Mr. President, “Young Democrat” a grass roots NDC group of young men and women, will like to coddle your attention for a few minutes despite your busy schedules and your determination to execute the affairs of our dear nation.

“Young Democrat” members are privileged and humbled to write you these few words though representing the voices of the larger masses of young men and women in our strong holds across the country, especially in the Northern sector and Volta regions. Remember, if we do not come to vote in 2012 and protect ballot boxes, NDC will lose the elections.. So please read or petition and take it seriously.

Your Excellency, our main concern has to do with recent difficulties which seem to blemish the image of the government as well as our precious NDC party. Larger masses of young men and women across the country believe that these difficulties kept on coming simply because of improper government communication apparatus. Therefore members of “Young Democrat” and grass roots men and women of NDC believes that it is necessary to upgrade government communication apparatus so that we can minimise sour communication between government and party grass roots level.

Mr. President, we are appealing to you to invite more experienced people into your government to strength the communication apparatus and the government’s image. We believe men like Hon. Mike Gizo, and Hon. Spio-Garbrah have the pedigrees as well as capacity to bridge the communication gaps between government, NDC grass roots members and also Ghanaian population as a whole, . Maybe, other men like Dr Tony Aidoo and Excellency Victor Smith and Lee Ocran too need to be given more visible frontline portfolios so they can make up for those who have had to leave the government. Those ministrs who have stayed in the same portfolios since 2009 need something new in their lives to become more active.

We are in particular concerned that at time when Ghana is playing in CAN 2012 soccer tournament, we are unable as Ghana or NDC to put our best players on the field. Meantime, our opponents are scoring many goals against us with Wayomegate , etc. If Abedi Ayew or Asamoah Gyan are ready to help Ghana at CAN 2012, should the coach consciously leave them on the bench and field weaker players? Hon, Dr. Spio-Garbrah, for example, from Wikepedia, as a Minister of Communication of Ghana, from 1997 to 1998 initiated, developed and implemented policies and programmes that supported the increasing convergence of telecommunications, broadcasting, the Internet, publishing, news media and postal services, all of which were under his supervision. Concurrently, as chairman of the National Communication Authority, he had responsibility for regulating all aspects of the telecom, Internet and broadcasting sectors. We as Ghanaians all saw that Hon, Dr. Spio-Garbrah, as an ambassador to the United States from 1994 to 1997, became successful in rebuilding Ghana’s image across the USA, including organising an unprecedented record-breaking eight-city investment promotion programme for Ghana’s president in the USA. As a result partly of the successful bilateral programmes he executed, Ghana became the first country to be visited by U.S. president Bill Clinton during his famous five-country Africa visit in 1998. This visited of president Bill Clinton helped to make Ghana a recipient of the Millennium Challenge Account. Mr. President, we think it is a shame that an honest, hard working man like Martin Amidu had to leave your government. Also sorry that Hon Betty Mould’s departure has reduced the female ratio in government and Cabinet. Mrs Nana Rawlings, also an Ashanti woman, can come and replace Mrs Idrissu. Someone like Alhaji Huudu Yahayaj, who understands the party very well, can also be brought to the field. So can Gilbert Iddi. A man like Hon, Dr. Spio-Garbrah, who has enormous knowledge in communication, business, ICT, banking and diplomacy, and loved by the youth, will be good to include in the government in almost any good role. Dr. Spio-Garbrah is an asset to Ghana as well as NDC and we will be happy to see him in government soon if NDC wants to win election 2012..

Thanks very much your Excellency

By Prince Charles Dickson

“What food might this contain?” The mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning: “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.”

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The pig sympathized, but said, “I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it.”

The mouse turned to the cow and said, “There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!”

The cow said, “Wow, Mr. Mouse. I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose.”

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap…alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it. It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap. The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. But his wife’s sickness continued.

Friends and neighbours came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

But, alas, the farmer’s wife did not get well…she died. So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the funeral luncheon.

And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

The Igbos say onye aghana nwanne ya meaning your neighbour’s challenge should be of some concern to you!

