I boarded a plane to Ghana recently. On the flight I learnt something remarkable that left me in a trance for many days. I saw that about 60% of the passengers on board were all white or some other colour that I can tell straight without talking to them that they were not Ghanaians. On my return I looked around me again and saw that the number of people on board were comparably less than those who were on board when I was coming and among them were more Ghanains than when we came.
I also watched the routine we passed through at the Airport before leaving for Ghana that it was so flexible and the staff were working as if to say just go and leave us alone. But when we were coming the checks at the airport was so intense that some had to be taken away by police for further investigations before they were allowed to face the exit. Some I am sure never left the airport but might have been flied back to Ghana. In Ghana my own country the process was the sharp oposite. When we were entering Ghana everything was just akwaaba, especially for the white people or simply put the foreigners amongst us. We indigies of our own land were questioned on any little thing. We were less welcome in our own home than those who were trooping in from nowhere.
I came to Ghana and all the internet cafes around my house were filled with Nigerian boys. I went to the city center and all the business were owned by Chinese. I walked around the industrial area and any big man I saw was either Indian, Lebanese, Syrian or any other Asian. All the young men who laid floor tiles around where am putting up my little house were Togolese. Every small filling station I saw on the highway was said to belong to some folks from Niger. I decided to go to my hometown in the north for a visit and there was a hot cry all over the place, why? Their lands have been given away to Brazilians to farm jethrofa (I dont know if I spelt it right) which will be exported to Brazil and Europe for Bio fuel whilst we are still suplied the same crude oil which we will put in our old cars to polute our air. I visited some friends in the volta region and I was sincerely happy to see fish ponds as big as lakes but had my spirit fallen when I was told all the fish were being read for German market by Dutchman. I went to Obuasi and I felt like raging a war on behalf of my people. Till today any big portfolio at the mine is held by an Italian. Ghanains maybe lack the brain to function in some of those places. The road and stadium constructions was also done by some asians and about 90% of the workers were asians even the ordinary labourers.
All these were developments that did not really alarm me. Investors are wanted everywhere in the world and their arrival is joy to any right thinking person but the question is; IS GHANA BENEFITTING FROM THIS SO CALLED INVESTORS? The answer is a big NO. Why? There are no set rules and regulations that can control what any of these persons or group of persons are doing in Ghana. Ghana was recently marked among the first 10 cyber fraud countries in the whole world. I have come to know that those boys I saw at the cafe were soiling our shirts with blood they are drinking and they are still there doing these same things. An arrest was made of a Lebanese that established a company in the name of producing stationery materials for printing bulks and bulks of counterfeit Ghanaian cedi notes. How much profit they make and how much tax they pay is still a mystery, even the tax officials may not be able to tell you. They invade tax everyday. A brother bought a generator from a Chinese shop and on starting it the machine was virtually flying and it vibrated with its own sound. Another bought a pyjamas and before he woke up in the morning he had developed sores around his arms, ampits and flanks. I deneid it myself until I saw him face to face, he bought that too from a chinese shop.
One thing annoyed me most when I returned to my place in Europe that any picture I saw of Africa including Ghana was poverty, war, crime and mulnutrition whereas in Ghana anything I saw or heard about them was so glorious. Why do we look down on what we have and seem to persistent promote them when they have never wished us any good. Lets learn to treat ourselves with maximum respect and know that no one will build our country except ourselves. They are all there to seek their interest our fall is not their burden. Give chances to Ghanaians and they will build with love, passion and patriotism for a caring mother Ghana. To be continued......
