A Time To Be Ashamed As A Ghanaian

US$12 million dollars to fly home 50 Ghanaians trapped in Barbados?

Are there not other functionally efficient ways of bringing them home at a lesser cost?

Is not feasible at government-to-government level to negotiate a deal to have these people airlifted to a country in Europe for their onward passage to Ghana, if direct flight from Barbados to Ghana is the problem?

I bet, at most, US$150 000 could lift these people to Ghana if those managing our resources know what they are about and appreciate the myriad of problems that confront us as a nation.

Obviously, one will begin to ask what is so special about this group of stranded Ghanaians that the Government of Ghana could expend such a huge foreign reserve to bring this misguided group of individuals home, especially when there are very teething social, economic and political issues at home requiring government intervention to tackle.

Let us juxtapose Ghana Government intervention in spending US$240 000 per person to bring 50 stranded Ghanaians home from Barbados with the case of Ms. Ama Sumani who could not afford to pay for her dialysis in a British hospital.

Ms. Ama Sumani, 39, of blessed memories, whose visa had expired while in the UK as a student, was removed from a Cardiff hospital where she was receiving dialysis for a year after cancer damaged her kidneys.

Despite her medical predicament she arrived in Ghana just like any other deportee who, out of his own volition, has embarked on a perilous journey with no destination in mind, and was arrested and sent home like a bandit.

Considering her peculiar situation, Ghana High Commission in London could not intervene on her behalf to make sure that she was brought home in some form of dignity evading the humiliating stigma of deportation and under such despicable situation.

Ama since returning to Ghana could not pay for the dialysis treatment she had been receiving at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. She had to rely on assistance from her Ghanaian relatives and friends abroad till she gave up the ghost on Friday, 28 March, 2008.

Surprisingly, on Sunday, 30 March 2008, our government (Ghana government), with representation in London—Ghana High Commission, who could not facilitate a dignified passage for one of its own vulnerable citizens at the point of death, could raise US$240 000 per person to bring home 50 Ghanaians who, out of their own idiocies were stranded in the Caribbean. What a paradox?

There have been many Ghanaians stranded in various countries in recent times, for example, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, China and many more who could not attract similar attention from the same government. They had to go through very dehumanizing ordeals to return to Ghana.

This, indeed, makes one to wonder what is so special about this group of Ghanaians that the Ghanaian taxpayer must cough out US$12 million to bring them back home. Or is it the case that the philosophical orientation of the Ghana Government towards stranded Ghanaians abroad has shifted from ‘self-rescue’ to ‘welfare, protection and assistance? If ‘welfare, protection and assistance’ is now the case, does it imply that it covers all Ghanaians irrespective of the country they are trapped in? Does it imply that it covers the likes of the late Ms. Ama Sumani who was bundled into an aircraft like a toxic waste heading for the unguided high seas of Africa? Does it also imply that Amenorvi Klutse Bianaseme will also receive similar attention just as Baffour Gyimah?

Listening to Dr. Brempong-Yeboah, the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and NEPAD on radio Ghana, I wish to correct his misrepresentation of some facts which were meant to misinform the listening public. He submitted that conditions in Barbados are harsher than Ghana. He should understand that Ghana is nowhere near the small Island country with a population of about 300 000 in terms of economic development. For his information, Barbados ranked 31 among 170 countries in the 2007 human development index as compared to Ghana’s 135th position. Maybe somebody should draw his attention to what is chasing his countrymen out of the ‘best performing economy’ on the continent into a harsher economies like Barbados and others.

It is sickening sometimes to read or listen to some of these news items about a country where about half the population lives under US$1 per day.

What are the opposition parties doing in Ghana? Are they all in bed with the government?

Is it not time they start holding individuals who negotiate or broker deals of this sort on behalf of the Ghana Government accountable rather than attacking an irresponsible and seemingly amorphous government, which has continuously demonstrated its lack of responsibility for their collective actions?

In another development, it is interesting to know that Mr. Isaac Osei, Ghana’s former High Commissioner to the UK, is interested in the Subin seat. I urge the ‘Concerned Youth in Subin’ to do all in their power to block Mr. Isaac Osei not only because he has not been resident of the area or hailed from the constituency but because he simply does not deserve to be part of the august house.

Mr. Isaac Osei as a high commissioner was very discriminatory and failed to attend to all Ghanaians irrespective of their social, political, economic and most of all their ethnic backgrounds. His attitude as a High Commissioner has, therefore, written him off someone who could help build a united Ghana when he is offered such an opportunity to cross the threshold into the august legislative house. His paymaster can continue to appoint him to enviable positions but for an ‘electable’ position like a parliamentarian, he must be blocked at all cost.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.