Is independence dream alive?
Tomorrow, March 6, marks the country’s 68th Independence Day, and as usual, Ghanaians are ready to celebrate it but not with much enthusiasm.
Our lead story is on the views about the Independence Day and it can be deduced from them that most Ghanaians think the country, as it is now, is not what it was envisioned to be by the founding fathers.
This is much more evident in the common expression of optimism in the future of the country by Ghanaians of all walks of life, believing that the 68th independence anniversary will mark the beginning of the attainment of the dreams of the founding fathers.
It is the case that at the time of struggling for independence, all colonised nations envisioned states being in charge of their own affairs and doing things for their betterment.
There are cases of nations which have leveraged their independence to improve life’s conditions in their jurisdictions but it appears this has happened only outside Africa.
Take nations like Malaysia, Korea and Singapore, Asian countries, which have and continue to better the lives of their people, and compare them to independent states in Africa, including Ghana.
For instance, Ghana and Malaysia were British colonies and both gained independence in 1957, with Ghana having her freedom on March 6 before Malaysia’s on August 31.
Today, Malaysia is far ahead of Ghana in terms of what constitute modern-day development, including education, human resource, spatial planning, infrastructure for all endeavours like good transportation and health systems, high Gross Domestic Product, security and the appreciable level of adherence to law in everyday life.
These are things that make life comfortable for people but are comparably lacking in Ghana.
Life in the country is generally not comfortable for majority of the people.
In fact, there are people who have gained from the country, but they are mostly politicians and other people in privileged positions in the public service space who have siphoned public funds through corrupt ways to better their lives and those of the people close to them like families and friends. These are the same people exploiting all opportunities for the benefit of those around them and only consider others if they can give inducements like bribes to secure jobs or even admission to schools, for instance.
A good analysis of what the first President of the country, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, said and began to implement shows that if many of the things he envisaged had been followed through by his successors, with modifications as the years went by, the country would have made strides wider than anyone would claim today.
That is to say the dream of a better country as envisioned by Nkrumah and his lieutenants was aborted to the hurt of the people.
Today, no one can begrudge the Ghanaian who says the country is lagging behind development, which means the citizens face all manner of challenges, including those which should have been surmounted years ago such as food insecurity, poor transportation infrastructure, poor hospital facilities and poor standard of education.
Unfortunately, the standards in all sectors of the country keep falling due to poor management.
Therefore, The Ghanaian Times agrees with people sharing their views that the celebration of the 68th independence anniversary should mark a new dawn of politicians truly making the efforts beyond the rhetoric to develop the country to bring some comforts to all its people.