As the Week Opens in Accra: Mad Men in the Ghanaian Media

The week has opened with a lot of noise and speculation in the Ghanaian media about what the British call "cheque book journalists". I would like to think that no country is immune from this kind of journalism. In Ghana, it is just that it has a different twist--rather than the journalists being ashamed that they have succumbed to this kind of atypical journalism, they lament--like journalist Baby Ansabah (who is the talking point right now -- that they did not get anything from the previous government for castigating the incumbent President who was then in opposition. The claim that others got immovable property and cars is just...something else. Issues like these only deepen my perception of the media as riddled with more (square pegs in round )holes than a swiss cheese, and a lot of mediocrity.

It was refreshing to hear CITI97.3fm's Bernard Avle broaching the issue this morning on the "Breakfast Show". I would hope he can talk more about his colleagues in future.

In my view, only a critical self-reflection of the Ghanaian media by their own kind can take the future of journalism to heights that commanded respect in the era of Dr.Kwame Nkrumah when even Nigerians--better journalists these days in my view than my Ghanaian counterparts!--came to Ghana to study at the Ghana Institute of Journalism!

As the Week Opens in Accra: Raining on Vodafone Ghana (ONETOUCH)'s Parade;

Offlate, blogging has been poor. I used to apologise for that. These days, no more, for being a blogger means being a real person--and real life does get in the way. So let me just apologise just this once--just for good measure: my many apologies!;-)

On a very serious note, a number of issues have preoccupied me -no end. Let's start with our communications industry.

Poor Vodafone Ghana Lines

I don't know about you, but I have noticed that ever since Vodafone Ghana became entrenched in the country, its lines have been very poor. Last week, around 1.00am just as I was pretending to finish off some important reading, I got a text message that I can get discounts on 1,2,5,10,20 ghana cedi credit.

As if anyone buys 10,20 ghana cedi ONETOUCH credit! Heard of the global credit crunch by any chance?

I shrugged, cancelled the text, and promptly went to sleep--not without ruminating over some Vodafone Ghana experiences the previous week. The first involved calling a Facebook Belgian friend, who was unable to hear me when I spoke with her on my ONETOUCH line, but could hear better on the MTN number. Ditto with BBC World Have Your Say on Madagascar, when I texted the BBC to have them call me (standard procedure) to make some noise about the usual regional integration stuff. I podcasted myself--as it were--by recording the piece on my digital recorder. I was appalled with the playback: a good part of it was inaudible, with the line breaking at intervals of thirty seconds. Thank you Vodafone Ghana! You came into the country to do what, exactly?? The erstwhile ONETOUCH was so much better!

I hate to say this, but off-late, the execrable-performing MTN has been performing less badly than ONETOUCH!

The Unbearable Lightness of Being...West African

I don't know about you, but since I came back home in 2004, I have regularly blogged about feeling this lack of feeling West African. Let me preface it all by saying that I am a great aficionado not just of ECOWAS, but also of regional integration and what it means for Africa.

I have been maintaining a blog since August 2006, which I resuscitated in 2007 to blog about regional integration initiatives worldwide. Last December, I took a step further by buying a domain name for that blog, which you can now reach at http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org.

All that said, let me be clear that this is less about me marketing my other blog--and more about the consistent and sometimes-truly unbearable sense of being West African. I mean, come on, if you look at the picture above, you will see EU Commissioner for Information Society Viviane Reding probably jubilating that the ".eu" domain reached its three millionth mark the week of 12th January.

I cannot help but wonder, as I wrote in my Sunday World column on technology for this week's edition, whether there would be any takers for an ".au" domain representing the African Union.

Some would like to viscerally respond that that idea is a pipe dream; I like to think it could be a reality some day!


Where's that ECOWAS passport?
But to move swiftly to the second reason why I don't feel I can call myself an "ECOWAS-ian" is to do with the passport. Despite the fact that the ECOWAS passport has been around for a while, it is still only operational in Benin; Mali; Nigeria and Senegal! Ghana made a lot of noise that by 2007 it would start operating it alongside the traditional ones.

It never happened.

Yet here we have the 14-member CARICOM that very recently launched the CARICOM passport for all members of the community. It quickly raises the question of when the fourteen other members of ECOWAS will get their acts together to create a regional identity to the world that they feel and are proud of being West African?!

