HOW TO HELP Ghana (AND Yourself)

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1.       Don't drive like a lunatic; you’re not the only one in a hurry to go somewhere, and can you please stop tooting the horn? It makes the whole place so noisy!
2.       Learn to buy made in Ghana goods – give the Chinese goods a break! 
3.       If you work in the public sector, show up to work on time and whilst there, do real work. 
4.       Don't church all week and all year round and hope God will solve your real life problems for you. 
5.       Don't look down on everyone who isn’t dressed up in fancy clothes. 
6.       If you're a police officer stop asking for and collecting bribes – you’re not the only public servant who’s poorly paid. 
7.       If you’re a politician, know that your followers also have heads and hearts – they can think and feel, respect them.


Read: Village Boy Impressions: 6th of March

8.       If you occupy public office and mess up, do the honourable thing; please resign or at least learn to say sorry (Mr President should also learn to ask for resignation letters or else crack the whip!)
9.       Don’t think everything is spiritual and should be prayed for or against, some things are physical and need physical action by you – that’s the reason God gave you a head, use it! 
10.   Treat your employees like they're actually human beings. 
11.   Stop lazying at work, your employer may not be your father but his/her success puts food on your table and failure will mean no salary for you! 
12.   Stop littering everywhere, get a dustbin at home and use it.
13.   Stop peeing on every tree and wall and in open drains and corners, respect yourself. Fine a latrine.
14.   Stop lynching everyone who’s charged with or caught stealing in the community – if you want to stop stealing, go and catch the bigger thieves.
15.   Don’t say public property is not for your father or your mother and so should not be protected – it belongs to your children and their children.
16.   If you’re a trotro driver or mate, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t bath in the morning and use a roll on – you can look and smell decent as a trotro driver or mate.
17.   If you’re a taxi driver, know that not everyone that is nicely dressed or going to or from the airport is rich and should be charged a higher fare.
18.   Stop blaming witches and wizards for your own failings – sometimes your pastor is the bigger problem.
19.   If you’re a Christian, stop burning the devil and his demons with hellfire. Even Christ never did that!
20.   If you’re a student and a Christian, know that your studies comes first (You may choose to misunderstand this but you didn’t go to school to pray and worship just as you don’t go to church to read and study textbooks). Don’t think that praying all the time will make up for not actually studying!

Read: Village Boy Impressions - Accra (After William Blake's London)

21.   Stop cheating on your spouse - who do you think you're deceiving?
22.   Stop beating/abusing your spouse - if you like boxing, join a boxing club and if you like fights, why not pick on someone your own size?
23.   Don't rationalize the failings of your political party and demonize the others.
24.   Learn to say Please, Thank You and Sorry, it will save you a lot of trouble.
25.   Stop living above your income; this is the root of all bribery, corruption, and poverty!
26.   Stop spending lavishly on the dead and at funerals, invest in the living beings instead.
27.   Do learn to obey simple rules, regulations and etiquette about queuing/standing in line, waiting your turn, packing. It doesn’t make you a big man/woman to disregard others ahead of you in a queue or to pretend to be in a hurry always.
28.   If you’re a person in authority, stop preaching and enforce the laws! Behaviour is taught and learned more by conditioning than by complaining always! 
29.   And for heaven's sake, if you read this and you don’t like any of it, don’t call me names, after all, opinions are like noses… so go and get your own.
30.   Now you have read all this, don’t just say it’s true and move on, be the change you want to see!

I was inspired to construct this piece by the Nigerian blogger, Ibiene, whose post “How to Help Nigeria (and Yourself)” can be read here.



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