LETTER TO GOD (IV)

Posted on by sharrisoncudjoe

Dear God,
It’s been a long while since I wrote to you. The last time I wrote to you, it was to talk about Ghana’s dumsor. Today it is 3 different things oo so brace yourself.
First. God, are you a Ghanaian or is it just during football that you become Ghanaian? Are you a Ghanaian? Are you sure you are? Sir, I wish to submit to you that the country Ghana, and Ghanaians, are thieves and dishonest people who will steal and cheat at the slightest chance. Sir, this is regardless of whether we are politicians or not, whether we are NDC or NPP, and whether we go to church or not. Can you believe that a recent report on investigations about the fire that gutted Ghana’s Central Medical Stores revealed that the place was deliberately set alight to hide shady dealings that would have beeen revealed in a forensic audit scheduled for the day of the fire? People – Ghanaians, Christians, Muslims, NDC and NPP sympathisers – deliberately cost the country huge sums of money and consequently, lives because of their thievery. Even more amazing is the speed with which investigations were carried out, and the culprits (public servants in this case) named. Sir, if the perpetrators had been politicians, you know we would not have seen or heard of the report. At best, the perpetrators would have been allowed to come and tell us when they intended to pay back what they stole from us. God, Ghana is one big mess and I’m not sure if you needed only 10 righteous people to save this land, you would find even 5. We are all corrupt, dishonest and thieving. Really pathetic, isn’t it?
Second. Our dumsor situation has now improved but have you heard about “Mensor”? This term has two pronunciations. You can pronounce the “e” sound same as you pronounce the sound in “kick” or as in “pen”. When you pronounce the “e” sound as in “kick”, the word becomes “Mensor” meaning “I won’t turn it on”, and when the sound is pronounced as in “pen”, the word becomes “M3nsor” meaning “Don’t turn it on”. In both cases, one is being admonished not to “turn on” an electrical gadget. Abba Father, we progressed from “dumsor” to “Mensor/M3nsor”. “Mensor/M3nsor” refers to the state of personal dumsor where the individual – rather than the ECG or their affiliates – turns off his lights voluntarily so that s/he can conserve electricity and avoid paying more. This has become necessary because electricity has now become so expensive in Ghana, you buy prepaid electricity credits, and the credits literally jog off the meters. Of course, there is the normal “Ghanaian” agency thievery where credits vanish even when the person has not turned on any gadget. God I’m not complaining about this because I’d rather have expensive-but-constant electricity supply than cheap-but-12-in-48 hours electricity supply. Many Ghanaians are complaining about the expensive electricity, but don’t mind them God. About half of them have engaged in illegal connections, tampering with their meters so they pay less. Like I said, the average Ghanaian is a thief and a cheat.
Lastly, the CPP elected Ivor Kobina Greenstreet, a differently-abled man (God you should love our terms), as their Presidential candidate for the 2016 elections. In addition to silencing sour losers like Samia Nkrumah, Sir, can you also make Ivor the fresh breath our politics needs? I know you are tired of the constant NPP-NDC circus which has failed to produce any good results irrespective of the blessings you have given us in each party’s tenure in office.
Heavenly Father, these days you have become slow in answering my prayers. You know I need the answers to those prayers fast fast because – like we say – time no dey. May your kingdom last forever.
Yours sincerely,
Kobina.

A SHORT TRIP TO ATUABO GAS PLANT

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Us: “How long is it from here to Atuabo?”
Them: “15 minutes only”
After almost 8 minutes
Us: “How long it is from here to Atuabo”
Them: “5 minutes”
Us: “Ok”
After a few metres forward
Us: “How long is it from here to Atuabo?”
Them: “30 minutes”
Us: “Eiii, Hahahahahaaa. When are we going to get there? Maybe we should go back”
After exactly 11 minutes’ drive.
“Atuabo Gas Plant! Wow. It is beautiful oo”
“See, that is gas being flared”
Ghanaians are bad at calculating distances and time, very bad. All we sought to do was to see the Atuabo Gas Plant, and we were on the main Axim-Elubo road, at the junction that turns in towards Atuabo. We – my colleagues and I – had gone to work and on our way back we wanted to see the Atuabo Gas Plant. The dialogues above were the times 3 different people we asked told us how long it would take from the Junction, farther in, and even farther in respectively.
The town of Atuabo – pronounced “Aduabo” by typical Nzemas – lies very close to the sea on the Krisan-Eikwe road towards the Nzulezu area. Immediately after the St. Martin De Porres Hospital one sees the sea, dark blue at the time we saw it because it was slightly cloudy. The coconut trees are slim, slimmer than most of the waist-trained waists paraded around these days. And oh, the coconut trees are old, shorn of their former glory of green fronds and coconuts. Some are rotten at the top even though still standing. Directly below, in the shades of the tall, slim, ashen-almost-dark-somewhat-rotten coconut trees is an old cemetery threatened by the sea. The graves are old, dark, dilapidated and looked dead. Somewhat farther away from the graves are patches of sand and some greenery. But this is not what we had come to see.
As we travelled through Eikwe, one of the things we talked about was the “poverty” we could see and how some people would be born in the area, spend their entire lives there, die there and be buried there without knowing any other part of the world. Their world would be confined only to their immediate surroundings. It was a sad thing to say but that seemed the truth. We need to bring the world to people in some remote areas in our country. A statement one of my colleagues made, “Ghana is big oo”. It only underscored the huge amounts of work to be done to bring the world to Ghanaians in remote areas. But this was not why we chose to go and see the Atuabo Gas Plant.
“Atuabo Gas Plant! Wow! It is beautiful oo”. We almost missed the Ghana Gas Facility at Atuabo. We had been chatting so much and were so engrossed in the chatter that we almost drove past what we had been given varied times to get to. We had seen a Bulk Gas Storage and Loading facility belonging to Quantum Gas and we did not think that we would chance upon the Ghana Gas Facility some few metres after the Quantum one. It took the vigilance of one of my colleagues to read out the name of the facility on right side of the road. I sat in the front seat, but I was so engrossed I didn’t see the sign.
The first thing I saw about the Atuabo Gas Plant was the excess gas being flared. Even on land, Ghana still had to flare excess gas (I guessed it was operational procedure not attempted wastage). The facility itself was a beautiful maze of steel pipes – both big and small – and big, green, round tanks. In front of the facility stood a lone Fire Tender and an Ambulance. Signs hung around saying sternly “No Hawking” and “No photography”. When my colleagues saw this, they didn’t take a picture and would not allow me take one too. We had to strictly follow the rules. We could not enter the facility – of course we would not be allowed in – but we stood outside and gawked (Ok we didn’t exactly gawk but we were enthralled) at the sheer magnificence of Ghana’s Chinese-built facility. After eyeballing the facility, we turned our car around and travelled back to the main road, and thence to our hotel at Azulewanu.
PS:
1.     Any error in this write-up is mine. I may have forgotten some of the scenes or unintentionally mixed up certain descriptions. I accept my faults, please forgive me.
2.      By my calculation, the journey from the junction – whose name I have forgotten – to the Atuabo Gas Plant would take exactly 20 minutes travelling at normal speed in a 4×4 vehicle. The road is being worked on but it is a smooth ride in most places.
3.      On the way, one would come across some water bodies which look polluted because of their very black look. Don’t mind that; just go on to see some of the very beautiful scenery at that part of Ghana.
4.      Give it a try!

