In Ghana,We Celebrate Mediocrity.....

I haven’t yet reached the 100^th page of Lee Kuan Yew’s 729-paged memoir: From Third World To First, but I’m already fascinated by how Singapore broke free from the shackles of poverty and journeyed itself into greatness. With a team of enterprising men and women led by the writer, the natural resource-less country was transformed by the power of human capital and a sheer passion for excellence, and catapulted from a third world country to a first.

My beloved Ghana is undoubtedly a land endowed with milk and honey, but her citizenry is ludicrously fed with manna. We have been served this staple since independence and thus have become accustomed with accepting and celebrating anything that appears a little better than our ‘delicacy’.  

For a twenty-something year old, I carry too much pain in my heart. Pains I think are enough for the faint-hearted to just fall to the ground clutching the left section of their chest and be called to eternal glory. I have witnessed the ordinary being celebrated as achievements worthy of reward in recent past, and I’ll endeavour to catalogue a few of them here [feel free to add yours in the comment box below].

The humiliation from some foreign media calling Ghana a ‘circus’ following the incidents that led to our exit from the world cup still hurts, so I will start my musings from there. Prior to the tournament, the GFA set a clear target for our ‘super coach’ James Kwesi Appiah. His was a semi-final berth for the Black Stars since anything short of that would draw criticism from the many football aficionados in the country. Whether that ambition in itself was realistic is another topic worth debating.

In his post-match interview after our loss to Jurgen Klinsman’s men, Kwesi Appiah made a ‘not-so-wise’ comment which left me dumbfounded. “Um…You know… I kept the experienced players on the bench…..um….waiting to bring them on when the US players were tired.” Besides the fact that we needed to register a win in that game if we really had any hopes of progressing to the next stage of the competition, Kwesi had a personal point to prove to Ghanaians – that a Ghanaian is ready to manage the Black Stars at the biggest stage. For starters, I don’t think he did anything spectacular getting us through the qualifiers. Honestly, the three African teams in our group were no match, considering the caliber of players we had. I believe even Bro Karim, my U-12 colts team coach would have been able to get us to Brazil, by going past those three teams and Egypt – a country whose players hadn’t played competitive soccer in over 2 years!

Inasmuch as another bears the title 'team manager' of the black stars,the coach to a large extent performs that assignment, as its an avenue for 'create, loot and share', isn’t it? What role did Kwesi Appiah play in managing the goings on in Ghana’s camp in Brazil? Couldn’t he have used his influence over the boys to allay their fears? I sincerely believe he could have done that with ease. But he didn’t – or couldn’t, and rather chose to sow seeds of disunity in the team through his actions and inactions. A clear example would be Adam Kwarasey’s threat of not answering any national call ups since the basis of selection is anything save one’s footballing abilities. I may be wrong, but I believe Dujkovoc and Rajevac wouldn’t have allowed this in their camp during their stints with the Black Stars at our two previous world cup showings. Our hearts were broken, and our dreams of making it into the semi-finals shattered, and what an equally inept GFA thought was the panacea to this was to celebrate the ‘heroism’ of Kwesi Appiah by rewarding him with a much juicier offer. I gasped for breath when I heard it during the FA’s press soiree. My goodness! Does this not irk you?        

The two former sports ministers’ complicity in the events leading to our exit from the tourney is legendary. One would have expected that they’d be handed their dismissal letters immediately they touched down at Kotoka International Airport, but nay! Even before they could decide on when to leave Brazil, news about their reassignment went viral – Elvis to the Presidency [doing what exactly?] and Yammin to his base in the Ashanti Region. Logically, it would have made sense that they be made to rest and rehearse their lines [or lies] when they take their turns at the 3-man commission set up to investigate this World Cup debacle. President Mahama and his council of elders thought otherwise. The citizens of my motherland still gaze into the skies in disbelief as if reasons for their reassignment will just descend from it like the Okomfo Anokye’s Golden Stool. My goodness! Does this not irk you?

I learnt in Social Studies that one of the roles of the Police is to ensure law and order. Indeed the Public Relations directorate of the Ghana Police Service echoes this duty in the media at any opportune time without fail. A television station in Ghana even has a 30-minute programme on air which is designed to convince us of this particular role of our gallant men and women in blue-black uniforms.

When we kept seeing gory images in the media outlets from daily road accidents as a result of reckless driving, many are those who suggested the police mount barriers at vantage points. Theirs was to check among other things, licenses of drivers to ensure that only licensed people used our roads with ‘gutters’.  However, instead of these able bodied men and women doing just that to ensure our safety, one sees roadblocks at vantage points, with no policeman around. Wait! They are around – but hiding in the bushes, waiting to jump out in Rambo-style wielding guns and cudgels when harm has already been done, and lives and properties are lost. Rather than being on the road to try their best and prevent road carnage, they choose to play a role in a 20^th Century Fox blockbuster with our lives. And the IGP will be decorated with a sash, a badge and a rolled citation that has ‘Order of the Volta’ boldly scribbled on it at the National Honours Awards Day. My goodness! Does this not irk you? Thank God it was finally scrapped!

When I saw ‘POTAG Declares Nationwide Strike’ on the front page of Daily Graphic about 3 months ago, I nearly put the newspaper in the shredder in my office. My motivation was their reason; non-payment of “Book and Research Allowance”. Ah! What research do these lecturers undertake? What books do they write? They sell very old handouts which haven’t been revised since they were ‘stolen’ from the internet, to students. They box government into a corner by declaring a strike, and arm-twist it to succumb to their requests by prolonging the academic calendar, forgetting that each day they stay outside the classroom draws the development of this nation a day back. This isn't only a POTAG bashing, but a NAGRAT, GNAT, Concerned Teachers of Ghana one too. And they expect the GES to hold the National Teachers’ Day each year and present a 3-bedroom house to the ‘Best Teacher’??? My goodness! Does this not irk you?     

The trader in the market thinks she does the customer a favour when the latter purchases her goods, and as a result of this faulty thinking, shows no respect to the latter. The bus conductor thinks the passenger a fool and talks ‘by heart’ in his rickety trotro which moves sideways in body, but straight in tyres. Who gives these vehicles the tick to ply our roads anyway? Right, the DVLA! How officials of that state institution are able to live with themselves after perpetuating heinous acts of terror against humanity is simply nerve-wracking. Licenses are issued to epileptics and other equally ‘unfit’ persons to drive, and we cry foul when Daily Graphic has “Road Accident claims 5 lives” as its main headline? My goodness! Do these not irk you?

The tremendous increase in the number of Bulk Oil Distribution Companies (BDCs) is enough for one to safely conclude that some ‘big men’ somewhere do not want our only oil refinery which sits forlorn at Tema to operate ever again. These BDCs, I’m told, can cause fuel shortage by just convening a meeting among themselves. The result – a decision that is aimed at arm-twisting Ghanaians to pay more at gas stations, so one of the CEOs could ‘splash cash’ on the Range Rover which is in its design stage in Land Rover's offices! My goodness! Does this not irk you?

When I think of the above and many others, I feel justified when my anger stays whiles the sun settles! Where did we go wrong? Is it that the very fabric of excellence has been torn into shreds that we use it as a rag? We need to hoist the national flag of excellence where it strikes anyone entering Ghana through her many entry points, telling them we accept nothing but the best of everything – including politicians! But until then, it doesn’t say Ghana – Gateway to Africa, but rather Ghana – A Land Where Mediocrity Is Celebrated!!!!  

Credit: My brother, Ebo Kobi Ahon was a contributor to this article.