Sunday 11 December 2016

TALKING DRUM: A lesson Tanzania’s Magufuli offers Nana Addo



President-elect, Nana Akufo Addo
"When I say NDC, you say no abaabasÉ›. NDC, no abaabasÉ›. Then, the third one, you say 'hweeeeeeeeoooow' [that, supporters whistle]," there was President John Dramani Mahama addressing teeming supporters.

Indeed, Ghana’s 2016 election was one of fun and would forever be remembered. While the National Democratic Congress were telling the New Patriotic Party (NPP) they were not going back, Nana Akufo Addo, then NPP’s presidential candidate and now president elect of the Republic of Ghana, was saying goodbye to President Mahama from somewhere.

"John Dramani Mahama, bye byeeeee! Bye byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" The other contesting presidential candidates did not quench the fun-fire. Yes. The Progressive People’s Party’s Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, for me, scored the highest mark for the fun game.

"Every year Bole Bamboi road, JJ Rawlings. Bole Bamboi road, Kufour. Bole Bamboi road, Atta Mills. Bole Bamboi road, Mahama. Ah?!" Dr. Nduom asked at one of his campaigns.

But like the lizard’s excreta, the fun game was marred with some provoking jabs.

"The president said I was sleeping, I thank him. The people in the Western Region and all those who use those roads there will know the one who is peddling falsehood. If the roads were good, would they have included it in their projects?

“Let me ask you; do you see anything near good roads? Do you see that most of the roads are in good shape? We should not be deceived by these falsehoods," said Nana Akufo Addo.

He was addressing a rally at the Achimota Station in the Okaikoi North constituency on Friday, August 19, 2016, and would respond to President Mahama’s claim that he [Nana Addo] was sleeping in one of his tours to the Western region, hence, his inability to see the good roads there.

After months of intensive campaigning, the dust has settled and Ghana has finally chosen a leader to steer the affairs of the nation for the next four years.

Our president-elect, Nana Akufo Addo has enormous responsibilities to undertake as Ghanaians have a mountain of expectations from his government. Having campaigned and probably won the election based on promises, the nation looks forward to the NPP effecting that ‘change’ they called for.

When, after, the Electoral Commission’s Chairperson, Charlotte Osei declared Nana Addo the president elect, what I heard many people at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle jubilate about were the free SHS promise, one district one factory and improvement in the health insurance scheme.

Whereas these may be a few of the NPP’s promises the Kwame Nkrumah Circle celebrants were happy about, there are those who look forward to seeing our economy grow tremendously. The $1m per every constituency and the creation of jobs cannot be forgotten as we were similarly told not to forget the GYEEDA and other scandals, under the NDC government.

However, I strongly believe Nana Addo will have a very smooth tenure of office if he follows the exemplary footsteps of Tanzania’s president, John Pombe Magufuli.

Tanzania's President, John Magufuli
Mr. Magufuli, prior to being elected as president, had campaigned to crack down on corruption, promised to tackle the endless power shortages Tanzanians face, and to exploit its gas resources for the benefit of the nation.

The BBC reports that Mr. Magufuli portraying himself as a poor man’s son had reached out to Tanzanians to better their lives.

"Our home was grass thatched and like many boys I was assigned to herd cattle, as well as selling milk and fish to support my family. 

"I know what it means to be poor. I will strive to help improve people's welfare," he said.

So, what happened after Magufuli assumed the position of a president in Tanzania in less than a month?

Social media was awashed with messages of Mr. Magufuli’s announcement that there would be no celebration of Tanzania’s Independence Day on December 9. Why? His reason was reasonable. It would be shameful to spend huge sums of money on the celebrations while people were dying of cholera. Resources would rather be channeled to productive ventures.

At his official visit to the Muhimbili Hospital, in Dar es Salaam, Mr. Magufuli seeing the hospital’s horrible state, ordered over 200 million shillings marked for “parliament parties” be used to pay for beds for patients who either slept on the floor or shared beds, the sapeople.com reports.

Subsequently, the governing board of the Muhimbili Hospital was dissolved and got a new team in place, and within days broken MRI was fixed.  A cut from $100,000 to $7,000 as an amount for his inauguration party had the extra money being sent to the hospital. 

More so, the announcement of a ban on all foreign travel by government officials and ordering these officials to, instead, make regular visits to rural areas to look at how to solve and improve the lives of the ordinary Tanzanian cannot be over emphasized.

This is the man many call as the Bulldozer for he abrasively acts upon his words. Still on his assumption, in less than a month, Mr. Magufuli suspended the Tanzania Revenue Authority’s chief and other officials as irregularities were recorded at their office.

This is the shining example Tanzania offers a Nana Addo government. Our president elect must be able to not only sack corrupt officials but imprison them when the law courts find them culpable. This, President Mahama failed to do and even infuriated Ghanaians by releasing the Montie 3. Simply because he has that power to do so.

Our president elect must let his ministers and appointees understand that they cannot live the life of New Yorkers, in Ghana, while many people wallow in poverty.

Our president elect must either scrap or restructure government policies that are drawing us back as a developing country. The National Sanitation Day, for instance, must be restructured. The idea of calling on people to sweep and clean their environment on the first Saturday of every month is sickening.

Here, we end up filling the same gutters we cleaned just a day after the clean-up exercise. Malaria must be a thing of the past if the Americas and the Europes have drastically achieve this feet. Why can we not ensure sanity by fining people who litter indiscriminately? Could this not be a source of income for the nation in solving some of our numerous problems?   

There are a lot that could be said to Nana Akufo Addo but in a nutshell; I wish to say that per his status in life, this is not the time to create, loot and share. You have everything that could be said of every successful man.

