WORK: LESSONS FROM LANCE'S SONG

There's a song I love by Zac Brown Band, "Lance's Song". It's a true story about a drummer, Lance, who decided to follow his passion and died in the process.
I enjoy listening to that song a lot because I relate to it in a way. I just finished my undergraduate studies, and currently doing my national service. Service is about to end, and the expectations of family and society at large will soon make all young people like myself feel under pressure; get a job, buy a car, get married, etc.
There are those who will be lucky to get employed soon after service, and those that will have to wait for months, or even years. Unemployment is quite evident in our society, but a more serious problem exists in THE MINDS of most graduates. This same problem is the reason why most employed persons are also unhappy at their various workplaces.
Wearing a long sleeved shirt, a tie, suit, and sitting in an air conditioned office is not the only definition of a job. Farming, carpentry, painting, foodstuff trading, etc. are all jobs that bring income and success. A professional attitude is what makes any job honourable, not what you wear to work, or where you work.
It won't be easy for any youngster, going against the expectation of society to pursue your dreams; but do it! From the song I mentioned earlier, Lance wasn't wealthy and didn't achieve the usual SUCCESS, but most importantly, he was HAPPY.
I urge you to be courageous and take the step towards your happiness. Fortune they say, favours the bold.

MARTIN AMIDU: CITIZEN VIGILANTE

I make time today to commend Mr. Martin Amidu; former Attorney-General, former Minister of Justice and self-christened ‘Citizen Vigilante’ as a true son of our dear nation Ghana. As a then member of government, facing the possibility of losing his office as Attorney-General and close political allies too, he still chose truth and ensured that it stood to the very end in the ‘Judgement Debt’ cases that had emerged.

News of alleged fraudulent payments made by government in the name of Judgement Debts surfaced around 2010, with payments to companies such as Waterville, Isofoton and one individual Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome being the more prevalent ones. Knowing our political system, it was quite normal to hear government officials defending the payments against all arguments raised; but the shocker was when we heard Mr Amidu, the then Attorney-General come out to condemn the payments, claiming they were made without his knowledge and that all involved were going to be prosecuted accordingly.

The average Ghanaian could not help but wonder what exactly had led to Mr Amidu taking a stand against his own government? For in Ghana, even when a colour is evident to be black, government officials would aggressively deny it to be so; that is if it is not in the governments favour for it to be black. In fact, many thought him sick (in the head) to put his job on the line like that with a statement which was contrary to the governments stand.

It was true the man was sick! Yes!! Sick of all the corruption going on and how the government was trying to cover it up any way possible. It’s sad to say though, that our predictions of him losing his position in government did come true. For news of his dismissal soon reached the public with an accompanying press release stating that Mr Amidu had been sacked for misconducting himself at a meeting with the then President John E. Mills.

All hope was not lost though as Mr Amidu, or Citizen Vigilante as he had come to be known, continued to pursue the case at the Supreme Court of the land even after being unfairly sacked (that’s what I think) from office.First with wins against both Waterville and Isofoton, Martin Amidu eventually went on with his patriotic crusade, continuing further to recently (this week actually) win his final battle in the Judgement Debt war. The Supreme Court ruled that Mr Woyome had defrauded the state in his claims made and was asked to return money paid to him by government.

Honestly speaking, what Mr Amidu has done should not have been anything extraordinary only if every citizen was doing the right thing and truly seeking the prosperity of our dear nation. But as with our country at the moment, the actions taken by the Citizen Vigilante and the praises being sang in his honour are summed up in a proverb that ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is the king’.

I therefore ignore your request not to be hailed and acknowledge you with this article true patriot, for you have become a role model for every Ghanaian citizen, young or old. I, in my own small way salute you with a gargantuan ‘Ayekoo’ Citizen Vigilante, I say well done.

MR. MARTIN AMIDU
picture from www.graphic.com.gh/blog/isaac-yeboah/Page-133.html

AFRICA IS NOT ONE

I can’t ignore the fact that most people around the globe, especially those in the United States tend to consider my beloved Africa as a country. I know Pan-Africanism ideas might be subject to blame since we tend to emphasize the importance of unity as a tool for overcoming some problems we faced in the past. But even with this, I beg of you not to commit the mistake of thinking Africa is a single country like let’s say Italy. I am thus left with no option than to hold a small geography lesson in today’s article.

First of all, Africa is a continent made up officially of 54 countries. It’s actually the second largest continent and the second most populated. Now even the countries that make up the continent are made up of different ethnic groups, with the continent’s total ethnic groups numbering thousands. If you find that hard to believe then know this as a fact, that even in Ghana (the country in Africa where I am from) alone, over 50 ethnic languages exist. And Ghana’s population is just about 24 million, a tiny bit of the estimated 1.1 billion people living on the continent.

Even if you decided to ignore these demographics and use only the skin colour of the population, you encounter the North Africans of Berber Heritage and the white South Africans. You therefore tend to realise that the continent is so diverse, you just can’t just bundle up all of us and refer to us as same.

Don’t misunderstand me here, for I am not trying to imply that the continent united is bad or something, please it is actually important. The issue here is this, how do you think a French man would feel if I said Europeans are to blame for ‘The Holocaust’ just because Germany is in Europe? Exactly! He would strongly object because He is from France, a totally different country from Germany.

Now this is how it relates to the misconception about Africa; just because there are pirates in someplace like Somalia does not mean the fishermen in Ghana are pirates. And also, the fact that Boko Haram is raising hell in Nigeria doesn’t mean there are militants in Botswana doing same.

All I’m trying to say is that one should not hastily generalise Africa as a place of poverty, sickness, etc. just because you hear them happening in some countries on the continent. So the next time any of you guys out there feel you need to say something about whatever you think is going on somewhere in the continent, please go through the trouble of actually finding out where in AFRICA???