The Member of Parliament for Wa West MP, Peter Lanchene Toobu, has expressed worry over the slow pace of development in Africa.

He argued that despite the adoption of western ideologies in the governance of many countries, the continent is lagging behind because the various states have set wrong priorities that continue to leave negative impacts on their growth and development.

For instance, he noted that persons who acquire formal education end up becoming dependent on others for survival and cannot put their knowledge to any use because there are little to no hands-on educational experiences that shape graduates for societal development.

Alarmed at the level of westernisation in African societies, the MP sarcastically said even palm wine, which hitherto pacified deities, no longer serves the same purpose.

He made these observations in an article titled ‘the Dimmed Black Star’.

Below is the full article:

The biggest problem that Ghana, hitherto the shining Star of Africa has, is the inability of the people to decode or rediscover ourselves. We need to find an answer to the question - What is the underlying philosophy of what we have been and are still being taught in our schools?

The pastor, imam, politician, chief etc control the minds of millions of people with what they tell the people. The people consider these leaders as the source of the truth. These leaders are always either speaking from holy books or legal documents but the real source and intentions remain under wraps.

In the Bible, for instance, we've been told "By their fruits, you shall know them" (Mat 7:20) and "...the truth shall set you free" (Jn 8:32). In a century, we accepted many things from religion to politics without us challenging through critical research to know the real source and philosophy behind many of the stuff we've accepted hook, line and sinker.

I believe in the saying by Rousseau that "man is born free but everywhere he is in chains". These chains are the creation of humanity. We created guns to kill ourselves. We develop viruses to wipe out our enemies. We manufacture land mines to maim and kill each other. Many died from deliberate poisoning by those they thought were family, friends and loved ones.

We accepted curricula with a far-reaching strategy to keep others in perpetual dependency/servitude. We create a world order with strategic branding to tell those with the gold, oil, manganese, fertile land, etc that they are the poorest and they believe it as they migrate in search of greener pasture.

The brains of those born naturally brilliant are dulled as they age till they believe that they are an inferior race. The African environment itself is polluted to prevent talent development.

We have enough sunlight, gas, more than enough water bodies as well as the wind with enormous speed to generate all our energy needs yet they say we are poor because we still have no electricity in many parts of the country. We've failed to explore our natural endowment.

All the fruits, leaves, seeds, roots, and bark from the myriads of plants in Africa have better food and medicinal value than all the imported foods and orthodox medicines being prescribed to us on daily basis.

Yes, the white man said he discovered Africa and ensured over centuries that we never discover our true selves for we have a huge potential to lead the world. Our gods no longer accept palm wine or pito during sacrifices. How on earth can the Russia-Ukraine war bring hunger to Africa? How can difficulties in Ukraine be the bane of our economic woes?

Grants, loans in all forms, technical support and capacity building by foreigners etc have shown not to be the way to go if one reviews the last 50 years of Africa's progress.

The current bad governance serving the people of Ghana is the worst since 1957 and requires systemic review and it is my wish that someone joins me to scream louder to draw the attention of Ghana and Africa for that matter that we need to reset our brains and explore our continent. We have the potential to be the leading global power but it cannot be gotten on a silver platter.

Our priorities are wrong. The knowledge we acquired through many years of schooling is designed to make us employees and not employers, dependants and not innovators, followers and not leaders, etc.

We are good to be used and we've actually from the slave trade era to date been valuable tools for global transformation.

When we discover our true selves, the concept of Ubuntu will create a new and lovelier world. Until then, let's suffer in silence and work harder to emerge stronger.

God bless our homeland Ghana and make us rediscover our true worth. There is no pasture anywhere greener than what we've been endowed with. May we be guided.