The idiot is Togolese man and should not have been allowed to rule GHANA AT ALL
The idiot is Togolese man and should not have been allowed to rule GHANA AT ALL
baffuor mrnsah-bonsu 8 years ago
He came to power by force.
He came to power by force.
CORNEY 8 years ago
My friend,I don't think your article is necessary,it cannot change anything and you have displayed too much ignorance in your article,I remember in one article you wrote before you ignorantly said Ghana has no highways which ... read full comment
My friend,I don't think your article is necessary,it cannot change anything and you have displayed too much ignorance in your article,I remember in one article you wrote before you ignorantly said Ghana has no highways which I had to correct you that Ghana has highways,what they don't have is what we call in America Freeways,only the Motorway,anybody who lives in the UK should know the difference between highways and Motorways as they call it in the UK.
In America,we don't call the presidents 'excellencies' but just 'president' and if they are no more sitting presidents we still refer to them as President A or Z and if Ghanaians refer to their presidents as his 'Excellencies' and still refer to them as his/her Excellencies' after leaving office there is nothing wrong with that,that is the culture of the people there.
You need to ask yourself why Americans who speak English don't speak the same as the English people if everybody has to do things the way the originators do it,ask yourself why Canadians don't have the same accent as your UK people eventhough your head of state is the head of state of Canada.
I don't know how old you are but Busia has always been refer to as Professor Busia throughout his leadership and even today and we didn't refer to him his 'excellency' because we had a ceremonial president,that tittle although for even Ambassadors/Higher Commissioners is not for Prime Ministers.
For your information,the army never insisted that their personnel carry their tittles to retirement,per their policies,only senior officers can carry the tittle to retirement but as a respect or our love for tittles we refer to every one of them by their tittles and they prefer to be called as such,if you don't know something,there is something called research,do that and stop fooling yourself.
I personally don't believe in titles but we need to criticize what is affecting the lives of our people but not what titles the people carry,this article is just a piece of trash which must be treated as such.
baffuor mrnsah-bonsu 8 years ago
Right on brother.Power to you.
Right on brother.Power to you.
Kofi Amenyo 8 years ago
CORNEY, I know you enjoy finding faults with anything I write. So I am not surprised here too. Of course, if you find faults with them, you should say so. But was it really necessary to drag in the faults you found in the oth ... read full comment
CORNEY, I know you enjoy finding faults with anything I write. So I am not surprised here too. Of course, if you find faults with them, you should say so. But was it really necessary to drag in the faults you found in the other pieces too? Or were you already primed to find faults even before you started reading? Lol
But, CORNEY, if you feel there is nothing wrong with something, should everybody also feel that way?
And did I really suggest that everybody should do things the way the originals do it? What, then, is the point of making comparisons?
I was old enough during the Busia regime - probably as old as you were. I had started secondary school. The paragraph talked about "Excellency" sitting better with "President". I don't know how you read that.
And, for your information, the Army gave guidelines as to how retired military officers should be addressed. I "researched" that!!! I used the word "insisted" as a hyperbole to drive home a point. You missed that, CORNEY!
Your last paragraph does not need a response. It is your view...
Come again with other points if you like, and we shall discuss them.
OYOKOBA 8 years ago
Amen to that Kofi, I think Corney hates your guts. From the starting block one could hardly wrap his head around where he was coming from. He seems to disagree with you but then agrees with you here and there......a "mishmash ... read full comment
Amen to that Kofi, I think Corney hates your guts. From the starting block one could hardly wrap his head around where he was coming from. He seems to disagree with you but then agrees with you here and there......a "mishmash" as you said in your article. Corney came across like somebody who had an axe to grind with you, otherwise he wouldn't have been dragging into the present article, unresolved issues he has had with you in the past. My gut feelings is that he thinks you do not belong to his political camp.........you belong to the "enemy" when you should have stuck together. It is a lingering thought. What he doesn't realize is everybody's experience is different and that is what draws you nearer to or further away from a school of thought. I have never met you, Kofi, but whenever you have written and recounted your experiences I feel like you and I had crossed paths before, or have come of age at the same time and been witnesses of the same historical events at the same time and in the same city or town together. These things, sometimes, inform of ones political inclinations and world views. Just ignore our brother and friend Corney.
Your article was bang on, I really enjoyed reading it. Have you checked into the titles of The Gambia's Yahya Jammeh recently, he is called: "His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Awal Jemus Junkung Jammeh Naasiru Deen Babili Mansa". There you go, for somebody who does not even have GCE O'Level certificate. There, my friend, is the crux of your article. Hope Corney gets that.
Kofi Amenyo 8 years ago
Thanks, OYOKOBA.
Yes, it looks like CORNEY has some agenda. The points he raised are clearly things said for the sake of criticism. And he ended up making some of the same points I made in the article.
He even told a l ... read full comment
Thanks, OYOKOBA.
Yes, it looks like CORNEY has some agenda. The points he raised are clearly things said for the sake of criticism. And he ended up making some of the same points I made in the article.
He even told a lie! He claims that I had written somewhere that Ghana “has no highways”. But I have NEVER written anywhere in any of my articles that Ghana has no highways. CORNEY can never prove his allegation with a quote from any of my articles. He was obviously referring to my light-hearted article on the funny side of driving in Ghana where I had written that the George Bush Highway was not “strictly speaking” a highway. Either CORNEY did not read the phrase in quotes or did not understand the full connotation of the phrase and pounced on the sentence to make some convoluted arguments about what Americans call a highway and what others call a freeway. But nothing in that sentence, or the entire article, said Ghana has no highways.
I get the feeling CORNEY does not know the difference between a criticism and a condemnation. You can see that by the tone of his present comments. I also get the feeling CORNEY mistakenly thinks if he criticises and condemns others, he will, thereby, establish his own wisdom. But he doesn’t provide us his own articles to judge him by.
Of course, I want CORNEY to be critical of the things he reads (including mine) but he must make cogent criticisms based on facts, not criticism for the sake of it or one that is just aimed at condemning and insulting others because they don’t think the way he does!
Of late, I’ve written more on sports – Under-17 World Cup, Women’s Handball, Paris-Dakar Rally (which you read), the winter sports we are missing in Africa because we don’t have snow, and how football is killing other sports in Ghana. I don’t think CORNEY saw any of them. Else he would have come up with tons of faults with each one of them …
For the other thing, OYOKOBA, from your articles and comments, I have calculated long ago that you and I were in Legon around the same years with me one or two years ahead of you. Who knows if I have not stood behind you as we tried to get food in the Central Cafeteria? If we seem to have come across similar things, it is because we may have grown up around the same ages in the same Ghana even if you were in the Ashanti Region and I was in the Volta. It was the same Ghana. It led us to Legon, and then beyond. And it also brought us to ghanaweb …
baffuor mrnsah-bonsu 8 years ago
We have become "You know who I am"country.I do not care if you crated the universe,what matters to me is what you can do,like we say in America"Show me the money".
We have become "You know who I am"country.I do not care if you crated the universe,what matters to me is what you can do,like we say in America"Show me the money".
@@@ 8 years ago
This piece was written by Elizabeth Ohene.
Letter from Africa: Our presidents are addicted to titles
30 June 2015
Five gifts for five African presidents
Letter from Africa:
In our series of letters from African jour ... read full comment
This piece was written by Elizabeth Ohene.
Letter from Africa: Our presidents are addicted to titles
30 June 2015
Five gifts for five African presidents
Letter from Africa:
In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene, a former government minister and member of the opposition, returns to one of her favourite subjects: Africa's love of titles.
I simply couldn't resist it after the announcement from the Office of the Gambian President that another title was being added to the already absurd long list of titles held by the president. According to an official release, the Gambian leader will now be known formally as "His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa".
Babili Mansa, we are told, means Bridge Builder, or Conqueror of Rivers, in the Mandika language. Since the figurative building of bridges or making peace is not one of President Jammeh's known characteristics, I take it that it is more the Conqueror of Rivers that the new title of Babili Mansa is meant to indicate.
President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia on March 28, 2014
Gambia's president added a title to his name which translates as "conqueror of rivers"
The President of the Republic of the Gambia, Commander in Chief, Sheikh, Professor Alhaji Dr etc etc Yahya AJJ Jammeh might think he is treading new ground; but unfortunately, we have seen it all before.
The practice of acquiring a long list of titles started with our earliest presidents as soon as independence came.
That, after all, is how our traditional chiefs are addressed and the new presidents saw themselves as big chiefs - that probably explains why they couldn't come to terms with term limits and wanted to be presidents for life.
Exactly why the title of "Dr" had to be an obligatory part of that list, I haven't worked out.
Dr Kwame Nkrumah leader of Ghana at Independence in 1957
Image caption
Ghana's first president was the man who started the trend for presidents to add Dr to their title
Ghana was the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence and our first president got himself suitably impressive titles, with the obligatory unearned "Dr" and with that started the practice.
He was addressed: Osagyefo, (a chief's title, said to mean Redeemer) Dr Kwame Nkrumah - Life President of the Republic of Ghana. The Life President bit was aborted when he was overthrown in a coup d'etat.
Joseph mobutu through the ages
Image caption
Joseph Mobutu gained the title "The Warrior who Goes from Conquest to Conquest Leaving Fire in his Wake" but kept the same hat
The sergeant-major-turned-president of Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Mobutu, took the trend a scale higher. He became Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga, meaning The Warrior who Goes from Conquest to Conquest Leaving Fire in his Wake.
Malawi's president
Malawi's "life president" was forced out of office three years before he died
Those of us of a certain age can recall that there used to be His Excellency the President, Ngwazi Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda-Life President of the Republic of Malawi. If you missed out a comma, you got into serious trouble.
Again, the Life President bit turned out to have been over-optimistic because he was forced out of State House before he died.
Idi Amin in 1978
The CBE in the letters after Idi Amin's name stood for Conqueror of the British Empire
Then of course there was a certain embarrassment in Uganda; he had to be called: Field Marshall Dr Idi Amin Dada MC DSO CBE (Conqueror of the British Empire)-Life President of Uganda.
Once more, the Life President bit turned out to have been optimistic and he was chased out, much to the relief of everybody in 1979.
Robert Mugabe May 14, 2015
His Excellency, The President, First Secretary of the Party, Head of State and Government, Commander-in-Chief of Zimbabwe Defence Forces remains in power
In Zimbabwe, state TV refers to: His Excellency, The President, Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
But at social events, ministers often add: Patron of War Veterans, First Secretary of the Party and Chancellor of State Universities.
And even: Supreme Leader, First Citizen of the Nation, Honorary Black Belt and Professor of Diplomacy.
He remains in post at the age of 91 and continues to befuddle all his opponents.
Queen Elizabeth II attends the Order of the Garter Service at St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on June 15, 2015 in Windsor, England.
Image caption
Her Majesty, Elizabeth II has "by the Grace of God" and "Defender of the Faith" in her full title, which is too long to fit in this caption
The obsession with titles as I have pondered in previous columns, is not reserved for only our leaders, it seems to be an African disease. Or so I thought until a friend of mine pointed out to me recently that it is not unlikely that it is something that we inherited from the British colonialists.
Indeed who else has all these Sirs, Dukes, Duchess, Baroness, Viscounts, OBEs, CBEs etc etc? We have probably simply been trying to emulate them.
The official full title of the Head of State from which we got our independence is: Her Majesty, "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith".
Try matching that! The Bridge Builder or even Conqueror of Rivers doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
FOYOOSIS 8 years ago
Kofi, your article is spot on, true to the point! Ghanaians back home are title and position worshippers. A typical example is, having lived abroad, especially UK, US-Canada for few years, the moment you descend home with yo ... read full comment
Kofi, your article is spot on, true to the point! Ghanaians back home are title and position worshippers. A typical example is, having lived abroad, especially UK, US-Canada for few years, the moment you descend home with your "polished english" and able to tell someone in your neighbourhood that you are a doctor, "BANG" it becomes breaking news, the next day they will start calling you Dr.
This folly is all over the place and i wonder why someone would disagree with you for drawing our attention to this attitude.
spartacus 8 years ago
Kofi, your article is super. Now Ghanaians have copied the foolish Nigerian way of referring to engineers as "Ing" so and so. What is honourable about the type of thieves and miscreants we have in the Ghanaian parliament? It ... read full comment
Kofi, your article is super. Now Ghanaians have copied the foolish Nigerian way of referring to engineers as "Ing" so and so. What is honourable about the type of thieves and miscreants we have in the Ghanaian parliament? It's not uncommon to have a Dr Ing chief architect alhaji senator advocate prophet Kolawole in Nigeria. Oh ho! Folks lets keep things easy.
Nimo 8 years ago
Secretary of state Rice was a professr so was Kissinger and the one other female. Mills was Associate prof and when you leave the University you were a former professor but it was shameful the way NDC made noice. There is ful ... read full comment
Secretary of state Rice was a professr so was Kissinger and the one other female. Mills was Associate prof and when you leave the University you were a former professor but it was shameful the way NDC made noice. There is full prof and Emeritus prof
ATTA OWUSU 8 years ago
Kufuor must be addressed as His Excellency former president Kufuor. Why not?
Kufuor must be addressed as His Excellency former president Kufuor. Why not?
Mighty man 8 years ago
It is awesome to be called Honourable professor Dr prophet Ogya.
It is awesome to be called Honourable professor Dr prophet Ogya.
The idiot is Togolese man and should not have been allowed to rule GHANA AT ALL
He came to power by force.
My friend,I don't think your article is necessary,it cannot change anything and you have displayed too much ignorance in your article,I remember in one article you wrote before you ignorantly said Ghana has no highways which ...
read full comment
Right on brother.Power to you.
CORNEY, I know you enjoy finding faults with anything I write. So I am not surprised here too. Of course, if you find faults with them, you should say so. But was it really necessary to drag in the faults you found in the oth ...
read full comment
Amen to that Kofi, I think Corney hates your guts. From the starting block one could hardly wrap his head around where he was coming from. He seems to disagree with you but then agrees with you here and there......a "mishmash ...
read full comment
Thanks, OYOKOBA.
Yes, it looks like CORNEY has some agenda. The points he raised are clearly things said for the sake of criticism. And he ended up making some of the same points I made in the article.
He even told a l ...
read full comment
We have become "You know who I am"country.I do not care if you crated the universe,what matters to me is what you can do,like we say in America"Show me the money".
This piece was written by Elizabeth Ohene.
Letter from Africa: Our presidents are addicted to titles
30 June 2015
Five gifts for five African presidents
Letter from Africa:
In our series of letters from African jour ...
read full comment
Kofi, your article is spot on, true to the point! Ghanaians back home are title and position worshippers. A typical example is, having lived abroad, especially UK, US-Canada for few years, the moment you descend home with yo ...
read full comment
Kofi, your article is super. Now Ghanaians have copied the foolish Nigerian way of referring to engineers as "Ing" so and so. What is honourable about the type of thieves and miscreants we have in the Ghanaian parliament? It ...
read full comment
Secretary of state Rice was a professr so was Kissinger and the one other female. Mills was Associate prof and when you leave the University you were a former professor but it was shameful the way NDC made noice. There is ful ...
read full comment
Kufuor must be addressed as His Excellency former president Kufuor. Why not?
It is awesome to be called Honourable professor Dr prophet Ogya.
Kofi that. Another nice article. Bye for now.