GOT SERVED!

The rains we prayed for came and it washed us away from our flimsy structures and caused us so much pain and anguish. A lot of times we humans wish for thins we really cannot handle when we gt our wishes. Ghanaian also are noted, far more than any other group of people, for causing self inflicting pain and what happened on Friday and Saturday was a classic case of illustration. firs we are at fault for praying for rain when we were in the least prepared for it no matter how absurd that may sound. we simply should have left god alone to his own devices but no, not Ghanaian we fasted , "allnighted" and "compelled" the Almighty to open the heavens-open he did on Friday evening( and what a time too for God to choose ;ruining the perennial weekend revelers). The majority of people who pray happens to live in Accra which incidentally is the most ill-prepared and least in need of rain

51st Anivesary of Ghana's Freedom

Ghanaians less hopeful of Next 50 Years

Last year Ghana had a long and glorious 50th anniversary celebtrations of Independence. This years celebrations are much more sober but lacks the reflective mode that sober moments brings.

This year happens to be the last of the the two terms of the current president who presided over the 5oth anniversary celebrations. The somber mood in the country is a reflection of the lack of optimism among the people of the 50 years ahead.The jubilee celebrations were hyped and people bought into it. Again people genuinely were in the mood to celebrate Ghana's tremendous achievement over the last 50years especially during the Nkrumah era.

this year's celebration is more about contemplating what will be the state of Ghana when we celebrate a century of independence. there is desperate lack of hope among many ordinary Ghanaians despite a flurry of massive propaganda of how fortunate we are to have this current government in the helms of our country.However most Ghanaians know better and are not fooled easily by the empty talk. On the day that the president was eulogizing his impressive achievement over the last seven years , a massive water shortage had hit Accra leading massive disruptions in the daily routines of many Accra inhabitants.

Most Ghanaians like myself are very happy to live in such a phenomenal country and we hope for the best for our country ,however we are not enthused at all about the mediocre state that our government has succeeded in making us accept.

POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE SLOWLY WARMING UP

Now the contest for the presidency has become clearer since the four major parties have elected their flag bearers. The politicking is underway and the heat is slowly creeping into the atmosphere. There is a lot at stake and the all the side have not hidden their preparedness to battle very hard if that is what it will take to achieve success. Prof. Atta Mills has quickly gone on the offensive by calling on Akuffo-Addo to stop abusing incumbency as well as the use of public resources to run his campaign. The NDC presidential candidate has also turned on the heat by issuing a strongly worded statement to the government and the Electoral Commission not to repeat the aberrations of the 2004 elections when the ruling part declared itself the winner of the polls. This statement was in light of the huge problems that have resulted from the badly run Kenyan Elections. Prof. Mills has dawn many parallels about what happened in 2004 and what is happening in Kenya now. The NPP media machinery including the bought, co-opted, and the engaged swung into action and attacked the NDC for “beating war drums”. You would think the NDC had called for a war if you dropped from Mars and didn’t know what the NPP and their media collaborators were made of. Akuffo Addo has also had his share o the heat. When the Upper East situation flared up, it alleged that he was the cause of it having gone and promised to help one of the feuding parting to prevail if he became president. The allegation festered for a while and when he decided to respond, he spoke in a tone that accentuated the perception that he was arrogant. Even the mundane and unexciting Jonh Mahama has had reason to be excitable when it was suggested in the media that Paa Kwesi Ndoum , the Presidential candidate of the CPP had started negotiations with the PNC for a possible alliance of the Nkrumahist forces. The force of the denial from the PNC camp suggested that it will take some doing before Nkrumahist unity could be achieved. After a long silence Rawlings finally spoke and the media reports suggested that his wrath was as much against the NPP as it was against one of his lieutenants. His suggestion that the altercation during the NPP congress was designed to rig the election for Akuffo Addo has fed into the NPP propaganda that the NDC and Rawlings are scared of Akuffo-Addo. These are very early days, however everything points to a hotly contested election this year.

