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Opinions of Wednesday, 21 June 2017

Columnist: David Dzirasah

The mass genocide in Ghana must stop now.

mass genocide in Ghana must stop mass genocide in Ghana must stop

Genocide is a word coined to ideologically represent the killing of
a whole race or group of people. In history, we know of some famous
events where huge number of people lost their lives due to ethnic or
political resentment.

We have the holocaust which was the extermination of European civilians, particularly the European Jews during world war two. The Germans killed between five to six million Jews.

We can also talk of the ethnic cleansing that took place in
Bosnia-Hersegovina where 250,000 Bosnians were killed by Serbian
forces. In as much as we are tempted to believe that genocide is a
thing of the past and has to do with the extermination of a particular
group of the society, the fact remains the same that genocide goes on
in our societies on daily bases. It is no longer the killing of a
particular group of people but rather the every single individual in
the society is at risk of being a victim. In our case in Ghana, there
are societal failures and deliberate, systematic actions and
in-actions on our part as a nation that has led, is leading and will
still lead to the callous massacre of Ghanians on daily bases. Let us
look at a few instances where Ghanians are being murdered by their
fellow Ghanians.

Is there a day that goes by in Ghana without the media capturing deaths of Ghanians on our roads? Every single day we hear stories of people dying on our roads due to what we always like to cal‘accidents”. But the question we need to ask is that are these tragic incidents really accidents? Sometimes we hear that 30 people have died on the spot and at other times we hear that 2 people have died but the truth remains the same which is that people are losing their lives.

If these incidents are accidents then how can we explain how institutions
such as DVLA has been compromised to the extents that the blind, the
dead and even mentally challenged people are able to acquire licenses
in this country. How can we explain to the dead how the police on
daily basis are busily taking bribes when they could have prevented
senseless deaths on our roads? Our political elites also collude with
party affiliated constructors to construct death traps that end up
sending our mothers, fathers, sisters and brother to their early
graves. Can we say these deaths are as a result accidents when we
ourselves as drivers end up driving careless or drinking alcohol
before driving and killing innocent people in this country? If this is
not genocide then what is?

When it comes to our health sector the situation only get worse. A
country with more than 25 million people yet we cannot boast of having
a robust emergency medical services. We have a situation where if one
is involve in an accident or is extremely sick or needs urgent medical
attention the only means of transporting the person to the hospital is
via taxis. This is because for a huge country such as ours with over
25 million people we do not even have up to 400 public ambulances and
the once we have are either not functioning well or are being used to
carry dead bodies. People are losing their lives like animals because
of this. We think as a country it is better to buy armored cars for
the politicians rather than buy ambulances to save lives. The most
absurd aspect of it is the fact that the president and the vice always
have ambulances in their convoy ready to convey them to the hospital
when the need arises. Are the politicians more important than the
dying Ghanians who must take taxis to the hospitals even when they
know that they will end up dying on the way? Even assuming that you
are lucky to make it the hospital, chances are that you would not
survive because apparently either the doctor is not around or the
medical oxygen needed to keep you alive is not available. This is the
systematic killing that we have brought upon ourselves as a people. We
are killing ourselves on daily bases all because of our actions and
in-actions.

You have situations where even people actually loss their lives as a
result of cholera. In this 21st century Ghanians cannot even deal with
poor sanitation and to think that people are losing their lives as
consequences of this ineptitude is mind boggling. Who is responsible
for ensuring that every house built in this country has toilet
facilities? What rational human being would build a house without a
toilet? The refusal by those responsible is leading to the deaths of
countless Ghanians. In addition we have sakawa, armed robbery,
suicide, mob justice, corruption and many other social problems we
have created ourselves that are massively sucking the lives out of
Ghanians. This is genocide and it is happening on daily bases. How can
we entrust the future on our children in the hands of a country that
is lusting after their lives.

This is a country which boast of more 70% Christians and more than%
moslems yet we can see the decay all around us. The societal
corruption and failure is symmetrically murdering us on daily bases.
Who is responsible? Do we blame the devil who we spend all day in our
churches and mosques fighting or do we blame the elites who were just
like the rest of us but are now elevated and have forgotten their
roots or we should all take the blame and start to do the right
things? Maybe the time has come for us to stop praying to God and
starting listening to what he is saying and that is for us to do the
right. The time has come to put an end to the Genocide.