Speech by Akufo-Addo

‘WHY WE MUST BELIEVE IN GHANA’

THE SECOND SERIES OF THE FERDINAND O. AYIM MEMORIAL LECTURES

DELIVERED BY NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO, MP 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OF THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY

AT THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS, ACCRA ON FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2008

Chairperson

Members of the Council of State

Ministers of State

Members of Parliament

Members of the Diplomatic Corps

Colleagues & Friends

Ladies & Gentlemen

I am honoured and deeply touched by this invitation to be the second speaker in the series of the Ferdinand O. Ayim Memorial Lectures, organised by the Foundation which is dedicated to the preservation of his memory. I congratulate the warmly Trustees for their work.

I am touched by this invitation, because, as some of you may know, I am a relation of Freddy, as all and sundry called him. I would therefore crave your indulgence, Chairperson, by beginning this address with a repetition of my tribute at his funeral two years ago, for I believe its contents are relevant to today’s theme.

FREDDIE, MY BROTHER, MY FRIEND

Chairperson, “I first met Ferdinand Ofori Ayim at Kyebi during the great funeral organised in 1977 by the new Okyenhene, Nana Kuntunkununku II, for his uncle and predecessor, Kwabena Marfo, who went by the stool name of Nana Ofori Atta III. Kyebi was full of movement on that occasion, but I did notice the slim, elegant young man with intelligent eyes and playful manner who turned out to be, like me, another of the redoubtable Kojo Dua, the illustrious Nana Ofori Atta I’s many grandchildren. Although Freddie was much younger, he and I immediately took to each other, and continued throughout the 80s to meet regularly at Ahenfie during my frequent visits to Kyebi.

“It was my decision to re-establish The Statesman that transformed our association into the intimate, excellent, truly fraternal relations that have been so tragically cut short by his early death. Surveying the media landscape in the country after the collapse of Soviet communism in the late 1980s, which foretold of the happy prospect of the imminent demise of the erstwhile military government of the PNDC, I realised that there was no vehicle for propagating Danquah’s vision and project for the development of a free Ghana, the project which gave birth to the Danquah-Busia tradition. The result was the revival of the newspaper, The Statesman, which had been founded by my father in 1949. The revived paper received its licence in December 1991, and the first publication appeared on May 17th 1992 in the wake of the 28th April Referendum, in which our people gave a massive endorsement for the return to democratic, constitutional rule.

“The first two editions of the newspaper were put together by Yaw Amfo Kwakye, now my Special Assistant, Ken Bediako, Editor-in-Chief of the NPP News, Eric Hyde and Mercy Bampoe-Addo, now a Deputy Minister of State in the Office of the President, with an amateur’s input from myself.

“Freddie came to join the paper for the production of the third edition and became its veritable pillar for nearly ten years, until Otanka Obetsebi-Lamptey took him to the President’s Office to assist him, after the NPP had won the historic elections of December 2000 and President Kufuor had formed his first administration with Obetsebi-Lamptey as his Chief of Staff.

“Eager and resourceful, he was a natural and gifted journalist, determined to get to the bottom of things with clear, strong views. Freddie was a journalist who came as close as possible to the heart of Ghanaians. He did not disappoint in his courage to put the government under constant scrutiny, winning him Investigative Journalist of the Year and Features Writer of the Year. His reportage on political events made compelling reading, which enhanced immeasurably the image and credibility of The Statesman.

“Freddie was the quintessential journalist; not just an interpreter of events, but a chronicler of Ghana’s unfolding political history. He was the historian of the Danquah-Busia Memorial Club and of its transformation into the New Patriotic Party, dutifully documenting all the key events of the early years of our great party and conveying with authority the hope that the emergence of the new party held for the people of Ghana. He was present at all activities, and became widely known to the rank and file and leadership of the party. Da Rocha, Adu Boahen, Kufuor, Selby, Safo Adu, Ala Adjetey, Owusu-Agyemang, Agyenim-Boateng all had excellent relationships with him, finding him an invaluable ally in our common struggle.

“Freddie’s transition from opposition journalist to government official was confident and assured. Widely credited with selling the idea of the People’s Assembly to President Kufuor, he became closely associated with the initial development of the concept, which has proved to be one of the most successful initiatives of governance in the Kufuor era. It is no secret that he became indispensable to the work of Obetsebi-Lamptey as Minister, giving meaning and significance to the position of Special Assistant. The relationship between these two men is one of the best chapters in the history of the Kufuor government.

