Wednesday 20 April 2016

MAHAMA PUSHES FOR AFRICAN UNITY


President John Mahama

Any initiatives that seek to rekindle the dreams of Africa’s founding fathers and mothers must be welcomed by all. But it is a strong indictment of the continent’s post-independent leadership that almost 60 years after many of the countries gained political freedom, Africans are more divided than ever.

President John Dramani Mahama in a State of the Nation address to mark Ghana’s 59th independence anniversary on 6th March 2016 made two important pronouncements with foreign relations implications. The first was his government’s plan to improve the knowledge and usage of the French language in Anglophone Ghana, which is surrounded by French speaking nations. The advantages of this strategic initiative if effectively implemented are many.

The second policy statement of international import, but which almost escaped media attention is that, starting next July citizens of the other 53 Member States of the African Union (AU) can “obtain visas on arrival (in Ghana) with the option of staying for up to 30 days.”  President Mahama expects this measure to stimulate air travel, trade, investment and tourism in Ghana, which like many other African countries, is going through a difficult economic patch.

Historically, this should not be a big deal in Africa that prides itself as the Land of Hospitality, where the people are their brother’s and sister’s keeper. In fact, Ghana’s independence President Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah had boasted on 6th March 1957 when the then Gold Coast became independent Ghana that “…our independence is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.”

To his credit, under Nkrumah and until his overthrow in the coup of 24 February 1966, Ghana granted visa exemptions to "persons of African descent" born in the neighbouring West African countries, and members of the Casablanca Group - Guinea, Tunisia, Mali, United Arab Republic, Morocco and Algeria - which along with the Liberia Group, formed the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, with the Pan-Africanist Ghanaian leader playing a leading role. In his 1961 book, ‘I Speak of Freedom’, Nkrumah had also expressed the hope that:  “…the African race, united under one federal government, will emerge not as just another world bloc to flaunt its wealth and strength, but as a Great Power whose greatness is indestructible because it is built not on fear, envy and suspicion, nor won at the expense of others, but founded on hope, trust, friendship and directed to the good of all mankind.”

But so much has happened with the concept of a United States of Africa, which took its origin from the 1924 poem “Hail, United States of Africa” by Marcus Garvey, American civil rights activist and great Pan-Africanist. The late Libyan leader Muoamar Gaddafi had romanced with the same idea in his relentless push for the formation of the AU, which succeeded the OAU in 2002, and many still talk with passion about the African Renaissance.  

As expected the AU Commission Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has lauded Ghana’s visa-on-arrival plan, expressing the hope that “many other African countries will follow suit, in the interest of achieving an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.”

Modern Africa owes a debt of eternal gratitude to Pan-Africanists and independent leaders such as Nkrumah, for their sacrificial struggles, so any initiative that seeks to rekindle the dreams of those founding fathers must be welcomed by all true Africans and friends of Africa. But it is a strong indictment on the continent’s post-independent leadership that almost 60 years after many of the countries gained political freedom, Africans are more divided than ever. Africa is not zero-poor, but with the mismanagement of its rich human and natural resources, bad governance, corruption and the vicious circle of social strife, poverty and unemployment, there are today more skilled Africans in Europe and the Americas than are in their home countries.  And almost on a daily basis thousands of disillusioned, hopeless and desperate African youths risk their lives on perilous journeys to Europe.

It is no longer news that Africa and Africans are fast losing their unique identity, if they have not already done so, with Pan-Africanism now at best a slogan to the inattentive ears of the present generation of Africans. Not a few African leaders have proclaimed or still proclaim Africa as the centre-piece of their national foreign policy. But the reality today is that while they continue to pay lip service to African unity, most of these leaders, under the guise of solving domestic problems, many of which are self-inflicted any way, steal their countries dry to build personal castles at home and abroad.

Ghana’s visa-on-arrival plan for AU citizens may also be viewed against the deafening complaints by African citizens about the difficulties and humiliations they suffer to obtain visas for Europe and the US. But the truth is that the process for obtaining visas to African countries is no less laborious and frustrating. For many Africans, travelling in the continent whether by road or by air is a nightmarish experience. In some cases air fares cost more than elsewhere while immigration and check points punctuate the transnational roads, some of which are in terrible conditions, with the attendant extortion of travellers by the border security personnel. The travel delays and the lack of deliberate pan-African national policies have ensured that intra-African trade hovers between 10% and 12% compared to 40% in North America and 60% in Western Europe.

