Ghana In Search For Development

Two concern Ghanaians are desperate on lack of development in Sub-Saharan Africa especially Ghana. Many topics were highlighted in their deliberations. And here is the account of deliberations that Mr. Gee and Mr.Ofori had on “Ghana in search for development”.

Ofori: Gee how is that Ghana is not moving fast in terms of development. Look at the economy of the Asians Tigers, Ghana was like them fifty years ago, yet they are ahead of us .Tell me Gee the way forward?

Ofori: I had the same question, when I was a student in Middle East. My course mate asked me Gee “ What is the problem with you Africans, We (Lebanese) get our wealth from your timber,gold,diamonds and what have you and here in middle east you can count ten thousands of Africans serving us”.Ofori I was ashamed, I was not able to give him a good answer.

Ofori, there are four arms of developmental approach that can help Ghana to move faster to catch up with other developing countries. They are individuality, government, Religious organizations and the traditional institutions.

Ofori: Gee tell me more about this four arms of development that help Ghana to better its position in the world?

Gee: Individuality is the effort and determination by the individual to reach his/her self actualization in life. In other words it is the positive mental approach by the individual Ghanaian to achieve success in life that is a tool of Western civilization. This can be seen in Adam Smith in his book “human nature and the wealth of Nations”. Adam Smith stated that, “individuality can be a blessing to society as against those who see self or individuality as evil”. The government is the owner of the resources .Tmberland, goldfields; diamonds are in the hands of government. As we saw in Nkrumah government, there must be a strong holistic approach by the government to give jobs and human developments to Ghanaians. The third is the religious organizations. Most of Ghanaians have strong affinity to local religious groups. It would be better for the faith traditions to come together and think of establishing a health facility in their locality.

Basel mission from Netherland introduced cocoa, UAC, capentary and masonry to their congregation at that time. And what are we today Ghanaian Christians doing to better our people? And lastly the traditional institutions need to mobilize the resources at the local level to help the community.

Ofori: Gee, this is a good admonishment and let us prays that God should help all us to make Ghana a better place to live. Amen

Gideon Adjei (Msc.Interfaith Theology)