TALKING DRUM: The exam Nana Addo & his Minister failed!

President Akufo Addo

He was my classmate back at St. James Primary and JHS in Sunyani. For him, the fever that often characterized an impending examination was never his headache.

Thomas (not real name) always had a simple strategy. He went to the exams room with his prepared answers; his own answers. He did not care whether these “already-made” answers stood the probability of meeting the requirements of the unknown questions. His academic performance? Your guess is as good as mine!

Interestingly, this strategy that never saw my friend smile upon seeing his results has been adopted by many of our political leaders. Finding the simplest way of tackling filth in our country has become so hectic a task as civilians escaping war in Syria.

Former President John Dramani Mahama tried battling filth in our cities by introducing the National Sanitation Day (NSD). As I have written about earlier, the Mahama administration did Ghanaians a great disservice with the NSD. Why should you indirectly tell us to litter indiscriminately throughout the month and then use only the first Saturday of the following month to clean?

As of now, we still have not found the antidote to filth in our society. Can you imagine?

As it stands, President Akufo Addo and his Minister of Sanitation and Water Resources, Kofi Adda, have still not devised a strategy to tackle Accra’s filth and that of Ghana at large. Is getting our societies clean a hurdle too big for us? It is a very simple task, if you ask me!

Writing under the heading “The simplest question I would have asked Prez Akufo Addo” in June 2017, I reached out to the President by offering concrete ways of getting his dream of Accra becoming the cleanest city in Africa realized. Did he read? What about Mr. Kofi Adda?

“Mr. President, can you enforce a by-law that will get people who litter indiscriminately to pay a fine? Can you let people be responsible for their irresponsible behaviour?” I wrote in the said article. I still stand by this as the only way to see our dream materialized.

Mr. Kofi Adda, speaking in Kumasi in the Ashanti region recently, mentioned that chips are being installed on dustbins and other waste collection equipment in the country to track the disposal of waste. More so, he reiterated government’s efforts in getting huge sums of Ghana Cedis owned by waste collection agencies cleared.

The Sanitation Minister commended the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) registering all tricycles that are involved in waste collection in Kumasi. Indeed, the KMA’s approach is much commendable unlike Mr. Adda’s.

Making use of technology in every aspect of human’s endeavor is great. Mr. Kofi Adda’s chip-in-dustbins cannot be described as good considering our current situation. By all indications, Ghana does not need that approach yet in tackling filth. The greater portion of our attention should be on getting citizens and residents to stop littering. Imposing heavy fines on defaulters should be an order. When we have no waste generated, there will be no need to have chips installed in dustbins.

One question keeps lingering on my mind on government’s attempt at paying monies it owes the collection agencies. Would it ever happen that after we have paid these monies to waste collectors, our streets and communities will be free of filth? If you answered no, you are right.

There will be still heaps of garbage at Kaneshie, Lapaz, Adabraka, Madina, Teshie, Nungua, Mallam, and at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange among other places. The other nine regions would also have their own share of the mountains of garbage. Why? We have decided not to look at the source of filth; waste generation.

I was once asked if I had a personal score to settle with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) simply because I overly criticize it. The truth is that this body is not fulfilling its mandate, thus, my backlash. AMA’s Sanitation Office is situated at Kaneshie yet Kaneshie is one of the filthiest places in the Greater Accra region. Incompetence is the hallmark of the AMA.

Uncollected waste after it was scooped from the gutter at Bubiashie- Accra. Photo/Pious Addofo

Again, in my June 2017 article, I humbly advised President Akufo Addo on his dream of cleaning Accra. “Mr. President […] if you really have your promise of seeing Accra become a clean city at heart, please, let the AMA stay away from this,” I hinted.

Mr. President, I watched on television how some ministries here in Accra were cleaning their surroundings on Friday morning, March 16 2018. Reports indicated that you had instructed them. I did not get the import of the said news item so well but, Sir, did you really issue that order? Is it going to be every Friday affair? Why should adults who know right from wrong litter their work place?

If we want a clean city, we must begin to rigorously enforce sanitation by-laws. People must go to jail for littering anything. People must be given brooms to sweep from Danquah Circle to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, Lapaz to Mallam Junction and Madina to 37 to serve as deterrent to others.

According to Straitstimes.com, “authorities [in Singapore] meted out more than 31,000 fines last year [2016], a seven-year high. The figure was also more than thrice the 8,195 tickets issued in 2012.” Few people find themselves prosecuted on sanitation charges here in Ghana and the time to fill the courts is now.

