Big issues, little minds
Quite recently, a renowned clergyman remarked that Ghanaians liked joking with serious issues of national importance. Those who did not capture the import of his message concluded that the pastor was against comic relief or the easing of tension with jokes. That was far from it.
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Every culture recognises the importance of entertainment in human endeavour. That is why in some countries, those in the entertainment industry are among the wealthiest. I want to believe the pastor was referring to our tendency to trivialise serious matters of national interest while spending a lot of precious time on the mundane.
Take the case of Eric Amoateng. The man had served his prison term for drug trafficking. One would expect that he would return home without fanfare and in the quietness of his home, make a sober reflection of his past and take a decision on his future. That did not happen. On one side was a group that wanted to treat the man like a warrior making a triumphant return from the battle field.
On the other side was another group that thought it was an opportunity to paint its opponents as addicted drug dealers. The state apparatus did not help matters. Why detain the man on suspicion of using a fake passport? Even if that was the case, why not wait another time to avoid the accusation of witch–hunting and protect national sanity? For days, Amoateng engaged all our attention.
Let’s look at another case. A district chief executive misbehaves at a public function because of an unsavoury remark made by a member of his audience and it became our national pastime. The President of the Republic also found it convenient to replay the unfortunate episode in Parliament of all places while performing a state function. Can we blame any person who says we are not a serious people?
Advertising has become one of the major victims of this national canker. Most advertisers now prefer the use of comedians to market their products and services no matter their nature and their target audience.
We have serious challenges which hardly feature in our national discourse. We cannot store, preserve or process our agricultural produce. We are proud consumers of imported fruit juices while our mangoes, oranges, tomatoes, just to name a few, rot by the roadside. While those in the cities and urban areas spend a lot of money on scarce food, our farmers toil in vain because the fruits of their labour can't get to the market due to bad road network.
We have a large illiterate population which constitutes a major disincentive to national development. Our politics has become abusive, vindictive, opportunistic and destructive because a very large percentage of the people do not understand, let alone appreciate the issues at stake. That is why our voting pattern is tailored on emotions, tribal and ethnic considerations but very little on quality.
We are here today wasting away everything God has given us while taking delight in begging for everything. The Volta is a gift to Ghana as the Nile is to Egypt. Egypt's whole development revolves around the Nile. No wonder she has threatened to do anything if it even means going to war against any country that would disrupt its fair share of the water.
We could not harness the resources of the Volta for irrigation farming, transportation and tourism. Clean water for drinking is a major national problem, while the waters of the Volta flow wastefully into the sea. Robert Nestor Marley (aka Bob Marley) summed our situation in one of his famous songs. "In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty." It is also true that in the abundance of food we are hungry simply because we cannot build roads for our own use to make movement of goods and people easy and convenient.
At every turn, we find ready excuses for our failures. Since May, this year, polytechnic teachers have abandoned the classroom. The fate of our children, who by now should be preparing for the hazardous job market, is hanging and some people think there is no problem because it is not their problem. Our lives are being eaten away by filth and dirty water. Our roads are so bad that movement from one part of even the capital city to another is a nightmare.
In the midst of all these challenges exposing our inadequacies as a people, we still have time for silly jokes and make heroes out of villains and reduce serious national issues to concert party jokes. By all means we cannot deny ourselves a few doses of jokes, at least, in our trouble times, to ease the pain. But in all our discussions, let us show urgency. Let us remember that we have many rivers to cross and we have little time to spare.