The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) founded in 1975 deserves commendation for its 1979 flagship Protocol on Free Movement of persons, goods and services, rights to Establishment and Residence, which guarantees community citizens a free visa entry and stay in countries other than their own for 90 days at first instance. In spite of its imperfections, the implementation of this protocol is a major stride towards regional integration and makes ECOWAS the only Regional Economic Community (REC) with a free-visa regime. In fact, in the whole of Africa, it is only the Seychelles, an archipelago of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean off East Africa, with a population of less than 90,000 people, which grants visa free access to all foreign nationals.

Time was when Africans took refuge and were even provided the national passports of their host African countries during the independence struggles. Hundreds even received free education in their host countries during the anti-Apartheid era. But with globalization and world economic crisis African migrants who once constituted the bulwark of economic development on the continent, have become targets of violent xenophobic attacks by fellow Africans who accuse them of stealing their jobs.

If Europe is accused of erecting walls/fences to stop immigrants, African countries are no less guilty of the erection of invisible walls against fellow Africans even in their times of need.

With their ill-gotten wealth and multiple foreign visas, many African leaders and members of their families flaunt their ostentatious lifestyles abroad, while the majority of Africans are stranded and condemned to abject poverty at home. The same leaders bemoan capital flight and brain-drain from Africa but do very little or nothing to incentivise or create the enabling environment to retain local capital or manpower. Instead, they encourage the mass exodus of Africa’s best brains; discourage foreign investment and incite social crisis that cause death, destruction and render citizens, refugees in their own countries. With their dual/multiple nationalities, these unpatriotic leaders easily disappear with their families to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth abroad. And unsatisfied with presiding over comatose or non-existent local health systems, these selfish leaders are now promoting medical tourism at the expense of their own countries.

As things stand, every African must undertake a serious realty check to determine their Africanness and how they have derailed the lofty dreams of African founding fathers, for the purpose of damage control/limitation.  Symbolic as Ghana’s visa-on-arrival initiative may seem, it is a reminder to Africans in general about where they are coming from. The AU and various Pan-Africanist groups/institutions and policy think-tanks must wake up from their slumber. It is bad enough that through slavery, colonial and neo-colonial exploitations and plundering, Africa’s sweat, blood and wealth were used to lay the foundations for the industrialisation and transformation of many countries in Europe and the Americas. For Africans themselves to now become champions of Africa’s disunity/disintegration, and the continued siphoning of the continent’s resources, is an unpardonable crime against humanity.

According to Marcus Garvey: “A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” It is not enough for Africans to know their history and culture; or to continue to blame others for their woes, they must use that knowledge strategically to work for the good of present and future generations.

* Paul Ejime is a Media/Communications Consultant. This article previously appeared in Sahara Reporters.

Editorial
Vietzman’s Controversy
Claims by Orli Veitzman Deputy Ambassador of Israel to Ghana that Jesus the Christ is not the messiah who had been prophesied to save the world has generated a huge controversy in religious circles.

It has been particularly shocking for those in the Christian community who have supported Israeli atrocities in Palestine because they believed that the conflict was between Muslims and Christians.
Now the cat is out and all of us know what the truth is.

At the very least we know that the conflict is between colonial occupation and resistance to it,
While thanking Vietman for speaking the truth about Zionism, we wish to implore all those engaged in this debate to resist the temptation to apply bigotry.

Ghana’s constitution insists on respect for all religious beliefs and that should be our guide in this disclosure.

Friday 15 April 2016

JESUS IS NOT THE MESSIAH – Israeli Diplomat



Jesus, The Christ is Crucified

The deputy Israeli Ambassador to Ghana Orli Veitzman has said the Messiah who is expected to save the world has not yet come.

According to her, although Jews have a lot of respect for Christians, they do not believe that Christ, whose crucifixion has just recently been observed, is the long awaited savior of the world.

Judaism, which is the main religion of the people of Israel has the disposition that Christ, who died at Calvary in Golgotha centuries ago, is only a prophet and not the savior. Judaism has never accepted any of the claimed fulfillment of prophecy that Christianity attributes to Jesus. It also forbids the worship of a person as a form of idolatry, since the central belief of Judaism is the absolute unity and singularity of God.

Speaking to Nii Arday Clegg on the Morning Starr on Easter Friday, Veitzman said the Jews are still waiting for the true Messiah.

“In the Jewish religion, today is not a special day. But we have a lot of respect for Christians. According to Judaism, we are still waiting for the Messiah to come. For us Jews, we are still waiting for the Messiah. Judaism is based on the Old Testament ... There is no account of the miracles that Jesus performed,” she stated.

