The Emerging Security Threats and Ghana Special Forces (Part 2)

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Does Ghana Need Special Forces?
West Africa where Ghana is situated occupies a strategically important position as a major energy supplier to the global energy market. Unfortunately the region is fast gaining notoriety and as a hub of militancy, terrorism, piracy, arm smuggling and drug trafficking. The growing threat from these sources demands a clear cut response to deal with them so as to redeem the region from its impacts. Ghana as ECOWAS state is not immune from such threats.

There is enough evidence to suggest that drug cartels in Latin America have taken advantage of the poorly patrolled shorelines of West Africa using large mother ships to carry tonnes of cocaine and then station them on high seas. Afterwards they would use smaller boats to break them up for distribution to West African countries for onward shipment to Europe and America. Part of the evidence indicates that the cartels are moving major components of their operations to Ghana and other West African countries. This increasingly use of Ghana and West Africa by South American drug cartels poses serious existential threat to the security, peace and stability of the country and also to the entire sub region. Observers of the West African criminal networks have noted that the drug cartels are becoming bolder and sophisticated in their operations emboldened by large the profits they are making from the drug trade part of which has been used to acquire sophisticated weapons to protect their illegal activities.

In 2007 the UN published a report titled “Cocaine trafficking in West Africa: The threat to stability and development”. The report reiterated the need for serious human and material resources to be mobilised to confront the cartels and their operations and free Ghana and West Africa from the menace of the drug problem.

Writing in the African Security journal in 2009 on the threat narco-trafficking poses to Ghana and the West African subregion, Kwesi Aning, security expert at Kofi Annan Peace Keeping Centre in Ghana noted that:

“This [narco-trafficking] is the new frontier of war and an attack on West Africa’s fragile states. A threat that is more insidious and dangerous than the conflicts that engulfed West Africa in the 1990s and early twenty-first century. This is because the increasing flow of drugs through West African States is beginning to undermine the state, through weakening its institutions, its local communities, and its social fabric. Narco-incomes are replacing the legitimate incomes, and in some instances are providing services previously the responsibility of the states. Incomes from narcotics are basically distorting and undermining economies. The drug trade now forms a major part of transnational criminal activities taking place in West Africa. A whole sub-region now serves as a major transit point for illicit drugs coming mainly from South and Central America and Southeast and Southwest Asia to final destinations in South Africa, Europe, and North America. Critical transit points in Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, and Niger are witnessing an onslaught of drugs passing through their airports, harbors, and porous borders”.

Dr. Aning emphasised that the “narcotics poses a serious and veritable threat to West African states and threatens to undo all of the hesitant but positive steps that have occurred in the past decade”.

Examples worldwide including Mexico and Columbia indicate that regular armies are not capable of defeating the often sophisticated, well-funded and heavily armed drug cartels. The critical question is whether Ghana’s regular armed forces can defeat the cartels who are using Ghana as a base for their operations. The evidence is that it is unlikely. The sophisticated manner in which the cartels are operating demands that a specialised unit within the Ghana Navy, Army and Air Force be established and equipped with the capabilities and assets to confront them.

Terrorism is a global problem and many armed forces are reforming themselves to respond to its challenge. West Africa and the Sahel region are also increasingly becoming a hot bed for terrorism. There are reports that AQIM or Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has plans to export terrorism to Sub Sahara Africa. Nigeria has become the latest casualty.

Already the governments of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria have met to address the threat posed by terrorists. In January 2012 a similar meeting was held in Nouakchott by Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Nigeria. In Nigeria Boko Haram caught the Nigeria security forces unaware and it is fair to say that the armed forces and other security services struggled to mount a proper response to the Boko Haram challenge. The Federal government headed by Goodluck Jonathan came under serious criticism both home and abroad for not being able to deal with the Boko Haram threat. Part of the reason is that Nigeria armed forces appear not to have the specialised elite forces needed to deal with terrorism.

Documents we have seen indicate that Al Qaeda and its affiliates have big plans for the entire Sub Sahara Africa region including Ghana. Given the fact that no country is immune from terrorism a wait and see approach to the terror threat may not help Ghana in the long run. It will therefore be in order if Ghana gets itself prepared now to establish Special Forces within the Ghana Armed Forces for the purpose of confronting the global problem of terrorism.

Militancy in West Africa especially in oil producing countries is a major problem. Almost all the countries in Africa where oil is being produced have seen some kind of instabilities and warfare; from Angola, to Congo, to Ivory Coast to Libya, to Nigeria and Sudan the examples are many. Ghana being an emerging oil producing country, the threats of few disgruntled individuals taking up arms and causing upset in the country cannot be ruled out in the long term. Already there is clear indication that weapon proliferation in Ghana (which could make instability in the oil producing part of Ghana possible) is growing and will give the country enormous challenge if it is not dealt with.

Writing in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies Kwesi Aning of the Kofi Annan Centre noted in 2008 that:

“While Ghana is generally perceived as a stable state, there are enough small arms in circulation to be worrying. In addition, there is increasing anxiety that the instability that has engulfed the West African region can impact negatively on Ghana if concerted endeavours are not undertaken to understand and map its proliferation of small arms. Critical indicators of the proliferation of small arms in Ghana are the daily reports of firearms-related criminal activities in all parts of the country, and the widespread availability and misuse of small arms, particularly pump action guns, shotguns, pistols and AK47s.”

Now take these weapons and send it to Takoradi, give it to few disgruntled people in the region and we will have major problems similar to the petrodollar-insurgency in Nigeria. In short the availability of these weapons coupled with other factors has the potential to affect the security of oil and gas production, transportation and supply effort of the country.

Research conducted in Takoradi and its environs indicate that the ingredients that have fueled the petro-insurgency in the Niger Delta also exist in Western Region. In Nigeria the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and other ethnic militias has been behind many of the attacks on oil and gas pipelines and other installations in the country. These attacks have sometimes affected gas supply from Nigeria to Ghana. The problem is that Nigeria’s regular forces have not been able to defeat the militants, a problem that forced the government to finally declare amnesty for the militants which reduced attacks on oil and gas facilities. But signs have appeared that the militants have resumed their activities.

As Ghana’s oil production surges the threat of attacks on oil and gas installations must be taken serious. The threats by the youth in Jomoro that they will cause mayhem if the gas plant is not established in their district should not be taken lightly.

Hostage taking of oil and gas workers is a major appetite for criminal syndicates seeking to profit illegally from the oil and gas sectors. In many parts of the world it has been the duty of Special Forces to eliminate the threats posed by hostage takers and kidnappers. Unlike Nigeria, Ghana today has not gotten to the situation where oil and gas workers are kidnapped on the daily bases, but to prepare for that day will not be a wrong thing to do.

From what is known in Nigeria about the failures to deal decisively with the militants the best team that can adequately response to threats against oil and gas infrastructures may be a specially trained elite force.

Another potential threat to Ghana’s oil and gas production ambitions comes from Ivory Coast which has declared its intention to contest oil and gas resources at the Ghana-Ivorian border. While the Ivorian claims can be settled peacefully through negotiation, arbitration or cooperation, confrontation cannot be ruled out when dialogue fails. The role of Special Forces in any modern war is of so strategic value that it cannot be reduced to party politics. In other words oil and gas production and supply come with it security challenges that cannot be ignored by any serious energy producing country.

Another threat Ghana must prepare to deal with is the activities of pirates. The number of pirates’ activities off the coast of the Gulf of Guinea including Ghana and West Africa is growing. Major oil tankers and cargo ships carrying oil and raw materials from the Gulf of Guinea to U.S. and Europe have come under serious attacks from pirates. According to reports the pirates usually come with fast speed boats with sophisticated weapons, hijack ships, demand money and cart away its goods. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Live Piracy map and Live Piracy Report indicate that Gulf of Guinea in West Africa is one of the key zones where ships are increasingly under threat of being hijacked by pirates. The activities of pirates are increasingly threatening shipping routes, and trade in West Africa including Ghana. The pirates’ activities not only threaten the lives of crew but also put business and trade (the lifeblood of the resource export economies in West Africa including Ghana) under threat.

On February 9th, 2012 at 04am local time four robbers armed with long knives boarded an offshore tug berthing at the Takoradi Port, in Ghana stole goods from the ship’s stores. The robbers threatened the watchmen who were on duty with long knives and escaped in a canoe with their stolen goods. Although the crew was safe and no casualties were reported the attack itself speaks volume of the threat that oil and cargo ships operating in Ghana ports and coastal waters face. What worries many experts and industry leaders is that the pirates are attacking ships further and further away from the coast leaving ships, their cargo and their crews very much vulnerable.

There are reports that shipping insurers in London are beginning to increase premium for ships operating in West African coastal waters including Ghana. Other reports also speak of oil and shipping companies asking NATO and Western governments to provide them with security to eliminate the pirates’ threat in West Africa and the Horn of Africa. If the pirates’ activities is allowed unchecked it will endanger business and trade activities not only in Ghana but also in the entire subregion.

What is important so far as Ghana is concerned is its national security, economic security, political stability, international trade, and protection of human life. The growing threat from drug cartels, arms traffickers pirates, militants, and terrorists to the security of Ghana and its neighbours shows that it will be difficult for Ghana to confront these threats without adequately developing its own special forces to deal decisively with them.

The key problem in Ghana is for the ruling government not to politicise the establishment of such elite forces and issuing threats to the effect that such forces will be used to deal with the opposition parties. For as soon as such threats are issued it degrades the importance of such a strategic national asset and weakens its standing in the eyes of the public.

Therefore it is crucial that the generals and admirals in the Ghana Armed Forces adhere to the concept of military honour which stipulates that the professional soldier must be above politics meaning that, in domestic politics, generals and admirals should do well not to attach themselves to political parties or overtly display partisanship. Therefore as noted by Sam C. Sarkesian the doctrine of an impartial, nonpartisan, objective career service, loyally serving whatever administration or party that is in power must be religiously respected by the Armed Forces to avert a situation where one political party will be inclined to dissolve the Special Forces when they come to power.

Written by Lord Aikins Adusei
Email: politicalthinker1@yahoo.com
10/03/2012

References

Aning, Kwesi (2008) “From ‘voluntary’ to a ‘binding’ process: towards the securitisation of small arms” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 26:2, pp.169-181

Aning, Kwesi (2009) “Perspectives on President Barack Obama’s Africa Foreign Policy” African Security, 2:1, pp. 66-67

 

 

The Emerging Security Threats and Ghana Special Forces (Part 1)

 

By Lord Aikins Adusei

The participation of Ghana’s Special Forces in the country’s 55th Independence anniversary has ignited debate as first whether it is necessary for Special Forces to be created and second whether it was necessary for the force to be showcased the way it was. It is the belief of this author that per the traditional and non-traditional threats posed to the country and the West Africa sub region it is indeed prudent for such a force to be created. As to whether it was necessary for the force to be showcased the belief is that it depends on the function and role the special force is supposed to play.

What are Special Forces?
The development of Special Forces has a long history. Great Empires of history were built with armies that had Special Forces established in them. In the old Testament of the Holy Bible we are told in 1 Chronicle 11:10-15 and 1 Samuel 25:13; 27:2 that within King David’s regular soldiers of 400 to 600 men there were 30 elite men who helped him to establish and consolidate his monarchy. These 30 elite warriors which included Joab, Yashobeam, Eleazar, Shammah and Abishai are known in military vocabulary as David Heroes (or haggibborim in Hebrew). Colonel Yasotay, an officer in the army of Genghis Khan, the great Mongolian Emperor, is reported to have told General Khan that “when the hour of crisis comes, remember that 40 selected men can shake the world”. Colonel Yasotay was referring to how during missions of national strategic importance or during military campaign, a small but specially trained elite force could change the dynamics and outcome of a complex and difficult situation far beyond any physical measure of their capability.

Special Forces (SF) are smaller secret military units within a country’s armed forces which perform specific assignments in furtherance of the objectives of the state. According to Alastair Finlan, an expert in Strategic Studies at Aberystwyth University UK, Special Forces represent a different kind of soldier who can operate overtly and covertly, not only on the battlefield and behind enemy lines, but also – when necessary – undercover within civil society. Anna Simons and David Tucker both defence experts at the Department of Defense Analysis of the US Naval Postgraduate School, write that Special Forces comprise of specific units with a range of different, but sometimes overlapping capabilities. Sergio Miller, a BBC researcher, adds that Special Forces are silent warriors who combine minimum manpower demands with maximum possibilities of surprise to achieve the impossibilities. They are strategic assets to their militaries helping regular and irregular forces to achieve overwhelming advantage over the enemy.

Many modern armed forces have Special Forces that carry out special and daring missions on behalf of the nation. However, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in U.S. and the successes of Special Forces during the Afghan and Iraq wars, there have been renewed interest and substantial growth in the number of Special Forces worldwide. It is estimated that there are now more than 70 countries worldwide with their own Special Forces. Since 1948 the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has relied on three well known Special Forces including Sayeret, Shayetet 13, and Shaldag.

In the British Armed Forces, Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) are very popular units which carry covert and special operations around the world on behalf of the British government. In the United States Special Forces units fall under the command of U.S. Special Operational Command (USSOCOM) and include US Navy SEALs; US Army Special Forces units (popularly called the Green Berets), US Army Rangers, Special Mission Units, the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, Civil Affairs (CA), Psychological Operation forces (PSYOP); US Air Force special tactics teams and fixed wing and rotary wing air assets.

In the U.S. for example Special Forces have transitioned from a marginalised force structure to a prominent and vital part of the strategy of the U.S. military. Jennifer D. Kibbe, Olin Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, notes that Special Forces have become an increasingly important weapon not only in the U.S. military but also in the broader U.S. national security arsenal.

Matthew Johnson of Missouri State University, points out that the growing importance of Special Forces has made them the force of choice to confront a broad spectrum of irregular threats that dominate the current security environment. According to Steven Lambakis, an analyst at the National Institute for Public Policy in Fairfax, U.S.A., Special Forces have become the force of choice worldwide because they have the ability to perform at different levels of conflict, independently and in conjunction with larger operations. Sergio Miller points out that Special Forces “succeed because they do the undoable. . . Special forces, quite simply, are an army’s joker hand”.

Why are Special Forces established?
Special Forces are established for specific reasons. Alastair Finlan quoted above has observed that the imbalance between the British and German Air Forces during World War II forced Britain to establish the Special Air Service (SAS) which went ahead to use unconventional methods and techniques to alter the strategic situation in favour of the British forces. He adds that the SAS was formed “because it appeared to offer a cost- effective means of redressing the balance using men armed with high explosives dropped off near their targets by lorry or jeep”.

Special Forces are also established to respond to unexpected situations such as unexpected attacks by enemy forces, kidnapping and hostage taking by terrorists, pirates and militant groups. Anna Simons and David Tucker quoted above observe that the US Army Rangers for example specialises in seizing airfields while Special Mission Units train specifically for hostage rescue and anti terrorism missions.

Stanislaw Kulczynski, a Lieutenant Colonel at the Polish National Defense Academy, notes that the functions and roles play by Special Forces around the world include but not limited to the following: 1 Conducting intelligence and reconnaissance missions including obtaining the enemy’s latest equipment, armaments, military plans, and taking prisoners, and conducting surveillance, reconnaissance, patrol and other similar operations. 2 Engaging in missions to assist the combat operations of conventional forces; 3 Developing and conducting guerrilla warfare (training of a guerrilla force; organization, command, control and supervision of a guerrilla force); 4 Developing and conducting counter guerrilla operations; 5 Conducting diversion and sabotage including disruption of the enemy’s chain of command and of their supply lines; destruction of communication systems and impeding transport of enemy troops and materiel; 6 Conducting psychological operations including misinformation; creating an atmosphere of defeat, spreading chaos, panic and terror; 7 Conducting rescue operations including organizing escapes from captivity, rescuing hostages and prisoners of war; 8 Conducting anti-terrorist actions; 9 Training allied units.

From the various functions and roles performed by Special Forces it is relatively fair to say that Special Forces engage in two distinctively different but complementary kinds of combat mission: those involving direct action, and those in support of unconventional warfare including sabotage, penetrating into the enemy territories to gather intelligence and working behind the enemy lines and securing strategic infrastructures on behalf of the country during hostilities.

Some of the operations that Special Forces are known to have been involved in include anti-terrorist operations, rescue operations, intelligence and reconnaissance, diversion and sabotage, counter guerrilla operations, training allied units, interdictions operations and psychological operations.

Exploits of Special Forces
The following accounts give the achievements of Special Forces and explain why they are valued around the world. People who have been following the news in Nigeria from Thursday (08/03/2012) would notice that the UK Special Boat Service (SBS) was involved in the failed bid to free two men (Chris McManus 28 and Franco Lamolinara) who had been taken hostage by members of the Boko Haram in Nigeria.

In May 2011 the US Navy SEALs successfully killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and removed the threat posed by the Al Qaeda leader. In January 2012 members of the Navy SEALs, with support from regular armed forces, freed two hostages (Jessica Buchanan, 32, an American and Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, a Dane) in Somalia after killing about nine of the hostage takers.

During World War II German Special Forces were credited for the surprise taking of the impregnable Belgian fortress at Eben Emael.

In Operation Thunderball which took place on July 4, 1976, a 7 member team drawn from the Israeli Special Forces flew 2500 miles from Israel to Uganda and successfully rescued 105 hostages, killing 7 terrorists and 120 Ugandan soldiers in what has become known as the Entebbe raid.

Timothy Garden author of “Iraq: The Military Campaign” notes that during the Iraq war “Special Forces were deployed to secure key targets, provide intelligence and reconnaissance to optimize air strikes, and for traditional disruption tasks”. He adds that Western Iraq was secured mainly by Special Forces.

In the same Iraq war, Prof. Garden notes that the Australian military had 500 Special Forces operating in western and north-western Iraq. Their work helped to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction which Saddam was launching towards Israel. They also helped to secure Al Isad, the second largest airfield in Iraq. The British Special Air Service (SAS) also helped to secure Basra and the oil fields in the south of Iraq. In Afghanistan Special Forces played strategic role not only in toppling the Taliban but also in disorganizing the Al Qaeda terrorist network which saw its leaders fleeing to Pakistan for cover.

Alastair Finlan quoted above notes that the UK SAS played a key role in the Falklands war between Argentina and Britain in 1982. He adds that within fifteen months of its formation in 1941 the SAS destroyed between 250–400 enemy aircrafts on the ground in addition to other targets of opportunity.

The Special Forces demonstrated the viability of conducting operations behind enemy lines through parachute deployments which by 1944 included the means to drop all-important vehicles such as jeeps to preserve the vital mobility element that had proved so successful in North Africa and Italy. One SAS officer is reported to have said that “It was not our numbers but our ideas which made a big difference”.

Sayeret, Shayetet 13, and Shaldag of Israel played key role in helping Israel win the three wars she fought with her Arab neighbours including the independence war in 1948, the Six Day war in1967 and the Yom Kupur War in1973.

By whatever margin Special Forces have indeed become the weapon of choice, an indispensable arsenal not only to wrought havoc within the camp of the enemy but also to remove any threat such enemies might pose. Ohad Leslau of Israel’s Haifa University argues that Special Forces have the potential to play a distinct role, but can also complement the primary military effort. Leslau adds that Special Forces can be a decisive force, and “should therefore be considered a central element in strategic planning”.

Written by Lord Aikins Adusei
Email: politicalthinker1@yahoo.com
10/03/2012

Reference

Finlan, Alastair (2009) ‘The (Arrested) Development of UK Special Forces and the Global War on Terror’ Review of International Studies vol 35 pp.971–982

Simons, Anna and Tucker, David (2010) “United States special operations forces and the war on terrorism” Small Wars & Insurgencies, 14:1, pp.77-91

Kibbe, Jennifer D. (2007) “Covert Action and the Pentagon,” Intelligence and National Security, 22/1 pp. 57-74

Garden, Timothy (2003) “Iraq: The Military Campaign” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944- ), Vol. 79, No. 4 pp. 701-718

 

 

Unemployment, Poverty and Inequality: A threat to the stability of Ghana?

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Ghana faces several security challenges including growing influence of drug cartels, weapons proliferation, shipping piracy, climate change, and spill over effect of terrorism, and militancy from neighbouring countries. These threats were acknowledged when the Chiefs of the Ghana Armed Forces recently held a seminar for junior officers and senior non-commissioned officers at the Jungle Warfare School at Achiase in the Eastern Region (see The Ghanaian Chronicle report headlined ‘GAF meets on terrorism threat’10th April, 2012). It is believed that these security threats led to the formation of the Special Forces within the Ghana Armed Forces.

However, there is one very critical yet hidden security threat that often does not get audience in policy circles but which has the potential to affect the long term peace, security and stability of Ghana. I am referring to the huge unemployment, poverty, and inequality in the country.

It is fair to say that Ghanaian governments both past and present have shown a disproportionate lack of understanding of the security implications of having a large army of people who are poor, unemployed and marginalised in the country. Many policymakers in Ghana including members of Parliament, the Executive and top bureaucrats of the various ministries and departments do not consider poverty, unemployment and inequality as major security problem and policies have often tended to scratch the surface of these problems rather than getting to the bottom.

Officially nobody knows how many Ghanaians are unemployed, not even the Ghana Statistical Service or the Employment Ministry can tell. In his presentation of the unprecedented and phenomenal achievements in the recently released “NDC Forum for Setting the Records Straight” Mr. Fiifi Kwetey, Deputy Minister of Finance could not tell how many Ghanaians are unemployed except to say that:

“… [The] levels of unemployment admittedly continue to be relatively still high and require a lot more efforts. There are no quick fixes though but the age-old need to continue to work hard to achieve faster expansion and growth of the economy which would open up more employment opportunities”.

That is how far Mr. Fiifi Kwetey could go. He could not specifically tell how high the unemployment situation is. However, what is true is that many Ghanaians especially the youth who are looking for jobs and are willing to work cannot find any. This truth is exemplified by the recent formation of the Unemployed Graduates Association (UGA).

While many of the youth have had access to secondary and tertiary education, the expanded access to education has not correspondingly given rise to expanded economic opportunities and job creation. Unofficially unemployment in the country is estimated to hover between 25 and 50% and is even higher as one move from the south to the north of the country. Apart from this high unemployment rate, available data indicate that nearly 30% of Ghanaians still live within the high poverty zone (i.e. less than $2 a day). Yet another unpalatable story is that the gap between the rich and the poor continues to widen in the country with some people living in gated communities while others can barely eat two meals a day.

This chronic poverty is being experienced in Ghana in spite of the fact that since the 1990s the nation has received and continues to receive record amount of money in the form of loans, grants and revenue from export of gold, diamond, cocoa, timber, and recently oil. Nobody can really tell how the record amount of money has been utilised but a closer look at the country’s balance sheet indicates that it has simply been mismanaged, stolen or squandered by the elites in authority.

From what we can see in the streets of Accra, Koforidua, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale, Tema, etc with children as young as 10 years selling dog chains, ice water, etc and sleeping in kiosks and in front of stores, it is obvious that not much of the financial and material wealth being generated in the country has trickled down to the majority of the people especially the growing youthful population. The great number of young men and women selling anything they can find in order to make a living also show that a great number of the population is being denied their share of the national cake.

Unfortunately, in spite of the obvious poverty and unemployment in the country, statements, comments and language used by the politicians, policymakers and top bureaucrats in the country do not reflect the reality on the ground. The kind of actions, policies, programmes and urgency required to tame these problems have been ineffective to say the least. The policymakers continue to ignore or downplay the fact that unemployment, poverty and inequality are serious issues that need to be aggressively addressed.

The end result is that Ghana is slowly becoming a high crime state. Evidence is beginning to emerge which suggest that for some of the unemployed, excluded, marginalised and the poverty stricken members in Ghana violence and crime have become the only means through which they can make a living. These crimes include internet scam, fraud, drug and human trafficking, burglary and armed robbery.

Over the last couple of weeks armed robberies and crimes involving the use of guns and other offensive weapons have been on the increase. A police officer Corporal Ernest Acheampong was recently killed by armed robbers in Kasoa during a shootout with armed robbers. Another police officer Lance Corporal Iddi Braimah was also shot dead on Tuesday 10th April 2012 during a shootout between suspected car snatchers and the police. On that same day (i.e. Tuesday 10 April 2012) Andrew Mayer, a Zimbabwean investor was also killed in Juapong in the Volta Region, prompting President Mills to issue a statement condemning his murder. Nii Kwaku Obibini II, the late chief of Oblogo was short dead on 8th April 2012 and then butchered with machetes by his assailants.

A broader picture begins to emerge if we connect all these dots of crimes together. One part of the picture shows that serious crimes are being committed in almost all parts of the country. Another part of the picture also shows that criminals are becoming bolder and more willing to use deadly force and violence to achieve their objectives. Yet another side of the picture shows that guns have increasingly become the weapon of choice by the criminals in the country.

