How independent are Ghanaians after 55 years?

By Doreen Hammond


We would be heading again for the Independence Square on March 6, as part of activities to mark 55 years of the country’s independence. Similar activities will be held at the regional and district levels throughout the country.
As is statutorily the case, the day would be declared a public holiday and most Ghanaians would rejoice and be glad in it, especially workers who will have a day off from work.
Rightly so because this day marks the beginning of our journey into statehood and self determination after years of British colonial rule. A journey which took off at the Old Polo Grounds with Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the driving seat, surrounded by the indefatigable big six namely, Ebenezer Ako-Adjei, Emmanuel Obetsebi-Lamptey, Dr J. B. Danquah, Edward Akufo Addo and William Ofori Atta.
To all these gallant sons and daughters and others who cannot be mentioned, we salute you for your sacrifices in bringing us this far. It is in this regard that we share in the recent honouring of the Osagyefo by the AU with the mounting of his statue at the forecourt of the new AU headquarters in Adis-Ababa; an attestation to the saying that indeed, Nkrumah never dies.
Having said these, let us also use the occasion to do an assessment of our performance on the developmental journey. Such a reflection would afford us the space to determine how far we have come in the last 55 years, where we are going and how we intend to get there. As the saying goes, an unexamined life is not worth living.
In spite of our initial track record with military coup d’etats, Ghana is now touted as one of the few democratic countries on a continent rife with political and social upheavals. With comparatively peaceful, free and fair elections since 1992 and still counting, these achievements can be no fluke.
Ghanaians have also promoted freedom of expression as enshrined in our 1992 Constitution as a requisite for democracy. But to a large extent we have not backed this freedom of speech with the corresponding responsibility and this is quite worrisome. We have turned the many radio stations that have come into being into platforms for trading insults, and that is far from what democracy means.
Our economic indicators also seem to point at the right direction as inflation, GDP and growth are all said to be on course, though the reality, as far as our pockets are concerned, is different.
We are also not doing badly in general infrastructural build-up, especially in the areas of road, schools under trees and some health facilities in the rural areas.
The rule of law seems to be working to some appreciable extent, even if there is room for improvement. To a large extent also, we have managed to remain together as one people with a common sense of purpose and destiny. This should not detract from the fact that cronyism and ethnocentrism seem to be on the rise in recent times with some groups preferring to play the tribal or ethnic card at the expense of our collective good as a people.
Be that as it may, these and many more are achievements worthy of celebrating by any country.
Despite these achievements we still have a long way to go. If we were to do a dispassionate post-mortem and answer the question: how truly independent can we claim to be 55 years down the line, I’m sure the answer would be a mixed one and the reasons are not far fetched.
For instance, reports indicate that about half of the population of Ghanaians (51 per cent) do not have decent places of convenience. The Environmental Health and Sanitation Directorate (EHSD) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development recently made this known and explained that 12 million Ghanaians are forced to practise open defecation, which poses health hazards. While other countries may be building sophisticated war ships, nuclear plants and embarking on space expeditions, we are still grappling with the problem of where to empty our bowels after 55 years of nationhood. This is clearly an indictment on our collective selves as a nation and all efforts should be made to right this wrong. This is clearly not a mark of a mature state.
Fifty-five years down the line and we are not producing enough to feed ourselves. We import almost everything from snails to tomatoes. Our farming is still mainly subsistent and we depend on the hoe and cutlass and rain to water our crops.
We have not been able to develop and expand irrigation systems to control when we have crops in abundance and when we will not. Ours is that of seasonal farming and that is why we either have a glut on our market or a shortage. Even while we have tomatoes in abundance we have not been able to preserve them in tins, for example, and our market has been flooded with different kinds of tinned tomatoes from other countries. The effect of this state of affairs on our economy as relates to foreign exchange is obvious.
Fifty-five years down the line and we have not been able to institute educational policies that give clear directions as to where we want our children to go. We have reviewed a four-year senior high school duration to a three-year one without putting the necessary infrastructure in place to accommodate the policy.
As a result we watched on as our children were cramped like sardines in classrooms and dining halls turned into dormitories without the appropriate facilities. The children entered senior high school before we thought of building classrooms where they will sit to learn. What happened to planning? The ad hoc policies have translated into poor results across board.
Fifty-five years down the line and even the Surgical Medical Emergency Department of our last-stop hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, lacks the basic logistics and infrastructure that would ensure that a patient gets the best of care. Not because staff are not qualified but because the tools to work with are not available; even critical equipment like a theatre bed has become a challenge. Health care is still a nightmare with run-down facilities in most of our health facilities. What are we using our taxes for?
We have not been able to plan ahead to contain the numbers in our hospitals to the extent that once a patient is on admission, relatives would have to be at hand to provide nursing care, whether in the right or wrong way because nurses are inadequate to meet the workload.
Fifty-five years down the line and most of us have succeeded in throwing away our various Ghanaian languages which make us Ghanaian, preferring to speak only English and still give names that our colonial masters left for us to give our children; and we call ourselves independent?
How independent have we become when our youth continue to believe that success can only be achieved in another land and not our own?
Fifty-five years down the line and you will be surprised how many Ghanaians will race on board a ship docked at the port, ready to send people into any foreign land to do menial jobs.
Rail transport, which seems our best bet at easing the heavy traffic in the capital has eluded us. Promises of a railway line from Accra to Paga have turned out to be empty talk.
Forging ahead, we need to continue to take account of our strengths and weaknesses. We should continue to build on the things that unite us as a people and eschew all negative attitudes that would lead us onto the path of self-destruction.
Collectively and individually, we should always be guided by the words of one of our patriotic songs which says that “Others came and did their bit and it is now our turn to also build on”. The big question is: Are we building anything that would make posterity proud of us?
We should all resolve to work harder, be more patriotic and remain united as a people so that next year by this time we can give a more positive account of our stewardship. Ghanaians are in one ship called Ghana and if it sinks, we all sink together.