations and not sacrifice what is good on the altar of political expediency. Having said that, I must also say that some people’s livelihoods depend upon galamsey. Taking it away from them is equal to condemning them to eternal starvation. Such an action, if not well thought out, could bring crimes with them—prominent among them is armed robbery. Thus, the problem of illegal mining and miners should be debated upon in Parliament. Mining companies should be encouraged to employ and train former galamseyers and give them jobs and not just disregard them as unemployable because they have no qualifications. And we should all be weary when politicians start with promises; we should think for ourselves: can they achieve what they are promising or do their promises make sense?