Mrs Comfort Aniagyei (2nd right), director of iMEM foundation in a handshake with Lawyer Abraham Osei-Aidoo during the launch of iMEM foundation
A civil society organization, iMEM Foundation, established to support and advocate leadership in order to transform and sustain the fortunes of Ghana has been launched at Tema in the Greater Accra Region.
The Foundation will centre its efforts in leading advocacy in the areas of natural resources, governance, combating corruption and creating awareness about our ‘African-ness’. There will also be an objective hinged on charity.
Speaking at a media launch, Mrs. Comfort Aniagyei, Director of iMEM, said the very reason for establishing the Foundation was to ensure there was adequate advocacy aimed at ensuring that we, as a people, have control over the management of our economic and social affairs.
She continued that through the intervention of iMEM and other civil society organisations, strategies adopted by foreign powers aimed at keeping Africa dependent on external help would be dealt with to ensure that the trend changes.
The director explained to her guests what each alphabet in the name of the Foundation stood for, saying the alphabet (i) stood for ignorance, (M) for money, (E) for ego and the last (M) for morals.
Explaining in details the rationale behind each of the alphabets in iMEM, she said the issue of ignorance was such that Ghanaians allow ignorance of the history of Ghana and worse still ignorance of the world order to keep them glued to everything foreign adding that such situations informed the birth of GhanaMade, a company that markets and sells only made-in-Ghana products.
On the (M), she said it stood for money or corruption. The iMEM Foundation director explained that a lot of ink has been expended by many writers on the evil long-term effects of corruption and how it keeps Africans hungry for food, education, infrastructure and health in the midst of all the human and other natural resources available to us.
The alphabet (E), according to her, represents leaders’ ego that gets in the way of their ability to take the right decisions, with the last (M) referring to morals.
Concluding her welcome address, she stated that leaders make or unmake great nations and added that the state of a nation’s development is reflective of the type of leadership it has had. “If our leaders can overcome the iMEM factor, they can lead this continent to an Africa beyond aid,” Mrs Aniagyei stressed.
Chairperson for the ceremony, Mrs. Leticia Osafi-Addo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Samba Foods Limited, outlined what she said were three major problems that Ghana and most African countries face. She mentioned them as lack of technology, ‘institutionalized’ corruption and the fact that leadership over the years has taken the people of the nation for granted.
She added that the launch of iMEM Foundation could not have come at a better time than this when most people instead of working to improve Ghana’s lot were rather amassing wealth for themselves. She hoped that iMEM Foundation through its advocacy would reverse the trend.
Majority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for Tema West, Lawyer Abraham Osei-Aidoo, who was the guest speaker at the ceremony, was of the view that fighting poverty could only succeed if we fight corruption, by insisting on equitable, prudent and accountable use of our natural resources by our leaders and public officials.
He lauded the directors of iMEM Foundation for taking steps to join civil society organizations to ensure that Ghana’s resources are well managed.
From Vincent Kubi, Tema