Corrupt societies do not fall from Mars

A waakye seller intentionally sells food that has gone bad. An unsuspecting waakye lover buys it. He is rushed to the hospital after enjoying it. Unfortunately, he passed away. His children grew up without a father.

They fall into bad company, which eventually leads them to hard drugs and prostitution. They are gradually seduced into armed robbery. The children who were victims of yesterday make more victims today, killing anybody who resists their demand. 

Thanks to one waakye seller, a vicious cycle keeps repeating itself. Thanks to one waakye seller, lives are needlessly lost. Children never taste the quality of life they were made to live. Thanks to one waakye seller, homes are broken. 

Some are pained for life. They live all their life seeking how to take revenge on a society that unfairly watched as their loved ones departed forcibly to eternity. Thanks to one waakye seller, a corrupt society is born!

Many often underestimate their role in nation-building. They assume nations are built from the top. They want to earn big titles to consider themselves a part of the nation-building movement. 

As insignificant as they perceive themselves to be today, they have concluded that a nation can only be built by others, not them.

One person’s corrupt act goes a long way to affect everybody. It may be an addition of a little over-invoicing, but it can go a long way to contribute to the ‘no-bed’ syndrome in government hospitals.

 It may be a few ghost names on the payroll, but the consequences for recently employed graduates who have been waiting tirelessly to be put on the government payroll will not be few. In the equation of corruption, one man’s gain is always another man’s pain.  

Life is built on the domino effect. One person’s (in)action ― whether good or bad ― has a ripple effect on everyone. Everybody pays for the wrongs of one person… just as everyone benefits from the exploits of one person. In other words, everybody matters in the process of nation-building. 

Nations are built holistically. All hands are on deck because, like the domino effect, everyone soon becomes the product of the choices of others. No man wins or loses alone. It is either we all win or lose. Like a relay race, we can only win or lose as a team.

The waakye seller contributes to nation-building just as the medical officer does. The cobbler on the street is as critical to nation-building as the politician in his office. 

If we consider nation-building according to the ripple effects of our (in)actions, all of us would do better. We will finally come to the ugly realisation that it collectively takes a nation ― and not politicians ― to build a nation.

Imagine the stress all of us go through when trotro drivers embark on a strike. As unimportant as these drivers and their conductors may look in the eyes of society, they can hold a whole nation ransom with their demands. Nobody is an afterthought as far as nation-building matters. Everybody matters!  

Your career is a hammer. It fixes or breaks society. When a policeman sides with an abuser instead of his victims, for instance, he is gradually tearing down the walls of our society. 

When a market woman adds poisonous chemicals to oil to redden it, she is destroying the same society others have built with their blood. 

A nation wrecker is a selfish person who exploits others for their benefit. It is not difficult to identify such. Their attitude toward work gives them away. How they handle government property is an identifier. They work as though they are doing others a favour.

The work of each person’s hands contributes to either the rot or the prosperity of this nation. No matter how little, everyone’s handiwork has a ripple effect on others. 

For instance, the teacher who encourages examination malpractice destroys a nation as much as the politician who loots from the public coffers. A student who benefits from such malpractice will someday be a health worker who can only survive by malpractice.

Another student who would become a dropout (because of the corrupt politician) may eventually drown in a galamsey pit in search of their daily bread. 

Corrupt societies do not fall from Mars. They are gradually built by corrupt hands. The corruption of society is the product of the ripple effects of everyone’s choices. 

No man is born corrupt. They are sometimes the products of the ripple effects of other people’s corruption. 

These ripple effects stare at them as a broken system that may never be fixed. The only way to fix it is to steal enough to live above the problems.

The reality of a corrupt society soon dawns on everybody, whether rich or poor. It grimly reminds us that no one can live beyond the problems of a broken system. 

One day, you will need the broken health system to save you, but it may be too late. Someday, money cannot buy you enough knowledge because the education system was never fixed. You only made enough money to stop the complaints, but not to solve them.  

If we want to enjoy the right environment, it should begin with us. We must be in the right environment. If we individually choose the right path, society will end up on the right path. 

Accountability and integrity must lead us all ― from the bottom to the top ― in our choices. We must insist on the right thing, whether eyes are on us or not. 

By your everyday choices, you are either fighting or fueling corruption. As corrupt societies are intentionally built with choices, the right choices will gradually build the society we desire to live in. It begins with you and me. It begins with all of us. 

Kobina Ansah is the Chief Scribe of Scribe Productions (www.scribeproductions.com) and Scribe Communications (www.scribecommltd.com).