The Zulu’s puts it in this way, “Umuntu Ngumuntu Ngabantu”: “A person is a person because of people.” Other translations state “a person is a person through other persons.” In either case, this compelling truth about what it means to be a “human” in the Afrikan context reveals the wisdom of our ancestors and the tremendous beauty of our way.

In a word it is the spirit of Ubuntu. Ubuntu: the spirit of reciprocal living that luminously envelops a community in healing energy radiating from the hearts of interdependent human spirits sharing, and loving.

Archibishop Desmond Tutu further explained Ubuntu as the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole World. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.

How will Patience Jonathan feel if either of her kids, relatives lost a leg or limb in Madalla, how would she feel if she lost an in-law was killed in Kano, would it make more sense if any occupant in Aso Rock on assignment to Yola was butchered?

Do our leaders behave like the chicken, like the pig, like the cow, after all they all have security votes, and they can afford to ride in bullet proof vehicles purchased at the taxpayers’ expense.

Is there any semblance of Ubuntu in the elite we call leaders, they are well versed in condolence visits and messages, experts in on-the-spot assessment, but they do very little to prevent the avoidable.

In recent times we have had the Solomon Lar panel, Shiekh Lemu commission, and specific ones for Kaduna, and Borno, but even when they are made public, there is no effort or will in putting the recommendations or findings to work.

No one cares up there, just rhetoric…Its either they are on top of it and the killings take place under, or they are bringing it under control after it has happened. Will we witness a difference in approach if the Senate President is kidnapped of governor attacked and killed?

Already the feeling for Boko Haram is deadly divided regarding their targets, many are now saying leave the poor masses and attack the ruling class. No one is being brought to book; no one is facing the wrath of the law.

According to an NTA report monitored by burningpot.com, they called the Bayelsa Explosion in Tombia dynamites, not bombs; my humble question, if the president’s uncle was blown to shreds by it, would it have mattered if it was a bomb or dynamites.

The conspiracy theorists are spinning the theories in their dozens, when it capitulates, it will touch all of us. We need each other, we either retrace our steps now or it may be too late, the occupy Nigeria dance was just a tip.

Our leaders need us to lead, rule or govern, even the monies they steal, they still need us to impress, to suppress, and they cannot be in isolation. They can’t be human all by themselves, and the earlier they see the mousetrap the better, sooner or later, the bomb may not just be an ordinary citizen, time will tell.

NB

The Concerns of a rat was told me by ‘Dozie Kaidi Obiaku

Dear His Excellency President John Evans Mills,

I would like to express dismay at the forms of
discrimination that persons with hearing disability (deaf people) are
continuously refused granting driving licence by Driver and Vehicle Licencing
Authourity (DVLA). As deaf tax payer, I was refused a licence by the authourity
to learn driving because of my hearing disability and realised that the staff
still discriminated against the deaf people applying for ones. There are many
deaf people who have their vehicles in Ghana but face enormous challenges when
they applied at the office. Under the Disability Law- Persons With Disability
Act 715, 2006, Section 27, a person with a hearing disability has right to own
a driving licence after passing driving test and satisfying the conditions.

His Excellency, according to the law, Section 4 (1), the
persons with any type of disabilities should not be discriminated by the
governmental agencies and may not be neglected when they seek for their needs.

Under the Disability law, Section 7- Access to the Public
Services, the public agencies should grant the requests the persons with
hearing disability look for.
In the pursuance of the United Nations’ Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 29, Ghanaian governmental agencies
shall guarantee to persons with disabilities political rights and the
opportunity to enjoy them on an equal basis with others.

As one of the staff of DVLA Office was aware I am deaf and
could not talk, he asked if I could read and write and we wrote note each
other. He said that my hearing examination may be required to submit medical
report so that it would let him see if I could hear the levels of sound with
aid of hearing aids before granting the request after I had showed to the
Section of the Act 715, 2006 that a person with hearing disability is allowed
to own driving licence.

