RECKLESS TALK: A Major Threat To 2016 Elections

NMC Chairman, Apagyahene Kwesi Gyan Apenteng

By Ekow Mensah

Many Ghanaians must be sitting on tenterhooks as we approach the season of bellicose and reckless talk which could completely derail the democratic experiment.

Every election year, as we get closer to the day of balloting, politicians become more bellicose and irresponsible and pour out unprintable words as if the elections can only be won by those who throw caution to the winds.

In 2012, a Member of Parliament went as far as calling on Ashantis to beat and kill Voltarians, Gas, and Fantes.

The flood of condemnation did not serve as a deterrent to another politician who described Fantes as fools only fit for roles in concert parties.

Then another prominent politician proclaimed that only people from resource –rich regions are qualified for leadership roles in Ghana.

And there are those who threatened to turn Ghana into infernos like Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

Northern Regional Chairman of NPP, Bugri Naabu

This year has already had an appreciable number of inflammatory speeches delivered with gusto by apparently sane politicians who are demanding the peoples mandate to govern.

One of them has said that he would arm his tom tom macutes to police ballot boxes because he cannot trust the Ghana Police Service to do so efficiently.

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo and President Mahama continue to be the butt of reckless talk.

Some political commentators have referred to the height of Nana Akufo-Addo as disqualification for political office.

Others have said that had it not been for the vision of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President John Dramani Mahama as northerner would have been herding cattle somewhere in the plains of Bole.

Reckless talk is obviously a danger for the political experiment and national cohesion but is it possible to deal with the phenomena without criminalizing speech?

Editorial

DECEMBER 7

In only a few weeks the people of Ghana will go to the polls to elect politicians who will superintend over the national development effort for the next four years.

It is these politicians who will decide how much of our resources should be set aside for educating the youth, improving access to healthcare, portable water, housing and infrastructural development.

The choices we make on December 7, will determine whether Ghana moves forward stands still in the next four years.

It is for this reason that The Insight passionately appeals to the electorate to look beyond the narrow confines of ethnic, religious and other social affiliations and focus on the capacity of candidates to deliver the needs of the people.

Change for its own sake which is not related to the development efforts of the people must be useless and meaningless.

On the other hand, continuity must bring with it development to make it meaningful.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: BEFORE THE EMPIRE FALLS, FREE LEONARD PELTIER AND MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

Mumia Abu Jamal

By PritiGulati Cox

Man, I dream of just being able to paint. Go to sleep when I want, get up when I want, eat when I want. Try to enjoy what’s left for me. Talk to the little children—be an elder for my people. —Leonard Peltier, United States Penitentiary, Coleman I in Florida, July 4, 2016.

This is not a good time to be black in America, and not just because of people walking while black, driving while black, running while black, breathing while black, but because of all the hells that people suffer all across America. The truth of the matter is, it ain’tgettin’ sweeter. It ain’t getting better. —Mumia Abu-Jamal, October 07, 2016, SCI Mahanoy state prison, Frackville, Pennsylvania.

Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal have been unjustly imprisoned for decades, and their last chances for freedom will come in the six weeks between the November 8 election and the inauguration of the next president on January 20. During that interval, President Barack Obama will himself be totally free. With no political pressures to worry about, he can do something that should have been done long ago: liberate these two men.

In June 1975, during a confrontation on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Oglala, South Dakota that involved members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), two FBI agents were shot dead. In 1977, Leonard Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota American Indian, grandfather, painter, writer, and a member of the AIM was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for their murders. This, despite the fact that there was zero proof that he did it, and ample proof that the authorities manufactured evidence against him.

Radio journalist, writer, and former Black Panther Party member Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted and sentenced to death in July 1982 for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. The incident took place on December 9, 1981, and he has maintained his innocence since. He has spent most of the ensuing 34 years in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s Death Row. In 2001, a federal judge ordered that his death sentence be overturned, and after losing many appeals of that order, on December 7, 2011, Philadelphia District Attorney made the announcement that he was giving up on restoring Mumia’s death sentence. He is now commuted to life imprisonment without parole.

Both Peltier and Mumia have health problems. Among other ailments, Peltier suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, prostate issues and a heart condition. An affiliate of Physicians for Human Rights has said, “Peltier risks blindness, kidney failure, stroke and premature death, given his inadequate diet, living conditions and health care.” In late 2015, he was diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm that requires surgery, which is being denied him. If the aneurysm decides to rupture, he will die within minutes.

US President Barack Obama might pardon Mumia Abu Jamal

In late August this year, a federal judge denied a request from Mumia for life-saving medication that could cure his hepatitis C. Mumia’s lawyers refiled a case against the Hepatitis C Care Committee and against the DOC officials. This denial remains in effect despite having been declared unconstitutional. Mumia has said that the protocol constitutes “deliberate indifference to the medical needs of at least 6,000 people in Pennsylvania prisons.”

As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.

—words of Christopher Columbus taken from Howard Zinn’s A Peoples History of the United States.

Since that fateful day in October, 1492, when the discovered glistening gold ornaments on the ears of the Arawak Indians lit up the colonist’s eyes, many, many people of color in these, the robbed-again United States of America, have been systematically annihilated, afflicted with diseased blankets, enslaved, lynched, whipped, raped, dispossessed, imprisoned, deported, shot by the police, dehumanized, you name it. All this to keep the white elite extractive mechanism going, and going, and going, until one day, no doubt, it will be all gone.

Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal are just the latest in a long line of victims of a cultural genocide and a black oppression agenda that goes back 500 years, with no signs of stopping.

All of the riches and finite resources in far off places like Iraq, and right here in this occupied land of gold, “bed, bath and beyond” have yet to be sucked dry. Meanwhile, today, the battle in Mosul rages on; in this country, one in three black men, and one in six Latino men can expect to be incarcerated in their lifetime.

Having spent 41 years and 34 years behind bars simply for resisting empire, Peltier and Mumia are perhaps our last living link between the dark past and equally dark future. Their stories, their geography, their art, their words, their ailing bodies, their eyes, today, serve as an atlas of the genocidal and racist white settler history of this country.

How can America heal from this? By acknowledging the wrong that has been done to Peltier and Mumia and setting them free would be a start. Or is the government too afraid to disturb the sleeping giant of deception and atrocities on which this country was founded, fearing the long reparations list that might unfurl all the way to the moon? If that’s the case, then it’s business-as-usual, as always, before one day when it will all come tumbling down with its own weight.

Meanwhile, here’s a window into Peltier’s thoughts…..

Like so many Native children, I was ripped away from my family at the age of 9 or so and taken away to get the “Indian” out of me at a boarding school. At that time, Native Peoples were not able to speak our own languages for fear of being beaten or worse. Our men’s long hair, which is an important part of our spiritual life, was forcibly cut off in an effort to shame us. Our traditional names were replaced by new European-American names. These efforts to force our assimilation continue today. Not long ago, I remember, a Menominee girl was punished and banned from playing on the school’s basketball team because she taught a classmate how to say “hello” and “I love you” in her Native language. We hear stories all the time about athletes and graduates who face opposition to wearing their hair long or having a feather in their cap.

I’m 71 years old and still in a maximum security penitentiary. At my age, I’m not sure I have much time left….when I was indicted the average time served on a life sentence before being given parole was 7 years. So that means I’ve served nearly 6 life sentences and I should have been released on parole a very long time ago. Then there’s mandatory release after serving 30 years. I’m 10 years past that. The government isn’t supposed to change the laws to keep you in prison — EXCEPT if you’re Leonard Peltier, it seems. Now, I’m told I’ll be kept at USP Coleman I until 2017 when they’ll decide if I can go to a medium security facility — or NOT.

As the last remaining months of President Obama’s term pass by, my anxiety increases. I believe that this president is my last hope for freedom, and I will surely die here if I am not released by January 20, 2017.

….and into Mumia’s thoughts:

It is a tragedy that we’re now counting down the days of the first African American—accent on African—president in the history of the United States. And when he leaves you will still have the greatest incarcerator [the United States] on earth at work, and growing and continuing to divest and destroy and diminish the lives of millions of people. The fact that you could have a black president and not put a dent in that hellhole is startling.

[Obama] went into a prison that was empty. Because all of the prisoners were emptied from the cells. So, he walked into a prison block. Yes, that’s true, and it’s historic [Obama is the first sitting president to walk into a prison block]. But it’s also true that he walked in an empty prison block. If you have the greatest incarceration on earth in this nation, then, you know, why don’t you make history by creating empty cells? By freeing people.

It’s been fifty unbelievable years, since Huey and Bobby typed out the ten-point program and platform of the Black Panther Party for self defense. How many times in the last fifty years have you reread the ten-point program and marveled at how grim the conditions still facing millions of black people remain. Half a century, and black life still don’t matter.

You have to admit against your better judgement, perhaps. But it’s damn good entertainment [on the current electoral debacle], and it’s unbelievable. I mean this is the ultimate reality show. It’s so real, it’s unreal. I think it reflects clearer than anything we could have imagined—the fall of empire. This is how democracies fall. History repeats itself. First time it’s tragedy. Second time it’s farce. So, it’s interesting. It’s entertaining. It’s unbelievable. Yet, here we are.”

Yes. Here we are. Everything has been white-washed, including America’s first black president. Behold the irony, for he holds the pen that the white man has thrust in his hand after deeming him worthy of the White House. The question is, does Obama have the courage to finally grant Peltier and Mumia clemency, not only because he can but because it’s right?

(I understand that it’s not in president Obama’s hands to pardon Mumia Abu-Jamal since he is a state prisoner. But, it is incumbent upon president Obama to at least try and urge Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania to pardon him.)

Yes You Can, President Obama, Yes You Can!

Please visit WhoIsLeonardPeltier.Info to learn more about Leonard Peltier, to look at his art. Please visit FreeMumia.com to learn more about Mumia Abu-Jamal, and to PRISON RADIO to listen to Mumia’s broadcast from prison.

PritiGulati Cox is an interdisciplinary artist, and a local coordinator for the peace and justice organization CODEPINK. She lives in Salina, Kansas, and can be reached at p.g@cox.net. 

The original source of this article is Counter Punch

BUGRI NAABU: He Refuses To Tone Down After Police Invitation

Mr. Daniel Bugri Naabu

By Eliasu Tanko

The New Patriotic Party Northern regional chairman, Daniel Bugri Naabu says he will not stop urging the party supporters to vigorously protect ballot boxes on Election Day.

Mr. Naabu repeated the call hours after he honoured police invitation to assist investigations into similar comments he made at Savelugu.

He said the party will deploy at least 40 strongmen to every polling station to guard ballot boxes on Election Day.

His comments were roundly condemned by individuals and election monitoring organizations including WANEP.

The NDC party in the region also held a press conference and called for his arrest.
The police in the region was compelled to invite him following an instruction by the Inspector General of police (IGP) for a full scale investigation.

He turned up on Saturday, days after the invitation but was granted police enquiry bail.
However, the chairman immediately from the police station moved to a rally platform at Sagnarigu and unambiguously encouraged party supporters to “chase, push down, and collect" ballot boxes from thieves on election day.

"You are all police, because you have interest in there. Therefore you must make sure you protect it yourself. Therefore the Election Day, the ballot box, open your [eyes] and look at it well. Don’t allow anybody to change boxes; don't allow anybody to manipulate the elections. Please anybody who comes to steal the box chase him, push him down and take the box and hand him over to the police.

“I’m telling you we won't sit down for somebody to cheat us. We must be awake and see to it that we protect our interest,” Bugri told the chanting crowd.
When Starr News contacted Mr. Naabu over why he repeated the comments that nearly got him behind police bars, he said “I will keep on telling people to make vigilance to protect the ballot box. I will not stop it.

"…Because that ballot box NPP has vote in there. Do we allow those votes to be taken away, and Ghanaians to vote for us [and] allow NDC to take the votes, change it and declare the vote for themselves? Master it can never work."

He said the party cannot entirely trust the police after it failed to arrest gunmen who fired gunshots at the Electoral Commission’s office in Tamale during the just ended voters’ transfer exercise.

Editorial

A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

Every citizen has the right to go to court to seek an interpretation of the law or its enforcement.

However, this right can be grossly abused and its enjoyment can also pose grave dangers to the society under some circumstances.

For example persons who feel wronged by the Electoral Commission (EC) have every right to go to court but when they exercise that right deliberately to frustrate the EC then there is a problem.

It is also important to state that the courts also have a duty to ensure that the exercise of the right of citizens does not create chaos and mayhem in society.

The Insight urges all parties to all electoral disputes to be guided by the broad national interest in the exercise of their rights.

Ayariga’s $6m Campaign Fund Claim "Slip Of Tongue" — APC

Hassan Ayariga, APC Presidential Candidate

The claim by the disqualified flagbearer of the All People’s Congress (APC), Hassan Ayariga that he spent a whopping $6million on his campaign was a “slip of tongue,” the party has said.

“When Dr. Hassan Ayariga said the party had spent so much, the man wanted to say in cedi but just a slip of tongue. That’s what I know as a fact. I’m the General Secretary of the party and I will tell you the facts...,” Rasak Poku, the APC’s General Secretary said.

Ayariga speaking on Starr Chat recently in the aftermath of his disqualification from contesting the presidential race by the Electoral Commission due to anomalies with his nomination forms, said he was angered with his disqualification after spending $6million on campaign activities.

The Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) upon hearing the claim wrote to him to demand his source of funding by close of day Wednesday October 26.
In his reaction to the EOCO invitation, Mr. Poku told Accra FM that Ayariga’s comment was nothing but a mistake.

“It’s a slip of tongue, nobody is perfect, no matter what; you can have a slip of tongue but when you have that slip of tongue, a sensible person will tell you that it was just an error, it was a mistake and this is what I intended to say and that is what I’m telling you that it wasn’t in dollars because in Ghana we don’t [spend] dollars, we [spend] cedis,” he said.

He continued that “So, Dr. Hassan Ayariga as serious as he is, there is no way he will quote a foreign currency knowing very well in Ghana we don’t [spend] foreign currency but in Ghana we [spend] Cedis, so everything he said was in Cedis but because he has lived outside for a very long time, sometimes he mistakenly quotes their currencies, and because he also has businesses outside Ghana, sometimes he might mistakenly quote some of their currencies but he wanted to say Cedis.”

GAMBIA WITHDRAWS FROM INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Yahaya Jammeh, President of Gambia

Gambia has announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, accusing the Hague-based tribunal of “persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans”.

Tuesday’s announcement comes after similar decisions earlier this month by South Africa and Burundi to abandon the institution, set up to try the world’s worst crimes.

The ICC was set up in 2002 and is often accused of bias against Africa and has also struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the US, which has signed the court’s treaty but never ratified it.

The court had been used “for the persecution of Africans and especially their leaders” while ignoring crimes committed by the West, Sheriff Bojang, Gambia’s information minister, said on state television.

He singled out the case of Tony Blair, former British prime minister, who the ICC decided not to indict over the Iraq war.

“There are many Western countries, at least 30, that have committed heinous war crimes against independent sovereign states and their citizens since the creation of the ICC and not a single Western war criminal has been indicted,” Bojang said.

The withdrawal, he said, “is warranted by the fact that the ICC, despite being called International Criminal Court, is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans”.

Gambia has been trying, without success, to use the ICC to punish the EU for the deaths of thousands of African refugees and migrants trying to reach its shores.

The decision will also come as a personal blow to the court’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, a former Gambian justice minister.

Burundi had said earlier this month it would leave the court, while Namibia and Kenya have also raised the possibility.

Over the weekend, the ICC asked South Africa and Burundi to reconsider their decisions, which came as a major blow to the institution.

“I urge them to work together with other states in the fight against impunity, which often causes massive violations of human rights,” Sidiki Kaba, president of the assembly of state parties to the ICC founding treaty, said in a statement.

Alleged war crimes

South Africa’s decision followed a dispute last year when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country despite being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant over alleged war crimes.

Kaba said he was concerned that South Africa and Burundi’s decisions would pave the way for other African states to leave the court.

The tribunal is entrusted with “prosecuting the most serious crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression”.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former ICC chief prosecutor, criticised Burundi and South Africa, accusing them of giving leaders on the continent a free hand “to commit genocide”.

“Burundi is leaving the ICC to keep committing crimes against humanity and possible genocide in its territory. Burundi’s president wants free hands to attack civilians,” he said.

He said Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, had “promoted the establishment of the Court to avoid new massive crimes in Africa. Now under the [Jacob] Zuma leadership, South Africa decided to cover up the crimes and abandoned African victims. The world is going backward.

“The chaos is coming. Genocide in Burundi and a new African war are in motion.”

BOOSTING TRADE ADVANTAGES: SAVING ON IMPORTS

Ekwow Spio Garbrah, Ghana's Minister of Trade and Industry

By Dora Addy

‘There should be a policy to have a mechanism in place to decide when and how to import and export’- K.V. Thomas, Indian Politician

In operating on the business trade scene, much has been said about our import habits; not something to write home about. Presently, the country is exporting many commodities that have been deemed utterly needless, not just because we have the ability to produce such commodities for national consumption, but more, the sheer fact that many of these products were not needed at all; some even posing serious health risks.

The country has been identified with many others who would opt for meagre options in import goods. The continued practice has been questioned as to whether we are still not able to produce such goods. Although the campaign for the patronage of made-in-Ghana goods has been on-going for a very long time, the look- out for something ‘quality’ is a belief that is still much pursued by many.

Not overlooking the importance of how one must always go with quality, individuals must also consider the vastness of our resources, and the need to embrace what we can produce; instilling a strong ethic of national pride and preserving a culture of national self-belief that would lead to the future growth of the local manufacturing economy.

Examining closely how this has come to be, let us also consider how many countries have had to abandon the importation of goods deemed only harmful to their national economy.

We must learn from Nigeria, for example, has done away with the importation of rice, and now looks to its farmers to produce the staple. Let us consider how much they will save on imports, and the total good this would have on the agricultural sector.

While the wishful bidding of most individuals is fulfilled through unnecessary importation of some products, the country suffers much on such demands. The import of toothpick for example is a risible idea, and many other products follow the list.

These products are not only placing unwanted burden, individual lives are also affected and huge resources- both human and natural, remain untapped.

Currently, there are remains very huge stocks of available resources, which have not even been considered to serve the national good when wisely identified as useful to serve the needs of many.

Today, many nations have intelligently transitioned to developed economies owing to the ability to fall on their own resources while creating jobs for many through these ventures. From building simple electronic devices, right up to upscale finds, industrialized countries know of a secret and are practicing a much needed philosophy of independence.

It is observed that, the resort to one’s own resources for industry has been the blessing of many developed nations. The strong attachment and practice to the beliefs of producing locally, the adoption of such measures to support local industry, and the general belief of the manpower available through the locals are the very tenets that provide for the foundations of a thriving economy.

The usefulness of the adoption of such policies to support the local industry, does not in any way undermine the general outlook of the value placed on commodities; the country’s ability to determine that its people receive only quality goods and products.

Such unfounded belief can only center on a group on base reasoning culminating from the upsurge in global needs and demands.

GLOBALIZATION AND NEEDED INVESTMENTS

The extreme need to connect with the rest of the world on trade level cannot be ignored. Our trade partnerships with other developed countries have been forged on good grounds, but the quality and necessity of such good should be well examined.

 The need to catch up with the rest of the world produces a multi-ripple effect that lets on the need to fall on other goods and services which may not be necessarily useful.

Commonly in Ghana, the trade in certain used products on the markets has become very frightening. Inarguably, some of these needs have been created by our inability to produce them. The logistics to commence and keep industries running can be difficult, yet some effort can be made.

To stand tall on the local manufacturing industry, there is the need to seriously put some endeavors into our investments on production, and this to a large extent would require the development and training of human capacities to meet the expected standards both locally and globally.

Across all levels of human life, some investments must be made grow and support industries that will serve the needed trade purposes. Strong policies must be developed and followed-through to support good trade investments.

The forging of such partnerships for national development is one of the creative tools for government. Development is reached at its peak and usually at a faster level. Asking the question of whether there are any good benefits to reap from, the answer is yes.

But the need to also develop our value to invest into our own should be a continued effort. Considering that some of these investors already bring foreign personnel to handle some of these industries, the employment challenge still remains unresolved.

Not strengthening local investment capacities across all sectors has also brought in much unwanted challenges through government loans that have brought in much debt.

MAKING IT QUALITY

The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA), established in 1969, under Act 396, is the National Export Trade Support Institution of the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), responsible for the facilitation, development and promotion of Ghanaians exports.

The GEPA is to ensure that Ghana’s export trade contributes to accelerated economic growth through strategic aggressive marketing of made-in-Ghana products in the competitive global economy.

The country deserves a good spot on the export scene in order to boost the advantages that lie within the export sector.

Considering this, it calls for the working of all parts to bring this to a realization; bringing much quality in what we do would attract major economic benefits through export.

In this case, there is the need to carefully put the quality tag all products; from edibles to non-edibles. A careful investment into all products from production to packaging is clearly needed to attain the accepted standards for overseas.

HEALTH HAZARDS

According to 2013 figures from the United Nations Comtrade Database, Ghana spent $65 million dollars on importing used clothing from the UK. Used clothing comes as one of the most sough-after merchandizes on the imports radar in the country. All year, goods from Europe, the United States, and other developed economies are imported into the country.

According to reports from Ghana Shippers Authority, the country imported 31,400 metric tonnes of used electrical products, representing a 74.6% increase, compared to the 2009 figure of 17,987 metric tonnes.

Certainly, there are huge risks involved in using second-hand clothing if they are not well cleaned before exported to Africa.

It is estimated that some 280,585 cars were imported into the country from 2003-2007. This brings the figure to 70,146 the number of cars imported annually from Europe, USA, and Asian countries. Consider also how developed countries have shipped cars into the country, which have necessarily not gone through, and passed the right safety tests.

While some food products have trended on the markets, it is also a question to ask about the health hazards of consuming such products. Turkey tails, entrails and unwholesome body parts of farm animals,

SAVING THE AGRICULTURAL REPUTATION

The backbone of this nation is agriculture, but this sector also suffers badly from the imports being made. While the primary concern is to preserve this sector that serves the incomes of many across the country, there is a growing concern over the imports of such agricultural products which are also produced here.

Creating a stunted progress for many in the agriculture sector, there are many farmers losing out in a very big way.

Many farmers these days are discouraged by low patronage of their products. Poultry farmers bellow wildly at the huge poultry imports being made onto the markets, as a whooping majority of Ghanaians have stood strong on the scales of the bad import trade practices.

Now, the outlook on some of these agricultural products from abroad tells a lot on the preparedness to move the country from its state of dependency. It is sad because although this sector supports the economy largely, it is still crippling under the pressures of low patronage from the locals.

To add to the burden, let us also consider how many of our local farmers have to endure hardships in the attempt to export products overseas. In an attempt to grow fiscal value, farmers who attempt to export their products have often been faced with stringent export standards, and so have given up all hope of ever trading in export.

Currently, the president, John Dramani Mahama, said at the United Nations, during his speech, as an account of Ghana’s democratic and economic strides to its peers, that, the country did not need sympathy, or Overseas Development Assistance, but rather, fairness in world trade.

It’s very true indeed. Farmers especially, need to be accorded fairness in export. Rejecting and placing strict yardsticks on our local agricultural produce is not only discouraging, but places unnecessary demands on other goods from overseas, that tell badly on our consumption practices while deflating any good reasoning that we are self-supportive.

JOB CREATION

While the economy is tapped to produce goods locally on a large scale, many of the employment gaps will be filled.

All over the business sectors in the country, there are still many opportunities to engage the locals in business.

Elsewhere in the world, the local industries are applauded for the high employment rates, accorded to locals. There is no better way to employ locals than to set the local wheels of industry running.

High importation trends can be worrying because the majority is in need of jobs.

Government must rather see how it can creatively put up industries to supply some of these products needed, while boosting already existing industries.

REDUCING COSTS

A lot of cost is saved when plans are made to grow the local manufacturing sector. While farmers are losing out big time, the local textile and clothing industry is bearing its own load.

Local producers must be strongly supported while receiving boost from government to thrive in business.

The demand on foreign products is a direct effect on the low patronage of local products here in Ghana. Although we cannot completely cancel some of the imported products, we should begin to appreciate what we have and also look to ways of starting production of what needed things that are not available.

LEGALITIES ON IMPORTATION

The Basel Convention, which came into force in 1992, bans the export of hazardous waste including e-waste from developed countries to developing countries for ‘final disposal, recovery or recycling’.

By law, cars that are older than ten years are said to be over-aged. Stolen vehicles are returned by the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) when foreign owners of such vehicles are ready to pay for shipment costs.

It is our decision what to import into our country. As many countries are looking to be dependent on themselves by creating a functioning local manufacturing sector that provides the much needed resources for its people, Ghana should also learn to do same.

Let’s also observe that as they slowly wean themselves of foreign dependency, their economies are affected positively.

Largely this country can produce much of what we import. We need channel a lot of investments towards the cause of setting up local manufacturing industries.

We will earn much-deserved respect. We can get there.

KWAME NKRUMAH VS. DANQUAH-BUSIA: THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF GHANA IN AN ERA OF SUBTERFUGE

JB Danguah (L) Abrefa Busia (R)

By Morpheus

I preface my initial comments with the fascinating observation that, for the entirety of her life as an independent country, Ghana has contended with the cream of its thought leaders in a permanent division as to Nkrumah’s merits. Too many of his admirers, he could do no wrong, he was a saint, saviour and messiah rolled into one; too many of his detractors, Nkrumah was the worst thing to have happened to Ghana and all her ills, past and present are attributable to him.

It is not difficult to conclude that with so much energy dissipated by both sides on the late leader, there has been little room for constructive engagement with the real facts of our recent history and the causes of our hitherto disappointing performance as a budding nation. The hope and promise encapsulated in the nascent Ghana, as a beacon of light that helped bring the rest of sub-Saharan Africa out of the long darkness of slavery and colonial exploitation has been squandered, at the altar of internecine bickering and petty self-seeking.

Dr Kwame Nkrumah

I hasten to add here that apart from sharing the same nationality, race and common humanity with him, I have no special credentials for wanting to pronounce on this remarkable man. It is probably sufficient to say that entirely on the back of some of the appalling efforts that have been made by previous writers on the man, I have concluded that I am as entitled to write about Kwame Nkrumah as anybody else out there; who knows, it may even be that something of what I say here might help one objective person make some sense of the plethora of information available on the man. If I achieve just that, I would be happy to walk away in the knowledge that I had succeeded in shedding a little light where all too often, there has been an excess of heat. So here goes.

Quite apart from reading some of Nkrumah’s own writings to help gain some insight into the man and his mind, it has been a revelation to explore some of the literature out there on Nkrumah. Much of it was skewed too far one way or the other, reflecting the enduring polarisation that characterises any discussion on the man. Far more useful to me were those tomes that exhibited real objectivity and some academic rigour.

Of these, I would recommend the following: (1) Ghana 1957-1966, Ben Amonoo, Allen & Unwin pub, 1981 (this book was a revision and enhancement of the author’s doctoral thesis presented to the University of Exeter in 1973), (2) Kwame Nkrumah, The Political Kingdom in the Third World, David Rooney, IB Tauris pub. 1988, (for his book, the author, a specialist on Ghana from Cambridge University, unearthed unpublished material in Ghana, Britain & the U.S., where he had accessed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) papers; and (3) By Nkrumah’s Side, The Labour and the Wounds, Tawiah Adamafio, Rex Collings, London pub, 1982.

Dr Nkrumah in his mid-ages

By design, I have chosen to write on an aspect of Nkrumah that seems to me, pivotal to any real understanding of his failures and achievements as the Gold Coast’s and Ghana’s first indigenous leader. This was his relationship with J B Danquah, who led the opposition to Nkrumah’s leadership up to and after independence, until his incarceration and death in prison.

The competing narratives on Kwame Nkrumah have run something approximating to the following; from the Danquah/Busia camp, an assertion that the former was a usurper who snatched power from those more suited and entitled to it, hogged the same and thereafter became a tyrant who had to be removed by any means, fair or foul. The version from the Nkrumahist camp runs that, having been bested in fair political contest, the Danquah/Busiah camp refused to accept the democratic decision of the people, fought tooth and nail from the pre-independence era, until they finally succeeded with external assistance in substituting their will for that of the people.

The history books abound with enough information for a credible academic treatise to be written on the subject; I do not intend to undertake that exercise myself and I doubt that any competent scholar will be looking to me to provide them with the sources for such an enterprise here. What I propose to do is set out my own interpretation of the salient points concerning the issue, based on my analysis of the data that I deemed credible. Hopefully, this will trigger a reasoned conversation, devoid of histrionics or hyperbole to our mutual edification.

J.B Danquah

Any attempt to disparage the contribution made by J B Danquah to Ghana’s independence movement would be counter-productive, the simple reason being, an abundance of objective evidence that his exertions to that effort were substantial both in scope and depth. The problem only arises when his acolytes insist that his efforts were exceptional, because they were not. Now, it may be that, if Danquah had had the opportunity to lead the country as he clearly wanted to, he might have led us into prosperity, peace and harmony. We will never know this, however, because he failed to jump the first hurdle for any true democrat, in pursuit of legitimate political power – that of persuading his people that he had a vision of a future that reflected their aspirations.

Both in the general elections of 1954 and 1956, his vision of the future for Ghana and its people were thoroughly rejected at the ballot box, the people exercising their preference for the vision proffered by Nkrumah instead. In any credible analysis of the Nkrumah/Danquah question this should be the starting point for any reckoning of right or wrong on either side. This failure by the Danquah/Busia camp, to obtain the mandate to govern was even more remarkable because, both elections were held under the auspices of the British colonial government, who had a clear preference for the United Party (UP), as its leadership comprised many with “royal” pretensions, merchants, “intellectuals” and petit bourgeoisie, most of whom had bought into the British system of government by patronage, legalised coercion and subterfuge.

