How the IMF can best protect the future of children in Ghana

The IMF can best protect the future of children in Ghana, by demanding anti-corruption reforms before providing funds for the government that has bankrupted their nation. It can do so by:

1) Asking for passage of new laws by Ghana's Parliament giving prosecutorial powers to the Auditor General.

2) Demanding new laws being passed under a certificate of urgency, to end public procurement sole-sourcing.

3) Demanding passage of new laws banning all mining in forest reserves to protect the remainder of Ghana's priceless natural heritage.

4) Demanding new laws requiring all ministerial and high level public sector appointees to publicly publish their assets, and those of their spouses, before assuming office - and immediately after their tenures end.

5) Demanding passage of new laws indemnifying whistleblowers from prosecution and guaranteeing their being rewarded with 30 percent shares of recovered stolen public funds made possible by their whistleblowing.

The children of Ghana know just how caring the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, is. She must not let them down. No. No. No. Bailing out their leaders without laws to drastically reduce high-level corruption will be tantamount to fetching water in a wicker basket.

Ghana's rapacious and hard-of-hearing ruling elites must be left to stew in their own juice if they resist the aforementioned reforms designed to curtail the egregious and ruinious state-capture rent-seeking designed to send their personal net worth to stratospheric heights, which is ruining the future of children in Ghana. Enough is enough. Case closed. Yoooooooo...

Is Moringa a cloak for illicit financial flows and tax-evasion?

Bush telegraph sources allege that the French investment entity, Moringa, is a front for illicit financial flows and tax evasion. 


The question is: Are the legal vehicles registered in Luxembourg and Mauritius, Moringa Mauritius Africa, and Moringa SCA Sicar, by the French investment company, Moringa (which bush telegraph sources say is exploiting Ghana's legal system to enable it hijack the organic palm oil processor, B-BOVID, from its founder, Issa Ouedraogo), deliberately engineered for use to cloak illicit financial flows, as some of its critics allege?


Apparently, all the signs of money laundering are present in Moringa's profile: Registered offices in scandal-ridden tax havens, and in the case of Mauritius, selfsame postal addresses used by many tax dodging entities accused of illicit financial flows. Ditto same auditors. Amazing.


In the revelations about Adani, the Indian conglomerate, by activist investors, Hindenberg Reseach, for example, the same registered office in Mauritius (actually a postal address on a particular street in Port Louis named after US President John F. Kennedy, lol), used by Moringa, popped up. Wow.


The question is: Why did Moringa inform the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre that the African Development Bank (AfDB) had given it US$20 million - when in actual fact the funding from the AfDB amounted to just US$10 million?


Was the ground being prepared to enable them eventually transfer the bloated figure from Ghana, to Mauritius and thence on to Luxembourg tax free, perhaps, as its critics allege ? 


Because Antoine Turpin's disputed recruitment is a key-factor in the matter of the dispute between Moringa and Issa Ouedraogo, the BUNGE Loders Cocklaan executive who wrote that letter, must be supoenaed to come and clarify to the arbitration panel, when it was that Antoine Turpin left their employ, and what his position was at his departure, and what exactly the USD48,000 he took from B-BOVID to pay them, was actually for. His evidence must based on strict-proof basis.


Critics of Moringa, make the point that it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a rent demand letter used to enable Antoine Turpin to withdraw USD48,000 from B-BOVID's bank account, might actually be documentation for a very clever tax-dodging money laundering scheme, with the accumulated rent demand letter, a bogus cover story, which was meant to be a perfect sleight-of-hand ruse, to enable them cloak an egregious tax-dodging illegality, and give it legitimacy, that way. This allegation needs investigating by the authorities in France and Ghana for the truth to be established. For all we know BUNGE Loders Crocklaan might be innocent and blameless. Cool.


Be that as it may, the question to ponder over is: Was the rent demand letter meant to facilitate stress-testing their illicit financial flows scheme, to enable them see whether or not it would be easy for Moringa and BUNGE Loders Crocklaan (and the other entities that Antione Turpin would also be working for while CEO of B-BOVID), to engage in illicit financial flows, with Antoine Turpin controlling B-BOVID, as its CEO?


