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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.

360 Degrees of Blogging Separation

The end of the year always gets like this, when you are trying to wrap things up at work, but have to reconcile it with the usual blogging. When you top it up with an imminent general election that seems to have eclipsed even Christmas festivities, you arrive at a point when you realise you are dealing with an incendiary brain tongue-twister that only YOU can sort out.

Let's just say I have the pictures for Accradailyphoto, and the entries for my other blogs--but I JUST haven't made time to write them out as I have been a little more than preoccupied with helping contribute to a cause close to my heart--including my professional work ofcourse.

I should get a picture up by Friday and maybe some small entries here and there.

I should bounce back with a vengeance next week. Indulge me and forgive me, too!

Thank you for your patronage!360

Ghana Elections Hot Up Tonite!

On the way back to Accra from the Central region some two weeks ago, we were "met" by this noisy bunch behind our car, carrying what looked like the flag of the incumbent administration of the NPP in power...

As they moved closer, it was clear the boisterous boys in the car waving the flags were ineluctably supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Away they went into the capital. Quick glances of observors revealed some sycophants doing the kangaroo dance that has come to epitomise the motto of the party moving the country forward once they are re-elected on 7 December.

Tonight's presidential debates organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs will go some way to bringing into sharp relief where really the political temperature is at!

Easy Like a Sunday Afternoon in Accra

As we enter Accra, by way of WEIJA, through KASOA on a cool, breezy Sunday afternoon, memories of our visit and sojourn to Cape Coast almost seems like a dream.

Though there is plenty of greenery around, it is in significantly lower numbers than in the Central region.

Kokrobite meets us with a warm sunshine that is in stark contrast with the rain-like weather. The toll both man surprises as when he charges 5 pesewas, prompting us to wonder what could be done with such a smmall amount?

The

sun is accompanying the cool weather in a coalition of the willing that seeks to both welcome us back to Accra, and remind us there remains vibrancy in the heart of the capital that is Accra.

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Yawns this Side of Midnight: An Ode to GBS

Yeah, am certainly tired, but I am a snapshot-of-life freak, so something's gonna give. If that is my sleep, then so be it.

Let us start with Gateway Broadcasting Services (GBS), the satellite provider that stormed what looked like Accra only a year ago. Twelve months on, it has pretty much stormed the nation. Or at least the Central region. Forget the fact that GBS has a huge billboard here, [continuing Saturday morning as sleep became me!] GBS can be found at the Shell Shop in the quintessentially-historic market town of Mankessim; around some hotels and houses dotted around the region,

including this hotel here.

The hit-show "Bones" that I believe is its third season or so in the US, which features former "Buffy the Vampire slayer" brooding-but-reformed-vampire-lover-of-Buffy played by David Boreanz, was on last night on "G-series" to an audience of, erm, who knows? Point is, it was on; with the DsTV package looking like it has been cancelled, or expired.

Looks like the GBS Revolution is on!

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Several Mosquitoes and a Funeral Wake in Cape Coast

It's 20h14 and the folks n i are sitting outside on the yard of a house on top of a hill. We have been subjected 2 loud, gospel music, and are one of many groups keeping wake 4 a relative's elderly daughter who passed on a few weeks ago. But we r also, despite our long-sleeves, being viciously bitten by mosquitoes on this rather-humid nite in Cape Coast.

To say it's not easy is an understatement; no funeral or wake-keeping is! As it turns 20h40, u can certainly bet ur bottom-dollar that by the time this is received thru mtn 2 my ogo device 4



posting onto ths blog, our mosquitoe foes would not have bitten off more than they can chew! --------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: This e-mail message is subject to the MTN Ghana email disclaimer see http://www.mtn.com.gh/disclaimer/

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From Kasoa to Winneba, Road Safety Matters!

Despite our travelling speed of around 80km/hr, we managed to get to Winneba in some 46 minutes. Without the slow-moving vehicle at one point, we would have gotten to Winneba in some 40-42 minutes . Just goes to show that it is virtually impossible to travel from Kasoa to that place in less than forty minutes!

Armed with that knowledge, we can move to road safety. On our way, we saw a taxi Accra-bound that was overspeeding, AND overtaking over a blooming rumble strip! Not too far away was the same sign exhorting drivers to kill their speed.

I reckon the signs should simply be bigger and more imposing. Though it looks like a cross when you are Cape Coast-bound, it has TOYOTA GHANA kind of hammered on the back. Even if it is supported by the latter, it would have been great being supported by the National Road Safety Commission (http://www.nrsc.gov.gh).

ONETOUCH adds a nice touch to road safety with its exhortation to "drive home safely to a warm hug".

Cute, but i nsufficiently hard-hitting.

Cool breezes @ 17h09.

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Greenery Galore Through Central Region's GOMOA

It has just gone 16h19, and we have just arrived into the town of GOMOA. This is greenery personified--but so is much of the Central region through to Mankessim and Cape Coast.