CJA go ahead with Tamale protest

....Despite Police hiding behind flimsy excuses to curtail civil freedoms

Over the weekend the Committee for Joint Action went ahead to organize a protest march against the backdrop of intimidation and threat from the security services and other groups linked to the government. This was the second in the series of demos by the CJA against what they term as the harsh living conditions that Ghanaians are suffering from the bad governance of the NPP administration. For the second successive time the police service tried in vain to curtail the protest by adopting some very crude tactics and hiding behind some very flimsy excuses. The CJA, in conformity with the public order act , notified the police service more that two weeks in advance of their intention to demonstrate in Tamale. Just like in the first demo that took place on 11th December 2007 the police alleged that they are short on personnel due to the upcoming CAN 2008 and the fragile security situation in the Upper East. Even before the troubles in Bawku the police were citing lack of personnel and were cautioning the CJA to put their protest on hold for lack of personnel. This was the exact script during the 11th December demo. In their attempt to go to all lengths to stop the image damaging protest, they managed to obtain a court injunction to restrain the CJA from going ahead with the march. They however failed to appropriately serve the organizers and adopted the desperate measure of pasting the injunction on a hotel wall and going ahead to launch a media campaign to create panic among the CJA. Conversant with the tactics of the police, the leadership of the CJA countered back by coming out strongly to defy the threats and declare their intentions to go ahead with the demo. Backed by solid legal advice one of the leaders the CJA Kwesi Pratt urged the masses to turn up the following day while the police command continued to threaten they could not guarantee the safety of the protesters and will hold he leaders of the march liable should anything go awry.. A Group calling itself the PROGRESIVE ACTION GROUP surfaced in the evening of 11th January declaring chaos and mayhem if the protest went ahead. This group claimed that their investments in anticipation of the CAN 2008 tournament stood in dangers in the protest came on and that they would employ every means necessary to stop it from happening. The reaction of the police was a tacit acceptance of this new group and their threats . The CJA stuck to their plans and organized a well attended demonstration in Tamale on the 12th of January without incident. When the march was over the crowd converged at the Tamale Jubilee part to hear speeches from their leaders and they got a nasty reminder of the plans the security agencies had in store for them. A military helicopter flew very low over the crowd and spread massive dust on the demonstrators causing panic among them. It is amazing that the people who were complaining bitterly about the lack of civil liberties while they were in opposition are now adopting every means to curtail these liberties now that they are in power. It is however refreshing that there are people in this country who have dedicated themselves to fight for freedom and justice without fear in any circumstance. People like Kwesi Pratt have dedicated their live to lead this fight and deserve commendation and praise. Unlike others who have sold out and followed the corrupting influence of money he stands giantly in the way of oppression and tyranny. The freedoms we have in this country was not granted but earned through hard battles and we will fight any day to keep it that way.