In 2005 Emmanuel Addo Sowatey, a researcher at the African Security Dialogue and Research in Accra, Ghana observed that about 100,000 guns are been produced illegally in Ghana every year. It is believed that some of these guns are being used to commit crimes in Ghana and also fuelling the conflicts and instability in northern Ghana.

A recent paper authored by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in conjunction with the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and titled “Governance and Security in Ghana: the Dagbon Chieftaincy Crisis” noted that:

“Ghana is generally described as an oasis of stability in a region that appears to be ravaged by intertribal and cross-border conflicts. However, Ghana too has experienced ethnic and communal conflicts, especially in its three northern regions (the Northern, the Upper West and the Upper East). The state of security and stability of these regions is deteriorating at an alarming rate due to the resurgence ethno-political misunderstandings since 1992”.

The authors found that the protracted conflicts in Northern Regions have stubbornly persisted partly because “There is a lack of a systematic structural and operational strategy that can transform the socio-economic conditions of the citizens of Northern Ghana”. Thus while other factors (including chieftaincy disputes and politics) have played a part in the conflicts, violence and instabilities in Bawku, Bimbila, Kpatinga, Wa, Yendi, etc the conflicts have been exacerbated by the high level of poverty, unemployment, inequality and a population that is increasingly youthful.

According to Mr. Bomahe-Naa Alhassan Issahaku Amadu, Regional Population Officer for Northern Region, out of the over 1.8million total population in the Northern Region, the youth aged below 15 years form about 850,000, representing 46.3 percent. The figure goes up greatly when those between the ages of 16 and 24 are added. With this huge youthful population, couple with high unemployment, poverty, low literacy rate and flow of weapons, it is no surprising that the three Northern Regions remain volatile and restless despite effort to bring sanity there. The easiness with which one can obtain guns in Ghana coupled with a youthful population that are poor and without employment pose security threat to the peace and stability of the country.

In 2011 a study in Northern Ghana by Kees van der Geest of University of Amsterdam, found that poverty, unemployment and lack of economic opportunity are acting as a push factor with one in every five people born in northern Ghana opting to move to the south with out-migration rates being significantly higher in poorly endowed districts. The large number of people from the three northern regions escaping unemployment, poverty, economic and social deprivations and working in cities in the south as kayayos and street vendors is an indication of how unemployment, poverty and inequality are acting as a driving force in the conflicts.

The ongoing biometric voter registration exercise and the tensions, disturbances and violence that have come to be associated with it in cities in the south indicate that the threat pose by unemployment, poverty and inequality is not restricted only the north.

The growing militarisation and weaponisation of the ongoing voter-registration exercise with a section of the youth brandishing guns, machetes, pick axe, and stones are rooted in the deep poverty and of lack of employment and economic opportunities for these boys. These acts of hooliganism and of lawlessness are a sign of a ticking timed-bomb waiting to explode sooner or later.

Registration centres in some parts of the country look like war zones with people pulling guns and heavily built men (macho men) going round registration centres and terrorizing registrants. In one registration centre a 12 year old boy was short and seriously wounded by an NDC party agent. The militarisation and weaponisation of the registration have prompted some observers to ask critical questions as to how a mere registration exercise could result in violence but what they have failed to appreciate is that with poverty, unemployment and inequality spreading like wildfire, every state exercise is an opportunity for some to make money by extracting concession from the politicians and political parties.

The growing unemployment, poverty and inequality in the country are not only socio-economic problem but also a threat to the peace, stability and security of the country but the country cannot solve the huge unemployment problem with weak economic policies based on ideologies that say government must only create the enabling environment for the private sector. Ghanaian leaders and policymakers have find it difficult to admit that the private sector touted under Rawlings and Kuffour administrations as the engine of growth has failed woefully to grow and create jobs. The Structural Adjustment Programme undertaken by Rawlings with the privatisation of state owned enterprises gave rise to few jobs being created.

While the NPP’s “Golden Age of Business” built on the foundation laid by Rawlings and led to growth in some sectors particularly in finance and insurance, these sectors could not generate the needed jobs to close the unemployment gap. Kuffour toured all over the world horning Ghana’s stability and favourable political climate to foreign investors. But they refused to come. Nobody knows why. President Mills is also doing the same but little can be shown for it in terms of job creation.

The private sector is extremely weak to absorb the huge unemployment youth in the country. The government must stop the ‘creating of enabling environment’ hymn and seriously look for ways in which it can directly enter into the economy and make contribution. In other words there must be a deliberate effort by government to develop and implement industrial policies and programmes and build factories that will absorb the restless youth. Some will call this an affront to free market and capitalism but it is difficult to find a single country in the world where the government does not directly own or support businesses. Every year countries in the European Union, most of them champions of free market, provide $30 billion to support their farmers. Most of their production is dumped in countries like Ghana.

Ghana faces a real security threat and challenge now and in the near future if nothing is done to address the huge unemployment, poverty and inequality in the cities and also in the rural areas. The government of Ghana cannot be aloof to the growing unemployment, poverty, and inequality in the country because they are the ingredients of crimes, social chaos, conflicts and instabilities.

By Lord Aikins Adusei. The author is an independent Energy and Security Analyst and the author of ‘The Emerging Security Threats and Ghana Special Forces’. politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

Positive Activism: The missing ingredient in Ghana’s development process

 

By Lord Aikins Adusei

In 2007 Prof. Joseph Stiglitz a leading U.S. Economist observed that at independence, Ghana was far ahead of Malaysia in terms of economic development. Malaysia was considered one of the poorest countries in the world with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of about 5 per cent below that of Ghana. But today, Malaysia’s income is 7.8 times that of Ghana. Dr. Michael Tagoe of the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education, University of Ghana, notes that while Ghana is crawling at the bottom of the global growth league table, Malaysia is in the top tier, with China, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Pastor Mensah Otabil adds sadly that since 1966 Ghana as country has been majoring on the minor issues and minoring on the major and critical issues leading to a situation where the nation has stagnated if not retrogressed. The question many Ghanaians keep asking is: Why has Ghana fallen terribly behind her Asian counterparts? A short answer to this question is what I have termed the lack of Positive Activism. I will explain later.

One peculiar thing about Ghanaians is that each one likes to complain to him or herself and each one likes to murmur and suffer in silence. They do not protest when government and state institutions do not perform their duties. They do not mobilise themselves to demand that government, state institutions and people acting in Ghana’s name deliver first class services to them.

For decades the Electricity and Water Companies have provided and continue to provide 15th century power and water services to Ghanaians and yet the people do not complain. Port officials at Tema and Takoradi take bribe from importers and exporters yet they do not complain. Timber Companies are raping forest and destroying farm lands in Western Region and the people do not complain. . There are villages whose water supply sources have been polluted by unscrupulous mining firms yet the people do not complain. There are communities that lack proper sanitation yet they do not mobilise to complain. Police officers take bribe from drivers on the daily bais yet the drivers do not complain.

Pensioners are forced to hand over 5% of their end of service benefits to corrupt accountants working at the various ministries and departments before their monies are paid to them. It is a common knowledge that the Ministry of Finance is full of people who are virtually sabotaging Ghana’s development and preventing it to move forward. You really need to be an insider of the Finance Ministry to appreciate the gargantuan corruption and daylight robbery that has resulted in the impoverishment and underdevelopment of Ghana.

Many Ghanaians think the 500 billion cedis Woyome judgment debt and collusion and connivance of officials of the Finance and Justice ministries is the first time such people have been involved in a grand strategy to dupe the nation. Hundreds of billions of cedis that could have enabled Ghana to build fast train network, world class roads and be at par with the likes of Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong are siphoned off on a monthly basis through the connivance of officials working at the Ministry of Finance, Revenue Authority, Audit Service and the Controller and Accountant Generals’ Department.

The accountants working in the various state ministries and departments have teamed up with those working in the Ministry of Finance to dupe the nation of hundreds of billions of cedis meant to build roads, schools, hospitals and improve the living standards of all Ghanaians. There are projects that have been implemented on paper and payments made yet these projects cannot be found on the ground. There is an unspoken culture of corruption at the Ministry of Finance.

Chapter 20 of the1992 Constitution of Ghana titled ‘Decentralization and Local Government’ advocates financial decentralization in the country to ensure that functions, powers, responsibilities and resources are at all times transferred from the Central Government to local government units in a coordinated manner yet few oligarchs/Accra Mafia working at the Ministry of Finance are thwarting the Local Government agenda, preferring to centralise financial resources at the ministry and depriving local communities the resources they need to improve their lives. If I am to write about it, it will require volumes of books.

Ghanaians, yes I mean Ghanaians working at the Revenue Authority and the Audit Service have colluded with companies in Ghana (both local and foreign owned) to avoid paying taxes that could go to help provide clean water and healthcare to all Ghanaians.

Ghanaians like to talk about Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and Korea and many of the youth are struggling to go there in search of greener pastures, but the record show that there is no way these countries could have reached their level of development if few people working in the ports, finance ministry have been allowed to steal and sabotage the country.

There are people who have virtually built corrupt empires in the ministries and have succeeded in bringing Ghana on its knees. The irony is that no one cares. The people of Ghana do not care. The members of civil society do not care. The media do not care. And the politicians? Well they are part of the problem. Because of lack of positive activism the country is paralysed by corruption, incompetence, mismanagement and poverty.

Much of the reason why Ghana has not broken away with poverty, unemployment and inequality is that the people appear to accept the poor governance and corruption handed to them by politicians and state bureaucrats. The Positive Activism that put politicians and state bureaucrats in Thailand, India, Singapore and Malaysia on their toes and force them to deliver good quality services has been absent in Ghana.

Positive Activism (i.e. refusing to suffer in silence and letting your voice heard through protest, votes and other citizen actions) has not been part of the Ghanaian people and their culture. Positive Activism means insisting that what is due to you be given to you without paying bribe to corrupt officials. It means that when people refuse to mobilise themselves against their rulers, against injustices, against corruption they [the people] are taken for granted and suffer. Positive Activism also means that politicians, directors and top bureaucrats are able to get away with what they steal when people refuse to demand accountability from them. This is exactly why many Ghanaians still struggle with having access to water and electricity.

Since February 2012 Ghanaians have had to make do with poor electricity supply. The Electricity Company of Ghana frequently cut off power supply to households and businesses without prior warning and do not apologise or explain why it had to cut power supply yet all that the people can do is to sit in their homes and murmur. The consumers have not been able to mobilise themselves to put pressure on the ECG to improve service and to change. This culture of suffering in silence is the reason for Ghana’s socio-economic quagmire where 55 years after independence not a single of the country’s many problems has completely been solved.

Tema and Takoradi Harbours are synonymous to corruption. Courtesy Anas Aremeyaw Anas we all know what is going on at the Tema and Takoradi harbours. We all know the difficulties exporters and importers have to go through, and the millions of cedis that they have to pay as bribe to get their goods imported or exported. Although the directors at Takoradi and Tema Harbours and their workers are paid to do the work they are doing yet they and their subordinates demand huge money from importers before goods are allowed to leave the port.

There are various levels that an importer has to go through before his or her goods are allowed to leave the port and at each level money must change hands before the green light is given. These are facts. Talk to any importer and you get same answer of having to pay bribe in order to get their goods cleared. Even when they pay the bribes the goods will still not be allowed to leave the port until further sums are paid. Delay tactics is the major weapon employed by the officials at the port and it seems to be working pretty well for them as frustrated importers part with millions of cedis just to clear their goods. But their lack of activism is always to blame.

Why have these importers not organised themselves and protest against these thieves and nation wreckers? Instead of protesting against these officials at the port for them to change their corrupt activities these importers prefer to suffer in silence and then pass on the bribe they pay to consumers in the form of higher commodity prices. Since I was born more than decades ago I cannot recall a day or a year in which prices of things imported or produced locally have ever gone down.

During Christmas festivities businesses cash in on the people through higher price increases even though the occasion is supposed to be in celebration of the birth of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. In Europe: United Kingdom and Sweden where I have much information about their business practices it is very common to see prices of goods including mobile phones, computers, laptops, TVs, cars etc being slashed sometimes half of its original price. But you will never find such price reduction in Ghana even though these goods are imported from these countries. The reason is that importers have to always prepare for the bribe they pay for their goods which can vary according to their bargaining strengths and negotiation skills with the bribe takers at the ports. Their lack of self awareness, activism spirit and their preparedness to suffer in silence have ensured that ordinary Ghanaians pay higher prices for goods whose prices may have fallen considerably in the country of production.

