Opinions of Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Columnist: Dela Efo

Letter To Fellow Ghanaians, Let’s Act – It Is Our Country/Society

Good Morning, fellow Ghanaians!

It should have been Kwaku Azar writing this in order to attract a certain class of SIL contributors like his friend HKP, Asase, and a few other level-headed, not too partisan patrons, plus most vocal NPP fanatics. Or, it should have been HKP writing to attract Azar and the others I have described here. However, I am undaunted by this roadblock and others I may encounter subsequently because I believe that we have a mission as Ghanaians to rescue our country and society from the plight it is in currently, which we must rise up and correct, but which we are failing to do perhaps, because of fear, extreme partisanship, and/or ethnic considerations. Please, please, please, if you would remove your partisan and tribal interests; if you would eschew pettiness and bigotry; if you would recognize that the writer is also a Ghanaian like you, who, although might not have reached the heights you are, but is seriously concerned about the welfare and development of our country, you can reason along with me and ponder seriously over what I would attach at the end of this brief letter. You must then see if it would not be fair for non-Ghanaians to label us as jokers and backward people for our failure to complain about the contents of the attachment due to various untenable excuses.

Fellow Ghanaian, do you want us to remain as jokers in the eyes of others? Do you want us to remain backward when we can do something about it? Do you want us to be content with mediocrity and our sub-standard status when we can get out of it? If your answer is “no” to all the above questions then you have no business to remain silent anymore about the ills in our society irrespective of who is behind these ills. Are you afraid that when you complain about obvious wrongs in our society it would damage the chances of your party’s victory in the forthcoming elections? Is that a more important interest than bringing our society to a standard all of us can be proud of? For those who want to be seen as apolitical, is it their fear that when they complain about obvious misdeeds in our country, people would begin to associate them with political inclinations that they hate? Is that a more important consideration than making our country a civilized and respectable society? Should all of us remain silent and be described as backward hoping that someday God will perform a miracle and things would change for the better? Fellow Ghanaians, let’s not disappoint our country. The time is now for us to speak out and begin to shape our country in a new and better direction.

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT help is on the way. We are expecting help that will ensure a progressive and qualitative change of our society. Help that we can believe in. All of us, true Ghanaians, who care very much about the progress and welfare of our country will have a role to play in ensuring that the help we envisage comes to reality. All of us must rise up to the occasion and contribute in any way that would be necessary to help our beloved country. WE CAN DO IT! IT’S NOT DIFFICULT! ALL WE NEED TO MOVE ON IS TO START FROM SOMEWHERE. Let’s show our love for mother Ghana by damning selfishness; let’s show our love for mother Ghana by encouraging ourselves and others that we can actually make it like any other country. We need the will to do it and it starts right in your bedroom, your living room, your house. Don’t disappoint mother Ghana. When the clarion call is made at your door, stand up and be counted. Our generation and the ones that would follow will forever be proud of you.

FINALLY, fellow Ghanaians, I want to urge you to resolve to support a noble cause and make our society a proud place to belong. Don’t ever think this is a dream that would never come to reality. All that you need to do is to support the idea in any way that may be necessary. If you have doubts or questions about who might be behind the ideas, feel free to ask the questions and express your doubts. If you get reasonable clarification for your doubts, you would have no other reason to rock the boat. You would be doing disservice for the country you claim to love. Further information will follow in due course.

THE ATTACHMENT WE MUST PONDER OVER:

I did not author the following. While the contents would obviously infuriate NPP readers because it focuses on their presidential candidate and actions by the NPP government, I think that the issues raised are important ones, which every nation must be worried about. Both NPP and NDC supporters must be ready to hold our government accountable for actions described below regardless of which party forms our government. That is the way forward. Again, while we may be unable to say if everything written in there is true, a civilized people would push a government to investigate these matters. We don’t have that in Ghana and we seem not to care. It is not good at all. READ ON, FELLOW GHANAIAN: Author: Kwame Tete Date: 2008-11-26 15:50:20

Quiz to Test Your IQ- Ghana's December Polls Q.1 In which civilized country would the Chief Justice indict the Chief Police Boss for drug dealing and the President would give him a national award in full glare of the Chief Justice and all those who matter in society?.

Q.2 In which civilized country would the Chief Justice indict a Police boss for drug dealing and then the Bar Association and the Chief Justice would turn and call the alleged drug Police boss to the Bar?

Q.3 In which civilized country would a truckload of cocaine get lost in the strong room at the Police HQ and not a single soul would be punished, and the President would turn to give the Police boss a gold chain as national award?.

Q.4 In which civilized country can you run for a President when as the Attorney General you refused to prosecute members of your party that have been arrested for cocaine smuggling?.

Q.5 In which civilized country can you run for President when as the Attorney General you facilitate the release of property acquired from profits of drug dealing by your brother-in-law who is an international drug baron and fugitive?

Q.6 In which civilized country can you run for President when during your tenure as the Foreign Minister diplomatic passports are allegedly in possession of drug baron relations and associates?

Q.7 In which civilized country can you run for President when you have been accused of substance abuse and you would not personally speak to the issue?

Q.8 In which civilized country can all of this happened and the citizens and the elites would keep quiet and yet claim that they are educated and enlightened?

Q.9 In which civilized country can all this happen and the citizens would keep quiet when they claim there is freedom of speech, rule of law, good governance and independence of the judiciary?

Q.10 In which civilized country would this happen and the opposition parties would keep quiet and not make it a campaign issue?

Probable Answer A. Ghana, and the President covering up and protecting drug barons in police uniform is His Excellency John Agyekum Kufour, and the one running for President is Hon. Nana Akufo Addo. And the opposition presidential candidates are comic characters, and are also probably taking some cash from the cocaine barons or just don't get it.

or B It would not happen in any civilized country. This could only happen in a country ruled by a gang of criminals in police uniform, criminals in suits parading as politicians and those who claim to represent the moral conscience of the country have sold their conscience to the devil in a conspiracy of silence, and the ordinary citizens are either afraid to talk or not educated or enlightened as they thought.

Correct Answer is B.

Dela Efo