Akonta Akora J.H. Mensah’s attribution of Ghana’s failure, in all spheres of development, to the genetic constitution of its leadership, and citizens, is unfortunate, and I say this with my tongue tied in my cheek. On a more serious note, the aging politician’s comment, which was unguarded in my estimation, underscores the easiness with which our leaders attribute their personal, and collective, failures not to themselves, but to extraterrrestiality; this time around, the Blackman’s genetic curse, according to Odifo Akonta-Akora J.H. Mensah’s sermons on the plains. Oh, Ghana, “enidasuo asa.”

Maybe, given his influence in the current administration, and close proximity to president, Akonta J.H. Mensah can propose to President Kufuor that, every Minister, in the current administration, should give a sample of their insufferable fart to the Centre for Research and Scientific Institute for genetic analysis. Maybe, such a noble proposal, if passed in the nation’s parliament in addition to the many useless bills would help eliminate the remaining impediments to national development. What a breakthrough that will be under the NPP’s “Golden Age of Scientific Innovation.”

If Akora Mensah believes that the Black population is doomed because of its genetic defects, then how does he explain Africa’s priceless contributions to human and global development? Isn’t Trans-Atlantic development partly the result of Africas’ contribution to White economies? Are we seeing a creeping emergence of some form of Eurocentric revisionism, and its naive labelling of Africans as childish, in Ghanaian politics? Maybe, Akora Mensah may want to invite J. Phillipe Rushton, a racist international scholar, to tell our nation that, indeed, Africans are at the bottom of the intelligence pyramid, and that Blacks, given their genetic malformation, cannot conceive innovative ideas in their concaved brains without neocolonial guidance. This is exactly what happens when a nation allows indigenous aristocrats, with colonial nostalgia, to ride on the labour-laden back of the public for a buck.

From an anti-racist perspective, the failure of the Ghanaian government to fight cyclical corruption is embedded in our nation’s culture, and not genetics. Where was Akora Mensah’s sermon, linking corruption to genetics, when Chief Kufuor, his nephew, bought a US$5milion hotel under inexplicable circumstances? If Akora Mensah would attribute such a daylight thievery to ones’ genetic composition, which he won’t, then suffice me to say that, the apple does not fall far from the tree, and that the tree must be removed to eliminate the many rotten apples it produces. After all, the self-acclaimed pontiff of pseudo-genetic theory is the president’s brother-in-law among others, such as Mr. Addo-Kufour, Chief Kufour, Amma Kufuor and Eddie Kufuor, who are all political stakeholders, and part of the president’s immediate family.

If the creative killing of State Corporations, and their subsequent resurrection under different names, can be explained by genetic science, as Akora Mensah weakly implies, then, I personally call for the institutionalization of some of our politicians. In 21st century world politic, the application of mental set is not the best way to address complex problems. To coax a hungry nation to sleep, while our stained-teeth politicians gobble roasted chicken to increase their waistlines, and grunt like doted piglets has nothing to do with genetic composition, but a culture that adulates opulence, even when one does not have the means to match the Jones.

In Ghana, only a few only would risk their intellectual credibility to discount the role our nation’s culture plays in Ghana’s sorry state. Ghana’s underdevelopment stems from the fielding of many brain-dead politicians in positions of trust, and we know who they are. Don’t we? In Ghanaian politics, the benefit for keeping silence and tolerate the Bambagate, the Ananegate, the Batelgate, the Bintimgate, the Edumadzegate, the Amoatengate, and the Essekugate, even when one’s moral conscience states otherwise, far outweighs the benefits of letting out the reek within the current administration. After all, since the year 2000, we have seen midgets become kings with an insatiable taste for French couture, while honest individuals are mocked for their pauperism, and contentment with Agya-Appiah.

Since assuming office, some insiders within the current government have condemned Nana Agyemang-Konadu Rawlings and her 31st December Women’s Movement without any reservation? In exercising their constitutional rights, a subset of these political greyhounds who are bereft of substantive ideas on national development, have called for the blood of Nana Konadu-Rawlings. Despite the absence of the any credible evidence to convict Nana Konadu-Rawlings for any wrongdoing, she continues to endure harassments from the state; a tortuous process evidenced by the dropping and the reinstatement of charges at the nation’s Fast Track court.

If Nana Agyemang-Konadu’s movement was that evil, why would should the NPP, including Onua-Panyin J.H. Mensah, put Madam Theresa Kufour’s Mother and Child Foundation on a pedestal? Given its grassroots functions and defence of women’s rights, is Madame Theresa Kufour’s organization any different from Nana Agyemang-Konadu’s 31st Women’s Movement? What is Akonta’s J.H. Mensah position on her sister’s agency, and her under-the-radar role as the president’s most trusted confidant on policy issues? Or, should the Ghanaians be denied their constitutional right to knowing more about Madam Theresa Kufour’s organization because she bears the first name of the famed Mother Teresa, and does no wrong? It is only In Ghanaian politics, that, we negate the sensible for the senseless, all in the name of “die wo pe biribi ako kotoko no, yen di na bro.”

Akora Mensah belittling of the African Personality with his Odumase Genetic Theorem, and his wish that African countries take a lesser station in the concert of nation-states vindicates Kwame Nkrumah’s mistrust of the UP, and the latter’s avowed commitment to black freedom from colonial determinisms. Am I surprised by Odifo Mensah's Hamitic Monologue on Black Inferiority? Not at all. After all, he was one of the Kofi Abrefa Busia’s avid policy advisors who supported South Africa’s apartheid government on the weak premise that, the segregation, after all, was the natural order of things, and that Prime Minister Vorster did nothing wronging by effectuating the racist White South African minority government’s Bantustan policy.

As a nation, we must take preliminary, yet tough, steps to unravel the riddle behind our Ghana’s political failures since (her) independence. As siblings, let’s avoid the temptation to apportion needless blames to concepts that make little sense to its propounders and adherents, yet devalue our self-worth as people who are part of humankind’s big family. Ghana’s underdevelopment comes from a zero-sum cultural mindset that exploits the least given opportunity to steal, and justifies the stealing. As a Ghanaian, our nation’s moral ailment comes from the lack of institutional capacity, and the citizens’ depreciating self-assurance to challenge political excesses. Power in the moral-political context is not an opening to deny the weak their right to access the nation’s resource. Rather, it is a divine instrument that empowers the human spirit to strengthen our humanity, and to convene a symmetrical dialogue for a better tomorrow.

As we scold our politicians, and speak angrily to political adversaries, there is one value that we must always hold dear to our heart; thus, we are not enemies, but Ghanaians in search of the best for our dearest nation. Sharing is part of progress, and I encourage you all to share your insights in the marketplace of ideas, no matter how disconcerting they may sound. Together as one, we can build a strong and united Ghana. Hope all. Good day and cheers.

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