body-container-line-1
Tue, 25 Sep 2007 Feature Article

OPEN LETTER TO OUR POLITICAL GURUS

OPEN LETTER TO OUR POLITICAL GURUS
25 SEP 2007 LISTEN

Open Letter to the Political Gurus of our BELOVED country... GHANA!!

We would all agree in today's world that the INTERNET has become a powerful medium for the expression of views, ideas and opinions geared to either bring about positive or negative change
in this global village we all love to call our home. And Ghana is no stranger to this medium as our travels through some of the major cities and towns in Ghana this year showed very ethousiatic young and old, brouwsing the internet in cafes across the nation. It would not amaze anyone in Ghana today to hear or learn about the unscrupulous activities that has also plagued these internet cafes, with Ghana topping the list of countries where scam emails originate from. This alarming trend is being over-looked by government officials and instituitions put in place to ensure that the Country's heritage and/or reputation on the world stage is not tarnished.

Internet Cafe owners and operators in the wake of today's technological boom in Ghana, watch or even in some rare cases part-take in these scams. In one such cafe we visited in Accra- Ghana, the over-seeing supervisor of the Cafe was able to point out to us some of the young boys who were engaged in these so-called 419 scams, with one being the son of a Member of Paliament of the ruling NPP government. (Now this is not to lay blame at the doors of the NPP but thought it was ironic hence its mentioned) But some how this should be stopped, and young Ghanaian boys/men selling themselves as male homosexual slut online must be telling us all something about the break down of family values.

Ghanaians, home and abroad, have become passive on-lookers, with many falling onto traditional defaults which literally bites into the western "its not my problem" pie, and watch as our youth are being sidelined into arenas that makes them clones to western views, lifestyles etc, thus slowly breaking down the very core of what makes us Ghanaian (full of pride to our heritage of hospitality, respect for our elderly, compassionate to each other etc). I can at this stage feel one asking, what has this got to do with our Political Gurus. The answer formulates a question, and that is WHAT HAS ANY GOVERNMENT IN MODERN GHANAIAN POLITICAL HISTORY DONE TO SECURE A GOOD FUTURE FOR THE YOUTH OF TODAY?????!!

Our educational system, is challenged in many areas than one, our Ministry of National Orientation which was indeed a brilliant move to try to engage the Youth of today, has done NOTHING to even merit its existence but instead created a platform on which gaining individual wealth takes precedent over the implementation of projects like many of the other Ministries.

2007 is marked in many hearts and minds as one of Ghana's most challenging cross-roads, and dirty politics is slowly but surely becoming the name of the game, instead of Political figures getting off their high horses and four-wheel-drives to engage themselves with the people of Ghana whom they claim they very much want to serve, we find them hauling accusations and insults at each other, some scrambling to climb onto the '" self-rightoeous ladder" in a bid to win the "I am better than you" battle. Intellectual minds out there ask one basic question, HOW CAN A GOVERNMENT THAT HAS DIS-ENGAGED ITSELF FROM ITS OWN PEOPLE EXPECT THESE SAME PEOPLE TO VOTE THEM IN POWER? On any given day in Accra, you would be amused by the fanfare of Government Convoys with Police Motorcade Riders kicking car doors in their way as they blare out on speakers, " Out of the traffic". In these convoys are Political figures that feel themselves larger than life, yet in the coming weeks and months these same people would try to humble themselves to the poor masses so as to get their vote to continue feeling larger than life in these convoys whilst the average passive ghanaian just suffers in silence.

We have a huge task ahead as a country, and some of us do not envy these men and women vying for public service at all, if only they would all see eye to eye to true plight of our beloved nation (Ghana) and work together as national instruments of change. Ghana today lacks energy, employment opportunities, education, proper waste management, proper representation of its touristic beauty as a nation, female emancipation, health care and the very basics that could make the average man and women out there feel worthy to life as a whole. I dare challenge all the current Political Parties to this test. ALL POLITICAL PARTY WITH A CONCRETE AND PRACTICAL VISION AIMED AT ARRESTING THE CURRENT SITUATION OF GHANA'S SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRUCTURE MUST COME OUT WITH A FOUR YEAR PLAN THAT CAN TACKLE THE FOLLOWING:- ENERGY, HEALTH-CARE, EDUCATION , EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND NATIONAL SECURITY. This should be made available to all Ghanaians to enable Ghanaians make that wise decision in choosing who they think or feel best suits the future they want for themselves and the children's children. And Political Parties should not shy away from aligning ideas should that work together as a team to ensure that Ghana becomes a better place for its citizenry.

Finally we would like to plead to the Ghana Police Force to quit Politicizing its activities, and think more of the safety of Ghanaians to which they pledge to serve. Today it would surprise many of you to know that there are non-ghanaian nationals driving high-end cars but with no proper driver's license yet the Police would rather stress out the poor "tro-tro" driver or taxi driver , who is making due with the little he has to support his family and relatives, where-as these foreign nationals with no proper driver's license go scot free.(CASE INCIDENT) In April 2007, an incident on the Tema Motorway shocked many of us, as a Canadian driving a high-end pick-up truck crashed into the back of mini-van packed with cosmetic, and when asked by a Ghanaian national on sight if he had a driver's license, this Canadian flatly said he didnt have a driver's license for Ghana, so he called a friend who came over to claim it was he who was behind the wheels, when he wasnt, just because he had a driver's license. Ghana Police failed drastically that night. Case ended at the Michel Camp station with money being exchanged. So l conclude, how can this be stopped.......OVER TO YOU NPP, NDC, URP, CPP, PNC and all you political gurus out there.

Thank you.

[email protected]

body-container-line