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Opinions of Tuesday, 18 July 2017

Columnist: Derbie Raphael

The contemporary Ghanaian society has lost its values

It is indeed a collective responsibility for us to restore and sustain our cherished values It is indeed a collective responsibility for us to restore and sustain our cherished values

The consistent increasing level of decadence in Ghana today smacks a lot of unanswered questions. The era when propagators of the gospel are prevalent! The era when virtually everybody has access to the word of God and read as they carry out their daily activities! What then is responsible for the never-ending decadence in our Ghanaian society? Are today's men of God using different Bibles? Or do they also embrace the so called modernity and compromise their work as men of God? Anyway, let me not blame you for the notoriously drastic falling standard of moral values in our contemporary Ghanaian society.

It is indeed a collective responsibility for us to restore and sustain our cherished values that have been thrown into the ditch for inexplicable reasons.

It has increasingly been clear that Ghanaians as a whole have to unanimously organise a funeral ceremony to mourn the death of common sense to evoke the sympathy of Ghanaians so as to curb the odds, lampooning the drastic loss of values in the country and expressing in no uncertain terms, the repulsive and distasteful attitude of the 21st century Ghanaians who are responsible for this lost.

Hmmm I know am speaking the minds of many Ghanaians as I carefully lace my words to properly carry home my intention. It is indeed a worrying situation we find ourselves in. But what can we do in a society which is now entrapped in a restless and relentless consumerism where materialism becomes the new religion and money the new God? It is justifiably justifiable to refer to modern Ghana as a society that lost its values. Of course, I know you can go on a different tangent to arguing out your points on the above subject matter but the question is, how else will you describe a society where human dignity is betrayed and corrupted at the profit of a consumerist society?

I believe the above questions have extricated you from the enigma my title puts you in to? Now you concurred with me, right? Hahaha, that is Ghana for us.

It is conspicuously clear that the Ghana we know some years back has been redefined by our leaders and the citizens at large. The country that won enormous accolades and became an epitome in the world has now lost virtually all the values that won Her that reputation. Ghana was known to be a religiously inclined country that was morally upright by all standards until now.

We have however seen the unrepentant and unrelenting penchant of the majority of Ghanaians to amass wealth for their self- aggrandisement and their generations yet unborn. It is very conspicuous and abundantly clear that most Ghanaians are engaging in a wealth-amassing competition as we see them sparing no effort of theirs to amassing more wealth than others. Of course, I am not oblivious to the fact that some people are struggling for hand to mouth but that should not be a license or a benchmark for one to engage in dastardly acts that are running down the country's reputation as our moral values increasingly deteriorate.

The Ghana I know is not the Ghana we are living in today. Is it the technology that has caused this sharp and swift change? Ghana was a country where every child was everybody's child. It was also a country where teachers were holistically relied on for moral upbringing of the young once, this does not exist any longer. Therefore, teachers can no longer hold on to their claims of societies Transformers. I can say without a modicum of doubt or fear that the powers and rights of teachers have been raped leaving them naked and powerless before their students. This is the more reasons why we are so much bedevilled with these astronomical social vices that have rendered the country highly corrupted and unsecured. I can recall, those days some parents used to report their wayward wards to teachers for disciplinary actions to be taken to correct them. Today, some parents even match to the schools and beat up teachers for any attempt to correcting their children for any misconduct.

Aside from that, Human Rights Activists have also empowered children to the extent that nobody can discipline them. A society where every disciplinary measure is an infringement on a right, how then can our long cherished values remain valuable? I see this as the very foundation for so many failures in Mother Ghana hence its current state.

The get rich quick attitude of the youth today, born out of irresponsible parenting, money conscious men of God who usually hand pick some quotations from the Bible for their insatiable quest for wealth and the opulent, lavish lifestyle of the politicians is yet another debilitating factor that plunged this country into its current state. It is undoubtedly clear that virtually all the social vices are largely committed by the youth of this country.

Let me make it clear to my readers in this paragraph that am not in anyway justifying the incongruous and uncharitable acts committed by some unscrupulous persons in this country but the painful truth is that Ghanaians as a people, generally and cheaply bow before the rich without any recourse to their sources of riches. This attitude is very deeply ingrained in our present day culture hence the more reason why everyone wants to be rich so that they will equally be worshipped. This is a symptomatology of a country that completely lost its values. But let me make clear to you that the world is full of unhappy millionaires. So be informed that the size of your bank account, as well as your house, has nothing to do with your living life with a sense of joy and happiness.

In conclusion, it is a collective responsibility for us all to spare no effort of ours to fight hard to restore our most cherished values that have been thrown to the dogs in exchange for mere perishable material things. We must also limit our never-ending endeavours to amass wealth at all cost. The laws that rendered teachers of this country naked and powerless must also be reconsidered because I believe that they will be the panacea to the woes of this country. Let me end with the saying that when spider webs unite, they tie up a lion.