She sat before me naked, I trembled; my harrowing account in 2017!

The writer, Solomon Mensah

Somewhere in 2002 at the eye clinic at the old Sunyani Municipal Hospital in the Bono region, I sat together with persons we all shared a common problem. We all had problem(s) with our eyes in one way or the other.

While we waited patiently to go see the optometrist – individually – a young man of about 28 years old walked into the eye clinic with newspapers. He was selling them.

“Yes, Graphic, Ghanaian Times […],” the man announced his presence. He wanted us or perhaps any of us to buy his papers. The man, whose name I did not know, paced up and down the eye clinic till a patient – an old man – called him.

“Krakye, bra ha,” the old man said in Asante Twi, to wit, gentleman, come here.

When the newspaper vendor got to where the old man sat, he stooped to listen to the message he [old man] had for him.

“You are selling newspapers at the eye clinic? Do you think patients here have eyes to read the papers even if they bought them?”

The old man’s questions to the newspaper vendor got almost all the patients laughing their worries off. It is, indeed, true that when the bush is on fire, grasshoppers have not time to say goodbye. When some people constantly ‘watered’ their eyes with drops and others their eyes bandaged, one did not expect them to have patience at trivialities as reading newspapers which were fully-filled with political lies. 

Wherever you are in the world reading this, I hope you are in a stable health condition. Health, the popular adage goes, is wealth. And one would appreciate the importance of good health probably when they get knocked down by sickness. That was how I got to appreciate good health more as the single most important commodity on earth. I think what comes next to good health is a peaceful mind.

On December 24, 2017 while I had about 17 minutes to go read the news on 3FM [92.7], I suddenly went shivering. I felt as though I was in a refrigerator. Then, I called a colleague named Anthony Jackson that he had to rush to radio to read the news for me. The show was Newsweek [news analysis show that spanned an hour]. Before AJ [as we affectionately call him] could get to radio, I had left with an Uber.

The danger of living in a ‘foreign’ land like Accra without any relative around looked me in the face at these times of need. Getting home from work that Sunday, I had to sleep a while and later go to the hospital.

Laboratory tests said I had typhoid fever. If I had died, it would have been out of negligence – I think – as for about a week or so I felt symptoms of what appeared to be malaria and ignored till I ate oil-containing food on the Friday before that fateful day.

Interestingly, a man who could eat balls of banku to satisfaction now had no appetite for any food. I had food in the refrigerator including tilapia ‘light soup’ but still had no appetite for such. Me? Solomon could not eat just half of Nfante Kenkey? Certainly, one must not wish even their arch-enemy ill!

A man who weighs 58kg was reduced to 49kg. Typhoid Fever medication, I realized, requires good food intake but I could hardly swallow a morsel of food.

The writer, Solomon Mensah. Photo by Fred Photography, January, 2019 

At a hospital in Ga South in the Greater Accra region that I attended, at a point, I wanted to use the washroom there. I asked and was directed to the washroom. Walking rather slowly than the pace of a tortoise while clinging onto the walls, I opened the washroom’s door. Trust me, I was too weak to check whether it was that for males or females!

Right in front of me when I opened the door was a young lady of about 19 years of age. The beautiful lady sat on the water closet naked, her panty and skirt pulled down, piece of cloth haphazardly folded on her thighs and she leaned her head and right shoulder to rest on the washroom’s wall and bandage and plasters – so I remember – tied a little beneath the left arm like a captain of a football team. Perhaps, she was receiving drips and needed to use the washroom too or whatever.

We looked at each other, dumbfounded by sickness. Within me, I felt I should have said, “I’m sorry for bumping into you.” But, I could not. I was shivering. My lower and upper lips kept slapping at each other and I trembled in pain. Again, I did not even feel I had seen a naked woman. Grasshoppers, indeed, have no time for goodbyes when the bush is on fire!

By God’s grace, today, I am still alive. I triumphed and survived typhoid fever. This harrowing account of 2017 has taught me lessons. One of such lessons I have espoused on valuing life of a healthy living.

