What Has Been Hindering Our Development For The Past 53 Years Of Freedom?

Ghana's First President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

53 years in the life of a person or a country is not a mere achievement, that is why we have to rejoice and be glad the Lord has yet again added another year to the life of our country's freedom.

More than five decades ago, our colonial masters handed over the baton of leadership to us so that we can make our own decisions and implement them. Even though I was not born then, I can imagine how ecstatic our people were that day, thinking that indeed economic, social and political freedom has come. After many years of presiding over our own affairs, what we can see clearly is political freedom covered with partisanship, coupled with meaningless economic indices and to a large extent some level of social freedom.

I have often asked myself what actually might be the contributing factor to our inability to develop our country as expected. Anytime I hear people talk about the much economic gains that our country is making, I often ask what actually determines how well we are doing in terms of economic gains and why is it that it is rarely seen in the lives of the people.

Well, I am not an economist and I will not pretend to be one and what I write I don't intend to use any economic indicator or whatsoever, and what I write is based on street thinking and not on any theory propounded by someone. I write my mind to ask the questions the ordinary man walking on the streets of Ghana will ask, and I look at the issues in the perspective of a human being who have feelings and feels for himself and the fellow human being.

It will indeed be out of place to say that God has not given us the right place as a people, because we have all that many a country does not have. Many of the developed and semi-developed countries started with Ghana and some even late and yet they are doing very well.

So what then is wrong with us? Have we been cursed perpetually by our colonial masters and their affiliates? That will be too hard for me to believe because our colonial masters left 53 years ago and I don't think it is fair for us to continuously blame them for all the wrong reasons.

The problem has always been narrowed down to our attitude and many other factors, so should the colonial master be held accountable for all the decisions we have made or have not make for the past 53 years?. From the very day Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah declared that the black man is capable of ruling his own affairs, didn't we decided to take our destinies into our own hands? Isn't it our own country, like our own music, that we have to dance to?

Are we saying we have still not been able to find our own ways of dealing with our challenges as a country? If anyone says we have been able to do that, I will surely not be a doubting Thomas but it will be very difficult for me to believe especially looking at how our country has been going through these ups and downs, and moving at a snail's pace.

Our dear country-Ghana is engulfed with a barrage of problems-from sanitation to leadership.

All we do is to blame everybody except ourselves. From the media to the farm, no one is finding solutions, we are all looking for excuses. How then can we develop at the rate that we must. Sometimes I hear people talk about the rubbish in our towns and cities as if when we were going to sleep the entire place was very clean and some people came from Jupiter to make it the way it is now. If we cannot take responsibility, how then can we proffer concrete solutions to our problems?

Should we continue like this? Talk, talk, talk, talk, and talk the more? Why can't all of us or most of us decide that we are no more going to sit on the fence and watch, why can't we say it is time to rise and be counted? And why can't we say never again will we blame anyone for our problems but ourselves?

Ghana is arguably one of the most blessed countries in the world, it is undoubtedly clear that we are not making good use of what God has divinely bless us with.

We have all or most of the resources that must make a country prosperous. We have gold, diamond, bauxite, and now black gold (oil). We also have all the sunshine and rainwater that many a country would had wished to have, we also have rivers, the sea, streams and lakes.

Not to talk of the abundant arable land and green vegetation at our disposal. What again do we need?

Well, I don't want to be the way we have always been, criticizing, discussing problems without solutions, politicization of every matter in this country.

What I seek to do is to let all of us know that it is our collective decisions that have not gotten us anywhere appreciable, and it is only through our collective efforts that we can get to where we want to. It is long overdue, we cannot continue like this. Countries that are doing well wouldn't have reached where they are if they were only interested in identifying problems, criticizing people and systems without suggesting the way forward.

Even as we take a sober reflection over the above, and even as we go about our various activities, and ultimately celebrate our 53rd Republic Day Anniversary, let us resolve and say never again will we condemn without due cause, never again will we criticize without suggesting alternatives, never again will we work for the sake of a political party without first considering the future of our country, never again are we going to allow politics to divide us as a people, and never again will we discuss problems without proffering the necessary solutions. Let us look wider than we have probably being doing for the past 53 years.

In our forward lies the future. We must look at what we have and make proper use of it for the betterment of all of us.

We need an experienced older generation to guide the youth on what must be done, we need a forward looking old generation to provide the needed mentorship and proper leadership for our youth, and we need a creative, volunteering, faithful, analytical, proactive, patriotic, and solution-oriented younger generation who will work as a team, well united to carry this country to where we will all be proud of.

Our country needs people who will protect and respect its laws, we need people who will stand up and defend the sovereignty of mother Ghana, we as well need people who will realize that Ghana is bigger than all of us, but together with the past, and the unborn generation, we make up Ghana, and we need people who will realize that all political parties will come and go but Ghana will remain forever.

We need focused political leadership. Democratic, economic and social gains to me must reflect in the lives of the ordinary citizenry. I love projections, but what I don't like is projections that won't add anything to the lives of the people, such if not done, is better.

Even as we celebrate our 53rd Republic Day as a country, we must reflect on the above and know that there is no government that can do better than all of us, no government has knowledge than we have, no group of people or political activists can do even half of what we can do together.

We are all in this together, we may all be sailing in different boats, but we are all going to the same destination. There is no better time than today. It is time for those who have been sleeping to wake up, and those who have been sitting down unconcern should be prompted that the Winning Ghanaian Train is moving faster than before. And those who are waiting for mistakes to be made so that they can celebrate must be awaken with the spirit of patriotism so that together we can continuously chart a path that the future generation will praise us for, but not to curse us.

We have always remembered what was done by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his compatriots, that is good, but what are we doing ourselves as a people so that we won't end up disappointing the next generation? All we do is talk about history without making some ourselves.

Those who read history are not remembered, it is those who make history that are remembered. We shouldn't forget that. And we should also not forget that, we have had many forefathers, but not all are we proud of.

HAPPY 53RD REPUBLICAN ANNIVERSARY TO ALL GHANAIANS WITH A CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATIONAL MENTALITY.

Prosper Dzitse,
President/CEO-Institute of Mentorship and Leadership Training