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SMELLING THE STINK OF
POVERTY—HEAR ME OUT
MIKDAD MOHAMMED
January 06, 2014
Speak to any adult running for an office in Ghana, on why he/she
wants to lead; be President or MP etc and I bet my Facebook
account, you’ll hear a passionate voice about “a vision to serve
the people” and a special lamentation of “the chronic POVERTY in
this great country of ours”. Hear them, “our people suffer
unjustifiablePOVERTY day in day out…POVERTY is a social canker!
etc.”
Even, those adults who as babies were fed enriched baby foods
from abroad, in addition to succulent breasts, will overnight
create imaginative tales about how they were born under the tree
of poverty during harmatan in some Google-forsaken village with
mum being a single parent and how life was hard walking to
school bare-footed on empty tummy etc etc. The empathy will
impress you!
My mission today is not to judge anybody’s vision to serve a
nation, or whether somebody’s tears is that of a crocodile or an
alligator; my problem is how these people, indeed all of us,
understand the word POVERTY; a word in whose name some leaders
hoodwink unsuspecting voters, a word in whose name they lie and
cheat; in whose name they claim all the fat
salaries/per diems and annoyingly disturb the peace of those
suffering from the word itself-- Do they know POVERTY? Before
you continue reading, be informed that I’m NOT one of those who
believe that leaders have to experience poverty to know the
poor’s struggles, even though, majority Ghanaians have
faithfully swallowed this long discredited leadership selection
criteria.
The criterion was discredited on the African continent and I
won’t waste my time to give you examples. Now, I searched, and
searched for a “Ghana” definition of poverty and found nothing.
I only found repetitive declarations reflective of the Universal
1 dollar 2 dollars UNDP theory, balanced with a wide array of
incomprehensible domestic vocabularies describing what poverty
looks like in a Ghanaian context, with a tacit apology to
nagging readers that the word poverty defies a “stable”
definition. What specifically then, are we aiming to address by
instituting poverty-reduction strategies? Who do we consider as
poor if we can’t define POVERTY domestically, and even so, do
those we consider below the poverty line understand why
government will classify them as poor beside the tough life they
live?
I hope you get the thought I am conveying? When government says
it hopes to “half poverty by 2020”, which specific group
description does government mean? When Michael Essien looked TV
cameras a year ago after his historic charity match and
said he had dedicated the proceeds from the match “to the poor
in society”, which people did he have in mind? Those who take
gari soakings 24/7? Or old men and women?
Ghana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy is to me an ‘experimentation’
based on one simplistic assumption about political power and
influence. It assumes that simply by committing government to do
things in a participatory way with some stakeholders, government
could magically fork-lift the poor from poverty. Evidence
suggests that this approach does not work, ask the poor that is
if you can identify them. And so my fears in the Ghana Poverty
Reduction Strategy (GPRS), Livelihood Empowerment against
Poverty (LEAP) etc were confirmed.
That I am a citizen of a country that has more official
definitions for corruption than it has any for poverty. If
corruption is defined by the Law; who is to define poverty in
Ghana for us? Is it the NDPC, or GES? See; 8 years ago, I learnt
the definition of corruption, causes of corruption, and its
prevention from my JSS government prescribed text book. At that
age, I knew corruption as inclusive of me sharing lunch with a
Class Captain so that my name is not written as a talkative, but
unfortunately at the same time my best idea of POVERTY was ONLY
those who used to beg on the streets and the miserably helpless
old men and women I saw every day. Moving forward, the woman who
sells plantain (roasted or fried), or bread or yams and makes
not less 14cedis a day in profit with 3unschooling teenage
children, (she is not so poor per 2 dollar criteria) and her
landlord may throw her out next month when ECG has come knocking
and her unemployed husband has
gone scavenging for “something”…The village man whose trap on
his own 3-acre farm guarantees him constant protein squared with
yam/cassava fufu daily and 5 childrenat the village L/A school…
A group of young men, sometimes children, who fill the potholes
on our roads for a pittance from drivers… Adult who cannot
afford to pay for NHIS premiums and the kids’ fees… People who
are disabled or challenged … Rural farmers… Don’t you think it
is high time we defined “our own poverty”?
Poverty is one word we play with when it suits our agenda but
fail to look at it critically when it comes to solving it. Come
to think of it, rural living and agriculture-dependent
livelihoods are strongly, but erroneously associated with
extreme poverty. What type of poverty reduction strategy will
ignore shelter rent expenditure of the struggling urban people
who sleep in the open and often on empty stomachs? What kind of
National Rent Control Board will
be happy controlling everything under the sun but not rent? What
direction is a POVERTY reduction strategy going if is blind to
the root word in its own name?
I may be overly emotional about a global canker. However, if we
cannot, as
nation, clearly define what poverty is to us, just like Okada is
to the
Nigerian Transportation Minister, or “zelo” to the Ghanaian
radio pastor, then
we only speak about poverty with our mouths out of perception of
what we think hardship is! To you, what is poverty? Before you
confer “povertyhood” on a neighbour, what do you look out for?
Now you see??? I am a Muslim, but let me contextualize my
opinion in the Bible (I have no intention of taking any
political liberties with the Holy Bible even in the most slight
of terms or mention Christ in vain).
Jesus Christ had asked his disciples: “Who do people say I am?”
Then came a javelin of answers; ooh some say you are John, some
say you are Elijah… oo others say you are Jeremiah… others think
you are of the Prophets. Jesus again asked; “but YOU, who DO
YOU, say I am?”— I love this question! I, therefore, propose for
consideration, that irrespective of what the UN/IMF/IBRD/GDI/MDG/UNDP
say about poverty in definition, description and categorization,
how have we domesticated the word POVERTY, not to talk of
solving it? When you meet them bragging- ask them a simple
question: “Honourable, can you please define poverty?”...and by
their slowing down to now take a hard look at the “new” word all
over again,
and the momentarily acquired stammering, “Ye shall know them”…
Forgive me for choosing that unpleasant title.
MIKDAD MOHAMMED (C)
January 2014
Cel#: 0244599591
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