Professor Kwame Karikari, a renowned Journalism and Mass Media Scholar, has called for a renewed commitment to volunteerism and national service among Ghanaians, particularly the youth.
He expressed concern that the culture of volunteerism, once widespread and practised with national pride, was fast declining in contemporary Ghanaian society, where many now demanded payments before offering help, even for communal tasks.
“Today, if you don’t pay people, they won’t even sweep the dirt they themselves have created,” Prof. Karikari observed.
“We must ask ourselves: What is the value of life for me? At the end of the day, when I go to sleep, what makes me happy?”
Prof. Karikari, founder of the award-winning Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), made the call during a public lecture in Accra on Thursday to mark his 80th Birthday.
The event, on the theme: “Celebrating a Life of Commitment and Service to Free Expression, Democracy and Social Justice,” drew prominent figures from academia, civil society, and the media.
Recounting his formative years, Prof. Karikari noted how volunteering made him and many of his peers acquire essential skills and knowledge that shaped their careers and contributed meaningfully to society.
“It was not money that built us; it was service, passion, and sacrifice,” he said, urging today’s youth to embrace similar values to drive national progress.
He stressed that wisdom, not just money, was required to effectively govern and advance a country’s development.
Despite his concerns, Prof. Karikari expressed the hope in the potential of the current generation to overcome challenges and lead Ghana forward.
“I am optimistic about the future prospects and capabilities of the current youth towards nation building, and I hope that they will solve the challenges of their times,” he said.
Dr Yao Graham, Coordinator of Third World Network-Africa, called for a more nuanced understanding of politics and leadership, beyond the confines of the binary party politics, loyalty and electoral cycles.
“When non-political actors such as NGOs, faith-based institutions, and the media view themselves as active players in the national agenda, they can help push political leadership to act in the national interest,” he noted.
Born on July 16, 1945, in Akim Awisa in the Eastern Region, Prof. Kwame Karikari is internationally celebrated as a bold and vocal advocate for freedom of expression, democratic reforms, and social justice in Africa.
The MFWA, the pacesetting Foundation he established in 1997, is widely regarded as the leading media rights organisation in West Africa.
Under his leadership, the Foundation launched The Fourth Estate, an accountability journalism project that won the Media and Information category at the 2024 World Justice Challenge.
Prof. Karikari served as Director-General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) in the early 1980s and has trained and mentored generations of journalists both in Ghana and across the continent.
He was also a long-time professor at the School of Communication Studies, University of Ghana.
Beyond academia, he has championed human rights and democratic reforms and continues to serve on the boards of various African and international rights organisations, as well as editorial boards of scholarly journals.
He studied at the City College of New York and Columbia University in the United States, institutions that shaped his early passion for media freedom and justice.
Prof. Karikari currently serves as the Board Chairman of the Graphic Communications Group Limited.
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