Let’s recreate our garden of Eden right here in Africa

“My Word is my Bond” In business there is such a thing as one’s word being one’s bond. The concept of “my word is my bond” dates back to the 17th Century when Lloyds of London, the primary insurance market of the world, came into being.

In the world of commerce it is frowned upon when a man is considered to have acted in bad faith; either by denying or reneging upon a promise, or acting in a manner deemed as duplicitous in a business transaction. These words of honour, are normally sealed by a common handshake, for where trust and honour exist a handshake is as good as a contract.

It certainly is not considered acceptable that a government blatantly failed in its affairs after making promises to an electorate. Worst still, that it cannot honour the pledges and contracts it has entered into in good faith, with its own employees such as teachers, doctors, the police, military and customs officers, amongst others.

These are front-line services and all play an important role as any other group of public servants and contracts made with them, as with others, must be honoured! “They only fear scrutiny for fear of what it may uncover” We tend to assume that foreign investors are so ignorant of that which happens within an economy; that they are not aware of the domestic condition or situation.

For investors to have decided to invest within an economy, they would have conducted their own due diligence on all aspects of that economy; from its stability, sustainability, to security and the trustworthiness of its managers. A failure in any one aspect of these will mean that they become skeptical and nervous.

There is nothing wrong, in investors having a checklist on the economy in which they wish to invest. They must perform their due diligence on the country inasmuch as the country must of them.

The only reason why a nation would take offense, or be irritated by an investor having a checklist, is that the managers of that economy may not favour close scrutiny of their affairs, for the fear of what it must uncover. Investors certainly must ensure that their investments yield good returns.

There has been, in the recent past, a tendency for African countries Ghana included, to embracing Chinese funding for major projects. Some of the informed opinions in these countries believe, quite wrongly, that the Chinese are more generous in their funding, which would seem to be unlimited. They do not come to Africa with, as it were, a clipboard with a checklist attached. I beg to differ!

The Chinese are deemed less scrupulous, in the management and the monitoring of the uses and accountability of their funds expenditure, so long as they secure the natural resources which are necessarily a part of the deal. China being blasé in turning a blind eye to the uses of its funding, has played into the hands of the elite of of some of the economies in which they have invested, and made corruptive practices much more rather than less prevalent. This also explains why a lot of the leadership of most African countries bend over backwards to suck up to China.

And because the Chinese are aware of them being supine, with corrupt practices and they know those within the echelons of power they have bribed, they have tended to ride rod-shot over the local people simply because they do not respect the leadership. And if they do not respect the leadership of the country, then they are much less than likely to respect the ordinary people.

So they flood the place with their Triad members (Chinese Mafia) and released criminal elements to plant the seeds of future pandemonium within these African countries. Such countries are sowing the winds, the whirlwinds of which they shall come to harvest in the not too distant future.

It has taken the West decades of special police operations to tackle and deal with the Chinese Mafia, yet either through sheer ignorance or abject greed or both, parts of Africa are inviting and embracing this cancer with open arms. Expect casinos on every corner of your niche streets and illegal mines and businesses springing up at all over the place.

“Greed and dishonesty are so rampant we forget common etiquette and courtesies” People must trust their government to protect their interests. They also expect that when the government gives an undertaking, it must be honoured.

So when the government sign agreements only to renege upon them, then there is no good faith in anything we as a people stand for; not in agreements with workers who sit and watch government officials, some of whom have professed indulging themselves with largesse as their primary objectives to holding office, only to be told there are no funds to pay for their salaries and bonuses.

We borrow money around the world but expect to be bailed out by those we borrow from for free, and sign agreements such as HIPIC or run to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) without a clearer understanding of the terms and the conditions and their implications, in the gutting of our skeletal and embryonic industrial base through enforced privatisation of the few viable state owned industries left. We tout ourselves as a lower middle income economy oblivious to the aid and funding that we shall necessarily forgo because of our pomposity!

We have to understand that there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’; nobody is going to give us something for nothing! Not the IMF, the World Bank, the Chinese or the Brazilians!

We sell state assets not in the interest of the state but for private, self or party gain. Greed and dishonesty are so rampant now that we forget common etiquette and courtesies. We create entities or join with others to enter into bogus agreements with the state, that we expect the state to break, so that we can earn punitive settlements in judgment debts against the state. We cut our noses to spite our faces.

