Chairperson for the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Charlotte Osei-Agyei, says the older generation should be held responsible for the current leadership crisis in the country.

According to her, people of the older generation have failed to set good examples for the present day youth to emulate.

Mrs. Osei-Agyei made the comments on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Tuesday, when contributing to discussions regarding the lack of patriotism among many Ghanaians.

The Super Morning Show has dedicated March as the "Month of Patriotism" and has centered discussions on issues geared towards rekindling the spirit of patriotism among Ghanaians.

The NCCE Boss observed that the disconnect between the two generations has largely accounted for the dying spirit of nationalism, resulting in many Ghanaians becoming self-centered rather than thinking Ghana first.

"Patriotism are values, they are not taught; they are caught...I think the young ones are bereft of examples. We are living in a society where, to put it blunt, the elders have left the city gates," she grieved.

In the absence of superior models, most young ones turn to other social groups to learn morals, which could be grievous, Mrs. Osei-Agyei cautioned.  

"When you start reading about pastors telling female congregants to take off their panties; clearly there is a leadership crisis in the churches, there's clearly a leadership crisis in political leadership, in corporate leadership [and] in the teachers.

"Their parents are out of homes most of the times so the children are being brought up by Nigerian movies and by telenovellas...We are basically, as a society, actively sowing tomatoes and expecting to get up and reap pepper", she noted.

Additionally, Mrs, Osei-Agyei said the decision to take out civic education from the education curricular has not been helpful.

"If we're not teaching it [patriotism] in the schools, we are not teaching it outside the schools [then] why are we surprised when we wake up one day and there is such a lack of patriotism?", she quizzed 

Value systems

On her part, Development Economist and Consultant, Nana Oforiwaa Koranteng said there was urgent need for the state to use innovative means to coerce Ghanaians to cultivate useful values.

"We need to have a drive of what value systems we need to have as a country...If I want to fly a Ghana flag and I have to get permission from the Interior Ministry then I'm sorry. It's a lot of work!", she indicated.

The founder of Rural Chapels Ministries said Ghanaians are not writing novels today, as they used to, leaving the youth to rely more on those published by foreigners.  

"Unfortunately, we [Ghanaians] are not writing anymore; there is nothing to read...", Nana Oforiwaa Koranteng intimated.

Creative media contents

Meanwhile, Founding Director of Leading Ladies Network, an NGO, Yawa Hanson-Kwao, is advocating the creation of compelling media contents that can positively influence children on patriotism.

"...people, who are writing scripts for movies should move away from the explicit (things) and 'voodooism'. Ghanaians are not worshippers of pots and all those things...Why don't we re-orient that energy towards showing what Ghana is made of rather than people insulting each other on TV?

"Some of our elderly people should start writing about the things that can be put out there for young people to pick," Madam Hanson-Kwao suggested.