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Amid the menace of a highly dysfunctional Ghanaian society where systems do not work and everyone is in pursuit of his or her personal parochial interests, a Ghanaian Professor is calling for a moral awakening to save the Nation from itself. The US-based Ghanaian professor of accounting and legal practitioner, Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare, widely known as Prof Kwaku Azar, has observed that Ghana is currently a nation sinking under its own choices. He has therefore issued a piercing reflection on Ghana’s struggle with illegal mining and corruption, arguing that the country’s problem is not a lack of laws, policies, or speeches, but a lack of conscience. In an emotional social media post sighted by The High Street Journal, Prof. Azar said Ghana’s predicament is the “arithmetic of selfishness,” warning that until citizens undergo a quiet personal evolution, which is a change of heart and mindset, the nation will continue to suffer the disorder and dysfunction it has created for itself. “The antidote is not grand speeches, new slogans, or more laws that will go unenforced. It is a quiet personal revolution, choosing the common good even when no one is watching,” he noted. Galamsey: Trading Tomorrow’s Water for Today’s Cash Taking a cursory look at the menace of illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, he noted that it is a reflection of the country’s moral crisis. Prof. Azar lamented how Ghanaians knowingly destroy their own future for short-term gain. He stressed that everyone knows galamsey poisons our rivers and destroys our farmlands, yet too many close their eyes because a cousin, a brother, or a financier benefits. “We trade tomorrow’s water for today’s cash and act surprised when the taps run dry,” he lamented. He argued that the fight against galamsey cannot be won merely through enforcement or new regulations when the public mindset still tolerates and even protects wrongdoers. “If enough people think, ‘I must get mine,’ then no one ends up with anything worth having,” he warned. The Root of the Problem: Selfish Ambition Prof. Azar traced Ghana’s corruption and dysfunction to what he called the eclipse of “we” by “me”. He explained that this is a culture where personal gain trumps collective good. He said when the pursuit of me eclipses the concern for we, the results are predictable, which are the erosion of trust, the decay of institutions, and the normalization of dysfunction. He explained that the country’s biggest tragedy is not only in the acts of corruption or environmental destruction, but in the “quiet consent of citizens who see wrongdoing and shrug.” Quoting the Bible, he cited James 3:16: “For where envy and selfish ambition exist, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” He noted that selfish ambition has become Ghana’s “national creed,” turning disorder into a way of life. Public Office and Everyday Hypocrisy The professor also took aim at Ghana’s political culture, where public office is often seen as a personal inheritance rather than a public trust. “We cheer those who loot smartly, justify those who share the loot, and vilify those who expose it,” he lamented. He extended this hypocrisy to daily life, from bribing police officers to breaking traffic rules, saying that the nation’s moral decay is visible everywhere. “The road is a daily referendum on our respect for rules. We speed, overlap, ignore red lights, and curse the police, all in the name of urgency. Each of us is in a hurry; collectively, we go nowhere. The chaos on our roads mirrors the chaos in our politics: everyone competing to get ahead, few caring about direction,” he continued to vent. According to him, grand anti-corruption campaigns and “stop galamsey” slogans are meaningless if citizens themselves keep bending the rules for personal gain. A Call for Personal Accountability Prof. Azar believes Ghana’s transformation will not come from government pronouncements but from personal responsibility, from ordinary citizens deciding to do what’s right even when no one is watching. For him, a nation changes not when leaders preach virtue, but when citizens practice it. He stressed that until we see that our good is bound up in the common good, our misery will continue to exceed our means. “And as long as selfish ambition remains the engine of our choices, James’s warning will echo in every sector of our national life, disorder, and every evil practice,” he emphasized. The Takeaway Prof. Azar’s reflections are about the soul of a nation. He is emphatic that this is not the time for more laws, slogans, and campaigns will keep failing. He believes that unless citizens confront the mindset that excuses selfishness as survival. He stresses that Ghana’s healing will begin not in Parliament or at a rally, but in the quiet decisions made by individuals to do right, even when it costs them.
