Free Miracles Now!

No, I am not a prophet. I can make words come alive, but I cannot turn water into wine. And no, this is not about a gospel crusade where free miracles are promised.

Some weeks ago, a political stalwart, Miracles Aboagye, was allegedly arrested by EOCO (Economic and Organised Crime Office) for misappropriating GHC55 million worth of public funds. As expected, the masses thronged EOCO premises demanding his immediate release while social media was buzzing with the campaign “FREE MIRACLES NOW”.

It is a great irony that most state institutions only get to work when their puppeteers are out of office. Every discerning Ghanaian should be worried about why most political figures only appear as saints when their government is in power. The misdeeds of such only come to light when a new government takes over, despite the existence of regulatory bodies and law enforcement agents. When politics buys society, every institution becomes nothing more than a puppet in the hands of politicians.

When it is alleged that a politician has embezzled funds as much as GHC55 million, a people who are thirsty for progress must get angry. The few who would not be angry enough must be mad at the system that allowed such criminality to happen under the cover of politics. In this side of the world, however, the masses would rather be angry because the law has been put to work to recover stolen money. The poor who may never have benefitted from the loot would spend their productive time picketing at these offices, brandishing placards they barely understand.

I pity you if you have no idea about how such an amount could have solved some of our problems. How many roads could it have fixed? Could some of the amount be used for purchasing more beds for our hospitals? The Ghanaian is not poor. Our money often ends up in the wrong hands.

When we cry for development, do we really know what we are crying for? Do we understand what it takes to create sustainable jobs so that we won’t need a measly tip from a politician to vote for them?

We are a people who want free miracles now. We want “no bed syndrome” to be a thing of the past. It is our earnest desire to permanently solve flooding. We are a people who wonder why our laws do not work, and when those laws work, we wonder why. We want our systems to work. Well, development becomes a fairy dream wherever there is no accountability. Wherever political leadership becomes another get-rich-quick scheme, a nation becomes a disaster waiting to happen.

We are a people who cry for the freedom of our slave masters. We fight for those who should be fighting poverty on our behalf. We want to be free, but we are busily defending those who are rich because we are poor.

Working systems come at a cost. They are not free. If we want to see strong institutions, we must know that we will pay for it. A strong institution becomes a foundation everyone can build on. It becomes a system that will benefit everybody, regardless of how rich or poor you are.

As a people, we cannot cry for progress in one breath and bark in another breath when those who loot state funds are prosecuted. Progress can only happen when everyone is equal before the law. If politics exempts anyone from accountability, every criminal will soon wear the cloak of politics because it is an easy route to get away with crime. Unless the government is abusing its power, anyone who abuses state resources should dance to the music of the law ― no matter their status in society. That is how strong institutions are built.

The nations we dream of visiting were built on strong institutions. Their leaders hold themselves as much accountable as they hold ordinary citizens. These nations have tapped the full potential of their wealth because leaders and followers are weighed on the same scale. Poor nations, on the other hand, have leaking coffers because the scales are always different. One man is jailed for stealing a few fingers of plantain while another is only fined for stealing millions that belong to the nation.

There is no free miracle anywhere. Whenever you see systems that benefit everybody in another’s motherland, know that it did not come cheap. Those systems were built on strong institutions, and those institutions were built at the cost of accountability.

When we go defending wrong, we only betray ourselves. It means, given the opportunity, we would have done worse. As long as we keep defending the rot in the name of partisan politics, our nation will keep rotting. This is not a prophecy of doom. It is the doom that awaits any people who have intentionally become blinded to the truth.

This is the time we all need to sit and reflect on the ugliness of our beautiful nation. For how long will we keep living a subpar life? We need to ask ourselves the hard questions. For how long will a people destined to live in luxury continue to live in penury? The answer lies in our hearts. We want free miracles, but we want to free Miracles.

The Ghana we wish to live in cannot be built by people who, at the least opportunity, picket at state institutions, weeping for people under investigation to be freed. The Ghanaian dream will not be built by the mindset that people are being politically persecuted when accountability is demanded. Just because someone is your favorite politician does not mean they are saints. They may be the reason you are still jobless!

This is not about Miracles the politician. It is about the miracles we badly want to see happen in Ghana. It is about the systems we want to see working. Those miracles are not free. They have to be built intentionally and over time, and it begins with accountability. If we want to exempt the political elite from accountability, the systems we dream of will only remain a dream.

Kobina Ansah is the Chief Scribe of Scribe Productions (www.scribeproductions.com) and Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com).