A Can-do-attitude Is Far Richer And Helpful Than ...

... Millions Of Dollars In Handouts.

Any attempt to immunize corruption in Africa must be resisted if the various African countries want to become a First World country. What Africa needs is a more detailed law not just general guidelines to deal with corruption.

It is unhelpful and even strange for a Sitting President to say that corruption is just a perception and must stay in the heads of the citizenry. Even more serious is for a President to think that by just reporting allegations of corruption to the police they will solve the problem of corruption; when we know very well that the police force is the first depot of this cancer.

A President should rather tell the nation how he is going to enforce a “Zero Tolerance” policy. A more proactive commitment of the reigning government to go in a specific direction to tackle corruption would have been more useful and soothing to a nation battling with political thievery. As a continent, there is no way Africa can attract serious private investors if the government would not take solid action against people found to be corrupt including its own ministers.

According to Ghana General News of Friday, 10 February 2006 the Transparency International (TI) has cautioned the President of Ghana, J. A. Kufuor, to take corruption perceptions in Ghana seriously, since investors mostly take their decisions based on perceptions.

Thus it should be a crime for any politician (and the citizenry) to accept and endorse corruption as a public image of any country. It is a cancer that must be dealt with irrespective of the size and location. It is time for African countries to look beyond her present condition and situation and visualize a better future. The future must begin today. The attitude and perception of the general populace would determine how far Africa can go. It is the wish of this author that Africa would say the sky is her limit and behave and work to that end. Like on her colt of arms, Ghana and her neighbors in Africa must start behaving like the Eagle and take flight with a similar attitude.

Eagles are lightweight animals yet extremely strong, hollow yet highly flexible. Bald eagles, for instance, have 7,000 feathers which protect the bird from the cold as well as the heat of the sun, by trapping layers of air. To maintain its body temperature an eagle simply changes the position of its feathers. While an eagle suns itself on a cold morning, it ruffles and rotates its feathers so that the air pockets are either opened to the air or drawn together to reduce the insulating effect. An eagle's wings are long and broad, making them effective for soaring. To help reduce turbulence as air passes over the end of the wing, the tips of the feathers at the end of the wings are tapered so that when the eagle fully extends its wings, the tips are widely separated (www.baldeagleinfo.com).

Like the eagle’s feathers, laws against corruption will provide waterproofing and protection, and are crucial for Africa’s flight. Like the eagle’s feathers a law on corruption in the various African countries would be the only means to deter others and save the nations not platitudes and feel good speeches. Africa needs to adopt a strong policy on corruption.

What is Africa’s strategy for eliminating corruption in the realms of power, call it higher places ? To help them soar, eagles use thermals, which are rising currents of warm air and updrafts generated by terrain, such as valley edges or mountain slopes. Soaring is accomplished with very little wing-flapping, enabling them to conserve energy. Long-distance migration flights are accomplished by climbing high in a thermal, then gliding downward to catch the next thermal, where the process is repeated. How far has Africa flown since independence? And is she prepared to go anywhere at all?

God has endowed all men grace and power to achieve beyond what we see. It all begins with a dream, a plan and a will to do. “Where there is a will there is a way”. Like begets like and we are what we think we are. It is imperative therefore that Africa sees herself beyond Africa and the African mentality of mediocrity. Africa can no longer measure itself with African countries since they have refused to grow up in nation building.

Independent Africa would have to take a cue from Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and other Asian countries who were born the same time of their independence. These countries among others were less rich than many of these African countries on assumption of independence in terms of cash. Even now in terms of natural and human resources Africa may be considered to have more advantage, yet today Asia is hundred times better off than Africa,. The difference between Africa and Asia is that they (Asians) did not become complacent and stopped dreaming big. They did not compare themselves with their under developed neighbors and stopped dreaming but they worked their way up through thick and thin.

At first we may feel insignificant and powerless in achieving our dreams but if we keep on meditating and working towards them they will come to pass. Where there is no vision there is no results. A can-do-attitude is far richer and helpful than millions of dollars in handouts.

It is time for Africa to claim and think towards actual independence. It may not be easy from the onset but we all know that ‘Rome was not built in a day. A mediocre thinking cannot produce excellence. African governments cannot and must not expect a higher standard of living if they are not serious in dealing with corruption in government. The spill over of corruption is just unbelievable. It is even sad when many Africans think and feel that it is the way of life of the African and that the problem will remain till ‘thy kingdom come.’

It is heartbreaking to hear some Africans argue vehemently in favor of regimes that have looted from the country and killed many great minds of their countries; to cry for the return of the rule of fear and intimidation because of what riches and fame they would have made out of such regimes.

Folks, let us begin to debate and discuss meaningful ways we Africans can employ to arrest this monster and canker, corruption. We all know that corruption is not just some perception in Africa that we only put in our heads. It is real. The facts and figures are obvious. Other Asian countries have done it. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel we just have to study what has been done before and see how best we can fit the module in our African context. Instead of opposing vehemently structures like the Representation of the People’s Amendment Bill (ROPAB) which would inevitably help Ghana, for example, in arriving at this goal of self-sufficiency the opposition parties need to embrace it and move on to real issues.

One of the issues raised against ROPAB is fear of corruption-(i.e., rigging of elections). The fact still remains that the rigging of elections will still be an issue even if Ghanaians are restricted to only vote in Ghana. It is even more serious an issue in Ghana/Africa than in the Diaspora. As Africans, we should thus be more apt to deal with the real issues of eliminating corruption; first, in politics and then in our everyday lives.

How do you as an individual African think you can stop corruption? Send your comments and views today to your local and national representatives. Some government official may be taking some notes. Who knows? It is the hope of this author that you would not just point fingers at someone else. What we need is real solutions not a jury of judges. We need to have the can-do-attitude and stop depending on foreign aid for our own development as Africans. Fat loans are not the solution to Africa’s problems.

Africa’s problem lies in not recognizing what God/Nature has endowed her with. Africans have almost every rich natural resource- gold, diamond, bauxite, timber, manganese, the sea, the lakes, rivers and many more. Yet they are not exploring them beyond what the ‘Whiteman’ will tell them. Laws of the land do not encourage indigenous investment and exploration either. Wake up Africa from your slumber!

The people of God in Isaiah’s time had blinded their minds’ ability to see God by looking on the face of idols. But Isaiah made them look up at the heavens; that is, he made them begin to use their power to think and to visualize correctly. Likewise Africa needs the leadership that will help to remove the scales from the eyes of the people which are preventing their vision to see beyond themselves, to see beyond their desperation and helplessness; to see beyond their dependency syndrome.

African’s must begin to use their power of intelligence to think and to visualize correctly. This begins with hope and love for others. A good-natured environment where there is healthy competition not jealousy and ill-feeling towards success; not stabbing peoples’ backs or the pull-down syndrome. We need to reason that where one African is successful it is the success of all of us. Success begets success. Therefore as we learn to help others on their way to the top we would also be helped to get there too.

On the other hand as we pull people from the top we all end up down desperate in the valley of dry bones. Let us help others to climb to the mountain top so we can see what great opportunities lay on the other side. The politics of revenge and hatred would only stalk and halt Africa’s desired development. It would only make it sick as a continent/nation.

If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in nature and will realize that it is holy and sacred. We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades if leadership would only begin to use her thinking to visualize the good in each and every one. The real test of growth and development-focus are being able to bring our minds and thoughts under control; especially from hatred and animosity of others. Is the African’s mind focused on the face of destroying his or her country? By focusing only on yourself and what you can steal from the country you are saying, “To hell with Africa. Are you focused on what you can do to help Africa grow to a First-World status?

Our political elite in spite of all their credentials would need to have a servant’s attitude. The idea of leadership must mean and translate into service to the people. Leadership is about providing service to the people not robbing from the people. A good leader gives and makes sure all his or her people are self sufficient, able to fend for themselves. This ought to be our idea of what a public servant should be. Anything contrary is arrogance and blindness. Hence the tendency to remain powerless when faced with difficulties.

As a continent, Africans are forced to endure in darkness as we do not recognize the fact that leadership is all about vison and service to the people not self glorification. As a continent we become stale and unable to move forward if the power of leadership to see the future is being blinded by what it can procure for itself. Leadership ought not to look into its own experiences, but look to others in the polity. Learning to look beyond ourselves is the sign of good and great leadership. For by serving others we please God. It is God we need not necessarily the material things.

May Africa’s leadership go beyond itself and away from the idols of money and wealth and learn to place people above and beyond fame or from everything else that have been blinding her thinking? May leadership wake up and accept their oath of office and the promise they gave to the people on Election Day; and may they deliberately turn their thoughts and their eyes from themselves to the nation.

Comprehension

1. What key message is the author is trying to convey?

2. Review the article

3. Summarise the article in your own words (Maximum of 150 words)