There was a time, when the Ghanaian flag held a place above all others in Ghana, with patriotism and national pride, the Red, Yellow (gold) and Green, with Black Star symbolized, the very essence of the Ghanaian.
Democracy was to enhance unity, freedom of speech and an all inclusive development goal of the single country called Ghana, however the patriotism that Ghanaians once had for a single unified country is now being replaced by political affiliation, more and more people pledge their allegiance not to the country but to the political party they belong to. At a funeral ceremony I saw this miss guided notion of affiliation for myself, when the diseased was draped with nothing but the flag of his political party.
This state of affair has encouraged a culture of "us against them" in the country, where the winner takes all, and the looser is put out in the sun, to dry out like a dead fish. The winning party sets about to replace all that are not known to be members of his/ her party with that of his own, regardless of their competence and their motives, the situation only adding to a culture where instead of people performing to the best of their abilities to be rewarded by that recognition, to a system where people rather more motivated to steal and hoard corrupt funds, since even if they go out of their way to achieve something worth recognizing, because of their political affiliation or lack of it, they will never get recognized for their efforts.
Until the balance is reset where the ultimate incentive is to the betterment of the country and all affiliations are first and foremost to the country, then to the political parties, Ghana is never going to find its self on the right path for the development it deserves. What all political parties fight for is to serve the country, not their cronies, the reward in all phases of this paradigm is the recognition of one's achievement and not respect based on how much money they own which is mostly attained through corrupt means. Value should be defined on the basis of substance, strive and self sacrifice.
The opposition should still see themselves with an important role to play, nominating shadow cabinet and ministers to keep the ruling party on its toe and thus bring about transparency and accountability in all areas of governance, us citizens Ghanaians should be given the opportunity to evaluate all political parties not only in election but in their proposed measures and willingness to serve the country whether they are in power or not, by their continuous contribution to the country's development all times.
This is the Ghana flag and like all the other countries that still hold allegiance to the British Monarch, such as Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and most West Indies Islands and imprint of the British flag is incorporated into their various national flags.
The writer here, advocates the need for all political parties in Ghana as a legal requirement to have an imprint of the Ghana flag in their political flags, to help refocus where the priority of their interest should lie, in-terms of their ambitions and goals. An example is given above, on how all the various flags should look like, this should be the case before the next election in Ghana and it should reflect the expectation of the voters in the country. One should not be of a given political affiliation to vote for a particular party, but on the basis that the party in question is offering the better prospect in serving the interest of the country.
God bless our homeland Ghana, and make our nation great and strong, bold to defend for ever....there is no mention in the national anthem of any political party, lets just remember that and do some soul searching to re-calibrate our mindset and thinking of our interest and what our individual vote should count for.
