Editorial: The $20 Million Celebration By a HIPC Country

NEXT YEAR, March 6, Ghana will celebrate its 50th independence anniversary.

Golden Jubilee anniversaries are without doubt very unique occasions, and therefore the declaration by Government to celebrate the occasion with pomp and pageantry, in recognition of the blood and toil of our fathers in unshackling the yoke of colonialism.

Being the first Black Country south of the Sahara to gain independence from British colonial rule, it is very appropriate that Ghanaians go gay on our Independence Anniversary days.

On the eve of that eventful day at the Old Polo Ground, now the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, after shedding tears with his Prison Graduates who were on the dais with him, proclaimed the famous; "At long last, Ghana is free forever," after thanking the chiefs and people of Ghana.

The First President had declared that night that Ghana would be a pace setter for all to know that the Blackman was capable of managing his own affairs.

But need we ask whether the dreams of Nkrumah had been followed or fulfilled after the CIA-inspired coup of 1966. The country is presently grappling with serious economic problems.

Poverty is written on the faces of all. The populace is finding it difficult to make ends meet. School fees are headaches to many. The National Health Insurance Scheme is yet to be seen to be a saviour to Ghanaians as against the cash and carry system of old. Out of the blue recently came petroleum price increase, which will definitely torpedo the government's desire to have a one-digit inflation rate.

Whilst the people are still struggling to come to terms with the situation on the ground the fuel price increase, has brought home to Ghanaians the need to question the essence of devoting a whopping sum of ¢182.9 billion for the celebration of the country's Golden Jubilee of independence.

What monstrosity!

As The Chronicle has indicated several times before, we are still a HIPC country and therefore it is incumbent on us not to revert to doing the things we have done in the past that has turned us into a beggar nation. We must learn!

Currently, our economy cannot support the payment of increases in salaries for our Medical Staff and Polytechnic Teachers, GNAT is sounding the alarm bells while Civil Servants are in the mood that can trigger industrial action any moment from now, while employees of the informal sector are at war with their employers, demanding improved conditions of service, including the payment of end-of-year benefits and the casual labour problem.

Polytechnic teachers are still out in the streets, doctors allowances have been deferred, government has raised prices of petroleum products, with an automatic increase in taxes to boost revenue, and we still can set aside the equivalent of US$ 20million for the celebration. What a fallacy.

Have we forgotten our educational sector? How about the plight of the Teachers as a result of the increase in enrollment because of the Capitation Grant? What about our hospitals- poor babies in incubators with mothers being detained after delivery because they just do not have the means to pay. What about our transportation sector? And what about the ordinary Ghanaian, currently suffering under the yoke of poverty, because of energy and utility bills.

But the most disappointing of all, who removed all doubts that not much thinking went into setting aside the amount involved, was the Chairman of the Planning Committee of Ghana@50 Secretariat, Dr. Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby.

The first examples he could cite for what use the money would be put was the construction of toilet facilities and importation of cars.

But that was not all, the worst came out that the fine details of how the amount would be spent is now being worked out. And yet, the amount has already been approved!

It is the hope of The Chronicle that if Parliamentarians have been performing their duties, of being worthy ambassadors of the people, a thing like this would not have passed!