A lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana has said former president John Mahama must also take the blame for the lack of patriotism among Ghanaians.

"If John Mahama is saying there is a lack of patriotism among the citizenry, I agree with him but he himself may have contributed to the problem. How did he demonstrate to the ordinary people that he is willing to die for Ghana? I’m not sure….” says Prof. Ransford Gyampo, a political science lecturer at the University of Ghana.

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He added: “If you have a country where there is serious deficit in terms of civic education; where political leaders have not demonstrated essential leadership; where they have not demonstrated that they are prepared to die a little for Ghana.

"If you live in a country where leaders are always milking the nation dry and they are always thinking about taking their own pound of flesh and not wanting to die a little for the nation then the citizenry do not also become patriotic because they learn from the leaders…

"The political leaders themselves know what they have to do…the political leaders we have seen in Ghana demonstrate to us that they are selfish, self-seeking, self-perpetuating and self-aggrandising…if you have leaders who have these features, it becomes difficult to instil patriotism.”

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the enrollment of the first batch of students at the NDC’s ideological school in Accra, he said patriotism has become very deficient.

He said: "Nationalism and patriotism have become very deficient today. Absolutely nobody thinks about the country first.”

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“We all think about ourselves first, our families second, our parties third maybe our communities fourth and Ghana comes a fifth or even tenth."