Case-Control Study of Heroes and Cowards

Introduction: This is a Case-control study of subaltern intellectuals, professionals and cowards in the Ghanaian public space. The theory of change for this presentation is: If the nation wants to avoid military takeovers, the intellectuals and professional classes need to become active in governance, using tools such as civil disobedience; public demonstrations; a strong judiciary; advocacy against corruption, identity politics, and Court actions, as the main weapons against the abuse of office. Objective: The purpose of this work is to show how the Ghanaian political and public spaces have been inundated by acts of cowardice with disastrous consequences on good governance, and the general disintegration of the nation’s moral ethos. Using the examples of the Controls, this study would show the options available in becoming change managers and transforming society towards professionalism, and encouraging moral temperance. It would also show the instances where weapons such as judicial challenges, public demonstrations and picketing with sustained advocacy, have led to behavior modification on the part of government and administrative powers. Method: The Case-Control study approach allows for the study of unusual phenomenon such as the incidence of Cowardice in Ghana’s intellectual space, by reviewing past events retrospectively; the consideration of a variety of reasons for the conduct or risk factors; and allows for the optimization of outcomes that may be difficult to determine at first such as counter-measures. Result: The findings show that, although a few of Ghana’s intellectuals and professionals have used public demonstrations, picketing, advocacy and judicial action to cause social and political transformation, most of the nation’s intellectual and professional classes display cowardice in speaking truth to power, unable to pursue noble deeds as the subaltern intellectuals of old, to create the legal estoppels against government’s or administrators’ inimical actions or corruption, due to their own immersion in corruption in the universities and public institutions. For these reasons, they are riddled with fear and cannot protest the denial of the citizens’ functioning and capabilities by public officials, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution. Conclusion: It is not only on the political/governing classes that about (40%) of the blame for the persistent underdevelopment, underclassness, poverty and corruption in Ghana should be placed, but (50%) of the blame should be put on the intellectuals such as university lecturers and vice chancellors, and professionals such as bankers, accountants, medical doctors and pharmacist, judges and lawyers and similar professions, with the rest of the blame on the citizens for their cowardice, feigned helplessness, and egoism for not fighting against injustice, neglect of duty and abuse of power.