Day in, day out, it is all about complaints! Whenever we encounter a loop-hole in our system, one complaint precedes another! Whenever the issue of bad governance and failed leadership come up, as usual, complaints follow! We keep complaining, but at the same time, keep making the same mistakes! We keep blaming our leaders, but on our part, our attitudes do not change! Our bad experiences have taught us no lessons, and in the end, the problems persist! We keep blaming our leaders, but that should stop! In truth, we ought to blame ourselves! If this country is to realize her full potentials in attaining radical economic growth and development, she needs a discerning people!
The general populace of this nation has recently been estimated to at least twenty four million people; a considerable fraction, of which are people who can take decisions. This fraction, are the discerning group! Discerning in the sense that we take tell right from wrong! Rather ironically or sadly perhaps, these fractions, who are key contributors to the socio-economic growth of this nation, are failing her! Yes, we are all failing Ghana! We are teaching our children to substitute truth with lies! All around us, we teach our children how to swerve the loop-holes or the inefficiencies in our system! From the start, our children are at our mercy but in the end, we fail them! They become who we bring them up to be; most of the time, our true reflections.
We rather prefer to push our troubles elsewhere, in playing the blame game! Instead of blaming our own selves for our bad decisions and choices, we rather prefer to blame our leaders! Ghana, indeed, needs a discerning people; who can man-up to their problems and face the consequences in order to find solutions or make amends!
It is an undeniable fact that a greater proportion of our populace constitutes the electorates, as compared to the candidates. The numbers of people who compete at our various elections are outnumbered by the rest of us who vote. We choose our leaders! We outnumber these people! How then can we allow their conducts and misconducts to grossly affect our progress and development? How long would we continue to allow these people to destroy our nation? We need a discerning people, who have the ability to choose the right people as leaders, on the basis of competency, truth and transparency! We need to be able to identify the bad nuts and say, to hell with them!
Over the last decades, several elections have been conducted in this country. Over these decades, several leaders have come and gone; the good, the bad, and the ugly! As usual, this tradition persists, and as always, these very classes of leaders keep getting our endorsement! Rather sadly as citizens, we queue up at the end of each term in order to elect some incompetent people as our representatives! Ironically though, we expect these people to stir the affairs of this nation into a brighter future! We give them our endorsement for bad governance! We endorse them to mismanage our limited resources! How can this happen, when some of these people in real life are failures? How do we expect a blind person to lead the way? How do we expect the deaf, to identify every sound? How do we expect the dumb to talk properly? How do we expect this great nation of ours, the only property most of us have, or perhaps, we all share, attain the greater heights we all so much profess, when we keep electing mediocre leaders?
For a fact, the past four years has taught most of us grave lessons! In our political environment, and perhaps, turmoil, we have seen it all; the good, the bad, and the ugly! Some chameleons have at last shown their true colours! How long can we keep up the hypocrisy? No matter how long it takes, we cannot suppress our true character, however long, we keep up the pretense! We need a discerning people! Some people have indeed proven the assertion that a lot of our leaders are selfish! It has always been about them, and would continue to be! Therefore as citizens, we ought to be discerning! It is either us, or them, and so, we need to vote for ourselves! In choosing our leaders, let us do away with our selfish agendas in the form of ethnicity, tribalism, favoritism, nepotism, corruption, religion, to mention but a few. Ghana should be our priority, and so, the best must be selected to make and implement the right policies! At the end of each term, let us review these people before they receive our endorsement. Ghana needs a discerning people!
Ghana is our property! It belongs to us all, whether you are from the north or the south! As such, we all enjoy, or better still, we must enjoy equal rights and benefits! Some Ghanaians are no more citizens than others, and so, all must be treated fairly! This election brought about several revelations! Some of our leaders seized the opportunity to exhibit their lawless; rather unfortunate indeed! As expected, the youth was at the heart of this chaos! The behaviours exhibited left much to be desired, most of which was masterminded by some unscrupulous leaders! Has leadership now become a platform to showcase intolerance and lawlessness? Has leadership now become a platform to showcase the machos? Indeed, I watched in great shame as some of our leaders took the opportunity to lead or rather mislead our people into chaos! As always, it drew some masses! Are there discerning people in this nation? Is that the peak of intolerance? Indeed, this nation need discerning people!
Arise, o Ghanaian youth! Let not the mistakes of your parents be the examples you choose! Let not our failed and failing leadership, be your source of inspiration! Indeed, our growing populace needs better examples! We need better mentors! We need better role models! We need positive influence! This nation is ours and ours only! As the future, we need to correct the mistakes our past! We need to prove our failures wrong! Let us strive to be a discerning generation, who can tell wrong from right! Let us say no to bad influences! Let us strive to make the most, and the best of our limited resources and opportunities. Ghana deserves much better than she has received! Ghana needs discerning people! Are you one?
Anna Esi Hanson ([email protected]), Takoradi.
