The Greater Accra Regional Second Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr. Eric Nartey Yeboah—widely known as Chairman Dollar—has called on Ghanaians to transform the fleeting moments of national unity often seen during major tragedies or football victories into a sustained drive for nation-building.
Speaking to journalists following the tragic military helicopter crash on August 6 in the Ashanti Region, which claimed the lives of two cabinet ministers and six others, Chairman Dollar urged citizens and political leaders alike to go beyond symbolic unity.
“At 68 years of independence, we should not be united only around death and football.
We have a lot more in common as Ghanaians that should bind us together and push us forward,” he stated.
Mr. Yeboah reflected on key moments in Ghana’s history where unity briefly transcended political and ethnic divides.
He cited the national grief and solidarity during the 2012 state funeral of former President John Evans Atta Mills, and the shared joy when the Black Stars reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In both cases, he noted, Ghanaians came together as one people—but the spirit was short-lived.
Blending his political experience with his background in national security, Chairman Dollar warned that Ghana’s deep cultural and political divisions continue to stall its development.
Despite the country’s natural and mineral wealth, he said, Ghana still lags behind others that have made unity a cornerstone of progress.
“We should throw away this fear and suspicion that holds us back.
The cooperation we are seeing now between the ruling government and the opposition in honoring the crash victims must not end here.
It must be the foundation for a new national mindset,” he urged.
Chairman Dollar concluded by appealing to all political parties, civic leaders, and citizens to view unity not as an occasional response to loss or sport, but as a permanent commitment to building a better Ghana.
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