TRADE WINDS OF INSULTS OCCUPYING GHANA’S MEDIA SPACE

The raging media exchanges between some government appointees and leading members of OccupyFlagstaff House (now OccupyGhana), IMANi- a politically biased Think Tank, some Social Commentators ideologically opposed to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) government let by His Excellency President John Dramani Mahama, could be viewed from two angles depending on where one stood.

For supporters of the ruling NDC party, these spokesmen and women of these groups are merely appendages of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ghana’s biggest opposition political party and they are convinced to believe so. Many of these persons have equally held themselves in the not too distant past as die-in-the-wool supporters of the NPP (so they say) and have associated themselves privately and publicly with the party at different levels and thus are merely doing the bidding of the biggest opposition party whose purpose is to run down the ruling government and replace them in government when successful at the polls. It is an opinion that has been pushed and defended on several occasion by assigns and sympathizers of the ruling National Democratic Congress party.

Conversely, followers of these groups and think tanks posit the argument that even if they are perceived as members of the opposition or assigns of same, they are indeed Ghanaians who pay taxes (an assertion that is verifiable) and have every right to speak out on any matter they think does not work in their interest (or in the interest of Ghanaians) and so supporters of the ruling NDC let alone state officials have no businesses opposing their views but are to swallow their criticisms hook, line and sinker.

No matter where one belonged in this raging war of words between the parties, the rules of engagement under the tenets of multi-party democracy and the guarantee of freedoms saves all parties involved to freely express their view3s, agreements, disagreements within the confines of the 1992 Constitution and to the third eye watching from a distance, they will not hesitate to drag whoever is regarded to have overridden his or her powers or rights within the polity to the appropriate state institutions in order to protect those how have nothing to do with whoever becomes President in Ghana once they are free to go about their daily activities without and fear of restriction, the real neutrals.

I have heard the President of IMANi, Mr. Franklin Cudjoe referred at least twice, to state officials who challenged him to his relentless citations of the President, the government functionaries and appointees and “incompetent” as a bunch of “idiots”. In fact, this refrain of refereeing to the President of Ghana and members of government as “incompetent” is not limited to the IMANi Boss alone but same tag line used constantly by many persons in opposition parties including some who are even yet to be employed in their first jobs.

Etymologically, an idiot in Athenian Democracy was someone who was characterised by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private-as opposed to public-affairs. Idiocy was the natural state of ignorance into which all persons were born and its opposite, citizenship, was effected through formalized education. Thus in Athenian Democracy, we are all born idiots until we are educated to become citizens. This is the political scientist’s interpretation of a born idiot.
The Minister of Agriculture launched some counter attacks on some members of Occupy Ghana, including respected Lawyer Ace Kojo Anan Ankomah, who recently photoshoped some pictures and posted them on social media under the user name of Deputy Minister of Information, Felix Kwakye Ofosu in the attempt to mock the Minister and call his government deceptive, dishonest and a lying group of persons who Ghanaians should never trust. That act attracted equal counter response from assigns of the ruling government and that post was shamefully pulled down and apology rendered to the public.
Political analysts and watchers of the ongoing banter between these pseudo-opposition groups who are holding themselves as “neutral” middle class citizens have encouraged parties involved to gleefully own up to their ideologies and who they support within the political space rather than acting up hypocritically only to be biased in their renditions and undertakings in cahoots with the opposition forces interested in bringing down the Mahama administration. It is rather interesting that these persons easily get offended when they are tagged as doing the bidding of opposition forces when indeed that is exactly what the case is. They are quick to cite the moribund Committee of Joint Action (CJA), whose leading members are today Ministers of State and Deputies as another hypocritical group who have refused to criticize the NDC government with the same verve they did to the NPP a few years ago while the latter was in power. The CJA members have claimed that they had always stated that their call was to get the NPP out of power and they had succeeded in doing that thus their current state of comatose.

Mr. Franklin Cudjoe of IMANi and his colleagues in the various groups are up in arms against Hon. Fiifi Kwetey (MP Ketu South) and Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications for digging up his education history and alleging that Franklin had failed severally in his attempt at a course in Economics at the Secondary School level. Franklin counters that though he had not been successful at some attempts he finally made it through to pursue higher education at some levels which again is verifiable.

I am not sure this whole criticisms and counter criticisms should degenerate this low but it is rather curious that Mr. Franklin Cudjoe had been a chief proponent of the “Incompetent Government” mantra when he himself has a history of attempting one project at least 3 times before being successful. It is not bad to try over and over again when one is not successful at one bid and in fact, many people have gone through that experience in business, relationship, marriage, education, examinations, thesis, designing, and in countless other endeavours but do we have to attack the personalities of persons either in government or in opposition simply because we disagree with them?

You do not keep referencing persons who might have been more successful than you in one field as “incompetent” and expect them not to hit back at you especially when governance involves a matrix of engagements, projects, management cycles, relationships and undertakings which some of their fiercest critics have had no prior experience in to warrant them the previous knowledge to attack the personality of the President and his Ministers.

Even in advanced countries where education, institutions, personnel, logistics and data is ever present used extensively, there are policy slips, failures and re structuring but that does not mean those at the realm of affairs are “incompetent” or they are simply “idiots”.

The cross-fire on both sides should stop and lets rather spend the time and energy on ongoing actions by government to correct the imbalances within public policy implementations, strategies, projects and their usefulness and strengthening our legal frame works, institutions and state organisations tasked with securing what is in the public interest rather than exalting efforts from just one side to bring down the other.

SHORT TERM CHALLENGES OFFER GREAT OPPORTUNITY FOR DEVELOPMENT FOR GHANA

Ghana's economy grew by some 6.7% from the first quarter in 2014 albeit the obvious fiscal challenges. The government is doing a lot in terms of development amidst the rather tight fiscal space owing largely to many years of running budget deficits with over 60% of budgetary support coming from donor funds.

Times have changed for all. There were years we enjoyed huge subsidies on oil, electricity and water only for the gaping holes left in the wake of the implementation of these policies to reach even deeper into our national coffers. The appetite for free things has even been worsened by political patronage and election winning gimmicks such that the plethora of promises offered in exchange for votes hinges on who promises more freebies than the other in the name of political ideologies.

We must come to the bitter realisation as a nation that funds we used to receive in the past and that we have spent on subsidies on various goods and services were the culmination of taxes charged others in the donor countries that was given to us to ‘chop’ for free while we did nothing really than greasing the wheels of corruption, ineptitude and wanton loot of state assets and funds over the last decade or so. The situation has even been made dire by very weak anti corruption institutions and a lackadaisical judicial system that does not even motivate the average citizen to report crime as and when they occur.

What we have set in motion for many years is a cynical cycle of misappropriation and a happy-go-lucky administrative system that could not even be changed by many years of military interventions in the geo-politics of this country.

Today, we have found ourselves in a bitter-sweet situation where our growth (which could have been better anyway) brings us to the brink of a Middle Income Nation. At this point, we have been made to appreciate the efforts made by donors to shore up our economy to which they have duly retired in terms of providing huge volumes of financial aid, grants and loans to the country. In short, the donors say they are not giving us that kind of money anymore and as a Lower Middle Income Nation, we have been born-again into freedom so we must and immediately take steps to manage our own economic affairs. Whatever we collect from the citizens as taxes and other earnings that make up the national income must be effectively managed so we can pay our workers, service our loans, pay pensions, build infrastructure and invest in the needed sectors to expand our economy.

As if that was not bad news enough, global financial crisis has eroded gains from our exports so badly such that on daily basis, we are faced with diminishing foreign exchange earnings. This situation is bad news for government because it further widens the fiscal space that has plundered our development agenda over the past 5 years.

We brought another problem upon ourselves by implementing with speed, the Single Spine Pay Policy for public sector workers that we are told eats up almost 60% of our revenues each month and we do not seem to be doing well in terms of mobilizing more revenue, closing the leakages in our expenditure cycle and clamping down on corruption at all levels to that we can receive much more revenue for development planning in Ghana.

Had we improved upon revenue generation, we would have closed the percentage gap in terms of remuneration to the public sector if we are not doing anything about the Single Spine Pay Policy in terms of a review. Again, an option that is yet to be exploited by government is to conduct an audit of all public sector employers so that those whose presence, services and remuneration is a surplus to the state can be voluntarily deployed and compensated accordingly such that we have only the staff that is needed and wanted within the public sector. This will at least ensure that those on the public wage bill are those the state needs to function and nothing more.

Furthermore, actions taken by government in terms of clamping down on corruption must be seen by the citizens to be pragmatic and result-oriented. The citizens must be confident in the leadership of the nation that those who steal and loot state money must be punished and their assets confiscated and sold off to recover the loot. More fierce measures should be promoted by our law makers to discourage corruption. The Public Accounts Committee reports gives us a picture of how much money we lose as a nation each year from the actions and inactions, deliberate as they are, from persons employed by the state to act on her behalf.

As it stands now, the President and his government are in a very tight situation. They had to cut down their salaries by 10% for the proceeds to be used for some programmes they promised in their electioneering campaign. Inasmuch as that move is a commendable one by the Executive, we as citizens should be much interested in what we can also do to salvage the situation.

The Senchi Consensus provides some paradigm shift for our economy which must be hastened in terms of implementation.

I am not for the Automatic Tariff Adjustment Formula of the Public Utility Regulations Authority in times as this. The little upward adjustment (which is mostly the case) every fortnight throws everything out of balance. The threats, real or perceived, of fuel price increases and utility tariff increases does not just add to the cost of production even at the rural level but it distorts every effort by government to bring the micro economic environment under some stability and that is a problem for a country like ours.

Boards of State Owned Enterprises are instituted to offer policy direction for these enterprises. I am sure any responsible policy maker or advocate or think thank will do period reviews of their policies and how they affect the economy and try as much as possible to develop other workable alternatives if one strategy does not seem to work. The boards of the various state owned enterprises must not simply be interested in riding big vehicles and enjoying huge allowances but they must live up to the challenge of sitting on their backs and developing those alternatives that can work for usa s a nation else their failure to drive the right policies will reflect all over the country as they are in charge of some critical sectors of the economy.

All in all, these short term challenges we are going through as a nation rather provides a window of opportunity for His Excellency the President and his team to show the way and make the drastic changes they need in terms of policy alternatives to bring things into alignment in the short term while the long term measures are allowed to work.

The President and his team can also not achieve this end if the understanding and support for those policies is not derived from the citizenry who is affected or benefits from the failure or success of same.

I cannot conclude this write up without commenting on the recent fuel shortage to which some wish to make huge political capital out of. Of course it would be very infantile for any political watcher to think that parties that do not support the President will go to bed fasting and praying for him to survive his tenure. That will remain a dream BUT to allow such shortage to hit the system smacks of maladministration and bad judgement from the various players and actors in the petroleum industry and we should never as a nation come to this point again. It is totally needless to announce petroleum price increase or even give hints of same 7 clear days to implementation date. This only creates the panic and speculations that we witnessed over the last 3 days and the market responds accordingly.

I am very confident the President has a big opportunity in the midst of the crisis to emerge with some plan to carry the nation along with him and that should be engaging the minds of his staffers and advisers by the stroke of the clock each minute. Ghana has gone through worse times in the past but we survived with commitment and demonstration of positive action that yielded great results.

That same spirit must be rekindled from our communities to the Flagstaff House to face these challenges squarely and deal with them head on.

God Bless Our Homeland Ghana.

Elolo Amegashie

REFORMS IN THE JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM MUST BEGIN FROM THE DESK OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE

Her Ladyship the Chief Justice, Justice Georgina Wood, is reported to have expressed her frustrations over the delay in the justice delivery system in Ghana, focusing on land litigation and has called on the bench to change their attitude to those cases.
Agreed, it is even worse when docket of cases go missing from the registry of the courts.In fact, there are many cases in our courts, even in the so-called Fast Track High Court that has been adjourned for years for reasons best known to the presiding judges.
In some instances, members of the bench are beneficiaries of some of the cases sent to court and thus there is a lackadaisical attitude to disposing off those cases just in case they stand to lose out from them. We have seen and read lists of alleged beneficiaries of sale of government lands and disputed portions of lands that bears the names of some high and mighty in society thus there is a belief that those cases would never be dealt with so long as these persons stand to profit from the litigation. That indeed is an expression of how corrupt the legal system could be.
Stretching the debate even further, Amnesty International only a few weeks ago, conducted an audit of our prisons and how the rights of prisoners are being protected. The report was damning on our nation's prisons taking cognisance of the fact that there are countless of remand prisoners who spend between 1 to 10 years before their case are disposed off in court. The unlucky ones are rarely remembered owning to the death of his/her lawyer or their dockets getting lost in-between the shelves at the court registry.
The Chief Justice indeed must be worried, not simply because of the undue delays in our justice delivery system but the high resistance to change within the judiciary itself.
Under one Chief Justice, the “Justice-For-All “ programme was instituted. Some remand prisoners benefited and others were pardoned. As usual, the programme lasted a few months and it has been forgotten while the conditions in our prisons have not changed that much. The Chief Justice should have ensured that the “Justice-For-All” programme was not seen as a political intervention to a judicial inefficiency but that programme is further regularised so justice is done to every prisoners. Let us be mindful of the fact that some are dying under the harsh prison conditions when indeed they are innocent of whatever crimes that took them there .
What then has the office of the Chief Justice done so far to ensure that reforms were instituted for non-custodial sentencing for juveniles, petty thieves among others who do not necessarily have to be thrown to jail for stealing 3 fingers of plantain or eggs, or for driving throw the red light on our roads? Should every offence committed and every judgment passed in court be reduced to a fine or in default a prison term?

It is about time the Chief Justice ,as a matter of policy, ensured that reforms within the judiciary are targeted at safeguarding the public purse as regards expenses the state incurs on remand prisoners and the sorry state of our country’s prisons.
Furthermore, the over emphasis on custodial sentencing must be looked at so those caught at the wrong side of the law are made to work in the communities that need social services instead of keeping them under lock and key only for them to return after serving their time more hardened than they entered.

Unless the central government has plans to build more prisons than schools, hospitals, roads, commercial areas, reforms within the justice delivery system must be those targeted at decongesting the over-crowded prisons for criminal case.
Merely expressing frustrations over one problem or the other is becoming a cultural thing in our country such that politicians, law enforcers, revenue collectors, civil servants, public officers use this as a exit route to societal challenges rather than sitting down to derive the right policy measures to deal with such infractions.

GMOs- AN ECONOMIC BAIT WE MUST AVOID

At the heart of the debate on GMOs is the socio-economic issue of food security and the politics of who controls our agriculture our food supplies, our imports and our farm inputs.

Inasmuch as data and information available online, concurs with the school of thought that GMOs do not pose any health hazards to consumers, the fact remains that multinational conglomerates supported by the WHO and the EU who have pumped millions of Euros and dollars into research and production of seeds for GMOs , would be looking forward to the harvest where every Euro pumped into this work will be recovered with interest especially in Africa.
I am convinced that the demonisation of the African continent by mostly western media as a continent of hunger and poverty directs the minds, hearts and thoughts of the world to the fact that Africa needs investment in food to reduce hunger and GMOs come handy as a sustainable solution to the droughts, hunger and poverty that Africa finds herself entangled in. After all, Africa bears the brunt of the adverse effects of global warming caused mainly by industrialized nations.
Our farmers are becoming poorer by the day and our climate is threatening the sustainability of organic and rain-fed agriculture.

While we look on helpless as the world feeds fat on the riches of our continent, we are being tied by trade agreements that opens us up for stiffer competition around the world and such economically poisonous ventures like GMOs are being washed down our throats. They know our leaders and the media have high libido for corruption and they simply can't walk away from bribery and underhand dealings. In view of this interests backing GMOs have penetrated deep into corridors of power on the continent and paid heavily to court the favours of loud-mouthed politicians, media practitioners and more corrupt civil society organisations to execute this dangerous agenda.

More bizarre is the carte blanche our borders have granted our 'development partners' and their conglomerates to the extent that what we have left is a turf for two mammoths to fight on while the grass grows pail beneath their struggle for dominance and supremacy on the continent; our parliament has already passed the law on GMOs and the seed companies eyeing Ghana are on a war of words as to who gains entry into the country to do business.

I ask, how come our parliament and our government let alone the ECOWAS countries couldn't have pooled bio-technologists across board and established a common research and approach to bio-tech and seed technology that remains here with us, is used and produced so what would be used for future imports of seeds, equipment, fertilizers and chemicals to sustain the production of these GMOs would remain in the sub-region and boost our economies?
Are we about to miss another opportunity in industrial revolution or in agricultural revolution to which we have large parcels of arable land and fresh water to benefit hugely from both organic and GMOs farming?
The danger is that we would be creating jobs, markets, and downstream industries for GMOs in advanced economies while our farmers continue to linger in poverty and our currency continue to face harsh pressures which will ultimately tell heavily on our balance of payments. WE are neck deep in loans with payback periods between 10 to 50 years and now we are expanding the frontiers of imports with this GMO bait that is being dangled in front of us.
WE will be done for if we allowed foreign interests to control our food security.

GHANA-ICT, GOOD GOVERNANCE AND THE ATTA MILLS FACTOR

His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills initiated and successfully commissioned a new Information and Communication Technology [ICT] Platform at the seat of Government in Christianborg Castle in Osu, that undertakes to bring his administration closer to the doorstep of the people of Ghana.

From the Blackstar Square in Accra where the Millennium City Project is taking shape to the sandy beaches of Keta and Elmia; from the resuscitated cotton farms in Tamale to the Gbewa College of Education in Bawku; away from the newly established Hila Liman Senior High School in Wa to the over 1, 700 rural communities connected to the national grid under the Better Ghana Agenda, His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills is not only interested in knowing how his programmes and policies have impacted positively on the lives of the people BUT equally committed to remaining in touch with his appointees and workforce across the regions towards improving the quality of life of the good people of Ghana.

It is in the light of this unprecedented development that I doff my hat to the NDC administration and His Excellency the President with support from President Hu jintao of China in making this project a reality. The special relationship between President Mills and his Chinese Counterpart, President Hu Jintao dates back to their respective stewardship as Vice Presidents under their respective leaders prior to 2001. This bond of friendship nurtured by the commitment by both leaders to promoting their respective countries on the world market of economic and industrial giants has yielded very inspiring results. Ghana Today has made significant gains that are unprecedented in our history. While China continues to exert her dominance on the world stage in many areas, Ghana equally earned the enviable reputation as the fasted growing economy hitting 13.6% economic growth in less than 3 years under President Mills’ leadership.

It is not surprising that today both leaders have dedicated their public service to good governance, development and steady growth in the living standards of their people. A clear evidence of this commitment is the $3 billion China Development Bank facility recently granted Ghana and the pledge to develop the University of Health and Allied Sciences in the Volta Region to a world class University of choice.

The launch of this technological infrastructure adds to the recent networking of all Ministries, Department and Agencies of government under Dr. Tony Aidoo’s Policy Monitoring Outfit at the Office of the President. This culminates into a web of high speed data transfer, retrieval and information dissemination, evaluation and assessment with the click of a button to facilitate timely policy interventions in the interest of the state.

As of today, Ministers, Deputies, District and Municipal Chief Executives do not need to travel over long distances to book an appointment with the President to discuss issues of rural migration, human rights, security, water delivery and all other matters that arise in the daily activities of the people of Ghana.

His Excellency the President now has a third eye on all his lieutenants across the country to take daily briefs of ongoing works, policy directions, impact assessment and participate in Regional and District Security Meetings [DISEC] and to take live reports as and when the need arises with this facility. Meeting with investors across regions can even be facilitated with ease without the stress associated with booking an appointment at the Osu Castle.

The work of the National Security Coordinator, Lt Col. Larry Gbevlo-Lartey is effectively enhanced with this infrastructure. If effectively and efficiently managed, it has tendencies of improving our governance system, transparency and facilitates effective communication between His Excellency President Mills and his workforce even when he is outside the country on official assignments.

We have come a long way as a nation since Dr. Kwame Nkrumah made the famous declaration on the eve of Independence and we still have a long road to traverse towards economic freedom in our lifetime. The inauguration of this platform is a great one by a leader as visionary as His Excellency President John Evans Atta Mills.
Ghana needs these interventions that directly impact on the lives of her citizens. This is the beginning of a major breakthrough in our Information and Communication Technology by the government of Ghana and we look forward to better days under the Better Ghana Agenda.


p/s: the next time you see Agya Atta with a Smartphone, I bet you are sure he has go Ghana covered.

GHANA- A DEVELOPING AFRICAN TIGER AND THE ENERGY NEXUS

The Mills administration added 376 Megawatts of Power supply to the National Grid in 3 years and have so far connected 1,700 communities to electricity supply. This has significantly increased the load on the Volta River Authority [VRA]and the Independent Power Providers [IPP] to meet the rather growing volume of supply without any power reserve system, more like a hand-to-mouth kind of employment scenario. We consume all that we generate and even have huge shortages due to the absence of power reserve systems that can act as buffer stock anytime there is shortage in generation and supply.
The greater the demand, the supply falls, according to basic economic principles and the market forces fix the price. We cannot pay full cost for electricity and what we need to do as a nation is to invest heavily into power supply and a sustainable distribution system.
In Accra alone, 30 new power substations have been completed to ensure that the capacity of expanding communities are catered for. Gas supply to the Asogli Plnat remains a challenge and until a permanent solution is found to that, we will still experience such intermittent power outages.
The Bui Dam project will open the first turbine by September this year if all works according to plan and this will significantly improve supply.
President Mills returned from the USA recently with a 2nd Compact of the Millennium Challenge Account which is to be invested into energy generation and supply.
According to Prof. Elizabeth Ardayfio-Schandorf in her Inaugural lecture delivered on September 16, 2004 at the University of Ghana, she posits that per capita energy consumption in Africa accounts for only 26.8 while China alone is 38. with the USA hitting 334. I am afraid our economic growth as a nation would be retarded if we do not find a permanent solution or near permanent one to our energy needs. In her Book, "Energy and the development Nexus-The realities, Challenges and Opportunities for the Future", Prof. E Ardafio-Schandorf argues, "..without access to energy, and opportunity to formal education and good health, the well-being of many people in developing countries and Africa remains doubtful".
As we debate, there are hospitals without power supply not to mention the high cost of energy supply and consumption even by MMDAs.
That is a major challenge uncorrelated to what government wins power or not. It is a real challenge we must deal with as a nation. Meanwhile President Mills continues to win the hearts of many people including market women with the successes we have chalked up under his leadership in a better Ghana in spite of the challenges.

FDB AND THE BATTLE FOR GHANA'S SURVIVAL

I must commend the Food and Drugs Board [FDB] of Ghana, under the leadership of Dr. Opuni, for the seriousness the agency has attached to the fight against the importation, distribution and use of counterfeit drugs, unwholesome and expired food substances since he assumed office under the Mills-led administration.

The FDB has been down to business in going after unscrupulous individuals and importers whose profiteering activities largely imperil the lives of our people in the long run. There have been reports of the upsurge of cancer cases and other deadly organ complications in our hospitals across the country traceable to the ingestion of semi poisonous substances that wreck these critical organs of the body over time.

The FDB had been on active on the storage of food substances and drugs in the warehouses of importers and manufactures and in keeping the players of the industry on their toes, the agency conducts periodic inspections and visits in collaboration with the Ghana Standards Boards and the Security agencies to the sites of these operators. These rounds have achieved much result with the impounding of some food products and their subsequent destruction and the arrest of owners of these products and warehouses.
Since the beginning of the year, Dr. Opuni and his hardworking team have been ahead of those who wished to swindle consumers and the state as regards their nefarious operations aimed at nothing but generating ill-gotten wealth and have accordingly arrested a number of business operators who flaunt provisions of the provisions of the Food and Drugs Law, 1992 (PNDC L 305B).

Impounded fake food products since January 2012 include Hord’s Cocoa Powder, imported and distributed by Buchberger Enterprise located at Batsonaa on the Spintex Road; assorted fake alcoholic beverages, gallons of flavourings, labels belonging to Multi Giant Ventures. Multi Giant Ventures is said to belong to one George Kofi Asomani who is also the distributor of some local alcoholic beverages including Agya Appiah Bitters, Ohene Ba KasempaAbe Nsuo Gin and Baron Captain’s Dry Gin.
The FDB further reveals that this same company has produced fake J.H Henke’s Schnapps, J.H Captain’s schnapps, Castle Bridge London Dry Gin and had been distributing these products on the Ghanaian market until he was busted. Upon his arrest, fifteen [15] bottles of fake Hennessy Cognac (a product of France0 was also found in his bedroom where the alcoholic beverages were produced.

A press statement released by Mr.Kofi Essel, Head of Food Inspectorate Division of the FDB on Thursday March 1, 2012 cautioned producers of salt that the board is set to deal ruthlessly with all those who violate the FDB Law of 1996 which makes it mandatory for salt to be iodized before consumption.

The unsuspecting public would not have known these facts and these products if Dr. Opuni and his men had not taken the fight to the homes, workplaces and warehouses of these unscrupulous manufacturers, importers and distributors, of course, with great cooperation from the public. One wonders how many patrons of these products in the past have not been adversely affected by what they have consumed with the manifestation lurking to take a toll on their health.

It is in the light of this danger that all and sundry must support the work of the Food and Drugs Board to enable them protect consumers and to guarantee healthier lifestyles of the good people of Ghana. In view of the fact that a majority of the population is still illiterate and rural dwellers, more is expected of Dr. Opuni and his team to reach out to our brothers and sisters out there with much education and exposures they make so that these companies, producers and distributors do not come up with ways of sneaking these fake products into the rural areas where they are most likely to exploit the ignorance of the masses.

It is my opinion that the FDB must introduce a policy via their Public Affairs outfit to publish full list of items whose expiry dates are due two months ahead of date so the public could be on red alert for these products. This will also offer some time for people outside the catchment areas of the major towns and cities to get the news ahead of time so they do not patronise these products upon expiry.

Our media houses must also spend time discussing such issues that directly affect the health of the citizenry to educate them enough on the features one should look out for on these fake products and accordingly report them to the outlets of the Food and Drugs Board for prompt action.

The delay in prosecuting manufacturers, importers and distributors who fall foul of the law is another major problem that must be addressed. Many of these cases take months if not years to discharge. The courts must be seen to be actively involved in dealing with such issues for the public to appreciate the seriousness of these crimes.

The Food and Drugs Board could also consider the possibility of exploring the inventions of Mr. Bright Simons to the best advantage of the board and the good people of Ghana. Bright Simons runs a company Mpedigree Network which uses mobile phone technology to check the authenticity of some anti-malaria products in Ghana and in Nigeria. It would be a major boost if that system is applicable to local food and drugs in Ghana and would support the efforts and reduce the cost for the FDB in clamping down on these unscrupulous manufacturers and producers.

I congratulate Dr. Opuni and the Food and Drugs Board for the successes they have chalked up for the good people of Ghana since he assumed office and I wish to encourage the public to be interested in the quality and source of the food and drug products they consume by day. This is crucial as a safety measure to protect ourselves from the vampires of businesses whose only interest is to male money at the expense of the consumer.

The Food and Drugs Board has over the period published these telephone numbers, 0244337235, 0244337251 and 0244337243 for the public to contact the agency with information on matters relating to the safety and security of Food and Drugs in Ghana. It would help our generation a lot if Dr. Opuni engages more on the activities of the FDB on social media like twitter, facebook, Google+ among others to reach out to the youth with sensitization, alerts and public information on their activities for on the spot references by the click of a button on our mobile phones and tablets.

God Bless our Homeland Ghana.

God Bless a Better Ghana.