Get involved in the politics and governance in the Land of Our Birth

Ayiku charges Ghanaians in the Diaspora

Ghanaian citizens in the diaspora have been called upon to get actively involved in the politics and events that shape the destiny of Ghana, their original homeland.

In a sharply-pointed delivery of the KeyNote speech at the 58th Independence anniversary celebrations of the Ghanaian Community of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, Mr. Emmanuel Ayiku, Publisher and Chief Editor of The Ghanaian News Canada lamented the fact that the political leaders and groupings in Ghana have virtually ignored the great contributions that Ghanaians in the diaspora make to the country’s development. It is about time, he pointed out, that “we need to actively participate to shape the destiny of the nation. When conditions improve at home, with our active inputs, it will lessen the desperate midnight and 2.00 A.M calls that we frequently receive from relatives and friends at home crying for help in solving one financial crisis or another”, he said.

Using the declaration made by the nation’s first Prime Minister, Kwame Nkrumah and the Big Six on Independence Night that the Ghanaian nation reserved the right to “manage or mismanage its own affairs” as the context of analysis, Mr. Ayiku examined the fortunes of Ghana in the social, political and economic context over the past fifty-eight years and concluded that the nation Ghana has actually “managed very well to actually mismanage its own affairs.

Mr. Ayiku recognized the fact that Ghana has undergone tremendous changes, some very positive, others not so positive but on balance so much self-destructive damage has been caused by the country’s leaders and citizens which outweighs the positive achievements. He lamented the constant military interventions in the nation’s body polity over the past fifty-eight years which have contributed much to the damage the country has suffered since independence. But he also had harsh words for the civilian leaders as well. He bemoaned the political behaviour of the two major political parties who have been ruling Ghana for spending, and wasting most part of their political mandates in chasing their political opponents to humiliate them for real or perceived wrong-doing that does nothing for the progress of the nation. “Our politics is driven by a vengeance mentality under which one group seeks to undo everything the other does while on office even when those things were good for the nation”, Ayiku lamented.

Touching on nepotism, another canker in the nation’s life, Mr. Ayiku lamented the fact that the distribution of the nation's resources, opportunities and privileges is still driven by nepotism and the "whom-you-know" syndrome.

On the foreign factors that have stalled the progress of the nation, Mr. Ayiku further bemoaned the continuous total dependency of Ghana on foreign aid and handouts for our development. “We seem to have been permanently afflicted with the dependence and beggar mentality where we constantly look up to foreigners for aid to prop up our economy”.

On the domestic front, Mr. Ayiku pointed out that the greatest threat to our domestic development and progress is indiscipline. “Our attitude and mentality to work, to public property and the environment are so abysmal that we should seriously resolve to change if we have to make any progress as a nation”.

Posing the bigger question to his listeners and Ghanaians in the diaspora on what can be done to salvage the ship of the Ghanaian nation from sinking further and maybe permanently, Mr. Ayiku threw a challenge to all of our citizens in the diaspora that “we cannot just sit by and watch our nation, the Land of Our Birth or the land of our mothers and fathers drift into destruction.We need to get involved in the governance of our nation by getting actively involved in the political, social and economic governance of the nation.

He particularly charged Ghanaians in the diaspora to exert pressure on the political leaders at home to implement the Representation of the People Amendment Act (ROPAA) passed way back in 2006 that recognized the right of Ghanaians living abroad to vote in elections in that country. “Our right to vote will at least give us the power to participate in the process of electing political leaders”, he said.