“Tragic death can oft inspire hyperbole. ‘Irreplaceable,’ ‘unforgettable,’ ‘peerless’—these are some of the words that are uttered on such occasions. I embrace each one of them, for they describe exactly my sentiments at the loss of Freddy. He was among the few patriots who were never afflicted by the moral cowardice that kept some of our intelligentsia from speaking their minds in the face of tyranny. Such moral cowardice, dare I say, is as dangerous as irresponsible talk.

“His passing on has left a huge, yawning hole in the structure of my life. Younger brother and friend, he was the best counsellor any ambitious politician could find. Perceptive and sensitive, he would give encouragement when encouragement was due, and would not spare frank, direct criticism whenever it was required. I had great confidence in his judgment, and enormous respect for his analysis. I wonder whether I will ever find his like again.”

Freddie was one of those who toiled selflessly for our party, our country and our common ideas without reward. Sophocles once said that one must wait till the evening to say how splendid the day has been. Unfortunately for Freddie and all of us, his life was extinguished at high noon. Despite its brevity however, his life touched many in his profession, in his party and his country and I will, hereby, take the opportunity to encourage each and every one of you here to contribute your widow’s might to the Foundation, which has taken on the responsibility to support the upkeep of the widow and Freddie’s four children. LOVE AND LOYALTY TO COUNTRY

The theme of this lecture, “Why We Must Believe in Ghana,” was selected for two reasons: because Freddie believed in Ghana and because the man giving today’s lecture also believes in Ghana. Freddie, unfortunately, is not with us, but, happily (at least for me) I am. So my explanation of “Why we must believe in Ghana” will have to do for both of us.

To believe in Ghana is to defend, support and be prepared to serve free Ghana. To believe in Ghana is not to allow your energies to be sapped away by either the failures of the past or the challenges of today. To believe in Ghana is to embrace today’s challenges as opportunities for a better tomorrow. To believe in Ghana is to be proud of Ghana’s rich diverse culture, customs, traditions and history. To believe in Ghana is to be devoted to her welfare and freedom. It is to stand up in defence of the state even if, in dissenting, you offend the temporary custodians of the state. It means believing in her economic capacity; it means knowing that such belief is not futile, for, clearly, the Ghanaian has the entrepreneurial capacity to create a prosperous society for the great majority. To believe in Ghana is to insist that those in authority lead by example. To believe in Ghana is to believe that for those who lost their lives for the good of this country, their sacrifices were not in vain; that indeed, Ghana is a country worth dying for. To believe in Ghana is to be a responsible citizen. To believe in Ghana is to believe in yourself as a Ghanaian, as someone capable of contributing to the building of a successful, modern African state, operating on the principles of democratic accountability, respect for human rights and the rule of law. To believe in Ghana is to believe in a state where fairness and social justice are essential attributes of its body politic. To believe in Ghana is to make Ghana by our own efforts what it should be: one of the greatest places on earth.

Let us infuse more urgency into redefining our sense of national responsibility in order to make this 21st century the age that removes all doubt about our ability to manage our own affairs and more.

We have an arduous, albeit feasible task: first, we must vindicate the faith that our founding fathers had in this country. Second, we must make our own bold generational contribution to Ghana’s progress; and finally we must pass on to our children in all its fullness the hope that has been rescued from the jaws of repression and retrogression.

To some, patriotism has connotations of self-sacrifice, implying that individuals should place the interests of the community above their own personal interests, and in extreme cases above their own lives, as in Danquah’s unrivalled example. But, in my view, patriotism is also very much about self-preservation. Patriotism is constructively self-serving. Let me pose to this august audience a question that I posed to Cape Coast University students some time ago. Would you, for instance, avoid the battlefield if the alternative were to stay at home and be swept away by enemy forces? Would you stand by and watch your country to become impoverished by bad governance, greed, corruption, inefficiency and ineptitude? Would you turn away and mind your own business if the very foundation of your liberty was threatened by treasonous characters bent on setting aside the constitutional order and destabilising your country?

Let us embrace the principles of democratic accountability, the rule of law, human rights and individual liberty and freedom, which some of us instinctively believe must form the bedrock of our national development and individual prosperity. Yet alongside this freedom, we must, with the same passion and commitment, uphold our individual responsibility to contribute proactively toward the greater good of society. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the vision of a free society. No society can be truly free unless its citizens feel the need to embrace both liberty and duty.

