Today, July 1 2004 is the 44th anniversary of Ghana's full republic status. The Ministry of the Interior has declared today, Republic Day, as a statutory public holiday.
Forty-four years ago, it was with much confidence and great expectations that we decided Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would no longer be our Head of State.
Britain had three years earlier ceded full political control to us. From 1960 on we became full masters of our own destiny. A new constitution gave us our first president who then became the first Ghanaian Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces.
It has been a bumpy ride since then. He was overthrown in our first successful military coup d'etat in 1966. This was followed by the 2nd Republic in 1969, which also suffered the same fate less than three years into its four-year mandate.
The 3rd Republic was established in September 1979 and on December 31 1981 it was brought down by another coup. In between these successful coups were counter coup attempts making the country quite unstable.
In 1992 after much international and local pressure we embarked on yet another republic - the 4th - and for the past twelve years we have tried to hold together. Three elections so far in this republic and things are looking up, that is if we can hold the forthcoming December elections peacefully.
In celebrating our 44th anniversary as a republic, we must not take things for granted. The dangers are still lurking and some of the perpetrators of these military takeovers are still around and being very unrepentant. We must not let our guards down, if we do, we will only have ourselves to blame.
Security must still be an overriding concern to the republic because even as we write, there are people who would want our democratic and constitutional process halted.
The economy is in no better shape than when we got our own homebred Head of State 44 years ago. All around us things are decaying. We can only move from decay to regeneration through political stability.
The upheavals of military coups have cost us dearly and hopefully we've seen the last of them - Insha Allah.
Now what we all have to do is to bring the full force of our creative potentials to bear on the way we manage our affairs and pretty soon Ghana would also be exuding the prosperity our founding fathers were dreaming of when they fought for independence for us.
Long live Ghana, Long live the Republic.
Today, July 1 2004 is the 44th anniversary of Ghana's full republic status. The Ministry of the Interior has declared today, Republic Day, as a statutory public holiday.
Forty-four years ago, it was with much confidence and great expectations that we decided Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would no longer be our Head of State.
Britain had three years earlier ceded full political control to us. From 1960 on we became full masters of our own destiny. A new constitution gave us our first president who then became the first Ghanaian Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces.
It has been a bumpy ride since then. He was overthrown in our first successful military coup d'etat in 1966. This was followed by the 2nd Republic in 1969, which also suffered the same fate less than three years into its four-year mandate.
The 3rd Republic was established in September 1979 and on December 31 1981 it was brought down by another coup. In between these successful coups were counter coup attempts making the country quite unstable.
In 1992 after much international and local pressure we embarked on yet another republic - the 4th - and for the past twelve years we have tried to hold together. Three elections so far in this republic and things are looking up, that is if we can hold the forthcoming December elections peacefully.
In celebrating our 44th anniversary as a republic, we must not take things for granted. The dangers are still lurking and some of the perpetrators of these military takeovers are still around and being very unrepentant. We must not let our guards down, if we do, we will only have ourselves to blame.
Security must still be an overriding concern to the republic because even as we write, there are people who would want our democratic and constitutional process halted.
The economy is in no better shape than when we got our own homebred Head of State 44 years ago. All around us things are decaying. We can only move from decay to regeneration through political stability.
The upheavals of military coups have cost us dearly and hopefully we've seen the last of them - Insha Allah.
Now what we all have to do is to bring the full force of our creative potentials to bear on the way we manage our affairs and pretty soon Ghana would also be exuding the prosperity our founding fathers were dreaming of when they fought for independence for us.
Long live Ghana, Long live the Republic.
