Shivers were sent down my spine when I read that a whopping sum of 1. 4 million dollars was spent to purchase the medals that were used to honor the supposedly “outstanding” men and woman of our motherland. The questions that cluttered my mind were: Does somebody care or think about the parent who struggles to eke out a living in order to fend for their family? Or about the children who because of the financial incapacity of their parents have to accompany them to the farm instead of sitting in the classroom? Or about the sick child who has to be transported over several kilometers to receive medical attention due to a want of a medical facility in their village or community? I think it is a travesty of justice and anachronistic for the government to irresponsibly spend this huge sum of money to decorate a few individuals at the expense of the majority of the citizens who are struggling to put food on the table for their families. I cringed, and wondered about how the organizing committee, if it even existed, could look at the majority of Ghanaians who can not afford a single square meal in the eyes, and went ahead to approve the spending of such a fortune. I do not want to split hairs about the usefulness or otherwise of the awards or whether the awardees were deserving of the awards or not, but rather the impunity and lack of judgment with which the government carried out this unproductive exercise.
At a time when food and oil prices, especially on the African continent are soaring and the global economy is heading steeply south, it is hardly unfathomable for a responsible government to exhibit such a level of incompetence and wickedness. Why does our president hop from country to country soliciting aids and financial assistance? This is a no brainer- it insinuates that we are broke. Assuming that we are broke, of which I take exception to, why should we be frivolous and prodigal? This is paradoxical and raises so many nagging concerns.
To play ball, I think we are lacking smart leaders in the country. No right thinking leaders will ridicule themselves by spending this huge sum of money to adorn a few individuals while the mass of the citizenry are dying of hunger and lacking portable drinking water. Either they are visionless, incompetent, self-seeking, egoistic, or oblivious about the plight of their subjects.
Secondly, how do we as a nation come out from the shackles and entanglement of poverty if we continue to mismanage our scarce resources? Instead of abating the waste in the system, we are simply adding to it- what a pity? If this money had been put into a productive sector of the economy such as agriculture, we would have benefited from its spiral effect on the economy, not to talk about the generation of employment which could have ameliorated the rate of unemployment in the country. Which of the members on the awarding committee would by the stretch of their imagination dream of providing an award for their son or daughter for achieving a significant feat in their life when they are not able to put food on the table for the entire family? If the answer is none, how on earth could they have done that? Maybe it was because it was state’s money as usual- not their hard earned money. No wonder we are still lagging in development as compared to developing countries like Vietnam, Botswana, Malaysia, etc. How could a country that is working towards the achievement of the MDGs, which would see a continued decline in the number of people living below the national poverty line which stands at 28.5% (CIA, 2007 est.), embark upon such a frivolity? If Ghana wants to achieve middle income status by 2015, which would require an average annual income of $1,000 per person, then these kinds of unwarranted spending should be a thing of the past. According to Mr. Samuel Itam, a senior advisor of the African department of the IMF, in order for Ghana to halve poverty by 2015, the main challenge is for the government to find the necessary resources to undertake the investment program outlined in the government’s development strategy while preserving debt sustainability. He reiterated the fact that reassessing our expenditure patterns is a necessary condition to meet this target (The Statesman, July, 2006). It is then sickening and irritating to see the direct opposite being practiced.
Last but not least is the insensitive and lack of respect the government hold towards the citizens. In the quest of some of the members of government to justify the unjustifiable and defend the indefensible, they have treated the majority of Ghanaians with contempt and disrespect. In responding to a question posed by the host of Joy FM’s current affairs program, News File, on 12-7-2008 about the rationale for spending such a cosmic amount of money for the awards whilst majority of the citizens are stuck in poverty, the presidential chief of staff, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, bristled, “Which government in the world has been able to feed its people?). For Christ sakes, Mr. Minister, it was better you told this to the marines. This level of arrogance leaves much to be desired. The Bushs, Browns, Fukudas, Merkels, Sarkozys, Berlusconis, Medvedevs, Rudds, and the Harpers do not come to us soliciting aids, financial assistance, and begging for debt forgiveness. This is the difference between them and us, sir. They are developed, we are developing or at least supposedly so; they are rich, we are self-made poor (because of the attitude of some of you- egoism.); they give, we borrow; they are conservative and rational in spending, and we are frivolous and prodigal. If you are living in a different world, I would like to bring to your notice that about 45% of your “brothers” and “sisters” live on less than one dollar a day.
In winding up, I would implore discerning Ghanaians to be patriots, altruistic, and put the nation first on our minds. We should abhor all those who try to take advantage of the system and thus enrich themselves, their families, and cronies at the expense of the vulnerable- poor, sick, unlettered, inter alia. We should throw our political coloring under the bus and confront the injustice in the system. Instead of thinking about what we can get from our dearest nation, we should think about what we can give her; instead of licking the boots of our corrupt officials simply because they belong to our political tradition, we should expose their nefarious, criminal, and diabolical activities so that they face the full rigors of the law. The times of sycophancy, bootlicking, flattering, and toadying should be a thing of the past. These qualities are what make us patriots, and propel us to iconic status as regards our developmental efforts in the 21st century and beyond. As long us we continue with this culture of waste, and justify them because previous governments did same, forgetting that economic prosperity is about the future and not the past, we are not going anywhere- we would be steeply heading into economic quagmire.
Kingsley Nyarko, Munich. (kingpong73@yahoo.com)