It is noteworthy to observe that in the event, it was very easy for Antoine Turpin to transfer huge sums out of B-BOVID, once he had been successfully foisted on it. Moringa must not be allowed to get away with this abomination. No. No. No.


We must support successful local agrisector entrepreneurs if we are to ensure food security for Ghanaians. We must not rely on foreigners to ensure food security for Ghanaians.That is why B-BOVID must be returned to its founder, Issa Ouedraogo - and Moringa penalised for subjecting him to mental torture from egregious shareholder oppression and unspeakable reputational-harm: with their unpardonable falsehoods and twisted half-truths, in their bid to ruin him for defying them.

Open letter to Kofi Bampoe and Kwame Thompson

Dear Kofi Bampoe and Kwame  Thompson,

I shall go straight to the point: The court notice announcing the granting of our application for Vesting Assents, for our 50 percent of the bequests in Clause 12A of the  will of our late Grandpa, will be posted on the walls of the family house near the old Akwapim Adukrom Presbyterian Church, and on the wall of P. E. Thompson's uncompleted house near the telco cell  tower, regardless of what any of your clique says.

You would be in contempt of court if you tried to interfere with the work of the court bailiff fixing the notice, for your information.

It would be unwise to add that to the string of illegalities committed by the two of you, in the period since the death of the late Charles Benoni  Mante, the last surviving of the two executors, of the will of the late P. E. Thompson Esq., who was his uncle.

For your information, not even the President of the Republic of Ghana has the right to go to the Deeds Registry of the Lands Commission,  and disappear documents stored there. It is an egregious falsehood to accuse me of going to pose as P. E.  Thompson to disappear family  documents there. Be careful in slandering me, oooo. Yoooooooo...

Finally,  be clear in your own minds that as interested parties, who are equal beneficiaries of bequests made in Clause 12, you  have no authority in the administration of the Estate of the late P. E. Thompson, whose memory, once upon a time, my sister Nanayire Marian, and I, honoured, by establishing P. E. Thompson Farms & Commodity Exports Limited, to export organic produce  -  our vision for the whole family including both of you.

So stop the pure nonsense-on-stilts allegation that somehow, that means that I am going around  posing as P. E. Thompson. How absurd and daft can you get?

Had it not been for your lack of foresight and shortsightedness, today, our family would be one of Ghana's biggest producers of organic palm oil and artisanal chocolate  -  but, sadly, we aren't: mainly because of your obtuseness, unparalleled-greed and unpardonable-selfishness, over the decades, since C. B. Mante (may his soul rest in peace) passed away.

We have had enough and will now act resolutely to secure our 50 percent of all the assets bequeathed to us, by our late Grandpa, P. E. Thompson. No one in the family can stop us from taking full control of what is rightfully ours, and for which we have been granted Vesting Assents, by the Probate Court, to finally become legitimate owners of, ooooo (referencing the whole portfolio of our bequeathed 50 percent Clause 12A stake, that is). Full stop. Case closed. Yoooooooo...

Thanks.

Kind regards,

Kofi.

How to end outrage of taxpayers paying for poorly constructed roads

Has the time not now come for us to end the monstrosity of taxpayers having to pay for poorly constructed roads that quickly deteriorate, because of the public procurement state-capture rent-seeking kickbacks-scourge,  anaaa, Ghanafuor?

It is amazing that Ghanaian politicians talk endlessly about the private sector being the best growth-engine for transforming Ghana, yet, are unable to cotton on to the fact that we could actually develop a nationwide network of world-class concrete motorways, simply by giving access to low interest longterm capital from pension funds and the insurance industry (at less than 4 percent), to the private sector's best road contractors.

Surely,  giving road contractors the right to own and toll the roads they build, would enable them  to recoup their investments, over a period of say 35 years - and incentivise them yet further with long tax holidays on top of that?