Another lesson I would want to share with you is the lesson of not enshrining your trust in material things. You just won an award? Bought that car? Built or rented that beautiful house? Purchased that expensive perfume or perhaps fantasizing over that phone? The truth is, none of these things would cross your mind when you are knocked down by illness [that which I pray should skip you].

Your cry, should you fall ill, will be that God speaks so you could live a healthy life once again. So, why don’t you – now that you are in good shape – make God the bigger picture? This is not, in anyway, to say I am holy before the Lord. I only believe in serving God one day at a time while keeping at the back of our minds the need to make the day a glory unto Him. Such could help us avoid lifestyles that could get us ill.

My third lesson is, do not rely on your fellow humans as admonished by the Bible. Dear reader, I can say without fear of contradiction that many people who saw me in my skeletal frame or heard of it and expressed shock never ever bothered to call/text to ask how I fared. A mention, however, could be made of family and a handful of friends. I do not begrudge whoever ignored me in my trying times. The title of Ahmadou Kourouma’s book, Allah Is Not Obliged, says it all. Remember, nobody is obliged to wish you well in life.

The sad narrative, however, is that people who ignore you while you languish in life will be the same people to fight, at your funeral for space to read pages of heart-touching tributes of how dear you were to them.

The fourth lesson has had me praying for the sick every blessed day. As I write this, the time is at 1:54am and I had paused on my writing to pray for the sick in Ghana, Africa and the world at large. I believe someone somewhere who never knew me but prayed for the sick, in general, coupled with my prayers and other loved ones’ got me back onto my feet. The world, I believe, needs our prayers.

And my final lesson, we all know. Death! December 2017 taught me that no matter what, just one day we all will leave this earth. In one of his songs titled Mukyea, the Black Chinese Ͻboͻba J.A Adͻfo wisely says that if you fall ill and you do not die, it does not mean you will not die again. While we live on borrowed time, I have the opinion that the best mansions must not be built on mother earth rather in the hearts of our fellow humans and even animals.

Reach out to the needy if you can. Let’s place human life above any other thing but God. Yesterday, June 27, was my birthday. "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk," Peter says in Acts 3:6.

I should have invited you to a huge birthday party but silver and gold have I none. In the near future God willing, there will be abundance of ‘bread.’ For now, all I have are these words encouraging you to let God lead and love your neighbor wholeheartedly for this life is crazy. May He continue to be our guide and guard. Shalom!

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organization.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: From ‘found’ to ‘hope’? Maame Yaa Tiwaa, ‘Aboro so!’

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa

For both professional gossipers [journalists] and those who consume their gossips, the past week has been overly packed with hot headline news. Talk of the Western Togoland Separatists, the National Democratic Congress’ National Chairman Ofosu Ampofo’s tango with the Police CID, Helena Huang gone missing, the National Communications Authority’s ‘fight’ with both Radio Gold and Radio XYZ and the headmaster of Salvation Army Basic School, in the Eastern Region, allegedly murdered by six young men among others.

Personally, I have had people sending me messages on WhatsApp or relaying such to me in person to comment/write on one issue or the other. Just as I could settle on one of the aforementioned news stories, a friend of mine on Monday, May 13th 2019 drew my attention to something uttered by the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah on Saturday, May 11th, had told Atinka TV – on The Big Story – as monitored by starrfm.com.gh that, “I made that comment because I wanted to give hope to the mothers but I have been misconstrued. Maybe, people didn’t understand me. For timelines, I cannot say. I just want to assure everyone that the search is still on. We are not sleeping at all.”

Maame Yaa Tiwaa was speaking in relation to her earlier announcement that the CID together with the Bureau of National Investigations [BNI], after a thorough search, knew the whereabouts of the Takoradi missing girls. 