Mr. President, it appears that you and your Sanitation Minister have woefully failed the examination you sat on getting us a clean city. Like my friend, Thomas, you have submitted ‘answers’ that are really not answers. The good thing, however, is that there is more room for improvement. There is the chance for a re-sit!

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his and do not, in anyway, reflect his organisation’s editorial policy.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: George Ayisi Boateng is not a hypocrite!

Ghana's Commissioner to South Africa, George Ayisi Boateng

On Sunday evening, October 30, 2017, as of 7:36pm, I was roaming with a friend, Maxwell-Obiri Yeboah, and a room agent somewhere in the Greater Accra region in search of a room to rent.

When I called this agent, I told him what exactly I was looking for. I needed a single room self-contained at a neat, flood-free environment. Cunning as he was, however, he took us to a place exactly opposite my expectations. 

“This is the landlord and this is the room,” he said. 

All along, I thought he was only fetching something from the house he took us to… as he had said to us he was meeting a friend there. Noticing that was where he had supposedly searched for us, I told him right away without mincing words that that was not what I asked for. I don’t like the place!

Immediately, I had a notification on WhatsApp. It was my friend, Maxwell. It read: “Solo, you’re too plain oo. I can’t say that to him [the agent] directly.”

I told him I was not an angel but I disliked others who were clothed in pretense. Here was an agent who had told me of a room of my choice at Trade Fair only to attempt swindling me. He, at all cost, wanted to ‘chop’ my GHC50 as an agent fee. Was I not right to have told him the hard truth? Truth remains but one.

This is the reason I find it surprising and ridiculous in the midst of a pool of Facebook posts and radio and television commentaries by some people calling for Ghana’s Commissioner to South Africa, George Ayisi Boateng, to be sacked.

His crime? He had met a group of the New Patriotic Party’s student wing, the Tertiary Students’ Confederacy Network (TESCON), in Kumasi in the Ashanti region, and had told them he prioritizes members of his party ahead of any other Ghanaian.  

“This government is doing its best to create job opportunities and me, for instance, I told my people over there [that], it is because of NPP that I’m here so the NPP man is my priority. I told them when NDC was in power it was Kwesi Ahwoi who was there. Now we are in power so Ayisi-Boateng is here with you. My topmost priority is the problems of an NPP person before any other Ghanaian. Take it or leave it,” Mr. George Ayisi Boateng said.

Indeed, sounding convincing like Qatar Airways which boasts of going places together with its customers, Mr. Ayisi Boateng added that, “I’m not boasting [but] I’ve started meeting the NPP groups. Every weekend, I meet some group members and I tell you if I had my way, every job opportunity that will come will go to a TESCON member before any other person. And I know my colleague appointees also have the same feeling except that because of IMF, we cannot do anything now.”

I must say that I totally condemn these comments by the Commissioner to South Africa. It is obvious that these comments, indeed, do not match his age and the position he holds. 

However, I vehemently disagree with persons condemning him and calling for his dismissal. What at all did Mr. Ayisi Boateng say differently that we do not know about yet— the issues of favouritism and nepotism that exist in our NDC-NPP politics?

I will not equalize the Commissioner’s comments to what the National Democratic Congress has done in the past. However, if you follow politics in this country called Ghana, you do not need to be told that if you are “any other Ghanaian” as Mr. Ayisi puts it, your source of help comes from your object of worship. Ordinary persons must only depend on God as our hope. The political manna always falls at the feet of foot soldiers and cronies whose party is in power. 

I have confidentially been told by both members of the NDC and NPP who secured government scholarships to study abroad at the expense of ‘any other Ghanaian’ who also qualified for the same scholarship. We are not the same Ghanaians! 

What in this country is not given to members of NDC or NPP depending on whose political party is in power? From the toilets to the white collar jobs in the government sector, we see people pulling guns and knives for their political members to take over. 

So, what is the crime of Mr. Ayisi Boateng? For saying the obvious? The critics of the Commissioner say such comments ought not to have come out of the mouth of a person considered a diplomat. As I have already admitted, I agree with such. However, being given a responsible political position does not necessarily make one responsible. 

For most of these appointees and some Ghanaian politicians, their input and output are predetermined by the corrupt system of ‘M’aban na ɛwͻ so’ [My party is in power] syndrome. 

Instead of calling for the head of Mr. Ayisi Boateng, I would rather suggest we, as a people, call for a holistic national debate on how we can completely end this culture of party in power favouring its own. If we are bent on dismissing the Commissioner, however, it would be reasonable dismissing the government in power as well since they have supervised brutality of its members taking over jobs from the ordinary Ghanaian. 