WHY SOME TOIL AND DIE FOR GHANA

Our people have overcome several trials and tribulations: slavery, imperialism, colonialism, tyranny and dictatorship. Undoubtedly, we will have many more challenges to overcome: poverty, apathy and a lack of belief in ourselves. We have had a chequered history.

We have held elections that were not free and fair. We have had constitutional regimes without the limitations placed upon executive power known as constitutionalism. We have had rule by law without rule of law. We have seen leaders who tried to make us believe that multi-party politics was inherently evil, alien and destructive of national cohesion, and who attempted to establish various forms of authoritarian rule on our polity. We have lived in a nation where “participatory democracy” was violently imposed upon us through techniques of intimidation and harassment such as Workers’ Defence Committees and Committees for the Defence of the Revolution.

Chairperson, we have lived in a society where we were forced to accept that the economic and social well-being of the masses could only be achieved by bringing down those who had achieved success. This history has led to a whole new generation of Ghanaians who have been afraid to succeed. We cannot build a society where envy rather than role-modelling is the preferred option. It is this very dislocation of the psychological fabric of our society that we need to defeat – where self-advancement does not induce the proverbial skin pain.

We have survived that era when long-standing commercial ties, private institutions, companies, factories, disappeared through envy—through the stripping of capital, wanton destruction, and confiscated assets. Such was the irony of the 1980s—that the unconstitutional government which had set out, through the diktats of the Structural Adjustment Programming, to re-introduce economic liberalisation, was the very same government that launched a relentless assault on the players of economic liberalism: assaulting Ghanaian traders, pillaging manufacturers, undermining farmers and spitting on service providers.

To believe in Ghana means that we must start believing that Ghana has arrived—that we have graduated from centuries of liberation struggle to a new age of liberty and liberalism. When you are in liberation struggle there is always the propensity to pick and choose which rules to obey and which to ignore. Chairperson, may I suggest that this could be partially the root of our quickness to ignore rules and regulations with impunity. This will require a deliberate and conscious effort on all our part to embrace the responsibilities that self-rule and self-determination bring. We must assert our legitimate, collective and individual ownership of our space: this land, this nation, its resources, its wealth. The age of liberty means we are free to claim ownership of how this country is governed and what it can produce. Ephraim Amu’s song, Yen Ara Asaase Ni, which has been so beautifully rendered by the choir, should be the resonating chorus in our march towards our country’s transformation.

What our long tortured and chequered history teaches us is that the spirit of the Ghanaian, in his and her quest for peace, progress and prosperity, cannot be quenched. We are a determined lot who cannot be deterred. We have had our failures as a nation. But failure is never fatal so long as our courage to persevere prevails. We saw the perils of indifference which allowed populists and hypocrites to take out their anger and frustration, their envy and bitterness on a whole nation. We must avoid at all cost a repetition of that destructive culture.

The Ghanaian people have made valiant efforts to embrace a culture of respect for human rights. The early nationalists, John Mensah Sarbah, Joseph Casely Hayford, even Kobina Sekyi, as well as the latter nationalists – Obetsebi-Lamptey, Akufo-Addo, Ofori Atta, Ako Adjei, Nkrumah and Busia – all agreed with Joseph Boakye Danquah that the paramount and overriding concern at all times is the preservation, in his vivid words, of “our ancient freedom.” When on Monday, August 4, 1947, George Alfred Grant, Danquah, Akufo-Addo, R S Blay, Ako-Adjei, Obetsebi-Lamptey, William Ofori-Atta, Awoonor Williams and de Graft Johnson founded and launched the United Gold Coast Convention, they had just one thing in mind, to give the country an absolute break from the shackles of foreign domination. It was more than symbolic that in the same year an 18-member commission, chaired by the late U.S. First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, that great American and passionate campaigner for human rights, met to draft what in December 1948 was to become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the fundamental principles which inspired our founding fathers, which was to be a year later stipulated in the United Nations’ document was that, “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country directly or through freely chosen representatives.”

Ghanaians are a forgiving lot. It was for this reason that the National Reconciliation Commission was set up. It is a mark of our character that the stories that were told, however gruesome and painful they were, did not trigger off an orgy of retribution.

Ghanaians are forgiving, but we don’t want the generosity of our hearts to be taken for granted. Actions that turn brother against brother, friend into foe, must no longer be allowed to dictate the pace of our development. Now is the time to draw a line between that painful past and the exciting future ahead of us. Whether it is, for example, in Dagbon, Sefwi-Wiawso, or Alavanyo-Nkonya, there is today a growing recognition that we may seek lasting justice for old disputes by not necessarily recounting our steps in a complex effort to undo some of the old ills afflicted on either side of the conflict. May I submit in all humility that the best way forward to seeking justice and reconciliation is to find accommodation for opposing views, forgiveness for old wrongs and by working together to build for the collective a better, more fulfilling future. The rich Western nations that many of our fellow citizens go to as their destination of choice as emigrants have more than their fair share of ancient stories of gross injustice inflicted by one group on another. Yet, their determination to modernise their societies and transform the lives of their people have more than served as a pacifying neutraliser. Even where advancement has not erased their memory, the comfort of prosperity has helped them to take a philosophical view of the circumstances that fed the old conflicts.

Chairperson, Ghana is a nation conceived in liberty. It is important for us to recognise that half a century is a short time in the life of a nation; especially one that has since apprehended the things that sent it off track. We need to mount a constant vigilance in protection of our liberty, without which all our efforts will come to naught. We have a responsibility to our past, our present and our future to seal our belief in Ghana with a constructive vigour that can propel this nation and our people to the heights that we know are possible, but are shy to consider as probable and achievable within our very life time.

WHY WE BELIEVE IN CONSOLIDATING DEMOCRACY

Ferdinand Ayim died when he was on his way to make preparations for the second annual paragliding festival in Ghana. Freddie put a lot of energy in introducing paragliding to Ghana, that today the Ferdinand Ayim/Pepsi Paragliding Festival is an annual event on the national calendar. Just years before that, the thought of a teenager from Abetifi, Kwahu, jumping from the Kwahu Escarpment, and gliding high and away would have been seen as very un-Ghanaian. Let us see this new and exciting event as an important symbol of the limitlessness of how far a Ghanaian can reach upward. The blood, toil, tears, and sweat of patriots spilt in days gone by was far from spilt in vain. They suffered so that our generation and ones yet unborn will glide higher and higher beyond the clouds of average performance to heights of exceptional performance.

The future belongs to people who believe in Ghana. This is an age of re-discovery. We need to reconnect with the courage and hope that made Ghana the first black African country to achieve independence. We need to claim for ourselves a new passion and culture of excellence. Let us move forward with confidence that our potential lies within us and that it is bigger than the problems which stifled our efforts in the past. Our potential far outweighs the obstacles that lie before us.

Many failures in life are people who did not realise how close they were to success just before they gave up. What we need as a people is the courage to pursue our dreams. That old courage, which saw small men with big hearts like that extraordinary man, the late Prof Emeritus Albert Adu Boahen break the thick culture of silence with principled words, should now inspire us to break the back of poverty. That old courage should push us to create a stable and secure modern society here in Ghana.

The relatively remarkable manner that our economy has been able to withstand both rising crude oil prices and global food crises this year makes it tempting for us to claim that we have finally broken the back of the vicious circle that in the past saw macroeconomic gains snuffed out by the much dreaded extraneous sneeze factor. Ghana today has returned to normal economic health, without which our political stability and personal security are threatened. But, we must be modest enough to admit that we have but only laid a solid foundation for that all-inclusive, broad-based economic lift-off. The impulse of the New Patriotic Party is to give every Ghanaian access to the ladder of prosperity. People are not asking for handouts. They are striving for the tools to work and earn a decent living.

I am ready to take up this task of leadership with buoyancy and hope. And I believe we should all approach the future with buoyancy and hope. For, now, our task is pure and simple: it is to wage a relentless war against poverty. We should wage this war in our minds, we must wage against the mentality of impoverishment, wage against our negative attitudes, our fears, our fatigue. To believe in Ghana is to believe in ourselves, to accept that we are more than capable. We must wage this war in our homes, in the classrooms, in our apprenticeships, on our streets, in our offices, on our farms, in the markets, on the shop floors, in the factories. That monstrous tyranny that the majority of our people have striven against but have yet to vanquish comprehensively is plain and simple - poverty. The road to victory has been long and hard. But winning this final battle against mental and material impoverishment is the only way we can survive. Danquah warned us against our communities becoming ignorant “of the causes of the physical conditions which paralyse action …”

Ghana is a nation with a rich history and a strong sense of identity. Our successful fusion of the traditional and contemporary in many aspects of daily life makes it possible for us to continue developing our own very unique civilization, which is making its own positive contribution to the growth of world civilisation. But to do so convincingly, to make an impact from which we ourselves can flourish, we need to believe in ourselves. We need to obey the rules that we set for ourselves.

