Ghanaians are by all means very wonderful people -No doubt. We tout ourselves as the most friendly ,tolerant and accommodating people in the world, especially to visitors, sometimes to a fault.
But I must admit that we’ve also got issues!! And you can trust yours truly, #rolandoforispeaks to say it as it is!
Here are some of the key unproductive traits we must do away with if we desire to progress as a people and become influential and relevant in an ever competitive world.
#1 OUR DISHONESTY
One glaring defect of the Ghanaian is his dishonesty! The average Ghana man will never say the whole truth- as one of my former expatriate bosses puts it, the Ghanaian will only tell you 50% of the truth, you have to push really hard to get to 80% if you are lucky.
The Ghanaian will compliment what they hate, praise what is wrong and when that venture fails, they won’t hesitate to remind you of the magnitude of your folly for taking such decision.
Another angle of our dishonesty is portrayed by how we sell cars in Ghana. I can’t under stand why a Ghana man will import a 1o year old second hand accident car, get is repaired and resprayed and then would want to keep a DV plate on it forever, drive it on our cruel and unforgiving roads so that when he finally registers the car after two years and later decides to sell it, he can claim that the car is fresh from abrokyire and its accident free! If you slack, you will be sold an aesthetic moving coffin bearing the tag of a car. The seller knows it might kill you, but nevertheless he will sell it to you with a smile and make you feel he has even “considered” you.
The Ghana man prefers to play solo as a business man, not because he does not understand the power of synergy, after all we have a proverb which says” you can break a single broom stick” but you can’t break a collection of broomsticks”. So we understand the power of unity and synergy as Ghanaians, but we will never collaborate with others. The reason is simple! We don’t trust each other!
The average Ghanaian business man is comfortable partnering with a foreigner on a business venture, even if the foreigners contribution is only 10% instead of partnering with a Ghanaian with 50% contribution!
What for the life of me I can never come to terms with is Governments who don’t trust doing business with their own people. If a Government could trust the people to vote him into power which they did, why can’t the same Government trust doing business with these same people!
The juiciest of Government contracts always goes to foreigners. The Ghanaian contractors, when occasionally lucky, will get to fete on the crumbs, usually characterized by delayed payments, till the point where the money loses its value by the time payment is effected.
The Government does not trust his own people and its a fact!
Could it be that apart from the popular mythical 10% cuts which is easier to take from the foreign contractors, the Ghana Government does not trust the capacity and integrity of her own skilled contractors who have been trained by Government funded institutions? Think about it.
Why will Government borrow money from Kwesi obroni and quickly hand over the money back to obroni in the form of awarding contracts? It doesn’t make sense. To be clear, I am not talking about contracts which we don’t have capacity as Ghanaians to executes but the contracts as mundane as supplying office furniture.
I cant talk about dishonesty and leave out our market women! Apart from they paying less taxes than they should( as a result of a weak and complacent Government tax collection system), the scales they use in selling to customers are always far less than it should be. They don’t mind selling inferior goods to unsuspecting customers and its even worse when they know you personally or attend same church with you.
Let me give you a clue: when market woman tells you, she has reduced the price of the commodity because of you, please run for your life, you are about to be duped.
Our artisans are at best diabolical, you will never understand the meaning of tribulation until you decide to build in Ghana. The carpenter, foreman, mason, electrician, and the plumber see you as a fat cow to milk! They will triple the value of the “estimates” and buy you an inferior material on top. Aside that, they will never complete the work as scheduled, and you will be bombarded with the dumbest of excuses every day. If you get tired of their lies and you sack them, they will even have the nerves to go around and “spoil your name” about you have “cheated” them.
The average Ghanaian will borrow money from you promising to pay at the end of the week or month, but truth be told he has no intention of paying whatsoever!
We have an Akan proverb which literally translates ” The mouth used for securing loan is not the same mouth used to pay back the loan”. Make the mistake of giving a Ghanaian “friend” in need some loan and I bet that will mark the beginning of the end of that friendship.
In fact when a Ghana man wants to borrow money, he will look for someone who won’t worry him in case he is not able to pay. He will avoid the hard guy who will come for the money at all cost!
I think it is high time we become honest in our dealings with each other, especially with those close to us.
Think about it, pray about it and most importantly do something about what you have just read.
Part two, loading very soon.
God bless you
From the desk of ROL
https://rolandoforispeaks.wordpress.com/
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