I told there are many deaf drivers in Africa who could drive
on road and see carefully emergency sirens and horns on basis of rearing
view-mirrors without hearing any sound and have very good views rather than
hearing sounds when driving on the roads.

According to World Federation of Deaf (WFD), there are no
known reports that deaf drivers are a threat to other road users in the
countries where deaf people are allowed to obtain a driving licence, or that
they are involved in more traffic accidents or injuries than the general
population. The deaf drivers are better than hearing ones based on respecting
the road safety regulations and viewing at rear-mirrors fully on the roads.
There are some deaf drivers in Africa who could drive without any traffic
accident.

All but 26 countries in the world have allowed people who
are deaf to drive as long as they pass the test regardless of the degree of
hearing loss. It should not be an impediment for the deaf people to enjoy the
right of driving which is a civic of free movement guaranteed by Disability
Act. It is not a problem for the deaf people to learn how to drive. They can
learn to drive through visual instructions – hand motions, eye contact and
visual aids. There are many deaf drivers in world that could drive on road and
see carefully emergency sirens and horns on basis of rearing view-mirrors
without hearing any sound and have very good views rather than hearing sounds
when driving on the roads.

Deaf people are
capable of becoming good drivers because they drive safely. Though their sense
of hearing is impaired or non-functional, yet their other senses and reactions
are naturally trained to be extremely acute which is an advantage over the
hearing drivers and, therefore, it is logical to allow them to have legalized
driver’s licence.

Road accidents among the hearing people have been common
even though they can hear and pass the test to get driving licence. Therefore,
there is difference between them and deaf people who are still driving without
any tangible report of accidents with or without licence.

When deaf people drive, they enjoy a basic privilege they
deserve just like anyone else. It also demonstrates that deafness does not have
to hinder the quality of life.
If deaf people are allowed to drive, it could decrease
prejudice by changing the public’s misconceptions about deaf drivers. In turn,
decreased prejudices could help eliminate discrimination against deaf drivers
in public policy.

The disqualification for driving licence does not rest with
the deaf people themselves, but with the environmental and attitudinal barriers
of the society and those that govern the system. The same holds true where the
deaf people are concerned who is a part of the human diversity as a natural
process and also as recognized by the UNO. Although the deaf people are
disqualified for holding licence due to poor and congested Ghanaian road
conditions, yet the situation can be adjusted with special provisions through
legal adaptations, additional rear view mirrors, special signal
stickers/labels, public awareness, ban on non-motorized and slow moving stray
vehicles from the main and busy roads that are the distinct features created in
the rest of the world facilitating an accessible environment for the deaf
people to drive safely and smoothly and obtaining driver’s licence. Driving
cars is not a problem for the deaf people who can drive judiciously, smoothly
and safely with the brain instead of the ears.

Disability to hear and unsafe road conditions don’t justify
disqualification from obtaining licence that contradicts justice and atrophy
the concept of accessibility, empowerment and independent life. Legal
adaptations and improving road conditions are the way out to enable them to
qualify for retaining the civic and legal right of driving.

The “UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities” states that national and state governments are obliged to consult
with people with disabilities through their representative organizations when
developing and implementing legislation and policies to effectuate their
rights.

His Excellency, therefore, I would like to inform you that
your order should be given to DVLA to grant the deaf drivers licence and they should
be encouraged to show respect to the persons with hearing disability. If the
officials still discriminate against them, they would be forced to face sanction.

His Excellency, I am appealing to you to order DVLA to recruit
and employ any interpreter at DLVA so the deaf drivers could get comfortable
when they read interpretations and even the signal sticker/ label should be
shown with “Deaf Driver (DD)” or “Handicapped (H)” on front transparent glass
of all vehicles, etc so police would have to understand the DD or H symbol when
emergency is met. There is no problem for DD or H sticker.

Johnson
Dei-Kusi
Person with
Hearing Disability
Ledzokuku-Krowor
Municipal Association of the Deaf (LEKMAD)
Teshie-Nungua,
Accra
[email protected]