Ghana: The Emerging Star Over the Horizon

Introduction

In the midst of the festivities marking Ghana@50, one thing stood out very clearly; there is a great deal of patriotism in Ghana. It is very evident that Ghanaians are strongly united when the national interest is at stake. There is a big difference between “Love of Country” and “My Country Can Do No Wrong” when citizens wave the flag and clad themselves in their national colors. Ours is a genuine Love of Country, an essential element for effective nation building. The people of Ghana are yearning to get somewhere, and deep down in our hearts, there is a strong belief that we have what it takes to get there. It is a good indication of our people’s determination to move forward together for a brighter future.

But determination alone is not enough! There are other essential ingredients; a clear vision of where we want to go, a plan of action to attain that vision, and the person to lead the march. Now, it is up to us to find and apply the other ingredients towards our march to the promised land. Thank God, Ghana@50 has offered us yet another opportunity to chart a new course. We must seize it, and never look back. As we embark on our journey towards Ghana@100, our leadership must clearly articulate the vision and get the buy-in from the people. Above all, we must accompany the vision with a clear blueprint for its attainment.

Missed Opportunities

In 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had a vision. Beyond the idea of an independent Ghana and the mandate to shape our own destiny, he also saw the potential for a great and united Africa. The rest of the country, including his political opponents, was with him, at least on the need for Ghana’s independence and self-rule. His domestic plans were very far-reaching, and for all intents and purposes, they were very well-thought-out. Some of the projects that were implemented under those plans are living testimonials of Nkrumah’s visionary leadership, for they continue to provide our nation with very essential services even today. The Akosombo Dam and the Accra-Tema Motorway are clear examples of those.

Nkrumah’s “Consolidation Plan (1957-9)” covered the first two years after independence. It was introduced to allow time for the government to consolidate in preparation for the launch of a more far-reaching “Five Year Development Plan, 1959-64”. In 1962, his “Work and Happiness” program was proclaimed to further his development policies that were largely based on socialist principles. That was a hit in Ghana, and it came with its own marketing tools to boot. While our neighbors in Nigeria were engaged in a bitter civil war trying to break their country into two, our nation’s radios were filled with motivational tunes: “Work & Happiness, .....I Will Do My Best, .....All Must Do Their Best, …..For Beautiful Ghana…..”. I can still hear the sounds from far away, coming out of a battery-operated, Ghana-made Akasonoma radio set on a Saturday afternoon! Then in March 1964, building on the work of previous plans, the “Seven Year Development Plan” was launched.

All these plans recognized the urgent need for human development, and very significant resources were allocated for their implementation. A big part of that was the creation of schools, primary, middle and secondary, across the country. Teacher training institutions and universities were built. State-owned enterprises were created, and out of these, numerous employment opportunities were created for our people. The mindset of the young was constantly being prepared for love of their country, and for them to develop a sense of belief in themselves. Who can forget the youth and their leaders in the Ghana Young Pioneer Movement?

To a large extent, those plans worked quite well for our country, at least until 1966. The fact that they could not be sustained is a clear indication that all was not well. So you see, vision alone is not enough! Indeed, something was always missing. I can mention three unfortunate shortcomings:

Ghana’s foreign-policy agenda under Nkrumah was too ambitious for our nation, considering our circumstances at the time. We were too young a nation at the time, and we had hardly any experience in nation-building. Our resources were not enough to address our own domestic needs, not to mention the political, and sometimes, economic needs of other African countries. Surely, this was a key tenet of Kwame Nkrumah’s ideological policies. Our support for African liberation was very laudable, but our alignment with socialist causes around the globe made us targets of other nations with opposing interests. An important lesson from this is that, in today’s inter-dependent world, we must always be mindful of our international associations, because in the final analysis, those have significant bearings on how far we reach.

Nkrumah’s political strategies created a great deal of mistrust in the minds of his political opponents. His activities from the time he was invited to coordinate the affairs of the UGCC as the General Secretary, through the formation of his own CPP, and finally with the Preventive Detention Act, had created mistrust and bitterness among his political opponents. Clearly, these were seeds that were sewn inadvertently to undermine the future of our country, although we can only appreciate that from hindsight. The military coup that took place in 1966 was, no doubt, a direct result of this. Even if the coup had been initiated from elsewhere, there were elements within the country that were willing collaborators for the destabilization of our dear nation. The political landscape that had been created before our independence and shortly after was a landmine along our path to true independence. In fact, the seeds that were sown are still ripe with us today. We have to overcome them!

There was no clear plan of succession which would ensure the continuation of any development plans and policies, even if the entire nation was behind them. Somehow, our people had grown up with the obvious naiveté, that Nkrumah never dies, and that this great leader was going to be around for ever. Leaders die, because they are human, but great nations must live on and progress. We have to re-orient our mindset and understand that a change in leadership does not constitute a change in our national destination.

