Motivational Speaker Dr Mensa Otabil says Ghana is a nation of jokers. He wonders why Ghanaians create jokes out of very serious issue and by so doing, belittle very weighty matters.
Speaking at the Spying Board Road Show in Accra, of which Radio XYZ is a media partner, Dr Otabil said: “One District Chief Executive makes a comment which we should be angry with, but it has become a national joke and we just carry on and on and on and I’m wondering ‘what is wrong with us?’ Can’t we for once be serious and face life and stop joking?”
According to him, instead of Ghanaian focusing their time and energy on solving their numerous problems affecting the country, they rather indulge themselves with jokes.
“We’re polluting ourselves. We have issues we can’t solve. We have problems we can’t solve. We are overwhelmed all around us yet we have a lot of time to joke and to laugh and to act as if this is the most normal environment to live in”, Dr Otabil fumed.
The International Central Gospel Church General Overseer therefore urged the youth to depart from the generation of jokers and rather become thinkers who can make an impact.
“So my challenge to the young people here is you have to take life seriously especially when you are an African. If you are an American you can decide to joke. If you are a Chinese you can joke a bit. If you’re British you shouldn’t be joking because their Kingdom is coming to an end. If you are European this is a bad time for you. If you are a Chinese, Indian, Asian; this is a good time for you. If you are an African you should be frowning”, Dr Otabil clarified.
He counseled the youth further: “And you have to think and you have to stop allowing yourselves to make serious things appear funny because it looks like one of the ways to satisfy us is to just give us something to entertain ourselves with and we’ll entertain ourselves with it for life”.
In his view, “in a nation where people cannot take charge of their destinies and turn their future in a different direction, there must be something wrong about the people and how they see life and how they see their own goal in life”.
“Is it that we don’t know wrong when we see it? We do. But Part of the problem is that when I started talking about this issue [pollution at Agbogloshie] right now, you saw the reaction here. We started laughing. This is not a laughing matter but we laughed. Somehow serious things are a joke to us. And you may say: ‘Well, you know that’s the way we survive’ but that way we survive is killing us”.
“There has to be a change. And for those of you who are young people, when you look up to us, you have to question us why we’ve allowed that to happen. You have to question your leaders of your country. You have to question your politicians why they allow that to happen.”