Wavin’ an idiot flag.

The last time I checked the price for a miniature flag of Ghana, It was pegged around US$6 dollars. It was not even the original. it was one of those materials joined together and with the black stars stashed in the middle. It was not attractive. The last time I saw t something of that type was doing the African Cup of Nations held in Ghana in 2008. I was backing Cote D’Ivoire to lift the trophy.

They had been doing well, scoring many goals against their opponents, so I decided to give them my support. I bought one of those unattractive flags, tied them to my head. Little did I know I was heading out for defeat. They were beaten in their next game and even failed to grab the fourth spot. I threw the flag away, never to wave it again.

Then I got an assignment to do an article about the song ‘Wavin Flag’ by rapper K’Naan. The remix version of his song for coco cola said to be one of the songs for the World Cup is enjoying massive airplay in Ghana. I headed off to speak to people about the song and whether or not they were going to wave their flags in support of Ghana.

I wrote a personal piece about K’Naan and those who love the song were happy to read about his background. I’m not going to pretend to be the one who uncovered him. Information about him is on the internet however, I picked my line from comments he made on Aljazeera about Somali pirates and the response of the international community. I enjoyed that very article, though I can’t say it was my best.

There were loads of Ghanaians drawing inspiration from the song. They will wave the country’s flag when the first whistle of the tournament gets underway. Even in the face of defeat, they will still wave though they are confident the team can go far. I have my doubt. The current list of players in the team could be described simply as ‘sick list.’ Stephen Appiah, John Mensah, Michael Essien and others are not in good shape. Their health is not good. That is the truth most Ghanaians don’t want to face. They’ve resigned themselves to this crap about ‘ooh God will do it.’ They talk as if God is not there for everyone, including idiots who want to be political leaders.
And talking about political leaders I heard economist and New Patriotic Party stalwart Kwame Pianim say political office holding is more than just waving flag. Mr. Pianim, whose statement has been widely reported by the Ghanaian press, said at the programme organized by Professor Frimpong Boateng to launch his bid to contest the NPP leadership that any idiot can be a flag-bearer and that what Ghana needed was a leader. I could not agree more with him.

Who would want even an idiot as a relative let alone the leader of a country. There are those who even believe that Africa is underdeveloped simply because of the idiotic tendencies of the leadership. For example in such difficult economic times, Jacob Zuma, hiding behind culture, has grabbed for himself four wives and the ordinary South African taxpayer has been forced to pay the bills for all of them.
The expenses made on his many wives, according to reports, run into thousands of British pounds per month. What stupidity!

Then you have a country like Nigeria. It has massive oil but its citizens are poor. It takes an idiotic leadership to impoverish the people. Equatorial Guinea, Gabon etc all have the so-called black gold but their citizens are poor. No right thinking leader will stash the funds of his country in a foreign bank and allow his citizens to wallow in squalor. Can that be possible? But that is the story of Africa
You move to Ghana and you have gold, timber, cocoa and now oil. Great natural resources but poverty levels are high.

Every single day one hears a certain policy or another in the ‘pipeline.’ I have been following development issues in this country since I was a teenager and the word ‘pipeline’ has been used more than enough. I’m still hearing the same word repeated by every government in power.

Our leaders are more interested in grabbing properties including ex-gratia while the vast majority are left to dry their teeth in anger and despair. The story of gold mining town Obuasi is pitiable-despite the many gold dug from the place. The people are still struggling to keep their heads above the scale of poverty.

Which right thinking leader will allow such foolishness to take place under his watch? We are more than five decades since asking the British Queen and her people to leave and our story today has been nothing but crap. We can’t even feed ourselves and we say we are ‘independent’ nation with great leaders. Who are the leaders; those who part themselves at the back even while in office or those who desperately spoke up against people owning a single toilet only for them to leave with more than three?
Are they the leaders we are talking about? I beg to differ.

I’m not a big fan of Kwame Pianim but I want to believe he has his own issues. He speaks only when it suits him. I however salute him for his frank remarks. In any case the world has become so small so who would want a leader without any technological skills?

As for the flag everybody can wave even an idiot. What Ghana needs is a leader who thinks about the masses and not one who would go on property grabbing spree. A word to the wise is in the thumb.

Good day!