AN UNHEARD PLEA

“My father said he was going to work and take me to school, but he went to work and died there”. Those were the words of little Yakubu as he told me his story.

On the 25^th of July last year as I sat in the offices of Diamond FM in Tamale, a boy of about nine years old walked into the office as he made use of the open door. It was a Wednesday, so I wondered why he was not in school, but the box he held in his hand said everything, he was a shoeshine boy. The little boy did not know his age and neither did not know a word in the English language. 

Driven by curiosity, I enquired more why he was not in school and that was when he said the above quotation to me. There was just one thing this boy asked for; he wanted to be in school. According to Yakubu, his mother was married and lived at Choggu away from where Yakubu lived with his aunt. He had to work for a maximum of four cedis a day to support himself and his aunt. This explained why he was not in school. Whenever little Yakubu falls sick, he is taken from the capital Tamale to a village in the Northern Region for treatment.

This is the situation of many children in Ghana, capable of drawing someone to tears as they do not have the opportunity to attend a school in their lifetime or get three square meals a day. Access to quality health care is a dream yet to become a reality and most of all, child labor is increasingly becoming a major problem in the country.

Mothers go through a lot of challenges to bring forth a child. These range from the physical and emotional stress in carrying the pregnancy for thirty six weeks and the pain in labor and caring for the newly born child. These are roles played by women alone. Mothers give comfort, they love and most of all perform a balancing act between work and housekeeping.  Could this explain the rationale for all the blame being heaped on the mother in times where the child goes wayward or does not live a fulfilled life per the estimation of society?

The upbringing of a child is not just the responsibility of parents and mothers especially, but on society as a whole. This is because most children of school going age spend most of their time in school and social gatherings such as the church. Other systems put in place to seek the welfare of children and young people in the country are also responsible in the upbringing of a child. In Ghana, the state through the Department of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection seeks the welfare of these people who are considered to be the vulnerable in society.

The United Nations Population Fund is one of such organizations which seeks the interest of women and children in the country.

The UNFPA believes in a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.In the midst of the fast developing world where sexual adventure is becoming very common among young people and adolescents, the UNFPA preaches Adolescent Reproductive Health and contributes a great deal to reducing HIV/AIDS, Maternal Mortality and improving the general welfare of children, women and youth in the country. This is evident in the recent media training workshops and the launch of the World Population Day celebration held in Techiman on the 13^th of July this year on the theme “Adolescent Pregnancy”. UNFPA believes that every birth should be wanted to help children live to fulfill their full potential and maximize their energies towards building their country in future. The UNFPA Ghana office I must say is undeniably pursuing their mandate to achieving a society where Maternal Mortality, HIV/AIDS, Teenage Pregnancy and diseases in women such as Fistula are reduced drastically.

The 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana gives the right to every child to free compulsory universal basic education, which is a duty of the country’s leadership to fulfill to its people.

So in a country with a vibrant media which should focus on Human Rights and Development Journalism, the question of who really appreciates and defines development journalism leaves many in a conundrum. This is due to the undeniable fact that the reality of who really cares for the welfare of children in a country like ours is a big issue to worry about. Various political party manifestos are embellished with promises of ensuring good quality education, access to quality health care and the general well being of the Ghanaian child, yet the assurance of a country with an absence of child labor is not assured.

The untold truth is the fact that the Social Welfare institutions and the ministries responsible for the welfare   of poor and needy children are not fulfilling their mandate to creating good conditions for fulfilled lives of children in future. This also raises questions of the impact of the Non-Governmental Organizations flooding the Ghanaian society.

It is up to us to recognize the fact that needy children are not just children on the streets but there are more who are actually vulnerable and live in worse conditions in their homes. This fact when considered makes us notice the exponential rate at which child vulnerability is growing in this country.

It is therefore a collective responsibility of the media, especially students of journalism to contribute our quota to children’s rights and development by studying in fields of Human Rights reporting and Developmental Journalism. This is to acknowledge that providing a good and comfortable life is not a privilege, but a right. The right of one child is the right of all children and justice for a child is justice for the whole nation.

THE WOMAN IS THE BACK BONE OF EVERY CHILD'S LIFE, IT TAKES JUST A LITTLE BIT OF HELP FROM SOCIETY TO MAKE IT BETTER.

