National Orientation Programme Launched

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Friday, 24 August 2007

VICE-President Aliu Mahama on Wednesday unveiled two mascots in Accra to launch a national orientation campaign aimed at helping to achieve a defined national mission.

The mascots in wooden carvings, portray a man and a woman dressed in Kente kaba for the women and cloth in the national colours for the man.

The campaign, based on five principles, is under the auspices of the Ministry of Information and National Orientation and is intended to provide a direction for Ghanaians in a bid to build a better Ghana.

The principles are: “Proud to be Ghanaian”, “Patriotism and a Spirit of Ghana First”, “Can Do Attitude”, “Productivity and Accountability” and Dedication and Discipline” and the ministry has identified symposiums, seminars, regulation and legislation, animation, street theartres, dramas and documentaries among others forms of medium to propagate them.

Mrs. Oboshie Sai-Cofie, the sector minister described national orientation as “a process of transforming and formulating a culture that challenges each Ghanaian to do his or her best for himself/herself and for his/her country”

“The ministry does not view it as an ethical prescription to be memorised and recited at the click of a finger,” she said, explaining that at the core of national orientation is behaviour change which is not only a superficial change of attitude but a wholesome adoption of a different set of values and behaviours in order to re-order the directions of our lives.”

National Orientation, she noted is not a prescription for how Ghanaians must lead their lives nor a top-down command coming from the president or the government to the people.

It is a dynamic and evolving programme that would be strengthened by the input that it is expected to receive from every section of the country, adding that it calls for a collective effort of the citizenry to see it as their own and be part of it.

Mrs.Sai –Cofie said that Ghana already has cultures, unchanging and unchangeable ethical and moral precepts that the people believe, noting that the country’s traditions, cultures and institutions have helped to mould Ghanaians.

She stressed the need for Ghanaians to learn to focus on and respect the symbols that unite them as a nation, saying that the national flag, the national anthem, the coat of arms, national pledge and the national currency should be given their importance.

“In our everyday life, we should be courteous to one another. We should respect time and its value. We should learn to take pride in local dress and cuisine” she advised.

Mrs.Sai-Cofie said the kind of Ghanaian that is envisaged is one who holds dear, his or her positive cultural and traditional values, adding “We should also be identified by the food that we eat”

She pointed out that no one other than Ghanaians would make Ghana a better place; “once this concept is ingrained in our belief system, the national orientation process of believing in and dying a little for Ghana will be self- fulfilling”.

The youth of the country she said, are becoming alienated from their traditions and culture and are rather increasingly embracing foreign cultures as portrayed in their mode of dressing, exposure to foreign films and their attitude to elders.

She advised parents, teachers and all who share responsibility for the upbringing of the youth to endeavour to insulate them from negative habits and culture and inculcate in them the proper sense of discipline and decorum.

Ghanaians need to be imbued with the kind of national euphoria that gripped the nation when the Black Stars participated in the world cup in Germany last year, she stressed.

“We should therefore not allow divisive tendencies such as ethnicity, chieftaincy disputes and partisan politics, prevent us from realising the importance of putting our country first”.