Ghanaians pride themselves with nice attributes including “Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana”, “the gateway to West Africa”, Kofi’s Annan’s (former UN Secretary General’s) home country, a land of rich culture, 72% Christians and 18% Muslims, some 5.3% traditional believers, and with self-tagged religious country title.
Day and night Ghanaians troop to churches and other religious centres professing their faiths, “worshipping God” or praying for prosperity or salvation. There’s a church in every corner of nearly every street.
In fact, many Ghanaians feel they are have a better culture than many liberal and egalitarian societies in the West that have legalized gay marriages, promote women and children’s rights and employ less harsher forms of discipline with respect to raising children.
Despite these beliefs and attitudes of self righteousness, the manner in which many Ghanaians treat one another particularly those in vulnerable positions including the poor, the infirmed, the disabled, the elderly, the under dog, women, children and the mentally ill deplorable.
People in less privileged positions are disrespected, abused, bullied, dehumanized, humiliated, falsely accused and totally marginalized.
One of the most atrocious things I have observed in the last few years of paying attention to events in Ghana is the issue of vigilante justice whereby a “democratic” and modern country like Ghana permits and condones brutal mob attacks and killings of individuals accused of all kinds of wrongdoings, at times in plain view of peace officers and authorities entrusted to enforce the rule of law.
Many people have been stoned, bludgeoned to death or even burnt alive for petty thefts, unverified accusations or on the basis of falsehood that they may be witches or may have a committed a crime.
Just this month (May 2019) there have been cases where a supposed mentally ill man was beaten to death on accusations that he may have killed a pregnant woman; a school principal was also beaten to death by a group of young people after he warned them of their drug use and other anti-social behaviours and in another incident, a 42 year old man was brutally killed by a mob after he was accused of being a thief.
The sad thing is that many of these atrocious crimes go unpunished; neither are there any provisions made for remedying the situations for the victims and their families.
This is one of Africa’s most democratic and stable countries? In many cases, the poster child of Africa in democratic governance, media and press freedom. Yes, it is a country with a constitution and human rights provisions and with extensive treaty ratifications of many international human rights instruments.
(https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Treaties_of_Ghana).
Is this civil? Does this kind of barbarism have any place in modern society? So much about a religious or “Christian country” or “nyamesom mang” (God fearing country). Is this democratic?
What happened to the constitutional provisions guaranteeing the right to life, the right to free trial, the right to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a competent authority or court (see Chapter 5, articles12, 17 & 19, 1992 constitution)? Or are there exemptions from the the 10 commandments particularly “thou shalt not kill”?
And by the way, Ghana’s constitution does not permit killings by anyone except the state after an individual is convicted and sentenced by a competent court or judge through due process.
Are we serious? Do we respect human lives? Do we have compassion? What is wrong with the conscience of Ghanaians? How is this civility? How is God’s way? What happened to the rule of law?
Just comparing yourselves to other countries or eating KFC does not connote civility or modernism. The character of a society is indeed judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable people.
It is not the number of times you visit the mosque, attend church service or memorize Bible verses that make you a righteous person but the way you treat fellow humans particularly its most vulnerable persons.
It is about time Ghanaians stopped this barbarism, learned to solve the social ills using evidence based practices, policies, support services and the rule of law.
We should address poverty, high unemployment rate, social and economic disparities and mental health issues in our society. These vulnerable groups need help, support and compassion not violence and massacre.
Let’s treat others and each other humanely; that’s what is civil and Godly. Speak up against violence, barbarism and vigilante justice.
Thank you.
Signed: Akosua Gyimah
Ontario Canada
References:
Ghana’s 1992 Constitution
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/TreatyBodyExternal/Treaty.aspx?CountryID=67&Lang=EN
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