Ghana: A Nation In Crisis

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' Endowed with so many natural resources-our green fertile land, our many rivers, our abundant mineral resources- we were convinced that  our creator could only have meant the greatest prosperity for the people of this country and a place of high honour'  (William Ofori-Atta)

The title above happened to be the title of a lecture delivered by the late William Ofori-Atta in 1985 at the J.B. Danquah Memorial Lectures in Accra. The quotation above is also taken from that lecture.  Reading critically the above quotation, I am now more convinced that the natural resources nature has liberally bequeathed to a nation do not ensure the prosperity of its citizens. It is abundantly clear that it takes the number one resource of nature, that is human resource, to ensure the prosperity of the citizenry. This is further evidenced by the fact that there are nations who did not, or do not have the kind of resources nature endowed this nation with, but have progressed.  

The simple reason is that as a people, we hardly use our brains in the most efficient and effective manner; we do not even appreciate what we have, let alone recognize the need to protect them and add to them for generations yet to be born. Where are the green fertile lands William Ofori-Atta talked about above? Wilfully destroyed without blinking an eye; the rivers, totally damaged with mercury or filth and other alien materials. As for the mineral resources, the least talked about them, the better.  Let me repeat that Ghana is the only country in the world that I know, where foreigners can descend on, use illegal means to exploit its resources under the aegis of the security services as it were, and in the process inflict destruction on other resources like the land and everything on it as well as the rivers. Ghana is in crisis. 

I must admit that the pillaging of the nation's resources did not start today. We have collectively sat down and allowed ant-hills to develop into mountains over time. However, under the incompetent Atta Mills administration, the situation has grown from bad to worse even as they proclaim a better Ghana. Yes, I know that some idiots within the NDC will shout their voices hoax by making references to what was happening under the Kufuor administration. That is how little minds see the world; they are comfortable in their failures just because others had failed in the past. 

There is this story about this little boy in school who was not doing well in class and was being chastised by his parents for non-performance in class. Bad as he was, there was another guy in his class whose performance was worse than his. So one day, he asked his colleague whether he was also taunted at home by his parents and the boy replied in the negative, and even added that he was often bought chocolate by his father. Armed with this information, he prepared himself for his parents the next time they chastised him for poor performance. As usual his performance in the following exams was no better than the previous ones so he attracted rebuke from his parents. 

Defiantly, this little boy told the parents that after all he was not the only poor boy in his class and that there was another guy who had always performed worse in exams than he did, and who did not attract rebukes from the parents and even continued to enjoy gifts like chocolates from his parents. This is the dilemma in which this beautiful nation of ours finds itself under President Atta Mills. This government has elevated and normalized incompetence and mediocrity into noble arts worthy of honour because they can easily point to a past mistake of a previous administration. Sick minds disrupt the normal functioning of the whole body. 

Ever since Ghana offered itself to be governed by President Atta Mills, Ghana has been bleeding, and every day, new gashes are added to its wounds by senseless, corrupt, ungrateful schizophrenics masquerading as government officials managing this nation when there is no evidence that they have successfully managed their own lives before holding political power. This is the only government, since the birth of this country, that can be credited with all the disgusting and pungent actions of a state on a daily basis without being credited with any one good policy worthy of emulation or appreciation by anybody. Why? 

Well, a president whose office staff, in terms of political appointments, appoint themselves, cannot be taken seriously, and he as the president cannot have any control over those staff who appointed themselves. Watch this. When candidate Atta Mills of the NDC was campaigning for the 2008 elections, Mahama Ayariga resigned a position he held in Parliament to become Atta Mills' spokesperson; Koku Anyidoho was the Director of Communication at the candidate's campaign office at Kukuu Hill. Nii Lantey Vanderpuye was director of operations at the campaign office as well. 

As soon as Atta Mills was sworn into office, all of them carried their campaign positions into government even before they were officially given any appointment letters. That accounted for the conflict between Koku Anyidoho and Ayariga, as to who speaks for the President. The affable, logical, intelligent and reasonable Ayariga lost to Anyidoho, an untrained man who plays the President, spewing garbage on behalf of the man the nation has elected to run the affairs of the country, and strangely enough, President Mills accepts the utterances of the beast-like director of communication as coming from him. I am sure his (President) response in Fanti would be 'Kweku nso orehaw adwene oo, na nso meye no den? The supplications of a President, driving all of us into a ditch. 

And Koku said the President was upset and therefore an ECG director in the Ashanti Region was dismissed?  For goodness sake, this director of communication has exposed the man he speaks for as a very uncaring leader for this nation. Under the administration of President Mills, the whole nation has been thrown into total darkness on not less than three different occasions. Yes because the President has access to stand-by generators, and deservingly so, he did not care to be upset when the whole nation was plunged into darkness? That he was not upset and therefore did not dismiss the Minister for Energy nor even reprimand him for the glorified inefficiencies of the agencies under his ministry? 

Yes I understand, if the whole nation had been in darkness and the generators at the stadium had worked to perfection, President Mills would have watched the match while the rest of us were denied the luxury of watching it from the comforts or discomforts of our homes without the President being upset. That is unprecedented crass ineptitude exhibited by buffoons in government without precedence.    

This country, under President Atta Mills, is in crisis. We have serious moral crisis; indiscipline in public life has reached its apex, with ministers of state paying gargantuan monies with callous disregard for the President's orders. Some pay without the knowledge of the President. The President is also openly violating some sections of the Constitution .

Not once in the history of this country have we been confronted with such massive social crisis as spousal killings over what would otherwise be described as petty marital problems. Husbands are killing their wives needlessly, while wives are also exacting their pound of flesh from their irresponsible husbands, but over and above all, there is an unprecedented political crisis within the ruling political party such that nothing is, but what is not. President Atta Mills' incompetence as the leader of the NDC has affected governance and Ghana.

Ghana is indeed in a multiple crisis. Let me take some consolation in my mahogany bitters.

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From Kwasi Biney