Building Castles On Empty Stomachs

OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNMENT AND PARLIAMENT: ENOUGH OF THE PHDs

Building Castles On Empty Stomachs - The Us$30 Million Presidential Palace ????AND I WEPT!

Dear honourable country fellows,

I am penning you this letter as one of your humble compatriots who is concerned about the way national development projects are being approached and prioritized. In this letter I address a specific national issue:

The Proposed US$30 million Presidential Palace

I could not believe my eyes when I first read President Kufuor?s proposal to build a brand new Presidential Palace with a US$30,000,000 or 285,000,000,000 Cedis loan from India. How could the president, who presides over a nation with so much Poverty, Hunger, & Diseases (PHDs), propose such a luxurious project now when majority of the people in the country he is running lives in abject destitution and unending misery? Poverty was already part of the Ghanaian system before President Kufuor took the oath of office. But he promised, during the swearing in ceremony, to make things better, not worse. As we all know, poverty existed even during President Rawlings era. But today, the degree of poverty has gone from bad to worse than ever. Poverty (P) has gone up several folds, both in the North and the South. Hunger (H) has gone up to a higher degree in all four corners of the republic. Diseases (Ds) like HIV/AIDS and malnourishment-related ailments have risen in all communities of the country. Hence, since the president took office five years ago and promised to make things better, he hasn?t actually made anything better; rather he has given Ghanaians nothing but PHDs. President Kufuor said in his US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis presidential palace proposal that he wants to leave a legacy of a beautiful palace behind, so that he can be remembered by future generations of Ghanaians that, yes, you see this palace? It was built by president Kufuor. Unfortunately, that is not the kind of legacy Ghanaians expect President Kufuor to leave behind. Not a palace. Rather, Ghanaians expect him and his government to reduce Poverty drastically. They expect him and his government to eliminate Hunger. And they expect him and his government to eradicate and/or limit the spread of Diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and other sicknesses like malaria, malnourishment-related ailments, among others. Else the PHDs would kill Ghanaians even before they are able to tell future generations about the new presidential palace. The best legacy that Ghanaians expect any president to leave behind after his/her tenure is a socio-economically improved nation where citizens can have jobs, earn decent income, put food on the table for their families, fend for their education, health, have peace and security, among others, not a presidential palace. If a president can achieve all the above and make Ghana better than the condition it was at the time he or she took over, then that president would have left a good legacy. The two things that president Kufuor has improved upon are freedom of speech/expression and a relatively stable foreign exchange market environment.

As shocked as I was, I asked, why do we need a Taj Mahal when we already have three Presidential Palaces or Facilities: The Osu Castle, The Flagstaff House, and the Peduasi Lodge? The reason for wanting a new palace, I understand is because slaves were kept in the Osu Castle and that may ?evoke bad memories about the slave trade.? That is the most incredible piece of garbage I have ever heard. What Ghanaians should understand is that it wasn?t Ghanaians who tortured and killed the slaves while they were in the Osu Castle awaiting shipment to America. It was the whiteman who committed those atrocities against the slaves. Besides, slavery was abolished centuries ago, long before Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was born. And if he, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, founder of the Republic of Ghana, who fought the colonizers for our independence, kicked them out of the castle and occupied it first, didn?t complain then that the Osu Castle evoked bad memories about slavery why should it now, after fifty years, and why does it warrant a new castle, especially when we are begging for money and asking for debt forgiveness from our donor partners?

Every day, some of our political leaders keep amazing me. Prioritization, as a word, does not seem to be a difficult English word, yet most of our leaders do not understand what it means in practice and how it should be applied with regard to pressing national needs.

I am still trying so painfully hard to come to terms with three press releases (articles) I read alongside the president?s proposal to use a US$30 million loan from India to erect a new palace. The three articles were issued around the same time as the president?s proposal and published almost together. Since the day I read those four press releases, one after the other, I have had serious nightmares, headaches and stomach upsets about Ghanaian politics and the will of politicians to improve the lot of the suffering masses. I am finding it extremely difficult to understand the way they think, plan, rate, and prioritize national projects.