OF CHALK AND THE WELFARE STATE

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“A well-designed welfare state can actually encourage people to take chances with their jobs and be more, not less, open to changes.”
― Ha-Joon Chang, 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism
“The welfare state is not really about the welfare of the masses. It is about the egos of the elites.”
Thomas Sowell
Enter Welfare State. The welfare state (German sozialstaat; Italian Stato sociale) concept refers to a situation where the state plays and maintains a role in the protection and promotion of the social and economic well-being of its citizens, often through the creation of welfare or (the more fashionably named) Social Protection programs. It is thought that the state through these welfare programs create a safety net meant to shield the poor and vulnerable in society.
Enter “Chalk”. Ghana’s Vice President’s wife went to Kukurantumi to donate computers to a Presbyterian School and a headmistress or headteacher (whichever applies), asked her to convey to the “elders” in Accra that the school lacked CHALK, log books and other materials for teaching. The Veep’s wife felt this was a small matter that could be handled locally (or innovatively) through the use of Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) and Old Boy Associations, and hence the now infamous “…we won’t give you chalk today or tomorrow” speech.
Enter Needless Hullabaloo and Activism. Tapes of the “chalk speech” diffused quickly and led to some heavy bashing of the government and the Veep’s wife. Some have gone as far as saying that page 48 of Ghana’s Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) document provided that government provides chalk, log books, pens et al whilst parents provided school uniforms and shoes for the pupils (veracity not confirmed). And then came the activism. Some people started campaigns towards the donation of chalk to the schools in Kukurantumi.
Enter the Verdict. First of all, the government is at fault and should be blamed for all of this. And not only this government, but all governments which have ruled Ghana in the fourth republican period. All of these governments instituted welfare or social protection programs. The tragedy is that these programs were not to genuinely provide or safeguard the poor, but to win political capital and the votes that come with such. The programs were initiated so their governments would be remembered as “caring” for the people. Thus the NPP talks about the Health Insurance Scheme as though it is their personal property, whilst President John Mahama and the NDC are distributing free books, school uniforms, shoes and sanitary pads in a bid to be remembered as providing quality education. What these actions do, over time, is to create a sense of entitlement where people think they are owed such items by the state, and refuse to do anything to help themselves.
Secondly, education is not the sole burden of the state. It is a shared responsibility where both government and the citizenry play roles. The provision of some basic materials like chalk should not be made out to be an entrenched role for the state. Should a headmistress lock up her school and go home because government has not provided chalk? Would it not be more appropriate, whilst she waits for government provision, to find ways of proving chalk to keep the school running including going to the PTA for such aid? Should the government provide anything and everything for the citizenry?
Lastly, Ghanaians are hypocrites. Yes all of us are, and the explanation is this. We love to tell the youth – especially University graduates – to think outside the box, to be innovative. Yet we huff, puff and play the tomfoolery when the Veep’s wife tells a headmistress to be innovative? Or is our understanding of “innovation” limited to the catchword we have made it out to be? Or is it only the youth who have to be innovative? What is wrong with the Veep’s wife asking a headmistress to be innovative?

Let us remember that education is a shared responsibility. Who provides what should not be so entrenched as to cause people to refuse to help themselves. If we entrench or seek to entrench roles, as a former director of the Ghana Education Service has sought to do, then the government must limit itself to the efficient supply of chalk, log books, canes and dusters and stay aloof  about whether the children will come to school barefoot, bare-chested or bare-breasted. After all, as per page 48 of the FCUBE document (religiously quoted by the former GES director), the government must provide chalk!

SHANKING MATTERS

Posted on by sharrisoncudjoe

My Dear God,
There is a piece of advice given to strikers in soccer. They say if a striker enters the penalty box, he should take his time with everything he does. “Be composed and deliberate in your movements because the slightest touch from an opposing player would result in a penalty”. Father, this is the same way some of us behave when we enter the toilet, ei sorry, the shanks. We are very composed and deliberate in that “penalty box”. I used to take my storybooks there to read, and these days I often take my phone there so I can browse and read comfortably no matter the type of shanks – bomber latrine or water closet. What is important is that the shanks must be clean and well aerated.
In fact, I was happy when I read the news of the World Bank promising to give Ghana $60 million to help stop open defecation. God, you know what open defecation is so I will not attempt a definition of it, with all the gory details. The project is supposed to start in the 3 Northern Regions, and parts of the Brong-Ahafo and Volta regions of Ghana. Now God this is where I start having problems. Well not problems, maybe issues. You know I try to sound diplomatic these days.
My first issue is the location of the projects. We are talking open defecation. And Accra, Accra of all places, is not the starting areas or one of the starting areas? The news item mentioned that those selected areas I mentioned are the areas where high cases of open defecation are recorded. Like seriously? Accra, Cape Coast, Sekondi-Takoradi, these are the areas where the HIGHEST CASES of open defecation is recorded, most especially Accra. God please don’t ask me for proof because you know I have none and neither does any state official. Only I differ with those know-it-alls, in that, this project is laudable and not “stupid” because Accra was not mentioned as a starting place.
God, my other issue is to do with the success of the project. I want the project to succeed. For success, I feel that we must take a close look at the location of the toilets. Thankfully, about 20,000 public and private toilets will be built. The public toilets should be situated in a part of the town where everybody can access it, not the outskirts or some obscure part. I’ve people abandon a toilet facility because the “ultra-modern” thing was located in a bushy area at the outskirts of the town, too far away from them. The toilets should also be clean and well aerated. A dirty, stinking toilet will not have any patrons or patronesses (trust me the women do the thing paa in manageable sizes). And people will shun any dirty and stinking public shanks facility in favour of the bush, beach or gutters.
Father, I know this letter’s tone sounds different from any of the others. Well I don’t want to say where I conceived and ultimately wrote this letter, but you can get from this that I was quite engaged, composed and deliberate. I want folks at their shanks to feel like Inzaghi and Van Nistelrooy, two extremely brilliant penalty-box strikers – the former an expert constantly-offside-positioned striker, and the latter a tap-in expert. People should feel comfortable enough in the shanks to do their thing, no matter the size, quantity or quality.
My greetings to the entire heavenly host, especially those you put on my case. Tell them I said I owe them one.
Yours faithfully (I prefer sincerely though),
Abi you know dada.

