Mother of all picnics

MOTHER OF ALL PICNICS** dubbed ‘YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE’*

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In the centenary anniversary year of the birth of our great leader, the most coveted African of the twentieth century, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah and on the day after the sixtieth celebration of the historic establishment of the Convention Peoples Party, the Kwame Nkrumah Foundation invites you all to a mammoth picnic at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park.

All activists and functionaries of the Convention Peoples Party and the Peoples National Party alive and their families and the families of all CPP and PNP Members of Parliament, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Regional and District Commissioners and all of the various wings of the Party as well as the PNC are invited to join others to reflect on the glorious days and the struggle that lies ahead for the country Ghana.

The vision of Osagyefo must be fulfilled in order to ensure that every Ghanaian irrespective of where you were born and the family circumstances can acquire enough knowledge and skills that can transform his/her life and that of subsequent generations.

Osagyefo lived to transform the lives of all Ghanaians. He set himself a four prong vision; to make Ghana independent and to use Ghana’s independence to catalyse the emancipation of the rest of Africa. The two tall dreams both have been achieved. The unity of Africa continues to elude us not because the parameters have not been developed and the benefits are not known but because African leaders then and now continue to be very parochial in their thinking and actions. Everything that our leader predicted will occur if Africa did not unite has more than happened, making him more than a prophet. This dream will however be achieved in the life time of some of us, insha allah.

The most important above all of them was the welfare of the Ghanaian which sadly continues to be precarious by the day. He clearly indicated in the preamble of the seven year development plan to abolish poverty, ignorance and disease and that ‘the welfare of the Ghanaian was his chief pride and it is on that, which he will ask that his Government be judged’. This statement made on the eve of the first Christmas of an independent Ghana has not been matched by any other leader of this country.

The life of Ghanaians is not exciting. Any visitor to this country will not take two minutes to know that we do not respect ourselves. And if we do not then how do we expect others to respect us. The future of Ghana is on the streets of Ghana and nobody thinks anything of it and yet we are eager to say that the youth are the future of the country. Do we mean it when we utter those words or these should be considered as some of the phrases politicians learn to say but do not learn the meaning?

In 2009, fifty two years after independence, the basics and fundamentals of life, food, clothing, shelter , health and education continue to be a struggle for so many of our people. The refrain from all of us and particularly from politicians is that we do not have money. But we were able to come up with the money to pay ex gratia. I have sadly come to the conclusion that either we do not see what is lacking in this country of ours or we are so selfish we refuse to see and that if Government says there is no money to do something then Government does not want to do whatever it is that it is being asked to do.

The five basics spelt out earlier are part of the fundamental human rights that we as a country are signatures to. It even states in the Convention of the Rights of the Child that the States Parties’ shall in case of need provide material assistance and support programmes, particularly with regard to nutrition, clothing and housing’. Also the preamble to the Ghana Population Policy 1969 states ‘The population is the Nations most valuable resource. It is both the instrument and objective of national development. The protection and enhancement of its welfare is the Government’s first responsibility. When that welfare is threatened, the Government must act’.

The last quote is one I will be eager to come back to but suffice to say that we continue to sign internationally binding conventions only to abandon them as if they are unimportant and do not impact on the lives of Ghanaians. My favourite one is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the very first WHO Public Health Convention ratified but we have refused to ‘domesticate’ the law and therefore it is of no effect in Ghana and yet everything in it is for the public good.

Since the introduction of the JSS/SSS concept more than fifteen years ago, the pass rate has been less than 50% which clearly shows that about 300,000 pupils have failed the examinations year on year and have joined their brothers and sisters on the streets of Accra and the other regional capitals. Does anybody in Government present and past know where these young Ghanaians sleep, what they eat? I see some distressing things in the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Mortuary and it is of otherwise fit young adults who die because of pneumonias which are treatable. It is because these chaps have an underlying malnutrition and the infection runs through them like bush fire in the harmatan season. 55% of childhood deaths have an underlying malnutrition.

Malnutrition is rife and there is no concerted effort to deal with it. It is said that children who lose out within the first 45 months including the nine months in the mother’s womb are unable to catch up and suffer irreparable damage to their growth and cognitive development. Then, there is the problem with safe water. Many Ghanaians do not have access to safe water and yet many of us are quite happy to flush our toilets with clean, treated water.

The Health Service has great systems weaknesses which must be dealt with in a concerted effort. The numbers of the various Health professional are woefully inadequate, the problem of distribution, equipment, consumables, drugs, not to mention the many fake ones on the market, water, infrastructure and management skills.

Clothing and shelter are just as bad. Many Ghanaians will die without ever wearing new clothes and shoes; will never use a new towel, handkerchief. Pants, singlets etc all of which are purchased from the second-hand boutiques that adorn all the high streets of our cities and major towns and villages as well. It is such a lucrative business that even churches are big on the act. They collect donations from afar, and come and sell them at cost price.

The problems of accommodation are serious. Most of the young men and women who are during the day busy selling on the streets sleep in front of shops, underneath kiosks placed on cement blocks, in turns or about 20 in a room as described in 1844 by Freiderich Engels on conditions in parts of England. Does anybody care?

In none of the fundamentals do we as a country stand up to scrutiny and yet our representatives are paid ex gratia for doing what? I may ask. So long as the fundamentals are not solved so that every Ghanaian has the basics with which to face the vicissitudes’ of life, experience in politics shall count for nothing. The relevance of Nkrumaism in Ghana today is for us to work hard to make the life of every Ghanaian a happy one, free from the present daily encumbrances’

So come all ye members of the Nkrumah family, those who are not greedy, selfish, arrogant, who respect all persons because they are all children of God and think about the poor that we may make merry on Saturday, 13th of June from 2.00pm till late. Bring what ever you have and come and share with a brother or sister for we are all children and grand children of Osagyefo. Come and register and join the fold of the Nkrumah family determined above all else to achieve the NKRUMAH dream of abolishing ignorance, poverty and disease and giving all Ghanaians opportunity. Ghana our beloved country deserves better.

Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa

President, Kwame Nkrumah Foundation

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