Ken Maguire

 

Maguire covers Ghana for GlobalPost. He moved to West Africa last fall after seven years as a staff writer for the Associated Press. He was...

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Ken Maguire's Notebook:

September 9, 2009 18:32 ET

Ghana to Nigeria: Stop bashing

Ghana is calling on Nigeria’s president to put an end to “Ghana bashing” by government ministers. It’s the latest in a long history of political twists between these rivalrous West African states.

Ghana’s top diplomat in Abuja said in a letter published Sept. 9 in a Nigerian newspaper that his country was offended by recent comments mocking Ghana’s military and academic community.

“Our concern really is that such reckless and unguarded comments could have grave implications for bilateral relations and derail efforts by leaders of the two countries to forge strong bilateral ties,” wrote Nana Yaw Aboagye of the Ghana High Commission in the Nigerian capital.

“We think President Umaru Yar’Adua should call his ministers to order. The Ghana bashing must stop,” he wrote. “Ghana is a well-respected member of the international community, and deserves respect from Nigerians, particularly top government officials.”

Aboagye cited the Nigerian defense minister’s comments that “the whole of Ghanaian Armed Forces, if you choose to know, is not more than just two brigades of the Nigerian Armed Forces, period.” He said the same minister proclaimed that “the volume of water generated in Ghana is not enough to flush toilets in Lagos State.”

A few months back, it was Nigeria’s top diplomat in Ghana who complained about Nigerians receiving unfair coverage from Ghanaian media. The relationship was marred in the past by irrational immigration policies. Ghana expelled 100,000 foreigners, mostly Nigerians, in 1969, and Nigeria sent 1.2 million Ghanaians packing in the 1980s.

More recently, Nigerian leaders were outspoken in their disappointment of U.S. President Barack Obama’s overnight trip to Ghana. It was Obama’s first presidential stop in sub-Saharan Africa.

Even worse for Nigeria: Ghana has already qualified for next year’s World Cup.

The latest spat is generating serious buzz online. Just the text of the letter posted on a popular news portal, ghanaweb.com, elicited 640 comments by day’s end.

September 3, 2009 17:34 ET

Obama still in Ghana

Can’t wait to see President Barack Obama when he comes to Ghana? Oh wait, that was almost two months ago.

Obama is gone, but you’d hardly know it from all the billboards along busy roadways in the capital, Accra. Most of them say “Akwaaba,” which means “welcome” in Twi, and depict Obama shoulder to shoulder with his Ghanaian counterpart, President John Atta Mills (see photo below).

Hey, if I were Mills, I’d keep my image next to Obama’s straight through the 2012 election cycle. Mills can forever brag that he was the first sub-Saharan president to host America’s first black president.

We’ll see how long the billboards and median-strip signs remain. After the 2008 presidential election, which eventually was decided in January, towering political billboards stayed put for months in Accra. Eventually, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly — equivalent to a city council — ordered them removed by the end of April.

Obama in Ghana | Obama in Accra

 

June 17, 2009 06:47 ET

Optimism and radios in Ghana

Ghanaians are devout optimists who are politically active and expect a lot from their government. Those are some of the conclusions to draw from recently published survey results from the Afrobarometer, a nonprofit polling project.

Afrobarometer regularly conducts polls about economic, political and social issues in 20 African states. Last March, 1,200 Ghanaians were randomly selected for interviews, with a 50 percent gender quota. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.

Here are some of the results:

  • Nearly three-fourths of respondents said their living conditions would be better or much better in the next 12 months.
  • Sixty-five percent of those surveyed get their news from radio every day. Only 10 percent read a newspaper every day.
  • Sixty-nine percent of those interviewed said they agree or strongly agree with this statement: “People are like children; the government should take care of them like a parent.” Twenty-seven percent said they agree or strongly agree with the other option: “Government is like an employee; the people should be the bosses who control the government.”
  • Seventy-two percent chose the statement “divine intervention is responsible for Ghana’s achievement over the years,” compared to 25 percent agreeing that “creativity and discipline of Ghanaians are the major factors for Ghana’s success.”
  • Eighty-seven percent of respondents never use a computer.
  • Sixty-five percent of city dwellers interviewed said they use a cell phone every day, compared to 29 percent of people who live in a rural area.
  • Nearly one in four people interviewed said they had no formal schooling, and just 1 percent were university graduates. Just 12 percent of women finished high school, compared to 18 percent of men interviewed.
  • Eighty-one percent of respondents said they voted in the 2004 elections.

Afrobarometer.org has lots more information.

May 17, 2009 19:48 ET

Ghana scores with Obama visit

Ghana 1, Kenya 0.

Barack Obama’s first visit as U.S. president to a sub-Saharan state will be Ghana, not Kenya, the birthplace of his late father.

Like selecting Joe Biden as vice president, Ghana is the safe choice. Why not Kenya? Obama already has a recent Kenya visit under his belt, while he was a U.S. senator. He was treated as a hero, but a trip there as president might tip the nation into a frenzy, which seems too intense this early in his first term. Throw in a little post-election violence at the end of 2007, and Kenya gets bounced off the short list.

Meanwhile, Ghana is the continent’s model democracy, having just completed its fifth consecutive problem-free presidential election. More importantly, the election resulted in the second successful transition of power, the hallmark of a true democracy. English is Ghana’s official language, which is another plus for White House planners.

Liberia would have been the “edgy” pick. It was founded by former American slaves and the U.S. strongly supports its president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state. However, Liberia is just a few years removed from civil war and lacks basic amenities such as reliable electricity.

The president and First Lady Michelle Obama are scheduled to visit Ghana on July 10-11, following visits to Russia and Italy on the same trip. Obama will talk shop with Ghanaian President John Atta Mills. The White House statement said Obama looks forward to “strengthening the U.S. relationship with one of our most trusted partners in sub-Saharan Africa, and to highlighting the critical role that sound governance and civil society play in promoting lasting development.”

 


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May 16, 2009 09:20 ET

American parents look to Ghana for adoptions

Madonna isn’t the only American looking to adopt African children. Adoptions of Ghanaian children by American parents are rising — to 101 last year, ranking it 17th highest overall and fourth in Africa. Ethiopia was tops in Africa and fourth overall with 1,725 adoptions. Liberia and Nigeria are slightly higher than Ghana, according to U.S. government statistics for fiscal year 2008.

The big news, however, is that foreign adoptions by Americans hit a nine-year low in 2008 with 17,438, representing a 24 percent drop since the peak year 2004. The economy explains part of the slowdown, but the main reason is tighter oversight in China and Russia. Adoptions from China fell by about half over the past four years to 3,909 last year. There’s been a nearly two-thirds decline in Russia since 2004.

Madonna recently lost a bid to adopt a second child from Malawi. The pop star adopted a boy three years ago and is appealing a court’s decision to stop her from adopting a girl. Just two Malawian children were adopted by Americans last year.