French thoughts on the way home
Finally, as a neighbour took me home last evening after meeting me at GOIL shop, I caught a glimpse of a French dictionary on her seat. Asking her whether she was learning the language, she explained that she was following a course at work--to which I quickly recommended Radio France Internationale, which Ghanaians can catch on the 89.5fm band.

Like Abby, since 2007, I have become a staunch and inveterate BBC [101.3FM] worldservice buff, but at work, I tune in at least for thirty minutes during the day to RFI.

That we are surrounded by francophone countries (Cote d'Ivoire to the West of Ghana; Burkina Faso to the North; Togo to the East) perhaps behooves, at best, a policy by the Ministry of Education on making French compulsory; and at worst, every single Ghanaian making the effort to follow the language of our close neighbours!

For good measure, let me just leave you with a mini-transcript of a radio discussion on Radio Gold (90.5fm) about my conception of regional integration in Africa , which I have at my disposal:

MATULI: That was the voice of Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, and I think that the insert is germane to the discussion we are having this evening on Platform Africa. The Grand Debate of the Union Govt for Africa: Perspectives of the Youth. I'd like to say, gentlemen, welcome to the programme. Let me start with you Emmanuel. When mention is made of the Union govt for Africa, what comes to mind?

EKB: What I see when there is mention of the Union Govt of Africa is an Africa that comprises five main regional blocs, because I think it is important we don't forget that in conceiving of a United Nations of Africa, to include the regional economic communitites. They are so critical to that development. Already the African Economic Community--the main charter--the basis upon which AU govt is supposed to be established has set five main regional blocs--ECOWAS in West Africa; SADC in South Africa; ECCAS; IGAD; Arab Maghreb Union. However, because there is a plethora of regional economic communities--mostly now eight--there is some talk of rationalising--there is ongoing research in Nairobi on rationalising some of tehse RECS so that it is important to look at the overlap --or lack thereof -- of these RECs. When I talk of overlap, it's about some countries belonging to two or more RECS. When we begin to talk about union govt and we exclude this fact, I do not think we are going anywhere.

MATULI: So you think union govt is possible through these five or eight regional blocs?

EK: I really do think that is possible, but it is important also for there to be information strategies/information sharing on these regional economic communities, because a lot of africans--at least some of those who I have talked to... in this country and beyond -- have no idea. Even ECOWAS, I meet a number of Ghanaians who know there is ECOWAS, because you go to the border of Togo--it's French-speaking and you can pass with your passport. But beyond that, ECOWAS is something --an idea that is very difficult to comprehend in their mind, and I think the problem is because it has not been broken down by our policy-makers sufficiently for them to understand the value of, let's say, being West African.

MATULI:To you, what is the union government of Africa?

EK: The union govt of Africa would be decentralised:I would see an AU commission--we already know there is an AU Commission headed by Alpha Kounare--with these RECS linking/liaising with main AU commission in Addis Ababa, taking instructions from there, on how to manage their regional economic communities. Because I think West Africa and Southern Africa and Eastern Africa, there are differing levels of development.



So, supposing in West Africa, ECOWAS remained the main regional organisation -- instead of UEMOA or smaller regional RECS-- we would take instructions from the AU Commission in Addis, and we would look at our political, economic, and social institutions that are there--including our health, through the West African Health Organisation-. All the institutions that are important need to be strengthened so that it would make more sense, rather than trying to devolve all the power to the AU, because it's big. Already, the AU is under-staffed; it has some 500 members of staff-- as compared to the EU, which has about 20,000 members of staff at its commission in Brussels. So already, we are seeing a problem with finances.

I am working on the transcipt, but in the meantime, let me just say that my major contribution for that got me on the programme involved three simple points.

First, there needs to be identification of imperatives of each region. Simply put, what is unique about a particular region that that region can capitalise on to bring to bear in the conception of an AU government? So, we can say, for example, that ECOWAS's sub-regional imperative is that of conflict prevention/resolution /management, given its experience with Liberia/Sierra Leone/and the instrumentality of ECOMOG. SADC's might be a different one; the EAC's might be on, say, regional infrastructure. For example, § A paper from UNU-CRIS cites that: “the AU has been the first regional organization to establish a clear relationship with the UN as it is consciously aspiring to closely coordinate, if not integrate, its mission planning and execution of peace and security action with the prevailing structures/plans of the UN”.


