EDITORIAL: Ghana can succeed!

As we celebrate 47 years of nationhood come Saturday, 6 March 2004, it is fitting that we take stock of how far we have come. Four and a half decades may not seem a long time in the life of a nation, considering how much time it has taken others to cohere as one nation. Indeed, we have the Almighty to thank for remaining intact as at now.

On that historic day in 1957, our founding father, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah made a proclamation that gave hope to black people the world over: ?The Independence of Ghana is meaningless without the total liberation of Africa.? He went on to give meaning to those words by actively promoting the cause of the freedom struggles of other countries still labouring under the colonial yoke.

The irony of history is that after paying a very high price for taking this uncompromising stance, present day Africans now acknowledge the vision of the man and he has been praised for his foresight; his ideas on African Unity, the African High Command and Economic Union now occupy centre stage.

But how independent are we? Let us be brutally frank with ourselves and accept that somewhere down the line, we have sold our birthright for a mess of pottage. With our enormous resources, human and material, we still go cap in hand, begging for ?donor support,? to simply feed ourselves. We had to mortgage our future to the point where we had to accept the demoralizing and denigrating epithet of being ?highly indebted and a poor country? before our creditors would condescend to ?forgive? us our debts, and only a fraction at that.

At a certain level, we are only a country because we have a national flag and anthem, have a seat at the United Nations, issue our own passports, stamps and currency. Beyond these, nothing shows us that we are truly an independent, sovereign and a proud nation of enterprising people ready to ?die a little? for Ghana, except perhaps when the Black Stars play a football match against Nigeria.

The Chronicle knows our founding fathers, the Danquahs, Nkrumahs, Kobina Sekyis etc., had a more dynamic vision in mind. Certainly, Dr. J. B. Danquah who gave us the name Ghana knew, as an intellectual, that such a name connoted the greatness of an African past and hoped for a greater future for such a country.

So what happened? How could greed, selfishness and downright criminality take over our psyche and lead us into these sorry paths we find ourselves now on? How did Malaysia happen to get it right and we did not? Why must we still wallow in poverty, disease and ignorance when others are scaling industrial heights and holding out promising futures to their youth?

We need to find answers, urgently. Time is not on our side. The Chronicle believes that finger pointing will not solve the problem. Agreed, our political classes, both civilian and military (and we have experienced both) have not done us any favours.

Still, this is the only country we have, the land is ours. And we believe it is a good, rich and well-endowed land. It was named by the white men as the Gold Coast. Let us now seek the economic kingdom, relentlessly, with vigour and passion and surely, all the rest shall be added unto us.

The Chronicle exhorts Ghanaians to forget the past and seek the glories of the future. We hold the key to make Ghana a truly free and prosperous country, a nation fit for princes. God helps those who help themselves!