Ghana – ‘Decentralized Governments’ with Centralized Institutions

The peace and stability we have enjoyed in this country is solely because the Ghanaian by nature is a peace-loving person. The institutions that have been tasked under the constitution to safeguard the peace are only active on paper, and not in reality. Every Ghanaian who travels throughout this country will be surprised at the true state of affairs in this country. Ghanaians are quick to blame everything on a sitting president and his ministers without taking a closer look at the problems: so they are not equally able to find the most appropriate solutions.

Let us begin with information. The most effective way to send across information that is of interest to the people and the state is through the media. The media remains the best way to make reliable and life-saving information spread like wild fire. So what do you think will happen if the media houses fail in that duty? Ghanaians have endured the ‘headache’ of selective broadcasting. That is, instead of presenting a full package of information to the people, only those that serve the interest of the media houses are promoted. Those are the ones that come with favors. The nation has NATIONAL MEDIA COMMISSION to regulate operations of all media houses. Any Ghanaian who had attempted to contact the commission could testify to the fact that the call was completely unanswered. They do not care about reports from Ghanaians or so it appears to be. I did call on uncountable occasions. How then can information be made more available to the average Ghanaian;  and also the operations of media houses controlled so as to protect and promote the peace?

Let us now discuss the Ghana Police Service. By now, everyone knows there is no other public institution that disrespect and abuse the rights of Ghanaians than our police service. A lot of Ghanaians can testify to the fact that some reports made at the stations were not properly worked on. When it comes to unlawful detentions, you cannot count the numbers – I was also unlawfully detained and till now that case has not been addressed. The branch of the service that must see to it that police officers perform their tasks in line with their training is the PROFESSIONAL STANDARD BUREAU. Instead of having their offices in all divisional headquarters, Ghanaians are expected to travel to as far as Accra to make complaints. So the necessary reports that could have changed the negative image of the service go unreported and Ghanaians continue to be unnerved by such an important establishment.

When it comes to our intelligence community, reports are worked on faster if they are made to Accra. Everyone has become his or her own boss with a kind of pride that only makes a country fail, if not fall. That is called RESTRICTION OF INFORMATION: The reliable information is shared but those in positions of operational command do nothing about the information. They simply ‘sit on the information’ without realizing the kind of damage being done to the nation as a whole. It takes one ‘small’ information to lead to a ‘big’ incident. No information is small. Information is the most important asset of state security: because without the reliable information no action could be taken to protect the state and citizens. If the ‘immediate action’ authority rests only in Accra, how can this country be properly protected?. And why would a citizen who feels his or her information is not being valued continue to share information? In Syria, President Assad created five Intelligence Agencies, all of which take all reports with seriousness. That is what protects Syria. Let us learn from them.

The authority to regulate all financial institutions rests in the central bank – Bank of Ghana. All credit unions and banks have their clearly outlined rules to follow: Yet we have ‘criminal’ financial groups that lend Ghanaians small amounts at huge interests and processing fees. Since when did that processing fee come into place? Because of how centralized the regulatory body is, it is extremely difficult to make reports for them to crack down on those looters with the FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE. Anyone is now free to start an online lending business, have access to personal information of Ghanaians and charge fees which only scare the people away. Those people are deliberately stealing identity information and could sell them to foreign intelligence agencies and companies. Let us all unite against those institutions and people. Your identity should be kept private: as they could be used to forge documents in your names. 5G networks is all about gathering and using identity information – facial identification and fingerprints especially – on every living thing that looks human.  All those information are readily available on our Ghana/ECOWAS Cards. Our information could be sold to foreign intelligence and 5G companies: And most of those loan companies are owned by foreigners. The country Ghana should be very serious with this matter.

Another institution is the REGISTRAR GENERAL’ S DEPARTMENT. Every Ghanaian has the desire to register one or two businesses: and that is made easier with online registrations. The process was there until recently. One cannot expect another to come to as far as Accra – from NAVRONGO or AFLAO – just to register a business or company. The lorry fares are far more than the registration fees. The process has become too centralized: as the online platform is no longer functional. What is worse is that, one is not able to collect the completed registration forms on the same day:You will have to come back on another day to collect the forms. Why not have regional and municipal/district offices to help Ghanaians at the same rates?

Ghana boasts of a democracy which is strengthened by decentralization but our institutions of importance are centralized. That is the main reason all processes have become so hard in this country. Until we as citizens begin to express our anger at the system, nothing will change: Things will only remain as they are now. I have conducted an intensive investigation on the topic and can tell you that Ghana – and therefore any country which has the problem – has become very weak economically, security wise and socially.

Kindly share this article to create the awareness. Are you not bored with travelling long distances just to submit or collect documents? I am. Be part of the solution by helping get this article to all your friends so we could have almost all Ghanaians rise for effective changes to be made.

The people who are paid our tax money should be well-positioned to serve us better.

By Sylvo BEN-AFA