Secondly, there needs to be comparative approaches. By this I mean what best practices are there from each of these regional communities that can best be put to good use in any conception of an AU government? This means that ECOWAS's peacekeeping/peace enforcement wing ECOMOG could be analysed for use in a regional organisation like SAARC that has experienced problems over Kashmir/India and Pakistan. What is it that ECOMOG has been able to do in enforcing peace that SAARC can learn from?

Thirdly, there needs to be collaboration, as exemplified by the donation of $1m by the Arab League to the African Union's peacekeeping forces.

I have further arguments that can be elaborated on in later entries, but for now, these three points remain the crux of my personal vision of an AU government. Even then, ramifications of these elements remain, and can be very much expounded upon.

Let's keep remembering to keep ECOWAS real!


*EK & EKB are yours truly;-)

As the Week Opens in Accra: Reflections on Blogging about Life in Accra

I used to think that it was my international blog that got me stuck in what I call a blogging paradox, but it appears that almost almost four years of blogging about life in Accra, it seems I'm getting the block here as well.

In 2006, in order to ensure that the blogging came in free-flow, I started to categorise my posts. I came up with:

Darkness Falls...

, which chronicled living in testing times when the electricity went going off and on, and citizens were confined to what was called a load management. It seems so distant now that I had almost forgotten how serious a toll it had on one's finances.



Before that, though, I had come up with As the Week Draws to a Close...in Accra, where I rounded up the week's events. From 2006-2007, there was quite a bit to write about; but in 2008, as Accra became increasingly Westernised, it seems like there was less to write about. Am unsure whether it has anything, though, to do with it, as there remain myriad number of problems and challenges in the country.

Now that we learn that President Attah-Mills has inherited an economy that is broke, the task cannot be more daunting!

All that said, with new categories like Mid-Week Madness and Taxi Tales, it seems like theer is plenty to write about, but I am just not feeling like writing it!

Like the picture above, looked like insofar as my blogging here is concerned, I have reached the end of the road?

I have said elsewhere that I don't like New Year resolutions, so there will be none of that here--just to say that I really do not have any excuse!

The sky is my limit!

I'll see you here soon!

As the Week Opens in Accra: Ghanaians and their Pontification of Peace; The Necessity of a Third Political Force for Ghana in the CPP

Yeah, it has been a while. Although I have been alive and well, I have not made time to blog here. Ofcourse, we are approaching the end of the year and I intend to go out with a bang!;-)

First of all, let us just say that it is no news that Ghana pulled off its national elections well, to the extent that we now have a run-off scheduled for 28 december. I have a problem with the whole "peace" concept. I think Ghanaians pontificated over peace so excessively that it blinded them to the virtues of castigating some of the dynamics that characterised the NPP administration. The issues of cocaine and corruption were barely--if ever--touched on, save by the National Democratic Convention who naturally used it for political capital.

This is what I wrote in August 2006:

The Drug Menace
Like a scene right out of Hollywood, the drugs affair exploded into the consciousness of Ghanaians a few weeks ago when some drugs disappeared off a boat, MV Benjamin, when it docked at Tema. Unlike in the 1995 gangster thriller, The Usual Suspects, where $91 million of cocaine in a boat, docked at a pier in South Pedro, just south of L.A., exploded along with the boat, in Ghana, the boat, containing many millions of dollars worth of cocaine, simply disappeared—without a trace.

That is until the revelation of complicity over the drugs, followed by the swift arrest {on the orders of Attorney-General/Minister of Justice Joe Ghartey) of four putative drug barons two days ago at a public hearing under the aegis of Justice Georgina Woode’s eponymous committee that had been set up to look into the disappearance of the 77 parcels of missing cocaine.

Let's just put it on record that the 77 parcels were never found, and that no less than the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has cited West Africa is the quintessential place for the distribution of narcotics only goes to underscore the necessity for the parties to have talked about alleviating this scourge.

But they did not.

Not that affordable housing, or health insurance is not important, but, in my view, a healthy Ghana can agitate more explicitly for all these things.

As regards the Convention People's Party, people failed to vote for the party because it appears they were so keen to oust the incumbent party that they believed it to be a wasted vote. Dr.Nduom's official profile on Facebook only goes to show that the man is popular.

What I am not so sure about is the readiness of Ghanaians for a third force in the country. As one author rightly said on Facebook, Ghana is an NPP-NDC nation.

In my view, it need not be so.

