Ghana Month: Do Citizens Take Pride In Ghana As Their Only Hope?

Good parents leave an inheritance to give their children the launch pad for the necessary leap forward in the rather difficult beginnings of life. 

The good old stories handed by great-great-grandparents which were full of contrasting tales about a nation’s struggle for emancipation and self-actualization appear to be lost on current Ghanaian society. Folklore is embedded with sacred values around which our society was galvanized.  Fellow feeling, communality, selflessness, discipline, respect for authority, diligence, and punctuality to mention but just a few, were the invisible pillars of society.

Well, memories of the series of military coups and curfews that dogged the new nation-state of Ghana immediately after the attainment of political independence in 1957 are not something this new generation will be excited about, and nor will they like to experience.  We pray and hope for peace and we seem to have it outwardly but if I may ask, are we enjoying inner peace? True peace nourishes souls and gives us brighter hope.

Graduates of the 19th Century did not complete their various schools to face the grim situation of joblessness which has become the reality of contemporary graduates. The latter is so stressed because their education has become a shot in the darkness, ending up as a burden on society for they live without a means of income. What do we see now in this country? Students are compelled to pay huge fees and graduate with better grades as First and Second Class Honours are not employed after school.

The new term now is ‘you get a job based on whom you know’. Government sectors and private sectors mostly fill vacancies with people who are recommended by people, either relatives, friends, or others.

School certificates are turning out meaningless and this is very sad. What we are doing now can only produce the following results. ‘The rich will continue to be rich and the poor will continue to be poor’ because those who are fortunate to attend tertiary institutions to change the fortunes of their families are compelled to stay at home and join the ‘Unemployment Association(UA)  simply because they do not have anyone to find them jobs.

Let us put the unemployment issue aside for now and look at the other important issue of governance in Ghana. It is my considered opinion that some managers of the affairs of state take such serious responsibility for a joke. Indeed, the positions so given are to be upheld with due diligence.

That issue has to do with the appointment of Ministers who manage major sectors of the economy. Have we ever thought of this?  Ministers are like the ‘parts of engines combined to move the nation forward. What are the factors taken into consideration before such appointments are made given the national interest involved?

The pain in my heart as a young female Ghanaian is how sometimes I observe the vetting of some nominees who have been appointed to manage very crucial positions in Ghana. I mean how? ‘I can’t think far’ on some of these decisions?

The question that comes to mind is, Do We Have A Better Tomorrow? Well, those in government and their relatives may not feel the heat but we have to cry and fight for those who do not have anyone to speak on their behalf.

When will we as a country take things personally and ask ourselves questions that will make a brighter future tomorrow? We must see Ghana as our only child and we all have to go the extra mile to protect and make all citizens comfortable so they could confidently say, they are really happy to be Ghanaians.

Executives always have good policies but making such policies practically relevant to the people has been the problem.

We can always compare ourselves to other countries but the truth is that, until we change our selfish mindsets about issues in this country, we can never be like those ‘diamonds in the royal deep blue seas’.

Talking about corruption…hmmm, like I said we must have a change of mind towards such an act which is expressive of selfishness and greed, or else the development we want to witness in Ghana will just be imaginary.

As Ghana’s 66th Independence day celebrations likened Ghana to a human being who was some company employee and on pension now, we can make the inference by asking how well Ghana had progressed over the past 66 years of liberty from colonial rule. If citizens are the employees and Ghana is the employer, how well should Ghana be celebrated on the occasion of its 66th anniversary?

Yes, there are so many questions we must ask ourselves as citizens. Whatever we are sowing today will be reaped by the incoming generation. If we are planting trees today in Ghana for the next generation, what kinds of trees are we planting? Are we planting trees that will only grow tall without any leaves on the branches, we are planting trees with thorns that generations after us will not even be able to pluck fruits from the trees when they go hungry. We must ask ourselves.

We have to always keep the future in mind. Any step we are taking today will have an effect on the next generation in an indirect and direct manner someday.