NDC Lacks Character

Growing up, I learnt that you need not necessarily have a good character. All that matters is you should be known for something. By all means, be known as that wicked guy, that vagabond, that good boy, that prostitute, that intelligent chap, rather than not assuming any character and thinking that you are safe. Safe from what or who? When your name comes to the fore, people are not able to place a name to your face and you call yourself unassuming.

I remember in the year 2000, when Ex President Kufour took over the reins of power, we had a lot of technocrats and fine brains 'proceeding on leave', mostly to return no more. It turned out that most people who were perceived to be unaligned to the ideals of the party nor contributed whatsoever to its gains could not revel in its spoils and it makes sense and methinks it is the right way to go. 

Whoever dines with an odd fellow? 

Loyalty pays and should be rewarded big time. How do you expect me not to work with people who were there and supported me to wrestle power from my opponents? It's not wise and not formidable. What is wrong if I replace one Ghanaian with another Ghanaian? If they are all Ghanaians and qualified for a job, then the onus lies on the big man to call the shots, simply because, he has the big picture and knows who fits into his plan. The rest may be grunts but who cares if it's part of human nature. For your own good, it's not good to work, wine and dine with someone who doesn't believe in you or your ways of doing things and so forth.

Fast forwarded to the biggest opposition party in Ghana, our very own National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the last 8years, spearheaded by the late President Atta Mills before Ex-President John Dramani Mahama, what did we see? We saw a leadership that decided not to reward faithfuls who helped them wrestle power. We saw a leadership that decided to be a father-for-all; and to even those who didn't want to be its children. We saw a leadership that alienated its members to fend for themselves; a father who took care of other people's children other than their own, and you expected your children to come out and vote for you?

Did we have corrupt officials in the erstwhile government? Maybe, yes or no, but our father for all was high on sympathy than morals and sanctity of our nation, so he forgave all as though the country was his bonafide.

My prayer for a party with a character, National Patriotic Party (NPP), is that if there are witches, then they have to be hunted down and of course, they have to reward their loyalists. Being a father-for-all in the Political sphere is a fallacy and can't be adhered to the letter. All you can do is to promote an enabling environment and people would find their feet. 

NDC didn't lose because of corruption. They lost because they alienated their followers. They lost because they lack character. 

Writer tweets @vilejah

Muse

The other day, my hustle took me to one of the uppity areas of the country and by extension, Galaxy International School, Ashaley Botwe. Even though the area is almost getting crowded by the hustle and bustle of inhabitants who are mostly vending by the roadside to the real owners of the place, their activities still seem regulated and under control unlike Kwashieman, Kotobabi, Russia, Teshie and all other areas where humans and their activities sprout like Amazonian flora in a rainy season.

I got there and asked to see my contact who seems to have notified the security detail of my arrival. A few questions were asked and I was allowed to come through their tight security of a gate that seems to have a sophistication than most of our national installations and I dare mention our courts on top of the list, where a clock was stolen while proceedings were ongoing. I walked through the vast compound to the reception like a lonely soul trying to make it across the desert, except I was assured that I won't be accosted or lynched at any given moment. There seems to be no one on the premises, neither were classes going on. I wish I could liken the silence on campus to a cemetery, but since the likes of Awudome and our very own Mile Eleven have defied the odds and taken away the quietude that characterizes cemeteries, I'll pass.

Then here I was in an enclosed space which I immediately recognized as the reception because it had a colorful box situated in the middle of the place, flanked by some fluffy and stuffy chairs at the far ends of the room. There was also a cupboard displaying the spoils of their exploits - trophies and laurels, and then there was a big Television screen at an almost obscure place when I'm yet to find one of those phase out 20inch hunched TVs in the staff common rooms of most public schools. Saying I was impressed would be an understatement. I was actually happy for the one I had gone to visit; that he lives in this environment all day every day except on vacations and that's only because man's not hot.

The whole time, I was there, I didn't hear any noise from any of the classrooms that were situated on the first floor and up above, like you would if you were anywhere around the Kotobabi and Alajo cluster of schools as though school was not in session. The whole place looked disciplined and even at those ages, the students seem to know what they had come to do in the school i.e. to learn. I almost wanted to compare my school of yesteryears to this one where I was cozily resting in their sofa, but I wasn't going to feed my muse by throwing a pity party. I'm a progressive, so I won't even start on how you were always distracted by the minimal noise coming from around the school. I won't go on about the kenkey seller across the classroom who could scream herself hoarse calling to her help, Adjeley, just because she exists and lives with her. I won’t mention the aroma that diffuses into our classrooms like the frankincense that was burnt at Jesus’ manger in Bethlehem. I won't talk about the hawkers who were advertising their ware the whole time classes were in session not to talk of the wide windows that could pass for auditorium doors at the conference centre. It was as bad as it could be.

It's just occurring to me that things were the way they were because I never recalled any Parent Teacher's Association meeting going on during my three years stay and even if it did, it possibly was on my blind side. It's the kind of schools where the students don't even think beyond ten years, not to talk of knowing what they were on about in this world. It's the kind of school you attend only because it makes your parents happy, where they also pretend that paying the change of a school fees was their greatest achievement.

To quote Jah Cure, "if education is the key, why are the bigger heads making it expensive for us?" Why are our leaders toying with our future only to turn around and pretend as though we are not products of their leadership? They label us as incapable, not futuristic, and apathetic towards nation building and what have you and they think it's funny. Elsewhere, I know these leaders are visited with mayhem but this is Ghana and we are self-respecting and mindful of ourselves and the future of the nation.

We can't continue paying lip service to our education if we are planning to fit into the global space of politicking, Commerce, IT and Engineering. We can't continue allowing third grade teachers who can hardly spell or unaware of their environment beyond their community to train our future leaders. We can't continue to be teaching our future leaders that the head is used to carry loads. We have to equip them such that by the time school is over, they are ready to offload. They are ready to play into the global space where technology has almost integrated everyone as long as they are willing to. We can't continue to deepen the gap between the rich and the poor by allowing the former to pay as close as Twenty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢20,000) and the latter to attend some free kind of school which we will tout at the highest citadel of our nation. We can’t continue talking about education being manned by leaders who claim to be shaping our future and yet don't find the need or decency to shape that of their children but to send them abroad to get education that can readily get them space in the global discussion.

Let’s prioritize education and talk some more about it in hopes of changing our fortune as a nation. 

 

 Writer Tweets @vilejah

The Absentee Addressee

He sat pensively in his compound, the night so airy and friendly. His mind, everywhere at the same time. Information reeling through like a data processing feed to nowhere exactly. Every experience and its derivative - coming to stay as though he was data mining from a supercomputer. How these experiences keep re-living in his mind without his consent only adds up to the misery he was going through. He expected it at a point in time but didn't know it would tarry this long. He loathes the idea of his inadmissible mind to reconcile what has being.

Why couldn't she see and think like him?

Why was she not seeing things as they seem?

He bats the air in despair with hands splayed wide enough not to miss the tiniest hover. He tries to weigh his chances at having a second chance with her but the thoughts only succeeded in making him mutter something to himself like 'shit'. 

Even though, he's had his fair and squared share of escapades, he still feels played real good and wants a chance at unraveling what actually happened. It happened so fast, he doubts if he would ever recover from the hands he was dealt with.

What a sore loser he was.

Writer tweets @vilejah