PERISCOPE DEPTH
…With Our Publisher
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”- Eleanor Roosevelt
27/10/2021
by Kenneth Agyei Kuranchie, Publisher, the Daily Searchlight, writing in the column Periscope Depth in the Daily Searchlight, Wednesday 27th October, 2021).
A few months ago, I went to visit President Akufo-Addo, a man I look upon as a father figure, in his office. The purpose of the visit was to discuss with him, among other things, the need to begin thinking about the legacy he would leave for the people of Ghana when he is no longer the President of Ghana. How would he hope to be remembered by history, fifty, a hundred years from now? Would he want to be remembered as a historical note, an insignificant historical fact, or as one of the greatest Ghanaians who ever lived, comparable to Yaa Asantewaa, Kwame Nkrumah?
While we conversed, one of the points I made in the brief encounter was the fact that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) can easily win Election 2024, in spite of the near-disaster of Election 2020. I said that it would not really matter who leads the NPP into Election 2024; what matters is how the NPP in government, with him as President, performs now. If the government does well and achieves great things, then Election 2024 would be virtually a done deal. In other words, if NPP in government and Akufo-Addo as President fails to deliver, the party would lose Election 2024, no matter who is the flag bearer of the party.
I am recalling this meeting with the President, and making reference to it publicly, because of three incidents or events that have taken place over the past ten days.
The first is an event dubbed YouthConnektHYPERLINK “https://www.youthconnektafrica.org/” Africa Summit that took place somewhere in Accra, and is said to have been addressed by Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on behalf of President Akufo-Addo. A statement attributed to the Presidency (Accra), titled “Go Forth and Shape Africa’s Destiny – President Akufo-Addo Challenges Africa’s Youth” and dated October 21st, 2021, stated;
“The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has challenged Africa’s youth to take mental, physical, and economic lead roles in positioning Africa as the giant of the future.
“In a speech read on his behalf by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit taking place in Accra, President Akufo-Addo maintained that the African could be as successful as any other, and urged the youth, who make up a very large proportion of Africa’s population, to take their rightful place in shaping the continent’s destiny.
“I do not accept that Africa has a DNA that dooms us to failure. Africans can, like all the other peoples that have succeeded, make life meaningful and worth living for their own people. We must cultivate an irrepressible desire to do right by the citizen.
“There is an abundance of dynamic, entrepreneurial talent on our continent struggling to express itself and take advantage of such conditions. We have to encourage this expression with full force and ensure that we can stand on our own feet, and make it impossible for the systematic looting and plundering of our human and material resources, that have characterized much of our modern history, to continue. This is the significance of the concept of Ghana Beyond Aid, indeed, of Africa Beyond Aid.”
“The President continued: “Simply put, I just want us to have more self-confidence and accept that we shall never reach the level of development we aspire to by relying on aid or external assistance, no matter how generous. It is a mindset that I wish Africans to discard, a mindset of living on charity and handouts,” the President said.
These sentiments attributed to President Akufo-Addo are rightful sentiments. Not only are they the right sentiments, but they also sound good to the ears. The problem, however, is that looking around, and taking cognizance of the reality of the youth of Ghana, one finds it hard to match President Akufo-Addo’s rhetoric with his actions and their effect on our youth.
Just at about the time that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was delivering the glitzy speech on behalf of the President, hundreds of Ghanaian youth, wearing red, were demonstrating on the streets of Accra. These were no ordinary youth. They were/are dynamic, entrepreneurial, and talented youth, committed young people who have, over the past two decades, through personal effort and insistence, excelled in the academic world such that they have earned first degrees in law at Ghana’s finest universities.
These are also conservative youth. They cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as people liable to engage in fickle actions, such as demonstrations and parades. They are not the hoi polloi. Most of them come from privileged or well-to-do homes. All their lives, they have lived in cloistered environments, in classrooms, attempting to achieve a goal, to become lawyers. Then, they are forced into the sunlight and dirt, by deliberate decisions of men and women who should know better, employing capricious standards to deny them their rightful personal progression. It is even a human rights issue, as I would demonstrate presently. At a point in time, one of the rungs that our president rode (I am loath to say conveniently) was the human rights rung. He screamed it and shook it in rage for years until it resulted in putting him in the presidency.
