ECG: Wake up, oooo. Yoooooo...

Yesterday evening, at around 18:40pm GMT, I saw a young man clambering up the electricity pole in front of where I live at the Gomoa Buduburam State Housing estate, with feet-clamps.

I immediately became suspicious, and ventured out to speak to the young chap who seemed to be the leader of the two-man gang.

I then asked him what it was that they were doing - whereupon he proceeded to implicate himself in an illegality that causes massive revenue-leakage to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), nationwide, and which severely affects its finances, a well as impairs its ability to provide a world-class service for consumers across Ghana.

The young men were apparently from Camp Liberia - part of which I happen to share a fence-wall with.

Like all slums in our country, the demand and supply of a modern-day essential, like electricity, in Camp Liberia, is enveloped in the foggy-miasma, of a thriving black market, which rips off the very poor, ruthlessly. That one can understand.

However, the ECG must ensure that formal settlements like the State Housing estate where one lives in, are monitored strictly, and on a regular basis.

The ECG can begin that new chapter by sending their Central Regional branch's loss control unit to check the lines from the ECG pole outside where one resides, as soon as is practicable. If fire occurs there (God forbid!) because of the activities of bold and hungry young criminals, such as the two aforementioned young men, we will sue the ECG for zillions, oooo. The ECG needs to wake up, oooo, Ghanafuo. Haaba. Yoooooooo...

MTN Ghana: Stop the cyber fraudsters stealing zillions from your customers through enforced-subscriptions

At 09:08am GMT, today, 27th January, 2023, I received a text message from MTN Ghana, wishing me a: "Happy Data Privacy Week!!".

It felt like a dreadful sick-joke  -  adding to the woes of the daily struggle to survive in a period in which stagflation has caused an unprecedented cost-of-living-crisis in Ghana  making it incredibly difficult for honest and law-abiding citizens to survive.

Surely, the time has now come to demand that the Ghanaian telco industry's well-funded lobbying-entity, the Telecoms Chamber, and the sector government ministry overseeing it, put their feet down, and demand that all the telcos take immediate steps to stop the lucrative enforced-subsription scams, in which relatively small sums (which add up to zillions, every month, it ought to be pointed out, dear critical-reader), are deducted by all manner of sly-chancers (such as those providing caller-tunes for example), from their customers' digital mobile money wallets, without their permission: because those schemes aren't lawfully-binding third-party opt-in schemes in data-privacy-terms?

Enough, really is enough in this matter, oooo, Ghanafuo. The time has now come for MTN Ghana, which has strangely turned a blind eye to this abomination for far too long, to stop the cyber fraudsters stealing zillions from its customers, through illegal third-party enforced-subscriptions, which in reality are grand online larceny schemes,  unlawfully enriching criminal 'service providers' engaged in racketeering and wire-fraud, oooo. Yooooooo...

The West must be resolute in confronting Putin

The West must be resolute in confronting Putin. Fear of escalation in the fight to defeat Putin, is tantamount to engaging in cowardly-appeasement of a murderous kleptocratic-dictator, committing genocide in the digital age, in a world that needs peace and stability, to enable it move forward, after a devastatng pandemic.

It is vital that  leaders of the West understand clearly, why  they must be resolute in confronting Putin: Victory for Ukraine will restore a great nation with a long and proud history, Russia's, place, in the comity of nations, as a global force for good.

Once defeated, the Russian military can then finally move to depose the man who prostituted its honour so egregiously, by ordering an invasion in which innocent civilians are targets, and routinely slaughtered, on a daily basis, and critical infrastructure deliberately destroyed in the most barbaric of fashions. That is totally unacceptable in this day and age - which is why the West must be resolute in confronting Putin: by providing  Ukraine with all the arms it needs (including its heaviest and best tanks), to enable it defeat Putin and end his reign of terror. Full stop. Case closed.

COCOBOD: Convert Ghana's cocoa sector to 100 percent organic production - and bedrock it with ESG, agroforestry and climate-smart farming

The time has now come for the leadership of the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), to be held to account for their egregious short-sightedness, unwarranted  complacency and failure to move to convert to 100 percent  cocoa production, and  bedrock the  cocoa sector with ESG, agroforestry and climate-smart farming.
 
As many of the predictions we have made over the decades (about what will happen to our beloved nation, if our hard-of-hearing ruling-elites refuse to change course),  come to pass, we are confounded that greed still continues to drive those whom we elect to govern our nation. Hmmm, ey3nsem piiiii, oooo, Ghanafuo...

