Opinions of Monday, 30 July 2007

Columnist: Sekyere, Emmanuel Asiedu

How To Ruin Ghanaian Enterprise

As a young Ghanaian who has been observing events in the country for some years now, I hereby offer some suggestions on how one can ruin the country’s competitiveness and innovation. I doubt this statement is inaccurate. When our society encourages a mass culture that spits on intelligence and study and instead elevates drug use, violence, crime and coolness through sex. As my colleagues and young children learn to be stupid instead of smart, pose nude pictures on the internet instead of upholding their moral values, exchange their bodies for grades instead of learning hard, MP’s getting young girls pregnant and flying them abroad to avoid embarrassment instead of being role models for the innocent girls. Sneer at thrift and hard work. Encourage the belief that the only way to succeed is to be a politician or be related to a politician, that true wealth comes from selling drugs, corruption, skillful manipulation and cunning or from sudden, brilliant and lucky strokes that leave the plodding, ordinary Ghanaian worker and saver in the dust. Make sure society’s idols are men and women who got rich from selling drugs, stealing from the nation’s coffers, being prostitutes or playing tricks not from hard work and patience. Encourage the making of laws and rules that make Legislatures members of the Executives. Why should MP’s become Ministers and even Cabinet Ministers? Discourage checks and balances. Discourage the respect for the rule of law in every possible way. Some politicians calling for the present government to be overthrown. Are they not the same people who enjoyed 8 years of constitutional rule? But now in opposition calling for our Government to be overthrown? They have forgotten that the only way we can succeed is through multiparty democracy, where there is respect for the rule of law. When politicians do not respect the office of the President. When politicians politicize every national security issue and tell the outside world that Ghana is not safe to invest. Were they not the same people in power when our ladies, our sisters, our mothers were killed? Encourage selective justice where not all cases of corruption are seriously investigated and those involved prosecuted. If we build a society in which the law can be clearly seen to apply to some and not to others, we are doomed to fail. Make it a general rule that the rich can get away with the law. Promulgate the pitiful joke that Ghanaians are hereby exempt from any responsibility for their own actions- so long as there are deep pockets around to be rifled. Create a culture that blames the other party for everything and discourages any form of collective reasoning, individual self-restraint and self-control. The opposition blames government for the energy crisis and vice versa. Ghanaians are tired of politicians who offer slogans instead of solutions. Create a culture where every politician is referred to as His/Her Excellency. Create a culture where members of a political party worship their leader or founder and even seen him as a god. That no one can even challenge him. Are they practicing occultism?

Hold the managers of the Nation and Corporations to extremely lax standards of conduct and allow them to get off with a slap on the wrist when they betray the trust of those who sacrificed their lives to get them to power and shareholders respectively. Hold managers of the nation and corporation to no moral and ethical standards. Where society and the media cannot even question how MP’s and Minister’s repay their car loans. Where we cannot ask for documentary evidence when a Politician lies to the nation. Allow schools to fall into useless decay. Do not teach ethics and moral standards. Encourage the use of sex for better grades in schools. Do not expect the administration of schools to be handled over to the Churches. Do not expect students to learn about our history and what our founding fathers stood for. Making sure we dumb down standards so that students who make most minimal effort still get by with flying colors because their mother or father is a lecturer, government official or politician. Destroy the knowledge base on which the nations progress has been built by guaranteeing that such learning is confined to only the rich families, and spread complacency and ignorance among the many. Did NDC member slap his colleague? If it is true then God should have mercy on him. Lets wake up and protect our constitution. Together, we can make our beloved country a better place for our future generation. Thank you very much for reading. Congratulations to Mr. Afram Asiedu and DR. Aggrey Ntim(Ministers designate for Eastern Region and Communication respectively.) Kwahuman is proud of you.

EMMANUEL KWAKU ASIEDU SEKYERE, CHICAGO, U.S.A

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.