Preaching the good news about nothing
When a visually challenged person travels smoothly and comfortably from one place to another in a relatively short time, he would not need the driver or other passengers to tell him he has just travelled on a very good road.
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In the same way, that person would find it a big insult if after a bumpy bone - shaking journey of 10 hours on a distance that should have been covered in less than four hours, somebody should come and tell him that the road he had just travelled on is one of the best asphalted roads in the country just because he could not see.
If your taps are flowing 24 hours a day, there is no way anyone could convince you to hate the water company. The same goes with electricity.
On the personal level, if you are a loving father taking good care of your children, it would be the highest state of madness for a wicked neighbour to attempt to incite your children against you. Any move in that direction would expose that neighbour's mischievous inclinations and cause him whatever respect he had previously.
Of course, your children would not take it kindly if an overzealous neighbour comes to tell them that they are in paradise when they could hardly get a square meal a day or have their school fees paid because of an irresponsible father. They would be annoyed the more if told their father is among the best in the world.
It has become fashionable in our country for governments to engage people at state expense to preach the good news about the successes. What successes? I may ask. Who, after a good meal of fufu and groundnut soup with freshly smoked salmon and crabs would require another person to tell him of this fact? Then there must be a psychiatric problem.
When a road is good, no amount of evil machinations of the enemy could obliterate this fact. In the same way, no amount of praise singing would change the status of that road, if it is bad. It is painful to hear functionaries of our governments making statements to the fact that workers who complained of poor service conditions were being influenced by the opposition. At least, if you cannot satisfy their demands, do not attack their integrity or their intelligence.
What is good is good and what is bad is bad. No flowery or foul words would make it different.
I am inclined to believe and I know many may share my position that our leaders in government are tempted to equate their sudden and sometimes astronomical transformation to the general well-being of the people. I am sure if they were to rely solely on their official salaries they would be the first to kick against some of the tax policies of the government.
For me, better means if I was enjoying yesterday, I will be enjoying the more today. In the same vein, if I was suffering yesterday, today I will be enjoying or at worst have my suffering reduced. So if in 2012 I bought a bag of cement at GH¢15, today when things are supposed to be better, I expect the price of cement to drop or at least remain the same or at worst increase marginally to say GH¢16 or GH¢17.
Today, a bag of cement is GH¢35 or GH¢ 40 in Tema where the factory is. I can only guess what things would be like for my brothers up north.
Somebody may tell me this is temporary. But tell me, what is permanent? Not even life. So if someone loses his life because of a minor injury or a common ailment because he was turned away by the health facility that would not accept his NHIS card, do we restore his life when things get better?
A child who drops out of school today because of the weak financial position of his parents cannot retrieve his lost years in school even if things improve dramatically for his parents. So why do we think today's failures could be atoned for by a better tomorrow?
It is time we confronted the truth and stop that gimmick of educating the public on the achievements of the government. There is a saying in the Twi dialect that: Ahenepa enkasa.
To wit, good beads don't make noise. We also know in the English Language that empty barrels make the most noise. What is there will be seen or felt. We don't need any professional communicator to tell us so. Over 90 per cent of our time is spent talking on useless things when we should be thinking and acting and we are getting nowhere.
