Ideals Academy Must Replace Greed Academy

 

When was the last time individual African countries refocused on Ideals Academy? Ethic and morale has never been so low just to catch up with the Greed Academy’s teachings. Influence of Greed Academy is corruption, indifference, terrorism, immorality, power grab and no guilty conscience.  Western Schools of Business, after the 1987 stock crash vow to imbue ethical courses, but learn little until the new crash of 2008. Africa must.   By a real life story, some walked miles to the mine fields in the rain, sun and even snow. Many that made it there, came back rich and celebrated. Some died on the way while others died inside the mine. Those that came back look at poor people, not as strong as they were, and wondered why they did not go to the mine fields. They spoiled their own children; but forget those that did not survive on their way back were not so lucky.     Somehow along the way, most people forget when they were at the right place at the right time while those equally industrious as them failed for being at the right place at the wrong time or at the wrong place at the right time. They preach pulling yourself up with your bootstraps. Colo-mentality did not allow them to realize that some do not have boots or straps. Moreover, everybody does not have to be either poor or rich.   Rich people are just as different as the poor. There are rich people willing to give most of their life savings to good causes before or after their death. They realized that, after all the rat race we cannot take anything with us. But there are some people that finally made it rich only to become the meanest to the poor. They figure that if they can burst their butts and make it, so can anybody. They care less about the sick or the weak.    Bereft of ideas or ideals, well-endowed countries are turned to TV beggars by politicians out of touch or mercy. Like businessmen, spend other people’s money. Only that loot is siphoned to contract and cronies. The biggest corporate welfare recipients are defense, building contractors and their children justifying it with impunity. Other’s keeper as our responsibility is dying fast; lingers in Diaspora: our last generation to send money home.     Most African countries failed because we put pursuit of money and greed before the pursuit of ideals and ideas in our schools. No local mega projects to enhance, harness or encourage our primary industries to create primary, secondary and tertiary skilled jobs for our graduates at all levels. So, inept leadership competes with religious fanatics, old retired military men, ethnic militant drop outs, while competence becomes irrelevant.        The quality of our schools has always been a point of reflection especially between private and public schools. There used to be a time when certain public schools could compete or were better than private and mission schools. Unfortunately what we have these days are very expensive schools that do not live up to their hype. Apart from a few foreigners they have, African teachers are too poorly paid to devote the best of talents.    We have many parents that would rather spend five years school fees of basic education school in one year exotic schools only to run out of money. The point here is that our poverty mentality that works against us today was created in our children yesterday by greed. As long as our focus is on exotic schools’ taste, not on teaching ideals we need to escape reliance on conspicuous spending; most African countries will linger in poverty.   Therefore, it is not surprising to see parents trying to give children the best education wasting money on unaffordable schools. Nothing illustrated it better than Free Primary Education instituted in old Western Region. By the second or third year, advantages of expensive private schools and eight years in primary school compared to their six years primary; were gone. Indeed, those drop-outs taken into military schools became rulers.       It is not a sin to be poor and proud, though embarrassing to many. Consequently, the poor people, even in rich countries make the most noise from their empty pockets. They just want to live it up like the rich. In many cases, we are conspicuous spenders, not needy spenders. The rich can afford to be both needy and conspicuous spenders but even then, the rich are very picky and calculated on what they spend their money on.   The most obvious display of ostentation amongst some of the poor is our clothing and the car we drive. We display gold and silver all over our bodies and carry more cash than the rich. Poor people spend so much money on cars, it’s unbelievable. In many cases, we buy used cars of the rich and spend good money repairing it. Our habit is investing in depreciating materials instead of appreciating ones. Are you poor looking for repair trouble? Buy an old jalopy. You want bizarre estimates? Go to opportunistic mechanics.    Yet, Saro say “na poor I poor, no be craze I craze”.  Most poor people hate to see others in a worse situation and they usually give a higher proportion of their income or share more of their worth with others while those richer than the poor run away out of fear of exhausting the little they have that makes them comfortable. The fear of returning to poverty once you have been there is real and in many cases drives us to succeed.    This is what drives our leaders into extravagant lifestyle regardless of who is milked dry. Sadly honest homegrown politicians cannot form a quorum. They are always sabotaged.  Out of those of us concerned about the poor, some of us try to do something about it.   You may know a friend or two that come back home to contest during elections. It is different to the time of Nkrumah, Azikiwe or Michael Manley of Jamaica. Those ones came back home for good into politics. We are talking about those that worked two or three jobs abroad and come home to spend it all hoping to win an election and may be, with altruist determination, help the people govern well. Most of them always loose.    Home grown politicians do not work for European Euros or American Dollars as Tunde Just-Come. Coming home to serve and change the country is a noble cause but not a quick one. Usually home based politicians just watch Tunde until he exhausts his hard earned money only to run back on his last euro. Politics is not the only way to contribute to change of government. Many can help nurture a revolution.  

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