Source:Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM

Editorial       
THE TRUTH IS OUT
The truth is now out in the open and it should help to properly shape  the discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Thanks to Orli Veitzman, the Deputy Ambassador of Israel to Ghana, now we know that the official religion of Israel is not Christianity but Judaism.

We also know that Jews do not accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah and completely reject the New Testament and all the miracles in it.

So now we know that the conflict is not one between Muslims and Christians and that it is a case of colonial occupation of Palestinian lands.

With this clarification we can now take the fog out of the discussion and see the blatant violations of Palestinian rights for what they are.

We thank Orli Veitzman for this very useful information.

THOUGHTS OF A MYSTERIOUS MAN


Charlotte Osei, Electoral Commissioner of Ghana
With Ebow Duncan
POOR AUNTIE CHARLOTTE
Just put yourself in the place of Mrs Charlotte Osei, the chairperson of the National Electoral Commission and see how it feels.

Since this woman was appointed she has known no peace because some people for their own political purposes have decided that they will make her as uncomfortable as possible.

There is even a former First Lady who went to the extent of challenging her qualification for the job.

This former First Lady claims that Auntie Charlotte is not even a Ghanaian and that her true nationality is Nigerian.

The sad part of the story is that Charlotte Osei is not being attacked because she has done something wrong or that there is any real evidence of her bias for any political party.

One of the main reasons for all the attacks on her is that some personalities and political parties are manufacturing excuses for their defeat in the 2016 elections even before the elections are held.

In their warped minds, they think that , if they can keep the propaganda against Auntie Charlotte going then at the end of the elections, it becomes easier to blame their loss on imagined bias of the chair of the Electoral Commission.

The other reason is that they believe that the sustained attacks on Charlotte Osei would make her jittery and compel her to make mistakes which they can then capitalize upon in their demonization crusade.

Now they have even come to the point when all decisions of the Electoral Commission are deliberately attributed to her in spite of the fact that she is only one of seven Commissioners.

As for the propaganda on the voters’ register, it is laughable.

The main argument of the anti-Charlotte crusaders is that the voters’ register is bloated and therefore we need a new one for credible elections in November.

Fine, everybody agrees that the register is bloated and there is no debate on that score. We can all also agree on the fact that since the register was compiled many people whose names remain on the register have died.

The problem however is how do we remove these names from the register?

All the new registers we have compiled since 1992 have been bloated and it is possible that if we compile a new one today it will also be bloated.

Some experts have come up with a process for cleaning the new register called “validation” and everybody seems to agree that it is the way to go.

But the issue which has come up is when do we do the validation? Should it be after the limited registration exercise or before then?

If the validation is done now what will happen after the limited registration exercise, especially if that also leads to a bloating of the register?

In any case, Ghana is now doing biometric voting, which means that names on a bloated register are useless because they cannot be used to cast ballots without corresponding biometric features.

Poor Auntie Charlotte, it is obvious that her detractors will continue to pounce on her whether she does good or bad.

It is hoped that she will have the fortitude to hang on to the job and serve her nation in spite of these empty noises from very destructive throats.

TODAY IS TB JOSHUA’S DAY


T.B Joshua, prophesy doom in Ghana

The Nigerian maverick Priest,T.B Joshua says that there would be a terrorist attack with foreign origins on Ghana or Nigeria between today and Saturday.

In a video clip, which is circulating widely in both Nigeria and Ghana the Priest gives the impression that the terrorist forces were still trying to determine whether to attack Ghana or Nigeria.

He also gives the impression that the attack will take place in a crowded place.
Interestingly, the man who has come to be known as Prophet T.B Joshua does not give enough clues to enable citizens or the security services to take any serious precaution.

Ghana and Nigeria are very large areas and everybody is left wondering wherethe terrorists may hit.

Would it be Paga, Kumasi, Navrongo or Accra in Ghana?

Would it be Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna or somewhere else in Nigeria?

In any case, why would God the Almighty allow terrorists to attack Ghana or Nigeria when he can stop them?

Why would God reveal this information to T.B Joshua and nobody else?

In any case, given the nature of the prophesy it is bound to come to pass, especially as terrorist attacks occur in Nigeria on a daily basis.

One question which many watchers of the religious scene have asked frequently is, what is the purpose of these revelations?

Some priests say that the revelations are meant to alert society so that steps are taken to avert such disasters.

If this is true, it could mean that there would have been a failure on the part of the clergy and society when the disasters occur.

A section of the priesthood says that the revelations are only meant to reveal God’s power; to show that he can predict the future accurately.
 