Short of physically putting Danquah into power, the British did everything they could to assist Danquah and his cohorts in their quest to succeed them. This included arresting and locking up members of the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) leadership, including Nkrumah himself, in the process.

Notwithstanding the covert assistance given to the Danquah/Busia camp at both elections, they singularly failed to persuade the people of Ghana to vote them into power. Indeed, in the final election before independence, the verdict was so overwhelming, that out of 37 seats in competition, the CPP won all but 2 of them!

To add insult to injury, Danquah himself failed to win the seat he contested! What is instructive about Danquah and his conduct at the time is that, on each rejection by the people he claimed he wished to serve, his reaction was neither noble nor democratic. Refusing to accept the will of the people, he went to the ‘mattresses’ with his allies, just like common mafia hoodlums, orchestrating the destruction of property, the killing and maiming of innocent citizens and generally disrupting the conduct of government business.

It has always seemed a bit rich when Danquah’s supporters seek to make out that their man was a law-abiding advocate of democratic principles, even as all the objective evidence suggests that his reputedly formidable intellect notwithstanding, he was merely a power-hungry megalomaniac, with an overblown sense of entitlement and a distinct inability to deploy what cerebral skills he possessed, to achieving a better understanding of the people’s aspirations. A misconceived sense of infallibility meant that, in spite of the clear rejection of his message by the very people he sought to lead, he was prepared to use any and all non-democratic means to frustrate the will of the people; these included terror, separatism, tribalism and any other bit of subterfuge that came to his undoubtedly fecund mind.

JB Danquah

It was most revealing to discover in my reading, that when he realised he could not lead the country as it was constituted, Danquah and his lot, had been prepared to fight not only for federalism in that tiny country but, when even that eluded them, he was prepared to have the country dismembered so that he could lead a new off-shoot nation from the debris, comprising the “Akyim Abuakwa kingdom”! Indeed, when it appeared to him at a point that independence would be achieved with Nkrumah at the helm and not him, he saw nothing wrong with arranging delegations to the very colonizers who had appropriated our country and its people for their own ends, to plead that we were not yet ready for independence.

There is much in our history that is shameful, but I can think of few more shameful, than an educated Black man, appearing in the hallways of power in the citadels of the white man, arguing that they should continue to retain the forced ownership of our country, its people and resources because unlike all other men, we were not yet ready to look after our own destiny!

So this was the man at the head of the opposition to the government that Nkrumah led from 1954, when he became Head of Government Business until the dawn of independence. On the one hand, Nkrumah, hedged about by the constraints of laws, many of which had been legislated by an exploitative foreign invader, on the other, Danquah, a thoroughly ruthless operator, unencumbered by any concept of respect for the rule of law, any law.

The question then is how, with such damning evidence against him, a myth has taken hold that Danquah was the democrat, law abiding nationalist, who was hounded to his death by the tyrannical, anti-democratic, power-hungry Nkrumah? This is where one has to acknowledge the creative genius of the Danquah/Busia “conspiracy”, as I refer to it. Taking a leaf from the play book of the Washington/London axis, they constructed a new, sanitised narrative, entirely false of course, but kept hammering it home so often, that inevitably, it took hold in the consciousness of at least, some of the people. Once this had been achieved, it was time to enlist the help of their external benefactors in Washington and London, who brought to bear their formidable array of weapons of intrigue. These included to start with, engineering a subtle external credit drought, manipulation of cocoa prices and other obstructive devises geared towards wearing down Nkrumah’s regime in its desire to achieve the objectives for which it had obtained the people’s mandate.

Abrefa Busia

That Nkrumah was able to achieve anything at all in his relatively short tenure in office, is a tribute to the man’s tenacity and refusal to bow to malevolent pressure from within and without. The deck was quite simply, stacked against his project from the start, with any hope of success of his policies sandwiched between the crushing counterforces of a disloyal, seditious and violent political opposition, allied to a hostile parallel government comprising the senior civil service at home, underpinned by a virulent external campaign waged mainly from London and Washington. In the case of the civil service, the systematic sabotage to the implementation of government policy is more lucidly detailed in Benjamin Amonoo’s erudite book cited above and I urge the reader to invest in a copy for their own enlightenment.

Further testament to Nkrumah’s democratic credentials is set out in a book also cited above, by the socialist lawyer, Tawiah Adamafio, famously imprisoned by Nkrumah during the frenzied period of assassination and treason attempts. Adamafio paints a picture of an incredibly fastidious democrat, who was at all times, concerned about working within the law and where the law needed changing, doing so in accordance with the existing rules. His frustration with Nkrumah for not going far enough in changing the system is palpable. The irony of Adamafio’s incarceration by his own side and subsequent release by the Danquah/Busia-sponsored junta only makes it more remarkable that, writing nearly two decades after the event, he was prepared to concede Nkrumah’s basic decency and adherence to lawful democratic precepts.

Even as I observe with horror, the travesty that passes for “multi” party politics as manifest in the U.S. over the last few years, the straightjacket of a one-party state is one I would not wish even on my worst enemy. The ferment and competition in ideas is the stuff of human progress and any system that restricts that process, in effect, curtails human progress. No prize is worth that diminution in freedom of thought and if I make any criticism of Nkrumah, it is that he ever resorted to that desperate measure.