Buduburum camp as we pass by has developed considerably, looking very much like any place inside Accra. With the NPP flagbearer's poster flanked high and strong at the former Liberian refugee camp base, you gotta wonder where the Liberians-in-Ghana vote might go.

We just passed a sign that reads "overspeeding kills. Over 12 people díed here". Very telling, considering the song by Akon--"dangerous".

At 16h28, we have all lived through a nanosecond of irony, with a tro-tro that just overtook some four cars, including ours, past a sign on the southbound (Accra) road that says the same thing as the sign referred to above.

Food for thought!

At 16h32, we are all struck by the imperfection of the road: a beautiful, well-tarred road that has no streetlights, or fluorescent signs for when it gets dark!

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LaPaz Traffic Makes one Soporific

For as long as I remember, travelling through LaPaz, through Mallam is a major headache, on accou nt of the time spent in what seems like interminable traffic

It is some 15h14, and CITI FM's Shamima Moslem and her colleagues are discussing how the Central region is preparing for the December elections.

One man, Maxwell, from Agona Swedru says that he is tired with the NPP and is fed up with them. Another is also saying the same thing, wondering how they were able to afford the GHC25,000 for filing fees for the primaries last December, as well as the unfulfilled promises...

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Spintex Road Diaries: Smooth Traffic Confuses Me

Children are back to school, and it rained yesterday, so how come the traffic is so deliciously smooth? Not that I am complaining or anything, but I am profoundly quized by the absence of a bottleneck this side of 6.45pm...

We can only hope both shared taxis and cars are able to ply this smoothly from hereonin!

Looks like a minute later, I might have spoken too soon, There is a tipper truck in front of us that was speeding, which is now virtually crawling.

This is what I am used to. Don't spoil my fun!

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Midnight Reflections:Pas le cas d'un mauvais qu'art d'heure!

It's some few minutes to 1 o'clock;I am listening to a repeat of CITI Eyewitness news, where footballer Stephen Appiah is promising Ghana will score massively. I guess it is against Lesotho?

I must preface all this to simply add that this new-found freedom of mobile blogging is profoundly exhilirating; it has certainly revolutionised my blogging experience!

So much so that I can safely say here that the space I had originally used for was to say that there is a GBC School that needs to be looked at!

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Spintex Road Diaries: Rain Becomes Us

It is times like these when you realise there truly is a Higher power. If not, how do you explain people running helter-skelter just to avoid the rain?

It surprised us this afternoon, though it duly gave us a warning, what with the dark clouds and all. Still, colleagues and neighbours alike could not quite believe their eyes when the downpour veritably came, and put paid to any attempts to go into town, and wherever necessary, home.

It's 18h18, and the rain has subsided considerably. Looks like the raincoats stay close to the chest tomorrow!

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Great Idea ECG, Shame about the Delivery

The lights came back on to a quietly-jubilant neighbourhood around 5pm-ish, after a rather hellish couple of hours without it. All I can say is that whether you have a generator or not, the point is at a time when global prices have not gone southwards, lights off is a totally unnecessary enterprise.

So, when the saviour of Electricity Company of Ghana's call centre , which is an 18-hr operation that can be contacted at 021.611.611, advertised last week in the main daily GRAPHIC that it was going to service Ghanaians--albeit in Greater Accra and Tema for now--you had hope that they would do more than tell you a problem "has been reported" about the electricity. Which is exactly what the operator did this morning when it went off. They asked my name, making me feel instinctively that they would get back to me.

They didn't.

This is inconsistent with the staff of ECOBANK's call centre(toll-free), which has almost always gotten back to me on a query. Even the members of staff at the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC) call you back after investigating an electricity complaint

Regrettably, it is attitudes like ECG's that perpetuate the myth that the private sector is everyone's saviour, whilst the public is red-tape driven.

At a time when the State is showing a resurgence even in the US, ECG better sit up fast!

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Underwhelming Close of Sixth Session of ACP Summit

I came in some twenty minutes ago to see Preident Kufuor and a mini-phalanx of diplomats leaving this frightfully-chilling hall. I got wind that there was no press conference to end the whole affair, which also means that the twice-postponed press meeting with the Ivorian diplomat fell through in a radically-twisted way.

These ACP guys must have a twisted sense of humour, because if they think this is the way of promoting transparency, accountability and whatnot, they better do a double-take.

Many of us are not amused. Even the delegates who stood almost-useless outside the foyer wondered what on Earth merited some of the discussions to be closed-sessions? Can anyone help?

The ACP Group needs a serious revision of how it does things. This does not make those of us hawkishly watching the EPA discussions encouraged that they can go onto better things!

They get a C+.

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Commentary on Closed Session of Closing Session

12h24: acp group should work towards lasting peace in Sudan (nuhue)

JAMAICA: unstinting support of all acp states for peace efforts in Sudan. Has a unwavering commitment to people of Sudan. Should not confuse matters of Sudan to matters over ICC, which jamaica subscribes to.

