The Gulf between Thinking and Talking: Hon. Kumbour’s Beef

*He spoke and when he did; he spoke truth. Views that connected with the Latin motto of my alma mater: VERITAS LIBERAT – The truth shall set you free’*

He ventilated his views, I believe those that he’s stomached for long (especially as one of those less heard of politicians in the media). He is no mean a politician but the leader of the majority group in the country’s legislature.

Some weeks back, he granted a rare interview to journalists and then; did the man Hon. Benjamin Kumbuour emptied his bowels (pardon my word usage) and by so doing speaking the mind of many like-minded citizens.

And by his bowels, I mean he spoke exactly what we (the citizenry) wanted to hear even though little was going to change in the general scheme of events. Point is; the man made his view known and did so succinctly.

Why we pay people in this country?

Paying people is only fair in as much as they exert mental and physical energies towards the attainment of certain services and or goods. As to whether we are paying well is another thing; Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) I am sure has views on this.

Hon. Kumbuor is of the view that if at all we pay people it is for doing next to nothing. If people recruited to solve problems become problems themselves, then we are consumed by a systemic canker that stifles our development.

Most people especially in public service are running down institutions that are supposed to be working in the interest of the nation, they are running in opposite direction of mapped out strategies and plans and by so doing, don’t just leave us stagnated by retrogressing.

And in the words of the majority leader: *“This is what is the problem of this country.”*

Time and again we refer to our 1992 till date governance system as burgeoning and all, yet we have never stopped to ask ourselves as a people how those we concede are ahead of us behaved in their ‘burgeoning’ years?

Question: Where did we go wrong?

I shan’t bore you with the Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore ‘Same time Independence’ debate and let no one bore you with it. Time without number we have diagnosed the problem but refused to heed the road map to ‘salvation.’

So why would people be paid to talk than to think, simply because Ghanaians have enough time to also listen, the talk – listen equation then dovetails into a needless propagandist cacophonic blurt especially on radio.

Hon. Kumbuor again: *‘All the matured democracies and industrialized countries you see, they have always found time to pay people to think and not just to talk. Because every day you get up on your airwaves, what do you hear?’*

For emphasis, I ask: What we hear on the radio?

In journalism school, one of the foremost communication theories taught is the ‘agenda setting theory’ of the media. Radio is by far the most ‘potent’ media in Ghana today, in terms of reach and language.

Yet, the rather lazy nature of most radio journalists is as baffling as it is to be expected. Baffling because there are a 1001 development issues begging to be told but thanks to a party political landscape. It is on radio that all things slanderous, scandalous and cancerous are spewed.

In an era where anyone can be a journalist, certainly we would be victims of free – for – all information sewage and news garbage that we are being fed day in and out.

Well put in his words: “*But who do we glorify? Those who can insult each other on the radio in the morning…”* Question: for how long shall this persist?

Media is complicit!

This is where I disagree with the Honourable when he looks like is bending over backwards to insulate the media because it is the politician who feeds the media man with whatever info he puts out.

I do not know if the majority leader has a background in journalism, what I am sure of is his legal prowess and clout. Indeed, the basic principle in journalism called the ABC of the craft are ‘Accuracy, Balance and Clarity,’ and here the ‘Asantehene bribe slur’ as it has come to be known is apt a reference.

That episode; as unfortunate and nauseating as it is, was and would forever be, saw media people, pluck a ‘rotten’ story from the internet, a place where anonymity is the first name and pseudonyms the surname of the most vituperative contributors.

On climbing the ropes

On climbing the ropes with clean hands in this country; that is where the man hit almost every Ghanaian someway somehow and he without doubt hit a sensitive nerve; one that needs to be looked at urgently and dispassionately.

Here are excerpts of his thoughts: *“Who can climb the ropes in Ghana today fairly? Even university admissions, people come to their MPs to go and assist them to get admission [and] when a country degenerates to this level; that politicians are now involved in academic decisions as to who gets admitted? We have a problem!” *the last statement answers the first question; or?

As for the political lobbying of MPs and other politicians about any and everything from school admission to hospital beds, ‘august appearances’ at funerals, weddings, naming ceremonies et.al; is it not a result of their own doing?

Politicians are the powerful people who earn so much (salaries, ex gratia, per diems and other perks) trumpeted in the media and kicked against by the lay man and civil society (to no avail). These are indicative of the supposed good life that politicians especially those in power are living. Their cross to bear!

And the whole analogy about a protocol list student who went to nursing training with F – F – F (Fail, fail, fail); I laughed about it but when the message sunk (pardon my late hearing) then I realized that we are as a people headed into the protocol era.

Where if care isn’t taken from school admission through to recruitment for jobs, who coach the Black Queens and eventually who decides our destiny as a people would be garnished with protocol spices. God forbid!

Appeal: I hope you read this peace as though it were my thoughts (i.e. privileged access to my mental faculty) danger is if you read it as though I were talking to you, where does it leave me; a talker or a thinker?

What I do know is; there is indeed a great gulf between the two present continuous verbs. God bless Ghana.

By Shaban Alfa Abdur Rahman

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