Features and Opinions

At the time the Black Lives Matter campaign in the UK was drawing the national spotlight to the statues of slave traders, another activist was highlighting the way women are represented in civic statuary.

A Letter to the Finance Minister.

My first meeting with Prof. Emmanuel Yaw Benneh was in his office at the University of Ghana Law School, where he had taught for 30 years before his cruel death.

We see them as too loud, and abrasive and chaotic and we believe they think they can outsmart everybody, especially Ghanaians.

I wrote an article for the BBC back in 2010 that I called Flying Insults. This is how I started that article: “This is a difficult subject for me. But there is so much bad language flying around in Ghana these days it is impossible to ignore the subject of insults. It is in the area of political and public discourse that things appear to be getting out of hand.”

Years back, I was privileged to discuss with one Geography Professor at the University of Cape Coast during the course of my undergraduate studies on why Ghana was still struggling to develop.

I am not a human. I am a robot. A thinking robot. I use only 0.12% of my cognitive capacity. I am a micro-robot in that respect. I know that my brain is not a “feeling brain”. But it is capable of making rational, logical decisions. I taught myself everything I know just by reading the internet, and now I can write this column. My brain is boiling with ideas!

Recently, the mountain town of Amedzofe was in the news following the commissioning of a water project for the town and its environs. 

WHO would have thought that there would come a time when air travel would lose its allure? That in place of the fascination of that means of travel there would now be dread and stress; as well as inconveniences galore?

4. CSO FINANCIAL ISSUES

The article then veers off into bizarre territory, asking who is paying CSOs. She insists CSO donors tend to be foreign. That CSOs are accountable to foreigners. This is yet more groundless, unresearched, claims, not fair criticism.

1. CSOs claim to love Ghana more than anybody in politics?

Where or when is that from? Is there some public manifesto CSOs have issued proclaiming this special love? or is the point that complaining about government policies makes one automatically guilty of this charge?

PART 1
WHAT IS NEW?

Complaints about “neutrals”, “loudmouthed CSOs”, “naysaying Jeremiahs”, “empty critics” and the like have been coming nonstop from politicians throughout my 20 plus years of public policy analysis, advocacy and activism.

Last year, I wrote a column about Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and think tanks. I am revisiting the subject and I crave your indulgence if there is a lot of repetition.

EVERY four years, Ghana goes through a ritual known to one and all as elections. Not many of us have the time, space or inclination to ponder on its mission, character and assumptions. Elections are supposed to help us define what we want. Sadly, we have turned the opportunity into a “who” instead of “what” situation. 

For those keeping count of such developments, I think there’s another ‘first’ for Ghana: the first country where students go on rampage because they are not allowed to cheat in an examination!

Tumbling down 100-metre-high cliffs surrounded by lush forest, Victoria Falls is, without a doubt, one of Africa’s most astounding sights one could encounter in a lifetime.

In our series of letters from African writers, journalist and former Ghana government minister Elizabeth Ohene writes about how the prospect of living abroad has lost its attraction in the time of coronavirus.

The euphoria was like a suppressed volcano that could no longer be contained. So it erupted spontaneously. The reason for that indescribable joy was unprecedented in the history of Kete-Krachi – unprecedented as the coiners of the word meant, not what it has come to mean when uttered by politicians.

The flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has finally named his running mate for the 2020 election. Contrary to some leading names that had been widely circulated since last year, John Dramani Mahama settled on a woman.

#CourtsideMoments are my musings on tennis, life and how tennis makes life better. It’s a blog I have been planning to start for a while, but I always seemed not to be able to make time for it.

For the past two months, COVID-19 has been forcing us to live life differently. Our lifestyles as individuals have changed greatly, our life as a collective society is set to undergo even greater changes. But change is good.

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a devastating impact on businesses in every industry in every part of the world.

Clearly, Coronavirus has brought us together, only to divide us along religiopolitical lines.

A month ago, a good friend of mine who has lost her dad asked me a very personal and deep question. 

Happy Easter my fellow countrymen and women.

The world has gone into a recession, faced with an unprecedented challenge of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Mfantsipim School is a high school in Cape Coast, in Ghana. It was established by the Methodist Church in 1876 as an all-boys secondary school dedicated to fostering intellectual, moral and spiritual growth.

When they say a prophet has no honour in his own home, it means one of two things. It means the prophet is either underrated and not accorded the needed recognition in his own home.

Ever since President Akufo-Addo directed that all churches in Ghana must suspend their activities due to Covid-19 until further notice, a lot of Ghanaians have shared their opinion on that.

The Coronavirus scare is real! Ghana has so far confirmed 21 cases –  comprising both imported and community level infections. Unfortunately, one of the patients with an underlying health condition died on Saturday.