Our nation’s moral problems are not beyond our control. They are an amalgam of bad leadership, a break down of law and order, the discarding of moral principles into the dustbin, and a pacifist attitude that blames the victim for the wrongdoing of the perpetrator. While it is easy to express disapproval from an outsider’s perspective, the scale of our nation’s moral problems requires objective self-expression and a competent leadership that is ready to intervene should it be called upon to do so.
Ghana has lost is moral rudder. Since February 1966, our nation’s moral development and the commitment to protect our young citizens have been encumbered by an incompetent leadership. In a world of hostile competition, where leaders fight for national interests, we have lost our nation to relational political learners who barely understand the link between the rule of law and a nation’s moral development. Unlike Nkrumah, and Mwalimu Nyerere who spoke on the moral and political aspirations of their people, our “uninsightful” leaders are skilled in supporting policies that call for the exploitation of our economy and resources by transnational corporations. While great leaders debate policies, the best way to move their nations forward, and protecting the young generation, the attention of the Ghanaian political leadership is fixated on the health of an opposition leader, Dr. Attah Mills. If the proverb, “misery seeks company” is true, then our nation’s political leaders have become popular experts in debating inconsequential matters while mega-problems, such as the sexual abuse of the nation’s children, fester into a malignant cancer.
I did not write this article with any particular person, or institution, in mind. We are all part of the problem. As a nation, we have allowed certain undeserving subjects to impose their moral values on us. By not questioning these perverted values, we have become mannequins put of strings to cavort for a penny. In an age of enlightenment, some of the nation’s spiritual pastors, who have no training in midwifery, have become honorary degree holders in OB/GYN. I become worried when certain members of spiritual churches allow themselves to be douched by their pastors. Is there any scientific research that claims that rectal douching can make a woman fertile? Maybe, unbeknownst to some of us, rectal douching is one of the many undocumented breakthroughs by Ghanaian Spiritual Churches in reproductive science(s).
In today’s Ghana, some pastors fall foul of invading the private passages of the nation’s teenage girls. In country where a sizable number of people attribute the esoteric to spirits, some spiritual pastors have adopted exorcism as a stratagem to access the sacred places of our young girls. How does a pastor exorcise an evil spirit by treating himself to a fete on a child’s nipples? Where in the Holy Bible does it state that a pastor can explore the inner chambers of a spiritually-possessed teenager to get rid of an evil spirit? How can our nation’s laws, and authorities, allow the infliction of spiritual terrorism on the nation’s children to go unpunished? Don’t we see any correlation between sexual abuse and growing promiscuity among our nation’s young girls? In today’s Ghana, it is easier to find a child prostitute who is willing to accommodate a man’s eighteen-wheeler tanker under her shed for few pennies. Some of these victims would, even, waive the Value-Added Tax to take on their clientele to boost their daily earnings.
The use of the term, “defilement,” by our courts troubles me. Ina recent newspaper article, the writer could not come up with a better heading, but one that read, a man has defiled an idiot. Who is the “idiot” in the case herein? The victim, I suppose. Why would a trained journalist call a mentally-challenged person, who is a victim of rape, an idiot? In my opinion, we all idiotic in some ways, and I find the depreciatory labeling of the rape victim, as an idiot, to be very disturbing. In Ghana, the victim is always re-victimized. They are always blamed for their horrid experience. It is revolting to see how our untrained law enforcement officers interview victims of rape and use unorthodox deductions to excoriate the victim.
The problem of sexual exploitation is not exclusive Ghanaians at home. Sadly, some Ghanaians in the Diaspora are also part of growing problem. Possibly, you know of a male friend who packed his luggage with condoms on a trip to Ghana and came back to pride himself on his sexual escapades with the nation’s young girls. It is disturbing to hear how some Ghanaian men liken their abuse of their underage-sexual partners with the purgatory effects of diuretics. Let’s these primary-deviants reflect for a moment and put their daughters and/or sisters, if they have any, in the shoes of the victim.
People who sexually abuse the nation’s young ones are informed by the failure of our laws to protect the victim. When caught, they either buy their way through the justice system or pay the victim’s family member to vouch for their moral character. What moral character do sex offenders have if I may ask with veiled condescension? Do rapists, and pedophiles, have any sense of right from wrong? In my judgement, these people are dangerous sex offenders and pose a threat to our nation’s moral order. They must be severely punished to stop them from recidivating. I believe that the application of denunciatory justice is necessary to preserving the nation’s social contract. To leave a beast to feed on a prey, when the law forbids such as act, is a travesty of natural justice. To deny that something does not exist, while it does, does not eradicate the problem. Am I alone in my wild world? Let’s hear from you. Hope all is well. Good day and cheers.
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