A New Agenda for Ghana: Building Bridges for Positive Change

By Okyere Bonna

Former Colony Faces Frustrations in Early Nationhood

Vision for the future is the only way that a nation can progress. Author Okyere Bonna brings readers an accurate depiction of the lack of vision in Ghana, Africa, and offers the vision that citizens of Ghana need to advance their country in his new book, A New Agenda for Ghana: Building a Nation on Vision and Ideas (Volume 1) (now available through Author House) and A New Agenda for Ghana: Building Bridges for Positive Change (Volume 2) (now available through Libras).

Though its fi fty years since Ghana became a nation, it still operates with a residual colonial mentality, Bonna says. This book is about the political mismanagement that has resulted in this lack of progress, as well as the frustrations of Ghanaians.

The frustration over how the establishment is running the nation is heartbreaking to say the least . . . In these pages, I provide numerous examples that prove how the current government is handling economic, social, and political issues to the detriment of the people and posterity, Bonna says.

Bonna urges Ghanaians to read this book before voting in the 2008 elections. He says the insights provided will lead to more informed choices at the polls. Those who are supposed to uphold and administer laws of the land are now the big breakers of the rules and laws, he says. Leaders must lead by example. The president we elect in 2008 must be a visionary. The presidency must be about ideas and principles instead of thievery and personalities. It must seek to lift the nations sight and spirit and move them to higher grounds. Our new president must strengthen the capacities of anticorruption agencies. The government must honor our values and lead us into the future and make us proud. The government must set a standard of good and responsive governance for our age and ages to come and build and strengthen institutions throughout our nation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 14, 2006
• ISBN: 9781462806836

Okyere Bonna

Okyere Bonna combines investigative writing with the heart of an experienced and caring teacher. His graduate level training is from the prestigious Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio in the United States where he earned his MBA and MS in Education. He earned his BA (with honors) in Political Science and Religions from the University of Ghana where he served as SRC Secretary and as executive committee member of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) in 1989/90. Okyere is a soccer fan and has also played amateur soccer at the secondary and college levels. He attended Opoku Ware School and St Louis Secondary School for his “O” level and “A” Level certification respectively. He is also affiliated with Konongo Odumasi and Asanteman Secondary Schools as well as Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where he completed a year studies of sociology in 1986. Okyere Bonna has published various books and articles on social and political issues concerning Ghana. He is also known for his Vocabulary Trailblazers For Christian Youth Series, a line of books written to enhance Christian education. He is a former Vice- President of Ghana Investment Club. Okyere Bonna currently serves as the Secretary of the Ghana Leadership Union, Inc. and a business executive in the United States.

Book preview

Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 20

AFTERWORD

In loving memory of

My sister Ms. Augustina Bonna,

Assemblywoman and my wonderful

cousins, Tommy and Frank Kobia-Amanfi

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, I would like to extend my appreciation to Magdalene (my wife) for her love and support, without which I could not have undertaken this project.

Many thanks also go to Francis Akoto and Ghana Home Page for the photographs. I am also grateful to Mr. Bless Berchie, and many more for their contributions to the success of this book (volume. 2).

FOREWORD

TO A NEW AGENDA FOR GHANA

Next March, Ghana will be fifty.

In our half-century of existence, there have been achievements and failures. On the positive side;

– We have transferred power from a President of one party to a President of another party peacefully.

– We have avoided the destructive civil wars that have destroyed most of our neighbors.

– We have qualified for the finals of the World Cup.

On the other side;

– Millions of our citizens still remain without gainful employment

– There is too much partisanship, tribalism and corruption leading to too many insults and too much mistrust.

– There too much of a spirit of dependency both on the part of individual citizens and our government.

A NEW AGENDA FOR GHANA by Okyere Bonna is the collective cry of a generation for change. It reproduces and explores the opinions, reputations and attitudes of a wide range of Ghanaians. The views explored are varied and include those of established parties and candidates as well as new parties and candidates.

What motivates my politics is the Ghanaian equivalent of what Americans felt when they heard And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do—ask what you can do for your country from President Kennedy. I believe as Nkrumah did that we could have done in a decade what it had taken others a century to achieve but alas—

Thus I am inpatient with where Ghana is at the moment and know that we can and must do better!

While some have given up on our established traditional parties, I am running proudly on the ticket of the NPP. This is because, first, it has by far the most democratic and modernizing tendencies.

Second, the NPP government has been far better than the NDC government that it replaced. It has stabilized the unstable nation that was inherited from the NDC.

Thus while I concede that we can do better, President Kufuor’s administration has laid some foundations to build on for the future.

I believe our priorities for the future must include the following;

– Reforming our government to make it more effective and responsive to ordinary people.

– Creating wealth through accelerated growth with the benefits of growth shared as widely as possible.

I believe that governments cannot on their own create significant numbers of well-paying jobs; their best role is to create the enabling conditions for job creation by removing burdensome regulations emplacing tax incentives.

– Creating a place at our national table for Ghanaians in the Diaspora because I am convinced that they are the vital force that will help transform our economy and our nation.

– Making our people healthy by focusing on proactive healthcare rather than illness-care.

– Aggressive and relentless application of appropriate technologies to transform our society.

While pursuing these policy priorities, we must clean our national body-politic of the three evils of corruption, extreme partisanship and tribalism. Our national conversation is too often characterized by insults rather than respect.

With these priorities, we can build a nation filled with pride and the conviction that the difficult work of rebuilding our great nation is the responsibility, primarily of Ghanaians.

I have pledged to run a campaign based on ideas, vision and compassion. It is my hope that my lasting contribution will to help move our politics to one based on ideas, vision and temperament and away from the politics of insults, tribalism and longevity.

Let all those who aspire to lead our nation think of the interests of the many who have not and how to prepare for the next generation rather than the next elections.

That way our nation, as Nkrumah said would move forward ever and backwards never

A New Agenda for Ghana is the beginning of a long conversation and we are indebted to Okyere Bonna for starting it. Let us all join it!

Arthur Kobina Kennedy

PREFACE

Ghana has experienced profound peace and freedom under the leadership of J. A. Kufour; however, growth of the economy and the sharing of national wealth is yet to be seen among the citizenry. Except for the peace and freedom of speech that Ghanaians experience today, not much change has occurred since the NDC era. It is my hope, as expressed in these pages, that Ghana shall continue to live in peace and worship freely, that Ghana shall welcome new breed of leadership that is dynamic and visionary like our first president, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah—a new breed of leadership that is honest and resolved to build a life better than our parents have ever known, and so pass a brighter future to posterity in Ghana.

Ghana needs to break away from the Establishment and the status quo that are impeding Ghana’s potential to grow into a first-world status as a result of their reluctance to make a paradigm shift.

Respecting traditions of the elders is great, but even greater is to have a can-do attitude that will welcome a new Ghana. A Ghana that will not depend on foreign aid but able to manage her own rich natural resources to generate the needed capital. A new Ghana that seeks to build a large middle class and improved standard of living.

This hope must not elude Africa, and Ghana must lead the way. A new agenda for Ghana must begin with change in our attitudes, which slow down progress. As Africans, we need to understand that God trusts us enough to endow us with all the rich natural resources; and it is about time Africans wake up from our slumber and put on the hat of sound management to improve lives in the continent.

Work must begin from within, not from without—not with aid or trade, though they are important—but first with our government’s recognition of the natural gold embedded in the ordinary citizens, especially the young people who are now being neglected by our political elite.

INTRODUCTION

Ghana is located on the Gulf of Guinea, only a few degrees north of the equator. The coastline is mostly a low sandy shore backed by plains and scrub and several intersecting rivers and streams. A tropical rain forest belt, broken by heavily forested hills and many streams and rivers, extends northward from the shore of Ghana. North of this belt, the land is covered by low bush, parklike savanna, and grassy plains.

Ghana has a population of 21,029,853 (2005) and a population density of 87/km² with a size of 238,540 km². 3.5 percent of Ghana is covered with water and is ranked seventy-ninth in size after United Kingdom (the imperial colonial government), 244,820km². United Kingdom has a population of 59,834,900 (2004).

Formed from the merger of the British colony of the Gold Coast and the British Togoland trust territory by a UN-sponsored plebiscite, Ghana in 1957 became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial Africa to gain its independence.

Ghana is a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. Its head of state is an elected president with executive powers. The Parliament of Ghana is unicameral and is currently dominated by two main political parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The climate is tropical. The eastern coastal belt is warm and comparatively dry. The southwest corner is hot and humid, but the north is hot and dry. Lake Volta, the fourth largest man-made lake in the world, extends through large portions of eastern Ghana.

Colonial Ghana

At the end of the nineteenth century was a period of international rivalry dubbed the Scramble for Africa. This brought the Europeans, mainly the British, to Ghana who then started slavery and looting from the land.

In 1821, the British government took control of the British trading forts on the Gold Coast (now Ghana). The British fought a series of campaigns against the Ashantis, whose kingdom was located inland from 1826 to 1900. In 1844, Fanti chiefs in the area signed an agreement with the British, Bond of 1844, which became the legal stepping-stone to colonial status for the coastal area.

The Bond of 1844 gave the British one-hundred-year access to Ghana. Though this was supposed to be on trading terms, it ended in colonization. In 1902, the British succeeded in establishing firm control over the Ashanti region and made the northern territories a protectorate.

Ghana is mainly agricultural. Cash crops consist primarily of cocoa. Cocoa products typically provide about two-thirds of export revenues. Other cash crops include timber products, shea nuts, coffee, coconuts, and palm products. Pineapples, cashews, pepper, cassava, yams, plantains, maize, rice, peanuts, millet, and sorghum are also nontraditional agricultural products for export.

Minerals—principally gold, diamonds, manganese, ore, and bauxite—are produced and exported. Ghana’s industrial base is relatively advanced, compared to many other African countries.

Import-substitution industries include textiles; steel (using scrap); tires; oil refining; flour milling; beverages; tobacco; simple consumer goods; and car, truck, and bus (Neoplan) assembly.

Tourism has become one of Ghana’s largest foreign income earners (ranking third in 1997), and the Ghanaian government has placed great emphasis upon further tourism support and development.

Ghana has a unique wildlife with elephants, gorillas, crocodile, and other wild beasts. Ghana has a spectacular rain forest and lakes, including Lake Bosomtwi and Volta, the fourth largest natural lake in the world.

Ghana has sunny skies and rich rain forest. Basically, anything will grow in Ghana soil. Ghana has beautiful palm-fringed white sand beaches and breathtaking reefs.

By all standards, Ghana has a diverse and rich resource base. Although the only commercial oil well has been closed after producing 3.5 million barrels (560,000 m³) over its seven-year life, signs of natural gas are being studied for power generation while exploration continues for other oil and gas resources.

By regional standards, Ghana is often seen as a model for political and economic reforms in Africa. Ghana has had a high-profile peacekeeping role in the continent of Africa. Troops from Ghana have once been deployed in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Democratic Republic of Congo to keep the peace.

Although Ghana has largely escaped the civil strife that has plagued other West African countries, the northern sector has experienced some local violence. In 1994-95, land disputes in the Northern Region erupted into ethnic violence, resulting in the deaths of 1,000 people and the displacement of a further 150,000.

Ghana was once called the Gold Coast during the colonial era because of her abundance of fine gold. Gold is still mined in several places in Ghana, the main one being Obuasi Gold Fields. Like several sub-Sahara African regions, diamonds are also found in Ghana. The market value of five carats (or one gram) of diamond, for example, is at least $50,000 today.

Ghana’s move toward economic stability and democracy after independence in 1957 was only short-lived due to an inefficient civil service and political leadership that has fallen a victim to corruption and mismanagement. Despite being rich in mineral resources, and endowed with human gold, Ghana remains very poor.

In 1966, Ghana’s first president and Pan-African hero, Kwame Nkrumah, was deposed in a coup by the National Liberation Council (NLC), marking the genesis of mostly military rule in Ghana for the next four decades. Soon, after the NLC handed over power to a constitutional government of the Progress Party (PP) in 1970, the National Redemption Council (NRC) seized power again in January 13, 1972, and remained for the next seven years. In 1981, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings staged his second coup to oust the constitutional government of the People’s National Party (PNP) barely a year after its establishment. The Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) led by Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings would remain in power until 2000.

In April 1992, a constitution allowing for a multiparty system was approved in a referendum (by the PNDC) that ushered in a period of democracy under the PNDC leadership as NDC.

Unfortunately, education, under the banner of colonization, has taught the Ghanaian to accept poverty for the good of their soul—where the conquerors are supposedly seen as blessed by God with superior might and wealth and so must be obeyed. This is the mentality that runs through her political elite today. I call it colonial mentality.

Since independence in 1957, little has changed in terms of development. Our political leaders exhibit traits of the colonial government. Like many African leaders, Ghana government tells the people to tighten their belts while the elite swim and wallow in untold wealth and splendor. They demand strict respect and obedience without delivering any goods. Politicians are somehow behind criminals who loot from the people in broad daylight.

The Westerners who first set foot in Africa came to good and worthy people (the Africans) and brought fear and destruction to their traditional structures. But what good has the indigenous leaders done to Ghana and Africa since independence? Like the colonialists, majority of our politicians enter politics not to make the ordinary folk good and worthy citizens.

Nkrumah’s nine-year era, despite his legacy of great infrastructure like Akosombo Dam, University of Ghana, and so forth, included rule of fear and intimidation. Rawlings’s twenty-one years followed suit but without much developments.

Since Nkrumah, our leaders have turned Ghana into a charity-begging government while our corrupt politicians loot the funds. We need to strike a balance between the past and the future. As a country and a republic of fifty years in March 2007, Ghana should by now be confident to solve its own problems.

It is true and an already established fact that the colonialists came to exploit and take and extract our mineral resources and made slaves out of us—some of whom were shipped from our coast; but the same resources—gold, diamond, timber, etc.—still abound in Ghana, and many are still being discovered daily. So where is our government’s complaint?

Like the glorious ancient Ghana Empire (AD 700-1200), Ghana needs to believe in her great future again. To get that far in self-reliance, Ghana’s leadership would need to focus on ideas, vision, love, and unity.

Ghanaians need to take on claim for the future products of our rich soil—gold, bauxite, aluminum, cocoa, coffee, tourism, medical herbs, etc., and her human gold. Thirty-eight percent of the Ghanaian population lives on less than $1 a day in Ghana, and many families are unable to access the already weak health-care system. Yet grace and gratitude are abundant in Ghana. (Lorraine Bailey, RN, International Healthcare Volunteer, USA)

I am proud to be the first American President ever to visit Ghana… It is a journey long overdue. America should have done it before, and I am proud to be on that journey. Thank you for welcoming me. (Pres. Bill Clinton remarked on March 23, 1998,) President Clinton also had this to say,

