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Strictly Personal

Is Anas The Bill Cosby Of Ghana?

There is no doubt that Heath Cliff Huxtable and his family in the sitcom Cosby show made great impressions on our lives over the last couple of decades

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There is no doubt that Heath Cliff Huxtable and his family in the sitcom Cosby show made great impressions on our lives over the last couple of decades. The physician and his attorney wife gave us all the important reasons for making education a priority in life and building a sound character to become good citizens. The spinoff of the show, ‘A different World” also maintained the same ethos where building of refined individuals capable of making wise decisions in a college environment was the theme.

Bill Cosby, the man who play Heath Cliff Huxtable, did a lot of good and I dare say single handedly put a lot of kids through college. The shows were an inspiration to many. Through the show, Bill Cosby made it possible for the average kid, especially the minority to believe that college education and staying on the right side of the law inspires a top middle class and beyond life style. I can credit my own zest and desires for further education to some of the show’s influence.

But the public perception of the man we adored so much, Cliff Huxtable, hid behind a dark side of Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby had all the good intentions to inspire society through comedy, but the demons of his innate character emerged to hunt him. It took another comedian to expose him.

Is Kennedy Agyapong the comedian to expose Anas? Kennedy is a loud mouth politician. He hasn’t got the training in fine language and one is tempted to immediately dismiss him as a braggart. He beats his chest like a gorilla in the forest, the king Kong of Ghana. Recently he has been crying foul, showing his own video of Anas allegedly involved in criminal acts. Is Kennedy Agyapong peeling the surface of something to look deeply into or is he blowing hot air? Not to discount the great work done by Anas, (as in the Cosby Show). The Anas exposĕ is admirable, but is he hiding his own demons?

Is Kwaku Baako standing by his man as Camellia Cosby continues to stand by Bill Cosby even as the courts prove him guilty? 64 women came forward to accuse Bill Cosby of inappropriate behavior, only one was admissible in court, yet, that was enough to convict Bill Cosby. Kennedy claims there are several people allegedly running to him with stories about Anas collecting bribe from them. These allegations should be thoroughly investigated, and even if one is found to be true, Anas should equally face the law. However, if these are found to be false, that, Honorable Kennedy Agyapong and his cronies fraudulently pieced clips together to tarnish the image of Anas, the honorable must be dealt with squarely.

Anas has filed a defamation suit of GHC25 million against Honorable Kennedy Agyapong. The honorable is quoted as saying; “GHC25million, I sit on that shit”. The pronouncements of the MP, Kennedy Agyapong, can often be distasteful. It is alleged that he was such a fine gentleman when he was a taxi driver in New York. Ghana politics must have rubbed him of his finesse. I hope the honorable will take a leaf from what Mrs. Obama said; ‘When they go low, you go high” but no, Kennedy Agyapong will wallow in the mud with his adversaries.
A breakdown in our legal system.

The Anas investigative work has been warranted because of the disregard for law enforcement in our society. The lack of political will on the part of our politicians and the legislature to act. Corruption and some traditional customs have rendered our laws and legal system impotent. As a matter of fact, everything Anas has uncovered hasn’t been a secret. They were and still are well known practices in the country that the institutions and legal apparatus have failed to address.

The entire country knows the Chiefs in Ghana sell land to multiple bidders. This is criminal, but how many Chiefs have been prosecuted, let alone jailed for this crime. How many Chiefs (including Otumfuo) have called a town hall meeting to declare to their people the cedi amount of the number of plots or acres of the township land that have been sold or royalties realized from companies of which the town or village will use for some identified development projects? None, (no accountability!).

Land in most villages and towns are sold as the Chief’s personal property, just as ministers use government coffers as their personal bank accounts. This behavior, big and small is paramount with people in positions of power and in law enforcement in Ghana. The partisan politics of cover ups is what has made necessary such sting operations, undercover investigation and set ups that Anas is using. The average Ghanaian is at a loss, running to churches, rivers and fetish priests looking for answers, all because, the laws in the land do not work to protect them.

Apparently, everything that happens in Ghana is spiritual and one needs to seek a spiritual doctor for directions. The judiciary system is like our hospitals in Ghana, “hit and miss”; one may need to try a few hospitals before finding a bed. And when a bed is found, a doctor may not be available or no diagnostic tools available for the doctor to work with. When one reports a case to the police, in many cases one has to pay for the transportation of the officer to attend to the case.

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The bigger picture of this contention between Anas and Honorable Kennedy Agyapong is all because the laws in the land are not enforceable; mostly in conflict with tradition and culture. Kennedy Agyapong, an honorable minister of parliament, a member of the legislative branch, could announce on national television and to the world that he is married but has a girlfriend; proudly confirming that his wife knows he has a girlfriend and its part of Ghana’s tradition. So it is part of Ghana’s tradition to have stool wives.

So it is part of Ghana’s tradition to have stool servants or shrine slaves. So it is part of Ghana’s tradition for some chiefs to adjudicate on some cases. So it is part of Ghana tradition to find an influential elder to get you off the hook even when guilty. So it is part of Ghana’s tradition to send gifts to the Chiefs. In some cases, the Chiefs have aids who arrange for such “gifts’. No wonder even our judges are confused. Some of the judges claimed they acted in the traditional capacity to receive gifts but were not bribed.

Even some journalists (including Captain Smart who claims to fight corruption) gets confused discussing the subject; a gift for ‘influence peddling’ and a bribe. It is wrong and must be punishable to use the office of the state to travel and conduct transactions as if its private business. It is unethical if not criminal to use one’s position in the capacity of public service to receive gifts, solicited or unsolicited in any form with the intent to influence an outcome.

It is time Ghanaians evolve from those traditions that bring shame, turning the country into a bunch of jokers and elevate those elements of our culture that speak to Ghana as a constitutional democratic republic; a country with enforceable laws that govern the land. For this to be realized, Ghanaians must rise from the grassroots to the top; demanding accountability from the Chiefs to the ministers and to the President, call for a change to some of the antiquated traditions and customs that disadvantage the commoner and fly in the face of human rights, else there will be no progress in Ghana.

Commentator…..George Oteng Attakora

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Strictly Personal

Budgets, budgeting and budget financing, By Sheriffdeen A. Tella, Ph.D.

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The budget season is here again. It is an institutional and desirable annual ritual. Revenue collection and spending at the federal, State and local government levels must be authorised and guided by law. That is what budget is all about. A document containing the estimates of projected revenues from identified sources and the proposed expenditure for different sectors in the appropriate level of government. The last two weeks have seen the delivery of budget drafts to various Houses of Assembly and the promise that the federal government would present its draft budget to the National Assembly.

Do people still look forward to the budget presentation and the contents therein? I am not sure. Citizens have realised that these days, governments often spend money without reference to the approved budget. A governor can just wake up and direct that a police station be built in a location. With no allocation in the budget, the station will be completed in three months. The President can direct from his bathroom that 72 trailers of maize be distributed to the 36 states as palliatives. No budget provision, and no discussion by relevant committee or group.

We still operate with the military mentality. We operated too long under the military and of the five Presidents we have in this democracy, two of them were retired military Heads of State. Between them, they spent 16 years of 25 years of democratic governance. Hopefully, we are done with them physically but not mentally. Most present governors grew up largely under military regimes with the command system. That is why some see themselves as emperor and act accordingly. Their direct staff and commissioners are “Yes” men and women. There is need for disorientation.

The importance of budget in the art of governance cannot be overemphasized. It is one of the major functions of the legislature because without the consideration and authorisation of spending of funds by this arm of government, the executive has no power to start spending money. There is what we refer to as a budget cycle or stages. The budget drafting stage within the purview of the executive arm is the first stage and, followed by the authorisation stage where the legislature discusses, evaluates and tinkers with the draft for approval before presenting it to the President for his signature.

