WILL THERE EVER BE A ‘NEW DAWN’ AGAIN?

I have often wondered why corruption still thrives in our rather highly religious society. Perhaps, my naivety blinded me from looking at our system with the complexity it deserved. I had always observed the world from a simplistic angle.

 Reflecting on my childhood experiences when I often listened to hallowing stories of atrocities around the world on the World Service. The voice of Lyce Doucet would ring in my ears for a very long time. I imagined the difficult and terrible stories I heard. It was discomfiting for the child that I was, I couldn’t sleep on so many occasions. I was convinced we all deserved a chance at peace. I had often wondered why countries could descend into chaos, why nations were at war.

How was it like to be a kid in Liberia or Rwanda during the civil war? I often carried a silent prayer thanking God that such a terrible thing never happened in Ghana. It would have meant; I couldn’t go to school to play with my many friends or even church to admire the young ladies who were members of the girls’ fellowship.

On that faithful day when Robert Guei attempted his coup and fled to Ghana. I still remember how the military aircraft flew at a very low altitude, I got scared for a moment that war had finally come home. Childhood fears, I guess!

I dedicated some of my time in the last couple of months thinking about certain norms and practices in our society. How could our culture set-up be both beautiful and cruel at the same time? But then, I realized nature could be both beautiful and cruel. Indeed, nature was very cruel to women. How then could most people in the trotro I was travelling in blame the 15 years old girl who was impregnated by a policeman? Most of the texts that were read on the news show re-echoed the sentiments expressed in the car. The officer of the law had absconded after the young girl delivered. I found that pretty awful and felt sad for the young lady. But apparently, I was the only one in that bus who felt so because every other person in the car blamed the girl for getting herself into that trouble. One elderly lady remarked; “perhaps she was even enjoying the thing more and urged the man on…” Another inquired; “what was she going to look for in the man’s room?” I could not understand why they were trying to justify the moral failings of this officer. It seemed to me that society expected the young lady to exercise a certain social discretion but were willing to spare the moral failings of the man. That can’t be cultural, is it? I’m not so sure about that. Can this lady ever get justice for the gross violation of her dignity?

This brings me to another pet peeve of mine. What is it with us, indiscipline, and public order?

Are we a people inherently disposed to indiscipline? I watched a video last week of a Joy News photojournalist assaulted at Mantse Agbona by the assemblyman of the area. The photojournalist was a member of the media team embarking on a campaign to implore citizens to keep their environment clean as part of their civic responsibility. Good cause one may say. Well, that wasn’t an opinion shared by the assembly member for that area. Feeling very unhappy about the exercise, he organized the youth in the area to counter the team on the street after the public health officials attached to the team ordered some plantains belonging to a food vendor been kept under very unhygienic condition to be moved away and possibly be destroyed. The assemblyman’s insisted the exercise was wrongly timed due to the upcoming district assembly elections and therefore resisted, calling on the team to move from the area immediately. Yes, he thought, the enforcement of the law by the public health official was bad for his re-election campaign. One may even wonder if it had to take the cameras of the media to get our metro public health department to start enforcing laws on food safety and hygiene. Well, that may be a discussion for another day.

I was always under the impression that political leadership was motivated by a deep sense of public service and a desire to serve and better the lives of fellow citizens. What then could motivate the actions of this assemblyman? I remember the huge pressure former Mayors of Accra had come under from their political appointing authorities when they had tried to enforce the law on street hawking amongst others. How then do we seek to develop if we can’t even get the basics of organized society right?

It is always interesting driving through Tema community one. TMA thought it wise to spend money to produce signposts indicating where trading activities were prohibited. Almost all the pedestrian pavements had one of those signposts. I always wonder why we even need to put that signpost there when the pavements were marked for pedestrians and cyclists. Apparently, those signs were rather for ‘inviting’ the traders since every inch of space on those pavements have now been taken up by petty traders.

The situation is no different on the stretch of road between the former SSNIT flats at community three and the main harbour roundabout. A road that was designed clearly with a pedestrian lane in mind is now death trap for pedestrians to navigate because of the indiscriminate parking of cargo trucks on the shoulders of the road and the space for cyclists. It is a pervasive phenomenon in Tema, the once well-planned city of Nkrumah. You would ask what are the authorities doing about it? I’m told they fear retribution from the citizens when they start applying the law. This is an excuse I reject outright.

Leadership has always been about hard choices and carrying people along. I’m not sure the squatters I see along the Meridian road are happy with the unsanitary conditions they live in. Those traders know they are the cause of vehicular traffic that always builds-up on the stretch of road leading to the Tema main station. Why then do they do what they do? It is the sort of message our political leadership sends to this constituency when they are campaigning for political office. Why can’t we be truthful to people that if we want to develop then we must take the hard decisions and change our ways? Well, I know that won’t be easy because it would require exceptional political skills to be able to navigate our political system as it is now with a radical reform agenda. Maybe, it is time we start.

When are we going to demand from our political leaders, commitment to a constitutional review of the anti-development 1992 constitution? It may mean giving up some of the perks of political high office but would it not be in the wider interest of the masses? Have we yet even demanded it of our leadership? What issues are going to drive the next election? Or is it going to be business as usual? Will we seek to influence the policies of the political parties we believe in to adopt policies that reflect our principles? Will we start asking the hard questions on campaign financing? Maybe we would find it too revolutionary to ask for even the modest of reforms and therefore stick to the blueprint we know.

And who are we going to celebrate in church on Sunday; the dedicated nurse at the local hospital, the committed teacher at the local primary school, the hardworking farmer, or the unscrupulous one whose money we all worship, yet know that it came from a place of grief and sorrow for others?

When Nkrumah declared those eternal words at the old polo grounds, he might have had a dream, his cry was a clarion call to black excellence in Ghana and yet it was at best but an impotent cry. For there had never lived a people in history that prospered without taking the toil to re-shaping their narrative and carving out their destiny.  I believe in the age-old adage; “a good name is better than riches”. Maybe we should go back to that philosophical construct of our yesterday and seek a new legacy.