‘Greed, Mediocrity, Mendacity’

'Greed, mediocrity, mendacity,' were a while ago spoken by the satirist. It was an Amanfoɔ speak which I should have grasped easily. However, my Amanfoɔ, being a truncated one, I had to look up the 'mendacity' which I now interpret as talking untruthfulness, half-truths or lying pettily. So if that is what we are doing together with greed and mediocrity to succeed in life, we need something radical to straighten us up.

We seem to have cultivated attitudes that make us do things that we do greedily, mediocrely and mendaciously. Against that, that is, if our behaviours were to be guided by the opposite, our lot would improve more at a faster rate. What we don't seem to realise in living our individual lives is that strenuously avoiding greed, mediocrity and mendacity is what makes the collective work to fulfil dreams and gladden hearts.

Those close and near to us, as well as those far removed from us, would all benefit from our individual modesty, striving for excellence and truthfulness. Your neighbour, geographical, emotional and spiritual would be enriched, if you eschewed greed, mediocrity and mendacity.

The modesty, excellence and truthfulness that should guide our living, though, are inner human values that drive outer behaviours. They, therefore, need to be inculcated in the processes of our home upbringing and schooling. But more importantly, they need to be regulated. Strangely, no matter a compatriot's years and level of schooling, in addition to being raised in the most upright of home conditions, there is so much greed, mediocrity and mendacity.

My usual question is how much introspection and self-measurement we undertake to evaluate ourselves against such ills in our attitudes and behaviours toward what is public. I am pushed to ask how many of us can claim innocence of these bad development obstructing attitudes. We tend to so easily succumb to them.

Take this veteran politician I used to admire for words he spoke which I thought could help fix our easily failing against ruinous greed, mediocrity and mendacity. I don't believe it is in our genes, the work of nature. I believe strongly it is all in how we are nurtured. The veteran politician convinced me beyond all doubt about that (nurture and not nature).

In a speech before he became a minister in charge of the exchequer, he told a public gathering that the issue of corruption in public office was more about greed. He was answering a question by an audience member as to why corruption is so rife in public office; why public office holders are so much without discipline when it comes to stealing public funds.

His example of greed was a civil servant who complains about poor salary but through ways and means, manages to build a house in Accra. He continues with his ways and means (suggesting public funds stolen in some way) to build another house for the wife in her/their hometown. Next will be a house for himself in his/their hometown. So the stealing continues until he leaves the public office.

After the speech, the speaker went on to become a minister, then a minister before being forced out of his ministerial position. As minister, he had elected to pursue a grander ambition to become appointer of ministers. I see greed in not stopping at being a minister. In fact, after all that, he became minister at another time at the senior level, even though he is not a Senior. I see mediocrity in dividing time and attention between being a minister and becoming president. And I see mendacity in not being truthful to himself dividing his time between being a minister and campaigning to become president.

We are clothed in hypocritical tendencies of 'do as I say and not as I do' in our behaviours towards what should be public good. We all talk against greed, mediocrity, and mendacity. What we don't seem to be good at is living anti-greed, anti-mediocrity and anti-mendacity.

I saw an ad somewhere about someone or some group organising to award ministers with prizes for performing responsibilities they are being paid to discharge. No minister is expected to perform less than the maximum. It's an unhelpful approach. What would be helpful would be an independent organisation(s) objectively assessing and recommending non-performance of a minister to the appointer to fire.

Unless someone wants to make some cheap money, I don't see how presenting prizes to people who are employed for their politics, and not any verifiable neutral and altruistic criteria, would need reward besides emoluments to perform effectively, efficiently and competently.

Educationist researchers may want to review our educational curricula for elements that need inculcation into the young what would, in adulthood, help check these societal ills. Sociologists and psychologists could, complementarily, study the criteria for selecting our leaders, both traditional and non-traditional, for characteristics that would encourage the citizenry being led away from the negatives of greed, mediocrity and mendacity. Time and again, I have advised my granddaughters that what is worth doing is worth doing well.

By Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh