Thomas Jefferson once said, “the government you elect is the government you deserve”. However, that statement contains a huge conundrum in a country like Ghana.
A century of compulsory colonialism followed by about 25 years of a forced incompetent military government has created an indelible mark on the Ghanaian psyche to the point where corrupt incompetent leaders are perceived as demigods or in some far more terrible cases God himself (or herself) and petty thieves looked on as the devil.
Of course the incompetence has been met with some resistance once every blue moon in the area of revolts and civil disobedience, however this has been met with a very brutal response from the government (where are the critics now?) now this is where we usually miss the mark, in the wise words of the icon Martin Luther King Jr, “no oppressor will ever willingly give freedom to the oppressed, it must be taken by force.”
This statement however is alien to the Ghanaian people, once we try one time and we’re shut down we all go home and pat ourselves on the back and say “at least we tried” the irony is that these are the ones who claim to care, and these are the rare Ghanaians. Most times when you try to speak out you’re look at as a lunatic, because the term “I have a family” is a very common term so we’ll rather die in silence than bodily speak in public.
Ghana’s bad leadership is not the fault of the government itself, as Joseph de Maistre once said, every nation gets the leadership it deserves. Ghanaians are not truly concerned about the state of their country, take a look at this, it is clearly evident in our daily affairs. The people who can actually do something would rather not be arse and would leave elsewhere for a “better life”, the agonizing complication about this is that these people who leave are the ones that can truly have an impact on the country, majority that remain behind are plagued by ignorance, it is very evident in the last election.
Out of the 28 million+ population, about 8 million voted. A measly percent of the population, what I find laughable is that this is actually one of the best voting turn outs in the country’s democratic history. The indifference, foolishness and ambivalence of a citizenry followed by callousness and mismanagement of its leaders gives you an environment like Ghana. I don’t believe telling the Ghanaian people what to do will ever work, however creating an environment or rather giving them a glimpse of how a good government can impact a country, will more than likely spark an awakening.
I’m an optimistic person, A believer in the greater tomorrow for Ghana, and I believe sooner, or later Ghana will wake up and will be weary of what it has become. Our Moses is on the way to lead the exodus of Ghanaians into freedom. As long as there are Ghanaians like you who still love and believe in this country, there’s still hope.
We shall stop celebrating mediocrity. We shall stop queuing to elect representatives whose achievements include erecting billboards to commission toilets. We shall not continue to hire brass band and cultural troops to stand in scooching sun only to welcome our elected officers for planting toilets in our communities. Never shall we dance to their tunes of lies but demand of them our due.
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