Here in Ghana, you have shown the world that different peoples can live together in harmony. You have proved that Africans of different countries can unite to help solve disputes in neighboring countries. Peace everywhere in Africa will give more free time and more money to the pressing needs of our children’s future. America has good reason to work with Africa: 30 million Americans, more than one in ten, proudly trace their heritage here. The first Peace Corps volunteers from America came to Ghana over thirty-five years ago; over fifty-seven thousand have served in Africa since then. Through blood ties and common endeavors, we know we share the same hopes and dreams to provide for ourselves and our children, to live in peace and worship freely, to build a better life than our parents knew, and to pass a brighter future on to our children. America needs Africa; America needs Ghana as a partner in the fight for a better future. An Ashanti proverb tells us that by coming and going, a bird builds its nest. We will come and go with you and do all we can as you build the new Africa, a work that must begin here in Africa, not with aid or trade, though they are important, but first with ordinary citizens, especially the young people in this audience today. You must feel the winds of freedom blowing at your back, pushing you onward to a brighter future. Dr. DuBois, a towering African American intellectual, died here as a citizen of Ghana and a friend of Kwame Nkrumah. He once wrote, The habit of democracy must be to encircle the Earth. Let us together resolve to complete the circle of democracy, to dream the dream that all people on the entire Earth will be free and equal, to begin a new century with that commitment to freedom and justice for all, to redeem the promise inscribed right here on Independence Arch. Let us find a future here in Africa, the cradle of humanity.

It is my hope, as expressed in these pages, that Ghana shall continue to live in peace and worship freely, that Ghana shall welcome new breed of leadership that is dynamic and visionary like our first president, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah—a new breed of leadership that is honest and resolved to build a life better than our parents have ever known, and so pass a brighter future to posterity in Ghana.

Ghana needs to break away from the Establishment and the status quo that are impeding Ghana’s potential to grow into a first-world status as a result of their reluctance to make a paradigm shift.

Respecting traditions of the elders is great, but even greater is to have a can-do attitude that will welcome a new Ghana. A Ghana that will not depend on foreign aid but able to manage her own rich natural resources to generate the needed capital. A new Ghana that seeks to build a large middle class, and improved standard of living.

This hope must not elude Africa, and Ghana must lead the way. A new agenda for Ghana must begin with change in our attitudes, which slow down progress. As Africans, we need to understand that God trusts us enough to endow us with all the rich natural resources; and it is about time Africans woke up from our slumber and put on the hat of sound management to improve lives on the continent.

Work must begin from within not from without—not with aid or trade, though they are important, but first with our government’s recognition of the natural gold embedded in the ordinary citizens, especially the young people who are now being neglected today by our political elite.

May Africa feel the winds of change and freedom blowing at our back, pushing us onward to a brighter future!

CHAPTER 1

HAPPY FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY, GHANA!

On March 6, 2007, Ghana will be half a century (fifty years) old.

On this august occasion of Ghana’s fiftieth year of birth, we would remember some names and extend to them our gratitude. First, for those still living who had fought relentlessly for the freedoms we so enjoy today, we will say thank you; but what can we boast of apart from the infrastructure the first government left us between 1957 and 1966?

Many of Ghana’s gratitude go to the Big Six—Joseph Boakye Danquah, Obetsebi-Lamptey, Ofori-Atta, Ako-Adjei, Kwame Nkrumah, and Akufo-Addo. These were the leaders of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) who fought for Ghana’s independence.

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Ghana also remembers and extends her appreciation to the three ex-servicemen, Sergeant Adjetey, Corporal Attipoe, and Private Odartey Lamptey, who were gunned down at the Christianborg Crossroads on February 28, 1948, while going to present a petition to the British colonial governor, Sir Gerald Creasy.

Ghana also will say thank you to all our leaders and heads of state as well as members of government who have helped in diverse ways to shape our country for the better.

On this august occasion, Ghana will also do well to appreciate the incumbent government of the NPP and President Kufuor for maintaining the peace of the land. Except for the troubles that still hang around the neck of the Northern Region and the many corruption cases, Ghana has been relatively peaceful. Never before in the history of an African nation had freedom of speech and expression been so practiced than what Ghana enjoys today.

It is my hope and prayers that President Kufuor will do well to heal the chieftaincy and land disputes especially in the North before he leaves office in 2008, as well as leaving the nation some good legacy from all the many aids and