Ghana is at a crossroads. But you will not notice it looking around. The status quo looks normal. The more things change; the more they stay the same. The same thinking that produced the mediocre outcomes we all decry is still conventional wisdom. Our national conversation remains as corrosive and dated as ever. Our politics, shallow and small as always. Instead of discussing big things, we are preoccupied as always with the petty.
What am I talking about? I’m talking about our penchant for small-mindedness and mediocrity. Our obsession with the trivial and the petty. The era of military rule didn’t kill it; it only slowed it. Liberal democracy has only served to magnify it. But it’s been with us since Independence.
We complain loudly when our leaders manifest these tendencies. But our leaders are products of our environment. Unless, we as a people jettison this way of thinking, we will forever remain a nation that aspires to greatness but never became great.
*Leonard Quarshie is a student at the University of Maryland, University College. leoghana@gmail.com*
