Editorial: Making Founder’s Day more meaningful

The country celebrated Founder’s Day on Sunday, September 21, 2014. It is a day on which the nation pauses to celebrate the birth of its first President, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, its rich past and its promising future.

In 2010, President John Evans Atta Mills instituted the Founder’s Day to celebrate the birthday of Dr Nkrumah. Last Sunday marked Nkrumah’s 105th birthday. 

Ever since the day was declared a public holiday,the country has been caught in a political debate as to who really was the founder of Ghana.

 While a school of thought insists that Nkrumah was the sole founder of modern Ghana, another has argued that instead of a Founder’s Day celebrated in honour of one person, the nation must celebrate Founders’ Day so that all members of the ‘Big Six’ will be acknowledged.

The argument is reinforced by the fact that the nation’s history cannot be written without acknowledging the significant roles played by the “Big Six.” They are: Dr Ako Adjei, Obetsebi-Lamptey, EdwardAkufo-Addo, J.B. Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah and William Ofori Atta.

Though there may be strong arguments in support of the two schools of thought, it is the view of the Daily Graphic that in future, the day should be used to remind us of the vision of our first President.

The Daily Graphic urges Ghanaians to recognise the relevance of the Founder’s Day celebration and impress on our leaders to use the occasion to talk about the achievements of Nkrumah across the country.

We will not shy away from stressing the compelling need to translate Nkrumah’s vision and what he stood for into practical actions.

From the way the country celebrated its Founder’s Day last Sunday, there can be no doubt that our nation is undervaluing Nkrumah’s mission and vision. 

The challenge for the country is to restore the vision of economic independence so that we can create wealth for the people, eliminate poverty, disease and hunger, and live in dignity and prosperity.

Immediately after independence, Dr Nkrumah hit the ground running, after realising that Ghana could not survive against the powerful colonial super powers and, therefore, declared that the independence of Ghana was meaningless unless it was linked with the total liberation of Africa. It was his belief that the African is capable of managing his or her own affairs.

By so doing, Dr Nkrumah lived by setting practical examples. 

A Ghanaian statesman and retired diplomat, Mr K.B. Asante, argues that Founder’s Day must be celebrated properly or be scrapped.

According to the revered diplomat who worked with Dr Nkrumah, ‘’We used to start work at 7:30 a.m. in Nkrumah’s time and he was on time; you would never hear the sirens on the street taking the President to work at 10 a.m. when we are supposed to start working at 8 a.m.’’

He argued that we must return to these virtues as we celebrate Founder’s Day.

While the Daily Graphic would not recommend that the celebration be scrapped, it is our contention that it must be made more practical and geared towards development.

We recall the euphoria and great expectation of economic opportunities that heralded the attainment of Ghana’s independence on March 6, 1957.

The whole nation was prepared to make sacrifices for the sake of nation building, and acts of patriotism were the order of the day.

It is with much regret that  after marking the 105th birthday of Nkrumah last Sunday, the nation seems to be losing its grip on these great values.

We are still struggling to stem corruption, indiscipline and  poor sanitation, among other problems, that have slowed down our development process.

In spite of the fact that the nation is also blessed with quality human and material resources, we do not manufacture most of the items we need, making Ghana a consumptive economy with endemic trade deficits.

We simply cannot be proud of our present achievements and this calls for all hands on deck to enable the country to achieve its dreams beyond the rhetorics.