Our elders say, we do not doubt claims by the woman who has ten children that she knows every single thing that happens at night. So, for a whole CID boss to have come out to claim she knew the dark world of the kidnappers and where they have kept the missing girls, who were we to have doubted her? Nonetheless, it panned out to be a mere joke of lies. We bashed Maame Yaa Tiwaa for such a shameful joke and for making the CID a cheap bowl for the world’s spit.

Indeed, our elders, again, say that a woman who bends over and exposes her buttocks to other women in the market sells her husband's respect. Our CID boss has sold the respect of her office so cheap by ‘bending’ unnecessarily to freely show her ‘buttocks’.

At this juncture, we only thought Maame Yaa Tiwaa had learnt her lessons and would mind whatever she says thereafter. But hey, she appears to have bought the right to Daddy Lumba’s song Yɛntie Obiara – as she continues with her cheap talk; goofing as usual.

That, you made that comment because you wanted to give hope to the mothers [or the police as Graphic says]? Wow! Is COP Maame Yaa Tiwaa now a motivational speaker? Interesting! As Bishop Daniel Obinim would say, “aboro so” to wit; it is too much!

Credit: Tilapia, 3news

It greatly beats imagination that a whole Criminal Investigations Department of our country is so much engrossed in incompetence. From my monitoring of proceedings at the front of the CID, so far, if you [Maame Yaa Tiwaa] and your officers are better off than the cadet corps in our various Senior High Schools, it would be on the grounds that you have been taught how to fire AK47 and other guns.

Interestingly, Maame Yaa Tiwaa is much more determined to grab the seat of the Inspector General of Police [IGP] as David Asante Apeatu retires in three months.

“I don’t see why anybody should say women are not ready for the IGP position. Women could even do better than men. Leadership is all about how you manage the people you work with. Your ability to manage your human resource is what makes you a very good leader. The appointing authority will take so many things into consideration. It’s not about your gender. I’m more than prepared to be Ghana’s next IGP,” Maame Yaa Tiwaa told Atinka TV as captured by pulse.com.gh.

This gets my heart beating as fast as though a boxer is trying his punches on my chest.

Dear Maame Yaa Tiwaa, would you – in anyway – blame anyone advocating for all and sundry to totally condemn you like an outcast leper based on your recent track record of goofing laurels? Perhaps, the families of the Takoradi missing girls are not bellowing in anger as I expect, hence, your unending funfair of ugly noises of ‘found’ and ‘hope.’

Literal wizard, Chinua Achebe, in 1967 said, “Being a Nigerian is abysmally frustrating and unbelievably exciting.” Indeed, such is the feeling of being a Ghanaian. While we often get frustrated of happenings in the country, we take solace in Ghana being ‘unbelievably exciting’, hearing comments by people we call leaders including Maame Yaa Tiwaa.

Of a truth, it is highly unfair these leaders of ours actively compete with comedians like DKB, Foster Romanus and Clemento Suarez. I may have thought that comedy had no place in the operations of the Criminal Investigations Department but I may have been wrong. President Akufo Addo appointing Maame Yaa Tiwaa as the IGP would be a coup d'état on the profession of the DKBs!

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: A villager’s first flight aboard Passion Air

Passion Air plane at the tarmac, Kotoka International Airport. Photo: Passion Air

“Chief, is that normal?” I asked my cameraman named Richmond Tano. He sat by me.

“I was about asking you, too,” responded Tano.

“Ajala! [comic exclamation] And there are no stop points in the air, too,” I said jokingly.

We shared seats 11C and 11D respectively. I was just by the window. Whereas I had enjoyed peeping through the window admiring nature― God’s handiwork― I had my intestines pacing up and down like a drunkard trying to find his way up a hill. I was gripped with fear when the flight attendant, who I later learnt she was called Matilda, gave an announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we are about entering a turbulent zone. Please, fasten your seatbelts and remain seated. Thank you,” she uttered.

The beautiful lady believed to be in her late twenties was not entirely responsible for my uneasiness. Yes, so I think. It was my first time aboard an airplane and I never really knew there could be ‘pot-holes’ in the skies that could make the big metallic bird shake.

