Should We Allow Ourselves To Be Divided By Politics?

Following the numerous comments I received in my private mail in response to my article entitled ?Is This Not What Is Called ?Skin Pain??? published on Ghanaweb on 29th January I have found it necessary to clarify one issue I only mentioned in passing but which has attracted more attention than the main issue the article was intended to discuss.

All that I sought to do in that article, with all my best intentions, and to the best of my ability, was to draw attention to the unhealthy attitude of envy ? the ?P.H.D. (Pull Him Down) syndrome ? in our society generally, and how it affects Ghanaians in the Diaspora in particular. It was not to declare any stand, or even express an opinion, on the on-going debate on the proposed Representation of the People's Amendment (ROPA) Bill. I only referred to a specific radio discussion on the bill in which a panellist completely deviated from the issue only to make disparaging remarks about ?Burgers?. It is my considered opinion, therefore, that those who ignored the main issue raised in the article and preferred to comment on what they perceive to be my stand on ROPAB missed the point. Before going further therefore, let me repeat that I do not have a stand on the ROPAB debate.

First of all I wish to make it clear that the incidents mentioned in the article are all true incidents that did occur and they were cited as pieces of evidence to support my claim of the culture of ?skin pain? which has over the years been identified as a negative factor in our social fabric. Secondly, I do not claim any credit for being the originator of the phrase ?P.H.D. (Pull Him Down) syndrome?. In fact I first heard it from a rather more prominent VVIP and it was not in any reference to Ghanaians resident abroad. Again, the fact that I am not the first to use the phrase ?skin pain? attests to the fact that the attitude is a well known phenomenon in our society. It should therefore be in the interest of all of us that it is openly discussed.

One disturbing discovery I accidentally made after reading through responses to the article is the seemingly popular perception of a section of the population that all Ghanaians resident abroad are a bunch of opportunistic, unpatriotic and highly educated professionals who, while others are working very hard to fix all the problems at home, have conveniently escaped to enjoy good life in someone else?s country. Without making any contributions to our national development, they occasionally come home only to show off their wealth and, as the gentleman mentioned in my previous article already referred to observed, take people?s women from them.

With all due respect, I wish to state that this is not at all the case. Quite the contrary, Ghanaians resident abroad are nothing but a carbon copy of those at home. In other words, among them you will find, in addition to those listed above, the most patriotic, hardest working, most humble, least privileged, laziest and most treacherous Ghanaians. There are some who struggle as much as, if not more than, our brothers and sisters back home to keep body and soul going. Not all of them are highly skilled professionals who have abandoned sensitive positions at home for ?greener pastures?. A whole lot of them in fact left mother Ghana with very little or no skills at all and should even be commended for not staying to swell the swell the labour market even more than it is now. In addition, many eventually return with more enhanced skills, experience and outlook which enable them contribute more positively to national development than they were capable of before they travelled.

While it is true that Ghanaians resident abroad, as an identifiable group, have suffered their fair share of ?skin pain? it would be wrong for me to suggest that they have all along been a target of negative name-calling. On the contrary, their contribution to the country?s socio-economic development over the past few decades appears to have been well appreciated. That the situation could change so dramatically in direct reaction to the proposed ROPA bill is a sad reminder of how easily and how far we can allow ourselves to be divided by partisan politics. This is unfortunate and it should stop immediately in the interest national development and peace. I voted against Unigov but from the look of things I?m sure that the Godfather of the concept, the late General (ei sorry, Mr.) I.K. Acheampong, must be laughing in his grave. We are allowing partisan politics to divide us.

How Did It All Begin?

When I first heard of it as a child, the term for our people who had once resided abroad was ?been-to?. That was when it was limited to only a selected few. Later on, somewhere in the seventies, it came to be known as ?Burger? which as a matter of fact, is a shortened form for ?Hamburger? reflecting the huge number of our people who flocked to the German city of Hamburg. With time, either out of ignorance or for want of a more appropriate word, everybody who travelled overseas became known as a ?Burger?. For good reason, not everybody who returned home from abroad felt comfortable being referred to as such. But by and large it has become such a recognised vocabulary that it no longer makes sense attempting to fight it. In addition to this is the high sounding ?Ghanaians in the Diaspora? which of course doesn?t mean a thing to the likes of my mother and her class-mates.

Kwame Nkrumah Was a ?Burger?

In our life as a country, there have been so many prominent ?Burgers? who have made significant contributions to our nation building. Among the most famous are Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Prof. Kofi Abrefa of blessed memory as well as the every-popular universally recognisable silver-haired Busumuru Kofi Annan who in fact, is still a ?Burger? and has been so for a very long time. A roll-call of former ?Burgers? who are in top leadership positions in Ghana today would include President J.A. Kufuor, the Foreign and Defence Ministers and a whole lot of Ministers and Members of Parliament from both sides of the House. The former Vice President, Prof. J.E. Mills and our longest serving Minister for Finance, Dr. Kwesi Botchwey, were at Legon before entering politics. When they left office they didn?t return to Legon but accepted appointments in the U.S. and Canada. As subsequent events have shown, there?s nothing to indicate that they left the country because they loved it any less than those who stayed behind or that they left for good.

Even as I write now the President is reported to have congratulated Professor Akua Kuenyehia, the newly elected Vice President of the International Criminal Court, Professor Ken Attafuah, and two other Ghanaians on their appointment to international organisations. I do not believe that the President is happy about their appointments because he thinks their expertise and services are not needed in Ghana. He is happy only because he is aware of the immense benefits the nation stands to gain from ?some of our own? being out there among the brightest that other nations have to offer. But at the end of the day these prominent Ghanaians also become the latest addition to the list of ?Burgers?. It would therefore be very unfortunate, if for the sake of politics, we should label all Ghanaians abroad as ?deserters? and by so doing disregard all the positive effects our country has derived from them.

Giving a Dog a Bad Name

Migration of people from one place to the other is nothing new and certainly not peculiar to Ghanaians. And it is the same whether the people move from their village in Brong-Ahafo to study or work in Accra, Burkina Faso or Switzerland. And the simple fact that someone has moved from his/her country or village to another, whether in search of knowledge or job, does not necessarily make him/her any less patriotic than those who stay behind. What is important is the love he has for his home or country. The Bomaa citizen living in Tamale who has no interest in what goes on at Bomaa or the people he left behind cannot therefore in any way consider himself to be more useful to his society than his counterpart living in Australia who cares for his people.

Who Are ?These Burgers?

We need to bear in mind that almost every Ghanaian who travels outside the country does so with the intention of returning within the shortest possible time. They therefore never cut off the links. And thanks to the technology of today, they may even stay more in touch with their homes in rural Ghana than some of our brothers and sisters living in the urban areas. Some even visit home far more frequently than their local ?Burger? counterparts. Most of them work so hard and deny themselves of all comforts so as to enable them acquire property back home which in the mean time is left for the benefit of relatives there. In short, the vast majority of us left not for pleasure-seeking or because we love our country less but for the same reason that my father left the relative comfort of his home at Bomaa to farm in the virgin forest of Nkasapee. The relevant wise saying is that ?when there is food at home you don?t go searching for wild yams?. Were it not so it would have been expected that all non-Gas in Accra/Tema, all non-Asantes in Kumasi or all non-Fantes in Cape Coast etc., among them chiefs and royals, would have stayed at home and to develop their own backyard.

There is no Ghanaian abroad who does not have relatives in Ghana. In the same vein there may only be very few families in Ghana who do not have at least one distant relative abroad. And no one can deny the fact that the hand that feeds many mouths in Ghana lives abroad. So why should some Ghanaians now behave as if ?these Burgers? are a group of nomads from the moon who just transited through Ghana on their way to in a particular country of their choice where there is only happiness without caring a one bit about those they left behind?

In conclusion, I wish to remind Ghanaians that it wasn?t the ?Burgers? who introduced the ROPAB, neither was it they who elected the government that introduced the bill. Secondly, it would be very na?ve for anyone to assume that all Ghanaians in the Diaspora are of the same political persuasion and as such are all on one side of the ROPAB debate. I therefore entreat both supporters and opponents of the bill to endeavour to argue their points without any insults to ?Burgers?.

We should not allow politics to draw a line between the good and bad Ghanaians where ?good? stands for ?we the patriotic ones at home? while ?bad? stands for ?those Burgers?. Who knows? Today?s ?Burger? may tomorrow become the President of Ghana.