Not a good prioritization of resources

I just read that the Ghanaian government is going to send soldiers as part of the ECOWAS force fighting with the French against the Islamists in northern Mali. Can you imagine Nkrumah fighting side by side with the French in Africa? No of course not, the idea of truly independent African states providing men to support military actions in Africa by former colonial powers is ridiculous. But, real independence in Africa today is much further away than it was in 1966 before Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup backed by the "liberal" LBJ. So instead of taking care of problems in Ghana like the fact that half the population can not read, the government is going to send Ghanaian soldiers to go join the French in a counter-insurgency war in the Sahara.