Ghanaians love running down their own country! To many people nothing in Ghana is good, which is why anytime something happens you commonly hear from Ghanaians who do not even know where the passport office is or have never travelled before comparing Ghana to other countries especially the US of A and eventually damning anything in Ghana.

To those fussbudgets and doomsayers the only good thing about the country is when they have loads of money to spend or they occupy positions of authority which brings power, money and prestige. To them there is unequivocally nothing good that can happen in Ghana if their political party is not in power. That is why Ghana has generally been divided into political lines today.

Ghana is definitely at a crossroad whereby her citizens need to put their confidence in her. If you have no confidence in something, there is no way you will like anything connected with that something. This is why many Ghanaians have written off the country as backache.

It is upon this background that President John Mahama has lately been whipping up the confidence of Ghanaians not only in the economy but the country in general. The President has been telling Ghanaians that if they do not trust that anything good can come from Ghana, then nobody will.

And the other truth is that people tend to put haphazard approach to issues and things they do not trust, which is why it has become a common norm for many Ghanaians especially public and civil servants to go to work but do nothing productive to help lift the country up.

The irony is that it is these same public and civil servants whose salaries and allowances eat over 70% of the country’s income leaving nothing much for other essentials the country has to grapple with. Yet, public and civil servants collect their salaries, but go to work and practically do nothing and later turn round to harshly run down the country.

President Mahama in his State of the Nation address last week touched on this negative behaviour of Ghanaians which is seriously destroying the country. The President and many Ghanaians have realized that if the country continues to tread on this dangerous political lines behaviour, Ghana can never move forward.

Hear President Mahama in his own words, “The world loves Ghana because we love Ghana. But the instant we allow ourselves to fall prey to pettiness of politics and the small-mindedness of doomsayers and people who actively wish for the failure of any action or policy intended to lift Ghana up, we turn our backs on that love and in so doing, we betray our own homeland”.

Ghana is bigger than any of us. She is bigger than any of our political parties. Ghana belongs to its people. But most of all, Ghana belongs to you, the people who get up every day and do their best to earn a living, to maintain your household, to feed and educate your children, to care for your elders, and to be a functional part of your communities. Your love of this country matters. Your service to this country makes a difference”.

President Mahama ended his speech with these words, “I must believe that we are still a patriotic society with citizens who feel a sense of responsibility to their nation. We must all rise to the challenge of transforming Ghana – because if not us, then who? We cannot falter and we must not be afraid because God is on our side, and the holy book says, if God be for us, who can be against us”.

Those were the uplifting words of the President to Ghanaians. It is important to state that as the Chief Executive of the country, President Mahama can set the agenda for Ghanaians, but those who must do the heavy lifting to get the country going are Ghanaians. Ghana will falter if Ghanaians continue to see the country as a failure and ran it down with their mouths.

This is the time for Ghanaians to behave as Ghanaians. I mean Ghanaians must love everything about Ghana and take it a step further by patronising goods and services locally made. We have been our own worst enemies for a long time.

nakuakoduah@yahoo.com