Mediocrity will kill us!
Sometimes I observe the way many Ghanaians, including people at the helm of national affairs behave, particularly the kinds of decision they take, and I get afraid at the depth at which mediocrity has eaten into our spirits and souls.
Advertisement
Mediocrity, which is the state of ordinariness; moderate or average quality is seen clearly at all levels of the Ghanaian society, and that is quite alarming because it means we are all settling for less in life.
For instance, for many people in this country, before they start making babies they do not have any plans for setting a solid standard for their families. They just produce the children and leave them in the “Hands of God”. This may explain why, still in this country, some primary schoolchildren as young as six years go to school bare-footed.
Generally, we have failed in parenting, corporate leadership, state administration and in many other areas and if we do not rise up and challenge ourselves to do greater things, we will continue to chase the shadows of the people of the so-called developed world.
One cause of mediocrity is lack of exposure to great things and it is sad to note that the children of Ghana are constantly exposed to very deprived environments and that tends to rob them of the desire to think big and create big things.
Children, they say, learn better through observation. It is also an established fact in psychology that one is likely to repeat what one sees consistently. It is therefore critical that we constantly expose our children to great things so that when they grow up, they will do greater things.
Consider this scenario: Kofi goes to primary school barefooted. He grows up and attends a secondary school where he has to use a stick to literally pound human excreta in a water closet and cover it with pieces of paper before he “painfully” squats on the toilet bowl to attend to the call of nature. This is the situation in many of the country’s schools because we have failed to fix our ever poor water supply system!
Kofi is later admitted to the university, where he is supposed to move beyond toilet and bath issues and concentrate on research, theories and practical situations that will enable him to think big about how to contribute in solving the country’s problems. But sadly at the university, he is thrown into a small room with about five or six other students. Again, there is no place to sleep well, eat well and attend to the call of nature in a decent manner.
Other Trending Stories
Kofi literally struggles through university and lands a job in government or the private sector. While on the job, his major dream is to get a house with fine toilet and bath; good food and clothing. These are things that should be normal for someone who has been to the university but it is sad to observe that for many graduates in Ghana, that is a big dream.
For Kofi, the long spell of going through chill penury at school makes the enjoyment of the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter, the source of self-actualisation; he ultimately gets them and that is all that his spirit requires to make him happy.
That may explain why in Ghana, wearing fine clothes, eating good food and living in large and beautiful houses constitute a high mark of achievement, whereas in other places in the world, helping to solve humanity’s problems through inventions, explorations and other forms of creativity defines accomplishment.
The kind of exposure that our first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, had as a young man, no doubt, gave him solid ideas on how to develop this country and what he did many decades ago have not been equalled by any Ghanaian leader since independence.
We have settled for less all the time, simply because our expectations are so limited. For instance, one is appointed a Minister of State or Chief Executive Officer of a company and we, the masses, are okay seeing one driving around daily in expensive cars and doing very little to bring positive changes to the establishment that one heads.
Fire, floods, filth, water shortages and erratic power supply have hit this country year after year, in spite of the fact that we have consistently trained engineers. What have they done to solve even one of these problems?
I do not blame them because many of them are busy eating well, dressing well and driving comfortable cars; things that were denied them when they were growing up.
Catch me here: Wasiedus@gmail.com /Follow me on Twitter@WillieAsiedu