Do Ghanaians Need Orientation At All?

PROUD TO BE GHANAIAN
-Asks Mawutodzi K. Abissath
A famous French philosopher once philosophised: “Every intelligent traveller ought to know where he is coming from and where he is going to.”

And the philosophical significance of the Akan SANKOFA bird which turns its head back perpetually depicts the depth of the wisdom of African ancestors. For the turning of the head back, signifies that if you forget something precious and you remember it, it is no crime to go back for it. But the gist of the philosophy is that when you go back for whatever you might have forgotten and picked it, you must not remain there; rather you must turn back again and continue with your journey.

As a matter of fact, one can write volumes on the significance of SANKOFA philosophy alone. But for purposes of this article, I should like to pause here and pose: Do Ghanaians actually need a national orientation at the threshold of this 21st century? YES or NO? Just keep on ruminating on the answer and I shall be right back!

Perhaps, for the sake of those Ghanaians who are not yet aware, let’s us inform them that: On Wednesday, 24th August, 2007, at the main hall of the magnificent Accra International Conference Centre in the capital city of Accra, where on Tuesday, 3rd July, 2007, over 50 African Heads of States locked themselves up behind closed doors to conclude the grand Debate as to whether Africa must have a Union Government or not, the Ministry of Information and National Orientation made history. This history was that the Ministry formally launched the National Orientation Sensitisation Programme (NOSP).

The event was performed by no less a personality than the Vice- President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E.Alhaji Aliu Mahama. How did he do it? He just unveiled two beautiful mascots or wooden cartoons, male and female, draped in national colours. Their names were ‘Mensah Ghana’ and ‘Mansa Ghana’, respectively. It was a very simple but noble and thought provoking event in socio-cultural history of our beloved mother land, Ghana.

Before the Vice-President, performed that symbolic ritual or ceremony, the Ghanaian woman who gave birth to ‘Mensah and Mansa Ghana twins’, Mrs Oboshie Sai Cofie, Minister for Information and National Orientation, revealed the orientation concept which can be fashioned out in the following biblical language, as the PILLARS OF NATIONAL ORIENTATION:

1. Thou shall be proud to be Ghanaian
2. Thou shall be patriotic and embrace the “Spirit of Ghana First”
3. Thou shall adopt the “Attitude of I Can Do It”
4. Thou shall go by way of “Productivity and Accountability”
5. Thou shall be conscious of time through “Dedication and Discipline”

This is the simplest way this writer can best exemplify the complex concept of National Orientation. And I believe that any body who has the mental capacity to memorise and recite the Ten Commandments in the Bible can memorise and recite these Five Pillars of National Orientation. But knowing the Ten Commandments and reciting them like parrot alone is not enough. What is crucial is the ability to obey the commandments and put them into practice every day of our lives as Christians. So, too, being able to know the Five Pillars of National Orientation at our finger tips will be meaningless unless are we desirous and willing to put them into practical application.

One thing that was most refreshing about the launching of the National Orientation Sensitisation Programme at the International Conference Centre was the involvement and active participation of little children of Ghana. They demonstrated some cultural values of all ethnic groups from the ten regions of the country. In fact, those who conceptualised the programme and actualised it in that dramatic form must be commended to the blue heaven.

Now, how do we, as a nation, put the Five Pillars of the National Orientation into practical application? Anybody who has some ideas should forward it to the Ministry of Information and National Orientation through this Email address: nationalorientation@mino.gov.gh Here is one practical suggestion I would like to put across for public debate. I suggest that the Ghana Education Service must adopt the Five Pillars of the National Orientation as the sub-section of the National Pledge and incorporate it in the school curriculum from kindergarten to the university level. And I will attempt to use only three events in the Christian Bible to support my argument and to justify why Ghanaians need a National Orientation as a matter of urgency.

Before I give you those biblical events, let me take this golden opportunity to salute all those gallant Ghanaian journalists who won GJA Awards this year. The ceremony itself might not be all that as sparkling as one would have wished. I was not there personally though but I could read some faces on my television screen at home). But the thought that went into its planning, culminating in the honouring of three eminent Ghanaians including Osagyefo Dr.Kwame Nkrumah, Dr J.B.Danquah and President J.A. Kufuor was inspiring. The selection of Anas Aremeyaw Anas of Crusading Guide as Journalist of the year without a soul raising a finger was fantastic. All the awards winners merited their respective prizes in tow-tow. I say kudos to them all.

