I
love the fact that I’m a Ghanaian for a million reasons: The food, music, dance
et al. In recent times however, my love
for this country is running low like a poor man’s bank account. Having read Lee
Kwan Yew’s “From Third world to First” I shudder to think why Ghana is in its
current state. The experiences and accounts of some close relatives and friends
who have visited or live abroad tells me we have short-change ourselves as a
country. I know very well that several discussions have been held but the
question(s) still persist.
My
confusion starts with the existence of rich and poor countries and why Ghanaians
have adopted this simple but deadly phrase “ey3 normal ”. In my mind, why is the world divided as
such? “Rich and Poor”. I seriously don’t
belief any man or nation for that matter was created poor or rich as said by
the first female Prime Minister of Mozambique Luisa Diogo “It is no country’s destiny to be poor”. We
were all given a blank cheque. Methinks we wrote a few million cedis and spent it
lavishly on trivialities whiles others spent on what mattered most to them.
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All
the so- called rich nations did things and are still doing things which the so- called
third world countries are not doing. THEY ARE THINKING. This is not to say the
poor countries are not thinking. Fortunately they do but unlike their rich
counterparts they only think about frivolities.
In
most parts of Africa, “ey3 NORMAL” for a sworn leader in
whom the people have entrusted their rights to misappropriate funds, indirectly
pelt insults at them, walk away head high and have the audacity to organize campaigns
to run for leadership positions. If this isn’t madness, what other word can
best describe this?
Another aspect of what we see in our daily lives as a people is the impunity with which the leadership throw their weight around. Making it look like they are not accountable to anyone. It hurts to say that the fingers of accusation cannot be pointed at them because “ey3 NORMAL”. We have allowed ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the one who steals a bag of rice deserves more prison time than the one who misappropriate colossal amounts of state resources.
Our
problems as a country will linger on for decades to come if the silent majority
does not act but largely because we have normalized stupidity. What is even my
problem? “ey3 NORMAL”. Soon the rains will come. Lives will be lost,
properties will float and the long talks will be heard and read. In the end, it
shall be a case of much ado about nothing.
But
guess what, on the other side of the world, NORMAL is doing the right thing.
Normal is a leader bowing out for not executing his mandate as expected. Normal
is not throwing rubbish in drains and certainly normal is the little things
done right by citizens. These are
NORMAL.
