Lying Ourselves Into A National Disaster

“Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbour for we are members of one another’” (Ephesians 4:25, NKJV).

“There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 16-17, NWT).

I woke up this morning, Sunday January 3, and read a very interesting news item on BBC news. Zoo keepers at a Safari Park in Eastern Russia began an experiment about four weeks ago pairing a goat and a tiger in the same den.

The experiment was originally designed to last for just a few hours at the most, because tigers normally eat goats. But after a few hours, the experiment stretched into days, and now, a month. Amur the tiger had befriended Timur the goat to the extent that the big cat even started sleeping outside after the goat stole its bed. Extraordinary images of the experiment show the two animals taking walks together.

The general conclusion of the experiment is that even animals can develop respect for each other and treat each other with honesty, given the chance to live in proximity to different species.

That is something that has been missing in human affairs for a very long time. Our whole existence seems to be based on lying to and treating each other with disrespect. Leaders of nations and politicians have lied to and led their people into unnecessary wars and conflicts for centuries.

With the advancement in communications and munitions technology, the lies have been more brazen over the last quarter of a century and their effects more devastating than ever before. In the “dog eat dog”, political arena, the kind that is practised in much of Africa, the effects of these lies continue to be extremely debilitating, as they set back the continent closer and closer to the Stone Age.

In Ghana, in particular, the lies have been so intense and crippling over the past decade that every facet of our national life is grinding to a halt. We have lied to young children about education; we have lied to ourselves about the economy and our social interactions; and we have lied to ourselves about the environment to the extent that our nation is now swimming in filth as well as being threatened with unprecedented water scarcity.

Our national capital is now counted among the dirtiest in the world. State institutions like Parliament, the judiciary, the security services and the presidency are lying to each other and eventually, the people whose taxes sustain them and their undeserving opulent lifestyles. In an election year, we are steadily, but surely lying ourselves into a major national disaster as it so often happens in much of the continent!

The latest of these nauseating lies is the assertion by the five member committee that was appointed by Ghana’s Electoral Commission to look into its totally flawed electoral register. According to this panel of apparently “eminent” persons, the case for a new register is not convincing and that the fact that foreigners who cannot scratch their own backsides have been unduly influencing our national elections does not matter. What a load of bunkum!

Senegal and Botswana have the longest history of democratic elections in Africa, south of the Sahara, yet Senegal registers a mere 39.4% of its eligible voters, while Botswana registers 21.4%. Nigeria, the new sensation of African elections, registers 38.8% of its eligible voters, while South Africa, with a more politically enlightened population because of its long struggle against political oppression and possibly better educated too, registers 47.4% of its eligible voters. South Africa has just 28.9% of its population under age 14 (2014 figures). Ghana, with as much as 38.6% under the age of 14, has over 14 million on its electoral register, a world record 56% of its total population of 25 million!

The existing voters’ register has two completely different figures for Parliamentary and presidential elections. It does not take rocket science to know that the electoral register is flawed and not fit for purpose. Afari-Gyan, the totally discredited former rogue chairman of the Commission admitted way back in 2010 that the register was over-bloated and not credible for national elections.

Yet in order to satisfy a selfish agenda, he used it to organise two national elections. For this level of utter dishonesty, he has been given national awards and retired on his salary. And today, another bunch of selfish elderly citizens who wish to be accorded respect are telling the whole world that there is nothing wrong with this register. Not surprisingly, several of the people on this committee enjoy or will enjoy cosy retirement benefits on the backs of the poor people whose security they seek to jeopardise with this nonsensical deduction!

My suggestion to fellow citizens and particularly the Sisterhood of Women who usually bear the brunt of the effects of these despicable lies is to begin to neutralise the possible consequences of this treachery, ironically now led by a woman. We need to get involved in the debate on the electoral register.

We should not leave it to the menfolk, most of whom do not even care about what happens to their own mothers and children, let alone their wives. We need to educate our boys and girls who are bound to be used as cannon fodder in the selfish schemes of politicians who have nothing good for the broad masses of the people. They are just a bunch of lying leeches that put other people’s children in harm’s way while their own children are spirited away to safety elsewhere.

In an election year, we need to educate the mass of our people that any politician who comes to them with those pitiful financial and material inducements has nothing meaningful to offer them. The money they bring and the cost of those gifts have been borne by the people in the first place. It is money stolen from the people. They ought to be exposed. We also need to prepare to prevent their fraudulent tricks at election time: multiple voting, impersonations, vote buying and confusion at the polling stations.

It is said that those who do not participate in government are ruled by idiots. The reason why we are in such a mess as a nation is because we have unthinkingly bought into the awful lies of these unscrupulous politicians. We have allowed ourselves to be lied to for far too long. We need to wise up and begin to demand accountability from these urchins. Those sisters who have allowed themselves to be used by these pathetic apologies of male species should watch out because we shall not spare them either.

I shall be back with my beaded gourd, God willing.

Naana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at [email protected] , or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.