From My Lazy Chair

He walked on the battlefield Bullets flying all around him Yet none flew close to his fur Because he was not a target He was safe even among reverberating grenades and tanks He did not swear to protect himself But his people...his own people at his own peril Yet he had to die at the hands of this blood-sucking barbarians Who mistook him for animal And pelted him with rocks His bones crunched as he pleaded for mercy His innocent blood was shed His frozen tears formed a confluence of blood Flowing freely like a fountain Mistake him not for a coward For pulling the trigger could have saved him From these wolves Who were only after sniffing his life out of him. He must die one day But not this way Not to be killed like a common criminal. He died in his prime serving his country, Serving his countrymen, Serving people who did not see his use - people who did not believe in him. He coul

In your eyes, I can see sorrow; In your face, I read disappointment From past years; Your lips shiver In utter disbelief; Your looks paint A gloomy picture Of uncertain tomorrow; I write this From a troubled heart...

When the sun Settles behind the horizon As darkness beckons And the birds Return to their nests Then we will recount Our exploits And render accounts accordingly: Of broken shells of egg Of scars of tortoise Like market women...

I have been following keenly the campaign to flush out illegal miners in the mining areas and I have been amazed with some of the discussions. Sometimes, in our effort to find solution to some of the problems that confront us, we end up creating room for people to exploit because of the haste with which we approach the problem.  In Ghana, the way we approach ‘human’ problems with the aim of solving it is simply appalling, to say the least. We often fail to think through the problem and the intended approach or methods thoroughly to identify the best way out. In other words, we don’t define the problem properly. As a result, we are unable to permanently solve the socio-economic problems that confront us. It’s no wonder the approach we use to ‘solve’ the problem only last for a short while that’s why in no time the very problem we claimed to have ‘solved’ suddenly resurfaces again in the same or different form. ‘Galamsey’ simply means surface mining. The 'galamsey' ope

Is the world watching the attempts being made by the U.S to 'attack' North Korea over the alleged nuclear ambition? Former leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussain, was accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction which later turned out to be untrue. U.S attacked that country and the repercussions are still there for us to see. Are we going to see the same thing repeated in North Korea? I hope the UN is watching and would remain quiet as usual because it receives most of its funding from the US. Perhaps the UN has failed the world! Assad of Syria was accused of using chemical weapon on his own people when it was reported that the said weapon including others have been surrendered. Yet US went ahead to launch missiles attack on Syria killing innocent civilians. Does it mean that the US has the right to kill wherever and whenever it can? And when others do same, then it becomes an issue of crimes against humanity? In any case, what constitutes 'crime against humanity?' Is it

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has come under severe criticism by the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in particular. In the estimation of the NPP, the scheme has ‘collapsed’. Analyst and government officials have put up defence for the scheme insisting that if the scheme as so described to have collapsed would still have people being registered onto it including even members of the NPP. Some of these analysts and NPP commentators or relatives also rely on the NHIS for medical attention and their experience at the various health facilities they may have visited certainly could have formed the basis of their analysis. So they may not be entirely wrong in their conclusion.  Accessing healthcare with the NHIS card comes with some technical challenges especially with regards to where a patient is receiving healthcare falls under primary, secondary or tertiary status. If you are NHIS card holder, you can’t access direct healthcare in hospitals referred to as tertiary h

Establishment of private schools is on the increase especially in the area of basic school. Some of these schools are not running the GES curriculum but UK and US.  It is one business venture a lot of people are venturing into as it is easy to make money. The growth in this sector may be good for our education system as it affords parents alternatives to choose from. However, it appears they are not being regulated effectively enough. They have been left entirely in the hands of their owners. Some are operating without license.   When the president, in his first state of the of the nation’s address, indicated that Free SHS policy would start in September for the 2017/18 academic year, private schools are calling for inclusion in the intended policy. In as much as I think they should be granted some incentives in the policy, they must not forget that are into business. Their activities are not supervises effectively so they do everything and get away with it. The private scho

A motorcycle is a two - or three-wheeled motor vehicle. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long distance travel, commuting, cruising, sport including racing, and off-road riding. – Wikipedia. The use of motorcycle for commercial activities especially commuting passengers known as ‘okada’ has come to stay even though it’s in clear violation of the laws of Ghana. When it first surfaced, it received some amount of objection especially from the Ghana Police Service which tried to even enforce a section of our laws that prohibits the use of the motorbike for commercial purposes. The police argued that if motorbikes should be allowed to operate commercial activities, then that piece of the legislation must be amended to that effect. This issue ended up in Parliament and parliamentarians were even divided over whether or not ‘okada’ should be allowed to operate commercially. While a section was for, another section was against. That notwithstandin

It is said that the worst form of democracy is ten times better than military rule. In the same vein, others can also say it is better for people to coexist under dictatorial regime than imposition of democracy through military interventions that leave so much devastation. In other words, the worst form of dictatorship is better than military intervention. It is debatable. Each state or country in Africa and elsewhere in the world is considered sovereign. Therefore, intervening militarily in the affairs of a country violates the very principle of state sovereignty. In the past couple of years, Africa has seen military interventions to oust sitting presidents who have lost in an election but have refused to hand over power or overthrow leaders that are considered tyrant. The countries that quickly come to mind are Libya and Cote D’Ivoire. In the case of Libya and Iraq, the intervention was not due to election dispute. Leaders of those countries were considered tyrants and dictators

