A hopeful Ghana at 56

It’s the 6^th of March and Ghana is going to be aglow with merry-makers amidst pomp and pageantry. We would go gay because it is the day the Lord has made for us. It is the day our forefathers, led by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah fought and won Independence for us and as usual, we will be commemorating this feat in style, but I have a different notion about this day. I really would like it set aside as a brainstorming day where we would all come together like was done in the market squares in the days of old, because we are caught up in the middle of the road. 

I am not happy about the state of our nation and the direction in which we are headed. More so, I am not happy about the leadership steering the affairs of the nation and this cut across board; right from the sectorial Managers in the various departments to the Presidency. They lack a plan and if they do, then, it’s not working.

The state of the nation is sham, the majority of our populace seems clueless and the rest feeling vulnerable except a few like me who is penning my thoughts down and if you are wondering why I feel apart from the aforementioned category, it’s not because I am perfect, but, fact that I can only give approval of myself. You would have to speak for yourself too.

The leaders have failed us, spent our monies on frivolities and have nothing to show for. They beg for aid only to party with it with their girlfriends, they buy shiny rimmed Cars they drive at night to stay disguised and stash the tax payer’s money in a faraway country where he really never gets to enjoy. The people we thought responsible thus mandating them for higher offices only sleep on the job and take home fat salaries. Their negligence results in judgement debts and no one sanctions them. When they steal, they call it embezzlement or misappropriation, yet the common man attracts names like burglary and armed-robbery. They have lost touch with the people.

Given the platform, all they talk about is the achievements of our illustrious son, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah who wrestled Independence from the British and his plans which could best be described as idealism. Don’t we all have ideals? What are we going to say about this crop of leaders? That, they went for loans in saloons abroad? That, they were stashing monies under their beds? That, they got rich overnight? That, they were irresponsibly having illicit sex when they went abroad with our monies or fact that they were living like Kings?

If they were not sleeping on the job, how come we are having erratic power supply, knowing that power drives a nation’s industry? Did somebody not see it coming? Is it the Personnel or lack of equipment? Is it lack of funds and if it is, how can we get some? All of the answers to these questions can at least make the Ghanaian appreciate the situation.

Its 56 years since Ghana attained Independence and you would ask yourself that, after Governor Gordon Guggisberg’s 7year accelerated development plan that saw the construction of some major railways, expansion of the health sector and educational curricula (which is miseducating anyway), what major achievements have we added up to these things after a ‘poli-poli’ 56years of managing our own affairs?

We are even struggling to maintain what has been bequeathed to us and it’s a shame!

You out there reading, for how long are we going to keep on ranting and musing about what these leaders have done to the state? For how long are we going to allow these people to stay unaccountable for their stewardship? For how long are they going to be alienated from us with their grandiose lifestyles? For how long are we going to stay in fear for being castigated and labeled as arrogant or disrespectful for asking the right questions?

My dear youth, if we are the future leaders, then we have to be responsible ahead of time, even before the baton is handed to us. We have to be acting before assuming total responsibility otherwise; we would be lost when the day of reckoning beckons us.

This nation will not grow without our output. Every Individual must be involved in building this nation. We need pragmatic governance ably supported by responsible opposition and then, the worker who reads news items all day will stop and the guy who litters the street will also put an end to it. The citizenry will shed off that ‘i-don’t-care’ attitude and work with the hindsight of living a legacy behind for the generations to come like we tout Dr. Nkrumah to be. We need sustainability in all our endeavors and it is time we all shut our mouths and start acting.

Attending school and earning enough in a reputable company afterwards is not enough for Mother Ghana. Having multiple degrees and not doing anything to outlast you when you are dead and gone is just good for you and perhaps your family but not enough for Mother Ghana. Being a law-abiding citizen is not enough for mother Ghana, you also have to go a length further to report a wrong doer. The Police intimidating and extorting money from the citizenry at most only exhibits the corrupt nature of our institutions and that is also not good enough to propel the nation to the Utopian state we all complain and project.

Evidently, everybody has a good intention, but how are we going to make it materialize? How can we make manifest of all those good intentions? We have to get to work with alacrity because we have no more options to choose from. We are left to work, work and work.

Like they say, the past, the now and the future belongs to the Artisan. Are you an Artisan? Just sitting behind your computer and touting your Chartered Accountancy credentials does not make you one, because you are practically leaving nothing behind when you are dead and gone. Write a book or teach someone those accounting skills and it is only when, you would have contributed to building Mother Ghana. Even when Parliamentarians allots and approves budgets, it’s the Artisan who designs and constructs the projects. 

Once you become an Artisan, you will create and probably employ yourself and become employable. The nine to five is not enough unless the content of the 9-5 is all about creativity, otherwise, find time to create something. Everything you use is as a result of someone’s brainchild. Let’s try to relieve the government of creating jobs for us because even that, it will require our craftsmanship to create the said jobs. 

We all have to become Artisans. Artisans draw myriads of images in their minds; be it the writer, the musician, the poet, the architects, Masons, Carpenters, the Caterer and many more of this class envisage images in their mind before they are manifested and once we all become Artisans, we will start drawing vivid and ideal images of Ghana in our mind and that will become the turning point, the revolutionary factor to a better Ghana. We all have to be up and doing. We all have to do something for Mother Ghana and like one Qouphy Appiah Obirikorang will say, “If we must march on this 6^th of March, then we all have to march”.