OF DEMOCRACY

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“For forms of government let fools contest, what is best administered is best”
I still remember this quote. It was a question which I had to answer in my second year political science exam in the University of Ghana. I remember I did not know how to go about answering this question and for 20 minutes I just sat still wondering what it meant, and how to answer it. The lecturer – who considered almost everybody a buffoon – had outmanoeuvered us all. The other lecturers could not come to terms with how to correctly answer the question. Well I made an “A” in that course so I guess I answered right.
The meaning of the sentence up there is not in doubt. The speaker meant simply that forms of government were not as important, good governance was (as in “…what is best administered is best”). So the question remains what good governance is or means. Is good governance necessarily democratic? It must be said that the western world has been particularly lucky (or is it blessed?). Going from monarchy to fiefdom to the signing of the Magna Carta to the constitution of parliaments etc., the Western world has had at least 300 years to practice and perfect the mode of governance now called democracy gradually building the sustainable institutions needed to make that system of governance work. This was however not without any challenges at all. Remember that democracy in ancient Athens excluded a whole class of “slaves” to the advantage of a class of “citizens” – those born of Athenian ancestry. Remember that in Europe and the US especially, it took time before women acquired electoral franchise whilst it took blacks even longer to do same. The bottom-line is that whereas Europe and the United States have had a long history (at least 200 years) perfecting democracy, Africa did not set out on this same path.
From history, Africa has known what I term “Patriarchal Monarchy”, i.e., government by Kings or Chiefs. The Chiefs and Kings were members of a royal clan who were chosen usually by kingmakers who happened to be heads of families in the royal clan, or heads of the other clans that make up the tribe. The king was all powerful, distributing power and favours as he liked. Of course the king had the Queenmother and gods to worry about. If he misruled the Queenmother could effect a destoolment or the gods could deal with him or the other chiefs in the state could come together to remove him.
A lot of us Africans love to console ourselves with the view that there was democracy at work in the African governance system. The African intellectual is striving so hard to let the world know that the African was democratic simply because family heads or Kingmakers came together to choose a Chief, as though democracy was all about elections. Assuming, without admitting, that the African was democratic, why are we so much seeking approval from the West overtly and covertly of our “democratic” standing? Is democracy only about elections? Who proffered that western democracy with all its freedoms and rights and responsibilities was the best form of governance to be practiced in Africa? Who said autocracy was an inherently evil or incompetent form of governance? Or is it because Russian Marxism went into crises and Russia eventually lost the Cold War, Marxism is a bad form of governance?
Why is Africa not growing, or why has Africa not been allowed to grow a system of government that suits its cultural, social, economic and political peculiarities? I’m always flabbergasted when I see Africans who are democratic zealots. Purveyors of democracy are as inconsistent as the ideology they are selling. Let me ask, why is the “Mother” of all democracies torturing people and imprisoning some without trial? Yet another world leader does this and he is evil?
The inherent problem with democracy is its brazen idealism. Democracy seems to fail to respond to reality, and when it does, it is under wraps because it has sold itself on idealism.

I am not saying democracy is bad, no. I’m simply saying that it does not suit Africa’s historical, social and economic peculiarities. We do not have the structures the US and Europe has built to support their democracy. Even where such structures have been built, they look awkward, like square pegs in round holes. I believe it is possible for Africa to develop, but we must develop on our own terms. What Africa needs isn’t strong institutions, or even strong men. Africa needs its own form of governance so it can develop on its own terms. 

THE DARKNESS CALLED “GHANA”

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Dear Father of The Heavenly Lights,
Hahahahaaa don’t be surprised that I have addressed you as in James 1:17. You know whenever I write to you, it is to complain about a thing, and this time I want to talk about electricity. Yes electricity, preferably called lights by the masses.
Father I want to ask oo, when you sit on your throne in Heaven and look down on earth at night, especially the West African portion, particularly where Ghana is supposed to be, what do you see? Do you see a “lighted” area or you see a large mass of darkness two countries away from an even larger and blacker mass of darkness (Nigeria)? Please tell me, what do you see when you look down on us from your heavenly throne at night?
In the beginning you made the heaven and the earth, and you separated darkness from the light and called them night and day respectively. To see in the darkness of the night, you gave our forefathers the wisdom to create fire in the prehistoric days; and wax and oil vats which were burnt at night to create light in the pre-modern days; and finally the brain to discover electricity and make light bulbs to light up our nights in the post-modern era. Now this is where the confusion begins.
In Ghana we created, established, constructed the Akosombo Dam and others to provide us with electricity, and also set up ECG, GRIDCO and other state agencies to create, supply and regulate the electricity. God, please let me ask you, do you know what is called “dumsor”? You don’t know? Ok that is your assignment for today, go and find it out. In the earlier days, when this dumsor began we only knew ECG as the one turning the lights off and on. Now GRIDCO also has the power to turn lights off and on. So sometimes ECG turns it on, then later GRIDCO turns it off before alerting the ECG of the need to turn off the lights.
It is so confusing. At first we used to go home to lights, and then it changed to going home to darkness. Now we go home to light, sleep knowing lights and fans are on, and wake up in the middle of the light sweating as though you just attended an oven. In fact, God, if you are not careful you will think you are in hell probably because you have woken up on the other side. At that moment if you are not a strong man like me, your sins come flooding to you like torrential rains in Accra (Father mark this one, it is the subject one of my future letters). Regret washes over you and you almost weep until you remember you are in Ghana. Then relief comes surging like the waves at Labadi, then anger like the stench from the Korle Lagoon when you notice the sweat on your body and the wet bed because lights or electricity has gone off.
And God did you intentionally give us our current leaders? God I swear – no – I believe the devil is jealous of our President. Our President promises more than acts these days. The timetable promising the end of dumsor has changed like plenty times. Now we don’t know what to do anymore. Did this dumsor come from the devil? Because our engineers are simply unable to resolve it and are blaming everything from increased population to low rainfall to low gas production to anything. The excuses are as desperate as the man who has to iron his clothes at 5:58pm for the next day’s job interview, when the lights are ready to go off at exactly 6pm.
Father, please can’t you bring us some of your heavenly lights? Ei remember us oo, we are your children oo, we go to mosque, church, shrine to worship you oo. Ei remember we say you are a Ghanaian oo or are you a Ghanaian only in football. So if you are a Ghanaian, why are you browning us your heavenly lights? Or you want us to buy generators? But if we buy the generators how are we going to fuel them sef?
Anyway Father, I must sign off here. Please touch the heart of my loved ones to contribute some money to buy the woman you gave me and I, a small generator so we can enjoy our fan at night. I know you have answered my prayer already, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Yours in the Dumsor,

Kobina Harrison.

THE BIBLE MUST BE REWRITTEN!

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Dear God,

I know you have received a plethora of letters and telephone calls from many different people, and you must be bored since most of them are just to create fun. My letter is of the more serious variety. I know you already know what I want to say but I’ll repeat it for all to hear. The Bible must be rewritten!

