Reality not Politics

My fellow countrymen of this noble country of Ghana, I am highly dismayed at the amount of time and energy we pour into politics when our real problems are at higher stakes. Ghana for that matter Africa will not change only through politics, we need to redefine our paradigms by putting more efforts into those areas that are lacking support such as educational programs that will celebrate and promote excellence, infrastructural development (roads, hospitals, etc), human resource development, just to mention a few. The funny and most ironical thing is that our leaders (politicians) travel outside of Ghana and Africa and have witnessed what real developments are in the advanced countries and yet it has never dawned on them to think of how to lead their countries to par or close to the status of the 21st century. We need to start breeding our own engineers, doctors, researchers, manufacturers so that we will not have to rely on others to come to mine our gold, drill our oil, engineer our electricity, package our food, and what have you. The real challenge is for us to make sure that we continue to defend the legacy of our founding fathers’ struggles and toils. Dr. Nkrumah’s time had a defined problem that needed to be solved and this was to drive out the colonial master. Our time too has its set of problems that require us to be responsible for our well-being, hence self-reliant, and I am afraid politics alone won’t get us there. It seems to me that politics has become an easy way to “success” if you may, to the extent everyone wants to rule the country. I am particularly alarmed at the numbers of political parties that Ghana with merely 30 million in population has versus some of the industrialized nations like the US. The US with a population over 330 million only has two parties – Democrats and Republicans. I am would be very pleased if the same amount of time and efforts invested into buy tickets to rule the country were put into starting up companies and businesses to help put the Ghanaian people work.

My fellow countrymen of this noble country of Ghana, I am highly dismayed at the amount of time and energy we pour into politics when our real problems are at higher stakes. Ghana for that matter Africa will not change only through politics, we need to redefine our paradigms by putting more efforts into those areas that are lacking support such as educational programs that will celebrate and promote excellence, infrastructural development (roads, hospitals, etc), human resource development, just to mention a few. The funny and most ironical thing is that our leaders (politicians) travel outside of Ghana and Africa and have witnessed what real developments are in the advanced countries and yet it has never dawned on them to think of how to lead their countries to par or close to the status of the 21st century. We need to start breeding our own engineers, doctors, researchers, manufacturers so that we will not have to rely on others to come to mine our gold, drill our oil, engineer our electricity, package our food, and what have you. The real challenge is for us to make sure that we continue to defend the legacy of our founding fathers’ struggles and toils. Dr. Nkrumah’s time had a defined problem that needed to be solved and this was to drive out the colonial master. Our time too has its set of problems that require us to be responsible for our well-being, hence self-reliant, and I am afraid politics alone won’t get us there. It seems to me that politics has become an easy way to “success” if you may, to the extent everyone wants to rule the country. I am particularly alarmed at the numbers of political parties that Ghana with merely 30 million in population has versus some of the industrialized nations like the US. The US with a population over 330 million only has two parties – Democrats and Republicans. I am would be very pleased if the same amount of time and efforts invested into buy tickets to rule the country were put into starting up companies and businesses to help put the Ghanaian people work. Africa is always credited for its richness in natural resources and yet its inhabitants are at the depths of adversity. Why aren’t we concerned about how we can better ourselves rather than misleading (politics) our people from facing the reality of improving life with innovation and creativity? We have to realize that whatever we do at the top eventually sets as examples for our youth to follow; I am a very strong believer that our country’s future is in the hands of the youth and that we should dedicate the same or even greater amount of time that we do into politics to nurture and help our youth reach their full potential. We have succeeded in selling the idea that to be become successful we must do politics, which I think is a big mistake. If we want to better our lives, we should be celebrating people like Dr. Patrick Awuah, who selflessly gave up his lucrative career at Microsoft in the USA and returned to Ghana to build Ashesi University College to help raise a generation of ethical entrepreneurial African leaders, Roland Agambire, whose story confirms that we don’t have to leave Ghana to make it and finally give ambitious students like Awudu Baba, a 2012 SHS WASSCE candidate (Science student) who aced all eight subjects but could not gain admission to pursue his dream of becoming a medical doctor and was rather forced to read computer engineering. It really saddens me when I visit any of the Ghanaian websites especially Ghanaweb to see that all that is being showcased is politics. To develop we must cut down the waste in politics, and reroute our energies and thoughts into areas that will put our nation forward. It doesn’t matter what party “ A “ was able to do or achieve in “ X” amount of time, all that matters is that Ghana and African will change only when we learn to wisely engage our time and work together as a unit. Talk without action is inaction…