body-container-line-1
10.12.2012 Feature Article

Developing The Right Attitude

Developing The Right Attitude
10.12.2012 LISTEN

Ghana can be a paradise but some traits of the Ghanaian make it seem like hell's annex. Ghana is blessed with a number of natural resources but why do we still continue to complain about the economic. What we do not realize is that the difference between the first world and the third world is one of attitude and values. The first world countries are rich and prosperous because of how they see life and what they regard as important to them and we in the third world are poor and under developing because of how we see life and what is important to us. Attitude to service is one significant feature that distinguishes a developed country from an undeveloped one.

The average Ghanaian's attitude to work and education is terrible. I once asked how workers use their time in Ghana and it turned out that the average workers spend office time doing all kinds of personal stuff, from Facebook and whatsApp to charting and entertaining friends to running personal errands, all at the expense of the state. The Ghanaian is a fantastic worker outside the shores of Ghana. A nation makes progress when the productivity of its work force is high and efficient. Most Students in Ghana just want to get to the university, get a degree and jump right into the job market, the days are past and gone. It is the responsibility of every one of us to seek for opportunities to add value to ourselves. It may be in the form of going back to school, taking some short courses or taking reading seriously or seeking mentor-ship and exposure but whatever we do and however we do it, it is important that we keep adding value to ourselves and we owe that to mother Ghana.

In the past few years, the spotlights has been turned on transfers within the public sector which was supposed to be a practice but this has turned to be a form of punishment for worker or public holding officials. Transferring the person is not the solution to the havoc that he or she has caused but is that the problem has been transferred to another place.

Indiscipline in Ghana is very high. The average Ghana tends to behave as if there were no laws in the country therefore making life too uncomfortable for others. The most obvious sign is in traffic as well as the indiscriminate way we litter our major cities. Gutters don't get choked by themselves, papers and polythene don't grow on streets and so how do they get there? It is amazing that almost every Ghanaian has a watch and yet, that does not drive us to be time conscious. Lateness has become normal with Ghanaians and has come to stay with us.

There are so many churches in Ghana and yet you cannot get anything done in Ghana without paying a bribe even now shrines boldly announce their presence on billboards. Our daily conversation is sprinkled with a lot of religions talk and yet there is indiscipline on our roads, corruption and lack of productivity in our office. It is not right that our churches are filled to capacity and yet dishonesty in our business dealings, what we need is to go low on religion and emphasizes godliness. Watch the way we drive and the way we litter around and you will understand what I mean. The traffic light for the average Ghanaian driver is subject to his convenience, drivers jump the red light as if it has no meaning. Most of us simply hate to do the right thing and hate those who point the fact out to us.

Have you ever asked yourself what are the most important things to a Ghanaian? I have observed that in In Ghana we seem to take certain things very important than others, for instance we have expensive elaborate time consuming funerals. Currently by the time a funeral is over, it often leaves a family poorer than they were before the funeral, the little working capital in the family is wiped out. We spend too much time and scarce resources on funerals.

We live not according to our means but according to our wants and either demand bribes or cheat or steal or borrow the means to afford them. Most Ghanaians as soon as they make their first profit must put up house, blew their fortune on fancy cars, and women. Binging the latest car to Ghana that do not have spare parts and running around town is what is important to us, you see God did us a favour by creating the devil because now we have thing and someone to blame for all our troubles.

BAYOR, CEPHAS KANYIRI
e-mail: [email protected]
Tel: +233 245001658

More from this author (4)

body-container-line