We Must Take Up The Challenge Of The Satellites

By winning their way to the finals the Satellites have shown that we can do it. They were not guided by foreigners. They had a Ghanaian coach. They were not all of exceptional talent. They had agonising weakness at the back. But they rallied to the forward leadership and the front pulled them through.

It was teamwork. Commitment, confidence, determination and hard work succeeded. We are of the same stock as the Satellites. They have thrown a challenge to us. Ghana can do even as they have done. We can win.

To win we should have self-confidence. We should abandon the dependence mentality and rely on ourselves.

The other day I saw a TV picture of a school which had virtually been destroyed by rain. For over a year, the children were studying under a tree. When the rains pour down they are sent home.

The community and its leadership appeared to have done nothing to improve the situation. In fact, one leader took advantage of the TV programme to appeal to the government to come to their aid.

I felt sad. The leadership was bad. Naturally the people have lost the spirit of self-help. In my youth I saw villagers helping those affected by the elements. By communal or friendly labour walls were rebuilt and buildings roofed.

I wondered where all the straw had gone to. The school walls could have been repaired and the building roofed with thatch. We do not have to wait for imported beautiful slates and aluminium to roof our village schools to enable our children to have uninterrupted schooling.

When something goes wrong we should think of doing something ourselves to put things right. Appealing to government and outside donors is the surest way of continuing the backward march. So far as the rural areas are concerned we should stop paying lip-service to devolution and decentralised administration immediately.

Devolution is the surest way of making communities responsible. They should be given their fair share of the resources available and they would tax themselves to provide what they need.

Over the years the political elite have developed the idea that the people should be pampered and told stories to expect pie in the sky if they voted appropriately at election time.

The nonsense must stop. The people should know the truth and they will rise up to the occasion as the Satellites did.

Explaining any situation solely in party political terms is the refuge of ignorant scoundrels.

Our expenditure is bigger than our receipts. We must address this serious situation. Cutting down the education budget and hoping for support from outside is the surest way of abandoning control of our future.

I can hear the impatient question: ‘what do we do?’ The answer is simple. We should do what can be done. Firstly we should know the truth and this would free our action.

If we cannot pay for the crude oil we need we should say so and not confuse the public with letters of credit and other business jargon. It does not make sense for our refinery to remain idle while we spend more money to import the refined oil we need and pay people to do nothing at the refinery.

Let us import the crude oil we can pay for and keep consumption down through price increases and other measures while taking steps to ensure that important industries which rely heavily on oil or energy are not unduly disadvantaged.

There was good news the other day about planting cocoa which would be resistant to disease and about processing a larger portion of the cocoa we produce.Plans about production and earning our way are the topics which should engage the attention of the government.

The government should not be unduly distracted to concerns about what went wrong. A lot went wrong and much is going wrong. The established institutions should deal with these matters. If they cannot the personnel in the institution itself should be changed.

What I do not understand is why we should invite alleged wrongdoers for long questioning and make funfair of it. Surely our security officers can read. Surely there are files about these matters.

Information may be scattered in many areas but then our security officers should be able to wade through them and come out with facts and questions. If an official took money, gave receipts but did not pay the money into chest he or she should be charged.

That was the old-fashioned way of dealing with such matters in my time and it did work. We need not wait for more serious charges which may be difficult to prove.

It appears that today the official would be subjected to thorough questioning which would produce answers which would lead to the questioning of others and inaction by those responsible for law enforcement.

The security officers should do their job and free the airwaves and the people from discussing relatively minor issues. In any case government should concentrate on the major task of development and leave well-briefed minor officials to deal with minor issues.

Of course sometimes infringement of laws and procedures require the attention of the higher levels of government. Such is the bribery question which led to two resignations.

I found matters raised about the Ghana@50 celebrations intriguing. Naturally if I use my money to carry out transactions I may not be as meticulous in accounting for it as I would with money taken from the national chest.

In fact with government money there are strict rules about expenditure and one may go to jail even if one did not benefit from infringement of the rules.

I can hear Ghanaians saying the official should be congratulated for using his own money for national purposes. I feel that the situation should not have been allowed to occur.

The government should budget according to its earnings and the money for the celebrations should have been made available to the Managing Director who would then be subject to all the rigours of government accounting.

If it is not already illegal I think an appropriate law or regulation should be enacted to make it unlawful for any officer to use his or her own money to transact government business or to borrow money for such purpose.

As we quickly lay such incidents to rest let us pursue rigorously and diligently a national plan for development relying primarily on ourselves as the Satellites have shown is feasible.

A development plan resulting in greater production and earnings is the surest way of paying living wages and reducing the petty corruption which plagues Ghanaian society. We can plan and arouse the people to get involved in execution and succeed.

It can be done even by Ghanaians as the Satellites have shown.