We were en route Tamale [in the Northern Region] from Accra aboard a Passion Air plane. It was Wednesday, January 23, 2019 and we were headed for Bolgatanga and its catchment areas to cover the National Food Buffer Stock Company’s takeover of some warehouses. A sponsored trip it was.  

I did not want to appear the only villager in town, or perhaps in the skies, so I decided not to ask anyone anything. After all, we were told to fasten our seatbelts.

The airplane moved on. A crew member in the cockpit announced the level of altitude we were flying. All this while, a hot cup of coffee Matilda had served me was held tightly in my hand. I had temporarily lost appetite for it. I looked to my left. Tano had his tightly pressed to the small board of a table that one could fold downwards from behind the seat next to them.

“I wish we had travelled by bus,” I said to Tano.

“Mesee,” he said in Twi; to wit; I tell you.

The writer, Solomon Mensah, aboard Passion Air en route Tamale from Accra

We laughed out our fears and consoled ourselves that once everybody aboard the plane seemed very much comfortable, we must enjoy our flight as the voices of Matilda and that from the cockpit had previously assured our safety.

So soon, we had moved past the ‘turbulent zone’ and everything was so smooth.

“You don’t realise the plane is even moving,” I said.

“Exactly. It’s so smooth,” replied Tano as he sipped his fruit juice together with a pack of biscuit. Mind you, he was done with his first meal of a cup of coffee.

Fruit juice is not my favorite so when I took it from Matilda as she served us, I told Tano he could enjoy mine too. About 30 minutes into our journey, I felt uncomfortable in my ears. I could feel pains in my ears that at a point I cocked them with my fingers.

I think it was due to the sound the aircraft’s engine or whatever made as it was close to where I sat. I carefully looked around and everybody sat seemingly comfortably.

“Ah! How? Could I be the only one feeling this way?” I asked myself. Few seconds later, I posed the question to Tano. He felt the pain in his ears, too, but not that much as compared to mine.

Unknowingly, a woman who sat to my left― on the seat directly in front of Tano― had spotted me struggling.

“Feeling pains, right?” she intoned.

“Yes, please.”

“Okay, try yawning it will go. You will be okay,” she told me with cock-assuredness.  

I tried it and I was relieved.

“People have experience,” I said to Tano of the woman after thanking her. A reporter and his cameraman in the plane, we spoke about everything. It was rather unfortunate Tano did not have his camera on him to shoot our first flight experience.

The plane landed safely at the Tamale Airport. I said a prayer, “Thank you God.”

Our flight was very smooth. Straight from the airport, we headed to Bolgatanga, moved to Zuarugu and Pwalugu and went to lodge at a guest house in the evening.

The following day, Thursday, January 24, we moved to Navrongo and Bulsa North and South all together with the aforementioned in the Upper East Region and took coverage of the warehouses the National Food Buffer Stock Company was to take over its management.

The evening of that very Thursday, we flew back to Accra aboard another Passion Air flight. This time, Tano and I relaxed and enjoyed the flight as much as possible. Again, the flight attendants and a voice from the cockpit assured safety. We landed safely in Accra a little after an hour.

For Richmond Tano, he had heard of Passion Air before. He tells me he was the cameraman from TV3 to have shot the launch of the airline in Accra; he had even entered one of Passion Air’s planes but that [plane] did not move from the tarmac. In my case, it was my first time experiencing Passion Air and, again, my first time flying by air.

Having had a successful trip to Tamale via Passion Air, I have come to love the airline that much. So, on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 when it happened that I had to make another [personal] journey to Tamale from Accra, I chose Passion Air. I have downloaded the airline’s mobile app; PassionAir. In the comfort of wherever you are, provided there is internet, one can book a flight and pay through mobile money [all networks] or using a Visa card. There is yet an option of paying your fare later on.

