Advice for the President: An Application of the Parable of Talents

One of my favourite professor friends once advised me to never behave like the man in the parable of talents who was given one thousand coins.

Depending on what version of the bible you have or what reference it is you are making, you would want to call it “the parable of the three servants”, or “the parable of the talents” found in Matthew 25: 14-30 (or the parable of the minas in Luke 19:11-27)

A master was travelling on a journey. He entrusted his property in the hands of his servants; each according to his ability. To one he gave 5,000 coins; to another, 2,000 coins, and then to a third, 1,000. When he returned and settled accounts with them, the first and second had each doubled their amounts; 10,000, and 4,000, respectively. The third servant returned the exact same amount his master gave him to his master, saying, “I know you are a hard man; you reap harvests where you did not sow, and you gather crops where you did not scatter seeds”. The first two servants won the favor of their master, to share in his happiness. The third servant incurred his wrath, and would “cry and grind his teeth.”

We, the electorate, are the “master”. The president, with his government, is our servant. We entrust our country in his hands, and we journey from one electoral year to another. In December, 2008, when we embarked on one of our numerous trips, we gave him a certain thousand of coins. We are going to be back in December, 2012! We shall settle accounts with him. If he was able to increase (double) that “certain thousand of coins”, we shall declare to him, “Come and share in our happiness” until December, 2016. If he turns out to be the third servant in the parable of talents, we shall take the power from him, by the power of our thumbs, and he shall “cry and grind his teeth!”

The President took office in a very bad time, and that is indisputable; a time when the global economy decayed. He inherited high fiscal deficits, high inflation, among others. Yes! But Ghanaians trusted him to build them a “Better Ghana” as per his manifesto and promises. We are going to judge him when we return from that Journey in 2012 according to what he promised us, vis-à-vis what he delivered to us. Is it jobs he has created, especially for the unemployed youth? Is it robust economic growth we are seeing? Do we feel any economic improvements in our pockets, and in our families? Are we more secured now than we have ever been? These, and many other pressing questions are those we are going to remind ourselves of when we go to the polls in December, 2012.

My heart bleeds for our dear country. I was very glad when the President said in his inaugural speech on Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, that he would be a father to all Ghanaians, whether they voted for him or not; and that he would heal wounds and unite the country. The president promised us that he had no wish to carry out political vendetta of any kind. Today, he has been coerced, albeit unwillingly or unwittingly, to go back on those words.

Earlier this year, the Attorney-General hinted there was going to be prosecution spree of erstwhile government officials this year. And she didn’t mince words at all. What Kwadwo Mpiani, *et al, *are currently going through is a testimony of the AG’s declarations. It is indeed sad that critics have compelled the President to allow events to get out of his own wishes. Prof Mills has a good heart; what we see today is the corollary of these critics’ back and forth.

It is not for me to condemn or justify the charges, and prosecutions, etc of former government officials. But is that how we want to build a Better Ghana? Are we going to concentrate our efforts on growing the economy, creating jobs for people, making life better for every Ghanaian, irrespective of their political persuasion? Or is power an opportunity to victimize and implicate people who don’t share in our political inclinations, or had wronged us in the past?

December, 2012 is not far from now. And it is immaterial to me who gets the power to rule our dear nation. What I do care about though, is who moves Ghana forward in the right direction. The President and his government must remember that we, the “master” (the electorate) will not be gone forever; we shall return from our journey by December, 2012. And when we do, we are *not * going to judge his government by how many successful prosecutions they have made; nor are we going to even consider what they were bequeathed by the previous administration (whether 1,000 coins or otherwise). We are going to settle accounts with him, and depending on the accounts, we shall say to him and his government, “come and share in our happiness; stay until 2016” or “bad servant; go cry, and grind your teeth until 2016”

God Bless Ghana, and God Bless Us All.

Iddisah Sulemana

(iddisah@gmail.com)