Ghana's 60th Independence Day not worth celebrating

Ghana, will be 60 in March 2017. Is the day worth celebrating? Are we celebrating because we are alive? Are we celebrating because it pleases God to keep us alive in the land of the existing? Are we celebrating because the roads we are traveling on are in better shape? Are we celebrating because our hospitals are well equipped to deal with every case?

Apart from celebrating because we are alive, there's no other reason for that, in the face of massive hunger, insecurity, high cost of electricity, joblessness, deteriorating road network, brazen corruption, impunity, poor state of our roads, inadequate equipment to deal with medical cases in our hospitals.

Why should Ghana celebrate 60 years of wastefulness? Why should Ghana celebrate 60 years of tortuous journey? Why should Ghana celebrate 60 years of hopelessness? At 60, Ghana, a land blessed with the best of all resources, fertile land, fresh water timber, minerals resources, crude oil and human resources cannot give its citizens the basic amenities like electricity, good water, good health care system, good drainage system, good roads, At 60 Ghana cannot give financial support and food to its citizens? At 60, Ghana cannot even solve the problem of waste management. Life in Ghana today is not worth less than a coin, but short, nasty and brutish. At 60 years majority of Ghanaian citizens do not know where the next meal is coming from. At 60 years our railway lines are still the way the British handed it over to us in the 1960s.

Have we become self-sufficient in even in food production? Industries are dying and we import everything including tooth picks. Unemployment of the most productive section of the population, the youth, is at an all-time high. Most of our youth and graduates now walk the streets without a job. Foreigners has taken over our industries and our retail business exporting our hard-earned foreign exchange to their home country.

On December 7 2016, the good people of Ghana voted for change. We were tired of corruption and we saw a Messiah in the person of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo We felt Ghana needed a strong hand. She needed someone with experience, so we queued up in all the polling stations. We ignored the scorching sun and voted. Some of us traveled in articulated trucks to our hometown and voted. We believed that the teeming masses of poor who are already living in terrible conditions will at least be able to afford one square meal a day after change of government.

But, it would seem that the euphoria of attaining the age of sixty has further addled the wits of the ruling class. Or how else could one explain their intention of spending 20 million cedis all in the name of the 60th anniversary of independence celebrations? Why would a country like Ghana even contemplate going on spending to celebrate the 60th anniversary of independence, given that it is a country blessed with so much human and natural resources, and with so little to show for it. To me there is nothing in a number 60 years, it is just a number besides it is like somebody say I am sixty years. Thus, to spend 20 million cedis on ordinary anniversary celebrations is not extravagant and frivolous but it also completely ignores the real needs of the people.

This independence is not worth celebrating and my reason is simple, there is an adage that says a fool at forty is a fool forever and Ghana is 60 years old and has surpassed that age limit. You don't celebrate mediocrity or under achievement, we only celebrate success stories. We should do a sober reflection on March 6th 2017. Ghanaian should use that day to ask themselves questions about where we went wrong? Why are the systems in Ghana not working? Why is there more corruption now than at independence? Why is there more unemployment now than at independence? Why are the road networks worse than as at independence? Why is there more bribery and corruption today than it were at independence? Why are we more disunited now than at Independence? Why has galamsey become one of the biggest problem in Ghana? Where and when did we start and where and where are we going.

I understand that many things in life cannot be evaluated in monetary terms, celebrations of independence brings to a nation the sense of togetherness, and it uplifts the morale of the people and a pride of belonging to a particular group or country. But, our beloved country that was once full of promise and is now in disarray on almost every front; disunity, poverty, economic crisis, the list goes on., and I do not think this is the right time to celebrate independence day on a grander. We do not celebrate poverty.

Frank Ayim Damptey