With a flag red, gold, and green designed by Theodosia Salome Okoh, an unsung hero, may I welcome everyone to the land of gold where a lot of the nationals living here have not seen real gold and may never have the privilege of owning an ounce of gold? No not even at the surge of galamsey. In this part of the world, the leaders are old but their hearts are so cold and the children are raised to believe grey hair is wisdom overload so the folly of the old is still untold.

Most of our leaders are from elite homes, they have travelled the globe and even those from non-elite homes, thanks to good education, have been exposed. Of course, they know exactly what they are doing and know what to do to replicate the development they see overseas. I have come to believe this country is purposely mismanaged. And a lot of leaders have no love for the country and from the onset engineered their way to the corridors of power for personal gains. Seemingly, they have assumed the state of poisonous snakes, feeding off Ghana as the skin of a toad.

We have many problems restraining our growth as a nation and one of the biggest begins from our homes. This is where the proverb "a crab will always beget a crab, and a bird a bird, never the other way round" comes into play. Greedy and selfish parents are giving birth to their clones and possibly upgraded versions of themselves. Irresponsible parents are raising children that tend to be worse.

Secondly, tribalism has gained deep roots in Ghana and our unity as a nation is withering. Statistics depict Ghana has a high literacy rate, but interestingly, the choice of a leader by a lot of us is dependent on the tribe the candidate belongs to. Therefore if Ghana is getting worse, we are all responsible and must enjoy the ride. This is a natural consequence for a country where we are blown away by people with eloquence and good looks and fail to detect that many sweet-talking politicians are drawn towards opulence although they mask it.

There was a time when our churches and other religious institutions brought and maintained morality. Unfortunately, it has shifted to indoctrination by many churches, money-conscious preachers, and corrupt church leaders, using God as business and joining dishonest politicians to milk us. Holy Jesus, if you can read this, please it is time to tax the churches because most have broken up with you and made money their Mrs. I am sure the heavens will smile about such a development because a lot of churches have come to love corrupt practices and have become vicious and vile.

Ghana is predominantly made up of Christians and may be called a Christian nation. In my opinion, the church has failed in its mandate with the "family". All our leaders come from a family and if the church had been diligent in its role of creating and maintaining a good moral fibre beginning with the family, leadership in this nation will be different and better. A leader that is raised immorally is bound to handle things irresponsibly. And leaders mirror the society they belong to mostly in its exactness. Therefore our leaders failing a litmus test on corruption, suggest that Ghanaian society is very corrupt.

Society is bound to evolve and our values as a nation have changed as an extension, with more prominence placed on money and materialism. The moral compass is mislaid and the source of wealth is no more verified or of concern to Ghanaian society. Ill-gotten wealth was discouraged a few decades ago, now it doesn't matter how you make your money. Society is ready and willing to celebrate you. Indeed there is a big change in the values of our society, we put money above everything, the priority. Most Ghanaians are corrupt in all sincerity. We do anything for money and that's insanity. Some of the masses have come to believe, a lot of the leaders and politicians want the power for money so, in exchange, some voters are willing to sell their votes for money.

Interestingly, many politicians come around to talk about youth empowerment and feign their preparedness to change the fortunes of the youth. I have noticed a lot of them wrongly use the word youth to refer to the "younger adults" they address. Some don't know what and who a youth is(ages 15 to 24 years).

Unfortunately, the real youths are wasting their youth on apps, twerking, doing drugs and more. A lot of the youth are dim, chasing trivialities when their future is being jeopardized by old people in authority. While they syphon and loot funds that can last their fourth generation, the youth are paralyzed by chronic unemployment and mostly without any form of occupation. In their right minds, they should be demanding accountability and transparency from their leaders but some are even complicit in crimes orchestrated against their bracket.

Some have also decided to sit on the fences and watch because they are beneficiaries or are comfortable with the status quo. However, even if you have something for yourself now, think about the children of tomorrow.

Our country is owned by foreigners. Will the Ghanaian Cedi ever stop falling when foreigners or all sorts hoard dollars and send to the countries? When the same thing is done by some of the big churches and the stacks of dollars in the basement of some of our leaders.

Slowly we are heading into the path of a banana republic, "plantain" for food and jobs and we can not be fruitful unless the corruption stops. Obviously our country is under the Resource Curse, what we need is good leadership and nothing else. Our problem is not spiritual, it is physical. That is why sharing freebies in elections is critical.

There are times when I honestly feel the future looks dark for a country with a fine "shape" like our beautiful sister Peace Hyde but I pray earnestly that the peace we enjoy never hides. This is no joke, let's cope and keep our hope. Change is definitely coming and things may be softer than your earlobes.

Even with all the challenges we face, we shouldn't give up on our country although there is a high propensity of human capital flight, in the face of our economic downturns.

God bless mother Ghana and a big welcome to all tourists and returnees to the motherland.