body-container-line-1

You Are The One To Effect The Change You Yearning For

Feature Article You Are The One To Effect The Change You Yearning For
FEB 19, 2019 LISTEN

I am not Aristotle neither I am a gadfly to irritate you with questions, but I will like to begin with a question: Who amongst you has never heard the well-known expression: politics is a dirty game? I believe you’ve all heard it before. But the amazing thing is, you just don’t hear it from others but you do join in singing the chorus. Probably you say it more often than your peers do on daily basis or monthly basis. But the question uppermost in my mind is, whose duty is it to sanitize the game?

If I am allowed to answer this question, I will say you are the ones to clean the messy game. I say this knowing perfectly that you are neither janitors nor cleaners. But because I see integrity, honesty, genius and political savvy printed on your faces. Lace your boots and get into politics. After all, we are political animals, as Aristotle propounded.

There is this adage: that if you send someone to purchase for you an item, you will save your legs some energy but your heart will not be appeased. You have sat down so long expecting others to make this country great. It is either you perceive them as naturally born leaders making them the right ones to lord over us, or you feel inadequate or insufficient to serve. Whichever way it is, the time is ripe for you to free this nation from the grips of poverty and insecurity. Do not continue postponing your conscience to serve.

Many are wondering why you remain unconcerned expecting profoundly corrupt individuals to build schools, hospitals, roads and construct drains with the tax payers’ money and with the proceeds from the sales of our natural resources. For years, you have banked on politicians who can’t guarantee us security to guarantee us security in our homes and in our streets and in our work places.

Your reluctance to serve has impelled politicians who have unquantifiable desire for material wealth into taking charge of the affairs of this nation. These avaricious politicians are unable to provide us with sufficient basic amenities amid the abundant resources under their care. What chills my heart is not the lucre some politicians accumulate in offshore banks. What makes me feel that my heart is about to escape from my chest is the fact that these recalcitrant politicians take their pregnant wives and pregnant concubines abroad to give birth.

They do that so that their new born babies can attain foreign citizenship which to those politicians is a guarantee of a lively and a secured future. And they do this unabashedly or shamelessly because they alone know how much damage they cause this nation. They, perhaps, know that the destiny of this country is far away from the range of restoration. This behavior is a symptom of a failed State, just in case you are not aware. Conversely to your belief that the politician should be crucified for the parlous state of this nation, I will say that you are the ones to be blamed for the status quo.

I laugh and cringed at the absurdity of your simple belief that someone somewhere someday will rescue us from the hands of our Ghanaian colonizers—the avaricious politicians. You are the ones to effect the change that you are yearning for. If this trend is not influenced and the status quo changed, something will happen. Let me tell you what will happen. During the slave trade in the seventeenth century, a law was passed known as the slave law. This law stipulated that the children of an enslaved woman were automatically slaves. Your children, my children and the succeeding generations will suffer from the cradle to the grave and beyond if the status of this country is not challenged and changed.

Beyond Ghana being a hotbed of corruption, the bond that used to tie us together as Ghanaians have been broken. Today, you will only feel Ghanaian when your political party is in power. But adults and parents, teenagers and Preteens should feel Ghanaian in as long as the President of Ghana is a Ghanaian and not when a particular party is in power.

With the degree of division among Ghanaians, I can faithfully say that any further deepening of the fissure will take us over the edge into anarchy. It is no revealing that most of our leaders cannot fork out new ways of doing old things—they are not innovative. This is, therefore, the moment: the moment to transform this nation from its dire state into a thriving nation. However, we can only transmogrify this nation into a secured modern metropolis if you deliberately take into account some multiple measures before indulging in politics in order that you do things way different from the conventional Ghanaian politician.

You have to understand who the political parties in this country are. This will allow you to understand what our political problems are and how to get them fixed. You have to scout information about the political parties, this way you can appreciate their policies or what they stand for. It will also help you to fashion out your own leadership style. Understanding our political system is, therefore, a good starting point.

To have a political opinion is good, but it is more important to listen to what others think. This will allow you to have a comprehensive understanding of our political space and the sorry state of this nation. Discussing politics with families, friends and neighbours will, therefore, help you shape your political view.

In addition to the above measures, holding a public position is one of the most effective ways of getting involved in politics. Occupying a public position offer us the opportunity to dig out the shared and peculiar problems of our communities. It also affords us the chance to address some of the challenges. Let us not forget about the well-worn clichés: that procrastination is the thief of time, and that time and tide wait for no man. Get involved with leadership to save lives.

body-container-line