Aside from the press release on the president?s proposed US$30,000,000 castle, one of the others was about the World Vision, a British-based Non-Governmental (NGO), which had given about US$25,000 or 250 million Cedis to about 2,000 Rural Women in the Bolgatanga (Upper East Region) area, organized in small groups, a few years ago as micro-credit to engage in small-scale businesses such as shea-butter processing, basket/hat weaving and trading ventures. These 2,000 village women worked so hard with the US$25,000 micro-credit support given them by The World Vision that they generated enough money to pay off the credit, which was re-loaned to over 1,000 other women in the area to also embark on micro-scale ventures. The scheme was said to be yielding good results for both the rural women and The World Vision. Prior to the World Vision?s intervention, these rural women were helpless and were neglected by their government ? a government they elected with hope and expectations in a democratic process to improve their lot. Wonderfully, with the US$25,000 micro-credit from the World Vision, these hard-working rural women who could barely provide for themselves, have been able to pay off the original credit facility and now support their families, supplement their husbands earnings to put food on the table for their families, buy school uniform for their children, and can afford to buy aspirin and malaria tablets whenever any member of the family is sick.

The World Vision, on its part, is happy that it is able to help alleviate and reduce poverty among those rural women and to give them and their children hope and a better future ? the hope and better future that their national government arrested from them. In addition, this NGO can go back to the charitable individuals and organizations in Britain and elsewhere to solicit more funds to help others like the rural women in the Bolgatanga area.

In the western countries: Western Europe, America, etcetera, these NGOs normally solicit funds through TV appeals for donations from charitable individuals and organizations or they engage children/adults to go from house-to-house, and door-to-door with small containers in their hands asking individuals to donate money to help Africa and other third world countries. They usually have slogans like ?Help Africa fight Poverty? or ?Help Africa fight Hunger? or ?Help Africa fight HIV/Aids? and other diseases. At the door, individuals put in those small containers whatever amounts they want to donate, say one dollar or two or ten, one euro or two or ten. These kids/adults collectors then return with the donations to the NGO. Governments also donate to some of these NGOs. These funds they collect from individual sympathizers, organizations, and governments for Africa are then brought to places like Ghana, and in this case, to the rural women in the Bolgatanga area to provide them with micro-credit to engage in small-scale ventures.

Paradoxically, as these foreigners: individuals and organizations (NGOs), are fighting to help reduce poverty in Ghana, our leaders and government are rather fighting to increase poverty through misplaced priorities and to thwart the efforts of the NGOs by denigrating their achievements and progress made so far by not supplementing and complementing the contributions of these NGOs. They use our limited financial resources for self-centered projects.

The next press release I read was one given by the national Director of Health services. In that article it was the Director said that, in the North, more and more babies and little children were malnourished as a result of hunger, starvation, and lack of proper diet. The other paper, also based on a press release by the same Director of Health services, lamented the decaying condition of the Regional Hospital in Tamale, among others in the three Northern Regions of Ghana, which impedes the health services ability to handle and cure the ever rising cases of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and many other ailments.

When I read these four press releases, one after the other, I couldn?t help but shed tears.

I shed tears, not because the president thinks the Osu Castle was once used as slave centre hundreds of years ago which does not suit his presidency and therefore wants to build a new palace, but because of the millions of Ghanaians who live under socio-economic slavery today wondering when economic freedom and independence would come, whilst US$30,000,000 or 285 billion Cedis which could be used to abolish the economic slavery is rather going into a presidential palace.

I shed tears, not only because of the deaths and the daunting circumstances our brothers and sisters had to experience during their detention in the Osu Castle hundreds of years ago, but also because of the deaths and the daunting circumstances our brothers and sisters go through today from curable diseases, hunger, and starvation which could be eradicated with the US$30 million that is meant to build a new castle.

I shed tears, not because of the self-centric traits of our leaders and their megalomaniac desires, but because of the millions of women like the rural women of the Bolgatanga area who have not had any such micro-credit support from anyone and are suffering because their own government has neglected them and the huge US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis which could have helped to bring them out of perpetual poverty is geared toward the creation of another presidential palace.

I shed tears, not because we already have many presidential palaces and do not need another, but because of the millions of men and women in this country who could be redeemed from the sickness called poverty with the US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis that our leader is going to put into a fourth presidential palace.

I shed tears, not because of the pleasure the president would enjoy in the Indian styled presidential palace, but because of the hundreds of thousands of rural women whose micro-economic lives would have changed for the better had the 285 billion Cedis meant to put up the new presidential palace been used to emancipate them from the perpetual shackles of poverty they are in today.

I shed tears, not only because I was angry at the president and his dissociation from the suffering people of Ghana, but also because of the acute malnourishment millions of Ghanaian babies are experiencing, especially in the North, day-in day-out whilst the president is worried about building a new castle with US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis, which could otherwise be used to provide proper feeding for the starving babies.