Is that not doable by a potentially rich sub-Saharan nation, populated by wise and aspirational Africans, anaaaa, Ghanafuor - especially as it will spare long-suffering taxpayers from being forced to continuously  pay for poorly constructed roads that quickly deteriorate: as a result of the state-capture rent-seeking public procurement brown envelope  kickbacks-scourge that has ended up bankrupting our homeland Ghana? Eiiii, Oman Ghana - enti y3wiey3 paaa  enie? Asem kesiey3 bi abeba debi ankasaa, oooo. Yooooooo...

Why we must end all mining in our nation's forest reserves immediately

The dreadful events occurring in the Sudanese capital - as rival forces battle for the control of  Khartoum's key installations, including its international airport and the presidential palace - might seem far away and of no concern to us in Ghana.

Yet, what is now happening in Sudan has valuable lessons for us in Ghana. Warlords can destroy nations for control of valuable minerals, such as gold.

It happened in Liberia and Sierra Leone decades ago.  Their chaotic-murderous-eras still affect the people of both those sister nations, even as we speak, as it happens.

That is why our nation's hard-of-hearing ruling-elites must take active steps to end gold mining, both legal and illegal, in all our nation's  forest reserves,  asap, oooo, Ghanafuor.

If we are to avoid suffering the same fate in Ghana,  as our brothers and sisters once did in Liberia and Sierra Leone,  and the residents of Khartoum are now suffering,  at some point in the not too distant future, then, it is crucial that in the era of extreme weather,  our forest reserves (now definitely more valuable than all the mineral deposits underneath them combined), are ringfenced by our system and made no-go areas, in order to protect the remainder of our natural heritage. 

 

We are not fools. We are  a wise and aspirational African people,   oooo, Ghanafuor, so let us unite to protect our priceless natural capital. Yooooooo...

Let no one doubt that if the impunity of the bad actors destroying our forest reserves for gold,  isn't ended swiftly, today's recalcitrant galamsayers, rogue  small-scale gold miners, community miners and their bedfellows, bushcut chainsaw lumber producers, will morphe into tomorrow's murderous  warlords -  who will upend our democracy, by deliberately creating chaos and insecurity, through a strategy of constantly battling our security agencies: as sure as day follows night.

Ghanafuor, our own Hemeditis are waiting in the shadows for the right moment to arrive for them  to emerge in force. Think the Wontumis - whose  ruthless violence-prone footsoldiers jam-pack our secret services, wai. As a wise and aspirational  African people, we must contain them by ending mining in all our forest reserves. Now. Not tomorrow.  Yooooooo...

The nonsensical-wokery over the golliwog rumpus in the UK

Why are some Blacks so easily offended by the antics of racists? I don't get it, koraaa, oooo. Why burn energy over people who wish you ill, I ask? Daft and unproductive. Full stop.

Golliwogs? Massa, they offend me not, oooo. Cool. Mere dolls? Haaba. Got self-belief by the bucketful, ankasaa, lol. Ditto happen to be thick-skinned, paaaa.

When I used to run what was a very successful farm shop in West London (The Apple Man - London's first farm shop, 114 Goldhawk Road, London W12), during the Thatcherite-era, at a certain stage, I put up a sign saying: If you are infected by prejudice, leave it outside when you come in - and pick it up again on your way out.

It worked a treat. Won't allow dreadful people with narrow minds to get my goat, oooo. Ever. Sods. Cool.

Some people don't know when to back-off

Some people simply just don't  know when to backoff for self-preservation, lol. After carrying out independent checks, I decided against helping a notorious ex-child soldier, from the Liberian civil war period (who is now a refugee living in the Camp Liberia refugee settlement area, at Gomoa Buduburam, in Ghana 's Central Region), who approached me to help him retrieve his mobile phone, from the Tesano Police Station investigator who had been handling a case against him,  for allegedly defrauding a Spanish national, in an online scam, using an unregistered tour company.

At age 70, I now put my peace of mind, above all else - and burning energy on behalf of an online scammer with an ego the size of  Mount Rushmore, isn't something worth pursuing, in my humble view.

