Ghana Maritime Authority has never been a well-known Institution to the Ghanaian populace for quite a while.
It was an organization that hardly command any public attention and for same matter, the CEO was equally never that well known for several years until the era of Mr Kwame Owusu.
For this same reason, the issues that came up and accusations that were levelled against the CEO was one of a kind and as much as a few people were deliberately behind it and wanted the matter to soar up, the matter would have died a sudden death without any effort attached. As they say, if there is no friction, there is no reaction.
But out of anger, The CEO decided to speak for himself against all advice as asserted by close friends not to do so, but couldn’t represent himself professionally without adding signs of emotions (Anger).
He relied on his anger side to rather blow the matter out of proportion and giving interested parties very good days to enjoy the summer breeze. People then took interesting soundbites from his own speech to propel a case that was nothing than a smoke in the mirror to different interesting heights and very interesting direction giving the case national attention.
Unfortunately, some of these soundbites were so attractive to bring attention to the public that many people now wanted to know who this person was. Anxiety, expectation and suspense can be a very wonderful tool to market a product, service or a situation.
A single solution usually doesn’t cure many problems, it is usually very professional to look at every case by its merits based on the situational analysis. Many issues require responses most of the time but there are some few that quietness rather is the cure.
There is a fact that, No matter where you have been to, whatever you have achieved, how much the multiple of zeros of dollars you are earning, whatever titles you might be holding at different positions, When your country calls you or when your president calls you, you don’t consider any of the above-listed lines, you just pack off and head home just because there is no place like home and it’s always a privilege to have that phone call. The really heart-warming feeling to have caught the eye of the President.
On the reverse, many People have also had the chance to complain about how good work or sacrifice is not rewarded or appreciated in Ghana no matter how hard you try and bad deeds rather get the news all the times and usually even gets a standing ovation from all and sundry.
I am sure Mr Kwame Owusu would have never taken any keen interest in this assertion until he became the topic for the country’s discussions on an issue that in my consideration was a trivial issue because at that very curtail time of our countries life, many other countries were singing our praises for the good works in a sector Kwame worked in and practically supervised.
I call this issue trivial for several reasons, Mr Kwame Owusu was hired to do a particular job and that was supposedly his concentration most of the time at post, I am sure to believe that his concentration was not on other small stuff like the house the CEO would live in and how it should look like and what it must have, there was no way this matter couldn’t attract much of his maximum attention because it did no matter as much as the core maritime sector management issues.
Ghana was at this moment enjoying the praises and accolades from peers around the world for Mr Kwame Owusu being able to develop and maintain to high heights Ghana’s part of the maritime sector within a very short times coming from a period of many troubling issues bothering the sector.
No one stopped to ask for the value of the Maritime industry currently and its current contribution to Ghana’s economy and or even the kinds and volumes of jobs it provides or mouths it feeds and how this industry currently performing high although in the very immediate past was ailing and could almost bring this economy to almost a halt if not totally to a stop if not shut down.
Since Ghana is an import driven economy with the maritime side controlling the biggest lines of business in the import and export line of business, automatically leaves a huge burden on this very institution (Maritime Authority) that Mr Kwame Owusu decided to carry on his back together with very able and committed assistants and dedicated staffs to bring it off from its knees to it very strong feet.
No one also stopped to think of the fact that the case brought against Mr Kwame Owusu had nothing to do with his core mandate and as such had something rather to do with the auxiliaries of what his work really was, for which matter he had not given it much attention as compared to how he had dedicated most of his attention to things that had to do with his main line of work or responsibility.
On the other hand was the fact that, upon everything and all the sacrifice of leaving all he had been doing to come invest his life and time in this industry to bring it up to speed in a very short time, was to say that his sacrifice was far less valuable than a couple of air conditioners that had been installed at a residence that he didn’t give much attention to because his priority and attention was rather on fixing an ailing industry for which he had been asked to leave everything and come patch up the only reason for his employment.
I am sure many also forget that this man is also human and although some of his words must have come out wrongly, how come no one also stopped to think that he also has feelings and emotions and would have been better if he had been accused with real maritime management issues which was his core function rather than ordinary housekeeping issues of least importance to the sector.
It is fascinating how no one is interested in these parts of his life but just the little mishaps as portrayed in the eye of some few.
We can all admit this man had stayed away from all public discourse since he left office till date and out of all public works, till he has been called to come back and serve in public office again for reasons best known to his employer. I am sure he will be of the opinion that that all processes of reviews and evaluations that had to take place for which reason he had to be away had been completed and the wise Head of state had come to a conclusion that he (Mr Kwame Owusu) was still valuable or relevant to the President and his agenda, taken everything into consideration.
How could such a person decide to say no to the first Gentleman of the land, the very wise and Prudent President and not offer his required services to this great nation for which he is so proud of?
I end with a reference from this nobleman Mr Kwame Owusu. ‘’I love to serve, I love to solve problems, I am trained to solve problems, it will come with criticisms and I will step on people’s toes in the process, in all this, the intentions are good and all for a greater good. In all this I also accept that there are processes and there is also the Ghanaian way of doing things, but that doesn’t also mean, until we have gotten used to the entire Ghanaian way of doing things, we cannot push to achieve whiles learning, we will push to achieve big things and it might come with very minimal mistakes and that’s human and we will learn from it and make life better for the masses. As the President Usually Says, ‘’He is in a Hurry’’ how can we his dedicated staffs not follow suite’’.
Mr Kwame Owusu has followed all the commentary in the public space since the news of his appointment broke. This he did with very keen interest.
Those who feel that what happened at Ghana Maritime Authority will be repeated will be greatly disappointed.
Jacob Yakubu Asaawa writes
Dellpablo@yahoo.co.uk