The failure of the financial markets and the acceptance by the West for state support and regulation point to a necessity of what some might call socialist-oriented policies.

The New Statesman magazine put out an article two weeks ago about "Socialism's Comeback".

It seems incongruous that for a country that likes to emulate the West, somehow, we are afraid to discuss issues as contained in the article that point to a resurgence of the State and State-led policies that seek to protect the poor. I'm not talking about protectionism but a fundamental review of the unnecessary divestitures that have characterised the NPP, aas well as a review of the policies that have brought divisions between the rich and poor. I daresay the NDC will toe the line on market-oriented policies once they win--as many hope and believe they will on 28 December.

At the end of the day, I believe there is clear blue water between the NDC and the CPP, and the latter shall arise like the Phoenix in 2012.

Ghana needs a CPP government and a third force.

This duality is unhealthy for the nation.

As the Week Opens in Accra...with AID EFFECTIVENESS: From a Carrot to a Spring Chicken, the Evolution is Complete!

Earlier this morning, I sent a text message to my significant other who is unfortunately in the Ashanti region for a funeral that I was looking like a carrot! I mean, come on: check out the orange attire. More precisely, the orange top, which has "Secretariat" written on the back. Look more closely, and you'll see "AID EFFECTIVENESS/GHANA CSO AID/EFECTIVENESS FORUM/31 AUG-1st SEP 2008/ACCRA-Ghana". Not to bore one with trivialities, but I think it gives you a sense of atmosphere. If you consider the fact that my colleague from the office who is an IT officer came dressed in tie and shirt--and looking rather swanky--you can imagine his horror when he, too, had to turn into a carrot;-)

That I was wearing brownish trousers that looked more green than brown underscored the Clarke-Kentish evolution I underwent.

How my girlfriend laughed her head off, though I guess she did it discreetly, considering how odd it might have looked at a funeral, you know...

Still, the headline was apt as a txt message later to her, as it reminded me of Areeba, when it was changing to spacefon". That was back in August 2005. It appeared I was not to impressed with the evolution, because I felt the quality was poor.

Well, here, today, as I sit at the Ghana college of Surgeon's makeshift secretariat in room 12, I know in my heart of hearts that the quality being delivered by the "volunteers" is sound.

Since this morning, we've mostly been running around like spring chickens trying to ensure that those coming for today's meeting and the main conference will be happy people holding hands, as it were.

This picture is me in the Secretariat right here holding the folder that was given us this morning. The picture above is not very flattering, but as they say, a picture proverbially paints...you know...

By the end of this post, I'll find one that accentuates the positive about me, cos I'm feeling a bit self-conscious [lights just went off to peple going "WOAH...."...back on!] about my size. I have been exercising, but being tall and already broad, I need to look muscular, and build the muscles to look stronger than flabby. I'm not happy at all. You didn't need this blog of mine to know that I am working, albeit slowly, on my weight.[just rectified stuck paper in a not-so-user-friendly CANON printer that was about to feed when the lights went off...just some of the things a volunteer needs to be ready to do!]

I am not happy at all. Smaller portions of food and more exercise is what I need. I an encouraged by the fact that tomorrow is the beginning of a NEW month, and a new ZEAL to do things better.



I never knew that the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, located in Ridge, near the Ghana Institute of Journalism, has accommodation. Wow...

No news now that that's where the CSO Forum is being held...

If you're wondering how I became a volunteer, well, it's a long story that can be summed up this way: given TWN's experience with UNCTAD XII CSO Forum, it was deemed necessary for the organisation dealing with the CSO Forum [Send FOUDNATION] to require people to assist. My colleague with the tie (see above) put my name down on the request of the big boss at work for people needing assistance with web stuff and uploading. As I write this, nothing has come in my email for uploading.

I await in anticipation...as the gruesome images of yesterday's film in METRO TV's foreign movie segment, which featured Alien vs Predator sinks into...somewhere. PREDATOR being the "enemy's enemy", or convenient "friend" was bloody bloody bizarre. Looked like the predator was not interested in killing the humans there, but Lance Henriksen's character did not know, and got himself killed when the Predator walked away from him and he retorted. Ouch!

Incidentally, the AEFgh.org website rocks. Check it out here: www.aefgh.org

As the Week Opens in Accra: Deconstructing ECOWAS in a Whirlwind West African Weekend

What does it take to have a truly West African weekend? A meal at Tante Marie in Accra Mall, or a Sunday evening with Blood Diamond? How about seeing a close relative off to the neighbouring West African country of Benin, by way of Accra.?

