Africa-Press – Ghana. It is heartbreaking to find Ghanaians so tolerant of their slavish and impoverished circumstances as though they were refugees or slaves and not citizens. Citizens are stakeholders in the country with rights and responsibilities. In Ghana, citizens have been cowered into submission such that most people live like slaves and beggars.
The commonest explanation to be proffered may be that the traditional leadership mindset still lingers in the minds of the citizenry.
Presidents, ministers, MPs and other state officials are still thought of as kings and princes, whose authority cannot be questioned and for that matter, not answerable to the people. Hence, no one demands accountability from them.
Ghanaian politicians have succeeded in breaking the united front of the citizens by employing divisive politics. The proverbial “divide and rule tactics” is their greatest weapon. They know that as long as the people are united, it would be impossible to exploit them because the people can speak with one voice against the powers that be. The power of the citizenry lies in the oneness of purpose.
Surreptitiously, politicians have injected Ghanaians with NDC and NPP syndrome. Consequently, most Ghanaians are intoxicated with partisan politics at the behest of the national interest and wellbeing. Populism and parochialism occupy the front pages of the minds of the party apparatchiks and apologetics. Not many people care about Ghana to want to die a little in the interest of the country.
Patriotism has been thrown to the dogs.
Profligate expenditure among officialdom is the order of the day. The greed and insensitivity among majority of politicians in Ghana knows no bounds. No many politicians care about the so-called ordinary Ghanaian.
Ghanaian politicians live lavishly while the people wallow in abandoned and abject poverty. From fat salaries to largesse of office, the Ghanaian politician is as merciless as hell and as voracious as desert fire. Most politicians in Ghana seem to have an abyss as thier bank account as no amount of money is enough to satiate their greed and avarice.
Citizens are left to drink from unwholesome sources of water, ply on impassable roads, fall on ailing health delivery system while children study under makeshift structures.
Foreigners including Chinese, Nigerians, Lebanese and many other nationals have taken over the manufacturing and retail sectors of the economy. These foreigners are now selling in the open market, importing goods, providing health services, indulging in galamsey, indulging in illegal lumbering among others. The influx of foreigners is stifling our local economy and creating more unemployment since these foreigners are repatriating their returns to their home countries.
For how long are managers of the national economy going to sit aloof and have our country raped economically by foreigners?
Exploitation of natural resources over a century has not in any meaningful way inured to the benefit of the citizenry. I dare say that no other country on earth could possibly boast of more natural resources than Ghana. Gold, diamonds, bauxite, manganese, oil, timber, tourist sites, rich agricultural lands amongst others are but only part of the reasons Ghanaians should be well placed to enjoy buoyant lives. However, Ghanaians are only becoming poorer and poorer by the day as if these natural resources were a curse rather than blessing to the country.
Assessment around the world points to how countries have blossomed and prospered from their natural resources including Johannesburg in South Africa, where gold is mined. Ghana cannot boast of a single community as testimonial to her abundant natural resources. To the shame of Ghana, mining towns like Obuasi, Akwatia, Prestea, Bibiani and Awaso are more or less like war torn zones.
Ghanaians are largely cowards and hypocrites who don’t want to ruffle the boat of the powers that be. Our silent creed reads boldly “Hear no evil, see no evil”. We see wrongs and evil perpetrated around us but we keep mute because it is a taboo to speak truth or to be honest in Ghana. Almost everyone knows that things are not right but everybody is quiet and silently minding his business and nursing his wounds. None would dare speak truth to authority. Ghanaians are afraid to demand accountability on the part of national, local and traditional leadership, not even assets declaration by officialdom.
The ominous caution to all Ghanaians is that we have only two options in the circumstances we find ourselves in: Either we speak with one voice against the ineptitudes, ills and blatant abuse of the citizenry and the shortchange of the national interest or we all perish together in hushed silence. Let us shed the cloak of cowardice, hypocrisy and sycophancy.
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