THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE
We
all make promises in life; to ourselves, our parents, friends and especially
our loved ones into whose eyes we look as we stand in the
presence of God and vow to remain
faithful till death separate us. In as much as we try hard, for better, for worse; for
richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health, to honour these promises, there
is one that we as Ghanaians have failed to honour and this is “The National
Pledge”.
Though
it is one of the first” oaths” we swear from primary one, when we start morning
assembly ritual in our basic schools till our mature stage when we enter public
service, little attention is paid to the meaning of the words in it. Others
even forget the words with time. It is not surprising that some government
appointees and beauty pageant finalists have difficulty in saying it.
Some of the question that sometimes boggles my mind and other
patriotic citizens are that; do we as a nation really understand the meaning of
the pledge we recite?, Could it be that they don’t understand at all or they do
but fail to fulfill because of reasons known to them alone? Is it because
someone somewhere is not doing his work well? Or is it that society has failed
in inculcating the spirit of patriotism into us?
Perhaps,
taking “The National Pledge” line by line will help us identify our mistakes
and in effect, correct them.
I
promise on my honour to be faithful and loyal to Ghana my Motherland.
We
make this promise but little can we boast about this to Mother Ghana. We are
far away from the faithfulness and the loyalty we promise mother Ghana. We take
the slightest opportunity given us to rob the country of what is due her
especially when it comes to its resources.
Like
the Israelites in the Bible, lead by Moses made a promise to God to be faithful
to Him alone by not worshiping other god but upon the little opportunity they
had, they took the earring of the females and made gods out of them to worship,
we promise Mother Ghana of our loyalty and faithfulness to her and the next
minute we do the contrary.
We
worship the riches in the country more than the country itself. That is why it
is of little wonder that illegal mining, encroachment of public lands and
property have taken center stage in our dear country.
I
pledge myself to the service of Ghana with all my strength and with all my
heart.
We
pledge ourselves to the service of Ghana with all our strength and with all our
heart but we render inferior services to the state in all the public companies
despite the many times we have open our mouth to make this promise.
How
many of the public companies can compete with the private sectors in our
country? For instance, a manager of a state owned company arrives at the office
two minute to the closing time and takes salary incomparable to that of a
manager of a private company who starts his work right from his home.
Some government employees do not lose any
strength nor might because as soon as closing time is due, they are out of the
office. The funny thing about this whole thing is that people who are willing
to offer themselves to the service of the nation are not giving the chance or
are tagged with funny names such as “ Post kaya,
“Alekye”, ”wo nam pe job” and many other names that discourage these dictated ones.
I
promise to hold in high esteem our heritage, won for us through the blood and
toil of our fathers;
I
am sure our fore fathers are bowing in shame, for we have failed them. What has
happened to all the beautiful Ghanaian culture that makes us unique from other
countries on the continent? The communal spirit is gone. Today we stand and
watch on as state property is destroyed without any action. What happened to
the rich land of ours, the green vegetations, water bodies, minerals such as
gold bauxites and many other valuables that our fore fathers left for us? We
have failed to value all the treasures they left behind for us and have allowed
people from nowhere access to all of them.
And
I pledge myself in all things to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana. So help me God.
There
are a lot of people who are not upholding or defending the good name of Ghana
but are always on the move to rather dent it. Sometimes I just wish God will
descend and punishes some of us for calling on him to assist us honour promises
we have turned a death ear to. We may say the pledge for saying sake but one
thing we need to bear in mind is that every unfulfilled promise comes with its
own consequences. If we do not uphold and defend the good name of Ghana,
whatever happens to her affects us too because she is the only one we have. I
am not interested in why the Jehovah witness do not make pledges but if we will
makes pledges and do not fulfill them, then it is better we do not make them at
all.
The
composer of this pledge did not wake up just one day to put together all these
words. I am quite sure it took him so many sleepless nights, a lot of thinking,
a lot research and a lot more insight to have come up with such a piece.
If
we love Ghana and believe in her, let us look behind us once again and correct
the correctable. Like the Akans say, ‘Sankofa Wonkyir’. To wit, it is not
forbidden to go back and reclaim. Let us change our mind sets and start being
patriotic like our fore fathers.
In
an election year like this, when so many unprecedented event have happened, it
is pertinent that we all contribute our in quota in maintaining peace and
solidarity. And it is my fervent prayer is that we will take time and reflect
on the words of the National Pledge and get involved in making Ghana the black
star that shines even in the night.
VIDA
ESSEL
vidaessel4u@yahoo.com
GHANA
INSTITUTE OF JOURNALISM
