Wise Africans But Poor Continent

“Doing nothing in life always gets you nothing.”

There are principles that must be adhered to in any endeavor in order to succeed. Success in life does not come just because you are black or white, African or American; believer, a prayer-warrior or an academic guru; it comes by putting the timeless principles of God into practice with commitment, great effort and diligence. This timeless principle is sowing and reaping. No achiever has ever discovered the substitute for this principle. This is because God has exalted this principle even far above His name and will never violate it. This principle has no respect for any person or race.

Galatians confirms this by saying “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reaps.” It does not matter whether you are wise or anointed, if you jump, the principle of gravity will pull you down to the earth. When we sow seeds of positive thinking, and believe and run with it under the auspices of God’s word over our lives, we become unstoppable in our generation. If we sow the seed of transparency, tranquility, wise use of national resource for the betterment of all, we will have good governance, development and prosperity for all. Your seeds determine your harvests.

It is believed that, wise thinking makes greatness and success in life. The Bible confirms this in 1 Kings 4:29-30 “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. And Solomon’s wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.” Again in 1 Kings 4:22 the Bible says “And Solomon’s provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, TEN FAT OXEN and TWENTY OXEN out of the pastures, and an HUNDRED SHEEP, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl.” Many of us in African struggle to put meat on our plates. Yet, Solomon killed thirty oxen and a hundred sheep everyday! Remember during that time there were no refrigerators, so they probably had to eat everything! He was exceedingly wealthy because of wisdom. In view of this, I was shocked when I read in Ecclesiastes 9:15-16 “Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. So I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." But the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.” How can a man be wise and poor; it is contradictory to Solomon’s story in the Bible. So I decided to search and find out what might have underpinned this irony. I realized the difference between Solomon and poor -wise man was diligence. The evident is lucid and impeccable in Solomon’s own words: “My heart took delight in all my work,” (Eccl 2:10, NIV). Again he said “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom” (Eccl 9:10, NIV). Whiles Solomon was diligently working towards his wisdom-inspired plans and big dreams, the poor but wise man just ended at planning.

The above story appears to be the situation in African. The continent has wise leaders who know all the causes of our present predicament, they propose cogent plans to raid this vicious and barbarous enemy; poverty during their campaign thrills. But nothing is achieved due to the lack of diligent leadership. The lack of development of Africans is not because we are black; but laziness and greed. For example, most constitutions in the continent demand that presidents and government officials declare their assets before assumption of leadership. The question is how many have ever fulfilled this constitutional mandate. However, we see these leaders swearing heaven and earth to puzzle out corruption on various campaign platforms. They only come into office to change the rule of law to the rule of men. It is not uncommon to see African leaders spending gargantuan money organizing international conferences and meetings to draft good proposal but will never work on them. We have spent a lot in the prayer of thought but little in the prayer of action. Most African leaders are nothing but dreamers.

In Ghana, allegations of corruptions surge through our media, instead of our leaders to look into the issues to name, shame and jail culprits when found, they are only made to step down or go on leave just for political expediency. Our crusade against corruption just appears to be a political rhetoric. If Ghana thinks that God will do everything Himself while we just sit and make big plans, then our lot would be pity and tattered penury. We must be diligent in all our pursuits.

It is clear that most Ghanaians want to see racial change for development. Against this background, I resonate with Mahatma Gandhi, The Great Soul’s adage “Be the change you want to see.”

The development of every continent is in the individual development of its citizen. When the individuals are transparent and successful in their businesses, their continent develops. If African is poor and corrupt, then it means we have more poor and corrupt Africans. Our wolves as a continent can not only be blamed on the politician but on the African. Our fight against poverty and corruption should be a grass root approach where every individual pledges to be diligent and transparent in his daily pursuit. Only grave digging starts from the top and we uproot the oak tree by cutting the roots and not the branches from top. Most Africans have amazing talents, great visions and dreams and therefore must assiduously work to achieve them. Diligence is the key to personal greatness. It is the magic quality that opens all doors and makes everything else possible. With diligence, the “poor but wise man” can rise as far and as fast as his talents and intelligence can take him. But without it, individuals seldom rise above mediocrity irrespective of their successful educational and financial background. I was born in a humble background but I am not poor because the man of God; Rev. Adomah K. Solomon who raised me up ingrained in me the virtue of diligence. When a man sows diligence in his chosen field, he reaps dignity. I mean, diligent men are dignified men. Likewise when a man sows laziness the principle of failure will pull him down. We get out of life whatever we invest. There is a future in whatever your hands find to do, as long as it is a righteous job. Wherever you find yourself is a good enough place to make a mark for the development of our dear continent. It takes individuals to make the difference and you can make a difference.

Schandorf Adu Bright