Kasoa ritual killing: Nobody wants to be poor, time to redefine our values – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has noted with concern the growing lackadaisical attitude and lack of seriousness attached to sustainable policies initiated by governments by the public.

He noted that because there hasn’t been enforcement of societal values regarding creating wealth for the populace, people are resorting to all manner of tactics for survival.

“Nobody wants to be poor, but we as a society need to go back to the conversation on what our values are, the kind of society we want to create. And an exercise that engenders some civic and national orientation about what is acceptable in our society and what we should aspire to in our pursuit of not being poor.

“In America, they will tell you about the American Dream. And they’ll continuously sell it in a manner that is supposed to encourage a lot more people to be on the streets and narrow so that they are not poor,” he explained.

Reacting to the increase in the ‘get-rich attitude’ by the youth; a situation which has given rise to ritual killings in the country, Mr Oppong Nkrumah further asserted that the enforcement of Ghanaian values has dissipated over time.

Responding to a question by host of Metro TV’s Inside Pages, the Information Minister stated that the consciousness with which to engineer values of our society have been dropped.

“…switch on your television, switch on your radio, get onto social media, and more often than not it’s either about political attacks or ridicule of everything that we want to do in this country.

“Not enough room to grow our value system, not enough room to have those conversations that make us better off in a much sustainable manner,” he told Francisca Kakra Forson.

“I think it’s an opportunity for reflection for all of us… the governed, the governor, civil societies, media, faith-based groups to reflect and reset that conversation,” he concluded.

There has been a public outcry with calls for media content sensitization following the gruesome murder of a 10-year-old boy by his teenage friends at Kasoa for money rituals.