Let’s revive spirit of volunteerism
The National Sanitation Day was initiated sometime last year following a cholera outbreak which claimed many lives needlessly in the country. Since the launch, the day has been hosted by each of the 10 regions and is still ongoing.
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The initiative, no doubt, is a laudable exercise that should be promoted to rid the country of the filth that has engulfed it in recent times.
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, as well as the good people of Ghana who have consistently participated in the clean-ups, should be commended for their unrelenting effort so far.
Ghanaians have often been likened to the proverbial vulture who always decides to build its shed when the rain sets in and forgets about it when the rain subsides. We are quick to react when disaster strikes but relax as soon as the problem is over.
Several laudable programmes have been launched by successive governments since independence but many of them fizzled out in no time because of apathy and lack of enforcement.
Similarly, though the Sanitation Day has been largely successful so far, there have been many reported instances of apathy that is threatening to cripple this worthy initiative.
For it to be sustainable, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ministry of Information and the National Commission for Civic Education should increase public education on the need for people to volunteer their time and energy during this important national exercise.
That would convince more people to see the exercise as a call to national duty worth sacrificing for.
Government should also consider passing a law that will give legal backing to the exercise and compel people to actively participate in it. With such a law in force, defaulters can be punished, to serve as a deterrent to others.
The Local Government Ministry should also get sponsorship packages which may come in the form of T-shirts, hand gloves, pickaxes, shovels, dustbins and trucks to facilitate the exercise.
An awards scheme could also be instituted to recognise regions and organisations which would participate massively, as well as individuals who would dedicate themselves to the exercise.
Media organisations, institutions of higher learning, celebrities and civil society should take an active role during the days set aside for cleaning to whip up support for the exercise.
Ghana can only move forward if we eschew apathy and unnecessary politicisation of national issues.
The spirit of volunteerism must start stirring in us all to enable us to learn how to die a little more for our dear nation.
We must always be guided by that famous quote attributed to the former US President John F. Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
God bless our homeland Ghana!