Dean of the Educational Development and Outreach School at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) Prof. Kwaku Oduro says although government calls for all to come together and work together, it does not act it.
2022 Independence Day in Ghana was celebrated under the theme “Working Together, Bouncing Back Together”; giving citizens the impression that they needs to come on board to help the government bounce back and improve on especially the economic fortunes of the country.
Reacting to the theme, Prof Kwaku Oduro indicated that it’s a perfect call on the people of Ghana just like President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo called on citizens not to be spectators.
However, he expressed worry over the fact that citizens who are being called to collaborate with government are now being forced into silence because the current government sees critics as enemies.
“Indeed, the rationale behind the theme ‘working together, bouncing back together’ is not different from that of ‘Be citizens; not spectators’. Working together , just as being a citizen, calls for a citizen expressing, without fear, an opinion on national policies and drawing attention to practices that are likely to widen the gap between the rural less-endowed and the urban endowed and thereby limit the national benefits of policies,” he said.
Adding that “Unfortunately, my experiences and observation suggest that, for fear of being directly or indirectly victimized, critical minded citizens in our country are increasingly zipping their mouths and thereby becoming spectators rather than citizens. Constructive critics are quickly lambasted and in some cases isolated at workplaces or threatened with arrests, without a prior objective analysis of issues raised. Unless this trend changes, working together and bouncing back will remain a mere 65th anniversary rhetorics”.
He further indicated that if the leadership of the country is looking at actualizing the theme for the Independence Day celebrations, there is the need for them to see constructive criticisms as criticisms and work at them.
“There’s no doubt that Leadership has a key role to play in changing the trend. If his Excellency, the President and his leadership team are really committed to actualizing the tenets of the theme, they should move beyond viewing constructive criticism and opinions from the lens of party politics and allow governance structures to work.”
Ghana’s 65th Independence day celebrations took place in the Central Regional capital.
The event served as a platform for the country to showcase its rich culture and also a platform for the President to address the country on some recent gains made by the country.
Read His Full Post Here
The theme ‘Working Together, Bouncing Back Together’ chosen for our 65th Independence ceremony opens a new door for us as Ghanaians to rethink our orientation towards democracy, multi-party politics and national Identity. It was with joy and pride ,first as a Ghanaian and second as a son of the Central Region that, the Agona Asafo Boy (AAB) sat by the television set in his Holy ‘village’ – Agona Asafo in the Agona East District and watched the well planned colourful anniversary programme held in Cape Coast.
One aspect of the programme that touched my heart most and kept me thinking three hours after the programme is the speech delivered by the Guest of Honour, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Her Excellency, Mia Mottley. Among others, she called on Ghanaians to ‘work together in Solidarity and fight the battles of our day and challenges that there appears to be’ . As a proud alumnus of the Casely -Hayford Hall of the University of Cape Coast, Her Excellency Mottley’s reference to ‘Solidarity’ means a lot to me. Casfordians uphold solidarity on the principle that ‘United We Stand, Divided We Fall’.
Juxtaposing the Casfordian principle of Unity and the Anniversary theme ‘Working Together, Bouncing Back Together’ within the context of Solidarity, I asked myself ‘ What went wrong with us as Ghanaians in the past 65 years? What are the things that have seemingly disintegrated us as Ghanaians which we need to change in order to accelerate the bouncing back aspect of the theme? How have we projected and upheld the principles of Freedom and Justice embossed on our Coat of Arms? How have we allowed Governance Structures to operate without Political Party Manipulation? Has leadership of our country jealously guarded against partisan polarization of governance in public institutions it? These are some critical questions that, as a nation, we need to seek answers for , if the theme can move beyond rhetorics to practice.
Indeed, the rationale behind the theme ‘working together, bouncing back together’ is not different from that of ‘Be citizens; not spectators’. Working together , just as being a citizen, calls for a citizen expressing, without fear, an opinion on national policies and drawing attention to practices that are likely to widen the gap between the rural less-endowed and the urban endowed and thereby limit the national benefits of policies.
Unfortunately, my experiences and observation suggest that, for fear of being directly or indirectly victimized, critical minded citizens in our country are increasingly zipping their mouths and thereby becoming spectators rather than citizens. Constructive critics are quickly lambasted and in some cases isolated at workplaces or threatened with arrests, without a prior objective analysis of issues raised. Unless this trend changes, working together and bouncing back will remain a mere 65th anniversary rhetorics.
There’s no doubt that Leadership has a key role to play in changing the trend. If his Excellency, the President and his leadership team are really committed to actualizing the tenets of the theme, they should move beyond viewing constructive criticism and opinions from the lens of party politics and allow governance structures to work.
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