Mesmerised by the fact that sometimes we embrace some foreign cultures with all passion, I have wondered why we cannot formally adopt the month of March as Ghana month and celebrate it as a country. 

We are able to add our own colourful exaggerations to some foreign cultures and signature-tune them to fit us. We sometimes even hype them and bring commercial angles.  So, we can do the same in the month of March for Ghana. After all, we got our freedom to be what we are on March 6, 1957. 

Celebrating March as such would mean adding all the commercial twists and painting Ghana with made in Ghana goods, clothes, shoes, foods, music and round it up with a national thanksgiving day on the last Friday of March each year.

Evergreen anthem

Ghana month would mean Ghana on every mind as we live the evergreen Ghana national anthem. In March every year, we would celebrate patriotism, selflessness, love and passion for our country. We should begin to expect true humility from our leaders.

They should in March, take on commemorative CSR activities which would bring them closer to their communities. Doing that repeatedly every year would re-kindle some sense of nationalism in communities.

I have paused many times to go over the words of the national anthem. I have tried to follow the wording from beginning to the end. I have come to the realisation that the national anthem could easily pass as a national prayer to be sung every Sunday by Christians at Church and every Friday at the mosque by Moslems.

Prayer

Originally written and composed by the illustrious Philip Gbeho, the national anthem was adopted upon independence in March 1957. 

The anthem is a touching prayer to God to lift our country high. Our prayer, when we sing the anthem is that among other things, God should bless and make our nation great and strong. Indeed, just like families and businesses, we pray on a daily basis for God’s blessings and strength to keep us going.  Country Ghana needs that kind of prayer and the national anthem has set the tone for us. 

If when sung, we are asking God to bless our homeland and make it great and strong, then we have no business engaging in acts that would weaken the front. Unfortunately, we do that blatantly every day. The fact that we allow partisanship to divide our front means a weakened front for Ghana.

How is Ghana going to be great and strong if divisiveness, “pull-him-down” attitudes, selfishness, nepotism and abusiveness abound in our national character? People get into positions of trust and quickly betray the trust the people have reposed in them to make Ghana great and strong. We litter indiscriminately. We show utter disrespect to one other and blatantly ignore the laws of the country.  

Great and strong nations of the world have achieved that greatness because they have respected the laws of their countries and shown patriotism where it matters most. In effect, they have learnt to put their countries first.

Humility

In the national anthem, we ask for God to fill our hearts with true humility and make us cherish fearless honesty. Yet, the indiscipline high and low that has engulfed us as a nation, points to high levels of egoism, dishonesty, deception, cheating, corrupt practices, fraud and many other ills. 

In my understanding, true humility and fearless honesty mean respect for fellow Ghanaians and being true and sincere with each other. Those appointed to higher positions should come with humility to serve and not to lord it over the people. The laws of the land should be respected by all irrespective of one’s status.

For this month of March, we should let Ghana take a centre stage in our minds and hearts. We should remember to sing or say the national anthem as part of our corporate and individual devotions. 

We all have burning passions for social clubs and our schools hence old “boyisms” and old “girlisms”. We proudly wear them on our sleeves too. So we can do same and even more for Ghana.  I could not agree more with the singer, Kwame Eugene’s hit song, “I’m made in Ghana”. 

If one feels that passionate for Ghana, then it would not matter where one finds oneself, Ghana would definitely be in them. Let us formally adopt March as Ghana month and live it.