Democracy for Ghana

This is an article about a “painting” you’ve known very well in your heart and mind; it is a “painting” about Ghana; a painting about the difficult times psychologically, emotionally or physically for all Ghanaians, depending on your geographic location on this planet. There is so much anxiety about the country’s social, economic and political circumstances; we know as people and as Ghanaians, we can do better; better than what our previous and current leaders have given us and continue to give us.

Many of us have lost complete faith and trust in our political leaders and, there are some, who are downright angry. Angry at how our country’s affairs are being handled politically. The fact is, whether you’re angry and/or lost faith, you are justified; almost 50 years of self-government has brought more misery and hopelessness than Kwame Nkrumah could have imagined.

All of that is about to change: This is a long article and so I thank you for taking the time to read; please read on. Ghana is relatively a young nation, but with a great deal of potential in terms of human and natural resources. Being a young nation as Ghana is, it has seen a fair share of the troubles in the world. And for the most part, these troubles were brought upon the nation by its own very people; just to take responsibility for our current demise.

There is recognition though, of the external forces that act to keep Ghana the way it is, but those external forces act on every society in existence today. Therefore, we cannot assign the blame to anybody or a force other than ourselves. This is very important point. It is obvious, and most of us know this, but it is worth repeating: WE cannot blame anybody or any external force acting on us to keep the status quo, when it comes to the country’s economy and politics.

Not assigning blame however, does not mean we cannot look back in time to see what went wrong? Who did what and why? We must learn from our mistakes, else we aren’t going anywhere. We simply must find it within our soul to get down and work from the first principles when attempting to reverse years of destruction to our national economy.

Naturally, it takes time to reverse destruction of such magnitude. But the PROCESS or strategy any leadership (whether NDC or NPP) uses to reversing such destruction holds the answers to what is called Hope or Hopelessness. Fellow Ghanaians, our current leadership in Ghana has achieved some positive things; without going into specifics. But in a scheme of what really matters, this leadership has completely missed the point; not by intentions, but by default. What do we mean by default? We mean they simply don’t know how to create the good life which is full of hope and dreams for Ghanaians.

Folks, the problems Ghana faces is enormous. You see, the world economic principles are such that if you are poor or weak, you remain poor or weak; they will not teach you this in schools. But please read and examine the following cases:

Evidence One:

In a developed world like America, people who are considered poor tend to make less money and live in areas that are also considered poor areas. These poor folks pay more on car insurance than the folk who makes more money and lives in an area considered affluent. Poor folks also pay more property taxes than the folk that makes more money and lives in a middle income area. Last but not least, the poor folk who is likely to have no or bad credit pays more in interest on loans than the folk that makes more money and has a good credit rating. To break the camels back, the children of the poor folk go to schools that are under-funded with few teachers. These children graduate high school with no advanced marketable academic skills and so they end up with jobs that only pay the bills; the circle of poverty has come to full cycle.

Evidence One is based on the idea that it is risky to do business with people with less means. We are not saying it is good or bad, it is simply what it is. Now, consider Ghana as a poor area, in the world, do you think Ghanaians are exempt from Evidence One above? The answer is No.

Evidence Two:

In sports, the groupings for the individual teams are such that the weaker teams are eliminated before the semi-finals come around.

While this does not seem on the surface to have any adverse consequences, it reveals a great deal about the human tendency to eliminate those who are perceived weak at the earliest opportunity. And, in the case of sports, the driving force is still marketing and economics which still resonates throughout international trade and globalization. The world economy is set up to favor the big “guys” in the major league.

If a small country like Ghana wants to play in the major league, it must show high level creativity, efficiency in its activities and tenacity in its character; else, we might as well take a hike because we will never get in. The big guys will preach free market to the weak and poor nations, but they will not live it to the extent that it undercuts the bottom-line; profit and their way of life. Occasionally, smaller countries in the minor league get over the hurdle and join the major leaguers- Singapore and South Korea as examples. My point is the world economic order seems to marginalize poor nations like Ghana, but there is still hope; if it happened for Singapore, it can happen for Ghana.

Evidence 3:

Let’s say you bought an orange juice in a quarter ounce carton. You drank it and now you want to get rid of the empty carton. You look around and realized you are in a very upscale neighborhood. Homes here range from half to a million dollars. The side walk is super clean and the lawns are impeccable. You look again for a trash can and there is none. At that very moment you look ahead and you see another neighborhood which lies about 300 feet away. After looking closely, it becomes obvious the neighborhood that lies ahead doesn’t seem to be as affluent like the one in which you currently find yourself. The lawns don’t seem to be well kept and, there are pieces of paper on the street. The question to you is, would you risk and throw your trash on the sidewalk in this affluent area or you will chose to hold on to your trash until you get to the neighborhood that lies ahead?

And, let’s say you decided to hold on to your trash until you get to the other neighborhood. Upon getting there, you realized there is trash everywhere; what would you do at this time? My guess is you will throw in your trash as well.

The point is the human nature is such that when a person is down, everybody beats him down. When there is a mess, everybody throws in more mess, which makes the clean up very difficult. Right now, the situation in which Ghana finds itself is so messy to the extent that every nation is throwing in their mess; not just their physical mess, but also foreign individuals who really have nothing positive to contribute to our nation building efforts. On the contrary, most of these individuals undermine our efforts in building a better Ghana; laws are not enforced in Ghana to guard the progress we make, no matter how small.

The above three evidence show that Ghanaians have an enormous battle to fight; not only in job creation and institutions that ensure civility and economic growth, but also, overcoming very powerful cultural and economic forces that want to keep the status quo in Ghana. It would be arrogance if we claim to have all the answers to the problems in the country. And we don’t think any one smart person or smart groups of people have all the answers either.

Nonetheless, there is a solution to the country’s problems. The solution lies in the “process or processes” that must be drawn up by people who have specific experience and insight, and subjecting those “process or processes” to scrutiny by all. Ghana needs leaders who don’t think they lead to solve people’s problems. Rather, Ghana needs leaders who see themselves as custodians of the national wealth (especially individual gifts and talents) and using this wealth to formulate plans/strategies that help every Ghanaian create a better life for themselves. And also, the government must keep a very close eye on the hawks in our society so there can be fairness, honesty and accountability as individuals go about creating a life of their own.

The relationship between Ghanaians and their leaders can be best described as the following: Let’s say you inherited an articulated truck or an 18-wheeler. This truck has an engine problem, plus, all the tires are worn out to the thread. There is rust and graffiti all over the body. The air-conditioner, radio, cruise control sensor and the power windows do not work. You know this truck has a great deal of potential due to the strong demand for cargo trucks in your area. The only problem is getting the truck back on the road and in no time, you will fix all the deficiencies about it and perhaps, buy another 18-wheeler. So, you had the truck towed to a mechanic who agreed to fix all the mechanical deficiencies and make it look new.

You gave the mechanic all your money and every year you took huge sums of loans for him. Any amount you gave him, he paid himself for labor and split the rest up repairing different aspects of the truck. It has been over 16 years and the truck is still being fixed. You have gotten disparate and are frustrated, but the mechanic tells you how hard he has been working on your truck. Yes, he has made progress in some areas, but you also don’t know when he can get the truck back on the road; that’s what you really wanted any way.

Then one day you were speaking to a friend about your issues with your inheritance. And the friend said your mechanic is not experienced and savvy enough. And then the friend continued; he had a similar problem but his mechanic recommended to him to spend all of his money on the engine and the tires. He said, his mechanic advised him to live with a rusted truck which did not have an air-conditioner, headlights, radio, power windows and cruise control.

He said he agreed to his mechanic recommendation and in six months, he had his truck back on the road. Due to the demand for cargo services, in one year’s time, he was able to save enough money to spray his truck, fix the air-conditioner, power windows, cruise control, head lights and even purchased a satellite radio for his truck. Unlike your friend’s mechanic, your mechanic tried to fix everything about your truck. For example, he fixed your radio, air-conditioner, cruise control, power locks and he has spent a great deal of time on the body alone. You have had to borrow significant amount of money from your bank, and that was still not enough; inflation is killing all your efforts financially.

I believe you get this painting folks? Every economic development has an engine to propel it. For Ghana, what is our engine of our economic development? If we do have an economic engine, what is it? Is it cocoa, gold, timber, diamond or bauxite? Presently, all of our citizens with advanced degrees like PhD’s and those who are naturally gifted in certain areas who go back to work in the country are like having a Lamborghini in a place that restricts speeds to only 35 miles per hour. These people are severely under utilized because Ghana’s economy has not differentiated to the point where it can truly benefit from the full knowledge and talents of such people.

We can tell you Ghana does have an economic engine but it is not operable. To get the engine to run, government must work with our advanced scholars and the naturally gifted citizens- the problem solvers. By the look of things, it makes sense for anyone to assume one of the following about the current leadership in Ghana:

• It does not know what can potentially serve as an economic engine for Ghana

• It does know the potential economic engine, but does not know how to repair or revive it

• It simply has no interested in repairing the potential engine for Ghana’s economy because it takes too much energy.

Folks, these are a few issues the Ghana National Party (GNP) interim executives and members alike are debating right now. The Ghana National Party is a new political party being formed by Ghanaians who live abroad and those who live in Ghana to eventually take over the political leadership in the country. For example, in Ghana today, if you ask an aspiring presidential candidate what his/her solution for corruption is, they will say tougher punishment for all corruption cases. Wrong. Politicians have given this answer for years, and people still believe it each time they give it. Politicians and some Ghanaians over the years have failed to see that corruption is simply an off-shoot of a much bigger problem. Therefore, tougher punishment is not going to eradicate it; tougher punishment is simply the wrong remedy.

Under the leadership of GNP, one MUST expect the following to occur, if Ghana is ever going to earn the respect it deserves in this century:

• A constitutional amendment that demands each political party vying for power to show its blueprint or roadmap outlining party priorities for the nation, with full details as to how the party anticipates working on the priorities outlined in the roadmap or blueprint. The blueprint or road map then becomes a legal document which will guide all party activities as related to national development. In the event of non-implementation of the priorities and steps indicated in the blueprint, the Constitution triggers an immediate resignation of the head of the executive branch, The President. This way, there is real accountability of national leaders and this really is what the Ghana National Party calls “Democracy For Africa”
• Clear and concise National priorities for economic and social development.
• Clear and concise solutions (roadmap/blueprint) with details of solutions for all the priorities listed in the roadmap

If you are interested in keeping track of GNP activities, please sign up by going to their website www.natlparty.com and sign up for their news letters. By signing up, you will get a rare opportunity to take part in the discussions of issues that really matters for the development of Ghana.

Don’t lose hope and give up on Ghana because that will never serve Ghana well. We all hope to make Ghana a place we can be proud of, but in the process of creating a better Ghana, there will be many disappointments. Hopefully, those disappointments will guide us to become wiser and mature as a nation.

Once again, thank you for reading.