10 Beneficial Things Bank of Ghana's $504,000 Golden Watch Money Could Have Been Used For

The airwaves across the nation are inundated with opinions of all and sundry on the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) decision to blow $504,000 on gold watches for 72 employees as end of year benefits. 

Some people approach the subject from a utilitarian point angle, whilst others look at it from the point of legality of the methodology used in the procurement process. I side with the former group of persons, and in this post, I proffer ten very beneficial ways the fund from the central bank’s 2016 budget could have been used for. The $504,000 in question converts into GHC2,005,290 (two million and five thousand, two-hundred and ninety Ghana cedis), that is over 20billion old cedis for wrist wears.

1. Solar powered mechanised boreholes in 22 communities: the cost of constructing a solar powered mechanised borehole is GHC91,000, with the capacity to irrigate an entire community. Looking at the abundant sun energy Ghana is blessed with and the water problems being faced in a good number of regions in the nation, the solar powered water machines would certainly be of good use to Ghanaians. 
2. 6-unit classroom blocks in 20 communities: schools under trees is one of the major problems faced by the Ghana education system, and with the cost of building a 6-unit classroom block currently pegged at GHC100,000 the BoG money would have tackled the problem to a substantial degree
3. Coat 3.5km road: it roughly costs GHC600,000 to cover a 1km road with primary coater. An investment into this sector is a long term one, and addresses one of the primary problems in Ghana’s infrastructure to an extent.
4. Nationwide cholera education programme: cholera has become a perennial endemic in Ghana: one of the major ways to solve a problem of this nature is through public education. And the method has particularly been proven effective in the case of cholera. All the health directorates need is 20bn old cedis to hit the road.
5. 5 modern 24-bedroom hostel facilities: accommodation is a key challenge in our country. Constructing a 24-bedroom hostel facility for either workers or students goes for GHC500,000. 2m Ghana cedis would get us 5 of those buildings.
6. Feed Osu Children’s Home for over 4 and half years: the nation’s historic orphanage has always had resource constraints. At a feeding rate of GHC2 (which is very excellent by Ghanaian standards) per meal, the less than 200 inmates of the facility will enjoy good nourishment, 3 times a day for 4 year and 8 months with the BoG watch money
7. Sponsor 4 medical doctors to study cardiology abroad: infections of the heart, just like many other non communicable diseases are on the rise in the country. The BoG cash would have ensured that the nation is equipped with four more experts in the matters of the heart, trained in some of the world’s best institutions.
8. 170 fish ponds for farming: this particular initiative would address two main issues: food insecurity and youth unemployment. A completed and well stocked 150 * 100ft earthen pond would amount to GHC12,000-which implies 20bn old cedis would have constructed 170pcs of ponds- which means the BoG watches have denied us some good source of constant protein as well as a decent number of employment opportunities.
9. Purchase over two-hundred thousand waste containers: good sanitation is a bane in the country, with indiscriminate disposal of waste a chief culprit. GHC2m is just enough to procure over two hundred thousand pcs of medium plastic rubbish containers to be distributed in all state owned primary schools across the nation.
10. Renew NHIS registration for all nurse and teacher trainees: the BoG money is more than enough to renew the National Health Insurance Scheme registration for all students of Nuses/Midwifery’ Training Schools and Teachers’ Training Colleges across the length and breadth of the nation. 

Love Is A Disease

Imagine having to wake up deep in the night and start to think of something that doesn't, in actual sense, have little or anything to do with you. All of a sudden, someone's well-being has become so important to you that, you become restless within yourself whenever a negative response is gotten from your so called partner.

Our predecessors may have seen the irony of this disease that, in most cases, they do betrothal of their offspring. Must nature be blamed for this? Psychological theories have given many interpretations to this disease- love, and at a point science became fed up with trying to understand this concept.

Interestingly, human beings have evolved from the primitive stage of looking at it as a mere societal value to a necessity. Why will someone kill his or her friend because of another person? Why will someone completely ignore his friend because he has found love? So you see why it's a menace? History hasn't been fair to us at all in this regard.

It should have properly dealt with this, or perhaps cure this life threatening disease for us, so it doesn't pose its ugly noses in our faces. At least we know that, for every four persons, one person will have a mental disorder in a life time. Why was same not done about love? Nature should have given us the instinct of not believing the false positive prospects of love.

We should have been told that once the disease is contracted one’s survival rate is altered. Alas! This is the plight of many, finding themselves as culprits of this four letter word. They go all out and do anything for the fact that they "love" someone or something.

In a case where power must come to play, the weak becomes vulnerable to this disease.

In other to fulfill the principle that the fittest must survive, the weak is hence relegated.

Imagine your partner demanding things you cannot afford. You become desperate to look for those things or risk losing him or her. You cannot do away with the fact that, precious time is wasted trying to get the attention of each other in cases where there is a default of not believing one side. 

But what makes it so fascinating is how strongly attached people can become to the extent of losing sight of the things that really need attention. What about those fond memories you've gathered in your life which rather need improvement? "I love you", "I will die for you", "I will climb the highest mountain just because of you", "don't worry, I will always be there for you" and many other paradoxical ones are the unfortunate statements that is uttered. Whether it is clearly understood is another issue. Literatures in Psychiatrist will enlighten us on how to properly use our mind for real thinking because they consider those statements having to be from the abstract world. 

Again, all those, will form the basis for the pathophysiological concept of love being a disease. It is very sad to hear people saying, because of "fear of loneliness", they needed to have love- the disease. Well, this must be true so long as you dwell in the realm of the abstract. 

In other fields, love is conceptually irrational. One cannot simply understand the philosophy of the binding force that suddenly results from the sight of a "beautiful being". Isn't this a mental disorder? Well, one must as well appreciate the fact that, whichever way it is looked at, love has greatly been misconstrued to be the most important thing to look out for. 

This is as a result of the hierarchical principal human needs proposed by Maslow. It's however a sad story to learn that the human race of today has accepted this as the gospel truth without, or with little critical analysis. 

Anyway you might have seen it, it stills stands as one of the diseases, just like AIDS, whose cure is yet to be discovered. One should therefore, carefully conceptualize this disease before falling prey to it, because it has the potential of ruining one's life forever.

This post is a feature, authored by Mawunyo "Warlord" Dartey, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho.