Communications consultant and academic, Prof Kwame Karikari, says Ghana is on a dangerous path where money has become the ultimate god.
He said it is worshipped above all else and replacing the values that once held the country together.
Speaking at a public lecture held in his honour on Thursday evening at the GNAT Hall to celebrate his 80th birthday and lifelong contribution to journalism and mass communication, Prof Karikari made a stirring call for national introspection.
“I hear people asking Dr Yao Graham why didn’t you become a minister, president, a this and that; and he gave a very fitting answer. I think in Ghana, we don’t get angry enough. We should try sometimes to be angry.”
For him, complacency has replaced conviction, and the soft approach has become the norm even in the face of moral decline.
“We like the soft way too much…we must strive. You see, there’s a culture now about money. Money is good. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with money, but if it becomes the God we worship, then we have a problem. And that is what is showing so many young people, so many people away from things that really make life worth living.”
He drew a contrast between Ghana’s past and present, recalling a time when people willingly sacrificed for the national good even without compensation.
“We need the money, but there must be more, better values than money should be able to bring about. When a PNDC came to power, and some of us joined, wanting revolution.
“There were people like Dr Yao Graham who worked for two years without a salary. Many people worked like that, and so on and so on.”
He lamented how difficult it is today to find volunteers, even in rural areas, because of the overwhelming desire for monetary reward.
“Today, it’s very difficult to help people, even in the rural areas, to volunteer to do anything. If you don’t pay people, even the dirt they have created, they won’t sweep it.”
Prof Karikari said the fundamental question Ghanaians must begin to ask is not how much money is made, but what truly brings fulfilment and happiness at the end of each day.
“And I think the mindset we are talking about must start from there. What is the value in life for me, when at the end of the day, I go to sleep, what makes me happy?”
He shared a story from his appointment to the Constitution Review Committee, illustrating how society often calls upon people like him only after the powerful have taken their fill.
“When I was appointed to the Constitution Review Committee, an elderly man I respect very much, who comes from my village, called me and congratulated me. And I said, ‘Oh, Opanin, you know that for some of us, our whole life has been national service. So when the politicians have finished eating the meat and have even sucked out the marrow from the bone, they give us the empty white bone.’”
But the old man reminded him that it was not wealth that qualified him for such service, but wisdom and integrity.
“The man said, ‘Oh Kwame, don’t talk like that. Don’t talk like that. When they were calling you people, did they call so and so?’ He mentioned about three wealthiest names. ‘Did they call those people with those kinds of money to come and work on the Constitution? You don’t manage society with money. You manage society with wisdom, and that’s why they called you.”
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