Should we sell Ghana and share the booty?

A conversation that I eavesdropped on last Thursday at the Abbosey Okai spare parts dealers’ left me with a grin.

On reflection, however, the magnitude of people’s desperation with the economy which has gone hay wire began to dawn on me.  It is no laughing matter.

I could not help to listen in to the conversation between two men who had obviously come to Abossey Okai to look for some vehicle parts and a shop owner.  Bewildered with the price of the vehicle part, one of the men remarked angrily, “Ghana paa ni.  

Why don’t we sell Ghana and share the proceeds so we can go and look for another country to settle in?”  This man did not seem like he had hope for Ghana and yet if you asked me his age, he would not be more than 40 years.

Why did I go to Abossey Okai spare parts dealers?  In my previous job, we were encouraged to do market visits just to see how our products were faring and what the consumer was saying.  Our reports were to improve the value chain.  That practice has stuck with me and so every now and then, I step out to see what the people are saying.

So, last week, as I happened to be in the Kaneshie business district, I stopped by the Abossey Okai spare parts dealers checking prices of vehicle parts.  While inside one of the shops, the two men came in.  

Obviously not amused with the prices being quoted, the one who remarked that Ghana should be sold said they were referred to the shop by a colleague who also owns a commercial vehicle.  

According to the man, the price that was being quoted for them was twice what their colleague paid for just over a week before. Angry and disappointed with the turn of events, he thought Ghana was gradually becoming too expensive.  He complained that he could not increase his fares, yet prices of spare parts were increasing on a daily basis.  

Advancing the reasons why Ghana should be sold and proceeds shared, he said with so much persuasion that Ghana was not going to come out of its woes any time soon. He added that if you had property that continued to give you problems, you were better off selling it.  

He asked if after producing oil we should still go out to borrow with nothing to show and the economy continuously remained anaemic with people not able to feed their families three times a day. To him, there was nothing left to hope for.  

He complained that schools had reopened and as a family man he had to go and pay fees with everything else going up, yet his fares had remained the same for some time.  To him, taking his share and migrating elsewhere would be better than to sit in the depression.  

So should we put Ghana to a “Yes” or “No” vote to see how many would want our beloved country up for sale?  As Scotland voted in an independence referendum last week, this man’s retort to sell Ghana came to mind.  

The market visit to Abossey Okai painted a clearer picture of hardships in the face of opulence by some public officials.  And of course, our attitudes and practices are not helping.  

As I walked through Abossey Okai, primetime news fell ready.  FM stations were blurting away discussing the story on the CHRAJ Commissioner’s spending of $148,000 on rent and further expenditure of over $400 per day on hotel accommodation .

Indeed, recent revelations in a section of the media have revealed that in the heat of the hardships we are facing, a small number of public officials are taking advantage of the largesse of the state.  Take, for example, the revelations coming out of the Commission set up to investigate our going to Brazil for the World Cup.  The magnitude of the spending we are hearing about beats understanding.

Ghana sometimes paints a regrettable picture.  In this 21st century when people are dying of cholera, the Daily Graphic’s front page story last Friday, September 19, indicated that open defaecation along the country’s beaches continues to increase.  

Surprisingly, some sections of the population want the practice to continue because it serves to pacify the gods “to catch more fish.”  

Ghana’s story breaks one’s heart for a country with such beautiful prospects.   Should we put Ghana up for sale then or wait and see, as a Dutch Artist, Vincent Van Gogh, once said, “Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together.”

Writer's email: vickywirekoandoh@yahoo.com