You are not in Ghana. Why do you care?
This is a question I get often, either in response to my facebook posts or input in WhatsApp groups. I have been tagged NDC for my views. Not that I care. I don’t.
Why do I post about happenings in Ghana when I don’t live there? I ask myself sometimes. I wish I knew why. Truth is, I can’t help it. Few times I have tried to stop myself from posting. Unfortunately, like someone addicted to illicit drugs or a lovestruck partner in an abusive relationship, I can’t. No matter how hard I try.
I love Ghana. She is in my heart. She is me. Just as I cannot hide who I am, I cannot stop myself from being concerned about what happens with my first love.
I chose Canada, where I now reside, because she is aspirational. It doesn’t mean she has it all together. Far from that. Canada has her own issues to deal with regarding treatment of First Nations, eradicating systemic racism, tackling the opioid crisis among others. On a less serious note, as someone from the tropics, I am still getting used to the cold temperatures here, even after almost a decade and a half of living here..
The difference however, is that I see Canada and her institutions making a genuine effort to get better. Unlike Ghana, meritocracy is, to a large extent, the norm rather than the exception in Canada. From coast to coast, lake by lake, large and small, Canada protects her environment like her very existence depends on it. Her universal education and healthcare systems, while not perfect, are at the core of ensuring social mobility and providing a safety net, irrespective of one’s background..
When I post about what is happening in Ghana – the unbridled corruption, the helplessness in the face of emboldened destruction of the environment, the contamination of precious water bodies like Tano, Pra, Ankobra, Abby Lagoon with mercury and clay from Galamsey, the planned mining of bauxite in Atewa Forest Reserve, the source of critical rivers like Densu and Ayensu with possible dire consequences on future availability of water to millions of Ghanaians in spite of concerns from environmentalists, pictures of children learning under trees while some of their compatriots flaunt their ill gotten wealth, I cannot stay quiet. I will not stay quiet.
We are making progress. Yes. Rome was not built in a day. Agreed. We have gone from basic and secondary level education being the preserve of a few who can pay to free universal basic and secondary education. Not since the first republic has Ghana seen infrastructure, covering healthcare, road network, aviation, communication and education improve by leaps and bounds. While we don’t yet have free universal basic healthcare, a skeletal national health insurance scheme is in place, which, when not drowning in debt from corruption, enables poor Ghanaians to access basic healthcare or some semblance of it.
Even then, could we have done better? Definitely. But how? One may ask.
Let us start by being SERIOUS about fighting corruption. Both major political parties (NPP and NDC) have failed us woefully. We have watched people with political connections become millionaires overnight. We have seen contracts given to people with no expertise in the area, or to companies formed overnight with no track record, nothing but a political party affiliation. The recent Contracts for Sale saga, uncovered by ace investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni is a case in point.
Granted, one President cannot be everywhere. But even when they get to know, like the Brazil saga under NDC, or the Galamsey saga under NPP, NOTHING happens, making any talk about fighting corruption, nepotism, blatant conflict of interest situations and cronyism nothing but empty cymbals. Now even the peace Ghanaians enjoy in the democratic process is being threatened with impunity, by party fanatics and vigilantes parading as national security, and either egged on by people who should know better or those who look the other way and pretend nothing is going on. Even citizenship is no longer guaranteed for citizens. Media houses continue to be intimidated into self- censorship.
I cannot keep quiet. I will not keep quiet. Do my postings offend you? Well then, I hope it spurs you on to question whether what we have accepted as a way of life cannot get better.
Thank you Elvina