For being aboard Passion Air on two separate round trips, I would recommend it to anyone who wishes to travel via flight from Accra-Kumasi, Accra-Tamale and vice versa. Right at the check-in points at both the Kotoka International Airport and the Tamale Airport [that I know], the Passion Air crew there meet you with smiles and humility unlike some services in the country whose workers make you feel you are nobody.

Aboard a Passion Air plane, the cabin crew are equally professional. They show you smiles and respect. On my first day I went aboard Passion Air to Tamale, I realised that their customers’ safety is their topmost priority.

“Hello sir, please resume your seat and fasten your seatbelt,” said one young man so politely but sternly. I think when I later asked of his name, he mentioned David to me. A passenger had gotten up to use the washroom but David, a cabin crew member, would tell him to hold on as the seatbelt sign/light was on. I think that was within Matilda’s turbulent zone and, for David, I suppose it was not appropriate the man walked in the plane.

“Hello sir,” said David again to the man, “you can please go now.” He told him when we had bypassed the shaky zone.

Nonetheless, aside Passion Air’s remarkable services, I think there are a few issues they must address. Using the airline’s app, one after booking his/her flight would at times get a different fare from what was originally quoted. So, when I wanted to book a flight to Accra from Tamale on Sunday, March 10 2019, the app kept messing me up on the fare. I had to get their toll-free line, call them and one lady I spoke to had to book the flight for me at her end. Still on the app, I think there should be [a]n option/button for customers/passengers to be able to share their fight details with persons they think must know of their intended journey.

These aside, aboard Passion Air’s planes, I realized their public address system was not that audible. At times, one has to strain their ears before getting what is being communicated and the feed from the cockpit, I humbly think, has always not been that audible [to me]. The seeming noise in the plane should be looked at, too.

Dear Passion Air, get these issues addressed and you are good to go. Please, permit me chip in this; would you [all airlines] agree with me that your passengers must be made to wear the life jackets [which in Passion Air’s case we were told were under our seats] as we board the plane than telling us to do so in case of an emergency? Considering Ethiopian Airline’s Boeing 737 Max8 crash, was it possible any of its passengers quickly wore their life jackets in hope that that could have saved them in any way?

Well, I once again congratulate your cabin crew. They are fantastic. My only suggestion is that they should not learn from Ghana’s business news reporters who would say/write ‘the year-on-year inflation rate was …’ and expect their audience to understand that with ease. What is year-on-year?

Whereas I understand ‘turbulent zone,’ I could not properly understand that aboard a plane. Perhaps, re-wording that caution will do. Something like: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are entering a zone that could mildly shake our flight. Fasten your seatbelts and relax. The shake is normal as driving on a pot-holed road. Thank you.” Or, what do you think?

Anyway, lest I forget; my first flight experience teaches me two things. That, God deserves every praise for His beautiful nature and the wisdom given mankind to do marvelous things. And, secondly, a massive thanks to the people behind the making of aircrafts as they really have made use of their brains.  

The writer is a broadcast journalist with TV3/3FM. Views expressed here are solely his and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Freeing Aisha Huang, may thunder fire Nana Addo’s gov’t!

Galamsey Queen, Aisha Huang [L] & Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Marfo 

A day before my traveling from Sunyani, the capital of Bono Region, to Accra, I promised myself that I would have a good meal. Being the last born of ten children, I don’t struggle for food whenever I go on a visit in that region. So, I ate bits and pieces of foods that came my way.

Ironically, when I promised myself of that eating spree, I knew my stomach could not stand [hot] pepper for a second. Yet, probably out of madness, I ate pepper-induced soups. It was a Saturday in 2014. The following morning, just when the driver of our Yutong bus horned that we were good to go, my stomach started dancing. “Yehowa [God], do I get down!?” I asked my confused mind.

I decided I will soldier on as the urge to attend nature’s call abruptly subsided. Then, after we passed the Tyco City Hotel on the Sunyani-Kumasi Road, the whole uncomfortable experience revived. When we got to Bechem, now in the Ahafo Region, I got down to use the washroom at a lorry station there. However, luck eluded me. They had locked the washroom with the supervisor of the place nowhere to be found.

I got back into the bus, bought a soap named SDAfoͻ Samina that a man advertised in the bus when we got there [Bechem]. I had for long heard of the soap’s efficacy so I didn’t hesitate buying it. I needed to soak it and drink the solution as that would tame my stomach from further acrobatics. It was then that I got to know that when one was in serious trouble, the mind usually went on vacation.

“Why don’t you buy a sachet of water, drink a bit of it and cut it [sachet] large enough so you put the soap in it and get your solution?” a woman who sat by me and witnessed my ordeal told me. That sense was pumped into my head at Abrepo in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, about 10 minutes before the driver could park at a fuel station for me. Mind you, from Sunyani to Kumasi is about 122 km. The rest of the story is history.

Having passed through this experience of promises that one knows it is hard to keep- as I promised my stomach- and my mind basically going blank thereafter, I don’t really blame President Akufo Addo’s led NPP government. They seem to have that ‘runny stomach’ hence running here and there and mostly sounding confused.

The New Patriotic Party made so many promises to Ghanaians before election 2016 that they are now trying very hard to keep. You remember the one village, one dam? One district, one factory? Free SHS [which is somewhat satisfactorily implemented]? One million dollars per constituency among a host of others and its quest for infrastructure. That [infrastructure], which they jabbed former President John Dramani over.

“Infrastructure development under the Mahama-led NDC government has been characterized by massive corruption through contract overpricing, opaque and shady contracting processes, and gross abuse of the sole sourcing provisions of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663),” the NPP said in its 2016 manifesto.

Today, in 2019, did the NPP not equally sole source the freedom of actively engaging in illegal mining to the Chinese Galamsey Queen Aisha Huang? Did they not whisk her away from our law court, where she stood trial, and deported her to China because they went cup in hand to that country for some ‘peanuts’? And, can we fault those who say the Nana Addo-led government sold Ghana to China for an amount of $2 billion?

Can we ask how much the Galamsey Queen made in mining our gold? Could we have made use of that worth of gold― no matter how small or huge its value rather than letting freely her go with it and later we going back to her country for assistance? Are we really serious?

When one ponders over these questions and remembers that the government in power has been making so much noise on its ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ mantra then you realise that there is absolutely no hope for this country of ours. Our cocoa is basically not ours. Gold? Bauxite? Timber? So, we cannot sit down as a nation and own our destiny as China did and is doing?

“We have a very good relationship with China. The main company that is helping develop the infrastructure system in Ghana is Sinohydro, it is a Chinese Company. It is the one that is going to help process our bauxite and provide about $2 billion to us. So when there are these kinds of arrangements, there are other things behind the scenes. Putting [Aisha Huang] in jail in Ghana is not going to solve your money problem. It is not going to make you happy or me happy,” the Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo is reported to have said at a townhall meeting in the US.

In my estimation, the freeing of Aisha Huang is the greatest betrayal I have ever seen as a Ghanaian and an act of brazen wickedness by the Nana Addo-led government. Why do you terrorize your own people who got themselves involved in illegal mining [Galamsey] and pamper a Chinese national caught in the same act because of a deal with Sinohydro? Was it because students of international relations say such is right in their books?

Headlines in relation to the Operation Vanguard’s task had been screaming in the past years. “10 Excavators Burnt In Anti-Galamsey Operation,” Daily Guide reported on August 2, 2017 with Citinewsroom reporting on July 20, 2018 that, “41 illegal miners arrested by Operation Vanguard” among others. Clearly, government was vehemently punching the throats of the [Ghanaian] illegal miners. But, unknown to them [the miners], their tormentor was but a toothless bull dog who would kowtow to a command from China.   

Mr. Osafo Marfo unashamedly added that: “The most important thing is that we established regulations and we are protecting our environment. That is far more important than one Chinese woman who has been deported back to her country.”

