Book Excerpt from "I speak of Ghana"

I SPEAK OF GHANA: Brown Leaves Fall, Green

Leaves Fall Too

The youth.

The

youth of Africa. The youth of this world. Are we harnessing the potential of

the youth enough? Are the young ones… giving off their best to the continent,

the nation, the universe that is giving us so much? Why do we think we can only

contribute something after age forty? Are we not causing wealth loss to our

generation?

A group of

political friends who had achieved high office comparatively early in life were

discussing their careers. Someone asked whether they had ever expected to be

where they were then. They all said, “No”, with the exception of Winston

Churchill, who was then home secretary at the age of thirty-five. “Yes,” he

said. “Napoleon won Austerlitz at my age.” The Battle of Austerlitz, also known

as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories,

effectively destroying the Third Coalition (made up of Britain, Russian and Austria)

against the French Empire. It was a victory obtained after nearly nine hours of

difficult fighting. The battle is often regarded as a tactical masterpiece.

I recently finished

reading Alexander - Sands of Ammon,

the second book in a trilogy written about the famous King Alexander the Great,

King of Macedon, conqueror of Greece and Egypt and Persia and founder of

Alexandria. All the achievements of Alexander were packed into a compact thirty

three years, living from 356 to 323 BC.

William Pitt, the

Younger, became Prime Minister of Britain in 1783 at the age of twenty-four. He

served a total of 20 years over two terms, before his death at the age of

forty-seven, same age as the incoming President of USA, Barack Obama.

Coming home to

Ghana, former President John Agyekum Kufuor was a deputy foreign affairs

minister at the age of thirty-one.

Two events in the

second half of the year 2008, stand out in my mind with respect to young

persons in high places. On the 5th of November, 2008, the United

States of America elected the first African-American president, Barack Obama.

He was forty-seven years. He is not the youngest to be elected to that office

though. John F. Kennedy had that honour. On the 3rd of November

2008, the new Managing Director of Barclays Bank Ghana, Benjamin T. Dabrah,

assumed office. He was thirty-seven years, the youngest ever in the

establishment in Ghana. I am proud to say that Benjamin is a fellow Katangee

(alumnus of University hall,

KNUST, Ghana) and a former member of the Literary wing of the University

Christian fellowship, where we shared the stage on a number of occasions.

Looking around

today, I see a lot of young people who act as if they have all the time in the

world, and older persons who think this attitude is alright. It is unfortunate

that there are young citizens who still believe life begins at forty and that life

before forty is non-scoring, and older citizens who still insist that unless

you are old, you have nothing to offer, equating age with wisdom. During the

NPP Presidential primaries in Ghana, did you not hear the debate about people

being too young to stand for president? Young men and women are causing wealth

loss to their generation because they are sitting on inert ideas, bottled-up

potential energy and scratching the ground when they should be gliding the

skies and perambulating with the stars. These people are so disillusioned they

live life without any urgency.

Johann Wolfgang

Goethe asserted that the destiny of any nation, at any given time, depends on

the opinion of its young men and women under twenty-five. I agree with him in toto.

What then is the destiny of our

nation, of our continent, of our world? Do you hear the opinion of Ghanaian

young men and women under twenty-five? I don’t hear it often. But, we must hear

them, and consistently.

One of my favourite

verses in the Bible, one that has always challenged me to do more is, 1 Timothy

chapter four verse twelve:

Let no one despise your youth, but become

an example of the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith,

in purity.

Another version

states: do not let any one look down upon

you because you are young.

Don’t under-rate

the scope of your influence in your youth. Don’t think you have all the time to

make a difference in this world. Recognize that both brown and green leaves

fall to the ground.

Sir Winston

Churchill’s father, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill,died at the age of

forty-six. Bill

Clinton’s dad, William Jefferson Blythe, Jr., died at the age of twenty-eight.

In his autobiography, My Life, the

former president of the United States of America intimated that he felt he

could have the same short lifespan as his dad and so time was not on his side

to achieve what he wanted to in life. In the acclaimed biography of Winston

Churchill, the venerable former Prime Minister of Britain, Churchill, author Roy

Jenkins expressed the same concern of

Winston.

On 17 December,

2008, a day before I launched my first book Excursions

in my Mind at the British Council Hall in Accra, Ghana, a close friend told

me he could not be at the function because of the death of his brother-in-law,

a young man who completed University of Ghana just that year. I was touched by

the obituary of a thirty-three year old young doctor in the Daily Graphic newspaper

sometime in October 2008. Brown leaves

fall, green leaves fall too. Don’t wait till you have grey hair before you

believe people will take you seriously because scientifically, grey hair is a

sign of old age and not necessarily of wisdom.

Don’t

cause wealth loss to your generation! Life is too short to be little. You have

an impact to make on your generation and the time to start was yesterday.

In whatever

capacity you find yourself, you can make a difference, because:

It

is not the depth of your intellect

Or

the breadth of your experience

It

is the extent of your yielding

And

the strength of your passion

It

is not the eloquence of your speech

Or

the sweetness of your tongue

It

is the purity of your heart

And

the love for the Lord

It

is not the qualified that He calls

It

is the called that He qualifies

If

you would be available, willing and obedient

It

will be you the Lord will use

Allow me, in

conclusion, to quote Bruce Barton: “Nothing splendid has ever been achieved

except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to

circumstance.”

Postscript: I SPEAK OF GHANA was published in September 2013 as an ebook, and is

available via Kindle (Amazon) and Smashwords.com. It is due for launch as paperback

in November 2013.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nana A