The Agona West Municipal Director of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mr Sekyi Sam, has called for concerted efforts towards the inculcation of nation-building values in Ghanaians towards achieving the desired national growth and development.

“We should awaken national values such as patriotism, honesty, truthfulness, hard work, among others in Ghanaians to enable them to wholeheartedly support those in leadership positions towards the progress of the nation,” he said.

Citizenship Week celebration

Mr Sam stated this while speaking during a number of engagements with some interest groups as part of the Constitution and Citizenship Week celebration at Agona Swedru in the Agona West Municipality in the Central Region.

As part of the celebration, the NCCE engaged schoolchildren, churches and some identifiable groups, including members of the Ghana Hairdressers and Beauticians Association (GHABA) and Ghana Tailors and Dressmakers Association, as well as other artisanal groups.

Rekindle patriotism

Mr Sam noted that it appeared that the spirit of patriotism had been lost among Ghanaians, hence the need to rekindle those values among the citizenry.

He stressed that the unpatriotic culture among some Ghanaians, if not nipped in the bud, would continue to have a devastating effect on the fortunes of the country.

He appealed to successive governments to avoid wastage of scarce national resources by continuing inherited projects so as to enable the nation to make prudent and efficient use of its national funds.

“As a nation, we always complain of pressure on national resources, so if funds are invested in projects, they must be seen to completion instead of abandoning such projects to deteriorate.

“We must collectively ensure continuity in government projects to save the nation huge sums of money that can be channelled into other productive sectors of the economy,” the NCCE director pointed out.

Participants’ concerns

During an open forum, some of the participants called on the government to be sensitive to the plight of the ordinary people at all times so as to be able to introduce programmes and policies that would ameliorate the suffering of the masses.