AS if their silent prayers have been answered, the vehicles come to a halt on the command of the 'RED' traffic light. Then from the pavements, they troop in different colours, charging on their preys. Some being pushed in wheelchairs, some with walking sticks and being led by guides, while others, fully 'intact', make a direct approach.
There are others who sit on the pavement waving, like we used to do when a big man from the city was being driven by. They all share a common trade — begging.
In fairness to the visually impaired, it could be argued that some of them got afflicted at an old age, when they could not undergo any training in the schools for the blind.
There are other cases where you could hardly tell what their problems are. Some, apart from a slight limp, are more than fit and are far better than many other Ghanaians who are struggling daily through productive ventures to make a living.
Apart from our own people, there are these brothers and sisters from some Sahelian countries whose beliefs do not allow them to work but to beg. These adult men sit under the comfort of shady trees and order their wives and children into the scorching sun to beg. They are not only an eyesore and a nuisance, but their sight constantly reminds us of our primitive state as Africans who cannot live independent lives.
A new breed of beggars has also emerged on the scene. These are young and unemployed men who have taken advantage of a national calamity — non functioning traffic lights — to do business. Having declared themselves as volunteers, these unofficial traffic wardens, using tree branches and dirty garments as their tool, beg motorists for financial support as they conduct their business.
The police administration has on numerous occasions made public pronouncements declaring these young men persona non grata at the traffic intersections. But it seems we have been overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation so much that these unofficial traffic wardens have been integrated into our national youth employment programme, with the burden of paying them being borne by motorists.
The begging spree can substantially be reduced if we make a conscious national effort to get rid of it. Those in wheelchairs can do a lot of things for themselves. They can take post strategically near any kenkey, yor ke gari seller or any other food vendor and sell just sachet water, which can fetch them some modest income on daily basis.
I know with a good lobby, most newspaper publishers will willingly encourage the physically challenged to sell their products to the reading public for an honourable living.
Some manufacturers are already trying to take beggars or the physically challenged off the streets and redefine their destinies by encouraging them to be traders instead of beggars.
As for the unofficial traffic wardens, they will become redundant and look elsewhere for a living if only the authorities will work hard and save us from this huge national disgrace of seeing these, sometimes bare-chested boys directing traffic at major intersections in our national capital, 52 years after political independence.
These interventions can only succeed if begging itself is discredited and not given a national blessing as it appears to be the case for now.
These are but individuals though, who have every right to exercise their freedom of choice, which includes what they want to do for a living, provided no law has been breached. But with all types of hybrid beggars around, can we say that there is any law against begging?
The biggest beggars are, however, found in the seats of power. From the presidency to the lowest level of state authority, men and women entrusted with the destiny of this nation do not fail to beg at the least opportunity.
Any foreign visitor to the Castle to pay his/her courtesies to the head of state will not depart without tonnes of requests in his/her briefcase. And we beg for anything. From medical syringes for our starved and ill-equipped hospitals and clinics to furniture for our dilapidated classrooms. We do not know where to end.
We did not even think of our pride as a sovereign nation, when we went to beg India, another Third World country, to come and build a Presidential Palace for us. And we seem to be so proud of such a national disgrace that we think we deserve national honours for the misadventure.
Some of us have always been against using a slave outpost as our seat of government. More so, when we pride our country as the first Black nation to gain independence from British colonialism. I am, therefore, in total agreement with any project to relocate the seat of government.
But that, for the sake of our national pride, should have been done from our national resources, which many Ghanaians believe we are capable of if only we are determined to look within for solutions to most of our problems.
Even the design of the palace should have emanated from our local architects who will incorporate into it, concepts that would represent our national unity in diversity. Construction could have been done using local materials and labour. Then we can proudly call it our presidential palace.
Indeed 48 years ago, local materials, labour and technology were employed to put up one of the most magnificent edifices in Africa — the State House at Osu. Who says we cannot do even better today, if we want to? Instead, we have allowed a foreign architectural design to dominate an important part of our national history at a time we were celebrating half a century of our sovereignty and nationhood.
That is where our national calamity lies. We have virtually lost our independence and national dignity. We have given up hope for survival without foreign intervention in one form or another. Otherwise why will our political leaders not spare us a moment without pleading with a foreign visitor for assistance to acquire the basest of things?
Because of this cruel mentality, we have turned our country into a dumping ground for used items, which we receive here as donations. They include old computers that never work, old hospital furniture and equipment, books that have no relevance to our educational system, expired drugs that have lost their potency and many more, which all add up to debase our sovereignty and humanity.
Why should we ask for food aid from countries that have not seen the Sun or experienced any rainfall for months? Why should we seek financial support from countries that do not have half of the natural resources we are endowed with?
At first it was our colonial masters and superiors in Europe and America we turned to. Today, we do not feel ashamed begging Malaysia, India, Korea, Iran, Singapore, Brazil and Thailand and many other Third World countries we can best describe as classmates for assistance. What happened to us as a people? Can it be the same colonialism and slavery excuse?
It is a pitiful sight seeing long articulated trucks carting used bicycles, lorry tyres, fridges, television sets, cups, plates, fork and knives, car batteries, drinking glasses, plates, pants, brassieres, computers, towels, napkins, prams, bedsteads, mattresses and many more from the ports, heading for the markets in our cities, towns and villages.
This is a country where some honourable persons did not find anything wrong recommending that its ex-presidents should, among many other things, be given six brand new customised vehicles every four years for their comfort.
Strangely enough, having declared ourselves as very poor and helpless, we are never modest when it comes to spending on certain facilities for the comfort of a few public office holders. China, one of our benefactors, is a world power, take it or leave it. But for the sake of national pride and modesty, its Prime Minister does not drive in a Mercedes S-Class, or a 7-Series BMW car, at least not officially. The same applies to the Indians who built our presidential palace for us and to whom we are always sending our supplications for more favours. In that country, Tata vehicles dominate their roads, not because they cannot afford luxury vehicles from Europe or the US.
The Koreans are very proud of their KIA and Hyundai vehicles, while the Japanese have no business going in for American and European vehicles. Check the Japanese Ambassador here, whether he had ever driven in any vehicle apart from Japanese-made ones to any official function before. That is the sign of nationalism, a sense of patriotism and the utmost exhibition of pride in what they deem to be theirs. Compare these to the type of vehicles we buy for official use in this country.
Don't we realise that there is something awkward about us when in the midst of this begging orgy, we should be scrambling for armoured BMWs, Mercedes and American-made Ford wagons for personal use at the expense of the state? What are we trying to prove to the rest of the world?
We cannot live in isolation and we cannot pretend that we are so self-sufficient that we shall not need external support. However, the begging is becoming too much. It makes nonsense of our independence and sovereignty.
There are many things we can do ourselves, if only our leaders will make judicious use of our national resources. We can do more if we can challenge ourselves and show determination to attain certain national goals.
Our benefactors did not get where they are now by simply begging. It took them determined efforts to be where they are. Sometimes too, it will be good for our national pride if our leaders will look at the faces of the people they intend solicit assistance from.
This tendency of asking any foreigner to the country for favours and assistance is becoming embarrassing, at least to some of us. What are we there for, if we have to beg for everything, from sawdust to spacecraft for survival as a nation?
Chairman Mao Zedong, once told the Chinese, during the Cultural Revolution, that they had two things to prove. That they were backward and useless as proclaimed by Western propaganda, or that they were capable of taking their destiny into their own hands. They made a choice and the rest is history. We can choose to remain a beggar nation or a nation proud to stand on its own feet.
We can also choose to be frivolous when it comes to spending the little that we have.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com
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