The Justification for Selling Ghana by the Akufo Addo clan

This article of the $38.2 million Ghana Visa Processing scandal posted on the GLU platform did not have an author but,, what can we say!

May the good GOD have mercy on Ghana for this Akufo Addo Government!

I shed tears in 2022 when coming to Ghana with 2 attempts to (1) renew my old Passport and later (2) to get a Visa using my American passport!

I was emotionally tormented when I had to take time to fill a form I downloaded and sent by FedEx return and the Ghana Embassy in Washington DC sent it back with a note that the forms were outdated and I should use some new forms.

The new form was so complicated and digitalized I Kwaku A. Danso could not use it and sweated for so long uploading pictures and completing a 24 page sebe sebe Nkwaseasem of answering questions about my (late) father and mother and their birthdates and what food they ate (😁- that was a joke) that it took me 3 months and I had to seek help from 2 friends in such an embarrassing way!

I suspected some foul play at work and I wrote an open letter to the Ambassador and surprisingly received a call directly from Minister Amb. Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey,, who strangely calmed me down by that call!

After further attempts I learned that some Private companies had been set up in Houston and Los Angeles to issue Visas to Ghana outside of the Embassy.

The fees, as I recall, was more than the $55 they are quoting here today in this article. I think it was about $125 or $100 plus FEDEX return fee. Strangely enough that private company was using the same old form the Embassy returned to me as outdated!

I smelt the whole thing as a selling of the duties of the Consulate for money! I am not surprised that the anti-Nkrumah capitalist Akufo Addo government would be selling anything they could to generate something for their pockets! No! I read a lot of Psychology as a young in High School in Ghana even though my Professional study later was Engineering.

Being in America and having studied how the world works for the last 54 years I find nothing wrong if services Ghana finds hard to do are sold to an outside group, so far as Government maintains the standards of Quality expected and follows up with any complaints! Period!

I think the same way when it comes to supplying pipe-borne water to homes and Electricity, so far as Government officials do not get rich from this while services are lousy!

In fact based on the bad experience I decided to take a risk and I finally went to the Airport with only my expired Ghana Passport and forms filled out and proof that I had forwarded to an Agent in Ghana showing my having already paid him $150.

I was allowed to board the plane with my US Passport and my expired GHANAIAN passport.

As soon as I got to Ghana and paid the extra $150 to another official in a room (with a Computer that was not even working) and no receipt given, I entered my kontre Ghana and later went and obtained my Bawumia Digital Ghana Card for another $150!

It has become obvious that for most of the current members of administration and even previous ones who were my age mates and contemporaries,

1. There is a struggle to make high income like their colleagues in America making $80,000 or $100,000 and more per year as Professionals and technical people and when they convert their salaries and they in Ghana making say $30,000/year as Lawyers and MPs and Ministers, it hurts! They want to be at par but have no global skills and performance levels to match. They have no shrewd Business acumen either.

Analyzing from a Psychological standpoint from the PNDC days to now, human envy simply gives in to the temptation of these Lawyers like Gabby Otchere Darko and Nana Akufo Addo, Ken Ofori Atta, Otuo Bediako, and others, to finding ways to earn wealth. They are stealing but they see it as “making Business” and opportunity for their clan now that they have been in waiting for 70 years since the struggle for Independence!

Remember thieves also have intelligence and in their minds they are justified in chopping since even ordinary people who did not study so much in Law school were building mansions in the Kwahu areas and in Accra and being admired!

I wish Ghana good luck but will not shed a tear when I see major disruption again before our time on this earth ends.

Kwaku A. Danso, PhD.
Turlock, California, USA