The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Don’t you think we need to change ourselves for us to move forward or change, etc? Why do you vote for who you vote for? Are you happy with the disappearance of the Ghanaian flags on our streets? When was the last time you consciously bought a made-in-Ghana product over a foreign one? Which do you think will care more for you? NPP or NDC? Which government do you think will empower you more? NPP or NDC? Which government will control the constant migration into Accra which is choking our capital city? Which government will raise more money in Ghana through taxes for national development? Which leader is better equipped to get his opponents to listen to him and unite the nation? Why NPP or NDC? What are they doing right that the other political parties are not doing?

Many Ghanaians would not vote for the NDC simply because of J J Rawlings. How do you address them and this? The NDC has been calling for change. What kind of change are you calling for or bringing to Ghana? Even though Professor Atta Mills is called Asomdwoe hene, a lot of people don’t see the NDC as a peaceful political party. What do you have to say about this? Is Professor Atta Mills going to move to the Jubilee House if he wins the election or he’ll do what President Kuffour did? Fortify his house, etc In about how many years do you think we’ll have an Ashanti or Akyem presidential candidate in your party? Are you going to discontinue some of the contractual agreements the NPP had with some firms because those firms have mostly NPP card-bearing members? Many Ghanaians abroad were shocked when you pushed the election into a second round with 47% of the vote. Any idea why? For a long time, I didn’t know what the NDC platform was. Is most of your campaign propaganda? List some of the ...

Do you really believe you couldn’t win the first round of the Ghanaian elections because some of your supporters stayed at home? Is it true some people in the ruling government travel to funerals with 20 Pajeros? Who funds all that petrol? Why do we have to make way for NPP campaign vehicles to navigate through traffic? Would any of the NPP gurus send their house boy to a syto school? These schools do have free compulsory universal basic education right? Do we want quality education or just an increase in scholl-going children? When you champion the NHIS as an achievement, do you also tell Ghanaians many times costs over 6 GhC aka 60,000 cedis aka 6 dollars are not covered? What happened to Baah Wiredu and why couldn’t he get medical attention in a Ghanaian hospital? Why are we talking about closing the Togo border? What about the Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire borders? How much does one billboard cost? Humour us, how much did you spend on your campaign for the election? In about how ...

When I first heard about BarCamp from my GhanaThink buddy, I was apprehensive. What is this BarCamp that I have never heard of before? I still don’t know why it’s called BarCamp, even after helping organize BarCamp Ghana. What I do know is is that the concept of a BarCamp is excellent. It has almost everything I want in a gathering of minds, hands and people. BarCamp Ghana 08 came off yesterday, December 22nd at the Kofi Annan Center of Excellence for ICT – AITI. Ever since I arrived in Ghana on Tuesday the 16th, I’ve had many ideas of a blog and subject matters to write about, but the excitement that is BarCamp generated for me trumps all. My first real experience with BarCamps was BarCamp Africa. It was organized by a group of people, mostly non-African who were passionate about or had some interests in Africa. Google sponsored the BarCamp, giving us a whole building for free – an auditorium, a kitchen/bar with free food all day (yay!) and more than 10 rooms all with internet, power,...

My alter ago, from GhanaThink, just wrote another letter to Osagyefo. Enjoy! Greetings Osagyefo, I hope you are doing well and getting into another gear for the festive season. As for me, I'm following Kaakyire Kwame Appiah's 24 song to the tee, I'll be going to Sikakrom to spend Christmas. Even though there is a credit crunch, I still have some money to purchase a ticket from one continent to the other and buy Christmas gifts. It's called 'saving by being chisel and hustle' . I'll be going to meet a Ghana I haven't seen in awhile, a Ghana that is gearing up for an election. That should be interesting. Ghana's election is going to a second round. The NPP and NDC would be going at it. One person who will not be going against anything is sure to be Samia Nkrumah. She's the new member of parliament for Jomoro. Osagyefo, your daughter is a wonder o! Many people didn't give her a chance to wrest the parliamentary seat from Hon. Lee Ocran, and besi...

December 7th has come to pass. I was really hoping for the Convention People's Party to make an impact in this election. It was asking much to see Ghanaians give the CPP enough votes to win when they had such a poor showing in Election 2004. Well guess what? The CPP didn't do much better this year. It won just one parliamentary seat and won under 1.5% of the presidential vote. One poll had given the CPP 7% in the run-up to the election. What happened? Let's dissect it and see what the future holds for the CPP. This is only the beginning. The biggest reason why Ghanaians did not vote for the CPP was that a vote for the CPP was a waste. The ruling New Patriotic Party championed this message as well. Ghanaians want to vote for or support a winner. Ghana is an NPP-NDC nation. You'll have to ask yourselves why we support certain parties. The NDC has its world bank in the Volta region and that hasn't changed with Atta Mills at the helm. The NPP rules the Ashanti region ev...

More to come. Just a few Youtube videos I saved that I wanted to share. Anyone else interested in joining a project which highlights great achievement from young people, invention, entrepreneurship, social work in Ghana? Get in touch. The first one is a video about the popular "Africa Open for Business - Ghana" documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5l3bAj1h3k Another video is called "Think Big" - Think BIG showcases Ghanaians with big aspirations and big plans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl5Ss3MM57w The third video is not from Ghana, it's from Malawi. It's about the awesome William Kamkwamba. He's now a student at the equally awesome African Leadership Academy in Johannesburg, South Africa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8yKFVPOD6o Here are a few websites to check out for similar features. http://timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com/ http://whiteafrican.com/ http://appfrica.net/blog/ http://www.afrigadget.com/

The D-Day is Sunday and Ghanaians would be going to polls. We will be electing the 3rd president in this 4th Republic after Jerry John Rawlings and John Agyekum Kufuor. I have seen both rule Ghana and they have done their parts in stabilizing and developing our beloved country. I believe Paa Kwesi Nduom should be the next president of Ghana. He is the agent of real active positive change. He is the best candidate and we deserve the best leader. Now, not in 4 years' time. He is ready. I am going to try and discuss why he should be voted for and why is the man for the job. This development is not four or eight years early. We have to change the way we do things now so that we can continue on this forward march to economic prosperity, citizenry satisfaction and national happiness. I supported the NPP during the 2000 election. I saw John Atta Mills as more of the same of JJ Rawlings and was alos worried that he would be heavily influenced by Rawlings as well. I was in secondary school ...

My alter ego, Maximus Ojah (Nwia) of GhanaThink fame, wrote a letter to his buddy Osagyefo concerning the Ghana elections. Here is the letter below. Dear Osagyefo, Forgive my insubordinate self for not keeping in touch. I know my letters have become occasional but it's not because you didn't send me that stimulus package. I will change. But as you can guess, there is an occasion. Coming up in two days is the election in Ghana. Ghana will be electing a new president as Traveller John steps down after two-terms. We know for sure there will be a change in who our first citizen is. Would there be a change in what our first citizen does? The world is looking at Ghana wondering if we'll pass another test in our democracy. We'll be praying for peace and a free and fair election. Kwame, people are saying Ghanaians are too 'chill' for post-election violence in case some group of people feel there is a stolen verdict. Kenya and Zimbabwe cannot happen in Ghana they say. So...

Last weekend, I went to a Zouk club for the first time. It was a Haitian event. Africans are not very different from Haitians if you've come across many of the latter. The whole experience was quite interesting. I needed all but 3 minutes of entering the club to decide that I would be blogging about it. The story is as follows, we'll pick it up from the first hint of attending the club. After we saw the movie, I was in the mood for some more enjoyment. She suggested the Zouk Club down the road. I had never been to a Zouk club before and the prospect of going to a club that would play some African music was too good to turn down. I had attended one the weekend before in New York , but this was Boston. She said she had to sleep early so she couldn't join me. I proceeded to make some phone calls to figure out which friend of mine will join me to go to this Zouk club. I thought of this girl who loved Kizomba and I had tried to reach all weekend. Perfect opportunity to meet....

A friend shared one video and I felt I should share with you all. See how people celebrated Obama's victory in some African cities. We were all very happy, but some people were happier than others http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFPczM58G6w This video was made by Africanews.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSWz95ynwm4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkvgG5HMTw

I've been wanting to write a poem recently. I have a lot to say but I can't seem to bring myself to write it and write it well. After my 'A call to make a difference' poem, I have written about 3 poems, 1 of which I can't even find. 'A call to make a difference' was so good that every time I write a new poem, if I can't outdo it, I give it up and stop writing. This thanksgiving trip I took was my make or break time for writing a new poem so I tried. I tried so hard. I came up with something. While on the train to Rhode Island from Massachusetts, I was thinking. I was thinking about how I am just one person. You know how we sometimes wish we have more hours in a day? Imagine if we were 'two or three' people. 'We' could do more in a day for 'ourselves' and have a few more hands to do plenty things. I was thinking about how I was just one person, with just one vote, one voice, and one vociferous message. Because you are not me, you d...