Our Year 2013 in retrospect a Christmas message

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It's going to be a bright and a happy day,
So pass on the happiness to every person you meet,
Brighten up their day and touch their lives beneath.
Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
Jesus the savior was born in a manger , as the sheep grazed outside. They had no place in the Inn or Joseph the carpenter could not pay the Inn fees
Jesus came from a humble beginning to become the savior of the world. God , how could you do that? Or your message is that you have no favorites?

As the year comes to an end , like good managers we look back and take account of what occurred and what could have been
It is a little over a year when our president John D Mahama was elected into Office to steer the affairs of Ghana for the next 4 years . It an open secret it did not go down well with a section who felt they had won or were Divinely entitled The declared winner is said to be from humble origins, a “herd boy”, “tani” and so was not entitled to be President . As democrats why did they not say the constitution debarred some people long before the vote to save us the circus that followed.?After declaring themselves victors, they then forbade the responsible authority to declare a winner . When he did , the caucus came out there was theft , if not robbery. How dare he steal the mandate from the anointed.? After all has he not gone to the highest Altar, like President Obama in Jerusalem to claim his “Divine” right to authority . After all, Jesus the Christ was from David’s Royal line and he is also from Akyem Royal line. The “ anointed men of God” had all prophesied that victory was his. If it was the work of the devil or man then with all their lawyers they would undo it . The circus then started with the fact that, again the verdict was stolen . They had fool proof evidence , solid, undeniable and irrefutable. All the legal luminaries agreed. “Where are your witnesses?” and they said “it is in the Pink Sheets” . Why Pink sheets ? Because “ you and I were not there” . “So who witnessed it?” . The Pink Sheets , as “you and I were not there?” . So they were told, “ Go home and rest as “ you and I were not there” .
Then they said “Judges, you took bribes to rule against us” . “Bring us proof,” none,” as you and I were not there” . So we spent 8 months on this circus of “ you and I were not there”

Ghana like all other African countries have low GDP and poor income distribution among the population
GDP is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year, equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports. So we ask in all these how much did we add to our GDP? How did this party that” cares” so much for the Ghanaian and whose members are “more” Ghanaian , than others add to the GDP? It has in its name “patriotic” which means “feeling, expressing, or inspired by love for one's country”. The love for country , folks inspires them to ensure that the people get poorer , be without food, clothes , homes, and education, go without health care to ensure they are in power?. Without their being in power everything must come to a standstill .

Outside, in the Diaspora, apart from the inflammatory articles, and blatant distortions , they organize marches and demonstrations to discredit the democracy Ghana enjoys instead of highlighting our plight as a poor nation in need of investments . If they come out of cities with golden streets and Marble buildings , what about the rest of us who need just toilets and good sanitation? They gouge themselves in their imaginary “wealth’,but refuse to allow us to be able to grow our food so we can have our “ Yo ko garri” . Do they care really and sincerely about the unemployed, be they graduates from Universities , or high schools . Must they be in power before something is done to create opportunities for the unfortunate or can we help attract investment so they can be employed ?
Let us heed Ace Ankomah who in his speech said, “brains help to develop the country, rather than limiting their hopes on natural resources for development”. “ He said, it’s about time institutions start digging out those archives and bringing to life those research materials for us to learn, unlearn and relearn that vast wealth of solutions that are presently in hiding, to develop the nation, not resources.”He concluded by saying “It is that thinking, the developed brain, that will develop this nation” adding, “Resources are not…, they become…”.

Of all I read in the year I think this topped it all , “learn, unlearn, relearn” . That is the essence of EDUCATION and he sums it up by saying , “ do not go through the school, but let the school go through you’ . Knowledge is power,” it is said . There is a company in the USA that wants to deliver mail and parcels using miniature drones. Yes, the very ones being used to take out enemies . Research, develop, market and grow the GDP . A friend has a habit of watching new products that come on the market on TV . They represent solutions for the needs of man kind. The reward is profit and the growth of the GDP .

