The “Fama Nyame” Fetish and the Dearth of Strategic Thinking: A Pyrrhic Drought in Ghana’s Democracy.

In the aftermath of the defeat of the Romans in battle at the beginning of the Roman ascendency on the Italian Peninsula, the ancient ruler of Hellenistic Kingdom of Epirus, King Pyrrhus is recorded by the Roman writer Plutarch to have exclaimed, “If we win another such battle against the Romans, we will be completely lost.” This candid admission by King Pyrrhus after witnessing the shattering carnage that ensued from the battle has ever since become a key staple of strategic management over the years. For those in need of biblical evidence, Luke 14: 28–32 encapsulates the need for strategic thinking in the broadest sense.

However, unlike King Pyrrhus, who probably never had the benefit of hindsight, there is no excuse whatsoever for a national leader today to pursue national policies without a well-mapped out strategy. As it stands right now, The President of Ghana, Mr JD Mahama, is in danger of becoming a contemporary example of Pyrrhus in the Ghanaian context. Even before the end of his current term, it is predictable and probably even obvious that his presidency may end up being described by future historians as a pyrrhic moment in Ghana’s democracy - the kind of democratic dispensation where the cost of efforts employed overly outweighed the benefits accrued.

Let’s be frank, Ghana is a mess; and has been for a long time. The matriarch elephant in the room is, firstly, the ignorance of strategic management at all levels in our society. I have often wondered why a culture imbibed with the treatise of the proverbial strategist, Kweku Ananse, is so prone to haphazard decision making and catastrophic short-sightedness. Strategic thinking is partly cultural and partly a learned behaviour. In Ghana, there appears to be a huge distance between the strategic sensibilities that lie within our culture-speak and the actual day-to-day practices and behaviour. The former is strategy rich, the latter less so.  I suspect that the reason could be primarily an absence of literacy in strategic management. Strategic management is barely taught in our institutions of higher learning.

We can safely assume that for a country like Ghana, bedeviled with minimal formal practice of strategy in our day-to-day activities, the incorporation of even a little dose of strategic planning will go a long way towards economic success and hopefully a culture of strategic thinking. The reality is that an overwhelming number of the work being done by the government is barely driven by a coherent economic strategy. Often, the goal is purely political. For example, constructing an impressive interchange in one place or an international airport or a new bridge in another may send a politically conspicuous signal to voters that something is being done; however, most of these ‘political’ projects make little economic sense, are devoid of any synergies whatsoever and are strategically hollow.

To reap a higher economic dividend, we need to engage the development of our country on a much more systematic and strategic traction. At its core, the debate about economic motivations and sensibilities versus politics considerations and exigencies is not a benign academic debate far removed from the realities of third world economics. Invariably, strategic nations put the economic horse ahead of the political cart and never the other way round.

Today, the pursuit of economic development by nations great and small is an incredibly refined version of the art of war espoused by Sun Tzu, the Chinese General and strategist; and only those with formidable strategic formulations have a chance of success.


Secondly, the Ghanaian mindset of “Fama Nyame” (i.e. the ubiquitous, naïve conflict-avoidance ‘kumbaya’ nonchalance) has dented our collective ability to critically analyse national issues and rendered us impotent in the face of diverse threats and opportunities upon which our very existence as a nation depends. As a nation we have given up on all manners of robust intellectual justification and cognitive persuasions in favour of trivialities and ‘midgety’ pseudo-spiritual alternatives that render neither physiological sustenance nor assuasive moral fulfillment.


As the current administration continues to defend the indefensible in the face of widespread nation-wreaking corruption, pathetic incompetence and gigantic mismanagement, while shamelessly resorting to emotional blackmail to create false impressions of wrongdoing in the minds of law-abiding Ghanaians who crave a hopeful alternative to the wanton economic and social carnage being unleashed mercilessly upon Ghana, I have often wondered why the tipping point hypothesis does not seem to hold in Ghana. Then, boom… an epiphany. It became clear to me that the perfectly elastic tolerance exhibited by Ghanaians is a function of our Fama Nyame culture. As a people, we have psychologically programmed ourselves to avoid dealing with problematic issues by passing them unto God. We do not do confrontation, instead we dish it all upon God to do the 'dirty work,' hence Fama Nyame.


In any case, Fama Nyame is not really about a belief in divine justice; rather, it is an attempt to rid oneself from our responsibilities by making God the scapegoat. This form of ‘bouc émissaire’ is not only the highest form of irresponsibility, it is totally ungodly but also morally, economically and politically detrimental. It justifies our reasons to do nothing because somehow God will do it; thus we keep on kicking the can down the road until it snowballs into a crisis, then we pass the buck. It explains why we are just not getting on with the cloak-and-dagger realities of life. Instead of rousing our battle instincts, Fama Nyame serves an override switch that keeps Ghanaians in a perpetual state of disengagement from dealing with our realities. As the stronghold of our internalised impotence, it has resulted in a psychological capitulation from doing whatever it takes to fix our problems. In a recent article, my friend and Man of God, Pastor Sunday Adelaja, addressed a similar issue titled “Only God can help Nigeria – What a myth” (Read his paradigm shifting article here). The deadpan small-mindedness, cowardice, slothfulness, irresponsibility, mediocrity, corruption, docility and ‘grit-less’ness so prevalent in Ghana are mere symptoms of a much bigger problem, Fama Nyame. In short, Fama Nyame has deadened Ghana.