NIGERIA: Concerns over paragraph five. especially paragraph three on non-interference of states. for a distinguished body like this, language should not be tautaologous and language be overkilled.

who says that tomw we might not consider sanctions to bring pressure to bear on level of intl behaviour. want paragraph five deleted.

TUVATU? section two on sustainable devt. change be made...(wording on climate change).

CUBA: sorry, no access to headphones.

SUDAN: parag number 7. noted statements by Jamaica. statement consistent with arab league and african union. what is important is peace process in sudan. the indictment of Bashir could create problems. Necessary to keep paragraph and add other[which one?] one...

KENYA: security, peace and justice should not be overlooked. icc indictment will frustrate regional peace. clause seven should start as it is.

BENIN: paragraph 23: propose to add ..want to add another paragraph on AID EFFECTIVENESS...

ZIMBABWE: paragraph five and seven....

????-ask for suspension of ICC arrest warrant

SOUTH AFRICA retain parags five and seven. the use of sanctions. must as an act of solidarity, retin parag five. all potential parties in sudanese conflict...

ERITREA: express solidarity. retain paragraphs five and seven as is.

12h59 out of here. plenty deliberations over Sudan. And EPAs?

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Inside Closed Session of Closing Session

CARIFORUM: saw epa as a package,are of the view that it liimited market access will not be in best interest of cariforum. at 12h20

kufuor speaks: would urge quickly to get declaration ready. i propose that we take the declaration as a whole, listen to it as a whole and discuss.

someone is speaking? who? [located behind a flag up on the balcony, next to two sleeping security guys]

declaration is bein read out. Declaration in four parts..
.
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The Strange Case of the Elusive President

Fact is: it is not so strange, and the Sudanese president as not as elusive as the title might suggest. Who can blame me, though, when I see someone reading a GHANAWEB article with bold headline "Al-Bashir Skips Town", and I ask for a copy?

As I freeze my behind in this excessively-cool air-conditioned PRESS CENTRE located in a tent adjacent to the press conference on the final day of the ongoing Sixth Session of the Brussels-based ACP Group, clearly, someone is feeling the heat!

It appears the only reason why Bashir was able to make his speech yesterday on Ghanaian soil has everything to do with the fact that the Sudanese president was assured by Ghanaian authorities that he would not be arrested, despite the fact that he was on the soil of an INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT county.

I am suddenly reminded of Charles Taylor who was arrested by Nigerian authorities in 2006, not too far from Cameroun. It coincided with the witnessing by Ghanaians of the country's first solar eclipse in many decades.

Even the stars might have been mad at his blaze of gory in his home country of Liberia!

In that instance, too, Ghanaian authorities refused to arrest the man when he came to Ghana.

Do you smell a pattern of pusillanimity here, or simply a desire to maintain positive diplomatic relations-- something the late former Foreign Secretary of the UK Robin Cook called "constructive engagement"...

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6 ACP Summit--Final Day: So Near, Yet So Far (on EPAs)

I think it might be stretching it a bit to think that expectations might be raised. Currently sitting at the press centre, waiting for the press conference of the Ivorian minister on the EPAs. Should draw quite a crowd. Two of my colleagues are here, waiting to filter the technical aspects of the EPAs through the lens of the minister's utterances, I am sure. Or is that the other way round?

The picture shows a snapshot of the entrance of the doorway to the plenary meeting, which has been closed session since yesterday. The guys inside have special badges, " CLOSED SESSION". Even Dr.DICK Naezer(sp)of the EU delegation here in Accra was


stopped by security, as he went along with his colleague.

My colleague and I speculated that he will most likely bulldoze his way through the meeting this morning, which is supposed to be on FUTURE OF THE ACP GROUP.

The guy to the left of the picture is a journalist who is based in Abidjan. Don't know his name. All I know is the anecdotal information of EU Development Minister Louis Michel having had his stomach stapled, giving him the slimmer appearance, and how "despicable" a character he is. I always knew that;-) The lady to the right is a Balgian journalist who was keen to get a background of the guy on the left. I swear I was not eavesdropping. Being so close as I am, any information is great, dontcha think?

It's 10h17. Press conference ought to start soon! Before I go, let me show you a snapshot of the edition of Graphic Business of this past Tuesday:



It might all be about the money, but it's certainly all about the EPAs now!!

President Kufuor of Ghana Speaks

He says thanks for condolences expressed for late Baah-Wiredu.

Ghana to take over for the next two years from Sudan. [I see ECOWAS president Ibn Chambas listening attentively to the speech] Kufuor is talking about the need for fair international trading systems, which he acknowledges is non-existent. Aid has tended to be given as charity. These shortcomings have incapacitated Ghanaians and ACP countries.

Kufuor is talking more about subsidies than epas. In broaching the issue, he, too, has mentioned reciprocity. How would the eu take up our dilemma [of what?]

Sir John Kaputin, we wish u well. Summit is now opened at 11.31am

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