The Scramble For Land And Lawlessness In Ghana.

"It is better to write the truth to be damned than to keep it and to always feel that self guilt"

Greediness is eating so deep into our Ghanaian soul.

I am writing this article out of pain and I don't know how to put words together to explain the agony I'm going through. I am not joking here and it is very serious. Is somebody there to listen to this story and to offer any advice? If yes, hear me say. Friends, fellow Ghanaians lend me your ears. I come not to wash our dirty linen in the cyber public but to bring that dirty white cloth out of the closet (wardrobe) for others to help us clean it. I am doing so in no shame but with the pride that if one can not fight the mighty Goliath, he should seek the help of little David. To seek that little David's help, one must tell his story, which story I begin. A friend brought this to my attention a couple of months ago. Here I narrate in his own words as he said.

A Pathetic Story

In all my life I have desired to operate a School as business. That dream of owning a School to serve the community and others all over our country led me to leave the shores of Ghana that I could achieve the dream of my life. Some few years ago I did all that I could to begin the plans of achieving my life long dream by paying for a reasonable size of land in the Accra Metro. I have always done my things as required by law, so I sent all the purchasing papers to the Lands Department for proper documentation. It took me well over Four (4) years to get the Indenture returned to me.

I am now left to transfer the ownership of the plot to my name. That is normal and I had no problem to do so even with the money involved. In the cause of arranging for the cost involved to be sent home for the transfer, I had a very disturbing one early morning call while deeply asleep. The message as you can't imagine was, the newly installed chief of the area sent his subjects to inspect the lands around and that the chief was to retake my contracted land because it is yet to be developed.

My God, I screamed, as he said.

Our Written Laws

I took much interest in my friend's story and got hold of it and decided to find out the truth because of the numerous rumors of land issues that have been running around in town these days. The point of start of my investigation revealed how as at now the whole Accra Metropolitan Administration (AMA) have been relocating owners of un-used properties in and around developing areas of the Metro for a specific period of time to other remote areas. Does this make any sense to you friends and country men? Is there any reason that a paid for property can be retaken in a time of no development? Perhaps I can not read very well to understand the Queen's language. I had no opportunity to study in England or Scotland to be ablest of our Master's language, so friends and country men those of you who had that opportunity to study in the Queen's land, please can you tell me if there is any provision in our Constitution to this effect? I mean re-possessing a sold item many years earlier that has not been used. I know and very well understand the issue of land problems in Ghana especially in Accra dates back to some decades but it has never been so rampant like what's happening in recent times. Let me restate here what President Kufuor said in one of his campaign rallies. I read him said "Lands acquired by Government without compensation shall be returned to its rightful owners" As a seasoned politician, President Kufour then should understand the implications of his message. I should say here right now that, his comments at the time has given powers to all landowners to take his (President Kufour's) comments for their own understanding. I wish President Kufour then should have said, 'payments shall be made for all government acquired lands that have not been compensated for'. Thus land owners should be seeking redress for payment other than an outright taking over of lands acquired decades ago. Get me very clear; I am not in favor of Governments acquiring lands without compensation.

Government Properties For Grabs

The un-authorized sale of Government acquired properties sanctioned by non-government intervention is very worrying to some of us the well thinking Ghanaians. It started from President Nkrumah's Olympic Village Lands that was acquired shortly before his overthrow. Reasons were that compensations were not paid. (Remember Nkrumah's overthrow made it impossible for his Government to pay such compensations.) We all heard how Korle Bu Teaching Hospital lands acquired and compensated for by the great leader Kwame Nkrumah were being encroached until Professor Frimpong Boateng came to the rescue. In the two months while conducting my investigations for this article, I was told how the National coordinator of the NPP Government's National Governance Program. (Let us say Good Governance Committee or Commission) which ever, Mrs. Leonora Kyeremanten, a lawyer who should have known better got hold of plots of Achimota School Lands (the recent Government Properties for grabs) and was forcing the existing residents (all government employees) to vacate their Government allocated bungalows of residence for Development. Our Government's Slogan of Property Owning Demonstration. Further investigations brought to light how the construction foreman offered to pay a year's advance, perhaps as bribes (corruption at its highest peak) to some residents to enable them look for another place to move in. I heard also how the case went as far as to the Castle our Presidential seat of Governance. I am still waiting for the feed back from my contacts what transpired in the Castle, yet the construction of the multi-purpose building continues unabated My worries brightened my mind to think that the Castle itself will be the next Ghana Government property port of call for grabs. There are many more instances I can give but let me move on to my main point of this piece.

Multiple Ownership Of A Plot Of Land

Sometime ago, I read in the news that a whole Government Minister (to be precise) the Volta Regional Minister Mr. Kofi Dzamesi got locked in a court case with a prominent lawyer for the double ownership of some plots of Land. If Government Ministers and Lawyers are to engage themselves in a fight for a measured land for its double sale, what about we the ordinary citizens who knows nothing? Thus the prices we law abiding ordinary citizens always have to pay when we can't afford to take our grievances to the Courts to seek redress. Even if we could, "to whom you know" gives us the losing ticket. Many people I spoke to in my investigation put their cases beyond reasonable doubts. One man told me how he sweated in a foreign land to enable him purchase a plot of land around East Legon and managed (you know all Ghanaians are Managers) to put up something on for the brother to live in for protection. However, as he said, a very wealthy man (perhaps one of the white powder salesmen) bought the bordered land and served the brother notice to vacate his place because it was included in his land. He told me how he has to rush to Ghana from his overseas base to find out what was going on. I heard how after many of his inquiries while in Ghana he found out that there was nothing he could do. He as a hustler can't stand a court case with a very rich and well known man. He let all his investment gone and has to start from ground zero. Not New York style though. Please this is for no jokes. The Accra ground zeros are in many ways more than headaches to overcome. Is it not very shameful to be a Ghanaian in this case?

Conclusion

Many times we heard stories of double or even triple sale of a plot of land. Poor buyers in many cases are left at the mercy of the courts to fight it out. In some cases, out of mere fear or lack of funds one of the two has to abandon everything altogether and to forget it all.

In the past, cases of double sale of a plot of land were blamed on Land Guards until a law banning the use of Land Guards to protect properties was introduced. There came some relief to many of us when this law was put into effect. However, much more as we can now see or hear is that, things have taken a different twist in another form returning old problems in a double fold. We saw or heard in the past how uncontrollable situations (that is massive corruption) in the name of Kalabule brought discontent to society that led to the spilling of some blood to arrest the situation or put a halt it.

The last words of my friend who came to narrate his pathetic story to me before leaving my apartment were. "Habel, I have no other choice than returning to Ghana to stay on guard to protect my property that whenever anybody be he who he may be to step on my property with the thought of ownership, I'll gun him down for the laws of the land to take it's course if there is one. I'll have no regret.

Hearing him said so brought some chills into my nerves. The question I asked myself within was, are we again going to sit dumbfound for the next generation of ours to also carry the gun to correct the wrongs in our society? Any answers? In conclusion, I'll like to ask this simple question. What are our elected law makers (Parliamentarians) waiting for before taking steps to enact laws to arrest this complex situation which I believe some of them too have had some first hand experiences? What about them (our law makers) considering a law holding individuals, families and chiefs that engage in a double sale of any piece of land heavily punishable? I rest my case with a cry for my Country Ghana.

God Save Our Motherland Ghana For The Black Star to Live Forever.