It does not bode well for any nation when the biggest topic of everyday is headlined rampant government corruption. It gives the country a bad name, it gives democracy a bad name and it makes politics such a dirty game that true and honest people shy away from serving their nation, because they do not wish to be tarred with it!

If you read about what is happening in the country it is unmistakable and undeniable that there is an underlying current of serious concern about corruption. People truly feel lost and there is a case of a crisis of confidence. Real or perceived, these are having a detrimental effect on the country and must be addressed.

We do not seem to appreciate the simple but ethical concept of a conflict of interests! As the cousin of the head of the nation’s pension fund and also working for that same fund, then I cannot be given preferential loans to build properties to let because it is a conflict of interest.

When you have a former President long describe Government officials as “greedy bastards” and he is lambasted by opponents as ‘sour-grapes’ from a man who lost power, but he is being vindicated daily if you read the headlines of newspapers and Internet blogs or you listened to radio stations across the nation.

“ Mediocrity has become a virtue” There are scandals upon scandals and no visible gains on the ground, to show the people that even a modicum of the promises made to the electorate are being kept. Expectations once so high have been crushed now to dust, that even the smallest achievement is touted as a great endeavour. Mediocrity has become a virtue!

All the above signify that corruption has become institutionalised and emblematic. It is a social ill and afflicts every facet of our society. It is adjudged to be smart if one is corrupt. It has become the law of the jungle rather than the rule of law.

It is a free for all with each man for himself and God for us all. The poor, the elderly, the young, the sick and the dispossessed; the weakest and most vulnerable of these, are left on the pyre to burn. It is no way to run a nation!

In a world that has become a global market place, where out of competitive necessity governments strategise, plan, commit resources and brain power to deal with not just the issues of the day; but to plot for the next 25 years as a medium term strategy, we are staring at our navel and lurching from crisis to crisis.

It is as if we are in power but never understood how to govern! It is as if our fore fathers fought and sacrificed for our hard won independence but we do not value that feat in achieving our freedom. How come we show such scant regard to demonstrating the most whimsical ability at directing our own affairs?

We do not create any strategic institutions, we formulate no future prospects, we have no plans, we have no answers and we are totally bankrupt of any ideas; save how quickly we can buy another house or car or hire a plane in a wanton display of sick extravagance.

This is the sort of governance we are demonstrating to our people. This is what we are telling them governing is all about. What an impression we must be making on them. We have so blurred the lines between good and bad behaviour by public servants that people do not seem to realise when they are indulging in unacceptable behaviour any more.

So let us go back home and remind ourselves how we were brought up! How we were taught about etiquette; back to the days when we kept our promises and paid our debts. Back to the days when you could leave your doors unlocked and nobody came in to steal your things.

Let us go back to the days when we frowned on bad behaviour and understood honour, valour and chivalry. Let us go back to the halcyon days of our founding fathers and their courage that starting from scratch and without any precedence, built dams, electricity grids, ports, hospitals and universities.

Let us emulate or even imitate that selfless attitude that made us the twinkling Black Star of Africa, that fought to liberate a continent; the Ghana of Osagyefo’s dreams, that beacon of hope and promise on the hill. That new Garden of Eden!

We do that by making sure that we all understood that certain behaviour and attitudes are just not acceptable. We cannot continue to stay in our glass houses and throw stones. Let us make a conscious effort to start the changes with ourselves. Stop our own corruption and that of those around us; in our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers.

Corruption is dishonest and it is first and foremost acting in bad faith and attaining an unfair advantage. Taking advantage of the innocence of a customer as a taxi driver and charging them more than the going rate is acting in bad faith and attaining an unfair advantage. That is corruption.

If you sat an exam or attained a qualification by obtaining the questions before the examination or by sleeping with your lecturer, then that is attaining an unfair advantage and acting in deception not just by yourself but in collusion with the lecturer, with whom you slept or the person you paid to supply the questions. That is also corruption.

Having no knowledge of academic writing, you paid someone to write that paper for you or you did not write it but happy to attain that BA, MBA or Doctorate then you attained an unfair advantage and acting in concert with others to deceive. That is corruption.

As the responsible officer for public and road safety you are prepared to overlook either an unqualified driver or an unlicensed vehicle being on the road for a small consideration that is also corruption.

If you work at the front-line of ports or boarders and you collude with an importer or exporter to short change the government for your personal gain, you are also corrupt.

With the responsibility to assure that the items brought into the country are fit for purpose, but for a sum of money will overlook the strict criteria and guidelines, then you are also corrupt and of the worst kind of endangering public safety.

Tasked with testing products for their safety and fitness for purpose you deliberately prolong that exercise for a business that has followed the rules, but unless they paid you to speed up the process, then you are also guilty of abusing your position. You are corrupt!

You are employed to work from 9am to 5pm but you are still in bed at 11am and expect a full salary at the end of the month, you are also corrupt. As the administrator of a school responsible for new intakes, you receive sums of money from those who are desperate for a place in that school and some without the right entry requirements. You are corrupt!

Being a preacher or man of ‘God’ you assure that you create a flock of sheep instead of a team of shepherds, so that they can only follow instead of lead and you continue to dominate them.

Or you cajole and bully your congregation into offering and committing more than you know they can afford, that is also corrupt and possibly of the worst kind perpetrated in the name of God and upon the most vulnerable.

You drive your car but when you get to the red traffic lights you decide your journey is more important and you jump that red light. Your action does not just endanger your life, but also the lives of other innocent road users who rely upon you obeying the rules to avoid accidents. You are also corrupt and a danger to other road users.

Having signed an oath to protect lives but have an agreement with a company to promote their drugs. You give those drugs to people who although sick, have no need for them just because you must meet your target. You are also corrupt and of the worst kind; an abuse of trust and Hippocratic Oath!

As a senior office worker, an innocent graduate desperate for work comes to you pleading assistance. You take advantage of their desperation to coax them into bed to have illicit sex; you are also corrupt and of the worst kind; the abuse of innocence.

Being a senior executive involved in an assignment and you are contacted by people providing services, with great ideas and experience that may be of help to your organisation and the assignment. You meet with them and in good faith they tell you about their ideas. You then go and present them as your own.

And ask that you are put in charge of the new position, without having the necessary experience or expertise. You are also corrupt and it may cost your company because of poor execution and implementation. That is acting in bad faith.

You collude and connive with others whom you show the weaknesses in your government or organisation so that either during negotiations or as competitors, they can extract an unfair advantage. You are corrupt whether you were paid or not. It is a breach of trust and confidentiality.

Your brother or sister struggling abroad sends you funds to manage a project on their behalf that you voluntarily accept. However, you proceed to spend their funds doing something for yourself. You are also corrupt and in breach of trust.

The people entrust you with their affairs and you swear an oath to work in fulfilment of that trust. They go to sleep at night expecting that you are working ceaselessly on their behalf. Rather, you just line your pockets and those of your relatives and friends. You are corrupt and of the worst kind of the abuse of trust, office and oath.

As the Judge tasked with constitutional matters, then being learned, you must apply the law as envisaged by statute. To apply your own idiosyncratic views shaped by prejudice of one kind or another, to arrive at the wrong decision or to fudge a ruling because of perceived inconveniences or popular opinion is also corruption and of the worst kind, of abuse of trust and oath.

If you have ever paid a bribe for a position or favour, if you ever gave an undeserved reward or gift, if you ever sought favour in whatever form against legislation such as paying your income tax, VAT, excise tax, corporation tax or helped someone to get away with having to pay one, then you are also corrupt.

For all the imperfections, we live in a democratic country. This means that you do not fight the legislation by ignoring that it exist, but rather imploring your representatives about your concerns about that piece of legislation and how it may be amended or reformed. Any piece of legislation, if it has sufficient votes for reform, may be able to be reformed.

That is why you have a Member of Parliament (MP) and contrary to common perception, they are not your boss. They work for you! You employ them. So you should not find yourself riding in smoke and dust filed ‘tro-tro’ while they cruise in air conditioned Land Cruisers being rewarded for not trying sufficiently to improve your lives.

You should not live in a poor neighbourhood without tarred roads, regular running water and electricity supplies while they live in rich neighbourhoods with all those facilities in palatial splendour. They must live within close proximity of you. Suffer your woes and experience your hardships.

