Saturday, September 6, 2014
Folks, a country that doesn’t
have good expertise in doing productive foreign relations work can’t impress or
attract other countries to do business with it. And without any productive
relationship with other countries, how can such a country sell itself? No
amount of re-branding ventures will serve its purposes. That is why countries
establish foreign missions and spend huge sums of money maintaining them. By their
fruit will they be known. Ghana’s missions abroad are nothing but deadwood.
Ghana is known for its
penetration into other parts of the world, establishing links with any country
at all that it sees as a likely productive partner. The missions so established
are expected to do much for the country’s benefit. Some missions are regarded
as more important than others. Take the missions in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, France, Italy, for instance, and you will know
why those appointed as Ambassadors and High Commissioners there regard
themselves as more “powerful” or “luckier” than their colleagues assigned to
Burkina Faso, South Sudan, Nicaragua, Panama, or Lesotho.
For reasons best known to the
appointing authority, choosing Ambassadors and High Commissioners to do Ghana’s
foreign relations work is demanding. How about the intensive lobbying going on
and the need to put in place those who can do the bidding?
In contemporary times, the trend
has been particularly disturbing because most of those appointed to the foreign
missions are not career diplomats but political operatives either being
placated or recycled after losing traction in the system at home. And we know
how some of those “diplomats-by-accident” have already flopped in their
political careers to indicate that “diplomacy” is not their niche. So, why
recycle them for such positions in countries that would already have known them
as such? I am particularly unhappy that the appointment of political appointees
to the disadvantage of career diplomats is now the order of the day. It didn’t
happen that much under Nkrumah. No wonder he had a strong foreign mission corps
to make Ghana’s presence felt far and near.
Not in our contemporary times
when the corps of political appointees being sent to those missions either end
up not performing well or simply regarding their position as an investment to
over-extend their partisan political jingoism. They cannot separate partisan
politics from the foreign relations work that their new-found status entails
and demands.
Truth be said, Ghana is not
really getting value for money from its foreign missions, apparently because
nothing is being aggressively done by these missions to promote the country’s
interests and serve the citizens residing in countries that they are posted to.
I have written opinion pieces questioning the incompetence of these foreign
missions at several levels: not serving Ghanaians in their areas of
jurisdiction because they lack data on the population or are undiplomatic in
their work ethics; not promoting Ghana’s trade prospects; seeking personal
interests at the expense of the public one; and their staff’s indulging in
immoral acts (bribery and corruption, visa racketeering, especially) as well as
sabotage (especially when negative political interests come between them and
their official designation). In truth, I and many others are not proud of our
foreign missions’ performance.
Against this background, isn’t it
intriguing to hear that the High Commissioner in the UK, Victor Smith, has
cautioned staff of the Commission to comport themselves (plainly put, to eschew
corruption or sabotage) or be fired (Reference: http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=324616)
This warning is appropriate and
timely to suggest that Ambassador Smith wants to do serious work at the
Mission. I hope he will be given a free hand as such; but he needs to draw a
line between partisan political activism and the kind of diplomatic work that
must be devoid of tension and animosity. Sometimes, overzealous politicians
wearing their power on their sleeves can muddy the waters.
Beyond this issue is the major
problem regarding the assets of Ghana’s missions abroad and how they are
disposed of. In an apparent response to Ambassador Smith’s warning, a
contributor to a discussion forum that I belong to made some serious
allegations that are worth publicity so the government can look into them to
expose and punish the perpetrators. Here are the allegations:
·
In
the early 1980’s, property and buildings belonging to the Ghana High Commission
were sold for hundreds of thousands and even millions of pounds by some
unscrupulous individuals. Ghana government officials took the money and ran
away with it. No one has been held to account.
·
A
case in point is the massive edifice called “Collingham Gardens” in Earls’
Court, West of London. This massive building was acquired for Ghanaian students
in London during Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s era to provide accommodation for Ghanaian
students studying in London and Ireland in the 1960’s. The building was sold
for millions of pounds and the Ghana officials in charge, mostly from the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the London High Commission, shared the monies
and just declared a little amount to the Ghana Government in Accra.
·
There
was another building in a very prime location near Hydes Park Corner; it used
to be the Trade Mission. That building was also sold for millions of pounds and
most of the money disappeared.
·
Expensive
cars and other property are never properly accounted for.
·
There
were Ghana High Commission guest houses for visiting Ghanaian officials in very
plush London Neighbourhoods in the 1970s’ and 1980s. All these buildings have
been sold off and no one knows where the monies went.
·
Another
High Commission building in a prime location at Queensgate, London, was sold
for millions of pounds, but no one knows what happened to the monies.
·
As
recent as three years ago, Ghana High Commission officials were known for
issuing Ghanaian passports to Nigerian and Ghanaian 419 operatives.
·
Ghana
High Commission officials at the visa section in Highgate are still brazenly
extorting monies from customers to speed up their visa application process and
provide audience (with the High Commissioner?) and facilitate access. How
unethical?
Folks, that’s the tall list of
allegations, which I have culled from that forum to extend my claim that for as
long as Ghana’s missions abroad indulge in unethical conduct and fail to
promote the country’s interests—not to talk about their failure to serve the
best interests of Ghanaians residing in their areas of jurisdiction—their
public image remains indelicate and questionable beyond measure. The problem
with the Ghanaian Establishment is that official response to allegations of
this sort are painfully slow and ineffectual. The truth is that the rot in the
system is pervasive, creating the impression that those to take action against
culprits are themselves likely culprits. So, who cares?
It is clear that the alleged
malpractices occurred in the 1980’s when Rawlings was in power. What did his
government know about them? What did it do to name and shame the perpetrators?
How about succeeding governments? In the final analysis, who has investigated
anything for us to know the truth? Will the Mahama-led administration be bold
enough to dig into it, now that it has cropped up in public discourse?
I am more than unhappy that
Ghana’s foreign policy initiatives are not aggressively being pursued for the
country to reap the benefits. Can we say that we have a Minister of Foreign
Affairs who is well versed in foreign relations work and not just settling down
as a “glorified messenger”? For the country to have a vigorous foreign
relations sector, appointments there should be based on real factors other than
political altruism or adulation. Not until those qualified to do foreign
relations work are put in charge of affairs, nothing concrete will emerge with
which to move the country where it needs to be in this 21st century.
Why are we in Ghana so bent on shackling ourselves? I wonder; I really wonder!!
I shall return…
E-mail: mjbokor@yahoo.com
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