TALKING DRUM: One reason my School Prefect must be a Member of Parliament

 

Solomon Kyere-Boadu

A day before the district level elections which was held in December last year, I wrote on Facebook praising one man. He had stood for reelection as the Assemblyman for the Atoase Electoral Area in Sunyani in the Bono Region. Isaac Yaw Brenya, affectionately known by many as Koo Zee, was again vying for the seat he had ‘sat on’ for years.

“Koo Zee would even use his own money to purchase streetlights if government does not provide such. And, here is a man who could turn himself into a watchman at night to face thieves,” I wrote. Then, as a freelance journalist, I had done a story on him on his planting of over 12,000 trees in the Sunyani Municipality and parts of the Central Region. Do not hold your breath yet. This is but a fraction of the good works this man has done even beyond his constituency. 

So, I was certain he will be voted again into power as the Assemblyman of the Atoase Electoral Area. However, that did not happen this time round. Now that Koo Zee has been ousted from the assembly post certainly because he had outgrown that, one would think he will delve deeper into politics. Nonetheless, knowing him so well as he taught me Asante Twi at SUSEC (Sunyani Senior High School), it is unlikely he will take up such a challenge. 

In my said Facebook post, I had indicated that the good folks in our society are running away from mainstream politics leaving many bad nuts corrupting the system. I believe if we had one Koo Zee each in the 16 regions, Ghana would have been a better place by now. 

Reflecting on this, however, comes to mind yet another fantastic [young] man I know.

On January 9^th, 1988, Madam Dora Kyere Amanoa put smiles on the face of her husband, Mr. Stephen Yaw Boadu. She had been delivered of a baby boy in Berekum in the Bono Region who would later be named Solomon Kyere-Boadu. The joy that followed the announcement of the birth of the boy transcended the very home of the couple. At Kato and Biadan, the hometowns of the couple, respectively, well-wishers prayed Boadu Jr. became useful to his community and Ghana at large. And, as fate would have it, this prayer appears perfectly been answered by God.

As a true indigene who grew up in Berekum until he completed his basic and junior high schools in 2002 all at the AKAB Complex School in the area, Solomon Kyere-Boadu, also called King Solomon, gained admission to SUSEC. That was in 2003 and he completed in 2006. Here, he became my School Prefect!

For his love for humanity, he abandoned his university admission in 2007 with the hope of gaining admission into the Nursing Training College where he could directly care for people. This, however, could not materialize. The Principal at the college where he attended interview refused King Solomon admission by ‘prophetically’ insisting that his grades and demeanor portrayed that of a good leader and even future president. But, can we not have a nurse ascending to the seat of government? Well, ‘I can’t keel myself over this principal.’ 

My former School Prefect would the following year enroll at the University of Ghana where he studied for his Bachelor of Arts degree (BA) in Political Science and Linguistics. He completed in 2012. 

He studied for other academic certificates from the BT Group International’s Corporate Executive Management Training Programme in Accounting and Financial Management as well as Human Resource Management, all in 2009. 

Mr. Kyere-Boadu undertook his one year mandatory national service at the Army Headquarters at Burma Camp under the Ministry of Defence, specifically at the Directorate of Military Records, from September 2012 to August 2013. Immediately after the mandatory service, he gained employment as a Community Development Officer of the Department of Community Development under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, Greater Accra Region. 

Due to his hard work and dedication to work, he was later seconded to the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) where he worked as a data entry officer for Hedge Pensions Trust (Fund Managers of CLOGSAG) and also assisted the public relations officer in the discharge of his duties.

In March 2015, he got an appointment as a Special Services Officer at the Cocoa Marketing Company (GH) Limited, a subsidiary of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), at the Takoradi Take-Over Center and subsequently transferred to the Kumasi Take-Over Center of the same company where he currently works. 

Mr. Boadu later on enrolled as a student of the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC) where he read an MSc in Defence and International Politics (MDIP) and completed in August 2017. His research thesis looked into a very important aspect of our development and general security as a nation and was selected as one of the best five (5) theses for the academic year. He wrote on the topic, “The Role of Civil Society in the Formulation of a National Security Policy: A Case Study of Ghana”.

