Getting the Young Diaspora to Ghana | SomethingBeginningWithGH | Future ...

On March 3, 2016 Future of Ghana hosted a forum at City Hall, London to discuss the role of the young (predominantly second generation) diaspora in Ghana/Africa's development agenda.

I shared my view on the issue after living in Ghana for almost 2 years.

Something Beginning With GH

On October 17th 2013, I started my Something Beginning With GH blog. The plan was to go to Ghana for a year.

Technically my year off begun 17th September the day after I handed in my dissertation for my Masters but I hadn’t confirmed anything until mid October when I finally bought my ticket. If you've followed this blog (Journey. Learn. Speak) you'll know this was perhaps the most exciting thing I had done in years. Moving to Ghana as a diaspora and taking that leap. I was largely unplanned and wanted to begin a beautiful adventure. 

I had my purse nicked in London

So everyone keeps asking me what it’s like being back and to be honest most of the time that question is a waste. You rarely go around asking a Londoner what it’s like living in London. We’re Londoners, it’s second nature.

But then things happen that remind me that I am no longer in Accra. The other day, I was in an office helping some people. Customers come and go by the second. I had arrived in the office by 10am and by 10.17am some lady had gone into my bag and taken my purse and left.

I know, people always say you can’t leave your bag for even a second, but it was just a few minutes whilst I got the key to the locker where it was going to be safe. And when I alerted my colleagues to the situation we wasted a long time finding the person who can authorise the security guard to look at the CCTV, then we all crowded into one room and watched the CCTV. Pointed out the lady and then chose to call the police, all the while they were asking if I was sure that I had come in that day with my purse. I mean how else would I have arrived?! When they saw that my allegations were true, someone suggested shutting down the bulding, no one in no one out so that we could potentially find this lady.

In Ghana, it wouldn’t be the case. It would be completely opposite. Most likely, we’d shut down immediately because everyone is guilty until proven innocent. If there were CCTV cameras about we would be calling the security officer whilst on the way to the CCTV Room anyway. He should meet us there where we would have proceeded to do his job (of controlling the playback) until he arrived. Obviously, someone along the line will make a big deal about how it’s only under their authority that something like that could happen, but who would pay this person any mind? Find my purse and then we will talk about protocol! Whilst some of us are in the CCTV room, the burliest of men would be out scouring the streets for suspects and simply round up everyone within 1km radius of the office – remember guilty until proven innocent. The security guard by the front office wouldn’t have the cheek to say “I know who it was, she just walked out but I saw her acting fishy around there” like the London security guard did. She would have accused and arrested the suspect already AND RIGHTLY SO!

And I would have my purse, with all the little keepsakes I kept in my purse. But alas, in London “things work” so I don’t have my purse and I don’t have the keepsakes. And whilst I don’t support necklacing (burning a tyre around the neck of a criminal) and I don’t support mob justice (beating the life out of a criminal) I do feel like I’m gonna get no justice whatsoever, because most likely in this country of “law and order” the criminal lady will probably get off with a smack on the wrist and I will still have nothing for my pains. That’s what it’s like being back, and that’s how sometimes I seriously miss Ghana.

First published on SomethingBeginningWithGH

Slum Politics in Accra

I began the year with an out-of-the-blue request to speak at an event hosted by the Africa Research Institute. I don’t do this sort of thing regularly so needless to say I was uber nervous but either way it’s great being able to speak about Ghana from my own point of view and to use my time living in Ghana – documented on this blog – as the basis of my observations.

I also spoke to Akwantufuo Radio the following week about Ghana’s plan for the future and where the diaspora fit into it. When I sort out the audio I’ll share it on here. I’m open to critique, so please do let me know if I say anything you don’t agree with.

First published on SomethingBeginningWithGH

Leaving Ghana for good! Part 2

Here's part 2 of my discussion with Lorissa, I am less proud of what I had to say in this section of our talk but nonetheless it worth you listening. Gimme your thoughts, people!

