Prior to our self-determination from when the colonial masters were in charge of our destiny, it is not uncommon to hear parents in the elite class of the Gold Coast priding themselves by such expression as "My son is schooling in the Whiteman's country". This is a mark of standard of how rich such individuals are as education in the far away land of the Whiteman is not only exclusive, expensive but also extraordinary. It is an indication of how classy, superior and closer to the Whiteman the individual is. In those days, education on our land is just for the commoners designed for those being prepared to be the hewers of the tree and tillers of the land.
Our educational institutions were meant to produce the kind of labour that forever shall be labourers that shall only be good enough to do the
Whiteman's dirty job. The ploy was never for us to be good enough, just as our masters are, to the extent of taking our destiny into
their own hands. Our educational system was meant for us to remain subservient to the colonial masters than to challenge the authority of
the Whiteman. Just like the donkeys that work in partnership with the owners, our masters' everlasting aim was to sustain the statuesque
that shall be allowing our children and our raw materials to be at their mercy.
Our attainment of independence in 1957 that come with the cost of lives of our brave brothers and sisters was to take our own destiny into our own hands in deciding the kind of education every one of our children shall be having. We swore that every child shall have the best education to the fullest of his/her potential on our own land. We swore for the myth of the Whiteman's land education to be a thing of the past. We swore that the system of the colonial White master, who collects tax from all the citizens of Ghana only to provide them with local education of slaves while the majority of our children dream of better schools in faraway land of the colonial master, shall be a thing of the past. Listening to an audio interview on Joy Online, the Ghanaian Vice-Presidential nominee Paa Kwasi Amissah-Arthur
boosted of having a "son who is an epidemiologist and a medical doctor working in the NHS, UK and a daughter is
also a lawyers in training", possibly also in the United Kingdom. http://newsaudio.myjoyonline.com/pages/newsaudio/201208/299.php.
On the same audio, Kwasi Amissah-Arthur confirmed that he was invited for interrogation by the BNI and the Police headquarters on
allegation of corruption that could not resulted in prosecution for lack of enough evidence.
In giving his own life history and the educational experience in particular, it was very obvious that Amissah-Arthur's education was funded mainly by the Ghanaian tax payer. In addition to his education, Mr. Ammisah worked mainly for the government of Ghana. He worked in the academic sector, served as a deputy minister of finance and then run a private consultant before ending up as a governor of the Bank of Ghana. The main fact is that Paa Kwasi Amissah-Arthur worked for the state of Ghana to better the lives of
Ghanaians for which he was paid salary by the state of Ghana. The state of Ghana trained Arthur-Amissah
into an Economist of the highest standard with the tax payer's money and paid him salary to work for the
state with his gained knowledge and experience for generations after him to benefit as well. He was tasked
with the responsibility of occupying the position of the governorship of Bank of Ghana that comes with
managing the fiscal and monetary instruments of the state. The job here was to manage the economic factors beyond personal interest to reflect in every facet of the economy. The reality however turned out to be that of individuals becoming richer while the state gets poorer. For over twenty years of being in and out of the state management, the nation's affairs decayed so much that even Paa Kwasi Amissah could not keep his own children and grand-children in the Ghanaian system, much as he loved them. In my recent visit to my primary school, Kanda Primary, I just could not hold back the tears from my eyes at the condition in which I found the leaders of tomorrow who were said to be learning. The memories of my own school days there kept coming to mind. My imagination of the effort the British government was putting into the education of their youth explained why people like Arthur Amissah have to snake out their children into such foreign schools while they help with the subject of the colonies to be what exactly the colonial master wanted them to be. The question is that, was Arthur Ammisah at any point in time a resident in the UK for one to say he had
this children while there? If the answer was no, then the children will not be said to be in the UK as British
citizens and therefore will be paying their tuition fees as foreign students and in hard currency.
If Mr. Amissah was not paying for his children fees, then could it be the government of Ghana paying for
the children of those who are supposed to making the schools of Ghana better?
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