We thank China for gesture, but ....

Ghana has, in recent times, been attracting a lot of support, be it financial or material, from a number of donor countries and partners. This is due to its democratic credentials, which have been globally acclaimed, and the feeling-good climate engendered by the Akufo-Addo administration.

Grants and loans from the Federal Republic of Germany, the Republic of South Korea through the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and the People’s Republic of China readily come to mind.

While the country is very much appreciative of these good gestures and goodwill from our donor partners, the Daily Graphic would like to stress the need for the government to remain focused as it seeks to enhance its bilateral and multilateral ties and keep to its agenda to move away from aid to trade.

Many people have raised concerns, particularly about the support coming from China. They are worried because they believe the financial assistance coming from China may unduly influence the country’s resolve to fight and win the war against illegal mining (galamsey), some of whose operators are Chinese.

It is in line with this that the Daily Graphic urges caution on the part of the leadership and political class of the country to endeavour to seek the permanent interests of its citizens first.

While we concede that in a globalised environment Ghana cannot be an island in the comity of nations, it is equally important that in the discharge of our global duties, we do not surrender our sovereignty to the interest of other countries. In international diplomacy, it is said that countries have permanent interests and not friends, for which reason, even as we seek support to fix our economy, the national interests must remain our priority.

 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has consistently maintained that Ghana can and must wean itself off aid dependency and the Daily Graphic believes that through hard work, commitment and dedication to national obligations, reaching beyond the sky can be the nation’s portion in the scheme of global affairs.

That vision, however, calls for unalloyed belief and faith in the can-do spirit by all the people of Ghana. We also need to change our mindset from anything foreign made to made-in-Ghana products in order to assert ourselves in the global economy.

The Daily Graphic recognises the gesture extended to Ghana to implement the one-district, one-factory policy to create jobs and wealth and other facilities to fix the economy.

China is really an ally in the true spirit of South-South co-operation, but we appeal to the leadership of China to get its nationals involved in galamsey to stay away from the destruction of our vegetation and water bodies.

The impunity with which the Chinese ply their trade, with the connivance of some Ghanaians, is eroding the respect Ghanaians have for China as a friend of the vulnerable.

We urge our government to put the Chinese support to good use to change the direction of the economy for the better and at the same time speak up against our foreign friends who take us for granted because of our current difficulties.