August 27, 1984

Letters

The propaganda trail

I have only just got a copy of Talking Drums in which you reproduced the interview Mrs Margaret Novicki had with Flt.Lt J.J. Rawlings earlier this year

In an accompanying article on “The Selling of the PNDC”, Elizabeth Ohene sounded surprised that the American journalist was so high in her praise of the PNDC.

Well I can tell you that there should be no surprise. Ms Novicki had a grand welcome in Ghana when she came for that interview, so much so that she even missed her flight! To demonstrate the gratitude of the PNDC in anticipation of the propaganda article she would write when she got back to America she was driven from Accra to the Aflao border in a government car!. At the border she was smuggled into Togo under the supervision of a government messenger to ensure her safety. She then caught a flight from Lome to her country.

If you were treated that way by a whose Head of State you have interviewed, I swear you will be equally profuse in your praise

AA Tomell, Burma Camps Accra

West Africa - a region in turmoil

I have enjoyed reading Dr A.B. Assensoh’s two part article with the above title published in the July 23 and 30 issues of Talking Drums, and I wonder if it is by sheer coincidence that most of his Illustrations of the turbulence in West African politics are drawn from the Liberian experience. Right now General Samuel Doe has stepped right into the centre court of Liberian politics.

The conduct of the recent referendum which necessitated a change in the rules and the declaration of his intention to contest in the forthcoming elections have, doubtless, been the opening salvo for the kind of political upheaval Dr Asensoh has been discussing.

In the coming months Africa, indeed the whole world would be watching the activities of President Do and the interim National Assembly with keen interest, because democracy, the ever elusive political concept which was been plaguing Africa would be on trial

Sam Roberts, Monrovia

What’s Rev. Tetteh on about?

I was amused to read Rev. Tetteh’s statement on the political situation in Ghana as a support to the British Council of Churches. How can a person who has lost touch give such a statement which is not only biased but reveals what an opportunist he is?

May I know from him whether he is trying to make Ghana Union an affiliated body of the PNDC as he did with the National Union of Ghana Students (U.K) which could not stand the pressures from the right wing students within the student’s union.

However we saw Rev. Tetteh and his Ghana Union in Acheampong’s days and PNP administration , and when life became unbearable for Ghanaians in the past two years under Rawlings and his PNDC nobody heard from this godly man, his Union and British Council of Churches.

People like me who have benefited from the Union through their help to Ghanaian students sometime ago would like the Union to disassociate itself from any political affiliations, be it a military or civilian administration and rather concentrate on their effort towards their present objectives

Kwaku Amponsah, London

Arab aid to Africa

I would like to make a few observations on the article, Arab aid to and black Africa’ by Clyde Ahmad Winters published in the July 23 issue of your magazine.

In view of his own statement that according to BADEA, the Arabs have provided $7.6 billion in direct aid to non-Arab Africa from 1975-82, he goes on to say that is peanuts compared to the $20 billion that other Arab countries such as Iraq have received since 1980.

The issue to my mind is that it is about time Africa began to manage its own affairs properly and make good use of its resources instead of always looking across the ocean and somewhere else for help.

The drought in the Sahel region of Africa has doubtless contributed to the worsening of the food situation and the world community is morally obliged to provide aid to alleviate the suffering.

But if you consider how certain oil producing African countries with appreciable resources have managed their oil money, then you begin to wonder whether aid should be held as a stick to whip such countries

Subriman Traore, Manchester

Call a spade a spade

Mr Ko Oppong’s letter in the Talking Drums of August 6, 1984 made interesting reading

That our previous elected governments mismanaged the affairs of our dear country Ghana is a fact that cannot be denied. The question is if Mr Oppong had two choices over who maltreats him and the other who kisses him, which of the two would he prefer to live with?

Reminding us of the fact that the British beheaded their kings and leaders. I would like to point out that those were reprehensible acts in history and should not be repeated in any modern society.

In this day and age most who ought to be hanged are in most cases allowed to live and jailed for life and that’s why a despicable dictator like TK is still alive but firmly behind bars.

Mr Oppong, it’s better for you to call a spade a spade and not a TK

Emmanuel Dapaah, London.