We have Ghanaians and we have Ghanaians. The real Ghanaian is the one who loves the country Ghana and is ready to do everything to help build a nation that is worth living in. Whatever job they are given, they do it to the best of their ability. But, we also have the “Other Ghanaian” who does not care much about the country. This “Other Ghanaian is greedy, unpatriotic and cares less about our dear country. They are those that the late head of state, General IK Acheampong, referred to as “saboteurs and nation wreckers.” These abound and unfortunately for us, they know how to lobby and get to the top. These are the people who are destroying the country.
It was these “Other Ghanaians” that inspired me to write a piece a couple of years ago that, the former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan, was not a Ghanaian because of the way he went about his duties. Another thing to look for in these “Other Ghanaians” is the common characteristics they share; they do not like order. Watch how some of our drivers, especially the commercial ones, ply our streets and you will draw the conclusion that orderliness is not something these “Other Ghanaians” like.
At work, the “Other Ghanaians” enjoy lobbying for their positions even when they don’t have a clue about what holding that office means. When they finally get appointed, it becomes a daily routine to do everything to please those who helped to push them up – even if it means destroying the organisation they represent.
In describing the former IGP Alhassan as a “non-Ghanaian,” l meant he did not exhibit the typical characteristics that these “Other Ghanaians” display in their daily lives. l may be wrong, but I believe this could be attributed to the desire of most of the officers within the Police Service to be seen in the media even if they are doing nothing or very little. IGP Alhassan proved to be a different kind of person because he was not the typical Police Officer who used the media to tell his story before he was appointed. He was simple and did not go overboard to show that he was in charge. He allowed his deeds to show what he was offering the service that he had endeared his life to.
Since then, l have taken a critical look at the Police Service and concluded that until there is a change in the attitude of the personnel, nothing good will come out of them. Do not get me wrong, there are quite a number of officers and men who are doing their jobs well. But we have too many “Other Ghanaians” in the service that it looks like until there is some kind of overhaul, we should not expect a change.
In other spheres of life where the “Other Ghanaians” exist, they see their appointment to high office as one that was meant to please the political leaders who pushed them up. For this reason all corporate rules and guidelines are broken just to make sure that the political god-fathers are pleased.
In the Civil Service, the “Other Ghanaians” in high places do not have the country at heart but their personal advancement and accumulation of wealth. For this reason, they confuse the political heads. A good example is the story one former minister told me; “The first day l reported for work, this Chief Director came to my office to complain about a businessman who belonged to a different party. What he did not know was that l knew the gentleman as an honest person. I had come into office to be fair to all, irrespective of their political affiliation. So, l asked for the businessman’s file, read all his proposals and realised that they were in order. What l did not know at the time was that, the Chief Director had gone to take money from someone who was supposedly a member of my party and promised to help him get a contract which he had not applied for. I then realised that, my Chief Director had leaked the original proposal to his friend. The truth came out and when l questioned the Chief Director, all he could say was he wanted to help my party.”
This is the “Other Ghanaian” at work. This minister would have been misled if he had not done some due diligence on what his Chief Director had put in front of him. We have many of such people in the Public Service who confuse their politically appointed Chief Executives. Must this be the way to go in a country? They have forgotten that at the end of the day, they would be judged by their performance on the job and not how much or how well they danced to the tunes of the politicians.
Maybe those who think that pleasing politicians is the only way to get to the top, need to learn some lessons about life. They should just look round the country and see what has happened to other professionals who ‘sucked up’ to politicians. The truth is that it does not pay to go that route because most people who decided to do that ended up being dumped and lost all the respect they had built for themselves over the years. What we should do is to move away from all that we know about the “Other Ghanaian” official.
Those who may not listen to wisdom and then fight their way to the top will come to realise that they may become Chief Executives but lose the respect of even those who put them there. In the process, even the ordinary person in the street would not be ready to help them in anyway.
Those occupying positions of trust now have the opportunity to change their mindset about not being a true Ghanaian who sees his position as a form of service to build a better country. If they don’t, they will only come to live a life full of regrets and by then, it will be too late to right the wrongs that they have done to their names, families and friends.
May be, what has happened to the country is that these “Other Ghanaians” have found their way into positions of trust and have infected all others who think like them. If that is the case, my prayer is that may the Almighty God cause some kind of destruction to Ghana like what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, to take out these “Other Ghanaians” from the country.
If God does not do this soon, Ghana as we know it may one day be blotted out of the face of the earth because these “Other Ghanaians” are daily committing all sorts of atrocities on our dear nation. For this reason, we really need God’s intervention!
Perspectives
…With Francis Kokutse