Alas, my refusal to help that heartless and egoistical-sod, has elicited a mocking song, Akokora Kofi, blasted out non-stop 24/7, designed to blackmail me - a fearless and thick-skinned fighter of good causes: who boldly speaks truth to power and can't be intimidated, lol. What a genius that ex-child soldier is. Some people don't know when to  back-off. Hmmm, ey3asem oooo...

Open letter to Ghana's minister for lands and natural resources

Honourable Minister,

I shall go straight to the point: My family's 14-square mile upland evergeen rainforest land in the Akyem Juaso section, of the Atewa Range, in the Eastern Region, was acquired on a freehold basis, from the Gyasehene of Kwabeng, Nana Kwasi Banning, in 1921 - and it was added to, and consolidated, as one, with the purchase of yet more land, in 1926, with the concurrence of Nana Ofori-Atta 1.

A total of £1,000 was paid officially, and recorded, but an off-ledger payment of an extra £4,000 was made and distributed. So, in all, my late Grandpa, P. E. Thompson Esq., forked out the princely sum of £5,000. 99.6 acres of the said land lies inside the Atewa Forest Reserve, as it happens. It is referred to in Forestry Commission jargon, as an 'admitted farm', to which we have legal access, but have kept pristine for a future community carbon sequestration project.

The descendants of the Henrietta Akosua Aboagye branch of the P. E. Thompson family tree, are committed conservationists, who are key stakeholders in SYTO Ghana's planned conservation-through-ecotorism land restoration project, in the area, and want you to cancel all the issued gold prospecting licenses, and small scale gold concessions, in our 2.5-square mile portion,  of the 5-square mile P. E. Thompson land lying between the Akusoo stream and the Cheboa stream, which is disected by the Bordwuser stream.

No official from any of the regulatory bodies consulted us (my sister Marian Alma Thompson and myself), when the prospecting licenses were issued, and the delineated small scale gold concessions of our land, were carved out.

With respect, Hon. Minister, we object to an economic activity, gold mining, that will ruin our biodeversity-rich upland evergreen rainforest land, which lies in land designated as a Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), by Conservation International, and thus prevent us from turning it into a community-based ecotourism destination, to preserve for future generations. That is unjust.

Thanks.
 
Yours sincerely,

Kofi.

Luddite-mentality drives tech sector xenophobic-political-football brinkmanship

Humankind deserve the best technology - which is why the legal domicile of the best class-leading tech start-ups behind them shouldn't matter.

The world's global-power nations' intelligence agencies by definition infiltrate all tech companies. The intelligence agencies of the  US, EU, UK, China, India and Brazil, all target tech companies.  That's a fact that cannot be denied.

So let's end the hypocrisy about China being such a huge security risk techwise - and let consumers worldwide benefit from cutting-edge technology wherever that comes from: be it the US or China.

Extremist politicians worldwide, must be discouraged from turning cutting-edge technology into xenophobic-political-football, to win votes. That's digital-age Luddite-mentality, wai.  Haaba.

The NPP will be turfed out of power in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections

Are the insensitive and power-drunk politicians in Ghana, who continue to make foolhardy-inflammatory-statements, in a bankrupt nation (whose hapless citizenry are being impoverished by galloping inflation amidst an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis), not aware of the fact our nation is sitting atop a ticking social time bomb, anaaaa? Literally? Yooooooo...

What makes geniuses like the Bryan Acheampongs in the world of Ghanaian politics think that Ghanaians will allow the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections to be rigged by the ruling party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to enable it retain power? It won't happen. Full stop.

For the information of the Bryan Acheampongs,  Ghanaians may be long-suffering, but we are definitely not stupid. Ditto not sheep. We will vote out the NPP, in an election that will be an annihilating-landslide-washout-defeat for the NPP. Full stop. No army in the world can stop a fed-up population from toppling a ruling party destroying their nation by voting it out of power. Simple.

Why should we not vote out the most corrupt, arrogant and inept elected government, ever, since independence in 1957, from power, after eight solid years of living in a nation misruled, ripped-off and turned upside down, by the world's most rapacious rent-seeking state-capture insider-dealing pork-barrel Machiavellian-mafiosi-politricksters? The Bryan Acheampongs can rave and rant as much as they want. The NPP will be turfed out of power in the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections. For sure. Watch this space!

End mining in all forest reserves across Ghana now - to end an existential threat

In an era when life-threatening extreme weather events are the norm, Ghana's forests and rivers  have become priceless life-sustaining assets, which we must protect at all costs.

In that light, they are now even more valuable than all our precious  mineral deposits combined. We must end mining, both legal and illegal,  in all our forest reserves for that reason.

 Even if we have to resort to the use of killer-drones, with night vision and heat-seeking cameras, in a no-holds-barred high-tech war to stop what is an existential threat endangering the well-being and quality of life of our entire population (which is enriching only a tiny percentage of our total population), let us go ahead and declare war on the greedy  and selfish individuals destroying our  forests and polluting our river systems, soils and groundwater, and eliminate them from their operational areas  across the entire  landmass of the sovereign territory of our Republic,   to end what is an existential threat to all Ghanaians - before it becomes too late to stop them destroying all our forests, and polluting our soils, river systems as well as our groundwater, on top, too, ooooo, Ghanafuor. Yoooooooo...

To whom it might concern

Been receiving email requests, of late, from complete strangers asking me to join "private twitter groups". Interesting. Very. Hmmm, ey3nsem piiiii, oooo.

I wasn't born yesterday,  oooo, dear critical-reader   -  and I am also not interested in any online/offline activity that isn't open, transparent and accessible to the general public: because I am not a criminal.  Full stop.

Above all, I am old fashioned (in my seventh decade on this plane, as it happens), and a serious person, paapa, oooo, please.

Although I am an uneducated old fool, I am only interested in serious societal issues - and I most certainly don't watch any porn: which to me is abhorrent, daft and a total waste of time. So those sending me those cryptic messages to join "private twitter groups" should take note, wai.  Yooooooooo...

Can digital age data protection be 100 percent foolproof?

Couldn't help being a bit cynical about news reports that some  Tesla employees had been sharing images from cameras on its vehicles sold to customers - contrary to assurances from the company that customer data was protected from such breaches of its laid down policy  from which its employees are barred.

The reality is that that's the price we pay for progress in the digital age, in our every day lives, alas.  That's why its best to lead a life that won't embarrass one when any of the zillions of data privacy breaches that  routinely occur  around the world, hits one, out of the blue. Simple.

Clean living (in all cultural contexts globally) is the only protection guaranteed to spare one from embarrassment in the digital age.

Tesla, like all responsible tech companies,  does what it can to protect data from customers using a policy designed to ensure that, which is compliant with required  regulatory metrics. That's the bottom line. It simply isn't possible for digital age data protection  to be 100 percent foolproof.

How China can help end the corruption draining the lifeblood out of Mother Ghana

Friendship between the people of Ghana and China, and their two governments, go back decades, to the eras of President Nkrumah and Chairman Mao.

In that light, before China agrees to reschedule Ghana's debt to China,  President Xi must be a force for good for the people of Ghana - and demand that Parliament passes tough new anti-corruption measures, to protect the public purse from the rapacious, greed-filled rent-seeking state-capture big-thieves-in-high-places, who dominate Ghana's byzantine system, and are ripping-off Mother Ghana with total impunity.

Chief amongst the tough new anti-corruption legislation, must be the provision of prosecutorial powers for the Auditor General.

Secondly, the assets of all high level  public sector officials and their spouses must be publicly published, before they assume office, and immediately after their tenures end.

Thirdly, whistleblowers must be indemnified from prosecution and rewarded with 30 percent of recovered purloined state funds made possible as a result of their exposure of high-level  corruption by public officials and government ministers and appointees heading quangos.

