Genocide is a word coined to ideologically represent the killing of a whole race or group of people. In history, we know of some famous events where huge number of people lost their lives due to ethnic or political resentment. We have the holocaust which was the extermination of European civilians, particularly the European Jews during world war two. The Germans killed between five to six million Jews. We can also talk of the ethnic cleansing that took place in Bosnia-Hersegovina where 250,000 Bosnians were killed by Serbian forces. In as much as we are tempted to believe that genocide is a thing of the past and has to do with the extermination of a particular group of the society, the fact remains the same that genocide goes on in our societies on daily bases. It is no longer the killing of a particular group of people but rather the every single individual in the society is at risk of being a victim. In our case in Ghana, there are societal failures and deliberate, systematic actions and in-actions on our part as a nation that has led, is leading and will still lead to the callous massacre of Ghanians on daily bases. Let us look at a few instances where Ghanians are being murdered by theirfellow Ghanians. Is there a day that goes by in Ghana without the media capturing deaths of Ghanians on our roads? Every single day we hear stories of people dying on our roads due to what we always like to cal‘accidents”. But the question we need to ask is that are these tragic incidents really accidents? Sometimes we hear that 30 people have died on the spot and at other times we hear that 2 people have died but the truth remains the same which is that people are losing their lives. If these incidents are accidents then how can we explain how institutions such as DVLA has been compromised to the extents that the blind, the dead and even mentally challenged people are able to acquire licenses in this country. How can we explain to the dead how the police on daily basis are busily taking bribes when they could have prevented senseless deaths on our roads? Our political elites also collude with party affiliated constructors to construct death traps that end up sending our mothers, fathers, sisters and brother to their early graves. Can we say these deaths are as a result accidents when we ourselves as drivers end up driving careless or drinking alcohol before driving and killing innocent people in this country? If this is not genocide then what is? When it comes to our health sector the situation only get worse. A country with more than 25 million people yet we cannot boast of having a robust emergency medical services. We have a situation where if one is involve in an accident or is extremely sick or needs urgent medical attention the only means of transporting the person to the hospital is via taxis. This is because for a huge country such as ours with over 25 million people we do not even have up to 400 public ambulances and the once we have are either not functioning well or are being used to carry dead bodies. People are losing their lives like animals because of this. We think as a country it is better to buy armored cars for the politicians rather than buy ambulances to save lives. The most absurd aspect of it is the fact that the president and the vice always have ambulances in their convoy ready to convey them to the hospital when the need arises. Are the politicians more important than the dying Ghanians who must take taxis to the hospitals even when they know that they will end up dying on the way? Even assuming that you are lucky to make it the hospital, chances are that you would not survive because apparently either the doctor is not around or the medical oxygen needed to keep you alive is not available. This is the systematic killing that we have brought upon ourselves as a people. We are killing ourselves on daily bases all because of our actions and in-actions. You have situations where even people actually loss their lives as a result of cholera. In this 21st century Ghanians cannot even deal with poor sanitation and to think that people are losing their lives as consequences of this ineptitude is mind boggling. Who is responsible for ensuring that every house built in this country has toilet facilities? What rational human being would build a house without a toilet? The refusal by those responsible is leading to the deaths of countless Ghanians. In addition we have sakawa, armed robbery, suicide, mob justice, corruption and many other social problems we have created ourselves that are massively sucking the lives out of Ghanians. This is genocide and it is happening on daily bases. How can we entrust the future on our children in the hands of a country that is lusting after their lives. This is a country which boast of more 70% Christians and more than% moslems yet we can see the decay all around us. The societal corruption and failure is symmetrically murdering us on daily bases. Who is responsible? Do we blame the devil who we spend all day in our churches and mosques fighting or do we blame the elites who were just like the rest of us but are now elevated and have forgotten their roots or we should all take the blame and start to do the right things? Maybe the time has come for us to stop praying to God and starting listening to what he is saying and that is for us to do the right. The time has come to put an end to the Genocide.
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