I am not certain if the
World Bank chose the University of Ghana as its venue for the ‘Shared
Prosperity Forum’ or it’s the other way round, that the University of Ghana invited
the World Bank to host its #EndPoverty Campaign on its soil. Does that really
matter? Yes?
I arrived at the Great
Hall of the University of Ghana at 2:50pm on Friday 16th October
2015. The Program was billed to begin at 3:45pm and end at 5:45pm, a push ahead
of October 17, which is ‘End Poverty Day’ a commemorative day observed by the
United Nations.
As i sat, waiting for
the program to commence, soulful Jazz rocked, just then, some questions flooded
my mental space, one of which recurred over and over:
‘Can we end poverty?’
We were seated inside the
Great Hall of Ghana’s Premier Higher Institution of Learning; the University of
Ghana, being in the front lines, training people to solve problems. Graphically,
poverty resembles that monster with weapons and ammunitions, ravishing homes
and causing untold frustrations in alarming proportions. To this end, an army
had gathered. A commander from South Korea with Generals from Nigeria, Ghana,
Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal. Let the war begin!!!
Pre-commencement
Participants filed into the Auditorium. I spotted some
high level opinion leaders, Diplomats and Students. Slowly, it was getting filled but just about
thirty minutes to the commencement, more people, especially students galloped
in. Media houses kept busy positioning and repositioning equipment. Joy News,
Live Fm, FTV et al.
At 3:44, I took another
full scan of the Great Hall and it was filled to capacity with overflows
outside. Mind you, this was a rare opportunity for anybody to listen to great
minds and capture historic photos of Dr. Jim Yong Kim and his crusaders.
Banner
The mounted banner
stretched from one end of the stage to the other, on it was printed the ‘End
Poverty’ logo, interspersed with two globes. The ‘End Poverty’ logo was in
different colours, which I believe signifies the fight to end poverty was
happening in every continent. I was at
the right place at the right time.
Commencement
At exactly 4pm, Nhyira Addo alias the ‘rainmaker’; Host
of Joy fm Morning show mounted the podium. ‘This aeroplane is air-borne’ I said
to myself. ‘Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the World Bank Shared Prosperity
Forum.....’ His delivery was impeccable;
voice? Lively and musical, even finer than what one often heard on radio. Perhaps,
radio waves steals some savoury in one’s voice. Maybe?
Nhyira Addo paused for
half a second, took a half breathe, scanned the audience and delivered another
powerful introduction. This time, It was to invite 2015 Ghana New Artiste of
the Year, MsVee; the Natural Girl Dancehall Queen. MzVee is spotted in one of the
‘End Poverty’ T-shirts.
Opening her performance
with Bob Marley’s ‘No wo man No cry’, she
switched to her ‘Borkor Borkor’, ‘Natural Girl’, ‘Dancehall Queen’ tracks. Me? Was I dancing? (laughs) I had to restrain myself as the temptation to slalom on stage was high, rather, I nodded as she effortlessly cruised from
one song to another. It was like one long song with many
parts. While she was at it, the dignitaries filed in.
First, Professor Jane
Naane Opoku-Agyemang, the Ghanaian Minister of Education at 4pm. Then, Dr. Jim
Yong Kim and his Officials at the World Bank, Mr. Makhtar Diop, Vice President
of World Bank Africa Region followed almost immediately. Dr. Kim was all
smiles, nodding as MsVee performed. Oh such a bubbly man.
Next to arrive was one
of Africa’s wealthiest Entrepreneurs and Philanthropists, Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu.
Yes, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, The United Bank of Africa, Transcorp, Founder
of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and one of 20 Most Powerful People in Africa
according to Forbes. He wore a grey Suit with a red necktie and red socks to
match. A minute later, the Prime minister of Democratic Republic of Congo was
ushered in. Finally came, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of African
Development Bank.
Akwaaba
(Welcome)
As expected, the Vice Chancellor of the University,
Professor Ernest Aryeetey had the honour of giving the first words and rightly
so as head of the University. He walked onto the stage with such pride and
urgency, offering his appreciation to all for coming. He could have chosen to
hijack the stage to talk about himself and the university and what-not from the
birth of Adam till the death of Jesus. He chose not to. In fact, His welcome
address inspired hope yet did not last more than 120 seconds. Kudos Mr. Vice
Chancellor.
Mr. Makhtar Diop was next on the bill. His task was to
give an introductory remark. He was quick to express his delights at the
strides being made by the University of Ghana in developing leaders for the
world stage. The Senegalese Diplomat gave us more than we asked for. How? ‘That
the Democratic republic of Congo was a shining example of an African country fighting
poverty tooth and nails.
He quickly nailed down the fact that the Democratic
Republic of Congo under the leadership of Matata Ponyo Mapon had kept inflation
at 1% since 2013, which was at a staggering 53% in 2009, despite the fragility of
the country’s economy. Who is this Matata Poyon Mapon?
Enters:
His Excellency Matata Ponyo Mapon
Those who did not see the average-height man when he entered
the Hall, due largely to the numbers around him (Understandable for the First
Gentlemen of every country) waited patiently for this opportunity. Rounds of
applause slapped the insides of the Hall as he made his way to the podium. Mr.
Matata Ponyo Mapon speaking for almost half an hour explained that his
government continues to implement tough economic reforms in fighting poverty
and creating wealth. He backed his points with one statistic after the other.
‘Two roads diverged in the wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference’
Robert Frost (The road
not taken)
Referring to the above, Mr. Matata Ponyo Mapon shared
his motivation in all he did. Hey, Big ups to all lovers of Poetry in Africa!
