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As Ghanaians enjoy the 2024 Constitution Day holiday on Monday, January 8, reflecting on its significance, I was reminded of an expression “flying the flag”, from my stint at the Commonwealth Secretariat, in London.
Whenever we had occasion to wear our national costume to the office, an Indian colleague and I would describe it as ‘flying our national flag’. I thought it summed up perfectly the demonstration of national pride and patriotism, symbolised by a country’s flag. As the Ghana National Anthem directs, “Raise high the flag of Ghana.”
I would be in an ntoma and she would wear a sari/saree.
And what better way can there be to honour a country’s Constitution and demonstrate belief in constitutional rule than making it a Statutory Holiday? Constitution Day celebrates Ghana’s sustained constitutional administration, now awaiting Election 2024 in December.
It commemorates the beginning of Ghana’s Fourth Republican constitutional era from January 7, 1993; with the first one observed in 2019. However, this year, as January 7 fell on a Sunday, Monday, January, 8, is being observed as an additional Public Holiday.
Pride in my nation and our postal service is what I had felt on January 1, when I got a very pleasant surprise from both Ghana Post and the United States Postal Service (U.S. Mail) – but especially from Ghana Post. It was a message from New York that said: “the package has arrived”. Only four words, from the recipient, but what a lot of relief it brought me!
It contained nothing valuable, but it was needed by the recipient and so I had been anxious to have it delivered as soon as possible.
On December 18, 2023, at the Dansoman Estate Post Office where I posted it, after the postal clerk had examined it and was doing the documentation, my concern had been how long it would take to be arrive at its US destination. In view of the proverbial Christmas mail delays, I was somewhat skeptical when the counter clerk assured me that it would take no more than two weeks; that if I was lucky, it could even be only one week.
My disbelief also stemmed from the fact that I didn’t make it Express or Expedited Mail’. As advised, I had registered it so that I would be sent a tracking number.
Sure enough, I got a tracking number by text, which when I checked stated that my package would be delivered at the address within seven working days. And true to the Ghana Post promise, there I was on Monday, January 1, hearing of the package’s arrival!
Praise too, to U.S. Mail, for delivering it on a day which is normally a holiday in many countries.
My experience with the postal service of some countries has not always been good. Years ago, on a short visit to Italy when I was thinking of buying postcards to send to family and friends back home, colleagues told me that Italy’s postal system was unreliable, so I shouldn’t waste my money on stamps and time going to the post office. Still, I posted one card to myself curious to confirm or disprove what I had been told.
They were not lying. True to their warning, the postcard I had posted to my Accra address arrived weeks after I had returned home. But this is 2014, so Italy’s postal system has probably seen improvements by now.
A couple of years ago, my experience with another European postal system gave me a huge disappointment, which continues to this day! More about that experience later!
So well done to Ghana Post! Perhaps the package’s impressive delivery is a minor incident, but I see it as a very positive sign at the start of a new year. Small steps and minor achievements are what lead to major accomplishments. Clearly in doubting my local post office’s assurance about the expeditious delivery, I was exhibiting the trait that we Ghanaians have unfortunately become known for, cynicism.
I recall President John Agyekum Kufuor’s haunting comment in his 2007 State of the Nation Address. Referring to the danger of pessimism, he advised Ghanaians to be wary of becoming “those who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing”.
Certainly, something may be expensive, but what about the benefits, the value that expenditure will bring?
In 2013, the then incumbent, President John Dramani Mahama, too, cautioned Ghanaians about the penchant for cynicism: Under the headline, “Don’t be cynical: Ghana can make it — Prez”, the Daily Graphic of December 16, 2023 reported that “President John Dramani Mahama has urged Ghanaians to do away with cynicism ….
“President Mahama made the call at the dedication of the Lord's Temple of the Revival Restoration Centre of the Assemblies of God Church at Roman Ridge in Accra.”
In 2020, speaking at a forum in Accra, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Cape Coast, the Most Reverend Charles Palmer-Buckle warned, as captured in a memorable headline by ATL FM (of the University of Cape Coast), that “Cynicism … is more insidious than corruption”.
Back to the present, in an address on January 5, ahead of the 2024 Constitution Day, President Nana Akufo-Addo stated: “No society can be truly free unless its citizens feel the need to embrace both liberty and duty, hard work and compassion.”
I interpret his words to mean, simply, ‘all of us need to fly the Ghana flag’, as the National Anthem urges.
Undoubtedly, for many of us the cost of living is a continuing trauma, but gradually things are easing up – as is evident by the availability and quantities of food items in markets currently – so it shouldn’t be all doom and gloom.
Also, it is heartening that there are some unusual indicators of pride in Ghana. For example, the recent attempts by Ghanaians to make it into the Guinness Book of Records through marathon endeavours, is surely not solely to get their name in there.
I believe that singer Afua Asantewaa Aduonum’s admirable ‘Sing-a-thon’ in Accra; and currently, chef Fati Abdul-Razak’s ‘Cook-a-thon’ effort in Tamale, are also meant to make a mark for Ghana on the world tourism map! Flying the Ghana flag! Personally, thinking positive, I’m still hoping that a package posted to me in the UK in November 2021, but not yet received, consisting of a personalised diary for 2022, will one day turn up, courtesy of the Royal Mail service. There was a time when the name ‘Royal Mail’ was synonymous with superlative service in rain, shine or snow. Sadly, it’s a different story now.
The October 28, 2023 issue of a UK magazine I subscribe to, which should have been received about a week later, arrived in my local post office last week, on January 4, as shown by their receipt date stamped on the envelope.
I often wonder what could have happened to that package. Of course a 2022 diary is of no more use to me in 2024, but I would still like to receive that special diary. That’s why I live in hope of a lovely surprise from Royal Mail one of these days!
And if there’s anything like a collective New Year Resolution, I think Ghana needs a collective resolution to shun cynicism, give optimism a chance and cultivate a positive outlook in 2024, especially in this Election year.
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