 

Father, I submit that the Bible must be rewritten because it has outlived its days (of course you know I can’t say usefulness). You see, even though you created this world, and you have been there from the beginning, you do not live in this world with us. A lot of things have changed since the days of Adam and Abraham thems. Thus if we pick the Bible now, we must change some things to suit the “modern” age. For example, books like Deuteronomy, Leviticus and Numbers are no longer relevant. People who oppose Christianity say that it is filled with hate speech, and they actually quote portions (Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 13:1-5) of those books to support their assertion. God, you know that even a lot of Christians do not like to read those books because it is long and boring to read, and difficult to understand. Besides the 10 Commandments are written down in Exodus so if we delete those three books, abi we haven’t lost anything, or?

 

Also, I submit that you should add a new book to the Bible. It should be called the book of DIVINE REVELATIONS AND AKWANKYER3. This shall be limited to the Ghanaian versions of the new Bible. Father, you know that these days the young Ghanaian Christian has thrown away her Bible (the women go to church waa) and embraced so-called “divine revelations” and what they have fashionably termed “Near Death Experiences” or NDEs. Even some of the men you have ordained or who claim you ordained them, preach using such “divine revelations”. The issue is that these divine revelations are often so contrary to what the Bible has said. Once I heard a pastor preach to his flock using that Zambrano girl’s divine revelation instead of the Bible. He was teaching his flock from that thing that our good deeds buy us land in heaven to build mansions there, and that there are people in heaven who live in crowded community homes that have been built there. But I remember Jesus Christ saying that in your house there are many mansions, and if it were not so he would not have said. So if there are mansions, why should our good deeds buy us land to build? One other person told me that there was a divine revelation in which you said anybody who commits fornication is sleeping with you. I was shocked because I know you said anybody who commits fornication is sinning against his own body. Father, in Ghana dierr akwankyer3 nkoaa ooo. Every tom, dick, harry and abena Christian is now going after akwankyer3, doing all sorts of absurd things in the name of directions or akwankyer3 from you. This is why I seek that the Bible be rewritten to suit our current “modern” trends.

 

There is one other reason why I seek that the Bible be rewritten. It is something that a lot of us young Christians would be happy to see. Father, you know the Bible speaks against fornication and all sorts of sexual immorality. But Father, now we your so-called sons and daughters are caught in it. We are mired in its dirty depths, so mired that it is becoming secretly fashionable among us. A lot of us who are in relationships, often become pregnant before we walk down the aisle, or are pregnant as we walk down the aisle. A lot of us guys now want license to masturbate, because we say it prevents us from getting into fornication. Father, I know you know that I know what I’m talking because nothing is hidden from you. Therefore I would like you to add a caveat to the portion about us not fornicating or engaging in sexual immorality. I ask that you allow us to fornicate only when we know that we will surely be married to our partner, or when we have only one girl or boyfriend. Allow us to masturbate only if it saves us from fornication. What better way to grant us this than implanting it into the Bible?

 

Abba Father, I only ask that the Bible becomes more liberal to accommodate our modern tastes. Please for the sake of human rights – which has replaced the Holy Spirit since Jesus left this world – we seek that you liberalize the Bible. We know you are a loving God, so please allow us to use the Bible as we wish but still claim to find forgiveness in you. After all, it is now more fashionable to say you are homosexual than to say you are Christian. The world is seeing us Christians as backward people, and us young Christians want to feel accepted by the world. Please note that we are not conforming, we just want acceptance from the world. Please rewrite the Bible for us to suit our modern times.

 

Father I want to sign out. But before that I want to give a big shout-outs to man like Angel Gabriel, man like Angel Michael, man like Moses and the other mandem.

 

Please we await your coming, not with joy but with sadness that this sweet world would be ending. But we have resigned ourselves to it. We await your coming.

