What Makes Woyome Tick?

What makes Woyome tick? Is it the gargantuan amount which he secured quite successfully or his using of Ghana's legal system to achieve his end? Is it the issue of judgment debts which the government continues to pay, of which he tops the list? Is it the media led outrage against him for grabbing all the 51 million Ghana Cedis to himself?

For whatever it is, I am beginning to think that Woyome is being scapegoated. There is always a danger in scapegoating people: those who are like the one being made an example of escape punishment or hide away as they continue their shady dealings, driving their misactions nether and nether. So I do not like scapegoating. What is most interesting, the big fishes in this sea of fraudulent affairs are still swimming away into the deep. However, to make myself feel good, or rather, to yield to my natural yearning for the different or opposite of things, I decided to look up Woyome online.

The first nine links that shot up were straight up political: Woyome Arrested, Woyome Fraud, Woyome Innocent until Proven Guilty. But down on the page was the lonely link: Woyome Foundation for Africa. I opened my mouth. He owns a foundation which works chiefly in health, specifically HIV and AIDS. The Woyome Foundation has worked with Michael Essien and John Mensah, both footballers. His foundation has worked with Shell Ghana and KAMA Health Services.

When Woyome got arrested, a lot of women stampeded the Police CID Headquarters forcing the police to use armoured vehicles to block the premises. A woman reportedly slapped a police officer--she got nabbed by the police too, together with some others. The man is a known face within political parties, he's a benefactor to many others. He's a known as a philanthropist as well. So? Well, when you talk wickedly about Woyome, remember that Ghana's problems are systemic and not Woyomic. And do remember, he helps people too, needy Ghanaians.

THERE IS NO SPRING IN WEST AFRICA

This week, BloggingGhana has decided to dedicate blog posts to the protests in North Africa which started in Tunisia. Gameli has done his bit, MacJordan dropped his, Edward is as techno as ever, and Kajsa tails the BBC question.

Let me begin by saying a system built to suppress and domineer a people cannot stand the test of time. It might be that the system would crumble out of self fatigue, those suffering under the system might revolt, or time will play its own tune of winds of change. Suffice to say what is to be dreaded most is the will of the oppressed. In any system, what the privileged and powerful forget compute, when they engineer their systems that rob the generality of the people of their freedoms and properties, is the will of the said people--the human will do rise against a system even if it's just out of boredom! History records well across all societies, individuals who have risen to power by individual brilliance or sheer privilege--they have made subjects of their constituents in plain sight or subtlely.

Africa is not new to domination, foreign or intra domination. In many cases, African people had to live under leaders who refuse to shift from their seats of power, even if you place a burning furnace underneath their seats. First, I must note that I respect the choice of a people if they do decide to keep an individual in a position for a century! It should be their decision. When in January last year, for reasons best known to Mohammed Bouazizi, he set himself ablaze, he joined an exclusive list. That was what it took for the lid to spin off the bowl of simmering frustrations in Tunisia. They people fought. They had decided that if one person could take his life, theirs weren't worth living either under a government they want out! Then like a disease, it infested the other parts of the whole. Bad old Egypt fell. Morocco boiled. Then Libya, oh Libya. The old enemies of the continent carried the disease there.

It was people fighting for what they wanted. Or better, what they do not want. I am quite old-fashioned in my use of the word revolution; so, throughout the entire protests, I refused to join the international media is using the good old word. Current conditions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya show a dream aborted. It shows not only a premature baby, but a foetus in the open. In Libya's case, it's a foetus so filled with sores. The dream was aborted. To echo Ayi Kwei Armah, half awakening is as ill as no awakening.

But many have asked, in fact the questions have been led by the media, if West Africa could go through a similar Spring. My response is this: There is NO SPRING IN WEST AFRICA. More so, I cannot urge anyone to be influenced by some half awakening. The preamble, or prelude, to the question of protests across West Africa is foul. And we must be weary of those who are quick to compare Nigeria to Tunisia or Egypt. It is erroneous.
Currently, many people have accepted that waiting for four years to make a change is sufficient--that should clear the old leader question in North Africa. The challenge is the systemic frustrations and lack of opportunities West African people face. I am inclined to think that people have the hope that conditions will change with a little more push, if the right people handle office, if we punish corruption with the verve we use in political campaigns.

Protests that would cripple the country, leading to loss of much needed revenue does not seem likely. I would not partake in any such thing. I am for mobilising; creating awareness among people; networking to ensure a strong people who know the ins and outs of government. I am for opening the eyes further to activities within our communities; how our resources are been applied; how we can creatively change the systems we have inherited to suit our collective progress. Not some SPRING. That obviously obviously the wrong way to go.

Ghana's New Nationalism Park at Osu

I could not help but notice the giant plaque which had all of a sudden appeared at the abandoned park adjacent to the Accra Sports Stadium and the memorial of the Unknown Soldier to the north and east respectively. On it was scribbled NATIONALISM PARK. I stood for a moment, I was in a hurry to grab lunch at Osu then back to the office, and stared. The plaque had a star in it. Then I noticed all the activities, the workers, the men in suit sitting under the trees. I wondered, then wandered away.

Two weeks later, the once rough path dividing both sides of the park was being cleared and tiled properly. The path now had flowers from its start point at the stadium to its end at the Independence Square. The grasses were being replanted. The park now had stone benches, strategically placed under the huge trees that provided shade. Hitherto, people just laid their mats under the shade of the trees, to take a break from the hot sun. Now they have benches. At the University of Ghana, those benches have names: Lovers Bench. And so today, I saw a couple sitting right in the middle of the park, under some shade and cool air, with the rays of the sun scattered all around them. I would have joined them.

Nationalism Park, Osu.

I have not had time to find out which MDA is behind this great initiative. I suspect Parks and Gardens? Anyway, whichever agency is behind it, this certainly a spectacular addition to the few parks within the city. For those who read this blog, you would recall a post titled Freedom and Justice, which I did sometime in 2011 around this time, in which I lambasted some crook from the Ghana Army, and others like him who torment citizens only because they spent time (sometimes with their lovers) at the Osu beach and the Independence Square. I thought that instead of sacking people from the venue, the state should attract its citizenry to it. Whether by chance or not, I'm doing another post on another national space that could bring some extra joy to the city and its dwellers.

But this park? Would it last? Would Ghanaians learn to use it? Would someone ask to place a beverage stand at the park as well? Make it more attractive? Would someone drive by it and stop for a drink or just the fresh air? Or we would leave it barren?

ECG Fraud

If you said you did not know of the massive corruption within Ghana's gargantuan Electricity Company of Ghana ECG; if you say you are one of those Ghanaians who hate smelling their own faeces; well, now you do not have any excuse to deny the existence of corruption in and debt owed by private companies and institutions and governmental bodies to the ECG. Ghana's ace investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, has finally released documents on the types of illegal, corrupt activities happening within ECG, after eight months of undercover investigations.

Anas is not new to his game. Indeed, the man holds a law degree (so that he know what evidence to look for--those that can be used to prosecute in court).

I shall provide the list of companies that owe ECG. But before that, my opinion first. You see, the ECG has announced several times that it needs recapitalisation. For that reason alone, it undertook a project that led it to increase electricity bills of Ghanaian--most of whom pay their bills or risk disconnection by the ECG. Those who need not fear disconnection are the corporate bodies, the big institutions. For those who cannot pay bills promptly, they would have to bribe the ECG guy who shows up now and then, rudely entering and exiting, with banku and pepper or a cedi note.

Anyway, any Ghanaian who would deny knowledge of the illegality... Well, I should just shut up on that one. But come on, Ghanaians, you know that the ECG has elements within it at various levels who are corrupt. Simply corrupt. The fact that Mr. Anas had to uncover this raises serious questions both about Ghanaian state institutions and Ghanaian character. Generally, Ghanaians do not report crimes! The state institutions have taken on a lackadaisical character of not investigation anything unless it is directed by His Excellency. That is the chief problem!

Kudos to Mr. Anas and his team. I won't say anymore. Below is a list you should look at. They should be ashamed. But most importantly, ECG should collect those monies now!

Office of the President - GHS675,805.55;
State House (Parliament) – GHS635,781.31;
Police Headquarters – GHS393,736.65;
 Ghana Water – GHS617,105.51;
 Ministry of Finance – GHS524,924.67; V
odafone - GHS 886,814.15;
MTN - GHS 349,811.19;
Airtel - GHS56232.48;
University of Ghana - GHS4,388,500.63;
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology - GHS2,981,228.93;
University of Cape Coast - 1,871,556.40;
ECOBANK – GHS320,275.56;
La Palm Royal Beach – GHS238,621.89;
Movenpick – GHS 577,631.07
Vienna City – GHS44,435.14.

Rain in Accra Finally--Wash Us Away

This would be my very first random post for the year 2012. I am not writing under dire circumstance, and I don't intend to write for long. I can feel the cold wind already through my louvres. Accra is experiencing rainfall for the first time in 2012, coming on the back of bad memories of floods in the last year. But that is not what is making me write. The Electricity Company of Ghana just took their lights with the coming of the rain. I suppose to intend for me to replace it with thunder and lightning.

I smell the dirt, the smell of dry terracotta rising to my nose as rain drops beat the ground. Then sitting in my room, I imagine bathing in the rain, it beating my clothing, reaching deep under my skin. I am happy it is raining, and I can only imagine is for some surreal reason.

First it was the cock that stirred the air, crowing. But when the rains started violently, I wondered if in 2012, strange things such as fowls would now signal the coming of rain instead of the croaking of frogs. I wondered if it was now nature re-adjusting to human ways instead of the reverse. Would that be good or one of the many acts of humans that lead us to our tombs.

Anyways, it is raining now in Accra finally. Wash us away. Wash away the dreadfully dry harmattan. The dust. And the Woyome-gate.