A goodly apple rotten at the heart
Like everyone else, I have always known the meaning of “Flash in the Pan” and have used the expression “since” (pardon my Nigerian usage).
In 2014, when the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah African Genius Awards were conceived, the originators were looking for the one word or expression that would stand out among the plethora of awards in the system.
In its marching orders to the Award Selection Committee, the Board of Governors cautioned against (a) “Flash in the pan” achievers and achievements and (b) People with doubtful integrity.
By this, the board was not necessarily out to condemn those other awards based on achievements or extraordinary performances within a particular year in review.
My mind took me back into time, to the beginnings of the ACRAG Awards in the late 70s.
Many dance bands that won the Band of the Year did not last beyond five years.
Many of the songs or albums of the year turned out to be what they were awarded for ‒ “of that year”: they did not outlive the award year.
It is within this context that I justify award schemes such as the CIMG Marketing Achievement of the Year, and Ghana Music Awards categories, including Song/Artist/ Album of the Year.
You cannot fault the CIMG or the organisers of the Ghana Music Awards merely because an awardee of a particular year turned out, later, to be a thief or a crook. It does not even matter if that achievement is the only achievement chalked up by the recipient for the rest of their life.
So even as award schemes, such as the Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah African Genius Awards, bestow lifetime achievements on personalities and institutions whose works have endured,
I believe that institutions and individual entrepreneurs should be free to bestow industry awards to celebrate individuals and institutions who emerge outstanding in particular years.
All of the above are the reasons why I do not share the views of some Ghanaians who are suddenly pissing on award schemes, some of whose honorees have been cited in scandals.
One cannot take away anything from the enduring achievement of Prince Kofi Amoabeng, founder of UT Bank, for instance. His success story will remain a model that will be taught in Business School.
If for nothing, Kofi Amoabeng opened our eyes to see that it is possible to give out a loan in less than 48 hours and not fear default. The UT model taught us to pause and think through our ability to pay before we venture to go for a loan.
There were back-of-the-hand whispers about how UT handled their debtors. Kofi had no choice: the money he lent out was money he had borrowed, which he had to pay back.
He was no flash in the pan, growing UT into a full-fledged bank with subsidiaries, some of which are worth hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis in assets.
Award
For this article, I looked up the origin of the expression “Flash in the Pan”. In Wikipedia, the story is told that during the California Gold Rush of the mid-19th century, prospectors panning for gold supposedly became excited when they saw something glint in the pan, only to have their hopes dashed when it proved not to be gold but a mere 'flash in the pan'.
Is it the case, as one female PhD holder used to complain, that “in Ghana, it is too easy to be a star”? Do we hasten not too slowly in conferring honour?
I have argued that industry awards still have legitimacy because their criteria assess the individual or institution for the year of the award.
Nonetheless, our award scheme organisers need to pause and reflect. Is it too much to ask the CIMG, for instance, to pose to itself a few questions, such as: How did this man/woman start?
Knowing what Ghanaians know today ‒ about certain companies that mushroomed suddenly and became towers of Babel ‒ it should not be too much to suggest that, going forward, the marching orders for award panels should include finding out the type of manure/fertiliser under the mushroom.
My point is that it is not enough to let it be known that the nominee’s company started ten or 20 years ago. It should be possible, for example, to find out how the company won government contracts.
Panels should be discerning enough to look at the growth graphs of the nominee’s company (ies) and question sudden peaks in profit. In this country, we know of a company that was paid in full before the contract was awarded.
The truth that is emerging is that some super-human profits are the result of sudden injection of unearned capital or earnings from undeserved contracts, mostly from political patrons, some of whom are unnamed shareholders.
Organisers of awards should, with the tools of an assayer, bore through glittering exteriors to examine the inside.
We shall find that in some instances, it is not just that “All that glitters is not gold” but further and worse, it is (to quote Shakespeare again) a “Goodly apple rotten at the heart”.
The writer is the Executive Director, Centre for Communication and Culture.
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