A Few Suggestions

Now the dust has settled after the elections, all of us Ghanaians must lend our hands in our own small ways towards the building of a better Ghana. Towards this goal, I would like to make a few suggestions.

First, I would like to implore my fellow Ghanaians to get rid of the fallacious idea that if government A or government B or if President A or President B is in power, our lot is automatically bettered; Governments can only put in place structures that enable enterprising individuals to realise their potentials so it is up to individual Ghanaians to take the initiative to better our lot. Governments do not owe people a living in the strictest sense; people make governments, governments do not make people. What I mean is that we must not sit down and wait for everything to come from the government.

Secondly, I would implore the government to embark on massive civic education drive. If for example one gave questionnaires to a sample 100 Ghanaians asking them what qualifies them to be citizens of Ghana, one would find from their responses that 80% would not qualify to be citizens of the country. People should made aware of the responsibilities of a citizen. A lot of people see the payment of taxes as punishment, because no one has bothered to explain properly to them the necessity of paying of tax. During the Busia administration, some kind of civic education was undertaken where posters were pasted in offices reminding people to refrain from social vices; I remember a particular one which said ? IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO, DON?T DO IT HERE?.

I suggest the Ghana Information Service should revamped and re-equipped to be able to carry out this task. The number of ignorant people in the system is just too much. The bible tells us that ignorance kills!

The lifeblood of any country are the people in working age group especially the young men and women; but it one comes to thinks of the amount of time these group of Ghanaians spend daily roaming about doing nothing, it constitutes an enormous drain on human resources.

On weekdays, between the hours of ten o?clock to one o?clock, most churches are full of these young adults who are supposed to be powering the engine of productivity. I Yaw Kyem Duku am a born again Christian and I know the power of prayer but the bible states that there is time for everything! (Eccl. 3:1). Even when Israel had to go and possess the promised land which was rightfully theirs, it was all battles and angels did not come to fight for them! So let us get of the church after prayers and fight for our promised land Ghana. For as long as a hungry man cannot pray and get full, an unemployed person cannot as stay put and get a job.

Office prayer groups: It is a very good thing to seek the presence and guidance of God before one begins the day, but we must not hide behind Godliness to indulge in skiving and malingering. If some people want to pray in the office, they must arrive at least an hour before the official start of work so that they can pray, but the situation where some start work whilst others pray in a bit disturbing, and woe to an officer if they complain about this; they will be labelled avatar of Satan and all the spiritual weapons will be used to bind them. Such bindings serve no purpose.

Next to our honourable politicians from all sides; if you are able to help, do so now; don?t wait till your party is in power, because the prophet who prophesies that his town is about to be gutted by fire must know that he also lives in that town.

My last suggestion is for all people to refrain vain and tension generating comments. I would particularly direct this appeal to my own people the Asantes and especially the young ones. We don?t need to point our thumbs on our chests for people to know who we are. Let us allow our deeds to talk more than our words. Everyone knows that the very history of Ghana is woven around Asantes and Asante Kingdom. That does not mean we are a different country from Ghana, we need all other Ghanaians to survive. We have an all time great who thinks about Ghana first so let us emulate him. Talk like how can an Asante person belong to group A or group B should be cut out completely because freedom of association is enshrined in our constitution irrespective of the persuasions of that group, and besides belonging to one group instead of the other does not make anyone better than the other.

Lets leave a better Ghana for posterity.

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