A Possible Role For Zenator Rawlings?

The battle for the right to represent the National Democratic Congress (NDC), in the Korle Klottey constituency, in the presidential and parliamentary elections of November 2016, is an interesting one.

It has turned out to be a battle between the old-style big-man/big-woman politics of patronage, represented by the Hon. Nii Armah Ashittey, and the new servant-leader/community activist politics - of the kind that eventually propelled President Obama to the White House from Chicago - espoused by Dr. Zenator Rawlings.

Zenator Rawlings definitely represents the future of the NDC - as a party of servant-leaders and community activists: helping marginalised communities across Ghana to pull themselves out of poverty by their own bootstraps.

Alas, the Nii Armah Ashitteys, represent the NDC's past - a faded and jaded brand that no longer appeals to the hearts and minds of millions across the country.

That brand, ruined by the cynicism and dissembling of the Stan Dogbes, has no future - and its cynical and corrupt heavyweights are passe. They are history: because Ghanaians are now fed up with the greed-filled polititricks that  breeds high-level corruption.

In support of her community-activism, here's an  idea for Zenator Rawlings - which could easily be scaled-up and replicated across the entire coastline of Ghana, to empower fishing communities.

Why does she not fly to Ireland, to meet with kindred-spirit, Dr. Easkey Britton, the world-famous surfer, and researcher with the Too Big To Ignore (TBTI) research network - which promotes and raises awareness for small-scale fisheries - to discuss working together to leverage aspects of the European Union's (EU) Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), for the mutual benefit of the fishing industries of Ireland and Ghana?

Easkey Britton is ambassador for the EU's INSEPARABLE campaign - which is a sustainable fishing campaign to encourage people to eat, buy and sell sustainable seafood, and to take an active role in helping to improve the state of the oceans around us, globally.

The EU needs to make further cuts in its total fishing fleet - to enable it conserve fish stocks for future generations.  Now that the Ghana Navy can effectively police our 200-mile economic zone in the waters above the continental shelf off our shores, that downsizing of the EU's fishing fleet could benefit Ghana's fishing industry.

Could the owners of some of those laid-up fishing boats not be encouraged to register those fishing boats in Ghana, and form joint-venture partnerships  with cooperatives of young fishermen, in  fishing  communities along our nation's coastline - as a first step to developing a modern world-class fish processing industry in Ghana?

Ireland's fishing industry could develop partnerships in Ghana to grow a modern and world-class fish-processing industry (and aquaculture industry) here to supply markets in the continent of Africa, the Middle East and Asia. When established, the industry will have a built-in comparative cost-advantage - and earn its players far  better margins than processed seafood exported from Ireland and Europe to those markets.

Could Zenator Rawlings not kickstart that by partnering Easkey Britton to create partnerships between Irish fishing companies and cooperatives of young fishermen in Korle Klottey, to transform canoe fishing into a modern industry with  modern fishing boats that is world-class?

Could she also not play a role in helping Korle Klottey's older generation of canoe fishermen (and older-generation canoe fishermen elsewhere along our coastline) to develop adventure tourism in which they take adventure-seekers out to sea for Ghc20 per trip - complete with life-jackets and the newly-invented inflatable tubes that people can cling to should the canoes capsize: that is now helping to save the lives of refugees who end up in the Mediterranean Sea when their boats sink?

Incidentally, additionally, she could also do similar deals  with  Leila Janah's Samma Group for digital jobs for the  young people in her constituency. Ditto with Katherine Lucey's Solar Sisters for young women there.

The future of the NDC definitely lies with honest,  idealistic activist-leaders like Zenator Rawlings -  who genuinely seek a fairer society for our nation and all its people. Good luck to her!