The rock, the hard place and the slippery slope

I have a theory. My theory is that unless some drastic changes are made here in Ghana, it won’t matter whom we vote for in the presidential and parliamentary elections in the grand scheme of things, whether it is December 2024, December 2028, or December 2032.

In about six months’ time, some Ghanaians will queue to vote for a new government. As expected, prior to that, the ruling party will merge campaigning with governance, blurring the lines of party and state and racing to complete projects to prove the competence that eluded us all during their reign. They will have the most prominent billboards nationwide and the most radio ads with lots of ‘goodies’ to distribute during rallies. No questions will be asked about how they can afford to do all this when the people are suffering- after all, they are in power. 

The opposition party will showcase everything the government is doing wrong and attempt to show how they are a better choice. The advantage any opposition party has is that ability to accurately diagnose the problems of the ruling party, that reality check to feel what the citizens are feeling, which allows them to say the right things. 

Elections and power- if we are being honest, those are the only things our leaders truly care about; after all, power sweet die! Power puts this nation’s resources at your feet- money, influence, business deals, diplomatic passports, the luxury of never having to queue for anything, the attention of world leaders, name it. 

Unfortunately, it also insulates our leaders from our problems, giving them comforts they sorely miss in opposition, hence the desperate attempts to win elections every four years. The people supposed to represent us and lead the charge for change have built empires for themselves and their families on our blood, sweat, tears and silence, while our quality of life as a nation continues to plummet. 

When you move from place to place in a convoy with a police escort in a 4×4 car fueled by virtue of your position, you won’t notice the potholes, the fuel prices, or the sorry state of our traffic management system. You will not realize that the number of older adults and strong young men begging for alms has increased exponentially over the last two years. 

When you live in government bungalows furnished by taxes, you won’t feel the cry of the 34-year-old gentleman who has to empty his savings account and borrow some more to be able to afford a place to lay down his head. You will be indifferent to the rising costs of an essential meal because your pantry is always well stocked. 

If you have lost contracts because of the power situation or had to stay awake 3 nights in a row because your 6-month-old baby has a bad case of heat rashes, you won’t spend precious time arguing about semantics. Those suffering don’t care whether or not you call it dumsor or whose track record is worse; they expect you to fix it, and rightly so!

It is said that you should never tell your new boyfriend all the things you tolerated with your old boyfriend because it apparently gives him a list of things he can get away with. In our case, our abusive boyfriends have taken turns exploring new limits of our tolerance with the scandals, the thievery, the nonchalance, the gaslighting and the lack of accountability. 

Somehow we have allowed successive governments to continue the cycle because we do not seem to have the collective spine to say ‘enough is enough.’ Even when we vote them out in one election cycle, they know they will be back in no less than 12 years. They return hungrier than when they were last in power, armed with mountains of evidence that ‘it was worse in so and so’s government’ and a heightened awareness of how much more of Ghana’s money they can siphon under the radar. They know that nobody will hold them accountable in the long run.

We have become so accustomed to attributing the lone voices to the opposition. It seems strange for someone to criticize the government just because they are a citizen of Ghana. It must be that they are boosting their profile for public office in at least 4-8 years, or they stand to gain something (a contract, easy access to national resources). In most cases, it does appear to be for their own selfish interests.

When the lone voices calling out the subpar standards and incompetence are not swayed by the gifts or promises of ‘settling them once we come to power’, it becomes a fear-mongering agenda. Too many people I know have had to relocate or silence their justified demands for better because their livelihood and loved ones have been threatened. Why?! Simply because they dare to expect more than the barest minimum from those who promised to give us the world. 

‘How dare you hold us to our campaign promises? How dare you take our words seriously?‘

It is almost as though this country and its ‘spoils’ are their birthright, and the rest of us are just casualties in this war between our political parties. 

In an ideal world, the nation should have a nonpartisan nationalist 100-year plan, drawn in collaboration with experts across the world, that spells out what we want to achieve in education, tourism, town planning, sanitation, trade and investment, creative arts, and development. In that ideal world, each political party will show how it intends to execute that plan with actionable steps and tangible expected results by specific timelines, and that alone should be the basis of comparison for the elections.

Instead, we have these parties throwing up quotable quotes, hashtags, and sound bites to excite the electorate, with no clear plan or expected results that we can hold them to. And even when they say things we should hold them accountable for, they present such porous defenses that one cannot help but wonder just how daft they think we are. If it is not excavators disappearing, it is guinea fowls. I mean, come on!

There may be truth to the infamous quote ‘Ghanaians have short memories’ because I believe that in a perfect world, none of our major presidential contestants in the 2024 general election would have the nerve to run for the land’s highest office.It is easy for them to rebrand and ask us for the mandate without fully accounting for the grave misfortunes, scandals, and utterances they have been associated with in the not-so-distant past. 

We are operating a system of each man for himself (and his children). Nobody is sacrificing for this country. It doesn’t make sense to die for a country that will not even pause to give you the respect of a moment’s silence. There is no point in dying when the next day it will just be business as usual, corruption pro max and blatant lies by foot soldiers and government officials alike. That is the real tragedy!

Where are our museums for highlife and traditional storytelling?

Who are we holding accountable for the catastrophic damage Galamsey has left in its wake? Are our leaders really not powerful enough to stop this disgrace, or are their interests more important than the quality of water and air in the next 10years?

What are the prospects for a budding hockey or tennis legend in this country?

What kind of support systems does a child born with special needs have to be able to live a full life?

What is our strategy for ensuring that Ghanaian businesses are able to thrive and scale successfully?

Where are our policies on climate change management?

What campaigns is the National Commission on Civic Education running to educate citizens on their rights? Why are they not advocating for a review of our constitution?

When will we explore variants of onions, tomatoes and plantain that can be produced all year round?

What will it take for us to be able to ensure that our towns and villages are well planned and interconnected so that one can live in Nkrankwanta and comfortably travel to work in Accra every day?

Why should the insensitivity of those who plead for us to give them the mandate lead us to our early graves?

Who is ensuring that the interests of all Ghanaians are protected 100 years from now when we sit to discuss mining deals and trade agreements?

Where is the justice when the judge, jury, the prosecutor, and police are all appointed by the person we are supposed to be prosecuting?

Why do our parliamentarians suddenly unite to approve salary increments and ex gratia payments, but they cannot unite to call ministers and state leaders to order?

Where are the statesmen whose voices are respected? Why are they not calling for us to unite as a nation and head in the right direction?

Why are ministries, state institutions, and pivotal positions handed over to people as rewards for loyalty and forcampaigning the loudest, not based on competence or ability to deliver results? 

What does it take to have roads that remain fully tarred, with street lights that stay on?

Why are we being taxed to pay people who are clearly not delivering on their mandate?

Why should we be in a country where one has to tear his hair out to get access to electricity, water and a home that does not get flooded when it rains?

The reputation and prospects of this nation are in shambles, and before anyone says ‘Year of Return’ and ‘Beyond the Return,’ what exactly are the people returning to? The all-day brunches, all-night parties, adowa dances, and kente stoles can only distract them for so long before the flaws in our health, education, housing, law enforcement, transportation, and natural resource management rear their ugly heads. 

We are rapidly heading towards a situation where everyone who can will leave the shores of this country and then reminisce from a safe distance once a year, with the flag on social media. With every passing day, we are losing our musicians, writers, artists, footballers, presidents, innovators, and scientists simply because there is only a future in Ghana for those who are in power and those close to them. It is easy to leave Ghana behind and not look back- until Philip Gbeho’s masterpiece of an anthem tugs at your heartstrings once every 2 years. 

I am just a girl who wants to thrive in her motherland. I am just a girl who wants to be able to live a decent life in my own country without having to know the powers that be. 

That is not an unrealistic desire. 

It is not impossible to rebuild Ghana. Nations have come back from wars, tsunamis, bombings, genocides, recessions, pandemics and unspeakable things.

There is no excuse under the 4.5 billion-year-old sun why Ghana cannot rebuild and thrive, but it starts with all of us collectively caring about this nation’s future and holding those who lead us accountable.

Who is with me?

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