Obrafour and Tic Tac Shake U C C

Obrafour and Tic Tac last Saturday stormed and shook the University of Cape Coast campus as part of the 48th annual SRC week celebration of the Students Representative Council.

This event was a massive one with students abandoning their academic work and standing and shouting at the forecourt of Valco Hall (where the event took place) from about 9pm deep into the night.

Obrafour 'the executioner' who was the first to perform after scores of student underground rappers and singers had done their thing, arrived in a black saloon waving amidst cheers from the roof of his car.

Anxious students at the grounds that evening couldn't help but to shout on top of their voices when the self acclaimed 'rap sofour' got onto the stage. He was dressed in a white t-shirt, a black jeans and a towel on his shoulder.

He started off with one of his prayer songs and then moved straight to his old time hits.I can undoubtedly state that from this time to the end of his performance
was real excitement.

The 'rap sofour' gave out a copy of his newest album to a student who helped him perform the part of Guru in his new 'kasiebo' track after he had done several of his songs.

He left the stage taking off his t-shirt and throwing it to the joyous crowd.

Tic Tac followed next and by this time the tempo of the crowd had gone wild. He was on stage with one of his new artistes Jay-ho.

Tic Tac also dressed in a coloured shirt with a pair of jeans danced off the crowd with some of his favourite hits; philomena, kangaroo among others. Occasionally, the crowd will tell him what hit song to do next and he willingly listened.

For more than thirty minutes he was on stage as students enjoyed with their hands in the air.Before he will leave he performed his newest single with a line of the song being 'show me your shoe and let me show you your character'.This particular performance was done with shoes raised in the air.

He signed off assuring the crowd of his return to perform at Nkrumah and Valco halls' week celebartion.
written by: abdul-rahim munaga for mycampuspal.com

My First Experience With The Ghanaian Police

All along I have always thought of the Ghanaian police as an incompetent, powerless and a bark for nothing institution.

 

My thoughts where informed by the daily criticism the police service receive from the Ghanaian public. They are bribe receivers, politically bias, unprofessional among others are the kind of accusations levelled against them.

But my narrow thoughts have since ended when I came face to face with them on an issue of assault against another citizen (a woman). Ghana has for some time now been advocating for gender equality and due to this the Ghanaian woman has been grossly empowered. You no longer can go away scot free when you do something contrary to the laws of Ghana against a woman no matter how menial it is.

My story begins when on one bad day (a day before my brother’s birthday) my brother engaged himself in a quarrel with a tenant (a woman) who had paid to stay in my father’s house. The quarrel arose due to the common compound house problems every compound house experiences.

He (my brother) due to bad temper threatened to beat this woman. Although he did not succeed in touching her, she reported the case to the district police and wrote down at the police station that she had been beaten badly and had sort medical attention.

This is the straw that broke the camels back. The police hastily went to arrest my brother from the house and sent him to the station. As a concerned sibling I went to the station together with another brother to try any possible means to see to his release.

Unfortunately, our first thoughts that it was going to be easy to see to the release of our brother were crashed and we had to call for reinforcement. We had to call in two uncles of ours to assist.

Fortunately, one of our uncles had the financial standing and negotiating skills to bail out our ‘arrested’ brother. Though he (my uncle) paid the police ‘something’ for whatever reason I do not know it was not until all due processes were followed and we wrote down our witness statements that my brother was released. Even when he was released, the case was prepared to be sent to a court. I never believed the case will go to this extent after paying ‘something’.

It took the intervention of the woman to remove the case from the police grips and to prevent it from moving further to the court.

I want to hereby applaud the police for vindicating themselves and then take the opportunity to make some suggestions and also ask a question.

My question is why the accuser is seen as the law-loving one even when the person may be the originator of these problems? I need answers.

My first suggestion is that the police should make all legal options available to the accused. For instance, the accused can be told he/she could report to the police station at a later time and not necessarily follow or dragged to the police station.

My second suggestion is that the accuser should be made to prove reasonably before he/she is seen as the law-abiding citizen.

The Ghanaian police indeed are doing their job and because they form a human institution ‘negative actions’ are expected but this should not be used to tarnish their hard won international reputation.

The Ghanaian Politics; The Story of Ato Kwamena Dadzie And The Ghanaian Times Editor

The Ghanaian public has never ceased to amaze me when it comes to matters of urgency, need and importance. All that we have wasted our years after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah is on trivial issues. We are quick at making politics out of any issue even if it will go against our development process. For selfish personal interests we will rather watch the country go down into the pit than come together to build a better place for generations yet to come.

Two such cases that have been unduly politicized are the Ato Kwamena Dadzie and the editor of Ghanaian Times’ unprofessional and unethical conduct. To me, we have unnecessarily tried to make political capital out of these ‘stupid’ cases.

Ato Kwamena Dadzie an acting news editor at Joy FM a reputable radio station in the country is called by the police to answer some questions about the news they put out that executives of Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA) suffered death threats from the government that is why they withdrew their earlier resentment about the STX Housing deal.

In Ghana we have all accepted death threats to be a crime so what is wrong in the police trying to find the substance behind the allegations Joy Fm put out. In fact the government drew the attention of the radio station to the flaws in the news and asked them to withdraw it and apologize because executives of GREDA had come out to publicly deny such threats.

Is it not normal and sensible to do a humble thing by withdrawing your story for the least even if you cannot apologize yet they continued to broadcast the story the whole day and even putting it online on their website? For the sake of common judgement I thought people will understand the police but for political interests some people and groups in the name of freedom of expression (without responsibility) have gone to the defense of this editor even to the extent of saying that the government (not the police) wants to prosecute Ato because he has refused to reveal his sources. Now we all know this is not true.

Ato’s source may have been right but immediately the GREDA (those whom he claimed were been threatened) denied the story he had no authority again to broadcast the story. And when he was called to defend his story he could not even when he was asked to specifically give the names of those who were been threatened for protection.

The other case is about the Ghanaian Times editor who reported that armed robbers had taken siege of five police stations in the central region. Over here we are talking about the responsibilities of the police been in question and when they called the editor to seek more insight into the matter some sections of the Ghanaian public are claiming that the government is undermining freedom of speech and expression as if the editor reported about the president or his ministers.

If we really want to strengthen institutions this is not the way to go. We should allow the police to carry out their duties because for the least I know about the law the police has the right to question or seek more information into a story of a journalist. We should not always be blaming the government (though it is sometimes necessary) for the troubles of our institutions.

Let us rather jointly reach a consensus for the sake of Ghana, the country our forefathers fought to free instead of deeply polarizing our economically challenged communities.

An Advice to the NDC

Following the recent brouhaha in the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), I am forced as a patriotic citizen who does not want the current government to fail because if it does it means we have wasted another four years of our development process to give a little layman advice to the party’s members and well wishers.

I will begin first with the President. Mr. President John Evans Atta-Mills the leader of the party please as an acclaimed peaceful and honest man; do try your best by putting your feet on the ground to resolve this unwanted impasse. Call the former president J.J. Rawlings to a one-on-one meeting and try to explain to him why you cannot meet some of his demands and how you will soon meet those that you can accomplish.

To the former president who is the founder of the party I will say as a statesman and the grandfather of this party of yours have some level of tolerance for your own people. When they go wrong instead of going public to the whole world to voice your feelings, remember that whatever you say will be used to send the NDC back to opposition. Bear in mind also that no matter how uncomfortable you are now, it will not be different under another party. Even if it becomes different, it will rather become worse.

To the ministers of the various sectors please avoid passing or granting interviews to journalist on party issues. The best you can do for your party is to ceasefire for a while and never try to go by an eye for an eye.

To the member of parliaments, can you be a little bit loyal to your party and stop the unnecessary comments you pass about the governance style of the president who is the leader of your party. For the better of your party and the government why don’t you put together your so called ‘best option’ and present it privately to the government instead of going public to make yourself look like a reincarnated Nkrumah with all the best ideas.

To the foot soldiers can you be a little patient and patriotic and stop demanding heaven because you think you are in power. Politics cannot be jobs for you because the jobs politics offers are temporary. Instead go get something else to do. Join the National Youth Employment Program NYEP and leave the ‘big man’ to get his way into power.

To the well wishers, please pray hard because the country now seems to be focused for development and the president I think is trying hard to steer the economy of the country to achieve this. At least he always reiterates the fact that Ghanaians will judge him after his first term in office.

Lastly, to the serial callers take a holiday and cool your temper. You people seem to be adding more firewood to the fire that wants to be cooled off.

How Beautiful Is Cape Coast?

Cape Coast is a noble town and the capital of the central region of Ghana. It used to be the capital city of the then Gold Coast now Ghana during the colonial era. It is the home of the Fantes a branch of the Akan ethnic group.

Although this city is relatively less developed it remains undoubtedly a beautiful place for so many reasons.

Cape Coast is widely accepted to be a town for readily accessibility of good education. Many of Ghana’s best academic institutions are found here. Talk about the Wesley Girls Senior High School which remains the best senior high school in the country, the Adisadel College, Mfantsipim School, St. Augustine’s College, Holy Child College and so on. Arguably, one can conclude that the best senior high schools in the country are found in this town.

Cape Coast also boasts of the nation’s only university of choice that is the University of Cape Coast which is highly acclaimed for its serene environment for academic work and its beautiful landscape due to its closeness to the Atlantic Ocean.

When it comes to history, it all started here. It is said that the first whites to come to Gold Coast settled at Cape Coast. It is no surprise therefore that it used to be the capital of the then Gold Coast.

Cape Coast used to be a transit point for the slaves brought from all over Africa to be shipped to the white man’s land. Castles and forts are spread over this town to prove this point. These castles are part of the world’s heritage sites and every year many tourists and the diasporians come back to learn about the Transatlantic slave trade. President Barack Obama of the U.S, his wife and two daughters are eminent people to have visited one of these sites the Cape Coast castle.

This town can also boast of other wonderful tourist sites and beautiful landscape. Much of Cape Coast is made up of beaches with long coconut trees. Fishermen can be seen on the waters which tells you of the main occupation of the people of this town. There are many resorts, guest houses and hotels to compliment these natural attractions.

Interestingly, a good number of the elite in the country before and after independence originated from this town. Mention is made of Rev. Philip Quarcoe the first African to become a minister in the Anglican Church, John Mensah Sarbah a lawyer and a political leader in the Gold Coast.

The President of Ghana today John Evans Atta-Mills traces his origin from this town. Even more interesting is Michel Obama whose forefathers are believed to have come from cape coast.