STILL THINKING…..
STRIPPING
IT DOWN TO MY LEVEL….
Just
in case you have a difficulty with leaving your old ideas in “OLD GHANA’S
COFFIN”, I’ve good news for you. There is an opportunity for you to invest
principled and globally–tested ideas we have failed to use in the past, but
relevant to these times, into the building of the “NEW GHANA” estate. It’s all
about the final transition period from the “OLD” to “NEW”.
Anyway,
just thought I’d swing some thoughts your way to ponder over this weekend at
home, at your funeral gatherings, at your weddings, naming ceremonies, political
meetings, religious meetings, chop bars, your various hangouts including “Pork and
Chinchinga”, “Omo Tuo”, “JAZZ Houses”, “Pubs”, chilling spots as well as your
beach, sight-seeing activity and after church and mosque communion.
Doesn’t
it make logical sense that with our astronomical levels of unemployment, we
should pursue the principle of “Expanded Economic Activity” that stimulates
specifically targeted areas and creates jobs rather than focus on “Growth
Figures”. The reality is that economic history globally has proven that you can
have “Jobless Growth”. And Isn’t our economy structured as an economy of an
already developed nation when in reality we are not? “We get head?”…”We get
thinking?” lol
Still
using my head, it is my considered opinion that our sharp focus should be on the
number of opportunities that would create jobs at all levels, especially the
youth, women, the unskilled, the masses, create small businesses, give tax
revenue to the state, reduce crime, stabilise and strengthen families, as well
as develop technologies.
What
specific structural changes or redefinition of our economy should we embark on
as a nation to realise expodential growth and meaningful job creation?
What
kind of thinking, posture, planning, strategy and concrete action should
characterize this structural change to ensure it attains the best results?
My
candid opinion is that our economic development since Dr Kwame Nkrumah exited
the “Hot Seat”, has been embarrassingly timid, with wobbly movements of
resurrection just within the beginning of the 4th Republic till now.
It is time we challenge ourselves to strategically and forcefully break out of
this never-ending-cycle of failure, to pursue an ambitious, globally-competitive
vision, bold new ideas, and put in place new growth poles as well as effective
implementation planning. It is time to unleash our dormant untapped potential
to produce and supply the kinds of volumes required to enter major agricultural
produce markets around the world, and provide an alternative to some industrial
products imported into Ghana as well as those imported by other West African
countries from around the world. Off course the government of the day has the
duty to intentionally stimulate domestic demand for products of our existing
and new industrial drive. Lets’ cut out the slave thinking, excuses, and think
through and beyond possibility into achieving. We must strategically position
ourselves as a nation diligently at work to make a better life for itself.
We
must progress from despair to hope, transform possibility into reality and
ideals into facts. We should take big decisions about concrete strategic
objectives.
Planned
democracy is when a nation takes a deliberate strategic decision based on
factual research of its strengths, weakness, and culture, to develop and
operate a democratic system suitable to it as a means of achieving set
objectives, ultimately reaping tangible benefits. “NA GOOD DEMOCRACY WE GO CHOP”??
“IT MUST BRING BETTER FOR OUR POCKET AND LIFE”!! All the democratic and good
governance accolades we proudly carry around our necks should result in big
time economic benefits. The “GATEWAY TO WEST AFRICA PROJECT” should have been
the catalyst for our economic revolution because of our God-given Geo-political
strategic positioning. International Geo-politics is all about making yourself
relevant. It’s all about strategic thinking, strategic interests, strategic
alignments and alliances as well as strategic action.
Where
is our robust national fundraising (capital formation) strategy)? Where are our
robust national tourism and national business development strategies. Where are
the new generation think tanks? Where is our extraordinary courage and capacity to
go big time?
When
a hungry lion appears in the compound of your high-walled house, and you
are
faced with a life-threatening challenge, you don’t throw your hands up
in
despair. The dangerous situation should make demands on your untapped,
underutilised
potential and challenge you to harness energies from within you to scale the
high wall you normally would not attempt scaling. In the process of
scaling the
wall, you could set a new high jump record (a new invention, innovation, value
addition). Confronting, engaging and surmounting challenge is
interesting and
exciting, a culture that must be and remain with us. The naked reality
is that,
we are endangering ourselves by our “BUSINESS-AS-USUAL conduct in this
fast,
complex and ever-changing global-spirited world. Urgency should be a
daily dose. and may I remind you that the road to failure is paved with excuses.
Fellow Ghanaians, we are in real danger and
the earlier we woke up, the better!
Moving
on……how about a vision of Ghana that transcends political parties? China’s
Chairman Mao admonished politicians to be statesmen. He went on to explain that
politicians talk and never deliver but statesmen mean what they say and deliver
what they say. He further counsels all leaders to unify their people, accommodate
even those who offend them and bring minority groups together. Finally he
stresses that leadership should not be populist. It is policy that should be
populist.
I
have serious issues with Ghana’s political world…..the structure of political
parties, mentality and conduct of actors, processes for the choice of
candidates relative to a 21st century progressive national
development agenda, the quality of candidates, the devalued mediocre standards,
the irrelevant, useless, and globally embarrassing public utterances.
Massa,
and are you not sick and tired of the same empty clichés “We are working on
it”, ”Plans are far advanced”,”Government is concerned”, It is in the
pipeline”,”We will form a committee to look into the matter”,”We are
investigating”, “We are doing our best”, “We cannot solve a commonsensical
problem because we have meagre resources and the national cake has to be spread
all over”, when common sense leadership calls for daringly getting the bull by
the horn to solve the problem, offering clear direction, taking concrete
decisions, effective mobilization, inspiration and challenging ourselves to
attain higher heights. Why do our leaders make us feel and look hopeless and
helpless ?
Another
illogical Ghanaian enterprise that
reflects reverse acrobatics, is society's call on politicians to avoid engaging
in corrupt practices (KICK BACKS, KICK FORWARDS, & SIDE KICKS) yet making
pressured demands that are way above the financial means of the same
politicians. Oh Ghanaians…..”SIKA”, “CHAMBER POTS”,”SCHOOL FEES”,”SANITARY
TOWELS”,”FUNERAL EXPENSES AND CONTRIBUTIONS”,”CHURCH AND MOSQUE DONATIONS”,”BILLS
FOR DELIVERY OF BABIES”,”PAYMENT OF RENT ADVANCE”,”MEDICAL BILLS”, "VISA MONEY",
“BLACK MAIL
DEMANDS” and “VOTE BUYING CASH”. NA WHERE THE MONEY GO COME FROM? The late
President Stevens of Sierra Leone once said “GOD GO PAY ME IN POUNDS AND
DOLLARS AND E GO COMMOT FROM YOUR POCKET”. What hypocrisy and comedy!!
That
fact still remains that the citizenry will demonstrate patriotism and strong
nationalism only when the leadership which shapes the national
character, sets
the best example to give them the moral leverage to drive down the
message
forcefully to change the mess we find ourselves in. Leaders must show
the way, go the way and do the way. It is a pity that most of
our politicians are in politics for all the wrong reasons. Politics is
not a
job but rather community service. It is the passion to improve the
quality of
life of a people, and anyone whose intention is to make big money out of a
career in politics, is in the wrong profession.
After three decades of pursuing poverty reduction programmes, we have only
changed her dress from the past. She is still around in her new outfit,
very visible when you encounter her. Poverty that used to be in pockets, is
increasingly out on the streets.
Ghanaian
politicians should realise that “POOR”, ”DEMORALIZED”, and ”FRIGHTENED” people
constitute a “HOPELESS” people and HOPELESS PEOPLE DON’T VOTE!!!
Its game-changing time from a focus on poverty reduction to new wealth creation.
We
are moving forward….. The concept of security in the 21st century is
changing, getting sophisticated and more realistic. The focus is on farming
security, food security, job security and energy security. Lets’ save this long
story for another day.
Still
thinking……The USA has a “National Police”, “State Police” and “County Police”.
Can we for purposes of effective and level of visible policing, decentralize a
portions of the Ghana Police Service to constitute a District Police Service
that would function, receive its funding, re-numeration, logistical support and
accommodation within the community from the district assembly under the
DCE/MCE. Obviously, the District Police Commander would operate from the
district assembly’s offices. My thinking is that this concept would take the
form of the USA County Police who live amongst the people and know them by name
and address. The community would in turn be very willing to invest in the
service because they have direct benefit from it.
Apart
from the USA that operates this type of policing structure under a Federal
State System, many Unitary States have “National”,”District”, and
”City/Town/Village”Police Service….so we could copy that model.
Oh, and can't we have standard modules for building police stations?
A
Chinese adage goes…..”If you plan for a year, grow rice; If you plan for a
decade, plant trees; But if you plan to build a formidable nation, you must
educate and train the youth”.
As
we march towards revolutionary industrialization, an incentivized system for
internship, attachment, on-the-job training, community entrepreneurship
training, skills development and general mentoring for the youth must be put in
place. The culture of vacation employment must be developed.
Hey,
Isn’t it exciting to see young people making their voices heard these days in
Ghana? We must teach and make them to think for themselves….THE TIME CATCH OOO...
THE TIME CATCH!!
New
capabilities including the internet are good tools for development, but it
takes responsible people to positively benefit from their use. In Ghana, there
are 3 million users of the internet and I think we can do better by using this
tool we failed to think to create in the first place.
The
questions that arise though are (a) What opportunities do we create with it?
(b) What are the challenges (c) How do we surmount the challenges?
The
danger though is a new sickness called “DIGITAL DISTRACTION”. This sickness,
especially found in social networking, is distracting people from production at
work, spending quality time in relationships, corrupting many, breaking
marriages and more. Check out www.alibaba.com and see the money people are making
there. Watch it!
As
my thinking begins to go slow but still on, I want to agree with Egya Atta
President that the growth of traffic is overtaking road expansion. Whatz the
solution thinkers? Hmmm.... and inspirational landscaping?Ehe, just remembered that
we have no rain water collection system nor community technical aid systems.
Social, Economic and Environmental transformation can be achieved with a change in
our mindsets, through new forms of collaborative inventiveness, by
acquisition of new competencies, inspirational leadership, and above
all, with people who are wiling to implement change at all levels of
society.
My
weekend leadership quote :” Strong leaders are able to build and maintain the
confidence and trust of their people in order to overcome national paralysis. A
paramount value of leadership in turbulent times is that, it helps the
citizenry see clearly and act decisively”
To
all of you my co-radio listening addicts….Especially “Ko Kaa””We ti mi - Wa ka
mi”….think of the effect of all the senseless and useless noise on the airwaves
in the process of exercising your right of freedom to reach out to other
discerning minds? How about the effect on money (investment cash) attraction from
the global
world.Its
all about team work in nation building……and here I land…..
“There were four people in a nation
named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. The task of nation building was
given to them to be done and indeed everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was
sure somebody will do it, but Nobody did it. Anybody could have done it but
nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was everybody’s task.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but nobody realised that Everybody
wouldn’t do it. It ended up that everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what
Anybody could have done”
We have been shaking our bodies for far too long in this nation. It is time to shake
our heads.
YESSSSSSSSSS
WEEEEEE CAN!!
Charles
Sam, Golden Future Promotions Tel :
+233 (0) 244 685689 Email : [email protected] : Charles A. Sam Gfp
THINK
AND SPREAD THE WORD “THINKING” TO ALL