Strong democracies are built by strengthening the institutions of democracy, rather than the power of men. Let us all, as patriots of this great land of our birth and choice, brace ourselves to our duties and responsibilities so that our children and their children can say with ease of pride, what many of us have with some courage and incurable optimism held dear to our heart, the slogan “I believe in Ghana.”

This year the people of this country will be presented with another quadrennial opportunity to give their verdict on the first eight years of the NPP’s stewardship of the country. The choice before us is between those who believe Ghana is better off with the NPP and those who believe that Ghana can risk another experiment with the P/NDC. Ghana has reached a crossroads; but this is not just another crossroads: we are poised upon the threshold of a new beginning. The age of political contamination is long spent. A solid foundation has been laid. The age of reckoning is here. That leap from Third World to First World is before us. This new age is one of economic transformation.

WHY I BELIEVE IN GHANA’S FUTURE

When I launched my party’s agenda, I said the next four years of NPP government will have four central thematic goals: • first, the continuing consolidation of our democracy • second, the modernisation of our society • third, the structural transformation of our economy, and • fourth, the full engagement of our nation in the process of regional and continental integration.

This is what I meant by setting these four goals: We shall consolidate our democracy • by strengthening the institutions that assure the rule of law and our rights to protections under the law; • by fighting corruption vigorously • by accelerating the pace and process of decentralisation to give local communities more resources and a bigger voice in decisions that affect them.

We shall modernise our society • by protecting our environment, re-planning our towns and cities and enforcing zoning rules and regulations strictly but humanely; by ensuring that we maintain a proper balance between our rights and responsibilities by actively promoting the arts and sports by emphasising a culture of excellence by instilling a greater sense of patriotism, confidence and pride in all Ghanaians by investing in our youth and workforce with cutting-edge skills and equipment to upgrade the employability and competitiveness of our manpower work force; by creating an enabling environment for the provision of decent affordable housing for all by making the public sector more responsive to the citizens and the private sector. We shall transform our economy by focusing on the production of added-value goods and services rather than primary products by pursuing a clear policy of Ghanaian Economic Empowerment that will encourage the accumulation and investment of Ghanaian capital, locally and from the Diaspora, and making more Ghanaians winners in the global economy by investing a significant percentage of our GDP in research and development (R&D) by making the formal sector more attractive and accessible to the majority of local economic operators. We shall exert quality leadership throughout the African continent by helping to resolve conflicts, enhancing security and consolidating multi-party democracy in the region and on the continent promoting regional and continental integration in allowing free movement of people, goods and services across borders promoting economic collaboration between African countries in the councils of the global order to protect our common interests and increase our bargaining power.

While pursuing these broad goals, the next NPP government will show the necessary urgency and firmness to protect our environment and our natural resources. Our society can only be truly free if our policies are deliberately couched to encompass all. I regard bridging the gap between the North and South and between rural and urban Ghana as a vital indicator for measuring the true development of our country.

Indeed, as a nation we should and must believe in integrated development which is reflected not only in increasing emphasis on social, political or environmental conditions individually, but also in the interrelationship between economic, social and environmental factors. This should ultimately lead us to integrated human development which should recognise the right of every person in Ghana to be dynamically involved in the process of freeing himself or herself from every form of domination or oppression so that each man or woman will have the opportunity to develop as a whole person in relationship with others. We must, thus, believe in the ability of all Ghanaians to develop and prosper in freedom.

I BELIEVE IN TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

What I offer to Ghanaians is transformational leadership. But that leadership must be a shared one. For my part, I can only lead by example. Providing an example is essential if those of us who are privileged enough to be in leadership roles are to inspire the majority to lock into the vision that we know can take us with urgency to where we have always dreamed of getting. Government must provide stewardship to the people, a stewardship which is respectful rather than condescending. Simultaneously, government must function as a viable partner in global business ventures, a partner who is demanding rather than subjugating, to ensure such ventures are aimed at the growth of Ghana’s economy and Ghanaians’ welfare. These dual responsibilities entail the judicious use of power. Whenever that power inhibits, subjugates, or frustrates the will of the people, then it has perverted its purpose. Power of the leadership needs to be checked and balanced through the voice of the people. And so in 1947, when J.B. Danquah was inaugurating the United Gold Coast Convention — the UGCC of blessed memory, the first nationalist movement to articulate the demand for national independence and freedom — he said that the aim of Ghanaian nationalism was to institute a system of government “whereby those who are in control of government are under the control of those who are governed.”

