Lord, We Need Change

Dear Father,

Hmm, you know sometimes it is so amusing when I hear a native of this village blaming others for its present poorly underdeveloped condition and sound as if he or she is not a part.

Father, I hope people don’t get me wrong here because I know the policies and the resources are control by those we put in leadership and therefore they take bulk of the blame but we also as citizens of this village have our share too-And that is where the spirit of nationalism comes in.

What do you mean, my son?

Father, it is very simple to blame someone for your failure and easily forget your own role in your failure.

Again, don’t get me wrong here Father.  I strongly agree with my brothers and sisters both here and in the diasporas who frown on the way our big people we put in power have plundered and continue to plunder our village resources to their own advantages using the “me, myself and I” form of verb conjugation and forgetting to implement those policies that would lead to our village improvement.

But the question is what have we done to also improve our own conditions as individuals in our little communities, which will prove to our leaders that the citizens are ready for development but their policies and corrupt attitudes are retarding our growth and development?

A man would show up doing election wanting to take village power. He would echo the level of unemployment in the village. But this person does not have one kiosk (booth) here that will help employ one person as sales agent. The person would boast of having giant size supermarket in a foreign land, where he or she pay taxes and employ local citizens there. But yet still campaign on unemployment back home.

The person would also speak of lack of infrastructure that would give our skylines a face lift, but would choose to build a multimillion dollar structure or mortgage homes in a foreign land. Go right here Ghana and see how many citizens of this village have bought properties in the Trasaco Valley and Regimmanuel Gray estates but would choose to rent apartment here or build a structure far less than what he or she has built elsewhere.

My son, so who do they expect to build these infrastructures?

Father, it is sometimes amazing how we relate to our own village, yet still we expect others to develop it for us.  Look around this village the tallest privately own buildings are maximum four-storey. They are owned by Lebanese merchants built on land leased from locals who in turn fly to Uncle Sam’s village or other neighboring villages around here to purchase homes with the proceeds, but would choose to call these merchants foreigners. Who then is a foreigner?

But Father these are people who reside in foreign villages and condemned everything here but have no kitchen back home. Some come begging to stop with friends and family or hotels. These are individuals claiming to have the magic to change things around.

What have they to show as part of efforts to develop this highly forested village, nothing except blaming others for its poor state and not accepting some of the blames too?

We agreed that our past leaders left us nothing, but we have the opportunity now, so how are we thinking? Are we still looking for whom to blame or are we talking initiatives?

Father, I have always said that if my parents or relative struggle to enable obtain even a junior high education and are unable to help me again due to hardship, there is no reason to pass around the village blaming everyone in the family for not helping to complete high school.

They have helped me to a level; I must now find means to continue to the next level. Sitting complaining and blaming every family member of mind will not help. The question is what have I done to help myself?

Father, another contribution we the people of this village has made is laziness. Our lazy attitudes have also contributed to the level of productivity here-no wonder subsistence farming (that Stone Age type) remains the only level here.

People come to work late. Some come as and when they feel. Some always have excuses and in a month time would be absence for minimum five days out of 20 a month. Some you hardly feel their inputs on the job.

All these contribute towards the underdevelopment of a firm which leads to low productivity in the village. And when investors comes and see such attitude, he or she would choose to bring in foreign migrants who are ready to put in all their best to work.

To be continued.