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Ghanaian alumni of the Oxford and Cambridge universities have been urged to take active roles in the fight against corruption to help shape the political, social and economic transformation of the country.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CarePoint, Dr Sangu Delle, challenged them not to be silent, but to leverage the knowledge acquired from the two English universities to challenge the status quo to derive positive results for the good of humanity.
“This requires sacrifice and being able to engage with discomfort. Speak up openly and vocally about the corruption and mismanagement of our economy and the perilous failure of moral leadership in this country,” he said.
Dr Delle was speaking at a networking event organised by the Oxford and Cambridge Society of Ghana (OXCAM), an association of Ghanaian alumni of the Oxford and Cambridge universities in Accra last Wednesday.
It was on the theme: “Privilege and the moral responsibility to serve: Case studies from OXCAM alumni in Ghana”.
Mr Delle said both universities had provided fertile grounds for the alumni who were helping to shape the continent in different dimensions and that the current generation of former students must also commit to the path of responsible leadership.
“Let us serve with passion and act with integrity and embody the spirit of service in our home, work and communities and every single interaction,” he added.
Mr Delle further urged them not to be discouraged by any attack or the risk involved in speaking truth to power, saying “we can’t give up because if that is what our ancestors did, we will still be colonised by the British”.
“We will not be free women and free men. We will still be slaves if our foremothers and forefathers gave up and said it was too hard, difficult or dangerous, we would not have the freedom we enjoyed today,” he added.
Mr Delle, who is also an Oxford alumnus, said corruption was a problem of leadership failure and that fighting corruption was a collective duty and must not be left to a select few.
“When the police stop you for doing wrong, we don’t need to succumb to paying the bribe.
“If just a few people do it and the rest of society is complacent, we are not going to solve the problem. Let’s hold politicians responsible and speak truth to power,” he said.
For her part, Dr Emefa Juliet Takyi Amoako, who is also an alumnus of Oxford, explained that the event formed part of the 10th-anniversary celebration of the association.
The association, she said was focused on mobilising various alumni groups to impact society.
Dr Amoako announced that OxCam, in partnership with the Student Representative Council of the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology (CIBT-SRC), would hold a forum on the politics of peace, migration and youth empowerment in West Africa.
