Civic Responsibility ­– A Call To All

What will you do if you come home after a long tiring day at work just to find out that you have lost all your hard-earned property due to someone’s interest? How you feel is exactly how Mother Ghana feels when we abuse her resources. A lot has been happening that affects our nation. As citizens, we need to stand against it to make our motherland great and strong. In as much as there are patriotic citizens like Kofi Annan, Kwame Nkrumah, and even in our current times, Christian Atsu who helped to make our motherland happy and content, there are also others who are helping to paint our nation black, either due to ignorance or their intention. This, as a matter of fact; is why we need to do more education. I will be penning down some of our activities that affect the nation and how to improve them.

As citizens, we must obey and abide by our laws. How will it feel if a foreigner comes to our country, violates the laws and when you try insisting on the right change being done, you are defeated because you don’t obey the laws yourself? Since some of us do not obey the laws, there’s no way we can condemn others who break the law. Now, how do we obey and protect our laws? We must first be a good example before we educate others. We also must report lawbreakers. Never cover up someone’s crime because that person is your friend. Always report people for them to be corrected and for peace to prevail in society. When we go to our Senior High Schools, for instance, students cover each other for crimes committed with the notion that when they reveal the truth to authorities, they are betraying their colleagues and they use the term ‘Sell- out’ to classify this action.

Furthermore, we must respect the rights and freedom of other of others. Yes, we all have our rights and freedoms as citizens but would be happy if your rights are trampled upon by your neighbor because he has the freedom to do so? Let us respect the rights of others because the Bible says’ Do unto others as you want others to do unto you. Just like the way you do not want your peace to be disturbed, others do not want their peace to be interrupted too. There’s one neighbor of mine who always played music at a loud volume. To him, he had the right and freedom to do so however, this affected the people around him and he cares less. A bold citizen confronted him and instead of this neighbor of mine listening to the advice given to him, he insulted the citizen that he can do anything he wants since he is also a citizen of our country. My neighbor was arrested and fined when the citizen reported him. Do you see? Even though he had the right and freedom, that does not mean he could trample on the rights of others and this caused his punishment.

Last but not least, keeping the environment clean must be our number one priority as citizens of Mother Ghana. Do you know that you and I are the government? Shocking, right? We always say that the government should do this, the government should do that, and the government should keep our environment clean and a whole lot. We must however do all these things by ourselves as we are our government. Keeping Ghana is our main responsibility which we have failed and we blame our appointed officials. We must not litter the environment and we must clean our already filthy environment. This is not something we must be told to do but we must do it out of our hearts and if the country develops, it is for our good. I once visited the Parliament House with a few schoolmates and three teachers. A colleague gave a statement that surprised me when we were walking on the compound and the place was so neat that not even a single piece of plastic was found around. My colleague’s statement was “Parliamentarians are bad people because they have made their environment clean and tidy whereas ours is dirty and unkempt”. I mean, how can we think like that? I replied that their environment is clean because they don’t litter about, they maintain neatness and it is therefore up to us to do the same. Lovely citizens, as a government, we need to make our country the way we want it to be.

In a nutshell, there are more negatives than positives and this is very heartbreaking. I, therefore, entice all to help make our nation a lively place to be and not wait for officials. Remember, we report wrongdoers because we love them and want them to be corrected and not to betray them. I pray you, take this missive to heart and practice everything I said as it will benefit us all. Won’t you be happy to live in a peaceful environment that resonates with fairytale features? That future starts from us and now. Thank you.

DOROTHY KORAMAH ADU,
PRESBYTERIAN SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL,
MAMPONG, AKUAPEM.