Are We Thinking Rightly As Ghanaians?

To begin with, I would like to borrow a few words from our well known National Pledge of Ghana; "I promise on my honour, to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my motherland".

I love this few words of the pledge of allegiance to our nation. But let's ask ourselves one question, "are we being honest to ourselves and our dear nation or we just recite it as we see? Hmmm! It is very disheartening to see things falling apart this way. Where is our love as Ghanaians? Where are we going as a country. Many times I ask myself, if Dr Kwame Nkrumah was alive, what would the situation be like?

Our country is gradually losing its worth. The ordinary Ghanaian university graduate, may prefer to leave his country after graduation to either, Europe, America, South East Asia or Australia to seek greener pastures, instead of using his knowledge to contribute to the growth and development of our dear nation.

Have we thought of how they managed to develop their country, or we mostly think they are more knowledgeable than us? This is a question for all to reflect on. We are all one people, irrespective of our differences in age, gender, ethnicity, religion etc. The change we expect to see in our lives will come from nowhere but from ourselves.

No divine intervention will come from heaven to change our attitudes towards ourselves.

Am not surprised to see real time businessmen and women of today tagging their products and services to the foreign land as if they weren't made or produced in Ghana. A typical Ghanaian will produce something and emboss it with the caption, "MADE IN USA, CANADA, CHINA", etc.

I ask again, "are we thinking rightly as Ghanaians?" Does it mean we don't believe in ourselves as Ghanaians, to the extent of hiding our identity? Have we reached this stage?

It is a shame we don't value what we have until it falls.

Must we import everything as a nation including basic items like toothpicks, toilet rolls, pins, blades, cups etc.

If so, then why do we keep nurturing intellectuals in this country? What is their role?

Why are we wasting time building universities?
I must state emphatically that we are the cause of our own misfortune. It is about time we take a critical look at our attitude again to help position our country as a torchbearer in industrialisation in the West African subregion to the rest of the world.

"Good behaviour must come from the top", is not just an old adage meant for fun.

The history of this country, reveals that Ghanaians have experienced bad leadership from our leaders and as a result, the generation of today have lost focus and don't know where to turn to for comfort. We have universities in their numbers. Some specialising in training medical doctors, and yet when the very rich and most politicians are sick, they travel abroad for medical attention.

It is surprising that we have numerous professional engineers in this country, and yet when the government wants to embark on any capital infrastructure development like roads, schools, etc, the contract is awarded to the Chinese, Japanese etc. Does it mean we don't trust our own people we have trained or we have engineers who cannot even make roads and build schools?

I believe strongly that we all have a role to play to ensure the betterment of our dear nation Ghana. The government should equally play its part to empower the youth of today to contribute their quota to the growth and development of our dear nation.

Government should strive very hard to restore the confidence Ghanaians need.

To conclude, I would like to encourage all Ghanaians that we all have a role to play to redeem the image of our country, Ghana. Once someone out there has done it before, you can equally do it as well. Always say to yourself, "I AM NOT STUPID, I CAN DO IT". Have the can do spirit.

May God be our helper.
Writer : Solomon Solari Sarpong
Immediate Past BASA UEW President 2016/2017.
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