The designer of Ghana's national flag, Madam Theodosia Okoh, has reechoed the need for the nation to respect and honour its heroes to whip up a sense of dying for one's country among the youth.
The 91 year old national heroine was in the news this week for a nerve wracking reason after a botched attempt by the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to rename a national hockey pitch which hitherto was in her name. The AMA had renamed the pitch after the late President John Atta Mills, but a directive from the presidency insisted a reversal.
Initially Madam Okoh was peeved by the decision to change her name, but in an interview on Joy FM, MultiTV news analysis programme Newsfile on Saturday, she appeared unruffled by that, noting it was "no news to me because such things are often done in Ghana".
Nevertheless, she has a word of advice for persons who would want to thread the unenviable path of the Accra Mayor Alfred Oko Vanderpuje with regard to recognising national heroes.
"I hope the heroes that will come after me will be treated nicely," she said with a humble voice.
Furthermore, she opined, giving our heroes their place in society will ginger the young ones to develop the love to be called heroes in future.
Madam Okoh warned, if national heroes are dishonoured, the youth would have no choice but to believe that: "Ghana is not a place to die for, and they will not [die for the country]."
Asked about how she felt when the president's directive got to her, she said without hesitation that she felt "very, very good, no doubt about it".
Madam Okoh said she still relish an opportunity to express her profound gratitude to President Mahama for the gesture because "not all people can do that to somebody who is worried".
She was equally grateful to Ghanaians for criticising the renaming and recognising her as a heroine.
