PRISONS REPLACES PURPOSE

So #LuckyDube sang "Somebody told me about it, when I was still a little boy, he said to me, '#crime does not pay', he said to me, '#education is the key, yeah', as a little boy I thought I knew what I was doin', yeah man. But today, here I am in jail, I'm a prisoner. I looked all around me, but to see nothing, but four gray walls staring at me. The policeman said to me, 'son, they won't build no schools anymore, all they'll build will be prison'. 'Cause today, yeah, I am a prisoner. I asked the policeman and said, 'how much must I pay for my freedom?' He said to me, 'son, They won't build no schools anymore, They won't build no hospitals, All they'll build will be prison, prison, I'm a prisoner, yes I am!"

Today, I come with quite a divergent topic. For our overarching goals to be achieved, whether entrepreneurship, craftmanship, job as part of a team, politics, governance or education, we need to reduce the police stations, courts, prisons, psychiatric homes, hospitals and orphanages and build more 'practical' schools, focus on the challenge one at a time.

For example, in #Africa, what will #Politicians campaign on if all the problems are solved?, only to win power and amass wealth for ourselves? Given the same leadership position without a great system and great mind reset, won't the younger generation do same? What will happen if we agree on a #BluePrint of what we want as a country, a continent, and work at achieving it a day at a time, together over a period of say twenty (20) years? An what will happen if we don't?

Moreover, could we not live another year with the same problems only to solve one for that whole year? Say, in the year 2022, in Ghana for instance, we focus majority of our infrastructure budgetary allocation on Roads or Electricity, or Health, or Education, or any one single thing that requires advancement and solutions to revisit them after another 10 years, basically we have been living in the country for ages with these deficiencies already!

Why? Well before that, Why not? We keep talking about these problems and it appears as though, every single day, we don't get enough of these, they keep playing in our minds, on radios, interrupting daily target set and mitigating the chances of achieving set objectives (purpose).

Leadership is gradually turning into a thing to continue visions' achievement of the 1% over the 99%, opportunities created are for close relatives (well, we know these already) and we keep getting people offend with unjustified reasons of being marginalized. Subsequently, the courts pick it up and define a judgment (Prison). We may need to expand the prisons soon because cases are constantly on the rise and the current space cannot contain the numbers.

What then happens to Free Education without enforcement to ensure there is attendance and attainment? Ghana Statistical Service's Multi-dimensional poverty report 2020, indicates a cumulative education deficiency of 74.3%, ranging from school attendance, school attainment, and school lag.

How can we reach our full potential with this system? The situation, which consequences let me remind you, is linked to family, both nuclear and external, is subsequently strung to societal progress, communities' growth, and national development; producing armed robbers, office thieves, squared pegs in round holes among others.

Take Road and Traffic issues, for example, starting from lack of skills and willingness to even learn these skills we are deficient in. Look at the challenges and solutions from Roadworthiness of cars (drivers/owners/DVLA), Visibility, Road Signs/ Speed limits/ Signs along roadsides especially curves; preventing driver from seeing from afar/Quality of roads, etc. (Drivers/GHA/DUR/ROAD SAFETY/ MoRT/GPS/MTTD, etc) and Enforcement of existing laws among others. For all that is worth, it’s only a matter of time and the same issues resurface, so mindset reset is highly required (a case of Self Responsibility and Accountability).

To conclude, I think, leadership, be it personal, professional, family, educational, media, governance, or political, complimenting efforts through harnessed strengths and compliments of weaknesses with the singular aim of promoting the achievement of a plan, will make us all win and be proud of our achievements in the next few decades. Change is inevitable and the concomitant consequence of the opposite is something we would not like to welcome especially after the next generation takes over.