Ghanaians are no longer patriotic; they think about themselves and their families before Ghana – John Mahama

• Posted on September 9, 2017
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Patriotism, which in the past was a dominant trait among Ghanaians has become deficient in recent times.

Former President John Mahama, who made the assertion said Ghanaians now think about their families first and relegate national issues that require patriotism to the background.

“…Nationalism and patriotism have become very deficient in Ghana today. Absolutely nobody thinks about the country first; we all think about ourselves first, our families second, our parties third, maybe, our communities fourth and Ghana comes a distant fifth or sixth or even tenth,” he said at a lecture to open the National Democratic Congress’ Institute of Social Democracy at the party’s headquarters in Accra on Friday.

The NDC launched the National Institute of Social Democracy about a month ago with the aim of inculcating the party’s principles, ideologies, and values to members.

Speaking at the maiden lecture, John Mahama said the institute had been on their drawing board for about 25 years.

NDC school not for brainwashing

He also used the opportunity to dispel some negative rumours critics have made against the institute, arguing that it was not set up to brainwash its students.

“Contrary to widespread perception, institutes like this are not institutes for indoctrinating people. The perception in the First Republic was that the ideological institutes were set up to brainwash and to become ideologically robust of the governing party. But this is not the case.”

According to him, the school will serve as a source of knowledge not only to party cadres, but for people who share the same ideology “to gain ideas of leadership, nationalism and patriotism.”

“If you look at the curriculum of the ideological institute, it contains programmes of leadership, how to lead in a community, it contains programmes of party activism, it also contain programmes of community self-help, it contains programmes of nationalism, patriotism – how to be patriotic to your country,” he added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/