FINALLY! Somebody just spoke my mind. Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Chairman of the Databank Group, has charged on Ghanaians, including the youth, teachers, NGOs, journalists and clerics to stop being quiet and neutral in the search for justice and show some courage and outrage in the face of attacks on integrity in our democracy and the way the nation’s finances are being mishandled. He further told Ghanaians to stop being cowards.
He accused clerics, civil society groups, journalists, Ghana’s middle-class and other important organisations, such as the National Peace Council and the Ghana Bar Association of “cowardice and hypocrisy” and reminded the nation that it was this kind of culture of silence in the face of impunity that forced a young Jerry John Rawlings and his colleagues to stage their revolution of June 4, 1979.
My favourite part of the whole story is the ‘Stop being cowards’ bit. When I read some daily reports, I just ask myself if the country is a desert with no citizens apart from politicians.
In a country where the citizens pay tax, household bills and whatever amount of money the government can squeeze out of them; it seems they don’t care what the monies are being used for.
I’m using the word ‘don’t care’ because of the way they react through comments on particular issues. It will be a cliché to repeat myself that anything the government decide to do especially with money, doesn’t come from their individual pockets but the monies they collect from the citizenry.
One thing I have noticed with Ghanaians is they like ‘Fa ma Nyame’ (give it to God) too much. People sit there and hide behind cowardice with the intention of giving it to God. I may be wrong, but why did ‘Nyame’ give us brains, hands, mouth and feet? We are on earth, that is why He said that we should obey earthly laws (where are the bible scholars?).