Heritage Christian College (HCC) has held a public lecture aimed at drawing the attention of the public to issues of national development.

The event which was on the theme: “I Promise on My Honour” based on Ghana’s National Pledge was held at the British Council Hall, Accra.

The topics for the lecture were, “Faithfulness and Loyalty – Virtues that Anchor Nation Building”, addressed by Hon. Sam Okudzeto, Member of the Council of State and “Holding in High Esteem our Heritage Won for Us”, addressed by Prof. Christopher Gordon of the Institute of Environment and Sanitation Studies, University of Ghana.

The President of HCC, Dr. Samuel Twumasi – Ankrah in his remarks noted that, “…nations are built or destroyed primarily on the kind of values espoused by the citizenry.” He added that we tend to promise the whole world each time we sing or recite our National Pledge that we are in essence making known the core values of Ghana as a Sovereign nation."

'Faithfulness and Loyalty – Virtues that anchor nation building'

Delivering the first part of the lecture, Hon. Sam Okudzeto indicated that faithfulness is the characteristic of an individual who can be relied on due to the fact that he or she will do the right thing for the right reason and out of love. He said citizens of Ghana must appreciate the fact that there must be respect for authority.

He indicated that faithfulness is not a virtue that we develop in a day but it comes with the tenacity of the mind to which one must always have the desire to be faithful towards upholding the values of the country. Thus, success in enduring human relationship in national development depends on faithfulness.

At various workplaces, faithfulness is very critical for both the employer and employee in that it deepens trust in one another in state institutions and also prevents the habit of ‘cutting corners’ at the workplace.

Faithfulness ensures a person remains committed to live and behave in a way consistent with the standards of authority in the society as it inspires the spirit of patriotism among the citizenry.

He stressed that when Ghanaians take good care of their God-given resources and put them into profitable use, the country and the citizenry will all stand to benefit enormously.

He concluded by saying that as Ghanaians, “we should all take a stand for honesty and truthfulness. We should dedicate ourselves to build our country as it is a rich country in terms of our natural resources compared to other countries.”

'Holding in high esteem our heritage won for us

Prof. Christopher Gordon, for his part, emphasized that Ghanaians should be defending and holding on to the national resources aggressively as it appears many people don’t value national heritage as citizens.

He bemoaned the fact that Ghanaians do not appreciate the values of some of the heritage such as historical buildings, museums among others and admonished that Ghana should take a cue from nations like the United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Japan, Nepal who adequately protect and preserve their heritage.

Prof. Gordon also made a suggestion that as a nation, we should have museums in every district capital and make sure in our effort at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, our heritage should be linked up to that effort for the growth and development of our country.

He stressed that there is the need to prepare the youth to go on the right path and not to hold them back when they bring on board good ideas but rather they should be encouraged.

Touching on the way forward in terms of upholding Ghanaian heritage, Prof. Gordon said the role of the youth is to make an effort in documenting Ghana's heritage by being proactive in engaging the elderly to collect their knowledge, safeguarding the national heritage by avoiding syncretism and acculturation.

The authorities must preserve the heritage by creating repositories of knowledge and to use Information Technology (IT) to keep knowledge and there should be valorization by way of chasing the intellectual property rights linked to Ghana’s Heritage.

The Chairman for the lecture was Prof. Kwadwo Appiagyei – Atua of the Law School of the University of Ghana and present were Mr. Sampson Asimeng, Chairman of Council, HCC, Prof. Rick Lytle, President of CEO Forum, USA, Mr. Deon Fair, Chairman of the HCC Foundation, Texas, USA and his wife Susan, Mr. Steve Mack, CEO of Heritage Bank of Texas and his wife LaDonna among others.