All the physical conditions for growth and prosperity are now falling into place. We have a stable economy. Peace and political stability is stronger than ever before in our 51-year history. Our people, both here and abroad, are more educated and knowledgeable than ever before. Yet, we need to deepen and expand the quality of our educational system if we are to expand opportunities. We have natural resources and ideas. We have struck oil. Yet, there are two vital elements of progress which we must consciously ensure are not missing in the equation. One of them, I have already alluded to above, Chairperson, is our reluctance to obey rules and regulations. The state and its people must show a far greater commitment than we have so far done in making our rules and regulations work if we are to make that development leap. Two, Chairperson, is the psychology of self-belief. The vim of self-confidence; the propellant for accelerated self-betterment. In order to make that tricky leap from a so-called Third World subsistence to First World satisfaction we must begin to believe strongly in Ghana and by extension in our own capacity to deliver beyond what stereotype and stigma have been prejudged to be our earthly boundaries of achievement.

Self-belief is the foundation of any kind of development or evolution. This belief in self has to be married to a sense of responsibility of action for ourselves and towards others.

As Ghanaians, we have much to be proud of, in our past and our present and much to hope for in our futures. Abroad, we are continuously held up high as the shining light of Africa - our achievements, culturally and historically, are lauded. And yet, when we look to ourselves, there seems to be a kind of self-doubt insipid in our societies. How is this expressed? By ineffectuality. By unpunctuality. By failing to be the best of all our possible selves.

We are too accomplished and too promising as a nation to let this pass. We must rise to the challenge. We must build a society that is not only nurturing, but also self-critical. Not critical in a way that is destructive, but constructive. Critical in a way that fosters growth. Critical in a way that engenders impassioned action, not empty rhetoric.

We must nurture our ambassadors, those that stand tall to sing hymns to our nation; the filmmakers that express our realities on the big screen for all to see; the writers that provoke us to think; the artists that capture the essences of our selves; the designers that clothe and house us in aesthetic splendour; and also our scientists, economists and historians, those that devote their lives to studying and brokering richer and more multi-faceted realities. We must be a nation of thinkers, and upon having thought, become doers of considered, decisive and progressive deeds.

And of course, we must support those that constitute the very foundations of our society: the market women, the taxi drivers, the teachers, the farmers, the workers, the fishermen, the nurses and the security men. We must not see the physically challenged as necessarily resourcefully incapable. We must honour people along every step of the way, and thus doing bring out the very best in each. Every one brick in the wall counts as much as the other and it is only by being a cohesive society that we will move forward.

We need to take full responsibility for our actions and our futures, by not shirking from them. By realising that in order to reap, we must sow. We must invest in our futures by being present every step of the way and taking personal responsibility for our actions.

Yes, there are higher orders to which we are answerable, but the buck starts first and foremost at our own doorsteps. We must take it on. We must move forward and stand firm in the present, conscious of our greatness, yes, our greatness, for in each of every one of us there is nothing less.

This is a land that has produced great people, such as Naa Gbewaa, the founder of the Mole-Dagbani Kingdom, Osei Tutu, the founder of the Asante Kingdom, Yaa Asantewaa, Tetteh Quarshie, Kwegyir Aggrey, Joseph Caseley Hayford, Joseph Boakye Danquah, Kwame Nkrumah and the others of the Big Six, Kofi Abrefa Busia, Kofi Annan, Ephraim Amu, Kwabena Nketia, E T Mensah, King Bruce, Esther Ocloo, Letitia Obeng, Efua Sutherland, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ayikwei Armah, Azumah Nelson, Michael Essien and many many more. We have every reason to believe in the potential for greatness of a nation that has produced such great people in all spheres of human endeavour.

We must be aware of the rich legacy of our past and carry it with pride and the wisdom born of experience. We must stride into the future, confident that we will meet it at the height of our abilities. And in order to all this, we must, we must believe in ourselves, we must believe in our fellow citizens, we must believe in Ghana. I believe in Ghana and I hope so do you!

Long live our belief in Ghana! Long Live Ghana! God Bless Ghana! God Bless us all!

Thank You