 

I remain your son, who rebels and leads rebellions,

Harrison.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP – THE REAL ISSUES

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In recent times, there has been a lot of talk in both the mainstream and social media about the lack of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ability in Ghana and Africa as a whole. Recent purchases of Whatsapp, Oculus Rift and Instagram for $19 billion, $2 billion and $1 billion respectively by Facebook set tongues wagging in Ghana and Africa about the successes chalked by the originators of these “successful” start-ups. More dramatic was the fact that the originator of Whatsapp had sought employment at Facebook and had been turned down. The fact that these originators are young further fueled the fire.

As with all problems Ghanaian, we have sought and found a scapegoat to blame for our very apparent lack of entrepreneurship. This scapegoat is our educational system (and sometimes the government)! A lot of us, simpletons, business moguls and academicians alike have taken swipes at the educational system. “Our educational system is too academics oriented, too theoretical”, “We need to reform our educational system”, “Our educational system is outmoded, suited only to the days of Guggisberg”, “Our educational system does not allow us to think” are some of the very famous swipes taken at Ghana’s educational system, and for any young man (like me), it is uncool to claim on any platform, especially social media (twitter mostly) that the fault is not with the educational system but with us.

I do not seek to make excuses for the government or the educational system in Ghana. I agree that like all things, we need to tweak our educational system a little (or even much, whatever you think) to achieve optimal performance, but we cannot blame it for the lack of entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship starts with an idea, and ideas come out of thinking hard with an eye towards solving a problem no matter how minuscule. It is evident that the Ghanaian youth is not thinking, or even if s/he is, s/he is thinking about the wrong things. People are not thinking but are quick to say the educational system here doesn’t allow them to think. Laughable excuse. Even if you attend Harvard Business School and learn all the entrepreneurship there is, if you fail to think for yourself you will remain just as you are!

Again, we are looking in the wrong place if we just go about blaming the educational system. I thought those “cool” people will ask for an enabling social and economic environment so that they can put their ideas in motion. The educational system isn’t at fault when we do not have the enabling social and economic environment. Even if the educational system is to be faulted for our current lack of entrepreneurial ability, it will be a shame and an indictment on us to do so. This is because you have to learn to think & create. Don’t wait for an educational system. Entrepreneurs lived before business schools and business curricula were created. Think oooo think! Apply yourselves to purposeful thoughts and actions. Put your ideas in motion and stop blaming everybody or everything!!

Also, some young people know that entrepreneurship starts with ideas. Because they hear others say entrepreneurship starts with ideas, people think up grandiose ideas without thinking how to start up that idea. Grand but unworkable ideas are useless. Create workable ideas and put your energy into starting up. Stop fooling around and blaming the educational system. Now most young persons want to be rich and drive the latest cars but nobody wants to put in the work. Everybody wants to be a TV star. Entrepreneurship also means putting in the work, applying yourself to purposeful thoughts and actions. It means being willing to take the risk to start small and put in the work to make it big. It means knowing that you may possibly make money at an older age (where you may not be strong enough to chase plenty girls or gadgets). Stop organizing parties and attending every hall week or beach trip, sit your asses on chairs and start thinking up workable plans. Put your energies to good entrepreneurial use!

Lastly, remember that reading makes you mentally agile, so if you are being taught to read and write (as our educational system is alleged to specialize in doing), you have the foundation for creative thinking. Don’t remain at that level, build on it. The educational system cannot be blamed if you decide to remain only functionally literate. Some of you don’t read, not hand-outs or lecture notes, definitely not journals. Neither do you even know your talents or strengths. All these feed into entrepreneurship, so please sit up and set your mind to purpose.

Maybe I should also rest my tired fingers (typing ain’t easy) and set my mind to purposeful thinking!

 

LOVE

Posted on by sharrisoncudjoe

I write of emotions
Not for fun neither for sake
I want to write
About love’s many faces
Love is considerate and kind
Love is neither envious nor boasts
Love seems only positive emotions
This they say and smile….

Love’s reality is unkind
Love is a risk, many hearts break
Cupid’s arrow leaves pain
And many victims grow lean
Love is treacherous
Its pains hit outright the heart
Love’s pain doesn’t spare
The lover who really cares.

Yet love always protects
Love always trusts
Love always hopes
The greatest of all is love. 

