Use 61st anniversary as day of reflection — CPP

The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has enjoined all Ghanaians to use the 61st independence anniversary, which falls today, as a day of solemn reflection.

Ghana’s independence must inspire the citizenry to establish and manage a statecraft of law, order and equal opportunity for Freedom and justice to prevail, the CPP underscored.

According to the National Chairman and Leader of the CPP, Prof. Edmund N. Delle, 61 years after independence, corruption continues to hamper the growth and development of the country.

In a statement to mark the anniversary, Prof. Delle recalled that ancient Ghana was a well-organised, centralised and prosperous state by 800 C.E., dealing in mercantile trading which was centred on precious gold and salt.

Ghana’s wealth, industry, splendour, statecraft, economy, education, diplomacy and societal discipline, Prof. Delle pointed out, became the talk of Arab chroniclers.

Abhorrence of injustice These Arab writers, according to Prof. Delle, attested that our ancestors were seldom unjust and had a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people.

“There was hardly any theft and corruption. There was no ‘create, loot and share”. There were no ‘greedy bastards’. And the universal discipline was such that if you dropped a gold coin in the street and remembered where you dropped it, you could go back to the spot the following day and retrieve your money untouched,” he stated.

He also noted that the country’s executive, legislative, judiciary, military, police intelligence, civil service, educational and spiritual system and structures were a gaping caricature of European and American value and spiritual systems still serving well the purposes of the “colonial master”.

Servitude and tranquility In the view of Prof. Delle, Ghana had allowed itself to be cloned in “servitude and tranquillity” to the “colonial master” against the hopes of her founding parents.

He said the country had invariably become the purveyors of mimicking and mediocrity, putting to shame the African Personality designs and promises of our founding parents who sought to rekindle our souls for our future safety and development.

He observed that Ghana’s independent path was strewn with landmines of bedevilling corruption, which threatened and destabilised every move the nation made to ascertain a united Africa in the collective selfinterest.

He said Ghana’s independence was meaningless unless it was linked up with the total eradication of corruption and its attendant injustice, inequality, discrimination, marginalisation and poverty.

Sword of justice

Prof. Delle pointed out that in ancient Ghana, the sword of justice cut right, left and centre, without prejudice, saying: “Ghanaians are tired of succeeding governments paying lip service to the task of tackling corruption in all areas of our national life.”

Prof. Delle said to save Ghana now, the sword of justice must act and cut to remove the cancer of corruption and underdevelopment.

He mentioned that the name Ghana demanded of us a corruption-free and disciplined society where if you dropped your sack of gold at Kawukudi junction in Accra, which separates the Zongo slum of Nima from the rich and endowed Roman Ridge and the Airport residential areas, you will return to fetch the sack of gold from the very spot where you dropped it, as it was in Glorious Ancient Ghana.

Prof. Delle said: “As we use the occasion of the 61st anniversary of independence to pay tribute to our founding parents, what must be recalled is that the Europeans built their forts and castles mostly on the grounds of our spiritual groves in order to supplant their Christian faith over our own faith”.

“To regain our self-respect and selfconfidence, our founding parents reached deeply inside our history for the successful example of Glorious Ancient Ghana to lift up our spirits in manifest tribute to and resurrection of the African Personality which was light to ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Jews and Chinese. It is this African Personality that bequeathed to humanity the concept of the worship of one god (monotheism), which in turn gave birth to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

“6th March 1957 was therefore the beginning of the spiritual and material independence of our new nation Ghana, or the start of our Sankofa journey to free our enslaved soul through self-discovery in order to make up, catch up and surpass for, if we did it before we can do it again,” he asserted.