National Reconciliation Process. How do we Benefit?

One cannot help but conclude from just the presentations at the NRC, that the nation actually has been disorganized, without law and order for a long time. The society had been taken ransom by thugs, who actually caused the death of humans and to a greater extent created the negative economic situation we have, by attacking people who had the financial ability and human resource capabilities to drive our economy forward.

We have ourselves to blame. This position is taken because having watched the captivity of Sadam Hussein, like a rat in a hole, it is obvious that many of these macho men, like we had, were allowed to indulge in excesses because we as a society failed to secure our interests. We allowed a few thugs to intimidate us, and for one reason or another allowed our self interest to over shadow our national interest. These thugs have skin and bleed just like us and we need not see them as larger than life.

These criminals, who occupied our country in the various time frames cited at the NRC hearings, only took advantage of our meek disposition, as a society. How can we blame them?

In a nutshell, as a nation, we need to really fight for what we believe in. Running away into exile or migrating is cowardice, and this is what many did. I am not suggesting that they should have offered themselves for slaughter, but many Ghanaians too stood by and just did nothing, thus encouraging these thugs to oppress us.

In America where many fled to, and continue to migrate to, we fail to realize that we are only able to take advantage of the opportunities in the US, be it economic or political freedoms, because of the many sacrifices made by black men and women like Martin Luther King, who gave up their lives, that the black man and woman may be able to achieve what they have today, and continue to achieve. They stood up to what they felt was wrong and made the ultimate personal sacrifice, death.

If there is any lesson to be learned from these NRC sittings, it is simple. We need to understand the brutalities and understand how we as a people allowed ourselves to be molested, deprived and abused for so long, and how this has manifested itself in today’s culture, which has led to a perverse generation. A generation which witnessed nothing but lawlessness, greed, crime, lack of respect for human life and property, thus our current fight against indiscipline and a whole new ‘face’ with respect to the magnitude of crime being experienced.

Let us stand for what we believe in and stop running away from our problems. It is ours to solve and we must not expect anyone to come and save Ghana.

Ghana is for Ghanaians and the problems of our nation will forever linger till such time that we as a people take control of our nation, our lives and make sure that our interests are served by democratically elected people of our choice, based upon issues we deem to be of national interest and not mere political affiliations as we see now. Wake up Ghana.

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