There may be other factors that contributed to halt our progressive march towards our destiny in the aftermath of our independence, but these alone were enough to cause a major hiccup in any nation’s fortunes. After the attainment of independence, our inability to sustain the forward march as a result of the upheavals in 1966 was our first missed opportunity.

Our second missed opportunity occurred in the aftermath of the 1979 upheavals. I was not around when the events started, but all accounts point to the fact that it was an unusually popular uprising. Our nation’s fortunes had begun to sink with the intervention of the military in 1966. Our attempt to restore order with the return to civilian rule in 1969 had been thwarted once again in 1972 by the military. With no real plans, and no experience in governance, these military leaders had undertaken a rather risky gamble with the fortunes of our dear nation. By 1979, we had sunk to the bottom.

The people needed a saviour, and true to the old adage that “every nation deserves its leaders”, another bunch of military adventurers assumed the reigns of leadership. Just as today, the people were yearning to get somewhere, anywhere, because like the people of Israel, they were suffering. The fact that precious lives were being sacrificed for a change in their situation did not matter to them. They were willing to pay any price to get out of the mess they were in. If only our leaders could recognize the opportunity that had been created out of that unfortunate situation, and if only they had created a much clearer vision with a well-thought-out plan, perhaps our nation would not have yearned so much for a change as was witnessed in the year 2000.

Fortunately, six years on, a new spirit is emerging in Ghana. There is a refreshing attitude in the Ghanaian psyche that seems to say “We can do it”. It started in Germany at the World Cup, and it surfaced rather ferociously at the Ghana@50 celebrations. Currently in London, the Queen of England, together with the Government of the United Kingdom, is hosting the President of Ghana in a historic visit to the U.K. The high point of it is a three-day stay in Buckingham Palace for the President and his wife. The scenes coming from England are majestic, and every well-meaning Ghanaian cannot help but acclaim that, “Clearly, this is it! Third time lucky, this is our opportunity! Oman Ghana, our time has come!”

The Way Forward

It has been said many times, that if you do not know where you are going, any road will take you there! Because of the numerous military interventions that have occurred since 1957, we have arrived at where we are today largely on the basis of trial and error. Thus, as we compare ourselves with those we started with in 1957, we realize that we are very far behind. We recognize that our ways of doing things today will not help us to even attempt to bridge the gap in the next fifty years, so we have to change. We have to set our priorities right, and we have to focus, because the challenges facing us in the next fifty years are bound to be much harder. Indeed, if our efforts are going to yield any meaningful results, we have to plan well, and execute with precision. Above all, we need the Almighty God firmly behind us.

Ghana@100 must be a small but elegant edifice. It must stand out as a giant, not in terms of size, but in terms of everything else. It will be a country that the whole world will acknowledge, and look at as a model. It will shine from Africa, but its rays will be perceived worldwide. It will be an oasis of peace and tranquility, a beacon of hope for the hopeless, and a source of pride for all people of African descent. The key elements to make our great future nation must be our people, our economy, our environment, our educational system, our domestic politics, the relationship with our neighbors, and our relationship with the rest of the world. Perhaps, there may be many more elements, and for each element, we have to develop a set of desirable attributes. For closure, a detailed companion action plan must also be developed to go along with it.

Defining our nation will not be an easy task, and it is bound to take time. We must never rush, for after all, Rome was not built in a day! The first question to ask then is who will define Ghana@100? The most convenient answer will be “All of us”, but that is not feasible. Ghana has many sons and daughters with extensive knowledge and experience in all areas of human endeavor. They exist in all corners of the world, and when it comes to working for such a good cause, there is no doubt in my mind, that they will rise to the occasion.

We need to look for those who have achieved international recognition, and we must look for them in all corners of the world. To ensure universal buy-in, we must be transparent in our selection of who contributes to this exercise. It is the key to our success, and we cannot fail. One thing we must never forget is that our nation, whatever it turns out to be, will be built by us and only us. Nobody will come from somewhere, leaving their own challenges behind to build for us the nation that we truly desire.

The Road Map

Our first line of action then is to define where we want to be fifty years from now. It is very fashionable these days to compare our current situation with others, and wish ours was like those of the advanced nations such as the USA. We may never be like the US, or for that matter, any other country, but we can be another model nation with our own different set of attributes. Our values are different, and the circumstances we are likely to meet in fifty years will not be the same. Besides, the other countries will not be sitting idle. They will be chasing progress, so their situations are going to change as well. If we set them up as our models, we will be chasing a moving target. Therefore, we have to define our own nation, and build it!

