We salute all Ghanaians on Republic Day
TODAY is 57 years since Ghana attained a Republican status. On July 1, 1960, Ghana adopted the first Republican Constitution and we have since grown as a country to have the Fourth Republican Constitution.
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On that day 57 years ago, the Queen of England ceased to be the Head of State of Ghana and Dr Kwame Nkrumah became the first President of the Republic.
As a country, we have been celebrating Republic Day as a holiday on a low key compared to Independence Day and, to some extent, the days on which the military intervened in our body politic.
The military interregnums began on February 24, 1966 when the First Republic was truncated and our first President was removed from office.
The second was January 13, 1972 when Dr Kofi Abrefa Busia was ousted from office as Prime Minister.
The Armed Forced Revolutionary Council junta, led by Flt. Lt. J.J. Rawlings, removed the Supreme Military Council that overthrew the Busia government, then supervised elections and handed over to Dr Hilla Limann to lead the government of the Third Republic.
That government was short-lived as Flt Lt. Rawlings together with others again intervened to form the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime until January 1993 when the country was ushered into the Fourth Republic.
Fifty-seven years of Republican status have faced a lot of challenges as the path has been rough and inundated with many ups and downs.
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The interruptions in our democratic path have been a major bane of the development process in that development programmes and policies were disrupted, rendering national ambitions unfulfilled.
Besides the challenges of military interventions in our body politic, the dividends of democratic practice have not been forthcoming as expected because our fixation is on winning elections rather than building the nation.
Fortunately for us as a nation, we have been practising the fourth Republican Constitution for the past 24 years and the lessons would continue to guide us into the future.
For many years, especially after the overthrow of the First Republic, Republic Day was relegated to the background until the 1990s when the then government decided to set the day aside to celebrate the contributions of senior citizens to nation-building.
On this day, the government organises luncheons for senior citizens across the country.
We believe that the Senior Citizens’ Day, although a good initiative, must go beyond just wining and dining and the handshakes to reflections on our journey so far.
Ghana appears to be at the crossroads searching for solutions to problems in all sectors of the economy.
While we face these challenges, indiscipline and lawlessness have taken a toll on Ghanaians.
The law enforcement agencies seem to be helpless in the face of the breakdown of law and order on our streets, in our homes and at our workplaces.
As President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo dines with senior citizens today, it is the expectation of the Daily Graphic that they will use the opportunity to reflect on the past and give Ghanaians hope that after all, we can still work hard to bring back the ‘good old days’ in present-day Republican Ghana.