A letter to Felix Kwakye Ofosu

From  Selorm Branttie

Dear Felix Kwakye Ofosu

I heard you mentioned my name on Peace FM as an example of a "middle class" occupier. Thanks for the free publicity.

First of all, let me congratulate you on your recent wedding. Marriage is indeed a nice thing, and God Bless you richly for taking that step. Now back to the issues.

You see, here in Ghana, we have talked so much, and trivialized so much that achievements and the relationship between hard work and success is not deemed important anymore. All people think about is privilege, how quickly you take a shortcut from obscurity to fame, from poverty to fame, from nothing to being powerful. In short, everybody wants the end result, but isn’t ready to work for it.

Examples: The richest pastors and the most popular ones are those who promise miracles; the most popular politicians are those who promise utopia, the most popular musicians are those who sing about counting money. People have conveniently forgotten how hard people work to get to where they are, and therefore think that since they had it as a matter of privilege, everybody got it so. Especially you politicians.

There is a young breed of your genre who are gently weaving themselves into the national moral fabric. Most of you just after your education have become career politicians, whose best attributes are the religious nature with which you guard and spread party propaganda narrative. I agree with your perspective, since unlike some of us who are just observers, you guys are the ones on the frontline, whose pocket depths are determined by the whims of a voter, or in some cases, the extent to which the electoral machinery can be rigged to favour a candidate.

To that extent, you are actualized in your career when the benefits of positional perks are extended in your direction, i.e. the default Land Cruisers, fuel coupons, per diems, business class tickets to needless meetings, press hearings, investment deals where family members get to be shareholders, free school fees abroad, medical care abroad, family vacations, etc. etc.

These benefits usually involve the ability to be placed well in the corridors of power, by walking behind certain shadows, and murmuring the right words, and shutting up when you need to, always a game of self-survival while assuaging the worries of the masses when need be, or galvanizing the support base with the right phrases and slogans when the time materializes.

For some of us rather, we grew up with our parents being teachers and seamstresses, who sacrificed to give us good educations with a dream to live a life our parents could only dream about. Fortunately for some of us, we tapped into those dreams, recognized the effort of our forebears, worked hard to gain every single advantage in life, and put ourselves in positions of responsibility not by virtue of who we are or who we know, but what we achieved.

I did my first bout of national service at 16, as a Math’s and Science Teacher. I had my first job at 17, as a research assistant. I went to the University at 17, and graduated at 21. In between, I worked little jobs here and there to help augment my school spending money. I have alternated between jobs and my own entrepreneurial work, of which I have been successful in a few, and failed woefully in others.

I have had my motives questioned, resolves quashed, dreams broken, I have had people doubt me, ridicule me, laugh at me, call me names. I have also tasted the benefits of being resilient, challenging myself and defying the odds. I have paid my dues not to myself, but to the world. I keep paying those dues through my work because success is not just the best revenge, but because it is also a driver to create more value for people around you.

I am not yet successful because I haven’t impacted as many people as I want with what I do, but I hope I am on the path.

I will proudly call myself Middle Class for the simple reason that I have risen from a more deprived state of life to a better state of life based on one principle: Hard work and NO SHORTCUTS. I believe that by being inspirational, I can help drive others not to look at the negatives out there, but the positives they can bring to themselves and their loved ones.

That is the triumph of being in middle class. For those of you who by your chanced presence in the trade of politics, look down and scoff at us, know that you are the enemies of the Ghanaian dream, that the Ghanaian regardless of his background can gradually change himself and his or her circumstances, defy the odds and break through glass ceilings and barriers, and that you are the ones who make it so HARD for people to look into themselves and excel, but rather want shortcuts because the script there is so clear.

Be happy for some of us, if you do not wish to celebrate our rising stature, because, it is us that pay for your lifestyle. I just hope that on the fateful day that a thumb changes your destiny, you will have amassed enough to cushion yourself and your family.

As for me, everything I have I earned. I thank God and those who helped me on the way up, and I won’t fail them. But, unlike others, my financial independence, social relevance and will to succeed is not conditional to the thumb of an errant stranger.

I keep rockin' Louis Vuitton and Reebokin'........