“There shall be a President of the Republic of Ghana who shall be the Head of State and Head of Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces….The President shall take precedence over all other persons in Ghana, and in descending order, the Vice-President, the Speaker of Parliament and the Chief Justice, shall take precedence over all other persons in Ghana….The President shall not, while in office as President, be personally liable to any civil or criminal proceedings in court”.
— 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana”
“Ghana was the first place in sub-Saharan Africa where Europeans arrived to trade – first in gold, later in slaves. It was also the first black African nation in the region to achieve independence from a colonial power, in this instance Britain. Despite being rich in mineral resources, and endowed with good education system and efficient civil service, Ghana fell victim to corruption and mismanagement soon after independence in 1957”
__BBC Report
The good books tell us God created man in his own image. Despite this statement, examination of the human physical form suggests that God created different human beings with black skin colour and white skin colour among other colours. God also created the whiteman’s head like that of an elephant and that of the blackman’s head like that of a lion. While the whiteman has large prominent protruding nose and very large flabby ears, the blackman has flat broad nose and tiny ears. Again while the whitewoman has flat buttocks, the blackwoman has large protruding buttocks. God must have created all these differences for a purpose. While the large protruding buttocks of the blackwoman allows her to comfortably carry her small baby at the back, the whitewoman is forced to put her small baby in a hammock and hang the baby in front of her. So when you see a blackwoman carrying her baby in front of her in a hammock like the whitewoman, what image comes to your mind?
However on the psychological plain, the differences are far deeper. The whiteman dresses to conquer the weather in his country which is cold and windy. Our educated black elite apes the way the whiteman dresses in this hot humid climate. While the whiteman pays particular attention to little things, the blackman fails woefully here. Notice the respect the whiteman has for time. Every function in this country of ours is started with an apology for starting late. Then part of the limited time left is used to mock God with lengthy meaningless opening prayers which almost invariably will include asking for God’s mercies for our leaders, many of whom are evil and corrupt. When the blackman says: “please wait for me, I am coming”, then it means he is leaving you behind and moving in the opposite direction.
Notice how the whiteman deals with a disaster and the meticulous investigation which the whiteman conducts into every disaster in order to ensure that it does not occur again. As Peter Drucker, the renowned management consultant is quoted to have said: “a crisis that reoccurs a second time is a crisis that must not occur again. A well-managed plant, I soon learned is a quiet place. A well-managed factory is boring. Nothing exciting happens in it because the crises have been anticipated and have been converted into routine”.
Those uninitiated who have followed the recent fire disaster which razed down the council tower flat in London will be amazed at the way the problem is being resolved. Immediately after the fire disaster, all the institutions involved came together to hold a press conference to inform the public what their investigations have so far have revealed, the actions they are taking and what they intend to do in future to prevent in the future such occurrence. They then commiserated with the bereaved families and the general public. Thereafter, they opened themselves to questions from the press. True to their words, they are not resting on their oars. Their investigations have revealed a lot of rot in the system which hitherto were hidden.
Our country has witnessed so many disasters involving new buildings either recently completed or under construction collapsing and killing innocent people. We always adopt a nonchalant attitude until another disaster occurs. Notice the Melcom disaster at Achimota where a newly completed building collapsed with massive loss of innocent lives. An order was given for the twin tower to be demolished. That twin tower is still standing despite the instruction to bring it down years back. In this country, when a disaster occurs, a fat cow is first slaughtered to appease the gods and the flesh distributed with the testicles of the cow attracting royal favour. This ceremony is followed by a “commission” or “committee” of inquiry depending upon the authority establishing the inquiry. Cast you mind back to the numerous boat disasters which have occurred on the Volta Lake and how they were solved. The Volta Lake, up till now, does not have another tourist boat following the gutting by fire of the only one years back.
When a young army officer was brutally killed at Denkyra Obuasi, government officials went to meet the military high command. The impression created to the public was an attempt by the government to quell a possible backlash from the military. So some officers at the meeting had the audacity to tell the government officials that investigations into the tragedy should be taken from the police and handed over to the military intelligence since the military did not trust in the police to do a good job. We are in a civilian era with the military subservient to the state and not the opposite. Those officers who made the request should have been sanctioned immediately.
Again as soon as the young military officer was killed, all the institutions involved should have called a joint press conference as was done in London. As at now, the original story of the young officer betrayed by a snail seller is still going round when other more credible versions point to some hidden rot within the entire system. Who is hiding what? If we continue to behave like the ostrich, how can we solve our problems and make progress? How can we achieve growth, how can we make progress when we know very well that that people we are going to give power to lead us and manage our affairs are criminals who will only loot and share the nation’s resources among themselves and yet we cloth them with immunity from prosecution?
At any time I listen to the lamentations of Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, I become more convinced that we as a nation do no not have the brains to make it. Who can we trust? At any time the Asantehene sits in state with about three hundred chiefs surrounding him, I can feel his loneliness. The question I always ask myself is how many of them have good intentions towards him. Is he aware of all the negative things people including Ashantis say about him in their dark alleys but who sing his praise in public? Notice the way the seat of government becomes pilgrimage ground at any time there is a change of government. How many of the pilgrims have any good intention towards the country? What mechanism do we have in place to weed the criminal charlatans out of the system?
Today we have become so corrupt physically, spiritually and mentally to such an extent that departing diplomats can openly chastise us because we as a nation failed to account for monies their governments donated to us to buy drugs for our health delivery system and also squandered money meant for school feeding programme. Today, a foreign embassy can look straight into our eyes and tell us former heads of state should line up like recruits on military training drill when they turn up for visas because some of our lawmakers have abused the trust imposed in them. We certainly do not have the brains to make it.
E-mail: macgyasi@gmail.com
By Kwame Gyasi