“I am inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa because all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really…. I hope that everyone is equal but people who have to deal with black employees find this not true…You should not discriminate on the basis of colour, because there are many people of colour who are very talented, but don’t promote them when they haven’t succeeded at the lower level”.
__Prof James Dewey Watson
I am not a great fan of the new American President, Donald Trump. However, I took time to listen to his inauguration speech on the BBC network. He might not have made sense to many non-
Americans. On the other hand, he made sense to me. The way he started his speech made me sit up to listen to him. Among some of the things he said which sounded like a top Amakye Dede highlife tune to my ears were the following words:
“Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning because, today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people. For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs and, while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land”.
Looking at the current situation in Ghana after 60 years of independence, for all I care for, Donald Trump might have been speaking to the wretched of the earth of this country consisting of the rural village folk, made up of the poor farmer living below the poverty line, the unsecured miner risking his life bringing the wealth of the nation out of the bowel of the earth, the dysfunctional youth engaged in drug addictions and gambling and other serious crimes out of boredom and lack of gainful employment opportunities, the underage girl saddled with youth pregnancy by an unknown reckless youth posing as the father of her unborn child, the neglected health and education professional, the police officer and the customs officer all forced to work in a forgotten part of the country without a visit from their superior officers in the cities. They all have one thing in common, viz, eking life out of a deplorable situation such as hostile rural village environment without drinking water, electricity, health facility and school for their kids and yet most of them by default producing the nation’s wealth.
Additionally, Donald Trump might as well be speaking to the wretched of the earth consisting of the urban dweller made up of frustrated commuters which include disillusioned pregnant wives rushing home from work to cater for their families, dysfunctional pupils who have closed from school all waiting at the bus stop in either scorching sun or pouring rain waiting for the arrival of the public transport with no expectation of when one will arrive, the unemployed school leaver with thousand and one application letters stuck under his or her armpit moving from office to office looking for the non-existing job with no Godfather to help him or her secure one, the worker whose salary is simply hand to mouth while at the same time suffering from the taunts of an intimidating shylock landlord. i.e. if he or she is lucky to get a dwelling place to rent, the distraught driver who is forced to pay bribe to the uncaring policeman or policewoman on the road who sees his or her official uniform as licence to rob. The list is too long.
The source of the suffering of all these categories of citizens can most of the time be put at the doorsteps of the educated elite in entrusted position indulging in legal corruption. So in a way when Donald Trump was referring to: “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth”, he was referring to the corrupt politicians and public servants among us managing our political, civil and commercial institutions and looting the nation’s resources.
Long ago, I posted a poster at the back of my car which read: “Ghana Needs a Lee Kuan Yew”. After listening to Donald Trump, I felt I had to add another poster to read: “Ghana Needs a Donald Trump”.
The other day, I was watching the vetting of one of the ministerial appointees and he felt the NCCE had a massive role to play to re-orientate the mindset of the people. I thought he was looking at the symptom rather than the problem. Ghanaians have had enough preaching. At one point in time, even Jesus stopped preaching and pick up the rod to drive away the charlatans from his father’s house. Does anybody remember Salifu Amankwaa and how he brought order and sanity to the Kwame Nkrumah Circle area? There are two principal problems facing this country. The first is that this county has enough legislations, laws and rules to deal with every miscreant, every fraudster, and every criminal. Unfortunately the people who should ensure that the system works consist of the minority educated elite who stand to benefit from the non-enforcement of the various legislations, laws and rules. The second is that all the benefits and fruits arising from sharing the national cake are highly skewed in favour of the minority educated elite who take advantage of the majority poor and disadvantage in society who bear the cost as rightly pointed out by Donald Trump.
The basic law of this country, the 1992 Republican Constitution is so replete with many immoral and criminal provisions designed to benefit the minority educated elite in our society while the poor suffers the consequence. It hurts me so much when educated people come on our media networks to defend article 71 of chapter 8 of the Constitution and push the agenda for allocating a disproportional amount of the nation’s resources to persons who on their own volition promised to serve the nation and obviously used their entrusted positions to milk the nation. Why should the nation continue to tolerate chapter 9 of the Constitution dealing with the Council of State, a completely useless institution. Why should we continue to live with chapter 10 of the Constitution in its present form which created a corrupt Legislature? Why should the nation continue to sponsor more Supreme Court judges than the USA can afford at a heavy cost to the poor? It is some of these immoral and criminal provisions in the 1992 Republican Constitution which allow the educated elite managing state institutions like the Cocobod, GNPC, GPHA, SSNIT, the DVLA, SADA, NADMO and all the rest to indulge in legal corruption and get away with it. The Constitution must be amended now to remove all provisions which make legal corruption possible.
POINT OF ORDER
BY
KWAME GYASI
E-mail: macgyasi@gmail.com