Transparency vs. Tranquility: Should Citizens Know Everything?

There’s nothing that can be fully hidden on the surface of this earth and we all know that. No matter how something is hidden, it wound one day come out in the public and I can’t assure that it would be a good things. That is what we always preach that always speak the truth because the truth shall set you free. From where I come from, we all know ourselves. I say this because African leaders are known for being incompetent to some extent.

Obviously, there are somethings that should not be made public by a government of every country. But, growing up in Ghana, I have seen instances where very private documents were being made public by God knows who. Just yesterday, I saw a document online which was from the Norwegian government being addressed to a particular office in the Ghanaian government but it found its way to the general public someway somehow. The worst part of it is that the Ghanaian government is not even really concerned that such a document has found its way to the public domain.

Growing up, I used to watch 7pm news with my family every blessed day but if it was to be announced on the news that I would be arrested today, trust me I wouldn’t know about it until my friends who are active on social media come to tell me. If they don’t ,that’s how I would be arrested. The good part of all this is that, I no more need to sit and watch news because whatever is going to be said on the news at 7pm would have been on Ghanaian Twitter space by 1pm the same day. I’m not really a fan of social media but anytime something is trending, I trust that Twitter will have some news for me. That’s Ghana for you.

Ghana is so democratic to the extent that people can even go on social media to insult a whole president without being sanctioned. Also, even though we have the right to know what’s going on in our country every minute that passes by, some things are meant to be private and only within the government. But, you know we always have that one person that can’t keep their mouth shut. So, even if something was discussed in a particular government office and is meant to be private, someone would mistakenly spill the beans and that’s how come the whole Ghana will find out about it.

I think it’s actually better that we know whatever is happening in our country public because with the shege we have seen over the past few years, there’s no way we can trust the government to keep things away from us because who knows when they would decide to sell us all for their own personal gains. If we had competent and trustworthy leaders, maybe we would be okay with being in the dark when it comes to some stuff but with this government, it’s a no no!

Sometimes it’s really not about the information being put out there, it’s about our leaders and how much we trust them. Currently, I believe that it is in the best interest of every Ghanaian to make everything happening in our country public so as to prepare ahead and act accordingly.

all images belong to me.