Enters:
Lerato
Lerato Mbele, the South Africa Journalist who works with
the British Broadcasting Corporation had been billed to moderate the Panel discussions
davos style. She invited the Panellists, Dr. Kim, Mr, Adesina, Professor Opoku-Agyeman and Mr. Elumelu.
Lerato laid grounds rules. Panellists were encouraged to
give short straight-forward answers. Participants were urged to clap in
solidarity with opinions from the panellists and to keep a ‘straight face’ when
they disagreed with panellists.
Professor
Opoku-Agyemang
Lerato punched the Ghanaian minister with the first
question ‘What do you understand by poverty and who are the most vulnerable to
poverty?’ The Minister in response believed women and children were most
vulnerable. She reminded us of Kwegyir –Aggrey in 1923, who said that ‘If you
educate a woman, you educate a family’.
Dr.
Jim Yong Kim
Dr. Kim who heads the World Bank Group; a Physician
and Anthropoligist by training, is such an exceptional brain. His economic insights
and ability to speak in a clear understandable manner is enviable. On which groups
of people were more vulnerable to poverty, he said:
‘I think it’s the poor child living in and around
rural areas between the ages of 0-5’
‘It’s the height of unfairness to relegate children
under age five to never being able to learn’
‘Children have to be able to learn anything and
quickly we have to dedicate a huge portion of our operations to the achievement
of this objective.
Addressing students,
Dr. Kim said ‘This is the most important
thing i can tell you, the Korea of 1959 is now the Africa of 2015, we talk
about Africa Rising but in quiet conversations we hear all kinds of talk about
impossible, you know what we hear from the prime minister about DRC lots of
people were saying that’s impossible, don’t ever believe and certainly don’t believe
it by yourselves’
Mr.
Akinwumi Adesina
Mr. Adesina, was more concerned about the essence of
agriculture, arguing that, agribusiness and technology is Africa’s best bet at
reducing poverty. We were all thrown into laughter when he joked that even
doctors advised patients to take their medication after meals, hence the unavoidability
of agriculture.
‘65% percent of all the arable lands in the world are
not in Asia, Latin America, right here in Africa, great sunshine, great water,
cheap labour, you thrown anything up, it comes down, it grows’.
‘Today, Africa, Ghana, Liberia, Cote d’ivoire,
Cameroon produce 75% of all the cocoa in the world but we get only 3% of a
hundred billion dollar market. I went to Belgium one day and I went to a store
and picked up a chocolate, and it was written on it, manufacturers, we’ve been
in business since 1863. So I asked the person, do you want to know what i
really think, Africa has been doing the wrong thing since 1863’
Mr.
Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu
Easy talking Mr. Elumelu agreed that agriculture and
agribusiness was the way forward adding. Lerato sought to suggest that young
people had less interest in agriculture. Tony disagreed and posited that actual
statistics proved otherwise. He then advanced that thirty percent of applicants
to the Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneurship Program actually needed support
to grow their agribusinesses.
‘In recent times, African investments in Africa have
now surpassed foreign investments in Africa’
Lerato
and Tony
Lerato: How did you get out of poverty to wealth? Five
factors?
Tony: Hard work, enabling
environment. Discipline, Culture of saving, Long term thinking, Align with
people with similar perspectives. And it is the combination of these and more
that accounts for my success
Trust me; it’s very
difficult, almost impossible to limit the likes of Elumelu.
6pm
The night had been largely a mastermind sharing of
ideas. Lerato had hinted by her line of questioning that she was drawing the
curtains down. The Ghanaian Minister, being the only woman panellist knew how
to make her presence felt when the question fell in her area of expertise;
education. She took the bull by the horn when Lerato asked her about a child
who doesn’t want to study mathematics because he prefers to be an Artist and
still make a great contribution, throwing her fellow panellists and audience
into rapturous rounds of applause
She argued that the
manner in which science and mathematics has been taught has been the challenge,
adding that it formed the foundation, adding the language uses to instruct students
have been another barrier.
‘It is those who have taught it who have not taught it
well and let me tell you that my ministry has since 2013 retrained almost 2000
science and mathematics teachers across the country’ ...
‘let me use a very practical example, of a child whose
mum processes palm oil, from the farm to the oil, if this is not science, then
I don’t know what science is’
(Audience charge,
giving rounds after rounds of applause) She continued:
‘Take the seamstress who sews for
example, she uses a scissors. The scissors is a scientific instrument and the
way she cuts her materials is mathematics. If this is not mathematics, then I
don’t know what it is’.
(The Hall becomes
smaller as the cheers intensify. Dr. Kim and his colleagues can’t hide their excitement)
‘Nothing stopped Korea from using
their language, by using their language; it didn’t stop them from making the
fridges and phones that we import, because Koreans were taught in a language
they understood, the equation picked up. Because we are teaching our children
in a language they can’t even follow, we are drawing them back’
*Sweat profusely*---*Wipes brow*---*Drinks water*
Conclusion
The Ghanaian Minister better be ready to answer more
questions because the local media landscape and social media will gruel her ideas
the hardest way they can, pass it through the magnifying glass and test its strength.
Is her proposition on local language as medium of instruction of learning feasible?
Now or Later?
As for Lerato, she knew
she had reached the climax and that there was no better time to end the
conversation than now. Lady and gentlemen, your final comments on how we can
end poverty?
Dr. Adesina: ‘Just end it’
Mr. Elumelu: ‘create employment and embrace local value
industrial activities
Dr. Kim: ‘Listen to young people and listen to the
women' Smart Kim. (Audience erupt again)
Honourable
Opoku-Agyemang: Focus on quality
education delivered in the right medium.
Announcement
Diplomats
are guarded out
Photography and Exchange of pleasantries
Refreshment
I stepped out, hopped on a bus and returned home. Thank you for your time. #spidup
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