Dear Minister, Just answer the question “God bless our homeland Ghana, and make our nation Great and Strong”. God has indeed blessed Ghana in good measure. The rest is really up to us; and if we fail to reach our “Great and Strong” status in spite of all that’s available to us, then perhaps we’ve lived in a sea of disillusioned illusions. Over the years Ghanaians have continued in hope, promises after promises, government after government; in expectation that “things will get better”. It’s not much to ask. For years, some politicians have carried on in “their own ways”, exploiting many for votes and being accountable to none. Like wolves they rule the sheep to make meat for their bellies and wool for their skins. Ghanaians have looked on quietly. That quietness has been misconstrued as blindness – The truth is, we see the corruption and the waste. We see greed feeding on servitude, betrayals of our common prosperity and insults to our intelligence. We see it all. I am of “this” generation; a generation that believes the future is in our own hands to shape; a generation unhappy with the visionless state of our country’s changing leaderships and the seemingly eternal damnation to be a country always holding up a begging bowl; It is us who seek answers, answers to salvage any hope, we have remaining in the abilities of our leaders. I may not ask all the questions, but I am asking a few. Let the leaders answer: Ministry of Communication and Technology Technology is the world’s future. Technologies well developed are equally as valuable as our natural resources. Fact - Ghana has not really progressed much by depending on its natural resources alone. The problem isn’t the abounding resources, but the lack of value being added to them. Technology is what adds value to what we already have and creates new values out of our intangible ideas. Technology will launch us twenty years backward if we don’t embrace it aggressively or twenty years ahead if we do. So, dear Minister – What’s your ministry aggressively doing to lead the nation into a conscious technological revolution? What are you implementing to make technology the driving force behind our industries, our education, our farming, our transportation etc? Why aren’t we aggressively backing and collaborating with the local budding technology industry? Is it because you don’t believe in their abilities or that it is the next big thing or is technology just not your kind of thing? Ministry of Education & Sports The future of this nation lies heavily with your Ministry, but the truth is, that future is gradually eroding. Consider Ghana’s tertiary educational system; it is incredulously heart-breaking that our future leaders are being taken through a kind of education where intellectual merit is a reward for reciting back what lecturers teach and not for thinking outside the box. They do NOT excel anymore by using historical knowledge to innovate new solutions but rather by simply repeating old knowledge in the face of new and evolving challenges. The world is evolving rapidly and the nations that continue to do well are those that are building empires of “the human mind”. They are the countries whose educational philosophies are focused on ensuring that the thinking and knowledge of their younger generation is positioned far into the future, ahead of anyone else. So I ask you this question – How is Ghana’s educational system positioning our generations into the future? How about basic level of education? The current rate of failure at the BECE’s certification stage is about 40%. Is this normal Minister? Is it normal that 40% of the future generation are failing before they even start? Is it normal that in this modern era, children still study under trees; teachers do not benefit from any modern applied research into how best to deliver learning; is it normal that 25% plus of national budget goes into education and yet we can condone these failures? Is it really normal, Minister? Ministry of Information In the current world it is those with strategic information that win. Countries as a result are vigorously engaging in an information war which in a few years’ time will replace what has been in the past – the cold war. We can’t engage in such a war, but out of curiosity – what is your Ministry doing to protect our “information sovereignty and territory”? Terrorism is no more about bombs; it’s about threats to sensitive information. Can you say your ministry has robust systems in place to protect nationally sensitive information being held by say, the Ministry of Finance, Defence, Bank of Ghana or the Ghana stock exchange? Lest I forget, when the rest of the world hears about Ghana, what information are we hoping to reach them with? What branding do we want them to see or hear? What information are we consciously, as a nation branding our country with? By the way on the Government of Ghana official internet website, on the “About Ghana” page, and “Ghana at a Glance” section; you have listed on there the statement: “GHANA IS AN ISLAND OF ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY IN THE OCEAN OF FRANCOPHONE NATIONS” – Firstly, Ghana is NOT an island and second, there is no such grammar as “in the ocean of Francophone nations”. You have also listed “GDP Annual Growth Rate =4.7 USD”. Minister, the rates are measured in percentages not USD and secondly the rate is currently NOT 4.7%. Can’t we even proofread and update a whole national government portal? You see, Dear Minister, Information reflects our image and IMAGE is everything – Is our Information system making or unmaking us? Ministry of Energy Dear Minister, I, and the rest of Ghana I’m sure, would like to know whether or not you have ever had an “energy source mapping” conducted? If you did, then tell me; of all the sources of electrical energy in Ghana available to tap into, why are we so very reliant on Biomass (60%+), Hydro and Thermal sources? The Dams and thermal plants have fixed energy production capacities whereas the population of Ghana continues to increase; Approximately 40% of this country still do not have access to electricity; Ghana meanwhile is gradually moving into slow industrialisation and I just wanted to ask you how you intend to reach the un-serviced 40% of the country and still have enough electricity to service our growing industry? You’ll import rather than invest in long term alternatives, won’t you? What are we doing with alternatives; wind, solar, etc.? Yes, there has been consultations, plans, proposals etc – but what are we doing? Don’t you feel any betrayal that Ghanaians for the most part pay their electricity bills faithfully and yet cannot still enjoy uninterrupted power supply? Does it cause you any worry at all that industry and individuals in Ghana make financial losses on a daily basis because of power outages? Do you by any chance worry, that we fail to attract foreign businesses into Ghana because if they came, most of their industrial operations will be sabotaged by the regular power interruptions? Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning The Ghanaian people pay Income taxes, VAT, Customs duties, Road Tolls etc. to the Government and yet they don’t see any improvements in sanitation, roads, hospitals, schools, etc. In fact it appears most of our infrastructure are significantly still being funded from loans and grants from external governments and bodies. The people pay taxes and yet have to pay bribes to receive services their taxes were meant to pay for. The people pay taxes and yet the government still gets external budgetary support. So what is all the tax money being used for exactly Minister? Ghana’s annual budget has for many many years been supported by multi-donors. My laymen’s understanding is that if these donors’ should pull out at any time, we would not be able to fully run our country within a particular year. So I ask you dear Minister, how long will we be in this vulnerable state as a country; and I ask you again can’t we start attempting to live within our means? And if I may ask you finally Minister, what’s the business sense behind taking loans from external sources, contracting out works to external companies, paying those external companies with the external funds borrowed and then being left to pay again for the amounts borrowed over many years – just out of curiosity I wanted to know – what are we retaining in the Ghanaian economy? Ministry of Food and Agriculture Dear Minister, our country’s production of cocoa is under competition from Indonesia (currently the third largest producer). I have read the strategies the two countries are adopting to topple Ivory Coast from the top spot. In summary, whereas we are giving free seeds to farmers, the Indonesian’s are combining free seeds and aggressive increases to the number of hectares currently farmed. Cocoa was introduced in Ghana before Ivory Coast. In the last eight years that Ivory Coast has been politically unstable, we have not been able to surpass their production superiority and I wondered if we’ll do so now when they are in a recovery mode and eager to claw back on lost time? Dear Minister, perhaps you can also explain this to me – why is it that countries such as the USA, Italy and Switzerland who do not produce Cocoa are the world’s top producer of chocolates which we, as a country turn back to import – why do we export cocoa at producer rates to countries that add a little value to them and sell back to us at higher prices? Forgive my ignorance but I need you to educate me on this. I’ll spare you the concerns I have on rice imports, Timber concessions, Palm Oil production, Cereals production, storage and exports etc… I’ll spare you now, but “I Will Be Back”