I was at circle this evening, I was extremely crestfallen at the damages caused by Wednesdays floods. My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones in this "human preventable disaster ", only God can replace the loss.
Today, the heavy traffic that usually characterize the Okponglo-37-circle road was absent, the usually brisk and crowded circle was virtually empty with a few people either mourning their loss or assessing the extent of damage suffered. This devastating disaster really got me thinking about death and other issues too.
Now don't get me wrong, I have thought about death a couple of times and I have imagined myself dying in my own sleep. But this human preventable disaster got me into deep reflection of new perspectives of the concept of Death ; peaceful death, painful death etc al.
Death circumstances generally took over my imagination. I imagined in my minds eye the conditions of those who either got drowned or burnt in this disaster, what were their last moments like? Pain and agony, panting for breadth, struggling to escape from the burning fire. If you have witnessed someone drowning before you will better appreciate the agonizing conditions under which this victims lived their last moments on earth. No one will prefer to die in such circumstances, but as Julius Caesar said, "death will come when it will come ". If we had choices, I would prefer my death to be 'sleep and never wake up', but no, we have no such choices. This could have happened to anyone.
Now I don't want to sound political about this catastrophe that befell our city, this disastrous loss of human life is as a result of failed leadership over the past 20 years.
In Ancient Greece, great dynasties and civilizations collapsed as a result of growing dissatisfaction among the poor and middle classes .Ghanaian politicians must draw lessons from this, the masses are increasingly loosing confidence in the willingness of the politician to champion and represent their interest.
Members of Parliament who were at the affected areas to sympathize with victims were basically hooted at, the signs are glaring , the wind of change is blowing! A woman at circle emotionally voiced her frustration today' saying," we don't want any politician to come here, they are all liars ". We may experience a change in civilization, a revolution may hit us unaware.
Politicians must wake up and take the citizenry more serious. Politics must be a golden opportunity for one to contribute to the development of the people, not a game to impoverish and rub the masses off their meager resources. Politics must be geared towards problem solving and not problem creation or explanation.
Mother Ghana needs generational political thinkers and actors, not political talkers and reactionaries. The youth must lead this course.
May the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace.
LONG LIVE MY MOTHERLAND, GHANA!
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ANANPANSAH SOLOMON (PASOLO)
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, LEGON.
(0207262608)