But, will the NPP be protecting our environment with its deal with Sinohydro?  If so, why has the Non-Governmental Organization, Arocha Ghana, persistently told government and its Chinese counterparts to stay away from the Atewa Forest?

The Atewa Forest, we are told, provides water to over five million Ghanaians and it is said to be the headwater for three key rivers in Ghana being the Densu River [flowing into the Weija Dam as it supplies water to a huge number of residents in western part of Accra], the Ayensu River and the Birim River.

Surprisingly however, the NPP in its 2016 manifesto says: “We will comprehensively protect our water catchment areas, through the Clean Rivers Programme (CRP).”

If despite the cacophony of noises the NPP made on the Gitmo 2 saga while in opposition, it does not find anything wrong freeing Aisha Huang, then I pray unto God to let the cry of the Ghanaian galamseyer fall on Nana Addo’s government.

Like the woman in dire of a child who sleeps naked at night, Nana Addo’s government stands readily ‘naked’ before the world inviting them for a shameful bilateral intercourse so it gets some amount of money to finance promises made to Ghanaians.

Anyway, if I were a galamseyer, I would arm myself, go out there and mine and meet the Operation Vanguard team head-to-head. After all… ‘all die be die.’

The writer is a broadcast journalist with Media General [TV3/3FM]. Views expressed herein are solely his, and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation whatsoever.

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Exams on chalkboard, new school uniform; “Awurade bɛ gye steer no!”

A teacher writes exams questions on the chalkboard

I completed Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2016, receiving an award of Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Three solid years after my completion, I have seen a number of my classmates and schoolmates getting their masters done. That’s impressive, I tell myself.

At times, I feel I should get my masters done, too. So, I have since applied to a number of foreign universities, got admissions but could not take them up because of lack of funds/scholarship. A very close friend of mine, Edward Balami, on ‘academic asylum’ in the UK, keeps sending me links to schools to apply, too. My desire sometimes to climb high the academic ladder, however, takes a downward turn like a pregnant woman’s breasts.

Frankly, it is not the lack of scholarship that kills my interest. After all, if I mean to even study here in Ghana, by hustling through the system, I can foot my bills. The reason rather stems from the thought pattern and attitude of some of our so-called leaders.

These supposed leaders, who have attended all the big universities in the world, end up with attitudes that wreck our nation. You ask yourself if those of us with a mere first degree will be able to offer constructive inputs if these leaders with ‘big’ certificates barely make any sense. Probably, these certificates are only to fatten their salaries.

Education must better the lives of the masses; anything short of this is robbery.

The other day, we heard that some basic schools across the country had their end of term examination questions written on chalkboards. Then, pictures went viral on social media in which teachers wrote questions to even cover the bare walls. I was shocked. “Are we serious!?” I quizzed.

Again to my surprise, I read a story on Starrfm.com.gh that almost quenched the flickering hope I have for our country.

“Why the dramatization? Is it because teachers were getting some money from what was being paid earlier and now they don’t get? So they are angry? Writing on the board is not a new phenomenon, how did they write their class test.  If that is the only way the poor can get education, then so be it,” the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, was reported to have said.

Clearly, when you have such people at the helm of affairs, you realize that Chinua Achebe couldn’t have said it better― things are, indeed, falling apart! So, Vincent Assafuah vested with power as that of a tethered he-goat could speak this trash to teachers? He could ask teachers ‘how they wrote their class test’ when he knows that the world has moved on? Lord, have mercy!

As a trained teacher myself, we were taught at the teacher training college to ‘improvise’ when the need be. Nonetheless, it is totally balderdash to improvise in the classroom when there is a clear means of adequately getting the teacher resourced. Vincent Assafuah had told Starrfm.com.gh that it was the capitation grant that delayed― a stupid answer he gave.

If government knew the capitation grant would delay, why did it give an order to some heads of our basic schools not to take money from parents?

“It [not to take printing fee from parents] was a warning so we went according to what they said and we started examinations yesterday and we wrote on the chalkboard, according to their directive,” a teacher told Citinewsroom.com.

