If you ask most Ghanaians how they would like to see their country in the next thirty years, undoubtedly, their answer would be to see a less corrupt and a more prosperous country. Indeed, Ghanaians do deserve to have a country as such. Also, they would tell you that they would like to see a better management of their country's enormous resources. Anybody who has ever had the privilege of visiting this beautiful country would tell you that the country is indeed rich. To put it more plainly, Ghana lacks absolutely nothing whatsoever. The country has all that she needs and more. Ghana's people are very well educated and religious. So, one feels tempted to ask; what precisely is their problem then? How come that after 53 years of self rule, their country is still in the ditch? The answer to this question is this; first, their educated elite don't have the best interests of their own country at heart. Secondly, they all lack entrepreneurial skills. Meaning, they don't know how to market the nation's resources properly and profitably. Also, they don't know how to get the best deals for the nation's products, which, of course, makes the nation susceptible to all kinds of cheaters and lousy deals.
Their educated elite would like you and I to believe that they know everything, when the contrary is true. One thing that could be said about them is that they know how to manage the nation's wealth poorly. Quite recently, the country struck oil, which is scheduled to be pumped out later this year. Now, as you and I know, when a country discovers oil for the first time, it goes out in search of companies with the right expertise and equipments to do business with. For instance; a smart country, as opposed to signing a partnership deal, or any other deal for that matter would first contemplate the possibility of employment. Meaning, this particular country would employ a company, which specializes in oil drilling to drill out its oil against a salary or a price for its service/s. In the case of Ghana, however, this idea didn't cross anybody's mind. Their educated elite in their utter ignorance went about doing business the best way- which they possibly knew how. Unfortunately enough, they wound up signing a deal, which my little boy wouldn't even have signed. They gave 90% of their fortune away to an oil company called Cosmos. And Cosmos is laughing all the way to the bank.
Now, you may ask; how could a country like Ghana with its religious citizenry be so notoriously corrupt? Normally, religious people are not corrupt-they shun corruption by any means. So, what's happening in Ghana? Perhaps this is a simple case of a people preaching virtue, but practicing vice. It's estimated that 68.8% of the Ghanaian populace are Christians-they follow the teachings of Christ. Muslims make up 16%, traditionalists are 13.2 in percentage and atheists the remaining 2%. Ghana's sitting president John Atta Mills is a known fanatic of the Christian Faith. What could be said about corruption is that it's retrogressive and counter-productive. There is no way a country could progress under the watchful eyes of corruption. Ghanaians complain too much about how corruption has defaced their country. They talk about its eradication. Corruption, however, hasn't yet become a thing of the past to the detriment of Ghana and it people. Therefore, everybody is asking the question; what do we do?
Well, the answer to corruption lies in the rituals of Africa's traditional beliefs. Ghana's sitting president vowed with his hand on the Bible to do right by the country and its people during his inauguration. I believe that his appointed ministers did also the same. They vowed either on the Bible, or on the Holy Qur'an. In fact, the functionaries of Ghana's previous governments always took a vow on the Bible, the Holy Qur'an or whatever to do right by the country and its people. But as usual, they wouldn't stick to these vows. They would shamelessly corrupt themselves soon after these vows are taken. Some would loot the nation's treasury. Others would mis-mismanage the government funds. Most of the nation's assets would be sold to foreign companies without the people's consent. I believe that it should be mandatory for Ghana's government functionaries to go through a ritual conducted by a fetish priest or priestess, in which they all take a vow with their lives before the spirits not to entertain corruption or similar acts of it before assuming their respective tasks in government. This would mean that anybody, who would dare break this vow would have to pay with his/her life-including the president.
