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| The Kind of Seed We Sow, Grow to "Attack" Us |
After 55 years of political independence, our politicians
today are still basing their campaign messages on the provision of basic
social amenities such as building of hospitals, construction of roads,
eliminating schools under trees, provision of good potable water and a
few to the masses just to get the enormous support of the electorates
when voting days are drawing nigh which enables them to achieve power
through the ballot box to effect social change.
When
will the basic needs of the masses be fulfilled by our politicians when
the electorates give them the mandate to rule so that we start counting
ourselves as one of the developed countries? It has been everyday norm
by our politicians who say we have everything, namely gold, timber,
diamond, manganese and oil; yet we are still being counted as part of
the developing world. What could have accounted for this?
Some
of our politicians lack insight with respect to implementation of
certain policies that will help effect social change. Some are afraid to
effect the implementation of certain policies with the view that if
they do so, they fear being voted out by the masses come any election
day. A leader is someone who plans ahead of time, able to take risk
regardless of the conditions attached and also do things right but not
doing the right things at the wrong time.
In the view of
ensuring an effective social change lies in the hands of the electorates
who determine who should take charge of the administration of the
country. These days, electorates do not vote on issues and policies
structured by a political candidate, but vote on personality profile
taking into account the personal looks, where he was born, the family he
hails from, his religion, the school he attended and even the tribe he
belongs to.
Therefore, regardless of how good a candidate's
policies maybe, to be able to get the nod to handle the country's
administration, he must belong to either party A or B. Aside this, he
should forget becoming a leader.
This trend of voting, most
especially, for our fledging democracy is very dangerous and this
practice has accounted for our setbacks as political parties have used
the mandate being given to them by the electorates to furnish themselves
and families alone and have forgotten the development of the country
upon which their campaign messages were based on while channeling least
of the country's revenues and resources to the developmental process.
Not
until our politicians gain enough insight, they will still base their
campaign messages on the aforementioned basic social amenities and our
society will be at a disadvantage. Not only politicians must be
responsible for our setbacks in the developmental process, but some of
the masses have also played their part regarding this problem. Some
people are hoodwinked to some selfish politicians who lure the
electorates vote for some politicians and canvass support for them.
Thus, they are afraid to expose them (politicians) when their actions
pose a threat to the society.
Most at times, we claim human
institutions are made up of errors and therefore we are bound to see
certain mistakes because we are working with humans. Until this societal
adage is nipped in the bud, our society will always be at a loss. Last
month, an Italian court in a verdict that sent shock waves through the
scientific community convicted seven prominent Italian earthquake
experts including a former government official of manslaughter in a six
year jail term for failing to adequately warn the public about a fatal
6.3 magnitude earthquake that struck in the central Italian city of
L'Aquila in 2009 which killed more than 300 people. This is unusual
knowing that earthquake, just like any natural accident can never be
predicted, yet these experts have been imprisoned.
Even
people have been jailed due to a natural cause, how much more the things
we are responsible for? We all the time shift the negative outcome in
the process of our work to being it a human institution and therefore
mistakes are bound to occur, and until we change our style towards every
aspects of human endeavors, the society will always be at a loss.
It
is time we ensure people who make unpardonable mistakes to the
detriment of the society are severely dealt with to serve as a deterrent
for others. But what do we see these days? We have several corrupt
officials not only in government; that whenever they
indulge themselves in corrupt practices, they resign the next day and no
actions are taken against them and that is why a former Italian prime
minister and president of football giants AC Milan Silvio Berlusconi was
sentenced to a year in prison for tax fraud regardless of his position.
This is how far development has gone.
Even though we need a
God fearing and an incorruptible person to transform our nation, this
person must ensure that the people he works with should do same. The
leader must be able to take firm decisions and ensure that policies
which will affect social change are implemented but not policies which
seek to enrich the pockets of himself and his colleagues.
We
always wonder why the advance countries are always moving on in terms
of development and invention of new technologies, but here in Africa
developments are stagnant and even that, there is no culture of
maintenance of the already existing developmental projects.
The
answers are not farfetched. They are focused, less corrupt, they have
vision, they put their society's needs first and they do not say 'we are
putting measures in place' nor 'everything is in the pipeline' but say
we have done it already' or 'tomorrow it will be done'. Members of
parliament in the developed world do not fancy fleet of cars, but what
do we see here? We have failed to put down an effective working system
to ensure the benefit of all the masses. If one does not belong to a
particular group, he does not enjoy the benefits that are coming.
All
these have accounted for our setbacks in the developmental process, and
not only in the country alone, but the continent in general. A renowned
Ghanaian investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas and his fellow
investigative journalists, Sorious Samura from Sierra-Leone in a
documentary for Al jazeera English, 'Africa Investigates'
uncovered the truth behind illegal timber business in the country and
discovered that the office of the vice president of Sierra-Leone was
used to perpetrate such corruptive acts by paying money to enable the
logs be shipped to China which were in popular demand.
We
appear to have sowed the wrong political seed which has accounted for
our setbacks and it is of these corruptible practices and unacceptable
behavior by our own people that is why our politicians are still basing
their campaign messages on the provision of basic social amenities long
after independence. I will be very surprise come 2032 if our politicians
base their messages on the aforementioned social amenities. The
electorates should consider the type of candidate they vote for when
election time comes.
First published in the Chronicle Newspaper on 8th November, 2012