But do not allow your anger with the system to make you so cynical and ambivalent to it or inadvertently add fuel to its corruptness. Corruption comes in all disguises and yes some are more serious than others but they all stem from one simple fact; dishonesty and acting in bad faith.

Corruption is like petty thievery. You start as a petty criminal but gain sophistication and move up to more serious matters of robbery and fraud. It becomes you and you become it; two in one and inseparable.

If you are capable of cheating at your exams, then you are also capable of stealing millions from your countrymen, because you have no moral compass to guide your standards. You have delegated your sense of pride and fulfilment to an artificial and fake sense of self.

You lack honour and dignity and no matter how often you are called ‘sir’, ‘excellency’, ‘pastor’ or ‘honourable’ you feel empty because you know deep down that it is not deserved. You have not earned it. You are a fraud, a sham and unworthy of your own self-respect let alone those of others.

Such feelings of inadequacy when one is a fraud manifestly lead to an enhanced feeling of inferiority complex; where you feel no confidence in allowing people close to you who may challenge your views or authority.

You surround yourself with mediocrity and that inexorably lead to failure, because you will be tasked above your level of competence and you cannot fulfill that for your lack of leadership and man management skills required to operate at that level, so you become unnecessarily selfish.

There is a sense of pride we feel in knowing that against the odds, we rose and through our sweat and Divine Blessings attained what seemingly was out of reach. Such achievements hold a special pride of place and significance that embolden us to push on forward to attain greater heights.

Those greater heights are steeped in Service, Sacrifice, Selflessness and a Sense of Duty. Sacrificing for your country is never a problem when you have learn to sacrifice for self. When you attained your status through fair means by sacrifice, it becomes a natural part of you; a part of your very fabric of being. It enlightens you; shows a growth in consciousness to the extent of understanding that there is a greater service beyond that to self. This is a universal truth that leads to inner peace and fulfilment.

It means you get the realisation not to wish your struggles and toil upon another. So you work tirelessly to make sure others paths are smoother than yours were. You become the embodiment of Holy Scripture and start to love your brother more than yourself. You become that Good Samaritan who does good for the sake of doing good and not for any allied material gain. It means you are able to stand up in the crowds, in congregations and in the assemblies of elders to speak truth to power.

It is then that people react spontaneously to you; calling you Sir, Excellency, Pastor or Honourable because they would feel your embodiment of that spirit and not because it is legislated. You then become a true and genuine leader by the people! You become a true statesman instead of being just a mere politician. You become a human being and a member of the human society instead of just self.

We speak of leadership as if it is some wild disease that must be caught. It is rather simpler than that. Leadership is borne out of confidence in ones own abilities, confidence that removes inferiority complexes and makes you capable of surrounding yourself with people more able than you, in accomplishing your agenda, without you fearing usurpation.

Leadership is borne out of the exercising of soft power, inspiring or being charismatic in lifting the people’s hopes and aspirations. It has never been about having a panacea for all ills. But first, you most be honest and shun corruption and corruptive influences. It is only then you can be yourself.

“Cast thy bread upon the waters, waft in on with praying breath, In some distant, doubtful moment it may save a soul from death. When you sleep in solemn silence, ‘neath the morn and evening drew, Stranger hands which you have strengthened may strew lilies over you” However, when you achieve ‘success’ through bad faith, it lacks blessing and fulfilment. You lack legitimacy and always live in the fear of being exposed as a fraud. You are engulfed by a feeling of emptiness.

And because you lacked that blessing which comes with attainment through honest endeavour and truth, you lack dignity and self respect and the only way you are able to progress is through more articles of bad faith and more fraud.

Corruption begets corruption! You may think you get away with your piece of the action. You steal from your fellow men but you cannot sleep at night because of all those feelings of guilt. You hide your family abroad.

They cannot come home for the fear of your own psychological hell inside your head, the result of your guilty conscience. You ensconce yourself in a gated community. But remember that because of your lack of demonstrable leadership and good-faith, that driver at the red traffic lights has no respect of that simple norm: 'stop when the lights are red'.

He is still on the road because even when he is stopped by law enforcement for having broken that law, he pays a few Cedis and is allowed out there again. In your posh car at the traffic lights when it is your turn to move, he jumps the red lights and rams your car!

