LET’S INFORM TO MISINFORM

INCREASINGLY the new found oil (black gold) in Ghana is generating several hullabaloos every single day. There is never a day in this country of ours where the media and civic society won’t utter a word without a reference to the so called the ‘economic messiah’ who will turn the fortunes and livelihoods of the people of Ghana into that of a haven on earth.

One recent of such instances is the chiefs and people of the Western region demanding for their share of the national ‘economic messiah’. Yes I said chiefs and people because if it is only the chiefs, they represent the people.

So who's turn will it be next, for me it didn’t make a bit of logic and not to talk about the implications this new development is likely to generate.

                       THE QUESTION

Assuming the people of Ashanti,Volta,Brong Ahafo and other regions who’s farmers toil contribute to the much acclaimed cocoa producing country of ours also demands for  whatever percent, where will the nation be? I am just trying to find out and more unarguably emptying my mind.

                       MY BEEF

My objective is to put across what as a genuine Ghanaian I think is not a healthy development in our quest to adequately distribute our God given resources.

If at all there is any iota of truth in the sage ‘unity lies in strength’ then it is in only as a united country we can adequately develop all the undeveloped parts of our dear nation. I share and strongly believe that the people of the Western region deserve much better than they have now but the solution to this abhorring effect on the people of the Western region is a very strong and committed political will not 10 percent of the "so called" oil revenue.

                      MY REASONS

Let’s assume again that the national cake meant for developing the Western region is given to the people of that region to develop their own region, your guess is as right as mine. Doom! That is what we will see; the point is that this same act of inhumane, disrespect and blatant uncommitment to giving us what is due us will still be with us.

May be we can say that politicians in their quest to claim and clad themselves with power should share in this dilemma, don’t ask me why because we all saw how politicians with different ideologies but the same umbilical cord tried hard as they did to score political points misinformed Ghanaians about what really there is in the oil for them.

I have my reservations as a Ghanaian but our people say that when you see a toad in the day, then there is something that is pursuing it. Hence my reservations becomes unreserved because FOR HOW LONG CAN WE WAIT AND SEE OUR PEOPLE PERISH IN IGNORANCE, LACK OF INFORMATION AND BE MISINFORMED?.

NATHANIEL MENSAH

(www.natmensah.blogspot.com/niiequaye@yahoo.co.uk)

THE WRITER IS THE S.R.C VICE PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM

WHY WE ARE WHERE WE ARE AS A COUNTRY

Listening to many people who should know better talk the way they do in the media, it always beat my imagination as to why several years after independence as a nation, we continue to match aimlessly as sea breeze that blows without a definite direction.


It is surprising that as a nation we engage ourselves in petty talks at the peril of serious developmental issues that bedeviled us. Many are the school going children who still study under trees, people have no portable water to drink, and workers are still battling with their salaries just because it is a peanut and many other problems that you and I are aware of.

MY WORRIES

Indeed my instinct always tell me something obviously is wrong somewhere, and my headache over the years has been whether we should just seat as a country and allow people who have one or two political agenda to control us. I mean should politicians determine the pace at which this country progresses economically, socially or developmentally?

The complacency nature of most Ghanaians is becoming intolerable and the blame game is in fact a canker.

I have watched many on most occasions see helplessly what could have become our assets as a nation wane down.

Then my worries set in as a citizen, the desire to make it a reality or see it happening.

The frustrating efforts of a few who are with good or better intentions to see the nation progress is becoming a nightmare, the dwindling mangling of their fantasies and their shallow imaginations of the sabotage machinations.

THE ISSUE

Does it really matter who is reading, watching or trying to combine the two? But what matters is who is acting, and the truth of the matter is whether we have been acting at all. It beats my imagination to see how the toil and suffering of the founding fathers of this country is been handle with a pinch of salt.

Is the question all about how many infrastructure we built or really it is how best we have taken good care of the few that we have.

Indeed the habit of handling our national assets with disdain is becoming very serious that when not address will in fact degenerate into a canker that will eat deep into our doom as a nation. Any time i have the opportunity to go round some part of the country, what strikes me most is how our state facilities are mishandled. Talk about the SSNIT flats that are looking as if they were inheritances of the first world war, the KVIPs that have become a gold mine for many political party activists or "foot soldiers" just to mention a few.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

One question that wouldn't let go of my thinking cavities is who should be held responsible for the mishandling of our national assets.

The debate then set in, is it the government? Because as citizens we pay tax and therefore they have every obligation to maintain what have been built by our money or is it the citizens? Because they benefit from these facilities so they also have the right to safeguard what is constitutionally theirs.

Then the dilemma, if both side blames each other then who at all is responsible?

What we have forgotten as a nation is that it is inherent in us as Africans and for that matter Ghanaians by our cultural background to protect our rights that is not to say our brothers from the west do not.

Indeed the truth of the matter is that both government and the people are responsible for their assets and what we should not forget is that the people who think it is governments responsibility are part of the government while the government who think it is the peoples responsibility are part of the people. The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 NATHANIEL MENSAH

THE WRITER IS THE S.R.C VICE PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM