Kofi Sapathy Goofs

Kofi Sapathy's article at the union's site makes an interesting reading. Those who have not read it should go to the ''archives'' and read, so you will understand my article better. It is quite unfortunate that a writer of Kofi's calibre could expose the problems of his country, Ghana in such a devastating manner. The Akans have a proverb which says ''noone points to the direction of his village with a left finger'. Better still, the englishman says, ''You don't wash your dirty linen in public''. What he did was to expose Ghana to mockery and uncalled-for sympathy from non-Ghanaians who read his article. To describe our dear country like this without offering any practical and workable solutions is not proper. If we as Ghanaians will not take such a stark exposure from BBC or any journalist, it behoves on us then to protect our country and see how best we can help wherever we are. No Swedish or German will take a pen and write about his country thus ''Sweden or Germany, a country of alcoholics''

The government in Ghana is doing whatever possible to make Ghana a happy place to live in. You have heard about the health insurance scheme. Contributers will no longer have to pay for  medicines or medical bills. Ghanaians holding foreign citizenships can still have Ghanaian passports if they want and so many changes going on in Ghana. If the writer wants Ghana to be like Sweden, we will need his resources, contribution and the knowledge he has acquired in Sweden, and to be in Ghana himself to offer his quota but not to sit in the comfort of his room in Sweden and damage our pride. India got her nuclear technology thanks to one person who studied in Germany. What are we also doing for our country?

Secondly, I am happy that as a non-twi speaker,  Mr. Sapathy has realised how important and enormous the twi language is in Ghana. Just open the internet radios and no Ghanaian language is used apart from twi. Majority of the songs played on Ghana radios are all in twi. As he rightly puts it, the language of the capital, Ga will soon be spoken in the rural areas of Accra. He however stopped short of suggesting TWI as the national language.  I sincerely believe that with confessions, testimonies and frank declarations coming from more non-twi speakers, a national referendum will gradually make twi a national language.

Greetings from Ghana, the land of our birth.

Stephen Owusu
Ghana Union President (1991, 1992)