Ghana O Ghana!

In John Chapter 1 verse 46, Nathaniel asked Philip, “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Jesus was assembling his core group of twelve disciples in preparation for the start of his earthly ministry. He had called Philip from Bethsaida, who went and told his townsman, Nathaniel about Jesus. Philip and Nathaniel might have been close friends and Philip wanted to share the “good news” with him. “We have found the Messiah of whom Moses wrote”. As happens even today, Nathaniel, the city boy, asked rather contemptuously if anything good could come out of little, rural Nazareth?

Ghana at rock bottom
Increasingly, that is the question many Ghanaians, especially in the Diaspora, are beginning to ask of our country, “Can anything good come out of our dear Motherland these days?”

I have been prompted to write this piece because some of my friends in some parts of Europe and North America have reported their children coming home in tears because their friends have been teasing them about “their president charging his telephone on camera at an international conference, placing his tea cup beside the saucer instead of putting it in the saucer and also telling fibs on camera about corruption in his country.”

As if these were not bad enough, a Chief Executive Officer of a national institution shamelessly says two years after a senior officer died in his outfit, they are still waiting for the family of the deceased person to formally inform the institution of his death so they can take his name off the payroll. Habah, my people, what do you take the rest of us for? You might be daft to the extreme, but must you really drag the rest of us down the pits so cruelly?

Yes, there is “Dum so” in Ghana, but could the Ghana High Commissioner in London not charge the President’s phone in in his plush official residence at Belgravia Square? And how about the hotel in which the President spent the night before the conference? Could the President’s entourage have exported “Dum so” to that place too?

Will this President Mahama never cease to embarrass the people of Ghana? First there was his unrehearsed speech at an international conference in Accra, which was missing several pages because he had obviously not read through the final draft before he set off from his office. Then the Ghana@59 brochure that assigned Ghana’s presidency to Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, and now this. Who are the President’s advisers? Do they and their boss not know that he is not supposed to use his phone so openly at an international conference, let alone charging it on the conference table? Where were his aides? If the President’s telephone had to be charged at that time, could his aides not find anyone among the large delegation that accompanied the President to the conference to charge and watch over the phone at some discreet location?

Under Mahama’s current economic conditions, I suspect that not many ordinary Ghanaians drink tea at home or even at work, but the Presidency too? Could it be that the President has already forgotten about tea drinking etiquette even at international gatherings? What a shame!

Tea or coffee drinking is not part of our culture, but surely he must have observed others place their cups in the saucers after sipping? How did it go so badly wrong for Ghana in seven short years?

Corruption charges
With Tullow providing expatriate jobs for otherwise unemployed British secretaries and cooks in Ghana at mouth-watering salaries, it was natural that David Cameron would not rock the boat about corruption in Ghana. Nigeria was a soft target. After all Nigeria is a Shell’s fiefdom, largely Dutch, so even if he offended that country, any backlash would be a Dutch problem, not a British one. Prime Minister Cameron definitely knows about the Embraer aircraft purchase, GYEEDA, SADA, Woyome, inflated road contracts, and all the stinky deals in Ghana whose stench rises all the way to the presidency.

Fortunately, being the Hausa scholar that he is, President Buhari (one African leader who is actually doing something about corruption in his country and beyond), fired his own back. Nigerian and Ghanaian politicians are buying houses, with cash, in London as if there will be no tomorrow. We pray that Cameron will fulfil his promise by naming and shaming those who steal the continent’s loans and grants and stash them in British banks or invest them in property in London and elsewhere. We shall be watching very closely.

Questions and answers
The story is told of an European who as part of his preparation towards his first business trip to Ghana decided to learn something about the country, its business ethics, culture, banking system, currency and places of interest, among other things. Finally, he asked his Ghanaian friend, “I understand that in your country you answer every question with a question.” In reply, the Ghanaian friend asked, “Who told you so?”

“Mr President, have you ever taken a bribe before?” “You mean as President or as an individual?” If President Mahama has since watched his performance at his interview with the BBC’s Peter Okwoche, he must be having sleepless nights and cursing himself for agreeing to be interviewed in the first place. By now, even he should know that his facial expression and the movement of his lips as he answered the questions showed an uncomfortable liar, like a primary school child who has been caught cheating in school. That is why my friends’ children are having a horrid time in their schools.

Dead men on payroll
Under the terms of employment of most organisations and institutions in Ghana, when an employee dies either suddenly or after a protracted illness while still in active service, the organisation provides a coffin, an assortment of drinks and physical cash, to the bereaved family. There are substantial sums involved in these provisions and it is inconceivable that such sums can be expended by an organisation/institution without the approval of its chief executive officer.

Secondly, even though most institutions and organisations in Ghana now pay salaries through bank transfers, heads of department must still sign pay vouchers at the end of the month. Were they also sleeping on the job for 24 solid months while they waited for the dead employee to rise from the dead? And these incredible revelations were made to no mean institution than the Parliament of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. It is not surprising that the country’s economy is in such dire straits. There is stealing everywhere!

Our elders have a saying which translates loosely as, “If you glean corn with chickens, they peck your feet.” Our Parliament has made many strange decisions in recent times, there seems to be very little regard for it, for how else can anyone make such a dumb statement to the highest law-making body of an independent country and walk away scot free?

Can good things begin to come out of Ghana again? I wonder.

I shall return with my beaded gourd, God willing.
Naana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at [email protected] , or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.