One finds it extremely difficult to understand why some Progressives in Ghana, are making such a fuss about events now unfolding in Libya - simply because "neo- colonialist" and "imperialist" powers are amongst the nations enforcing the no-fly zone (imposed by UN Security Council resolution 1973), and bombing Col. Maummar Gaddafi's elite ground forces and military installations (so as to protect Libyan civilians).
The question is: Why are some people ignoring the simple fact that what is happening in Libya, is that a long-oppressed people are fighting for their freedom, from a ruthless and murderous regime? Does it really matter, who helps to free fellow Africans, brave enough to pick up arms and fight to rid themselves of a tyrannical regime, which physically eliminates those who dare criticise it - as Gaddafi's repressive regime has done for decades with such impunity, I ask?
For those Libyans fighting for their freedom, the idea that there are people in places like Ghana making a fuss, because "neo- colonialist" and "imperialist" powers are amongst the coalition of willing nations, enforcing the no-fly zone imposed by a UN Security Council resolution, and degrading Gaddaffi's military, by bombing his elite forces and military installations, must be exceedingly irritating.
Why should anyone think that when they eventually gain their freedom, after decades of life under the repression of Col. Maummar Gaddafi, they will countenance the occupation of their liberated nation, by "neo-colonialists" and "imperialists"? Or are we to assume that they are risking their lives just so that the new democratic Libya they are fighting to bring about, becomes a puppet of "neo-colonialist" and "imperialist" powers? One doubts that any Libyan will ever tolerate that - not after risking life and limb for a free and democratic society in Libya.
Yes, there may be a preponderance of "neo-colonialists" and "imperialists" in the Establishments of some of the nations enforcing the no-fly zone, such as: the US, the UK, Canada, France and Germany - and, yes, the national systems in place in those nations may be inherently racist (for historical reasons!).
But, surely, in the 21st century ICT age, Progressives in Ghana ought not to think that should "neo-colonialists" and "imperialists" ever pose a threat to the vital interests of our homeland Ghana, the forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism, would be invincible foes, which clever and determined Ghanaian nationalists and pan-Africanists across the continent, couldn't possibly take on, in the courts of public opinion in those selfsame nations, and trounce soundly: should the need to do so, ever arise in our homeland Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa?
The usual knee-jerk reaction of the past, when the forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism have threatened our vital interests, simply won't do today - and Ghana"s Progressives need to be more nuanced in their approach, in such matters: and aim to out-think and outsmart such negative forces.
Take the cheeky case of the abiding arrogance of Kosmos Oil, for instance. If Ghanaian Progressives had been more creative in their thinking, could they not have advised our current rulers, when they first came into office in January 2009, to invite the whole of the US Congressional Black Caucus to Ghana: shown them round Nkrumah's Ghana - and asked them to do for Mother Ghana, what the Israeli lobby in the US, does so effectively on a daily basis, for the state of Israel?
Why does it never strike Progressives in Ghana, for example, that at the height of Kosmos Oil's impudence, they could have advised that rather than Ghana caving in to that company's outrageous demands (which was sheer brinkmanship in any case - as the company's executives knew perfectly well that they had their backs to the wall: with a projected US stock market IPO looming), at the very least, the Mills administration ought to have wrung a confession out of the company's executives, about the real secret behind that Kufuor-era slieght-of-hand: which saw the transfer of a bloc in an oilfield, which should have become the property of all Ghanaians, to a couple of individuals - whom President Kufuor himself, used the word "front" in reference to, in a Freudian slip (when in his usual boastful manner, he was recounting the story of how he brought a "small oil company in Texas", Kosmos Oil, to Ghana and more or less, single-handedly changed its fortunes!)?
Would such a coup not have made the current regime's final capitulation (to a perfidious company, amongst whose many acts of disrespect towards Nkrumah's Ghana, according to bush-telegraph sources, include even having the effrontery to insult the honest and selfless President Mills, by supposedly offering him a bribe!), a tad more bearable - if that was what had to be done for pragmatic and long-term strategic reasons?
Incidentally, one wonders whether if President Mills had not been the most honest and selfless leader to rule Ghana, thus far, since the overthrow of the great Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, our homeland Ghana's founding father, in February 1966, we would not have suddenly seen a new partner of Kosmos Oil, the Z. Z. Group (Zuu Zaa Group!), emerging on the scene, and owning a 5 percent stake in a bloc in an oil field, somewhere off Ghana's shores?
Alas, we shall never know - as unfathomable greed and lying through the teeth, aren't written into the DNA of President Mills: who flatly turned down what many an African politician would have quickly grabbed with both hands and their two feet, too. And that is the leader some bright sparks in his National Democratic Congress (NDC) party, want to be rid of - for the most cynical of reasons. Complete lunacy, I say! Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa!