Leaving Ghana for good! Part 1

You know me, I can never stay put too long. I'm a Nomad, always moving always travelling, always finding a new opportunity. But here is a little debrief on my time in Ghana. Do not be afraid to say Goodbye to a place. I absolutely fell in love with Singapore, but there came a time for Goodbye as with everywhere... :)

Ghana's tech mirage

Ghana remains a top destination for foreign direct investment in Africa. Few countries are looking to challenge adequately to be the technology hub across the continent. At the moment East Africa seem to be given the mantle off the back of great strides taken in Kenya and Rwanda. Rwanda is now one of the most connected countries in Africa (by access to the internet, internet literacy and percentage penetration) whilst Kenya has successfully pitched in recent years to host big technology companies such as IBM. 

The next obvious choice might be Nigeria given its sheer size. What technology company wouldn't want a potential market of 170 million users to tap? Nigeria has a strong portfolio too. There a number of incubators who have birthed innovative startups and whilst Easy Taxi closed down activities in Ghana, Lagos has welcomed a giant in the taxi app field, Uber, who are extremely positive about operations in West Africa's largest city. 

Talking of Ghana, where Nigeria is, they are never too far behind (sometimes even ahead). The startup community is vibrant in the capital city of Accra. MEST incubator lies in the wealthy suburb of East Legon and have managed to produce global businesses such as the Suba App, a photo-streaming app which has launched in more that 4 countries around the world. Accra it seems is where it is happening for the Ghanaian tech scene, and a stroll through the city's wealthiest towns, East Legon, Cantonments, Labone, Osu will reveal to you an array of signposts and billboards leading you to a plethora of startup companies and tech hubs. Given that all this is concentrated at the moment to a certain strip in Ghana's coastal capital city, it doesn't seem too terrible that the Ghanaian Government has signed a deal with the Mauritian Government to build a technology park in the connecting city, Tema. 

Tema will ring a bell to many investors into Ghana. It is a port city and home to most of Ghana's shipping activities. It is perhaps also the only place in the Greater Accra Region (in which sits the capital city) that might actually have space for the proposed 6+37 hectares soon to become the location of this technology park. Even with that said, a trip through Tema will show you that it too is quite crowded and the proposed technology park may require some evictions of either residents who have built their families there for decades or industries who have invested a lot into their assets in Tema. Too much to give up on the whim of a proposed development that might never see the light of day. 

The Tema Tech Park is not the first technology development with multipurpose buildings and innovative transportation solutions that Ghana has announced. Ghanaians will be well versed in the list of names, headed by Hope City - a joint partnership with Ghanaian-owned, Dubai-based rLG - which had all the features the Mauritians are proposing and fireworks to garnish. 

It is not that anyone is against the current development proposal, just that Ghanaians must be cynical and sceptical of such news to protect themselves from the heartbreak of yet another broken promise and pie-in-the-sky idea. It is also difficult to see how these big developments are really going to solve problems for the capital city, its region and the country as a whole. How many tech cities can one government plot around the borders of its capital city? It's beginning to look something like the UK's green belt but as oasis mirages. We can all see it there but it actually isn't there, our "desparate" minds are tricking us, collectively.

And then the question must be asked, even if the Mauritians are more reliable than our previous suitors, is Tema the best place to put an edifice such as this? Everything in Ghana is concentrated to the Greater Accra Region. This is starving other regions of the much needed development, leaving villages and underdeveloped towns across the other nine regions. Jobs are not moving to those areas and neither is the money. Citizens of those regions have no choice than to flock to the Greater Accra Region in search of riches. Accra (and Tema) is already choked with people and shacks and vehicular traffic. Both cities need more people like I need a hole in the head. The city's recent floods were fully blamed on the sheer density of living arrangements. Kumasi - Ghana's second city - on the other hand, could do with the investment. The city is home to more people than Accra, but also more space. It is therefore less dense. Some of Ghana's best secondary schools are in Kumasi, and the countries best Tech university, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, also finds home there. Aside from the obvious (that they have "Technology" in the name) many of Ghana's finest startups have been built from KNUST alumni, why not move investment closer to them, catch great minds early and lower the starting cost of a startup (relocation to another city is never cheap). 

