Ghana has no patriot today – Nyaho Tamakloe

A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Nyaho Nyaho Tamakloe, has said there is no patriot in Ghana as the country marks Founder’s Day on Wednesday, September 21.

Founder’s Day commemorates the birth of Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, and is also a day to reflect on and appreciate the sacrifices and achievements of the founding fathers of the country, learn from them, and have a sense of patriotism in all they do for the development of the country.

However, speaking on the Executive Breakfast Show (EBS) on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, Dr Tamakloe said: “If you talk of patriotism, I don’t think we have even one person in the country at the moment. When you talk of patriots you talk of people like Kwame Nkrumah, Kobina Sekyi, Ako Adjei, K.A Gbedema, Kojo Botsio – these were patriots; they started building this nation. They had a programme, they knew where they were going to.

“Presently there is no Ghanaian that I can call a patriot…not even myself. I have not qualified to that level…there is a lot missing. A patriot will put everything aside and die for his country. There is no single Ghanaian I can see doing that.”

According to Dr Tamakloe: “A patriot will know when enough is enough, that your time is past, [when to] give way to the younger person to come and continue; that is a patriot. A patriot is somebody who will not [fuel] tribal wars and tribal quarrels and I tell you as I sit down now, I don’t believe we have one person we can call a patriot in this country… It is dangerous and it is something that we have been thinking about. But even look at the way people behave on the political terrain…the sort of talk they give to the younger ones and you call such people patriots?

"No, a patriot defends and builds a nation; a patriot is proud of his nation. A country where people go on strike every now and then, you can’t call them patriots because all these are dragging back the progress of the nation. Where are the patriots in this country?”