A DARK DAY FOR GHANA’S ECONOMY

.....Stooge Government buckles under pressure from EU and big business. On Friday 14th December one more death nail was driven into the economy of Ghana when the Government of Ghana signed a version of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and ACP countries. Ghana is the second country after Cote de Voire to sign the EPA in the West African region. Against the backdrop of incessant and sustained pressure from the civil society on the government not to sign the deal they went ahead anyway. Over a period of two years a lot of protest has been organized by civil society organizations across Africa backed by solid research findings advising against entering into this trade trap. Led by organizations such as Third World Network, Action Aid, Ghana Trade and Livelihood Coalition, Christian Aid and OXFAM a lot of awareness was created in Ghana on the nature and possible impacts of the EPA and there was a massive consensus that it would spell doom for the Ghanaian economy especially in the areas of Fiscal Policy, Agriculture and Industrial Policy. The West African Economic Community the ECOWAS resolved to refuse to sign the EPA en bloc saying that the deadline of December 2007 was too short for them to adequately negotiate a favorable deal and conduct a comprehensive impact assessment study. It seemed that for the first time in many years our leaders will listen to the internal voices of reason and do what would be in the overall interest of Ghanaians and not consent to the parochial interest of the elite clientele. The Government of Ghana affirmed the position of ECOWAS and the reasonable voices of the majority of Ghanaians and made strong statements that it was not ready to sign the EPA. Up until the EU – AU summit in Portugal between 8th and 9th December. Cracks began to appear in the united front when Cote de Voire signed under pressure from the EU and the powerful French business interests (Cote de Voire is the biggest and the most significant economy in the UEAMOA currency zone.). After the summit the government performed an acute about turn after it had apparently been put on enormous pressure by the imperialist powers. The government has gone ahead to sign the deal knowing perfectly all the repercussions that the EPA will have on the economy. This was clear from the pronouncements of the negotiating team and officials from the Ministry of Trade who had declared on numerous occasions that Ghana was not ready to sign the EPA The deal will cost the government about $120m in lost tariff revenue yearly. This will rob the government of badly needed funds for infrastructure and social investments. The EPA will also mean Ghana will open its markets to competition from highly subsidized agricultural goods from the EU. Since Ghana was hurried to sign the EPA it had not apparently prepared to even negotiate some concessions from the EU. This led the government to stage a farcical tough stance by appearing to hamper the signing ceremony. The signing was done on 14th instead of the advertised 13th. Ghana has suffered under the pressure of “The Washington consensus” policies via the Structural Adjustment programs of the 1990s. The stuttering industrial sector is set to suffer further from the unfair competition from obviously advanced and highly competitive European industrial products. It is estimated that it will displace about 8% of the industrial sector in Ghana over the next five years. For a nation that is already experiencing deindustrialization (before it even started), this will definitely be the death of industry in Ghana. The Agricultural sector is the one at risk the most from the deal since it is already suffering from the effects of the first and second wave of the deadly trade liberalization in the previous decade. Due to the unfair competition from the highly subsidized agricultural product from the EU and the USA, the agric sector in Ghana has been driven to the point of extinction. The grains, livestock and poultry subsectors have especially felt the pinch leading to shrinking of their productivity. Rice production especially has taken a heavy hit since the trade liberalization in the early 1990s.Rice production has fallen by as much as 25% while poultry production has fallen drastically under the weight of the dumped and highly subsidized (about €1.25bn) poultry products from the EU. The EPA will be a challenge to the livelihood and food security of the poorest section of our already poor nation. Even the EU’s own Sustainability Impact Assessment report admits that ECOWAS region will be adversely affected by the EPA. There are even some studies that suggest that only about 23% of Ghana’s export to the EU will benefit from an enhanced access as a result of the EPA. 73% of Ghana exports to the EU is covered by MFN zero and GSP zero tariffs. It is clear that this government is incapable of taking policy that will be in the interest of majority of Ghanaians. Under pressure from their imperialist masters and the rent seekers (exporters of marginal products inconsequential to the overall economy) this incompetent government has taken this country into a deal that will be most damaging to the majority of Ghanaians.

MAD DASH FOR THE POST

>>> The NPP Flagbearership Race hottens up with Hours to the D-Day Take a walk through the City of Accra and you wold be forgiven for thinking that thare is going to be a huge gig over the weekend of a much loved classic band who are getting together again.There are huge billboards and banners all over the city emblazoned with the pictures of the varios contestants. A lot of money is defibnetely being spent by the contestant... money that almost everyone is worried about. Even the NPP faithful who are used to seeing their party spend a lot of state money duiring electioneering are revulted by the open and brazen show of opulence. There is a tall list of some candidates who are spending money themselves.

