Ghana’s 68th year of freedom, unity and progress, what progress?

As I watched the celebration of Independence Day at the Jubilee House on television, I read on my screen “Ghana’s 68th year of Freedom, Unity and Progress”.

I questioned, so, after 68 years of Independence, we have freedom, unity and progress? Yes, we have freedom.

However, the freedom we have is the freedom to speak as we like and not the freedom to speak about what is needed.

Yes, we have a democracy which we call in the local parlance “ka bi ma menka bi amammuo”. Perhaps, it could be more appropriately called “Dodo amammuo” or “Adwenkyerekyere amammuo”– majority rule.

The first one tends to connote argument and tension, instead of the sharing of ideas. You speak not because you have the chance to speak, but because you have something to say.

In a lot of radio and television discussions, when the attention of someone speaking is drawn to the dangers of what he/she is saying, he/she would resist and tell the host, “Allow me to finish speaking, then he/she can also say his/hers and that is why we have ‘ka bi manka bi’”.

By the time he completes his submission, he would have caused trouble and that is freedom and for that matter, freedom of speech.

We are gradually killing our beautiful culture of respect for others, especially respect for the elderly.

And unity? The beauty of the diversity of culture has always been on display at national events. Sadly, people in politics, for their selfish interests, are beginning to exploit our cultural differences to create discord and tensions among our people.

Can we not make better use of our cultural diversity for gainful ends for society and the nation? After 68 years of independence, are we better united? Instead of diversity, we have differences. Sad, isn’t it?

As for progress, we have made little with all the resources our Maker gave us, including, as Mr Kennedy Agyapong puts it, our location on the globe as the centre of the world, where the Equator’s longitudinal and latitudinal lines meet.

What progress have we made with all these resources? 

We like to enjoy imported items because we do not like our own. We have failed to create jobs out of the resources for our growing population.

We cannot produce goods and services to enhance supply, so we continue to use the tools of monetary policy to suppress demand to control inflation and currency instability.

Lord JM Keynes – the English Economist and Philosopher– warned that it is economically unwise not to consume.

However, we put pressure on demand (consumption) because we are unable to resolve the bottlenecks in production. 

So, we have made little progress with the resources God has given us.

After feeding about five thousand men with just five loaves and two small fish, Jesus warned the disciples: “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted” (John 6:12 KJV).

But Ghanaians are wasting resources.

The Bible teaches that when the disciples did not seem to appreciate the resources they had at their disposal to be able to feed the people, Jesus asked them: “How many loaves do you have?  Go and see”. When they found out, they said, “Five and two fish” (Mark 6:38 KJV)
 

With all the resources at our disposal, we seem helpless. Mark 6:38 advises us to “Go and see”.

Let us sit back and check all the resources God has given us and gather the fragments so that nothing is wasted.

It appears the progress we have made and which we can show our people and the world is huge debt, inflation and currency instability.

Yes, we are 68 years old. But there is little to show as an economically independent nation. The IMF holds the torchlight and walks behind us throwing the light ahead of us to walk like toddlers.

One day, a President will be chosen who will sit and gather men (and women) around and tell them let’s “Go and see” the resources God has given us.

Let us do a SWOT analysis of the country.

He would say: We have Freedom, let us use it productively. We have Unity, let us guard it and not destroy it.

We can put together in a pot the freedom, the unity and all the resources at our disposal, shake it and produce PROGRESS to show to our people and the world.
  
Sylvester Asare,

Financial Analyst.
E-mail: asaredsylver@yahoo.com