You may think that the lack of positive activism is only with importers. Since the Junior Secondary School programme was implemented in the 1980s there have been several cases where students in a whole district have scored 0% (zero percent) and yet no one has ever being made to account for such failures. Every year the results obtained by about 150,000 students are so poor that they cannot continue their education to secondary schools and many of the students end up selling dog chains in Accra and Kumasi. Yet the parents of these young students have never joined forces together to demand explanation from schools and government officials responsible for education.

In Ghana the police and especially the MTTU are notoriously corrupt despite effort by government to improve their working condition. Drivers both taxi and trotro (mini bus operators) pay several hundreds of cedis to corrupt police officers who mount unauthorised road block to pursue their private interest. Despite the fact that the activities of the police and the MTTU are a hindrance to the work of the drivers, the drivers have not been able to organise themselves against the nefarious activities of the police.

The recent biometric voter registration exercise has exposed the police institution as the bidder of whichever party is in power. Instead of maintaining professionalism, independence, and integrity the police officers used by the politicians to arrest people and political opponents and detain them instead of joining the people to demand accountability and improvement in the general well being of the people. They would rather support the corrupt politicians to embezzle state funds at the expense of the people. The irony is that the police officers are aware of the difficulties the ordinary Ghanaian is going through yet they are always in bed with the corrupt politicians who see no reason to improve the condition of the people.

If Ghanaians are ever going to have better standard of living, and taste the goods people in the West take for granted clean water, uninterrupted power supply, fast speed train system, good quality health service etc then the people themselves must be active not only politically but socially and economically. They must let their influence be felt by actively getting involved in political process, engage in peaceful demonstrations, strikes, sick leaves, sit ins. They must put fear in politicians by voting for independent candidates like what happened in Benin when they elected an independent candidate as president. The government in Ghana must fear the people and not the other way round.

By Lord Aikins Adusei
politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

NDC and NPP must stop underdeveloping Ghana

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Since the attempt by first president Dr. Nkrumah to industrialise Ghana and his demise in 1966, no genuine attempt has been made by successive leaders to transform and industrialise Ghana. Successive leaders (particularly those that belong to the NDC and NPP political tradition) who came after Nkrumah have all worked for their own interest to the neglect of the country and its people. Instead of visionary ideas, positive transformative thinking, strategic and long term policies and programmes, and better skills of state-crafting that will transform Ghana into an industrial powerhouse, all that Ghanaians have witnessed since 1966 and particularly since 1992 has been insults, corruption, mismanagement and waste.

While countries that gained independence with Ghana in the same period including Korea (1945), Malaysia (31 August 1957), Singapore (9 August 1965), are proudly exporting durable goods like ships, mobile phones, computers, television (LG, Samsung), cars (Hyundai, Daewoo), solar panels, washing machines, microwaves, blenders, toasters, air-conditions, bicycles, baby-carriers and other smart technologies, Ghana is still majoring in minor things: KVIP, importing used clothes and exporting cocoa beans, cashew nut etc.

While Koreans, Malaysians, Taiwanese and Singaporeans are sending satellites to the earth’s orbit to boost telecommunication, improve national security and enhance weather forecasting, Ghana is still struggling to feed itself with constant food donations from Japan and United States. Additionally, while South Korea and Taiwan are launching ballistic and cruise missiles and building war ships and other strategic weapon systems to protect the territorial integrity of their countries, Ghana is busy importing all kinds of throw-away electronic waste from Europe and America, leaving the country’s borders and coastal waters poorly protected.

After 55 years of independence, Ghana’s economy is still structurally weak and deficient. It is heavily dependent on export of few raw materials: cocoa, gold, timber and crude oil with little or no value addition making it vulnerable to the price volatilities that characterise raw material export.

Sadly the nation does not own the resources in the country. It is shocking to learn that Ghana owns just about 5% of Ashanti Gold with majority of the shares in foreign hands. It is also shocking to know that Ghana’s share in the much talked about oil is not more than 20%. What is clear is that the leaders in Ghana have not placed the development and control of the fundamental instruments of wealth and power in the hands of Ghanaians but rather foreigners. Ghana too is a country that produces gold yet there is no gold refinery and every gold product in the country is imported from desert-stricken Dubai. Ghana produces crude oil for export yet Tema Oil Refinery has to import crude oil to refine.

One would ask what at all is the problem with NDC and NPP leaders? Is no one among them nationalistic and visionary enough to see the harm being done to the country and its people and therefore to plead the nation’s cause?

Ghana with its more than 20 million people and abundant hydrocarbon resources has a total electricity generation capacity of 2185 megawatts, while Singapore with her population of about 4.6 million people and no hydrocarbons has a total electricity generation capacity of more than 8919 megawatts. Singapore with its population of about 4.6 million people has five oil refineries processing more than 1.3 million barrels of oil a day while Ghana with its population of more than 20 million has only one oil refinery (Tema Oil Refinery) processing not more than 50,000 barrels of oil a day. The last time I checked TOR was struggling to maintain letter of credit to import oil for processing, thanks to the mismanagement and the corruption of its leaders.

Thanks to the blind management of the TOR, there is information that TOR has now been turned into oil storage facility because it cannot raise the money to import crude for processing. When Nkrumah contracted the Italian firm AGIP to build TOR in 1963 his hope was that subsequent leaders would build on it and expand it to make the nation less vulnerable to energy shocks but today TOR is falling apart, thanks to the NDC and NPP leadership and TOR management team.

Ghana is still at the bottom of the world’s progressive economies–thanks to the corrupt political system, the dysfunctional educational system and the corrupt and visionless political and technocratic leadership that stopped thinking many decades ago. The leaders in Ghana have sold and surrendered the sovereignty of Ghana to the World Bank and the IMF and are desperate to please them even at the peril of the state. Ghanaian leaders cannot do anything without seeking permission from the IMF and the World Bank and yet they say Ghana is a sovereign country. Recently President Mills celebrated the fact the IMF had given he and his government permission to secure $3 billion loan facility from China. Can you imagine a leader of a sovereign nation celebrating because a manipulative organisation somewhere has given him permission to contract loan that his people will be the one to pay?

The leaders in Ghana have placed all their hope in the IMF and the World Bank and have refused to learn or even think. Instead of moving closer to the Asia and learn from them Ghanaian leaders prefer to align themselves with the manipulative Bretton Wood institutions whose toxic economic medicines and conditional loans are part of Ghana’s underdevelopment and socio-economic backwardness.

Meanwhile instead of treating technological backwardness, inferior industrial export, poverty, unemployment, social and economic inequality as their sworn enemy, the political parties and their politicians especially the NDC and NPP continue to insult one another leaving critical issues unaddressed with the gullible voters unable to differentiate the wheat from the chaff. Instead of unifying the country and mobilising all the people and natural resources for Ghana’s total development, the NDC and NPP politicians prefer to tear one another with the most despicable and unprintable words they can ever find.

As for NDC it is very difficult to pinpoint what policies and programmes they have and what kind of strategy they have and which direction they want to move Ghana to. Everything they do or say is full of propaganda and not the things that will make Ghana move forward. To put it plainly the NDC are a bunch of parasites and vampires whose leaders continue to drain Ghana of its resources while doing nothing to help the country. I am being particularly harsh on NDC because of what its leaders have done to Ghana.

A book entitled “The Politics of Government-Business Relations in Ghana, 1982-2008” published in 2010 and authored by Darko Kwabena Opoku has documented how in the 1990s the NDC leadership and their cronies used Ghana to secure loans, sold hundreds of state owned enterprises to themselves and refused to pay the state and also squandered the money that was paid. The Chapter Six of the book headlined “The Changing Face of Ghanaian Business: The Rise of P/NDC Stalwarts” has a long list of NDC gurus who have moved from rags to riches by scandalously acquiring properties built by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. They include the Ahwoi brothers (Kwamena, Kwesi, Ato), Kwame Peprah, Peter Peprah, Tsatsu Tsikata, Kojo Tsikata, Fui Tsikata, Vincent Assiseh, P. V. Obeng, Agyemang Konadu, Ebo Tawiah, Kofi Totobi Kwakye, Edward Addo, Augustus Tanoh, etc. Paragraphs on pages 147 and 149 of the book read:

“…The Ahwoi brothers (Kwamena, Kwesi, Ato), who were key figures in the PNDC and later the NDC, were among the first NDC stalwarts to enter private business. Unlike many others, their business activities were quite open. Prior to entering politics, all three were civil servants with no business background. Widely said to have received a state-guaranteed loan of $30 million as starting capital, they steadily built an economic empire. This included a waste disposal business that enjoyed a profitable contract with the AMA; a hotel near their hometown in the Central Region; and a haulage company called Comstrans. A confidential interviewee revealed that they had also acquired large tracts of land, hoping to invest in real estate” (p.147).

“…Tsatsu Tsikata, Rawlings’ closest aide, who held a long and unaccountable stewardship of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) also tried, unsuccessfully, to conceal his business interests and vast fortune. In 1994, the government wrote off $124.7 million owed by the GNPC (World Bank, 1995). Finance minister Kwesi Botchwey questioned Tsikata’s judgment and his handling of GNPC finances and resigned partly in disgust over Rawlings’ apparent tolerance of this. Tsikata was convicted and served time for the embattled GNPC’s debt, totaling several hundred million dollars. Just as Mrs. Rawlings used the DWM as her personal vehicle, so Tsikata used the GNPC, effectively personally controlling the GNPC’s 20 percent share in Westel, a telecommunications company” (p.149).

These are the people who have prevented Ghana from becoming the likes of Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. After 55 years of independence Ghanaian women and men still wash their clothes with their hands, carry goods on their heads while the women still carry their babies on their back in the scotching sun. Does it mean that Ghana cannot build common baby-carriers to relieve the nursing mothers from this unnecessary burden and punishment?

Thanks to the visionless leadership Ghana is now a dumping site for cheap foreign goods. Everything in the country is now imported including those that it has the ability to produce. Ghanaian leaders are in love with V8 and other expensive four wheel drive vehicles that cannot even be found in Japan and Germany yet they will not develop and implement policies and programmes that will enable Ghana to produce some herself.

The NDC and NPP leadership must think like Dr. Nkrumah and put the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians first for the betterment of all her citizens.

Lord Aikins Adusei politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

 

 

NDC and NPP must stop underdeveloping Ghana

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Since the attempt by first president Dr. Nkrumah to industrialise Ghana and his demise in 1966, no genuine attempt has been made by successive leaders to transform and industrialise Ghana. Successive leaders (particularly those that belong to the NDC and NPP political tradition) who came after Nkrumah have all worked for their own interest to the neglect of the country and its people. Instead of visionary ideas, positive transformative thinking, strategic and long term policies and programmes, and better skills of state-crafting that will transform Ghana into an industrial powerhouse, all that Ghanaians have witnessed since 1966 and particularly since 1992 has been insults, corruption, mismanagement and waste.

While countries that gained independence with Ghana in the same period including Korea (1945), Malaysia (31 August 1957), Singapore (9 August 1965), are proudly exporting durable goods like ships, mobile phones, computers, television (LG, Samsung), cars (Hyundai, Daewoo), solar panels, washing machines, microwaves, blenders, toasters, air-conditions, bicycles, baby-carriers and other smart technologies, Ghana is still majoring in minor things: KVIP, importing used clothes and exporting cocoa beans, cashew nut etc.

While Koreans, Malaysians, Taiwanese and Singaporeans are sending satellites to the earth’s orbit to boost telecommunication, improve national security and enhance weather forecasting, Ghana is still struggling to feed itself with constant food donations from Japan and United States. Additionally, while South Korea and Taiwan are launching ballistic and cruise missiles and building war ships and other strategic weapon systems to protect the territorial integrity of their countries, Ghana is busy importing all kinds of throw-away electronic waste from Europe and America, leaving the country’s borders and coastal waters poorly protected.

After 55 years of independence, Ghana’s economy is still structurally weak and deficient. It is heavily dependent on export of few raw materials: cocoa, gold, timber and crude oil with little or no value addition making it vulnerable to the price volatilities that characterise raw material export.

