The exit mentality: how discomfortable is our country?
Outside for many is the opposite of what Ghana is. It connotes a place that is rosy, blessed and perfect. To get the picture right, a person who just emerged out of an air-conditioned room will just exclaim jokingly: "Am now in Ghana!" indicating a land of heat and discomfort.
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Metaphorically life in Ghana is just a heat.
To get the picture more clearly in practical terms, just think about how many people would have loved to travel outside, just any place that is not Ghana. Those who for some reason cannot secure documentation for air travel will risk crossing sand and sea to go outside.
So now the question is what is wrong with Ghana that words like "international" always take precedence over "local" and "indigenous."
Foreign names with Western hue bestow opportunities to their bearers than local names, and "fair complexion" comes with a level of admiration than the skin colour that defines our origin and heritage. The "Buy made in Ghana goods" campaign is a fight yet to be won.
Great Nation
It has been 60 years now since our country was established. We have never ceased singing to God to make our country great and strong.
Has God not listened to our call yet? A great nation is a magnet to its people. Citizens feel reluctant to move elsewhere and stay because they know the foundation upon which their nation was established. It can never be matched anywhere else in the world.
The narration is always about the founding fathers but never have we heard any noise about our founding values and culture as a nation.
What political culture have we built over the decades since independence that can be powerful enough to even attract other people into our country?
Founding Values
We had a foundation document at the outset, the first constitution of our independent nation. It could have been a perfect opportunity to build a good foundation for our nation setting out the ideals and standards to constitute our political culture, a good reference point to our behaviour and how to relate to one another as citizens.
Currently, the 1992 Constitution is what we have. It espouses the principles of freedom and justice and equality, values cherished the world over. If we had lived up to these principles throughout the decades of our independence, by now we would have built a solid foundation upon which every Ghanaian would find a reason to keep Ghana as a priority place among all other nations of the world.
Fault
Currently, discrimination and prejudice have blinded us from building a good foundation around the values that our constitution espouses.
Most of the time, we are quick to repudiate justice and equality when it comes to the distribution of opportunities and resources that we share in common.
What could have explained the existence of the "protocol" concept when it comes to recruitment to job openings in the public sector? People in big positions will always preach entrepreneurship to school leavers desperately looking for jobs; yet, they always reserve places for family members and acquaintances to occupy through a protocol list.
Attraction
We do not need many resources to entrench the principles that hold us together as one and embrace the ideas and values that intend to serve as foundation blocks of our nation. With our democratic practice, our motto of "Freedom and Justice" and our foundation document in the name of the 1992 Constitution, we have what it takes to make Ghana attractive to us and foreigners alike. May citizens leave the shores of our country for very good reasons not because Ghana has become too uncomfortable to stay.
The writer is with the Institute of Current Affairs And Diplomacy (ICAD)
Email: [email protected]
