Welcome to
my class. This one is not on prostitution or abortion but another equally
disheartening headache- corruption. Is there even anything new we are going to
learn? Perhaps yes. Perhaps no. Like watching a telenovela, we all know so much
that anyone qualifies to occupy my seat.
Right from
childhood, we knew corruption (a synonym of stealing if you care to know) was
as evil as the devil himself. Our heads bore the brunt of our parent’s knocks
anytime fish mistakenly found its way into our stomachs. We wouldn’t dare take
any money that we hadn’t worked for; be it fleecing someone or stealing. The chilling
spanks echoed that well enough.
All through
senior high school, the ‘disco weeding’ and their likes were enough to remind
us that our housemasters’ birds were not another of the school’s property,
hence, should belong where they did belong- the coops- not inside our ‘shito’. That
aside, extorting monies that didn’t belong to us was as grave a sin as any one
could imagine. That grave!
Our
university days weren’t any different. The consequence of taking someone else’s
belonging was not a comfortable one. The shame and disgrace gladly bestowed upon
such deterred most of us enough.
But… is the
society not supposed to be a larger picture of our families and schools? Yes it
is. Corruption is still criminal… though most of our ‘abled’ politicians have faithfully
made it seem otherwise. Corruption, in whichever shade it may come, is sternly frowned
on. Fact is, it is abhorred!
A few,
though, have almost succeeded in painting that deceptive picture that it is a
norm; the order of the day. You would be convinced that same is done
everywhere, anywhere. We call such Soul
Takers; those that heartlessly siphon our very souls financially.
You think
the politician was the only corrupt dude walking under the scorching Sun in
such hard times in GH? Of course not. The corrupt folks come to church, too,
with fat tithes and offerings. They smile at us wherever we find ourselves; in
the banks, hospitals, name them. Lions in goats clothing. Haha.
They don’t
wear shirts with this canker emblazoned on them. They seem nice on the outside,
yet unpatriotic in the inside. Enemies of the nation. Their stomachs and
insatiable, selfish desires are all their minds are preoccupied with; even at
the peril of others.
Do you blame
them anyway? Maybe not. The frustrating, bureaucratic systems have made such
‘unGhanaian’ folks have a field day. In a bid to burden the masses (in the name
of huge taxes, levies, duties, call them however you want to), these few are
fortunately or unfortunately made richer and richer when the nation’s finances
wallows in the red day after day.
Works that
are supposed to be completed in minutes drag into days and probably years. And
then… such folks come in with that necessary evil of a rhetorical question “Do
you really want to get this thing done?” Of course, who doesn’t!
Corruption is one headache anyone should hate
getting involved in. It is not a norm. Maybe the same society’s double
standards would make it seem so. After all, politicians who loot and share our
common wealth in our full glare walk away as free men and… are literally bowed
to. On the other hand, the angry, hungry man who would steal another’s fingers
of plantain would find himself behind bars, sometimes beyond decades and...
would be stoned when set free. Sarcastic GH!
Corruption,
whichever way we see it, is evil. Need anyone even say so? Wearing a three-piece
suit to calculatedly dabble in it doesn’t make it any less evil. Posterity
would judge each of us, whether our lives as Ghanaians were well-lived or not.
Thank God
for all the mechanisms to check this nation wrecker called corruption. However,
best of all is our own conscience; yours and mine. You can go every length to
point fingers at others (I didn’t mention the police!) when you do same or even
worse in your closet. You are left to your own conscience.
As long as
we all live (and have our GH at heart), we should individually make our nation
the corruption-free place we want to see it be someday; nation watch men. Not
only Anas but you and me, too. Obviously, then you become an Anas just as I am.
My lecture
ends. Did I even mention my name as Anas? Not at all. I am not even a journalist let alone be an
investigative one. Laugh out loud.
