Since hopping onto (Al Gore’s) information super highway, specifically in the social media fast lane, today is the first (and I hope the only day) I’ve read so much uproar, disgust and depressing loss of hope in the moral fibre of the Ghanaian and the brand, Ghana.
Every day on air, online and on mobile, we condemn various disappointing spots of retrogressive social culture in Ghana. But Captain Maxwell Mahama’s barbaric murder has startled the nation in ways unfathomable.
We’re now looking ourselves in the mirror, not in shame, but in a deflated loss of national identity. We’re all casting stones at a community in Denkyira, yet deep within us, we’re taking some of the blame for what happened there; and for once, we feel a sense of despair and a loss of hope in the hitherto “hospitable” Ghanaian.
The saddest part being an overwhelming rally to lynch the whole community in same measure, pressed down, shaken together and running right over.
#Freedom&Justice are proudly the tenets of our democracy and nationhood, except this time it’s been typically about using one to violate another..(violating others’ Freedom in a hasty pursuit of Justice for another).
Ironically, the loudest voices in this blood-curdling campaign are astute believers in human rights, yet our gentle Captain’s murder seems to have anaesthetized their tolerance for due process, at least in this particular instance.
There is a unanimous concession that impunity has taken over our state over time. But the whip that cracked Maxwell’s back became our last straw. So the salt of conscience of our democracy is clearly losing its taste.
Like Rama, Ghana is refusing to be comforted. Because Captain Maxwell Mahama is no more.
So maybe His Excellency the President should take a shot at it. Try comforting the nation. Pump some confidence back into our systems. Uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. Restore hope in the justice business.
We need one of those national addresses on GTV to a quiet and attentive nation after dinner. Families huddled together in front of their sets and around community radios. Beginning and ending with the national anthem.
Urge us on to be bold to defend 4ever, the cause of freedom and of rights…with all our will and might forever more!