I ran my complaints passed my sister and her response acknowledged the fact that the infrastructure, although terribly basic, is already in existence in the Greater Accra Region. The roads to take you from Accra (East Legon, Cantonments, Labone and Osu) to your new offices/home in Tema are already there. If not there is a train (no where near Lagosian standards, let alone Tokyo). There is very little extra needed to facilitate this new development. In respomse to that, I think it highlights why the Tech Park needs to be in Ejisu or Kumasi or Tamale or Sunyani. The impact of this development must help the whole country and be felt by the whole country. MauriTech Park (as I want to call it) will be more beneficial to Ghana if it breaks the mould and leaves the coast. There's sadly no time for reconsideration as the launch party is slated for this November, I suspect everything is signed and sealed. But if anymore investors want to come and do the same in Ghana perhaps they'll consider thinking outside of the box, the Greater Accra shaped box.

Changing the way Ghana sees Ghana

How good an idea would it be to have the President of Ghana deliver the independence day address from a location in Ghana other than the Black Star Square.

Ghana's independence belongs to more than just the people of Accra and their should be a greater effort to invite other landscapes in the country to have a significant role in national celebrations.

This will promote various regions as tourist sites, as investment opportunities and most importantly as equally Ghanaian and equally represented in the country in another way other than the origins of the President.

I want to see Ghana. I want to see what Ghana has to offer and I'm afraid Accra is exhausting itself. Adventure stems stops boredom and it requires going to places you've never been before.

The Green In Ghana

So on my 8th day here in Ghana I wrote this post on my other blog. I had seen Kwame Nkrumah Circle maybe twice before then and every time, it hurt. The beautiful fountain had disappeared. :(

Now, today, day 86, I read in the GSGDA 2010-2013 (a development plan) "To address the challenges posed by the lack of open spaces the following policy objectives will be pursued to: ensure that urban centres incorporate the concept of open spaces and the creation of green belts or green ways within and around urban communities; develop recreational facilities and promote cultural heritage and nature conservation in both urban and rural areas; foster social cohesion; and enhance the participation of people in leisure activities as a way of improving healthy lifestyles."

So to summarise, in their pursuit of more open spaces and recreational facilities, this government demolished the country's most loved fountain and garden. Yeh. That happened.

My wakeup call - Ikenna Azuike at #TEDxEuston #rippleeffect

I'm keeping this blog alive with a video about a guy chasing his passion because my other blog documenting me chasing my passion is currently taking up all my time.  #rippleeffect

KFC needs to hurry up and get to East Legon

In a little revert back to the original travellers vibe of this blog, here's a plea for KFC to do more in Ghana and if the other fastfood chains are reading this, I'll be happy to have you too, especially Subway. I have missed Subway. Being a foreigner without those little creature comforts is difficult. I love Ghana, don't get me wrong,  I even stopped my mum from shipping Heinz Tomato Ketchup because I didn't believe I would need it. I was adamant that I would only eat Ghanaian food. If it couldn't be bought at the local market it wasn't worth eating (with the exception of Cheerios).

So here's me, interning in East Legon, home of the rich and the foreign. There are restaurants around me. There's a Chinese restaurant and a Turkish restaurant, further away there is an Italian and a kinda local dish at foreign prices restaurant. I shan't complain, the choice is clearly there, except they are all restaurants-proper, so you've got to sit and wait for your food to be made after you've waited minutes for a waiter/waitress to acknowledge your existence and take your order. Then on average no meal will cost less than 20 Ghana cedis (we say "Ghana cedis" here like there are any other type of cedis in the world).   I spent 40-something cedis at one restaurant, just because I really had a craving for the food, but still that's just crazy for a lunchtime meal.

I just want Subway here so I know it'll take just a few minutes in and out to get my lunch. The "COMING SOON" KFC sign in Lagos Avenue is taunting me. 

Young in Politics

This week Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama said that Ghana needs thinking graduates. According to him "we are challenged to produce the calibre of graduates who are critical thinkers to confront challenges". Tech-focused students are an advantage. What isn't clear though is whether the mark of a thinking person is that they are a graduate or whether "thinking" is the critical criteria to differentiate between graduates that Ghana is producing. I didn't want to touch on this because if you look through my tweets you will know just what I think of Victoria Hammah, but she is an example of the President using the former understanding of "thinking graduate" when searching for talent for his government. He and the Vetting Committee clearly thought she is a graduate and therefore she must be thinking rather than investigate whether this graduate actually engages in some substantial state-building thinking.

It's time for the thinking graduates (those graduates who truly do think critically, out of the box and against the grain), the radical and progressive graduates to stand up in the void left by Victoria Hammah. The problem is that the analysis of the whole Hammah saga seemed to conclude (note: it was a lot of old people doing the evaluation) that her youth explains her lack of composure in high pressure embarrassing moments (pre and post-election) and that her youth explains her mistakes whether we're willing to overlook them or not. That's not fair to the hundreds and thousands of other graduates in and outside of this country, who are young but mature in their thought; who can and want to help Ghana; and who are not given the opportunity because they didn't get involved in party politics on campus. Ghana doesn't just need thinking graduates, it needs thinking young people, teenagers and twenty-somethings (and thirty-somethings ;-] ) who are willing to take the country's future into their hands. It needs thinking young people who will put Ghana first and be willing to get their hands dirty even if that is literally cleaning out the gutter like The Be Bold Show did about a year or so ago.

Ghana's education system, as pointed out by JDM has been responsive to the challenges of the times. I might argue that Ghana is always trying to respond to something, we never pre-empt anything and that is the problem with our development. For instance, the quality of our tertiary education is important in our development but it's also quite irrelevant if after primary education the only people able to afford to continue with good education are those who could also afford to be educated elsewhere. Yes (if I'm being too subtle, I will point it out) I supported the Free SHS campaign. I've heard whispers of Ghana's youth being able to re-create the North African Spring. I'm not saying that we need to topple government, our democracy is still evolving, but young people, constituting over 50% of this country's (and this contnent's) population need not to just be critical thinking about our politics, they are to be thinking they are critical to our politics.

somethingbeginningwithgh

So I'm in Ghana. I'm blogging about my time here. I will do my best not to neglect this blog but, I can't make any promises, so follow me over to wordpress just for a bit. medaase wai!

Something Beginning With GH

Leaving Date: 30th October.

This leaving malarkey is very weird. I've informed a few people. People who rely on me for things, and neighbours and my pastor but only some of my family, only some of my friends. I'm not sure if it's quite real yet and it's very scary. It's very possible that this year doesn't become what I expect of it y'know. I have all these ideas of things I want to do in life and my sister tells me I gotta work on becoming ABC in order to do XYZ so when I had focused all this attention on the XYZs that I was really excited about one day doing, I've now gotta divert my attention to the perhaps more boring, more difficult task of evolving into ABC whatever that may be.

Health costs

Make sure your vaccinated. Take all precautions! But just know that it's bloody expensive to be healthy. Yellow Fever costs upwards of £50, The full Rabies course can cost upwards of £150, some as high as £240 the NHS says between £120-£150 which is lies. They clearly have not done their research because I didn't find anything cheaper than £150.

My weekly malaria tablets cost £7.85, so this week cost me on the whole £207.85 and I'm not yet sure I've been given all possible jabs.

Yellow fever is crucial for going to Ghana. Rabies is advised for long stay. 

SBWG: Making the most of multi-citizenship

If you are a second-generation African, like me, and you're looking at starting some sort of life in Africa (even a transnational one) chances are you'll begin at your home country. The country that your parents come from. Lucky for me I get a choice of two: Ghana and Nigeria.

So the best way that I thought to symbolically mark my moving to West Africa was to maybe get a passport. I've been thinking about it and I've been doing some digging. Apparently, dual citizenship in Ghana is not all it's cracked up to be. I have been hearing stories of people facing suspicious questioning and being made to pay "fees" at the airport to be allowed back out of the country.

Practically, dual citizenship is still a complicated right in Ghana and even more complicated for those who are claiming it for the first time instead of reclaiming their Ghanaian citizenship after losing it by virtue of emigration.

Ideologically, the idea of getting a Ghanaian passport if you're foreign-born is really thought provoking. I'm happy to be seen as British when I'm outside of Britain, that's all by virtue of the passport I travel on. Presenting a Ghanaian passport at any border control, (including ECOWAS ones to enjoy visa free mobility) really hits home the idea that I can be non-British outside of Britain and that's not an identity I've prepared myself for. Of course, if I decided to get the Nigerian passport I would face similar, maybe more confronting issues about identity and how the world sees me.