And so I imagine that in the long run, an analysis of the cost of the strategic illiteracy at the highest echelons of political governance to the economic fortunes of Ghana will tell a sad story of how our own collective Fama Nyame fetish is the other side of the same coin of strategic-less existence, and how these have significantly perpetuated our proximity to poverty.

Alas, the pyrrhic decisions of our national leaders, coupled with the apparent national tolerance for mismanagement and corruption not only portray the incredible depth of ambivalence among many Ghanaians who do not regard corruption as a serious crime that warrant one to protest against but also how pathologically inured we are, and will continue to be for years, to woefully bad leadership.


To decisively tackle Ghana’s severely weakened economy, there is the urgent need to implement several structural reforms, the success of which will depend on how we successfully confront the twin evils discussed earlier. Firstly, economic policies should be based on sound and implementable strategies. That is the rational and logical pillar of any policy making paradigm. The second pillar should be deliberately motivational and premised on a behavioural imperative - zero tolerance of Fama Nyame in our political and economic posture. Ghana needs a merit-based system which rewards responsibility, competence, grit and performance, and punishes corruption, fraud, incompetence and the passing the buck in all it forms and shape. 

Ultimately, this will require the emergence of a concerted, strategic and paradigm-shifting leadership in our beloved land. As the lesson of King Pyrrhus shows, strategy and empowered mindsets are what it takes to avoid pyrrhic outcomes. Again as the examples of Singapore and other successful emerging countries suggest, incredible progress can be achieved through bold, concerted, strategic leadership. Ghanaians must therefore decisively do away with the nonstrategic mindsets and traditions that hold us back and with Christ's grace "mount up with wings as eagles" run unwearied and walk confidently towards our blessed lot (Isaiah 40:31). Only what is considered globally to be the best should be acceptable to Ghanaians. If Singapore and others could do it, so can we. 

Ghana in 2015: An Outlook

To an absolute certainty, 2015 will have huge implications for Ghana's political, economic and social developments for many years to come.

One scenario stands out as the most probable: A severe economic downturn.

By the middle of the year, the accretion of the systematically irrational decision making at the highest echelons of political governance over the last couple of years is expected to reach a crescendo. The worsening fiscal disequilibrium, severe balance of payment deficit, shrinking foreign reserves, huge debt repayment requirements and a depressive business environment will lead to an oppressive economic downturn.

To a large extent, the tragedy of Ghana's failure to thrive at this crucial hour of Africa's rising only illuminates the magnitude of the cripplingly bad decision  making at the centre of our political governance. As our reputation as a viable frontier economy takes a beating, foreign direct investment (FDI) is expected to dwindle significantly, wreaking havoc on our economy with severe repercussions on the already weakened cedi.

With he advent of another IMF-prescribed economic recovery programme, troubling echoes of our recent past will come knocking, tearing down further our collective pride as a nation. All in all, the cedi is expected to bleed again and inflationary pressures are likely to be on the ascendancy in 2015, weakening the hands of our national leaders in any negotiations with IMF.

Contrary to familiar presidential pronouncements, problems with electricity supply will not get better in 2015. In fact, “dumsor” will get worse, dragging down economic and social welfare across the country. Thus in 2015, Ghanaians will increasingly feel the heavy weight of the state’s administrative incompetence.

Because our political decision makers manifestly lack the kind of discipline necessary to sort out the problems they have effortlessly created, Ghanaians should expect an environment of economic haziness and a clumsy misery of confusion throughout 2015.

Alas, investors, business people and Ghanaians in general would need to temper their expectations; for Ghana will fare rather poorly in 2015.

God Must Be Blowing A Vuvuzela!

Yesterday was spectacularly awesome in the streets of South Africa.
Sandton was the centre of this extreme excitement. Close to 100 000 people congregated around the area to salute Bafana Bafana as the team rode in an open-top bus in the push suburb.
Around noon, most workers come out of their offices to the streets to stand together behind Bafana Bafana.
The Spontaneous celebration unleashed country-wide to boost the morale of the entire nation was beyond belief.
The Colours, the flags, the songs, the dances, the hooting, the jubilation, the vibe-right in the streets-was irresistible.
South Africans have really embraced the spirit of the world cup and I can't wait to see the opening ceremony and the first match on Friday.
We are told that from 1400 hrs to 1407 hrs something extraordinary will be showcased during the official opening ceremony.
BTW, I think I know who are going to take the cup home-the Germans. They will play against the Spanish in the final and Germany will win. That is my prediction!
As for Ghana... hmmmm, they will proceed to the next round and we will see what happens from there....

