“Eagle, thou art an eagle, stretch out your wings and fly” K Aggrey

I am an avid sports fan. My fascination lies in how a person can impose his character on a game and turn it around. I have watched Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Paul Gascoine and in those days Mohammed Polo . They all had certain characteristics in common, determination , positivism and doing things differently. In politics I believe the same can be said of great leaders . I am not sure where we shall place Prof Mills . It is still early days yet . I lived in South Africa and saw the changes that took place , Perhaps I was even involved . It was the fact that despite the odds they were always positive of winning In discussion I stopped trying to bring out the obstacles and talked only about what we had and what we can do . Today South Africa has majority rule

Let us fast forward to Ghana and the rest of Africa . We are faced with problems of under development , so the question is can we turn it around? Yes we can , but how?. Like the great sportsmen I have mentioned we can emulate their examples . Talking to most of them they are all students of history and focused . Mohammed Ali when he went jogging used to recite to himself , ‘who is the greatest, I am the greatest’ The other fellow who broke the world long jump record used to call the feet and inches he needed to jump to break the record. He even signed his autograph with the number .

Prex Obama a has the same self belief. Perhaps that is what makes them arrogant to a point. They are not like the proverbial crabs in a bucket nor the basement people . So how can we get out of the system of underdevelopment ? Use what we have, to get what we need . Our collective efforts based on social democracy. No developing country since 1945 has achieved progress using capitalist ideology . None

Reading Ghana web is a litany of an indictment on certain characters and tribes . We have certain youngsters who do not know the history of Ghana or even the geographical areas making comments as gospel facts , but which show crass ignorance. Then we have the KKK, the local and the diaspora, conservative tribalist right wing desperately trying to cause division and destroy the nation Then on occasion we have brilliant articles that show how we can be winners . Let us choose to see the cup as half full instead of half empty. It is important not to emphasize the small stain on the white handkerchief as if that is all there is . We have a lot of good things to be grateful for Let me say clearly the sojourn in Europe or USA is no substitute for Education or intelligence. Intelligence is an inherited trait and education is broader than schooling . Let us look at intelligence and courage . Success in life cannot be attributed to being able to speak Latin or English or even passing High school All the great athletes I mentioned were intelligent but not schooled . So let us look at my friend ex Prez JJ . Research at the George Bush Library in Dallas reveals that he is a product of an Ashawo An ashawo is someone who engages in sex for money . She got a child . I know women will get pregnant for men they love as they want their replica . This” bastard” is supposed to be” dump”, very dump. However this “dump boy” goes to a school where there were 3000 applicants and only 150 were chosen and he was among them . He was in the top 5% and he is dump? Then he goes into the Air force of all places where you needed a pass in maths, science and geography and turned out an ace pilot . He is a tribalist but marries outside his tribe and lives with children who are partly not from his tribe . He rose to power fighting for the under dog . In fact he is a “coward”. At the trial he accepts personal responsibility and does not mention any other names, even under torture. By the 3rd Of June we all knew he was going to die . The firing range had been prepared but he was still defiant . He was newly married and had a baby child . He loved them but was ready to give up his life for the under dogs

This is some one ,half British .in the heart of the security forces, who could have been in the CIA or M15 agent making a lot of money , but chose to face the firing squad for struggling people When he came to power the caption in the New York Times a mouth piece of the you know what… was “ Jerry?.” Jesus Christ gave his life to save us from our sins . Daniel a saint was saved in the lions den . It was an act of God . How come we cannot see God’s work in the sparing of this man’s life and the destiny he was to chart for our country and Africa?

Justice This man allowed his best friend Kojo Lee to pay the highest price for killing a trespasser on his property. They were more than friends from school ,stayed in the same boarding house and most likely dorm , then to the Air Force and then was a regular visitor to the pub ,Kojo owned and operated where the incident took place. Can we have that kind of justice, so law breakers no matter their standing in life know they will face the music without us trivializing it into politics and tribal issues?

. A dictator he was, but he listened and Kuffour was a member of his cabinet .Did Busia do the same as has even happened in South Africa? Rather they ,chased Gbedemah out of parliament. What is the meaning of democracy ? Does it include a representative government, an inclusitivity?

We suggested he open up the forex market and he did .Today remittances from abroad form the 3rd highest foreign exchange earner for the country. I s it possible to mobilize and have town hall meetings to get inputs from the common people ? I remember our opposition to the aliens compliance order, that was to be done in two weeks and devaluation of the cedi to a democratic government was met by our being rounded up for jail. What did we get from the devaluation when we were importing everything and exporting gold and cocoa? . The result was greater smuggling What benefits did we get from the compliance order? . Is Louw Dobbs a patriot ? What happened to Egypt when exodus took place.? Do we learn from history? Sorry history does not exist , we are in the technological age. Can we re focus on other things and leave this man alone? I believe we have greater challenges that we face .

Volta Region, the bane of some people.. Keta was a prosperous town until it was eaten by the sea due to Tema harbour which all Ghanaians use. The area produces fish , cobra , salt which are sent all over the country . Shallots , onions are another product from this area . Going north the road is full of farms Palm nut for building material like the coconut plants. Palm kennels and our fresh palm wine comes from these . It has a beautiful scenery and all they way to Hohoe ,where the cocoa producing area starts all the way to Kete Krachi. In between they produce maize , cassava, coco yam, yam, palm nuts . The region can produce poultry, pigs, goats, sheep and even cows So ,does the Volta add to the fiscus? Yes it does The sights can be used for tourism if we think out of the box . At Ho is a waterfall and Amedzofe has very beautiful sights . These are also historic sites due the battles with other tribes for their independence. You see in South Africa they still even have the site where the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was captured by the Boers when he was a journalist . The English were fighting the Afrikaaner. They still live side by side . And please for the thick headed and dim wits, Volta region HAS other tribes. There are NO conflicts because there is no need and the people are not domineering .By the way Togbe Anku Anglo … these are ANLO but can go by Awuna, or Ayigbe not ANGLO. They have no relationship with the ANGLO SAXONS . The Anlos will tell you they came from Palestine not England SO LETS LEAVE THEM ALONE AND CUT OUT THE NEGATIVES

Now let us combine the cultures, the golden beaches, Winneba, Apam, Elmina, La badi, and the diversity of the products and resources from the other regions in Ghana , and we see a picture Recently there was talk of bio fuels from Nim trees. . We used them for fire wood where I went to school . We can have fish farms , and produce even garri for export . Our forests are full of medicinal plants which we can identify and use . What of the sugar cane for sugar, and apio, molasses as animal feed .especially for goats as they destroy the top cover pulling plants with their roots . The Accra plains and the North and Upper region plains for both crops and animal husbandry leading to agro based industries . Apio for export . Food restaurants. branded Ghanaian We eat Chinese, Italian, Taco or Mexican , what about ours? Bantama Motor Works our home made auto, . If we going to copy . let us copy sensibly, not just porno , homo sexuality, nudity, sakawa, 419 , armed robbery ,drugs and corruption

Ghanaians , I am hungry and the insults do not feed me, clothe me nor house me. If we fight over ”shit houses” that is because resources are scarce in the midst of plenty. We need to increase the size of the cake . We cannot do it by insults and fighting . Our children are dying in the deserts and in the seas . They should bury us but we cannot even have their remains for burial . We have been importing more and more while our exports are stagnant and our population keeps growing . How do we hope to cater for them ?. I cannot emphasize enough the wealth we sit on. . Can being small minded create jobs? Can the insults and the negative reports improve our lives . Gas prices are going up all over the world, can Ghana be an exception. ?

Fellow Ghanaians , I plead with you, let us do a rethink Let us move from being crabs in a bucket or the proverbial basement people Just as we believe obroni is tops , if we believe in ourselves , if we learn and apply our learning soon others will say ‘ Made In Ghana is the best “ Let us brand ourselves ‘quality’ Let us follow Forward Ever, Backward never . Long live Ghana . Long live United African States Let us use what we got to get what we need Ghana, Africa, you are an eagle, raise up your wings and fly

Kojo Tamakloe