We've failed the younger generation -Prof.

Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, chief executive officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has harsh words for the older generation, including his own, whom he blames for failing to lay a solid foundation for their children to build on, after benefiting from free education to the highest level, saying “the present generation feels disappointed by the selfishness and neglect of the old generation.”

Speaking at the third graduation ceremony of the Ghana Christian International High School, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, who is also director of the Cardiothoracic Centre at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, said that after failing to provide accommodation for students on the university campuses, for example, those who were privileged to have enjoyed free education continued to exploit them by putting up poor quality hostels within the immediate vicinity of the universities and charging exorbitant rents.

“We seem to suggest to our children that it does not really matter how one comes to acquire the riches of this world. We have thrown away morality and integrity, thereby sending the wrong signals to people who are supposed to be future leaders,” adding that “Worse still, we have not been able to teach our children the principles of survival, that any population that is not able to feed, shelter, clothe heal and defend itself has no chance of long-term survival,” he lamented.

According to him, “Africa does not contribute even two per cent of the world's trade despite the enormous natural resources the Lord has bestowed on her,” stressing, “the continent is the only one in reverse gear. Things don't improve with time but rather get worse.”

He said it was unacceptable that about 80 per cent of inputs into agriculture, education and health were from foreign sources.

“It is a shame that a major thrust of our economic policy is to try as much as we can to attract foreign investors. Good as foreign investments are, we just cannot sit down and think that without confronting our problems we can still be prosperous. This is wishful thinking. It is self-mutilation; indeed it is suicidal,” he declared.