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<\/p>\nBy Isaac Ato MENSAH<\/p>\n
Accra- 29 September, 2018.<\/p>\n
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The question in the title of this story gets an A from us.<\/p>\n
You can never tire of asking what the problem is with our Ghanaian leadership.<\/p>\n
Many of them are highly schooled.<\/p>\n
We respect that.<\/p>\n
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But alas, need we repeat that there are differences between schooling, training and education?<\/p>\n
The question which forms the basis of this story, is about Nigerian traders, in particular, being driven out of the retail trade business in Ghana.<\/p>\n
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Ken Ukaoha, one of the speakers at a demonstration at the Ghana High Commission in Abuja and the ECOWAS Secretariat in Asokoro, both in Nigeria, asked that question which embarrasses all Ghanaians and rightly so.<\/p>\n
Ukoaha led a demonstration by National Association of Nigerian Traders with a very appropriate and powerful message not only to Ghanaians and Nigerians, but to the whole world.<\/p>\n
His language, intonation, inflexion and style are very appropriate to the audience and helps to drive home his message with clarity; his logic unassailable; his rhetoric too totally convincing.<\/p>\n
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The problem the speaker presents is the same old thematic drive of this blog, namely, doing the right thing and admitting the truth.<\/p>\n
But why is the Ghanaian political leadership consistently failing to do the right thing?<\/p>\n
It is our considered observation that either they are ignorant or they are dishonest.<\/p>\n
Could our oral culture be blamed for our lack of adherence to simple agreements and principles?<\/p>\n
Sir Jack Goody, an anthropologist established ‘links between very
\ndifferent civilisations and the processes of change.<\/p>\n
One of his most remarkable pieces of work was a comparison between the societies of ancient
\nGreece and modern Ghana’, reported www.theguardian.com in 2015.<\/p>\n
Goody concluded that in oral cultures there is \u201cstructural amnesia\u201d, the loss of the memory of
\ndifferences between the past and the present.<\/p>\n
‘In these cultures the memory of changes is lost in a generation or so, since the past is constantly
\nupdated, by being reconstructed in the image of the present’, Peter Burke and Joe McDermott, the writers of Goody’s obituary in The Guardian, continued.<\/p>\n
What Goody infers is exactly what we see in Ghana.<\/p>\n
That is, public policy and decisions based on an ad hoc approach devoid of rational analysis and often predicated on narrow parochial interests.<\/p>\n
Important decisions are not reached after serious and objective historical inquiry,\u00a0comparison and scepticism.<\/p>\n
Such an ethos in our community will allow knowledge to accumulate, undermining structural amnesia thus leading to an expansion of the intellectual horizons of the community.<\/p>\n
In short it will promote rational and progressive planning and avoid the protean retrogressive acts and decisions that emanate from our political leaders.<\/p>\n
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In the videos, circulating on social media, Ukoaha asks, \u2018Why did Ghana sign the Ecowas Protocol\u2026on free movement of goods, free movement of persons\u2026free movement of services\u2026.are Nigerians in Ghana foreigners?\u2019<\/p>\n
Then there appears a placard held by a lady with the inscription, \u2018IS THIS ANOTHER GHANA MUST GO?\u2019<\/p>\n
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That inscription references the painful period of the late 1970s and early 80s when Ghanaians sojourning in Nigeria due to the failure of our political administration, both military and civilian, were driven home, with some carrying \u201cGhana Must Go\u201d bags.<\/p>\n
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I remember someone who came home with a telephone handset.<\/p>\n
We the children every now and then asked him the relevance of the telephone because it was not connected; it was just sitting on the table.<\/p>\n
Even as children we knew that whatever reason he offered for returning home with only a telephone handset, was totally unconvincing.<\/p>\n
Ditto for the current Ghanaian government harassment of Nigerian traders in Ghana.<\/p>\n
Are we not capable of learning the right lessons from our recent history?<\/p>\n
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Can we learn anything useful from how other people have transformed the “Ghana Must Go” bag?<\/p>\n
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Feedback: ato@writersghana.com.<\/p>\n
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