I might not have been sufficiently privileged to eat at Tante Marie, but I most definitely got my good share of West Africa.

It all started with Saturday morning, when up very early, my Mum and I accompanied my Dad off to Nigerian-based ABC Transport, near Caprice. At the time of morning we woke up--circa 4.00am, traffic was bound to be quiet and slow.

Some twenty minutes later, we were there at ABC Transport premises, curious, yet pleasantly surprised about how the Black Man can manage his own affairs. I felt especially proud when, after departure formalities (checking-in of passports at a till labelled "Lome-Benin-Lagos", weighing of suitcases to ensure when they passed the standard 25kg, a small yet reasonable fine would be paid; and finally lining up in not-so-single file to the buses to board (all against a backdrop of DStV) ) I spotted a Westerner, who looked rather confused at this kind of organised chaos.

But if to the Westerner, it looks like chaos, to the average ECOWAS-ian, it looks like a very decent attempt to travel West Africa at a reasonable rate. The trip from Ghana to Cotonou and back goes for around GHC100. For now, it is only four countries--Togo; Benin; Nigeria and Ghana--the ABC transport plies. I live to see the day when it can go westwards towards Cote d’Ivoire and maybe Senegal?

I didn’t mention Liberia or Senegal because I was reserving it for the part of the weekend that took me there--well almost: Blood Diamond.

After seeing Leornardo DiCaprio’s Oscar-winning performance in the 2007 movie "The Departed", I was convinced this guy as an actor was going to go far. Though I saw the former before this one, I knew I was going to get something great. And very good it was. From DiCaprio’s very good emulation of a White African accent to his shaky relationship with the ruthless colonel, one got an impression that you were living the movie with him and the Sierra Leonean fisherman – Vandy – played by Djiman Housou.

But back to West Africa: as Solomon Vandy was introduced at the end of the film as someone instrumental in highlighting the path of what has become known as Blood Diamonds, I almost couldn’t help hold back tears at the sheer evil of the global Western money-men who, in collusion with Africa’s corrupt leaders, perpetuate the conflicts that seek to enrich them perpetually at the expense of the number of countless innocent lives.

In the end, it felt like I had met Jennifer Connelly’s character journalist Maddy Bowen in Conakry, Guinea (even though we never saw the meeting in the film) with Vandy, and back to London, after the turbulent period of meeting the child soldiers in Sierra Leone near the mining “village”.

Far be it for me to give away too much of the film—especially for those who have not seen it – for it’s a profoundly disturbing ride through West Africa and much of the Western world, where profiting from diamonds are de rigeur. When the end credits exhorted one to insist on the quality of the diamond, I thought it risible, yet a good start in sensitizing our minds to the terrific history behind that which is claimed to be a "girl’s best friend".

Ultimately, as I thought about the regular unbearable lightness of being West African, I paused for a second and thought about the weekend. Being West African may sometimes be unbearable, but you just have to know where to look. Sierra Leone, so the film intoned, is at peace—and so is much of West Africa. ECOWAS’s attempts at conflict prevention and conflict resolution are bearing fruit with institutions like Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Centre and efforts like the Kimberely process. That even Guinean citizens were able to force the country’s long-serving leader in 2007 to consider former ECOWAS official to be prime minister is a reflection of the long road to a conflict-free ECOWAS so many of the 230 million members of the region have hoped for.

Long live West Africa! Long live ECOWAS.

As the Week Opens in Accra: We Were All (West) Africans Yesterday

I spent the better part of 4pm yesterday trying to craft this entry. To me, the day seemed like an all-African affair.

I had woken up to a beautiful harmattan-yet-dry day which, in retrospect, would augur well for the rest of the day. I would hear local station CITI97.3 FM reporting the build-up of excitement of the duel between Ghana and Nigeria.

BBC Worldservice would report on the imminent ousting of Chad's Deby; the station's Have Your Say would host one whole hour on Kenya and the violence there, trying to ascertain the extent to which it was an ethnic-driven conflict. Meanwhile, Saturday's news of Tanzania's Kikwete, newly-elected African Union Chairman, denouncing the crisis in Chad, as one which would see an "excommunication" of the country, only went to underscore--along with a BBC "From Our Own Correspondent" report on the recovery of Cote d'Ivoire five years after the 2002 coup -- that on Sunday, we were all Africans.

