EUREKA! Ministry for Begging

President Kufuor must believe that his main responsibility is to be a successful beggar for Ghana, as evident from his aimless travels around the world.

If the number of presidential travels was directly related to development, Ghana, by now, would have graduated to become a Newly Industrialized Economy.

It is very disheartening to see our President begging for handouts from the so-called advanced countries. It is even more demoralizing to see him repeating it with countries like Korea, Singapore and China – who were at Ghana’s level some 40 years ago.

Begging seems to be a top priority and policy for all government institutions. Any time a western government official meets a Ghanaian minister, the headline goes something like “Minister so-so asked for help from ….”

In todays Ghana, being granted a loan is considered a huge success. We jubilate when we take the easiest, but not necessarily right option e.g. HIPC, and selling our sovereignty(MCA) for money spent on Iraq in a week is regarded as a victory for the ruling party.

Begging entrenches a dependency syndrome that is itself built on a false hope and blind faith in the capacity of foreign "aid" to develop a country.

This bogus assumption that economic growth and development can be accomplished solely through foreign assistance is a disturbing philosophy which has escaped our leaders.

When is this administration going to sit down to think about ideas to develop Ghana that excludes begging? When are we going to do something for ourselves?

Since, I don’t have an answer, hope and power to stop the begging, I’ll propose a means of making sure the begging is dignified and successful.

Welcome to the Ministry for Begging!

• Mission: The Ministry of Begging exists to carry out the Government's vision of begging all over the planet for anything to accelerate the nation's socio economic development.

• Minister: The republic needs another minister, yes you read me right; one more minister to an over bloated incompetent bunch will not make much of a difference.

• Personnel: The ministry of begging shall be manned by the numerous beggars on our streets. We will kill FOUR birds with one stone by taking them off the streets, reducing unemployment, improving education and beautify the nation.

• Constitutional Amendment: A law should be made whereby any Ghanaian caught begging will be forcibly employed by this ministry. (I bet Ghanaians in the Diaspora will willingly embrace this law)

It’s about time we dignify, improve and eventually elevate the art of begging, because like I was taught in Kindergarten “… things done by halves are never done right”