Sadly the nation does not own the resources in the country. It is shocking to learn that Ghana owns just about 5% of Ashanti Gold with majority of the shares in foreign hands. It is also shocking to know that Ghana’s share in the much talked about oil is not more than 20%. What is clear is that the leaders in Ghana have not placed the development and control of the fundamental instruments of wealth and power in the hands of Ghanaians but rather foreigners. Ghana too is a country that produces gold yet there is no gold refinery and every gold product in the country is imported from desert-stricken Dubai. Ghana produces crude oil for export yet Tema Oil Refinery has to import crude oil to refine.

One would ask what at all is the problem with NDC and NPP leaders? Is no one among them nationalistic and visionary enough to see the harm being done to the country and its people and therefore to plead the nation’s cause?

Ghana with its more than 20 million people and abundant hydrocarbon resources has a total electricity generation capacity of 2185 megawatts, while Singapore with her population of about 4.6 million people and no hydrocarbons has a total electricity generation capacity of more than 8919 megawatts. Singapore with its population of about 4.6 million people has five oil refineries processing more than 1.3 million barrels of oil a day while Ghana with its population of more than 20 million has only one oil refinery (Tema Oil Refinery) processing not more than 50,000 barrels of oil a day. The last time I checked TOR was struggling to maintain letter of credit to import oil for processing, thanks to the mismanagement and the corruption of its leaders.

Thanks to the blind management of the TOR, there is information that TOR has now been turned into oil storage facility because it cannot raise the money to import crude for processing. When Nkrumah contracted the Italian firm AGIP to build TOR in 1963 his hope was that subsequent leaders would build on it and expand it to make the nation less vulnerable to energy shocks but today TOR is falling apart, thanks to the NDC and NPP leadership and TOR management team.

Ghana is still at the bottom of the world’s progressive economies–thanks to the corrupt political system, the dysfunctional educational system and the corrupt and visionless political and technocratic leadership that stopped thinking many decades ago. The leaders in Ghana have sold and surrendered the sovereignty of Ghana to the World Bank and the IMF and are desperate to please them even at the peril of the state. Ghanaian leaders cannot do anything without seeking permission from the IMF and the World Bank and yet they say Ghana is a sovereign country. Recently President Mills celebrated the fact the IMF had given he and his government permission to secure $3 billion loan facility from China. Can you imagine a leader of a sovereign nation celebrating because a manipulative organisation somewhere has given him permission to contract loan that his people will be the one to pay?

The leaders in Ghana have placed all their hope in the IMF and the World Bank and have refused to learn or even think. Instead of moving closer to the Asia and learn from them Ghanaian leaders prefer to align themselves with the manipulative Bretton Wood institutions whose toxic economic medicines and conditional loans are part of Ghana’s underdevelopment and socio-economic backwardness.

Meanwhile instead of treating technological backwardness, inferior industrial export, poverty, unemployment, social and economic inequality as their sworn enemy, the political parties and their politicians especially the NDC and NPP continue to insult one another leaving critical issues unaddressed with the gullible voters unable to differentiate the wheat from the chaff. Instead of unifying the country and mobilising all the people and natural resources for Ghana’s total development, the NDC and NPP politicians prefer to tear one another with the most despicable and unprintable words they can ever find.

As for NDC it is very difficult to pinpoint what policies and programmes they have and what kind of strategy they have and which direction they want to move Ghana to. Everything they do or say is full of propaganda and not the things that will make Ghana move forward. To put it plainly the NDC are a bunch of parasites and vampires whose leaders continue to drain Ghana of its resources while doing nothing to help the country. I am being particularly harsh on NDC because of what its leaders have done to Ghana.

A book entitled “The Politics of Government-Business Relations in Ghana, 1982-2008” published in 2010 and authored by Darko Kwabena Opoku has documented how in the 1990s the NDC leadership and their cronies used Ghana to secure loans, sold hundreds of state owned enterprises to themselves and refused to pay the state and also squandered the money that was paid. The Chapter Six of the book headlined “The Changing Face of Ghanaian Business: The Rise of P/NDC Stalwarts” has a long list of NDC gurus who have moved from rags to riches by scandalously acquiring properties built by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. They include the Ahwoi brothers (Kwamena, Kwesi, Ato), Kwame Peprah, Peter Peprah, Tsatsu Tsikata, Kojo Tsikata, Fui Tsikata, Vincent Assiseh, P. V. Obeng, Agyemang Konadu, Ebo Tawiah, Kofi Totobi Kwakye, Edward Addo, Augustus Tanoh, etc. Paragraphs on pages 147 and 149 of the book read:

“…The Ahwoi brothers (Kwamena, Kwesi, Ato), who were key figures in the PNDC and later the NDC, were among the first NDC stalwarts to enter private business. Unlike many others, their business activities were quite open. Prior to entering politics, all three were civil servants with no business background. Widely said to have received a state-guaranteed loan of $30 million as starting capital, they steadily built an economic empire. This included a waste disposal business that enjoyed a profitable contract with the AMA; a hotel near their hometown in the Central Region; and a haulage company called Comstrans. A confidential interviewee revealed that they had also acquired large tracts of land, hoping to invest in real estate” (p.147).

“…Tsatsu Tsikata, Rawlings’ closest aide, who held a long and unaccountable stewardship of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) also tried, unsuccessfully, to conceal his business interests and vast fortune. In 1994, the government wrote off $124.7 million owed by the GNPC (World Bank, 1995). Finance minister Kwesi Botchwey questioned Tsikata’s judgment and his handling of GNPC finances and resigned partly in disgust over Rawlings’ apparent tolerance of this. Tsikata was convicted and served time for the embattled GNPC’s debt, totaling several hundred million dollars. Just as Mrs. Rawlings used the DWM as her personal vehicle, so Tsikata used the GNPC, effectively personally controlling the GNPC’s 20 percent share in Westel, a telecommunications company” (p.149).

These are the people who have prevented Ghana from becoming the likes of Singapore, Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia. After 55 years of independence Ghanaian women and men still wash their clothes with their hands, carry goods on their heads while the women still carry their babies on their back in the scotching sun. Does it mean that Ghana cannot build common baby-carriers to relieve the nursing mothers from this unnecessary burden and punishment?

Thanks to the visionless leadership Ghana is now a dumping site for cheap foreign goods. Everything in the country is now imported including those that it has the ability to produce. Ghanaian leaders are in love with V8 and other expensive four wheel drive vehicles that cannot even be found in Japan and Germany yet they will not develop and implement policies and programmes that will enable Ghana to produce some herself.

The NDC and NPP leadership must think like Dr. Nkrumah and put the interest of Ghana and Ghanaians first for the betterment of all her citizens.

Lord Aikins Adusei politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

 

 

Energy Security and the Future of Ghana

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Ghana is tipped as one of the countries in Africa that is likely to pull itself out of the socio-economic doldrums and to emerge as economic powerhouse in this 21st century. Several factors work in Ghana’s favour including political stability, investor-friendly climate, abundant business opportunities, robust judicial system, as well as well educated class (human resource). However these favourable conditions would not help Ghana to industrialise or break into the global league of higher economic achievers without sufficient, adequate, reliable and sustainable supply of energy. History shows that no nation has ever developed, industrialised or joined the global league of progressive economies without adequate, reliable and affordable supplies of energy. Put differently countries that have achieved industrialisation and have done away with poverty did so by placing higher priority on Energy Security.

The recent developments in Ghana’s energy sector (with frequent power outages, disruptions and blackouts) indicate that unless Ghana takes critical and urgent steps to strengthen the development and use of local energy resources, invest, build and expand energy infrastructures and to secure enough energy resources abroad, it may lose the plot to build a stronger economy. Indeed Ghana’s emergence as a serious economic powerhouse either now or in the future is dependent on her Energy Security.

What does Energy Security mean?
In the words of Dr. Barry Barton Energy Security means “a condition in which a nation and all, or most, of its citizens and businesses have access to sufficient energy resources at reasonable prices for the foreseeable future free from serious risk of major disruption of service”. The European Commission refers to Energy Security as “the ability to ensure that future essential energy needs can be met, both by means of adequate domestic resources worked under economically acceptable conditions or maintained as strategic reserves, and by calling upon accessible and stable external sources supplemented where appropriate by strategic stocks”.

In practical terms Energy Security means securing adequate supply of energy resources (gas, oil, hydro, biofuel, solar, wind) both home and abroad to meet both short and long term demand. It involves not only the production of oil, gas, hydro but also safe transportation and distribution of the energy products to consumers. It involves not only protecting say the gas pipelines coming from Nigeria to Ghana but also oil and gas tankers, oil and gas stations, refineries, oil rigs, sealanes, transportation corridors, power lines, power stations, transformers, cables and other critical infrastructures through which energy is delivered.

Energy Security implies identifying and dealing with all the short term and long term threats, risks, vulnerabilities, crises and costs associated with energy supply and demand and working to either minimise or completely eliminate them. Energy Security also includes maintaining regular investment to expand energy infrastructures to keep up with growing demand and to deliver timely energy to all sectors of the economy. Not only that, Energy Security also means that the workers (management and technical staff) working at various locations within the energy chain also need protection from kidnappers and other criminals. Additionally, the investors that put their money into the development of energy resources and critical energy infrastructures need to have their investments protected i.e. the political and economic environment must be stable. Energy Security is also means managing the demand side energy.

Why is Energy Security important for Ghana?
Energy Security is essential for Ghana for many reasons. From security point of view, to maintain peace, security, stability and territorial integrity of the country at all times the Armed Forces need fuel to power its ships, boats, aircrafts, armoured vehicles, communication systems and other ground, air and sea operations. The police and other security agencies also need regular supply of fuel to maintain law and order. Indeed serious problems of insecurity would occur including armed robberies and carjacking if the police cannot fuel their vehicles to patrol the country. More importantly most of the modern equipments used by armed forces and other security agencies are such that without reliable energy supply it will be difficult to operate them.

Similarly the Fire Service will be rendered irrelevant during fire accidents if they cannot fuel their vehicles to locations where its services are needed. The barracks and the military bases hosting the men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces, Police, Immigration and Prisons all need fuel to keep them operational at all time. This suggests that Energy Security is closely bound up with the physical security and indeed national security of Ghana. Without adequate and reliable supply of energy to the Armed Forces they may find it very difficult if not impossible to police the coastal waters and keep drug cartels, pirates, illegal fishing vessels from violating the territorial integrity of Ghana.

From economic point of view, critical and strategic economic infrastructures such as Tema and Takoradi harbours, the Kotoka International Airport and other airports and airfields in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale are heavily dependent on energy. The communication installations in these locations need constant supply of energy (electricity) to keep them operational. The oil, gas and mining operations at Takoradi, Obuasi, Prestea, Tarkwa, Akwatia and other locations also rely heavily on energy. Likewise the operations of VALCO, GHACEM, AshGold, real estate and other construction companies also require adequate and uninterrupted supply of energy.

Recent studies indicate that investors have gained serious confidence in the Ghanaian economy and many of them wishing to invest in the growing oil and gas sectors in West Africa are using Ghana as a base for their operations. On November 7, 2011 a paper published in the Oil & Gas Journal noted that a number of foreign and local companies (including the London-based investment group Lonrho) have indicated their preparedness to invest and “provide Ghana with a world class backbone of transport and logistical infrastructure, investing in new ports, logistical support centers, and engineering facilities for the offshore industry”. This is a very positive development, the problem however is that these investment overtures would come to naught if reliable and affordable energy supply cannot be guaranteed.

The operations of major financial and banking institutions including the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Bank of Ghana, commercial banks and their ATM systems rely on regular supply of energy. Indeed the Akosombo Dam and Thermal Plants in Takoradi, Tema, and Asogli all need power to generate the electricity they produce. Transportation of people as well the production, distribution and marketing of food, medicines and other goods in the country cannot be possible if the transport sector cannot be supplied with adequate and sufficient supply of diesel and gasoline at affordable prices.

Linked to the point above is the fact that the operations of key institutions of the state i.e. ministries and departments in the country including Defence, Energy, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Interior cannot go on smoothly without a guaranteed supply of energy. Again the activities of major organs of government including Parliament and the Judiciary depend on reliable supply of electricity. Health institutions such as the Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye, and Tamale Teaching Hospitals and other Regional and District Hospitals, polyclinics, and their infrastructures e.g. X-rays, incubators and other life-saving equipments are energy dependent. Educational institutions including universities, polytechnics, secondary schools, nursing and teachers training colleges and libraries cannot operate fully when the security of supply is interrupted.

Households’ thermal comfort, their security, safety, education, health, social life, and economic fortunes would negatively be affected without access to regular, adequate, reliable and affordable supply of energy at all times. The above issues explain why Energy Security is so critical for Ghana.

