Corruption and Matters Arising

I had thought I was the only skeptic,of course not a doomsayer but one who knows the future is bright only if we are serious about it. We have overheard that, the youth represent the future, which is true. We place a lot of value on our offspring,knowing they will one day take after us. Judging from what I observed while in school, I had no choice than to weep for mother Ghana and Africa.Students who paraded themselves as patriots and incorruptible left with no legacies to show for those tags.Their(students) conduct gave me the impression that, we may just be faced with Severe Acute Corruption Syndrome(SACS) in the not too distant future.The youth of hope present no hope no more. But as I have written a piece on my blog(awennalaatiirimbey.blogspot.com), 'Goats beget not sheep', I had identified one influence from our parenting. Literally and naturally, goats cannot birth sheep. So what ever we the youth do, can be placed at the doorsteps of our guardians who so much have problems with our lifestyles.They have managed to nurture a non serious and lazy youth,who give them nightmares with their quick-get-rich-attitude.Yet again, when mother cow is chewing grass,its young ones watch keenly. We were not begotten so, we learned so. Anything learned can always be unlearned. But just how??? A leading African Entrepreneur in an interview on TV3 Ghana,Dr John Christopher Kiribu says, we are always interested in just making cheap money but not build a robust and resilient economy.I guess he is right.The sort of youth we are raising is what is material and pressing because they will act accordingly. Our anti corruption fight starts from somewhere and that is our culture. Our way of life now,is a threat to our future. Professor Lumumba said, a research in Kenya demonstrates that,about 40% of the respondents, saw nothing wrong with corruption. That's pathetic, to say the least but they backed their rather surprising and evil mindsets by pointing out that, it was only wrong when caught.And the only thing one needed to do was to avoid being caught. That is the danger we are faced with. Our anti corruption fight starts from somewhere and that is our culture. Our way of life now, is a threat to our future. That is the danger we are faced with. Hitherto and even today as put by Professor P. Lumumba,in our various communities those who stole/steal are labelled as thieves and punished. They become inelligible to lead and are ostracized at times.One who stole/steals a goat,yam,fowls etc has no place in our communities.In Ghana,you may be lynched to death.That's society expressing its disgust at such lifestyles and using that,as a deterrence. The same crop of human beings would watch and even dignify and to a larger extent,glorify thievery which involves billions. Double standards?? Or stealing can be accepted if done at some level?? If only the same anger from our various communities could be directed at whoever was involved in the thievery,I won't have been wasting my pen and paper.We would have been better. I have witnessed that communal action against deviants in our communities and towns and it is not pleasant. Although it violates our human rights,it seems not a crime. Nation wreckers and as Anas Aremeyaw Anas captioned one of his works, "cereal killers", walk free while the others maybe those who have committed "lesser" crimes are either dead or locked away. Let a crime be a crime. We have seen many who sound loudest in our anti-corruption fight. The truth is however that, not everyone who shouts is genuine. Some just complain about corruption because they lack the same opportunity as others to be corrupt. Watch the various activists and see when they are muted. Be it civil society groups, journalists, politicians and so on. Some always feel they're being cheated by others not because they want that cheating should stop, but because they're just on the other side of the equation. We must careful. Corruption is a threat to our democracy and to our very existence. It needs an urgent cure and intensive care. The judiciary was thought to be the last bastion in our fight. But we have seen some very bad examples which has further dwindled our hopes. In our fight against corruption, the three arms of government need to be reading from the same page. Our efforts must be concerted.No one can win this war individually it takes the political will and willingness of all and sundry to work towards that. We need the wisdom of our elders,we need young people's energy. This war fought alone will be a dead end. The problem needs a lot of caution in its handling. The same systems must clean themselves. I opined sometime that,"no one is so strong enough to single handedly rob an entire nation. When a nation is robbed,it is either a company or crowd that's involved." Therefore,we ought not take this fight jokingly. Corruption,a disease to be cured. Corruption,a must fight menace. Corruption a fight for all. Don't be left out!