She said people now find pleasure in identifying themselves by either their political party or ethnic groupings as against their Ghanaian nationality because they have lost country has lost its self-esteem.

“Most people now identify themselves by their political party, by their ethnic groups than saying that they are Ghanaians. And that is not good for us! We ought to stop and say no, this nation belongs to all of us,” she said during the newspaper review segment of TV3’s New Day  magazine show.

Mrs Adu-Amankwah observed the pride of people boasting of  their Ghanaian nationality during the Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, has now faded, primarily due to what she described as the “erosion of our self-esteem” in Ghana.

“If [Dr Kwame] Nkrumah gave us nothing at all, he gave us certain audaciousness to believe in our own African personality that we could walk around and be proud to be African and Ghanaian,” she said

Mrs Adu-Amankwah who is the who is the second Vice Chairperson of the CPP said everybody wanted to be a Ghanaian during the Dr Nkrumah’s era, saying“people wanted to be Ghanaian; all Africans wanted to be Ghanaians”

However, she said it was regrettable that over the years, Ghanaians have had their self-esteem eroded; something she largely blamed on politics and some decisions and actions of some of the country’s leaders.

“We think that other people [foreigners] should come and help us build our nation. We think that we can go cup in hand; that kind of beggar mentality has also created some poverty of the mind and because of that we clutch on to things that are ephemeral and not the value of nationhood of being Ghanaian” she argued.

Member of Parliament for Damango, Mutawakilu Adam, who was also not happy with the development, said an aspect of the country’s Constitution is to be blamed in a way.

He argued the ‘winner-takes-all’ element of our politics has created that perception, noting “once this political party comes to power, it is its people that will be appointed and has also created the impression that when the president appoint somebody from another political party, that opposition party see that person to be a mole, a traitor, and it has gone deep into our political system,”

He said people nowadays done consider the national interest but rather that of their political parties but said that has come about as a result of the political system we have adopted in the country.
“The person doesn’t put the country first, they see the political party…and then we have managed to put it in the mind of our supporters that until your political party comes to power, you will not enjoy it,” he noted.

He added: “Even if you are enjoying, mentally, you seem not to be enjoying until your government comes, and if the government is doing anything, your motive is to sabotage it, make sure that you bring it down.”

He thus called for a paradigm shift from that mentality else the country will not move forward

By Stephen Kwabena Effah|tv3network.com|Ghana
Twitter @steviekgh