Energy Security: the situation in Ghana
The recent nationwide blackouts and frequent power outages and load shedding signal the deep problems existing in the energy sector. Energy generation has not kept up with demand. While demand in the country is growing by 10 to 15 percent annually, supply is well below demand. Experts believe that Ghana needs about 5000 megawatts of energy to keep up with soaring demand and to achieve full middle income status. Unfortunately energy generation capacity in the country is lower than 2200 megawatts.

A number of factors including neglect, poor management, monopoly and underinvestment in infrastructure have led to supply fallen behind demand, creating the huge supply deficit. The deficit has in turn created huge pressure on existing infrastructures. To add insults to injury most of the critical infrastructures used by VRA, GRIDCo and ECG are obsolete and need replacement. But the inability of the companies to replace them due to weak financial position has resulted in huge load pressure causing system failures which are partly responsible for the nationwide blackouts recently experienced in the country.

Though government intends to increase generation capacity to 5000 megawatts by 2015 it is unlikely that the target would be met given financial challenges facing VRA. According to Dr. Imoro Braimah of Department of Planning-KNUST without increased investments in the power sector, total electricity generation capacity will be only about 2,665 MW by 2015, leaving a deficit of about 46.7%.

Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) the only refinery in Ghana is plagued with a number of problems that make it unable to import and process crude oil to keep up with demand. TOR’s processing capacity has barely exceeded its initial capacity since its establishment in 1963 by Dr. Nkrumah. This is hardly any good picture for a country hoping to reach full middle income status. Besides, climate change is seriously altering the amount of rainfall available to generate power from the Akosombo Dam leading to supply disruptions.

The general insecurity in Nigeria and pirates’ activities in the Gulf of Guinea also poses serious challenges to Energy Security aspirations of Ghana. For example in the past the gas pipelines coming from Nigeria to Ghana have been attacked by the Niger Delta militants fighting for resource control in Nigeria. In the first quarter of the 2012, Ghana was exposed to serious load shedding when gas imports from Nigeria were disrupted. The disruptions in Nigeria and the intense load shedding that followed in Ghana highlighted how vulnerable Ghana is. This vulnerability may worsen unless the insecurity and disruptions in Nigeria stop.

Similarly ships and oil tankers carrying crude oil to Ghana to be refined at the Tema Oil Refinery have to meander through the pirates’ infested waters of the Gulf of Guinea raising security concerns about crude oil import into the country. The pirates-militants-terrorists nexus in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea have serious consequences particularly for Energy Security ambitions of Ghana. There are fears that the dreaded Boko Haram terror group may one day turn its attention to oil and gas infrastructures in Nigeria. If that happens to the West Africa Gas Pipeline it would cripple the already weakened energy production capacities in the Nigeria. Ghana would suffer greatly if the security of these infrastructures is breached. Ghana also imports some of her electricity from neighbouring Ivory Coast but given the insecurity in that country relying on energy from there is also problematic.

The economic cost of these blackouts and disruptions run into several hundreds of million of cedis annually. It increases cost of production, and cuts down profits, thereby preventing the companies to expand in order to create jobs. Recently the Association of Ghana Industries ranked energy supply insecurity and disruptions as number one of the 13 major problems facing its members.

What must Ghana do?
So what must Ghana do? If Ghana wants to maintain the momentum in economic growth then it needs to critically look at energy security more comprehensively. First the surest path towards achieving Energy Security is through diversification of both energy mix and energy sources. The energy mix (oil, gas, hydro, thermal, solar, wind, biofuel etc) and energy sources (Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Libya) is a major strategy towards achieving Energy Security. Ghana has a lot of energy potentials herself including gas, solar, wind, hydro and biofuel. If these energy potentials are developed it could make her energy independent/self-sufficient. What is needed is leadership, robust energy policy and the political will to raise the needed funds to develop the local energy resources.

Second the Tema Oil Refinery, GNPC, VRA, GRIDCo, and ECG need to be reformed and restructured to improve efficiency and best industry practice in their operations. To improve Energy Security, further market liberalisation and robust regulatory designs are needed in the power generation, transmission and distribution sectors. The monopoly enjoyed by VRA, GRIDCo, ECG and NED needs to be broken up to allow more independent power producers, distributors and private investors the opportunity to own energy infrastructures and to give consumers wider choices. Third, there must be a determined effort to invest in efficient fuel technologies to reduce waste and losses at production, transmission and consumption levels. Fourth, more cooperation is also needed between Ghana and countries supplying energy to her particularly Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Fifth the Armed Forces particularly the Navy and the Air Force must be strengthened to increase patrol and surveillance to protect gas pipelines, oil rigs, and oil and gas tankers carrying energy to Ghana. This will help to remove the threat pirates and criminals pose to the country’s Energy Security ambitions.

By Lord Aikins Adusei. The author is an Independent Energy and Security Analyst (politicalthinker1@yahoo.com)

Energy Security and the Future of Ghana

By Lord Aikins Adusei

Ghana is tipped as one of the countries in Africa that is likely to pull itself out of the socio-economic doldrums and to emerge as economic powerhouse in this 21st century. Several factors work in Ghana’s favour including political stability, investor-friendly climate, abundant business opportunities, robust judicial system, as well as well educated class (human resource). However these favourable conditions would not help Ghana to industrialise or break into the global league of higher economic achievers without sufficient, adequate, reliable and sustainable supply of energy. History shows that no nation has ever developed, industrialised or joined the global league of progressive economies without adequate, reliable and affordable supplies of energy. Put differently countries that have achieved industrialisation and have done away with poverty did so by placing higher priority on Energy Security.

The recent developments in Ghana’s energy sector (with frequent power outages, disruptions and blackouts) indicate that unless Ghana takes critical and urgent steps to strengthen the development and use of local energy resources, invest, build and expand energy infrastructures and to secure enough energy resources abroad, it may lose the plot to build a stronger economy. Indeed Ghana’s emergence as a serious economic powerhouse either now or in the future is dependent on her Energy Security.

What does Energy Security mean?
In the words of Dr. Barry Barton Energy Security means “a condition in which a nation and all, or most, of its citizens and businesses have access to sufficient energy resources at reasonable prices for the foreseeable future free from serious risk of major disruption of service”. The European Commission refers to Energy Security as “the ability to ensure that future essential energy needs can be met, both by means of adequate domestic resources worked under economically acceptable conditions or maintained as strategic reserves, and by calling upon accessible and stable external sources supplemented where appropriate by strategic stocks”.

In practical terms Energy Security means securing adequate supply of energy resources (gas, oil, hydro, biofuel, solar, wind) both home and abroad to meet both short and long term demand. It involves not only the production of oil, gas, hydro but also safe transportation and distribution of the energy products to consumers. It involves not only protecting say the gas pipelines coming from Nigeria to Ghana but also oil and gas tankers, oil and gas stations, refineries, oil rigs, sealanes, transportation corridors, power lines, power stations, transformers, cables and other critical infrastructures through which energy is delivered.

Energy Security implies identifying and dealing with all the short term and long term threats, risks, vulnerabilities, crises and costs associated with energy supply and demand and working to either minimise or completely eliminate them. Energy Security also includes maintaining regular investment to expand energy infrastructures to keep up with growing demand and to deliver timely energy to all sectors of the economy. Not only that, Energy Security also means that the workers (management and technical staff) working at various locations within the energy chain also need protection from kidnappers and other criminals. Additionally, the investors that put their money into the development of energy resources and critical energy infrastructures need to have their investments protected i.e. the political and economic environment must be stable. Energy Security is also means managing the demand side energy.

Why is Energy Security important for Ghana?
Energy Security is essential for Ghana for many reasons. From security point of view, to maintain peace, security, stability and territorial integrity of the country at all times the Armed Forces need fuel to power its ships, boats, aircrafts, armoured vehicles, communication systems and other ground, air and sea operations. The police and other security agencies also need regular supply of fuel to maintain law and order. Indeed serious problems of insecurity would occur including armed robberies and carjacking if the police cannot fuel their vehicles to patrol the country. More importantly most of the modern equipments used by armed forces and other security agencies are such that without reliable energy supply it will be difficult to operate them.

Similarly the Fire Service will be rendered irrelevant during fire accidents if they cannot fuel their vehicles to locations where its services are needed. The barracks and the military bases hosting the men and women of the Ghana Armed Forces, Police, Immigration and Prisons all need fuel to keep them operational at all time. This suggests that Energy Security is closely bound up with the physical security and indeed national security of Ghana. Without adequate and reliable supply of energy to the Armed Forces they may find it very difficult if not impossible to police the coastal waters and keep drug cartels, pirates, illegal fishing vessels from violating the territorial integrity of Ghana.

From economic point of view, critical and strategic economic infrastructures such as Tema and Takoradi harbours, the Kotoka International Airport and other airports and airfields in Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale are heavily dependent on energy. The communication installations in these locations need constant supply of energy (electricity) to keep them operational. The oil, gas and mining operations at Takoradi, Obuasi, Prestea, Tarkwa, Akwatia and other locations also rely heavily on energy. Likewise the operations of VALCO, GHACEM, AshGold, real estate and other construction companies also require adequate and uninterrupted supply of energy.

Recent studies indicate that investors have gained serious confidence in the Ghanaian economy and many of them wishing to invest in the growing oil and gas sectors in West Africa are using Ghana as a base for their operations. On November 7, 2011 a paper published in the Oil & Gas Journal noted that a number of foreign and local companies (including the London-based investment group Lonrho) have indicated their preparedness to invest and “provide Ghana with a world class backbone of transport and logistical infrastructure, investing in new ports, logistical support centers, and engineering facilities for the offshore industry”. This is a very positive development, the problem however is that these investment overtures would come to naught if reliable and affordable energy supply cannot be guaranteed.

The operations of major financial and banking institutions including the Ghana Stock Exchange, the Bank of Ghana, commercial banks and their ATM systems rely on regular supply of energy. Indeed the Akosombo Dam and Thermal Plants in Takoradi, Tema, and Asogli all need power to generate the electricity they produce. Transportation of people as well the production, distribution and marketing of food, medicines and other goods in the country cannot be possible if the transport sector cannot be supplied with adequate and sufficient supply of diesel and gasoline at affordable prices.

Linked to the point above is the fact that the operations of key institutions of the state i.e. ministries and departments in the country including Defence, Energy, Finance, Foreign Affairs and Interior cannot go on smoothly without a guaranteed supply of energy. Again the activities of major organs of government including Parliament and the Judiciary depend on reliable supply of electricity. Health institutions such as the Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye, and Tamale Teaching Hospitals and other Regional and District Hospitals, polyclinics, and their infrastructures e.g. X-rays, incubators and other life-saving equipments are energy dependent. Educational institutions including universities, polytechnics, secondary schools, nursing and teachers training colleges and libraries cannot operate fully when the security of supply is interrupted.

Households’ thermal comfort, their security, safety, education, health, social life, and economic fortunes would negatively be affected without access to regular, adequate, reliable and affordable supply of energy at all times. The above issues explain why Energy Security is so critical for Ghana.

Energy Security: the situation in Ghana
The recent nationwide blackouts and frequent power outages and load shedding signal the deep problems existing in the energy sector. Energy generation has not kept up with demand. While demand in the country is growing by 10 to 15 percent annually, supply is well below demand. Experts believe that Ghana needs about 5000 megawatts of energy to keep up with soaring demand and to achieve full middle income status. Unfortunately energy generation capacity in the country is lower than 2200 megawatts.

A number of factors including neglect, poor management, monopoly and underinvestment in infrastructure have led to supply fallen behind demand, creating the huge supply deficit. The deficit has in turn created huge pressure on existing infrastructures. To add insults to injury most of the critical infrastructures used by VRA, GRIDCo and ECG are obsolete and need replacement. But the inability of the companies to replace them due to weak financial position has resulted in huge load pressure causing system failures which are partly responsible for the nationwide blackouts recently experienced in the country.

Though government intends to increase generation capacity to 5000 megawatts by 2015 it is unlikely that the target would be met given financial challenges facing VRA. According to Dr. Imoro Braimah of Department of Planning-KNUST without increased investments in the power sector, total electricity generation capacity will be only about 2,665 MW by 2015, leaving a deficit of about 46.7%.

Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) the only refinery in Ghana is plagued with a number of problems that make it unable to import and process crude oil to keep up with demand. TOR’s processing capacity has barely exceeded its initial capacity since its establishment in 1963 by Dr. Nkrumah. This is hardly any good picture for a country hoping to reach full middle income status. Besides, climate change is seriously altering the amount of rainfall available to generate power from the Akosombo Dam leading to supply disruptions.

