Ask any youth of today of just two acclaimed mentors(experienced and accomplished individuals who teach a less experienced person or whose lives? track record serve as a source of inspiration to others) of national repute for the youth of today and you are likely to hear names like ANDY of TV3 mentor one fame, ERICO of mentor three fame. A substantive portion of the youth of today know more of the lyrics of BATMAN SAMINI than they know of the quotations of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, are more familiar with the face of Nana Ama Mac Brown than that of Prof. Mensah Bonus, the boss of the law faculty at University of Ghana Legon, and feel more comfortable discussing the scene dynamics of soaps on our t TV stations such as the (Garderners Daughter ,Rubi, Rebecca, etc )than discussing the path to success charted by individuals like Mawuena Dumor (communications director of MTN), Prof Ama Dolphyne (member of judges for international court of justice at the Hague) ,Prof Kwesi Andam (former vice chancellor of KNUST )and Ms Joyce Aryee.
The truth of the matter is that any country whose youth are unaware of the life dynamics of her heroes has an uncertain future; a future that is very unpredictable and likely to be precarious. True heroes who are ambassadors of heroism in the true sense of the word are those individuals who travelled the journey of success and arrived safely not those made overnight courtesy of beauty pageants, live musical talent shows organized overnight at least or months at most.
All these misconceptions about what mentorship is about have been tolerated by us as a country and further strengthened through our conscious or unconscious acts of making national mentors such as Kofi Annan, Joyce Aryee, Mensah Otabil(Chancellor of Central University), Mr. Ibn Chambas (president of ECOWAS)etc . very unknown and unheralded whiles we spend endless time and energy coming out with all kinds of so called talent hunt programs that would make heroes of the youth overnight. It might seem unfair to say that Kofi Annan, Joyce Aryee, etc are unknown since we see them once in a while on TV and other media network including the print media. Yet I insist that we as a country are ignorant of these individuals because less than ten out of close to thousand Ghanaian youth can tell you which universities Kofi Annan attended. Ask a thousand Ghanaian youth about just one quotation by Kofi Annan that is chronicled in national and or international archives and they would look very puzzled, overly pushed to wall and unduly drilled. Ask our ladies about the Miss Malaika queens, face of Africa icons and Miss Ghana crown owners and they are likely to respond with an enthusiasm that would be envied by any religious fanatic, yet an attempt to find out about the lives of national female mentors like chief justice Mrs. Georgina Wood would be greeted with a facial expression of apathy, a gesture of disinterestedness, a look of ignorance, and a stare of uncertainty as to the relevance of knowledge of such a woman.
. What kind of orientation do we subscribe ourselves to when all we witness anytime we put our televisions on is Miss Malaika, Miss Ghana Uk, Miss Legon, Miss Universe, Miss KNUST, Ghana?s Most Beautiful, Miss Ghana, the Next movie Star, Looking for Love, etc. For how long would we continue with this kind of culture that ostensibly claims to be unveiling the talent of our cherished innocent ladies overnight when the real fate that befalls this ladies is exposure of their physique and physical features to the appeal of business vultures and some immorals in our midst with the financial muscle to exploit these ladies..What happens on our screens when watching soaps like Rubi, the Gardeners Daughter, Rebecca, Sweet Fat Valentina, Anastasia ,etc.?, all one is fed with is the tools to getting intimate with the opposite sex and building different degrees of lust within the youth .Can anyone really tell me the impact of all these South American soaps that have hijacked our TV screens apart from corrupting the minds of the vulnerable youth and further endorsing the lifestyles of those already morally deranged. The only way to orient our youth is to popularize the already oriented. It is about time we made documentaries on the lives of men and women like chief justice Georgina Wood, Kofi Annan, Mensah Otabil, Joyce Aryee, etc .It is then that the youth would learn that you don?t earn everlasting respect and recognition by mounting a beauty podium or settling quickly into a relationship but rather through a deep sense of awareness of the essence of morality, applying once self to the acquisition of knowledge and humility.
We have had women coming out tops in institutions such as university of Cape Coast, Ghana Institute of Journalism, KNUST etc. Which secondary school girl in Ghana who needs inspiration gets to hear of what the content of the lives of these genuine ambassadors of womanhood were like? Which governmental and or non governmental agency is interested in sending these ladies to their younger sisters as ambassadors to give them hope and deliver to them an appetite for success and anger for ambition? N o wonder the quota given to ladies at the University of Cape Coast just got revoked some few weeks ago in the face of falling academic standards on the part of most of the women offered concessionary admission. This unfortunate occurrence is an indication of the dangers that stand to befall the future of feminity and the fate of womanhood unless the very psyche of our ladies to life is properly oriented. Letting the lives of national heroes extolled and preached as well as acted in the form of documentaries, is the principle encapsulated in what is popularly referred to as the American Dream, a concept that serves as the fuel for driving the wagon of success carrying most American youth to the land of self actualization. Any American kid in even elementary school knows of Dr Martin Luther King and what he stood for in the history of mankind. These they learn through recital of quotations of national mentors as well as documentaries shown on national TV. Honestly I was fascinated to watch a kid under twelve years recite the shortcomings of president Nixon?s tenure of office that led to his resignation. You have to appreciate the fact that there was no way Chief Justice Georgina Wood could have lived a very reckless, immoral and mediocre life and ended up as the first female chief justice of Ghana. It is impossible to rise in life to the level of being the boss of the United Nations and by extension the president of the world when you are drug addict or an avid philanderer and or a lazy man. so that showing documentaries on academic or experiential odyssey, principles and lifestyles of unquestionably distinguished individuals would make the youth of today understand that it is only humility, applying one? self to knowledge acquisition ,hardwork and a serious unconventional approach to life that makes it possible to earn nice fat regular salaries, build respectable houses and live a comfortable life. The fear of life is not that we die, but rather that which dies in us whiles we still live. It is out of this fear that I make this passionate appeal to the all of us as a country and a family to sell to the youth, individuals who have charted the journey of success and have arrived, by so doing we inspire the youth of today not to run away from challenges of life and take comfort in aspirations that do not unearth those deep hidden treasures buried in their being but rather to remain ambitious and interested in events that leave them more enlightened than before.
We accept the verdict of the past until the need for change cries out loudly enough to force upon us a choice between the comfort of further inertia and the irksomeness of action. I do admit that entertainment in the form of Mexican soaps and others as well music talent hunts is an important component in our social life and so is beauty pageants. This has been the verdict, but considering the scale and widespread form of the entertainment drive compared to the apparent invisibility of attempts at youth development through genuine and credible mentorship, it has become incumbent on us as a country to change the trend and start extolling the virtues that bring the affluence, influence, property and power that the youth of today crave for in a manner that is honorable, inspiring, sustainable, unquestionable, respectable.
KNUST-SRC VICE PRESIDENT, 2005. VALCO HOSTEL, ROOM 10 SCHOOL OF MEDICAL SCIENCES, KATH KUMASI.
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