 

Solomon Kyere-Boadu aspires for greatness

Aside these enviable academic laurels chalked by this young man, he has as well served in many capacities of student leadership and volunteerism, winning him several recognitions and awards. 

In 2005, he became the Speaker of the Sunyani Senior High School’s Debating Club. They emerged national champions in that year. Still a student at SUSEC, Kyere-Boadu ascended the seat of the most covetous office at the students’ level as the School/Senior Prefect. His administration was the 2005/2006 academic year and he handled himself and his office so well that nobody till date could point to a single blot on his sleeves.

Many years after completing SUSEC, the young man has been at the forefront of further serving society wherever he finds himself. In 2009/2010 academic year, he was the Secretary of the Sunyani Senior High Old Students Association at the University of Ghana, Vice President of Berekum Tertiary Students Association from May 2009 to 2010 and Second Deputy Minority Whip of the University of Ghana Parliament House in the 2010/2011 academic year.

From May to August 2011, he volunteered and taught as the “Government” teacher at his alma mater – SUSEC – where he handled students of Form ones and twos. During the 2011/2012 academic year, Mr. Kyere-Boadu became the Vice President of the University of Ghana’s Students Representative Council (SRC).

It is not surprising that on 20^th April, 2012, he was awarded as the Most Composed Student Leader of the 2011/2012 academic year by the Excellent Leadership Awards Group (ExLA Group).

Mr. Kyere-Boadu believes in giving back to society and from time to time, he partners with the Keruso Foundation [Berekum] in supporting brilliant but needy students through various levels of their education. Through the Foundation, he has given scholarships to about eight (8) students of various levels in the Berekum Municipality to be able to go to school. 

He sometimes supports individuals and groups in providing exercise books and drinking water to the students and natives of the villages in the Berekum Municipality. The interesting part of this narrative is that he does these donations without taking to social media to tell the whole world that he has assisted someone.

Not long ago when I had a chat with him on such, he said to me something that really got me thinking. “Solo, I do these giving anonymously through the Keruso Foundation. And as a Christian, my values teach me not to show what I do for the needy, especially when most people take to social media on that for self-aggrandizement,” he said.

Mr. Solomon Kyere-Boadu believes ardently in the power of the youth as the engine of growth to bring the kind of change we want in the country, therefore, encourages them to be the best that they can be in whichever capacity they find themselves. 

He who has ever read my opinion pieces on Ghana’s political sphere would attest that I am very critical on most of our greedy politicians. I do not hate their profession but how many of them have those they serve at heart? So, when today you read from me introducing to you someone I think should be not just in mainstream politics but must stand to be elected as a Member of Parliament for Berekum East, then it tells you that indeed this person has something to offer Ghanaians at large. 

The man I have personally known for 17 years undoubtedly hopes to rise to the highest level of leadership where he can affect not only the lives of Ghanaians but the world. 

Yesterday, January 9, 2020, was his birthday. Silver and gold I have not. What I rather have is to spur him for greatness. I want to see and hear him loudly proclaim that he is contesting the seat of the Berekum East Constituency to serve the people of Berekum and Ghana as a whole.

I think that I need not tell you my one reason why I want Mr. Solomon Kyere-Boadu become a Member of Parliament, right? Reading through his profile, what readily comes to mind is his selfless leadership— that which Ghana really needs! 

I attended Berekum College of Education [in Berekum] and as a native of the area, I want to see Berekum’s long lost accolade The Golden City restored. And, I also want to see Members of Parliament enacting proper laws and promoting good course in this country so Ghanaians do not get to cross the Mediterranean for greener pastures. 

Mr. Kyere-Boadu, like Koo Zee my Asante Twi teacher, is one of the patriots that can get us to our dreamland!

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

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Of grounded ambulances, a bewitched president & the 37 masquerades

Grounded ambulances at the forecourt of Parliament/Sate House

August 31^st, 2019 marked my fourth year since I relocated from Spintex to somewhere in the Ga South Municipality in the Greater Accra Region. For these past years, I have observed one worrying trend on the Mallam-Odorkor Highway and George Walker Bush Highway [also known as the N1].

Almost every day, I see, at least, two taxis with their drivers crazily honking at others. Drivers of these taxis are themselves not crazy. They honk at their fellow drivers because at that material moment, their cars are not mere vehicles for carrying ‘ordinary’ passengers. They are ambulances!

At the back seats of these taxis, always stretching my neck to see when possible, is a pregnant woman— ostensibly in labor— sandwiched by two men,. Then, there would be another person at the front seat

The front-seat-sitting passenger’s role is to stretch his/her hand signaling other drivers to give way. The saddest part of the narrative is that, usually, such taxi-turned-ambulances honk in vain. They meet stagnant vehicular traffic that makes me cry and cringe within.

Yet, when they gradually make it to hospitals such as Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the taxi-tuned-ambulance is greeted with an inscription at the health facilities’ entrances— “Taxis Are Not Allowed!” Is this not sickening?

Having narrated all the above, what makes the ambulance debate in our country utterly sickening is the reason behind the Nana Akufo Addo-led government grounding 96 out of the 275 ambulances procured for all the constituencies in the country.

In a Neat FM interview, Minister for Special Development Initiative, Mavis Hawa Koomson, fully-filled with arrogance and power like that of a tethered he-goat, spewed some indescribable words in her analysis on these ambulances that have become an albatross on our necks.

When I saw a YouTube link of the said interview, I quickly downloaded it and watched the whole of the 19 minute 5 second long video. Although the link was shared by – I think – Peace FM’s Facebook account, I could not believe it at first.

Madam Koomson’s comments were so harsh, cruel and insensitive that I doubted she could have said that. Whoever has listened to the said tape would attest that the comments do not match our minister’s age as a grownup adult.

“[…] I know people are dying. But, did people start dying today?” Mavis Hawa Koomson proudly said. If these words were to be bottled, I am over confidently certain that its pungent smell could kill an elephant when sprayed on it.

You have ambulances parked at the forecourt of the Parliament House while some of our pregnant women and other patients alike go through the hell of being transported in taxis to hospitals and is this the best response you could give?

Then, when on Friday, December 13, 2019, President Akufo Addo had an encounter with the media, it came to light that he had ordered Madam Hawa not to distribute the ambulances.

For the fear of being tagged a pioneer in favoritism, Nana Akufo Addo said his government would rather wait for the other remaining ambulances to be shipped down to Ghana before their overall distribution. I must say that his government’s reason is somewhat understandable. If we take a look at the brouhaha that surrounded the Finance Ministry’s ‘genuine error’ in the omission of Volta roads from the 2020 budget, for instance, one is tempted to side with the reason given for grounding the 96 ambulances.

Nonetheless, to a large extent, it does not in any way make sense to look on unconcerned while women in labor and the sick – in both the cities and villages – struggle for taxis and tricycles as ambulances just because you [the president] want to be liked by all. Is that how to govern a developing country?

Mr. President, as you are so determined to be liked by all, I guess you are in a wrong position as the country’s leader. To be liked by all, I think you need to rather venture into the sale of ice-creams!

On three consecutive Sundays now, I would see on my way to work some young men dressed as masquerades. They stand on the roads just by the 37 Military Hospital, dance and solicit for alms. Here, I have rather observed that these masquerades end up not getting anything from drivers who ply the roads there and the reason is simple.

These 37 [Military Hospital] masquerades instead of dancing to entertain a few of the drivers at a time to catch their attention properly, rather try pleasing every driver whose car waits in traffic. And, this is exactly the failed strategy our president hinges his hopes on that at the end of the day, all the 29 million or so Ghanaians would call him Father Christmas.

