Between December 24th, 2023 and January 10th, 2024, Ghana witnessed a unique national rally thanks to two Guinness World Record contenders - Afua Asantewaa (Sing-a-ton) and Chef Faila (Cook-a-ton).

While I greatly appreciate and commend their efforts, the more important lesson for me is what their record-breaking efforts proved to us- Ghanaians can still rally behind the flag! Watching the scenes of crowd support and cheer at these events, I momentarily felt I was watching Nkrumah's famous Declaration of Independence and the sheer support it had received. I said to myself, there it is, what I thought was missing- the evidence of its silent presence, the spirit of patriotism.

Our country is currently suffering from a lack of patriotism. For various reasons such as justice, underdevelopment, unemployment and the over-amassing of wealth by the political class, many have lost hope and have resulted to the “me” vs “them” mentality, as famously expressed by Chinua Achebe in his book, No longer at Ease. Many Ghanaians feel isolated from the government and are willing to do anything to make money, even if it means selling out their country. The Galamsey crisis is a prime example of this.

The absence of sincere and effective leadership is a significant factor in our current situation. In my opinion, for our country to move forward, we need robust institutions that can withstand challenges. However, to create such institutions we need capable individuals leading the way. Unfortunately, we seem to lack such leaders at the moment.