Dead persons don’t change society – Kwesi Pratt on paying ultimate price for nation

Veteran journalist Kwesi Pratt Jnr has said in the country’s quest to make people patriotic, it is important to psyche society to see the need to live, think and struggle.

He said taking people on a suicidal mission to be patriotic just for the sake of it, won’t achieve much because “dead bodies do not change society; dead bodies are simply dead bodies.”

Contributing to a discussion on Joy FM’s Ghana Connect Programme, on whether Ghanaians will die for their country, Mr. Pratt told host Evans Mensah that it is imperative everyone contributes their quota in developing society.

“People have to make contributions to the efforts to build the society that is free from injustice, poverty and hunger, where the working people can take control of their destiny. That contribution can be made in many ways and forms.

“If you educate yourself and find out what is wrong with your society, you are making a huge contribution to changing and building that society,” he said.

According to Mr Pratt, the contributions people like him and others have made by taking on the government of the day is often exaggerated.

“I took part in the planning of the ‘Kume Pr? ko’ demonstration but my contribution was not more than the thousands who poured onto the street on the day ending with four people losing their lives,” he said.

‘Kume Pr?ko’ was an anti-government demonstration that occurred in the country in 1995, led by the current President, Nana Akufo-Addo.

The protest took place in opposition to the Value Added Tax (VAT) initiative which was introduced under the Jerry John Rawlings administration.

But Mr Pratt said it is unfair for him and others to be given too much credit as he “played the role I had to play because I was in the position to do so.”

Commenting on the three judges and a retired officer who were killed during the revelation, Mr Pratt said the episode was one of the most heinous crimes ever committed in the history of the country.

“This is a crime which threatens to tear Ghana apart at its very seams…it is an important part of history which we have to learn from in order that it is not repeated.

“To that extent any attempt to remind us of that history in a positive way to get us to overcome our challenges and work together to move the nation forward is commendable,” he said.

The veteran journalist said it is important that the kind of mindset which led to such a heinous crime being committed not just against the victims but the conscience of the entire country is not reinvented.