HOW DO WE THINK AS A PEOPLE?

“ You will never change your actions until you change your mind.” Van Crouch

Have you ever noticed that there are people you know for sometime now who are still literally at the same place as they were some five, ten or fifteen years ago? They still have the same old dreams, problems, excuses, challenges, missed opportunities, in short the same old thinking. They are not moving forward in life. They are almost at the point of inertia. Isn't it a very sad situation? Of course yes. But mind you, that is the situation many of us find ourselves in. Why is it so? What is the cause?

We as a nation, seem to have accepted the notion that we are poor. We seem to have internalized the idea that we are poor to the extent that we think we cannot change this unfortunate situation. Our minds , consciences, and our thinking processes have been shaped over the years around such a notion that we are poor. But the question is, are we really poor? No. I do not think so. We are a very rich nation in every aspect.

We as nation, are richer than Japan in terms of natural resources. We have gold, bauxite, manganese, diamond, iron ore, timber, water bodies, oil and on top of it all, a formidable human resource base. Why should we view ourselves as a poor people? It is all about the way we think as a people. How then do we become a rich nation? The process is simple. A mind change. A can-do attitude is needed here.

We need to change our mind, our thinking process, in short our mental attitude. We need to reprogramme our mind to be attuned to the mentality that believes that we are a rich nation and that everything we set ourselves to do as a people ,we are well able to do it. That mentality should be imbibed in our children from the Kindergarten stages to the university levels. This change in mentality should be pursued vigorously and be made part and parcel of the national psyche until everybody feels indoctrinated with its ideals and comes to believe and be committed to it. This is what countries like Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, China and India of late, have pursued and have reached phenomenal heights in their socio- economic development agenda. Can we also follow suit as a people?

As a nation, we need to start changing the way we go about doing a lot of things. We need to change our work ethics, the way we use time and other resources. We export almost all our natural resources raw without adding any value to it. The same resources are bought back to us in value-added form and we have to find money to buy them at exorbitant prices. That has been our bane for a very long time. We need to find alternative means of adding value to our natural resources to enable us derive the very best from our resources for natural development.

We also need to be very hardworking in our approach to work. Most workers in Ghana are lazy and for that matter contribute very little to the national total output which is causing us as a country a great loss in productivity. We, therefore , need to be committed and dedicated to work like the Japanese, the Chinese, the Germans etc, who are noted worldwide as hardworking people. No wonder, they are where they are today. Hardwork is a condition sine qua non for national development. Let's start looking at some of these ingredients for development for our own good.

I believe strongly that if we start considering some of these issues dispassionately and sincerely we will change this our country within a generation as our peers from Asia also did it. It is high time now that we started thinking differently in order to transform our dear country for ourselves and the generation yet unborn. I know that this is highly possible now.