Looking at the caliber of person that we saw in the then presidential candidate, Akufo Addo, and what he has ‘grown into’ now in relation with his decisions as the president of the country, I cannot but believe those who claim that he has been bewitched.

I certainly believe that, perhaps, there is an enchantment at the Jubilee House that blinds its occupants. When they leave power – as John Mahama did – they regain their consciousness.

Today, Mr. Mahama pleads with Ghanaians to give him another chance because he has realized his mistakes. And, I can bet with my lens that Nana Akufo Addo will say same should he lose the 2020 elections.

It is 2:14am on Thursday as I write this piece. I need to now go to bed as work awaits me early in the morning. I can’t kill myself. However, let me just draw your attention – if you did not know – that in most of the developed countries including Sweden and America, there are ambulances for animals. If you critically study how pets/animals are treated so well elsewhere, one is tempted to say that most Ghanaians would never have this level of pet-treatment in their own country, considering how successive governments here think and play politics with our healthcare.

I am getting so much annoyed reflecting on this and I do not want to continue spewing fire. If you have time, please listen to the song titled 52 Ambulances by Knii Lante featuring Blakk Rasta. It sums up my thoughts.

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

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Nana Addo, his colonial citizens & the ‘buy Ghana rice’ nonsense!

A photo of locally produced rice. Source: Culled from the internet.

I have always feared for patients— the sick I mean— who find time to listen to or watch news about Ghana or follow the country’s politics. I consider their plight as a suffering soul being hit with coup de grâce. Indeed, it is only he who wishes for a quick death that passionately follows these events with all their hearts.

It is not the case that we do not have qualified journalists to do a good job here in Ghana. Far from that. If I am not exaggerating, Ghana has great journalists that could compete with their counterparts anywhere in the world. The issue, rather, is that often these journalists’ stories reveal that the single scarcest commodity in the country is common sense. Yes, a revelation of lack of common sense mainly on the part of some of our leaders. That, which makes the listening to or watching of such news depressing!

Few weeks ago, TV3’s Peter Quao Adattor travelled to the Upper East Region of Ghana. He came back to Accra with a story that got almost everybody in the TV3 newsroom standing on their feet to express dismay.

The day we watched Mr. Adattor’s story as aired on Midday Live was on a Sunday afternoon. Rice farmers, especially in the valleys of Fumbisi and Gbedembilisi in the Builsa South District, had bountifully produced bags of rice. However, these farmers did not have [ready] market for their produce.

One farmer who spoke in the ‘Rice Glut’ story said that in order not to look on for their hundreds of bags to go waste, they were selling on promotional basis. When the market women buy two bags of the rice, they are given an extra bag each free of charge. Can you imagine!? As if that was not enough, even before the farmers could get these traders to do the buying, in the first place, they [farmers] would have to lure them by giving them one full guinea fowl also for free. Certainly, this is financially a dangerous time to be a rice farmer.

Then, the National Buffer Stock Company moved in to assess the situation on the back of the reported glut of rice. As predictable as the daily chaos at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange, the Chief Executive Officer of the Buffer Stock Company, Hanan Abdul-Wahab, promised these farmers of a ready market. That promise was actually to come into fruition in two weeks’ time from the day of the visit by the hypocrite fact-finding politicians.

As to whether this promise has been fulfilled or not is not really my source of worry. The farmers themselves did not believe that promise. What gets my head spinning is the apparent mindless game we— as a nation— proudly play. I have neither attended the University of Ghana Business School nor the London School of Economics. Nonetheless, there are some problems that do not require one to hold a certificate in a particular field before proffering a concrete solution to avert its occurrence in the first place.

From the days of Diego de Azambuja to the subsequent colonization of Africa by the greedy bustards, the plight of the continent’s farmers has been the same. There are deplorable roads linking farms to the cities and the preference of citizens going for foreign products over same produced locally have remained unchanged.

You ask yourself why we are so comfortable with this monumental failure and the answer is found right in the bosom of the greedy politicians. They would quickly choose their comfort over the plight of the masses. If not, why did they not find sense in proposing that the millions of dollars that they had wanted to use to construct that needless new chamber/parliament be used to, at least, give feeder roads to places where we get our foods from?

Why did they not, again, propose that such an amount be used to rigorously start a campaign to cut Ghana’s umbilical cord of overdependence? Would that not have weaned majority of our citizens off foreign goods? A lifestyle that only reflects what pertained in the colonial days.

The underlying argument here is that access to our farms and our preference for foreign goods hugely contribute to the losses we see our farmers suffer. And, to curb this trend goes beyond merely urging citizens to patronize locally produced rice [or any of such].

Speaking in Ho, the Volta Regional capital, to mark this year’s National Farmers’ Day, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo repeated a mistake he keeps committing. He urged Ghanaians to buy locally-grown rice.

Mr. President, because of you I am likely to write a book that would probably be dubbed ‘How To Govern A Developing Nation’. The truth is, we do not govern a developing nation by merely urging citizens to do the right thing. You impose! Impose hefty tariffs on imported rice/foods and other goods that our own people produce here. Why do we, for instance, allow an overflow of importation of poultry products while poultry farmers in Dormaa in the Bono Region alone could— to a large extent— feed the country?

And, should you think of the ripple effect of these measures to break the shackles of our underdevelopment, the formula to counter such [effect] is to let the nation endure whatever hardships that would come with it. If it so happens that even half of the state’s population would have to die of hunger, so be it. Those who would survive would live a better life thereafter and learn sense that overdependence on another state— especially on agriculture and health— is dangerous.

This is exactly what Richard Wright wrote to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in a letter as captured in the latter’s book, Dark Days In Ghana, that, “I say to you publicly and frankly: The burden of suffering that must be borne, impose it upon one generation! … Be merciful by being stern!”

Hello, Mr. President. I guess I have given you a clue on how to effectively run your government. There is no need telling Ghanaians that you and your wife cook local rice. How many bags of local rice do you buy in a year as a family? Borrowing the book title of the former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, ‘With All Due Respect’, the next time you speak on this local rice, you must sound as a benevolent dictator in telling your citizens to purchase such.

If I were you, when citizens prove adamant buying, I would bill every public servant and SSNIT contributors a bag of the rice say, every three months, by deducting them from the source of their income. Even if everybody gets a cup of the rice, that will be fine. The soldiers at the various barracks are tasked to ensure that households get their deliveries and if they [citizens] will not eat it, they are at liberty to donate to the orphanages.

Until the day I hear of crazy measures as these to ensure we bridge the gap between the cities and villages and get Ghanaians to eat what they grow and grow what they eat, the so-called campaign on the purchase of local rice sounds but nonsense to my ears. It will only yield marginal results!

What have Emelia Arthur and Okyeame Kwame not done as ambassadors of the Made-In-Ghana campaign proper? You think about it and you ask yourself the question posed by the name of a show on Asԑmpa FM, Ԑkↄsii Sԑn? To wit, ‘How did it end?’

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

Email: nehusthan@yahoo.com

Twitter: @aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Of the protesting law students & Nana Addo’s attack dogs!

Protesting law students hold placards 

Before the protesting law students embarked on their demonstration, speeches upon speeches were read by some executives of their front. Prominent among these speeches— in my view— was that by the President of the National Association of Law Students, Nii Adokwei Cudjoe.

Mr. Adokwei had not only charged his students to remain steadfast to their course of protesting for reforms in the country’s legal education but that they should vehemently resist the oppressor’s rule.

President, National Association of Law Students, Nii Adokwei Cudjoe addressing the protesters. Photo Credit: Writer

"History will remember you. Do not think what you are doing [the demonstration] is in vain? We have come to the crossroads and your boldness is a statement. We are not here hiding our faces. If we keep singing the National Anthem but do not live it then whom are we praying to? Resist oppressor's rule," he said.

As if by dint of fate, the protesters later on in their demonstration encountered a situation that demanded they vehemently resist the oppressor’s rule as earlier admonished.

Nonetheless, the protesting law students were as helpless as a tethered he-goat. They could not resist the oppressor— at that moment— being the Ghana Police Service and not the Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo.

Just about a stone throw from the Liberation Road, the direction from the Ako Adjei Overpass towards the Jubilee House in Accra, heavily armed police men and women numbering close to 20 or more confronted the protesting students.

This was on Monday, October 7, 2019 when the students had walked peacefully from the very entrance of the Ghana School of Law, using the Atta Mills Highstreet to negotiate the curve to walk in front of the High Court Complex through to the ministries to the Office of the Attorney General, to the office of the Ghana Bar Association [close to the Ghana Institute of Journalism] and finally headed to the Jubilee House where they were stopped on the Liberation Road.

I must state that I followed the protesters from the beginning of the journey till they met the police who used force on them. In all honesty, doing my job as a journalist on that day, reporting for Media General’s radio stations [3FM and Onua FM], I never saw the protesters showing any sign of aggression at any point. They didn’t pose danger to pedestrians/motorists or whoever came their way.

It was at the Office of the Attorney General that the students ambushed the vehicle of the Deputy AG, Godfred Dame. Here, I never saw any student raising a hand to hit his vehicle or whatsoever. The ambushing of Mr. Dame’s vehicle was just understandable in the given situation of a protest where the students needed nothing but the man taking their petition so they could leave.

This, when I later read a concocted account by the Ghana Police Service on the students’ demonstration, I pitied this country called Ghana. A law enforcement entity having a penchant for telling lies to save itself from atrocities committed is more dangerous than a mentally derailed man wielding a gun!

Portions of the said statement read: “They then headed towards Jubilee House and on reaching King Tackie Tawiah/[Ako Adjei] Overpass, they sat in the middle of the road and pelted the Police with stones and offensive weapons. In the process, police sprayed cold water and fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.”

To put it succinctly, it was not until the police prevented the students from marching to the Jubilee House that their leaders told them to sit down on the road. They did not just sit upon reaching there! Even this, Mr. Adokwei had pleaded with his members to occupy one lane of the road so approaching vehicles could have their way. The students eventually obliged.

Some students sit on the Liberation Road that leads to the Jubilee House. Photo Credit: Solomon Mensah

Again, no protesting student threw even a grain of gari at any police officer as the police claimed receiving pelted stones. If the police have evidence to this effect— being pelted with stones and others— then I dare them to bring forth such to counter some of us who followed the protest with rapt attention.

Rather annoyingly, it was the police who fired over 10 warning shots [into the air], fired rubber bullets [leading to a cameraman with Yen.com sustaining injuries] and aggressively using its water cannons on the students.

For those students who showed sign of resistance, they were hauled and manhandled like expired goods and shoved into police trucks.

Police hauls protester into truck. Photo Credit: Solomon Mensah

Observing the gloomy mood of the armed police, one would have thought that perhaps Boko Haram had invaded our country. So, it was sickening seeing the level of force used against a group of harmless protesters.

If the police had employed these heavily armed officers in the case of the Takoradi missing girls, I am certain we would have had a better story to tell of the girls. But, they remained adamant because they feared for their lives to confront the kidnappers [one of them is their own who aided the prime suspect to ‘break jail’] and now would annoyingly show their muscles on the protesting law students.

On the day of the protest, I spoke off camera to an officer of the Accra Regional Police Command who was at the scene of the police’s use of force. His account to me and what I subsequently heard the Director of Public Affairs at the Ghana Police Service, ASP David Eklu, narrate to 3FM News tell that the police merely acted as puppets of some persons within the Jubilee House on that fateful Monday.

Of a truth, the police’s account on why they stopped the protesters does not make sense. That, they did not approve the said demonstration. Meanwhile, the leadership of the students and the police had met about five days before the demonstration as they [leaders] submitted a letter of the protest detailing their route and what have you.

This, ASP David Eklu admits in the 3FM interview with morning show host, Winston Amoah, that they [police] had sent a separate letter of cancelation to the students but it could not reach them until the very morning of the day earmarked for the demonstration.

So, the police in its wisdom expected the students to call off their demonstration when they had made arrangements including buses, with other students from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in the Ashanti Region and those from the University of Cape Coast all on their way to Accra to protest?

Again, if the police say the protest was illegal, why did they not stop the students from embarking it in the first place when they [police] were at the Ghana School of Law in the morning?

Clearly, it suggests that all is not well with the Ghana Police Service. Their inability to take sound decisions on their own often stupefies their front and this is true in their use of unnecessary force on the law students.

If you have a president who ‘cleared’ police officers mentioned for wrongdoings by the Emile Short Commission that probed the Ayawaso by election fracas, then you expect nothing but emboldening some of our police wo/men to wallow in their stupidity. Are these officers not ‘attack dogs’!?

Away from the police and their day of shame, I only think that the demands of the law students are genuine and all and sundry must join them in their ‘fight’ for reforms in the country’s legal education.

Does it make sense that a student having ‘Cs’ in three [3] subjects is said to have failed all other subjects even if they had say ‘As’ in the rest? Does it make sense that a student seeking to resit a failed paper is obliged to pay ₵3000? So, if you failed three papers you pay ₵9000 for resit! Are the resit papers questions set by God?

Why are students writing the contested entrance examination into the Ghana School of Law obliged to sign a bond/undertaking? Speaking to some of the protesters, I chastised them for signing such a document. No matter the explanation the students give, I think people being trained to be lawyers must not sign such an undertaking that forbids them from protesting if they failed the entrance examination.  

If one of America’s celebrated journalists, Amy Goodman, was right when she said, “Go to where the silence is and say something”, then this is the time for you [reading this piece] to say something in the face of powers-that-be going cold on the students’ demand.

The study of law— a prestigious profession— must not be made to seem in Ghana as though one is studying the nature and origin of the mysterious beings in heaven. The charcoal seller’s child must equally have access to the Ghana School of Law as has the crooked politician’s child.

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: Killing our officers, must we not challenge Amnesty Int’l Ghana whitewashing criminals?

Ghana Police Service. Photo Source: Culled from the internet

Just when I had ordered my banku at an eatery somewhat opposite the Afrikiko Restaurant in Accra, I had a call from the office. It was my colleague, Silvia Akorfa [Miss AK], calling with 3FM’s landline.

“Hey, Solomon where are you?” she asked.

Before I could tell her I was outside the premises of 3FM/TV3 for lunch, she pulled the breaks on me forcing me to swallow my words.

“Someone by name Patrick just called in from Liberia Camp enclave near Kasoa. He says some suspected armed robbers have shot dead a police officer and injured another,” continued Ms AK.

I quickly scripted a lead [the story] on my phone and dropped it on the newsroom’s WhatsApp page with the eyewitness’ contact attached. My Managing News Editor at Media General – Matilda Haynes – had a private chat with me.

“Please, try and get to the office. This is journalism,” she replied when I told her I was about eating. As the order came, I quickly dashed to 3FM’s studios to break the news. That was how I was immediately affected by the painful death of the police officer whom we later got to know went by the name Sergeant Michael Dzamesi.

Sgt. Dzamesi did not receive the fire alone. His colleague officer was involved, too. Lance Corporal Mohammed Awal, in a widely circulated social media video, had tried rushing for medical attention after being hit by the bullets. Apparently, confused bystanders had assisted him mount the back seat of a motorbike. He is seen slapping the hand of the rider to speed up; he was dying slowly of the bullet wounds!

As the motorbike sped off, voices are heard [according to the video] crying that Mohammed Awal was likely to fall off. To cut a long story short, the young man could not stand the bullet wounds. He passed on, too! This was on Wednesday, August 28 2019.

If for the temporary pangs of hunger I felt it so hard leaving my food to go report on that breaking news ─ as journalism takes no excuses but results ─ then can the dependents of these officers contain their ‘hunger’ for the years ahead? News reports suggest that both Sgt. Michael Dzamesi and Lance Corporal Mohammed were breadwinners of their respective families.

