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President–elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo could go down in history as one of the most patriotic presidents of the country. But he can only achieve that by ensuring that the people who will be privileged to serve in various positions in his government conduct themselves in ways that reflect his patriotic nature.

He has done it before in the past, especially during the days of struggle to extricate the nation from the grips of dictatorship, and we at the Daily Statesman believe he will do more, now that the good people of Ghana have entrusted their power into his hands as their president.

He believes in Ghana. He is prepared to work with all for the collective good of the country. That is why he says “let me know when I go wrong.” This shows clearly that he is willing to seek the wise counsel of Ghanaians from all walks of life and also take constructive criticisms.

It is our hope that a section of the citizenry will not take undue advantage of his readiness to run an open administration to maliciously make destructive criticisms.

It is important to point it out that prospective appointees of the incoming government will not be treated with kids’ gloves when they decide to deviate from the standards the incoming president wants to set in good governance. They need to depict a high sense of patriotism, and focus on working to better the lives of the masses.

We can assure appointees of the incoming Akufo-Addo government that we will not renege on our gate-keeping duty of ensuring that they openly and strictly adhere to the principles of good governance.

We, therefore, invite all Ghanaians to position themselves to join us in keeping them on their toes, especially as we seek to make nonsense of the claim by Lord Acton that “power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

What we want the prospective appointees of the incoming government to note is that the New Patriotic Party has been in power before. They should therefore constantly reflect on what they did while in government and consolidate the positives while making conscious efforts to avoid the re-occurrence of the negatives.

We would want to see them as sagacious breed of human beings who will learn from the arrogance of power, corruption, deceit and other ills that combined to work against the re-election bid of the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government. They will have to show to the masses that they returned to government to pursue the national interest other than partisan or sectional interest.

That is why we find it both pathetic and shameful, the story of some appointees of the outgoing government engaged in what can be described as unpatriotic actions, ostensibly meant to frustrate and sabotage the incoming administration. These acts include the last-minute recruitments of unqualified party activists into some state institutions, signing of some clearly phony contracts, looting of state lands, among others.

These acts are clearly aimed at making governance very difficult and frustrating for the incoming administration. It is deleterious, and so must be condemned by all stakeholders and Ghanaians in general. The out-going government might have the power to recruit and employ people, but it must be done is a responsible manner, not motivated by dreadful and evil intent.

Ghana is certainly in a dawn of a new era. We need to change our attitudes toward everything we do as a nation. The dictates of the National Pledge must guide us. All government agencies must be patriotic and responsible; they must put Ghana first. The change we need as a nation cannot come from the incoming government only. We have a role to play as citizens of this country.