“How bland mediocrity succeeds on numbers in Ghana” was the title of an article authored by Emmanuel K. Dogbevi and published by myjoyonline.com on Monday, May 19, 2008. In that article, the author provided evidences in support of his wild conclusions that: “In Ghana nothing works logically. Nothing works according to established rules. And expectations of reasonable people never get met. If you insist on reasonableness, logic and scientific methods of doing things you will be damned! A good number of the successes that have been achieved in this country appear to have been by chance, rather than by planned, calculated and executed strategy.” See Emmanuel’s article. I find this piece of writing unacceptable, hence the rationale for this rejoinder. Before I give my personal comments on his damnable conclusions though, I wish to summarise the premises of his argument for the sake of readers. The writer did no exceptional job by recounting some unsatisfactory services of some businesses in Ghana. In particular, he mentions the poor services of MTN and Ghana Telecom for its unreliable broadband service. To him, this is due to the fact that most businesses in Ghana are not customer focused. His other concern has got to do with the media. He suggests that many of the so called successful media houses and personnel are doing no better jobs, compared to the standards of the past. According to him, the Ghanaian media “…are simply churning out pure nonsense into the airwaves in the name of excellence in radio and freedom of speech”. Again, the author recounts how some policemen were unfriendly to him when he reported a robbery case (in which he was attacked) to them. He alleges that the policemen did not show any sort of concern for his predicaments. Even though I share with some of his concerns, I keep wondering why these premises led to a conclusion that “in Ghana nothing works logically”. If some policemen did not respond to your need as you expected, does that mean all policemen in Ghana would have acted in the same manner? If there are some bad businesses in Ghana, does that mean that all businesses in Ghana are bad? Again, does he mean to say that all the media houses or personnel (including him) are producing nothing more than pure “nonsense”? Well, granted all policemen in Ghana are not concerned about Ghanaians, all media houses are producing nonsense and all businesses in Ghana are not customer focused, does this lead to a reasonable conclusion that nothing works logically in Ghana? I believe that Ghana is not the geographical land area but the people in it. A society, like Ghana, is a mere aggregation of individuals. Therefore, there cannot be Ghana without Ghanaians. The two (Ghana and Ghanaians) are inseparable. By deduction, to say that “in Ghana nothing works logically” is an insult to the good people of Ghana. It follows that no individual in Ghana is logical, including himself. Therefore, when he talks of “expectations of reasonable people never get met” which people is he talking about? Non-Ghanaians? May be! According to the good old book (The Holy Bible), “death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof” (Proverbs 18:21, KJV). This makes me very much concerned about his damnable conclusions. Words are powerful and immortal! Just google “in Ghana nothing works logically” and you will have access to an article written by a Ghanaian which does nothing more than cursing our beloved country. I think that the Ghanaian media would indeed be good for nothing, as he asserts, if it were only filled with articles like the damnable one he wrote. We are tired of writers who keep talking about problems! We have known these problems since childhood. We need solutions please. Please write to influence us positively. Don’t damn us! I am a logical and reasonable person and so are many Ghanaians. How dare you! There are many good journalists in Ghana who are championing the course of development. There are many policemen who are serving our beloved country wholeheartedly in spite of logistical constraints and other occupational hazards. There are many businesses in Ghana whose operations are informed by the needs of their customers. I don’t mean to say that all is well with Ghana. All is not well but all is not bad either. And it is the case in every country! Stop painting the picture as though all is bad with Ghana but all is well elsewhere. This sort of irresponsible journalism must not be courted in Ghana. I want to believe the author is influenced very much by the BBCs, CNNs, ABCs, etc. since he thinks all is bad with Ghana. He can really succeed if gets an opportunity to work with them because that is their style of reporting: only reporting negative stories about Africa. It is in their self-interest to do that because they want to continually suppress and exploit us. But how about our own media? How do we tell our own story? How can such journalism (like his article) help us to develop? It is said that Former President Rawlings remarked that for some individuals, because of their “negativity”, even when Ghana develops, they will not notice it. How sad! But how true! I want to drive home the fact that we need to analyse critically what we say or write. The article, in my view, is in bad taste. His conclusions are illogical and unacceptable. We need to be critical of issues in Ghana, but let us do it responsibly. I believe we can be pro-Ghana without being pro-government. I love Ghana, so do many Ghanaians. I was born a Ghanaian and will ever be a Ghanaian. If someone thinks that he is not OK being a Ghanaian, he can choose another nationality. Please do not curse us again. Long live Ghana!! By George Baah [gb358@cam.ac.uk]