You Are The Change, Stop Complaining!

We accuse our politicians for bad governance and corruption, we accuse service providers for poor service delivery, we accuse our sportsmen for poor performance, and we accuse everyone for everything except ourselves. We live in a country full of brilliant technocrats, policy think thanks, Journalist, activist and pressure groups who proffers excellent solution to our national problems, we have a most sensible, apt, competent and efficient government in opposition. Fortunately and unfortunately for us as a country, In one time or the other the cr�me de la cr�me of our society have had the chance to change the course of the county's destiny but............ We have seen very vibrant and intelligent journalist, think thanks and policy analyst who seems to have solution to all our problems, who can't understand why common sense is not common to the politician, some eventually emerged as politicians themselves and i have wondered if this was the �Mr know all� fellow that used to diagnose the nations problem with such brilliance and adeptness on our regular morning shows and new analysis programs? I shudder to believe if it�s really the same persons who exuded profound knowledge on our airwaves and dallies, the people handling government business with such a mess after getting the opportunity? I don�t intend this to be personal so i will refrain from mentioning names and try to be impersonal as possible. During the 2007 energy crises, i had the opportunity to listen to some brilliant energy expert in this country, giving classical exposition in the crisis, what went wrong, what somebody didn't do and the best way it ought to be done. At the time they were not lies, they were hardcore technical expertise, fortunately for us as a country, those energy gurus got the chance to be at the helm of affairs, after a section of the country believed they were best suited and competent to solve the energy crises. Today six years down the line we are still going round a widened gyre with our so called expertise still wondering about as to what to do, and interestingly enough the people who we portrayed as lacking the technical know-how at the time have now become the technocrats and experts in opposition, telling the other group of expert now in government what to do. Isn�t that interesting? We have some astute, fluent and gifted journalist who played the watchdog role and exposed rot in government and brought our governments into accountability. Tune in to a radio station, TV station, peruse through the dailies in the mornings and you will be amazed the depth of knowledge we have in this country. They did their best to become the voice of the voiceless. They chastise, rebuke and treated non performing government officials with scorn. Now, some of these journalists got the chance to make right all that went wrong when they had the pen and the microphone and deliver the people they passionately fought for, from their quandaries and squalor. But interestingly they have rather become the excuse giving politician, and are now glorifying in the kind of excuse they refused to entertain when they were at the other side of the fence. I follow one senior Ghanaian international journalist with delight due to her wonderful prognosis of our common future as a nation. One thing i like about this senior journalist is that, she has in-depth knowledge about the Ghanaian situation and she expresses them with such lucidity and cogency. This journalist is one of Ghana�s finest, she did great job in shaping national discourse and opinion and that even got her into trouble with the then military government, she was greatly admired in both Ghanaian and the British media, she continued her good works even in exiles until a friendly government came to power, when she was invited in to government to implement some of her fantastic ideas. If you can hazard a guess who am talking about then what to make of her performance, your guess is good as mine. Now her reign is over and she is up with her pen and microphone again leaving us with marginal change that does not reflect her persona, the way we came to know her through the microphone and the pen. So my question, is it worthwhile to continue calling in to question the intelligence of our leadership and people in authority in such seclusion? Or rather start questioning our own intelligence and start the change process within us? Come to think of this, the politicians are not recruited from a different country or planet to administer our affairs but rather they emerge within us, the public servant emerge within us, the sportsman emerge within us, and it us who raises questions for poor delivery so who actually need to change? Is there any change somewhere? The change must come from us. As St Augustine rightly put it �Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.� the worst culprits are us, the ones who complains, writes, talk and quick to point out ills but thinks its left for the people who are in leadership to correct every problem but oblivious of our own responsibilities to make changes in our own corners. When you and I become good and responsible, when we become hardworking and efficient at what we do, when we uphold high ethical standard in society, when we stop waiting on someone to do basics that fall in our domain for us, then we can be assured of good and responsible leadership because the next recruitment of leaders are coming from among us not elsewhere. We mirror at the top what we are at the bottom. I, the one writing this piece, i might seem to be sticking a vital and important cord but what is my role in bringing the change we all seems to talk about? It will be disingenuous on my part to continue to engage in the unethical acts that does not bring about change we all yearn for. Stop complaining and become the change that you desire.