Letter To My Father. Critical News, 3rd August 2014

Sydney Casely-Hayford, sydney@bizghana.com

Hi Dad. Twenty-five years and 1989 seem like such a long time ago. Yet it feels so close. Losing you was a big blow and I speak for my brothers and our mother, but I think we have adjusted well. We miss you and talk about you all the time, so we kind of have you close, closer and really surreal.

But Victor’s death. You remember, Chocolate Kid’s son? We buried him over the weekend, surrounded by family, cousins, uncles, and now I have nephews and nieces and a namesake for me, Sydney spelt exactly as mine, brought tear ducts into play and I shed a few. Death rocked the foundations this weekend.

The service was too long, the Charismatics grabbed a license and yelled at all sinners, berated them for not being holy. I thanked my stars that I veered away from Christianity a while back.

I never became a Bahai either, despite all your efforts and wishes, and after I foraged into Buddhism, I am still left with the practical life of a Buddhist but without religious overtures. I am content as a free thinker and well anchored in my desire to achieve a better life wherever I find myself.

But there is good news wherever there is bad. Isn’t that what you always said about silver linings? Leo’s Natasha got married in Connecticut. She is all grown up and settled and such a beautiful person. Hmm, she is also a dancer. Seems like the women in the family all have that bent. My Ayesha is also into stage and theater, and very good too. And she is still practicing law.

To Join A Corruption Cult. Critical News, 28th July 2013

Sydney Casely-Hayford, sydney@bizghana.com

Takoradi’s rats trump all I have seen so far in Ghana.  Bold, brazen, fearless, they meander through the sewers in the market circle foraging and picking the choice bits as they feed fat on throw-away “tsofi”.  Yep, Chicken and turkey “tsofi” is not illegal in Takoradi.  It sells all along the roadside from Winneba to T’di and beyond.  It is only in Accra we think it is illegally unhealthy and make a big deal of it.  For the Takoradi rats it is a delicacy, dare anybody arrest them for partaking.

We have done something right with the Winneba-Cape Coast-Takoradi road.  It is smooth and comfortable, maybe too many twists and bends, but it is weathering well and it makes you wonder why we don’t have many more such networks to make business easier.  You can do the Accra-Takoradi return trip in a day, takes roughly three hours one way and it is rather safe, with a few strategically placed police barriers and some speed bumps, which everyone ignores as they keep the speed up at between 100-140 km/hour.  I was way up at this speed limit for the journey and enjoyed every minute of it.  Don’t we need an Autobahn in Ghana?  I was doing 120 and staying ahead of the curve.  This BMW shot past, belittled me and left a fleeting fine spray on my shield, made me look like a tentative rookie driver behind the wheel.  When I did catch up with him at “God Loves You” (this great restaurant a few months ago, which has deteriorated so fast the food quality was a major let down), the seventeen-year-old driver could have borrowed his father’s car to sport the giggling four-inch-heeled, twelve-inch-above-the-knee skirted chicks, and I was left with childhood memories that couldn’t trump these Amazons.  My only consolation; these are the days of “Sakawa” and cocaine dealing so how can you tell?

Football Is Not Our National Sport: Try “Financial Leakages” And Revenue Diversion

Prof. T. P. Ulzen, tulzen@yahoo.com

A middle aged man is driving to Cape Coast from Accra. Around Awutu, he overtakes the car ahead and round the bend, he is flagged down by the police. He is told that he has exceeded the speed limit. He does not dispute this and is told he will “be processed” for court in Winneba at 10:00am the next morning, to which he agrees.
The policeman is seemingly perplexed. The driver reiterates that he will present himself at court the next morning and asks for the officer’s name. This upsets the officer but the driver says “it’s on your shirt anyway.” but the officer gets increasingly upset, asking “why do you need my name?” The driver says “you are a public official doing your job. I just need your name and number for reference for the court hearing. You have taken my licence so I must be sure of who you are.

After The Evidence, The Real Truth. Critical News, 21st July 2013

Sydney Casely-Hayford, sydney@bizghana.com

Cape Coast city center stinks.  Once the Crown Capital, the roads surrounding and between Kotokraba market carry a putrid smell of rotting debris and fish commingled with body smells and heat that does not easily welcome the sensitive tourist.  The travel to Cape Coast is still an excellent one and commonsense driving (except for Mankessim) makes it easy and incident free, until the directionless city and stench hit you and the roads fail to impress.  Poverty engulfs you in Cape Coast.  It is unfortunate and it is sad, because it has all the trappings of the best tourism in Ghana.

However, it does not compete with the rot yet to be made public from the GYEEDA report suppressed by Government, contrary to what we heard when the commission of enquiry was set up.  Also totally contrary to the Government that pledges an open and transparent dialogue with the citizens of Ghana.  From what I know about GYEEDA, the corruption runs deeper than this Government will ever reveal.  The key ministry responsible was Youth and Sports.  Akua Sena Dansua, Rashid Pelpuo and Kofi Humado each at different times as Ministers, signed these contracts without much oversight.  Most of these contracts are yet to be executed and the sums of money involved are clear.  Read my earlier disclosure from here.  The GYEEDA modules are not sophisticated.  Actually they are rather frivolous and clear mechanisms to siphon money from other funds for other purpose.  The Mahama Government is most complicit in this.  They either knew or were a part of the schemes or they did not, which is even worse, because it was right under their nose, within their own Ministries.  Both Deputy Ministers of Finance Seth Terkper and Fifi Kwetey as well as the Central Bank Governor were all part of and are all still in this Government.  The Civil Service structure is still in place and they know what went down.  Former Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor is pretending he is out of Government and thus had nothing to do with anything, praying none ask him a question.  But we are going to go there, just as we are going to look at LESDEP, YESDEC, Beach Brigade and many other social protection schemes not accounted for.  And whilst I am here, let me say that there is also a ghc552million discrepancy in Government’s accounting that has not been explained.

The Obama Serenades

At Cape Coast,

we bowed our heads

in sorrow

and shame,

recalling the agonies

of our forebears…

the wicked complicity

of kinsmen

and sometimes

even parents…

 

At Cape Coast,

the ghoulish stench

of slavery

stared us

stiffly and

morbidly

in the face,

flaring up

our nostrils

to the wrenching

point of

hyperventilation…

Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jnr.