BATTLE FOR THE SOUL

The Religionist Lobby in Ghana Extend Their War Into the Classroom The Bishops, Reverends, Pastors, Evangelists, Apostles, Prophets, Prophetesses Prayer Warriors etc in the church crazy nation of Ghana are on the warpath. They are cross at what they describe as “the Godless nature of the new Educational Reform” Apparently the new Education Reform had deleted the ‘Religious and Moral Education’ (RME) course from the Elementary school syllabi. The Catholic bishop Conference of Ghana issued a strongly worded statement condemning the omission. Furthermore they instructed the heads of all catholic sponsored but government assisted schools to implement a strict daily regime of religious teaching. The powerful Christian council of Ghana -which is a pressure group comprising all the churches on Ghana (and is an awful lot of them) - has joined the fray and has demanded the reinstitution of the RME without delay. My opinion on this issue is that the battle is really one to convert young impressionable minds into Christianity. At such a young age it is pretty easy to pump religious dogmas into the heads of people and you’re sure it will stick for a lifetime. I quite remember that my brush with RME during my school days was a dominated by passages from the bible and overt Christian proselytizing. The burgeoning church industry sees it survival in the young ones coming through and it is desperate to lock a steady stream of followers for the future. However what the Religious Zealots forget is that Ghana is a Secular Constitutional entity than guarantees the religious freedoms of all manners of persons with any form religious believe whilst the state maintains a neutral religious posture .However the reality of RME is that it teaches Christianity to young impressionable minds using the platform provided by a supposedly religious-neutral state. Again the threat by the catholic Bishops to compel head teachers to enforce catholic values is taking it too far.

PERSECUTION OF TEACHERS In Ghana

There is a disturbing trend currently sweeping through the education sector in Ghana that threatens not only the teaching profession but also the hard won freedom of speech in Ghana as well. Teachers who dare to make true public statements about the teething problem associated with the New Educational Policy are being targeted for demotions threats and transfers. All this is happening without any concrete resistance from the institutions that are charged with safeguarding the freedom of Speech of all Ghanaians and the rights of teachers. I am urging all Ghanaians worth their citizenship to stand up to the increasingly politicized Ghana Education Service and the inept NPP Government.This Stupid government is taking advantage of the uncritical nature of the loudest Ghanaian public commentators to commiit some atrocious crimes. In two widely publicized cases a Headteachers inTema has been demoted and transferred to another school for saying on radio that there has not been a high enrolment rate since the beginning of the New Educational Reform as anticipated. The other case involves an educationist in the Accra Metro Educational Office who questioned the availability of enough resources to implement the educational Reforms.He was issued with an official query and a threat of a transfer. Ghanaians wake up and fight this injustice.

POLITICAL SEASON HERE!!

As a throwback to Eva Lokko it safe to say that we are now firmly and without doubt in the political Season. A season for truckery and traechery, a season for earning and spending,a season for promises and deception, a season for allainces and making enemies. A lot is going to happen ijn the weeks and months ahaed until we elect our next president in 2008. I also expect to see some new campaign strategies never wotnessed in the land before.Its going to be an exciting campaign so brace your self to participate in one way or the other. It is a watershed so do not be left behind ;or the wrong choice will be made for you

CPP WAKING UP

It is probably the Best new our jubilee year. It is an auspicious year and it will be an appropriate time for the party founded by the Great Nkrumah to wake up and take its rightful place in the political landscape of this country.

Over the last few weeks the CPP has been enjoying a lease of positive media attention. The party has been in the public space for more good raesons than any other cause. Any body who wacthes the political scene in Ghana will attest tonthe fact that when such things happen then it means there is a fundamental shift in the political dynamics of this country.

The 50th Annivessary celebrations has refocused more attention on the graetness of Nkrumah and what he has achieved for this country. Every one looks back with pleasant nostalgia of the really good old days. The detractors of Nkrumah ,try as they could did not succeed in eroding the solid reputation the Great Man built for himself accross Ghana and Africa.It was such a beautiful sight to watch all the leaders of Africa converge on the Independece Park and pay deserved tribute to the Great Man and thank him for his help in the liberation strugle all over the continent. Also the recently ended AU summit in Accra where our current president (as the Host) and majority of the presidents gathered failed miserably to come up with a decision on a Continental Union government showed how forward looking Nkrumah was when he proposed a union government in 1957 at the time of Ghanas Independence.

Again this resurgence of the CPP is a sign of the yearning of ghanaians to have another party that will bring a new dael and attitude toi the table.And CPP seems to be best placed to fill this gap.

I am hoping those in authority will not blow this opportunity and capitalise on the groundswell of sentimental affection that is being shown. The leadership of the CPP must match this show of support and interest with equal harwork and organisational prowess.

PLEASE DO NOT LET OSAGYEFO AND THE PEOPLE OF GHANA DOWN ;CPP!!!