As it stands now, I totally agree with the Commissioner to South Africa that there are others who are more Ghanaian than others. The sad truth.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with Media General (3FM & TV3). Views expressed here solely remain his and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Teaching English on social media, a young man’s quest

Eric Nuamah Korankye (Hamlet)

“Farther and further are very similar words both in spelling and meaning. Many times, they are used interchangeably. However, there are some important differences we can make between the two,” so starts his lesson numbered 213.

In an era where people send all kinds of messages on social media, some voluminous enough to be called pamphlets, mainly ordering its receivers to forward to 20 people or face God’s wrath, one man has chosen a different path.

Meet Eric Nuamah Korankye affectionately called Hamlet; the young man teaching English Language on social media, specifically, WhatsApp and Facebook. 

From Mondays to Fridays, Hamlet sends his readers somewhat lengthy but very useful and insightful dosage of write-ups just after the cock had crowed. 

His lessons break down the Queen’s Language to Ghanaians and the world at large. 

“The lessons have been designed to address the often misused expressions, confusing words, misgrasped words, pronunciation difficulty, spelling challenges, misused idioms, problems with grammar and difficulties in distinguishing amongst the various varieties of English especially the British English, American English and educated Ghanaian English,” he tells me.

Feedback from readers and subscribers, he says, show that these lessons are very educative and inspiring to young ones to learn the English language the right way.

So… who is this teacher teaching on social media? Hamlet, 26, is a man passionate about language studies. He pursued a four-year Bachelor’s Degree in English with a minor in Akan at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi. 

Completing his studies at KNUST, he served as a Teaching Assistant in the university’s Department of English from September 2013 to August 2014. Here, Hamlet assisted in courses such as Communication Skills, Literature in English, Critical Ideas, Research Methods in English, Practical Appreciation among others.

Hamlet

It would interest you to know that before his national service at KNUST, he voluntarily served as a Teacher of English at Manso Adubia Senior High School, Manso, in the Ashanti Region. 

In 2015, he joined the Ideal College branch at Buokrom Estate in Kumasi where he taught English Language and Literature-in-English. He has been a Teacher of English at almost every level, from primary school to the tertiary level, and this exposure has made him much informed about the needs of students in the English language.

Having known him for some time now, Hamlet comes across as a young man who is enthusiastic about inspiring confidence in young people, within and outside Ghana, to be expressive in their native languages as well as the English language which is the official language in many countries. It is this spirit, he says, that birthed the inception of Before Breakfast Lessons which he has broadcast on social media for some months now.

If you have ever read Before Breakfast Lessons on WhatsApp or Facebook and admire its publisher so much as I do, then here you are getting to know him better. 

I must say Hamlet is not any more of a super human than you, my reader, are. He is just an ordinary man doing small things in an extraordinary ways. 

For some time now, English language has been taught by many people outside the everyday classroom. Indeed, on some radio stations across the country especially GBC Radio (Unique FM), in Accra, the Queen’s Language has been taught. What made me first contact Hamlet was the fact that he was not abusing social media.

I have written a whole piece on ‘Why social media is now your CV’ having realised how powerful such platforms are. Nonetheless, many of my contemporaries seem to be adamant of what they do on social media.

I keep advising friends to keep showcasing to the world what they are good at… on their respective social media walls. If you are a footballer, carpenter, painter, teacher, journalist or pastor, give your friends on social media a reason to follow you and your works.

I can say without batting an eyelid that Hamlet has given enough reason for the world to follow him.

Aside teaching English Language, Hamlet takes much interest in being an essayist. Passionate about the discourse of Africa, he brings this passion to bear in his writings and social commentaries on issues concerning Africa. 

“I believe that the narratives about Africa in the aeon of her history have been skewed to negativities by a prejudicial western media landscape. So, through many of my poems, I project the new rising Africa and urge friends of the ink to equally contribute to changing the debased narrative about Africa,” he said.

He, as well, writes about love, communism, equality, streetism, education and, most importantly, on the need to uphold the pillars of moral, cultural and social values. 

In case you would want to have a personal interaction with Hamlet, look for him at the Hansard Department of the Parliamentary Service of Ghana as he is currently a sub-editor there. 

As I wrap up on this piece, I have received a notification on my WhatsApp. It’s Before Breakfast Lessons. What just came in is ‘lesson 233’. Somewhere in the middle of the text is “The use of ‘hyphens’”. Can I excuse you to go have a read?

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

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba