Houdini epitomizes the zenith of ultimate fakery. As a magician, he could dive into the deepest parts of rivers while tightly chained and come out unchained. He could pass through walls thick. He could effectuate a dangerous heist while presumably buried on stage. He could……..Therefore, in his time, he was rightly considered by many as wielding some supernatural powers, until he himself broke the code of the magician by proceeding to explain his mystical acts. Then everything unraveled, and what were generally presumed to be his wondrous acts turned out to be nothing else but mere children’s tricks.
We have several religious and political Houdini’s in the country: from so-called men of God performing tricks of exorcism in order to look divine; to government accountants steeped in the practice of under-invoicing and over invoicing, to teachers who merely sleep in class and do nothing, to politicians whose single ambition is to make a million dollars and retire. And their acts are so complicated and bizarre in its sheer inventiveness and innovation that these malevolent citizens will go scot free unless they, like Houdini, come out to confess of their tricks and their sins.
There is a text in the Bible that says, “ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” The preceding quote, ensconced in Genesis 5:5, speaks of the time when God got ready to destroy the land. Now somehow, the presumed utterance of the godhead is aptly coterminous to our experience today: we are a nation of sinners……..and unless we come out one by one to confess our sins and abjure our evil ways, we are headed right into the deluge.
Fortunately, the confessions have just begun: former Ghana’s Aids ambassador, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah, just emerged from the closet to announce to the whole country that contrary to what she had been telling people, she had never tested positive for the Aids virus. Ordinarily, such a piece of information ought to be greeted with joy; however, in Joyce’s case, huge public recognition and support inured to her which were simply hinged on her status as an HIV positive individual. And so the revelation has actually rattled many individuals who feel cheated by her announcement. Legal analysts will likely debate for eons whether her situation requires prosecution and to what end? Given that she was a good ambassador that demeaned herself in all information on Aids and disseminated same to many.
Ms. Dzodze is not the only person whose latter-day confession has raised many hackles. There is the story here in Austin where Lance Armstrong, once world famous cyclist who won the tour de France ten times finally confessed, much to the chagrin of many supporters that for all his wins, he actually used performance enhancing drugs. Beforehand, the man had been involved in many charity works and had several gyms built to help people transform their physique. In fact, he was touted as the best example in testicular cancer survival. His downfall therefore came as a catatonic shock to many.
But there is something to be said for the courage of these people that in the end, they chose not to continue with that charade and properly confessed of their chicanery. The enigma in all their conduct is the measure of good they performed while taking the people on some joy ride. The society must therefore find the heart to forgive them and ask them to go and sin no more. This is because if you think about it, all of us have, at one time or another, been culpable of one fakery or another, and we are shouting for these exposed ones to be crucified because the time of our own exposure has not yet come. Indeed, the real incapacity of the masses is that they misconstrue their heroes to be angels. No human being is an angel; all are hypocrites engaged in the daily exercise of make-believe. That is why the Christ said, he who has not sinned, let him cast the first stone.
Rather, we must focus on those who are entrenched in their evil ways and persist in lopsided arguments in defense of their misbehavior. And this reminds me of a curious statement put out by the police chief of Ghana appealing to citizens to stop corrupting the police. Simply put, I was appalled! So it is now the popular wisdom that that the people are going about corrupting police officers? There is a parlance in popular law called negligence per se wherefore the laws are made to protect a certain class of citizens. In this context, the people are the victims of the police who have been put in positions of power. Their uniforms and power make them the beneficiaries of bribery and therefore offenders. In Ghana, no citizen can force a policeman to accept bribe. We know that the police ask for the bribes by their posture and conduct and accept them in exchange of certain illegal benefits to the giver. In such a situation, the better advice should be for the police to hand over for prosecution those trying to bribe them. And how many times have we heard of any police officer doing this? And what will be the reaction of other officers if any of their colleagues were to turn in those attempting to bribe them? In any case, here in Austin, Texas, the idea of giving bribe to a police officer is virtually non-existent because one will certainly compound one’s problem by attempting to corrupt an officer who will never hesitate to turn you in!
Such disingenuous arguments such as the one made by the police chief do nothing to solve our national problems and are mere cover for continuing wrong-doing by those in authorities; they will always blame those they are extorting for making them extort them. Moreover, such an argument is akin to that made by Nkrumaist ideologues and pansy schemers who lay blame on Nkrumah’s dictatorship on the behavior of his opponents. To these, it is the fault of J.B Danquah that he was imprisoned; and the fault of K.A. busia that Nkrumah declared himself life president. And when it comes to the logical consequence of Nkrumah’s actions, which is his popular overthrow, they stop short of blaming the man and again turn around to blame his opponents. So, as long as Nkrumah was the beneficiary of untrammeled power, he was their god-head; and when he became a victim of this power, the enemies did it.
This reminds me of the defense Kwaku Ananse put up for eating his friend the grass-cutter: he said he had grown too succulent! Kwaku Ananse lay a trap for his long-time friend, caught him, killed him, smoked his meat and made a sumptuous soup out of it. Then as he sat behind a big mound of fufu and palm butter soup prepared with the flesh of his friend, he began singing a dirge in mourning of his friend, “Why make thy body so fresh, and thy meat so delicious, oh great friend! Why make me succumb to the desire to eat you this day. Rest in my stomach in perfect peace. God willing, you will come in the image of a worm, whereupon our friendship will thrive!”
Like Houdini and the rest, I would rather each of us came out of the closet of sin and confess the things that we do wrong to submerge the country in filth and corruption. Recently, Dr. Nduom, a respected Ghanaian politician, categorically stated that it is not the duty of the people, but rather the government, to keep our environment clean. When I heard that statement, I was alarmed. But his unintelligent utterance reflects the notion of many who refuse to search their souls and to confess the various ways in which they contribute to national retrogression. These are always busy pointing accusing fingers at others as the cause of the national woes. Instead of finding the cause of our fate outside of ourselves, we must cease the practice of blaming others and accept our fair share of responsibilities: confess the ways in which we play tricks to rob the nation of its resources, and vow to change our lives and become good citizens of our country. Therein lies the path to national progress and prosperity.