We have only Ghana, let’s protect it

Corruption in high places, indiscipline in all facets of society, what many citizens see as near collapse of the public service and alarming unemployment in the country have become time bombs waiting to explode.

These are certainly eating deep into the social fabric of the country and undermining the progress we are making as a nation.

At a forum in Accra yesterday, participants took turns to criticise successive governments, blaming them for presiding over what they described as a “failing democracy.” (See story on pages 16 and 33)

They noted that high-level corruption, indiscipline in all facets of society, alarming unemployment rates and weak public institutions had become the order of the day, with none of the governments having any clear solutions to what they termed grievous challenges.

To them, in view of the present situation, the country was sitting on a time bomb because the marginalised in society, who were in the majority, could, out of frustration, rise against the minority elite one day.

These views should be taken seriously as there have been many explosive occurrences in parts of the world which have been started by angry youth who felt that the elite were enjoying with their families and cronies at their expense.

Much as the Daily Graphic does not wish same for Ghana, we need to be careful as a people to ensure that we do what it takes to deal with the root causes of the various challenges that the participants spoke about.

It is unfortunate how the canker of corruption has eaten deep into the country’s finances. It is difficult to believe that the amounts stolen from the state coffers are way above what we go cap in hand to our development partners for. Strangely, people who perpetrate these crimes walk free while members of society struggle to make ends meet.

It is disheartening that though we have a huge gap to fill as a country in terms of funding laudable initiatives such as the free SHS, school feeding and the national health insurance, millions of cedis are being either directly stolen or misapplied.

Sadly, our once revered public sector is not in the best of shape with many areas riddled with debt. Most of the state-owned enterprises are not functioning to their optimum because they have been run down and have lost their shine and thus become a burden on the state.

In terms of unemployment, the least said about it the better. About 150,000 graduates pass out annually and just about five per cent of them find jobs, leaving the majority to fend for themselves.

In a country where we have all opted for democracy to work, it is unfortunate that we have sat aloof for everything to deteriorate. Nonetheless, we are still hopeful that something can be done.

We, therefore, prevail on the government to take the bull by the horn to seriously and immediately fix the canker. It can no longer be business as usual because things are getting rotten and out of hand and any further delay in getting things normalised may spell doom for our beloved country.

We have our democracy to protect. We also have to restore discipline, create jobs for the people and stop the corruption with all the force at our disposal to ensure that sanity prevails.

We have only Ghana, and Ghana we must focus on to build.