When we were young, our socialist or communist mobilising and rallying cry was ‘one for all and all for one.’ So we lived it when we had the opportunity to serve Akpeteshie (also known as ogogoro) as dessert after dinner.
Everyone contributed five pesewas with which we bought and shared. Once in, you couldn’t opt out, the typical socialist and communist coercive approach to life and living.
Socialism or communism wants economies to run with emphasis on distribution. Caring is sharing and sharing is caring. As to what gets produced and how much of it should be enough to distribute is down the ladder of implementation of the socialist or communist ideals. The socialist and communist practice, thus, wouldn’t care much about who produces for sharing to occur. And it definitely didn’t care about our indigenous practice of competition within cooperation in running our pre-industrial economies.
Blaa Kutu tried his own collective approach to running the economy for development. Leading the seven principles of the Charter of Redemption was the inclusive principle: ‘One Nation, One People, One Destiny.’ This seemed, perhaps, more in words than in deed, since the elite was still the elite, enjoying disproportionately the distribution of ‘?ss?nco,’ or essential commodities, which were in short supply. Congresspeople’s founding father(s) killed the man in their motherland-conning journey from hweaseatare provisional defence (PNDC) to Italian shoe congress (NDC).
‘Nn?boa’ (taking care of each other) was key.
The babbin man, who wants to be president today, had forgotten his founding fathers stole a national pledge from Blaa Kutu. That was when he thought he would humiliate my classmate at a ministerial vetting by asking him to recite it. You kill Blaa Kutu and still want to benefit from the big things he did and do only things as you chop big time. ‘God dey’ was a sign on a mammy truck bone shaker.
Then, there was Krobo’s chop chop definition of socialism. He is reported to have defined socialism, when asked to do so, as: ‘Di bi ma me nni bi (chop let me chop some). It is clear it is this Krobo notoriously articulated socialism congresspeople have borrowed (they always steal or borrow) as their operationalised definition of social democracy. The course ‘Congress Social Democracy 101’ taught in their school prepares its graduates for chop chopping when in public office.
These days, I prefer to think and act indigenously. So I want to think tia tia b? toa or ‘little drops of water make the mighty ocean’ just as ‘little grains of sand make the pleasant land.’ That is, today, as I think more indigenously, I think contributing to support each other.
I don’t know the kind of tax the Effutu legislator was saying the government is planning to introduce. His blunt talk plays into the hands of the pretending to care congress opposition. I know, however, that with every free comes some form of responsibility because no free can ever hope to survive, or have its true effect, without responsibility. So if we, the compatriots of this motherland, are going to have free this and free that, we must exercise some tax responsibility.
My kind of tax responsibility is not an abaee chasing kayayee type. It’s tia tia b? toa, every compatriot paying tax, no matter how small. There’ll be a pay-your-tax campaign, over six months to one year, involving what amount to pay, where, when and how pay it. Everyone paying tax will lead to everyone being in possession of a tax clearance certificate. With that certificate, we access public service by showing it. So for every free public service you seek, you produce your tax clearance certificate as is done now with politician office seekers. So let me see if I can cite some of these public services. Among them, one may name the health insurance card. Anytime you want to enrol your child or ward in a public school, you show it. To register to do national service it will be required. To benefit from government scholarship or any other educational support, it should be demanded. It’s Kutu’s nn?boa in action as tax for all and all for tax. Produce your tax certificate to access public services (free education, health insurance, citizenship identification, voting card, passport, driving licence, vehicle registration and more).
Too much talk doesn’t help; especially if it pre-empts careful consideration of progressive measures that require specially crafted communication to win public support for its successful implementation.
I cannot figure out why someone would talk taxing to fund free SHS just like that. If he had an idea, I think he should have floated it among his colleagues rather than just say it like that for the anti-progress vultures to shred and mis-educate/misinform my compatriots with distortions.
By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh