.... From Rawlings To Kuffour

After twenty years of misrule, mismanagement and also using his complexion to scare our poor villagers from Atuntumirem to Kodobeda, the only legacies left by Rawlings were moments of torture, an overhead bridge in Accra and interestingly, a will power to transition to an elected government. Come the year 2000 and most Ghanaians thirst for a change, a new government with a will to turn Ghana around after years of turmoil by the opportunists of the likes of the Ahwoi?s and Tiskata?s and the stubborn and noisy Spio Grabrah, only to find out that the new Kuffour delegation are also a bunch of empty fatheads and narrow minded politicians ruling the country on an antiquated policies of the Busia- Danquah legacy without a meaningful modern enhanced plan to transform the Country.

We brag as the first African Country to achieve independence and brand Ghana as a gateway to Africa ? one of the continents most urbanized with a good educated work force and a hospitality that is second to none. With that mentality and very little comparative basis, some Ghanaians have the image of being loud, but in reality, most Ghanaians live in poverty and many of our leaders including the present have failed the nation and live in a false believe and images of growth, transparency and a success story. The western world continue to hail Ghana as a shining example in Africa because we are surrounded by former war torn nations like Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ivory Coast, but in the midst of blind men, the one eye man is always a considered a leader. Ghanaians should be cautious and not be fooled by these praises that free trade and free press equals development. Western hypocrisy is well founded and will create policies to enhance their interest and never point out that your country really needs a bold and dynamic leadership with a great vision and not one that sleeps at meetings. The days when we were exporting talents en mass to other African Countries are over. As most of the Ghanaian expatriates will tell you, these African countries have played catch up and have trained their human resources to replace many Ghanaians, thus there is nothing to brag about now. The advantage we have is that most Ghanaians are considered peaceful with minimal tribal tensions as compared to others. Our hospitality, which in reality is correlated with the Christian upbringing and poverty, may be over very soon because the reason why the average Ghanaian in Kumasi is ready to give his room to a Peace Corp Volunteer is because he or she has an ultimate goal to travel overseas one day. But when you have unemployment around 20% and with Ghanaians trekking for greener pastures across the Sahara to Europe and stowing away in ships only to be dumped in the Atlantic Ocean and the lucky ones being stranded on the skeleton coast of Namibia to be eaten by animals, something should tell you as a leader that the so called gentle sleeping giant needs a wake up call.

My sisters, nieces and other women in my neighborhood in Kumasi have resorted to a simultaneous Plan A and Plan B dating plans (Plan A -dating and cheating wealthy marriage men) and (Plan B-dating flashy boys with money) that sex has become one for the highest bidder. Very soon we will be challenging Southern Africa in the HIV prevalence rates from our 4% to their 20%. No wonder vibrators are being sold at $70 to the poor married women who don?t have a choice to but self satisfaction since most the men are all playing around with their ill gotten money and my sisters vice versa. A visionary leader will create a form of affirmative action plan to promote gender equity in education and as way to enhance higher educational opportunities for girls. As a visitor from Europe told me, sex is the cheapest thing to find in Accra and Kumasi, when you have the likes of Eric Amoateng flashing money to these girls, because a leader does not have a vision to institute check and balances in the society.

Unfortunately the best brains have left the country only to be ruled by greedy politicians with everyone just seeking his own bread and butter. How come a country as Ghana (supposedly endowed with rich human capita who-are managing world institutions, are Deans in great Universities, are professionals working on complex engineering projects in Europe and the US; are managing highways in the US; the specialized doctors in South Africa and the great medical faculties of Pittsburg) has been left in shambles to narrow minded politicians. How come the millions of Ghanaians who are outside have been too apathetic and allowed drug smuggling politicians to make legislations impacting on our people. How come we have not been able to take off after all our troubles and we have become a nation of beggars, consumers, very dependent on the so called World Bank policies.

There is so much reliance on the World Bank that the various Ghanaian leaders forget their that their leadership roles come with a responsibility of creating a bigger vision and seeking its implementation. Instead, they are used to World Bank policies such as-promoting economic freedom; poverty reduction strategies; HIPC debt relief programs; poverty reduction support credits and capacity building programs that they will spend the next two decades formulating these policies. Because of the corruption in the civil services, they rely on the World Bank projects to siphon money to themselves. Thus they create projects and turn their backs through their set up consultancies to bid for the projects and undermine the same policy through kickbacks and very poor management. When a President opens a Shopping Mall in East Legon Accra and promotes it as a sign of development, then there is something wrong with the Country. When a President forgets that a country?s breakthrough will have its roots in decisions to achieve economic expansion by building a strong infrastructure that will stimulate an export-based development and that the export based development will not turn a country around unless there is a good economic infrastructure, then the future of the country is at stake. Infrastructure is a term for a broad range of economic and social assets with some distinctive characteristics. Infrastructure can be divided into social and economic subgroups such as social infrastructure, schools, hospitals, police stations, day care centers. Economic infrastructure includes transport and communications facilities, production and transmission of electricity, water and gas or materials handling facilities such as docks. It has been stated that when a country has a higher percentage of infrastructure made up of economic infrastructure and assets, they earn a greater return, because investment in economic infrastructure can yield the greater social infrastructure and can create jobs.

Real Infrastructure comes with the determination to build roads and railways from north to the south to open up the Country, and improving communication technology, when this is done, the private sector like farming and other service sectors will be attracted. Just compare it with Ivory Coast, Ghana?s main port of Tema started booming, during the crisis in Ivory Coast. Abidjan has 70 ship berth space but Tema has only 17. What does a visionary President do, make transportation a priority and develop Tema as a trade hub of West Africa with much seriousness. Open up an investment climate to attract willing investors to develop the port and highways from the south to the north. These market and economic decisions do not need to be deliberated in royal chief palaces but rather requires a bold visionary leader. These decision require a leader with a framework aimed at greater infrastructure investment; greater use of full cost recovery in certain sectors; non-traditional revenue/funding sources to support infrastructure investment; financing approaches that are consistent with the amortization of capital costs; innovative opportunities for private-sector involvement; and procurement and management practices that ensure ?value for money.? The government needs to deliberate on a these vision to establish infrastructure investment priorities, as well as evaluate and assess applicable models and approaches to infrastructure financing and procurement. The government needs to collaborate with the private sector on the implementation of infrastructure investments instead of ruling the country like a chief?s palace.

If our great chiefs are going to parade on the streets of Boston in America to discuss modern day role of chieftaincy and development, then they should better do their homework on effective land reforms at home that will augur well in a modern day capital market for commercial farming other than all the photo ops and propaganda. Water Shortages hits Accra and the cities area filled with dirt and very poor sanitary conditions, then the President of Ghana travels to promote tourism in the USA and the Minister of Tourism travels to attend tourism conference to invite tourist to visit Ghana and live in the filth. When we sell our rich deposits to Newmont mines and the Canadian and Australian mining firms without a strong bargaining chip that is not real investment because the return on investments is very low.

I believe the time has come to take back our country, institute checks and balances to make the real leaders come out instead of the years and years of mismanagement. I thank the hundreds of readers who have sent me mails. I am always available for a chat (no male chauvinist) with anyone who comes to Kumasi.