Indiscipline threatens Ghana's survival - Mpiani

Mr Kwadwo Mpiani, the Chief of Staff, on Wednesday warned that indiscipline would threaten Ghana like the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah if concerted actions are not taken to uproot the canker that had permeated all spheres of the society.

"What is even more dangerous is that there is a whole generation now that finds nothing wrong with behaving unruly. If the older folks who know what a disciplined society we inherited from our fathers was, do not restore law and order now, our society would perish," he said.

Mr Mpiani said this when he received a donation of 50 million cedis from the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) Limited, towards the National Campaign For Greater Discipline, launched by the Vice President last month.

As part of its social responsibility programme, GCB also gave 50 million cedis to the National Society of Friends of the Mentally Handicapped for its Northern School Project and 30 million cedis to the Ghana Prisons Service to assist its project in rabbit rearing.

Mr Mpiani called on companies, religious and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to mount civic education programmes to make people appreciate the importance of discipline and the consequences of rowdiness.

"No society has been able to develop with the kind of indiscipline that has engulfed this nation," he said, adding that civic education, particularly on the respect for law and order should be taught in schools and in communities.

Mr Mpiani said the Campaign is not targeted at children and the youth alone, but also at those in leadership positions in organizations and other entities. He criticised the practice whereby people in responsible and high places pleaded or intervened on behalf of their subordinates and relations who violated the law and said that practice should stop. Mr Mpiani commended GCB for its sense of social responsibility; saying that the mentality retarded and the prisoner should not be abandoned by society.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Mr Andrews Awuni, a Special Assistant to the Vice President, said Ghanaians should not underestimate the threat of indiscipline, adding that the gradual resort to jungle justice to settle scores should be the concern of all.

"The Campaign for Greater Discipline is not just about preventing people from urinating around or littering, but it is mostly to instill confidence in the Police, the Judiciary and other structures that have been established to ensure sanity and justice," he said.

He commended GCB, which has promised a contributed 250 million cedis towards the Campaign over a five-year period and appealed to other companies to assist. It is estimated that the Campaign, which would use mass media advertisements, persuasion, law enforcement and other programmes to encourage people to "Do the Right Thing, would cost 2.5 billion cedis each year.

Mr Kwabena Dapaah-Siakwan, Deputy Managing Director of GCB, who made the presentation, said as a responsible corporate body, the company felt obliged to contribute its quota to address some of the societal problems.

"We are aware of what the problems in our society are and we have felt the need to put our concern into financial action," he said. Mr Richard Kuuire, Director-General of Prisons, said the Rabbit Project would give skills to prisoners and enhance their reintegration into society when they were released.

The Chairman of the Society of Friends of the handicapped, Andrew K. Tandoh said in the 34 years of its existence, the society had built schools for the mentally retarded in all the regions, except the northern sector. The donation, he said would, therefore, support its 1.5 billion-cedis school project to be sited at Tamale.