Photo Report- Unkempt & Decrepit Government Ministerial Buildings @Accra , Ghana

[Stephen Nyako]

Folks,
 
PUBLIC SERVICE IS NOT SOLD IN THE SHOPS FOR PEOPLE TO ACCESS. It is a Government MONOPOLY and you dont have a Choice.!!! That is why it needs to be easily  accessible to all citizens.
 
But do these people in charge understand this fundamental issue ? No!!
 
There is a glaring failure of the management of public administration in Ghana and I want to draw your attention to the terrible things going on that you dont think about but seriously affects  you if you have to do anything in Ghana that requires Government permission.
 
Having experienced  some services at first hand this year, I have come to the conclusion, We dont only need to improve quality in the Central Government Administration or improve the decision making skills, attitudes and values  of appointed officers and their managers,  BUT also need to take care of the environment in which these organisations operate to ensure efficiency and sustainable service delivery.
 
The sad fact is if you go to the Ministerial quarter in Accra today, the buildings have fallen into decrepitude, there are no working toilets, no semblance of  caretaking or grounds maintenance and cleanliness or decent landscaping to showcase EXCELLENCE for the place to be elevated so the rest of the country (outlying Districts) to  copy and follow suite.
 
Sadly in these Central Government Organisations based in Accra  no one understands Customer issues! Not even the Ministers in charge.
 
 When you go there to transact business on most days, you would find hawkers , stray goats and chickens,  wondering around and you ask yourself is it right that  such neglect is allowed to happen in  this stern age in such Government establishments in our Capital City ? 
 
However just look closely  at the vehicles in the car parks  and you would see
 Ministers and  Directors vehicles worth $50,000 to a $100,0000 dollars easily. 
 
All these vehicles have been purchased with tax payers monies for the use of Ministers and the top management, but the buildings, the fixtures and fittings, have been woefully neglected!!!
 
 Are we going or are we Coming?
 
Just look at the Ministry of Energy Building in the Central Business District ( First two pictures).  Now that we have struck oil, potentially the richest Minstry in Ghana  and tell me whether its fit for purpose?? Couldn't they even paint the damnnn thing???
 
Look at the state of them? ( dirty, peeling paint, broken windows, No decent toilets, No decent filing or record keeping systems) and they are NOT ashamed??? Is that where they signed all these multi million dollar Oil deals ?
 
What would these Foreign oil Contractors think when they arrive at these decrepit structures? Hhhmmmnnnnn.
 
I also went to the Ministry of Interior.
 
Eeeii Ghana, Hhhmmmnnnnnnn. These Leaders who have NO SHAME!!.
 
Caveat: Some of these pictures and evidence were gathered with extreme caution, given the laws in Ghana about photographing public buildings. Did you Know it is a "criminal offence" ?
 
This was January 2012. "We have issuesooooooooo folks"
 
 
My moan this pm.
 
Regards
 

[Kwaku A. Danso]

Steve,

 

Unless our people reach a point where these moans and complaints will have an effect in sacking incompetent Presidents, demanding their resignations and sacking of incompetent Ministers, Chief directors of the Ministries, etc, we are not going anywhere.

If we cannot shame these Directors and Ministers of these Ministries, and make it hurt, then we are joking as a democracy.

The only way I know and can recommend as a start is to have small, then medium, to large groups of delegations confront these Ministers and the Directors, and eventually the President.

 

Mills is simply following where Nananom left off, just as a late historian and NPP Flag bearer Prof. Adu Boahene once told us, and I am sorely disappointed he cannot offer anything different perspective and vision of the world for Ghana. Both he and Kufuor have been a waste of our time as a nation, not counting Rawlings, who requested that he be sent to the firing squad and nobody is giving him that chance that he failed!

Ghanaians think voting is enough and the end of human development. Well,, the next elections this year will determine the core intelligence of the people of Ghana, in my mind.

Our level of human development and consciousness is definitely way behind the global average in terms of awareness of our rights, standing up for these rights and working together with others to achieve common goals.

 

K. Danso

[Stephen Nyako]

Greetings Michel hope you are well.

Your proposals are brilliant and practical , but would they listen ?

The only excellence our "so called leaders" are interested in is EXCELLENCE in their Ostentatiouis lifestyles at the expense of the poot Ghanaian tax payer and its Sad!

Its sad because people we thought had intellectual capacity and competence have let us down BADLY! What Kwame Nkrumah built with sweat and tears and his vision to become an African school of EXCELLENCE has been run down in less than 50 Years!