Our vision must be accompanied with a well-thought-out Action Plan. One peculiar thing about us as a people is that, we have failed to attach any importance to planning. In fact, a lot of problems we face today can be attributed squarely to our lack of effective planning. Look at our cities and their stages of development over the past several years, and then look at how we manage the acquisition and ownership of important assets such as land in our communities. In any complex project, a significant portion of the timeline must be dedicated to the very important step of planning. With a good plan, execution is always simple and, and that is why we must allocate adequate time to plan our Ghana National Program (GNP). Considerable time, perhaps up to five years, must be allocated to the important step of planning.

The output of our planning must be a set of three or four alternative options. These options must be debated and voted upon, first in parliament to agree on the best option, and secondly, perhaps in a referendum to get the backing of the people. At this stage, I am tempted to advocate that the implementation of the GNP must be incorporated in our national agenda in the form of a constitutional amendment. After the adoption of the plan, the rest of the fifty years will then witness the execution of the Ghana National Plan (GNP).

The GNP must be the master plan for the nation, and any successive government that comes into power must be under obligation to implement the plan from where it has reached. The execution of the plan must be subjected to a review every five years, to ensure that successive governments continue to follow the plan. Each five-year interval must be associated with well-defined milestones, with explicit targets for achievement. Indeed, the achievement of those targets must be used to measure the accomplishments, and for that matter, the success or failure of successive governments.

The implementation of the GNP must be tracked over the fifty-year period. A statutory body must be set up with the responsibility of ensuring that indeed the GNP is being implemented, and that the targets are being pursued. The initial makeup of this body may be the designers of the original plan. Obviously, the GNP will have to undergo periodic reviews to ensure that it keeps up with new developments in technology and other areas of challenge that are bound to come up with time. A way of appointing membership to this body must be found to ensure that it continues to be expert-based, fairly represented, and that it continues to be based on the same principle; the unadulterated pursuit of the national agenda. The United States Supreme Court and how it is constituted, can be used as a model for the GNP coordinating council.

Some Final Thoughts

I have attempted to set up an agenda for a national debate on where we go as a nation for the next fifty years. To a large extent, this has been based only on my observations growing up with Ghana since independence. For the most part, it is devoid of any technical analysis. It is for a good reason; I have no expertise in the planning of a nation. I only have ideas to share, and I love my country.

I would like to conclude with these final thoughts: In our planning for the future, education must be given a very high priority. When mention was made of the people of Ghana as an essential element in the Ghana@100, it had nothing to do with where we came from, our ethnicity, our religious background or our gender. Rather, it had everything to do with our knowledge, our abilities to think and to contribute to national development. In the final analysis, our nation is nothing but our people, and what they can do for our dear nation. Without education, our people cannot produce, and our efforts will come to nothing. That is why education must stand tall in the list of our priorities. In addition, our education must emphasize the development of the human attributes of hard work and perseverance.

To ensure that we develop our nation together as one people, we must prevent bitterness from growing within the hearts and minds of our people. Why? Because, the chickens always come home to roost! We can achieve this if only we develop confidence in our legal system. We have chosen democracy as our preferred mode of governance; fair enough. But democracy without the rule of law is nothing but autocracy of the ruling elite. This must be avoided. Our legal system must be based on fairness and equity; fairness in the sense that it punishes wrong doing and absolves the innocent, and equity in the sense that it favors no one. We must understand that as a human institution, it will have its own imperfections. However, the imperfections must be seen to affect all of us equally, and the benefits must accrue to everybody. The confidence we have in our legal system will be the bedrock of our development as a united nation.

Military interventions in our political system have cost us a lot as a people. Not only have they delayed us in our march to a prosperous nation in the last fifty years; they have also introduced chaos and anarchy in the Ghanaian psyche. Every time a forced intervention occurs, order is disturbed, and the people are forced to adapt to new and unfamiliar ways of doing things. At best there is confusion, and most of the time, there is chaos. Unnecessary fear grips the people, and this prevents them from using their minds to make rational decisions. In our planning for the future, we must prevent military coups at any cost, and we should resist them with all our might.

Finally, our enemy number one is corruption. Unfortunately, we have allowed it to become an integral part of our lives over the last fifty years, and it is killing us. It is widening the gap between the rich and the poor, and it is depriving a vast majority of our people of their basic rights as human beings. Because of corruption, we always have less to implement development programs, and we pay far too much for everything. It also delays the execution of almost every task in our personal lives and within the national agenda. It must be dramatically reduced, if not completely eliminated. Like military interventions in our political system, corruption must be fought with all our might. Our resources are limited, so we must avoid their careless dissipation.

These are nothing but ideas just meant to start a debate. The best will be achieved when all of us, young and old, men and women, home and abroad, all feel the urge and take a step to make a contribution. In the end, the Ghana that we all desire, the Black Star of Africa, will surely emerge.