Reaping the whirlwind we sowed

Our elders say that the way we laid our beds is exactly the way we will sleep on it.

Robert Ingersoll told us that in nature, there’s neither rewards nor punishments, only consequences.

Many religions affirmed that we shall reap exactly what we sow.

Our people in Ghana are reeling, literally, not figuratively, over the tragic news of two teenagers (16 & 17 years old) killing a 10-year old boy for money rituals.

From whichever angle we look at it, this is a tragedy of epic, even staggering, proportions!

A classic example of societal FAILURE! At all levels!!!

Our children should be in schools or at vocational centers to learn a trade, not plotting to kill and get money quick.

We are in more trouble than we thought possible when we have eighteen years old children with nothing on their minds than instant, unearned wealth.

What do minors want to do with instant wealth? Which parents will welcome a 17-year old boy flaunting money?

We all have to share in the blame for failing our people. Not only have we messed up with their past and present, we have corrupted their future, and, alas, irredeemably so!

What did we expect when we gave licenses and allow people to set up television stations with absolutely no clear guidance on content?

Why do we pretend to be shocked that our children have turned to killing monsters, when all that they watch on our televisions are every manner of ritualists telling people how to get instant wealth through dubious means?

This is not only on the radios and the television stations; our highways are littered with posters and billboards filled with advertisements that should never be allowed in a sane society!

The pastors led the way. The Imans soon joined them. The so-called traditionalists also chimed in to peddle their own version of absurd money-making schemes.

All the while, the Ghana Police Service watch unconcerned as people, very brazenly, break the laws.

And, most unfortunately, there is a National Media Commission, which is charged with regulating the media. Members simply collect their allowances and do nothing.

We see all the evil things around us, but we pretend that they do not exist. We close our eyes, ears, and noses to the putrid stenches that engulfed us.

After all, our motto is: Freedom and Justice. I still don’t know why we refuse to add the word ‘responsibility' to it!

Hypocritically, whenever the shit hit the fan, we wake up from our self-induced somnambulism and begin to wail: what a tribulation!

And why haven’t the Parliament invited the IGP and the Chairman and members of the National Media Commission to come and justify the salaries plus the emoluments they receive from the state whilst they watch the laws breached with impunity?

©️Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ

April 5, 2021

Fẹmi Akọmọlafẹ is a writer and author.