Are you, too, a Ghanaian?

You have never profited, directly or indirectly, from a government contract, concession, tax exemption, debt write-off, or business or personal loan.

Neither you nor any member of your family has ever been "sold" or allocated one of those "auction" cars or a government plot.

You funded or are funding your entire graduate education and that of your family through your own resources (savings, loans) and resourcefulness (private scholarships).

You have never gotten a public job, educational opportunity, or scholarship for yourself or any member of your family through "protocol," even though, like me, you too can boast quite a few qualified unemployed graduates in your family. As for GETFUND or Scholarship Secretariat money for you or a member of your family, forget it; who is going to get it for someone like you or your kin when you don't come from privilege and have neither a political godfather nor a political godmother!

When you get into trouble with the law or are unfairly railroaded, too, you can't count on family or friends or any Intermediary in "high places" to get you off or get you justice.

And then you must put up everyday with road abuse from the seemingly countless auto-crats who drive one of those taxpayer-funded cars that are apparently not supposed to obey traffic rules of any kind.

So, what exactly makes you feel Ghanaian? Because you eat fufuo or tee-z? Or is it because you vote enthusiastically once every four years to decide who to make rich at your expense the next four years? Or perhaps you are a taxpayer, paying your due for the privilege of breathing the air along the Kwame Nkrumah Motorway or driving for hours unend on the life-threatening road to your hometown.

Charley, looks like, like me, you and your family have really gotten the short end of the stick, generation after generation. Time to sponsor some family members and cronies to enter politics or get into public office by any means necessary, so we too can gye our share of this oman, feed off the long-suffering people, and feel and act pompously Ghanaian and entitled. Come to think of it, even if you tried to enter politics, the self-appointed gatekeepers of power may not allow you to pick nomination forms. Access denied!

Whither your Ghanaian Dream!