Good Evening

S. Nyako
------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: mic...@intermediacomm.biz
Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:27:25
To: <glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Photo Report- Unkempt & Decrepit Government Ministerial
Buildings @Accra , Ghana

Over $100m in economic activity and 200,000 new middle income jobs can be created if the government decided to renew and refresh the infrastructure of government buildings alone!
If this is done with a 90% local content rule and 100% local labor policy we could re invigorate the industrial sector of the Nation!
From paint to wood products and from roofing to baked clay tiles we could get the Nation back on its feet! I have a plan dating back to the GNP days that spells out step by step how this could and should be done however, without a political mandate no one will get this done!
Its a damn shame!
But our people are to blame! They just don't care! Or at least enough to fight for change!
So! so! talk! talk! and whining we dey do!
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on Tigo Ghana Network
From: Stephen Nyako <stephe...@hotmail.co.uk>
Sender: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:51:36 +0000
To: Ghana Leadership Union GLU<ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>; GLU Forums Ghana Leadership Union<glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com>
ReplyTo: glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com

[Kwaku A. Danso]

Hmmmmm!
What is the strategy forward under this defective democracy where power is all in the hands of one man?
Folks in Ghana, can we Call the Presidents office and make an appointment to meet the President? At least we should try, and you guys in Ghana can represent GLU. Remember the president is a human being like all of us and not that much older than se of us and was teaching in the same University some of you attended or taught.
This generation ought to stand up, and at least we will know we tried to give the man a chance to know what we think than let this administration simply pass with a disgrace when we could have tried.
Please Michel, Sam T, Nana Yaw, Larry, Matt Afful, Nii Allotey, Jacob, Nana Ofori, Nana Kyei, all of you in Ghana, please let us put politics aside and try to chat with the President of how we feel he is not meeting expectations. At least if they refuse to see us, we know we tried!

K. Danso

Sent from my iPhone

[Michel Bowman]

Wofa,

Before I dig deeper into your question about strategy and tactics, let me share some observations made over the past year which found me touring the country dealing on a really personal level one on one with the not so average, or should I say the typical rural dwelling Ghanaian. 

Ghana, I have found has 5 distinct socio economic groups we all know of the well documented four plus one undefined group that makes up about 25% of the voting population and 35% of the overall Nation.

 

1)Well to do Accra dwellers (our own 1%), 

2)Emerging Middle Class (mainly residing in greater Accra 4%)

3)Urban "working class" mainly living in the shanty areas of Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Obuasi, Tamale, Takoradi, Koforidua etc. these are the key players in the informal, unbanked, cash economy (I estimate this group to be about 23% of the country but 30% of the electorate)

4)Rural dwellers (mainly agrarian sector power base, modestly literate and relatively educated to a secondary or at least JSS level, these are our main link to and influencers of the final group, their size is about 35% of the population but about 20% of the eligible electorate)

5)The undocumented, under served, deep rural dwellers mainly found in the Northern sector in villages and towns that are off grid, off road and barely accessible even with motorbikes or ATVs. in some cases, we had to park our SUV and pickup truck then trek for hours through the bush to get to the settlements. Once there, boy was it a revelation of epic proportions! Real Salt of the earth nice people!!! welcoming, generous, very very modest but frozen in time and self reliant, independent of or oblivious to government officialdom but somewhat self sufficient albeit in a crude way. settlements easily top 5000 dwellers with about 16 people to a household. mud huts with straw/ clay roofs are the norm, manually operated bore holes are an exception, the vast majority have to trek about 2 miles each way on foot for water daily. The motorbike owner is the MVP (most valuable person); These are mainly farmers and wild game trappers but lately, increasingly becoming day labor for the Asian mining camps, this coming at the expense of the mainly cocoa and Soya farming industries as the lure of daily cash outweighs the seasonal money from Cocoa Purchasing Clerks. This group is about 30% of our population but also comprises of transient immigrants who have settled from Niger, Burkina and Mali. Some interactions with these folks were initially intimidating because of their suspicions of officialdom and our lack of language skills. Contrary to the widely held view, Hausa s not the lingua franca in our Northern sector, Dagate is even more widely spoken.

Each of these groups has distinctly different needs and priorities although commonality in requirements exist, the priorities are vastly different. Therein lies the HUGE  challenge when it comes to deciding what to give them to improve their lives AND aid their development so as to bring them into the mainstream. But you may want to ask before proceeding, "Why would I want to bring these people who are relatively happy in their humble setting, into a horrible, chaotic, dirty, corrupt and socially corrupting mainstream? What will I be bringing to thir lives besides the social ills of the rat race?