It is in that light that we now make bold to predict that, if we are unable to switch all food production to organic (by policy makers planning and executing such a health-boosting idea), and ensuring that the conversion to 100 percent organic production happens within the next five years, then the cocoa industry  will also experience the same shockwaves now  devastating the lives of the many investors, who bought government paper, because they believed it was risk-free investment, but now suddenly realise that that is no longer true.

Sadly, those investors now see clearly that  they have been made to bear the brunt of the wealth-destroying effects, of the reckless borrowing spree indulged in by feckless politicians - who when campaigning for power, promised to end borrowing: and usher the nation into a new nation-building age, beyond aid from foreign powers: but have failed miserably to fulfil that promise.

If the COCOBOD's leadership still don't see, and understand, that if they don't convert the industry to 100 percent organic production, a time will come when virtually all of Ghana's pesticide-residue-ridden cocoa, will be rejected by the foreign markets that used to pay a premium for what (before the vast majority of consumers worldwide adopted healthy lifestyles), used to be considered the world's finest cocoa, then they don't deserve to remain in their positions.

One says what follows humbly and only as  matter of fact, in order to stress a point: As someone whose family has farmed cocoa in Ghana's Eastern Region, since the 1920s (from the British colonial era to date), and who is also an Akyem  Osiem royal, who is co-steward of Akyem Abuakwa's biggest privately-owned freehold landholding portfolio, who  also happens to be a generational-thinker and environmental activist, one intends to do everything possible to force change on the COCOBOD's complacent and shortsighted leadership.

Ghanafuo, that campaign for change to 100 percent organic cocoa production,  will begin by one suing the COCOBOD's current leadership,  for not implementing fully,  all the terms and conditions they signed on to, which led to the African Development Bank (AfDB), giving them US$600 million. We shall demand full accountability from them of what has been  disbursed, thus far, from the US $600 million.

Ghana's  cocoa industry needs new leadership that is farsighted and committed fully  to 100 percent conversion to organic production,  and understand the need to bedrock the  cocoa sector with ESG, agroforestry and climate-smart farming.  Full stop.  Case closed. Yooooooo...

Ghanaians: act boldly to end high-level corruption - or high-level corruption will destroy Ghana and ruin the quality of life of all who live and work hard within its territorial borders

Current events have shown clearly that as wise and aspirational Africans, Ghanaians must act boldly to end high-level corruption - or high-level corruption will most definitely destroy their nation and ruin the quality of life of all who live and work hard within its territorial borders.

For most part of the period since the overthrow of President Nkrumah in 1966, regardless of the nation-building difficulties their country has been faced with, and has had to grapple with, middle-class Ghanaians have grown increasingly prosperous - and mostly tended to mind their own business: by fence-sitting and not involving themselves in what many have labelled the "dirty business of politics".

Unfortunately, that mind-your-own-business mindset, and unhelpful-attitude, has prevailed amongst middle-class Ghanaians, most especially during the 4th Republic  (a period which has been completely dominated by a hard-of-hearing duopoly made up of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), and today's largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), both beholden to faceless rent-seeking state-capture big-thieves-in-high-places), particularly because most of them have felt that somehow  they could insulate themselves from the negative effects of the high-level corruption slowly destroying Ghana: regardless of the ruling party elected to govern their country, at any given point in time.  

Now, as it becomes more and more obvious to the world at large, that their nation is bankrupt and debt-distressed, and is now unable to pay interest on its massive debt mountain, most middle-class Ghanaians have suddenly come to realise the danger and folly of not giving a toss about ruinous high-level corruption, and woken up to the fact that their personal well-being and accumulated wealth, can actually be destroyed by the egregious-actions, and abominable-inactions, of those elected to govern their homeland Ghana.

It is in that light that Ghanaians now need to understand clearly that as wise and aspirational Africans, they must act boldly to end high-level corruption - or high-level corruption will destroy their nation and ruin the quality of life of all who live and work hard within its territorial borders. Eiiiii, Oman Ghana - enti y3wiy3 paaa enie? Asem kesiy3 bi, ebeba debi ankasa, oooo. Yoooooooo...

End the dumping of counterfeit and unwholesome products at the Gomoa Budumburam Camp Liberia refugee settlement area now

The Gomoa Budumburam Camp Liberia refugee settlement area, has become the Central Region's dumping ground for counterfeit and unwholesome products, for sale to unsuspecting consumers.

It is not for nothing that the Gomoa Budumbuam Camp Liberia  refugee settlement area is also Ghana's price-gouging capital - where super-ruthless profiteering-traders routinely increase prices regularly to fleece the public, in the midst of an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis. Abominable. Unpardonable. Monstrous. Shameful.

It is an untenable situation in an era of galloping-inflation that has affected the living standards of all honest and law-abiding individuals and families amongst Ghana's societal-demographics nationwide.

It is in that light that one appeals to all the regulatory bodies in Ghana, which are mandated by law to protect consumers nationwide, from selfish purveyors of unwholesome products, such as expensive packs of bottled mineral water, to make a beeline for the Gomoa Buduburam Camp Liberia refugee settlement area, as soon as operationally practicable.


There, in that unique melting-pot-community, full of amazing energy and creativity, and unlike any other peri-urban community anywhere else on the surface of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Ghana, they will come across shops, container retail outlets and arrogant mostly foreign table-top hustler-types, who have appropriated pavements to sell all manner of counterfeit products. 

Ghanaian officialdom must wake up from its inertia in this matter which has persisted for far too long - and they must do so immediately. Now. Not tomorrow, oooo, Ghanafuo.

The continued dumping of counterfeit and unwholesome products at the Gomoa Budumburam Camp Liberia refugee settlement area must be brought to a swift end, now, oooo, Ghanafuo. Not tomorrow. Yooooooo...

Has America's great GOP gone mad?

For a pro-American African who grew up in the 1960s, during the period when President Kennedy became the youthful new face of America  -  whose idealism produced the Peace Corps. -  it's hard to fathom how thoroughly selfish and dishonest politicians now dominate the greatest nation, ever, in human history.

It is a sign of the times that a rogue like Representative George Santos is a member of the U.S. Congress, when even the citizens of the world's worst banana republic, would have rejected him, because of his egregious  endless-phantasmagorical-fibbing.

Ditto that a cruel and vindictive wannabe-fascist-dictator, who is a ridiculous Russian puppet, pathological-liar-bar-none and con-man-supremo, who strikes what he thinks is a Churchillian-pose for cameras, complete with a scowl, and who wears a toupee, dominates the GOP, so completely. Yet Churchill would never have countenanced  hiding his baldness with a toupee, being a serious person and real. With respect, has America's great GOP gone quite mad? Haaba.

Food for thought for Ghanaians - whose country is now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy

 It is astonishing that amidst the gloom being spread by the visceral-reaction to the end-game national-ruination, caused primarily by the borrowing-spree that has led Mother Ghana into the deep-hellish-hole she now finds herself trapped in, there is still such a dearth of offered-solutions, to help get us out of the disaster some of us predicted, yonks ago, our country would end up in, if President Akufo-Addo did not have the courage to rid himself of Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta & his greed-filled big-theives-in-high-places, who have dominated his regime, and milked Mother Ghana dry, from the very beginning of his presidency.


Ghanafuo, truth be told, only innovative-thinking will save our nation, oooo. The endless complaining must cease, wai. They won't  help us now. Solutions. Solutions. Solutions. That's what we need now.


The question to ponder over is: Could one big new idea not suddenly open up the possibility of  injecting trillions of dollars into our national economy, if executed well, anaaa -  which is why we must back all our world-class inventors and their game-changing ideas: as a national priority? We are now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy wai, Ghanafuo - so instead of the endless complaints let us innovate our way out of this crushing-wahala,  oooo, wai. Yooooooo...

A quick note to Ronnie El Chieck - An Australian who is keen on finding green economy investment opportunities in Ghana

Try this for size,Yewura Ronnie:  Some bright spark in New York  City is suing Hershey  (hopes to make it a class action suit one gathers),  the eponymous chocolitier, because the company's Cadbury brand dark chocolate he bought and ingested, apparently contained cadmium and heavy metals.

A little lateral-thinking:  Might it not be the perfect moment to ask Hershey to set up and fund a Ghana branch of America's wealthiest endowed educational institution, the Hershey School, to teach organic climate smart cocoa farming, using  agroforestry principles, to rural youth across Ghana's forest belt - and source own-brand locally manufactured organic cocoa products from Ghana, for the North American market dominated by Hershey?

I am pretty sure that I could persuade  my family to make available 2.5 square miles,  out of our 14-square mile freehold upland evergreen rainforest property in the Akyem Juaso section of the Atewa Range that is part of a designated Globally Significant Biodiversity Area (GSBA), in what used to be the once heavily-wooded arboreal slopes off the Atewa Forest Reserve, for the proposed college's campus, as well as a research centre and demonstration climate-smart organic cocoa farm using agroforestry principles.

As it happens, 99.6 acres of our freehold rainfores land, in Akyem Juaso, actually lies inside the Atewa Forest Reserve that we have legal access to, and is referred to in Forestry Commission jargon, as an "admitted farm" -  which could be leveraged as a community carbon sequestration initiative, to sustainably fund any mooted Hershey School's Ghana branch. Doubt if you could find a more interesting place for such an agroforestry  project anywhere else in the areas of Ghana where fringe-forest cocoa-farming communities exist. Cool.