Ghana urged to claim rightful position in dev’t

India has urged Ghana to introduce pragmatic education and social policies to speed up her development and to address poverty. It said with abundant resources, Ghana still lagged behind and needed to exploit the “positives of colonialism and take advantage of its fine human and vast natural resources” to take a better place in the development ladder.

Speaking at the sixth Graduate School Prestigious Lecture of the Ghana Technology University College Mr K. Jeeva Saga, the Indian High Commissioner, said: “Ghana has the resources, mature democratic institutions and the people but lagging behind time.”

The University College instituted the Graduate School Prestigious Lecture to bring together industry players and those in academia to interact with students on pertinent national development issues.

Mr Saga said the nation is blessed with the “finest human resources” in Africa and with tremendous capacity for peace and strong democratic institutions, but was behind time in development.

He suggested that Ghana must nurture and use the positives of colonialism – rule of law, structure of governance- with infusion of culture for its advantage. He said Ghana ought to adopt strong social ethical standards and value system guided by basic respect for age, experience and discipline to drive the economy.

It is the responsibility of duty bearers, he said to “Put tremendous emphasis on education, capacity building and research and development,” ingredients for successful economies.

According to the High Commissioner, India started growing its economy without privatising it, moved into a mixed economy and then began to privatise slowly and finally withdrew the public sector to allow the private sector takeover.

He said India would continue to pursue south-south cooperation with Africa and Ghana to ensure food security, employment generation as well as peace and security. Mr Saga said the quest to fix the economy would require good leadership forecast into the future and long term educational policies with focus on primary and tertiary education.

On diversity to stimulate unity, he said: “India diversity is our strength” and urged Ghana to use its religious and cultural diversity to build strong economy and social standards. He added: “you must encourage tolerance, respect for one’s religious right, culture, personal growth and live together peacefully if you want to progress.”