Declare your assets!

Needlessly though, but, I wish to state that the caption of this piece was not borne out of mischief, since it’s bound to evoke all kinds of emotions and also serve as a reminder to most of you who were born in and around the 70’s, but has taken the pains to go through our national history, and are familiar with the (in)famous ‘declare your asset” mantra that characterized Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings’ war he waged to purge corruption in our dear nation, Ghana.

Declaring assets is something most women are very familiar with and dates back since time

immemorial. The idea was even pervasive because it was considered a value and held in high esteem, of which failure to comply did not only portray you as a deviant but also as someone who had a sinister motive. It was culturally upright and was even a norm and no one actually questioned the ease with which it was assimilated into the society and it is in this vein that men could ask their spouses or wives to account for their own monies or just anything they acquired which was worth buying.

A typical man would ask his significant other, where she got that new red dress in vogue or the new Gucci hand bag she’s wielding without batting an eyelid or feeling guilty as long as he didn’t buy it for her while it was out of place for the woman to ask the man where he got anything. It was a sacrilege. The prejudiced man that has been conditioned by his culture only goes to think of another man in the picture. And dominantly so, this reason comes to inform why a woman accounts for everything she has, so as to avoid any suspicion from the man and any unnecessary drama that might rear its ugly head in the near future.

In the not too distant past, women were not permitted by cultural expectations to own properties since they themselves were deemed properties of men. What did you expect? Till now, men have always been properties of other men, but thank God for liberation. They were even exempted from a share of their dying or demised Father’s properties which often came in the form of buildings, farm lands and other investments. They were only lucky to inherit the cooking utensils and other perceived feminine things their mum did not even own. 

Women were practically brought up not to even look forward to inheriting or owning anything which made them quite dormant, with regards to their outlook and worldview and it affected their insight, thus their resolve to fight and become independent individuals which is usually determined by your will and ability to earn. Per the dictates of societal norms, pursuits of these things for the woman were needless! 

A man and a woman may both be vested in their family business but when proceeds from their venture purchases any capital or big ticket goods, like buildings, cars, furniture or any other thing you can think of, it bears the man’s name without ado and should the woman even raise an eyebrow, she would be alluded as challenging the status of the man or is planning to cause trouble in the near future or in even worse situations, trying to emasculate the man. That must be some weird value then!

Fast forwarded to our modern dispensation, it is only noteworthy to laud ourselves for the wonderful and immense stride we have taken to advance our lives as a people. Women now own so much, so that, some are playing the bread winning roles in various homes. It is now convenient for a woman to own so much that, she can buy a whole market, and her man has no idea what is going on around him. Strange bedfellows, right?

However, in our back and forth movement, one thing is now significant. The woman has moved from the traditionally compelling asset declaring entity to a willful one who would only tell or draw her man into her economic affairs just because she wants to.

Even though, a few men can still not get their heads around the dramatic cultural change, and are grappling with the concept, thus, making it difficult for women to engage in their own economic affairs, because they think that, it is an erosion of one of their long held cultural values, women are engaging in all kinds of business transactions and enjoying their fruits thereof thereby improving the situation qualitatively. Only a few women still gives everything they earn to their husbands or better still account and explain every pesewa that goes through their hands. 

Alternatively, asset declaration as a phenomenon has only been bridged between the sexes but has gained prominence in Politics. In governance, it has to do with declaring your earnings, which is usually done on your behalf by your company who mandatorily informs the government about exactly how much you earn, so that, they can actuarially project your economic worth, thus what you can acquire and how far you can fare around. 

The information provided among other things, serves as a data for many stakeholders who consults it for decision making which influences how wealth or human resources are re-distributed. It is also imperative that, assets are declared so that the government can have his fair share of your earnings in the form of tax even though some entities understate what they are worth. 

Declaring assets has its own story through history and many Christians will be quick to recall what happened to Ananias and Sapphira when they failed to correctly declare their assets which they set out to do voluntarily. Tithing is also an aspect of declaring assets to both God and the clergy because all one has to do to know your total income is to multiply your tithe by ten and bingo, your income is known.

To this end, it is convenient to say declaring asset is not a new phenomenon and has been with us for long and has undergone radical and tremendous changes, however one thing is significant and that is women have been left off the hook to now own properties and not necessarily explain their whereabouts or how-comes.

The system has been liberalized enough for any gender with the wherewithal to go all out and still keep their secrets intact except the overarching government whose radar we cannot escape but to declare every asset we own.