So, now, these focused youth, committed to making life meaningful for themselves, are calling on the President in the name of their human rights. And other rights. As the President said through Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the YouthConnekt Africa Summit; “I do not accept that Africa has a DNA that dooms us to failure. Africans can, like all the other peoples that have succeeded, make life meaningful and worth living for their own people. We must cultivate an irrepressible desire to do right by the citizen.”
Going on, the President said, “There is an abundance of dynamic, entrepreneurial talent on our continent struggling to express itself and take advantage of such conditions. We have to encourage this expression with full force and ensure that we can stand on our own feet, and make it impossible for the systematic looting and plundering of our human and material resources, that have characterized much of our modern history, to continue. This is the significance of the concept of Ghana Beyond Aid, indeed, of Africa Beyond Aid.”
True words and sentiments. The President is right, and it ought to be borne home to him that he is right. Ghanaians and Africans have a right to ‘an irrepressible desire to do right by the citizen’. It is therefore rightful and true that African people/youth can make life meaningful for themselves. The youth who demonstrated on the streets are such African people/youth. Over the past twenty or more years, these people/youth have focused all their lives on achieving a goal, to become lawyers. In that direction, they have achieved/earned Bachelor of Laws certificates. It is now left for them to proceed to the professional aspect of their career, that is admission to the Ghana School of Law for training as professional lawyers.
They are, however, being denied this right. Yes, it is a right. A human right. A constitutional right. Article 25. (1)(c) of the 1992 Constitution states;
“Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means…”
Lest we forget, because it seems that the man I look upon as a father figure has forgotten, every President of Ghana has to subscribe to the oath of office and swear to uphold the 1992 Constitution.
Nana Akufo-Addo is constitutionally bound to operationalize Article 25. (1)(c).
However, even in the absence of the constitutional injunction, he is also morally bound to ensure that Ghanaians who aspire to develop themselves into the best they can be, receive every available assistance and support. It is a moral obligation on him, arising out of the fact that by putting himself up to be president of Ghana and all Ghanaians, he has a moral duty and obligation to ensure the welfare of all Ghanaians.
President Akufo-Addo is also bound, by the rules of common sense, to ensure that Ghanaians who aspire to improve themselves, receive every support. Recently, we saw thousands of Ghanaian youth queuing to be admitted into the military. Thousands queued. A few hundred (if that) would be admitted into the military. In the face of such horrific conditions, it flies in the face of common sense to use a deliberate ploy to stop more youth from accessing higher education and a profession. This is because such Ghanaians would be pushed off the unemployment heap.
I can go on. I can look at why it makes economic sense to the state to assist these demonstrating youth. I can look at why it makes financial sense to the state to assist these youth to achieve their dreams. I can look at why it makes political sense to assist them. As a ‘politician’, a political argument would hopefully and putatively ‘connect’ with President Akufo-Addo. Indeed, let me explain why it makes political sense to assist them to achieve their goals. If they are assisted, they would say that it was under the government of President Akufo-Addo that the deliberate bottlenecks imposed into professional legal education by the likes of former Chief Justice Sophia Akufo, were removed. And such a happenstance would be beneficial to the political party that propelled Akufo-Addo to the presidency.
I can therefore list dozens of reasons why the youth should be assisted to get off the streets, and back into classrooms.
This brings me to the third incident to have happened in the course of ten short days, that prompted the writing of this piece.
President Akufo-Addo went to the studios of Peace FM in Accra to be interviewed last week. Peace FM is the most listened-to radio station in Ghana. One of the topics that came up for his reaction, was the issue of admission into the Ghana School of Law. That is, in other words, the issue that propelled the bright young people onto the streets of Accra in red apparel.
Mr. Akufo-Addo’s reaction was that there did not exist enough capacity, in terms of space, on the campus of the Ghana School of Law to admit these students.
Now, that answer is problematic, for many reasons.
Assuming, for instance, that President Akufo-Addo belongs to that body of lawyers who believe that people should be denied access to the practice of law because there are already too many lawyers (believe me, we do have such dinosaurs in decision-making positions when it comes to admission to practice law in this country), he could very easily have answered thus; “Yes, I am aware of their plight and I am working with the Chief Justice and the General Legal Council to see what we can do for them.”
Such an answer would immediately settle roiling waters and feelings, even though it would/could be a lie. However, if the president had said that or words to that effect, people would not be sharing video excerpts of that section of the interview in anger.
The President could have said; “I know that the Ghana School of Law is hampered by lack of capacity at the current location, but we are building new facilities, which I have commissioned. The problem would soon be solved, my children can rest assured.”
This statement would be true. Yes, President recently commissioned that new and bigger facility to be built to host larger volumes of professional law students. Instead, the President rather chose to give a statement calculated to anger the students, their parents, and families, running into the hundreds of thousands.
It also is a fact that if President Akufo-Addo was speaking pre-2016, he would have said; “I support the students fully. When I become President, I would do everything within my power for them to receive a professional legal education.”
Indeed, he could have answered; “As President and as a lawyer, I believe that every Ghanaian who aspire to higher education and a profession should be given the opportunity. This development at the Ghana School of Law is unhealthy. I would meet the leadership of the students to see what can be done.” Indeed, the host of the program sought to point out to him that as a lawyer, with this happening in the stomach of his profession, he had a duty.
Instead of the expected answers, however, the president said baldly that Makola did not have the capacity, in terms of space. But what is education? Is education the building? Is it not the imparting of knowledge? And should legal knowledge and education be imparted stricto senso (in a strict sense) only in a classroom at Makola? Otherwise, why do we have the Kumasi and GIMPA campuses of the same school? Why did the President not say that he would consult the General Legal Council to do away with the Law School Entrance Examination immediately, because the students can be easily accommodated on several new and existing campuses? There are several educational institutions with more than enough capacity to admit these students if the problem is only classrooms.
But what we had, was the bald statement about the lack of classrooms. Tragic indeed.
In that same interview, the President, in answer to a question about an E-Block from a chief somewhere in the Volta region, wondered off the cuff whether the Chief can give a minister of state an ultimatum.
The President said, “Is it him who will give the minister an ultimatum?” Then (referring to the Chief) the President said; “Then he should go and do it.”
To be frank, the tone of our President, whether we like it or not, was disrespectful towards the chief. Secondly, the chief is one of the millions of people who stood in a queue to vote in the process that resulted in President Akufo-Addo coming into office as President. Thirdly, that E-Block is funded by taxpayers’ money, and President Akufo-Addo is bound to ensure value for money from such projects. Fourth, the President is a servant of the people, whether he likes it or not, with the greatest respect. And if he is a servant of the people, how much more the minister, his appointee?
The President’s answers were in poor form. Indeed, his answers, with regard to do with the law school and the E-Block, should have propelled the NPP in the affected constituencies, to protest immediately to the President that it is electorally problematic to walk deliberately into an advertised program on a radio station such as Peace FM to make deliberate, votes-dispelling statements. The President’s statements should have propelled the NPP leadership at regional and national to walk to the President to protest that his comments are going to lose votes for the NPP in 2024. Indeed, all the fine men in NPP like Alan Kyeremateng and Mahamudu Bawumia should have stormed the office of President Akufo-Addo to tell him baldly that he is putting the object of victory in 2024, further away.
The President’s answers brought to my mind one of my favorite fairytales when I was a child. It is titled “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. According to Wikipedia, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a literary folktale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, about a vain emperor who gets exposed before his subjects. The plot has to do with two swindlers who arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work. A succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool. Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dress him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever.
I recalled this fairytale and wondered whether the people I had named before, that is the NPP leadership at regional and national, and men like Alan Kyeremateng and Mahamudu Bawumia, would actually go to Nana Akufo-Addo and tell him to his face that he is losing votes for the NPP.
Like the courtiers in the fictional tale above, they would rationalize to the President why all the answers he gave in the studios of Peace FM were inspired and sensate, worthy of repetition. And they would go on with this charade until the child speaks in December 2024, and says; why the king is naked.
When I visited the President and had a conversation with him several months ago, I told him that he had the power, that he could go down in history as one of the greatest Presidents in the history of Ghana, of more note than even Kwame Nkrumah, when our history came to be written. Or he could go down as a historical note at the bottom of the history book, the 5th President in Ghana’s 4th attempt at Republican governance, who occupied a seat at a time in history, and nothing more significant than that.
The choice is totally his to make. History would decide which he was.
(Periscope Depth is published every Wednesday in the Daily Searchlight.)
(You can follow stories in the Daily Searchlight on www.thedailysearchlight.com or Daily Searchlight on our Facebook home page. Write to us on searchlightnews@yahoo.co.uk).
