Does the name “Ghana” mean the same thing to the post-independence generation, especially the “millennials” [those born at the beginning of the 21st century] as it does to those of us who experienced both the colonial period and the days immediately following our independence?
The question is too broad to offer an easy answer. In some areas, such as fashion/design, the younger generation has utilised modern electronic and engineering techniques to create works that are marvellous to see. I suggest you take a look at the logo of the Akwaaba Channel on DSTV, for instance. The use of the colours of kente in such an aesthetic manner, is both a credit to the imaginative faculties of the artist and his/her mastery of modern electronic colour-mixing.
But contrast that with one’s experience of the past week and you will understand the reason why the question at the beginning of this piece arose.
I woke up to find water was seeping out of the ground into my yard. The yard is tiled in such a way that it’s possible to take the tiles out and inspect the pipes beneath. But the removable tiles also enable water to seep through to the top.
Apparently, in trying to solve one problem – creating the possibility of easily inspecting the underground pipes – the builders had created another, namely, allowing sewage to seep through the tiles to the top!
Okay, no problem – call the plumbers. Three different plumbers were called. Each made promises to come and sort it out, But they never did. We lived daily with the fear of typhoid-carrying microbes invading us. Finally, after a relative had intervened, a new set of plumbers turned up. It took them three good days to do the work, but they did it. We were so grateful!
I just had to ask myself, “Have those plumbers who failed us ever heard the term, “yɛmmfa adwuma nni agorɔ” [one does not play with one’s job]?
When I was growing up, one heard this term often. When one was late for an appointment that related to one’s job (for instance) everyone in one’s extended family chimed in and warned one: “Mmfa wadwuma nni agorɔ!” [Do not joke with your work!]
Our “extended family” had a direct interest in one succeeding in whatever one was doing by way of work. For even if one was so selfish as to refuse to allow one’s extended family members to share in one’s wealth (if one earned a good living) at least one’s success would ensure that one would not become dependent on them; that is, oblige them to chip in to save one from penury. For our culture teaches us not to ignore the needs of those close to us, when we become more affluent than them.
Alas, we now seem to have been hit with a virus that distributes “I don’t careism!”
He’s playing with his work? So what?
It is so sad. We just watch unconcerned, as people who could otherwise be useful citizens cut corners in their work and are either dismissed (if caught or fail to attract customers, if they have to depend on a reputation for reliability in order to obtain work.
We as a nation have carried our indifference to poor workmanship to a national level. And it all coalesced into one disastrous week for us on January 18-20, 2022.
On January 18, our national team, the Black Stars, played rubbishy football against the Comoros Islands and lost to them by 2 goals to 3. Ghana, whose artistry was about to show Uruguay the door in a World Cup quarter-finals match on July 2, 2010 (until an unscrupulous cheater called Luis Suarez turned himself from a forward-player into a second goal-keeper!) walked off the field in the AFCON match in Cameroon, with our tails behind our legs. We had been booted out of the competition!
Our indifference to bad performance had caught up with us. We perform, poorly as soccer administrators do not care enough to cure us of our mediocrity. The personnel upon whom we depend to achieve national honours, now apparently act as “godfathers” only interested in pushing their favourite players forward, in order, it is suspected to share in the largesse of their “wards”, in case they make it to the international arena, where the rewards are extremely good. The national interest? Forget it!
We were still nursing this blow to our collective psyche when the knockout blow came on January 20, 2022. Shortly after noon on that day, the airwaves became abuzz– an explosion had occurred at a village near Bogoso, in which at least 14 people had been killed and over 100 injured. Television pictures showed the entire village reduced to rubble, with a huge crater on the erstwhile road that looked as if it had been made by a meteorite!
Gradually, the truth began to emerge. A truck loaded with explosives, which, in the normal course of events, is handled extremely carefully and escorted by the police because it would be carrying an enormously hazardous payload, had somehow managed to collide with a motorcycle! Its huge quantity of explosives had caught fire, exploded and blasted the surroundings to kingdom come. Emergency services were saving lives. They were trying to find an alternative abode for the people who had lost everything – dwelling houses, shops and shacks.
Yes, our carelessness had hit back at us again. We wonder:
“So the driver of the truck carrying the explosives, was he properly trained? Who inspected his vehicle and ensured it was safe before it set off on its trip?
That’s Ghana for you – in 2022!
By Cameron Duodu