Editorial of the Daily Searchlight of 20th March, 2024
Professor Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse, President of Accra College of Medicine, has called on medical professionals to stay in the country and contribute to its rapid development.
She emphasised that each person had a duty to contribute to the development of the country, so “love your country and don’t be in a hurry to abandon it to go and develop another country.”
Professor Hesse was speaking at a White Coat ceremony to induct students at School of Medicine and Pharmacy of the University of Health and Allied Science (UHAS) in Ho, in the Volta Region into their clinical year after successfully completing their pre-clinical training.
The President urged the students to follow God’s guidance to transform the nation into what they want it to be, saying “we are the only ones who can develop our own country.”
Speaking on the theme: “The Path to Entrepreneurial Excellence in Healthcare,” she challenged the students to adopt a mindset that would allow them create jobs for themselves rather than waiting on the government.
The President said integrity was key in the health profession, and truth telling always paid a great dividend, hence they must cherish them, and that “what is right is right and what is wrong can never be right.”
” Be known for being just and not discriminatory in terms of social status or financial means of education or education or anything else that will make people feel inferior when they’re in your presence or that will discriminate to make people feel more superior,” she said.
The Daily Searchlight says;
The call by Professor Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse on new doctors is relevant on many levels.
To begin with, it is a fact that no other citizen of any other country would be able to develop our country to the level we wish it to be, but ourselves.
Second, the fact remains that the nation has expended massive resources on us, at all levels, to bring us to where we are at the moment, and we can only pay back by staying and contributing to its growth.
Third, it is a fact that we must also imbibe the entrepreneurial spirit to create jobs for ourselves, instead of waiting on government to enroll us on the public payroll.
Fourth, integrity pays. People and customers flock only to those who exhibit demonstrable commitment to virtues like competence, honesty and integrity of character, who are not underhanded in their dealings with their fellow human beings.
Ghana as a country is failing, and a key part of that is due to the fact that its lifeblood, its people, prefer the ease and comfort of living in other nations, as against contributing to the development of Ghana.
It is also due to the fact that dishonesty at all levels is now a virtue. Ghanaians are basically very dishonest, in all institutions including politics, business, the media and religion, and this has had a deleterious effect on our development as a people and as a nation.
We believe that the call by Professor Afua Adwo Jectey Hesse is a call to patriotism, and we call on those lucky enough to have heard the message, to adopt it and imbibe all that it entails.
