Nobody can develop Ghana for us

development (features)

Nobody can develop Ghana for us

By Stephen Sah

SOMETIMES, I wonder what is wrong with the third world and for that matter Ghanaian development because of the enormous human and natural resources available. If natural resources were anything to go by then no country on the African continent including Ghana, should be less developed for its citizens to be in the present predicament they find themselves.
And when a couple of weeks ago, a Trades Unionist rightly hit the nail on the head by declaring that all government policies had failed a government official swiftly refuted that statement and launched a counter attack to deceive everybody that all was well?
In the third world taxonomy, all the countries are characterised by very low standards of living, the result of which is the lack of the basic necessities of life. If one takes into account the taxes that are collected by the government and the natural resources which are exploited one wonders where the money goes to.
Is it the government which should take the blame for the poor state of affairs in the country for not being able to effectively account for all that is collected? Of course, the government cannot escape blame for the turn of events because it has the responsibility to do the right thing for the sake and well-being of the citizens.
Since politicians always seek the peoples mandate through elections and try to do all in their power to make the well-being of the citizens their avowed they should wake up from their partisan and self-seeking interests and put national interest first in all their endeavours. It is one thing to get the peoples mandate and another thing to do what is expected to bring the desired results.
In Ghana, for example, all the various policies that had been initiated by the governments since independence had not made things better for Ghanaians. If anything at all things are rather getting out of hand. Period.
Apart from what development experts and/or theorists have posited as reasons for the underdevelopment of countries in the third world taxonomy, such as the lack of education, lack of good leadership and good governance, corruption, and the lack of political will, among others, there seem to be a serious missing link - which is the attitude of the people themselves to the way and manner things are done.
Until that changes no amount of foreign capital inflow or even prayers can redeem us from our current predicament of abject poverty.
Although the TUC official was right in his assertion without empirical data, the NPP government should not fret on such a fact because, neither the government nor it predecessors should single-handedly be blamed for the failure of policies.
In spite of the above point, someone must take the blame for this lurid state of affairs because some countries which have moved up on the development ladder into middle class, for instance, those who were on the same pedestal as Ghana, have made giant strides towards development with commitment and dedication. It is not all too an issue with donor support or aid but what the local people could do for the needed change to happen.
The people of Ghana are equally responsible for the present predicament in which our country finds herself in the comity of world polity. It was about time we changed certain aspects of the way things are done in this country in order to meet challenges of the century. And there is no denying the fact that a biting or hard government will make this happen.
If our governments will not continue to take drastic measures because of the fear of the power of the thumb then we better forget about democracy since the sweetness of the pudding, it is said, is in its eating.
Ghana can only be developed by Ghanaians and no other people, not even with the massive inflow of foreign aid or donor support. It is through commitment and dedication to the course of the country that any policy embarked upon by any government in this country will work out. Without a tutored peoples no meaningful implementation can succeed.
Maybe, we should take a cue from the seemingly workable policy being implemented to the full by the MTTU boss Mr Victor Tandoh; that policy to ensure that commercial vehicles carried the required number of passengers seems to be working. This is because at least every Ghanaian in the cities was committed to its success and supported by disciplining our mental capacities that it was through that we could stop some of the nasty practices by those mini buses, for example.
We don’t expect government policy to work when people in government are corrupt and only in power because of their stomachs, when we do not play the role expected of us as citizens by paying our taxes, by not being patriotic to the course of the country and not condoning bad practices. We cannot run away from the fact that our governments have failed us woefully, but we as a country do not ponder over on how every facet of the national economy is infested with a kind of sickness, the diagnosis of which require all Ghanaians to be physicians; that many people have become rich overnight at the expense of the nation without paying their workers well and not paying taxes, that corruptuion and smuggling and other covert activities have become rampant under the very prying eyes and connivance of the very state officials who are to ensure that the right things are done? The revenue collection agencies, for example, at the end of every year declare having met their targets by collecting so much for the state since there are no proper accounting machinery to know how much had gone into private pockets? It is just for anyone to visit the airport, Tema Port or even the Post Offices to see how importers and travellers go through very depressing times to clear their consignments. You will even sympathise with them for colluding with the very officials to do the wrong thing? Ghana should begin to question the sources of peoples’ wealth so that if anybody has more than they earn they could be made to account for their ill-gotten wealth. Without this any thief can go away in the name of doing business because they will not be asked to account for a pesewa. Recently when a major bank robbery took place in the UK, people who went to the banks to deposit physical cash of more than five thousand pounds were arrested and questioned about the source(s) of the monies.
Apart from the fact that Ghanaians are poorly paid everything in this country seem to be virtually in a mess and in fact free: Take for instance cheating landlords who rent out their shabbily constructed rooms to lowly paid. One may ask how many of them really pay taxes on the rent that they receive. Most entrepreneurs who operate companies in this country will team up with government officials stationed there to ensure the right taxes or things are done to milk the country. Woe betide anyone who blew the whistle. Not quite long ago, a friend of mine was going to get accommodation which was to be paid by the University of Ghana. The university insisted on taking the tax from the rent before making any payments and knowing the fate that lay ahead of him my friend quickly gathered money from somewhere to make up for that tax deduction and added it to the landlord’s rent advance. So you see? No such thing can go on in any of the advanced countries. This is not to say that nasty things don’t happen in those countries. They do but people are always cautious of what they do because of the repercussions, should they be caught by the law.
In this country everybody wants to play it fast and care not about what will happen afterwards. People do not care a hoot about state property and think that it belongs to the government and for that matter anybody can dip their hands in to them. People can destroy public roads or other public properties without replacing them and they could still go unpunished. My Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana once said that while in the US, a school pupil of less than 10 years was able to question a gardener who was pruning flowers. According to him, the pupil thought the man was damaging the flowers which belonged to all Americans and for that matter he could not alone destroy them. In the UK the people are so disciplined that even on the road where there is no police presence people did the right thing by slotting in some coins to get tickets for either travelling on buses or parking their vehicles on sections of the road. Will this ever be adhered to in Ghana? Certainly, the answer is no because even telephone booths which are provided for use are being abused by people who try to cheat on the system. Ghanaians will always ignore the few garbage bins in the streets and drop litters on the street or even use the bins for undesignated garbage.
The laws in this country do not bite because one can easily make his way out by offering a few cedis to the law enforcement personnel. The new generation of Ghanaians can make greater things happen for us if we remained patriotic to the country’s course and discard the notion that we will be labelled as being too known and called names. If we acquiesce wrong doing without insisting that the right thing is done our country will forever remain in this state and not move forward in her development. Insist on the right thing and see to it that it is done. If we purge ourselves as in dividuals there is no way politicians or government officials can take us for a ride. With very promising policies put up by the government and supportive citizens then progress will be inevitable but without which nobody should put accusing fingers at anybody and we will remain in our lawless jungle poverty forever. We should not forget that at our current stage of development we have more than 200 years to catch up with those countries we aspire to be like. We should also not delude ourselves into believing that come 2015 Ghana achieve the much publicised middle income status when we do not change the way things are done.This calls for all hands on the deck and eschewing mediocrity. A new generation is needed for the challenges ahead such that we will shirk apathy and begin to ask questions.If we want the government alone to be responsible for the developemnt of our country then God save us.