MAKE NKRUMAH A SAINT; Catholic Workers Demand!

Kwame Nkrumah

By Duke Tagoe

The Catholic Democratic Alliance (CDA), a coalition of progressive workers in the Catholic Church has called for the canonization of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, founder of the Republic of Ghana, ahead of the commemoration of the 106th birthday of the first President of Ghana.

The call was made by Prosper Amenuvor, spokesperson of the coalition at the launch of the second encyclical letter of Pope Francis entitled LAUDATO SI’. The letter states in part that the greatest threat faced by humanity today, is the quality of water available to poor people.

According to The Catholic Democratic Alliance, Kwame Nkrumah began his days on earth as a priest of the Catholic Church and died as the liberator of poor people from colonialism and the exploiting powers of business groups and private capital.

Mr Amenuvor also explained that like John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Pope Paul VI, Patriach Bartholomew and saint Francis of Assisi, Kwame Nkrumah fought on the side of the marginalized in society and died without a table as his personal property adding that the time has come for Nkrumah to be placed in his rightful place in history.

The Catholic workers say that Kwame Nkrumah did menial jobs and fed on the head of fish so that he could study the enemy and work with others to grant Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa her independence.

The CDA holds that Nkrumah was a very religious and a historical figure who built a country where all of its inhabitants had increased access to healthcare, education and decent jobs.

Quoting aspects of the encyclical letter to justify their claim, they argue that the Pope recognized the significance of the struggle of Kwame Nkrumah against imperialism and colonial rule when he stated that “the principle of the maximization of profits, frequently isolated from other considerations, reflects a misunderstanding of the very concept of the economy”.

The encyclical continues and states very firmly that “as long as production is increased, little concern is given to weather it is at the cost of future resources or the health of the environment; as long as clearing of a forest increases production, no one calculates the losses entailed in the desertification of the land, the harm done to biodiversity or the increased pollution”.

The Pope continues and states that “In a word, businesses profit by calculating and paying only a fraction of the costs involved. Yet only when “the economic and social costs of using up shared environmental resources are recognized with transparency and fully borne by those who incur them, not by other peoples or future generations”, can those actions be considered ethical.” Pope Francis adds that “an instrumental way of reasoning, which provides a purely static analysis of realities in the service of present needs, is at work whether resources are allocated by the market or by state central planning”.

The Catholic Democratic Alliance is embarrassed and has expressed disgust at the call made by Mr Isaac Osei, former minister and Ambassador in the erstwhile Kufuor government, for members of the Catholic Church to vote for Catholic politicians simply because they oppose the passage of the Plant Breeders Bill and GMO in the parliament.

According to Mr Amenuvor, parliament has already put in place a Biosafety Law which will allow for the introduction of genetically modified organisms into the environment in sharp contrast to the suggestions made by the encyclical letter of the Pope for adequate discussion and consultation of all stakeholders about GMOs and whether the technology behind it is useful for humanity.

On the matter of the Plant Breeders Bill, the CDA argues that but for the intervention of the Catholic Bishops Conference and some civil society organizations, parliamentarians would have passed the Plant Breeders Bill into law.

They lament that like the Plant Breders Bill some other harmful bills have been passed into law with far-reaching and detrimental effects on the social and economic lives of the people adding that it is the laws passed by parliament that has made gold minning not just an environmental catastrophe but that the citizens of the country do not benefit from the exploitation of that resource.

Mr Amenuvor also states that although Mr Frankiln Cudjoe of IMANI Ghana made some very interesting remarks on how human activity contributed to global warming in a prepared text that he read at the launch of the Popes encyclical, Franklin Cudjoe and IMANI Ghana represent in actual terms, private businesses and foreign finance capital and the havoc that they have wrecked in third world countries.

According to the CDA, IMANI Ghana supports privatization and abhors state intervention in economic activity. They also claim that the policies of all governments in the fourth republic have contributed to the problems that Pope Francis seeks to address in his encyclical.

Refering to the encyclical, Mr Amenuvor stated emphatically that the Pope was referring to the likes of Ambaasador Issac Osei and Mr Franklin Cudjoe as foreign business representatives when he states that “If in a given region the state does not carry out its responsibilities, some business groups can come forward in the guise of benefactors, wield real power, and consider themselves exempt from certain rules, to the point of tolerating different forms of organised crimes, human trafficking, the drug trade and violence, all of which become very difficult to eradicate” he quoted from the encyclical.

The Catholic Democratic Alliance have equally expressed worry at the maneuverings and the politics of the Arch Bishop of Accra, Gabriel Palmer Buckle. A case in point according to the Catholic workers is the recent meeting attended by the Arch Bishop at the domicile of Former President Kufuor to discuss matters which they considered as partisan. The group also holds that by the commission and omission of the Arch Bishop, catholic faithful and their priests have been driven into a state of frenzy as to how much the church can indulge in such partisan and useless politics.

Ambassador Isaac Osei and Franklin Cudjoe had been invited by the Archbishop Palmer Buckle to speak on the political aspects of the Pope’s encyclical.

STOP THE HYPOCRISY

Angela Merkel, German Chncellor

By Kwesi Pratt, Jnr.

When western leaders shed crocodile tears over the plight of refugees dying on the oceans and starving to death on the tortuous paths of the desert, we should ask them, na who cause am?

The refugee crisis and all of its other manifestations across the globe spring from the adventures of western leaders in Africa, Asia and Latin America or the so called third world.

Sometimes even their misguided actions in their own backyards also send hundreds of thousands of people dashing out of their countries to seek shelter, food and peace. Bosnia and Ukraine bear eloquent testimony.

Until Western leaders begun their crazy bids to topple the Assad regime in Syria, that country did not owe any country in the world even a dime. It was virtually self sufficient in food production and one of the most industrialized states in the Middle East and the Persians Gulf.

Guns and knives bought with the tax payers money in Britain, France, The United States of America and Germany have worked to reduce the once prosperous Syrian circular democratic republic to nothing more than rubble.

Is it any wonder that some Syrians are fleeing from the murderous binge of ISIS which is trained, armed and finance by Western intelligence agencies?

Where did the Western leaders expect Syrians displaced by a Western instigated war to go? Afghanistan or Gambia?

US President Barack Husseine Obama

Libyans were a proud people enjoying the benefits of the exploitation of their huge oil resources. They got paid even for sitting at home and doing nothing. They had no problem with housing and their government went to the extent of creating an artificial river for their pleasure and convenience.

All of these are now history for the Libyans who have been reduced to destitution in a land run by competing gangs. The Libyan social security system has been smashed. Oil production centres have been vandalized or taken over by strange groups.

Why would the Libyan people not flee their once prosperous state and head for Europe in search of food and shelter and above all peace?

Can the migration of Libyans be one of the wonders of the world? Who doesn’t know that it is the recklessness of Western leaders which is pushing Libyans out of their country?

Can the story be any different in Iraq and Afghanistan where Western leaders have ordered their armed forces to kill millions of citizens, where soldiers from the USA and Britain have been caught looting and where the west has actively promoted hatred and division?

UK Prime Minister, David Cameron

Do western leaders expect people from the third world who are victims of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, classical colonialism and neo-colonialism to remain and continue to suffer unbridled exploitation in their countries of origin.

When western leaders encourage the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) to impose austerity on countries like Ghana, they should expect their immigration problems to grow worse. High electricity and water bills, unemployment, lack of access to education and general hopelessness force people to migrate and this is not rocket science.

The solution to the migration to Europe is not the closing of boarders and the pretence of humanitarian endeavours. It is not the pretentious piety of western leaders and it cannot be Angela Markel’s  holier-than thou sermonizing.

The solution is very simple; Stop the useless imperialist wars around the world and end the exploitation of the multi-national corporations and the so-called third world.

Enough of this western hypocrisy.

Editorial

Problems in the NPP

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is going through difficult times and it has to find a way of dealing with its problems if it has to make any impact in the next elections.

Over the last two weeks there have been allegations and counter allegations of corruption by and against some leaders of the party.

Surely the party ought to have internal mechanisms for resolving these conflicts to clear the way for the waging of a campaign based on issues which affect the destiny of the masses.

It must be clear that the leadership of the party is riddled with factionalism and that the on-going battles are about which faction will triumph in the end.

 The point however needs to be made that no faction is bigger than the NPP and no one faction can secure electoral victory for the party.

Let Nana Addo Dankwa  Akufo – Addo put his foot down and resolve the problem once and for all.