I shed tears, not because the head of state is trying to increase the tally of presidential facilities, but because of his neglect of the plight of millions of hard-working men, women, and children, especially in the rural areas of Ghana who cannot get potable water to drink, even today, and are suffering from guinea worm epidemic, just as I suffered from guinea worm attacks for two academic terms thirty-three years ago, which could be eliminated with the US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis, but which, is rather going into the construction of a new presidential habitat.

I am shedding tears as I write this letter, not because I am angry at the desire of the president to sleep in a lavish palace, but because of the way the US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis loan is going to be wasted on a new palace for only the president, whereas thousands of primary school children are attending classes, even today, under trees and sitting on rocks and stones used as chairs and tables in some parts of the country, just as I sat on stones and learnt my first alphabets under trees, almost forty years ago, a situation the US$30 million or 285 billion Cedis could be better spent on.

I am shedding tears, not because of the yearn by the president to sleep in a sophisticated palace, to the neglect of the existing palaces, but because of the US$30,000,000 or 285 billion Cedis that could be used to create jobs for millions of women across the country, like the Bolgatanga area rural women, through which they would be able to put food on the table for their malnourished children, buy them school uniform, afford them aspirin/malaria tablets when they are ill, and lead happy lives with smiles on their faces.

I am shedding tears, not because the president wants to build a new palace he deems would fit his aristocratic profile, and regarding the Osu Castle, Flagstaff House, Peduasi Lodge as inferior, with funds from the sweat and toil of foreigners (donor partners) who have pity on us and sympathize with us enough to provide us with these funds (loans), but because of the millions of our fellow Ghanaian patients who are helplessly sick and laying in our empty, dilapidated hospitals, some laying on the hospital floors and not on beds, without medicines, adequate equipment, medical staff/nurses/doctors, and utilities, a problem which could be solved with the US30 million or 285 billion Cedis that is to be used to build a new palace for the president.

I am shedding tears, not because we are repeating our past mistakes of mismanagement and public waste, but because I see no end to the suffering of the rural men and women who toil from sun-rise to sun-set in the scorching sun working hard on the fields/farms to provide a decent meal a day for their families, which, these days, is a problem, while US$30,000,000 is going into a new palace, and which could otherwise be used to assist the farmers.

I am shedding tears, not only because it is not necessary to build another palace at the moment, but also because of the tens of thousands of our policemen and women who put their dear lives on the line to protect and secure the citizens of our country and yet cannot afford a decent meal for their families, not to dream of saving for the future of their children whilst tens of millions of US$ that could have enhanced their lives rather go into a presidential castle.

I am shedding tears, not only because the president, during elections campaigns, had promised the destitute milk and honey and now delivering tears and fears and wanting to live in his dream palace, but also because of the pain and suffering of the rural woman who works so hard from sun-up till sun-down in the hot sun, carrying her little malnourished child at her back, and walking several miles, often bare-footed, to get to the nearest village market to trade her merchandise or to the nearest clinic to get her sick child attended to, whereas the US$30,000,000 or 285 billion Cedis that could reduce her pain and suffering is rather channeled to the building of another presidential palace.

I am shedding tears, not because of the manner in which our president wants to live like other presidents in Western Europe, America, India, and the like, but because of the thousands of young mothers who die in the process of child labor owing to either a lack of transportation (mobility and rural roads) or a lack of the requisite medicines and prompt medical attention, which could be reduced with the thirty million dollars that; instead is going into raising another presidential palace.

I am shedding tears, not because I do not want the presidency to enjoy in a flashy castle, but because of the millions of our poor farmers who need help to improve on production methods, output, and enhance their lives, which, the thirty million dollars meant for a presidential palace could be used to help resolve, to an extend.

I am shedding tears, not because the president has a want to build yet another monument probably for which he and his political allies can be remembered, but because of the millions of Ghanaians who sleep in leaking homes and thatched huts without electricity and lanterns, simply because they cannot afford to buy kerosene and are sometimes attacked by wild snakes and other dangerous reptiles.

I am shedding tears, not because I want to see the president sleep on the streets of Accra like the thousands of our fellow Ghanaians who do, but because of the tens of thousands of our soldiers who put their precious lives on the line to protect and defend our country and others, and yet cannot afford to feed their families and establish a better future for their children whereas tens of millions of dollars which could have helped ameliorate poverty among the soldiers is rather going to be spent on a new castle for just one fellow called the president.

I am shedding tears, not only because I think the country does not need a new castle now, but also because of the deteriorating condition of our factories and falling industrial output, a problem that could be addressed with the thirty million dollars that is going into the construction of a novel presidential home.

I am still shedding tears, not only because I think the president is not right in seeking a new castle, but also because of the tens of thousands of our university students who do not have enough dormitories, classrooms, textbooks, laboratories, and often study on empty stomachs, while the thirty million dollars which could be used to alleviate the precarious situation is going to be wasted on a mansion for just one Ghanaian called the president.

I am still shedding tears not only because I do not want to forget about slave trade and the dungeons in which the slaves were kept in the Osu Castle, but also because of the thousands of school children who drop out of school because there is no food to feed them at school and their poor parents cannot afford to sponsor their education, a situation which could be minimized with the thirty million dollars which is rather going into building a president?s palace.

I am still shedding tears, not because some think the current presidential lodges are awful and must be replaced at a cost of US$30 million, but because those giving us the financial aid and forgiving us our foreign debt are themselves not building new palaces in London, Washington DC, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Rome, Ottawa, meanwhile their presidential lodges are as old as ours or probably older, except that they maintain theirs and we don?t, and the US$30 million that is set to build a new palace could be used for poverty, hunger, and diseases reduction projects.

I am still shedding tears, not because I do not want President Kufuor to realize his dream Taj Mahal, but because of the thousands of our poor youths who sleep along the stinky, mosquito-infested gutters of Accra and Kumasi at night because their government has neglected and failed them, using money that could have taken them out of the streets to rather build a presidential palace.

I am still shedding tears, not only because the president wants to create another monument that will be neglected later, just like the Peduasi Lodge and Flagstaff House, but also because of the thousands of young girls who, for no making of theirs, toil the streets of Accra and Kumasi in the hot sun ?kayaayoing,? who might otherwise be professionals in various fields of the economy, but for the mis-planning of their political trustees, and money that could be used to help settle them in tax-generating vocations is rather going to be used in raising a palace for the president.

I am still shedding tears, not because of the obsession our president has for renovating and creating buildings for his use, but because of the poor primary school children who, today, still walk to school bare-footed, in the scorching sun and on the hot grounds, just as I did during my primary school days over thirty-five years ago, a circumstance which could be changed with the US$30 million instead of building a presidential palace.

I am still shedding tears, not only because I think building a new palace at a cost of US$30 million is a waste of our limited resources at the moment, but also because of the foreign debt burden the president is trying to start building again for future generations to struggle with and to also beg to be forgiven, which if rather invested in job-creating projects could generate enough income and tax revenues to make Ghanaians? lives worth living.

I would continue to shed tears, not only because of the money that is going to be wasted on the new palace which will be resented in future because it was built by rival political traditions (NPP), just as the president and his NPP resents the Flagstaff House & Peduasi Lodge (built by their rivals) and Osu Castle (built by colonizers) based on political dichotomy, but also because of the thousands of ex-service men and women who sacrificed their lives to protect and defend Ghana?s national and international interest and now live in abject poverty which could be minimized with the US$30,000,000 that the government is aiming at converting into a castle for just one Ghanaian ? the president.

I would continue to shed tears, not because our president is not unskillful at begging for forgiveness of our foreign debt, but because of the begging our future generations would have to master as a profession, just like the president, to get these new foreign debts that he is now piling cancelled.

I would continue to shed tears, not only because building the $30,000,000 palace at this time is a highly misplaced priority, but also because of the millions of empty stomachs on which it is going to be built - the empty stomachs that put all their fate in their political leader but got nothing in return, except increased PHDs.

I would continue to shed tears, not only because of the stone-hearted legacy of a palace the president intends to leave behind for his political tradition, but also because of the thousands and thousands of poor, helpless Ghanaians who are sick and dying of HIV/AIDS and malaria, whose plight is not the concern of the government, but the addition of castles at a cost of tens of millions of dollars.

I would continue to shed tears, not only because we are abusing the trust and faith our Western donor/creditor partners have in us, but also because of the manner in which we are exposing our inability to prioritize and solve more crucial problems first, before building castles with tens of millions of dollars they though we would have used to reduce poverty among our folks.

I would not stop shedding tears, not only because of the reputation our political leaders have established for wasting national funds, but also because of the millions of teachers, doctors, nurses, engineers, farmers, traders, civil servants, and many more, who work so assiduously and yet can not save money for their children?s future or make one decent meal a day, whilst our president is trying to build a castle at a tune of US$30 million, an amount that could be used to improve the lives of all.

I would not stop shedding tears, not only because we have to desist from spending more money on the president?s accommodation, but also because of the thousands of border guards/customs officers, prisons personnel, watchmen and other private security agents who risk their only lives to secure human lives and property but yet cannot afford a decent meal for their families and which could be bettered with the US$30,000,000 that is rather earmarked for a novel castle.

I would not stop shedding tears, not only because a new presidential palace would only stand as a non-living object, but also because living Ghanaians would become non-living (die) because the money that could be used to save their lives from dying of starvation, malnutrition, and curable diseases is going into the erection of this non-living object ? presidential palace.

I would not stop shedding tears, not only because of the US$30 million that the president is going to mis-invest in a new castle, but also because of the millions of our city dwellers, traders/market women, businessmen/women, pensioners, nurses, fire-fighters, labourers, construction workers, technicians, other professionals/artisans, and millions of the unemployed, who struggle each day to make ends meet at the dining table, and yet barely make it, while the building of a new castle at a cost of US$30 million is on the drawing board instead of projects to alleviate the suffering of these people.

I would not stop shedding tears, not only because president Kufuor misled Ghanaians when he said in his proposal that the US$30 million loan meant to build the new palace is not going to affect this year?s budget, but also because of the president?s ignorance that many future budgets will be affected by this US$30 million loan when the grace period expires and we begin to liquidate it (budget provisions for repayment of today?s loan to India with interest in say 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 budgets).

I shed tears, am shedding tears, I would continue to shed tears, and won?t stop shedding tears, not only because we have a president who cares less about the suffering of most Ghanaians, but also because of the increased PHDs his ill-planning and mis-prioritization has brought upon the common, poor citizens of our nation.

Fellow countrymen and women,

Please do your utmost to advise the president away from this palace project. There is no need for us to waste money in building a new presidential palace. What we need to do is renovate the existing ones and utilize them very wisely. We need to instill in our national psyche a culture of maintenance and rehabilitation. The longer the current presidential lodges can be maintained and properly utilized the better we can feel, as a nation, about our culture of maintenance and financial discipline. I even asked myself: what would our donor-friends think of us (Ghanaians) if they hear or see that we are busy trying to build a new presidential palace. I know some people would say that the beggar also has the right to live in a castle, but my point is that, before the beggar can think of living in a castle he has to fill his stomach first. We, the beggars (Ghanaians), still live on empty stomachs, day-in and day-out.

We simply and certainly do not need a new presidential palace at this juncture in our financial crisis, poverty, and HIPCism. We are in financial crisis because we are in HIPCism, or we are in HIPCism because we are in financial crisis. We should only talk of building a new presidential palace when we, as a country, have created jobs for our youths who idle the streets of Accra after graduating from school, have achieved high economic growth, have eliminated or reduced poverty to the minimum, and have improved on national health care and education, among others. Until then, we should forget about building presidential palaces and put our money where our mouths are.

The US$30,000,000 that is eyed to go into the presidential palace project could be used to assist over 500,000 rural women with micro-credit to begin micro ventures. With that help the women can afford to take care of their children?s school, provide school uniform, and supplement their spouses? income to provide food for their families as well as medicines in time of illness. It is difficult for some to imagine that some able-bodied Ghanaians, living in the same country called Ghana, cannot afford or earn 50,000 Cedis in a month, nevertheless, this is the reality faced by millions of Ghanaians in Northern Ghana. Painfully, they have found themselves in this situation not because of any making of theirs but because of our political leadership who place our national priorities in a zigzag, upside-down form. More schools, hospitals, roads, factories, installations for our security forces, among many others, could be built with the money that is chalked to build a new palace.

In my view, it would be an achievement if the US$30,000,000 targeted to go into the new presidential palace were rather used to solve even one of the uncountable problems cited above, and the plan to build a new presidential palace shelved, at least, for the next decades. The president should think about the message in this letter and change the course regarding the construction of the new presidential palace. Such change in course about the presidential palace would earn the president admiration from Ghanaians; for they would know that he listens to their concerns.

My worry is that, with the kind of leaders we have today, I wonder when my tears would dry. They probably would never dry!

Question: What has any head of state done or achieved for Ghana in the past forty years to deserve a new presidential palace? NOTHING, but POVERTY, HUNGER, & DISEASES (PHDs)!