Honestly speaking, I laugh anytime I hear the so-called world leaders praise African governments for working hard to meet aspects of the so-called Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). A decade has passed and with only five years left on the calendar for countries to meet the content of the MDG’s, I’m still struggling to find any African government committed to improving the lives of its citizens by putting in structures to minimize poverty, improve the quality of education and maternal health.
Absolutely none! It may sound pretty unbelievable but I’m yet to see or read a truthful document about African governments working hard to improve the lives of the ordinary people. I know Ghana has been highly praised by the international community towards effort to improve the lives of ordinary Ghanaians. I’m not sure how to accept this kind of praise.
This country is where she is because of the ridiculous praise singing those world leaders hip on us.. Most of the time they don’t mean well, that is the truth.
I’m not sure a leader with a sound mind will praise a country whose fresh mothers share a bed soon after coming from the labour ward. Almost a week ago I visited a cousin of mine at the La General Hospital (formerly La Polyclinic but we are told it has been upgraded) who has given birth. The kind of things I saw at the hospital hounded me almost throughout the night. Fresh mothers with their babies had been forced to share a bed covered with dirty sheets.
My cousin had to share her bed with another new born mother. It was a very pathetic sight. Other mothers unable to get a bed had to fight for a share of the floor. I was moved to tears. The room was full of spider web and the stench from within was ugly. That is only La hospital.
There is also Korle Bu Teaching Hospital which is the main health facility in the country. The experience there is always harrowing for fresh mothers as they have to struggle not even for bed but the floor. Reports about mothers being detained with their babies because they are unable to pay their bills are daily rituals.
Maternal mortality in the country has not seen any significant improvement and I wonder how that could be good enough to say Ghana has performed well with the MDGs. What the ruling elites have spent their time doing is to just talk with no proper action happening. Their interest lies more in the money they loot from the ordinary people rather than committing themselves to fixing the roads, providing water and improving the unemployment levels in the country.
Their failure was well articulated by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who told the BBC’s Mike Williams in an interview poor people don’t benefit from handouts given to their leaders by developed countries. "Governments go public with amounts that they are giving, they get lots of publicity in the press, but the money never really comes through. The poor don't see that money."
Mr. Annan again said: "We cannot expect to live in a world where some people have immense wealth and you have extreme poverty living side by side and not expect some sort of a reaction... we are beginning to see a bit of that even here around Europe, with the social upheavals, with people in the streets demanding their rights - this is obviously something that has happened in the past but is beginning to happen as things get tighter and tighter economically for them."
It is pitiable to know that Africa produces more but her citizens are extremely poor. More than 70 percent of the poverty most Africans find themselves in is brought on them by their idiotic leadership.
For example, you have a president in the person of Jacob Zuma who foolishly decides to take advantage of a tradition to have more women for himself and their expenses are being paid for by the state. According to a report last year, a total of more than One million pounds was spent on the living expenses of his wives, at a time when the vast majority of South Africans still live in abject poverty. The least said about that useless King Mswati in Swaziland the better.
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