Becoming the president of Ghana is just an addition to your feat in life, I guess, and you must, however, not ‘play’ with Ghanaians. Do not take this for granted. Work to write your name in the good books of our country. 

Dear, Nana Addo be reminded of what former President JJ Rawlings wrote to you in congratulating you. That, the people elected you “President because the electorate believes you have the ability to confront these challenges [the nation faces] and lead the country with fearlessness, humility and honesty.”

I wish you a prosperous term of office. Long live our motherland, Ghana.

The writer, Solomon Mensah, is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his opinion and not that of his organisation.
Twitter: @Aniwaba

Saturday 3 December 2016

TALKING DRUM: Of a Tailor at Kweku Panfo & the next President of Ghana!





Tailor John Atise at his shop
He swatted from his right arm what appeared to be a ‘mysterious’ mosquito. The sun was harshly smiling and John Atise was busily working.
 
His right foot stepping on a small black pad that laid on the ground, John’s Masco Sewing Machine sounded ‘grrrrrrrrrrr’ and he gently pushed the edges of a folded material under the machine’s needle-point.

I had gone to Kweku Panfo to report on the December 1 special voting and I would engage him to know more about him.

“I learnt this trade, as an apprentice, in Takoradi, in the Western region, and graduated in 2004,” he tells me.   

Here at Kweku Panfo, a community under the Domeabra-Obom Constituency of the Ga South Municipality, John Atise is both their Ralph Lauren and Giorgio Armani. He is anything fashion.

“There used to be three tailors here but two of them have abandoned their shops to ply a new trade as tricycle riders. We are only left with Atise here at [Kweku] Panfo and if you are a man and wants to look classy, then, you cannot bypass Atise,” says Kwame, a resident.

“Whether it is wedding or funeral, our tailor remains Atise,” says another man.
John Atise plies his trade in his family house under an erected post of four bamboo sticks with a corrugated iron sheet roofing it. 

The Kweku Panfo acclaimed tailor tells me that he is forced to close from work whenever it rains. “You see this roofing, my brother! You tell me if it is possible staying under this shed for just a second when it rains.”

The iron sheet, when one raises the head could see the heavens through its holes. Electric cables hang top-down from his shop’s roofing to connect to his sewing machine.

A long view of John Atise's shop
John says after he completed learning how to sew in Takoradi, he made efforts to get his own shop in the city. However, after waiting for that miracle that never came he decided to go back to his roots. 

“It is here [Kweku Panfo] I come from and I told myself that to starve in Takoradi, it will be better I join my wife and children back home. At least, by the close of each day, in my hometown, there would be food on my table,” says John as he fixedly stared at his sewing material.

His coming back to Kweku Panfo was a little after his graduation in 2004. He learnt all he could in Takoradi as he tells me is able to even sew choir robes among others.

John Atise shows his certificate
John’s major challenge now is that although he has customers that keep bringing him materials to be sewn, these customers refuse to come back for their shirts. It sounds interesting, right? But what could be the reason?

He says “the customers are unable to pay the 20Gh₵ per a shirt sewn.” At times, he is so sympathetic that he reduces his price to 15Gh₵ but these customers would still not come for their shirts.

John says what keeps him ‘opening’ his shop on daily basis is the word “hope.” He has that hope that as the cock awaits to announce the birth of a new day, someone among his numerous customers would come for their shirts so he gets his profit.

Kweku Panfo seems to be habouring an army of youth who are poised to achieve in life. John Atise is not the only one dying to succeed here. Opposite to John’s tailoring shop is another shed.

This shed, far better than that of John, serves as the parking lot of the Kweku Panfo Okada Riders Association (KPORA). The road from Domeabra to Kweku Panfo is pot-holed as the front teeth of an old lady in an Ananse story. And this road is basically inaccessible by cars. 

Some members of the Kweku Panfo Okada Riders Association 
So, these Okada riders serve as that ‘bridge’ connecting Domeabra to Kweku Panfo. When I got to their station I could count as many as nine motorbikes that were parked awaiting passengers.

Uhmali Francis is the head of the Kweku Panfo Okada Riders Association. He tells me they charge 10Gh₵ from Kweku Panfo to Domeabra. 

Like the case of John Atise, the Okada riders also have concerns. They have not been able to register their motorbikes. This, they find it hard going near Kasoa as they fear they would be apprehended by the police when caught.

“So, why are you not registering these bikes to get out of this hide and seek with the police,” I asked.

“The truth is that these are not our bikes. We work for our masters [owners of the bikes] and they are not listening to us despite our complaints,” says Uhmali Francis.

Francis, as well, tells me they are not paid at the end of the day/month. What their masters demand is a fixed amount of say 100Gh₵ a week. Here, if the riders are able to work to accrue enough money exceeding the targeted amount, then, they [riders] pocket the surplus. 

“It’s like we are working in vain. I just hope any government that will come into power after the December 7 polls will come to our rescue.

“We just need such a government to support us by buying us the motorbikes so we work to defray its cost, by so doing it becomes ours after defraying the cost of the bike.”

The riders tell me they do not engage themselves in partisan politics. They all will obviously not vote the same presidential candidate. However, they will eagerly work with any government that comes to power.

The plight of the youth of Kweku Panfo is a microcosm of the bigger picture across the country. If our youth get actively involved in a productive venture, no politician stand the chance of inciting them to violence. 

I believe government creating an enabling environment for the youth like John Atise and his cohorts to start up their own businesses would go a long way to put our country on the right path.  

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remains his opinion and not that of his organisation.
Twitter: @Aniwaba