Farewell , Tata Madiba . You walked your talk . The talk of reconciliation and peace for progress instead of revenge for devastation. You learnt to hate the “ Boer”, you unlearned it and re learned co existence and love . You have left a legacy and a country in work in progress instead of devastation and lamentation. For these we honor you and salute you . You showed us how to make peace with our enemies . Europeans who only had a ceasefire in 1945 have learned to work together. Japan and USA fought a bitter war but have learned to work together. The cold war of Communism and Capitalism protagonists are working together. China works with the USA and they have just gone to space. China has landed it first Lunar probe and it is exploring it. Russia and USA have been going to space together .Africans are spectators , just like when the Europeans searched the earth for other continents. Tata , you may have left us in body but spiritually you are with us . Let us remember this among our African people , “together we are one’ . That, it is only by working together that we can over come poverty and adversity. Therein lies the greatness of this continent

Let us declare a truce in the next two years ,and starting with 2014 declare the year an agricultural year and a year of tourism. Intra African trade is a paltry 10%.This we can build on . Let me reproduce an aspect of this to the doubting Thomas’s using the European experience .“ Despite the non-completion of the customs union by 1968, the economic results of the free circulation of goods achieved by it were indisputable. From 1958 to 1972, while trade between the six founding Member States and the rest of the world had tripled, “intra-Community trade had been multiplied by nine”. Such exceptional trade growth was a key factor in economic development and the raising of the standard of living in all member countries of the original EEC. The stimulating effect of the wider market created a feeling of business confidence, which resulted in investment growth. Consumers emerged as the overall winners; supply was much more diverse and products cheaper than before tariff dismantling. The welfare objective of European integration was undoubtedly well pursued through the customs union. The task of the common institutions was, therefore, to eliminate the remaining problems and increase the benefits of the customs union”. Too many times the small minded and those who have fear of other tribes and countries are apprehensive of African Unity . I am sure there were people who opposed the EU and USA but reap the benefits today . There is $1trillion to be made in an African agricultural revolution . Let us go for it . That will make roads and railway linkages viable
Tourism . Brazil here we come . Ghana and 3 other West African countries have qualified for the show piece. But to the world who are we? To most countries and the world Africa is just disease and poverty . Can we use the soccer platform to make them unlearn and to re learn positive aspects about Africa? So let us use this occasion to promote the West Coast . Our cultures , our cuisines, our clothes and in the process promote trade and our industries and reap the profits . Our year long sun climate should be turned into a tourism paradise creating jobs and employment
It was Jimmy Cliff , who sang “ use what you have to get what you need” . Let us start our poverty eradication with what we got
I cannot end before reminding ourselves of the 2 million short fall in Real Estate and of course the gaping gaps in Financial services
1. Corruption. Is this government unique? Corruption is both a major cause and a result of poverty around the world. It occurs at all levels of society, from local and national governments, civil society ...
Thus corruption has no political colors . It occurs around the world. Many advanced countries have thus set up systems to limit corruption. In the 60s we shouted corruption. After the 1966 coup, I remember the numerous commissions and tribunals for corruption. Remember, Mettle Nunoo who was so fed up he asked the Commissioner “ are all the fingers equal”? So why have we not learnt and taken steps to remedy it? June 4th was justified on the altar of corruption . So why all of a sudden JDM is so corrupt he cannot be compared with Kuffour? Could Akufo Addo have done any better? What about the ungovernable climate that was created ? Was that not the perfect environment for the looters as all attention was glued on the election petition? How many examination results have been cancelled because of cheating? Have we asked how the petitioners count of about 11482 became 13000 when it was about 9000? Why is everyone pointing fingers when in reality four are pointing back. I have been in a school when the teacher disappeared because there was a probe about certificates . In foreign lands certain documents of Ghanaians are no more accepted including court certified affidavits. So is that NDC, NPP or CPP ? It is affecting all of us and we cannot leave it to the President alone? When we cheat and lie our children notice it and they will grow to practice it.


Ace Ankomah is of the firm belief that “the solutions to Ghana’s problems are in Ghana, stressing that many of them are hiding right here in the various faculties and archives of our universities”. Our Schools of engineering use imported mowers and cutlasses . Free SHS is supposed to spur growth through human development. We have now a plethora of higher institutions . Are they for regurgitation of worn out theories or are they for innovation leading to solutions of our problems ?

The writer Kojo Tamakloe is an Nkrumaist who believes that African unity is the solution to Africa’s under development