Ahomka Lindsay’s sermon

By now, with the benefit of hindsight and sober reflection, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay may have said his “mea culpa” – that is if he is Catholic. For Ghanaians who do not know him, he is our deputy trade minister.

Last week, he told Ghanaians living abroad to “stop whining.” In an address at the Diaspora Homecoming Summit in Accra, he gave them a piece of advice: “Nobody likes whiners. People who spend all the time whining really get on people’s nerves.”

Really?

First time I heard the speech on radio, I thought it was a stern headmaster giving his closing remarks at a send-off for a bunch of over-pampered SHS graduates.

No, it was a deputy minister talking to Ghanaians living abroad who had paid their way to fly over 3,000 kilometres (as one of them reminded him) “to sit with the decision makers to help us formulate policies that will integrate us into the system”.

Minister Ahomka Lindsay apparently spoke without the benefit of a briefing from his chief director about the economic importance of the community he was addressing.

He would have been informed that this community’s remittances constitute the third largest source of foreign exchange for Ghana. One online news channel quotes the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning as recording that remittances “far exceed Official Development Assistance (ODA)”, otherwise known as international aid – in English language, loans and grants from donors.

In 2010 for instance, Ghana received a total of $1.8 billion in ODA. In that same year, remittances from diasporan Ghanaians amounted to $2.12 billion, coming from Ghanaians living in North America, Europe and the ECOWAS sub- region. They send money home to relatives to cater for the sick, pay for education, acquire landed property and feed households.

One study has shown that most successful Ghana-based businesses are owned by Ghanaians living abroad. Indeed, contribution by African diasporans is so significant that the African Union established the Africa Institute of Remittances to, among others, provide technical assistance to government institutions (central banks, ministries etc) on establishing and operating the necessary regulatory frameworks on how remittances could better contribute to the development of African countries.

Does all of this mean, therefore, that we should not be telling them a piece of our mind when members of the Ghanaian diaspora community come home to misbehave? No. I haven’t said so and I don’t intend to say so.

So what is it the sin of the overseas-based Ghanaians who attended the Diaspora Summit? According to the minister, they complained too much that “this does not work, that does not work in Ghana”.

The deputy minister insinuated that over there, in the UK or USA, the Ghanaians might not have the chance to see the Queen or President Trump. That may be true, but it is because over there, the system works so well one does not need to “see” anybody to get things done. America, the UK, Holland etc are not heaven, but even those of us who spend a maximum of two weeks or three months there know that over there, the civil servant or the port official works as if you are doing him/her a favour by letting him/her serve you. The train or bus may run late some of the time, but, my God, are they regular and punctual!

Even then, they are not asking to be treated as lords. Down here, when they have to deal with strong men and not strong institutions, they are frustrated by the sloth that characterises the process of acquiring land and registering their business.

That may be the reason they insist on seeing a minister or taking his/her phone number. Should that be the reason for Ahomka Lindsay, his nerves obviously frayed, to announce to them that “this (his) phone rings all day”?

Meanwhile, even at the Diaspora Summit which President Akufo Addo, in his wisdom, arranged, the same Ghanaian attitude, even by decision makers was at play. Unable to swallow the lump in his throat, one of the diasporans burst out: “We came here to sit with the decision makers to help us formulate policies that will integrate us into the system.... Where are the decision makers? Everybody that comes in here has the attitude that ‘I have got something better to do’.

He ended by pleading that “this attitude must change”.

And that is my plea too. I have met a few number of government appointees and their attitude is like that of this deputy minister. Both in words and in body language they are telling us that “I have left very lucrative jobs and investments in America, UK, Canada to take up this appointment in Ghana”. They talk as if they are doing us a favour by accepting the ministerial appointments and government consultancies. Ahomka Lindsay actually prefaced his sermon with an announcement that he had once been where they (diasporans) now find themselves!

It’s an attitude problem and President Akufo Addo does not need it. The least we should be telling these diasporans is that “we are trying to do something about the problems. It will take a little time.”

Egos are getting in the way. With attitudes such as these, Nana Akufo Addo does not need enemies.

Nerves! Whose nerves? Stop patronising us, please.