States of the nation; Things can only get better!

I set off feeling all set for the State of the Nation Address which the President was about to deliver to our honourable representatives in Parliament, and by extension to the rest of us.

By definition, the “state of the nation” ought to be a picture of where we stand today, but in practice, it turns out to be another long catalogue of wishes and promises because also by definition, politicians cannot live in the present. 

It is easier for them to conjure a glorious future and live there rather than the depressing present with its broken promises.

I sat in the car and switched on the radio, but the President had not started yet. I imagined him warming up for the encounter. 

For a strange reason, a poem came to mind; the one about a dream deferred by Langston Hughes called Harlem:  

What happens to a dream deferred? 

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun? 

Or fester like a sore— 

And then run? 

Does it stink like rotten meat? 

Or crust and sugar over— 

Like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags 

Like a heavy load. 

Or does it explode?

I got to the traffic light at the top of the road. The traffic was sparse; maybe people had gathered around their TV sets to watch the action in Parliament. 

There were two policemen directing traffic; one of them was standing by our side of the road making or taking on the phone call. The light turned green but still the policeman’s hand made the “stop” sign at us so the other side rolled on. 

Lately, this has become the traffic police style; they override the traffic lights even when there is no need to do so, like this morning. The effect is that drivers become even more confident in disobeying the lights. This too is part of the state of the nation.

The lights turned green. The policeman looked at us for a few seconds and decided the time had come to let us go. 

The President had not started so I fiddled with the radio dials turning it this way and that way until I got to a station with music. I was trying to avoid those stations that would have the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and  the New Patriotic Party (NPP) doing futile battle ahead of the address.

 The radio station played on: Dabi dabi ebeye yie… One day, one day things will get better. 

This took me back to one day many years ago when the Labour Party took power again in the UK in 1997 after nearly 20 years of Conservative Party rule and as Tony Blair stepped onto the podium, the music hit the airwaves: the song was Things can only get better by Howard Jones. 

The middle stanza says:

And do you feel scared - I do 

But I won't stop and falter 

And if we threw it all away 

Things can only get better 

Whoa, whoa whoa whoa oh oh 

In the end, Tony took the nation to a war nobody wanted to fight in Iraq. I don’t know if things did get better but today, some people are pursuing him as a war criminal. That is the way of politics.

As I got close to a petrol station, I instinctively checked my gauge. It was getting dangerously low. These days, it is always in the danger zone nearing red. 

It occurred to me that I really don’t know the price of fuel these days. I lost track of the many upward swings in the price along the way. I am sure government ministers don’t know either. 

I hear they get free fuel on our behalf. But no fears; things can only get better. Just get in and buy what you can afford. I nearly slammed into the car in front. 

There are exit and entry signs clearly marked but he chose to enter by the exit even though I am sure he could see and read as well. This also is state of the nation. In Ghana, you do as you please.

The man who entered by the exit finished buying his fuel. Naturally, he left through the entry. This is what we do and who we are. This also is the state of the nation. 

He left a trail of heavy gasoline cloud in his wake, for good measure, and went his merry way. He was probably listening to the President or maybe playing a gospel song.

Today is Tuesday. Perhaps, he went to church on Sunday or the mosque on Friday. One day for God but all other days for self. Render unto Caesar…

At the Flower Pot Junction, there was a group of about four or five young people crossing the road carrying bright yellow gallons, the type known as Kufuor gallons. 

Mahama can say – heart on hand that this has nothing to with him; they are Kufuor’s gallons. I don’t know how far they had travelled with their gallons in search of water.

 I heard a remark on radio the other day: someone described cholera as a disease of the middle ages. Well, not for us. Cholera is still with us. This is the state of the nation.

More than half of all postings by Ghanaians on Facebook are about God. It works best when someone announces a family bereavement.

People rally around with pious sayings and little consoling verses. We sound like a detachment of God’s most loyal army of hosts – the Brigade of Angels. But in our daily lives we enter by the exit and leave by the entry.  This is also the state of the nation – this gap between who we say we are and who we truly are. 

But we need to pray for the electricity. Nothing short of a miracle can produce enough electricity for us when we need it, so we need to keep our minds and bodies pure for our prayers to be answered. No half measures; the state of the nation needs purity and prayers.

As my thoughts were turning ugly and subversive, mostly on account of the smoke left by the exit-entry man I received this text from my friend: “The true state of the nation is my office power that just went off. 

It is that eyesore of the heap of rubbish by the roadside; it is the presence of numerous strapping young men and women at traffic lights; it is the taxi driver reversing into the vehicle following behind him; I cannot access my own money in the original currency…haba!” Obviously, this one was not a happy citizen.

Over on radio, the President was doing his best. We can’t blame him for everything, but he is the President so the buck stops with him. But where is that buck? 

It was former US President Harry Truman who put the sign on his desk: THE BUCK STOPS HERE. He meant it. 

He provided serious leadership at a difficult time and when he went around the US, the people used to shout encouragement to him: “Give ‘em hell Harry”. 

We wish the President would give a bit of hell to his appointees. 

To be fair, some of the President’s appointees are spot on. I had to deal with one of them the other day and she was as sharp as a whistle.

 That too is the state of the nation; some are good but some are just cruising around in V8, X6 and several other dollar draining combinations of alphabets and numbers. 

It looked like they were really enjoying themselves in Parliament. I could hear loud peals of laughter one after another.I wished this was television so I could see if this levity was for real or fake. 

I hope it was real because it is time someone laughed on our behalf. This is the state of the nation. Make of it what you will.

Dabi dabi ebeye yie. Yes, things can only get better.

 

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