Two Laws That Are Missing In Ghana

Onipa Ba

Some readers may have seen an article that I posted last Wednesday (September 16th, 2009) in which I wrote about the menace practiced by Ewes in which they threaten non-Ewes with death by voodoo and indeed end up killing the subjects. In the article I advocated legislation to check this Ewe menace. I indicated that in developed countries, such as the USA where the rule of law is upheld, such threats are illegal and are classified as terroristic threats and they constitute grounds for legal action against the threat perpetrator.

Last week I had intended to write about two uncivilized, unlawful and socially unacceptable cultural practices of the Ewe and the need for creating laws to stop them. However, time constraints would allow me to write about only one of the savage Ewe practices. Thus, the law for which I advocated in the article of last week constitutes the first of the “Two Laws That Are Missing In Ghana” as suggested in the current caption. In the current posting, I expose the second unlawful practice of the Ewe which warrants a counter-acting legislation.

Like the posting of last week, the method of comparative analysis is used in this article to show that those practices by the Ewe are totally unlawful in developed countries where the law is appropriately applied. Notwithstanding, the Ewe does it Ghana and he/she goes unchecked.

The laws of the United States prohibit discriminatory treatment of a person in employment, housing, government programs and in many other areas, on the basis of the person’s race, ethnicity, national origin, age or religion. This is the proper application of the law which offers equity to all persons and it is the norm in civilized and democratic societies.

In Ghana, the discriminatory practices of Ewes against non-Ewes are well known. This notoriety of the Ewe manifests itself very often in employment distribution and in professional relationships. In my school days in Ghana, there was a very common experience by non-Ewe persons who would go job hunting in the company of Ewes whereby the recruiting manager was also an Ewe. In such situations, the Ewe manager would tell both applicants in a non-Ewe local dialect that there was no job opening. However, the manager would shamelessly and unlawfully switch tongues to the Ewe dialect and tell the Ewe job seeker: “come and see me later there is a job for you”. This notorious, discriminatory and unlawful practice of the Ewe used to be well known to many people of non-Ewe tribes during my school days in Ghana.

Some readers may remember the incident at KNUST about two years ago, whereby an Ewe professor was either dismissed or reprimanded in some other way for unlawful employment discriminatory practices against non-Ewes at the university. Tribal discrimination particularly in employment and other vital areas of the society, has typified the Ewe for long. Now the Ewe has taken this unlawful practice to even higher levels of government and national administration.

When it comes to employment discrimination along tribal lines, not only is the Ewe notorious, but he/she is a master of this evil and unlawful art and in my opinion he/she is a very “bad ass” in this business. The Ewe uses crafty and dishonest means in this unlawful practice and he/she seeks every opportunity to practice the art in such a way that his/her ulterior motives might not be readily noticed by his/her victims. Yes, there is talk of downsizing of the state telecom company following the acquisition by Vodafone, whereby about 1900 are to be laid off. However, as a genuine a corporate operation as it seems, the dishonest and notorious Ewe would seize the opportunity to “downsize” non-Ewe’s only, whereby most of the 1900 people to be laid off would be non-Ewes and the Ewes would hold on to their jobs.

The economic mess created by the NDC in the years before 2000 still negatively impacts all aspects of life in Ghana. The problems were enormous and the NPP did very well but it could not possibly solve all those problems within the limited duration of the NPP’s tenure. These economic problems and the associated unfavorable credit rating for the nation are responsible for the terms attached to the recent loans from the World Bank. The conditions attached to the World Bank loan include a mandatory freeze on employment by the Ghana government. Although the Ewe/NDC entity is responsible for the poor credit rating which has brought these conditions onto the nation, ideally, it would be expected that the burden would be distributed equitably among the entire nation. The ideal will not happen on the watch of the dishonest, notorious and crafty Ewe. The notorious, dishonest and crafty Ewe tribalist would seize the opportunity and as usual he/she would freeze only the hiring of non-Ewes.

Discrimination against a person on the basis of his/her ethnicity is illegal in developed countries where the rule of law is properly upheld. Laws must be put in place in Ghana to stop the Ewe from discriminatory practices against members of other tribes. It is a crime and the Ewe must be made to realize that tribal discrimination against non-Ewes is a crime. If the Ewe is made to face the law for tribal discriminatory practices, he/she would stop the unlawful practice. Not only would such legislation make the Ewe more law abiding, but it would also help protect the rights of the non-Ewe who is victimized by this Ewe menace.