On Wednesday, November 13, when some European scientists and engineers had gathered at the European Space Agency’s centre in Darmstadt, Germany to observe the launch of an object into space (a probe on a comet) 500 kilometres from Earth, some Ghanaians were demonstrating in Accra.
The Europeans had worked on their project for 10 years, racking their brains to send an object to space to probe the formation of the solar system and the origins of life. They had to celebrate on Wednesday when the object finally landed.
At the same time, Ghanaians, usually the government communication team members and other key members of the ruling party, had pitted themselves against leaders of the demonstrators and some leading opposition party members over who actually organised the demonstration and whether it was successful or not.
The demonstrators claimed they demonstrated against high-level corruption in government and other state institutions as well as the bad economic policies of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government. Whether anything will come out of the demonstration is anybody’s guess.
Over the last 10 years, at which time the European Space Agency had worked on its space mission, a number of governments had changed (defeated in elections), yet with proper planning, the project continued.
National plan of action
In Ghana, whereas many have called for a national plan of action agreed upon by all parties in Parliament and relevant stakeholders, there doesn’t seem to be any consideration of this idea, hence every government which comes into power starts new projects most of which are never completed before it leaves office. In simple terms, Ghana has no national plan and does not intend to have one.
The issue of patronising made-in-Ghana goods and services has come up under almost every government, but in very different colouration and format, with none of the governments showing any seriousness for the policy apart from mere noise-making and sloganeering.
For instance, whereas President John Mahama attempted to rekindle the patronise-made-in-Ghana-goods spirit, Parliament (with majority members from Mahama’s own government) decided to hand a juicy contract of refurbishing the legislative house to a Chinese company, which imported chairs from China for the parliamentarians.
Strangely, both the majority and minority in Parliament do not see anything wrong with their action in a country where university, polytechnic, and senior high school graduates do not have jobs. While, as usual, the MPs from the majority side are feverishly defending the unpatriotic action of Parliament, the Minority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, was even insulting the intelligence of Ghanaians by asking us if we wanted MPs to sit on benches.
It is strange how our MPs, the people’s representatives, who are supposed to protect and promote the interest of the people, have always been thinking about their own welfare and comfort and not those of the people who voted them to Parliament.
In the United Kingdom, members of both the House of Lords and House of Representatives sit on benches, yet their Parliament has always been a benchmark for measuring democracy in most parts of the world.
What Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and his colleagues in the leadership of Parliament, who have taken us all for a ride, must know is that in a country where there is no 12-hour continuous electricity for industries and domestic use, where people, even those who live in the national capital, Accra, don’t have potable, where school feeding is in arrears and schoolchildren are likely to lose out on the school feeding programme, and where some newly recruited nurses and teachers have worked for between a year and three years without being paid, our priority must definitely not be posh chairs for MPs.
Elsewhere in a firm democracy, many of the MPs who decided to import chairs from China to ensure their comfort would never return to Parliament in the next election. Many actions and inaction of majority of our MPs have and continue to show that they struggled to go to Parliament to enrich themselves and seek their own welfare and comfort and not to serve the people and help them to better their lives.
Even where the government freezes public service salary increase, MPs fight for salary increase. When majority of right-thinking
Ghanaians feel that corruption is at a high level in the country, Kobby Acheampong, the GYEEDA boss, is calling on Pastor Mensa Otabil to bring evidence of corruption, as if he (Acheampong) does not live in Ghana. He must find time to read stories about the Judgement Debt Commission, as well as the committee probing the Brazil World Cup blues, and the history of his own outfit, GYEEDA.
Support for local inventions
On Wednesday, I listened to the son of Apostle Kwadwo Safo of Christo Asafo on radio as he talked about the production of a car by the Apostle. The information did not surprise me because as far back as the late 1980s, when I was a young reporter, I was invited on a yearly basis by the Apostle to his church’s annual convention at which some of his creations were displayed.
The news that Apostle Safo has produced a car and wants to start commercial production has been out for many years, yet successive governments have not found it appropriate to provide any support for this man to advance in his attempt to put Ghana on the map of car manufacturing countries. Prior to the car manufacturing story, the Apostle had developed a number of electrical gadgets.
It is common knowledge that when Japan and Korea started their car —manufacturing business, the early cars they produced moved in the reversed direction when the driver had actually intended to move forward. However, over the years, they perfected in that industry and today, Ghana is among the countries importing all kinds of vehicles from these two countries.
With our priorities highly misplaced, and without any attempt at behaving like a nation with a purpose of developing, one cannot imagine when we would move from our present dependency on western donors.
We need to put our thinking caps on to move this country forward. Current and future governments must realise the need to utilise our resources judiciously on priority projects which would propel the country to industrialise, create jobs and improve the economy.
Governments must stop the practice of starting new projects when ongoing ones are abandoned for political expediency.
Without getting our priorities right, we shall continue to beg for crumbs from countries which have their priorities right.
The author is a Political Scientist and Media and Communication Expert.
