We shall do Better!

In about sixteen hours from now, we shall be saying good bye to the Year 2015, as we welcome the new year, 2016. Apparently in Chinese terms, that is the year of the Monkey, which means all sorts of things for people born in a monkey year.

The main thrust of this posting is how we have fared as the “Sisterhood of Women” over the past twelve months in Africa and particularly, Ghana, and our resolution for the coming year.

I make bold to declare that as the predominant gender in the corridors of power on the continent and particularly, Ghana, the men have as usual, done abysmally. Unfortunately, to quote a famous Millie Jackson line of the late 1970s, “You ladies ain't s*** either.” We have only done fractionally better than our men folk in 2015.

On the economy, “Dum so”, agriculture, health services, environmental protection, sanitation and security (how did all those millions of rounds of ammunition manage to enter Ghana, apparently from Togo or Nigeria and travel all the way to Kumasi and Tamale, without anybody spotting them? Come on, guys, your incompetence and intimidation do not frighten us!), the menfolk score a straight F-! (F- Minus).

But sisters, how could you allow these spineless men to bully or swindle you into stooping so low? Basic Education Certificate Examination papers were sold like 'kenkey' in the markets and the Minister of Education thought it was alright to subject the poor kids to rewriting three papers on a single day? Where are the people whose responsibility it was to maintain the integrity of those papers?

What of the Chief Justice rewarding some of her friends and colleagues of the bench for selling justice for goats, chickens and massage by females? Madam CJ, forget about the legal technicalities, allowing some of these rogues to go with their benefits while sacking others without benefits, is PLAIN WRONG! You cannot excuse it in any shape or form. All those judges and magistrates that were caught in the despicable sale of justice to the highest bidder have brought the name of your office and Ghana as a whole into disrepute and they ought to be punished for the filthy rodents that they are; no exceptions, ifs or buts!

The new Electoral Commissioner who we all believed would have balls to tell the men where they got off, is still not sure about whether to create a new voters' register, clean or simply maintain the one even she knows to be a hopelessly bloated register. Where does her loyalty lie, with the people of Ghana, the Sisterhood of Women or the few “ball-less” rogues that are whispering in her ears? Madam, 2016 may be the Chinese year of the monkey, but Sisters are not prepared for any “monkey business” in November 2016. So find some jeans shorts and start behaving like a true Sister with guts!

I wrote in defence of the Foreign Minister Ms Hannah Tetteh a few months ago, but she has let me down rather badly with her “birthday gift” clap trap. How on earth does the whole Foreign Minister of a sovereign state go to an ordinary Ambassador of another country, even if that is the representative of the government of the 1.23 billion citizens of China, to ask for a birthday present? And let nobody give us any cork and bull explanation about “misquoting, misinterpretation or misrepresentation.” What the Chinese Ambassador said, what her constituency party executives said and what she posted on her social sites say it all. We are not all that daft, sister!

Is that why illiterate Chinese miners have taken over large swathes of Ghanaian territory and are destroying farm lands and water bodies with such impunity? How many of them hail from the ambassador's village or constituency? Next time the Chinese copy an Adinkra symbol and duplicates it into a paper-thin cloth and dumps it on our markets or a Chinese construction company underbids everybody and constructs one of those third rate 'washable' highways, we will know where their backbone is located.

Sorry, sister, but the only reason why you are still at post is that the men who should have fired you the moment this stinky scam came out in the open, are doing far worse things. If I were you, at least for the sake of your name and family, I would reconsider my position in this government.

Rebranding the men, huh? How on earth did the Sister Attivor manage to get herself so badly cornered in that primitive Metro Bus rebranding swindle? Where did the sister study, Putin's Russia, Cuba or North Korea? And come to think of it, it was another sister who was used to carry out the exercise, creaming off a whopping $1.9m in such a simple exercise that the private sector should be doing and paying money into the national kitty. Have those sisters ever seen a woman harvesting cocoa pods? I have, it is not fun at all, especially if she also carries a baby on her back, with the ever present danger of her harvester disturbing a snake or setting red ants on herself and her poor baby.

I have also ever witnessed a mother cradling a baby in the crux of a huge tree in a storm, as tree branches fall all around her, and many more such harrowing sights! So next time those pathetic men try to make you sisters dissipate the farmers' and miners' taxes with such reckless abandon, think of those poor sisters in the countryside.

Over all, I will resolve on behalf of the Sisterhood of Women, “We shall do better in 2016.”

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/.