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01.04.2017 Opinion

The Unabated Colonial Exploitation In Ghana: A Case Of Different Colours

By Nicholas Mante Parry
The WriterThe Writer
01.04.2017 LISTEN

Introduction
In several centuries past in the history of the then Gold Coast, currently known as Ghana, there existed so many inflictions that were meted upon the inhabitants of a group of people that lived in that geographical location. It began with the initial scramble for Africa which later took a more civil approach where Africa was partitioned in 1844 during which some major European powers received with glee some portions that they were to colonise. Fortunately for the group of people who lived in the area that was then known as the Gold Coast, Britain was supposed to become their colonial masters, to which they did become. They primarily came with the intentions of trade, to get raw materials to feed their industries back in their home country and yet came under the guise of religion (Christianity).

They (British) took our raw materials for so long that they realized that they could even enslave the inhabitants of the said geographical location and push them into America so that they serve as slaves there. Sooner than later the British began capturing indigenes through raids and selling them off for merchants ships to carry them to the Americas to work as slaves on plantations. This barbaric act came to an end upon the abolition of slave trade. Yet these Europeans still held leadership positions in the country because it was under the leadership of a governor who was supposed to be the representative of the Queen of England. The chiefs were not allowed to rule directly and this brought about the issue of the “indirect rule”. This particularly meant that the British communicated what they wanted to do through the chiefs to the people so that the impression is given as if it was coming from the traditional authorities.

These inhumane and autocratic behaviours were painfully tolerated until the riots that took place during the post Second World War era after some three ex-servicemen were shot dead at the Christiansburg Castle. That really broke the camel’s back. At the time some leaders like Nkrumah and George Paa Grant had been strategizing the means by which the Gold Coast could be liberated from the wicked hands of the British. The struggle continued throughout, with the efforts of all the inhabitants of the Gold Coast until finally Ghana gained independence on the 6th day of March, 1957. On that fateful day Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, in trying to create the impression that the causes of all our woes was because of the actions and inactions of the “white man” proclaimed with joy:

“At long last, the battle has ended…….Ghana; your beloved country is free forever”

The citizens at the time cheered because they believed that things were bad for them because the white men were at the helm of affairs and that if the country was going to have their own countrymen at the helm of affairs, then they were expecting to be better off.

This write-up therefore seeks to bring to light the fact that in as much as Ghanaians fought white oppression, our black leaders are rather oppressing its own citizens contrary to what they had thought at the time of fighting for independence. A free nation, as exclaimed by Kwame Nkrumah should be a nation where its citizens have access to basic necessities of life, a free nation exists where citizens are not victimized when wrongs in society are pointed out, a free nation comes up where citizens look within them and get the conviction that they owe it (Ghana) a responsibility of helping it grow. These three topical issues are to be discussed after which we shall ask ourselves why our own black leaders who claimed we were being oppressed and as such fought for independence are still oppressing us.

Free Nation requires access to Basic Necessities of Life

Maslow defines basic necessities of life as food, shelter and clothing. These are very fundamental to the survival of every human being. With regards to food, it does not cease to amaze me that thousands of citizens live in this country who struggle to eat one meal a day. Most of these people fall on the benevolence of people in order to get something to eat. This is a country where too many people in leadership positions have too much food to eat possibly because they take huge salaries while the reverse is also true. Why do we not seek to ask how we can bridge the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’? Why do we feel so comfortable in our greed of wanting everything to ourselves at the detriment of those who just need something small to survive? Most of the times when driving across major cities in Ghana, particularly Accra, one comes across persons who depend on begging for alms at vantage points especially at traffic prone areas, for their survival.

Can you imagine the visually impaired, the physically challenged, the aged etc. just struggling in the mist of traffic just for their survival? Have we, as a nation, thought of the risk and dangers these people put themselves in with regards to how carelessly some people can drive? Individuals help some of such people financially but what have governments done to ensure that all these people are catered for so that even in the mist of their vulnerability, they are able to live decent lives devoid of struggling to survive at the mercy of their lives? Are we as a nation not capable of doing these things for our fellow human beings who due to circumstances beyond their control have found themselves in such situations? Anyways, we might not be capable yet we are capable of buying Land Cruiser V8’s for MPs who do not even go to their constituencies to check on his or her constituents, we are also able to pay ex-gratia of GHC 30,000 to each Member of Parliament for serving for four (4) years and taking GHC 7,000 as monthly salary as well as allowances for various engagements. Indeed, I will leave us to our conscience to judge us.

Shelter, which is the second most important need to the survival of any human being, also comes to play as a nation. Indeed it is incomprehensible how partisan politics tends to destroy our nation. Governments come into power and bring on board very intelligent policies that would tend to help the ordinary citizens but those ideas are discontinued by successive governments especially because they have different political ideologies. Once upon a time in the history of Ghana, there was a housing policy known as affordable housing projects by STX Korea.

The idea was to build about 30,000 houses that were going to be very affordable for the ordinary Ghanaian in order to solve the issue of the high charges on accommodation. However through some weird means, this project was stalled. But amazingly enough these leaders who halted the project live in luxurious houses which are well furnished for them by the state using the taxes of the ordinary citizens. Sadly enough, these ordinary citizens whose taxes are used to buy cars and houses for these so called big men are found sleeping in the open in front of people’s shops. When one passes through the various cities any time after 9pm, that’s when one realizes that our leaders are really taking advantage of us.

The question still remains unanswered. Why can we not replicate what Gadhafi did in Libya with regards to accommodation facilities? Is this the freedom we wanted for which reason we fought for independence? The health and security risks that these innocent Ghanaians are prone to cannot be overemphasized. I sometimes would want to prefer that the white man would rather put us in this situation and look upon unconcerned than a black man putting his fellow black man into this situation and looking at the situation unconcerned. We do not usually care because it is not us in that situation neither there is any of our family members in that situation. Where is the sense of solidarity that characterizes us as a nation?

Much as clothing is also a necessity of survival with regards to covering and protecting ourselves from the harsh weather conditions, I shall not dwell on it so much as its degree of importance is not as high as that of the tow that have been earlier mentioned in this write-up.

The subject of survival is obviously even worse in the rural areas than in the urban areas. It is surprising to me that there still exist rural areas in Ghana where indigenes of particular villages still drink from streams and rivers that have been shared by cattle and other livestock and which has obviously made it prone to several infections that are likely to affect their health. Due to this their health and or lives are always on the line. There are no health centers in those communities except for CHPS compounds which are usually ill-staffed and ill-prepared for the varied degrees of diseases or illnesses that go there. In case that the situation is beyond that which they can handle, the rules and regulations of the profession gives them the permission to refer the patient to the nearest health facility with enough facilities that can best handle the situation at hand.

These health facilities are usually located in the district capitals and that the implication is that wherever a severely sick patient finds himself or herself, he or she is expected to travel for about two hours on a very bad, immotorable road to get to the health facility located in the District Capitals. Quite apart from the immotorable nature of the roads, there is the inability or general difficulty in getting a vehicle to travel that route. This, therefore, implies that if there is an emergency situation that will require a patient to get to the district hospital within the shortest period of time that would be synonymous to at life being lost. People have lost their lives severally due to this situation.

What did these people do wrong to merit this kind of oppression? Do not they deserve anything better? Why can’t our own black leaders feel this pain and at least make these roads motorable so that at least cars will be willingly to travel those routes and also to get patients who are in emergency situations to the hospitals on time? What is so oppressive than watching your own people die through no fault of theirs and yet leaders are able to fly outside the country for medical treatments? This means that even for them that are in Accra they think that the Korle Bu’s and the 37 Military hospitals are ill-equipped to handle their ailments. That’s sad. Pupils in rural areas are expected to help their parents on the farms, walk several miles to get to school (sometimes barefooted) and so they even get to school tired already.

They walk the same distance back home and there are expected to go and sell so that they help their parents make some money for their livelihood barely having time for reading their books and doing their homework. Ridiculously these are the people our leaders refer to as future leaders while their children pay huge amounts of dollars to send their kids to British International School and the likes. God is watching us all.

Victimization
It is amazing how we live in a country where most people, if not all are quiet about wrong doings due to the fear of being victimized. In Ghana, victimization may take numerous forms amongst which are losing one’s job, not being promoted and to a much greater extent, losing one’s life. Due to these numerous ways of victimization, most people tend to keep quiet about the ills that go on the various aspects of society especially at work places.

This has brought about so much corruption into the system. Yet individual complain to colleagues and yet are unable to complain to the authorities who are involved in such unscrupulous activities with the justification that “Yes sar massa no dey spoil work”. To wit, just looking unconcerned at unscrupulous activities will make you keep your work and earn a living while the reverse is also true. This is the system that we have created for ourselves as a country over the years and yet we hide under the guise of democracy and cause ourselves more harm than good.

Based on all the above-mentioned issues, Ghanaians also do not find in them any sense of patriotism and nationalism when they have struggled their ways through as far as their own survival is concerned. They are usually of the view that the nation didn’t to help them in anyway and so they do not owe the nation any responsibility. This is manifested in their attitude towards helping the nation to develop in the right direction. Attitude to work, attitude towards waste management, attitude towards our ownselves etc are usually very poor.

Our leaders opposed and fought oppression and created the impression to their own people that they were going to give them a sense of independence which would render them free from the hardships that they suffered under the leadership of their colonial masters.

Why have our leaders committed themselves to ensuring that they get the best of everything in life at the expense of their subjects? Why do our leaders deceive us a nation and create the impression that they wished that everything went well with us when indeed their main aim is to amass the wealth of the nation.

It is not strange that most governors have been tagged with the view of retiring with several assets which hitherto was not available at the time of the assumption of office. We lie to ourselves as a nation and pretend everything is fine.

We pretend to be helping the vulnerable even when we know clearly that it is nothing but a mirage. 60th years on and there still exists a large number of people who still do not have the basic necessities of life.

I know people would want to write rejoinders to this but I shall leave every one of us to his or her conscience, look back to the situations that we are exposed to and judge for ourselves and see whether we are being treated fairly by our leaders.

It is indeed a sad phenomenon to take advantage of the vulnerable in society. Let us put a stop to this unnecessary “colonial exploitation” that is going on in this country. The colours might be indeed different, but the machinations are the same.

Nicholas Mante Parry

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