Ms Josephine Nkrumah, Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has called on Ghanaians to unite and fix the country as one people.
“We as individuals, as communities, as ethnic groupings, as holders of public office, people in the private space, we make up the country together with state institutions.
“I have held the position that when one group says #fixthecountry and other group responds with #fixyourself, I ask myself really and truly who is the country, is the country sitting separate from the individuals, we the citizenry make up the country,” Ms Nkrumah stated.
The NCCE Chairperson was responding to questions on the recent social media wave of #fixthecountry and #fixyourself mantra on the sidelines of the third: “End of Month Stakeholder Engagement and Workers Appreciation Day,” seminar organized by the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Office which is a platform rolled-out for state and non-state actors to address national issues.
The event also served as a motivational mechanism to recognise the editorial contribution of reporters towards national development in general and the growth and promotion of the Tema GNA as the industrial news hub.
Ms Nkrumah said citizens of Ghana were the people that make up the country indicating that “we are all part of it, so when you fix the country it includes individuals, state institutions, leadership at all levels.
“It includes the market woman selling and determining whether she should make the olonka half or full and pass it off as a full one, it includes the teacher who is teaching and spending his time committed to his work or staying out there doing private classes and not paying attention to his class.
“It includes the businessman who is paying his taxes or avoiding taxes, it includes you and I, are we bribing, what are we doing that also makes another public servant complicit in our actions? Ms Nkrumah urged Ghanaians not to sit in isolation from the country’s problems questioning that “when we talk about indiscipline in this country who is creating it on the street, in the workplace, in the church, in the mosque, its all of us so this whole notion of fixing for me is a notion that we must all embrace irrespective of the political affiliation”.
She stressed that “we cannot speak of fixing systems when we are also not part of the fixing process, let's speak the truth and face it, speak honestly about the things of this country, and find a way to resolve them”.
Launching the 2021 Citizenship Week Celebration during the stakeholder engagement at the GNA-Tema Regional Office, the Chairperson said the week which is on the theme, “We are one, Ghana First” said the event was initiated to imbibe in first and second cycle students the tenets of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution.
The third GNA-Tema Stakeholder Engagement and Workers Appreciation Day seminar was attended by the National Commission for Civic Education, Association of Oil Marketing Companies, Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, and the Tema Regional Police Command.
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