Contemporary Ghanaian Contrivances

Living outside the borders of Ghana, as I do, one of the few self-preserving delusions I allow myself to harbor and indulge in regularly is this puritanical and idealistic image of Ghana and Ghanaians-the feel-good this-type-of-sh*t-can-never-happen-in-Ghana lines, refrains and pretences Ghanaians so love to carry like a badge of honour.
Perhaps, like many a Ghanaian, I have developed an image of Ghana largely based on false idealism- a hollow concept that places Ghana on an impeccable pedestal of high moral excellence.
On many occasions, I have found myself comparing the Ghanaian way of life to those of other people, cultures and value systems and puffing out my chest proudly in the belief that our way, the Ghanaian way, is far superior. I have always contented myself - that Ghanaians are not criminally minded as others; that the cases of teenage pregnancies in Ghana is below the continental average even though I do not have the facts to support such an assertion; that Ghanaians are a breed of hard-working geniuses; that Ghanaian men do not rape their women and girls; that our education system is one of the best, if not the best in the whole continent; that Ghanaians are the most friendly and peace-loving people in the entire world. . . . .I suppose that I am referring to my own irrational assumptions of Ghanaian exceptionalism.
I am perfectly aware of the fact that Ghana is far from this idyllic picture of perfection I have chosen to believe in, however I cannot seem to bring myself to admit that the view I hold of Ghana, when outside, is outright naive, unreasonable and even deceptive. Call it patriotism, nationalism or whatever you like.
Every time I am in Ghana, my idealist views come into sharp confrontation with what pertains in the real world of today's Ghana. But as soon as I am outside Ghana's borders, guess what, the same idiosyncratic mindset creeps in. So today I want to dwell on some Ghanaians peculiarities for a change.
This preconceived Ghanaian 'superiority complex' has got to go.
To accept an image of Ghana which is totally different from the enormously deficient one I have been carrying, I believe, is the beginning of a therapeutic release from my self-imposed idealism. So? ? ?
Here are a few of my observations regarding the absurd contrivances we so cherish and love to pursue.
Our funerals
We are a bunch who love entertainment. So we even trivialise the funerals of our departed ones and turn what is supposed to be solemn moments into mindless occasions for parties, where all sorts of debauchery are not only permitted but encouraged with glee. How we love to lavish attention on the dead as supposed to the living! No wonder funerals are the primary occasions where families and communities come together. In many cultures, a funeral is short and simple-solely built around bidding farewell to the dead.Nothing more nothing less.
Our cultural mindset is the opposite. We are always looking back such that we place obscene value on what is dead and past and not enough focus on the future, on our children, our jobs and our dreams.
Perhaps, it is a symptom of our collective fear of the future? So we hold unto the past?
Valentine day celebrations
Not only have we embrace the vanities of other cultures but have jump into them head first. A case in point is the celebration of valentine day. We have managed to take it to levels previously unheard of any where else. Husbands leaving their wives at home and splurging on mistresses and other people's wives with wanton gifts they cannot afford, whilst their children walk around in tattered clothes. Misplaced priorities.
Sakawa
The get-rich-quick by-all-means phenomenon of sakawa is another contrivance in Ghana today. We have perfected the science of swindling other people of their hard-earned money for our selfish use.
We have become a society gripped by the urgency of 'having, using and enjoying' instead of one concerned with 'doing, creating and becoming'. And the sad reality is that nobody bothers any more to ascertain the source of people's wealth.
To us wealth is wealth irrespective of the source and the processes involved in its acquisition. That is why many Ghanaians never bother to learn and develop the habits, skills and the value systems needed to create wealth for ourselves and our communities.
Disregard for integrity
We are as vain as it gets. Most of us claim to be believers but our actions do not bear testimony to our faith. The idea of integrity is a foreign concept to most Ghanaians. Our own kith and kin do not brink when it comes to taking advantage of us. Comfort and convenience triumphs over integrity and accountability in our corner of the world.

And I think that we are not as awesome as we think we are!

Death

Cold
Cruel
Merciless
The dissolution of life
The end of the journey
The nasty fellow has visited my family
My step-father, SK, is the victim
He was a good man
Patient, caring and loving, he lived his life for his family
He shall be sorely missed
Rest in peace SK!

My Favourite Ghanaian

Times have changed and the world is a very different place today from what it used to be years ago but the ideals for which millions of Ghanaians have stood and died remain the same.
The dream of most Ghanaians is for our nation to stand on her feet and soar to the highest possible height. We do not desire to be called a dirt-poor third world country.
Ghanaians want to have access to good health care, excellent education and enough food on our tables. We want to live in decent houses in clean cities, towns and villages. We want clean drinking water in our homes 24/7. We want our families and communities to be safe. We want decent jobs. We want our built environment, our infrastructure, to be at par with the best of the world.
Alas for more than 52 years our dreams have just remain that. Dreams.
As a people, we have not been very successful at translating our collective aspirations into a set of tangible progress. It appears to me that we are barely coming into terms with what it takes to harness the forces of development.
One sure thing though.
Our finest hour will not come through the politicians; neither will it come through the sole effort of the government.
What will usher Ghanaians into the orbit of progress is a massive growth of a critical mass of well-trained enterprising individuals and innovative private businesses driven by science and technology.
Education, training and research are the essential ingredients of the menu of economic growth and development of any nation. Ghana is no different.
In this endeavour, the effort of one man stands tall.
Patrick Awuah is an ambitious young man with a noble dream.
Here is a man who has given up a lofty job at Microsoft and sacrificed a comfortable life in America to return to Ghana for the purpose of building a dream, planting a seed with the potential to set our nation on a winning path.
A man of visionary leadership.
An entrepreneur.
A dreamer.
A patriot.
An architect of continental renaissance.
An individual who is committed to carving a place for his people in the comity of nations.
Today Mr Awuah's dream, Ashesi, is already changing the face of Ghana and Africa.
Many of Ashesi's well-trained and enterprising graduates have entered the corporate world of Ghana and beyond. The fledgling well is already quenching the thirst of our emerging economy. With the construction of the new campus at Berekuso, the role of Ashesi in Ghana's future is about to be consolidated, and with it, the expectation is that more Ghanaians will have access to the quality education that Ashesi offers.
For the nation-transforming effort, Patrick Awuah is my favourite Ghanaian.