The media landscape in Ghana is increasingly becoming widened in scope. As such it has brought in its trails a lot of challenges with regards to standard and professionalism. While the print media is struggling to cope with production cost, some local radio stations continue to hit the airwaves churning out all manner of information in the name of information dissemination. It appears every district or Municipality in Ghana now has at least one radio station. Perhaps the long held philosophy that radio gets result, has been the main motivator for people to establish radio stations. But what we must know is that radio travels faster than any other media and therefore whatever information we are putting out there must be done with a lot of circumspection. But who is there sanitized the airwaves? The little survey, not scientific though, I have done indicated that most of the local radio stations we have were established by politicians to promote their personal political agenda and tho

The president of the republic of Ghana had hinted of establishing the office of the independent prosecutor that would be clothed with all the powers to fight corruption. The role of this new office would be grounded in law to be able to bite anyone found to have engaged in act(s) of corruption. Some of these initiatives are good but my personal worry is that they are often just mere cosmetic exercise. However, to the proponent, It is believed that would solve all the corruption issues that are reported every now and then especially in the public and civil services. I reckon it’s only a duplication of roles and I think we don’t need it. My first difficulty is the word ‘independent’. There is no such thing as independent so long as that office is the idea of someone or group of people. In other words, someone constitutes that office and therefore those working in there would owe some amount of allegiance to that person. For instance, the office of the EC is clearly an independent in

The choice of place for the use of an outgoing president as office has always generated a lot of debates among government officials and the general populace. We saw the same thing happen during former president John Agyekum Kufuor’s time as has happened when former president John Mahama was exiting. In the case of president Mahama, a letter was written to the incoming government to allow him to maintain his official residence as office. But that did not go down well with majority of Ghanaians. Meanwhile, the constitution of Ghana provides that an outgoing president should constitute a commission to decide among other things the public facility to use as office. The question one would ask is that why then do we have issue with anything coming from the presidential commission? Where are we getting it wrong? One thing I have come to realise as the bane on our forward movement as a country is that, whenever we are confronted with a particular problem or the other, we do not attempt to

The Ghana police service has issued a press statement warning the general public to desist from taking the law into their own hands to meet out instant justice to suspected criminals. The statement also sought to encourage the public to report any such activity to the police for action to be taken. In as much as the statement may be welcoming to some of us, I think it will not achieve anything! In other words, I am very sure such statements may have been issued in the past. And my question is: what is the outcome of those statements? Wouldn’t the new statement only seeking to suggest the fact that it had not worked and therefore safe to conclude that the solution to the problem goes beyond typing and issuing press statement? For people to embark on instant justice, it simply tells you the system has failed – that the people have lost interest and confidence in the state institution mandated to protect life and property. The general public appears to be pathetic towards to police s

It is required by law that any business venture undertaken in Ghana is properly registered and registration documents obtained at the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) in Accra. It is binding on both Ghanaians and foreigners who own business or want to operate. It is, however, interesting that there are quite considerable number of businesses in Ghana that have not been registered. This may be due to the complexity in the registration process and duplication roles not excluding ignorance a result of inadequate education. The first step getting your business registered begins with obtaining Tax Identification number (TIN) at the offices of any Ghana Revenue Authority in your municipality or district or even at the Registrar General in Accra. The TIN application forms are free as well as the registration itself. The next step is to purchase the business registration forms at the Registrar General, fill out properly and submit at the same place. The submitted forms go throug

The just ended general elections saw the opposition NPP winning the presidential elections with a very wide margin and having majority seat in parliament. To some of us, it has not come to us as a surprise. We saw the same thing in 2008 when the NPP then in government lost to the opposition NDC. A lot of post-election analyses are suggesting that the NPP’s numerous political promises earned them the victory. But I bet to differ! It is not true that a lot of the electorates who voted massively for the NPP believed in promises like ‘one district one factory’ or ‘one village one dam’. It’s absolutely not true. Come to think of it; imagine a land lock area where there’s no river. How then do you build a dam? Or am I wrong? Just as the NPP campaigned on its achievements in 2008 and expected Ghanaians to retain them in government after the eight years, the NDC did exactly the same in the 2016 general elections. The NDC thought they have achieved so much and it was all over the place

Not too long ago, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has dominated news reports and so much public discourse over Government’s decision to sell it to private operators. Reasons for and against the proposed sell have strongly been made to justify the sell. Whereas the government is bent on selling it due to the inefficiency and ineptitude that has surrounded it over the years, the workers of ECG are fighting tooth and nail to thwart government’s proposed sale. ECG workers have countered government’s reasons for the move insisting that government should wash its hands off the management of the company and things would just be fine. But I think the position taken by the staff of ECG is not one that is borne out genuine concern to do things right but to protect their source of daily bread. Even though I do not have any technical knowledge in energy, I just want to do some layman analysis of some development having to do with ECG prepaid credit. I am one person who will support the s