Response to Curtailing the excuses

Dear Editor

E. Ablorh-Odjidja’s favorite peeve is the phrase "You must come home to help".
He then asks "You must come home to do what?

The response is - To do the things that you complain are not being done.
Referring to those who came back and failed to make progress - "They turned back, disillusioned, because whatever they thought they could have achieved never came to fruition".

Exactly, so it is not so easy to accomplish what you thought should be done.

He says the beautiful ones have been born. They are here and ready to regenerate the country - “But would you allow them?"

I would respond that even governments have been changed by civil action in other parts of the world. Freedom is never granted on a silver platter. Nobody is going to give up his or her privileges just because someone else could do a better job. In places where people resign "voluntarily", they do so because they know that if they don't they will be pushed out. It is not because they are innately more honorable.

Ablorh-Odjidja writes that remittances from Ghanaians abroad are " unearned by any input of labor or toil from Ghana". Really? I would point out that the majority of Ghanaian doctors abroad received highly subsidised education from kindergarten to medical school in Ghana, and the same applies to many other professionals. No doubt the remittances are welcome and some of it is used productively, such as paying medical bills, school fees et cetera. Unfortunately, a lot of these monies are used to fund buildings that are not completed, purchase of large impractical old cars or lavish parties and funerals.

He says “The good I am already doing from outside versus the good I could do from inside, barring some "honorable" being in the way.” I would respond that high-level education is supposed to help people solve problems. So if the problem is that something or someone is in the way, then I would suggest that the appropriate response is to find a way to get round or through them. I don't think one should respond by going to another country and complaining from there. After all, "What is the use of your education, if you do not come to the aid of your country in her hour of need?" (Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, 1948) Talking about Nkrumah, you will remember that, after he was invited, he had to fight to achieve his objectives. He wasn’t allowed to use the existing structures (UGCC), so he had to create his own. Few Ghanaians are as talented as he was but most can try to emulate on a smaller scale. How much remittance could Nkrumah have sent to match what he did when he came down?

There are a few people who can do more from outside than inside. International-standard footballers, for example, are in that category, if they choose to spend some of their earnings here. However, a teacher or doctor, to name just two examples, will provide far more value by working here than by sending remittances. The advantage of going abroad is that the individual earns more money for himself and his immediate family, but the country is generally worse off, especially if the emigrant was born and bred here.
In early adulthood, Ghanaian young men and women have to make a decision whether to live in Ghana or go abroad – on the basis of what they think would best serve their interests. Those who stay and establish themselves in their fields are not going to voluntarily relinquish their gains to colleagues who return years later.

However, returnees need never become "deadwood'. With the cushion of their financial reserves, they should be able to "behave better", go against the grain and brighten their corner, big or small.

So, please, less talk and more action.

“Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.” Kwame Nkrumah.

Nii Adziri Sackey
Osu, Accra.
28th May 2015

Writer's response:

I didn't talk.  I wrote,  I am a writer. Not a doctor. Not a footballer.  It is the privilege of my trade to write from anywhere.

"So, please, less talk and more action." and you, Nii Adziri Sackey, have to write?

By the way, have you talked to the doctors and teachers who returned and are still working here? Do you want to make things a little better for them so that they can be more productive; not waste away huge portions of their talent and skills?

Just asking. You seem to have found the answer.

Or better still, tell us how, you the man of action, did it.  We need to learn from your experience.  Thanks for the response to the article.

Cheers,
Ablorh