MUST READ: Do We Have The Right To Keep Complaining About Brain Drain?

This is a topic you hear too much about, if you came up through the Ghanaian education system. From the little I can remember, it refers to the practice where Ghanaians leave the country to apply their professional expertise elsewhere, to the supposed detriment of the country.

Growing up we couldn’t hear enough of it, and it was impressed upon us what a bad practice that was, and how it contributes to our lack of development in many ways. The logic being that if these Ghanaians with these skills where practicing elsewhere, the improvement they would have brought to the nation is then lost.

With the turn our fortunes have taken within the past few years (for the worse), I have lately been thinking about this supposed brain drain. Ghana has become so terrible for the ordinary person to live in; I’ve been wondering if it is such a terrible thing to think about having an escape into a foreign country?

My friends and I often joke that if we had the chance, we’d stowaway on any ship at the port, and accept wherever we landed so long as it’s not Ghana. Sure it’s a joke, but I feel it has a fundamental truth at its core. With the way things are shaping up in Ghana, I’m pretty sure there are millions of others telling this same joke as my friends and I.

The cost of living keeps ricocheting up, especially if you live in Accra. ‘Dumsor’ has made staying in your own house something you dread. There is little trust from the public in our public institutions; the police, parliament etc. It might sound like a cliché, but things are so bad in Ghana now people are actually getting used to the terrible conditions.

In such a situation, is it so bad to wish to jump ship if you get the chance? Or you owe it to your country to stay, especially if you have some skill, and try to make a change to the system as best as you know how?

This was an argument that flared up in my office the other day, when I said I have no hope in Ghana’s future, and would jump to the other side the first chance I get. Another gentleman was appalled that anyone could have such a mentality; both in being ready to abandon the country but also the belief that Ghana has no hope as a country.

I suppose how hot the country is depends on where you’re standing, but on average we can agree Ghana is hot indeed (Figuratively, of course). If you had a skill that could make a difference to the future of this country, no matter how small, what do you do? Do you stay and work, unappreciated and poorly reimbursed due to a sense of loyalty and patriotism? Or you join the plethora of others who have already jumped to the other side?

When you are running an almost failed state, do you have the right to complain about brain drain?