Yo Osagyefo,
It seems like I haven?t communicated with you for the longest of periods. You know, I still admire you come what may. Ghanaians apparently do as well. ?Se enka nye Kwame Nkrumah a, anka me ne whan, na enka wonso wo wor he?. It?s hard to write Twi without all those orr?s and err?s as ?you may be aware?. Nah, not that kind of ?aware?, I know you are very much against indecent exposure. Anyway, my Twi (chwi) statement translates as follows to the contemporary Ghanaian, ?If it wasn?t for Kwame Nkrumah, like I would have been the who, and you too would be the where?. Don?t you just love your people!
I still love that tribute Obrafour paid to you. I haven?t seen any other tributes, maybe today?s hip hop crowd from the towns of Ghana don?t know you that well. I am sure in the youth movement days when you were the ?who?, there would have been a few ?jama?s sang in your honour. You are true ?Oluman Aletse Kankpe?, only that you are no more. How I wish I knew some of those jama songs! Jay Q?s rocking those jama beats so good these days, man can?t help but nod his head.
Hopefully, you didn?t get bored with my ?new school? language and you are ready to imbibe what knowledge I have for you today. Osagyefo, I want to talk about governance and leadership in Africa. You must be cursing your stars in the grave (probably cursing the Black Stars attache) and gnashing your teeth at the kind of leaders (presidents, head of states, kings, etc) that Africa has these days. Eyadema who you grew up with kicked the bucket this year and only himself knows where he is right now. Funny how he reincarnated right then in the form of his son to rule Togo like Togo was a kingdom. Thanks to Ras Kimono?s ?Under pressure? song, other African leaders came ?to go? to Togo?s rescue and they?ve had elections. As fate may not have it, Faure, his son won and the opponents cried foul of election rigging. Since Africa is evolving from its war scars, a civil war is under the sheets in Togo and Faure would be applying his Western education to his country?s future.
So, I hear so many people preaching good governance in Ghana and for that matter Africa. The National Popular Party (NPP) has been humming it left, right, center promising to promote good governance from Traveller John?s bedroom to Hassan Idrissu?s ?vulcanizing? shop. Other people have come out in support, and are ready to bark when the NPP goes against the ?gari soakings recipe? it is preparing (grain) for all Ghanaians to chop (eat) so that they would hunger no more for ?whiter pastures?. What is governance anyway? Granted, English is not my first language but governance talks about administering, exercising power, controlling people, blah blah blah. So I guess good governance is a good thing for Ghana. Our civil servants need a lot of controlling and administering. The government must exercise its power to stem armed robbery, corruption, fraud investors and those nuances.
But here is where my beef, arguments and concerns arrive. Is it good governance that Ghana needs? Do we just need to control and administer people to do the very things we have done decade in decade out? Osagyefo, the world has changed you know. Even if Ghana was on another planet, its environment would change with time. Do Ghanaians just want people to boss over them? Tell them the way, state the commands, and blabber and talk? As we may have figured out by now, workers in Ghana ain?t in the least bit inspired to do their work. It?s all about getting your paycheck so you can survive; work or no work, productivity or no productivity. How could you blame them when they don?t earn enough and don?t have appreciable benefits?
Well, I guess we should blame the leaders, the bosses, the presidents, the general secretaries, the dictators, the proprietors, the chairmen, and all those titles conjured up out of ?Akwasi Broni?s? lexicon. But Osagyefo, is this the ?way to go? in Africa these days: complaints, criticisms and even more hullabaloo. When would we look to the positives and encourage ourselves? When would we realize that we are capable of ?leading? and ?following? in succeeding in our businesses and economies? When would we inspire ourselves out of mediocrity, idleness and donkey jobs?
Daben da? Is good governance what we need? Is the aim of the government just to govern?
Where is the leadership in any of this talk? Where is the ?forward ever, backward never?? Where?s the inspiration Baba Tankas and Yaw Boogie need to stop playing dame in the afternoon and give some needed attention to their work? Governance indeed!
Shun good governance! We need great leadership. Leadership that is not short of ideas, vision, results, integrity, positive change and values. We need our people in power to lead by example and inspire our citizens to do better for themselves. If the NPP was to be leading the nation, instead of governing it, we would save ourselves the ?Wahala? demonstrations and bickering here and there. Because we have chosen to govern, instituting countless ministers and assistants and providing ?jobs for the boys?, we have people ?chopping money? and continuing the Ghanaian style of giving people ?titles?. Governance indeed!
Traveller John and his friends in government have to give us something to enjoy about Ghana. Osagyefo, we are lost in ?gossip?, private affairs of people in power and constant jawing on our radios. Unity is something that cannot classify our people these days. It?s about time, Ogyakrom?s ?leaders? rallied Ghana behind them, and gave us something really important to waste our time, energy and money talking about. Chatter about development, fixing our education systems, empowering our people and making our people love Ghana.
Governance is good, but Ghanaians need more than the talk and the commands. We need some inspiration, some action and some involvement. We have to feel like we are really improving our nation?s state of affairs. And yes, Osagyefo, we need to Traveller John to set an example; but the ordinary citizen does not need to wait on John. We have leaders amongst us, who are blazing trails day in day out. But because we are so focused on governance, we enjoy seeing and exposing ?corrupt people?. Where is the good news? Where is the inspiration? We should learn that leadership is important in every annal of society. ?Sore, Obibini, sore?. I think Obrafour was in agreement when he wrote those lyrics.
Monsieur Nkrumah, I heard a comment recently on the internet when someone blamed you for Ghana?s downfall and how bad a leader you were. Yes, Osagyefo, you had your faults, but people apparently forgot that most of Ghana?s development occurred in your time. Since you left, not much has happened. But your time is long gone. We need leaders to rally a united nation into Canaan. The best way to teach someone how to fish is to fish with the person.
Yours truly,
Maximus Ojah.
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