Ahh. What a difference a passport makes.

Ghana's supply to CIV's power demand.

So I read on Ghanaweb that Ghana is going to be supplying Ivory Coast with electricity. Great idea. I know normally people (including myself) often rubbish the government's ideas but I hear this electricity is from the North of Ghana to the North of Ivory Coast and from what I understand the Northern regions don't use a lot of electricity anyway so there's a lot of surplus and what better way to use that surplus than to sell it to a friend.

In Singapore, I came to realise just how important these types of agreements are to keeping the peace (Singapore did at one time have animosity towards Malaysia but now they are both reliant on each other for water - pretty important to keeping the peace). Ghana has been rumoured in the past to have had a few disagreements with Ivory Coast, I think at one time they claimed Ghana's oil fields were actually theirs. So I'm hoping that the government include in any MoUs the clause that such foolishness should cease. And then we all live happily ever after.

I really respect Nana Akufo-Addo. If I'm honest for the 2008 elections I said hands down he was the better candidate.

The Supreme Court verdict has been out a while and in his immediate speech NADAA came out to say he was taking a break from politics. This is something, among other things, that the big wigs in the NPP are struggling to accept. But they must. They must for the good of the party, they must for the careers of the lesser politicians and they must for the country.

For the party
1. Politics is a game of "bullsh*t". You put down a card, you're either honest or dishonest, and you leave it to your opponents to sweat it over whether they'll call your bluff. The risk of their next move is entirely in their hands. So hands down calling out NADAA as your flagbearer with yet three years to go is like playing bullsh*t facing your cards up.
2. The NPP and NADAA are not guaranteed popularity in the wake of the court case, especially since the NDC want to counter adulation of statesmanship lavished upon NADAA with the age old crime of causing financial loss to the state. (You already know I think the NDC are taking the piss with that one). Nonetheless, NDC supporters and those who don't particularly care for either party may buy the idea that the NPP sulkily dragged the country through 8 months of financial turmoil to selfishly win power. That is a possible opinion. NPP supporters may feel the same, since at the end of the day a party card doesn't mean you agree all the time. The party need to retreat right now from extra-parliamentary politics. They need to build their credibility as an opposition if they want to be considered a worthy ruling party. They need to yet again, let the NDC trip themselves up by trying to call the NPP's bluff on moves it (NDC) can't be sure they've (NPP) taken - hence bullsh*t.

For lesser politicians
1. There are two ways to climb the ladder in politics. Within the party and outside of the party in the public realm. Some people will notice that some Ministers earned their place by showing their mettle in the chamber. Others, you will notice became ministers or deputies without sitting in the chamber and I think we can openly say we notice a major difference in conduct and experience (must I give Victoria Hammah as an example?). Preferably, the President has been through parliament (I say preferably because I note that if anything was to happen to Mahama, Amissah-Arthur would be president without ever being an MP.

Road to Brazil 2014

Have you heard? FiFA rankings put Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Cape Verde and Nigeria as top 5.

Now I called it earlier this year when I said Nigeria would win CAF CAN. I'm not gonna call it this time cos anything goes, but if Africa want to avoid embarrassment I think these are our best 5 teams so let's all get behind them! Sorry Egypt, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso (well actually, I'm not sorry for Burkina Faso).

Bring on Brasilia 2014!

p.s. I think Ghana need to play Ethiopia because tbh if we don't get the European-based powerhouses back in time, we might struggle against the others. It pains me to say it.

Who's inviting the diaspora?

I'm doing my dissertation and I came across this. (CLICK AND READ IT) I've got into a few twitter conversations about the necessary extent of diaspora engagement. It seems Africa is capable of doing it with multinationals  with the West  with the Chinese alone, why on earth would they need their deserting brothers and sisters. Afterall the money they sent home to cover everyone's school and hospital fees was just apology money.

I think individual African governments and Africa as a whole need to bring an unambiguous statement of intent. They need to draw up, very clearly, the boundaries for the diaspora. Right now it seems there are so many questions, very few answers.

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