However, I entirely appreciate the desperation under which he operated at the time; at home, he had no partners in democracy, as the opposition from the onset was disloyal to the country itself (CIA papers now available include a note written by Danquah to his CIA handler, enquiring about delay in a payment to his wife, during his incarceration and we now know how much Lieutenant General Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka (1926–1967) and Brigadier Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa (1936 –1979) received from the Americans to stage the coup that ultimately put Kofi Abrefa Busia (1913 –1978) in power; the civil service, exposed the myth of impartiality by running a parallel government dedicated to frustrating the elected government’s policies which, they were professionally and legally obliged to implement; to enhance this toxic brew further, abroad, Nkrumah faced the implacable, active enmity of the Brits and the Americans. It might have been possible to endure British hostility and survive, for after all, its power and influence had long been on the wane, but even now, what country on earth has what it takes to survive active hostility from the U.S. and still prosper?

It is instructive to note that, Nkrumah was really only in full control of the levers of political power for merely 6 years of his time in office, before he was undemocratically removed from office. Prior to that, he had operated under the constraints imposed by the British government from 1954 -1957 and from 1957- 1960, the pre-republican constitution. The advances in development that the country achieved during those 6 years were breath-taking in their own right, considering the British had been in charge for over 100 years and, save for a few roads and an anaemic railway, built specifically to help them extract the gold and other resources that were of interest to them, left the territory essentially in stone-age condition, with a measly “endowment” of some £300m, to build a whole new country; when it is considered that it was all achieved in the teeth of the internal treachery briefly described above and constant threats from powerful external forces, it is almost a miracle in human terms.

Since Nkrumah’s departure, the Danquah/Busia camp has had power for 14 years, in 3 of which they had absolute power under the junta – it would be interesting to put side by side, Nkrumah’s achievements in his 6 years, and their achievements over the 14 but that would be for another discussion. On this occasion, my contention is that as between Danquah and Nkrumah, the facts unequivocally indicate the latter was the democrat and the former was anything but.

Undefeated, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah

I’d also recommend that if you never read any other of Nkrumah’s books, do yourself a favour and read “Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism”. Even today, stripped of some of the Marxist jargon that was popular with liberation practitioners of the day, the book is an amazing analysis of exploitative capitalism, how it works, its’ various tentacles, from financial institutions to the extractive conglomerates and how it protects itself from legitimate censure. What is even more impressive is that, Nkrumah wrote this book while in the thick of literally fighting for his very life, at the same time as struggling, against formidable odds to realise the vision he had sold to his people to rid them of the scourge of centuries of humiliation, tens of decades of servitude and colonial exploitation. In his last years in office end, no man was more hounded than Nkrumah, yet he maintained his dignity right to the very end.

It is a source of considerable personal pride that, in spite of a herculean effort over the years, mounted by the U.S. and Britain in their propaganda, and by the Danquah/Busia establishment, including costly probe after probe, not one penny of asset has been found stashed anywhere that would support any claim that Nkrumah was personally corrupt. Contrast that with the documented accounts of corruption from Danquah/Busia to the present incarnation of that tradition and Nkrumah’s reputation begin to look even healthier even as the years move on.

My final comment at this stage of what I hope will be a lively discussion is that, Nkrumah was an exceptional individual, uniquely qualified to serve the purpose, which he chose for himself, of facilitating the emancipation of his people. He possessed the intellectual heft to understand the true situation of the Black man, leading him to conclude that the independence of Ghana would be meaningless, unless it was aligned with that of the rest of Africa. All that has occurred since he uttered those sentiments indicate the enduring veracity within those words. They are as true today as they were when he said them. That is why the world over, his reputation continues to grow amongst Africans, people of African descent and the fair minded. History will vindicate him with recognition of his true worth. In respect of his key historical antagonists, there is no indication of any growing interest in the life and achievements of either Danquah or Busia; given the dearth of any meaningful achievements other than the personal in that regard, perhaps that is understandable.

The Author:Morpheus is a Scribe at Grandmother Africa. He has been practicing and teaching law in England and Canada since 1995 and dabbling in the study of history and the political economy that guarantees the perpetuation of the current iniquitous order. Whatever Morpheus may be, he is certain he is neither a practitioner of the dismal 'science' of economics nor of political science, which he considers to be an oxymoron. There is no science to politics!

Editorial

Ethnic Politics

Every Ghanaian who wants to see Ghana’s democratic experiment, thrive must be seriously worried about the incitement of Konkombas by Mr Daniel Bugri Naaba, Northern Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) against President John Mahama and his government.

Mr Bugri Naabu has urged Konkombas to vote against President Mahama and the NDC because he has failed to appoint a Konkomba as a Minister.

It is unfortunate that Mr Bugri Naabu believes that the appointment of one Konkomba as a Minister regardless of his class or social interest will resolve problems facing the country.

He does not see that the problem of underdevelopment in Ghana as a challenge for all Ghanaian people irrespective of their ethnic origin.

People like Mr Bugri Naabu only poison the political atmosphere and should be discouraged by their political parties from sowing seeds of ethnic strife.