The Woes of Narku Kojo in Ghana@50

It is said that at 30 years, if you are not strong, you will not be strong again; at 40, if you are not wise you have lost your shot at wisdom forever; and if you are not rich by age 50 forget about wealth.

Debatable as that philosophy may be it implies that if at 30 you are not strong and at 40 you are not wise then you are not likely to be rich at 50. The opposite is also true. When we apply this to Ghana, it means the state of Ghana@50 is a reflection of the state of Ghana@30 and Ghana@40 combined.

I am sure you already know where Narku Kojo is going with this analysis. Ghana@50. For whatever it is worth we have to celebrate. But between you and Narku Kojo, we know that this country is not rich at 50. In fact for starters, Ghana@50 is HIPC.

Our economy is heavily dependent on foreign loans and grants. Over 40 per cent of our annual budget is still funded by foreign aid.

Yes, we have so much natural endowment to boast about; precious mineral deposits (gold, diamond, bauxite, manganese etc), crops (cocoa, coffee, pineapple etc) people, vegetation, tourist attractions, rich cultures and more to have made every adult citizen of this country very wealthy in Ghana@50. But aren?t you bored with this empty boasting about our rich natural endowment and minerals resources and all that blaablaa? and yet the masses of our people wallow in abject poverty? Well Narku Kojo is bored stiff.

Really, what is the point in harping on what potential wealth we have as a nation when it does not in any way reflect in the day to day living standards of the citizens? Could it be that we missed our opportunity of maximum strength at 30 and wisdom at 40 and that is why we are HIPC at 50? I?m just asking.

Let?s rewind a little - In Ghana@30 going to 40, I was about 14 years old but I could quite remember this country was in the clutches of red eyed, wee smoking, cocaine sniffing (apologies to Kofi Boakye), market plundering, blood shedding, corrupt, judges killing and anti-citizens? prosperity illegitimate military dictators, who intimidated our people, confiscated properties of Ghanaians, forcefully ceased commodities from traders, roasted the balls of Human Rights activist and journalists, unlawfully detained some, shaved others with broken bottles and naked razors and raped girls and mothers in front of their families.

In Ghana@30 going to 40, there was no media to report the crimes of officialdom and of state actors at the time. Free press was a mere wish. You dare not even cough about the systemic human rights violations and official abuses ? if you did, you either landed in military guard room and got beaten plus identification hair cuts or you lost your job if you worked for the state. Some even lost their lives for exercising their basic right of expressing their opinion about actions of state actors.

The law courts and the entire judiciary system were reduced to mere white elephants, through deliberate refusal on the part of the illegitimate government to fund the development of our legal system, plus the killing of lawyers and members of the judiciary for performing their duty.

There were no independent workers unions like we have today, to fight for the rights of workers. Instead we had Workers Defense Committees (WDC) and Peoples Defense Committees (PDC), who nothing more than workplace and community-based extensions of the same illegitimate de facto system, responsible for the poverty, fear and weakness of the masses.

In Ghana@30 going to 40, thousands of our learned citizens got lost without a trace and those who were fortunate to live fled into exile for fear of being killed; and I mean real fear, not the type that existed in people?s shadows. People were kept in military barracks guard rooms for daring the powers that be ? some came back battered but alive, others returned as corpses and some did not return at all. I personally know friends who suffered in such manner and a friend?s dad who was shot dead in cells.

I am sure you can remember more, but that kind of situation coupled with the fact that there were no institutions (the ombudsman and others) to addresses people?s grievances, could not have made our people strong in Ghana@30. Indeed, if the people who constituted the nation are weak, timid and of low self confidence, then the nation could not be strong at 30.

Fear gripped the people at the time and they lost the will to pursue high laurels in this country. People virtually resigned to their fate because there seemed to be no point then in pursuing wealth, which would sooner or later be confiscated and usurped by some illiterate brutal soldiers parading themselves as the custodians of some stupid revolution overseen by equally senseless military dictators. In Ghana@30, intimidation and acts that made the people weak, was the order of the day.

This was the kind of situation Narku Kojo hads to live with in Ghana@30 getting to 40. Fear was my lot and I could not find strength anywhere, not in myself nor in anyone one else but in the dictatorial runners of the system.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.