A LETTER TO MY KIDS

Posted on by sharrisoncudjoe

Hi there kiddos,

This is my first letter to you even though you are not yet born, but of course you’ll be born. Four strong boys. You, my first son, will be named Kojo. The next is Samuel, then David-Sampson, then the last, William. You guys are named after some great people in my life – my dad, a combo of my brother and my almost-twin friend, myself, and my Christian guru respectively. Let me cut to the chase. I am writing to you just to talk. We’ll talk about what I’ll do for you, and the dos and don’ts of our family (Am I a dictator already?). Don’t worry you’ll enjoy this.

 What I’ll do

So, let’s start with what I’ll do for you. I’ll provide all your needs, surely I will. But I’ll NEVER provide all your wants. This is to teach you modesty and contentment in a very materialistic world, and I know your days will be more materialistic than mine. When I was a kid, my dad your grandfather provided my needs, but never, I mean never, did he provide some “needs” as I saw them. I never owned a Nintendo game boy, not even bricks game (ok u don’t know that game). I watched movies standing behind peoples windows. Instead I was registered at the library whilst in primary 4, and I was made to read, read and read until I could read no more. Eventually, I learned modesty, contentment and came across so much knowledge (u don’t see the correlation, right? U’ll understand later). This is what I’ll do for you.

Most importantly, I’ll teach u to be very good Christians. For this reason you will get proper Christian training. Your mum-to-be is a very good Christian and I, your dad, am training myself in true Christianity. When I was a child, my mother your grandma, constantly took me to church and taught me all I needed to know. That training she gave me kept me on the narrow path. You’ll have that training. You will not be just church-goers, you’ll be true Christians, your mum and I will make sure of that.


The dos
You kids are supposed to “use your heads” at all times. You’ll be required to use your common sense. I attended a school where a breach of common sense was a breach of the rules. This was ingrained in me and you my kids will have to do same. Of course since you are males, Mfantsipim School will be your only choice of a high school. I’ll expect you Kojo, my first son, to give leadership to your brothers at all times. Give your mother no cause to complain (because when she starts talking, its non-stop), and care for her in the times I’ll be away from home.

Since you are boys I’ll expect you to be stubborn sometimes. I swear to you I wasn’t a dull boy in my days. I remember some time your uncle David and I engaged some boys in a stone-throwing match. We cornered one boy and ended up hurting him, hitting his head with a stone. The boy’s mum marched him to our home to complain to my mum your grandma. She bathed the boy with our sponge, and made him eat our food (you are laughing?). But please, don’t be as stubborn as your uncle David, or I’ll be forced to come down hard on you (your mother also knows some few things about cracking down on boys, beware).

You boys will have to be strong. By strong, I mean you should be mentally tough. The world is not a bed of roses. People will hurt you, some will disappoint you, few will love you, whilst others will plainly hate you. In all of these, I expect my boys to be as strong as their dad. You are also required to be creative and intelligent. Being hardworking will be a part of you, and if names have effects on people, then I have some real smart, hardworking boys. You’ll also have to be sociable. You should be able to relate with all manner of persons. These qualities are the stuff winners are made of, and you’ll possess them.

The don’ts

You boys will have no right to disrespect your mother. She is my wife, and I expect total obedience at all times. There may be times that as boys, you’ll talk back to her. But don’t you ever show her gross disrespect, it shall not be tolerated at all. Once your grandpa, Kojo Harrison, lashed me severely when I used the words “stupid” and “woman” in a sentence whilst I spoke to my mum. I’ll mete out the same punishment if you should disrespect my wife.

Again, you boys shall not rebel or be rebels in my home. God knows I’ve rebelled enough in my youth. All the rebelling you’ll do, I have already done. I rebelled against some teachers, my friends, and even church leaders. But in all these I never rebelled against my parents, nor rebelled without good reason. You’ll soon see that rebellion runs in the family. But I have had enough of it. Your mother-to-be has also had enough of rebellion, especially mine, and I’m very sure she would not countenance any more from you boys. She already dreams of having female children, and I fear if you give her a whiff of that behavior, you boys will not be born.

 Lastly, you boys will have no right to love your mother much more than you’ll love me.

Well, boys, I know my letter is long but I needed to talk to you before you “dropped” on earth. We’ll talk more as the days go by.

With love,

Your Dad.