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Dropping The Begging Bowl

By Daily Guide
Editorial President Nana AKufo-Addo
SEP 20, 2017 LISTEN
President Nana AKufo-Addo

The ritual of borrowing by countries such as ours perennially is a worrying phenomenon which must be stopped if genuine growth of our economies is to be achieved.

Such an affront to our dignities should not continue to haunt us even as we seek to rub shoulders with others on the comity of civilized and truly independent nations of the world.

As a long-standing feature of our country, as it is with others in the same bracket, the President was on point when he sued for a local means of supporting our developments.

Even as an abrupt stoppage of the phenomenon cannot be achieved without adverse repercussions in the short term, a gradual phasing out of the face-losing practice should be sincerely sought and developed as a national policy.

We have not exploited the leverages of truly adding values to our natural resources; the old order of exporting products in their raw forms still a cornerstone of our development agenda.

It is worth noting that for many years, countless international discourses have been held to address this challenge but little, if any, has come our way.

If President Akufo-Addo touched on this subject when he was talking on Sustainable Development, the fifth chapter in a series of deliberations on the subject at the Earth Institute in New York a couple of days ago, he was on point.

He touched the hearts of many who have followed the subject for the past many years as our political leaders continue to seek alternatives to our cup in hand approach to development.

Sustainable development cannot be achieved unless the structures of our economies are changed with quality leadership leading the charge; as it were.

Countries endowed with vast quantities of human and natural resources, such as ours, have no reason to be confined to the four walls of poverty requiring annual injections of foreign aid to drive their national budgets.

Even with such supports, the balance sheets of these countries do not show impressive figures for which the dosages must be repeated in subsequent years – a vicious cycle of poverty being the outcome.

Some things do not add up. The current template must be altered immediately because repeating the dosage of a similar prescription won't certainly change the outcome of our efforts to change the face of our economies. That is why the need to change our approach as what the President told his colleagues must be considered with all the seriousness that is required.

We have come a long way from the early days of taking our destinies as independent nations in our hands. We should have been talking about other issues and not about road infrastructure and places of inconvenience for urban dwellers and the like.

Our President who has said it already that he is in a hurry to change the state of our economy would do wonders when, especially, his dream is shared not only by his counterparts in the developing world but his compatriots at home.

We can only move forward and eventually stop the cup in hand picture when we work towards a sustainable economic development of our country.

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