Ghana?s Cry For Redemption Part III

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? ? ? ? ? In my first installment of the above series, I provided the definition for the term “redemption.” In a wider and political sense, the President and his administrators are redeemers. Since the inception and birth of Ghana’s independence from British colonial rule, Ghana has had its share of political redeemers or saviors. The process of independence, self-governing, and self-reliance began with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana. I do not want to delve into the historical aspect of Ghana as a nation. I defer that to the historians who are experts and authorities in that field.

????????? There have been successive governments from military leaders who took the reins of governance through coup de tat and others who were rightly voted to office by the populace. Everyone of these political leaders in a sense is a redeemer because each of them assumed the helm and mantle of leadership with a manifesto of making the plight of the citizenry better than the previous regime. The question that we need to ponder is this. Since the birth of our democracy in March 6, 1957, up to the present, what enduring or lasting legacy have these political saviors bequeathed to the sons and daughters of Ghana? In retrospect, to what landmark achievement can each successive administration boast?

What makes the situation of Ghana even sad and depressing is that God has blessed and endowed the nation with variety of natural resources and yet majority of the citizenry live in abject poverty. Our situation is akin to children who have inherited billions of dollars in money and assets but bereft and poverty-stricken because of mismanagement and misappropriation of the fortune. We have the resources and human power but we are wading in a quagmire of poverty and lacking basic essential amenities. The problem is not about education and scholarship because Ghana can boast of brilliant luminaries in the landscape of Africa and the Diaspora.

Then what has gone wrong in Ghana? What is missing in the fabric of Ghana? What is missing in the efforts and aspirations of the political redeemers of Ghana? We can attribute the dire situation of our nation to many factors. What I intend to postulate is not comprehensive and exhaustive. Nevertheless, these components are at the core and heart of our nation’s woes and suffering.

First, these political deliverers are not selfless in their commitment to the nation. This is what I mean. These leaders put their self-interest ahead of the nation and its people. Their motto is not what they can contribute to the betterment of the nation but what they can get out of the nation. They do not listen to the nationals so that they can devote their attention to the pivotal needs of the people and exert their energy at meeting such needs.

Second, the political leaders are unpatriotic. They do not have abiding love for the nation. If they were patriotic, they would not steal from the national coffers and keep them in offshore banks especially, Switzerland and Europe. Could you believe that some African political leaders’ ill-gotten (stolen) wealth that is sitting in European banks can create job opportunities for thousands of unemployed citizens of their countries? Why do European and Western political leaders not save their fortunes in Africa? The answer is obvious. They love their people and their countries. They do not want to deprive their citizens and posterity what is rightly theirs to enjoy.

Third, avarice is a root cause of the deteriorating condition in which Ghana is plunged. Ghana’s political leaders have unapologetically and unequivocally absolutized and baptized greed and avarice. They have made greed and avarice palatable, attractive, and important than everything else. Our leaders have majored in accumulation of possessions, pleasures, and power. Granted, not only politicians are culpable but also the church and its leadership. The end justifies the means has become the mantra and norm of the Ghanaian community. However, this is a deceptive, dangerous, and deadly ideology. It is no longer, what positive and durable contribution I can make to assuage the citizenry from a life of subsistence to one of hope and development.

Finally, our political redeemers lack good stewardship mentality. Our leaders live and behave as if Ghana belongs to someone else. They act as if they are hirelings. They do not realize that the nation belongs to our posterity and us. If we recognize that God put each person in our respective country of birth for a purpose, we would become good stewards of everything and the people He has entrusted to our care and governance.

I was saddened to read of the admission and confession of some of our parliamentarians of bribery and corruption (modernghana.com/news 529264, March 13, 2014). These ministers extort money from contractors who are vying for various contracts. Who do you think is going to pay for such bribery in the long haul? The unemployed who is hired would be paid a meager wage because the contractor is going to exact the bribery fee from this poor worker. This would intensify the financial hardships of the workers and their families. That means the average worker in Ghana cannot make any headway economically.

Time is ripe for our president and politicians to put the interest of the nation and its people at the zenith of their policies and not their personal agenda. They should seek wisdom from God as to how to lead the people and put the natural resources and human power to excellent work. May God give us the right vision to rise up and dust ourselves from the ashes of poverty and untold afflictions as a nation.

Kennedy Ahenkora Adarkwa, PhD.

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