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Why Can’t We Honour Our Heroes Properly?       

By Cedric Dzelu
Opinion Why Cant We Honour Our Heroes Properly?
DEC 12, 2017 LISTEN

To honour the dead is a path to immortality and very few dead souls will be that privilege, the more reason why it is Heroes who are honoured and remembered because of the impact they have made in our world, ensuring that the world becomes more beautiful, peaceful, progressive and meaningful than they came to meet it.

That be the case, why don’t we here in Ghana do it well? Why don’t and can’t we honour our dead heroes with the honour they truly deserve? Are we really honouring them or we are just rehearsing a ritual?

The above questions have given me sleepless nights especially when I hear that a hero or legend or a leader of someone of great repute is to be honoured and the latest in the offering breaks my heart soo violently that I find it a matter of national duty to draw attention to this matter and perhaps may become just the magic to ensure that our heroes are truly honoured and ushered into immortality and not a mere ceremonial activities.

A look at how the mighty are honoured here in Ghana is but an apology to the spirit and the contributions of our much vaunted heroes and to whose works and memory we seek to immortalize. When the NPP Government wanted to honour Ohene Djan, the illustrious son of the Ga Land under whose leadership Ghana was put on the global Map through Sports, they just called some artist to change the name of the Accra Sports Stadium and his name was replaced, sadly the NDC government after coming into power obviously did not see any merit in that hence called different artist to undo the previous work and left Ohene Djan in his grave where he truly belongs not the stadium.

When the good Professor and the 3RD President of the 4th Republic died, the second most popular street after the oxford street was renamed the Atta Mills street and the High Street will be lost in the directional landmarks of the country.

On the recently the government decided to honour the former Vice President Alui Mahama and all the thinking and brainstorming settled on calling another artist to change the name Tamale Sports Stadium to Aliu Mahama Stadium having the Vice President of the Republic H.E Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia to conduct a ceremony to credit a stadium which is depreciating, not having water flowing, poor electrical service and not put to its maximum use renamed to honour a man we want to call a hero, to a soul we wish to immortalize, it was then that I realized that the disrespect to the memory, works and contribution of our heroes was too much for me to take, hence this piece.

If we truly meant this business, what prevented the government from building a new stadium to the credit of the great Ohene Djan? That continental colossus of a sport administrator. If we truly wanted to appreciate the good Professor who transformed our tax system and gave young people great opportunities to impact this nation, why couldn’t we have constructed another motor way or N1 from his village to Accra? And if former Vice President Aliu Mahama was that important to the history of the country why will we give him a depleting and seemingly abandoned facility as remembrance?

We have not come close to honouring our heroes and I am very ashamed that even efforts at the national level with the attention and support of the Presidency are efforts to ridicule than to honour our heroes.

It is to their honour and the immortality of their contributions to our society that I write this as a tribute evoking their spirits to rise against such mediocre gestures that does no more than ridicule all that they stood and worked for.

May we learn how to properly honour our heroes such that we will give current and future generations the clear message of what it means to sacrifice for one’s country and the honour that there is such that it will be the desire of the young ones to also yearn towards making their own humble contributions in making our country prosperous, great and strong.

Cedric Dzelu
[email protected]
@CedricDzelu

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