Ghanaians must build Ghana, says Israeli Ambassador Mehl

GHANA is certainly not a country whose citizens should have reason to travel outside and seek greener pastures or settle there.

Ghana in particular and for that matter Africa, is endowed with rich resources, with the needed skills and knowledge for development.

If Ghana, and for that matter Africa, develops very well, people from all over the world will travel here for various reasons, including investing here and doing various kinds of businesses.

Ghana is the right to be and the future global destination is Africa and it is therefore important that Ghana puts in place measures to ensure growth.

Ghana must be developed or built by Ghanains. Ghanaians have the skills, knowledge and the expertise. Some of her people travel outside and stay. Others also travel for studies and do not return to contribute their quota towards the development of the country.

This is why it is important that Ghana, and as such the people of Africa, should believe in themselves and work hard towards the development of their country and continent, the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Ami Mehl, said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra.

He said Ghanaians must first of all believe in their abilities and trust that they were capable of handling their own affairs, while they should also endeavour to change their mindset.

People have confidence in democratic nations and because Ghana is a democratic country, people have certain expectations of the country and this comes with some challenges.

Democracy

Ambassador Mehl, who is also responsible for Liberia noted that Democracy was not all about elections, adding that it was significant for the three organs of government, namely the Executive, the Judiciary and the Legislature, to remain strong and independent of each other.

If people cannot trust these organs, or lose confidence in them, then things will fall apart and this, certainly, will affect growth.

The Ambassador therefore stressed the need for Ghana to ensure that it handled the current situation it found itself in very well, saying the whole world was watching.

Mr Mehl said the Judiciary, and in that case the Ghana government, owed it as a duty to ensure that justice was served because no one was above the law.

I trust the system here, I believe in Ghana he stated, but cautioned that the earlier the issue was tackled the better.

The Ambassador, however, noted that there was corruption in other countries, but the important thing was how it was handled.

“We have had cases of corruption in Israel,” he stated, adding that they were not afraid to jail its past leaders of state on corruption issues.

“The issue is not about having corruption cases in the country, but the manner in which the country solves them, demonstrates her strength,” he explained.

The Ambassador reminded Ghanaians that no one was above the law and thus it was important that the country ensured equality.

Mr Mehl asked Ghanaians not to lose sight of its norms, culture and values and should know that they were writing history and what they leave for the future generation was important.