Wicked Dreams

When we engineer the Ghana of our dreams, we envision a country, a habitat where man is free and at peace. A Ghana that represents a part of a whole, an epitome of the continent of Africa’s success (it is my hope that this flourishing Ghana does not like South Africa; leave its other countries behind).

In the Ghana of our dreams the child is like a diamond, treated with utmost love and significance, the youth are comparable to an energy source (say oil) whose contributions are acknowledged as unrivalled and inimitable, critical to the success of our nation, and finally the elders, analogous to refined gold, a display of the royalty of our nature, the radiance of our exquisiteness and the immense value of our people.

In the Ghana of our dreams each man works to achieve for the nation’s good. Our leaders are blessed with the understanding that leadership is in essence service and our people comprehend that a government is empowered only by the people. In so that each lives knowing that as he walks and works, he treads on chords that vibrate for all eternity affecting the future of not only his progeny but the children of many to come.

In this Ghana we have order; we keep to time, make appointments and plan ahead. We have the acuity to look at both long-term and short term benefits. A place where a man is his word and his value is in his work. A place with a system of law, order and accountability, where society’s elite and working class have access to the same definition of justice, with a system of legislation that looks out for the common man and a judicial system that stands independent enough to effectively preserve all of his rights.

It is a Ghana where we have educated, enlightened and open-minded adults whose lot does not rest on ’government’ but is earned on the merit of their own hard work. It is a place where national pride is not while-a-soccer-match but where our anthem is etched into the core of our very hearts. A country like ours can be rich in culture and rich in money, because our Ghana is not limited to the American definition but is indeed the sort of wealthy that is displayed on the African child’s face, as a smile emerges not because he can finally dream of eating something (dear God anything!) after three day, but because he is aware that years ago that may have been his reality.

The Ghana of our dreams provides fertile soil for its youth to imbibe the art of excellence hence a verdant nation. The Ghanaian child has a voice, a powerful one at that, trained and refined by the virtues of our culture. He has keenness and aptitude enhanced by education coupled with the blessing of youthfulness. (Forgive me but today I hear very little wisdom from the so called old Folk…maybe I’ve listening to too much radio). When I say the child has been developed I mean he has access to a holistic education that covers principles, ethics and academics; values of honesty, integrity and passion for one’s work (I mean you can’t be told silly things like you are taking things ‘too personal’ because you don’t want your teacher to spend the whole lesson lamenting about people being late or not bringing in their work or worse still you’re standing alone at one side of the room because the rest of your class concurs that copying off someone’s work or miraculously having the test questions before hand ‘is not cheating’) Forgive me, I digress, a student whose quest is for enlightenment so that he can put it to use.

In our Ghana, labor is fruitful, for on the harvest ground we each have sufficient bundles (but we have to be attractive…healthy…uno, no beer bellies and obesity [we reserve that for a lower class of people perhaps] because that exposes us to more disease, reduces our labor force and costs us irreplaceable time and money). It is a beautiful thing to see each of us rejoicing because we have conquered the world without selling our souls or the beauty of our heritage.

It is a Ghana that reaches out to those in need because it can afford to and genuinely wants to.

People will always complain but in this Ghana while we complain we know that we have much to be thankful for and while we’re done complaining we’re still at the drawing board because we possess the crucial knowledge that it is our onus to make things better.