Then my Mum reminded me to check the Internet for the download of an interview granted me, Ndesanjo Macha, Sub-Saharan Editor of Global Voices and one John, a football consultant, a week ago on Radio Netherlands International.

Amy Walker, of Radio Netherlands, would ask me a few days before the interview on the significance of Ghana 2008 on Africa.

One of my more specific questions were on how football is a great "equalizer"--or not.

At 5pm on the dot, the whole family was seated behond the tv set, with the stage set for an explosive match between West African rivals of Ghana/Nigeria.

Ofcourse, Ghana would win--but not without enduring the (initial) rough game of the Nigerians; nor the 11th minute, when Yakubu missed the goal by inches; nor the free kicks awarded to Nigeria and Ghana; nor the red card handed to an irate John Mensah in the 59th minute--compelled to give his "captaincy" to Michael Essien. Neither was it without a yellow card to Nwaneri for kicking Hans Adu Sarpei; nor the 20th minute, when Quincy Owusu Abeye(sp?) missed a Ghanaian goal by inches; nor without the infamous penalty that secured a goal for Nigeria; nor without the Black Stars playing 10 men.

That the Algerian coach blew the whistle sometimes a bit too late, but contemporraneously overlooked some Nigerian "mistakes" only went to underscore the speculation that he was paying Ghana back for the Morocco game. Whether this was founded or not, it's clear that he overlooked some Ghanaian mistakes too.

Either way, it was always going to be about the goals--and boy did Ghana score. The videos I have posted attest to this. You will also see Nigeria--in the TV3 clip showing their penalty--and how they mocked Ghana's "kangaroo dance".

They got punished, if anything, for that alone.

But if we were to stop at the football for a second, it was not too hard trying to contrast the violence in Kenya with the jubilation over the "beautiful game." Whatever the case may be, it is a real shame about Kenya, plus the fact that it was not even able to enjoy solace from football by being participants in the CAN2008.

Long live West Africa. Long live ECOWAS! Long live Ghana.

Long live Africa.

As the Week Opens in Accra: Stanbic's Imperialist Stretch Reaches to Ghana's Shores in its Total Acquisition of ADB

The news of Stanbic Bank's complete takeover of Ghana's Agricultural Development Bank has made me a very sad man. And it's filled me with rage.

I have written about South Africa before, and as long as this blog is alive, I will continue to write about the country's imperialist aspirations.

This is a country that has huge potential to be a positive force on the African continent, given its financial clout, yet choses to use this power and clout to perpetuate its viscerally-exploitative tendencies.

Let's face it: 100% takeovers by a firm of another African country's key sector bank has hardly ever been, and never will be altruistic.

The saddest thing is that South Africa--a country whose pretensions to Pan-African unity are as spurious as the Black Economic Empowerment programme the country seeks to use to give one the impression that it is no longer under the purview of the West. It's attitude is a farce--and wrong.

I have one South African friend, and so if I am accused of being racist, I duly apologise, but I trust she will understand my visceral disgust with the geopolitics of her country that I am against--and not her.

That said, if this blog is my oxygen, I will not just breathe, but shout to the hills: I do not want any more South African elements in this country of Ghana.

The question, then, is: would I have felt this way of Nigerians had come to take over ADB? First of all, I do not believe that Nigerians--for all the "fears" they generate, would have contemplated such a heinous move, and, no, I probably wouldn't have felt so enraged, given that they are of West African stock, but not the South Africans.

I do not believe they are people-centred, because the country has a superficial veneer of prosperity generated by Blacks, when, in reality, it is the white minority that is pulling the strings--yet again.

As South Africa is in the news for the nation-wide strikes, you get to wonder where its priorities remain.

In my view, the country has become a malevolent exemplification of a modern and amoral (financial) Realpolitik that seeks to exploit Black Africa, and perpetuate the very financial apartheid Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah fought ferociously against to free that country from the shackles of imperialism.