That is how best China can help to protect the public purse in Ghana, and stem the tide of egregious high-level corruption draining the very lifeblood out of Mother Ghana.

Guaranteeing state revenues in creative fashion

Wouldn't it be marvellous if we could generate a new source of guatanteed state revenues for Mother Ghana, I ask?

Could we not, as part of a nationwide slum clearance initiative,  build new planned green climate-resilient communities, in which all buildings had forest garden compounds, with road networks lined with fruit trees, to replace slums across Ghana - all of which we can then raze down and turn the vacated lands into community family  adventure parks, charging minimum entry fees?

Bank of Ghana Central Bank Digital Currency  (CBDC) accounts could be opened for all individuals and families who want to own properties in those new green climate-resilient communities, but can't afford them - and credited with generational-levelling-up CBDCs sufficient to enable them repay the cost of their chosen properties.

Installment payments for such family properties, in the new planned green climate-resilient communities, ought to be set as low as the equivalent of US $10 per month  -  and serve as guaranteed revenues for the state during the repayment period for all such generational levelling-up longterm loans. Surely this creative way to generate guaranteed state revenues is doable, Ghanafuor? No?

Answering Professor Kojo Yankah's latest concern about Ghana

"We Africans (Ghanaians) are piling up degrees upon degrees, which is great 👍🏿 Question is : why can’t we solve all our multifaceted development problems? What is wrong ? Are what we are learning and studying not beneficial to us?"

      -  Professor Kojo  Yankah  (Founder African University of Communications, Ghana)

With the greatest respect, in one's humble view, no society on the surface of the planet Earth can progress, when those who lack integrity dominate its system, oooo, Ghanafuor.

Ditto when good people sit on the fence and mind their own business - forgetting that the consequences of bad leadership eventually destroys society's moral fabric.  

Perhaps Ghana's tertiary institutions could make a difference in bringing about positive change -  by focusing on ensuring that their students understand the importance of  ethical behaviour in all aspects of their lives?

Just my two pesewas oooo - but then who am I, an uneducated old fool, to tell educated people who have acquired  a string of degrees, what will make a difference for our dear Mother Ghana, lol? Hmmmm,  ey3nsem piiii, oooo, Ghanafuor...

Finally, a little bit of creative-thinking: Instead of endless taxes and seeking an IMF bailout without any anti-corruption measures being put in place to protect the public purse,  why  don't we get this young Zimbabwean inventor to Ghana and partner him to help revive our bankrupt country's national economy:https://www.facebook.com/reel/489720039833829/?mibextid=eA6d3HrSeJoD5Dg0

How the IMF can help save Ghana from ruinous high-level corruption

There is no question that Ghana's hardworking and apolitical world-class solid-achiever-types, who make up its impressive middle-class demographic, now understand that far from being insulated from the effects of ruinous high-level corruption, because of their wealth, they are just as vulnerable to the debilitating effects of bad leadership, as are ordinary Ghanaians.

It is for that reason that prudence demands that middle-class Ghanaians ought to demand that before any debt rescheduling and cancellations take place, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), members of the Paris Club of Nations and China, must act in concert, to force certain changes, to drastically reduce the high-level corruption slowly destroying Ghana.

Chief amongst those anti-corruption measures, must be new legislation giving the Auditor General prosecutorial powers. That is a must if the big-thieves-in-high-places who dominate our system and are selfishly milking Mother Ghana dry, are to be checkmated.

Next up after that anti-corruption measure, must follow new legislation indemnifying all whistleblowers from prosecution - which also incentivises whistleblowing: by rewarding whistleblowers with 30 percent of recovered purloined public funds resulting from their exposure of nation-wrecking high-level corruption.

If those changes (amongst a host of other needed anti-corruption measures), aren't forced on Ghana's hard-of-hearing greed-filled ruling-elites, Ghana will not be able to achieve its full potential regardless of which of the two dominant political parties, the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), happens to be in power, in Ghana, at any given point in time, going forward into the future. That is how the IMF can best help rescue Ghana from certain ruination. Yoooooooo...