LETE'S FIGHT TWIN EVILS OF ETHNICITY, CORRUPTION --Appiah-Menkah (SPREAD, JAN 20)

A FOUNDER member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Akenten Appiah-Menkah, has called on President J.E.A. Mills to mobilise all national resources and institutions to fight ethnocentrism and corruption, which he said were gradually creeping into the Ghanaian society.
He said the unity, democracy and uprightness of the nation was under threat by the two creeping cankers, "and we have to uproot them, whether they suit our political ambitions or not".
Mr Appiah-Menkah, who stated this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Kumasi yesterday, said: "The fight cannot be an individual or political party affair, but a national crusade."
While congratulating Prof. Mills on his election to the highest office of the land, Mr Appiah-Menkah called on the President and the NDC to bear in mind the trust and confidence the nation had reposed in them and play their reciprocal role by ensuring its unity and development.
"Prof. Mills's victory was for the whole nation and we must all accept and respect it," he said.
Mr Appiah-Menkah, who is also a renowned industrialist, stressed the need for Ghanaians to learn from the conflicts in some African countries as a result of tribal clashes, and avoid threading that path.
He proposed what he called a 10-point "combating plan" to fight the two evils.
Among them, he said, was the need for the government to launch a national campaign against the two issues.
Mr Appiah-Menkah also challenged the religious bodies to devote at least one day a month for the next 10 years to preach against the two evils.
He further urged political parties to educate their supporters on the need to play the political game devoid of acts that would divide the ranks of the nation along ethnic lines.
"Besides, it will be important for the National Communications Authority (NCA) to be given the authority (if they do not already have it) to suspend the licence of any television or radio station found guilty of propagating any anti-national unity messages," he said.
Mr Appiah-Menkah pointed out the need for the various houses of chiefs to educate their subjects on the need to live peacefully with one another.
He said the non-violent nature of the Ghanaian to change the government since the birth of the Fourth Republic, notwithstanding its imperfections, like any other human institution, needed the commendation of all.