As the Week Opens in Accra: Why ECOWAS Citizens Lost Their Lives in Ghana (1)

My absence from here was due in part to a funeral I had to attend in my maternal grandmother's home town. Now, this town is some 1.5 hours away from the capital by road, and forms part of what has now become known as the Trans West African Highway Network, supposed to connect some of the West African countries together

[- Damane (Liberia border) 26 km in Côte d’Ivoire ;

- Bloloquin-Toulepleu-(Liberia border) 64 km - Côte d’Ivoire

- Ganta-Tappita-Douanes Tobli-Blay (Côte d’Ivoire border): 15 km in Liberia ;

- Bandajuma-Zimmi-Mru Bridge (Liberia border) : 97 km, in Sierra Leone ;

- Freetown-Pamelap (Guinea border : 126 km, in Sierra Leone;

- Boke (Guinea) - Quebo (Guinea Bissau) : 206 km

- Akatsi/Dzodze (Togo border): 31 km in Ghana ;

- Noepe-Hilla Condji (Benin border) : 80 km, in Togo. ]

In effect, the so-called Trans-West African Highway Network has been comprehensively completed since last week, prompting joys that the ECOWAS link-up is becoming more of a reality.

Sadly, it's coming at a cost, as exemplified by last Thursday's eerie accident that involved two articulators travelling at top speed in opposite directions; the helping of Ghanaian motorists of passengers of an overturned bus (comprising West Africans from Cote d' Ivoire, Liberia, Benin, Nigeria and Togo) resulting in their deaths as the second articulator hit them at top speed (after having lost control). Altogether, seven vehicles were involved in the very sad loss of lives that claimed 40 people.

The road on which this happened goes to one of Ghana's premier tourist regions--the Central Region, where there is much more greenery than in the capital of Accra.

The roads are so good and so speed-inducing it's not funny. Regrettably, badly-educated and opportunistic (not to mention tired) articulator truck drivers take advantage of these good roads and act as death merchants.

To remind Ghanaian motorists of the importance of preserving lives, my favourite network, Ghana's mobile network--Onetouch--has erected billboards throughout the highway that spans several kilometres, reminding drivers not just they can connect to ONETOUCH in the area they have passed, but that "life is precious, drive with care".

A publicity stunt, notwithstanding, it's important to read that as you cruise from one region to the next.

(May those West Africans who lost their lives, as well as those Ghanaians who stopped to help them, ending up killed, rest in perfect peace)

As the Week Opens in Accra: Thoughts on...Championing Who'sExcellence?

DCFC0305
Originally uploaded by ekbensah.

'We are going to see that we create our own African personality and identity. We again rededicate ourselves in the struggle to emancipate other countries in Africa; for our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.'




I’ve been walking a lot lately--mainly from work at East Legon to the Tetteh-Quarshie interchange, where I catch a tro-tro to the Spintex Road. When I walk, it humbles me, and in walking, I get the opportunity to observe many things in Accra: the stench of the open gutters; the unsafe 207 BENZ buses that ply the Ghanaian routes; the largely-uneducated masses of men who, once in the city, opt to become taxi drivers, vulcanisers—or worse.

Ghana is 50, yet we have an energy crisis when we shouldn’t. Let’s face it, though: energy problems are not unique to this country, for in 2006, Europe suffered blackouts, prompting the EU to factor energy as a key challenge and policy area for its burgeoning 27-member EU.

In Ghana, we have just resumed the load-shedding management programme, which started Thursday—some days after Ghana@50 dignitaries left.

If there are any lessons to be learnt from our former colonizers—the Brits—where Kufuor is sojourning for the next couple of days on the invitation of the Queen of England for a state visit, it is maintaining and retaining any culture of excellence that Ghana might have, as well as possessing a visceral disgust for mediocrity.


Had this energy crisis afflicted the UK, heads would have rolled, and incumbent Minister of Energy—Joseph Adda—would have been forced to resign. It would not just have been the opposition that would have called for it, but the buoyant and vibrant press, including the inimitable tabloids, such as the Sun.

Today, in Ghana, our opposition – seriously ineffectual and uninterested in moving the nation forward talks the talk, and occasionally walks…out of Parliament – for posturing sake.

I wonder how far this is excellence in the making.

Streetlights stand on the Spintex road – have done for a month now – and nobody has publicly questioned why commuters and drivers alike ply dark roads in the evening, and at night.


We are known for our peaceful and pacific disposition. I sometimes wonder whether our attitude is not just passive and pathetic.

Nkrumah talked about an "African personality" -- about the African, when given a chance, doing things for himself – when he blazed the trail for Ghana and Africa fifty years ago.

Ghanaians must not, and cannot afford to, disappoint the dreams of that great visionary.

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