But another Ghanaian who could have easily won the journalist of the year Award would have been the Most Rev. Charles G.PALMER-BUCKLE, Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra if he had contested. He stole the show for the night with his religio-journalistic sermon cum socio-cultural postulation, spiced with traditional wisdom in morality. He was at his best clergymanship. May be many people do not even know that the Most Rev. is an accomplished journalist in his own right. He was the first Editor-in-Chief of the Catholic Standard. Long live GJA, long live Award winners and long live the Ministry of Information and National Orientation for donating a new vehicle to the Ghana Journalists Association and following it up with a handsome amount of GH CEDI.

Now, here are the three basic reasons why Ghanaians need National Orientation:

1. God the Divine Intelligence was the First to give orientation to all of humanity through Adam and Eve. And because Ghanaians are part of humanity, they cannot be exempted from orientation as and when it becomes necessary to guide them in life. The Creator’s orientation was given when He instructed Adam and Eve to eat the fruits of all trees in the garden, except the tree which was standing in the middle of garden. That was classic orientation to the first two parent of man kind. Therefore, it is imperative for every good leader to give orientation to his people as to what do for orderly advancement of society.

2. When Moses was leading the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land at one time in human history, Moses was instructed by the same God the Creator to go for the Ten Commandments to standardise and regulate the conducts and behavious of his followers vis a vis the way He God wanted the Israelites to live their lives. That was how mankind came by an orientation, now known as the Ten Commandments in the Christian Bible.

3. A typical incidence was recorded in the Bible to the effect that, at one stage in the course of his mission on earth, the Master Jesus the Christ himself, had to pick a big red tough rubber-cane to whip recalcitrant traders like a horse for turning the Temple into makola market. In fact, on that occasion, according to the Bible, Jesus was so provoked to the nonsense degree that he held, shook, pushed, kicked and booted those money changers who were doing black-market business in the holy Temple. The orientation Jesus gave through that action was that the people could trade in the market place, but not in the Temple of his Father.

But today what do we see in Accra? The Government has spent millions of GH Cedi to construct beautiful stalls for the traders, but some disobedient ones have abandoned the shops only to display their goods in the middle of the roads and streets. Is it good? So, if the Master Jesus the Christ who is the son of God and made it clear that he and his Father were ONE, could have his temper stretched beyond breaking point and started beating the undisciplined traders, what do you expect a mortal like Hon. Stanley Nii Adjiri Blankson to in the same situation? So, do Ghanaians need national orientation or not? Any body who disagrees with me, must also write and use the Bible to support his or her argument. And that is the beauty of democracy.

Fellow country men and women, let’s put politics aside and be honest with ourselves as a nation. The way our society is going today, if we behave like a traveller who does not know where is coming from and where he is going, we should not blame Jesus if we do not enter the kingdom of heaven. We need to come together to formulate some kind of orientation for ourselves like the Five Pillars of National Orientation, stated above, otherwise, in the next 50 years everybody including children will be having sex live in the streets like dogs.

If today a Ghanaian can take a gun, drive straight in the home of his fellow Ghanaian and gun him down under day light for whatever reason and run off, the very survival of our nation is at stake. The type of foreign sex films, videos, local profane songs and dances we watch on radio and television and yet, we hypocritically pretend that we don’t want them; and the pornographic newspapers on our news stands and those exposed to our youth on the Internet, if we do not stand up now, we will live to regret our action or inaction.

On Thursday, 23rd August, this year, there was Yahoo news item on the Internet that there were 5,000 child prostitutes in the UK. According to a study by an NGO called Save the Children’s Small Hands of Slavery, there are over 1.8 million children trapped in the sex trade in the world. If we cannot do anything about that globally, we can locally formulate some basic rules and regulations to safeguard our own society as a nation. This is why Ghanaians need National Orientation.Twa, twa, twa Omanye aba! Yao!