AFTER PREMIER BLAIR'S VISIT TO GHANA

By        Mawutodzi K. Abissath

Thursday, February 21, 2002.

Do you realise that the world is becoming a 'born-again' since September 11, 2001? That was the day one man in the person of Osama bin Laden engineered the use of ordinary passenger planes to be deployed as deadly weapons to bomb the World Trade Centre in America.

As you know, America is the capital of the world (UN Headquarters is based there). Therefore, he who attacks America attacks the world. And the world shall never be the same again.  On the other hand, Friday, February 8, 2002 will go down as the most sparkling day in the political history of modern Ghana. That was the day the Rt Hon Tony Blair (MP) became the first British Prime Minister in the 21st Century to address a Ghanaian Parliament after over 40 years of political independence from colonial Britain.

That day Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, the Rt Hon Peter Ala Adjetey was beside himself with joy. He hit his chest, cleared his throat and characterized Parliament as the power of House of Democracy in Ghana"! he proclaimed, And I loved that ! Ghanaians must be proud of themselves, for, their majority and minority honourable members in the Power House are not doing badly at all. But they must not forget some of us when they land on the Mercedes paradise!

But it was most refreshing, fascinating and captivating to hear the British Prime Minister speak on the "New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)".

Apart from his natural command over his native language English, the clarity of his voice, his self-confidence and the authoritative posture he adopted, made Mr Tony Blair a striking orator.

He demonstrated his total conviction that NEPAD is the last drop of blood needed to revive Africa from its myriad socio-economic coma.

In fact, his speech did not only hold most parliamentarians spell-bound, but man honourable members in the  House that day unconsciously kept ,their jaws ajar and their faces glued to the face of Tony throughout that particular session. When the august visitor was done, everybody including "General Mosquitoe” took a deep breath of satisfaction. The scene in the Power House was like the day the Master Jesus fed 18 million Ghanaians with a ball of kenkey and two pieces of fried fish. It was like a miracle.

But nobody remembered to take along a finger of plantain and "koobi" to the floor of the House to show to the Prime Minister. It would have been fantastic!

On a more serious note, it must be admitted that Mr Blair's message for Ghana and Africa on NEPAD was crystal clear. He said the New Partnership for Africa’s Development is not a question of the rich dishing out aid to

the poor.

Rather, the new concept calls for an equal opportunity for trade, investment and genuine development process between the advanced nations and the slow-moving countries so as to ensure shared prosperity and collective security.

Mr Blair spoke like an enlightened soul, or a prophet, or a mystic, or a philosopher, or all of the above. In today's world, he said there is no such a thing as a nation that can stand alone, shut off from its problems and its difficulties and crisis. "Today, we are all in this together," he declared.

This was exactly how the Creator intended the world to be. So that when America is bombed Ghana is bombed.

When Ghana is HIPC, Britain must be HlPC, too. But, what is the actual situation today. Because of man's greed and selfishness, we live in a world where some people are filthily rich and others pitifully poor. Why?       

Prime Minister Blair expressed grave regret that aid to the developing world is still used to sweeten commercial contracts or tied to the purse of goods from donor countries. Mr Blair seemed not happy at all that issues affecting the developing world are labelled differently such as "aid here, trade here, investment there, conflict revolution here", etc.

According to him, NEPAD, must be a comprehensive plan where the developed and the developing nations will have obligations to assist and support one another in all human endeavours be it on trade, aid, investment, conflict resolution, health, education, good governance and so on.      

Mr Blair was not enthused about the way the potential of Africa was being handled. He stressed the need to ensure that the NEPAD initiative was not turned into a mere "handout but as a programme that will help Africans themselves.

"NEPAD must not create dependence but should create sustainable independence so that the relationship between us is no longer one of donor and passive recipient but one of equal partners working for the shared prosperity of all of us in the world. “This is at the heart of the African partnership", he told the applauding Ghanaian Parliamentarians.  His praise for Ghana's democratic progress so far, especially the peaceful and transparent manner in which the last elections were conducted and the transfer of power from one Government to another.

In fact, he said that even though some people may not be happy for losing power, Ghanaians must be proud of themselves for having demonstrated that they prefer democracy to dictatorship.     

The Prime Minister also commended Ghana for the bold and courageous decision to adopt the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (RIPC) initiative. He consoled the country that very soon the G8 Summit will reach a decision point and the resources needed will be released to enable the country resolve its social problems in the area of health, education, and wellbeing of ordinary people. He used the occasion to announce a £600 million development package for Ghana.  This is commendable.

However, this writer wants to suggest the following for concrete implementation of NEPAD initiative. All African debts to advanced nations must be cancelled individually.  All stolen monies saved in European banks by corrupt African leaders must be released immediately and sales of fire arms and all kinds of weapons by industrialised nations to African countries must be suspended indefinitely.

What Africa needs to develop are agricultural implements to cultivate the fallow arable lands to feed themselves as well as to have access to scientific and technological education in order to move forward with the rest of the globe.

The author works with Information Services Department (ISD) abissath@gmail.com

NB: This article was first published by the Daily Graphic, Thursday, February 21, 2002.