What is baffling for lay people is how a God of love can foresee pain, death and destruction and allow them to happen only to show that he is powerful enough to predict future occurrences?

Whatever these revelations are meant to do, the people of Ghana and Nigeria and indeed the world are waiting with anxiety and helplessness.

Editorial
GHANA AGAIN
In spite of directives from the African Union (AU) that African countries should not participate in the Crans Montana Conference in occupied Western Sahara, the Government of Ghana sent a huge official delegation headed by a Minister of state to the event.

This is the second time in two weeks that Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana has betrayed the National Liberation Movement across the globe and it is worrying.

Last week Ghana joined 14 other countries to abstain from voting on the observance of human rights in occupied Palestine.

 The AU said attending a conference sponsored by Morocco in occupied Western Sahara would be an endorsement of colonial occupation.

Indeed, Morocco has pulled out of the AU on account of the organization’s principle stand on the independence of the Saharawi Arab Republic (Western Sahara).

Many progressive forces are increasingly becoming alarmed at the apparent abandonment of the very pillars of Ghana’s foreign policy which signifies a major shift to the right.

Ghana has a duty to respect the rights of all people to self-determination and this ought to reflect on the decisions and actions of Government.

 It is a shame that these reversals are happening under the watch of President John Dramani Mahama who has been active in the worldwide progressive movement.

THOUGHTS OF A MYSTERIOUS MAN



With Ebow Duncan
RIGHT AND WRONG
Some 30 years ago no one anywhere on earth could have dreamt that at some future date, even priests in cassock could proclaim themselves as homosexuals and still be able to administer the Holy Communion.

How could any self-respecting persons in the days of Yoo admit that their sexual preference is one which engages their own sexual kind?

Benjamin Netanyahu, an undisputed terrorist
The politicians, the priests, the superstars, the generals, the kings and queens were all united in their condemnation of same sex marriage and all that it came along with.
Over the years, however, what was wrong has become or is becoming right and what was right is taking on the full blown characteristics of what is wrong.

 Can you believe that a British Prime Minister actually told African governments that they could face punishment if they failed to accept same sex marriages.

Indeed the British Government was threatening to withdraw or withhold so called aid as a means of pushing African governments to accept a situation in which men were free to sleep with men and women could also jump on each other.

This is surely a reflection of a seriously changing world with its moral code being turned upside down.

 40 years ago no African worth his description could in any way or form support colonialism. Even friends of the colonial establishment like K.A. Busia and J.B Danquah were active participants in the work of the national liberation movement.

Today all kinds of people and institutions are making excuses for the colonial enterprise in some parts of the world.

Morocco which claimed to be in the vanguard of African Liberation a while ago has itself become the colonial occupier of Western Sahara and it is busy pillaging the resources of the territory.

What is even more interesting is that Ghana which was the beacon of African Liberation and unity and was ready to pull out of the commonwealth on that account tolerates Moroccan colonialism.

Isn’t it shocking that a country like Ghana continues to have diplomatic relations with Morocco, a colonial occupying power which has pulled out of the African Union?

Today, Ghana will pretend to be in the middle when it comes to the colonial occupation of Western Sahara.

Palestine also presents another interesting case.  Israel is the colonial occupier of Palestine and again Ghana pretends to be in the middle, having diplomatic relations with both Palestine and Israel.

The shock came only two weeks ago when Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana refused to vote for respect for human rights in the Palestinian occupied territory.

So far no official explanation has been offered for Ghana’s current stand, but if you add that to the visit to Israel by the Foreign Minister and the visit to Ghana of the racist Ivigdor Lieberman then a clear picture emerges.

How can we compromise on human rights and colonial occupation in Palestine of all places and especially at a time when an active member of the Palestine Solidarity of Campaign is the President of the Republic of Ghana?

Who will tell the supporters of Donald Trump that they are wrong in putting their weight behind a racist bigot?

In many respects when I look at Mr Trump he reminds me of Big Dada Iddi Amin. His reckless disregard for other peoples’ sensitivity, his anti-Islamic rhetoric, his bullying antics and his complete lack of sophistication mark him out as a very dangerous politician.

Hey, but who is the judge here?.

For some right is wrong and wrong is right.

Some even put it more bluntly when they say that one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist.

But truth be told, those who slits the throats of others simply because they refuse to accept their religious doctrine cannot be freedom fighters.

Those who discriminate against black people simply because they look different cannot be described as freedom fighters and those who continue to occupy Palestine and Western Sahara are not freedom fighters.

In some circumstances right is right and wrong is wrong. Period!