Is Ghana suffering from collective cognitive dissonance?

Last Sunday, the BBC’s Radio 4 broadcast one of its quaint pro­grammes about something only a few people had ever heard about. (That’s a radio station that broadcasts “news”, isn’t it? Why should one want to be bored with things one had heard about before, when there are so many millions of sub­jects that are completely new to one?

The Radio 4 programme was entitled Sideways, and its theme was something I’d never heard of before – “Cognitive Disso­nance.” And its chosen hero or anti-hero (take your pick when you listen to the programming by Googling) was a young American who would not hear a word said against the late US President, Richard Nixon, during the “Watergate” scandal. The scandal has been fully writ­ten about in a book entitled “All the President’s Men” (whose film version, starring Robert Redford) has also been widely acclaimed.

Even as Nixon’s lieutenants were leaving the White House in droves,

after it had been proved be­yond all reasonable doubt that Richard Nixon ordered or knew about a break-in of the Demo­cratic Party’s offices in Wash­ington, the young man would not accept that Nixon was a “crook” (as Nixon himself had denied he was.)

And then, in August 1974, Nixon resigned – the first US President to resign from office.

What the young man suffered from was something called “cognitive dissonance” and apparently, it’s a major brain disease almost as bad as schizo­phrenia, although very few people have ever heard of it.

I have come to the conclu­sion that in our attitude to pub­lic affairs, many of us exhibit, ‘s3be o!’(apologies!), signs of this “cognitive dissonance” ailment.

How many bankers have gone to jail for stealing money put into

their institutions by cus­tomers for safe-keeping? The central bank sometimes makes up for the losses to customers, but that seems to be all.

And do we, in our media and social comments, vilify the thieves and make it necessary for them to hang their heads in shame? No! One person who stole huge sums from the pub­lic became a celebrity overnight. His trips to expensive Arabian capitals were followed with avid interest; his romantic affairs became a Hollywood-type saga. Yet, more than half our popula­tion claim to be either Chris­tians or Muslims – religions both of which extol the virtues of charity, humility and mod­esty, to say nothing of honesty. What sort of society is it

that prides itself on being re­ligious, and yet closes its eyes to the activities of thieves (so long as they do not commit burglary in their desire to be ultra-rich, at public expense?

Look at how our traditional office-holders exhibit them­selves to the public at festivals and ceremonies like the funerals of important people. Their stature is often inherited from long, long ago, and they evoke great admiration.

But the corollary of the display is ensuring that their people have adequate food to eat and that other amenities necessary for keeping alive are not denied them – of that we see nothing wrong or very little.

As they step out majestically, their drums and horns remind them:

“Y3mmfr3 wo ohene kwa!

Y3mmfr3 wo panin kwa!” (We don’t call you a chief for nothing! We don’t call you an elder for nothing!”

But that bit of the events is understood only by a few peo­ple (most of whom haven’t got much time left on this earth, anyway).

We proclaim to the whole world that our culture is as rich as the best in the

world; that we value human­itarian virtues; and that we deserve respect and should not be dictated to by others.

But the bribes that enable galamsey to take place continue to be paid to “influential per­sonages” in the dead of night.

And they, “our revered influ­ential people, do allow con­scienceless galamseyers to drive excavators into our ancient, sacred rivers to pollute them – in search of gold.

If our departed ancestors had allowed their rivers to be pol­luted, as we are doing, would we have had a chance to survive horrible diseases like cancer, and become the nation that we are?

We know everything. And yet we DENY that any of it is taking place!

If we do not suffer from “collective cognitive disso­nance”, then I don’t know the meaning of the term.