The way we do cover ups

The round-bellied spider, Kweku Ananse, may still be very much alive and up to his folkloric tricks across our national psyche. With wisdom and trickery, he may be operating on both the national and personal levels to outwit people. When we do things to impress owing to an insatiable sickening need to look important, we could easily end up being deceitful and pretentious. The following are some of the ways in which the application of trickery and deceit are hurting our nation.

ELECTION FUNDING AND NATIONAL THEFTS

If we lift the veil off our very expensive four-year cycle national electioneering campaigns, we may stare right into the eyes of national thefts. Methinks that the still unravelling banking collapse stories may be the offshoot of political campaign corruption. 

The bank collapse stories began to unravel after the 2016 elections. If we connect the dots well, we may be able to establish that some of the money we lost was used to finance campaigns. If we analyse the beneficial owners and connected parties of the banks, we may pin-point several over-exuberant political apparatchiks who did their masters’ will to fund campaigns, and whilst doing so, personally enriched themselves.   

In effect, electioneering campaigns provide opportunities to chop our national money. The fun fair of elections may very well be cover-ups for stealing national funds. The super-sized billboards, the jingles, television, radio and newspaper advertisements, the V8 vehicular convoys that madly zip through the length and breadth of Ghana to display unexplained wealth – may all be tied to national thefts.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

In these days of bank failures, the Kweku Ananse syndrome stares us in the face. Some words that are bandied around in the corporate world are ambiguous and could easily be used to cover-up the corporate truth. The fuzzy realms of business promotions, branding, and a monster known as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) offer opportunities for deceit. 

We should therefore pay much attention to companies that spend much money on sponsorships, business promotion, which could be signs of covering up something unseemly. All the seven failed banks were busy spending money on CSRs, branding, business promotions, and lobbying for praises.

What is in a name? Capital Bank has collapsed. The name did not help it. Or maybe it did in the sense that the owners of Capital Bank saw it as an opportunity to squander the capital until it was spent out in very irresponsible ways. Sovereign Bank lost its sovereignty (it never had sovereignty to begin with!). By its name, uniBank was supposed to be that one bank owned by our leading financial guru at the time (Dr Kwabena Duffuor) that will pass all understanding. But one man’s arms went around the bank and blew it up.

MAD RUSH FOR AWARDS AND DEGRESS

The craze for awards and titles is a sign of a fundamental emptiness that companies and individuals need to fill. It is almost a cry for help as in saying—true rewards take too long a time so why don’t we just use the back-road short-cut! Yes, it takes time to consolidate one’s accomplishments; for most people, it takes a life-time. The short-cut could happen through questionable awards that serve the purpose of concealing the real truth—which is emptiness owing to a lack of essence. 

In the past week, Albert (not his real name), a struggling young man I know called to share with me what he thought was a brilliant idea; his brain wave; his innovativeness; his way of solving a critical problem for Ghana because he had identified a gap. 

His idea was that although he acknowledged that there are several awards, he also wanted to set up an award scheme in journalism. He needed my advice and support! I tried to be polite! I told him tenderly that he has no locus to even entertain such thoughts so he should rather focus on his career because there are more than enough awards schemes and there is zero room for more. 

I am sure that he will try to go ahead to explore this lame idea. If he succeeds, there will be 100s of journalists who will salivate to receive such awards. And with that, Albert will also fill up some of the void in his life and feel good about himself. In effect, the awards will by default, become the accomplishment in the absence of any real accomplishment. 

Closely related to the hunger for awards is the mad rush for degrees. Have you noticed that in the past decade or so, our country has experienced a mad rush for degrees? This madness has opened the floodgates for the business of tertiary institutions.

HERO WORSHIPPING

When we hero worship people, we cover-up. There are too many title-holders around. Honourable, Doc, Prof! These days, when I hear someone being addressed as Prof, I pause to figure out whether it is in reference to Professor of Prophet. Prof used to refer to only professors, but these days, prophets have entered the fray. 

And, there are numerous men of God (and a few women of God). Strangely, I have never heard anyone being addressed as a “man of satan/devil”. When we call a person “Man of God”, we deify that person. He is God; or His representative on earth. If you have God as your pastor, then you must truly be sorted out. When you deify a person, you could easily get to the point of not thinking around them; you hand over your relationship with the maker to this intermediary you have created.

Now one such men of God, Pastor Otabil, has a big red flag hanging over his head because of the role he played (or did not play) as the board Chairman of the defunct Capital Bank. His admirers and hero-worshippers are conflicted and struggling over what to do with this situation (to either stand with or against him). It must be very confusing for his followers that their own man of God is in a sticky situation. 

OBITUARIES

I get fascinated at the content of obituaries because of the showmanship display. Often, they display the who-is-who of the family, including extended- and non-family members. Family members outside Ghana are hot favourites in obituaries. This person is in the UK, that one is in the USA, another one is in Germany, France, and wherever. 

Some of these people might not even be doing much with their lives but they are abroad and therefore perceived to be important. They might not travel to Ghana for the funeral, or send one pesewa home to finance the funeral roll-out; but are abroad so mentioning them is supposed to raise the profile of the funeral from a local activity to one with high-level international and even global dimension. Eh, Kweku Ananse!

dorisdartey@gmail.com