Thereafter, the budget enters the execution phase or cycle where programmes and projects are executed by the executive arm with the legislature carrying out oversight functions. Finally, we enter the auditing phase when the federal and State Auditors verify and report on the execution of the budgets. The report would normally be submitted to the Legislature. Many Auditor Generals have fallen victim at this stage for daring to query the executives on some aspects of the execution in their reports.

A new budget should contain the objectives and achievements of the preceding budget in the introduction as the foundation for the budget. More appropriately, a current budget derives its strength from a medium-term framework which also derives its strength from a national Development Plan or a State Plan. An approved National Plan does not exist currently, although the Plan launched by the Muhammadu Buhari administration is in the cooler. President Tinubu, who is acclaimed to be the architect of the Lagos State long-term Plan seems curiously, disillusioned with a national Plan.

Some States like Oyo and Kaduna, have long-term Plans that serve as the source of their annual budgets. Economists and policymakers see development plans as instruments of salvation for developing countries. Mike Obadan, the former Director General of the moribund Nigeria Centre for Economic and Management Administration, opined that a Plan in a developing country serves as an instrument to eradicate poverty, achieve high rates of economic growth and promote economic and social development.

The Nigerian development plans were on course until the adoption of the World Bank/IMF-inspired Structural Adjustment Programme in 1986 when the country and others that adopted the programme were forced to abandon such plan for short-term stabilisation policies in the name of a rolling plan. We have been rolling in the mud since that time. One is not surprised that the Tinubu administration is not looking at the Buhari Development Plan since the government is World Bank/IMF compliant. It was in the news last week that our President is an American asset and by extension, Nigeria’s policies must be defined by America which controls the Bretton Woods institutions.

A national Plan allows the citizens to monitor quantitatively, the projects and programmes being executed or to be executed by the government through the budgeting procedure. It is part of the definitive measures of transparency and accountability which most Nigerian governments do not cherish. So, you cannot pin your government down to anything.

Budgets these days hardly contain budget performance in terms of revenue, expenditure and other achievements like several schools, hospitals, small-scale enterprises, etc, that the government got involved in successfully and partially. These are the foundation for a new budget like items brought forward in accounting documents. The new budget should state the new reforms or transformations that would be taking place. Reforms like shifting from dominance of recurrent expenditure to capital expenditure; moving from the provision of basic needs programmes to industrialisation, and from reliance on foreign loans to dependence on domestic fund mobilisation for executing the budget.

That brings us to the issue of budget deficit and borrowing. When an economy is in recession, expansionary fiscal policy is recommended. That is, the government will need to spend more than it receives to pump prime the economy. If this is taken, Nigeria has always had a deficit budget, implying that we are always in economic recession. The fact is that even when we had a surplus in our balance of payment that made it possible to pay off our debts, we still had a deficit budget. We are so used to borrowing at the national level that stopping it will look like the collapse of the Nigerian state. The States have also followed the trend. Ordinarily, since States are largely dependent on the federal government for funds, they should promote balanced budget.

The States are like a schoolboy who depends on his parents for school fees and feeding allowance but goes about borrowing from classmates. Definitely, it is the parents that will surely pay the debt. The debt forgiveness mentality plays a major role in the process. Having enjoyed debt forgiveness in the past, the federal government is always in the credit market and does not caution the State governments in participating in the market. Our Presidents don’t feel ashamed when they are begging for debt forgiveness in international forum where issues on global development are being discussed. Not less than twice I have watched the countenance of some Presidents, even from Africa, while they looked at our president with disdain when issues of debt forgiveness for African countries was raised.

In most cases, the government, both at the federal and state cannot show the product of loans, except those lent by institutions like the World Bank or African Development Bank for specific projects which are monitored by the lending institutions. In other cases, the loans are stolen and transferred abroad while we are paying the loans. In some other cases, the loans are diverted to projects other than what the proposal stated. There was a case of loans obtained based on establishing an international car park in the border of the State but diverted to finance the election of a politician in the State. The politician eventually lost the election but the citizens of the State have to be taxed to pay the loan. Somebody as “Nigeria we hail thee”.