As that responsible Judge who failed to demonstrably apply the law and as a consequence, the local Magistrate has no qualms taking a few Cedis and setting free that gentleman accused of possessing a firearm. He breaks into a gated community and guns down one of the owners; a simple case of a petty criminal having risen through the ranks and committing another crime. He did not know you, except that you have something he wants to steal at the point of a gun.

You wrote that paper for that student to attain his MBA. As a lecturer, you slept with that student to give them a higher grade and you complain of corruption? They both rose through the ranks and are now Ministers of State using the same tactics you showed them.

They have neither the experience of running anything nor the true knowledge or qualifications. Consequently the country is in ruin; in no small part due to your antics some fifteen years before. Remember, what goes round comes around and you reap what you sow! One act of bad faith begets another. “By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man”.

There is such a thing as Divine retribution because “the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice”. It will always bend towards justice. And if you are honest with yourself, then you will readily admit that you are as much a cause of the problem of corruption, as any politician or policeman or magistrate.

Policemen do not bribe policemen; members of the public do. Judges do not bribe judges, members of the public do. These corrupt officials did not drop out of the skies like the fabled Nephilim. They are products of our society. So if we believe them to be unhealthy, then we must also heal society.

And of all the cases I have shown above, none compare with the worst perpetrators, who are those who bear witness to these abominable acts and remain silent. Even if you do not support it, by your silence you give succour and your tacit approval to that sort of behaviour. Your silence is interpreted as acquiescence.

You have condoned that culture of greed and corruption. Others witnessing your approval think it okay to indulge themselves too. Soon everyone would be at it. The cumulative consequences of all these acts of bad faith are that you shall suffer too! You too are corrupt! You lack moral fibre or certitude and have no spine!

So do not sit there bemoaning a canker of corruption, expecting solutions from the Messiah. First look within. Look within yourself. Stand in front of the mirror, and start with that person in that mirror. How have you contributed to the problem? Start putting that right from today.

If you clean your house, he cleans his, she cleans hers and I clean mine, suddenly every house in the country is clean and we start to frown upon uncleanness. And if yours is the sole voice against corruption then so be it!

“In law, a man is guilty when he violates the rights of others. In ethics he is guilty if he only thinks of doing so”. I suggest we adopt ethics in our personal lives.

It is the ability to do what is right without the force of mans law or statute. It is the character we need individually and also collectively as a nation to lift us out of the mire of corruption and the quagmire that is despair.

Of course if you look hard enough you shall always find a loophole in legislations to exploit.

It shows the limitations of man’s acumen and the strictures of language as being imprecise. But if you have the decency, then you will know that the fact of it not being illegal does not make it right; you may be guilty not of murder but the lesser charge of manslaughter. It still defies Divine law ‘thou shall not kill!’

The time has come for us to start the real fight against corruption, in all its guises from home; after all charity, is said to begin at home. I reiterate that these acts of corruption show degeneracy at the heart of society. We have lost our moral compass and lost sight of what matter.

We must start teaching our children and kin about Service, Sacrifice, Selflessness and Sense of duty. Tell them to frown upon those with big fast cars and big houses. Not to believe in television and its world of make believe and satanic induced cultures. Instruct them to shy away from the wanton and unashamed display of wealth.

Train them to believe in themselves and to respect their bodies which are temples of God and to be proud of who they are as images of God. Educate them to dream and imagine, so they can create the world which they wish to see and live in. Instill in them the need to help their fellow man because we are on a journey in this World.

And although we are each on an individual journey, it is our collective achievements, thus consciousness that enriches that individual journey. It is the good that we do collectively that manifests in and pleases God, because “God is Good!”

Advise the children that we are as strong as our weakest neighbour. And that we shall not be uplifted into Divine light while we look down upon our neighbour buried in the quicksand of despair and abject poverty. “Monuments and statutes are gratefully erected to the memories of those who have helped and served their fellow–men, never to those who have lived to serve themselves alone”.

And if while you teach the children these and other truths; such as truth being power and not power being truth, and that service to others triumph selfish wealth, then perhaps you start your own personal journey in atonement for redemption of your absolute failures and being mired in the cesspit of corruption.

Then perhaps collectively, we shall start to lift up our consciousness and rebuild our Garden of Eden right here, in Ghana and in Africa.