Chew on this while I write up part two of this 5 part response!

please hold your questions till at least part 3....

       

Michel Bowman-Amuah

Mic...@ba-consulting.com

BA^Consulting

---

From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: "ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com" <ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "mic...@intermediacomm.biz" <mic...@intermediacomm.biz>; Glu Glu <ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>; Nana Darko Ofori II (Richard Nti Asare) <nanadar...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: Photo Report- Unkempt & Decrepit Government Let's try and meet the President!!Ministerial Buildings @Accra , Gh

[Kwaku A. Danso]

Michel,

 

Excellent!!

I will await for the rest, but don’t forget the core elements of democracy – the needs of the people and their assets and skills should dictate what they want and what they get, and not dictated by some benevolent person in Accra for their votes.

 

I love it! I look forward to publishing this.

 

We still need to make an effort to meet the President, whether he is aware or not. If the office turns us down, we have full ammunition to give FIRE!! I sincerely think we should have a meeting with President Mills and thrash out what his problems are in total neglect of basic amenities, and share our ideas on what solutions can be implemented for each district. For a 5,000 population perhaps all they need in the next 4 years will be a tarred good road (say 2 miles for $200,000), one elementary school ($200,000), library ($40,000), Water Well and Storage for water ($20,000)and a Town Council (office of say $100,000).

We all know what $75,000 can build in any of the suburbs in Accra and hence can project. So nobody can Woyome me and you with numbers!  

 

What I don’t want us to do is GIVE this to them, to any community, but rather help them to figure out the math of raising funds to self-sustain themselves as a town. I am willing to do the math for them if the Statistics are given as to what commercial activities take place there, how they survive, eat and buy clothes. My core philosophy is that any investment in any areas will be to help them but it has to be cost amortized over a period of time and the community must be able to sustain the expense, be they from farming of tomatoes, yams, shea nuts, cocoa, coffee, tea, etc.  

 

K. Danso

 

                       Kwaku A. Danso, M.Eng., PhD

    Livermore, California, USA  &  East Legon-Accra, Ghana

 

President - Ghana Leadership Union (NGO), Moderator-GLU and GLF Forums.

http://groups.google.com/group/glu-ghana-leadership-forum?hl=en?hl=en

 

Author: Leadership Concepts and the Role of Government in Africa: The Case of Ghana

 

Publisher - Global Express Communications - www.globalexpressonline.com

[Stephen Nyako]

Michel,
I am impressed of your insight and academic understanding of our society!

I don't even think Government Leaders at Ministerial level have this insight let alone the "uneducated" DCE's

LooK Michel, you are Pesidential materiaI.

If you don't want the job, I am sure when Ben becomes President in 2020, you will be hired as the POLICY CHIEF. (Smile)

Good Morning

And Regards
------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Michel Bowman <mic...@ba-consulting.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:00:50
To: <ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: <Achimo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Photo Report- Unkempt & Decrepit Government Let's try and meet
the President!!Ministerial Buildings @Accra , Gh

Wofa,
Before I dig deeper into your question about strategy and tactics, let me share some observations made over the past year which found me touring the country dealing on a really personal level one on one with the not so average, or should I say the typical rural dwelling Ghanaian. 
Ghana, I have found has 5 distinct socio economic groups we all know of the well documented four plus one undefined group that makes up about 25% of the voting population and 35% of the overall Nation.
 
1)Well to do Accra dwellers (our own 1%), 
2)Emerging Middle Class (mainly residing in greater Accra 4%)
3)Urban "working class" mainly living in the shanty areas of Accra, Tema, Kumasi, Obuasi, Tamale, Takoradi, Koforidua etc. these are the key players in the informal, unbanked, cash economy (I estimate this group to be about 23% of the country but 30% of the electorate)
4)Rural dwellers (mainly agrarian sector power base, modestly literate and relatively educated to a secondary or at least JSS level, these are our main link to and influencers of the final group, their size is about 35% of the population but about 20% of the eligible electorate)
5)The undocumented, under served, deep rural dwellers mainly found in the Northern sector in villages and towns that are off grid, off road and barely accessible even with motorbikes or ATVs. in some cases, we had to park our SUV and pickup truck then trek for hours through the bush to get to the settlements. Once there, boy was it a revelation of epic proportions! Real Salt of the earth nice people!!! welcoming, generous, very very modest but frozen in time and self reliant, independent of or oblivious to government officialdom but somewhat self sufficient albeit in a crude way. settlements easily top 5000 dwellers with about 16 people to a household. mud huts with straw/ clay roofs are the norm, manually operated bore holes are an exception, the vast majority have to trek about 2 miles each way on foot for water daily. The motorbike owner is the MVP (most valuable person); These are mainly farmers and wild game trappers but lately, increasingly becoming day labor for the Asian mining camps, this coming at the expense of the mainly cocoa and Soya farming industries as the lure of daily cash outweighs the seasonal money from Cocoa Purchasing Clerks. This group is about 30% of our population but also comprises of transient immigrants who have settled from Niger, Burkina and Mali. Some interactions with these folks were initially intimidating because of their suspicions of officialdom and our lack of language skills. Contrary to the widely held view, Hausa s not the lingua franca in our Northern sector, Dagate is even more widely spoken.