Irresponsibility: The Bane Of The Land

I had always thought that the suburb where I stay was endurably safe for my family. Such a conclusion is probable still true, in spite of the fact that our house was burgled in broad daylight the same week we moved in. In addition to the raid on our property, our weekly community newspaper regularly comes out with reports of enormously hideous crimes in the area.
We are eternally grateful to God that we were not at home when those brutes decided to come for what did not belong to them; all the electronic gadgets in the house.

A few nights ago, around midnight, I was brutally awakened out of my precious sleep by what appeared to be loud bangs. Then it dawned on me. What I was hearing was in fact a rapid barrage of gunshots and a car-chase on a nearby street only a few metres from our house. On and on it went down the street in the quiet of the night until the fading sounds of the bullets could no longer be heard.

I could not go back to sleep anymore that night. But that was not the only bad thing that happened to me that night.
The proximity of that chilling episode got me greatly worried about the security of my family. Even though our house has been armed with a good security alarm system, we have primed ourselves to be extra careful twenty-four seven since then.
We cannot afford to take anything for granted anymore.
Many thoughts and scenarios have criss-crossed my mind over and over again ever since that drama took place.

Why is crime so pervasive in our part of the world? Why it is that crime in our society is not only prevalent, but also so gratuitous.
The criminals do not hesitate to rape, torture and kill their victims. It is only in our society where criminals spend hours in the homes of victims indulging in sadism, such as pouring boiling water on their victims, raping the women as they force the men to watch and repeatedly burning the bodies of their victims with hot irons while mocking them.
Our shopping malls, roads, homes, schools, hospitals and even churches have all been turned into war zones.
No where is save any more when the residence of the deputy president of the Republic can be brazenly burgled without people being overly shocked.

The question is how did it get so awfully bad?
How could the entire country, every corner of it, be held hostage by thugs and hardened criminals?
Where is the hiding place of this monster?
It is as if our communities have become massive crime labs and factories where criminal minds are being churned out in huge numbers.
It is evidently clear that something is terrible wrong with the society, with our value systems and with us as families and individuals.
As when an auto-immune disease starts to devastate the body, the elements waging this relentless war against the body are not external but from within the body itself.
Ours is a mutating infestation. A debilitating plaque. An apoptotic disorder of a systemic nature.
Here is what I think.
As much as we all would like to point fingers at others and apportion blame on some mysterious monster somewhere, we will be lying to ourselves if we allow the obvious truth about crime to escape us.
Crime in our society has everything to do with the culture of irresponsibility and impunity.
Until we as individuals, as families and as communities begin to embrace an attitude of responsibility, we will forever remain oblivious to our own role in nurturing this invasive culture of crime.
Let the charity of responsibility begin at your own home.
Cheers!

They Don't Make Them Like That Anymore

During my school years many moons ago, the wheels of boyish testosterone were driven primarily towards two overarching objects of affection: books and to a lesser extent beautiful girls. There was no joy greater than being the top in the class.
Boys, at least those in my circle , had a healthy ritual and an idealist composure when it came to showing love for a girl. My attraction to girls was first and foremost a romantic exploration driven by a boyish curiosity of the beautiful plumage of the maturing female body.
I, for one, was fascinated by the assemblage of fine parts and curves. Big time. But somehow my books always came first, probably because boys were schooled at home to have dreams and put a premium on education above all else.
No wonder, almost all my girl-friendships begun as study mates and blossomed into something a little bit more. We studied hard together and while at it did a bit of 'assets analyses'.
Boys and girls had big dreams. We were full of courage, strength and old-fashioned gutsiness.

Today's students are behaving like sex maniacs, romping all over the place like there is no tomorrow. Some as young as 12 years are going the full hog without any regard for books and their future. Students in high schools are sidestepping the essential years of sexual fascination and experimentation. Now they jump straight into the deeper end and many will end up sexually frustrated later on in life.
Cheap sex has triumphed over education in our schools and the fire of academic and intellectual pursuits has all but died. That may explain the recent phenomenon of 'sakawa' - a pursuit of cheap money, cheap sex and sadly cheap life.
Something, in the way children are raised these days, has gone awry and my thought is that the ambitions of the teenagers of the late eighties and nineties have been replaced with something much more instinctual, something libidinal, something cheap.
Somehow, they don't make them like that any more.
Are my own children going to play any different?
How I wish I knew the answer to that question!

War At The Side Of Obama

"This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man"

-- William Shakespeare

They say a picture speaks better than a thousand words.
When a dignitary in the person of the president of the United States of America visits our shores, one would expect our foremost statesmen to display a great sense of dignity and decorum in his presence. Alas that can not be expected of His I-Have-Got-To-Hog-The-Limelight, Mr Rawlings. The recent visit of Mr Barack Obama to our shores has once again exposed the hyper grandeur and uber narcissistic attitude of this man in the body politic of Ghana. The first picture showing Mr & Mrs Rawlings on the far left of President Atta Mills. The man is not pleased with his position far away from President Barack Obama. So he decides to do, errh, . . . something about that .

