Breathing System In Unseen Polythene Bag And System Suffocation - The Sad Story Of Our Public Administration And Management Systems

To suffocate means to find it difficult to breathe.

Some common causes of suffocation are sleep apnea, inhalation of carbon mono-oxide, drowning, strangulation and a lot more other factors that cause ceasation of oxygen into the lungs to enable respiration to take place. It can lead to a sudden death or unconsciousness.

We were all taught from our primary schools days that we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide so, suffocation isn't a new term which requires us to take up our dictionaries and look for its meaning. It simply means lack of exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen in our lungs to enable us breathe properly .

We are very familiar with the word suffocation and if not, we breathe everyday unless we are dead. We all know what a polythene bag too is, and you can imagine the whole Ghana put in it per how we administer our systems and public lives by those in authority. That is what I mean by a breathing system in unseen polythene bag.

In a public system administration, to suffocate the system means to suppress it, stifle innovation and prevent new ways of doing things or improvement over the old systems and rather stick to rigid, beurucratic and mechanistic ways of administration which are very ineffective and inefficient, and cost innefective as well per principles of public management and administration .

Our system are in unseen polythene bags which is making it very difficult to breathe naturally because no air is penetrating this unseen polythene bag. Our system is choking from population pressures because it has been wrapped in unseen polythene bag by those in authority and controlling it based on their personal and parochial interests. It is being controlled to their advantage and to the disadvantage of majority of Ghanaians who placed them in authority.

Whilst some of them lack the knowledge and ideas to bring the needed strategic change that we need to improve upon our already existing systems, some of them have intentionally stifle the system to their advantage and benefiting unduly from it. The system fill their bellies so any attempt to bring a positive change by any right thinking Ghanaian, they will resist it and kill every innovation in their managerial purview just for them to remain powerful in order to control the system.

All our systems of management and administration are not responding to efficiency and effectiveness no matter the efforts being put in them accompanied by both technological and financial investments. The end results are mass graduate unemployment, high poverty rates, intensified bribery and corruption, high crime rates and all the negative indexes you can think of as far as this country is concerned.

Despite considerable improvement in technology and computing, one still finds it very difficult to have a service rendered to him or her even after one has paid. As much improved as we keep improving, one still finds difficult to acquire basic things like passport, birth certificate and other basic documents from public offices because are systems are not properly decentralised. It will take you days if not years to get what you are looking for amidst maneuvering.

Even the kind of attitude exhibited by those who are supposed to render you services after you have paid with your hard earned money is nothing to write home about because they are not there on merits but rather on undeserving favours either through a political connectivity or through tribal and religious affiliations. They cannot be sacked too no matter how unprofessional they may be because they are heavily connected.

Job opportunities are being offered on favours and relations but not through the search of right job skills thus mass systems failures resuiting from mass ineffectiveness and inefficient systems administrations and management. Square pegs are found in round holes because they had uncles, aunties, friends and relatives who were once managers and directors of public offices and directorates. When they are also leaving, they will also plant their favourites there and as a result, the rich are becoming rich and richer and the poor are becoming poor and poorer. So, the circle continues unending.

Our security services are worst offenders. The end results are constant enlistment scandals that has been hitting a particular one. You see wrong characters being taken either because they are politically connected or they are related to "big men" and those who do not have any relations also try to pay their ways in so that they can be hired. The unfortunate ones are caught up in scandals and lose their monies and also the opportunity to be hired all because our systems have long incisors like vampires sucking the blood of innocent and vulnerable people . There are certain jobs in this country, you can only be hired through political ties or through tribal and religious connectivity. They always hire people but as to how and when they hire people, no one knows.

Have you put your head in a polythene bag and tried to breathe before ? May be you should try it and see what I mean. Breathing become impossible because there is a complete cut off of oxygen. That is how Ghana is now. All our public sectors seem to have been choked not because there are no spaces to expand our scope of management and administration to enable more people to be employed but rather our systems have been schemed to favour the few people who are in authority. They determine what should be done or not.

Our country Ghana can equally be compared to a suffocating system just like one putting his or head in a polythene bag. All our systems are not responding to efficiency and effectiveness because it has become very anaemic leading to mass systems failures.

It is increasingly becoming difficult to lead a life as a Ghanaian without political favours, tribalism, nepotism and discriminations of all kinds because our leaders and those in authority see change and innovation as a threat and they fiercely resist it. Those who try to stand on their ways are crushed and destroyed.

Our laws enforcement systems, political, education , judicial, the business community, civil services and even traditional and religious services are now concentrated of carbons oxides making our lives appear as if it has been placed in a polythene bag with no breathing space. We find it very difficult to breathe as far as our public lives and its management and administration are concerned.

All our systems are failing despite the fact that we have all the experts and the professionals steering the affairs of the system. We have people who have traveled Europe, America and other parts of the word where systems are coordinated properly steering our affairs yet all our systems keeps failing. We have people with rich CVs and all the managerial and administrative experiences manning our public offices yet our systems keep failing.

You know why ?
Those steering our affairs have become parasites on our systems benefiting from all the wrongs in the systems and have become themselves a hindrance to change that will bring relieve to Ghanaians as expected . Our systems have become like the vampire type that sucks the blood of vulnerable and infest those that they can manipulate to also become vampires just like them so that they can inherit their succession plans. Long after they have left the system, they still manipulate it from the convenience of their homes.

They sit at their homes and write notes on the back of their complimentary cards and give it to their favourite ones to go to any office and their wish is granted because they have automated robots in the various offices which are ready to carry out their instructions depriving others of fair competition if it were to be job placement. Their wishes are commands long after they have left office.

You will have to worship your superiors at workplaces like gods in order to be given rightly what is yours. You will have to lick their boots, gossip about your colleagues to them, carry their bags and run after them or, in some cases follow their wives to markets carrying baskets. You will have to sweep their rooms and dust it before they can give you a recommendation but not necessarily being efficient and effective on the job. That is the only way your boss or superiors will approve that you respect but not necessarily how you worked hard with your assigned duties and insisted on the right principles.

If people are assessed this way, instead of effective performance appraisals coupled with effective monitoring tools, our systems will always fail because we are not applying the right management and administrative tools that are results oriented. Service to the "Boss" for favours but not to the institution and agencies to bring about structural changes and improvements. They have skewed the system not to reward the hard working ones but rather they determine who should be rewarded based on their own interests.

As we progress with our democracy and rule of law, one would expect that our systems would be improved and yield some positive outputs with correlated inputs but unfortunately, our system has created a concentrated system of cronyism, tribalism, nepotism, favouritism and religious divisions and discriminations. These blocs of social division are gradually becoming a threat to our national life.

One would have expected that we move away from closed systems of administrations to more effective decentralised systems to enhance efficiency and effectiveness, rather we seem to centralise our procedures and processes to stiffle the system.

Every right thinking Ghanaian would have expected system reingineering and a complete paradigm shift from colonial beurucratic and mechanisms of systems of administration to one of effectiveness and efficient in modern day Ghana but unfortunately, the system is crumbling due to resistance to change.

If we continue to suffocate the system to our interests, one day, we will have a group of youths who have had enough of every nonsense that has been going on for so such a long time, violently demonstrating against authority. When that times comes, not even the combination of the police, military and other security services will stop them. When that happens, we should know that the Black Spring has started and nothing can stop it unless by itself.

It is those in authority that fail but not the law. We must allow our system to breathe properly. For now, it is suffocating and it is dangerous for us because instead of unconsciousness, it can explode when one looks at the rate of unemployment in this country emanating from systems failures, one must be worry for the future of this country.

Our systems in unseen polythene bag suffocating and it's sad.

Ahanta Apemenyimheneba Kwofie III [email protected]

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