64 years today we made the decision to steer our own affairs !! How far have we come?

Botswana formally the British protectorate of Bechuanaland is a landlocked country in southern Africa. The name Botswana was adopted after becoming independence on 30th September,1966 and since independence it has been a representative republic with a consistent records of uninterrupted democratic elections and the least perceived corruption ranking in Africa at least since 1998.

It's currently Africa's oldest continuous democracy with a population of about 2.3million estimated in 2018. Its leader at independence was Seretse Kharma.

Unlike Ghana which gained its independence on 6th March 1957 with an economy that appeared stable and prosperous being the world's leading producer of cocoa and an external reserve of US$481m, and its gross domestic product (GDP) was on a part with those of Malaysia and South Korea; it could afford to provide assistance to some of its African neighbours. Botswana on the hand appeared to be the poorest country at independence with a GDP per capital of about US$70 per year. Interestingly, Botswana a poor country at independence has now transformed itself into an upper middle income country as one of the world’s fastest growing economy. Unlike Ghana’s economy which is hugely dominated by natural resources such as minerals including; gold, diamond, bauxite manganese, oil, salt etc. timber, cocoa, and several other perennial crops, fishing, tourism and many more, Botswana's economy only depends on mining of diamonds , rearing of cattle and tourism but yet it will interest you to know that such a country can boast of a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capital of US$ 18.34 billion according to official data from the World Bank ( www. tradingeconomics.com ) in 2019, which is one of the highest in Africa. Botswana has a gross national income which is estimated to be the fourth - largest in Africa giving the country a relatively standard of living and the highest Human Development Index in the sub- Saharan continent. The question then is what did Botswana do right? Or as one may ask, what might have accounted or attributed to Botswana success since there are many examples of states specifically in Africa with large endowed resources but yet are unable to achieve sustainable development. OR what are the key determinants of Botswana’s economic miracle. As a landlocked country in the middle of sub-Saharan Africa, Botswana should not be growing; yet Botswana has been one of the fastest growing countries in the world for the past 30 years.

To begin with, Botswana success can be attributed to good leadership. Leadership have been one of the key instruments towards the economic and political success of Botswana. Botswana's leaders since independence have been very exceptional and outstanding. They have passed the assertion that "true leaders are not content with conforming; they know their destiny is to transform ".

Their leaders have overtime recognized that their identity is not in their position but their ability to transform the lives of their people. Botswana's leaders have overtime seen the country avoid the "resource curse", where minerals wealth has been squandered as in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and elsewhere. According to Kebapetse Losh-wao a political lecturer at the University of Botswana he said " the country was lucky to have had leaders such as Seretse Kharma, Festus Mogae and Ketumile Masire [ https://www.bbc.com ] These successive leaders of Botswana had clarity of vision who put development above everything using the international development aid and growing diamond revenues judiciously and efficiently.

The United Nation Development Program (UNDP) a United Nations development agency has described Botswana as "one of Africa's veritable economic and human success stories" oh yeah a country once described at the time of Independence as a " vast trackless, wasteland with little to celebrate”[ https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa ].

Again, Botswana is widely considered to be one of the leading country in Africa due to good governance which is a reflection of its generally high quality of institutions, its independent legal system and relatively low level of corruption. It is unimpeachable that institutions play an imperative role in determining long-term economic growth and sustainable development.

The institutions of governance namely; the institutions of democracy (executive, legislative, judiciary), the civil service and financial policy in Botswana are exception on the African continent. Global indicators like Transparency International (TI) has designated Botswana as least in Africa in terms of corruption perception indexes. Cases of corruption within the government have been very few and when public servants engaged in corrupts practices; they have either resigned or been sacked due to anti- corruption policies that are fair and transparent.

Employment opportunities in Botswana have been by meritocracy and the government has pursued a smooth localization Programs. Finally, fiscal policy has been exceptional, notably conservative macroeconomic policy and good economic management practices. Their system has shown to be accountable and receptive to the demands of the population.

Moreover, the success of Botswana can be attributed to their productive Education System. The wealth acquired from its diamonds and other minerals has not gone waste. Botswana has developed its educational system by building more schools to educate its people and providing good funded scholarship for people that are studying fields that are lacking to study both home and abroad, for instance in the late 1990s when HIV/AIDS crises bedeviled the country, the government provided free- scholarship for students studying medicine and health related programs.

Another attribute that has contributed to Botswana's success is a consensus- seeking approach to governance which has deep root in Twana culture. As opined by the famous Pan-Africanist and Professor of law, PLO Lumumba that “governance is progressive, hence it must be inclusive else it becomes try and error - and incompetent". Botswana since independence has had consensus approach to governance; legislations are often circulated to all relevant stakeholders, and it is only after consensus has been reached that such legislations could be passed by Cabinet. This process has become institutionalized through regular consultations with sensitive stakeholders. The government on regular basis do establish presidential Commissions that outline government rationale on certain issues. These Commissions are given the independence to produce recommendations that defers from government policies.

Finally, Botswana has a development Planning process that started before independence and has continued under successive government to date. Since independence, Botswana's development process has been guided by successive national development plan and not political party's manifesto. This process combines elements of top-down and bottom-up planning and includes the preparation of districts and more recently urban development

Ironically, a prospective industrialized Ghana is still wandering in what was envisioned about 64 years ago by it first leader Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. A Ghana that at the time when it first leader was overthrown in the CIA-inspired coup, had almost 68 straggling state-owned factories producing every need of the population –from shoes, to textiles, to furniture, to lorry tires, to canned fruits, vegetables, and beef; to glass, to radio and tv; to books, to steel, to educated manpower, nearly everything, but pathetically, such lepfrog progress was truncated by some disgruntled and contentious Ghanaian soldiers in the 1966 coup d'etat. Nonetheless, Ghana as a country is not that pathetic and wretched or worse off, because it has lacked the solutions to its problems, actually we have not grown to that state where our problems are complicated and which cannot be addressed.

Our problems still remain the very rudiments of life such as poor and deplorable roads, lack of accessible portable water, inaccessibility of electricity to communities and homes, poor healthcare, lack of hospitals indecent schools among others. The remedies to our problems appear in our textbooks from our basics schools to our tertiary institutions. Like Manasseh Azuri Awuni said "our economic problems and their solutions are available in university dissertations and policy documents from the World Bank to the IMF; they are even written better by nation's that were once like us, but which now lends to us".

Quite fascinatingly, our political parties in opposition tell and always preach about remedies to our problems but forget when they are in government. So it obvious that we don't lack the ideas. What we have lacked are leaders who must seek principle ahead of power, because of how futile power is devoid of principles. What we need are leaders who will not be content with conforming, for they will know that their destiny is to transform.

What we have seen is men and women who preach what they do not do when given power. What we need are leaders who are discerning; understand the real issues and whose identities are not in their positions. What we need are leaders who are custodians of our values, virtues, principles, attitudes and characters. If we get leaders with these traits, they will be able to identify the right professionals and expects to use the resources of our country to achieve and secure for the Ghanaian people, and posterity the blessings of liberty, equality of opportunity and prosperity.

What we have seen is petty- competitive partisan politics that has created needless political divisiveness, rancor and it resultant winner take-all syndrome. What we need is a compromise, cooperative and consensus approach to governance; where everyone voices matter in the governance process.

What we need is an educational system which it graduates can meet the requirements of the job market -and will be part of the problem- solvers of the society and not merely schooled- illiterates.We need people in government who understands that the future and destiny of our country tomorrow is directly related to what is happening in our classrooms today. What we need is a National Development Plan that will guide government as well as successive government in achieving sustainable development for the Ghanaian people and not political party's manifesto.

May the events of the struggle of our independence -- and the flames our decolonization martyrs lit remind us all of our collective effort to secure for ourselves, and posterity the blessings of liberty, equality of opportunity and prosperity; a Ghana that resources will be judiciously utilized.

Happy 64th Independence Day!!!

AUTHORS

EVANS OWU SENIOR

RESEARCH FELLOW---PREMIUM ELITE CONSULT

B. A POLITICAL SCIENCE L400, UEW

( [email protected] / 0248365185)

EVANS OWU JUNIOR

RESEARCH FELLOW--- PREMIUM ELITE CONSULT

B.A POLITICAL SCIENCE L400, UEW

([email protected] / 0553269704 )