Look at the second picture. Mr Rawlings comes and literally drags Mr Kuffour from the side of Mr Barack Obama so that he can bask in the glory of the moment. In Mr Kuffour's own words Mr Rawlings was not happy that he, Mr Kuffour, was trying to upstage him. The funniest part of the whole episode is the expression of president Atta Mills. Click on the picture and see him literally in titters over the behaviour of Mr Rawlings, trying very hard not to fall down laughing like a hyena! Finally Mr Kuffour, ever the gentleman, obliges. Mr Rawlings then comes to take the coveted place on the right hand of Mr Obama in the process leaving his wives miles away. Even the expression of Mrs Rawlings shows that she is not amused by the unacceptable behaviour of her husband on this occasion. I guess a word or two was exchanged between husband and wife over this incident at home.

See president Atta Mills trying to signal Mr Kuffour not to take the shameful behaviour to heart. Isn't it hilarious what Mr Rawlings will do to draw attention to his freaking self! Such petty squabbles are not expected from somebody has been our president for almost two decades. In my opinion, by this singular childish act Mr Rawlings has single-handedly demeaned himself in the face of Mr Barack Obama and those around him. Mr Rawlings has proven once again that Mr Kuffour is indeed a better man than he is.

It is hard, really hard, to put a good man down!

A New Moment Of Great Promise For Africa

"This is a new moment of great promise.
To realize that promise, we must first recognize a fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana: Development depends upon good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places, for far too long. That is the change that can unlock Africa's potential."
. . . President Barack Hussein Obama
(11 July 2009; Accra, Ghana)

I am a believer. Yes. I am really an odd B.E.L.I.E.V.E.R.

I am one of those who tirelessly believe in a promising future for Africa.

The future of Africa can indeed be as glorious as we, Africans, want it to be if we apply ourselves to work for it.

I am a believer in a new Africa. An exemplary Africa. An inspirational Africa.
There is really no reason why Africans can not rise up to the challenge of creating a better future for children and ourselves. This is Barack Obama's Africa.
Today's evangelistic speech delivered by president Barack Obama at Accra's International Conference Centre, in my view, is a poignant reminder to Africans everywhere to desist from the familiar excuses and blame games and embrace the old age principles that have worked in other places of the world.

May the inspiring words of Barack Hussein Obama rekindle hope in every African heart for a better tomorrow.

Yes we still can.

Whipping The Pumpkin Soup À La Carte

Eno Rose, my mother did a pretty decent job in training and coaching all her boys about the nuggets of the beautiful artistry of creating culinary delights.
Because of her, I do know a thing or two about good food Ghana-style.
Last Saturday I found myself reminiscing about the killer taste of nkatekwan with rice balls after participating in the big walk around Saxonwold Primary School.
The last time a ate that sumptuous combination was when I was in Ghana recently. The problem is nkatekwan a la South Africa is totally unlike what obtains in Ghana. Don't ask me why?
So instead, I decided to try something rather exotic: pumpkin soup.
I was in the mood for an adventure like you will never believe.
My wife, baffled by this unusual quest to turn the beautiful kitchen into something resembling a chemistry lab, decided to abandon ship leaving me alone unto my ridiculous cookery pursuit.
An hour or so later, unable to resist any longer the smell of the overwhelming magnificence emanating from the kitchen, she saunters into the kitchen, her face adorned with a curious smile depicting pleasant surprise. A moment to taste and indulge! The unplanned experiment turned the day into something more than expected: a beautiful date! Seeing how happy she was, I quickly realised how incredible an opportunity it was for both of us to explore and appreciate something new. To me, it was also an important lesson in the power of giving a helping hand at home.
As professionals, both of us spend our week days working hard. Evening meals, therefore, are mainly something quick and simple (mostly prepared by her) in order to prepare for the next day's work schedule.
So it was good to sit, eat, talk and enjoy each other's company unhurried at home, seduced by the goodness of the pumpkin soup.
And you know what?. I am so proud of myself!

The Bermuda Triangle, Black Holes & The Ghanaian Craze

There are few phenomena in the entire universe that defy scientific, spiritual or any perceptible explanation as the Bermuda triangle and the Black holes.
Thank goodness most of us are not, in the least, bothered by thoughts of ever getting zapped into their eternal labyrinths. They are nature's gates of no return, if you ask me.
But like you, I don't get bogged down by whatever is happening in the backwaters of the seas nor do I even contemplate the possibility of being vacuumed into a ravenous cauldron of cosmic annihilation.
The world will carry on as usual, Black holes or no Black holes.
I am yet to meet a normal bloke who sweats over such matters.