The general insecurity in Nigeria and pirates’ activities in the Gulf of Guinea also poses serious challenges to Energy Security aspirations of Ghana. For example in the past the gas pipelines coming from Nigeria to Ghana have been attacked by the Niger Delta militants fighting for resource control in Nigeria. In the first quarter of the 2012, Ghana was exposed to serious load shedding when gas imports from Nigeria were disrupted. The disruptions in Nigeria and the intense load shedding that followed in Ghana highlighted how vulnerable Ghana is. This vulnerability may worsen unless the insecurity and disruptions in Nigeria stop.

Similarly ships and oil tankers carrying crude oil to Ghana to be refined at the Tema Oil Refinery have to meander through the pirates’ infested waters of the Gulf of Guinea raising security concerns about crude oil import into the country. The pirates-militants-terrorists nexus in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea have serious consequences particularly for Energy Security ambitions of Ghana. There are fears that the dreaded Boko Haram terror group may one day turn its attention to oil and gas infrastructures in Nigeria. If that happens to the West Africa Gas Pipeline it would cripple the already weakened energy production capacities in the Nigeria. Ghana would suffer greatly if the security of these infrastructures is breached. Ghana also imports some of her electricity from neighbouring Ivory Coast but given the insecurity in that country relying on energy from there is also problematic.

The economic cost of these blackouts and disruptions run into several hundreds of million of cedis annually. It increases cost of production, and cuts down profits, thereby preventing the companies to expand in order to create jobs. Recently the Association of Ghana Industries ranked energy supply insecurity and disruptions as number one of the 13 major problems facing its members.

What must Ghana do?
So what must Ghana do? If Ghana wants to maintain the momentum in economic growth then it needs to critically look at energy security more comprehensively. First the surest path towards achieving Energy Security is through diversification of both energy mix and energy sources. The energy mix (oil, gas, hydro, thermal, solar, wind, biofuel etc) and energy sources (Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Libya) is a major strategy towards achieving Energy Security. Ghana has a lot of energy potentials herself including gas, solar, wind, hydro and biofuel. If these energy potentials are developed it could make her energy independent/self-sufficient. What is needed is leadership, robust energy policy and the political will to raise the needed funds to develop the local energy resources.

Second the Tema Oil Refinery, GNPC, VRA, GRIDCo, and ECG need to be reformed and restructured to improve efficiency and best industry practice in their operations. To improve Energy Security, further market liberalisation and robust regulatory designs are needed in the power generation, transmission and distribution sectors. The monopoly enjoyed by VRA, GRIDCo, ECG and NED needs to be broken up to allow more independent power producers, distributors and private investors the opportunity to own energy infrastructures and to give consumers wider choices. Third, there must be a determined effort to invest in efficient fuel technologies to reduce waste and losses at production, transmission and consumption levels. Fourth, more cooperation is also needed between Ghana and countries supplying energy to her particularly Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Fifth the Armed Forces particularly the Navy and the Air Force must be strengthened to increase patrol and surveillance to protect gas pipelines, oil rigs, and oil and gas tankers carrying energy to Ghana. This will help to remove the threat pirates and criminals pose to the country’s Energy Security ambitions.

By Lord Aikins Adusei. The author is an Independent Energy and Security Analyst (politicalthinker1@yahoo.com)

Africa’s military must be a force for stability, peace, prosperity and positive change

A reflection of the role of the army in the past

The Arab Uprising in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya as well as the recent deadly civil war in Ivory Coast have shown the paradoxes within the Africa military establishment. The uprising and wars have brought to the fore how the military in Africa could be a force for peace, stability and prosperity and at the same time a force for destabilization, chaos, mayhem and destruction. In Egypt the army won the respect of not only Egyptians but also the entire world when they refused to slaughter their countrymen in their thousands. They realised that it would be sensible for Hosni Mubarak and his sons to leave the throne of power rather than butcher thousands of their own people. However, in Libya and Ivory Coast the army chose to side with the powers that be and subjected their own people to extreme brutalities. When the military in Africa is critically examined not too many positive things can be associated with it.

The role of the military everywhere, Africa included, is not to rule but to secure the democratic institutions; protect the territorial integrity of their nations; and prevent outside predators from preying them.

Unfortunately in Africa the armies have ignored their traditional mandate of safeguarding the territorial integrity of their nations and have adopted positions that have been detrimental to Africa’s development and progress. Like the German army that raped, tortured and killed six million Jews in the 1940s, the armies in Africa have been associated with extreme barbarity, massacre, rape, torture, genocide, summary executions, economic sabotage, infringement of civil liberty, dictatorship, corruption, pillage, force imprisonment, social havoc, brute force, political instability, usurpation of constitutions, reversal of democratic values including the overthrow of constitutionally elected governments.

According to Patrick J. McGowan of the Arizona State University, between January 1956 and December 2001 the African military carried out more than 80 successful coups, another 108 failed coups, and 139 attempted and reported coup plots.

It is difficult to find a single country in Africa where the armed forces and the security institutions have not had excesses against the country and the civilian population. From Algeria to Zimbabwe, the militaries in Africa have become a destabilising force preventing Africa from catching up with the rest of the world. In South Africa and Namibia where apartheid was brutally and religiously enforced for by the white minority government, the armed forces were the enforcing power. The genocide that took place in Rwanda in 1994 which resulted in the death of some 800,000 people could not have taken place without the strategic involvement of the armed forces. The horrors of the Biafra war in which tens of thousands of Nigerians especially Igbos died was made possible by the incursion of the military into civilian rule.

Throughout the continent the military sees itself as alternative to civilian rule, a wrong notion that has had profound and devastated impact on Africa’s development and progress.

Immediately after independence many of the armies in Africa joined forces with American and European intelligence agencies to forcefully overthrow governments that they were mandated to protect. Throughout the 1960s,1970s, 1980s and even 1990s the armies in Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Central African Republic, Somalia, DRC and Algeria among others took their countries hostage and reversed decades of economic, social and political progress. In Ghana despite the massive economic and social infrastructural projects carried out by Kwame Nkrumah’s government the military connived with Western imperialists and abruptly stopped Nkrumah’s effort to industrialise the country. In the process they helped to reverse the many successes that were chalked under Nkrumah’s presidency. Ghana today is still struggling to attain a middle income status while her contemporaries like South Korea and Malaysia enjoy one of the best standards of living in the world.

Since Egypt became a republic in 1953 the army has been in power most of the time with Gen Hosni Mubarak in charge for 30 years until the people’s revolution swept him aside in 2011. During his 30 year reign Egypt, its leadership and its institutions became more corrupt, and inequality between the people and the ruling elite and their cronies widened exponentially. In the early years of her independence the Egyptian army adhered to its original role and fought aggressively against British, French and Israeli invasion but after Mubarak came to power the army as they have done everywhere on the continent, increasingly turned its attention to its citizens treating them as if though they were an invasion force. Although there appears to be a revolution in Egypt that effectively ended the dictatorship of Mubarak, but a closer look at the country suggests that there has not been any revolution at all. The army headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, a longtime ally of Mubarak is still in charge. There are reports that the number of civilians tried in military courts has increased under the supposed revolution and that the army is unwilling to relinquish power which is a clear indication that the army still have a disregard for democracy and civil institutions.

The Nigerian armed forces have done more harm than good to their country. The harm which begun in January 1966 ushered in a period of brutalities, assassinations, coups, counter coups, civil war, official corruption, human right violation, economic decline, and impunity that the country has still not recovered from. Dubbed Africa’s sleeping giant because of her economic and political potential, Nigeria is often ridiculed in international circles and is now considered a failed state thanks to the role of its military. Since independence in 1960 there have been six major coups in the country with most of the country’s 50 years of independence being ruled by corrupt military dictators. By metamorphosing and constituting itself into civil and political power and entrenching corruption and impunity the armed forces of Nigeria helped to lay the foundation for what has become a hopeless and desperate security situation in the country. Since oil was discovered, the armed forces have backed corrupt multinational corporations like Royal Shell that are destroying Nigeria’s environment and endangering the livelihoods of millions of people in the Niger Delta region. The threat of the military taking over power was heightened when Omaru Yar’Dua died and even the current administration lives in fear of the armed forces as is indicated by a recent speech by Nigeria’s vice President. In the speech he pleaded with the army to respect the constitution and remain loyal to the government.

Col Al Gaddafi of Libya toiled for 42 years to develop Libya into the Switzerland of Africa but used seven months to destroy what he painstakingly helped to build. Despite the good works he did in Africa he also supervised a government based on terror, fear, intimidation, torture, imprisonment, assassinations, terrorism and killings. In the spring of 2011 the Libyan army under the command of Gaddafi and his sons were in fact ready to slaughter their own citizens in order to maintain their grip on power until they were crashed by the rebels but not until 25,000 Libyans have been sacrificed. In Ivory Coast, Gen Robert Gay and Laurent Gbagbo both used the military to achieve their political ambitions and succeeded in plunging one of Africa’s successful economies into civil war that killed about 3000 people and shattered the economic successes of the country.

The security forces in the Horn of Africa remain one of the feared armies on the continent. Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Isaiah Afeweki of Eritrea and their security architecture continue to engage in wars, kidnapping, assassination, torture and imprisonment of people critical of their regime. Many Eritreans and Ethiopians are freeing their countries in their thousands to escape the brutalities of the forces. In Cameroon the feared military unit called Jean Damme has been used by Paul Biya to intimidate and terrorise the civilian population rather than protecting them from the dictatorship of Biya.

Uganda’s Iddi Amin and his henchmen seized power and begun deporting Asian business owners destroyed the country’s economy. Museve’s 25 year dictatorship has not helped to place the country on the path of economic prosperity, social cohesion and cultural advancement. In Ethiopia Mengistu and his army officers succeeded in turning the country into a country of hunger, famine and total destitution. The sad story of Somalia where a brutal civil war is still ongoing was the making of Siad Barre and his military dictatorship that begun in 1969 and ended in 1991.

The military in Togo and Guinea have had their faire share of the atrocities suffered by Africa and her citizens. The military in both countries have engaged in repression, massacre, corruption, and reversal of freedoms. In Guinea for example Lansana Conte and his bunch of military officers ruled the country as their personal fiefdom for more than two decades and succeeded in reducing the country to a beggar state despite being rich in gold, bauxite and other minerals. In September 2009 the Captain Moussa Camara military government that took over power when Lansana Conte died succeeded in shooting, stabbing, assaulting, raping women and massacring 157 innocent members of their own population. The New York Times describes Guinea as a “lush coastal nation of 10 million, rich in minerals and tropical fruits”. The country is “dark at night from lack of electricity, has known harsh dictators and army shooting sprees in its 51 years of independence”. In Togo also Gen Eyadema retarded the country’s development for 32 years until his death in 2005. The army quickly installed his son as his successor to ensure that the legacy of corruption of the father continues.

Gen Mobutu Sese Seku’s Zaire (now DRC) suffered the same fate as any of the African countries mentioned above. Backed by his country’s armed forces, the United States and her European allies, Gen Mobutu made poverty and corruption one of the entrenched symbols of his country. For 32 years he led the armed forces to turn their guns on Zairians killing as many as he could and stealing billions of dollars worth of DRC assets and stacking them in American and European banks. The DRC army has been accused of rape, extortion of money from civilians and killing them. The DRC armed forces are considered one of the most indisciplined armies in the whole of Africa. Since the late 1990s more than five million Congolese have perished in the hands of the military, the various rebel groups, and Rwanda and Uganda armed forces.

The brutal and dictatorial regimes of Blaise Campore of Burkina Faso, Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia, Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea, Dos Santos of Angola, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Republic; their abysmal economic performance; and the inability of the people to raise their voice have been made possible through their alliance with the military who have been used as war dogs to pounce on the populace and deny them economic, political, social and cultural freedom. The so called strong men of Africa have been able to bring Africa to economic and political standstill because of their use of the armed forces and other security institutions to instill fear in the population. Today Africa remains the only continent where military dictatorship and dictatorial regimes backed by the army is still dominant. In other words the military in Africa have been largely a distracting force. In the name of national security which can be interpreted as regime protection these military governments implemented oppressive dictatorial laws that turned their own citizens into slaves without rights.

Surrounded by their kind these army officers like Sani Abacha, Ibrahim Babangida, Hosni Mubarak, Gaddafi, Jerry Rawlings, Iddi Amin, were never and have never been concerned about the welfare of the people but rather their stomach and there is enough evidence to proof it. The evidence about how Africa has suffered in the hands of the military is clear when countries like Nigeria, Ghana, and Libya are considered. From Sani Abacha who stole more than 3 billion dollars in five years, to Mobutu who bankrupt Zaire, to Hosni Mubarak whose ill-gotten wealth was pegged at 75 billion dollars, to Omar Bongo who stole Gabon’s money to financed French political parties, to Obiang Nguema, Paul Biya, Blaise Campore, Denis Nguesso, Omar Bongo and Dos Santos accused by civil society organisations of corrupt, flamboyant and extravagance lifestyle the evidence of why Africa is a paralysed continent is clear.

Some of the periods in which the army took over power remain one of the darkest and wasted years in Africa’s effort to fight illiteracy, poverty, hunger and diseases. In many of these military takeovers many businessmen and women lost their investments as businesses were confiscated, sold or given to their cronies. In countries like Ghana state owned businesses were sold to cronies and allies of the regime. In Nigeria for instance Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha among others succeeded in draining the country’s coffers by using money meant for electricity, education, health, water, roads to buy expensive military machines for their own protection. Gaddafi for example bought several billions of dollars worth of weapons from France and the United Kingdom while cities such as Benghazi were crying for infrastructure.

In most of the countries like Ghana the armed forces have never fought external aggressor rather they have often been used as instrument through which external aggressors (particularly Belgium, Britain, France and United States) get their hold on Africa’s resources and their people. The armies in Algeria, Gabon, Egypt, Rwanda, Tunisia and Uganda have been the main instrument through which countries like United States, France, Belgium, have achieved their foreign policy objectives in Africa. France for instance used her troops stationed in Gabon and Senegal to gather intelligence and used the armies in Africa to carry out more than 40 coups against the people of the continent. The billions of dollars that Egyptian armed forces receive from the US annually is the main reason why the armed forces protected the regime of Hosni Mubarak for 30 years because he was seen as useful weapon and counter force against Iran and Iraq.

From a closer look one can easily see why and how Africa (one of the resource endowed continent in the world) has been reduced to a beggar and a desperate hopeless continent. The Armed forces incursion into civil power destroyed economic progress that was made in the early periods of independence. Political, economic and social institutions were destroyed as the armed regimes implemented policies without thinking about their impact. The army backing of the dictatorial regimes such as those in Zimbabwe, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola has endangered Africa’s economic growth as well as her social and political progress.

Wind of Change
There is no doubt Hosni Mubarak and his sons would have been in power and amassing wealth to the detriment of the Egyptian masses if the armed forces had chosen to back them. Unlike Libya where an estimated 25000 souls have perished, the refusal of the armed forces in Egypt to kill protesters at Tahir’s Square helped to avoid a possible bloodbath. The armed forces’ refusal is a sign of how the army can be a force for good, a force peace, stability and positive change. In Ghana the armed forces are seeking a different role that will not only contribute to improving the overall security situation but also the economic development of the nation. The armed forces in Ghana are considering entering into business ventures. This new concept is an indication of the positive thinking that is emerging in the African security command. These ambitions by the army should be nurtured as it has the potential of helping the armed forces to generate extra money outside the traditional sources. In Rwanda and Uganda the United States is helping the armed forces with training and reorganisation. Though many doubts the real intentions of the United States, it is hoped that such training will inculcate a sense of discipline and professionalism in the psyche of the army and help protect the countries from the instability that have come to defined them.

Conclusion
The 21st Century has come with new security challenges that demand new strategies and tactics. These challenges also demand an army which is well trained and well resourced to respond to the threats and challenges. The emergence of Boko Haram in Bauchi and Borno States in Nigeria, Al Shabaab in Somalia; the threats posed by pirates in West, East and Southern Africa and its impact on the safety of international maritime transport all demands that the army in Africa undergo serious transformation and reorganisation to respond to these emerging threats.

Therefore many of the armies in Africa need reforming to reflect their role in this 21st century and also to respond to the emerging security threats such as piracy and terrorism. Democratic values, human rights, and respect for contitutional order must be at the centre of any training offered to the men and women in uniform. This will help them to understand the need not to derail the wheel of democracy and economic progress being made in Africa. It will help them to be on the side of the people always and not back dictators and power hungry individuals who seek to perpetuate their rule through violence and intimidation.

Rather than seeing itself as an alternative to civil power, the army in Africa must work closely with other security agencies to protect the institutions of governance, democracy, civil liberty and rule of law. Therefore they must not allow themselves to be used by unscrupulous politicians to the detriment of the security and wellbeing of their countries. And they must adhere to their mandate as the protector of the territorial infrastructures of the countries and refrain from acts that destroy the very nations they are supposed to protect. The military must do more to improve their relationship with the citizens of their respect countries. It is not in the interest of the army that they are feared rather than respected by the people. The 21st century global security arrangement demands that the armed forces become more professional, less power hungry and ready to protect the interest of their countries.Africa is bigger than any single individual and the armed forces must ensure that they will not be a bastion for insecurity, but rather a force for economic and political stability, peace, prosperity and positive change.

By Lord Aikins Adusei
politicalthinker1@yahoo.com

ICC, Africa and the mockery of International Justice

By Lord Aikins Adusei

War crimes and crimes against humanity are crimes no matter where they are committed and no matter who commits them, but for the International Criminal Court and Luis Moreno-Ocampo war crimes and crimes against humanity become crimes only when they are committed in Africa and by Africans.

Since the beginning of 2011 Moreno-Ocampo and his ICC have renewed their assault on Africa arresting and demanding arrest of the leadership in Africa. In September 2011 six Kenyan politicians arrived in The Hague-Holland to face charges for their role in the post election violence that rocked Kenya in 2008 and led to the death of about 1,300 people. In October of 2011 the Moreno-Ocampo visited Ivory Coast and held talks with the government of Alansan Quattara. One month later former president Laurent Gbagbo was sent to The Hague under the cover of darkness to answer charges for the three thousand Ivorians who died during the conflict. Similarly in November, 2011 Moreno-Ocampo made a trip to Libya to demand that Seif Islam be handed over to the ICC for prosecution. In the first week of December Mr. Moreno-Ocampo requested the arrest of Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein, Sudan’s Defence Minister for the alleged war crimes he committed in Darfur between August 2003 to March 2004 while he was both Interior minister and Darfur’s representative.

Charles Taylor former Liberian president, Al Bashir sitting president of Sudan, former DR Congo warlords Thomas Lubanga, Germaine Katanga, Mathew Chui, and Jean-Pierre Bemba, the Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) Joseph Kony, and four of his senior deputies and many others are among the over 30 Africans who are in detention or have been indicted and yet to arrested.

Many in and outside Africa have made the allegations that the ICC has a calculated and hidden agenda for Africa and is unfairly and deliberately targeting Africans. Jean Ping, Africa Union commission president accused the ICC of having Africans in mind when the ICC was set up. He accused the ICC of double standards and discriminatory practices and said the ICC is only interested in pursuing cases in Africa while ignoring horrific crimes committed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has rejected the allegations. In a BBC interview Ros Atkins, the host of the programme, asked Moreno-Ocampo the ICC appears to be targeting Africans. His response was that: “The crimes committed today are in Africa and that is why I should not ignore African victims. I cannot ignore the women raped in Darfur or the children abducted in Congo or girls transformed into sex slaves…Because the crimes committed are there [in Africa]. I cannot mitigate in Lebanon, Sri Lanka, in Iraq because they are not signatory parties. If your listeners want me to be involved in Sri Lanka, in Zimbabwe, in Lebanon, in Iraq they have to convince these countries to join the treaty [Rome Treaty] or they have to convince the Security Council to refer the cases to me”.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s interview responses are part of the misinformation typical of the stereotypes we often read and hear about Africa and Africans in the Caucasian dominated countries of the global north. His assertions that Africa is the epicenter of the world’s crimes smack of the hypocrisy and the double standards that have dominated all global institutions including the IMF, World Bank, WTO and the United Nations Security Council. The inference of Moreno-Ocampo argument is that he cannot indict and prosecute the sinners in Europe and America who sent their soldiers to Iraq to destroy it because he Ocampo does not see anything wrong with Britain and US invading a sovereign country, overthrowing its leaders and killing innocent children and women. We know that Libya like United States is not and has never been a member of the ICC yet Mr. Moreno-Ocampo demanded that Gaddafi, his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi and Seif Islam be arrested and prosecuted.

The arrogance with which he makes his case is a semblance of the practices of the colonial and the post colonial order where Euro-Americans like Cecil Rhodes and Von Trota committed heinous crimes in Africa and around the world and never accounted for it.

When we say colonial and cold war crimes we are talking about the thousands of Kikuyus in Kenya who were killed or imprisoned by the British in the 1950s. We are also talking about French criminality in Algeria in the 1960s that resulted in tens of thousands deaths. We also mean the slaughtering of Angolans and Mozambicans by Portuguese forces in the 1970s. We mean the 1904 German genocide and enslavement of the Naqua and Herero people of Namibia; the forceful seizure of the native lands by Germans and later white South Africans, the effect of which continues to affect the Black population in Namibia today. When we say colonial and post colonial crimes we are also talking about King Leopold II and Belgian atrocities against the people of Congo in the 1900s. We are referring to the apartheid policies in South Africa which were strongly supported by United States (Presidents Reagan and Nixon) and the Netherlands whose territory the ICC is now headquartered.

The people of Africa know they cannot get justice from the ICC because its terms of reference have been deliberately downgraded to protect Euro-Americans from the appalling treatment of Africans during and after colonialism.

Like the World Bank and the IMF that inflicted Africa toxic economic policies on Africa in the 1980s and rendered the continent uncompetitive for decades, the ICC has become a tool through which the hegemonic and imperialism ambition of the West is being carefully implemented. While Moreno-Ocampo is busily prosecuting Africans it is very horrifying and disheartening that the ICC has decided to gross over Euro-American colonial and post-colonial crimes in Africa and instead chosen to go after the soft target and the foot soldiers.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has completely ignored Euro-American leaders and the atrocious crimes they have committed especially since the beginning of the 21st Century and particularly the post 9/11 era.

Why can’t the victims in Iraq, Afghanistan and the detainees in G’mo get justice?

When we hear of the hundreds of thousands of children, women, men and civilians who have been slaughtered in Iraq and in Afghanistan in the name of war on terror, democracy and new world order, we know they are never going to get justice because the same unjust system that prevented Namibians from getting justice after their lands were seized by invaders the from is still being implemented by the ICC.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo continues to make the case that the ICC only seeks to indict and prosecute offenders in countries where governments are unwilling or are incapable of doing so. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has argued that once a country has legal and stable political climate to deliver justice the ICC will allow the country to do the prosecution herself and will only provide help when needed. This line of thinking appears to be the case of George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The US and Britain according to Mr. Moreno-Ocampo have the institutions to deliver justice and bring the perpetrators of the Iraq war to book.

But we know that is fallacy. It is obvious that United States is not willing to let Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, George Tenet, the generals and the CIA operatives answer for their crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for the torture camps, rendition and secrete prisons they operated in Guantanamo and around the world. It is also obvious that Britain is not willing to prosecute Tony Blair and the hawks in his administration who massaged intelligence in order to justify the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tony Blair is still a free man and is going round the world delivering speeches and cashing in on the sins he committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush however has been very reluctant to travel for fear that he will be arrested and prosecuted. In February 2011 Bush was forced to cancel a planned trip to Switzerland after human rights groups threatened they would seek his arrest and prosecution for his conduct of the Iraq and Afghan wars and his administration’s treatment of detainees.

Despite their catastrophic invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan we are told that there is nothing the ICC can do about it and that the victims and their families in must keep quiet and suffer. Dick Cheney still justifies his actions which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The unfortunate thing is that the Euro-American human rights cartels (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch) continue to champion the arrest and prosecution of African leaders while Bush, Tony Blair and their dogs of war live in European and American cities and enjoying life outside prison.

Africans do not reject or dispute the allegations that Gaddafi, Laurent Gbagbo, Al Bashir, Charles Taylor and their cronies are murderers. Africans therefore welcome the prosecution of African leaders who have tragically mistreated, killed, looted and mismanaged their countries. However, we strongly believe that judging from the magnitude of their crimes many of them are better than Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, George Tenet and Blair. Therefore so far as Bush and the war mongers in Washington continue to live their life outside prison, whatever the ICC does will be nothing more than a mockery of justice.