As a child, one of my favourite stories from the stable of Aesop’s fables was that of a man, his son and his donkey. In recent times I have recalled the fable in the context of a few issues that have been the subject of heated discussions recently in this country.
The fable
According to Aesop, a slave and storyteller believed to have lived in ancient Greece, a man and his son were once going with their donkey to market. As they were walking along by its side a countryman passed them and said: “You fools, what is a donkey for but to ride upon?” So the man put the boy on the donkey and they went on their way. But soon they passed a group of men, one of whom said: “See that lazy youngster, he lets his father walk while he rides.”
So the man ordered his boy to get off, and got on himself. But they hadn’t gone far when they passed two women, one of whom said to the other: “Shame on that lazy lout to let his poor little son trudge along.”
Well, the man didn’t know what to do, but at last he and his son decided to ride the donkey together. By this time, they had come to the town, and the passers-by began to jeer and point at them, saying, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself for overloading that poor donkey of yours and your hulking son?” Exasperated, the man and his son decided to tie up the donkey and carry it. The donkey’s feet came loose, it kicked out wildly, fell into a river and drowned. The moral of the story? “Please all, and you will please none.”
Easing of restrictions
When President Akufo-Addo announced easing of some restrictions following the end of the lockdown in April, there were those who insisted that it was too early. Cynics said that contrary to his declaration that he was guided by science and data, in reality, he only had two things in mind for lifting the restrictions-to pave the way for the new voter registration the Electoral Commission had set its heart on, and also to allow for the holding of the NPP parliamentary primaries, both of which had been on hold due to the earlier restrictions.
Of course, the narrative was that politicians were only interested in our votes, and that even if it meant marching us to our deaths, they would happily step over our charred or rotting carcasses into the glorious corridors of power. The heat turned up, and the rhetoric was fiery, especially from opposition elements. The President was demonized as evil and uncaring, with an insatiable lust for power.
Yet the easing stayed in place, and when the NPP announced its imminent primaries, again the naysayers came out to predict a spike in Covid-19 cases as the basis for can demanding the cancellation of the primaries. I argued on these pages against the claim. Armageddon failed to appear on the horizon following the primaries.
Voter registration
Once again, when the EC announced the timetable of the registration process, social media went agog with dark mutterings of poor patronage due to Covid-19 and a spike in infections due to the impossibility of social distancing. A purported group of medical and health personnel issued a gloomy warning of many deaths if the registration went ahead.
This was irrespective of the assurances of the safeguards the EC had put in place. People who had principled opposition to the exercise had found a convenient horse on which to ride their objections, and they had a mighty gallop. Now, the registration is over with high patronage, and thankfully, there is no massive spike in infections.
School reopening
Hell broke in many quarters on social media when the President announced that final year students would be going in to complete their examinations. We were told that this was akin to setting up mass infection camps, especially in our boarding schools, that school could wait since it was no big deal even to lose a whole academic year.
The announcement of the significant PPEs and others that were being made available to schools, and the measures announced by the Education Minister ensure the children’s safety were ignored, and the lamentations persisted. But government also persisted, and even when some cases were reported in some of our schools, the decision to keep the children in school was maintained in the face of virulent opposition in some quarters. Now the students are in the middle of their WASSCE, the relatively few children who got infected have fully recovered, and the demands for the finalists to be sent home have all but dissipated.
The new reality and its dangers
I have received quite a number of calls from friends and acquaintances enquiring when school is likely to resume for all the other classes, which I find most amusing. I note that many parents are at their wits’ end, burdened by the all day presence of their children at home, which also means they have had to alter their work schedules to meet the new reality. “They eat too much at home!”, one parent wailed to me recently.
For teachers in the private sector schools, remaining closed means a hit on their pockets as many are not receiving any salary from their employers, whilst school proprietors are seeing their investments at a standstill as fee revenues dry up.
I think the reality for most of us now is the realization that we have to find a way to live our lives, virus or not, and that we cannot keep cowering in our homes forever. Many approach the disease almost with a shrug, having gotten over their initial hysteria, and do not even bother anymore to follow the daily trajectory of the disease. Indeed, dear reader, I dare you, without going to do any research, to tell yourself how many active cases and mortalities we had as at yesterday. Chances are that you do not know. And that is precisely my point.
Of course, the danger of a collective shrug is loss of vigilance, with dire consequences. Whatever we do, we must as a nation make sure that just because life is returning to normalcy does not mean all is well, and they we must never let our guard down.
Leadership Lessons
My single biggest takeaway from the events of the past five months is that as a leader at whatever level, you have to carefully weigh your options when faced with a decision, consider all the evidence, listen to advice, make a decision, stick with it and take responsibility for whatever consequences that flow therefrom.
As a leader, you have to be prepared to contend with ‘Professional Jeremiahs’ (to quote President Akufo-Addo), who endlessly indulge in what former President Mahama called ‘purposeless lamentations’ during his Independence Day address to the nation in 2015, and stay focused. It requires a certain tenacity not to be buffeted by each passing wind, lest you get reduced to levels of absurdity as the man and his son were in Aesop’s fable.
It is only in totalitarian states that you will not get a whimper of public protest or condemnation from any quarter for the decisions you make as leader.
In a vibrant democracy such as ours, a ‘culture of noise’(as the journalist Abdul Malik Kweku Baako puts it), is part and parcel of our public discourse, and if as a leader you fear fierce criticism, you are probably better off running a shop selling ice cream to kids.
Be it as it may, I do not aspire one bit to be President or EC Chairman, thank you very much. In fact, maybe I will just speak to my bank manager, raise a loan, set up a one-man ice cream shop and live happily ever after.