Each of these groups has distinctly different needs and priorities although commonality in requirements exist, the priorities are vastly different. Therein lies the HUGE  challenge when it comes to deciding what to give them to improve their lives AND aid their development so as to bring them into the mainstream. But you may want to ask before proceeding, "Why would I want to bring these people who are relatively happy in their humble setting, into a horrible, chaotic, dirty, corrupt and socially corrupting mainstream? What will I be bringing to thir lives besides the social ills of the rat race?

Chew on this while I write up part two of this 5 part response!
please hold your questions till at least part 3....
       

Michel Bowman-Amuah
Mic...@ba-consulting.com
BAConsulting

----------------

From: Kwaku A. Danso <dans...@gmail.com>
To: "ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com" <ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "mic...@intermediacomm.biz" <mic...@intermediacomm.biz>; Glu Glu <ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>; Nana Darko Ofori II (Richard Nti Asare) <nanadar...@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: Photo Report- Unkempt & Decrepit Government Let's try and meet the President!!Ministerial Buildings @Accra , Gh

Hmmmmm!
What is the strategy forward under this defective democracy where power is all in the hands of one man?
  Folks in Ghana, can we Call the Presidents office and make an appointment to meet the President? At least we should try, and you guys in Ghana can represent GLU. Remember the president is a human being like all of us and not that much older than se of us and was teaching in the same University some of you attended or taught.
    This generation ought to stand up, and at least we will know we tried to give the man a chance to know what we think than let this administration simply pass with a disgrace when we could have tried.
    Please Michel, Sam T, Nana Yaw, Larry, Matt Afful, Nii Allotey, Jacob, Nana Ofori, Nana Kyei, all of you in Ghana, please let us put politics aside and try to chat with the President of how we feel he is not meeting expectations. At least if they refuse to see us, we know we tried!

K. Danso

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 11, 2012, at 12:14 PM, "Stephen Nyako " <stephe...@hotmail.co.uk <mailto:stephe...@hotmail.co.uk> > wrote:

> Greetings  Michel hope you are well.
>
> Your proposals are brilliant and practical , but would they listen ?
>
> The only excellence our "so called leaders" are interested in is EXCELLENCE in their Ostentatiouis lifestyles at the expense of the poot Ghanaian tax payer and its Sad!
>
> Its sad because people we thought had intellectual capacity and competence have let us down BADLY! What Kwame Nkrumah built with sweat and tears and his vision to become an African school of EXCELLENCE  has been run down in less than 50 Years!
>
> Good Evening
>
> S. Nyako
> ------------------
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: mic...@intermediacomm.biz <mailto:mic...@intermediacomm.biz>
> Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:27:25
> To: <glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com <mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com> >
> Subject: Re: Photo Report- Unkempt & Decrepit Government  Ministerial
> Buildings @Accra , Ghana
>
> Over $100m in economic activity and 200,000 new middle income jobs can be created if the government decided to renew and refresh the infrastructure of government buildings alone!
> If this is done with a 90% local content rule and 100% local labor policy we could re invigorate the industrial sector of the Nation!
> From paint to wood products and from roofing to baked clay tiles we could get the Nation back on its feet! I have a plan dating back to the GNP days that spells out step by step how this could and should be done however, without a political mandate no one will get this done!
> Its a damn shame!
> But our people are to blame! They just don't care! Or at least enough to fight for change!
> So! so! talk! talk! and whining we dey do!
> Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on Tigo Ghana Network

> From:  Stephen Nyako <stephe...@hotmail.co.uk <mailto:stephe...@hotmail.co.uk> >
> Sender:  glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com <mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com>

> Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:51:36 +0000

> To: Ghana Leadership Union GLU<ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com <mailto:ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com> >; GLU Forums Ghana Leadership Union<glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com <mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com> >
> ReplyTo:  glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com <mailto:glu-ghana-lea...@googlegroups.com>

[Michel Bowman]

SORRY ITS NOT WELL FORMATTED YET

USEFUL AND APPLICABLE,  CULTURALLY RELEVANT, CUSTOMIZED civic EDUCATION Is THE KEY To OUR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Note: it Doesn't have to be formal or western or taught in English; Education and Literacy are NOT the same thing!

Government, its Branches and its Operators

The role and structures of government need to be clearly communicated and explained to all our citizens especially our youth, at an early stage and repeatedly reinforced periodically.

People need to know that they (taxpayers and their minor family members) are the bosses of the politicians and civil servants. 

The civil servants are NOT doing us any favors and should be respected! Yes, but regarded as SERVANTS who are getting paid for the SERVICES that we need to live our lives. 

However, you cannot demand services without paying into the system! TAXES and TOLLS is how one pays into the system therefore citizens cannot expect ANYTHING for free! When you pay in, you get to JOIN the owners club and as an owner you have rights. 

You cannot crash the party and make requests or demands or even criticize poor performance and service quality. 

Taking advantage of loopholes to get access to public services that you have not paid for is WRONG! it is THEFT! even if no one arrests you, your conscience should! but it doesn't get pricked because we have all been desensitized by the toxic polluted  and lawless environment so that it has become acceptable to openly beg, borrow with no intention or realistic means of paying back, and to steal from our family members, our employers especially if its government, and from our foreign partners by inflating costs of doing business transactions, or for land and other goods or services that need procuring. Getting paid for work not delivered or while absent without leave is THEFT!! Plain and simple!

We keep starving or killing the golden goose yet expect it to lay golden eggs! We steal from government forgetting that we are stealing from ourselves (that is if we have paid into the system) 

Most of us end up paying for these actions indirectly when we get sick from Malaria or Tiphiod because of open gutters being breeding grounds for mosquitoes and unsanitary conditions around watering holes and restaurants selling food we consume. 

Because we have not connected the cause with the effect and the blurring or elimination of lines delineating Right from Wrong, we rarely understand why we are stagnating and development eludes us!       

Ethics: The importance of knowing by seeing and feeling that there are consequences for one's actions bad and good be it legal or social. So for instance, if someone like a government official commits a crime and is publicly prosecuted, fairly tried and convicted, whatever his crime was, it ought to be explained to the general public and his punishment should also be highlighted so that the connection between cause and effect can be fully made in the minds of the people; Likewise if a local does something socially unacceptable, like consistently allow his refuse to pile up, rotting away generating unpleasant odors, the community should make it known to this resident that it is unacceptable and to impose sanctions such as shunning or ostracizing the resident till he falls in line. If that fails the village or community may decide to fine the local in a punitive way with some of the proceeds used to clean up the mess, if all such measures fail to convince the resident to maintain his environment in line with the acceptable standards in the community, the collective may move to evict the resident. 

This is why enforcement of rules, ordinances and laws is critical to an orderly society; without rules (or enforcement of such), human beings revert to carnal basic instincts, (our old sin nature), we all know the outcome of such lapses; walk down any street in Accra, London, New York or Houston besides the usual up market neighborhoods and you will find litter strewn all over! Its not an African thing, its a human lawless poverty mindset! Margaret Thatcher said it best when she commented about the conditions in Britain's inner cities "  The poorest neighborhoods are the dirtiest, not because of money but because of laziness and  a poor attitude! You dont need money to pickup after yourself and not litter... " If we continue to accept the free for all that we have now where people have no restraint, pee anywhere anytime, drop refuse and plastic waste from moving tro tro's or passenger vehicles with impunity what do we expect? USAID or DFID or DANIDA to send money for us to clean up the mess? Why not avoid creating the mess in the first place? 

We do all this by educating the citizens and then enforcing the ordinances or laws of the land without exception!! Lee Kwan Yu did it and so can You and I !