Then there is that long-standing Aqua Vittens Rand palaver, too: Rather than march in protest, and shout themselves hoarse, demanding that the agreement with Aqua Vittens Rand (an entity so dedicated to Ghana, it can shut a major water treatment plant "for maintenance", in the midst of a cholera epidemic!) should not be renewed, when the time comes, why don't Ghana's Progressives simply ask our current rulers, to get Left-wing Dutch parliamentarians to start asking questions in the Dutch Parliament, about that ongoing Dutch rip off in Ghana, otherwise known as Aqua Vittens Rand - in which our drinking-water supply provider, the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL), has been handed over (lock, stock and barrel!) to Aqua Vittens and its South African partner, Rand Water, to exploit for private gain, at Mother Ghana's expense, and for no charge whatsoever?
Would such an intervention by Left-wing Dutch parliamentarians, not stop Dutch diplomats from the Royal Netherlands Embassy here, engaging in the usual arm-twisting that diplomats posted here usually engage in - whenever Ghana demands that companies from their nations abide by the selfsame post-Enron corporate good governance principles, which underpins their corporate ethos in their operations in their countries of domicile? Would the Dutch people tolerate their drinking-water supply providers, being handed over to foreign entities, in a similar smoke-and-mirrors commercial-sham, I ask?
(Hopefully, the dynamic and patriotic Hon. Alban Bagbin, the water resources, works and housing minister, who is a consensus politician par excellence, who listens to good advice, and believes in protecting the national interest, at all material times, will refuse to renew such a foolish and unproductive agreement - and instead send Aqua Vittens and Rand Water packing, soonest. Hmm, Ghana - enti yewiaye paa, enie?)
A similar approach ought to have been adopted in the case of Vodafone (whose British executives are today living the life of Riley, at our expense - in a period of austerity in both Ghana and the UK, and at a time when even Arab oil Sheiks are reining in their spending: and understand that excess is extremely foolish!). If that had been done, perhaps by now, instead of that daft process and outcome, ridiculously labelled "re-engagement" and the virtual taking of Ghana's communications minister, 'prisoner,' by the pro-NPP and pro-Vodafone top-level civil servants in his ministry (so obliging and incredibly stupid, they actually even waived Vodafone's payment of a G3 licence - by saying it was included in that paltry US$900 millions that company paid for a business with assets worth some US$5 billions, at least, in today's values!), perhaps outraged Left-wing members of the UK Parliament, as we speak, might have succeeded in getting the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), to investigate and prosecute all the Ghanaian and British citizens, who in deliberately ignoring Section 2 of Ghana's Divestiture of State Interest Act (DSIA), are responsible for that massive fraud, known as the sale and purchase agreement for (an unlawful and unkown-to-the-laws-of-Ghana state-owned corporate entity!) - cleverly christened the "Enlarged Ghana Telecom (GT) Group", to outwit ordinary Ghanaians, by yesteryear's greediest rogues, amongst the largely-corrupt New Patriotic Party (NPP) regime of President Kufuor. Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem oo: asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa!
One certainly hopes that if they are really sincere individuals, instead of allowing the UK Anti-Bribery Act 2010 to be shelved, the initiators of the moral Big Society (launched exactly a year ago, today, incidentally!), David Cameron & Co. will allow it to come into effect this April, 2011 - to keep Corporate UK on the straight and narrow, when operating abroad: particularly in Africa! That will enable the good people of Ghana to get justice in the British courts, for that egregious example, of the rip off, of a poor developing nation, by British-big-money, and its local lackeys (those infernal quislings!) amongst our ruling elites.
Finally, on the issue of Libya, the point ought to made, that Ghana's Progressives, need to understand that the right of all Africans to live in free societies across the continent, is a non-negotiable right - and if takes even the military might of "neo-colonialist" and "imperialist" powers to free fellow Africans living under tyrannical rulers on the continent, at any given moment in our history, then so be it.
When that is the only viable option, striking a temporary alliance with even those who once occupied and exploited Africa (and may still have designs on the our abundant natural resources as we speak!), makes perfect sense, in my humble view. No one can re-colonise Africa, if the people of the continent themselves don't allow them to do so. In the 21st century ICT age, no African people, desirous of living as free individuals in the land of their birth, and the continent of their ancestors, will ever exchange the oppression of African rulers, for the re-occupation of Africa by neo-colonialists and imperialists, under any circumstances. That is why in the final analysis, it matters not who helps Africans fighting for their freedom from the last of the continent's tyranical regimes, such as Libya - and the sooner Ghana's Progressives take that on board, the better it would be all round in Africa. Even a senile old fool like me can see the sense in that - and so should they: more so, when as a rule, they invariably are such highly-intelligent individuals. A word to the wise...
Tel (powered by Tigo - the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109.
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