By Clinton Amegatse
Dear Manasseh,
I saw a publication you made on social media last week chronicling the relationship that has existed between the Executive Chairman (EC) of waste management giants, Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a subsidiary of the Jospong Group of Companies, and successive governments.
In your brief post, you sought to draw attention to Mr. Siaw Agyepong’s supposed attachment to the current administration and how he sought to paint a picture of availing himself and making his waste management company available for partnership in implementing the government’s 24-hour economic policy.
Manasseh, you may not know me personally because I am a “nobody”, but I can tell you that I will not place outside the top five admirers of your works as a journalist in this country. However, there is something you’re getting wrong here. In your latest epistle about the EC of Jospong Group, you made a statement about him which every right-thinking person would know deserves a commendation rather than condemnation.
In your post, you said: “In 2016, President Mahama said at the climax of Zoomlion’s 10th anniversary that the Jospong CEO, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, was often the first person to come to him after he had delivered the State of the Nation’s Address. The CEO, President Mahama said, would list initiatives he (the president) mentioned in the SONA and tell him how he (Joseph Siaw Agyepong) intended to implement them.”
After reading this, I saw the difference between wisdom and knowledge and what has set the Western world apart from other parts of the world. Mr. Siaw Agyepong, per what you put up there, is one of the smartest businessmen this country has been blessed with. If as a businessman, he devises solutions to the problems of this country to create employment and wealth out of them, then he should rather be commended than being condemned.
You don’t need a prophet to tell you there is a problem with Ghana’s education system where people go to school and gain all the academic laurels without adding anything meaningful to society but just the academic accolades they bear.
Jospong is the man who deserves to be teaching entrepreneurship in our universities to help many of these young graduates to set up their own industries after school with state support. But they sit in the classroom and move about with files after school whilst the man you always condemn uses his brains to create jobs for these teeming youth.
As industrious as he has been for almost two decades, Jospong has created employment for thousands of people with his inventiveness, and if for nothing at all, he should be celebrated rather than being castigated.
Were you expecting him to be out of business because he worked with a particular government and a new administration takes over? That would have made him a weak businessman.
Yes, just as an imperfect world exists, there is no doubt Jospong will get everything right in his service delivery to the state. There will be shortcomings, which he himself might not be even aware sometimes, until persons like yourself who are the watchdogs of society, bring them to bear. So, your criticisms are much appreciated by Ghanaians, but I believe the constructive bit of it is deficient, and needs some booster to ensure we get the best out of you as a journalist and Jospong as a businessman.
At the end of the day, if successive governments sign contracts with Zoomlion and the work is not properly executed, who should be blamed for it? After Ghanaians have payed taxes and tasked governments to work on our behalf, it is expected that they instill proper monitoring and supervision to ensure the nation gets the best out of whatever contract it enters with any entity.
What I think should be done is that, Ghana as a nation needs to reconsider how it awards contracts and how they are executed to ensure the nation is not shortchanged. This would rather work for the nation instead of portraying a picture which suggests no government should work with the Jospong Group.
Whether it rains or shine, those government projects would be executed by entities led by individuals, and just like every other company that wins contracts and work with the government, Jospong is also a son of the land who is feeding thousands of Ghanaians with his works and equally deserves to work for the state.
If things are not going as expected with regards to his contracts with the state, the best you can do would be to suggest ways those anomalies, as you may call it, may not happen or be reduced to the barest minimum. But to insinuate that the state entering into contract with Jospong is suicidal is not the best you can do as a journalist.
To conclude, I’ll suggest that we all come together and solicit ideas on how to make Ghana become the winner at the end of the day in anything it does.
As a journalist, it would be unfair for me to ask you to tell us how you would have implemented any of the projects the government has contracted to the Jospong Group. This is because we all cannot do the same thing and for a society to function properly, there are roles assigned to different people by virtue of their professions, through which each of them survives. But instead of building, it appears your criticism of the Jospong Group aims to destroy it, which is not the best.
With positivity, Ghana shall become the winner in the end.
