Voice from Afar: Has the African the capability?
Nnamdi Azikiwe got into trouble with the colonial administration when as editor of the African Morning Post of Accra, he published an article by the political activist Wallace-Johnson under the headline “Has the African a God?”
Advertisement
Today, I do not mind getting into trouble with my countrymen and women by asking “Has the Ghanaian, the African, the requisite human capability and capacity?”
The question may annoy the reader. But we have to be ruthless with our assessment of ourselves.
Many of us do not like what we see around us. But we do nothing about it. Worse still, we take advantage of the situation to make money and improve living conditions for ourselves.
We blame the government, national institutions and highly-placed personalities for the aimless drift of the country. We never stop to consider the possibility of our being part of the problem.
We seem to have lost much of the capacity to think rigorously. We act as if we have no self-confidence and we look for manna from heaven or from those we assume to be superior to us.
Let us take a couple of recent events to illustrate our point. There has been a lot of talk about judgement debts. To many, it is only a “Woyome affair”. But do ordinary Ghanaians not saddle the State with “Judgement Debts” daily because of shoddy work or lack of devotion to duty?
The Daily papers of March 26 carried news about a court order to the State to pay the pension of a former Auditor-General.
The problem arose because “a Deputy Chief of Staff” conveyed a decision of the government not to pay retirement benefits because the appointment at issue was a political one. Apparently, the Auditor-General was not a career officer and therefore did not qualify for pension.
But where is it stated categorically in the rules or laws that a political appointee cannot enjoy pension. And who is a political appointee? Sherlock Holmes will say “My dear Watson, this is elementary”.
It is the letter of appointment and other written conditions which determine whether a pension is payable or not. Entitlements are not conferred or denied by the sloppy thinking of officials.
Thoughtless action has resulted in judgement debts which will make us poorer.
Where benefits are conferred or denied by an Act or the Constitution as the office of the Chief of Staff argued in this particular case, the matter should be clearly understood.
It was therefore an administrative practice in colonial days and subsequently that the Attorney-General’s office should always be consulted in legal matters, especially those involving State obligations.
The Civil Service head of the Ministry was also required to be conversant with the rudiments of the law. In some countries, legal qualifications were required for the high civil service posts. In my time, we were required to read and learn on the job.
In Acheampong’s time when we had a tight import schedule because of lack of funds, Mr Larkai, the Trade Commissioner in London, placed an oral order for sugar on my instructions while Mr Akwasi Kuma of GNTC ordered some of the commodity to avoid shortage. We did not have funds to pay for both so I asked Mr Larkai the Trade Commissioner to cancel his order.
I was, however, informed that Ghana was bound by the order even though it was not a written one. Mr Gbeho, the Deputy High Commissioner dutifully arranged a meeting with the suppliers to settle the matter when I was in London.
A satisfactory arrangement was made but the Solicitor-General’s Department refused to accept the agreement and decided to go to court to plead sovereign immunity.
As I mentioned earlier, top civil servants were expected to be familiar with the law. I, therefore, read publications such as the London Times Law Reports.
I had read a report about judgement against the Bank of Nigeria which pleaded sovereign immunity. It was held that when a government or its agents engaged in the market place their immunity, if any, was waived and they became subject to the rules.
This advice was tendered by the Senior Principal Secretary but it was dismissed by the legal authorities and Ghana went to court. The State lost and a heavy judgement debt was imposed.
We should however still insist that the Attorney-General’s office should be consulted before going to court in cases involving the national interest including reputation and finance.
Where lack of due diligence leads to judgement debts and the like, those responsible should be sanctioned. Such sanctions should be applied to administrators and other officials who cause embarrassment to government and lower the quality of life of the Ghanaian.
The National Investment Bank, for example, is reported to be in danger of collapse if a judgement debt is paid. How come the debt to be incurred? Are we Ghanaians incapable of managing banks? Do we need French and South African banks to save our Housing and Merchant Bank? Of course not! We have reputable Ghanaian-owned and managed banks as well as Ghanaian managers of successful banks.
The trouble is that many of us have come to believe in our inability. When we have a problem, we tend to look outside for help or change policy or strategy to conform to what we believe to be the norm in countries with the capability.
Thus, when government enterprises fail, instead of dealing with the culprits, we think of privatisation because we believe that to be the practice in the countries doing well. But government institutions and actions are very necessary if a nation is to survive in the global village.
It is not a question of pleading with private enterprises to improve national capability. It is a matter of rooting out the incompetent and indolent and rewarding capability.
Kwame Nkrumah saw what the ravages of colonialism had done to the African soul. He, therefore, projected the African personality and promoted the African capability and capacity.
He tried to show that what others had done, we in Ghana and Africa could also do. He looked outward not for help but to see what we could do and what we could improve upon. Yes, the Ghanaian, the African, has the capability but this cannot bear fruit in the present mental cage.
The African must cling to the real God who frowns upon superstition, indolence, nepotism, ethnicity and selfishness. Serving the true God will free us from the mental cage and release our true capability and capacity for work and happiness.
Article by K.B. Asante
