RE: Ghana Is A Success Story

Sometimes, I find it very hard to come to terms with why the African thinks that telling lies is the roadway to a faster-paced development. But the more I try to break the myth around why many of us lie (especially those in the game of politics), the more confused I become because what I hear is more lies being told.

And generally, lying becomes more intense in Africa getting close to general elections. And it looks like African politicians just try to ‘out lie’ one another because in Africa, it pays to tell a lie. In fact, I have come to believe that politics in Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa is all about who can tell the ‘best’ lies.

I have been reading and hearing many outlandish stories these days. But the one that beat me most this political season is a story written by Asiedu-Young, Bellinia, which appeared on www.ghanaweb.com on Wednesday, October 22, 2008, headlined, ‘Ghana is a Success Story’.

In several aspects, Ghana can be described as a success story, but Bellinia’s context certainly does not make Ghana a success story. What his description did was rather to make Ghana a laughing stock in several dimensions.

Why? Ghana was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to attain independence from her colonial master, Great Britain. Ghana can also pride herself in the fact that she has never experienced a civil war. But I would prefer we do better at ensuring peace for all. After all, Ghana is ranked 41st out of 121 countries on the Global Peace Index – so who says we can’t do better here? Our country can also pride herself as the first Sub-Saharan African country and the only black nation to produce a UN Secretary General.

Beyond these, I am not too sure our records are those that we can really be proud of. All the industries that sprang up immediately after independence have all been collapsed by the greedy kleptocrats. All the universities have been left to deteriorate and are all left in a sorry state (refer to the December 2007 Report by a Visitation Panel to the University of Ghana).

Indeed, these days, it’s not so uncommon to find pupils attend school under trees. The present Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) once glorified the ‘schools under trees project.’ He has gone on and established the novel ‘schools under trees project’ – so this is how far our nation has come 51 odd years of ‘greed-dependence.’ Of course, the GES boss is not aware that the harsh conditions of attending school under trees alone can lower the intelligence quotient of the school children.

When I read the article written by the arrogant self-styled publicist, Bellinia, I could not help but agree with my old time social psychologist friend who says that Ghana does not have independence but rather ‘greed-dependence.’ He believes that our leaders have been subsisting on greed since they decided to send the colonial master away from the Osu Castle. That according to him is what makes the politician lies his way up to the very top. So to my old friend, we do not have independence, but rather ‘greed-dependence’. If Bellinia had visited Ghana over the past decade, I am not very sure he would have published his piece the way he did without seeking some lessons in rudimentary editing. You don’t just publish a story because it’s coming from a public official, otherwise, why is there a need for editors and proof readers in an average newsroom?

Bellinia made many false claims but there are some that are so scandalous! To the extent that the writer stated in his second paragraph that ‘…They have already completed a 6-lane road along the stretch from Accra to Ofankor’ further demonstrates how ignorantly arrogant some of our compatriots can be. Are there two types of the Accra to Ofankor road? The dual carriage way (of course it’s not six-lane but rather four – two on each side) only ends at the foot of the Achimota overpass. And from that end of the road, drivers experience what a Ghanaian radio host recently described as ‘man-hole selection.’ Because the craters on the road from that end to the old Ofankor barrier are so unfriendly that road users have to select the man holes they fall in from the ones they can skip.

If Bellinia refuses to visit home, he shouldn’t get up and post just anything on the internet. Or better still, he can use this veritable learning resource of the internet to educate himself on how our country has seriously retrogressed over the past five decades. Did we not start with Malaysia? Did we not begin with Korea and Singapore around the same time? Man, I beg of you, go and read Lee Kwan Yew’s From Third World to First World. Did you just arrive from Mars?

Indeed some roads are being done in Ghana but yet the quality is another case altogether. The writer of the feature, I believe, lives in Ontario, Canada. My question is, how many open culvert roads have you seen in Ontario ever since you arrived there? How many feeder roads have you seen since you got there?

As for the Takoradi road, the least said, the better. I have worked in the western part of Ghana and I could not believe myself why the people from that region still cast their ballots during elections. Some of the roads in that region are so horrible that when you are driving you begin to wonder whether you are still here on earth. The irony however is that the gold, diamond, timber, bauxite, cocoa, rubber and a host of other mineral resources come from that region.

Please, Bellinia, no major highway is being constructed as I write from Cape Coast to Sekondi and for your information there has always been a direct link between Accra and Abidjan. The attestation is the fact that Ghanaian State Transport buses make regular uninterrupted trips from Accra through Elubo on the border to Abidjan on a daily basis. If my memory serves me right, the Takoradi to Elubo road was completed in the late 1980s. I have to admit though that that road needs a major overhaul!

If Bellinia was paid to write what he did, then I would humbly urge his paymasters to ask for their pay cheque because he woefully failed to deliver. If he was just trying to be a good impression manager for a group he admires, I plead with him to learn the tricks of the job or worse still if he was just being mischievous, I’d ask him to pipe down – because discerning people are reading.

There are several inaccuracies in his piece but I wouldn’t waste more time on some of them. The last time I drove on the Aflao road, my car had to be grounded for a few days! Why? Yes! The road has been constructed up to some point. But I am not too sure whether the roads are just being done for votes or for whatever. There are some villages on the Aflao road where the townsfolk have decided to improvise their own speed rumps because speeding cars not only endanger their lives through accidents but also because the cloud of dust which covers their hamlets exposes them to respiratory infections!

Although I agree that it’s easy to win the hearts and minds of an illiterate population with lies and half truths, I believe the lying is becoming too many these days. Recent statistics show that at least 60 percent of Ghana’s population is still illiterate and I want to believe that people like Bellinia and his friends believe that feeding the minds of our compatriots with Dr Paul Joseph Geobel-style lies is the only way out.

I have a humble place at East Legon in Accra. In fact, it’s always a nightmare driving on the less than eight kilometre road to join the motorway. The intriguing thing however about the horrible nature of the roads at the East Legon area is that that environment is perceived as the place for the bourgeoisie. Interestingly, some of the politicians have managed to ‘cure’ the roads in front of the homes with lush green grass and the best coal tar, leaving the less connected in the area to their fate.

Bellinia, Ghana is certainly not a success story yet! If Canadians had been fed with half the dose of lies our people are being fed with, I am not sure Ontario would be how you see it today! We can do better! If we are at the 69th position out of 179 countries on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, we can do better!

If we are at the 91st position out of 157 nations on the Economic Freedom Index, we can do better! In fact, this last one tells you how well we might be doing as a nation! I am very much aware that this is the season of ‘roads’ and more development – because native Ghanaian wisdom prescribes that development only takes place during election years but please, let us ‘cure’ the lies we sell a bit!

Kwabena Mprah Jnr

Email: kmprah@gmail.com