Why Imani Ghana And Others Cannot Uncover The Biggest Rot In Ghana & Africa?

Recently, we read a report from the Global Justice Now (2017) which is a non-governmental organization based in London, UK that;

1. Africa subsidizes the rest of the world by a sum certain of $41billion a year.

2. A total of $161.1billion go into Sub-Sahara Africa and $202.9billion come out of this region.

3. Africa gets the total aid of $19.7billion but ends up paying $18billion in debt repayment.

4. Corporations took $32.4billion in profit from the continent.

5. The illegal financial flows as the results of distorting the value of import and export were calculated at $67.6billion.

6. Also, about $29billion was stolen by pirate fishing fleet because of illegal logging as well as the trade that endangered animals and plants on the continent.

Interestingly, our non-governmental or similar groups across the continent did not see this instead a British-Based group did. Did you notice that most of the time if there is massive exploitation in Africa, it takes good friends/groups from Europe or America to expose it to us? We have such groups on the continent too, for example, IMANI Ghana and others. How come our non-governmental organizations that research into issues like this could not spot this? Do they lack some resources? I know someone will come with the excuse that I do not know what IMANI Ghana and others are doing. There is always an excuse for something but the most important thing is to see these groups working towards these problems above.

For the purpose of this article, I will single out IMANI Ghana as a representation of the same groups on the continent. I don't mean to discredit groups like IMANI Ghana; they are also doing a good job. But it concerns me when our organizations cannot uncover the biggest scandals that are happening on our continent now. It looks so sad if outsiders can find our major problems and review to us. Our organizations seem to lack the capacity to uncover the rot we are facing. The earlier we take charge of our issues the better we fix it ourselves.

Today, I challenge Mr. Franklin Cudjoe and IMANI Ghana to be on top of the game. They are very far from the task they have sacrificed their profession to do. You are checking the government and challenging policies every day which is very good, but the bigger part is not yet handled. We are focusing less on the Multinational Cooperations, Pirates, and other international fraudsters on the continent. This is one of the places IMANI Ghana should look at, and I believe they have plans on this already. Corruption, illegal activities, and others MUST be check everywhere on the continent.

Like IMANI Ghana vision reads "To be the most influential think-tank in Africa, promoting peace and prosperity through rigorous research analysis and advocacy, and commitment to educating society on the benefits of a free economy and policy issues concerning business, government and civil society," so should you gear your mission towards the biggest problems we are facing. Especially, the ones above.

In the mission statement, "IMANI sets out to achieve this vision by subjecting any government policy that is likely to have systematic implications for development to basic ‘value for money’, ‘due diligence’ and ‘rational choice’, ‘public choice’ and ‘vested interest’ analysis and then actively engage in public advocacy to publicize the results, with a view to promoting peace and prosperity through human flourishing." It seems IMANI Ghana is focusing on the government (which is good) but what about the Multination Corporations, pirates and other activities going on the continent? Organizations like yours need to expand their tenets which you are operating. Unless government in the mission statement include these corporations, pirates and others who are extorting the continent.

Mr. Franklin Cudjoe, IMANI Ghana is not tackling the biggest problem facing the continent. Your effort is much appreciated but not much to celebrate now. Time to expand your operation and uncover the pressing issues facing the continent as a whole. IMANI Ghana and other similar groups look like an "armchair organization" that that just criticize the government but cannot take massive actions to champion the interest of Ghana and Africa.