Transformation in budgeting should commence subsequently at the State and federal level. Now that local government will enjoy some financial autonomy and therefore budgeting process, they should be legally barred from contracting foreign loans. They have no business participating in the market. They should promote balanced budget where proposed expenditures must equal the expected revenues from federal and internal sources. The State government that cannot mobilise, from records, up to 40 percent of its total budget from IGR should not be supported to contract foreign loans. The States should engage in a balanced budget. The federal government budget should shift away from huge allocations to recurrent expenditure towards capital expenditure for capital formation and within the context of a welfarist state.

Sheriffdeen A. Tella, Ph.D.

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Strictly Personal

African Union must ensure Sudan civilians are protected, By Joyce Banda

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The war in Sudan presents the world – and Africa – with a test. This far, we have scored miserably. The international community has failed the people of Sudan. Collectively, we have chosen to systematically ignore and sacrifice the Sudanese people’s suffering in preference of our interests.

For 18 months, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have fought a pitiless conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions, and triggered the world’s largest hunger crisis.

Crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed by both parties to the conflict. Sexual and gender-based violence are at epidemic levels. The RSF has perpetrated a wave of ethnically motivated violence in Darfur. Starvation has been used as a weapon of war: The SAF has carried out airstrikes that deliberately target civilians and civilian infrastructure.

The plight of children is of deep concern to me. They have been killed, maimed, and forced to serve as soldiers. More than 14 million have been displaced, the world’s largest displacement of children. Millions more haven’t gone to school since the fighting broke out. Girls are at the highest risk of child marriage and gender-based violence. We are looking at a child protection crisis of frightful proportions.

In many of my international engagements, the women of Sudan have raised their concerns about the world’s non-commitment to bring about peace in Sudan.

I write with a simple message. We cannot delay any longer. The suffering cannot be allowed to continue or to become a secondary concern to the frustrating search for a political solution between the belligerents. The international community must come together and adopt urgent measures to protect Sudanese civilians.

Last month, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan released a report that described a horrific range of crimes committed by the RSF and SAF. The report makes for chilling reading. The UN investigators concluded that the gravity of its findings required a concerted plan to safeguard the lives of Sudanese people in the line of fire.

“Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians must be deployed without delay,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission and former Chief Justice of Tanzania.

We must respond to this call with urgency.

A special responsibility resides with the African Union, in particular the AU Commission, which received a request on June 21 from the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) “to investigate and make recommendations to the PSC on practical measures to be undertaken for the protection of civilians.”

So far, we have heard nothing.

The time is now for the AU to act boldly and swiftly, even in the absence of a ceasefire, to advance robust civilian protection measures.

A physical protective presence, even one with a limited mandate, must be proposed, in line with the recommendation of the UN Fact-Finding Mission. The AU should press the parties to the conflict, particularly the Sudanese government, to invite the protective mission to enter Sudan to do its work free from interference.

The AU can recommend that the protection mission adopt targeted strategies operations, demarcated safe zones, and humanitarian corridors – to protect civilians and ensure safe, unhindered, and adequate access to humanitarian aid.

The protection mission mandate can include data gathering, monitoring, and early warning systems. It can play a role in ending the telecom blackout that has been a troubling feature of the war. The mission can support community-led efforts for self-protection, working closely with Sudan’s inspiring mutual-aid network of Emergency Response Rooms. It can engage and support localised peace efforts, contributing to community-level ceasefire and peacebuilding work.

I do not pretend that establishing a protection mission in Sudan will be easy. But the scale of Sudan’s crisis, the intransigence of the warring parties, and the clear and consistent demands from Sudanese civilians and civil society demand that we take action.

Many will be dismissive. It is true that numerous bureaucratic, institutional, and political obstacles stand in our way. But we must not be deterred.

Will we stand by as Sudan suffers mass atrocities, disease, famine, rape, mass displacement, and societal disintegration? Will we watch as the crisis in Africa’s third largest country spills outside of its borders and sets back the entire region?

Africa and the world have been given a test. I pray that we pass it.

Dr Joyce Banda is a former president of the Republic of Malawi.

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