Opinions of Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Columnist: Berchie, Kwame Opoku

Bye-Bye Common Sense! You Will Be Missed!

It was with much joy that I read on Peace FM’s website about the progress in the investigation of what I term the biggest disgrace of the year by no other than our own University students from Legon. I hope the police will not relent and the authorities will speed up their response in helping to apprehend these students.
As the politicians are busy politicizing every matter in our country, one would think that the youth of today who are the supposed future leaders will be training themselves in not only the academic discourse but also in a very morally upright manner. In a year when students are fighting to achieve academic laurels elsewhere, when Africa as a continent is continually being disregarded and is in need of ‘torchbearers’ like Martin Luther King, in a year when Africa is supposed to be focused on development issues and striving to show our ancestors who fought for our freedom that we are on the right path what are we seeing? The state is spending money on educating the youth, a generation seeking to take control of their own destiny and compete with similar age-groups all over the world that are also studying and working hard for the betterment of not only their lives but their respective societies.
I still cannot believe that amidst the chaos and confusion, university students shirked all their responsibilities as young adults and literally stripped themselves of all forms on sanity. We need the crème-de-la-crème of our younger generation for a better Ghana. THIS shows clearly how far we have gone in that regard. In 2011 when people are moving forward on all fronts, in the land of the black there is war and chaos and those who are expected to take over the reins of our morally corrupt leaders of today have chosen to watch and learn of the evils of the world today. The President should make this a personal matter and let the police realize that this is an urgent matter but no. Newspapers n Radio stations gave this issue 2-3 days attention and that was it. When the white man bypasses the AU to solve our problems for us, we always feel we are being trampled upon. How can educated young people find any joy in inserting their fingers in the private parts of a subdued criminal of the weaker sex and not only laugh but videotape it for possible “future enjoyment”?? To those who seem to think that the students should be left alone because after all, “this is very normal”, I have a message for you too. You are the most dangerous kind of people in any society. You know when an act is deemed criminal but you use different indices to judge other situations especially when it involves young people whose future will be put in great jeopardy if found guilty. That is one of the emotionally-charged sympathy that is also degrading the application of law when needed. All crime is crime so unless you are telling me that if this is done to your innocent daughters you’d still say the same thing then please criticize these barbarians with the disgust they deserve. They will all graduate soon and join the ranks of the society and be looking forward to your daughters hand in marriage. Are these the kind of gentlemen you want your daughters to marry in future? Please know that you cannot continue to feel sorry for people no matter how young they are only to call for action when it happens in your backyard. People like you who do that are the exact reason for the moral decay of this society. I hope God repays such people (students) tenfold and may they never stop to remember what they did. I wished SOMEBODY will actually take this up and start focusing on issues like this but sadly I am so inclined into believing that this will forever be a utopian idea looking at the reality on the ground. Take the Newspapers from the past couple of days and make a count of their headlines and tell me how many times this incident was reported. We are all too focused on politics this, politics that! The leaders and the ‘adults’ in today’s society are involved in their own despicable exchanges reducing themselves to nothing more than politically hungry people who will say whatever it takes to satisfy their tiny political urges with no regard whatsoever to the fate of the young observers in our country who look up to them with so much hope and expectation and are always left scratching their heads with different types of quizzical looks and feeling a bit done by, by these adults of high moral standards. Gone are the days when a young person will listen to an adult and take their advice seriously. You are seriously losing your foothold on society we beg you, please exercise some decorum and respect for each other because we are looking up to you. To the politicians especially, never forget that one day when you are all wrinkled and immobile, you may live in a country of insane leaders because you helped train them. When a criminal is subdued and educated students who should know better, decide to act like barbarians and cavemen, then juxtapose that with what is happening with this Dagbon crisis and what the ‘adults’ are also doing with it, then there are darker days ahead!!
Bring these wicked cavemen to justice and save our daughters and sisters from marrying these sex-maniacs! That’s what common sense and the rule of law demands!! Dragging our feet and politicizing every issue in our country has ended up eroding the common sense that used to prevail in this country. May God bless Ghana and its people and guard us to the part of righteousness.

Kwame Opoku Berchie
Facebook Group: KASA