REALIGNMENT OF THE MINDSET AND RESETTING THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE EVERYDAY GHANAIAN WILL BRING ABOUT UNPRECEDENTED POSITIVE CHANGE IN THEIR LIVES.. ATTITUDE CHANGE WILL ELEVATE THE SOCIO ECONOMIC ALTITUDE OF THE COMMUNITIES. JUST AS OPERATION FEED YOURSELF AND YOUR INDUSTRIES DID IN THE 1970'S WE NEED TO WHIP UP A RENEWED SENSE OF NATIONALISM, BELIEF IN SELF AND A CAN DO ATTITUDE AMONG GHANAIANS. WE NEED TO GIVE THESE BROTHERS AND SISTERS, UNCLES AND AUNTIES, FATHERS AND MOTHERS MEANINGFUL HOPE TO BRING A PURPOSEFULNESS TO THIER LIVES THAT HAS, FOR A HOST OF REASONS BEEN STOLEN FROM THEM

We have stop dwelling on the negative past and mistakes committed and FOCUS on what can be done!

In the urban areas, squalor, filth and environmental pollution is prevalent. Attitudes towards public sanitation and anti-litter laws and ordinances need to be changed FAST.

It should not be OK to pollute, litter or degrade the environment by pooping or peeing anywhere at will.

We don't need money or government support to clean up our homes, compounds and neighborhoods.

If we work to cleanup the environment we live and trade in, we are more likely to keep it clean by socially punishing those who litter and pollute where we have just worked hard to beautify

     

Importance of POSITIVE role models;

It does matter how one makes money! crime should not pay and society should not accept money from questionable sources, just because I have a need it doesn't justify fulfilling that need by any means!

It is OK to be successful and rich or even wealthy, for it is the wealth creators that can create jobs that pay fair wages and feed employees families, buy goods and services, pay taxes and that in turn provides many more examples of success for others to emulate. 

When known criminals and drug barons have become the toast of society, we have really hit rock bottom and we need a social uprising to begin a revolution of moral conscience.

PART 3 coming up ...    

[Michel Bowman]

Stephen,

Thank you for the compliment! I'm flattered, honestly.

I hope Ben will find the situation much improved by 2020 

because something tells me that if we don't pay attention to what's going on in the hinterland, those who have a little will be at grave risk from those who have nothing.. nothing to lose, everything to gain!

We cant afford to wait 8 months let alone 8 years before listening to and attending to the needs of the ordinary Ghanaian.

I am leery of the rush to educate our people without first assessing the relevance of the curriculum and the intended outcomes of such education programs. If the last 20 years 1992-2012 is any indication, we should realize that our educational system has failed to create the sort of quality products that both public and private sector need to further their respective agendas leading to the development of the Nation. We have graduates who are functionally illiterate not because they didn't learn but because they learnt the wrong things and the wrong way. Why do we have such high levels of graduate unemployment? I have found most to be unemployable, that is without significant but unsustainable investment in education and training. It will take an average of 16 months for a graduate employed in Ghana to become productive versus 3-5 weeks in Europe or 2months in Kenya.

I am a big proponent of civic and informal education of our masses so they can know their rights, demand them and hold people accountable. Additionally, by educating them on their rights you have to also inculcate the importance of RESPONSIBILITY which comes with those rights so that while they may make claims and demands, they also would realize the parts they have to play in this grand bargain called democracy.

I have been researching the basic educational requirements that I think need to be used to fashion a comprehensive introductory syllabus for our rural and semi-urban youth. I suspect that I shall be accused of under educating our people if I were to unveil it, however being realistic about the kinds of career opportunities that are or could be made available in the short term (1-3years), we have to start by training our potential workforce to be able to adequately perform the jobs that are most likely to be created.

What is most important where education is concerned is, beyond literacy we need to teach our people to think and be able to solve problems with their brains not just their brawn.

Jobs on the horizon are in the Mining, Oil, Agro processing, and regulatory sectors of the public service.

We are going to need draftsmen, carpenters & joiners, plasterers & masons, tilers, painters, Steel Benders, roofers, electricians and others for the massive building and housing infrastructure that is going to be required to support the Oil and Mining boom just underway.

We are also going to need Planners, Building inspectors and other professionals to work in the regulatory bodies at local, district and national level.

We also are going to need to train thousands of laborers and office supervisory staff for the oil and gas as well as extractive minerals industries. 

To do this we need a stakeholders workshop so that we can gather all the key requirements from industry to best inform the educational establishment on the appropriate courses and programs that would result in the development of talent that industry requires.

       

  

      

 

Michel Bowman-Amuah

Mic...@ba-consulting.com

BA^Consulting

---

From: Stephen Nyako <stephe...@hotmail.co.uk>
To: Michel Bowman <mic...@ba-consulting.com>; Glu Glu <ghanaleade...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 1:09 AM