In 2019 alone, in a matter of barely a month, five police officers’ lives have been agonizingly taken by criminals.

Corporal Agatha Nana Nabin with the Northern Regional Police Command was, on July 30, shot dead at a police checkpoint. We are told it was on the Tamale-Kumbungu road in the Sagnarigu District.

August 19 announced the death of Corporal Bernard Antwi. The 37-year old was with the Manso Nkwanta Divisional Command in the Ashanti region.

Corporal Antwi was found dead at Manso Abodom in the Amansie West District of the region. News reports suggest he died after working hours.

Akyem Swedru Police Station’s General Lance Corporal Alhassan Asare also died on August 20. The incident which happened at the Dukes Fuel Station, in the Eastern region, had it that the 35-year old man had his rifle in between his thighs at the time of his death. What is not clear is whether he [mistakenly] shot himself or someone shot him.

Is it not heartbreaking that your husband or wife, sister or brother says goodbye to you in the morning that they are going to work and that they would be back only to hear they are no more? They are no more because someone decided to take their life!

This, the Amnesty International Ghana says we must respect the human rights of such criminals by not killing them in return. So, for many months now, the human rights organization has called on President Akufo Addo, the Attorney General and other stakeholders to expunge the death penalty sentence in Ghana's legal system.

If you care to know, Amnesty International Ghana actually wants the death penalty totally abolished from our laws by close of this year.

“Ghana has not executed anybody in the last ten years and it is believed to have established a practice of not carrying out executions. Although no official moratorium executions are in place, Ghana has not carried out an execution since 1993. Twenty countries in sub-Saharan Africa have already abolished the death penalty for all crimes; seven of which are in West Africa,” said the Director of Amnesty International Ghana, Robert Akoto Amoafo, at the launch of the Global Death Penalty Report. So was it captured by the news portal, Modern Ghana, in April 2019.

What irks me is Mr. Amoafo’s reiterated position that killing the law court’s certified criminals amounts to denying them their human rights.

“This is clear evidence that all countries in ECOWAS have abolished the death penalty in one way or another. The time is right for Ghana to join the league of abolitionist countries in Africa and the world by abolishing death penalty for all crimes. Let us all remember that death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights and simply does not deter crime in any way.”

Can I ask the Amnesty International Ghana if those the criminals killed had no human rights? I do not, in any way, oppose the operations of the human rights organization. But, when we embolden criminals this way, then I cannot help but speak up.

Is Robert Akoto Amoafo saying death penalty does not deter crime in any way? Well, he is not alone holding on to this assertion. Recently, I argued with a friend on same as he said if such punishment works, America would have been crime-free. My simple answer to him was that America’s crime rate stemmed from stupidity.

As I write this piece, August 31^st, I have had notification on my phone from the BBC. It says, “A mass random shooting in the Texas city of Odessa has left ‘multiple gunshot victims’.” You cannot make the purchasing of guns as simple as one buying tomatoes from the Mallam Market – in Accra – and expect a sane society!

Commenting on the arrest of the crime suspect in the killing of the two police officers at Kasoa, security analyst Adib Saani, rather made a stern case that criminals must be shown the exit point of this world, too.

“A clear signal would also have to be sent, at least, to deter them [criminals] from towing the same line [committing murder]. And, I’m saying that – look – the legal regime would have to change so killing our officers would be tantamount to crimes against the state which invariably attracts death penalty,” Mr. Adib said in a TV3 interview.  

Indeed, Ghana could be a sane society as Japan if we would let common sense lead in how people get access to guns, deal with persons who abuse the use of such guns and shun Amnesty International Ghana’s hot air.

I must, however, add that if anyone mistakenly kills – manslaughter ─ then we could respect the human rights of such persons [killers] by sparing them to live on. We are all fallible as humans. But, my point is, our fallibility plays no role when we internationally perpetrate malice!

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