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BENEATH THE SMILE OF THE AFRICAN WOMAN

The secret in the skin of the African woman is that of great responsibility. There are women and there are women. Most contemporary “go getta” kind of women refer to their partners as honey, sweetheart, baby and boo (as I hear these days). Women who choose to go the traditional way call their husbands efo, nnai, alhaji and the list goes on. But what is undeniable in the hearts of all these women is the love embedded in it. Married or single, women with melanin in her skin go into every relationship with great expectations. I open my eyes wide with rage when men look me in the eye and tell me all women want money and are cheap, (I find that rather disrespectful and demeaning on our famine sect). Then I am tempted to say, all men cheat, lie, are greedy and ill mannered. There is no denying the fact that every one of us was so madly in love with our first love, proving the real us in the world of this fantasy called love. But what makes a relationship turn sour is how we are and were treated in our relationships.

Most women who are cheated on try so hard to adjust and move on with their lives, but what men fail to realize is that, most women fail to love because they are scared of a heart break. Now, this is our little secret, we love with all our hearts, but most often we pretend not to  be touched because we don’t want to be hurt. You know that feeling when a woman smiles to a man, giving the impression that the woman is flirty. But hey, a woman’s smile is like a tickle in the head saying “who the hell is this guy”, an assessment of who the man is, but we want to seem nice and energetic when we stretch the hand to say “hello, my name is Ann and i just want to be friends”. All hell breaks loose when a contact number is taken, (men never cease to amaze us though), then he starts visualizing really unimaginable stuff. In Africa today, it gets so creepy when the woman finds the courage to establish friendship with a man especially when she finds him really interesting to be with.

Now there are three weird rules to appreciating the smile of a woman. Before you genuinely appreciate that smile, you might want to ‘see a man in a woman’. She’s not always weak, apologetic and needy as you are trained to think in your society. If you mistaken her smile for “I love you”, then you are going to rue ever having that perception. Because trust me, she’s going to genuinely appreciate your efforts to please her as a Father Christmas would do.

Rule number two, before you return that smile, don’t give her that ‘head to toe’ look as if she was standing in front of the Kwame Nkruman circle chewing a bubble gum with that infuriating sounds coming from between her teeth. Regardless of her appearance, you give an impression of yourself as that gentleman who wants a one night stand. That is when you start disrespecting all women when a lady cheats on you. It’s your behavior dear. The moment that ‘hi’ is returned with a smile, then your merry making fantasy is certainly going to be short-lived as it should be.

The greatest rule is, never disrespect a woman because of that tiny little smile, because you might just be earning a warrant to doomsday. Some men are condescending, egoistic and fussy they may want to take us back to the 1^st century where they were feared and worshiped. For the guys, I know that’s not who you are, you just want to earn respect. But it’s not worth the trouble; women appreciate men who respect them. I read the headlines and I see stories such as “Farmer 30, Murders Husband” and i used to wonder if they were ever in love. The fact is, they did love each other, but it just takes a little respect from both sides to make it work.

So next time the lady gives you that hearty smile, it doesn’t mean much; it means “Who are you”. Think twice before you make any wrong move.

Men raise eyebrows when a lady smiles at them on a first meeting, making women seem all too cheap and desperate.But one fact they just can't understand is the secret behind our smile.

"Beneath the Smile of the African Woman " in a few minutes at completewomangh.blogspot.com

TRIPPING OVER A POT OF ‘PITO’ –THE AFRICAN SITUATION

One day when Amara Bangura woke out of bed, he was in a state of dilemma as his uncle warned him not to go to school. As a focused 19 year old boy, he was preparing to write his high school examination in a small town of Makeni in North Sierra Leone, when the civil war broke out.

Just when Bangura fled and thought he had escaped from the rebels, he was captured on his escape to Guinea by gun fighters who had earlier caught his school mates. “We were to be trained and forced to fight alongside the rebel,” he said. However, Bangura managed to climb through an opening in the roof and run for his life.

Today, Amara Bangura, a JHR trained journalist has been featured by the BBC for his wonderful work as a human rights reporter during the civil war in his country and his coverage on the Charles Taylor trial. 

Wars have been fought, lives have been lost, dreams shattered and hopes lost with the outbreak of civil wars in Africa, in the midst of penury, disease, hunger and utmost fear. Is the future of Africa still undefined, what are the causes of these problems in Africa and will there ever be a solution to the African situation? What are the implications of modern democracy, and finally, what does power mean to Africa?

Clashes in Nigeria, Sudan, Liberia, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Cote D’Ivoire have left thousands of people homeless, who tend to seek refuge in other parts of the continent. A significant majority of these wars affects women and children whose husbands and fathers flee for their lives, rendering them helpless and their future unknown.

In the wake of time, effective democracy is struggling to gain roots in many parts of the continent as an effect of colonial antecedents. Conflicts in Africa are part of what can be termed; a global issue that cannot be overemphasized in the midst of the fast rate of industrialization and modernization.

To commence with, western democracy in Africa is leaving many countries on this continent in a state of dilemma as they seem not to understand and appreciate the real essence of democracy. Many African leaders, who claim to be ruling under a democracy, are reluctant to hand over power for a peaceful transition. Mentioned can be made of Abdul Wade of Senegal, Togo’s late dictator Nyasingbe Eyadema, Zimababwe’s Robert Mugabe among others who will always twist the constitution of their country to favor their long stay in office.

It is disheartening to admit that Africa is in a state of penury because of its politically unstable environment.As the world’s second largest continent, Africa’s poverty can be said to be as a result of failure, as the continent can undoubtedly be defined as the world’s richest in materials and human resources needed for the survival of the continent.

Undeniably, the economic situation of the continent can also be linked to colonial antecedents which include the arbitrary nature by which the continent was demarcated, leaving some countries such as Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana very rich with natural resources and others such as Burundi and Togo very poor. Some countries are landlocked such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger while others such as Democratic Republic of Congo are left with as much as ten borders, resulting to large amounts being spent on security.

One critical message that held significance in the visit of the US president Barrack Obama to Ghana was that the development of any country was highly dependent on how the institutions function effectively and not stronger persons.

From the philosophical point of view, Karl Popper, one of the greatest philosophers of Science and Politics in the 20^th century said the best political question to ask is not who is the best person to govern but rather what institutions are put in place to check the acts of leaders and limit the damaging effects of bad and incompetent leaders. We live in a century where we do not need great philosophers as leaders to survive in a democracy as in the case of the ‘theory of the philosophizer king’ , were Plato states that, unless kings become philosophers and philosophers become kings, cities will not have rest from evils. 

What power means to some African leaders is a situation of personalization of authority and leadership which usually creates a platform for Coup d’états and conflicts over who controls the national purse or resources. This is evident in countries such as Liberia, Cote D’Ivoire and Libya where thousands of men flee, leaving women and children at the mercy of armed rebels and starvation. It is sad to say that, similar to Amara Bangura’s case, many children and people in their youthful age are forced to fight as rebels in their country. By mid August 2012, out of about 48 people killed from ethnic violence in Kenya, the victims included 31 women, 11 children and 6 men, depicting the vulnerability of women and children in the conflicts that characterize Africa.

The youth of Africa, who hold the key to the seat of leadership in the future, are undoubtedly monitoring events and are likely to be influenced by the present political atmosphere in the continent. This is perhaps hard to admit, but still remains an undeniable fact. Young people contribute a significant percentage of the labor force in every African country with ideals capable of building a new and refined Africa to catch up with the fast growing rate of competition in the world, especially with the Asian tigers, Europe and the Americas.

The future of the youth and the next generations is highly dependent on the exemplary actions exhibited by the present leadership, so as to be proactive and set the pace for a generation worth living as in the likes of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah , Desmond Tutu, Shaka Zulu ,Jomo Kenyatta , John Evans Attah Mills including great African Americans such as Martin Luther King. These great leaders have left great legacies on their nations and on the African continent as a whole. In retrospect, the Africa of today is not the Africa that was fought for by past freedom fighters who put their lives on the stake for this continent. Therefore it is the responsibility of the present generation to fight a good cause to rid Africa of the negative influences and effects of bad rule and leadership.

Indeed, it is about time we come to terms with the fact that, some African leaders are materialistic and do not care about the welfare of their people. The youth who have to fight to survive in most of these African countries have just two options to survive; fight alongside the rebels for leverage or flee to neighboring African countries and starve as refugees or engage in illegal activities for survival. Sad to say, those who are too ambitious or perhaps driven by misconceptions about the western world either die on their escapade to other continents by illegal means or end up arrested and sometimes fall into the traps of the police with no counsel to defend them simply because of their race.

In as much as some African countries such as Ghana, Malawi, Swaziland, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Cape Verde and other relatively peaceful African countries are striving to maintain a democratic and peaceful atmosphere, they have challenges with internal management. A case in point is the country on the west coast of Africa, Ghana; first to have gained independence in Sub Saharan Africa whose vision to end graduate unemployment is yet to come to a complete reality.

As it exists now majority of political parties in Ghana based their manifestos on promises to end the struggles of the youth when they gain political power. However, it is disheartening to know that even though the youth play an integral role in the social and economic development of the country, they are not empowered enough to take up their mantle to contribute to the development of the country.

As noted by his Excellency the late President of the Republic of Ghana, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Ghana as a country needs to develop herself in terms of infrastructural and economic development, and help solve the plight of needy women and children in the country. This shows the concern of few African leaders such as the late president of Ghana who would strive to ensure the comfort and satisfaction of his people. The MDGs are development goals that United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by 2015.

Efforts made by the several African countries to achieve the Millennium Development Goals are underway, while others are still in the shackles of instability. The United Nations Population Fund office in Ghana is one of the few organizations pursuing MDG 5 and putting in effort to help get rid of Maternal Mortality and seeking the interest of young people, women and children in Ghana.

Ghana as an independent democratic country is setting a perfect example to other African countries to strengthen their democracy. A classic case in point is the concerns of the current president of Ghana when he gave his maiden address to the Ghanaian people. The president urged young men and women to believe in themselves to be able to compete with the outside world. He said, Ghana will continue to be a beacon of hope for the African continent and the world at large. The Ghanaian president assured to give his best to maintain peace in the country.  This is a binding duty for all African leaders who seek to maintain peace in their country.

On the celebration of the International Youth Day 2012 in Ghana, a press statement by the national youth authority in, signed by the National Cordinator, MrsSedinaTamakloe said that youth participation has become a key tenet in national development.  The question now is, what opportunities are there in most African countries to be explored and utilized by the African youth?

In truth, the development of Africa is highly dependent on the youth, who constitute majority of the labor force, therefore a need for the consolidation of policies and investments aimed at empowering the youth .The hopes and aspirations of the youth vary, but one thing stands still; they want their voices to be heard and to be involved in the policy formulation process. Thus African leaders need a listening ear to end the struggles of the youth for the development of the continent.

It is of little wonder however those ambitious political party leaders therefore take their financial situation to their advantage and ‘motivate’ them with some monies to get them on their sides.

One might say this in the case of the unfortunate youthful class who has had little or no formal education. The incident that characterized the 2012 annual delegates congress of the National Union of Ghana Students is a clear indication of a continent that might have doubts in the future generation. The greediness for power therefore can be said to start at the youthful stages of these so called leaders and politicians.

In a country like Nigeria where religious clashes have become the order of the day, the country’s instability is threatened likewise Ghana, where the youth constitute a huge percentage of criminals being arrested in both countries. What is the reason for this? As children, we’ve all had dreams of becoming a doctor, lawyer or a carpenter. No child has a dream of being an armed robber or a rebel

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Africa in the wake of modern democracy is striving to gain grounds in the fast growing world. It is about time that the African people learn to be independent and cast their votes for the right people irrespective of race, class or religion. The concept of democracy is indigenous to Africa and should be managed with ingenuity as democracy reigned and succeeded in pre-colonial Africa.

Moreover, the African people are taken for granted by the so called leaders who only grieve for their own loss and not for the loss of their country. Therefore, it is about time that the concept of leadership is redefined and the mentality of the African reoriented positively for the full development of perhaps the richest continent in the world.

The western world plays a great role in the future of Africa, as the continent has become a friend to any foreign country seeking to be a first world country or increase the rate of industrialization. This is a problem Africans themselves have been aware of since the era of the slave trade, colonization and now neo colonialism, as described by Dr Kwame Nkrumah. It is therefore incumbent on any African to know their history and help in the fight for African liberty even in this so called era of independence because Africa is the cradle of civilization.

The struggles of Africa’s democracy if not well handled can be likened to a hypothetical situation of brewing a pot of ‘pito,’a local beverage brewed in Northern Ghana, which when tripped over does not only cause pain to the person who trips over it, but affects largely the brewer’s effort having wasted time and resources to prepare the drink.

Just like AmaraBangura, most Africans need peace to survive and develop their potentials. Africa needs peace to survive which is the first step to the development we so yearn for. If Africa does not seek peace in the midst of her darkness, she will surely remain hungry and fall into a ditch of her own blood that could bring her the heat of war and sorrow, just like tripping over a pot of pito.  

Though in his sick bed, I pray African leaders draw inspiration from Nelson Madiba Mandela's commitment in seeking the interest of his people to help develop their country.  

To be a Complete Woman, every young African girl has a mental picture of a house filled with beautiful flowers, a husband to look up to and give a big smile, a job to work and feel proud of and children to make her laugh and sometimes cry. But where is this headed to without peace and competent leadership. "Tripping Over a Pot of Pito" is a piece that will get u thinking about the future of the youth of our great continent. Read on...

Complete Woman  takes readers into another level of Africa's challenges and future in the fast growing world, assessing its impact on the youth and women on the continent.