Opinions of Monday, 1 May 2017

Columnist: David Dzirasah

Ghana's flag turned upside down: A country at the brink of colapse

Ghana flag turned upside down during Barrow Ghana flag turned upside down during Barrow

3 days ago the president of Gambia Adam Barrow payed an official visit to the flagstaff house to thank the country and the president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo for the support offered by Ghana in ECOWAS joint mission aimed at ensuring that political power was transferred from the dictatorial regime of former president of Gambia Jammeh to a democratically elected leader Adam Barrow.

Not withstanding the successful meeting that went on between the two leaders, an inconspicuous mistake was made that has caused pandemonium among some section of the public. The flag of Ghana which was stationed behind President Akufo Addo was turned upside down. However does the object that represent the spirit of the nation being turned upside down have any symbolism as far as the state of the country and diplomatic relations is concerned.

Political equalization has become a rather shameful culture by which every political animal in Ghana derives his or her relevance from. The issue of the flag being turned upside down has been championed by the political opponents of the government, especially the NDC as a strategy of exposing the weaknesses of the government. It is clear that the main opposition NDC see this as an opportunity to pay the government back for the mistakes it made during the celebration of Ghana's 59th independence anniversary where the brouchers used at the events contained inaccurate information and unpardonable grammatical errors.


Does political equalisation insulate the current government from the mistake it has made? No! It is necessary for those in charge of protocol at the seat of government to ensure that such petty and avoidable mistakes are avoided. It is embarrassing for the country to have it's image tarnished as a result of the lack of seriousness on the part of those in charge of protocol.

Going forward as a serious country and people we should not hold on to things that do not inured to the development of the country. The flag of a country does represent to some extent the spirit of the country. However it would interest us all to know that the flags of the United State of America are made and imported from china to the USA. Does that mean the the USA is on the brink of collapse? It is also a fact that Americans are constitutionally allowed to burn their country's national flag and they do burn it without any legal or criminal implication. Does it mean that the usa is on it knees?

As a country let us realised that partisan politics would no take us far. We must also realised that what we as party supporters do to our political opponents would be the same thing they would do to us when the table turns. Let us realize that beyond the lines of family, religion, gender, ethnic group and partisan politics we are all bound by one destiny which is that we are all Ghanaians.