Now, the question is, why do you deliberately reject parents’ money as payment for printing fees when you know you cannot foot the bill of printing for the pupils? Our wobbling government does not think parents must be able to assist her give their children better education? Who does that?

When we thought that, perhaps, the national shame – justified by the Ministry of Education – would eventually find a resting place so we cool down our tempers, another ‘wahala’ popped up. They say it was the revision of the basic school curriculum. That’s fine, but what is contained in it?

When President Akufo Addo said at the State of the Nation Address to Parliament in February 2019 that the new curriculum will focus on making the “Ghanaian child confident, innovative, creative-thinking, digitally-literate, well-rounded and a patriotic citizen”, I said that will be marvelous. Today, however, if what we know as the key features of the new curriculum remain the same, then I would humbly withdraw my word.

I read the key features would be to reduce the number of learning areas from seven (7) to four (4) at the kindergarten, greater emphasis on literacy and numeracy at the Lower and Upper Primary and history of Ghana which was going to be compulsory for each child from Primary one to Primary six among others.

So, basically, nothing substantial was introduced. We used to learn history in school, they took it away and now it is back. As for literacy and numeracy, we have learnt them since Adam! Touting this so-called new curriculum, I expected we would be teaching our kids something that will make them smart, independent and forward-thinking so they could compete with the outside world.

I, personally, would have wished we introduced intensive ICT training, agriculture, financial intelligence and life skills [as we had in the days of old]. This, then, we could add the history of Ghana to.

You travel to Eastern, Bono, Ahafo, Bono East and Northern Regions and probably the whole of Ghana and there are vast lands. But, who is farming such? The school trains us to cap files under our armpits in search of jobs while we import even tomatoes from Burkina Faso. Did you ever have a school garden? Did that not inspire you to see farming as a decent occupation? If we had state farms in every region, would we not have had all the     youth loitering about aimlessly at Kwame Nkrumah Circle accepting to be farmhands? Do we forget that he who feeds you controls you?

A week or so ago, I listened to a powerful documentary on BBC Radio. Journalist Mariko Oi went to both Singapore and Japan where robots serve as teachers in the classroom and caretaker-assistants of the elderly, respectively.

Again in Singapore, Ms Oi spoke to the Chief Executive Officer of Duck Learning, Hozefa Aziz, who teaches children as young as six and seven years old coding in school.

“We are in an era now where children do not know the kind of job they will be working in 10 years from now. So, we want to equip them with the skills that are necessary for them in the future,” said Aziz to Oi.

Do we sincerely believe that 25 years from now our students of the new curriculum could match their counterparts in Singapore and elsewhere ‘boot-for-boot’? Why are we letting our children behind in the era of technology? I only thought we would learn from China as it has set 32 years ahead to vigorously train to win the World Cup in 2050. What is Ghana’s biggest goal to achieve?

All these rants aside, the last straw that broke the camel's back was the introduction of the new school uniform― a highly bogus and misplaced priority of an intoxicated government. When I told you that teachers recently wrote on the chalkboard the end of term examinations questions, Ghana Education Service [GES] ordered head teachers not to take printing fees from parents. In a sharp contrast, however, the same GES foolishly says parents will be paying for the new school uniform for their wards. This can only happen in Africa, precisely Ghana!

The new school uniform 

And, the reason for the new school uniform is just crazy. That: “The idea is for them [JHS pupils, wearing the new uniform] to start seeing themselves as secondary school students; they are in lower secondary [now],” said the Director General of GES, Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa.

I never knew the people referred to in Galatians 3, who were asked ‘who hath bewitched you,’ were Ghanaians until I started paying attention to the happenings at the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service.

As 2pac once said, ‘I see no changes!’ Some educated folks in our country implementing unpalatable policies deserve to have their certificates taken from them. They are more dangerous than armed robbers.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with Media General [TV3/3FM]. Views expressed herein are solely his, and do not, in anyway, reflect the editorial policy of his organisation whatsoever.

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba