Friday,
September 27, 2013
My good friends, we have over the
years had good cause to complain about the shoddy manner in which our Ghanaian
missions abroad deal with Ghanaians living outside the country, especially when
it comes to the request for official (travel) documents (passports,
especially). And there are many other areas where they are
lacking—human/public/working relations, business-mindedness, courtesy, etc.
Just call the Ghana Mission in
New York or Washington and hear the irritating response that grates on your
ears!! Then, put in a request to hear the annoying answer that is given you!!
The staff behave as if working at those Missions places them above all other
Ghanaians in every aspect of life. They have no sense of courtesy to display
and stand condemned. It’s so in all the Missions. Let someone say otherwise and
provide evidence to support it.
In my personal observation of the
situation, I am more than persuaded that those working in those missions are
not fit to be there because they hardly know how to do things to solve problems
that Ghanaians bring to their attention.
One particular area that has
painted a very nasty picture of them is passport renewal or acquisition. Many
friends and others have complained bitterly about the trauma that they are put
through by the Ghanaian missions abroad when they apply for passports or want
expired ones renewed for them. My own passport has expired and I am yet to
begin the process. I hope nobody in the mission in the United States plays the
mess.
It is not so for a friend in
South Africa who has been in touch with me to lament. Here is his latest
complaint that I have decided to post verbatim for discussion:
“Hello brother
Longtime, well I hope u will
remember. I once wrote u an email concerning passport application in South
Africa Ghana high commission. Yes I explained to u the longer it takes before
someone can get his or her passport. My brother since 8th February 2013 I have
not received my passport.
“The fact is that the passport
was issue in May 2013 but they made a stupid mistake imagine. Instead of male
they wrote female. Immediately I received the passport I saw the mistake they
made and I gave it back. I asked them the way forward and they told me that
they have my information and even my passport photo so they will re print for
me.
“I waited for a month and they
call me and told me to submit another photos because they cannot find my
photos. I submitted another set of photos and waited for another 3 months. I
did a followed up and I was told that I must submit another photos again
because they can't find the second set.
"I could not further my
education through the year, I can't do anything. My wife had a baby and I can't
register the baby because I don't have a passport. I can't go to hospital with
my medical aid there is no proof of identification. Am not working because of
my passport.
“Today i submitted again my
photos and I don't know what to expect next. Brother, I know you will
understand me because u are also in foreign land. Please this must go to the
media and am also planning sue them. Please brother advise me and help me hit
the media.
Thank you.”
Anybody who reads this outpouring
of grief and is not moved must be made of stone. I suppose that’s how the staff
of Ghanaian missions want us to construct them—heartless people who are not fit
to be where they are either through political connections or by an accident of
Fate (mostly because one’s sister is a girlfriend to somebody in authority!).
If they think otherwise, let them prove me wrong by doing the right thing.
Sadly, though, they are quick to
attend to foreigners while shunning their own compatriots. Again, they are
quick to collude with outsiders to own Ghanaian passports for shady deals while
frustrating their own compatriots who need Ghanaian passports as a birthright
and bona fide citizens. Have we not heard stories about Ghanaian passports
being sold to foreigners in Italy and other countries?
My friend in South
Africa is not alone. There are many others in other countries suffering a
probably worse Fate. And as a friend put it, “you
are lucky to have someone pick your call. Over here in the UK, it is madness.
There have been some improvements since arrival
of Professor Danso Boafo, though. Everything is now automated and quick. What
is left is the human skills to know how to deal with people in a professional
manner.”
Why should it take so long to
process a common application for a passport (whether for a new one or the
renewal of an expired one)? How come that the staff of the Ghanaian Missions
are so damn unscrupulous on this score?
We are talking about Missions
created to facilitate the movements and sojourn of Ghanaians living abroad, not
because they don’t like their country but because they have no other option but
to go where Fate beckons them. Is it a crime to relocate in another country?
There are challenges that these
Missions don’t help solve. We know that apart from the primary objective of protecting
the interests of the country in the various countries, they are there to secure
the lives and property of Ghanaians so that they can contribute their quota
toward national development in various ways.
Talk about remittances and how
much Ghanaians-living-abroad contribute to the economy and you should be peeved
that they are not being fairly treated by the very people whose lifestyles are
supported by the national coffers to which those Ghanaians-living-abroad
contribute in diverse ways.
Talk about other ventures
involving these Ghanaians-living-abroad and you should be proud of them and
support efforts to streamline affairs so they are not dehumanized by their own
Missions.
We are even not talking about how
these Missions have failed to promote Ghana’s interests for trade purposes or
other transactions in which Ghana has a comparative advantage. What are these
Missions doing to “sell” Ghana to those countries?
Take the United States, for
instance, and the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA) that former
president Clinton instrumentally forged to help African countries market their
non-traditional products to the US. Has our Mission in the US done anything
beyond the sterile rhetoric that is churned out on ceremonial occasions and
grandiose designs on paper released to annoy us?
Other Missions elsewhere have
nothing concrete to produce to reassure Ghanaians that they are fit to depend
on. When Ghanaians abroad need help, they don’t go to those Missions because
they know they won’t be helped in any way.
Tell me, someone. Do our Missions
even have any record of the population of Ghanaians residing in their various
areas of jurisdiction? They don’t, which is why they aren’t connected to the them.
And which is why any talk of Ghanaians abroad being empowered to vote at
general elections smacks of a grand design for ballot theft than anything
soothing!
Our Missions aren’t functioning
properly because they lack the impetus that others (especially those of the
developed world) have. We know how citizens of other countries rush to their
Missions all over the world for all kinds of assistance because of reliable
service and the sense of purposefulness that guides transactions at and by the
Missions. Not so for Ghana’s Missions abroad, where the staf have constituted
themselves into robotic tin-gods to lord it over anybody in dire need of help
to solve problems in the strange land, where they live.
In a situation where career
diplomats have been overshadowed by political appointees to head the Missions
and to employ all manner of party lackeys as staff of the Missions, what should
we expect, anyway?
The conclusion can be drawn that
what we see happening in our Missions is a true reflection of the mediocrity
that dominates national affairs. The poor quality of service rendered by staff
of Ghana’s Missions is a microcosm of the national malaise. Let no one be
deceived about it.
I
shall return…
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E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
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