Should we be patriotic citizens of Ghana or we should not?

When we were younger, our parents instilled discipline into us by training us to become responsible adults.

They taught us to respect our elders, and they also sent us to school to learn to cultivate the habit of being good citizens.

One of the earliest things we learn from school to become good citizens is about the national pledge of Ghana. Part of the national pledge reads, "I promise on my honour to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my motherland. I pledge myself to the service of Ghana. ...."

The meaning of this recitation aligns with the topic under discussion.

Some of us also had the opportunity to join some youth associations such as the Ghana Boys Scouts. We learned the Boys' Scout pledge too. This pledge is also in the national interest and it reads, "I promise that I will do my best. To do my duty to God. To serve my country. And to keep the Scout law."

We engage in communal labour. And as we became adults, we started to work and pay our taxes to help in the national development. All these revelations attest to the fact that we have been nurtured to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana.

We continue to render our service to the nation unabated. We are raising our children and doing our best to impart the knowledge and experience we have acquired to them.

We have sacrificed greatly for this nation, and our hard work has never been appreciated or reciprocated. We do not demand anything from the state and the state must equally not cheat us.

This country has caused great setbacks for some of us, who have dedicated our time and energy to serve it. It is so pathetic to notice that we suffer to serve this country for those at the helm of affairs of the state to benefit. In our local parlance, this unpatriotic behavior of those at the top is humorously described as, "monkey dey work, and bamboo dey chop". All of us ought to have a share of the national cake, but that has never been the case.

There were some occasions when I hid my disappointment in some negative affairs of this country from my children. But on the 29th of August, 2023, I could not hide it anymore, because my daughter witnessed some situation that undermined her hope for Ghana.

We have some African Americans in the United States of America, as our brothers and sisters in faith. Last August, one of them sent some items as a gift for my daughter and her mother. We happily went to the Ghana Post Company Ltd and passed through the normal procedure of collecting a parcel.

At a point, one of the ladies who was dealing with us brought our parcel and asked us to pay twenty Ghana Cedis and we paid. Having thought that she was going to give us the parcel, she asked us to move to see another lady at the same counter to continue with the process. The second lady let us open the parcel and it contained about 36 pieces of mini headscarves. She examined it and said we should pay four hundred Ghana Cedis. The amount is too much, because in our local market, each of the headscarves may cost about ten Ghana Cedis.

After a lengthy negotiation with her to reduce the charges drastically, she reduced only one hundred Ghana Cedis. We pleaded for more reduction to no avail. It was late on that day, so we finally had to leave their premises for home because they insisted that they could only release the items to us when we paid the three hundred Ghana Cedis.

I spent a total amount of sixty Ghana Cedis on transport fares, and in addition to the twenty Ghana Cedis they have already collected from me the total summed up to eighty Ghana Cedis. I could not go there any longer because I would incur additional transport costs. It is not worth pursuing for me to 'buy' our gift more than its total cost in the Ghanaian market.

There is a notice on the parcel form notifying would-be recipients that if their parcel could not be delivered within 21 days, it would be returned to the sender.

As I write, it is more than 30 days since we went there to collect the parcel without success, and it has also not yet been returned. Even if it should be returned, it would be embarrassing to Ghana because of the high tax imposed on it which would not enable us to collect it.

I felt embarrassed when the sender enquired from me and knew that we could not collect the parcel. Because of three hundred Ghana Cedis, the name of Ghana we cherish much has been brought into disrepute. Very disheartening, isn't it? Also, I am disturbed, my family would now be looking at the good name of Ghana I often projected to them with suspicion.

I remember, in the early days of this government they described some taxes they inherited as 'nuisance' and they abolished them. Are the taxes we are having now not 'monstrous' ones?

Some of us have contributed our quota to raise the flag of Ghana to higher heights. This is a treacherous way of rewarding us.

This encounter with the Ghana Post reminds me of how the former Black Stars legend, Wilberforce Mfum fumed similarly at the state when he lamented, ".........., Ghana not worth dying for."

Why do you make your actions and inactions frustrate many Ghanaians and foreigners who have a love for this country?

How can Ghana develop or how can 'you' prosper when you cunningly take away something from its real owner and make it yours?

You humiliate the nation before the whole world. Meanwhile, you benefit tremendously from the state.