WHAT IS HAPPENING TO OUR INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATION

I remember that as a child I just could not wait to wear my brightly polished shoes and my little socks to get ready for the independence march. I do not know if the children of today feel the same way as I did way back. Ghanaians are geared up and looking forward to a massive Golden Jubilee Celebration. As Ghana turns 50 on 6th March 2007, we have every right to celebrate even though some people think otherwise. But whatever it is, everyone is entitled to his/ her own opinion.

From my perspective as a woman and a Ghanaian I believe the 50th anniversary should be celebrated in grand style. I was expecting to see the Ghana @ 50 cloths on the market all along, especially from this month onwards but there has been nothing like that. I have seen just a few people in the Ghana @ 50 T-shirt but where to get it is the problem.

I think the Ghana @ 50 secretariat should do more to hype the anniversary celebrations. They should collaborate with the different ministries to come out with touching and educative programs i.e., the Ministry of Education can take up the mandate to distribute pamphlets on the Big Six and Ghana @ 50 t- shirts and pens, to school children and the Minister could do same in selected schools as well. The Ministry of Information and National Orientation could be given a fair share of the cake by mandating the Information Service Department of the Ministry of Information to run a massive campaign on the celebrations. They could also use their cinema vans to inform the populace about the activities and to share the message of goodwill, hope, endless possibilities and the need for attitudinal change.

On the Ghana International Airline flight, a fifteen minutes documentary on Ghana @ 50 could be shown before landing just to give everybody and especially foreingners the idea of what is happening in the country. Huge billboards could be mounted at the airport and through the principal streets of Accra. I cannot believe that as at now we do not even know the slogan for the celebration. I will urge the secretariat to make it known to the populace.

If possible every minister has a happy anniversary message run on national TV and radio. Also I believe women should be involved in the celebration, the anniversary cloth should be made available to the market women. These are just a few of my suggestions and I am appealing to the secretariat to consider some of them.

We should not sit around and think that March 6 is far away, it is just around the corner. It would be my greatest joy to see a successful celebration.