An Op-ed To Ghanaian Youth: We Are Heading Towards A Zombie Apocalypse!

Dear brothers and sisters,
Do you not know that 57% of us Ghanaians are below 25 years of age? And if you include those in the 30’s and 40’s the country is totally and utterly in the hands of young people? We have all the power in our hands – but only as a thinking collective.

Yet, at the same time, we are so weak – as an unthinking collective. Young people are disregarded at every level in the country – especially if you are not part of the political or business elite.

This is a paradox. How can we have so much and so little power at the same time?

We don’t think for ourselves. We have outsourced our thinking to the 3.6% of the population above 65 years of age. The so-called authorities of our time – those leading government, political parties, corporations, religious bodies - are thinking for us.

This is the biggest problem. Young people of Ghana in the 21st century are behaving as if we are in medieval times when all the information was controlled by the centre. When information had no freedom. When only a few people processed all the information available and therefore did all the thinking for everyone else. When there were only a few books and no Internet - of - all things. When there was no big data. And when there were only a few schools in Ghana and one educated person in each village.

The reality is that we are in an Information Age of accelerating change and independent thought. We don’t only have freedom of information and of thought. We also have power of expression. But we have chosen to willingly give our thinking caps to so – called authorities.

The AUTHORITIES – 3.6% of the population - have cleverly taken away our moral courage required for independent thinking and action. They have made us believe it is a sin to speak truth to power. To authority. They have amplified, magnified and glorified praise singing to the highest heavens. Disobedience of authority has become a capital SIN among young people of Ghana.

At the behest of the authorities, young people don’t only fail to stand together in opposition to social injustice, young people justify and rationalize the injustices perpetuated by the so-called AUTHORITIES against our own interests. Political parties are the new religions in Ghana today. Elsewhere, data is the new religion. Elsewhere, information is the new power.

We cannot remain blinded by the colors of political parties and refuse independent thought even when the data/information is out there to show that the political elite – the so-called political authorities (NDC/NPP) – only use the young masses, the foot-soldiers, as an election machinery to obtain power – but when it comes to distribution of resources like the GETFund, only the 3.6% and their family and friends benefit. The rest of us must remain ignorant, uneducated, emasculated and permanently deprived.

The AUTHORITIES don’t care about us. It doesn’t matter if you belong to their political party or not. It doesn’t matter if you work for them. And it certainly doesn’t matter if you worship the same God with them.

They worship the god of GREED! Of AVARICE! That’s why MPs, ministers of state, political party leaders and their children are appropriating and sharing GETFunds instead of needy and brilliant young students. Don’t be deceived – there are no political party colors or religious and tribal barriers when it comes to these so-called authorities. They are solidly united against we-the- poor and young masses who remain blindly and solidly divided in subservience to the same authorities.

We the young people of Ghana have remained victims of these authorities even with the overflow of information, the information glut all around us. This is partly because we have been overwhelmed by junk and mediocrity. The same authorities running our mainstream corporate and ‘presstitute’ media have made sure to always ‘’ muddy the waters’’ with EQUALIZATION tactics to make it difficult for us to differentiate between truth and lies.

And since we are already a generation of lazy thinkers, preferring to outsource our thinking to authorities, we make no further effort to seek independent truth. We have put political color to the truth. We now have NDC truth and NPP truth. Sadly, we are swallowing ‘’partisan truths’’. And this only perpetuates the power and hegemony of the 3.6% of Ghanaians in AUTHORITY who are over 65 years old!

What a big shame to the youth!
We the young people of Ghana today have become worse than the pre-independent youth who had no access to schools, books, and the internet-of-All things. Even they could think for themselves in the midst of the scarcity of information. That’s why they stood up against the injustices of the colonialists. And that’s why their only difference was in their approach to their opposition to colonial authority. They stood up to colonial injustice. They overthrew colonialism. We on the other hand, are worshiping and maintaining authoritarianism.

Here we are today, with overwhelming information, power of expression, but we are using it as young people, to justify and rationalise the injustices of AUTHORITY! We keep telling ourselves that NDC/NPP are omnipotent. And there is nothing we can do about the duopoly. We are prepared to condone evil – as long as we perceive it as a lesser evil from our narrow political lenses.

Instead of being empowered by information, we have become zombies who are prepared to deny, argue against facts and evidence before our eyes. We even argue against common sense. We are not interested in the truth. To us, the color of truth is the color of our political tribe. Every other information/fact of a different color are lies.

We are heading towards a zombie apocalypse!
Our arguments and our timid behavior against our own interests show us as medieval era thinkers - that is if we can truly consider ourselves thinkers - in this age of information. Think-tanks have become echo chambers of weaponised authoritarian disinformation.

Isn’t this a big disgrace to Ghanaian youth?
There has never been a period in our history that has presented us with the greatest opportunity for premium independent thinking and action than this current period. Yet, we squander it in petty mindedness and consummate mediocrity.

We need to pause and ask ourselves if we can really afford to continue to outsource our thinking faculties to AUTHORITIES whose least interests is in we-the-people – THE YOUNG PEOPLE.

Do we not still realize that these so-called ideological or religious differences between the various authorities are just imaginary - if they exist at all?

My fellow youth of Ghana, all other industries and areas of endeavour, the world over, are subservient to the information and big data processing systems that control the world. All our gold mines put together is a drop in an ocean compared to the billions generated from Silicon Valley. Data is the new gold. The guy who created Twitter has given power of expression to the American President - not the other way round. Those who are informed are in control.

But here we are still looking up for a pie in the sky from the NDC and NPP and from the mega cathedrals of a few charlatans.

Why do we persist in remaining powerlessly emasculated in the midst of massive doses of information? Why do we gleefully support and maintain authoritarianism?

If we think this is governance for the people, we need to think again - and independently! This is no democracy! And if we insist that this is democracy, then it must be for the benefit of we-the- masses. But since ours is for the exclusive benefit of the authorities, it can only be AUTHORITARIANISM!

Let's pause and think again before the zombie apocalypse!!!!

Signed:
Sacut Amenga-Etego
(One of you against Authoritarian Injustice)!
SaCut Amenga-Etego
Journalist/Activist/Ghost Writer
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