Opinions of Thursday, 3 October 2002

Columnist: Aidoo, Prince Junior

Ghana Will Undermine Mugabe's Reform If ....

300 White Zimbabwean Farmers For Ghana to do what? How many plots were given to Ghanaian slaves and other African slaves after the end of the slave trade in Europe and America? Have they been compensated as they did to the Jews?

Ghana Government will surely undermine President Mugaby?s political emancipation effort and as well undermine the African Union?s dream of unity and solidarity if not checked. President Mugaby in his view want to prove to the world that: ”what is in Africa is for Africans” and this I think Ghanaians always knowing better, should support him.

If I head it right, the NPP Government is about to make a deal with Tony Blair to admit into Ghana about 300 white Zimbabwean farmers who have lost or are likely to lose their lands in Zimbabwe as a result of President Robert Mugabe's land reform policy. It is feared that included among the Zimbabwe immigrants will be Ian Smith, the Racist supremacist who led the then British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) into the disastrous and infamous UDI or Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, sparking off almost 15 years of a brutal and bloody civil war which only ended with the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement under which Zimbabwe was granted Independence in 1980.

It has also been said that very high level contacts have been made between United Kingdom's Tony Blair Government and Ghana's J. A. Kufuor's NPP Government to discuss the deal under which Ghana will receive and settle about 300 of the white Zimbabwean farmers whose lands have been occupied by landless black Zimbabwean war veterans. The NPP Government is said to be giving the British Government's approach very serious consideration.

If this is done, this will be a plan to betray President Robert Mugabe?s political agenda to demonstrate to the whole world that his land belongs to his people and shall be shared equally to his people. I hope this massage is clear enough to the Ghana government. If this message is clear, our colonial masters will have no other alternative than to abide with his request.

Someone out there in Africa who has the wisdom to think, should ask him or herself the following questings: How many plots were given to our African slaves after the slave trade? How many lands does young Africans in the Diaspora own in Europe and America? Has an African a right to own a land in our colonial masters countries? When can an African ever think of managing his own affairs rather than always dancing to the tune of the colonial master?

To put my question straight, I will like to make it clear to NPP Government that if they have a land for those who have exploited our neighbour and they are being driven out, they should be knowledgeable enough to know the reason of their deportation. They should see to find means to give these lands to their own national farmers for cultivation. Ghanaian politicians should have the courage to encourage their own people to be creative rather than always depending on foreign aid. The Ghana government shouldn?t just act just because Ghana is poor. Remember this:, “if we are poor, our brains are not poor”

Ghanaians always believe this saying but yet still we lack the “WISDOM” for creativity. We teach agriculture in our Universities, we have a minister for agriculture and yet these we are siting down for their precious lands to be handed over to corrupted farmers from Zimbabwe.

What are these people going to plant on our soil that Ghanaians can not plant? If Ghana is thinking of going into commercial farming, which I think that is compelling them to have a deal with such corrupt Zimbabwe farmers then they can do so without necessary resettling such wicked and irresponsible people but can achieve the same aim through other means.

If these British do respect our destiny, they will surely understand that Black soil is for the Black man and as such has no right to play monopoly and exploit our people. If they would respect our leaders they would have agreed to accept what President Mugabe is saying. I head him telling “Mr. Tony Blair to rule his Britain and leave him alone to rule Zimbabwe”

Though NPP Government official sources are said to be very tight-lipped over the details of the British offer, it is learnt that already, a stretch of land between Yendi and Yeji has been identified as a possible site for the settlement of the Zimbabwean immigrants. The area covers parts of the landmass of Yendi (capital Yendi), East Gonja (capital Salaga), Nanumba (capital Bimbilla), Atebubu (capital Atebubu), Krachi (capital Kete Krachi) and Sene (capital Kwame Danso) districts. They form some of the most fertile lands of the lower Northern, upper Brong-Ahafo and Northern Volta Regions, spanning some of the most fertile yam and tobacco growing lands on the east and west banks of the Volta River.

The area is also known to have a very high potential for potato cultivation. Since when did Ghana explore this rich area? If it had not been the coming of the so-called Zimbabwean farmers, Ghana would have never thought that there is such a rich soil like this in those areas needed to cultivated?

Wouldn?t it be an insult for Ghanaian farmers who are deprived of basic facilities such as: technology, equipment’s, training, consultancy and financial support from all sorts of past governments, when all of a sudden get the information that farmers who have exploited our African neighbour Zimbabwe and has been expelled are now on their way to get settled in Ghana to take away their land as they did to the Zimbabweans because they have money and equipments?.

Have Ghanaian politicians really thought of the future of these greedy British farmers? Are Ghanaians so forgetful? Have Ghanaians forgotten the British colonial era? What did they leave behind? Have Ghanaians forgotten the infrastructure they left behind before our independence?.

Now our dear rich country Ghana is now called “Mr HIPC”. Who gave us this wonderful name?. Is it not the same colonial master whom you want to accommodate his helpless 300 farmers knowing very well that we have no money, no wisdom, no technology, no know-how etc, gave us this wonderful name “HIPC”? What does the NPP Government think about Zimbabwe? Will it be politically and morally right for the Ghana government to say that if Zimbabweans don?t want them we will welcome them because we are poor and in need of such farmers like this?

“Do not unto them the things that you don?t want to be done to you”.

Let someone out there tell Tony Blair that these farmers are British, and he should be prepared to accommodate them in his own country and not to dump these scrupulous farmers in our country Ghana.

It will be recalled that under President Mugabe's land reform policy, most of the 80 per cent of Zimbabwe's best lands, owned by Zimbabwean whites who constitute less than 2 per cent of the population, is to revert to Zimbabwean blacks from whose ancestors the lands were forcefully taken without any compensation during the pre-colonial and colonial eras. The white Zimbabwean farmers are mostly of British origin and have as their kith and kin most of the present day British aristocracy.

If these farmers are resettled in Ghana one day and they really get their roots firm in our soil is there any guarantee that they will not treat Ghanaians the way they treated Zinbabweans?

Ghanaians should show solidarity and support the African Unity dream as our colonial masters are doing by adapting what Kwame Nkrumah said about African Unity.

Now the Europeans have copied this message, teamed up with USA and other blind leaders all over the world and their main aim is to wage war on poor nations and make them slaves to serve their prepossess because they have money and ammunitions to destroy anyone who will resist them.

If that may be the reason why Ghana government is in a rush to take such decisions, then I can surly say Ghanaians will regret on day. If this happens, Ghanaians will never fore-sake our government.

There is a Ghanaian adage which says: “If you don?t know what death is, you just look at the face of someone asleep” and you will understand what is death.

Mr. Tony Blair, you have not only a moral but also a legal responsibility to take your people in, because they are British passport holders. British Government, Ghanaians are “poor but our brains are not poor”.

NPP Government please, with all respect refrain form such undermining policy. You will surly undermine our dignity.

Prince Aidoo
Ghana Social Democrats
Germany

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of Ghanaweb.
Source: