Dear Nyaaba,
I have been harassed and blamed, on behalf of ‘my generation’, for the dire straits in which our beloved country Ghana finds herself.
Our generation has been blamed for everything that has gone wrong with Ghana, from allowing several military usurpations of democratically elected governments to the 1982 -83 droughts.
We have been accused of cowardice and treason, corruption and nepotism, ineptitude and lack of foresight. We are deemed to have kept this country stagnant, at best, and retrogressing, at worst. We have been condemned, almost, to the dustbin of history, as a totally inutil lot, who have been perennially big on promise and very miniscule on achievements.
They have called us the ‘un-achieving generation’, and honestly I cannot fault those many people who jointly hold this view.
Nyaaba, I, on my part, blame the political class. I blame them for consistently promising us milk and honey and delivering tears and sighs.
I blame them for increasing their waist-size and bank accounts while we emaciate to legendary proportions and our accounts fizzle to non-existence.
I blame them for stealing with no remorse, exploiting with no shame, abusing power with no fear, disrespecting the citizens without even a pang of regret.
I hold them responsible for ‘selling’ our heritage to the highest corrupt bidder with no care for Ghana or her future. They are responsible for securing the futures of their scions and heiresses while putting the today lives of the mass of children and youth in stark jeopardy.
Nyaaba, one may then categorize my sentiments as simply ‘passing the buck’. They may ask what i have done.
My reply is simple; i have bawled and shouted, picketed and written. But the system is impervious. It elects to refuse to listen and to hear. The system is rigged against the common man. It is designed to perpetuate the inequities. It is a tool of the oppressor to continually lord it over the people.
Nyaaba, the next quip will be that it is the constitution, the constitution we accepted in 1992 and which we hailed in 1993. My response is that the majority of us who voted were one of two things; too fatigued by the long arduous years of revolution and junta rule or simply too illiterate to understand the fine print. Thereafter some attempts have been made to renovate the constitution so that it actually is the document of the people but all of them stifled by the political class who are profiting from its unconscionable regime.
All this while the people are kept on hope. Every four years we are subjected to another bout of promises and lies, tricksters and brigands, who wrest power from us for a dime and proceed to revel in unquestioned debauchery for the ensuing three years.
We the citizens then, first grumble, then complain, ultimately shout and finally threaten to change them, When the time comes, with empty pockets and futures forlorn, we trade our thumbprints for a drag of draught, a sip of local brew, a badly branded cheap-quality T shirt or, if we are lucky, a brand new motorcycle or a hastily approved job offer or salary increment or payment of overdue emoluments. The cycle continues unabated.
The citizens appear to be resigned to this fate but methinks it is sad, maybe even criminal, to deprive a people of hope, hope, that last bastion that keeps the mind sane, the tempers calm and the bones and flesh willing to rise every morning and life another go.
Your hope-less descendant,
The Siriguboy
Contributor: Kasise Ricky Peprah