Currently in Ghana, though, there is a similar craze akin to the paranormal manifestations of nature. The political divide sees each other as a sort of black hole or a Bermuda triangle doing their best to vacuum away properties of state.
There is a savage fight for the plum benefits of public service.
But, gosh, why should the matter of cars become the preoccupation of some state officials as if the ex-officio ministers of the NPP government are operating a supermassive black hole where all the cars belonging to the state are being pulled into cosmic nothingness. (I keep blogging about this because I am really baffled by the astronomical importance our public servants attached to such trivialities as if they is nothing else for them to do!)
In the same breathe, the way some NPP guys are virtually holding unto cars and other items issued to them to serve in their various offices, makes it seem look they are wrestling against the sucking power of the Bermuda triangle.
If the new government in accordance with the laws of the land have uncovered illegalities in the way state properties have been passed unto former ministers and are calling for such properties to be handed over, then for goodness sake I am for that. Politicians should never, by their very actions, give credence to the perception that they are above the laws of the land.
Why should our politicians, by their infantile fight over material gain, portray Ghanaians as morons who are only interest in creature comforts and illegally stashing away what belongs to the state. I believe many Ghanaians want their leaders to live exemplary lives according to the laws of the land. Such a culture of greed, corruption and lawlessness is antithetical to the democratic order we are trying so hard to build.
Shush! The partisan accusations and counter-accusations are so retarded.
Let both sides of the political divide hold fire and think of Ghana for a change.

Ghana: What Are The Scenarios?

South Africa's Dinokeng Scenarios make for an interesting study into the role of citizens and NGOs in shaping the future direction of a nation. How do we as citizens influence the decision making processes in our countries in such a way that our politicians and leaders are exposed to as many plausible scenarios as possible before they arrive at the point of making those decisions that ultimately affect all of us?. Should citizenship in democratic governance be centred on the right to vote in an election? Should we sit back and give a carte blanche to the elected into office to do as they please or must we take responsibility and come together in one way or the other to explore alternative agenda for the development of our nations?
The Dinokeng group serves to bring into the mainstream arena of politics and national discourse the plausible scenarios which need to be looked at but more often are conveniently ignored by those entrusted with national leadership.
According to the group, there are three plausible scenarios that confront South Africa at this period in her development. There are: the Walk Apart, Walk Behind and Walk Together scenarios.
* Walk Apart: the state plays a role that is either weak and neglects to reverse its failings. The Walk Apart option posits the idea that the country limps along much in the same manner as it has up to now, beset with worsening poverty and unemployment. Coupled with this are growing insecurity and an ailing public health system which is unable to meet the needs of the poor. Crime becomes endemic and corruption is the order of the day.
* Walk Behind: the state becomes increasingly interventionist, crowds out private initiative and leads to unpopular and destabilising economic reform measures.
In Walk Behind we all sit back and wait for the strong and capable state to do everything, but that is unlikely to happen, because the state lacks the resources and expertise to be that capable, and the result of the heavy interventionism could be unsustainable public borrowing and an increasingly authoritarian state. This is the likely scenario should the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the left-leaning trade Union (COSATU) be allowed to take over the policy mechanism in the Jacob Zuma administration.
* Walk Together: in the third scenario, the state plays its most useful role when held to account and forced to respond to demands made on it by a newly resurgent activist society. An activism not against the government, but one that works with the government to build a better tomorrow.

These scenarios were presented yesterday at Johannesburg's Constitution Hill. According to the group, the three scenarios were a starting point for discussion at different levels of South African society about the direction the country should follow in this period of transition.
As a broad church pulled together by citizenship, scholarship, leadership and a desire to ensure that South Africa moves along a sustainable trajectory, the dinokeng group is a bold and commendable attempt to broaden debate and bring into existence a responsive and accountable government under pressure from ordinary people.
Looking at the dynamism of the dinokeng team under the felicitations of the convener/chair Dr Mamphela Ramphele I had to ask myself what Ghana's scenarios are? It seems to me that the three scenarios painted are as applicable to Ghana as they are to every country on the continent.
Ghana clearly cannot remain a state-centred society where we always look up to the government as our source of development. Nor can we build a viable state in an environment of weak institutions. Nepotism, tribalism and corruption must be tackled aggressively through a broad partnership between citizens and the state. The extreme partisanship being practised in Ghana can only lead us to a dead end. We need to team together in order to move forward.
I wish the conclusions of the dinokeng team would be preached throughout the continent of Africa and its plans of action replicated throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. Check this.

The Lilliputian Crew At The Helm

Geez. I admire Kenyans. I absolutely do!
Who would not love the unorthodox project by the fairer ones in Kenya to fix the political impasse in that beautiful corner of Africa. They have embarked on the first ever mass sex denial demonstration staged for political reasons. Lol.
The sisters are refusing their men, the political elite at that, the supreme conjugal right until they stop the bickering and fix the festering political mess.
Let us hope that Kibaki, Odinga and their colleagues come to their senses fast before they are driven bonkers by the stance of their women, the beautiful no-nonsense daughters of Kenya.
Anyway, as everybody now knows pigs indeed do fly as Mexico has been shown.
Nations are putting up measures to prevent the virus from invading their shores. Heat-sensing cameras to scan arriving passengers are in place at many airports.
The lazy and obviously incompetent officials of Ghana's ministry of health have decided that the way to deal with the problem is to suspend all imports of pig products into the country. The question is: are our politicians and health officials really abreast with the issues of the Swine flu?
The issue here is that we are dealing with a strain of influenza that has not even been isolated in pigs. The name 'swine flu' is actually an erroneous concept since it has nothing to do with swines. It is not caught by eating pork or any of the products. Read this. The documented way to get the infection is person to person. Period. We should rather focus our attention on making sure that those arriving at our ports of entry are properly assessed and if necessary quarantined in isolation wards, instead of rushing to ban imports that have nothing to do with the disease.

On another sad note team NDC under the tutelage of Atta Mills is hell-bent on taking us back into slavery. The Better Ghana chanters have once again, obviously without first applying their minds, resolved to place the economy of Ghana under the yoke of the IMF for another gruelling
healing seance.
Gone are all the promises to fix Ghana with ease. Now the baton has been placed in their hands but instead of cruising to the next stage in the game of progress, they are looking back asking what the race is all about. Here is a bunch who have not acquainted themselves with the issues of economic governance which has taken place over the last ten years. Whilst Ghanaians question why the team is not running the race ahead as expected, these men and women who are fluent in nothing but excuses have fallen back on their old tricks of blaming others for their
sordid incompetence.
They have realised that they cannot move according to the trajectory already attained, so what do they do? They revert all the way back to where they left in the year 2000 in order to find a semblance of familiarity. Playing by the menu of the Bretton Woods institutions is the only sense they make in the unfamiliar territory they find themselves.
It is said that if you do not know where you are going any road will take you there.
Our beloved Ghana is going nowhere slowly. After all what do you expect, the Lilliputians are at the helm at our own invitation.
The show must continue.

As Blessed As We Are

See how blessed we are!
We elected a President but we, as blessed as we are, have managed to twist the hands of fate to throw in a spare, the President’s Supervisor
With an ego bigger than Mt. Everest, he goes around the land acting the Assessor.

See how blessed we are!
We have chosen neither a King nor a Chief and yet we, as blessed as we are, have furnished a table for the President’s Supremo
With a hunger for power that reaches the starry gates, he parades around the hood as Generalissimo

See how blessed we are!
We elevated a 'Mempe Meho Asem' to become president and now we, as blessed as we are, have gotten the President’s Controller
With a penchant for issuing out threats, he prowls on the horizon as a fire-breathing Rottweiler

Zimfugees, Cowards and Sycophants

Take a pebble in your hand.
Choose any street corner in Jozi and randomly throw the pebble in any direction of your choosing. You are probably going to hit a Zimfugee.
Now come with me to Zimbabwe.
Take a pebble in your hands.
Choose any street corner in Harare and throw your pebble any direction you wish.
You most probably are going hit a coward.
Follow on through with me to Ghana.
Take a stone, a big one, in your hands. Choose any street corner, preferably near Osu Castle and haul the stone with all your strength towards the seat yonder.
You have just killed a sycophant.
You have saved the state from one big opportunist craving to put both hands in the cookie jar.

The Obviousness Of The Mushrooming Sycophancy

It is given that leaders are a breed of seasoned, mature and principled men and women who exhibit a certain measure of honour, dignity and personal pride as well as a great deal of level-headedness in all their dealings.

Let us be frank, there are certain standards we expect from those to whom leadership has been entrusted. Wimps, sycophants and praise-singers have one pathology in common: they are all good-for-nothing, incompetent, desperate, despicable and untrustworthy bunch who will go to every length to sell even their mothers for the sole purpose of keeping a turf that is not theirs in the first place. They do so because really they have no morals, no ethics and obviously no backbone and they know that there is no prospect of landing another job similar to what they fear they are about to lose.

When so-called leaders resort to unbridled sycophancy to keep their job as demonstrated recently by Mr. William Ampem Darko, the Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) [read here], and Mr. Ras Boateng, the CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority which administers the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) [see this], then we as Ghanaians must begin to ask ourselves whether these individuals are capable of rendering a competent service in their assigned positions in the first place or they are in it for their own selfish pursuit.

To order a programme live on air to be cancelled because somebody from the ruling party is not pleased with the opinions being expressed on air is simple unbelievable.

The GBC is not an extension of the NDC nor is it a mouthpiece of the government. So the Director-General should have sent Mr quashigah of the NDC, who phoned the DG demanding the programme to be taken off air, packing. Why should the interest of the whole nation be held to ransom by the partisan interests of a dictatorial regime? Where is the adherence to the independence of the national broadcasting service provided under the law.

Anybody with half a brain will tell you that no insurance scheme can be sustainable on a single premium. It will never work. Those who have studied actuarial science will laugh at you if you expressed such a view. That was the cheap, unreasonable, impractical populist campaign promise of the NDC and Mr. Ras Boateng should have known better to point out the futility of the idea. But to go to the extent of suggesting that he, Ras Boateng, is capable of instituting a scheme where every body pays a single premium for life, in my humble opinion, bothers on gross sycophancy and pronounced lunacy.

Mark my words, the NHIS will not survive under the NDC regime and then they will turn around and blame the previous government for implementing an unrealistic scheme.
As I write this post, reports are emerging of the harassment of businessmen in Kumasi who are perceived to be sympathetic to the NPP. The main perpetrator of this arbitrariness is one Samuel Sarpong, an NDC apparatchik, working in the Kumasi Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Another obvious sycophant trumpeting the herald of human right abuse and the trampling of our constitutional rights!
It appears to me that every minute a new breed of goons are being hatched! And like the biblical locusts, they are about to turn the nation upside down.
Nation wreckers, if you ask me!!

The Tragic Arbitrariness Of The Momentarily Crowned

Are the ever-increasing cases of arbitrariness in the Ghanaian society a sign of blissful incompetence on the part of the new kids on the block or are they an ominous telltale sign of the resurrection of a sadistic and barbaric dispensation? Is it a case of the leopard unable to change its spots or a rather pernicious manifestation of some deep-rooted monstrosity beginning to rear its ugly head? Whatever the case may be, Ghanaians cannot, should not and must not allow the shackles of lawlessness and duplicity to be re-imposed on them after the freedom from the brutal oppressions of the past . Whilst John Atta Mills continues to reiterate promises of decency, the rule of the law, justice and unity, hordes of NDC thugs from North to South, East to West are unleashing a campaign of savage terror on ordinary Ghanaians without even a whim of disapproval from the powers that be.
Gee, how absolute power corrupts! Now NDC thinks they are in charge so they can do as they please, brutalise who they choose to, when they choose to without any regard for due process and the constitutional rights of their targets. Such is the nauseating arbitrariness of the current regime in Ghana!
John Atta Mills promised to do things differently, alas we are witnessing a state of affairs akin to the what prevailed under a by gone era. Pal, how else would you explain the following occurrences:

• Members of the previous government being humiliated in broad-day light by being booted out of their personal vehicles and the vehicles subsequently driven to the seat of the government. Why do they have to drive the cars to the environs of the presidential offices? Doesn't Atta Mills have much more weightier national issues to deal with? Why are the cars not being driven to the police pools, for example? Where is the decency, the decorum, and due process? Another question is: why are they targeting vehicles and not immovable properties? It appears to me that the current government is manifesting a great deal of misplaced priorities. To them a car is the ultimate possession. NDC is not just in power, they are the power, so they they do as they please. What has been the response of the government? They simply said sorry, but the lawlessness continues unabated.
• The shameful interference in the recruitment drive of the Ghana armed forces. We are now being told that hundreds of young Ghanaian men and women already recruited before the election of John Atta Mills are to be sent packing because some people in the present regime are not happy with the population of certain ethnic groups amongst those recruited. They are eager to reconstitute an entirely new recruitment drive to achieve a preconceived tribal ratio which is acceptable to them. This is ethnic purging, if you ask me. What is the government response to this allegation? Silence.
• The unlawful attempt to retrench all the security details of the former government. Since when did it become a crime to be deployed as a an officer to guard government officials. What is the response of the John Atta Mills government? A shrug!
• The Offices of certain assemblies being invaded by thugs and hoodlums on the pretest that a new government is in power so the people in charge so leave immediately. Some people were beaten and robbed in the chaos that ensured. What does the government do to these thugs? Absolutely nothing.
• A number of Ghanaians being threatened to pack up and leave where they are residing by NDC thugs. Some have already been killed and others maimed. What does the government do or say? Nothing.

All the above and many others clearly point to the re-emergence of self-serving arbitrariness in the land.

If this is what Ghanaians voted for and are therefore keeping mum to this tragedy unfolding right before their eyes, then Ghanaians do not know that they do not know what they really want!

The Ominous Silhouette Of Another Wasted Opportunity

Without sounding hyperbolic, I believe that a smart resolution of the simmering discontent within Ghana's ruling party over the ministerial nominations is as much a challenge to John Atta Mills' government as is the diminishing capacity to unearth talented and resourceful Ghanaians capable of finding creative ways of funding the economic programme in the face of the current global lending freeze and the massive risk margins being charged by ruthless loan sharks prowling in the market.
A great deal of acumen in multi-partisanship aimed at discovering critical skills and expertise for public office, as demonstrated by Barack Obama, is one of the keys that John Atta Mills and his team could have resorted to to minimize the bumpiness on the road to our economic renaissance in this season of business unusual.
Alas, John Atta Mills has demonstrated that he is cut in the mold of the old school of cut and paste politics. He is blindly sticking to what has been done before without much success by the NDC: a stale, traditional and business-as-usual approach to national governance in spite of the dramatically changing environment we find ourselves in at the moment.

No boldness, no creativity, no freshness, no out-of-the-box attempt to go beyond the feeble lines drawn long ago in the sand by unimaginative and mediocre neanderthal politicians of our painful past.
For his total lack of imagination and visionary foresight, I clearly see an ominous silhouette of another wasted opportunity looming large in the horizon.
Ghanaians may as well prepare for a repeat wallow in the quagmire.

If Broke Fix It

I am finding it pretty difficult to get over the shenanigans of the present political dispensation in Ghana.
According to the transition team of the Atta Mills' administration, Ghana is broke.
Big deal!
As far as the macro-economic outlook and prospects for the economy to absorb further investments are concerned, Ghana's economic situation has never been better since the days of Kwame Nkrumah. I believe that the economy is in a good shape.
Even though Atta Mills and the NDC have won the elections and are therefore supposed to be governing, they are acting and behaving as if they are still the party in opposition.
The standard democratic principle is that the ruling party must be concerned with solution-finding, whereas the political opposition does its best to fault the policies and plans of the government! Heck no. They are still doing what they have been doing for the past 8 years.
More time is being wasted on spin, fault-finding and criticising the government that is no longer in power every day. If indeed Ghana is broke, where are the innovative responses to get the country back on track? Where is the urgency?
What people expect of the new administration is that leadership is provided and the cause of Ghana advanced. Instead we have paralysis of leadership and a total lack of urgency.
When is John Atta Mills ever going to really begin his responsibilities as the President of the Republic? He is behaving like a President in the last days of Office rather than one who has is just beginning.
The utter lack of dynamism, rigor and passion on the part of our new President is becoming a pain in the groin!